A catch up

 I've been having blog withdrawal symptons so thought I'd better post a catch up with you. The main thing which has happened since I last posted is that after chatting to a couple of friends who are doing it is that I've bitten the bullet and joined Weight Watchers! I originally did WW about 8 years ago after someone lent me their pack and I lost approx 2 stone. Then 6 years ago I moved onto Rosemary Connelly with my friend Kelly who was getting married and wanted to slim down, together we both lost another 2 1/2 stone and I was a nice 10 1/2 stone, a slim size 14 not quite a 12. Then I met Ian, became happy and contented and put the weight back on! Over the past year I've been trying to do my own healthy eating and exercise regime and have lost probably a stone but I needed a quick start! I joined WW last Tuesday with my brothers girlfriend and I have to say my weight wasnt as bad as I thought- 12st 8lb not great but not bad! My goal is to get back to 10 1/2 stone and look how I do on my passport photo and so far so good (touch wood) I had my first weigh in on Tuesday and have lost 2lbs!

The one problem which has come from dieting, in Ian's opinion not mine, is that I've been spending my money on crafty bits instead on chocolate etc! Over the past week I've brought 3 Martha Stewart punches (starburst circle, royal butterfly and cosmos), the Martha Stewart Cherish PATP, and have gone halves on the Xyron Design Runner with my mum! I wonder if there is a Craft Watchers I can join lol! I'll share a pic of my new goodies in my next post.

I've also joined the lovely ladies in the Sketch & Scrap group in UKS. Every month someone uploads a sketch for us to scrap and we upload our LO at the end of the month. I managed to do this months sketch over the weekend but will have to share it with you all next time once I've shared it with the group!

So thats just about been my week!

Vintage Birthday card

Next week is the in-laws birthdays, literally within a couple of days of each other how annoying! I was going to cheat this year and just buy cards for them especially as I dont having any stash to make men cards, shocking I know! I went out and brought a card for father in-law, a camper van one which looks as though I made it, and was going to do the same for mother in-law but Ian decided last night it would be nice to give her a Jesstar Design. So I've just made this ...

After Ian's valentines card I'm loving the idea of book pages for paper. This time I teamed it with some lovely vintage floral papers which came free with a mag to make bunting, the twine is recycled as it was tied around the material I brought yesterday! I think she'll like it...

Valentines Card

Its hard to believe where the time goes. It only seems like yesterday that I was at Peacehaven. I also cant believe its Valentines day on Monday, for weeks I've been thinking "I'll make a card later", "I'll do it tomorrow" then yesterday it was "argh I haven't made a card yet"! Luckily Ian has gone off biking again today so I've been able to make one without being interrupted or quickly hiding it out the way. This is what I created...

 I've been after some Kraft cards for a while but haven't been able to find any in Stamford. I knew Papermania had brought some out but when I asked in our small craft shop they didn't have a clue what I was taking about so I was pleased when I managed to get some from the Range yesterday. I've liked the idea of using book pages as papers but have never dared to rip a page out, luckily we've got an old dictionary which is falling part so it came in handy. The ribbon is from a fab haberdashery in town while I was there I also brought this lovely material...

I have no idea what I'll use it for but its bound to come in handy!

Weekly Challenge layout

Blimey I'm on roll with both my scrapping and my blog posts! Yesterday I did a layout for the weekly challenge on UKS, my first attempt at a challenge for ages!!

This weeks challenge was set by the Dizzy Dots and has perfect timing! The criteria was: to use the sketch provided, scrap a photo of a group of people (see what I mean!), include stitching & include pink. The photo I used just had to be the group shot from the Twilight Addicts weekend, no question! For the stitching I doodled fake stitching, I really should learn to sew! Finally I covered some cardboard swirls given to me by the mad Heatherblossom with pink Stitckles.

Weekend Layouts

As promised here are the layouts I managed to do during my weekend away- proof that we did manage to do something in between the eating, giggling and nattering!

This layout is of the time when Ian and I were house and tortoise sitting for his folks. When they found the tortoise we weren't sure if he was a he or a she, we soon found out though when he made "friends" with a stone tortoise in the garden and hence got the name Vern after our cuddly Vern from the film Over the Hedge. The photo is when the two Verns finally met. The alphas were originally white but were coloured with Pro markers. The paper buttons were punched with a Martha Stewart punch.

This was the first layout I did over the weekend on the Friday night. Patterned paper is Bo Bunny and fits the winter theme perfectly and I felt they didn't need any other embellishments. The alphas have got clear stickles on them which hasn't photoed well. The photos were taken in our garden in December after we had a beautiful  Haw frost, the following day we had 6-8 inches of snow which stayed with us until Christmas!

This is my favourite layout of the weekend. The photo is of our pooch Buster getting into the Christmas spirit with some reindeer antlers. I thought the scroll leaf embellishment matched the shape of the antlers, this was cut from a Sizzix Die and coloured with green stickles.

Twilight Addicts Weekend

This weekend was the first Twilight Addicts weekend away and it was a FAB weekend. Some scrapping was done amongst the "intelligent" conversation, we had the yummiest cakes made by Karen and most of all there were lots of laughs. It was exactly what was needed after the pants couple of weeks I've had. I did however have a stowaway in my bag who had everyone going weak at the knees, here are some pictures of Vern with the girls.

With Lisa

With Dee

With Gemma

With Ali

With Karen

With Heather

With Carin

With Jill

I did manage to do some much needed scrapping, hopefully the mojo has returned. I'll upload pics of the layouts I did in another post when I've restuck some ribbon and taken piccies!