Some of the Weekend's Layouts

Here are a couple of the layouts from my weekend away.

The first one is using the Gottacraft January Kit with Jenni Bowling papers and is of Fraser "watering" his sister in the bath with a red watering can.  I thought the papers were perfect for the picture.

The second one is using an old Sarah's cards kit - Pink Paislee Bayberry cottage which I got in their sale in November.  My parents have a caravan in Beadnell in Northumberland and one of our rituals was that everythime we passed the border the kids wanted to stop in the layby by the Scotland sign to have their pictures taken.  I thought this kit was perfect for the photos as the purple paper has what looks to me like stylised thistles on it.

The third layout is of my son Fraser sitting in a large wicker chair at his Gran's - everytime they went to visit one or other of the cousins always wanted to sit in this chair to have their photo taken.  I sued the Echo Park In the summertime papers for this as I thought the bright colours matched his bright simle and his tee shirt





And the last one for now is a piccie of Fraser and Fiona playing in the snow - for this one I used the December Gottacraft kit which was Echo Park papers and again which I thought were just perfect for this picture

Fantabulistic Weekend

Hello there bloggers and blog readers.  I am just back from a fantabulistic (yes I know its not a real word but so what) weekend at the lovely Heather's in the North East of England.  I stayed with her and Keith and her lovely boys and went to the Frozen North crop where - yes she did - she held a whip over me till I actually scrapped - well no she didnt actually but after not having scrapped for ages once I got started I couldnt seem to stop. 

I will photograph my layouts this week and upload cos the light was not good and now its pitch dark here but I did get a piccy of the one for this week's challenge on UKS. 

I used the gorgeous Crate papers Bliss collection which my lovely lovely Secret Santa on the Rik Rak Ravers team gave me for Crimbo - I just lurve them to bits.  The colours were perfect for this piccie of my daugheter Fiona when she was just a little girl looking at herself in the mirror at Center Parcs - this was obviously a sign of things to come cos she spends most of her time these days gazing and pouting in the mirror.

I got some fab RUBs at the market in Tynemouth this morning - total bargain and then Keith was good enough to drive us to see the Tynemouth Priory so that I could take some piccies.  He really is a fab source of knowledge of the local area and I was fascinated by the stories he told.  I am looking forward to going back in the summer to get a walk on the beach at Cullercoats - it was too cold today to stop and go for a walk.

Anyone who knows me knows my love of the seaside and the North East of England.

Anyways back to earth with a bump now and back to work tomorrow but I have a weekend in February to look forward to when I can return the hospitality and Heather is coming to Scotland for a weekend - yay!! Roll on the good times

Cropping this weekend

Well I am in the middle of packing up my crop bag.  I'm off to Holystone to stay with my friend Heather and to go to the Holystone crop for the weekend.  I was meant to go and stay with her for the December one but the blooming snow saw to that little plan.  I am so looking forward to it as I havent been to the crop there since October and I missed my local crop last month as I wasnt well and the December one of that was also snowed off.

Although I have been crafting it has been mini books, cards and CJs.  The last time I made a layout was the beginning of Decembe - I am almost thinking I have forgotten how to scrap.  No doubt I will get something done this weekend as Heather is also my team leader on UKS and will no doubt beat me with a big stick if I dont get any points this month - only kidding you know I loves you really.

I will leave you with a little recipe tag book my UKS team is doing as a wee swap.  Each of us has been sent a book of tags with covers to decorate and we have to put a recipe on each side and send them to Heather who will make them into sets and re-distribute so that we all have a complete set each.

Here is my attempt at decorating my covers and my recipe tags.

52 Card Challenge

I just noticed yesterday that there was a 52 card challenge set on UKS by Ang, details on UKS or on her Paper and Ribbons blog

I decided this was a good way to use up stash and build up a stock of cards so that this year I wasn't always racing at the last minute to get a card ready.

The prompt for Weeks 1 to 3 were already up so I decided to press on and catch up

The first prompt was Embossing, lilac and yellow.

The second prompt was Die cut, stripe, purple

And the third prompt was Blue, flourishes, hello.

I hope you like my efforts.

A Mini a Month Challenge

Well the updating of the blog was short lived again.  This was due to more internet problems at home which I think have been resolved.  It would appear I had an intermittent fault with my modem so a new one is awaited and fingers crossed I will get uninterupted online access.

This year I am definately on a mission to use up more stash and as I am on a strict budget I will only be buying my monthly kit and the essential supplies.

Karen on UKS has started a great challenge A Mini A Month - she will be posting prompts and instructions for a different mini book each month and there is a great thread for this on UKS.  The first one is an envelope book and the theme is to be New Beginnings.  Well after my short lived attempt at dieting last year I have decided to start the year by re joining Slimming World.  The difference this time is that I am being joined by a very good friend and we will be encouraging each other along to make sure we stay on the straight and anrrow.  I have decided that my book will be about my diet progress so I have made the book all ready to go and I will be adding pics to it as the year goes on.

It did take me two goes to get this right last night and the original book was somewhat larger but after having a disaster went for a small one with 4 x 4 envelopes just so that I didnt waste so much paper - however I do really like the dinky size so I might just go with this one.