Rise Up and Fly - Shimelle Challenge

This is the last of the layouts that I managed to get done from Shimelle's weekend of inspiration.  This challenge was to scrapbook with a pink colour scheme which is something I don't do all that often despite having a little girl.  A page featuring miss Bella wouldn't be hard but I had something different in mind.

I bought these gorgeous My Mind's Eye papers in the S J Crafts sale and I was desperate to use them.  The collection is called Spread Your Wings and Fly and it made me think of my niece and how much she has blossomed since she found her niche as a Personal Trainer.  I changed the title to fit better with the images of the hot air balloons rather than relating it to wings.

I wanted to use the paper with the balloons in the top corner so it left a nice trip at the bottom for the small photo.  I have scrapped this photo before but with a different story.  I couldn't find anything that felt right to add to the stack for some texture other than some gems and bakers twine so I cut another balloon from another sheet of paper and added some pop dots to lift it at bit.

Sophie left college not knowing what she really wanted to do and it took a while for her to realise that her passion for the gym could be something she could share with other people.  Since then she's gained experience and qualifications and has become the assistant manager of the gym.  She has an expanding client base and has started developing specialist training programmes as she continues to grow and develop and it is a pleasure to see her spreading her wings and really taking off.

Bye for now
xx

Meet Opal - Shimelle Challenge

I've been meaning to scrap this photo for years, literally.  It was from our Round The World trip, no prizes for guessing where!  It was actually at Steve Irwin's Zoo in Brisbane and we were really sad to have missed him by a couple of days (well that's what they said but he might not have actually been there for months!)

It was one of those magical experiences that you never forget,so soft and fluffy!  We had to hold Opal under her bottom because koalas have no rib cage so holding them under the arms like a baby to pick them up would crush their internal organs.  To pick them up from the floor you have to hold their hands and dangle them!

I was able to use some new supplies (Glitz Finnley from the S J Crafts sale) and some very old ones.  I've had those lime green Doodlebug letters since I started scrapping and the little koala button from even before that!  I threw in some new Project Life cards and some felt leaves and back gems - it feels great to use some really old stuff!

My travel album has kraft card stock on every page so as well as the background I used a couple of Tim Holtz die cuts from my ancient stash too.  

The page was inspired by this challenge from Shimelle using half page photos.  It's certainly larger than I normally scrap but not quite half a page.  

I've still got a few more to share but they will have to wait until later after I've travelled back from sunny Wales.  Yes it is sunny - it was supposed to rain hard all day here but it has been beautiful!

Bye for now
xx

Hang Tough - Shimelle Challenge

I managed to complete a few of the challenges from Shimelle's cyber crop last weekend.  Unfortunately I had to bring them to Wales to photograph as I ran out of time before we had to leave.  The weather decided to take a turn for the worse and I have struggled to get clear pictures but I will keep trying!  This first one seemed to be the better of the bunch and was inspired by this challenge.

I used Echo Park's All About A Boy collection which is in the sale at S J Crafts currently.  I'd forgotten how much I loved the bright colours.

I used the TOUGH banner from the sticker sheet for the title and added some more stickers and chipboard pieces for interest and texture.  I wanted to get across the fun and adventure that the girls were having when they climbed the wall at the play centre where Bella was having her 5th birthday party.

A couple of brads from a Halloween collection by October Afternoon and some very old gems and it was job done.  It took me ages because I couldn't decide on the papers but once I had done that it came together quite quickly.

I had a great time scrapping old and new photos and using old and new stash.  There was a wonderful sense of freedom as I wasn't doing a project or a DT assignment or making a rushed card for someone etc.  I'd forgotten how much I love scrapping and as such there are a few more projects to share over the next few days.

Did you join in with the challenges too?

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 264

Its been a few weeks since I've been able to join in with this wonderful crafty blog hop but I've been in my studio a bit more this week and so felt compelled to share!  I love being able to have the doors wide open but it usually ends up with things being blown onto the floor (I did actually put those layouts on the floor to be photographed though, the wind blew other stuff!)  You can kinda see here that there are piles of stuff growing on my desk....

Strangely the piles from this angle don't look as precarious as they do in real life... perhaps its because you can't actually see that the things on the bottoms of the piles are smaller than the things I have balanced on top!  I'm in a very "let's get on and scrap" mood rather than a "putting things away" mood.  I blame Shimelle and her weekend of challenges!   And no, I don't know why there is a duster on my desk either...

But there is of course a full cup of tea...  Thank goodness!  Lots of lovely papers and photos and ideas and general chaos - perfect!  You might be wondering what that embroidered thing is next to my ATG...  Well actually there are 2 things - one is a stuffed heart that looks like it should hang in the wardrobe smelling nice - but it doesn't smell of anything.  The embroidered thingy is a piece of linen that hangs on your wall for you to display your loo rolls in.  Both items brought back from Malta by my mother "for our new house".  Grief, it almost puts me off moving...

I'm hoping to share a few more layouts and get back to being busy on my blog so please do watch this space.  For now, why not link up your creative room / table / spot on the floor with the lovely Julia (back from her Spanish hospital ordeal and we wish her a speedy recovery!) at Stamping Ground for What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 151

Piles.  That's what I have on my desk today.  I am busy preparing for a retreat at the weekend so I am part way through making plenty of page kits to keep me going for two and half days - huzzah!  I've selected my photos and papers and I am now adding some embellishments.  I am really looking forward to a couple of days of crafting with like minded people, especially after my op last week.  I thought it would be a quick recovery but I was wrong.  Nearly a week later and I am still feeling groggy so I may yet find that when I open my bag on Friday afternoon that I have packed nothing that matches and forgotten my adhesives and scissors!

Last week though I did manage to do something incredible.  I got around to every single desk on the WOYWW list and I read and commented on every single one.  177 desks and it took me till Saturday in between sleeping and eating.  Seriously, I don't know how people manage to do it very often at all, let alone every week.  Sadly I only managed to achieve about 70 comments myself and a few of these are not WOYWW-ers but that's not why I did it, I just wondered if I could do it, how long it would take, and also, what sorts of comments other people make when they visit lots and lots of desks.  It was a very interesting experiment but sadly something that I will rarely have time for.  Julia - keeper of the list of desks, I applaud you for taking such an interest in every desk.  

I did manage to squeeze in another of Shimelle's challenges after the weekend deadline.  This was for Challenge 8 - Use a Stamp for the first time.  The stamp I used is actually a picture of a hammock and it is clearer in real life.  I heat embossed it onto vellum, a new favourite technique!

Poor Miss Bella gets so tired after her ballet class.  Its hard to believe that this little cutie is causing us such problems with her stubborness and fiery temper right now (my Mum would make some comment here about not knowing where she gets that from and looking me straight in the eye...)

I'd better get on with my packing really hadn't I?

Bye for now
xx

Being challenged.

I'm feeling rather challenged at the moment, both physically and mentally!  Thank you to all the people who sent good wishes after my op.  It went okay but boy did I hurt afterwards!  I am rather bruised and still very woozy so I only managed to stay at my crop for a couple of hours yesterday.  I wouldn't have gone at all if I hadn't been so looking forward to meeting Sarah but she was so lovely that it made it worthwhile.

I half started some layouts and managed to finish a few today.  I think planning to finish all of the challenges for Shimelle's on-line crop was a little optimistic after my hospital stay but here are the ones I managed complete.

Challenge 10 - 2 Photos on a bold background.  Are those apples bold enough for ya?!

I used Crate Paper - Farmhouse for these cute pics of my boy at just a year old.

Challenge 11 - Use 2 contrasting patterns for the background.  Leaves and rulers again from the Farmhouse Collection.

I managed to use some older American Crafts rub-ons here too.  They were perfect for this story about the little house that my Dad got for 2 year old Louis.  They were so proud of their building skills!  Originally the house had belonged to my almost-step-mum's grandchildren but they had outgrown it.  My Dad loved being able to rescue something and provide a wonderful present to his precious only grandson.

Challenge 9 - Take your pick.  Choose any previous challenge and consider it reopened.  I chose the Glitter Girl adventure about scraps.  The main bulk of the page used Rocket Age by October Afternoon but the layers of stars are all scraps from my box.  I think Louis was about 18 months old in this crazy photo which ended up on a mouse mat for a present for Daddy.  A mouse mat???  What a short lived invention that was...

Challenge 14 - Four Sections.  Using inspiration from Jen Gallacher, make 4 separate sections come together for one page.  I love Jen's work and I really admired so many of the elements in her original layout when I saw it a few weeks back.  I took many of those ideas for my Summertime layout featuring Bella and Management wandering off to the rock pools.  

I particularly liked the white embossing on vellum on Jen's layout so I tried it on mine with some flip flops.  I also embossed the title and in both cases this was the first inking for these stamps!

I used Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air and added a few older bits and bobs like shells.  

Challenge 12 - One photo twice.  I chose the only photo I had where I had printed 2 versions.  One of a gajillion ballet photos - Miss Bella gazing in wonder at her ballet teacher's beautifully pointed toes.  There's no title or journalling here because it is part of a series of pages, and to be honest I was in a rush and losing the power to sit up straight!

More Crate Paper Farmhouse, some very old bling that I've been meaning to use for ages and some ballet shoe ribbon that I bought years ago.

I think I might just squeeze in one more before the deadline but then I have to start prepping for next weekend.  3 days of scrapping at a local retreat and I have no idea what to take!  I also have to get better and get the house straight before then and try and get back to some sort of normality.  Hhhmmm, normality... what's that then? ;-)

Bye for now

xx

WOYWW 150

Good morning Wednesday - gosh its a wet and blustery one!

I have an in-betweeny desk this week.  You know that odd and very brief phase where you have just tidied up after one session and are about to embark on another so it looks temporarily tidy-ish.  This is the layout I have just finished for one of the challenges from Shimelle's On-line crop weekend.  This one was to use 3 different manufacturers.  I was part way through a DT layout involving Childish Things by Fancy Pants and I wanted to use a piece of denim but it got lost in the wash.  I had October Afternoon's Rocket Age out which went well and then I pulled some pieces out of Echo Park's A Boys Life so all in all it turned out okay and I never did find the denim!

The piles you can see are my preparations for a crop on Saturday.  I am very much hoping to make good headway with some more of the challenges from the weekend.

I am also really excited to be meeting Sarah from S J Papercrafts for the first time as she is bringing her shop to the crop.  It will be lovely to finally meet my DT "boss" in person!  I will probably have to buy lots of things too.... ;-)

Thank you for all your messages last week hoping that we all stay well.  Unfortunately we haven't and young Bella has a slight cold but it has really affected her breathing.  Rather selfishly, I really hope she stays well enough to go to nursery as I have to go into hospital for an operation myself today too (no more babies for us and now no surrogates either).  I won't get around many desks today but I must admit that I was rather grateful for a late Wednesday op.  It means that I can spend some of my recovery time being a nosy parker in my pyjamas, snooping at everyone's desks in the next couple of days.  Thanks to Julia for hosting what has become such a wonderful Wednesday routine.

Bye for now
x

Squeezing in some challenges

I'm back on the Christmas theme again - yay!  Two more challenges from Shimelle's Christmas Crafting weekend.  I made this tag for a special present for DH.  It just became a lot bigger a present than I thought as it clashes with something else so he'd better darn well appreciate it!  The snowflake has silver / grey Stickles on it but you can't really see on the photo despite my best attempts to introduce some light into the proceedings ;-)

I also prepped another page for my JYC using the inspiration of "cutting the paper".  I love these baubles on the icy blue MME paper and there are 3 pages for each design.  I had enough to cut some out and decoupage them to make a really clean looking page which just needs a photo and a date at some point in December.

My next project is to get on with some wrapping now before November comes to an end and I miss my self imposed deadline.  I've got 2 more cakes to make and I'm thinking of making my Dad a little hamper of goodies now that he is having to tighten his belt a bit.  Hhhmmm... next year I will start even earlier I think!

Bye for now xx

A story that was missing

I have some photos in my drawer to scrap that are just there because I like the picture.  Others, like this one, are there for the story.  Its not the clearest picture in the world as I had left the camera in the car overnight and it was taking a while to adjust to the warmer air in the house.  And there is no camera in the world that can make a child pose the way you want and stay like that until you are ready for them to move!

It was one of those moments when everything comes together.  A "peak experience" for the psychologists among you.  It was the sort of moment I had dreamed of when I thought about becoming a mum.  My Dad had bought B this little cradle and she had a new dolly from her Nanny.  Watching her putting her new baby into the crib and carefully putting the blanket over her and rocking her to sleep, made my heart burst.  How do little ladies know how to do this?  She was totally absorbed and looking so pretty in her little dress.  Its a simple thing really, watching a little girl playing, but it is moments like these that pull me back from the brink sometimes and make it all worthwhile.  These are the moments I live for.  These are the moments I need to craft about.  It is my therapy.

It makes me so excited about this coming Christmas too.  We went into town today to watch the lights being switched on.  They were both really excited to see Father Christmas and he was a pretty good one too.  L whispered to me that he knew that he was the really real one, you know, the ACTUAL one.  I cherish these moments and wonder how long it will be before they don't believe?  There is such a small window when you have more than one child, or all of the children understanding about Christmas and yet still believing in it too.  We are in this window this Christmas and I intend to make the most of it.

This layout was brought to you by the Christmas Crafting Weekend with Shimelle.

What Christmassy things are you up to this weekend?  Enjoy them, whatever they may be :-)

Bye for now
xx

A garland title

Why is it that it is always the things that you think will be simple that end up causing problems?  I wanted to keep my album front for JYC pretty simple this year and I used Shimelle's Christmas garland challenge as inspiration.  I wanted to use a page from the MME collection that I'm using for the album to cover the chipboard portion of the cover and I decided to do a bit of misting on it.  Epic fail.  I misted over a chipboard Christmas tree but the colour was all kinds of wrong.  I tried using another colour but you couldn't see it at all.  So I tried adding a splatter of white paint to look like snow but it just looked a mess.  I started again.  This time I cut the paper slightly too small.  Second epic fail.  Third time lucky?  Not quite but it will have to do!  The paper was slightly too short again due to a mistake lining up a straight edge.... and then when I placed the washi tape on, I managed to lay it on at an angle and unlike other washi tapes, this one wasn't coming off again :-(

So this is it.  I love the paper and I love the brown glitter Thickers but as for the whole thing, well I'm not that taken with it to be honest but it is what it is.  I do also love the little reindeer and of course the Jenni Bowlin stick pins :-)

So that's my background pages done and my front cover done.  I'll probably just paint the insides and the back but I'll leave it till the end so I can see if there is any paper left over!  I need to think about my dates next and any pockets I want to make but I also need to wrap a few presents too.  Do you know that Christmas Day is actually on the same date each year?  I know!  Crazy huh?!  And yet we still rush around and leave things too late...

Bye for now xx

Baby its cold outside...

There is definitely a distinct nip in the air first thing in the morning and as the evening draws in.  I wonder if we will get the snow that they suggested a few weeks ago, you know back when it was suddenly baking hot again?  It made me think back to March 2008 when L was not quite 2 years old.  On the Saturday we got the garden furniture out because it was lovely and warm and we sat there drinking tea in our te-shirts.  The next morning the boys woke me up early because it had snowed over night and they couldn't wait to show me.  My poor little man had a tummy ache but he still made a huge snowman with Daddy and then walked up the lane to the fields near where we lived until a couple of years ago.  Its a wonderful rural area with hills perfect for sliding down on a plastic bag (if you are caught unawares and don't have a sledge!)

I used the sketch from the wonderful Kirsty Wiseman's Wednesday Night Crop from erm.. Thursday!  Kirsty has been chaotically busy recently with her work on QVC etc and I've really missed her Wednesday night madness.  She crops live on Ustream and there is usually an appearance from Eddie the dog at some point.  The rest of us chat and scrap along or just chat!

The papers are My Mind's Eye, 12 Days of Christmas with their fab modern colours.  I sprayed the background with red Mister Huey over one of the punched snowflakes and  I love the effect it gave - I will definitely do this again.  The whole thing was sprayed with Marshmallow Glimmer Mist which gives a soft sheen to everything but is barely visible.  I was brave and didn't ink the edges of everything with Vintage Photo as I normally do.  But don't worry, I haven't lost the plot!  I used Broken China instead ;-)

I jazzed up some of those ultra cheap foam letter stickers and I'm thinking about a little trip to see if I can get some more as I'm so pleased with how they turn out.  You have to forgive me the clichéd title as it is my first child related snowy layout!

I punched 2 snowflakes for each spot because I wanted some depth so the second layer is vellum which goes through much easier.  Its a lovely punch but very troublesome...

So tell me, are you stockpiling salt?  Have you bought a snow shovel?  Or do you think the anticipated snow will be more like very cold rain instead?  We live on a STEEP incline so we are thinking of investing in snow chains just to get us out onto the main road!

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 116 and LSNED

Its been a while since I joined in with WOYWW but I felt compelled to share my space this week as I have had a good clear out!  I decided that I needed to make the furniture work for me rather than against me and so I had a sort out, collected a box of stuff to sell, gave some scraps to the kids, colour sorted the scraps I was keeping, colour sorted my cardstock, sorted my PP by manufacturer, sorted my albums chronologically, colour sorted my letter stickers, re-wrapped and sorted all my ribbons and rearranged all my embellishments.  I shall be sharing photos of my newly organised areas in the coming days and I am starting with my desk (obvs!)

It is actually a hugely heavy jali fretwork dining table with a glass top.  It is not ideal - it has a 3 inch lip of wood right the way around to contain the glass which I would rather was totally flat for obvious reasons.  I have my basket for my current project which is my kit and "in progress" album for Shimelle's "Learn Something New Everyday".  Next to that now is my black set of drawers which used to hold scraps and now holds my ribbons, chipboard and die cuts.  The stack of tins holds gems, baker's twine and embellishments for my current project.  I still keep my black crop bag to the right but I still have to stand up to see inside it if I can't find what I want by feeling with my hand!  Under the table there is where I keep my bin and I pull it out when I'm working there but push it in out of the way the rest off the time.  I've sorted things so that the bits and pieces I go to regularly are behind me or all in one cupboard and it seems to be working but boy oh boy this was a tough job.  I had so much stuff across the floor where I had had deliveries just before we went on holiday and where I hadn't put things away after my crop and after the crazy weekend of Shimelle's on-line crop.  I ended up rolling over my photos and finding bent PP so I had to just stop creating more mess and put it all away.  I thought I may as well sort it while I was doing it and I'm glad I did.  I just need to keep it like that.  I love to see other people's ways of organising things so if you know if any good ideas please do let me know.

I'm about to spend some precious one to one time with L (while B is at nursery) before he goes back to school next week.  The summer holidays have just gone far too quickly, most likely blown and washed away! I wonder what lessons I will learn this September and if any of the things I learned last year have actually sunk in to my tiny brain!  Please say hi if you are joining in Shimelle's class too, they are always great fun and so full of inspiration.

And in the meantime, for the list of other workspaces, please drop by Julia's blog and say hi.

I said I wouldn't but....

I did say I was going to clear up my scrap room before I did any more crafting but I forgot that I needed to get this month's 4x6 photo love done.  Luckily I had 7 portrait photos in my pile from Wales last year so that's a few more completed.  What was that?  7 photos you say?  Why yes indeed!  On ONE page!

The photo on the right is attached to the page but the photo on the left is a little concertina book of several more.

One of the panels is used as a journalling block so in theory, you could add 8 photos to this page but I love it just like this.

This is the other side of the book opened out.  Its a great little idea for those situations where you can't choose which photo to use but they are all similar or part of the same aspect of the story.

The papers are My Minds Eye Good Day Sunshine Boy and I love the way they have worked out for this project.  I cut into one of the bigger designs to get the cute little beach hut and surfboard.  I'm so happy with this layout - coordinated packs are great for me.

Sadly I didn't win any of the prizes from Shimelle's cycber crop but all the challenges are still available for you to participate in at your own leisure.  I got 10 layouts completed, plus adding the journalling to one and it encouraged L to do another layout too to I think WE are the real winners.

Now I really MUST clear up as I want to crack on with Explore before LSNED starts - can you believe its only a few days away!

Bye for now.

xx

11 challenges!

Phew!  I did it!  I finished the one from last night and completed another one.  I am really pleased with them both but the pictures are a bit dull as it is obviously later than I would have liked to photograph them! (Edited to include photos now taken in the sunlight!)

They both feature black and white pictures from our Round The World trip taken in Siem Reap, Cambodia where we toured the ruined temples.  We took LOADS of photos and patiently waited for each film to come back before we knew how we had done.  I dread to think how many we would have taken had we had our digital SLR!

This first one is for Shimelle's "Let's Go Retro" challenge where we had to use a picture from before 2011 (as many people just don't have access to old photos, myself included).  We were in Cambodia in 2003 so although not really retro, its retro enough.  I can't recall which temple it was taken at and the dappled light doesn't make it easy for you to see but its our remorque moto driver fast asleep.  The motos are just very small motorbikes with a carriage type bit on the back to carry passengers but they are great fun because you can see around you really well.  The drivers wait around at these temples all the time so they tend to sit about chatting and smoking or catching some zzzz as ours mostly did.

I'm thinking that perhaps the papers are too busy for the picture because of the shading but I still like it and I didn't follow a sketch or anything here!

This next one is probably one of my favourites from the whole weekend and the one I had no plan for at all.  It was for the "Chop Your Paper" challenge and I immediately thought of this layout.  It worked really well last time but I didn't want it to look too similar.  I did however, want to use the same papers.  I cut the flowers and leaves out of the leftovers from last time and the circle was the waste from the ring section.  I wanted to create something where you had to peer through the foliage like we did the first time we saw Angkor Wat.  Because you see it from the end of the pathway first, it is quite far back and you really don't get a sense of scale at all.  We were a bit disappointed as we oulled up as you really don't get the impact of it and we thought we would be blown away the first time it came into view.  Inside though it is amazing, huge, beautiful, intricate, etc, all the things you would expect a world famous temple complex to be

I raised up some of the cut outs on foam tape to give it more depth and dimension.  It was quite therapueatic to sit in the garden in the sun, watching the children poking spiders and bugs, while I cut out the swirls and flowers.

So that's me done for the weekend of challenges.  I completed 11 in the end plus of course the one that L entered.  Of course now my craft room is a total mess and I ended up rolling over photos in my swivel chair so no more scrapping for me until I've had a major clean up.  But I think I'll leave that for a while and go see what everyone else made.

Bye for now
xx

Here's a couple more!

Well I may not get around to the extra one and may not even finish the one I started last night.  Management is not at work as he is feeling "hot and odd" but he is still on call which means that his day off in lieu won't happen and we miss out completely.  I'm trying to keep the children away from him so probably won't get much time at all today.  Just sneaking in a quick few minutes here while they watch a bit of a film

So, the next challenge I completed was a relatively quick one entitled "adding to the story".   We had to find a layout where we wanted to tell more about the memory or event, either by added writing to the layout, to  a facing page, or tucking something in somewhere.  I had created this layout a while back for another Shimelle challenge but I hadn't gotten around to putting something in the envelope.

The challenge back then was to scrap something where the story wasn't obvious from the picture.  Some of you might remember that this layout contains the only photo I had taken while I was pregnant with our first child who we sadly lost at 4 months.  I used some cloudy printed vellum, which seemed really apt, to write the letter to our Little Sammy Sunshine to go inside the pocket.  It was great to give me a push to do it.

I was starting to struggle a bit by now as I had been picking off the challenges I knew I could do with photos I had to hand or ideas I already had etc.  I decided to do the "half page challenge" next and stumbled across a pic of L doing some scrapping.  It was perfect to use this weekend as he has been so involved in my crafting. I had to replace my guillotine and I had to take a trip to Hobbycraft and he got very excited until he realised that Shimelle wasn't go to be there!

It wasn't working for at all during the process but it actually turned out okay in the end.  The title "I'm quite an arty crafty boy!" refers to something that L often says whenever anyone talks about making things and he will proudly tell strangers in shops that too.

I used a tag and lots of gems because that is what he likes to use on his own page, and his fave colour is orange.  I added some bling to the very cheap foam stickers that I got from the kids section at the Range ages ago because I thought they looked a bit like Thickers ;-)

I'd like to get around a lot of the people who have also posted on the challenges, hopefully in the next few days.  Maybe I'll see you soon.

Bye for now xx

A few challenges!

I can't believe how many layouts I've done this week!

I took some photos yesterday of 2 more that I completed and retook photos of the ones from the previous rainy post.  I uploaded them and managed to delete the lot!  I took them again today along with some more layouts that I completed as part of Shimelle's cyber crop.

This first one is for the "Stickery" challenge and the task was to use stickers from more than one manufacturer or collection.  It features B on the beach at, guess where, Newport (of course) last summer, looking gawjuss in her little cossie.  

The stickers, like the papers, are mainly by Cosmo Cricket.  I have added a little something from American Crafts and also the epoxy sticker which is from some magazine thing, maybe Lets Make Cards or something like that.

I used an old sketch of the week as inspiration but I didn't have anything that felt right for the background.  My eye fell on my shocking pile of "stuff to put away" where I saw a doily poking out so I decided to give misting a go.  It did make the cardstock warp a little but I'm kind of happy with how it worked out.  I don't like the title - I outlined it in white to make it stand out better, then tried black and made a right mess of it!

My next humble offering is for the "Hot Pink Hoopla" challenge.  Gotta love some hot pink especially when you are talking about a very small very cute wet suit in said colour.  Can you guess where she is? ;-)  Why yes, its Newport beach last year.  I used a layout from Explore as inspiration but I was trying too hard to use the lovely butterfly paper without covering up the hot pink ones! 

Again a few of the embellishments were from the Lets Make Cards magazine.  I bought it in Wales one summer as something that L and I could play with together but ended up keeping it all to myself!

And the final layout for this post (more to come tomorrow) was for the "Colour Story Challenge" where the task was to craft something using red, white and aqua.  This photo of Management has been sat on top of my pile for a few months, desperate to be scrapped.  I wanted to include something snowy but didn't want to get my Christmas stuff out.  This colour combo was perfect as the aqua and white lend themselves to a chilly feeling without pointing at Christmas, which it wasn't.  Hubs went to stay with his brother in France and took L with him but B and I had to stay home as she has problems with her circulation and was too young to move around enough to counteract it.  I missed my soul-mate SO much!  

I used the 4x6 Photo Love Sketch for January (hence 1 photo), using snowflake brads and punched shapes instead of circles.

I even retrieved some blue snowflake sequins from L's art stash to pop the colours a bit.

I have 2 more to share, plus another one that I'm working on and I hope to squeeze in another one before the deadline tomorrow night but it depends on how tomorrow goes.  Management has to work some weekends, especially in the Summer, so its back to me and the Smalls for the day.  At least it is mean't to be a sunny day - hurrah!

Hope you are all having a lovely weekend.

Bye for now

xx