The Cat in the Bag!

Scrapping just for me for a change, and I decided to use some of my March Cocoa Daisy kit which was in lovely shades of Brown and Orange. I had the perfect picture of Elmo sitting in a bright orange bag which I had taken last year, so I set to work with paint, bubble wrap, lace cardstock and various embellishments that came in the kit. Here is the finished result:

I LOVE the little owl stamp - he is absolutely the cutest, I can see me using him again and again! Unfortunately the scan seems to have made the brown chipboard scrolls stand out more than they do in real life, but you get the idea...

Eclectic

A few days without blogging, but I've been busy and have a few things to share. I made this layout for a DT call, about what would make my perfect kit. I used some Scenic Route paper as a background which I roughed up with scissors around the edges. I then used some torn Bo Bunny paper left over from my Grown layout and also tore up pieces of my own 'homemade' book paper. I took photographs of a collection of embellishments which I thought would be cool to receive in a kit, and then used some of them on my layout. Unfortunately the scan is a little blurry, especially around the bookplate, but you get the idea!



I also finished this mini book which I started last Wednesday - its an inspiration book, full of ideas for when I've lost my scrapping mojo! Here are a few photos of some of the pages.



At the weekend, I went out and spent my birthday vouchers in Ikea, and got these fab drawers (thanks to Charlotte for alerting me to these!). I've only made up one unit so far but have managed to fit so much stuff in it, its fantastic! Hoping to get the other one built over half term next week, and then push forward and redecorate the spare room so I might actually have a (shock! horror!) desk to work at some time in the not so distant future... :)

Burford

Another layout to share today, this one was also created for Rebecca's and is about a visit to Burford me and Ed made a few weeks ago while staying in Oxfordshire. The small towns and villages in the area were so quaint and 'countrified', and so different to the lifestyle that we are used to. I just had to scrap some of the photos, even though the weather had been poor so they are a bit grey! I used paints, eyelets, stitching and even created myself a little flower embellishment using wires to pick out the beautiful cottage garden in the photo.

I went out last night with girls from work and had a really good time - we did a bit of a pub crawl and then ended up dancing till after 2am - however, when I dance I really go for it and this morning I've got such a neckache! I think this must be a sign I'm getting old :/ Not about to stop my dancing yet though. I have a fair bit of cleaning to do today, but I also want to finish off a mini book I started at my crop the other night - its an 'inspiration' book, which I intend to keep around and look at when I have totally lost my mojo or don't feel like creating much. Will share tomorrow...

Its the little details...

Oh, my god, I think I jinxed the weather yesterday! After going on about how much the sun makes me happy, its proceeded to rain all afternoon - typical! Still, I haven't given up hope on it picking up again, maybe in time for the weekend...

I've been busy visiting kids on work experience placements today. I went with my friend Gurpreet who was also visiting kids, and when I came out of one placement I saw her get out the car and go hurrying across the road. She called me to go with her, and I found myself in an Asian beauty salon, where I ended up getting my eyebrows threaded for the first time - it took about 30 seconds, and was so precise! Very bizarre for a Thursday morning - a new experience for me, but I definitely think I will go again, it beats spending ages with my tweezers trying to get the line right and never quite managing.

I thought I would share this layout I created for Rebecca's Scrapbooking Stash - its not up over on the site yet but she's given me permission to post it here. Its made with the gorgeous Dream Street Enchanted line and is my response to one of Shimelle's first prompts, to scrap your neighbourhood. It includes my only photo of little Beano, a little white smudge through a rainy windowpane. It was while making this layout that my old sewing machine gave up the ghost, so all the wavy lines had to be unpicked from one side of the dlo and then handsewed - it took me ages!

A sunshiney day!

Its amazing what a difference the sunshine makes to me. There is absolutely no reason to be in a good mood or full of energy on a warm May day, any more than a cold December day. But there you go - human beings are funny creatures and I just feel so much more inspired and motivated right now. Heaven forbid it should all regress into the traditional British Summer again and start flooding like last year, I don't think I could cope!

I thought I would share a few photos we took on an afternoon out at Kingsbury Water Park last Saturday. The weather was gorgeous and the surroundings were lovely, though it was a little bit crowded! Not the place to go if you suffer from insect bites though - there were things buzzing around the water everywhere!

Also for your viewing pleasure are a few sneak peeks of my latest creation for the Papermaze blog, my Florence mini book. Hopefully it won't be long before its up in all its glory over there.

I found it hilarious to read a comment on my last page over at the blog, saying that my sister was identical to Michelle Ryan (formerly of EastEnders, now the Bionic woman!). My sister has had people telling her this ever since Zoe Slater first hit the screens, but I have never been able to see it myself and neither has she! For my part, I'm apparently a cross between Uma Thurman and Angelina Jolie according to the kids at school. It beats some of the other comparisons I'm sure they could make!

Grown...

A layout I created using the new BoBunny line, Teen Chic, went up over at Papermaze's blog yesterday so I can finally share some scrapping with you here. I made this layout about my sister and how much she has changed as we have grown up and how proud I am of her - she is very dynamic, confident and adventurous and I admire her for that - its so different to the way I think of her as a little girl.



I got really grungy with paint for this one - I'm not a big fan of using black on my layouts so I wanted to tone it down and not make it so stark. The papers were a bit distressed anyway so it was easy to blend them in. This layout really evolved during the creating process - sometimes I can sit down and 'see' a finished project in my head, but with this one I really couldn't - making it all the more difficult to photograph step by step instructions!

I tried out several different techniques, from dry-brushing with paint to doodling (little circles to accentuate several areas of my layout). Its not my all time favourite, but its different and new and that is what is important to me at the moment. Unfortunately the photos isn't great - I've got the glare of an artificial light coming off the photo which is always annoying. But you get the idea...

I just finished my mini album about Florence and I'm totally in love with it! I will photograph it tomorrow to send onto Papermaze and hopefully will be able to share it on here not long after (though I do have about 5 or 6 pages which I've done as part of my DT work which I'm still waiting to share on here so it may be a little longer than I hope for!).

Now, DT assignments are out of the way, and perhaps I can actually scrap with one of my kits for a change...

Busy creating...

I've been busy creating again, but I'm afraid my DT work caught up with me so its nothing I can share just yet! A beautiful BG mini-book winged its way to me this month along with some gorgeous Dream Street papers (this is a range that is really growing on me the more I work with it) and I have been putting together a mini album of some of the sights and sounds of Florence which I visited in the past two years on holiday. I do intend to do a proper full size album with some of my holiday pictures eventually but at least this way I will have recorded some memories before I forget everything!

In other news, my sewing machine arrived home today - I haven't had a go with it yet, but its certainly looking more high tech than my old seventies number! Once this mini book is out of the way, a little experimentation is probably in order...

I am loving this blog at the moment - I'm not really big on challenge blogs as I never seem to have the time to work with anything which hasn't been sent to me with a deadline, but I do love looking at the fab colour combinations and the way the designers work with them so differently. Take a look if you fancy some inspiration on putting colours together successfully...