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

It's Midweek Already!

How did that happen? I've never known a week fly by so quickly but I'm not complaining, roll on the weekend!

I do love the pressure I'm under at work at the moment, I love going in and hitting the ground running because, before I know it, it's home time :)

I just realised that I showed a sneak peak of a layout the other week but I never came back to show the whole layout

Well here it is, with papers from the Glitz Love Nest range:

Maddie having fun one the beach in Weymouth, back in the day when she would wear shorts and t-shirts if the sun was shining :)

Although I've been scrapping lots of summery photos,  I am loving how the evenings are drawing in, it makes me feel even more creative.  I love coming home, closing the curtains and snuggling down with paper or wool :)

No update on Paul's car, the clampers still have it and I'm hitting bricks walls everywhere I turn :( Oh well, these things are meant to try us and I know there are many more people with much larger problems so I'm not complaining.

I hope you're week is going well
Jo xx

My Holiday's Almost Over

I've had such a lovely time off work and I'm really not forward to going back to work tomorrow :(

On Friday I met up with friends for coffee and then, because the weather was so gorgeous, I decided to cut the grass.  Two lessons learnt: Doing the jobs you least like can sometimes be the most rewarding and If the blade on the lawnmower isn't sharp is there really any point in cutting the grass!

Yesterday didn't turn out as I had planned.  Paul went to work on Friday, parked in his usual place and then got clamped.  In fact five of his colleagues also got clamped yet the clamping company say the signs have been up for ages, doesn't sound like it.  Anyway, they've towed his car away and the man I was talking to couldn't understand why we weren't going to pay £370 to get the car released when the car only cost £130!  I love a cause, a fight and helping others so I'm going to contact all the other companies on the industrial estate he was parked on to see how many, in total, got caught out.  I have a couple of witnesses to say the signs were only put up the day the clamps were put on so I'm going to try and find a few more.........I'll keep you posted.  The lesson learnt: Private clamping rules and regulations are fascinating.

Today I managed to cut my pages for my Learn Something New Every Day album:

I've decided to go for autumnal colours and I'm hoping to decorate the cover and the first couple of pages tonight.

I also managed to get the Starting Point layout done today, not the new one posted yesterday but the one from a few weeks ago.  It's a challenge I really love and, if you're stuck for time, it can make a layout come together really quickly:

Now I'm off to sort out more parking stuff and then have dinner with my mum.

Hope you've all had a good weekend
Jo xx

Every Day's A School Day

Well yesterday kicked off Shimelle's Learn Something New Every Day class and I'm signed up.

The first day was great, I'm off work this week so had the luxury of reading the prompt when it arrived.  After that I went for coffee with a good friend and, yes, I did learn my first lesson of the day.  We went to a lovely coffee shop that also sells a range of sweets from bygone days:

The decor was beautiful and everywhere I looked there was a reminder of my childhood:

The lesson learned ~ I am much happier when I'm a lady of leisure :)

Later that evening I went off to a crop.  I had a layout with a deadline, a scraplift.  The only trouble was I was uninspired by the layout I had to lift.  I thought long and hard and, with the help of the Gotta Craft crop kit I'd just bought, came up with this:

Lesson learned ~ Push yourself and you'll get there.

I also added a bit of texture to my layout:

Lesson learned ~ I love my crimper again.

Now on to my album.  Another thing I've thought long and hard about and this is what I've come up with.  I have an old Sizzix die of a pocket and, as I only intend to do a sentence a day and maybe include a small photo, I'm going to make this into my album.  I'll cut the pages from cardstock, add some patterned paper and embellishments to the front and write my sentence on the back.  When I'm finished I'll bind it together with ribbon and, voila, I'll have my pocket book :)

Probably won't be using yellow cardstock but just wanted to make sure the pocket would be big enough.  I may even stick some together so I do have an actual pocket to put things in :)

Can't wait to blog hop later and see what lessons everyone learnt yesterday but, for now, I'm off for another coffee morning :)

Have a good Friday
Jo xx

September's Here

And I'm loving that autumn, my favourite season, is just around the corner :)

In preparation of the cold weather to come I finished making this for Paul at the weekend:

Now he knows I'm a scrapbooker, he knows I have a blog so why, when I said I was taking a picture of his newly made hat, didn't he smile?!

I loved knitting this so will definitely be making some more.

I realised, when having a tidy up of the photos on my computer, that I've done three weekly challenges over on UKScrappers that I have shared yet! Very slack of me I know :)

This challenge was to use black, use something you got for free and to scrap a celebration:

The picture isn't good but it is off my sister, Jemma, having her first dance with her new husband.

I added the pale blue buttons because that was the colour of the bridesmaid's dresses.

The next challenge was to scrap about the home, use our favourite colour, a list and stars.  I don't have any pictures of my home so I came up with this:

I even tried a bit of painting on it!

And the list were just a few thoughts, feelings and reminders of the day.

The last challenge for August was to follow a sketch, scrap a holiday theme and use butterflies or blooms:

Pictures of Maddie in front of a beautiful sunset in Weymouth, eight years ago.

I went for butterflies and blooms, although not the butterflies I wanted thanks to Martha Stewart and her dodgy punches!  Two different stores, over 100 miles apart had the same butterfly punch and, what do you know, the same fault too :(

Never mind, the super cheap butterfly stamp I bought yonks ago is working just fine :)

Today is the start of Learn Something New Every Day and I can't wait to get out there with my camera and notebook and notice things I overlook most of the time.

Have a fabby day

Jo xx