UKS Summer Challenge ....

... Niki is providing lots of inspiration to keep us all scrapping over the summer months with 10 challenges to complete by 30th September.

She asked me to help her with challenge 10 which was to make 3 layouts out of a specific set of stash - 'stash busting' and only use those supplies.

So in my pile I have
- 3 background papers/cardstock
- 5 patterned papers (Crate Paper - The Pier)
- scraps from the same collection
- different alphas
- wood veeners and cork embellies
- journalling cards
- buttons and enamel dots
- two lots of bakers twine and 1 ribbon
- some tags

Once I had that pulled together I set about on my pages!

Page 1

Page 2 - using August Stuck Sketch

Page 3 - using July Sketchy Thursday

And because I still had quite a bit leftover I made a fourth page!!

I probably could have easily made a couple more pages, but by this time I was getting a bit bored of using the same paper! It's definitely an exercise I'd try again and useful for when going off to crops.

Make sure you check out Niki's challenges - anyone can take part and you can share your work on UKS and on Instagram using #uks2014summerscrapbookingchallenge.

Let me just take a selfie ...

... I think from now on in these will be the only types of photos I have of Lily. She has several poses and always knows what camera angle to use!

Last week's UKS challenge combined with June Scrap365 challenge.

A bumper month for creativity ....

... National Scrapbooking Day certainly helped and I've managed to keep up with all the UKS challenges this month, even though work has been a challenge in itself.

So today I'm sharing the UKS monthly challenge to be inspired by a Winnie The Pooh quote and the Stuck? May 15th sketch.

I choose the following:

" I knew as soon as I saw you I knew that an adventure was about to happen".

I've bought a few new papers recently and this Title sticker was a perfect starting point.

Hope you've all had a good Bank Holiday week. When will summer arrive??

The butterflies are back ...

... a couple new pages for NSD challenges to share and the butterflies are back!!

I've been loving scattering stars, hearts and sequins, but you can't beat butterflies (in my opinion!)

I've combined the UKS weekly challenge (use 2 different sized photos, beads, stitching, a tag and shaped paper) with the Studio Calico sketch challenge.

Next is a challenge set by Counterfeit Kit Challenge to scrap with black, white or grey and just one other colour. 

I love purple, but found I didn't have much in the way of purple stash. I just about managed to pull together some accents.

With a little help from my friends ...

... NSD has inspired me to finished the last 2 pages I started at the retreat last November and I have the lovely Ruth to thank for them.

This one's a scraplift of one of Ruth's page. I've added some more washi in order to meet the Studio Calico challenge.

 I already had lots of paper and embellies for this page and then I spied a piece of paper that had the words on it in a pack that Ruth had, so she kindly let me have it.

Love crafting with friends - great for inspiration and sharing stash!!

Happy (belated) National Scrapbooking Day ...

... did you get a chace to take part in any of the challenges yesterday? I'd cleared some crafting time and armed with a new batch of printed photos was determined to make the most of it!

Firstly, catching up with the UKS weekly challenge - a sketch, to scrap somthing you love, use stitching and inking. I think this is possibly my first ever stand alone Christmas page, normally I just stick to JYC.

Studio Calico had specific challenges for the day and this was their first one - a colour challenge of aqua, pink, navy and gold. Have used the latest May Stuck? Sketch.

I've entered both into the Big Picture Classes challenge to get 10,000 pages on Instagram over the weekend - there's lots of great prizes up for grabs.

Right off to try and get some more done!

A musical dog? ...

... that was last week's challenge at UKS - to scrap about a pet or animal with a muscial title and include circles.

Well I did struggle for a bit to get going, using song titles it a pretty wide brief but I got there in the end.

I forgot to share with you a page I had made in advance of last week's challenge. I was being hosted by my fabulous teamie Niki and we were asked to make sample pages before the reveal. There was a sketch to use plus stars, chevrons and square photos.

Tropical ...

... I wish it was and not cold, wet and smoggy!

A quick post to share this page made for Scrap365 challenge here, based on a page from the very talented Lisa.

Wishing you all a relaxing weekend x

S J Crafts ...

... a photo college for inspiration which you can see here.

As you can see I went for a 'watery' theme!

Promise that the layout's not as wonky in real life!!!

Happy Mother's Day .....

.... in memory of my beautiful and very much missed mum.
You are always in my thoughts and in my heart.
xxx


I'm so grateful for having an amazing stepmum and love making things for her. So I dusted off (literally) my Cricut, bought this file from SVGCuts.com and taa raa! Came together so easily I don't know why I don't use the machine more. Can anyone recommend any good svg files for cards?

Hope all you mums out there have a relaxing day!

My 500th post .....

... and if you're interested you can read my first one here, I started blogging in December 2007 to share my Journal Your Christmas pages and I love having a record of my creative pursuits. Over the years sometimes I've blogged lots and sometimes not much - but I'm comfortable with that.

I've made some wonderful new friends through my blog and am looking forward to crafting with some of them later in the year.

I'm catching up with a few challenges before the month finishes, so firstly

Stuck? March 15th sketch and this week's UKS challenge, which was to scrap about yourself including journalling and numbers. I got my hands on some cheap Studio Calico kits that were being sold for National Scrapbooking Day in May - always nice to have new goodies to play with!

And last week's UKS challenge - to scrap something that make you happy, use 3 colours, fabric and a flower.

The pages look like they were made with the same supplies but this is from an old Quirky Kit and Elle's Studio cards!

Words to live by ...

... another weekly challenge over at UKS and a bit of a pick and mix:

A - Sport - Inspired by the Cheltenham Cup
B - Charity - Inspired by Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month
C - Lifestyle - Inspired by National Veggie Month (Vegetarian)

and to include the following on the LO:
1) Doodling
2) Ribbon, lace or washi tape
3) Brads, eyelets or buttons
4) Altered flowers - eg punched/cut from PP/inked/handmade/made into something else

I knew straight away that I wanted to document my new 'hobby' of running. In a bid to keep fit and get more exercise I encouraged lots of my colleagues at easyfundraising to sign up for X-Runner.co.uk extreme obstacle race last October.

As a complete novice I downloaded a Couch 2 10K app and in February I managed to run 5K non-stop which I was so pleased with.

Sadly though a couple of weeks ago I sprained my foot and with only 2 weeks to go to the race I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a speedy recovery.

I've combine this challenge with Stuck? Sketches (however I didn't manage the flower!) and the colour combo was inspired by Leo's page on Quirky Kits Blog

Team challenge ...

... our UKS team are hosting this week's challenge:
Use a Project Life Card
Use bright colours and a cheery picture
Scraplift a team member.

Here's K's page that I scraplifted

and my version rotated 90 degrees.

I really enjoyed scraplifting a teamie, something I will definitely try more of. Still not much sign of the sun though yet!!!

Not quite what I planned in my head ...

... I've been waiting for the March Scrap365 sketch challenge to go live since I saw it in the mag last month. It looked like just my sort of sketch.

But when I started to actually make a page it just didn't come together well. All sorts of paper combinations were discarded, and after pulling apart the page, I finally finished by sticking with papers from the same range (Crate Paper Flea Market, from Nov/Dec Quirky Kits). It ended up better than I thought it would at one point, interesting how the design process works sometimes!

I've shifted the sketch around a bit, but think you can still see the main elements of it.

Spotted ...

... my page has been featured on Stuck? Sketches!

And another new page to share - made for UKS challenge last week, to include red, a circle, a sport/outdoor photo and a cross (have drawn little crosses on the red dots!!)

Why does a tidy up ...

... invariably mean a new mess is going to be created?

My fabric stash has been creating a bit of a pile in the corner as the boxes they live in have fallen apart. So after a trip to Ikea I set about sorting the material all out into boxes. I now have a good box of scraps that the girls can help themselves too without asking! FQs, dress and furnishing fabrics all have a box each too.

With that sorted I decided I wanted to make a new work dress. I didn't have one particular pattern that I wanted to use, but was sure that I could mash one together from two patterns - and hence the new mess created with bits of tissue paper everywhere. As there's alterations involved I'm going to make up a muslin whilst looking for some fabric - no I don''t have anything 'perfect' in my stash!!

And another page to share - this was a colour challenge for the UKS Monthly challenge which I used a Stuck? sketch for. Made using the Quirky kit that arrived on Friday :)

Right better clear up my scrapping space now!

Three reasons to be cheerful ...

... apart from it being Friday. Three lots of happy post!

First, I've had a pretty 'blah' week, not feeling great, trying to do too much and generally getting cross with myself! So this postcard from a very lovely friend cheered me up no end.

Next, my new Quirky Kits arrived - so beautifully wrapped up, was a shame to open. Haven't used the last one yet, but got stuck straight into this one, will share that another day.

Finally, I subscribed to Birchbox last month and this is my second delivery. More pretty packaging which I just love.

Each month you get 5 beauty/lifestyle samples to try. I wouldn't say I'm hugely into beauty products but I do like to try new things and this looked like fun.

And such cute postcards included - good quotes.

And having made nothing since my last blog post, I scrapped! It was the therapy I needed this week.

It's for the weekly challenge on UKS, to use a sketch, a love theme picture/story and pinks/reds.

So I didn't manage at all well with Xmas crafty - oh well!