The Great Pumpkin photo

Something wiccan this way comes...

Yes I know that it should be "wicked" and not "wiccan" but I like how it sounds ;-) 

I really love Halloween products but we don't really get into the spirit (did you see what I did there...) like people do in the States.  We are embracing it more and more though, even if its just an excuse to use themed embellishments and papers! 

This photo was one of many many many that I took on this particular Halloween 3 years ago.  I was doing a Digital Photography course with the Open University (which I didn't pay attention to and need to redo) and one of the assignments was photographing dark.  Most people did pumpkins purely because of the time of year and there were some spectacular shots.  I just couldn't get mine right but this was the best of them.

I absolutely adore that orange and black polka dot ribbon and there is a story behind that too.  Last year at around this time, I was "chatting" to another blogger from the States about candy corn.  I kept seeing the motifs for it but had no idea what it was or why it was relevant to Halloween.  The lovely Deb (who many of you know) said she would send us some to try - how wonderful!  I can tell you that we all tried one small piece and it was too sweet for us to any more!  The children were bowled over by the spider rings that came with it and I was overly excited by the ribbon and twine!

The papers and the chipboard letters are from a set by WRMK and the gorgeous orange buttons are Jenni Bowlin.  I really like working with orange and I'm so pleased that we made Halloween really special this year and that we have lots of photos to scrap.

I'm thinking that I'm not alone in taking pictures of things purely for the joy of the associated scrapbooking opportunities.  At least I don't think I am... Have you ever done something deliberately because you wanted to use something specific on a layout?  Maybe dressed people in certain colours or stood people in certain areas?  I've done both of those things and a few more!

Oh, and I almost forgot the give-away!

The winner of the give-away was number 3 which corresponded to Jo!  Jo if you can PM me your address I can get your papers in the post for you this week, just in time for Christmas crafting.

Thank you to all those who commented and left good wishes for my Dad.  He had his operation yesterday and it all went fine but he is now sporting a much larger bandage for a while. Definitely something to scrap there!

Bye for now
xx

First Halloween

This post is brought to you as part of Story Telling Sunday with Sian at High in The Sky.

Being a slightly quirky sort, I love Halloween, or Samhain as it's also known.  The veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest so you feel closer to those you have lost at this time of year.  Of course, with the veil being thin, our lost loved ones can pass through but so can those whom we would really rather didn't, hence why we dress up and make lanterns and try to be scary.  I love that it is becoming more popular here in the UK to have fun with the Halloween theme - any excuse to dress up the children is fine by me!

We used to live in a very rural area, a couple of doors away from the retained fire station.  Every Halloween they would have a sort of open house and the local children could come along and get a few sweets, have a sit in the fire engine and have a go at squirting the hoses etc.  Really it was about bonfire and firework safety as much as anything.  We were really excited to take Louis on his first Halloween (second really, but he was only 5 months old the first time).  It was one of those little milestones that seemed really important while we were dreaming of what being a parent would be like.  He thought it was great fun to go out in the dark when he should have been in bed and obviously didn't have a clue what we were doing there or why but it was new and therefore exciting.

For some reason I was thinking just now about how great that little ghost costume was that he wore that first visit and then realising that he was actually wearing the monster costume in these photos which he wore the year after.  This means that although the layout says "1st Halloween", it is actually not.  Now I have a dilemma which will take a lot of tea and cake to solve.

As a slight aside from the costume conundrum, I've just spotted the gorgeous polished wood floor in the photos.  Our old house was a 3 storey Victorian terrace that used to serve as a staff house for the big Union work house at the end of the road.  We loved our little house but it was just too little once we had 2 children.  We miss the village so much and never more so than this week when a chance conversation has led us to believe that Louis's asthma may actually be because of the pollution here, even though it doesn't seem polluted (we are close to the M3, M27 and Southampton Airport).  We now face another conundrum of what to do about this potential new information as nothing is concrete yet.  Of course, I will need a fair bit of tea and cake while we process this.

Switch the kettle on would you?

Bye for now
xx

...and breathe....

Well I did it.  I can't say it was easy but it was brilliant once I got into it.  What am I talking about?  Stash Diving of course!  If you want to know how to pick the right papers etc then you'll have to sign up for the Pretty Paper Party class over at Shimelle's.  I can honestly say that its the best class I've done of hers (and I've done a few!) and part of what I love is that her classes are always available once you've signed up so you never have to feel behind or worry about not having time etc.

So for the stash diving experiment, we had to take a pile of carefully selected papers and some matching cardstock and chop them up.  Okaaaayyy..... But back up a second, did we miss a step here?  What about choosing the photos or thinking about the page design?  Nope, none of that, no sirree.  Just chop up the papers.  Here is my pile (and those in the know will see I made a mistake by choosing some cream based and some white based but I think I made them work in the end...)

I almost hyperventilated when I started because this concept is alien to me but I trust Shimelle with anything that involves paper and if she told me to set fire to my stash I would.  So I ended up with about 7 pages from the Echo Park Country Drive collection, an odd My Minds Eye, an October Afternoon Boarding Pass and a Jillibean Soup.  I did pick out about 8 pieces of cardstock but I had to add to that a bit in the end.

I cut all the pages except one pattern that I was happy to use as a background and only had one serious wobble which was right at the beginning with my first 4 chops into that stripy paper which I chopped the wrong way!  I almost cried at that point but I turned the paper over and it was orange dots so no big problem except that I had intended to have some 12 inch strips of stripes so I had to do some careful patching.

By the time I left, so within about 5 hours, I had chosen my papers and cardstock, chopped them all, had a few cups of tea to steady my nerves, stuck all the pieces down onto various layouts, chosen photos from a large stack, and stuck them on.  I ended up with 10 single page layouts and a double.  Oh my word, yes!  I just need to "titivate" as Paula (who runs the crop) said and that is easiest to do at home with all my many ribbons and buttons and stickers and what nots.  Its truly a great way to scrap, especially if you are away from home because you don't need to take loads of stuff.  It has been a revelation.  Shimelle, I salute you!

Sadly I couldn't stay till the end because we were dashing out to the Beaulieu fireworks which always has a Halloween theme.  They were totally amazing as always and photos never do fireworks justice but I can't resist sharing these with you.

 
 

It was a little bit drizzly but we didn't mind.  Despite our best intentions to get out today, we seem to all want to stay in the warm and dry!  Suits me, I have 11 layouts to finish ;-)

Bye for now
xx