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.

Two Days in a Row ..............

Well who would have thought it. Back with a vengence - blogging two days in a row.  Just a short post today with another two of the layouts from my scrapping weekend with UKS friends in Moffat last weekend.  I so wish I could have one of those weekends once a month - it would be a great stress buster and a great stash buster too!!!!!!!1  Despite all the chatting, eating and drinking I did manage eight layouts so I was pleased.  I also took advantage of Heather having her Big Shot there and cut a pile of chipboards swirlies and some grungepaper Tim Holtz tattered florals.  The only thing with them is I am not sure if ink will cover the grungepaper completely - any advice on that point would be gratefully received.

So the layouts

The first one is Where did you get that hat - anyone who knows me knows I do not do cutting out or measuring - well for this one I very bravely cut into a gorgeous sheet of crate paper restoration and cut out the flowers for this layout - I have discovered that spritzing, scrunching, leaving to dry and inking the edges covers up a multitude of sins where bad cutting out is concerned so now I am on the look out for specific papers where I can cut the elements out. Who would have thought it.

Well for some reason I can't seem to upload the other two layouts so I might need to do a separate post.  Hmm need a bit of technical help methinks

Aha, seem to have cracked it.  The second layout is using the fab Glitz designs kit from Sandra at Gottacraft.  This is my favourite kit so far.  I love the bright green along with the black and white.  Photo is of my daughter Fiona (posing as usual) and I converted the pic to black and white as I thought it looked better with the papers.  I can see me using every last scrap of this kit.

Ooops - where did the time go to ....................

I really can't believe just how long it is since I updated this poor neglected blog.  Such a lot has happened since July.  Mainly that my poor old laptop has given up the ghost and I have been without internet access at home for ages.  While I save up (slowly) for a new one by fab BIL has put helped me sort out an old desktop computer and so for now I am up and running - albeit with a computer which looks as if Noah might have had it in the ark!!!!

I have finally begun to scrap a bit more frequently firstly due to continuing to attend the lovely crop near home at Uddingston and also thanks to finding a lovely new crop which is fairly near to my parents caravan in Beadnell.  I had been chatting online at UKS to Heather who organises the crop at Holystone and in the summer she asked when I was coming to join them wilst I was at the caravan.  The first month I thought she was just being polite and didnt take her up on the offer but when she asked me again in August I decided to take the plunge and join them.  I have attended a few crops down there since then and am just back from a lovely weekend at a Farmhouse near Moffat where we had an excellent DIY retreat.

I have also joined the Rik Rak Ravers team on UKS as quite a few of them go to the crop at Holystone and am enjoying taking part in the weekly challenges set on UKS.

I have also at last cleared out my craft room so that I will have the space to scrap at home, all of which means I have at long last managed to fill up my first album.

I will leave you for now with a few of the layouts I did at the scrapping weekend and I promise to try and update on a more regular basis.

Cropping Today

As our regular crop is having a summer break for July and August my friend Audrey suggested that we have a mini summer crop in East Kilbride.  We did this today and although there were only five of us a good time was had by all.  There was much chatting, tea drinking and cake eating interspersed with some crafting!

Miraculously I managed three layouts.  The first two were using the fab Cosmo cricket delovely papers from this month's Gotta Craft kit - the lovely butterfly was from last month's Dabble kit.

The third layout was using some old stash from the DCVW set of drawers from QVC a couple of years ago.  I cut out some of my own bunting to decorate this and am rather pleased with the results.

I have signed up for Shimelle's new class Love your Pictures, Love your pages which starts on Monday so I am looking forward to that over the next four weeks.