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.

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.

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!!!

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!

UKS Spring Blog Hop ...

Welcome to the UKS Spring BlogHop! You may have come to me via Alison, but if you have dropped in on me directly (or lost your way!) and want to follow the hop you can see the full list here . 

UKS are also offering a prize to a randomly chosen person who comments on all the blogs, so check the thread for details.

First of all gather your supplies, you'll need:

- paper scraps

- fabric, needle and thread

- assorted punches - scalloped, pinked, plain circles etc

- ribbon scraps

- gems, pearls, buttons

- foam pads and glue of choice

We're going to start by making some yo-yos - these are little puffs of fabric. You'll need to draw a circle onto your fabric twice the diameter of the desired yo-yo. I drew around a mug measuring 7.5cm across to get yo-yos about 3.5cm across.

Next sew a running stitch about 3mm away from the raw edge. I double up my thread but don't bother putting a knot at the end, just make sure you watch it doesn't disappear as you're sewing.

Then pull up the stictches to gather the edge. Tie your two threads together in a knot.

Arrange your folds/gather evenly.

Cotton weight fabric works well for these, but felt and denim also give good results.

Now, punch out various shapes and sizes from your paper scraps. My largest is a 2" scalloped punch 2"  going down to a 1" plain circle.

I work in colour sets, so I pull out the circles I want for my bottom layer, including the yo-yos.

Then I layer up with other circles, shapes and embellishments until I'm happy with the arrangement.

 

Once I'm happy with that I ink all the edges (I've used Distress Ink in Pumice Stone) and then glue the layers together with foam pads and glue depending on how much dimension you want - I've just put pads between the bottom 2 layers for the smaller ones. Add gems, buttons, ribbons, whatever you fancy and there you go. Cheap embellishments completely customisable to your projects.

GIVEAWAY! I'm giving away one set of the following (primary, pink or blue) to one person who follows my blog (regular or new today!). So just leave a comment saying which colour you would prefer and how you follow my blog (google reader, feedly, bloglovin etc) by Midnight 21st April. I'll choose a random winner on 22nd April.

Thanks for stopping by.

Now hop on over to Sarah.

Shopping and scrapping ...

... January week 3 challenge over on UKS was to use a sketch, add some ink/paint, some stitching and a quote. I decided not to do the quote and chose this photo I took at 12:12 on 12/12/12.

I had the day off work today and after a mammoth album sort out at the weekend I needed some supplies so headed off to TK Maxx and The Range. I got what I needed, plus more of course!

Now I've moved onto stripping out old kits and purging lots of stash.

I really should try to blog more often, I've done a few things over the past week, so I'll start with a couple of LOs from the Scarlet Lime Kit. The first is of DD1 and her friend who she has known since they were about 3 and now go to school together. We tease them a little bit and I almost called the LO 'First Love' but I thought DD1 might go mad at me for that!!!
This is a picture of the men on our Wedding Day and I did the LO for last weeks UKS challenge.

Lastly my Scrap Your Day page for Sept.
More soon!

Something a bit different ....

It's the start of the UKS Summer Sultry Stash Bash - a complete surprise when I logged on this morning. Today's idea was to make a minibook, which suited me fine as I've felt over the last few days that I wanted to make something other than a LO. So here's my offering, have used MME Out & About 1 papers, which I've had for a while and really like, but wasn't sure how to use on a LO, so suited this little book perfectly.




I've still to add photos and embellies, I have a person's birthday present in mind, so I'll have to pull some photos together for it.

In other news, today's My Freedom blog prompt asked if I prefered to scrap with a single photo or a group of photos. Well, I find it easier to scrap with one photo, I think it opens up the design more, but sometimes you need more than one photo to tell the story. I often turn to a sketch to help me layout multiple photos. Here's some of my recent favourites.

It's the final week of My Freedom, that was over quickly! I'm about a week behind, but am going to my first ever all day crop on Saturday so plan to do a bit of a catch up then.