A walkthrough of my recent scrapping history...

I've decided to give up apologising for a lack of blogging. It makes no difference to the amount of blogging I actually do and therefore only results in the posts on here getting rather repetitive! Suffice to say, I've won a promotion at work, with all the extra work that a promotion normally entails but without any extra time to actually complete it in. Cue lots of after work meetings etc meaning that all I seem to be doing at home in the evenings is catching up on marking and planning that I haven't had a chance to do during the day.

I have been scrapping a little however and here are a few of my achievements. First up, a couple of layouts I did for Scrapbook Inspirations magazine - The Circus commemorates the awesomeness of a Take That concert I went to in the Summer with my sis. I love the paper I used for this one - I think its by Scenic Route who I hear have sadly succumbed to the recession along with so many other wonderful companies. I will sincerely miss Scenic Route, they have always been one of my favourite paper manufacturers and their designs grace more than a few of my layouts. This layout is actually about work, not a common scrap topic for me I have to admit as usually I scrap in order to forget about my day to day existence. I had the idea of drawing a big apple design which I copied from the Basic Grey Recess backing paper and enclosing all my photos inside - a bit different, a bit funky, a bit striking, or at least that was the idea anyway!

Next up, some layouts I made for the Papermaze blog: Scrap, Paper, Scissors. This one is using the My Mind's Eye Ooh La La papers - such gorgeous designs if a little overwhelming. I have written a post about how to go about using such bold patterns on the Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog so if you have always found them a bit daunting, have a go!

Two 6x12 layouts now, which is a size I've fallen for a bit in recent months - with less time to scrap, it isn't half easy to complete a page when its only this size - everything you add seems to fill up the page in no time! This one is about my gorgeous fella and uses Fancy Pants Kraft papers and Jenni Bowlin giant bingo cards:

This one uses more of the My Mind's Eye papers, nicely toned in to match the glittery eyeshadow I'm wearing in the pic.

I've been away scrapping this weekend with some girlie friends so I actually have quite a few more layouts to share that just need photographing now - I may even attempt to do that this week, though I'm not putting any pressure on myself as I have meetings all week till Friday including a rather nasty presentation on Thursday to senior leadership which I'm not overly looking forward to :/So it may have to wait until half term. But hopefully that is enough to satisfy for the moment, and to my friend Rach: there you go, I finally blogged!

So much news to share...

What a busy few weeks it's been. First up, my scrapbooking news...






Quite a few months ago now, I was asked to be a part of Scrapbook Inspiration magazine's extended Design Team. Of course, I was thrilled to be asked and agreed to be a part of it. Abovei is a little piccie of the new DT - lots of talented ladies. There is a much bigger range of styles that will hopefully appeal to all sorts of people, and because there are so much more of us we will all appear in there less often, so people won't get as bored!

This news partly explains my lack of posts here. Most of my scrapping now is either done for Papermaze or the magazine which means I have little else to share! For those people who read that don't get the magazine already, here is a link to the website: http://www.scrapbookinspirationsmagazine.co.uk/

The next issue is out on the 18th September if you fancy a look.

On to my other, more personal news. A couple of Saturdays ago, I was woken up with breakfast in bed. Which was lovely in itself. But even lovelier was the diamond ring sitting on the tray! Yes, I am now officially engaged - I will some day in the near future be known as Mrs Watson, not Miss Harp. Now that will take some getting used to...

A trip round the lake...

Some more beautiful photos to share from my holiday - these are mainly for the benefit of my folks who are missing Italy very much - these are for you mum and dad! First up, a view of the lake from Riga...

Next, we have a shot of my Dad and sis taking a break from the midday sunshine in one of the quiet little streets, in Salo I think it is. We had just eaten some of the best ice-cream imaginable from a shop just outside the massive church/cathedral there...

This is a kind of gothic palace/mansion on a tiny island in the lake. It's owned by some Duke or something - us mere mortals can only get this close by boat. Very magical...

Finally, this is me looking all hot and bothered in front of one of the Scaligieri castles in Sirmione - just after a motor boat trip round the peninsula there which had been a welcome relief from the heat that day.

I will share just a few more trips from our holiday - from our trip to the Dolomite mountains. These are breathtaking, and probably some of the best photos we took.

In other news, my GCSE results weren't too bad - a couple of the kids predictably bombed out, but the others all did pretty well and I'm proud of them. History is definitely not the easiest subject to study, so they can all feel deservedly proud of themselves. Just a few more days of Summer to enjoy and then it's back to work - where has the holiday gone to?

I think this may be paradise...

Believe me, that is not an overstatement! I've recently got back from a trip to Lake Garda in Italy and it's just breathtakingly beautiful - such diverse scenery, sweet little towns and fantastic historical sites to see. If you've never been, you MUST go, Italy is just my favourite place in the world.

I thought I'd share a few pics - these were taken by the lake in the resort of Garda that we stayed in - my sis with one of her trademark expressions, Ed enjoying the waves lapping the shore of the lake and me in one of those self-portrait shots that actually turn out ok. I have more photos to share, but Picasa won't let me at the moment so expect another blog post soonish.

I do have a couple of scrapbook pages to share, and I am working on another few as I type, but I have also rediscovered my love of knitting again in the last week and am just finishing a teddy bear's picnic for my 'niece' Olivia to play with. So if anyone is interested, I can share pics of the finished masterpiece here too. I know this is mainly a scrapping blog, but all craft is good, right?

School

Ok, before anyone starts prodding me via the comments box to remind me to update my blog again, I have another little project to share. This one was originally intended for the magazine, but it didn't quite fit the brief and so I came up with something else instead. But I do still like this page - it uses Sassafrass Lass Anthem paper, as well as a bit of Basic Grey Mellow I think, and that beloved piece of orange KI memories lace paper which has featured on about four of my layouts now I think but is finally finished!



The layout shows some little pics of my place of work, in particular my lovely (orange!) classroom with all the posters and tea-stained newspapers and so on. My classroom is great - our school is in desperate need of being torn down (which is in fact happening in the next couple of years) so you really have to do your best to cheer up your surroundings and I think me and my colleague have achieved that in this room.

Was pleased to receive some of the My Little Shoebox letter stickers in the post the other day - I will now get to make titles in colours other than black and white! It's the first purchase I've made in a while - unfortunately I've been on a bit of a spending spree in Outfit recently, so my wardrobe is looking great but something's got to give and stash is that thing. I do have plenty to use up however, so this is probably all well and good.

Will endeavour to update again presently - but for now, I'm off to try to make my iPhone sync with iTunes - it's not playing ball at the moment!

Back from self-imposed exile...

Firstly, a big thank you to Shimelle. I have been inexcusably terrible at updating my blog recently. I haven't completely stopped scrapping (though I haven't been as productive as I would like) but I just haven't been sharing on here. 

The trouble is, once it gets beyond a few weeks, you start getting that guilty feeling about it. I imagine my little blog staring at me, arms crossed, with a disapproving expression, chastising me for the lack of attention I have paid it. And then updating it becomes a chore, not a pleasure. Which is ridiculous really, because it is MY blog - noone is forcing me to keep it! I guess what I'm trying to say is that I needed Shimelle's gentle push in the right direction to get me sharing and chattering on again. Whether that is a good thing or not is another matter - perhaps I have actually spared the world the inane workings of my bizzare mind!

But anyway, back on topic, and the first page I'm going to share is this one I made for Papermaze ages ago. It's some pictures from our trip to the Isle of Wight this year, Osborne House to be specific. These statues guarded the front entrance and me and Ed just had to take some comical photos with them. 

The background paper is officially gorgeous - I defy anyone to make a less than sensational layout with it for very little effort. The finished layout is one of my favourites of late - everything just came together perfectly with little to no stress on my part. I didn't even have to shuffle the papers around much!

I will be back to share some more long-forgotten layouts with you all - once I have take some decent shots of them. I have a few magazine layouts that have found their way back to me that I need to photograph, as well as some layouts completed just for fun (believe it or not!). Feel free to tell me off via the comments box if I take longer than a few days to update again - I think I need the kick up the proverbial to get me to do it at the moment!

A Nice Cup of Tea...

Right, let's get this straight right away. I'm not a digi-scrapper. I never will be a digi-scrapper. Digi-scrapping is completely alien to my philosophy of cutting and sticking and getting really messy and hiding smudges and random glue smears under various cunningly positioned embellishments. I don't even type my journalling!

However, when Shimelle asked me to take part in her weekend inspiration party over at her blog, I was intrigued. Could my computer really be more to my scrapping than a glorified photo editor and printer? Would I actually be able to use a pdf file full of images on my layout? I decided I had to have a go.

Shimelle kindly sent me a gorgeous set of 'hot-drink' themed images. I'm a big tea-lover, and had immediately jumped at the chance to use this set as I had a layout in mind commemorating my very important work mug (which has my name and a rhyme on it and everything!). When I opened the pdf, I loved the images, but started wondering how to use them. I'm not that confident using photo or image editing software beyond Picasa really, so I knew I wasn't going to be doing any image manipulating on the computer.

So I decided to stick with what I do best, and went back to basics. I printed out several sets of the images on good quality paper. I wanted to use the journalling spaces on my layout, but I didn't want to 'lose' the sweet hot drinks images amongst my scrawl! So I cut and layered the images up, using foam pads to make them 3D, meaning that they really stood out above the journalling. I then cut another tea cup away from the journalling spot to use as another embellishment. The beauty with pdf embellishments is that you can print out as many as you like for layering up without having to spend anymore - and of course use the images for other projects if you wish. I'm thinking of using them to print a set of cool notelets and envelopes...

So here is the finished project - it's not digital, I don't think you could even describe it as hybrid, but it does make good use of my printer for the bulk of the embellishments. So even if you are as dedicated to cutting and sticking as I am, don't completely dismiss the idea of digital - you might be pleasantly surprised...

If you think you'd like to have a go, check out this class running throughout August - you'll get all the pretty printables as part of the deal.