Inspiration found ...

.. so I wanted to do a LO with November's Scarlet Lime kit, I'd chosen the photo and was going to use Rough Draft's latest sketch, but I couldn't decide how to bring it all together until I saw this LO on UKS, which gave me the perfect theme and the chance to do some hidden journalling about my thoughts on this year and my hopes and dreams for 2009. The papers were created exclusively for Scarlet Lime and I love the colours, not ones I'd normally choose.

And here's the finished album for my sister, waiting to be wrapped up and given to her on Saturday. I'm pleased how it's turned out, there's a few more pages I could have done, but I can always add those at a later date.

Not doing much ...

I thought with DH being away this week I would have scrapped more, but being on my own looking after the girls has left me feeling a bit flat. I did manage this one last night though, it's a scraplift of Laura's 'The best days are those spent with friends' LO. The photos are of my sister on top of Snowdon. I didn't do the walk with her, but my stepmum said she moaned an awful lot on the way up, so this LO is to celebrate her achievement, and it is also the closing page in her birthday album.

My thoughts are also turning towards a Xmas Journal. I wasn't sure that I would do Shimelle's again this year, I did struggle to keep up over the main holiday period and some of the LOs for the prompts this year would end up being duplicates. Then I saw Ali Edward's December Daily Diary and thought that might be a more appropriate to record December's events. So I think I'm going to end up with a combination of the two. I've bought some lovely October Afternoon Good Cheer paper and have a 6x9 album on order, so that should keep me busy

Oh, and I start this soon - Jessica Sprague's Story in Hand class. It's designed to record stories in your life that you may not necessarily want to scrap, but are still important.

Another from Rough Draft ..

Am really enjoying the Rough Draft sketches - here's #4.DH has gone to Japan for 11 days - eek - but I have sent him with a request to look out for crafty items, not sure what, so if anyone has any suggestions - please let me know!

I think I've mentioned before how much I like what Christy Tomlinson (Scarlet Lime) did with the Sepetmber kit. So much so that I've scraplifted another one of hew LOs! The photo's not great (what with the dark nighs) and it looks a bit more lime green than it actually is.
This is another LO for my sister's birthday which is now in 6 weeks. I've 8 more LOs to do, which doesn't seem many in the timescale, but I'm struggling with dating photos now. Luckily I'm off for a home visit tomorrow so hopefully my Dad and Stepmum will be able to help.

Rough Draft ..

So I've found another challenge blog that's just started - Rough Draft. It's a sketch challenge and their first one really suited a LO I wanted to do for my sister's album. The journalling will be added to the strips at a later stage by my Stepmum. A couple more capturing Time entries

Week 33 - Believe - "I believe that I am bringing up the girls to the best of my abilities, making the right choices for them, teaching them to be the best they can, loving them always."
Week 3 - Gratitude - "I am grateful for good friendships that have stood the test of time and the arrival of children. I am also grateful for sunny and relaxing afternoons to enjoy together."

Right off to watch Saturday Night telly!

A good day ...

at the Paper Dolls crop. I went to a new crop (for me) in Nuneaton today and had a lovely relaxing day in the good company of fellow crafters. Here's what I did - firstly the title page for the My Freedom album that I started in the summer. I had intended to do another DLO aswell but it wasn't working right, so I'll leave that for another day.

LO from DD's 5th Birthday party back in January
And finally 3 LOs for my sister's birthday album (which I am woefully behind with - it's her birthday next month eeekkk!!!)

(Journalling to be added)
All in all a productive day I think!

And there's more...

Day 10 & 11

Some more A-Z entries. This one I've done twice for each of the girls.
This one I've stitched on (through the paper circles), which is the first time I've ever done that - think I'll be doing more in future.
This is using the same skecth as for Learn Something New Day 11.
And finally, I've done the title page for my sister's album.

Finally some scrapping ...

Although I haven't done much over the Summer Holidays, here's a couple of recent LOs, the first I did yesterday and the second one at the crop I went to a couple of weeks ago. Both are for my sister's album (hopefully I be able to do some of my girls soon!)

Close up:

I'm working on a mini album of our recent Welsh trip, so hopefully I'll be able to share that with you soon. I've also got round to putting a slideshow of my work back onto my blog (I lost the old one when I updated my blog design). I've put them into albums I'm currently working on, so will give me a good view of how I'm getting on with them. If you click on the pictures, it should take you into the album.

Kitten News - he now has a name - Monty - decided on by the girls, and I'm more than happy with it. Sarah asked if he was a Silver Tabby, he's not, but he's as close as a moggy can get to it I think!

And then the rain came ...

Sorry for the absence, I was camping in Wales last week, had such a lovely time with the girls, my Stepmum, sister, some other mums and daughters. The weather was perfect for camping - dry and not too hot! Since then I haven't felt like doing much, but I did allow myself some time on Saturday to do a few LOs.

Firstly, my Work LO from the My Freedom Class. The journalling is written like a script, with the characters beings Me, Them and Him. Took me a while to get into it, but then I quite enjoyed writing in that style.


The next two LOs are for my sister's album using some of my Scarlet Lime kits up. The first picture is from her 9th Birthday Party, and the second is with my Stepmum and I'm leaving her to do the journalling. The colours are more muted in real life.


Going back to My Freedom, I haven't really been keeping up with the blogging prompts, but this week's are as follows:

Monday - Tell your blog readers about someone who has been a creative influence in your life -- a crafty mum, aunt or grandparent, an influential school teacher or a friend who brought out your creative side, perhaps.

Without a doubt that would be my mum - she had the skills to be a dressmaker, but sadly didn't fulfil her dream with that. She was always sewing clothes for us, knitting, crocheting, was a great cook. She taught me how to use a sewing machine (with a few teenage arguments about it along the way), and I'm sure if she was still alive she would share my passion for scrapbooking.

Tuesday - What's your favourite reading material? Like the kind of favourite that you would take to read if you had to be cut off from the rest of the world for years and years?

Would have to be the Classics - Jane Austen, in particular, I can read and reread those sort of books over and over.

Today - Who was your personal favourite teeny-bopper pin-up? Share a story about that dreamboat or another happy teenage memory with your readers.

My first I suppose was John Taylor from Duran Duran. From there I moved onto Michael Praed, who played Robin Hood in TV in the Eighties. Hmm, I must have liked men with long hair - I don't now! I can't say that I really used to swoon over them, I think I had a couple of posters up, but that was about it!

Time travel anyone?

Today's blog prompt was if you could travel in time for just one day, where would you go and what would you do? My first thought was back to one of the wonderful places DH & I visited before kids - maybe Jaipur, Bangkok or the Great Barrier Reef. My second thought was to time zone shift to Australia so that I could give my little brother a big hug, he's having some personal problems and trying to comfort someone on the telephone just doesn't work. But really I would travel back to a day in the two weeks between my daughter being born and my mum passing away, so that my mum could have met and held her grandaughter (we lived in different towns) and I could have told her how much we love her. Mum, I miss you xx

On a happier note, I've been quite productive today and done 2 LOs for my little sister, I'm pleased with the progress I'm making with her album.

Tag you're it...

.. or rather I am! Laura tagged me today, so here goes:

Five facts:

10 years ago: not married, my DH to be and I had bought our second home together in Leamington Spa and we were planning our trip around Thailand (can't believe it was that long ago!)

5 things in today's 'to do list' (I've made mine tomorrow's list):
1. Organise cat sitter for our holiday (we go to Majorca on Saturday - hooray!)
2. Make 'holiday to do list'
3. Weed garden (groan!)
4. Do my daily work (approx 60 mins)
5. Paint DD's clay pot with her

5 snacks I enjoy: custard creams, olives, hummous & oatcakes, Green & Blacks choccie, crumpets

5 things I would do if I was a millionaire:
1. Buy a house by the sea
2. Take my girlfriends on a luxury health spa weekend
3. Take a trip to see my brother in Australia
4. Buy DD a pony (seeing as she's so in love with them!)
5. Get tickets for the Men's final at Wimbledon

5 places I have lived:
1. Torquay
2. Bristol
3. Basingstoke
4. Birmingham
5. Warwick

So now I tag 5 people, hope you'll play along - Steph, Paige, Nat, Tinkerbelle, Debbie - you're it!

Have also done a quick LO today for my sister - I recko if I do a LO a week, then it'll be done in time for her November Birthday! It based on a sketch by Jane Dean in Scrapbook Inspirations April issue.

Finally ..

an entry into the girl's A-Z albums - G is for Glastonbury and Glyndebourne - the journaling explains how they have different dress senses - one 'festival chick', the other 'smart'! As with other entries, I have kept the LOs the same and have used Cosmo Cricket paper (although this is some new yummy Hey Sugar).
Another LO for my sister, the photos are of her Christening, but the journaling (which I'm going to get my stepmum to do) will explain why her name was chosen. My two brothers and me all have names with 3 letters, so my dad and stepmum decided to keep this tradition when my sister was born, which I think was a lovely idea.

Lots of photo sorting

Manage to sit down yesterday and sort out all the photos for my sister's birthday album. I thought I'd do 20 LOs but looking at all I want to put in, there are at least 24 - eek! So here's no. 2 - not sure my stepmum will thank me for posting the photo of her on my blog, but she won't know!
I've also planned a few of my A-Z pages, just need to print some photos out.

Here it is ...

... the LO I started yesterday. It's for my little sister who turns 10 in November, and I've decided to make a full album of 20 pages, of her birthdays, special events etc. This is the first LO I've done and is of her favourite bear, there's a hidden journaling tag for my step-mum to write some notes on. Just 19 more to go!!