last day of the year

Well 31December today. Cant believe it, Its been a very quick year. Im not a fan of New Years eve really so no Big celebration for me. Im just glad all the festivities are nearly over and we can get back to,normal.

2012 marks the year I will be 50! It will be a New start for me. Life kind of fell apart for me just after my 40th birthday when i discovered my hubbie of 20 years was having an affair with one of my best friends. The last 10 years have been tough for me but I have decided that 2012 will be the year of me.

I am joining with a 365+1 photo challenge which I am combining with a Project life document your year type album and I am determined to keep it going for the while year.

I hope 2012 brings you all health, wealth and happiness. Not much crafting recently and as I pine during the winter for my beloved Beadnell I will leave you with a photo from there.

See you all next year.

Chinese Whispers Round 4

Cant believe we have just completed Round 4 of our teams Chinese Whispers game.

This is my take on it for this month. Ive used papers from my September/October Quirky kit, Studio Calico and American Crafts, I think. The photo is my daughter Fiona on her 18th Birthday. She had harped on and on for ages about wanting to be 18 and get her ID hence the title, Legally Blonde. Thanks to Heather for showing me how to make the flower, thats one spellbinders die I think I might have to ask Santa for.

Looking forward to the next round now - cant believe how quickly we are powering through this challenge, I think theres only three more rounds to go.

A Fab Crafty Weekend

Well I've just had a fabby crafty weekend with my very good friend Heather. We scrapped, sipped the Pink stuff, munched on goodies, laughed our socks off, sang to our hearts content and generally had a good time. I was sorry to see her go home but weather permitting I will be off to Holystone in January to visit her and crop with my frozen north buddies.

Here is my rather late entry for November Sketch and Scrap. Firstly here is the sketch chosen by Jo and this is my interpretation of it.

The picture is my son and daughter walking along one of the Tracks at Center Parcs. I feel the photo has a sort of etheral almost other wordly feel to it. I used up some of.my old papers, i think Mama razzi is.my all time favourite Bo Bunny range.

It was my turn to pick the sketch for this month and Im working on my layout at the moment.

Chinese whispers Round 3

Well our team Chinese Whispers game has now completed Round 3.

Firstly here is my layout for this month   Picture is my son Fraser in a gondola in Venice with his girlfriend Emma   I used papers from the new gottacraft kit Lily Bee Memorandum. I just love them  i gutted the papers and card to save some for for die cutting out the flowers with and had cause to use my winning slogan from Sian's blog. Keep calm Its a only a creative opportunity!! I cut the papers at the bottom too short which left a gap so I had to cover it up with the strips of pleated paper. I cut the flowers with tattered florals, spritzed with water, scrunched and left to dry and made the centres of two with hug snug seam binding which I got at at the crop from Angela at Angela Crafts

Look What the Postie Brought Me

What a lovely little package arrived in the post yesterday.

I had commented on Sian's fab blog here.She was asking for alternatives to the Keep Calm and Carry On slogan which is so popular these days.

Mine was Keep Calm its only a Creative Opportunity. To explain I have so many little faux pas whilst crafting and I dont always want to trash the whole project or layout so I find myself muttering that slogan and finding ways to adapt, cover up etc and sometimes miraculously it even turns out better than I first intended!!! She had a draw for all the commenters and I received this lovely card handmade by Sian, two beautiful sets of studio calico stamps, this very useful sized alphabet which rather usefully includes a comma and a full stop and these adorable butterflies - which project does not benefit from a fluttering of butterflies. The stamps were tied up with this fab Union Jack ribbon which my daughter would like to lay claim to but isnt getting lol. It might end up on a layout featuring her if she is very lucky.

Isn't the crafting world and in particular the crafting blogging world full of such lovely people.

Thanks once again Sian and I promise I will keep on blogging!!

Then today look what landed on my doormat. The first shiny and new edition of Scrap 365.  Ive only had a quick flick so far but I love it and there within Its pages is an article by the Grrh same and very talented Sian with the same very adorable embellishments which were on the lovely card She sent me.

Sketch and Scrap - October

Here is the sketch Lesley chose for sketch and scrap for October.  I loved it the more I looked at it as there were so many layers to it.

I decided to go with two pictures and cut one info a circle.  I substituted one of the flowers on the sketch for a windmill to echo the one in the round photo.  I used papers from the Crate Paper Portrait collection which I love. 

The pictures are of me as a little girl on holiday with my parents in Scarborough.  There was a place, the name of which I cant recall where you sailed on a pirate ship and then searched in the sand for gold dubloons.  It always tickled my Dad that one of the pirates had a copy of the Yorkshire Evening News or Post sticking out of his pocket.

Edited to add that thanks to my lovely friend and UKS teamie Donna I now know the Pirate Ship sailed on the Mere at Scarborough and was called the Hispaniola. I can now get my hidden journalling organised for this one and then filed away in the album

Christmas Decorated Chipboard Swap

I enjoyed the chipboard swap so much i decided to joint the Christmas version.  I was orginally going to do snowflakes using a borrowed die but I didnt realise it wouldnt cut chipboard so I used my sissix stocking die and this is what I ended up with.  I covered the chipboard with coredinations card which I embossed in a snowflake folder and added a punched snowflake and some feather boa trim. I finished off with a little bit of sparkly stickles.  I hope the recipients like them.

Months of the Year ATC Swap

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I have just sent off my ATC's for the Months of the Year Swap hosted on UKS by Megbaby.

My month was January and here are my efforts. They are simple but I do hope the recipients like them. I got the little snowflake charms from Karen who comes to my crop and who always brings along boxes full of lovely charms to tempt us all.

I cant wait to get my set back and see how everyone has interpreted their month

Chinese Whispers - Round 1

A while ago I posted my layout for my uks teams Chinese Whispers layout.  Well we have completed Round 1. Here is my original layout.

And here is Dee's take on it.

Here is Heather's layout which i had to do

And here is my take on it.  I flipped it round and left a space between my strips. I love this recent pic of my son Fraser.

I cant wait to See how each layout evolves as we go along.

All Set for A Weekend of Scrappy Fun!

Well I am finishing work today until Tuesday which gives me tonight and tomorrow to get my ass in gear and get my stuff organised for my scrappy weekend away with my UKS Sketch and Scrap teamies. We are off to Lochouse Farm in Moffat which is in Dumfriesshire quite close to the Scottish/English Border.

This will be the third time I have been there and I have had such a great time both previous times. I just cannot wait.

Its a real budget weekend but Mary and Martin are perfect hosts and the home cooked food is just fab.

There is a fantastic room for scrapping in with plenty of space and light.

I am so disorganised this year as I usually have a pile of page kits all sorted out. This year I think I will just be grabbing a pile of photos and shoving them in my bags with a pile of papers - not sure how productive that will make me.

I do have some other projects I will probably be getting on with as well - tags for a UKS swap and some ATC's and maybe even starting my altered seaside styled tray.

Its just so fab to have a weekend of crafting, laughing, eating and drinking the odd glass of the pink stuff and leaving all the usual day tro day traumas behind

Hopefully I will be back all refreshed with loads of stuff to show you.

I will leave you for now with a couple of photos from the last time I was there.

Take One Sketch CJ - Round 3

I just realised when I went to post this today that I had completely forgotten to take a photo of my entry in Round 2 of this one - never mind

This time around the CJ is Frances (New2this) who is hosting the cj, she had a selection of sketches to choose from and I chose this one. I really liked the idea of the collage of photos but it was slightly tricky to scale down to the size of the cj. I do think though that I will try this sketch as a 12 x 12 layout

Here is the sketch

Here is my entry. I cut up bits from some of my many beachy type photos for the photo collage. I sprayed the background kraft card with some teal glimmer mist (my favourite product at the moment), I thought I would prick out and sew the wavy lines to represent the sea and my title round the edge of the photo collage reads I do like to be beside the seaside - which of course I do.



I just hope Frances likes it.

Please pardon the quality of the photos as I took them on my phone and I am not sure where the chequerboard effect sprung from!!

Decorated Chipboard Swap

Wow! I received my Gorgeous chipboard shapes back from the swap today and I just love them.  What a talented bunch my fellow swapees are.

Thanks to Lynn for being Such a great host.

Cant wait now to see what everyone comes up with for the Christmas version of this swap.

Sketch and Scrap - September

Well another month has whizzed by and Its sketch and scrap uploading time again.

This was this months sketch chosen by Lisa.

I did a fair bit of.humming and hawing over this one then my kitfrom Gottacraft appeared. It was full of Crate Farmhouse lovlieness in beautiful autumnal tones. I found these pics taken at Lochouse Farm in Moffat from the first retreat I went to with the girls from the Frozen North crop, most of whom are now my UKS teamies.  I thought the pictures matched the pics and the time of year well and also put me right in the mood for our next retreat there with the girls from Sketch & Scrap in two weeks time

Decorated Chipboard Swap

I am new to joining in swaps on UKS despite being a member there for years. I blame the lovely Karen (Kitty Crafts) for bullying (oops meant encouraging me) to join in.

This one was a swap hosted by my lovely CJ teamie Lynn (Topsy) I think it was maybe her first go at hosting, the idea was to decorate a bare chipboard shape 10 times, sent them off to her and get 10 different ones back. I was nervous about this one as I am always convinced other peoiples work will be soooo much better than mine but I thought what the heck and plunged in anyways. I chose hearts and decided to cover with ultra thick emosssing powder in gold which I then sprinkled green pearl embossing powder into and finally stamped into with a Tim Holtz script stamp. I just hope the recipients like them. I cant wait to see all the lovely shapes I get back.

I enjoyed doing this one so much I have now joined in a decorated chipboard Christmas swap and for that one I have chosen to do snowflakes.

I have a wee while to plan that one though.

Red Ribbons Cyber Crop

I took part this weekend in the Red Ribbons House Cyber Crop over on UK Scrappers. This was arranged by Sandra and Jo the House Leaders and they posted a variety of challenges over the weekend for us to follow. The great thing about this was that you didnt actually have to complete and upload all your challenges over the weekend, and we have till the end of this week to do that.

I am bogged down at the moment in finishing off an album for my daughters best friend Jade for her 18th birthday. She always admires the scrapbook layouts of Fiona when she is in the house and I knew that she would appreciate an album of her own.

I didnt actually realise how difficult it would be to scrap her photos though. Fiona and Jade have been friends since they went to High School some seven years ago so scrapping the recent pics of her with Fiona and the other girls was easy. Jades Mum gave me a whole batch of pics which I have copied but its difficult sitting down to a photo when you have no memory or ideas of the events when it was taken. I think it has actually really taught me that Scrapbooking really is all about the memories and the telling of the story behind the photo rather than just about making a fabulously pretty layout using all the latest products. I have had to produce an album almost without any journalling which has been tough. I am on the home run now and did six layouts for it over the weekend, three of which were from the challenges in the CC.

The first one was from a page kit challenge, we were asked to put together cardstock, three pieces of patterned papers, three blooms, three buttons and alpha stickers and complete a layout within an hour

This is the result - a simple layout but I am reasonably happy with it

The second challenge I completed was a takeaway challenge set by Mandy. I opted for the chinese version in which you had to have layers and circle embellishments, the picture is of Jade with her brother and sister. I used the buttons as my circle embellshments.

The final one from the CC at the weekend was where you had to look in your favourites in UKS and scraplift one of them

I chose a layout by my teamie and friend Heatherblossom, I loved her original layout and used it for these pics of Jade with her Gran and Grandpa - I entitled it - You Put the Grand in Grandparent.

There are other challenges I hope to be working on over the course of the week.

Chinese Whispers

Hello there. I have been missing in action again. Funny how when you are a bit stressed with life that the urge to create disappears altogether.

It was our East Kilbride crop on Saturday, I cant believe that's our fourth one already. Successful day again with 22 of us. I could not find my creative vibe at all so started off playing around with some Dylusions stamps courtesy of Sally and surprised myself by managing to do my entry in Fiona (Angelfish) CJ Take Flight for the Mojo Busters CJ. I wont post it just now as I dont want to spoil the surprise for her in case she is reading my blog.

My team on UKS have started a Chinese Whispers challenge where each of us has to do a layout and email to the next person who will then do their take on it. At the end we will each have an album on our profile showing how the layout has changed from start to end. Each person will work from the layout sent to them without looking at the original one.

I started my layout and the crop and finished it at home yesterday. The photo is my DD and My Parents and I when they had a small celebration down at their caravan a couple of years ago for their Golden Wedding Anniversary. I took inspiration from a layout in an Australian scrapbooking magazine and used papers from the Echo Park For the Record collection.

Sketch and Scrap - August

This is my third month as a member of the Sketch and Scrap Group run on UKS by two of my teamies Lisa and Heather

This month it was Shirley's turn to put up the sketch and I must say that I loved it from the minute I saw it. In fact I am fairly sure I will be using this sketch again.

I turned the sketch on its side for my layout which features a new statue erected in Seahouses down by the Harbour beside a new development of flats. All I have found out at the moment is that it was erected by the Developers but the next time I visit Seahouses I will be trying to find out more information so that I can add that to the layout.

I made the little lifebelt embellies by cutting out circles with my nestabilities and winding red embroidery thread round. I decided bunting wasnt quite right for the layout so made the little notched flags instead. I used papers from the Crate Paper Portrait collection pack I bought at the East Kilbride crop from Angel Crafts in their sale and which is fast becoming one of my favourite collections.

Cant wait to see everyone else's take on the sketch over the next couple of days then the new sketch will go up and it will be thinking caps on again.

August Week 5 - Job Done!

Well I have done it. I am very pleased with myself. I didnt think I would manage to do all the weekly UKS challenges in August especially when I discovered there were five.

My teamies and I will do it again next month I think as I know that in between crops I am very bad at scrapping at home on my own and this gave me the incentive to have a go. I am actually pleased with my layouts as well which is a change as I refuse to do the challenges just for the points whether I like the layouts or not.

Here is mine for Week 5. Picture is of my Mum and Dad and the beach at Low Newton by the Sea in Northumberland - taken this summer on a beautiful day which is why they are squinting into the sunshine. I used some of the Sassafrass Lass Sunshine Broadcast papers and a journalling spot from my July Quirky kit. I love the long title. The challenge included a great sketch from Page maps which helped.

I might re-take the photo as it is not a good one and doesnt show up the colours properly.

Now I can get back to my Create 10 mini book - Tonight I will do the pages for today and yesterday.

Create 10 - Day 1

I have signed up for my second class at Crafty Templates. This one is Create 10 a mixed up mini. It great value. For £5.00 you are emailed every day and over the course of the class you will end up with a fab mini book to store 6 x 4 photos. I bought some bits and pieces from Leo's supply list and for others I am making do with what I have. I think it will be fascinating to see how everybody's books look at the end. Yesterday was the first prompt but as I was cropping all day I had to make my book up in the evening.

I have finally decided that I am going to use it for some of the surplus piccies of Beadnell and Northumberland which I havent scrapped. So I will need to pop into Boots and get them printed off.

Here it is. I am pleased with it so far and am waiting with baited breath for today's prompt which I will do when I get home from work tonight

Happy Bank Holiday to all my English friends. Its a normal working day here in Scotland

4 Down, 1 To Go!!

Well I am amazed at myself for reaching Week 4 of managing to do the UKS weekly challenges. I think I should set myself this challenge more often.

This week the theme was "home" whether it be real/fantasy etc, use a trio of something, your favourite colour and a list.

This is my layout. I called it Fantasy Home by the Sea. The photos are of Bamburgh Castle in Northumberland - Oh how wonderful it would be to live there. My list gives the reasons I would love to live there, 1. Fanatastic Architecture, 2. The beach as my back garden, 3. A magnificent view of the village from my front window and 4. Queen of all I survey.

I used craft card as the base and inked all round the edges. I used a piece from the sheet of Sassafrass Lass Sunshine Broadcase from my Quirky kit - I loved the soft inked effect it already had. The yellow paper is a sheet from the Pink Paislee Sweetness line, the Photos are various shots from the Castle taken one very sunny day. I used my torn notebook punch for the list and the yellow sheet and decorated the paperclip with a wee flag. Finally for my trio I added a bunch of three keys - to represent the keys to the Castle! Well a girl can always dream.

One more to go next week to be set by Fiona (Angelfish) team on Scrappers - I hope she has picked an easy one.

A Fabby Scrappy Weekend

Well I had a fantastic weekend due to the fact that my scrapping friend Heather came to stay. We did nothing but chat, laugh, eat and drink plenty of the pink stuff which obviously oiled the wheels of creativity somewhat as we both managed to do six layouts each and I started on a seventh.

I took Heather along to the East Kilbride crop on Saturday. It was our third one and the busiest so far with 24 ladies in attendance. The new tables we bought were certainly put to good use.

We also indulged in a small spot of craft shopping on Sunday at one of my fairly local craft shops, Craft World in Hillington and thanks to a spend by both of us I filled up a loyalty card and treated myself to two nestability dies - one was all fab file tabs in different shapes and sizes and the other one had a fab border, some corners, blooms and plaques - I can see myself getting plenty use out of both of them. Heather got in a bit of practise with the border one on a couple of her layouts.

I wont bore you with all the layouts at once and one I have to keep under wraps for now as it is for my Sketch and Scrap Group and I have to wait until the end of the month.

This first one is of my daughter and I. Fiona is a natural blonde but thought it would be a good idea to dye her lovely hair dark brown a couple of years ago. She didnt suit it at all as her skin is too pale. Thankfully she is now back to her beautiful blonde self. My hair used to be blonde but is now almost grey/white and relies on some Nice and Easy to keep it blonde. The hidden journalling tells this story and the title reflects this.

The second one is of my son and daughter last year at my nephews 18th birthday party. I love this photo of them. The layout is a simple one and I didnt want too girly an embellishment for this. One of the lovely ladies at my crop had brought some embellishments back from the States and worked out that we could make these for ourselves so I did. I think its a simple but effective little embellishment and I can see myself making more of these in the future. Basically its just two strips of patterned papers with a V cut into each end - crossed over and stuck together with a piece of material gathered in the middle and frayed at the edges stuck on to the strips and finished off with a punched out circle in patterned paper inked at the edges.

Continuing the August Weekly challenge

Well Week 3 and I have managed to compete another weekly challenge. This one was to use black, scrap a celebration and use something Free.  I have had this photo of my Great Grampas 90th birthday party waiting to be scrapped for a while and thought it would be perfect for this challenge.  I used papers from the Crate paper Portrait range qnd my freebie was the frame as it was the waste left from when my friend Heather cut out a shape to use on another layout. The picture shows my great grampa surrounded by his daughters Who are my Gran and my Great Aunts.

Well 3 down, 2 to go and so far Lisa, Sandra and I are keeping it up.

August Weekly Challenges

Well I have a little challenge going with myself, Lisa and Sandra on UKS that we can do all of the weekly challenges in August!

So far so good as I did Week 1 whilst I was at the caravan. A layout of my daughter's friend Jade for her album I am making for her 18th birthday

This week's challenge looked a bit trickier, multiple photos and a sketch which I loved but which had loads of elements to it. I decided that the grid like pattern on it would look good sewed but as I havent yet learned to thread up or work my mini sewing machine I had to do it by hand. Blooming heck that took a while and was tricky at night in low light. However I got it finished. I also did a wee bit of sewing accross the middle and again it was tough to sew through cardstock, patterned paper, foam pads and photos. I am pleased with the results.

Just need to hope now that the next couple of weeks challenges are doable as I am on a roll. I know Lisa has done the first two weeks so its over to Sandra now lol.

Take One Sketch CJ - First Round

I blogged my own cj for the Take One Sketch CJ a few posts back. The first cj I have received is Netty B's. It's the smallest cj I have done as it is a lovely tag book. Netty's own entry was absolutely fab. I have never done even a tag swap before so this one was a bit daunting.

I had to the follow the sketch set by Netty and this is the result.

I had just bought the tatty button stamp and thought this would be ideal for its first use. I inked some butterflies on the background using a mask made by punching out a butterfly shape. I ripped the edges of the paper and finally coloured and mounted the stamp adding a real wee button where the button was situated on the stamp. A wee touch of stickles was added but this hasnt shown up too well in the photo.

I glimmer misted some flowers and added them along with a wee length of pom pom trim to the bottom

I really hope she likes it

Holiday Crafting Part 3

I think being away from work and at the moment being away from home has been good for me.

I have been feeling much more creative and its a pity that just as I am getting into my stride I will likely have to stop. Mum and Dad are coming back to the caravan today so I will need to pack up the craft stuff for now. Might managed to sneak enough of it back out to finish a mini book I feel I have been working on forever.

I have two more layouts today

The first one funnily enough is a pic of myself and DS and DD when they were both small sitting in the sun outside this very same caravan. We are whiling away a sunny afternoon painting on stones collected from the beach. Funny how something as simple as that can keep kids amused for hours. We had a fun time and I think my Mum still has some of the painted stones kicking around the caravan somewhere. The papers are MME Lime Twist from a recent Gottacraft kit.

The next one is of my UKS friend Heather the first time she came to visit m. We went for a pub lunch and she couldnt resist this lovely caramel sundae. I had to take a picture and it has been needing scrapped for a while. I used the rest of my Cosmo Cricket circa 1934 papers I got in a kit from Sam Taylors as I thought the colurs matched the photo well.

Holiday Crafting Part 2

Hi there. I continue to be a bit more creative and also have more time on my hands to blog than when I am at home and working

This layout was for the weekly challenge on UKS last week. I used what was left of my Echo Park For the Record papers from a past Gottacraft kit. I think thats my favourite Echo Park range so far although once I see Victoria Garden in the flesh then I might change my mind. The photo is of my Mum, Dad and Gran when we were on holiday in Northumberland when I was small. I think they were sitting against the harbour wall at Seahouses. When you see the photo close up you will be struck by the happy (not) expressions on their faces. In fact my Mother looks most grim which was not like her at all. I have hidden the journalling in the little envelope on the right hand side which I covered with two different papers and made a wee closure from brads and bakers twine. I used one of those manilla dinner money envelopes I got in a pound shop. I am hoping this layout will count as "postal themed" and go on Julie Kirk's pinterest board along with my sketch cj made from envelopes. If you want to know what I am talking about then visit Julie's fab blog here

Anyway here is the layout. The black and the yellow scroll shape were made by cutting a wee Tando Creative shape in half and painting it. I got the pack of these shapes from Angela at Angel Crafts

Sketch and Scrap July

This is my second month on the Sketch and Scrap Group on UKS run by my teamie Lisa (3 Peaches). This month Heather put up the sketch and this is my take on it.

The photo is of Fiona my daughter and her friend Stephanie when I took them to the caravan in the summer of 2008. The pic was taken on the beach at Bamburgh. The photo mat was sprayed with teal glimmer mist although the photo doesnt show it very well. I am becoming addicted to these sprays which I have been buying from Angela at Angel Crafts. I cut the wee bunting pieces from a border from papers from the Crate Paper Emmas shop range from a kit by Sandra at Gottacraft. I painted the chipboard shape and again sprayed with glimmer mist, I thought it looked a bit like a piece of seaweed. I really like the beachy look of this layout with the kraft card as the base. I am even getting braver with the doodling round the edge courtesy of the fine nibs for promarkers which are fab

First layout from my first Quirky Kit

Well i managed my first layout from my very first Quirky kit.

I did the layout at the holystone crop yestetday.  I made the floqer using the strip from the sassafrass paper.  I specially like the little seaside rock badge.

The photos are ones of me taken on the beach at my beloved Beadnell when i was just a little girl.  My num, dad,aunt and uncle are also in the photos. 

I just love this kit and will be playing with it again this week.

Holiday Crafting

Well I am blogging from Beadnell where I am resident in my parents caravan. I arrived on Friday morning and my lovely son Fraser and his lovely girlfriend Emma came along for the weekend.

We have been blessed with fantastic weather so far so have been sitting outside reading, having a bbq and lovely walks on the beach which if you read my blog will know is my favourite thing to do in the world

In between reading in the sun I managed my first layout today. I scraplifted it from one called The Big Day by the talented Rachael Elliot so I hope she doesnt mind

In 2008 Fraser was a patrol leader at the Scottish International Scout Jambourette held in Blair Atholl. As part of the hospitality for foreign Scouts we had to host one of them for a week after the camp. Fraser befriended Alex who was from Gibraltar and brought him back for the week. We took him to the caravan at Beadnell and on the way home Fraser wanted me to stop at the English/Scottish border so that him and Alex could get their picture taken. I used Echo Park Dots and Stripes papers and craft card which I got at a recent crop from the lovely Angela fromm Angel Crafts. Hopefully this will be the first of many layouts from my week long break

Oooooohh Look What the Postie Brought!!!!!!!!!

I recently suscribed to Quirky kits and when Leo posted that the first kit I would get was to be reminiscent of vintage seaside I couldnt wait to get my sticky mitts on it.

I am not usually a fan of being rudely awakened from bed by a knock on the door at 7.30 pm but on Monday it was the postie bearing a pizza box.

Look what was inside. The kit itself was wrapped up in this adorable pink and white polka dot tissue and all tied up with bakers twine. It looked almost too good to open.

Once inside though I was delighted, the papers are lush, the embellies are fab and I just love the seagull pin and the seaside badges. It will be a thought to cut up those lovely papers but I am already planning in my head what I will do with them. I have some black and white piccies of me on the beach as a wee girl in my beloved Beadnell and I think a layout with them could well be on the cards. I also bought one of those lovely 7 gypsies atc type trays and plan on making a seaside themed display in it.

I am off to the caravan next week so I think the kit will be coming with me so watch this space for some creations.

A Vintage Card

I made this card at the EK crop last week. Angela from Angel Crafts brought along some vintage scraps and small cards and challenged us to make a card using them. I used some For the Record papers, some lace and a punched out butterfly inked with brushed sage distress ink with another one layered on top.from an old book page, again inked with brushed sage. I trimmed roundbthe floral scraps and layered them round the vintage scraps.  For a final touch I added a brass clock charm.  I was quite pleased with the result.

Just A Simple Wedding Card

Just a quick post from me today with a simple wedding card for a friend at work. Some Echo Park Be Mine papers with a bird and bird cage cut for me by my friend Heather on her new cricut.  Simple but classy I think.  All the best for Monday Lauren and Aengus can't wait to see you at your reception at Loch Lomond.