Judgemental Who!

This layout brings back very funny memories - the game of Guess Who, updated for a cynical and slightly drunken modern audience. Guess Who is all about judging on appearances, I guess Judgemental Who takes that a step further...

Again, my love of orange shines through - I don't seem to be able to scrap a layout without orange recently!

And just to use up more orange paper, here is a quick layout I made with a snap from Portugal last year - me and Ed taking a break after a day trip into the mountains. I just love these Basic Grey Offbeat chipboard pieces - the pack seems to go on forever which is great value for money with the way things are these days.

Hoping to get more layouts done in the next few days - got my wireless printer to work today and it prints out gorgeous photos which have really inspired me to start up again. Sometimes I go through phases of inactivity with scrapping, but I always come back in the end, and since it was the last GCSE History exam today I feel a little bit of the pressure has lifted - thank goodness! Here's hoping they all do fantastically, bless em.

Where have I been?

I have fed these little guys...

I have visited this amazing holiday home...

Where I met this handsome chap...

I have enjoyed one or two glasses of this...

And remembered to smell plenty of these along the way...

Yes, it was the annual trip to the Isle of Wight with the folks in law (well, not quite in law but I don't know how else to describe them!). I can't remember if this is my fifth or sixth visit, but it's become something of a tradition to spend this half term holiday each year on the island. The weather this time was gorgeous, which made a change from the storms and perpetual rain of the last few years, and I made my first visit to Osborne House, Queen Victoria's holiday home and, incidentally, the place where the great lady died.

So plenty of scrapbooking fodder, and I have now managed to aquire a new snazzy printer, so layouts may start again in earnest! Let the celebrations begin ;)

A New Look

Thought I would finally get around to updating my blog with a page I made for Papermaze recently, about Ed's new look glasses. We spent ages in Specsavers so he could try them all on, and he finally went for two funky pairs of Osiris glasses. I thought the event deserved commemorating since he had worn the previous pair of glasses since he was seventeen!

As you can probably tell, scrapping hasn't been top of the agenda recently - preparing the kids for exams and getting their coursework up to date has taken centre stage, but that is as it should be - this is, after all, a hobby! In my spare moments though I've returned to another crafty love of mine which is easier to transport around and pick up for a few minutes, my knitted afghan squares - I've now completed one row of squares, only about 11 more rows to go! Its a labour of love, but I don't know when it'll be finished - I'm setting myself a deadline of another two years if that gives you any idea of the extent of the project. To give myself a more instant result project to work on, I've ordered some yarn to knit a bag, so I'll let you know how that comes along if and when I get started...

One more reason scrapping has taken a bit of a back seat is that we have bought a new computer. Its absolutely fantastic - so quick and the fan is so quiet its a revelation, but unfortunately its a bit too high tech for our old printer, so I think we are going to have to order a new one. This means I only have a few photos already printed for me to scrap, but at least it means I won't keep printing out new ones before I've done them. It doesn't allow for those random moments of inspiration when you realise you have come up with the perfect layout for a shot though. Still, not too long and we will go shop for a nice new wireless printer and then I'll have much more choice again.

Going to have a nice lazy night tonight, and watch the next instalment of Ashes to Ashes, which I am totally loving - random concept for a show it maybe, but I'm intrigued!

Paella!

I made this layout ages ago now - not for a DT or the magazine, just for me! I took the photo last November on a day out in London with the folks - this was actually in Covent Garden, and I loved the sight of such vibrant, summery colours on a cold winter's day so much that even though I didn't actually get to taste any of the paella, I decided I had to scrap it anyway.

For some reason, I did something I have never done before, which is to fail to measure my page properly before I started. It was supposed to be an 8.5x11ins layout, but I cut it too wide and didn't realise until I had stuck a whole bunch of stuff down so it doesn't fit into that size page protector. I'm not one to be phased by that sort of thing though, and it sits happily in a 12x12 protector until I think of something else! I think the papers are October Afternoon Nightlight (please correct me if I'm wrong!). I have to mention my friend Leanne here who totally inspires me with her scrapping style and was the inspiration behind my use of paint, applied with my fingertips in true Leanne fashion.

Aarghh! Just realised that when I photographed my layout, the little yellow asterisk has moved up the page and is not where it is supposed to be, next to the title. Off to sort that out now...

Back to work tomorrow, and guess what, its going to rain. Typical, after all the gorgeous weather we have had. That'll bring us all down to earth with a bang. But its only four weeks till the half term, and I know that's going to just flash by in a whirlwind of revision classes and invigilation. And its Ed's birthday tomorrow, so at least the first day back has something to look forward to :)

Catching up

So, on Thursday I posted some of my recent DT work for Papermaze, today I thought I would update some of the pages I have made for the magazine recently.

First up, we have a page I created along with a bunch of themed embellishments for the Just the Thing article that the magazine runs. It had to be spring themed in my case, so I went with these gorgeous Heather Bailey papers made by Autumn Leaves. The lyrics and title are inspired by one of my favourite Moody Blues numbers.

The second page was a challenge to use a particularly bright piece of paper from the Basic Grey Urban Prairie line. I used it as a backdrop to this photo of me and Ed out last year when I sprang a kiss on him. Yes, I was a bit drunk at the time! This layout was a bit of a pain in the making - I just couldn't seem to get it right, and ended up chopping it up with a guillotine a few times before I was happy...

Only one more day of my holiday left - I do feel like I've had a good break, but I also don't know where this last week has gone. I've been very unproductive and will have to make up for that in the next few weeks unfortunately. Back to work on Monday, but at least I have the second episode of Ashes to Ashes to look forward to - the plot thickens...

Some DT stuff

Thought I would share a few layouts that I've made recently for the Papermaze blog. Well I say recently, some of them are quite old now but I've been so bad at blogging I've never shared them on here!

First up, we have a layout inspired by the terrible snowy weather we had earlier in the year. The flowers were trying to start their growth and then got covered in ice. The papers were Dream Street I think, and I created some little springs out of them by cutting rough spirals by hand.

Next is this layout, using the same range of papers, about the Pottery cats my mum bought me. I'm a bit mad about cats, so what better than a money box shaped like one! They sit on the windowsill in the study/scraproom/spare bedroom so I thought they deserved a layout (and of course, the colours went perfectly with the papers!).

Finally, we have a layout I completed yesterday, All Bar One. Its just a random collage of photos from our night out on Valentines day this year. They were all bad photos, so this was the best way of displaying them - none of them too big or prominent. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday, which is a gorgeous range.

What else have I been up to? Getting the garden tidied up for spring. Well, I tell a lie, I've been watching Ed get it ready for spring! I've also been doing a bit of spring clothes shopping. And I've been watching the first episode of Ashes to Ashes on Monday - yay, the conspiracy is back! Back at work on Monday, not so yay, but at least this time I feel like I've had a proper holiday to recharge the batteries, and some lovely weather to enjoy the time off. So it shouldn't be too bad...famous last words!

And breathe!

What a manic few weeks its been! Appallingly bad blogging again I'm afraid, but when you are desperately trying to get year 11 and 12 prepared for exams something's gotta give, and unfortunately my hobby was that something. No worries though, I've now got two weeks in which to scrap to my heart's content (as well as writing a 2500 word essay, but I'm pushing that to the back of my mind for now).

So, we West Midlands teachers only broke up for Easter last Thursday - that meant one very long term behind us, but a very short one to come. It also means that as my Easter hols fall later than most people's, I'm hoping that the weather will be better than normal (unlikely, I know).

What have I been getting up to since I last blogged? Well, other than working, I've been engaged in the serious business of turning 27. I have been 27 for approximately two weeks now. It was the first time I approached a birthday with feelings of trepidation. I'm now officially in my late twenties - I don't think I can hang on to mid-twenties any longer - and it feels like thirty is just around the corner. And thirty just seems ever so grown up to me. So I had a bit of an early mid-life crisis, but have now managed to get over it.

This was helped by the absolutely fantastic present I received - a Wii fit! This little baby is so much fun - me and Ed are ultra competitive so we have been hula-hooping and ski-slaloming like gooduns in a bid to get to the top of the leader board. I need to lose about 5 pounds to be at the ideal weight for my height - which for 5 foot 7 is apparently 10 stone - so I'm hoping I might be able to achieve that this holiday with regular Wii fit sessions. The Easter egg eating probably hasn't helped in this goal though. My theory here is that if I eat all the chocolate now, I can start with a clean slate. Or something like that...

I do actually have a few pages to share still, mainly because of my terrible blogging. I've had a couple of pages published in SI magazine, and another coming up (so there is proof that I have actually scrapped a couple of times in the last few months) and I also have a couple of layouts that are just made for no reason but to please me (the best kind). Here is one of them: