52 Cards: Happy Birthday Ian

I'm yet again playing catch up with the 52 Card Challenge. For week 14 Nat set is another photo inspiration prompt

You know when you've got lots of ideas in your head but they never translate onto paper? That happened to me. When I saw this photo 2 weeks ago I had ideas of using my new chevron punch to create a minimalist card with some wood grain Washi tape and a bold sentiment. But this never materialised, probably because me being me I left making Ian's birthday card right to the last minute so made a rushed card which is ok but not what I would have liked it to be. 

I did at least use my chevron punch! When I saw the coffee cup sticker from the Hello Again collection I knew I could only use it for either a card for Ian or a layout about him as he is a big coffee drinker. I thought the colours from the collection were fairly similar to the wall in the inspiration photo and used the coffee cup as a focal point just as the chair is in the photo. As I said, it is an ok card I'm not happy with it but Ian liked it so that's the main thing. 

Me & my Monkey

All together now... Whoa I'm halfway there, whoa Living on a Prayer! Oops sorry but I'm a tad excited that I'm halfway through my 30 layout challenge. That's right, 15 layouts down 15 to go! In Sunday I sat down popped a DVD on and scrapped with Daniel Craig

Although if it's ever going to work between the two of us he's going to have to shop distracting me while I try and scrap lol! As you can see I decided to scrap two photos of both Ian and I with Rodgie. The inspiration for this layout came from a friend who commented on Ian's photo on Facebook with the title of a Robbie Williams song

The papers are all from Crate Paper Close Knit, I think the background paper is becoming one of my favourites for backgrounds as it's nice & neutral. I'm slowly getting through the cut apart tags which also came with the papers and used two here along with a Dear Lizzy cut apart. The material flower and wooden hearts came from a Quirky Kit. The alphas are Alison Kreft. 

Time to start the next 15! 

Big Stepper

In my quest to complete 30 layouts before stash shopping I took part in this weeks challenge on UKS. This week we were asked to use this sketch 

And to use square photos, stars & chevrons, three things I love! Another thing I love is the programme Ghost Adventures, think Most Haunted but with actual evidence and no Yvette Fielding screaming at her own shadow! One of the guys from the show has a website called Big Steppin, to achieve our dreams and goals take big steps not little steps. Anyway, while on there I saw some t-shirts I liked and ordered a couple, took these pics on Instagram and now I'm on the fan page of the website! 

I decided to go for bright papers on black card to make the photos pop. The papers are from a paper stack I had split with Gemma. I had originally planned to use my new Stampin Up chevron punch but for whatever reason I couldn't think how to make it work on this layout so used chevron Washi tape stars instead. 

This is layout 14/30

Selfie at the Palace

A quick post to share layout 13/30 which I completed over the weekend. 

This photo was taken last summer when Jojo and I went to London for the day. After going to the London Eye we wandered to Horse Guards and through St James's Park to Buckingham Palace. We joined the other tourists at the gates and took lots of photos including a selfie. 

The papers are all Maggie Holmes Flea Market, including a couple of Project Life cards which go with the collection. I had intended to add an ampersand to the heart of the title card for my title but annoyingly none of my stickers had any! I painted the chipboard camera from an old kit with Picked Raspberry distress paint and added some gold stars from another old kit. 

Perfect & Awesome

I was back in the scrapping groove on Saturday, I had the day off, Ian was tinkering with a bike, I had a new trimmer to play with, it was all systems go! Along with my layout on the previous post I managed one more, not as productive as I am at Meadow Barn but better than nothing. I think when I'm at home I'm distracted by the TV, etc which doesn't help my indecisiveness so a simple layout takes me well over an hour lol! Anyway...

This photo is of my niece wearing a t-shirt which sums her up pretty well! All the papers are from Maggie Holmes Flea Market, including some cut a parts from an accompanying cut a part sheet. I love this collection so much I brought the Project Life mini kit to go with it, and Maggie Holmes new collection is on my wish list for when I've completed my 30 layouts. Speaking of which this is layout 12, only 18 more to go. 

Keep Calm & Rock On: Challenge YOUrself March Challenge

I recently discovered the Challenge YOUrself blog thanks to my scrappy friend Leslie G, and now that I have a trimmer again decided to give it a go. Each month the blog sets a different challenge but you must include yourself on the photo. This months challenge is to use the phrase Keep Calm and... And scrap about something which drives us or makes us happy, but can't be scrapping related.

Aside from scrapping a few of my other loves/obsessions are Snoopy, friends, pink and BON JOVI!! Having been a fan since I was 13 I'm not ashamed to admit it hence the capital letters lol! Looking through my photos I came across an Instagram taken last year when I went with my boss to see Bon Jovi in concert and so made this layout

Papers: Amy Tangerine "Yes please"

Alphas: American Crafts Thickers

Embellishments: Sticker- LilyBee Design; Ticket- Crate Paper "Close Knit" cut apart; doily & stars from my stash

Hope over the the Challenge YOUrself blog if you fancy having a go (hopefully there should be a link here if I can work out how to on the blogger app lol) 

52 Cards Wks 12 & 13: Mothers Day Cards

While my trimmer has been out of action I've been having to make do with a smaller trimmer only suitable for cards, so scrapping has had to be sidelined giving me time to catch up on the 52 Card Challenge and make the Mothers Day cards. Week 12 was a colour prompt, drawing colours from this picture

Sometime ago I brought some MME Miss Caroline papers from Create & Craft, but in typical Jess fashion I hadn't used them as they didn't fit my style of scrapping but as it turns out are great for cards. This is the card I made for mumma B

I decided to pull out my very neglected flower stash to fit with the spring feel. I'm sure I'm not the only one who brought loads of flowers when they started scrapping but have never actually used them, or have left them sitting untouched on the side. 

As the papers were out I used them for Wk 13's prompt which was to use this sketch

Hmm I wonder who has a Polaroid frame die? That's right I do! This is the card u made for mumma G 

Again I used some neglected flowers but this time added some butterflies punched from some scraps of card. 

Update on the trimmer: finally had an email from Fiskars asking for photos of the trimmer, after calling me Sonia! I emailed some photos to them and had an automated response saying the department was closed until April 7th! 

BUT... a new trimmer arrived yesterday, not from Fiskars but a Stampin Up trimmer I ordered as a replacement. 

And the good news... Today I have been scrapping so stayed tuned!!