Spring is coming!

It is so wonderful to see some sunshine and the flowers beginning to appear here and there! Only crocus so far but at least it means spring is here! The boys are very proud of their little pot plants as they are currently the only flowers in our garden! Christopher insisted I take some photos of him with the flowers.:)

As I mentioned in the previous post we have been having our own mini cyber-crop and this is my third layout for it. The challenge was to scrap about a gift (my sister :)), use handmade embellishments and use an old faithful tool which was my paper piercer and a needle for some hand stitching.

I used the totally beautiful Making Memories Noteworthy paper. This is my sister and I at my younger sisters wedding in 2008.
I only got around to doing 3 of the challenges due to time constraints and the fact that I am just so slow!! There were quite a few other challenges and I would have loved to do them all but at least I managed to do some and really enjoyed doing them too! Then I also won the 3 challenges! Hows that for luck and a wonderful surprise, I think I need to do a few lottery tickets this weekend ;).

Mini Cybercrop!

We have been having our own mini cybercrop over in my Twilight Addicts group on UKS, just nice and relaxed with one class every couple of days over a two week period. But of course even with the easy time allowances I am so behind! I have had a busy week and Christopher has been ill and up at all hours of the night coughing and battling to breathe so I have had hardly any sleep and am walking around like a zombie which is not helping my scrapping speed.. Anyway this challenge was to choose a song by one of your favourite artists and then use that in your layout, either in the title, song words or meaning and then relate it back to Twilight. I do not have a favourite band as I like so many. I had a whole list of songs to use but the Scorpions song You and I seemed to be the easiest to use, so I chose that one.

The heart is actually canvas that I painted and then embossed in my cuttlebug and then inked. I saw the technique on MA's blog and totally adored it so quickly went out and bought some canvas, (I just got an artists pad that is already primed) and this was my first attempt but I plan on many more as I think there are just endless possibilities! I used Scenic Route loveland collection and Kelly Panacci Colour me with love paper.

This was the first one I did and it was just based on a sketch.

I used American Crafts celebration papers. I totally adore the heart which is from Chatterbox and the elephant is so cute, don't remember where that is from though, possibly also American crafts.


I have been decorating again! This is a photo of the corner of the lounge where the computer desk is and I decided it was too plain and needed something. I originally had a large frame with a collage of photos in but it looked silly as there is a large framed mirror in the centre of the couch. I saw a photo somewhere of a room with two or three shelves with photos and pics in different sized frames on it and loved it! So this is the corner before...
I went to B&Q and got some picture shelves which I had to paint as they were white and although I loved them they just didn't match! I also got some nice new frames from the range and printed some black and white photos. Paul says he thinks the corner is too busy now but I like it! I know its a dreadful photo but it was quite a dull day even though the sun was mostly shining!
I did photos of some of the other members of the family and me and Paul as we have all these lovely framed enlargements of the kids all over the house but only a couple of everyone else.

Flower Pot Men!

I have just finished another layout with some gorgeous October Afternoon papers. This is one I have been wanting to do for ages now, it turned out nothing like I originally imagined it but I like it anyway. It is another double of course because I have serious problems deciding what photos to use for a layout as I love them all! The fact that I take so many doesn't help of course, there were 48 photos for this one little play session (though not my fault this time!) and I probably had 20 of them printed and then had to narrow that down as to which ones to scrap. Not an easy task for me!




I saw this layered flower in the Creating Keepsakes a couple of months ago and really wanted to try them so had a play and added it to this layout. I couldn't resist and did sneak a little bit of glitter glue onto the butterflies ;)




I have wanted to learn how to crochet for years now and decided the other day that I was going to finally learn how to do it. I got some books out of the library and bought myself a hook and a couple of balls of wool and started playing. This is just little pieces I have been practising with....ahem, the blue and brown item is supposed to be a 5 petal 'flower' but I somehow ran out of space and it is now a 3 leaf clover! I think I have a problem seeing where each chain is so I miss a few! The top right item was supposed to have been a heart but that went very wrong and I gave up on it. Paul says maybe I am just not meant to crochet and I should find something else to try! I told him to stop being rude, I have only been doing it for 2 days so I am sure I will improve! Here's hoping anyway... So for now I am going to just persevere and do a few squares and learn all the stitches and how to read all the goggledygook abbreviations!