I Love Crate

I really do so I was delighted when Sarah at S J Crafts included it in my design team kit :)

I knew straight away what photo I was going to use for my first layout and couldn't wait to get stuck in.  I took a bad photo really of my niece Bella but her smile was so adorable I didn't care.  Because she was had lots of light behind her there's not much colour in the picture so I knew the bright colours in the Random Collection were perfect:

I used lots of the Random Collection Chipboard Accents there are tons of shapes on the sheet and I even managed to get a couple of titles from it so great value for money.

And how cute it that cupcake :)

I inked all of the edges of the paper and chipboard with Vintage Photo Distress Ink because I love how it gives the layers definition.

And I finished it off with some Jenni Bowlin Tiny Alpha stickers.

My second layout also featured Bella and I used the leftovers from the first layout to make a matt for the photo:

These are the papers on the flip side.

This time I added lots of Crate Stickers and just a few bits of chipboard.

The paper is lovely to work with, it's great for tearing, distressing and inking. Sarah has her Thursday offer up so get your skates on to get some buy one get one half price Stickles.
I would now like to ask you all to keep your fingers crossed that Paul won't have much work on this weekend so I can get down and see him :)

I hope your week is going well.
Jo xx

Racing The Sunset

That's what I had to do tonight!  I knew I had to take some pictures of layouts and I was hoping the sun would keep his hat on long enough for me to get the shots I needed.  It sort of did:

My gorgeous nephew George.  I did this layout for a sketch team that I'm in.  The sketch was covered in flowers and I didn't know how I would make it work for me, I replaced the flowers with stars and voila!

I had two lovely weekends with Paul, wow weren't we lucky with the weather?!?  Paul went to Paris without me :( but won mega bucks at the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe :) His first time at a race meeting, his first ever bet and he hit the jackpot!  No he hasn't turned into a gambler and yes he did get me a present.

I helped to run a mini cyber crop for the mighty, mighty Red Ribbons on UKScrappers and stayed up late into the night doing some layouts for S J Crafts, I will share them soon.

I'm sorry I haven't been around, I had a bad week that made me want to hibernate for a while but I'm feeling much better now. I know I have a million blog posts to comment on, the figures on my Google Reader scare me!  I will get round to seeing all the posts I missed though :)

Thank you for stopping by
Jo xx

It's Been a Busy One

I have been a very busy bee this weekend and now I feel exhausted, but happy.

I've been co-hosting a mini cyber crop weekend for the mighty, mighty Red Ribbons team  over on UKScrappers.  It has been so much fun and I think a lot of people have enjoyed it, which is what it's all about.

I have also been down to see Paul, which was lovely.  While I was down that neck of the woods I went to see Sarah at S J Crafts open day.  It was great to be able to stroke some papers and even better when Paul bought me some of the My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas papers and some gorgeous Jenny Bowlin Chalkboard alphas :)  To make up for me dragging him to look at stash he then dragged me round the county looking for cars!

I did manage a couple of layouts while I was with Paul.  For the special Red Ribbons weekend, Shimelle very kind designed us out own special Starting Point. She has hidden it on her blog so I'm not going to link it from here because it's a special thing for our fun weekend, here's my layout though:

I used the Pink Paislee, Hometown Summer papers and the embellishments from the August Sarah's Cards Kit.

I'll save the other layout for another time because now I'm just about to hope back over to UKScrappers and upload another challenge.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you've had a great weekend.
Jo x

I'm So Excited.....

Because I can finally let you know that I am now on the Design Team for:

S J Crafts

I am really looking forward to getting stuck in to the lovely stash that Sarah sells and, hopefully, coming up with some inspiring things for you to try.

The other Design Team Members are:

Lisa-Jane, Jenny, Louise and Jennifer, all amazing crafters.

S J Crafts is an online shop based in Bournemouth, how handy is that for when I go to visit Paul?!?! And Sarah arranges regular open days, which I will be dragging Paul, and his wallet, along to :)

So keep checking out the S J Crafts blog for inspiration and lots of creativeness :)

This week has been so busy and it's only Tuesday!  But never mind because tonight I am going to practice at being creative......first with dinner :)

Thank you for stopping by
Jo xx

Fun at the Crop

Yesterday I was at my monthly crop and I really had a great time.  At lot of the ladies at the crop were born in September so it was a bit of a birthday party, this is what we were greeted with when we walked in:

It was made by our wonderful crop leader, Gaye, and it tasted just as good as it looked!

I got cracking on my first layout of the day, the Weekly Challenge at UKScrappers.  We had to have a beach theme, use the colour blue and 2 photos:

I used Shimelle's Starting Point from a few weeks ago and the last few bits of my Lime Twist kit.

And this little button which was one of the first things I bought when I started scrapping over 7 years ago!

Next up was the House Challenge at UKScrappers, we had to use this sketch:

And some sewing or stamping.

I did a tiny bit of hand sewing just in the top left.  I love these pictures of Maddie, she's at an age where she doesn't like to be photographed but the look in her eye tells another story.

I used Crate Paper's Farmhouse papers from this month's Gotta Craft kit.

And my new Nestabilities dies.

I did start a third layout and I'm off to finish that now, scrappy weekends are so much fun.

I hope you've had a good one

Thanks for stopping by

Jo xx

Time For a Quickie!

Last night I had to get a layout done for a Chinese Whisper type group I'm in.  I knew it had to be quick because I didn't have a chance to start it until 21:30.

I grabbed a kit, the Cosmo Cricket - Social Club from Sarah's Cards was closest to hand, found the tools and adhesives I'd need, got my £1 bargain boot sale table and plonked myself on the sofa in front of the TV.  I told myself that I wasn't getting up, I wasn't wasting time looking for embellishments and tools and I wanted to have a layout completed by the time the hour long TV programme I was watching had finished.

I have to say I'm quite pleased with what I churned out in 45 minutes:

The many faces of my baby girl, and I can tell you she pulls a ton of them every day! :)

I used the photo booth app for the smaller pictures, I love that app and I hate how real life photo booths will only take one picture and reproduce it four times.  I'm probably showing my age but I bet lots of us have photo booth strips stuck in a drawer somewhere with everyone in the picture pulling a funny face...happy days :)

Well it's Wednesday and, like my nan used to say, "when Wednesday's gone the week has gone" so roll on the weekend :)

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

Another New Week

We were really short staffed in the office last week, it was so busy, everyone was working extra hard and I loved it. I love waking up in the morning and knowing that I'm so busy I don't know where to start. It helps the day, and the week, go quickly.

As soon as I got home on Friday I started packing my bag for a crop the following day. I was so excited, I had some lovely kits to take, loads of ideas and an order of photos from Photobox had just arrived, my cup runneth over!

I got to the crop and realised I'd forgotten to take something with me..........my mojo! I sat there not really knowing what I was going to do and I have to say I was a bit disappointed with myself. I did manage to crack out two layouts though.

The first was for the weekly challenge on UKS, now I read the instructions wrong and thought we were meant to use the sketch provided, use an embellishment that represented something we loved at school and scrap a school theme. Doh, I got it wrong, it wasn't a school theme, we actually had to use just two colours. I really hope that this will count:

I used different greens and pinks.

I made this little embellishment, adding a few stitches because needlework was the thing I really loved at school.

I was really pleased with the second layout because I managed to get three photos on it!

My brother, Jon, did the London to Brighton cycle ride for the second time last year. For my sister, Jemma, it was her first year and I am so proud of both of them. The only thing I'm not sure on with the layout is the title, you can't really see the big C so I might add a touch of white to it, we shall see.

I have more busy days at work this week, a new carpet being laid and not one but TWO crops, let's hope I remember to pack my mojo this time :)

I hope you all had a great weekend
Jo x