Nothing ever goes the way you plan

Well today certainly hasn't gone to plan.

We were all supposed to be going on a coach to Lakeside & Ikea, Abi wanted it as a Birthday treat instead of a party. Well it was all booked & we were supposed to collect the coach at 8 this morning, But Abi had already been sick 4 times by then & she decided that she didn't feel well enough to go, despite having some anti sickness tablets. She was so excited last night & had planned to take pictures of everything so she could make a mini book of the day.Well Dan decided that as all the tickets had been paid for that he would still go, but as he couldn't raise any of his friends at 7am this morning he went on his own armed with an Ikea shopping list for me. I need some more rails & storage for the craft room.
So I need to look at the dates the trip runs again to re-book for her.

As we were all up so early Paul is in the garden constructing a large wooden stand to put all of the veggie planters on, we definately need them to be off the ground as Bramble has a habit of weeing on everything out there. I have been busy updating my blog with a layout I started last week, its my first stitched layout.
The stamps used to make the flowers are from the Vintage vogue set that are in the current Mini catalogue & are available until 30th September.

Poor Abi has passed out on the sofa, but at least she hasn't been sick for the past 3 hours, so fingers crossed she is over the worst of it.

Fond Farewell day 9

Something a little different
Todays fond farewell project is a 6 x 6 layout of one of my cats

Stamps
Bird on a branch
Just perfect alphabet

Ink
Pink pixie (FF)
Basic black
Cardstock
Whisper white
Pink pixie (FF)
Designer paper series
Night & day speciality pack
Tools
Crop o dile
Stamp a ma jig
Circle punches
Trimmings
Jumbo eyelets

All of the above products are from Stampin' Up and are available to purchase through me.

Pretty Flowers

Whilst surfing last week my friend came across this tutorial for making a scrunchie flower, I am always looking for different ideas for making handmade embellishments so I thought I would give it a try.

For my flower I used
Designer series papers ~ patterns
Bashful blue 113648
Cardstock
Apricot appeal
Lavender lace
Certainly celery
Stamps
It's beautiful wheel 111201
Live your dream 111486
Ink
Versamark
Glorious green
Tools
Scallop circle punch 109877
Mini glue dots 103683
The flower takes 11 scallop circles cut from the Designer series papers, they all needed to be scrunched up, I am loving scrunching, if you had asked me a year ago to scrunch up my papers or horror of horrors to rip my paper & would have looked horrified, but now I love scrunch, rip & ink. I'm not sure who to credit with this transformation, but I do love Tim Holtz.




I decided that these flowers were a little to full to use on a card so I added the flower to a layout instead.

It finally feels like spring has arrived

The sun is shining & the sky is blue
Here's hoping that we have seen the last of the snow for now.
I am at home today as Abi is now finally on the mend, { fingers crossed } Paul has gone to see the grandchildren & deliver some birthday presents, we couldn't go as Abi isn't up to the car journey as its a round trip of 300 miles which we thought was too much for her at the moment. Paul has taken the camera to take some up to date photographs of the grandchildren as they are growing so fast & changing every time we see them. So Dan has gone out for a walk to take some photographs for his final project for his A level photography piece, he went with the instruction too try & find me a snowdrop picture so I can finish a little mini book layout I started a few weeks ago at the crop.



Stamps
Forest Friends
Inks
Close to cocoa
Old Olive"
Cardstock
12" x 12" Kraft card
Designer series papers
Merry moments

So he has the camera, its freezing cold so what else is there to do?
finish of some of the projects that are sitting on the desk in my craft room.

My Mum told me a funny story on the phone about a conversation that she had about snowdrops last week.
She was in a taxi on her way too the dentist & making polite chit chat with the driver.
Mum " Isn't spring lovely, I haven't seen many snowdrops yet"
Taxi driver "sorry You've not seen many!! Snowdrops"
Mum " maybe the ground is still freezing & they cant poke through yet"
Taxi driver " Snowdrops come from the sky love" { I can just imagine the puzzled look on his face obviously think my Mum is suffering from a senior moment }
Mum " No dear snowdrops are plants & they come up through the ground, Your thinking of Snow flakes they come from the sky"
This did make my Mum chuckle but she's still isn't sure that the taxi driver believed her.

Thank you Dan for taking the pictures for me

Retreat project 3 ~ finished

This is one of my favourite projects from the retreat & it was taught by the lovely Annie who was such a wonderful teacher & so inspiring.

If you ever get a chance to attend a workshop that annie is teaching then it is a must as she is inspiring & witty.

I love this interactive layout & to be truthful is my first double spread layout.

I love the retro kitchen papers that are in vogue at the moment & this layout uses them so well, the tree little photo books are really cool & I had never thought to cut my page protector so you can open the pages of the flip books ~ A top tip from Annie.

Flipped One

Flipped Two

Flipped Three
One of my favourite parts of this project "summer 2009" was reviewing & choosing the pictures It made me realise what a lot of fun we had dring the summer & how much we had managed to cram in with our family & friends. I sat at my laptop annotating the three mini books & printed them out that way I could get as much information in a small space whilst leaving loads of space for pictures.

From a kit

At a risk of repeating myself I am loving Sarahscards ~ scrapbooking kits

.

I love these kits as they take me out of my comfort zone, as they contain items that I am not naturally drawn too. If I chose all of my own scrapbooking stash I think it would follow the theme of pink, glittery, loads of flowers and bling by the lorry load, this has made me very consious to try & not bling every layout.

Sweetie pie

Abi has the biggest, most beautiful eyes ever, they change colour when she cries or is ill, but she does like to make them look bigger still. She can even do her make up on the move.



She does make me chuckle, she was wandering around the house doing her make up.



Papers from Sarahs card kit for July
October Afternoon
Lettering is Doodlebug

Its a girl thing

I am still loving the pictures we took on Abi's 14th Birthday so I have played again with the pictures of all of the shoes she bought & had bought for her.





Papers are from the Sarahs cards kit
October Afternoon
Bazzill cardstock.

Race for life collage Layout

I have recently found the photo machines in Boots not only make small pictures 4 on a 5 x 7 sheet & also 2 on a 5 x 7 sheet but the also make photo collages, I did one a couple of weeks ago of a trip to the beach to try out my new camera, This one is of some of the many pictures I took at this years race for life event.





The papers for this layout include
Bazzill swiss dots
Little yellow bicycle

Family Fun

I had a picture in my head and as so often happens what ends up on the paper is nothing like the vision in my head, and this is one of those times.









The card is bazzill & the paper is Daisy D's

The many faces of Abi

I get much of my scrapbook inspiration from the pictures I take of Abi, she loves posing in front of the camera & is so patient when I get the camera out, she is even beginning to look at different items as props, her latest being a £3 transparent bubble umbrella from Primark.................So watch this space for the next photo shoot.

Here are some piccies I took of the many faces of Abi.

More from the Sarahs kit

I am still working through all of the goodies from my sarah's scrapbooking kit.
It's not often Paul will pose for a picture, so this could be a rare layout.

Scrappin & Lovin it

Each new day brings a new scrapbook challenge, I even dream in scrapbook pages, here are some of the latest.

The paper is a prima stitched paper

Another lazy afternoon spent scrapbooking

Another Sunday afternoon spent scrapbooking

I am still using the June kit from Sarah's cards & I still have loads left, so whoever recommended that site a big thank you. I am now looking forward to the 20th of the month when next months kit arrives. If anyone knows of any other good kit sites then please let me know as I am enjoying experimenting with products & papers I wouldn't normally choose.



I am lovin the Sassafrass papers at the moment.



The garden in the pictures is my sister in laws in Bunwell

Harvey ~ Licious

Harvey ~ Licious

Our cute little grandson visited a couple of weeks ago while I was at work, Abi & Dan took some photo's of his visit so I could see just how much he had grown, I love this picture as Harvey doesn't often sit still & is always on the go so this is a rare moment.



Anyone that knows me will realise that this layout was a labour of love ~ I dont do stitching.

papers are summer soiree By Fancy Pants available at Papermaze

Inspired By Bellaboo