Sketchy Scrappers: All the way up

The sky has been dull and grey, the rain has been pouring- guess Mother Nature finally got the memo that it's autumn! As it's been a day to stay in and snuggle up I managed to get some scrapping done. This months sketch over at Sketchy Scrappers was set by the lovely Karen, who chose this sketch

I don't scrap my photos in any particular order and for this sketch I rummaged through some holiday snaps from 2010 and found a series of photos we took on the Snowdon train as it made its way to the summit. I picked out three and trimmed them down as they were 7x5 to 6x4, luckily there was a fair amount of dead space which wouldn't be missed by doing this, and came up with this

As the photos had lots of earthy, green tones I chose colours to compliment this. The background card is a greeny, Kraft colour. The main patterned paper is Crate Paper with scraps of Bo Bunny double dot & Carta Bella along the top, the photos are matted onto a scrap of wood grain Alison Kreft paper. The alpha stickers are from Pebbles. For embellishments I layered a doily, a kraft envelope which contains the journaling & an Admit One diecut which I've had in my stash from a swap for ages but which ends itself to a layout about a train journey rather well I thought! 

The journey tells of our past journeys up the mountain

Story Telling Sunday: Village Postoffice

Another month has been and gone , a new one ahead of us and time for Story Telling Sunday over on Sian's blog From High In The Sky. 

When I was a child my paternal grandparents owned & lived in the Postoffice in the small village of Bulwick on the way to Corby. Every Saturday we would go over for a family tea where we'd all be squashed into the small living/dining room at the back of the cottage (the main living room was for Christmas only lol), helping ourselves to sandwiches, crisps and cake, sometimes the dreaded but loved my nan indoor fireworks would come out! Each grandchild was given £1 pocket money and was allowed to go down to the Postoffice and buy ourselves some sweets, grandad wasn't daft was he! Behind the cottage was a field known as "the park" where we would play for hours, this time of year the trees would be filled with conkers and we'd come home with 2 carrier bags full of them! 

When I was 11 my grandparents retired, sold the Postoffice and moved to Stamford to be closer to the family. They enjoyed many happy years until a series of strokes left my nan with Dementia. My grandad cared for her as much as he could but eventually nan had to go into a home. Sadly in 2009 my grandad died of heart failure and nan past away peacefully in 2011. Nan used to collect Lilyputt Lane houses and when it came to clearing their house I asked if I could take Mrs Pinkertons Post Office as it reminded me so much of the Bulwick Postoffice 

Today we stopped at Bulwick to take some flowers to my grandparents grave where their ashes were interred, in the churchyard directly opposite the Postoffice 

Sunny Sunday

This week has been a glorious week weather wise. Even when it's been cloudy it's been warm and when the sun has shone like today it's been lovely giving us probably the last chance to go out without jackets and layers. Strange to think that the week before I contemplated for a split second putting the heating on and quickly ordered boots for work so not to get cold toes, boots which arrived the day the weather warmed up and have since sat in their box in the wardrobe but I'm not going to complain! Even though we have been tricked into thinking it is still summer there are tell tell signs that autumn is definitely on its way with forest floors now covered with a carpet of leaves. 

So after a pleasant walk this morning through local woodland and meadows I sat down to scrap while Ian watched motor racing. This is the layout I made

The photos are of the flower lined entry to Liberty. I've got a fair amount of cardstock mounting up from kits as I seem to be using patterned paper for my backgrounds lately, so I decided to replicate the background I used for my Bumper Cars layout but decided against gutting the cardstock as I've got plenty to go around at the moment lol! Papers used are ones you may recognise from recent layouts; Studio Calico, Kesi Art & Alison Kreft. The title is Amy Tangerine & my favourite Poolside Thickers. 

Back in the Scrapping groove

I've been lucky enough to have another weekend off this weekend and with no jobs which needed doing I finally managed to sit down and do some scrapping! I haven't scrapped in AGES and with challenges waiting to be done, two kits waiting to be used and another being shipped soon I was starting to panic that my mojo had gone on holiday and was never coming back! The first layout I did was for a challenge my friend Gemma had set for us. She wanted both of us to make a layout based on this sketch and to use something round

I decided to rotate the sketch, pulled out a photo from my brothers wedding last year and came up with this layout 

This photo is of my dad's side of the family, the Greys (I'll introduce them later). I decided to use card stock for the background as I felt as though I've been using patterned paper a lot lately as backgrounds, but me being me I had to add some sprinkles of Mister Huey's Boss Lady, Powder Blue & Seafoam as it felt to plain to me! I used Kesi Art, Studio Calico, Echo Park & Dear Lizzy papers, and fussy cut some note lets from an old Quirky Kit. The note lets came in the February kit and have been in my stash since then as I had no idea how to use them as they annoyingly had a copyright thing printed on the bottom! 

I added a doily, some washi, buttons & Dear Lizzy thickers. Now for the family:

From left to right: my cousin Nicola, Auntie Val, Uncle Norman, Auntie Wendy, my brother Vincent, SIL Penny, Uncle Steve, cousin Emma, me, cousin Adam, Auntie Barbara, Uncle Ron, my mum, Emma's partner John, my dad & Ian. 

The second layout I managed today is a companion layout to this featuring my mums side of the family. For this layout I used this sketch set by Caz for Sketchy Scrappers. 

I tried to use similar colours and papers as they sit side by side in my album for some continuity. I don't normally do this, my albums are a mix of colours, papers and products but for occasions such as this and the jubilee I tried to keep them similar. Anyway this is the layout I made

Papers used are Kesi Art, Studio Calico, Crate Paper & MME. More doilies and Dear Lizzy thickers were used but this time instead of ink splatters I tried something different and misted a white tag, nothing amazing and innovative but different for me! 

Roll call again. There are some family members missing as my mums aunt & uncle had wondered back to the car, and one brother and family didn't bother coming at all as they were appalled that children were not allowed! I don't know my cousins kids, but anyway... 

From left to right: my auntie Linda, Uncle Mark, cousin Naomi, her boyfriend Rory, Vincent, Penny, me, mums Uncle John, her Auntie Marie, Ian, mum & dad. 

So there you are I'm back in the scrapping groove and you've met my family! 

Road trip to Wales

Yesterday we came home from a road trip to Wales.

 I had hoped to take lots of pictures as I was the passenger for once and not the driver, but unfortunately the car charger I brought the day before we left to charge my phone didn't work so I have been cut off from the world for three days! Top tip: always buy these things well in advance and check they work before you leave! 

We took the long & scenic route and eventually arrived at good old Shell Island. As it was your typical grey, cloudy, windy Welsh day we decided after last years fight against gale force winds to pitch in the sheltered side of the island facing the hills rather than the sea. 

Weather wise it was like this most of the time, with rain in the afternoon. On Thursday morning it was lovely & sunny and we were able to go on the beach in just our t-shirts. We spent the morning beach combing and rock pooling the perfect time to get lots of photos but no such luck!  

I see a sign: a cheeky one

Today we went to an antique centre in Market Deeping as we were in the area. I love this centre as it is made up of various sellers who pack as much as they can into their small cubicle to sell so you can have a good rummage through the bric a brac. They even have a craft shop in the back selling stash but I walked straight through as I don't NEED anything, it took a lot of doing I can tell you lol! While we were there I spotted this cheeky sign which made me giggle

I loved it and did think about buying it for the bedroom but resisted lol! I can picture it being in a changing room in a cool boutique for some reason too. 

Story Telling Sunday: Snoopy

Another month has flown past and yet again we're at the start of another. This month I have decided to join in with Sian over at From High in the Sky for Storytelling Sunday where we share the story behind a precious object in our lives. 

This month I'm sharing the most precious object to me, my beloved Snoopy! 

Now slightly battered, bruised this fellow has been with me since I was 2yrs old when one day I wandered into my parents bedroom and took him from their bed. Since them he has come everywhere with me from my dad carrying him in the front of his coat with his head poking out so he didn't get cold on the way to play school, to overnight stays in hospital with suspected appendicitis. Gone are the days where I'd come home from school to see him pegged to the washing line by his ears, now he sits on a shelf for fear that he might have an accident in the washing machine but he still gets a kiss on the nose from time to time.