Sharing a Card or Two.

Hi there blogging friends, I know it's been very quiet around here this last week or so. I have been busy with DIY and general family life amongst the chaos that comes with it! Plus I spent this whole weekend crafting with friends at a crop. 

I have made a few cards this month though so I thought I would have a quick post to share them with you.

A card for a dear friend.

One for a little monster! Made for Sketch N Scraps Masculine Challenge this month.

This went into my 'spares' box and was created for Sketch N Scraps Floral Challenge.

One for my little niece, created for Sketch N Scraps Halloween or orange challenge.

There is still a couple of days left to play along with the card and layout sketch challenges over at Sketch N Scrap so hop on over, choose from the great selection and craft with us.

Hope your weekend was as crafty as mine.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Hello Summer.

The title of this post is the title of the layout I have to share with you, unfortunately not the season we are approaching here in the UK! I certainly can't complain about the glorious Autumn we are having though, Still warm enough for t-shirts and we have a bit of rain then a lot of sunshine!   

So with my thoughts on sunny days I decided to join Stuck Sketches with their awesome 1st October sketch, which I fell in love with straight away.

Such a delightful design that called to me to play along.

I haven't got many single photo's left to scrap but this one of my eldest daughter fit the bill.

I love these bright and cheerful papers from Crate Paper, so decided to have a play with them for this sketch as the tinted photo seemed to match well with them.

There is actually a tag under those flowers! Sometimes I end up covering bits that I have already glued down on the page with other embellishments, but I quite like the layered look anyway!

This blue paper is the underside of the yellow just folded over a little. A few little paper strips and fussy cut flowers, with a sprinkling of gold.

This sketch challenge runs for another 10 days so plenty of time to play and all the details can be found on the Stuck Sketches blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have had a great weekend. xx

Happiness Is.....

OMG we are half way through October already!

I need more hours in the day, more days of the week or failing that a time machine!

Life seems to be more hectic the older you get or is it just me trying to squeeze too much fun stuff into my day?

Talking of fun stuff, the mid-month sketch reveal was unveiled over at Sketch N Scrap today.

Kelly has provided us with a spooky design but of course you don't have to create a Halloween page.

As you can see my page is far from spooky (unless you count the photo's of my hubby!!) showing Gary's love of a lunchtime beer on holiday!

I definitely followed the sketch to the letter as the photo's I had to play with were the right orientation.

I do love chevrons at the moment so couldn't resist adding them to this more masculine page in a couple of places.

For the top cluster I simply added a bunch of co-ordinating summer stickers from Bella Blvd.

I hope I have inspired you to play along with us this month, for all the details and DT reveal head on over to the Sketch N Scrap Blog HERE.

Bye for now. xx

Good Times.

Although my team is not scheduled to create a page for this month's 'Inspired By' sketch over at Sketch N Scrap I couldn't resist playing along too.

Here is this month's IB sketch which was created from a layout by DT member Michelle.

And here is my page, keeping pretty much to the sketch apart from adding a subtle patterned paper at the top.

 I am slowly using up my far too large stash of pre-made flowers and ancient brads in an attempt to lighten the load! 

This quote is cut from a Project Life card using my Nestabilities. 

Occasionally I like to be a bit frilly and add a doily, I thought one looked quite sweet under the photo's.

Well that's my take on the sketch and if I have inspired you to play along or if you need more inspiration from the DT, head on over to the Sketch N Scrap blog and check out this and all the previous layout and card challenges so far this month.

LINK IS HERE.  

I hope to get some more scrapping done tonight so I may be back soon (just warning you!).

Thanks for dropping in. xx

Live Life Loud!

Hello and welcome again to my little blog. Today I have another layout to share that I created for the October mood board challenge over at Sassy Scrappers.

A very girly mood board as this month Sassy Scrappers are raising awareness for Breast Cancer.

So I dug out the fun photo's I had of two of my girls with their friends in a playground on holiday, I felt these photo's celebrated youth and friendship. I hope my girls carry on being there for their friends even when their lives change in adulthood.

From the mood board apart from the general feel of it I used some stripy pink and white background that I took from the picture of painted nails, flowers and the happy playful girls.

For the bling I added glitter lettering.

And the essential sprinkling of sequins!

This challenge runs to the end of the month but there is a plethora of inspiration, product information and tips on the Sassy Scrappers blog at any given time. So head on over to the Sassy Scrappers blog to not only check out the DT takes on the challenge but all the scrappy goodness to be found there. 

Just one more thing.....................thank you so much for stopping by. xx

Be Spontaneous.

Good morning/ good afternoon/ good evening (delete as applicable!) today I have the October challenge to share with you for Challenge YOUrself and this month it's all about affirmations.

Scrap an affirmation that YOU would like to attract into your life.
(Remember to include YOU in the layout)

A huge thank you to Paper Issues who are back again this month sponsoring Challenge YOUrself with one of their Swag Bags!!  

For my affirmation I chose 'Be Spontaneous' as I think we live by so many rules and timetables these days that direct our lives and shape us into being robots! School timetables, work commitments and of course looking after the family all need set times and places. But sometimes just the simple things need to be embraced like taking a walk instead of washing the dishes, ringing someone just to say hi or any number of things that just 'pop' into your head to do right there and then!

Here is the layout I created for this challenge and I used the 'Stationery Noted' collection from Teresa Collins. 

I used a mask and spritzed some blue mist first ti tie in with the blues in the papers I was going to use. Then added lots of layers under the photo of me being silly in a beautiful town called Chamonix in France.

On the background paper there was a couple of printed tags so I filled them with the dictionary meaning of spontaneous and relevant quote.

The stitching around the sticker is actually an old rub on, just so cute that I wish I had lots more of them!

The flower was fussy cut from the same papers and I doodled around the letter stickers as they looked a bit lost on their own.

I hope you can hop on over to the Challenge YOUrself blog and get inspired to join in with us this month by checking out the rest of the DT's affirmation pages.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a great day. xx

Meeting Mushu.

Hello and thank you for stopping by, I am writing this post on this very wet and windy Monday thankful that I don't have to leave the house!

Whilst waiting for Autoglass to come and fix the chip in my car windscreen I took the opportunity to finish a layout I started last night for the October layout sketch challenge over at Scrapology.

Here is the sketch which is based on a layout by Julianne McKenna-De Lumen, otherwise known as Jules The Bling Princess. You can see her original layout on the Scrapology blog.

 And here is my layout which I kept to the basic sketch design but lightened it by using hand stitching instead of paper for the frame at the bottom half. This photo is from way back in 2007 when we visited Disneyland the first time and back then my girls were quite excited to get their autographs from the characters.

 I made a tag from some leftover paper, stitched around it and added a quote from Mushu that I found on the web.

All the flowers were cut from a sheet that I have had for many years and decided to base this page around them. The other papers I used on this layout were Bella Blvd oldies too.

That's it for me today but I will be back soon.

Thanks again for coming over to my side of blogland. xx

Ball Of Fluff.

Sometimes time just runs away with you and as I've gotten older it seems to run very fast! So every now and then I will start a layout and as I am not a very fast scrapbooker some layouts just don't get finished in time for a deadline!
I now have a little collection of pages that I have not shared with you at all and that just won't do!
So today as I have a layout I want to show you that is a little different for me.

It was created for last months sketch challenge at Scrap The Girls, the deadline came and went before I could finish it.

 The sketch was way outside my comfort zone but I wanted to stretch myself to try something that is scary!! The background was simply made using a Crafters Workshop stencil and some pink mist.

 I masked off the strip in the middle of the sketch and this is where I placed my title after stamping a border!

These fussy cut butterflies were perfect for this page of my cat Demi is a delicate little thing that is scared of her own shadow!

So that is one more page that can now be put in the pile for sorting into albums! The trouble with me is that I would rather be scrapping than sorting and I have several boxes of finished layouts that need homing but it is quite a major task that I am not relishing! Of course the longer I leave it the worse it will get!!!

I will be back in a couple of days with my layout for the new challenge over at Challenge Yourself, so until then have a wonderful crafty time. xx

# Cool Chicks.

The weekend is soon approaching and I am really hoping to get some more scrapping done as there is a host of great challenges out there this month!

The first page I started to create this month was for Scrap The Girls and it came together so well that my mojo was obviously in a good mood! 

But then the awesome mood board probably helped too!

Here it is with bright colours and some sparkle!

Now I don't 'do' purple so I went with the remaining colours on the board. The fun photo had me choosing these papers from the Amy Tangerine Sketchbook line and a couple of PL cards (chopped up!).

I sprayed the plain white cardstock first with some shocking pink mist where I knew the photo was going to marry with the brightness of these fussy cut flowers.

As the papers had doodling on them I decided to add some more of my own. This circle and the hearts, under the title and around the edge of the page.

For the sparkle in the mood board I made sure my title was partly glitter. (no hardship there though!).

This Scrap the Girls challenge runs until the end of the month so there is no excuse to dig out those girly photo's (no boys allowed) and play along!

All the details can be found on the Scrap The Girls Blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by. xx

Back To Life, Back To Reality.

Hello and welcome to my little corner of blogland and today is of course the beginning of October! So over at Sketch N Scrap we are celebrating the 1st sketch reveal of the new month.

Fabulous sketch from Lisa Hidy.

 I had this photo of the largest ironing pile I have ever had to tackle after a holiday and so thought it was ideal to have it trimmed long and narrow for this challenge.

I wanted to use fabric on my page to represent the clothes so I dug deep into my fabric scraps for some plain but colourful cottons. Because the page is quite fussy I left off the circles from the sketch even though I wanted to hand stitch them. I just knew that if I added them it would be a step too far.

 My title consists of rub-on lettering and the word Life hand stitched onto die cut fabric.

 I also cut these little clothes from the cottons I found. I had to mount them onto some white cardstock as they were a little bit delicate.

These flowers were cut from some patterned paper by My Little Shoebox.

Ok now that you have seen the wonderful sketch it's time to hop on over to the Sketch N Scrap blog and check out the DT examples and play along yourself of course!

We have a brand new sponsor this month!  We are so excited to welcome Scraptures kit club as our sponsor this month. 

Scraptures is generously offering a lovely kit to one lucky randomly selected winner this month!!!!

Details on how to join in the fun can be found on the SNS blog HERE.

See you there. xx