Birthday at the Beach

I managed to do a quick layout last night for this weeks weekly challenge on UKS. The criteria asked us to use a birthday theme, two or more photos, and to use brads, eyelets and/or buttons. I am also entering this into this months challenge over at SJ Crafts which is a birthday theme. This year for my birthday my SIL & I went to the beach for a picnic so I had a search through the photos and made this layout

Even though my birthday is in June, we didn't exactly have summery weather, it was cloudy and v windy so we used beach towels we took in case we dipped our toes in the water as blankets lol! I couldn't find a suitable shade of turquoise card stock in my stash so instead used the reverse of an old American Crafts paper I've had for ages. The chevron paper and the Polaroids behind the photographs are both from the last Quirky Kit, the pink paper is from my scraps bag.

I went to a craft show with my mum a couple of weeks ago and brought a cloud die which I have been looking for for ages! When I mentioned to my SIL I was doing this layout she said to cut out some clouds as it was a cloudy day, so I thought it was the best time to try my new die out. I then journaled around the edges of the clouds. Add some Thickers, Echo Park letter stickers, buttons and some Washi tape and you have a finished layout :-)

A Day Antiquing

I've had a lovely chilled day scrapping today, completing two sketch challenge layouts. One was for Sketchy Scrappers so will be revealed in a couple of weeks, the other for the Tag-a-longs monthly sketch. This months sketch was chosen by yours truly.

I chose this sketch as I thought it would be an easy one to interpret but I struggled! Firstly trying to find some photos I liked and then trying to choose my papers, I spent sooooo long faffing! Anyway I got there in the end and came up with this layout of photos taken when we went to a local Antiques Fair last year, we did hope to go again this year but it was rained off!

The papers are mainly MME Miss Caroline with the exception on the typewriter paper (Studio Calico) & a strip of Echo Park camera paper which I wanted to use as they were perfect for the theme. I also added a typewriter flair badge from Buttons & Badges.

Dressed Up

Yet again its Sketchy Scrappers time. This months sketch was set by the lovely Lisa

As soon as I saw this I knew which picture I wanted to scrap. Shockingly in the six years we've been together I only have one nice photo of Ian & I so when my brother got married in August I grabbed my uncle and asked him to take a snap of us together in our posh clothes! So this is the layout I made

I used Carta Bella papers from an old Gotta Craft kit as I felt they were perfect for a romantic time theme. The butterflies were punched with Martha Stewart punches, the bobble trim was from a local craft shop and the heart lace & buttons were from our local market.

I've also just signed up to the cyber crop on UKS. This will be my first big cyber crop so I'm kind of looking forward to it, especially as its being spread out over 10 days so theres no pressure to get things finished quick so hopefully there will be lots of layouts to share here :-)

A Summer to be Proud

Well I'm definitely making the most of my week off as I've managed to do another layout this afternoon woohoo!! This time I did a layout for this months Tag-a-long sketch challenge. This was the sketch

I must admit I did struggle with this sketch for some reason even though I knew which picture I wanted to use as soon as I saw it, funny huh? But I persevered and finally came up with this

 I wanted to document how this summer has made me feel proud to be British so when I found this photo on my phone of the bunting we hung in our garden for the Jubilee I knew I had the perfect opportunity. I wanted to use red, white & blue but not in an overly obvious Union Jack kind of way, with the exception of the cute flag buttons I brought ages ago from the local haberdashery. The papers are all from various MME lines: follow your heart, Nostalgia & Stella & Rose. The alphas are Authentique and American Crafts Thickers. Add a couple of stickers from Everyday Eclectic from Echo Park and I was finished. Here is a close up of the journalling

Pink House

I'm having a lovely, relaxing week off work this week. We did think about going away but seeing the weather its cooling down alot at night so will be a tad chilly for camping so instead we're just having a lazy time at home, which means I can actually sit down and do some scrapping!! So far I have made a thank you card (which I forgot to photograph before sending) and two layouts. One layout is for Sketchy Scrappers so I'm unable to share with you until the end of the month, but the other I finished this morning for the weekly challenge on UKS.

This weeks challenge was just by the Bijoux Belles. They asked us to use pink shades, mist or bling, paper scraps, & this sketch

I knew when I saw the sketch that I wanted to have another play with my mists and use the Hexagon mask from the current Quirky Kit. This is the layout I made

The misting didnt turn out how I had it in my head but thats fun with it isnt it? I used pink paper, mist, thickers & gems. The papers are Carta Bella, Kesi Art & MME from my scraps bag. The butterflies were punched with a Martha Stewart punch, the flower in the top corner with a SU punch. The other flowers are embellishments I've had hanging around for ages. The photo is of the pink house in Port Meirion I have claimed as my own Lol!

Sept 10 things on the 10th

Its time for another 10 things on the 10th, that time of the month where we list 10 things of our choice. This month as I'm so unprepared (nothing new there) I've decided to list the first 10 songs played on shuffle on my ipod, this will be interesting lol!

1: The Ting Tings "Shut Up & Let me go"

2: Glee "Smooth Criminal"

3: Steps "After the Love has gone" (I admit I didnt even know that was on there!)

4: Sonny & Cher "I Got you babe"

5: Pink "Leave me alone (I'm Lonely)"

6: Skunk Anansie "Charlie Big Potato"

7:  Wicked "Popular"

8: Steps "Tragedy" (Oh dear they made it again lol!)

9: The Prodigy "No Good"

10: Oasis "Little by Little"

So that was fun & a tad random lol! I hope you enjoyed a brief glimpse into my rather mixed taste in music, I may do it again soon! xx

Take 5

Its another beautiful sunny Sunday, so instead of heading out to the beach or going on a picnic I have been scrapping instead! Ever since I joined the Tag-a-longs on UKS I have been feeling more motivated to try and do some challenges so today I sat down and completed the house challenge. This months challenge was to create a layout around the theme of work, rest or play. I flicked through our holiday photos from Wales and found some "paparazzi" photos Ian took of me having a drink in Port Meirion so I decided to go for a rest theme and created this

I printed the photos 3x2 so I could include all four. I finally bit the bullet and cut into this months Quirky Kit which is soooo lovely but great for summer photos. The papers are both from Studio Calico's Hey day collection and the little embellishment type things were cut from some Elle's Studio cards, the red scallop is the remains of a Crate Paper border sticker which has been in my pencil case for ages. I was also brave and actually misted onto my layout using Mister Huey's powder blue mist and bubbles mask. I wasnt to sure if I liked it when I did it but once everything else was added to the page it grew on me!