Spring window

Just a quick post to show you what the tissue flowers were for



We even roped in my mum to help us work out how to get the flowers to stand in the flower pots lol! Then it was fun and games trying to cut the washing line to size, scissors and a Stanley knife only cut the plastic coating not the metal fibres inside lol! But thanks to the shoe repair man next door but one we managed it, and I'm pleased to say it was still hanging the next day!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Crafting at work

Today was officially the first day of spring but guess what, it's still cold, grey and miserable with the odd bit of annoying snow! So to cheer ourselves up at work we're going to do a nice spring window. At the moment we have raincoats and umbrellas in there and since then the weather has been pants, so our theory is if we do a spring window then spring will come...RIGHT????? So in preparation of this we have brought a washing line to peg clothes up, painted some new units and I was even allowed to do some crafting at work! Ok so not scrapping but making tissue paper flowers!



Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Birthday card fit for a brother

Today is my brothers birthday so I thought I would quickly share the card I made for him.



When the "I'm with the band"kit from Quirky Kits came out in October I'll admit I was a bit stumped what to do with it. I don't take any photos over Halloween to make any layouts with it but I knew it would come in handy for making a rock style card for my brother, even though his birthday was 5 months away lol! Then when I went to a craft show with my mum in Kettering I found this stamp from Ali Craft and knew it would fit with the kit perfectly. I also brought some skull charms but didn't think he'd appreciate having these on the card too!

The image was stamped with Stampin Up Early Espresso ink with the help of Ian, no matter how many times I stamped the image I couldn't get a full image so Ian wanting something to do came in and forced it down lol! He has his uses...sometimes!


Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Rainy day scrapping

As the weather hasn't improved at all I managed to get some scrapping done this morning. I printed some of the official photos from my brothers wedding the other night and decided to have a go at this weeks challenge on UKS. This weeks challenge is set by my fellow Sketchy Scrapper Jo who asked us to use this sketch



We also needed to include some stamping, some buttons and some ribbon or twine. This is the layout I came up with



I loved this sketch and will definitely be keeping it for future use. I stamped and cut out the butterflies, added some pompom trim and a cute flower button. All the papers except for the backing paper came from my scraps bag and are MME, ILS & Crate Paper, the backing paper is Studio Calico. I also added a strip of washi tape under the photo from a set I got for Christmas.

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

All the fun of the fair

Last night we went for our annual walk through the towns mid lent fair. The Stamford street fair is a chartered fair going back to King someone and is one of the largest travelling street fairs in the country stretching throughout the town. When I was younger I remember going with my parents on Mothers Day to watch the lorries coming in to set up. They are not allowed to come in until 12pm after people come out of church so as soon as the bells tolled you would hear a roar of engines as the lorries would pull in in perfect formation to set up their rides in their designated spots. Then there would always be the fun of police and showmen having to move somebodies car which was parked where it wasn't supposed to be despite the street being closed off the night before lol! I've since grown out of going down to watch this but my dad still goes every Mothers Day, he was even there last week in the snow mad I know! The fair is also where I had my first date with Ian back when I was 13 & he was 15; we were both at school, one of my friends called out to him "will you go out with Jess?" "Yeah alright. I'll meet you down the fair later" (wow that's romantic lol!). I went with a friend and found him with one of his friends both of whom disappeared not wanting to be gooseberries and we went on the Waltzers lol! Now though we dont go on any rides as a: its too expensive & b: I'm a wuss who doesn't like going upside down and doesn't trust rides which are just folded out trailers and not drilled to the floor lol! So instead we walk through, watch the rides, buy some sweets & a hot dog and head home. A sure sign we're getting old!

CURRENTLY...

Listening to:

 Watching: Final Witness on Really

Eating: Christmas Pudding- strange but true, mum found a couple of puddings she made but had forgotten about and I have to say it was very nice!

Thinking: One more day at work and then its the weekend woohoo!

Love & hugs

Jess

Xx 

A Lesson in Packaging

Thankfully today was a lot easier getting around and luckily we haven't had anymore snow. At work we had a two boxes delivered from a brand called Name It. Most brands when they deliver to us send everything together in one or two boxes but not Name It, they like to send each item in its own box so one style of Jeans will be in one box, a style of dress in another, etc which means we have had 50 boxes delivered at once before! So when two boxes arrived today I was expecting the norm but no, one box contained boys jeans the other this



Yep one pair of jeans they obviously forgot to pack with the others!! Seriously? We're told all the time to recycle and about how much waste there is its not surprising when people do this!

CURRENTLY

Listening to: after walking through the fair on the way home some old school 90's classics were being played 

Watching: CSI
Eating: snowies from the fair
Thinking: I better not be getting a headache!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Seriously snow go away!

Well today was back to work which after having 10 lovely days off I was not looking forward to. My mood did not improve when I opened the blind and saw snow outside! I know it was forecast but I thought it would be a flurry which wouldnt settle but no, the rain which fell before had frozen and snow had fallen on top which made the walk to work a nightmare! The council obviously thought the same as me as none of the roads had been gritted so the roads were chaos. The Stamford midlent fair opened tonight but I doubt anyone went as we are still having flurries, its here for the week so hopefully it will improve for them. One person who did enjoy the snow (we think) was the inlaws tortoise Vern who woke up early from hibernation a month ago but has been kept indoors, but we couldnt resist putting him out for a quick photo lol!

If I could knit I'd make him a little scarf for next year!

Currently...

Listening to: just for Gemma after talking about them last week, Linkin Park "The Catalyst"

Watching: the snow flurries outside

Eating: minted lamb casserole 

Thinking: when is Spring coming? 

Photo Bomb

Luckily while I was at Meadow Barn the March sketch for the Tag-a-longs monthly sketch over on UKS went live so I was able to make a layout while I was there. This months sketch was set by Suze



I liked this sketch as it had lots of different layers to it. This is the layout I came up with



This photo was again taken at Port Meirion. Ian was taking a number of pics to make a panoramic scene, when we checked them after this one made us laugh as it looks as though the statue from the building below us is peeking over the wall or photo bombing us! All the papers except for the backing paper are from my scraps. I loved the Polaroid frames which came in a past Quirky Kit but didn't really know how to us them but I thought this one was ideal for framing the statue. I just added some die cuts from my stash, some twine, a doily & some Washi Tape from Gemma.

So that's it for Meadow Barn layouts its back to the grind stone tomorrow but I will try to keep blogging even if they aren't the most interesting of posts lol!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Meadow Barn layouts pt2

As promised here are some more layouts I did last weekend at Meadow Barn. This first layout is mainly the current Writing to Reach you kit from Quirky Kits with a sneaky piece of paper from ILS from the Christmas kit.



It's photo was taken at Port Meirion last year. I titled it Free Spirit as its a natural shot of me looking at the view without a care in the world,I didn't know Ian had taken it as he was on the next level down. One of the paper in the kit had labels you could cut apart and I thought the "love the view" ticket very apt.

This next photo was also taken at Port Meirion. Ian stood directly in front of me and zoomed in while he was talking to me so you could see his reflection in my sunnies.


I think most of the papers came from my scraps except for the backing paper which i think came from the kit but dont quote me on it! The letters are Echo Park and the "Lovely Day" die cut is MME Nostalgia.

This final layout is of Vernie @ Rodgie swinging on a tyre swing at Wing Hall last year!



The papers are mainly Papermania from a pad I brought in the sale at the Range a couple of years ago, used once and then lost lol! Luckily while sorting through my stash I found it again. The backing paper is Crate Paper and came in a Sarah's Cards grab box, I was hoarding it cos the A side is a cute bird box pattern but at the end of the day I couldn't see me having any pics to use that side!

I have got one more layout from my weekend away but I'll add that in my next post as it was for the team sketch over at the Tag-a-longs on UKS.

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Meadow barn layouts pt 1

I had a very productive weekend at Meadow Barn. At our first retreat 2 years ago I only managed 3 layouts, last year 4, this year a whopping 7! I don't know how I managed it, whether it was having a good selection of photos, or having a couple of kits with me, or whether the scrapping gods were looking over me but my mojo was certainly flowing lol! The first layout I did on Friday night was this



This was made mainly using the current Writing to Reach you & Lovenotes kits from Quirky Kits, except for the doily and dark blue paper which came from the Christmas Quirky Kits. I have to admit I wasn't sure how to use the tracing paper which came in the kit so I tried to layer it as a piece of velum which I think works. The photo is of Buster with his toy dog who he sleeps on. He was sulking cos I was about to wash it cos it stank lol!

The next layout was again a mix of the two kits. The backing paper, doily and thickers came from the Christmas kit. The other papers from the current kit, the buttons are from my stash.



This photo was snapped as a self portrait on my phone one day when I was at work over Christmas. I had brought the elf hat from a pound shop so I became the Bubble & Squeak elf lol!

So that was part 1 stay tuned for part 2!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

A couple of challenge layouts

While I was away at Meadow Barn over the weekend it was Sketchy Scrappers reveal time. This months sketch was chosen by Ally who chose this Pagemaps sketch



I loved this sketch as it gave me the chance to use up some more scraps. So the scraps bag came out and I came up with this layout



The photo was taken last summer at our local car show. We were walking past the camper vans when we came across this little chap inside one of the vans. If only we could put a Hawaiian shirt on Buster lol! The scraps of paper are MME, My Little Shoe Box & Lilybee Designs, the background paper is Pebbles I think. The felt hearts are from a roll I've had for a while from Panduro, and the letter are American Crafts Thickers and Lilybee Designs.

While at Meadow Barn one of the layouts I did was for the weekly challenge over on UKS last week. We were asked to use at least four different scraps of patterned paper, to use either yellow or circles and to scrap about either cooking, food or a celebration. Luckily I had a couple of Jubilee photos with me and came up with this



The photos are from the BBQ we had over the bank holiday and are of my SIL and the tortoise who wanted to get into the spirit! The scraps are from Crate Paper & MME. As yellow didn't really fit in with the photos I punched some circles and added buttons for embellishments.

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx

Update on my goals

You may or may not remember back in January I set myself 10 goals.

Goal 1: lose weight- well since joining Weight watchers I've lost 5.5lbs. Not loads but if it goes off slowly its likely to stay off right?

Goal 2: learn to bake- yeah... So far no baking but there's still time

Goal 3: scrap more- after a dry spell I've definitely achieved this. This weekend I went to Ross On Wye for a scrappy weekend with the Twilight Addicts and managed to do 7 layouts woohoo! I'll share these in another post

Goal 4: use up old stash before buying new- so far so good, other than my kit I've not brought any new stash and have been trying to use my scraps. Granted my scraps bag is still bulging & this weekend I collected the stamping up goodies I ordered from Fiona but these are for...

Goal 5: learn to stamp- I'm still not the best stamper but with some new goodies you never know. I also stamped on a couple of cards recently so it's progress

Goal 6: make my Christmas cards- yeah probably a bit early for this yet!

Goal 7: get my Beetle- now Meadow Barn is sadly over for another year I need to get my act together and sort this

Goal 8: go to see Wicked- finally going to see this in May and I can't wait!!!!!

Goal 9: blog more- I solemnly swear I'm going to start blogging more after this post so keep your eyes peeled!

Goal 10: be happy- still working on this but now the dark cold months are out of the way we'll hopefully get there!

Love & hugs
Jess
Xx