My Favourite Actor

I'm afraid I'm a complete cliche. I could have said my favourite actor was someone edgy or a bit different. Someone like John Malkovich or Johnny Depp, or Robert Carlyle, or on TV John Sim, Philip Glenister or more recently David Tennant (a fantastic Doctor Who!). But I would have been lying. Because of course my favourite actor is every nineties teenage girls favourite crush. The most gorgeous man on the planet, Brad Pitt. He is not the best actor I have ever seen. His performance in Troy was more than a little bit crap. But there is something about Brad which means that, for me, whenever he walks on screen it lights up. He has real star quality. And this is my little homage to the man who I wished I would marry when I was 16.

I found some metallic looking words in a basket in the shop at class yesterday and decided to use these on my layout. It meant that I had to write my journalling so that I could fit some of the words in. The backing paper is just one sheet of Basic Grey Scarlet's letter which is really decorative enough on its own. On the picture side, I have simply added some stamped embellishments for which I used my Autumn Leaves Gypsy Style stamps.

The journalling reads:

Once upon a time, there was a teenage girl who fell head over heels for the actor Brad Pitt. Whenever he walks on the screen, magic happens. He has an amazing screen presence and his performances always fire my imagination and draw me in. The gorgeous little twinkle in his blue eyes just makes my heart flutter. He was my first big crush and I know I will forever have a soft spot for him. He is definitely the best of all the stars.

Not perhaps the exact way I would have put it without the limitations of the metallic words. But still, I think it gets the message across!

So back to the 12 by 12 layouts and my growing up album, for which I have had to order more page protectors and extender posts as it is now completely full. I scanned a lot of images in to scrap and I can't believe the number of gorgeous photos I still have to include. I can tell this is going to be 2, if not 3, album's worth. And all the new stuff to scrap too. I kind of feel like I'm neglecting my current events and activities - I haven't even scrapped my last birthday yet. But I think it is something to do with the quality of my Dad's photos that always draws me back to them. He really captured the moment and I have to say, that for all the convenience and advantages of digital photography, there is something to be said for traditional SLR film cameras. They seem to have a way of picking out the life in a subject. Or maybe its just that I'm just not very good at using digital cameras!

Is this really June?

I cannot believe we are in June, nearly July and it is so freezing I'm still wearing jumpers, socks, scarves and having to put the heating on. Last night with Ed away I actually took a hot water bottle to bed. Last year at this time we were enjoying a heat wave which, while unpleasant to teach in, beat shivering in the staff room. We are supposed to be booking a break with my parents for the end of July and thought about going away in England but I have to say that with the current climate I'm dreaming of the Med!
Still, enough moaning, and at least I had a successful scrapbook class tonight. I managed to finish my lastest CJ entry about my favourite actor way ahead of schedule. I will upload it tomorrow as the light isn't good enough to photograph now. There really was only one choice for me for this entry...but you'll have to wait and see tomorrow.
I'm off on a school trip to the Southwell workhouse tomorrow. This can be a bit of a long day, as the workhouse is not the most interesting of places and the journey is pretty long but the kids need to visit to write their coursework about it. Bit concerned though as there was talk of rivers bursting their banks on the route up and I don't particularly relish the thought of getting swept away! Or worse still, stranded on a bus full of year 10s. Now that is a scary prospect...

Play Doh Fun!

So here is my latest layout, titled Play Doh Fun for obvious reasons! When we were kids we got a Play Doh hair factory (or something like that) as a present which involved squeezing play doh through plastic dolls heads. Sounds wierd but was actually really good fun :)

I used Basic Grey Lollipop Shoppe and Scenic Route Laurel papers as a backdrop for the layout, and then stamped lots of heart embellishments using my Autumn Leaves stamps. I attached some of these with foam pads to add texture. Before sticking these down I stamped using my Basic Grey flourishes stamps all around the layout and arranged the hearts over these. To add a bit of interest, I followed the lines of the flourishes with tiny buttons from the Papermania button caddy. The title is handcut from the Lollipop Shoppe paper and edged with a Sakura gel pen for definition. It was surprisingly easy to cut this font, which is called Matisse and came with my Word program.

The journalling is on a tag I stamped using my doodle tag stamps. I used some matching backing paper (though on reflection this makes it somewhat difficult to read). It says:



Remember: the amazing crazy hair machine? You put the Doh in, attached the plastic person and squeezed! Out came loads of wiggly hair - it looked just like spaghetti!



I actually really like this layout which is surprising as it took a while to get started - I just couldn't arrange the patterned papers and photos properly and resorted to drawing a sketch of what I saw in my mind's eye. As soon as I had done this it fell together really easily - I think I might just start sketching all my layouts from now on as its certainly an easier way of ensuring your layout is balanced.



I really am totally devoted to my Autumn Leaves stamps - I feel like a one woman promotion team for the company at the moment but they really are fabby! You can create so many embellishments out of them which in the long run saves you money as you are not spending on all the other bits and bobs that usually make up a layout. Perhaps I will get bored of them one day...but not in the forseeable future!

A new page

Bit of a late one tonight. Have finished a new page, called Play Doh Fun! You can guess what its about. I will upload it tomorrow.

The weather has been terrible here and the cats have been dragging half the mud of the garden in with them. Not good. Lets hope it starts cheering up - it is nearly July after all! Ed is working on a garden at Hampton Court all week. Its sponsored by a coffee company and is apparently shaped like a giant coffee cup. That'll be an interesting one to see...

Dad's mini book

As promised, here is the mini book I made for my Dad for Father's Day. I gave it to him yesterday (only just managed to get it finished as I had a mad week!) and he really liked it. Its made with a Papermania mini album and some old Papermania paper in shades of blue. Most people sneer at this range and its not the best quality but I find for projects like this when you don't need much paper its ideal. I jazzed it up using a selection of my Autumn Leaves stamps including Hearts and Stars and Sentiments Circles. My trusty Swirl stamps help to liven up the background.
We have been making real progress on decorating the living room with the help of my Dad. I can't wait for it to be finished now. I'm planning on doing some paintings for the walls so will share those when I do them. Won't be for a while yet though as we haven't even finished painting the walls yet!

Funny Face

Wow, don't think I've ever been so glad for a week to be over (well, perhaps Ofsted week...). I have been totally knackered and feeling quite depressed and for no real reason. I think its just got to the point where I really need the Summer holidays to start. People who think that teachers have too many holidays should try working in a school like mine and realise what it does to your health and sanity!

But at least I've managed to complete a layout this week, not one of my favourites but it wasn't too much of a struggle and now I'm not thinking about entering every layout into a competition I find I've become much more relaxed and I'm just enjoying the creative process.

This layout is called (You've got a) Funny Face and is just another fun picture I found when looking through Mum and Dad's old photos which I thought would make a great scrapbook page. The papers are by Basic Grey Blush and Scenic Route Charlotte ranges. I used my trusty Autumn Leaves stamps, some chipboard letters by Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp and finally some eyelet charms (which I attached with pearl brads!).

The journalling at the bottom of the page (on the red paper) reads:

Having fun with face paints at Manor Park Primary School. I would probably have been about five or six when this was taken. I still remember most people's names!

Nothing earth changing but a fun layout which I enjoyed putting together. Now I'm off to eat my dinner and do some knitting...

Just got back...

...from my Wednesday night crop and am now halfway through a new layout which is looking ok so far - called Funny Face. Hopefully I will be able to upload it tomorrow. And of course I will upload pictures of my Dad's mini book after I have given it to him on Saturday!

A new craze!

I am clearly not alone in my recent attempts to begin knitting again. While I know that knitting has had something of a revival in recent years, I thought it was quite spooky when I was reading this blog today and the feature was on knitting. I usually look here for scrapbooking ideas (it was where I found my new paper trays!) so its nice to know that I am not the only one branching out in my crafting projects.
However, I'm off to a crop later, so I will be papercrafting again and will hopefully begin another layout. I've been a little bit lacking in inspiration so it will be good to have some dedicated time with my papers and embellishments to try to kick start my scrapping again.

Some knitting...

At last, a chance to post on my blog. Ed bought a new computer game at the weekend, CivCity Rome and it is wildly addictive so I've been unable to get onto the computer long enough to post/check forums etc. But at least its stopped me spending money too so there is an up side!

So what have I been up to? Well, I've had two projects on the go. Firstly, a mini book which I will be giving to my Dad next week when he comes to visit (a belated Father's Day project). I'm really pleased with how it looks - I managed to jazz up some old Papermania papers which had been languishing unloved in a paper holder using my Autumn Leaves stamps.

Secondly, this is my first knitting project intended to get me started on something bigger. This will, one day, be a little fitted pink mohair hat (though how fitted and indeed hatlike it will be is a different matter!). I have already had to begin it twice and yesterday had to painstakingly unravel two rows to pick up a dropped stitch. But now its going ok and I hope to finish it by next weekend. Not that I've got much use for pink mohair hats in the middle of June but this was just a confidence booster before I try out anything more complicated.

I am loving my new acrylic paper trays - all my 12 by 12 is nicely organised and not getting bent or damaged in stacks on the floor. Now I just need to get a desk to stop by back from getting bent and damaged through all this scrapping on the floor!

Pink

I've had quite a busy weekend again. Yesterday we had to take Ed's car into the garage again which meant another traumatic drive around the Coventry ring road for me again. While we were waiting to pick the car up we went into town and I decided to spend my Waterstone's book vouchers on two books: Fitted Knits and The Happy Hooker. Believe it or not, I was a knitting fan way back before I discovered scrapbooking. My Nan taught me to knit when I was young and I used to knit all sorts of little toys and things. So I've decided to rekindle my interest and start knitting a few things that I can actually wear. The fitted knits book is a little advanced for me at the moment so I'm starting off with a pattern from a book I already own: The Knitter's Bible knitted accessories. The plan is to make a hat first and see how it turns out. I'm not the most patient or accurate person in the world so it will be interesting to see the finished result.

Of course, scrapbooking is still my main preoccupation and I completed this layout this morning, titled Pink. Its a bit of a frivolous subject matter, just commenting on the fact that all little girls seem to love this colour but at least it means all our photos are coordinated! I used a sheet of Basic Grey Perhaps paper which I chopped up to make the frame, most of which is mounted with sticky foam to make it raised. I used a couple of the ribbons from the Little Silver Hat kit and a Monogram and some letter stickers and thats about it. It didn't take very long to put together which makes for a nice change!

Guinea Pig

What awful weather, I don't think I've ever seen so much rain in June! We are supposed to be going to a barbecue tomorrow but I think we'd get washed away if we tried. Its so dark and stormy that I struggled to get a decent shot of my layout in the early afternoon, but here is the best of a bad lot.

The layout is called Guinea Pig and is of course about our 3 guinea pigs, Tickle, Merry and Tiddler. We are definitely more cat people in my family (you get loads of cuddles but don't have to clean them too much) but the guinea pigs were our foray into other types of pets. We had more luck with them than Ed did when he was young, his guinea pigs apparently used to die off pretty quickly. Tickle managed to clock up a good 5 years which is a ripe old age for a guinea pig.

I chose to use red for this layout, mainly because my brother is wearing a bright red jumper in the picture and there aren't many other colours that will tone in with that! However, I managed to soften it a bit by using Basic Grey Blush papers. I created my own flower embellishments by stamping using my Autumn Leaves stamps (I also added swirls to the background) and the other flowers are by Papermania and Prima. As I said earlier in the week, I have found a new love for chipboard so created my title using Basic Grey and Heidi Swapp letters which I painted.

The journalling is on a pull out card behind one of the photos. It reads:

We had begged Mum and Dad to let us have some guinea pigs, and when our Grandad built us a cage they finally agreed. We had three guinea pigs in total - Tickle, Merry and little Tiddler. And as poor Mum had feared, she did end up cleaning them out!

I am less comfortable with these multi photo layouts but I'm not unhappy with the result. I think you have to cut back on some of your patterned paper and embellishments thought as otherwise it feels like you are overloading the page. I still definitely prefer single photo layouts but I'm going to force myself to break out of my comfort zone a bit more in the future.

Finished!

Well, I finished my page - Guinea Pig - but unfortunately I can't get a decent shot of it in artificial light, so I will upload it tomorrow afternoon. Lots of reds and Basic Grey Blush papers in this one. Off to enjoy Britain's got talent now :)

What a day!

What a day I've had! Nothing especially terrible but it was so muggy and close, my classroom is tiny and half the windows are screwed shut, and then I had double Year Seven after lunch. The heat was nearly unbearable and everyone was narking at each other, including me! I wouldn't even do star of the week because I wasn't in the mood. Managed to avoid passing out, only to sit though an hour long meeting after school about nothing in particular. Those are the worst kind of meetings.
I really want to finish my layout tonight but feeling totally knackered, so I may have to upload the pic tomorrow although I will try my best for tonight. Can't wait till 3pm tomorrow afternoon, I can tell this is going to be a seriously long half term. Roll on Summer!

Addicted to Chipboard

Yes, I will stand up and admit it now, my name is Chloe and I'm addicted to chipboard. Well, in my last few layouts anyway! I think I just needed to take a break from all that handcutting and rediscovered some chipboard alphabets I had stashed away. I like painting them to match my layout and the fact it makes everything a bit 3D. My current faves are the Basic Grey mini monograms and Heidi Swapp - She and Center of Attention (pictured). I love that there are so many options - inking, painting, covering, distressing or just leaving plain if you feel like. I tend to go for the 'raw' coloured chipboard as I tend to paint it but you can also get a range of colours. And its not just letters. Fancy Pants do a range of chipboard shapes like the little flowers on my Tied layout - these come from a Paisley set of Big Board chipboard. Check them out - there are loads of designs.

I have just got back from a class and am halfway through a new layout so will hopefully upload it tomorrow. And yes, I've used loads of chipboard!

Tied

This is my latest layout, Tied. It is a bit different from my normal layouts in that I chose to use more than just one big picture (I am trying to branch out a bit, much as I like that format). In this instance the small pictures are actually close ups from the large one. The quality isn't great but I wanted to get across the idea of the three of us (me, my sister and brother) being tied together and I didn't want to use shots that weren't from the same event as this would have affected colour etc.

The layout is quite simple in terms of paper and arrangement - just one sheet of the gorgeous Stella Ruby paper (I think this one is called Drinks at the Savoy) which I painted and then sewed to the background cardstock. The photos have had their edges painted rather than being matted - I'm quite into this slightly grungey look at the moment, probably harking back to my Art A-level days when I just loved playing with acrylic paints. I mounted the smaller ones at angles and then set eyelets down the side, which I threaded twine (from the packaging of a 7Gypsies mini-book!) through to give the effect of us being tied together. The other embellishments, some of which came from the latest Little Silver Hat subscription kit, are just arranged around the layout to add balance. I used a mixture of primas, buttons, pearl brads and some Fancy Pants chipboard flowers which I painted to tone into the layout. The title is also painted chipboard.

The journalling reads:

I will be forever tied to you two by our shared memories (good and bad) and by the wonderful childhood that our mum and dad created for us. We may have our ups and downs but I know that bond will never break. Love you X

I enjoyed making this layout, the elements came together quite easily unlike some. I would quite like to have entered it for the competition, but as I said yesterday, you have to draw a line somewhere and I am still happy with the ones I did enter.

Late night scrapping!

Just a quick post tonight. I have just finished another layout which I'm really pleased with. Its too dark to photograph it now unfortunately as I really want to share it but I will have to wait till tomorrow afternoon now. It uses the gorgeous BG Stella Ruby papers and some of this month's Little Silver Hat subscription kit (if you have never been to the site, go and take a look, they do gorgeous ribbons etc and the kits are fab. The link is on the right of my page). The layout has calm blue, green and yellow tones which is a nice contrast with the bright look of my last page (of which there are some sneaky peeks below). I wish I had done this page before I entered the competition because I think it is one of my better ones. Still, you have to draw a line somewhere!

Storage Solutions

Now, I don't know if you are anything like me when it comes to scrapping storage (and I hope for your sake that you're not) your scrap room constantly looks like a bomb site! And for me, the major problem is storing all that 12 by 12 paper and cardstock. At the moment, my scrapping is very much about patterned paper so I have quite a collection. But due to lack of space and organisation, most of it is piled up or stacked against the bed in the spare room (which also doubles as the computer and scrap room). I am worried about it bending and the edges getting damaged. So when I happened up an article on storage on this blog, it didn't take me long to decide that these acrylic trays were just what I needed.

They are from A Trip Down Memory Lane and you get ten in a set. Now all I need to do is clear off the top of the chest of drawers and all my paper will be stacked off the floor and away from potential damage causers - including my cats. And a big thankyou to my Mum who helped me out with the purchase (she has seen the state of my scraproom and probably took pity on me!). I did toy with the idea of the cropper hoppers but I prefer the idea of storing the papers flat. It probably makes no difference but just my personal preference. There are all sorts of scrapbook specific storage ideas out there which I look at and drool but unfortunately they are quite expensive and most wouldn't fit into my limited space. So until I persuade Ed to build me a scrapbook shed (scheduled for the same day that pigs fly and the cow jumps over the moon) I will stick with the trays!

My latest layout

You may notice that some of the pictures of my layouts are now missing from my blog. This is because I have decided to enter the Scrapbok Inspirations competition in the Best New Talent category. I really don't know how I will get on - whether I will get shortlisted or not - but you can only try and sometimes these things surprise you.

I have decided to include my latest layout which means I can't upload it. However, I have decided to include a sneaky peek here, especially as I had promised to upload it today.

Its been a bit of a slow day to be honest - Ed has been at a band job and the cats have slept all day. I really should be doing some cleaning but the will to do anything has abandoned me at the moment. It feels like a Lazy Sunday Afternoon except that its actually Saturday! I might however be going to the cinema to see Pirates of the Carribbean 3 later - Ed's way of making up to me after we had to call off a trip to my parents for his band job. So I will have to wake myself up a bit to avoid falling asleep in the cinema. I haven't been to the cinema since the last James Bond (which I totally loved) so it should be a good evening - plenty of popcorn all round!

Lazy Evening...

Well the first week back at work has proved to be exhausting so I'm now enjoying a very lazy evening. Only six weeks to go till the Summer Holidays now and pretty soon I think I'm going to start counting down the minutes. My GCSE students sat their first History exam today and I can't pretend I'm not worried - one of my brightest but laziest students pretty much admitted he had done no revision. And thats not to mention the not so bright... Not much I can do about it now though so I guess we'll just wait for the fallout in August when the results arrive.

I am currently cutting up a sheet of Basic Grey Gypsy paper and playing around with a page idea - its coming together slowly but I will hopefully have the time to finish it tomorrow. Ed is going on a band job so I will pretty much have the day to myself. Beyond cleaning the bathroom I don't have too many plans so scrapping will feature highly in my daily activity I'm sure!

Anyway, I'm off to make a cup of tea. Lazy evening, here I come...

Not Easy

After all my happy layouts about my favourite memories, my growing up album wouldn't be a true reflection of my childhood if I didn't cover some of the negative aspects too. I was lucky enough to have a truly loving family, but like many others, I faced bullying and down times. While I wasn't a true magnet for bullying at school unlike some poor girls, I did face a few problems, like many children I suppose. So while it might seem like an odd choice for a scrapbook page, Not Easy is my attempt at commemorating the more difficult times.

I had some scraps of a sheet of Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter paper left over from making my frame on Monday so all the patterned paper on the layout comes from that, which I handcut to overlap the photo. The photo might seem like an odd one to scrap being hardly the most exciting shot but I thought it really caught a moment; me in one of my reflective moods. I think I am about 17 or 18 in this shot. The chipboard letters are also by Basic Grey and the flowers and brads are from Papermania. I like the combination of lilac and grey so I thought I would brighten up the paper a bit without making the layout too 'in your face'.

The word NOT is made from a sheet of acetate. I took the idea from here but seeing as I don't have any rub ons and had no black Stazon ink for stamping, I decided to try out a technique from the December 2006 edition of Scrapbook Inspirations and use digital brushes in Photoshop to create a pattern for the back of the acetate letters. The brushes were downloaded from http://missm.paperlilies.com/01_info.html . This site has loads of brushes to download and some are really pretty. I then painted onto the back of the acetate with lilac acrylic paint.

There is quite a bit of journalling on the page and it reads:

They say that your childhood years are the best time of your life, free from worry and responsibility. While in many ways this is true, as the picture shows, growing up can be far from easy. I have loads of idyllic memories of my childhood, but I also have memories of the bullying, the tears and the desperate wish to fit in with others.

For me and for many other kids, growing up can be one of the toughest times, full of traumas and trials. I am so glad I had my loving family to help me get through it.

I know that for many people this wouldn't be the type of thing they wish to remember, but looking back on my childhood now I learnt so much, and have grown up to be a strong and happy person. I hope you like it.

A mini book

As promised yesterday, here is the little mini book we made at the class on Monday. Proved very difficult to photograph effectively but hope this gives you the idea. Its made from double sided papers - you just need 4 six by six inch squares which you fold diagonally both ways, make a little cut and a mountain fold in one quarter of each and then stick it all together. Quite cute. Apparently they were originally intended to be invitations or something but I don't think I'd have the patience to make enough of these for a party!

I think the papers we used were by K&Co but not totally sure as Jacqui had put a kit together for use. I decorated mine with words dedicated to my love of scrapbooking!

Spent a bit of last night playing with my latest layout, called Not Easy. Its falling together surprisingly well, the only difficult bit is getting some lettering for the title right without owning any black Stazon ink (I wanted to do something with transparency but may have to rethink that one!). I definitely want to finish it tonight, though I do have loads of marking to do unfortunately, about 50 Year 7 Peasant's Life projects which seemed like a good idea at the time but now I come to mark them all I was perhaps a bit shortsighted getting two groups to do them at the same time. Never mind, I'll learn from my mistake!

A scrapbook frame

Last night I went to a mini workshop at Articraft crops in Meriden (run by the ever-patient Jacqui!) and made this gorgeous scrapbook frame from a kit she had put together. To be honest, I didn't know these scrapbook frames existed but I may try and get hold of another one now because I'm really pleased with how good it looks and already have plans for hanging it in our spare bedroom (which is actually my scrapbook room!) It will go really well with the fuschia and black bedclothes in there.



I want to get some nice black and white shots of me and Ed to go in the frame but seeing as all the pictures of us together seem to involve one of us (usually Ed) pulling a funny face or come out blurry this might be a bit of an undertaking. So at the moment it is without photos.



I believe the frames are made by Kars but I'm not sure where they sell them so it might be worth going on a trawl of the internet if you are interested in making one.



I'm also really pleased because the gorgeous Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter paper we used gave me inspiration for a photo I've been wanting to scrap so I picked up another sheet and started cutting it up when I got in last night. The page is still a work in progress but hopefully I will finish it over the week so I will probably upload it here on Thursday.



We also made a mini book at the class yesterday so I will photograph that and share it tomorrow. Mine is dedicated to my love of scrapbooking! Just a bit of fun really but quite quick to make once you understand the basic design of it.



Work is a bit of a drag at the moment, this last half term is always the worst as the long summer break is in our sights and the sun is shining outside the classroom window. Lots of work for next year to do too so unfortunately I think I will have to dedicate some of this evening to that. Oh well, the life of a teacher! ;)

My Favourite Treat...

So here it is, my latest CJ entry for a journal about our Favourite Treats. I didn't want to just go for chocolate despite it being my obvious first choice, so I thought about it for a while. I decided that when I really want to spoil myself, if I'm feeling down and want to feel pampered or maybe I feel like I've really earned a treat, I go and buy myself an item from the Benefit Cosmetics stand at Boots. Here is my small but growing collection of goodies from this fantabulous range:

I have loved this range of Cosmetics since discovering them when I was about 16 though they are a little pricey so it was only birthday and Christmas presents at first. Now I'm actually earning money, I have bought myself a couple of items without it being a special occasion, though being a bit of a bargain hunter in all other forms of shopping I do feel naughty buying it! So why do I love this range so much? Well firstly, the products work (though you would expect them to for the money!) Secondly, they are called really cute names like Dandelion, Dr. Feelgood and Lemon-Aid. And thirdly, but perhaps most importantly, the packaging is all to me! It is just the most quirky make up range going, all fifties inspired and really pretty. As far as I am concerned, when I'm putting on my make up in the morning, I want the tubes and tubs to make me smile! Perhaps I'm shallow or misguided, but I don't care.

And that is basically what this CJ entry is about. From a scrappers point of view, perhaps one of the best things about this range is that it produces gorgeous little books with all the cosmetics in the range showcased on well designed and colourful pages. Perfect for cutting up and collaging with. The finished CJ entry was really all collage, with just a few prima flowers thrown in for good measure. Very thrifty but you have to agree, very cool!

In the Garden

As much as I'd hoped to spend the whole of Sunday scrapping, unfortunately life got in the way today. We had LOADS of washing to do after the holiday and also had to go to Sainsbury's for the inevitable food shop before we go back to work. And because of the glorious weather we took the opportunity to tidy up our garden a bit. Here is the finished result: We planted some wildflower seed mixes to see if we can get a bit of colour because, as you can see, everything is a bit green at the moment! And yes, that is Elmo my cat taking a starring role in my photo.

However, all is not lost. I have spent the time whilst pottering coming up with some ideas for my layouts and my latest CJ entry. I have had a great idea for my 'favourite treat' which doesn't involve chocolate - this is one of my more indulgent treats when I'm feeling a bit flush. I'm hopefully going to put this one together tonight so I will share the result (and my favourite treat!) tomorrow.

I've also printed out loads of photos for my growing up album so I should be producing quite a few layouts in the next few weeks. Tomorrow night I'm going to a class at the Articraft crop to make a Basic Grey frame (I have seen the sample and it looks great!) and mini book so I'm looking forward to that - will share the finished items during the week.

And finally, congratulations to Anna, who runs our Thursday crop, who has just had a baby - she looks totally gorgeous in the photos. Well done Anna!

And then there were 3!

So here, finally, is the layout I completed before my holiday. Its called, 'And then there were 3' and it basically records how fascinated me and my sister were with our new little brother and how we didn't feel jealous of him or the attention he got at all. Of course, this was mainly down to my wonderful mum who always made us feel involved. I used Scenic Route papers and my Autumn Leaves flower stamps for this one. The title is handcut (I have to admit, this one was quite fiddly to do!). Its quite a simple layout really - the embellishments are stamped from the papers themselves so its quite a thrifty one overall.
I've noticed that my layouts are getting quite monotone so I'll have to try and push the boat out and use a few colours in my next one!

I'm back!

I just got back this afternoon from a week spent lazing around on the Isle of Wight. We stay at a place called St Helens near Bembridge at a Holiday Park overlooking the water. Its a stunning view and a really relaxing place to be, perfect for getting away from work and school. Ed's little niece came away for her first holiday and she was great - we didn't get woken up once in the night despite the log cabin walls being paper thin!

The weather just couldn't make its mind up all holiday! It went from something like this (and yes, it really was that dark at midday on Bank Holiday Monday):

To something like this (on Friday, overlooking Cowes harbour):

Still, as true Brits we were able to ignore the weather and have fun anyway (after all, it wouldn't be a British bank holiday if it didn't pour down with rain!).

I have to say though, much as I enjoyed my holiday, I'm now suffering severely from scrapping withdrawal! I spent much of the holiday going through my back copies of Scrapbook Inspirations gathering ideas and I was itching to get hold of my papers and stamps again half way through the holiday. I arrived back to find my first subscription kit from Little Silver Hat on the doorstep so I'm just off to ferret through that and see what goodies I get to enjoy. My plan this evening is to watch Mean Girls on Channel 4 and fuss the cats (who are feeling very neglected and sorry for themselves and won't leave me alone). Though I will probably just take a picture of the layout I finished before the holiday and upload that before I cuddle up in bed for the evening.