Yes, I'm still scrapping ...

... we'll ignore the fact that's its been over 12 months since I blogged and I'll just tell you about a lovely weekend I had in the company of my crafty friends in Circencester at the Agricultural College.

The Bloggers Weekend Retreat started after a group of ladies met on the Scrapbooking for Bloggers course run by Shimelle. I joined in their 2nd year and this is my 3rd meet up.

It's always wonderful to have some unadulterated time to sit and scrap and I'm always more inspired in the company of others.

It's become a tradition to do a round of Pass the Page in the weeks leading up to the weekend and then reveal all our pages together. Each person takes their own interpretation of a page that is passed to them before then passing on a photo of it to the next on the list. It was so interesting to see how the pages change from one to the next which you'll see as you hop through the blogs.

So you will have arrived here from Mrs Wookie's Wanderings and here's my page which I rotated but most of the elements are still the same.

Now it's time to hope onto Alexa at Trimming The Sails.

Here's the full blog list if you arrived here by chance!

Julie: https://jsquaredscrapspot.wordpress.com
Kirsty: http://kscraftycorner.blogspot.co.uk
Jacky: http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.co.uk
Jo: http://curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.co.uk
Mrs Wookie: http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.co.uk
Fay: http://www.beautifullilysramblings.blogspot.co.uk
Alexa: http://simplyalexa.typepad.com/trimmingthesails/
Alison: http://alisonslife-in-the-slow-lane.blogspot.co.uk
Lizzie: http://lizziemade.blogspot.co.uk
Ruth: http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.co.uk
Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

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!