Well Hello There!

Crikey its been ages since my last post . . . . for lots of reasons. Firstly it was because I was really busy with the kittens (as well as all our other furry family members), then I went away for a few days to meet up with girls for a scrappy weekend and then . . .  then December struck. December and Christmas are not my favourite time of year and coupled with long dark nights and miserable wet weather December always seems to be a month when my spirits are low. I get nothing much done and just seem to muddle through the necessary tasks. Thankfully the Christmas celebrations are all behind us now and I can focus on a new year. Im sure 2013 holds many ups and downs for us all. My thoughts are currently on an album to record our year month by month, day by day. I have done a similar album for the past couple of years and its something I want to continue. I just need to decide on a format for 2013 and start some preparation.

I usually start to think about some new years resolutions about this time too . . .  but this time round I have decided my resolution is to have no resolutions. 2013 is going to be a 'go with the flow' kind of year. If the mood takes me, I'll go with it, if not no worries.

Time Fly's When Your having Fun . . .

…… and sometimes when your not! Its hard to believe we are already half way through November . . .  2013 will be here before you know it! 

I’ve been VERY busy over the past few weeks hence the lack of blogging. Unfortunately it has not been busy crafting. I’ve been busy with the furry family members, visiting my sister in London and generally catching up on those jobs that got left while I was away enjoying myself on those back to back scrapping retreats last month.

The trip to London to visit my sister was lovely and as I took Amy along with me we did a bit of shopping in the West End, took in some of the sights and Amy had her first ride ever on a London Bus!

We had a great afternoon in Green Park taking some photo’s. The autumn colours of the trees and all the fallen leaves make for a really pretty scene. I had Amy throwing the leaves up in the air so I could take a sequence of shots . . .  thankfully my daughter loves the limelight and the camera. This was the result after a lot of laughs . . .

These photo’s are just crying out to be featured on a scrapbook page and they will, at some point.

Now for a quick update on some furry family news:

Not long after we got home from our trip I received a phone call from a lady looking for a kitten. She had lost her cat to cancer recently and just couldn’t be without one (I know that feeling) and so this was the beginning of something that I never thought would ever happen. I rehomed a kitten. Everyone who knows me was quite shocked that I actually managed to do it!  The lady was lovely and little Eli has gone to a wonderful home so that made it easier but it was still hard for me to do. I let these little furry characters into my heart and although I know I really cant keep them all it is hard for me to let them go. Mo and Ethan are still here although there was a family interested in them at one point but then they got a kitten from somewhere else. If a home comes up quickly for these two little guys then I think I will be able to let them go but the longer they are here the less chance there is that I will be able to part with them. Their little characters are really starting to show through and Ethan in particular is a very affectionate boy liking lots of cuddles. Time will tell.

We’ve also been busy helping out with a foster dog named Marley. He came to us as the alternative was the local pound. He is a wonderful dog and very sociable considering how he has been kept the past year. The good news for Marley is that we have a possible forever home for him. He has met with the family and their dog and everyone got on great. He is going for a doggie sleepover this weekend to see how that works out so fingers crossed he behaves himself and we have a happy ending.

So, anyway, back to the crafting side of things, I did manage to do just a little bit of crafting over the past couple of days. The House Challenge on UKS this month was to create a LO using a blue, orange and cream colour scheme. Here is my entry:

Been There, Done That, Got the T-shirt!

When I saw the colours for the challenge I knew immediately the photo I was going to use. Its an old one of me and Amy from 2006 taken in our hotel room in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. We were all dressed up in our Kenny Chesney t-shirts ready to go to the concert and what a great concert it was!  We had a total blast and sung our hearts out all night long. It was one of those moments you wish you could love over and over again, the atmosphere was amazing.

I have sorted through my ‘in progress’ projects and still have tons to do so here’s hoping I manage to get a bit more crafting time in over the next couple of weeks.

The Look

This is my LO for the Creative Craft World Challenge this month. This is the first time I have played along with the challenge and I found out about from my UKScrappers teamie Heather when she won the challenge last month. Pop over here to see her lovely page as guest designer this month.

We all know ‘The Look’ dont we, the one the kids give us when they are fed up of us mum’s pointing the camera at them 24 /7 to capture every moment for our scrapbooking ?  Tony’s look says it all really!

This is the sketch we had to work with and my LO . . . . .

I substituted the four photo’s for just one and set about playing with gesso and inks. I used the Its A Boy’s Life papers from Echo Park as they matched the colours in the photo perfectly but they were too bright and I wanted the photo to be the main focus so with a coat of gesso over the top it toned everything down. I got carried away with the gesso and even painted straight onto my photo!  I know, scary stuff!  I love the way it turn out.

Even the alpha’s had a bit of a make-over. The plain white foam Thickers looked too clean and crisp so I doodled around them with a brown journaling pen.

Pop over the the Creative Craft World Challenge blog to see all the other entries this month.

Introducing . . . . .

Eli, Mo and Ethan!

Remember the orphaned kittens I was telling you about in my last post ?  Well, these are the furbabies in question. Eli and Mo are the black kittens and the cute little tabby is Ethan. They have settled in really well and after only 2 weeks you would never believe they were feral, all of them love a cuddle and play. Ethan would be the most shy of the boys and Mo is definitely the most mischievous !  They will be here for a fair while yet so no doubt they will be making a few more appearances on my blog.

Im Backkkk!!!!!!

WARNING!!!! HUGE POST ALERT

Phew!  What a fortnight I have had. First stop was my retreat at Loch House Farm with some of my teamies from UKS and what a blast we had. Laugh, chat, eat, sing and scrap . . .  basically we had a ball. I managed 10 LO’s and a mini book whilst I was away (I know . . .  crazy productive … lol)  The mini book is constructed awaiting photo’s so once they are in I will share that in a separate post, but for now here are just some of the LO’s I did (some I cant share just yet)

The twins with their chicken pops back in 2000 -

Tony doing ‘you know what’ in the bath tub -

All three of our munchkins enjoying the hot tub back in 2002 -

And Joe aged 2½ giving me the biggest bestest smile face ever! -

Joe looking rather dapper in my sunglasses this summer -

And finally, Joe showing off his catch of the day!

I’ll share the rest over the next few days as one or two of them just need a few finishing touches.

So after 5 wonderful days with the girls I flew home to recuperate before the next retreat. Well, that was the idea . . . but oh no, it never quite works out as we plan does it. After a good nights sleep in my own bed on the Monday night I woke on Tuesday feeling just a tad tired but that was OK as I had nothing much to do other then sifted through photo’s ready for the retreat coming up that weekend. The phone rings. Its my vet. Three orphaned feral kittens have been brought in to be destroyed  . . . .  the rescue shelter cant / wont take them (apparently because black kittens are so hard to rehome!)and my vet is having a hard time putting these babies to sleep as they are so clean and healthy and thriving. Will I take them ?   . . . . .  oh course I will!!  I immediately set to work erecting the kitten pen then went off to pick them up. They are doing great!  They are so cute and I will introduce them to you all in a separate post dedicated just to them.

So, back to the plan. Of course having 3 babies in the house is just a bit distracting so getting my stuff ready for the retreat went a but haywire. Friday came around and I was jetting off again, this time to Coventry to attend the Creative HeART and Soul Retreat. Wow!  What a retreat. Debbie and Tracie the organisers did a fabulous job. Everything was wonderful and all the little ‘extras’ they put on for us were delightful.  Our teachers for the weekend were Erin & Laura fco-owners rom Glitz Design, Jody Sanford the co-owner from Fancy Pants and Tracie Hudson who taught the Authentique Classes. I havent finished any of my projects from the classes yet but I will hopefully get them done during this week. Its mostly finishing touches and adding photo’s to mini books.

And breathe!  So, just a bit exciting, just a bit tiring but a whole lot of fun.  I dont have time to sit back and relax though . . . . over on UK Scrappers there is a cyber crop starting this Friday to celebrate its 10th birthday and a few months ago I was contacted by MaryAnne and asked to do a class. I was so honoured to be asked, its my first time at doing a class for such a wide audience (I have only done one for my teamies in the past) and Im just a bit nervous about it all. My class goes live at 3pm this Friday and its a mini book class . . . pop over and join in the fun, there are going to be loads of great classes going live over a 10 day period and everyone can join in.

Thanks for stopping by!

Windswept Sookie

Its the first of the month so time for the reveal in my Scrap-A-Sketch group!

This month was Lisa’s turn to choose our sketch and she selected this one from
Dusty Attic. Its not one of my favourite sketches but there were elements
of it that I did like so I decided to use those on my LO.

You can see from my finished LO that the lacing effect is there, the photo placement
with the strip at the bottom and the tag, although I chose to put my tag at the top of my photo instead of at the side.

The photo is of our adorable Sookie taken during her first trip to the beach. She absolutely loved it!  She was not in the least bit bothered by the crashing waves of the ocean and she loved the sand.

 

Notice the ‘Love It’ in the centre of the heart ?  Its from the bottom of the Coordinations Cardstock!  I was trimming off the bottom strip when I spotted it – ooh perfect to go onto my LO!  I removed the button from the centre of the Prima bloom and relocated on the tag. To go in its place I used a chipboard heart in the centre and then popped the ‘Love it’ piece of card on top.

The tag serves well for the journaling and then tucks behind the photo neatly:

The paw print brad was a must!  I have a whole packet of these that are slowly getting used on various furbaby LO’s:

I am so excited to finally be in October!  This is set to be a great fun month for me. In a few days I am heading off to bonnie Scotland to meet up with some wonderful friends for a 5 day scrapping fest then its home for 4 days to get refreshed and refuelled before jetting off to another scrappy retreat with friends at the Creative Heart & Soul Retreat in Coventry. Spoilt ?  Yes you might say that! With all this creative gathering I should have plenty to share on my blog during November.

Towards the end of the month there are a few fun things planned too but more of that later on!

Thanks for stopping by today x

Life is Sweet

It sure is!  Im packing up kits and tools this week ready for the off next Wednesday when I head to Scotland to meet up with friends for 5 long days of chatting and scrapping. I have to be super organised due to the harsh weight restrictions on luggage imposed by the well know ‘budget’ airline. Last time I took the car over on the ferry and although much more expensive I did have the luxury of throwing all my stuff into the boot without a worry on weight. Still being more organised prior to the trip and taking only what I need for each layout should, I say ‘should’ result in me being more productive. We’ll see.

So, in between my super organising I did this layout for the weekly challenge on UK Scrappers. I love the weekly challenge, its great to get the cogs of creativity turning and this weeks challenge was a cracker!  The challenge was set by Sue (aka. MiniOwner) and she gave us a recipe to use. The beauty of the challenge was that we could mix up our ingredients and quantities so long as all the ingredients were used.

This is the recipe I worked with:

1 Photo, 2 different pieces of cardstock, 3 words in my title, 4 metal embellishments, 5 circles and 6 different patterned papers

And this is the result of my ‘cooking’ . . .

I folded my 5 circle's in half and slipped them over the edge of the kraft cardstock.

I loved doing this challenge and will be holding onto the ‘recipe’ to use in the future.

Take one cheap note pad. . . . .

some sheets of canvas paper, a few scraps of Fancy Pants Country Boutique paper, a bit of lace and a button and what do you get ?






This.



This note pad is going to sit beside my computer so when I see something that inspires me I can jot it down, draw a picture or even print out things and stick them in.

I used the twill ribbon to create a clasp and placed a small magnet underneath the canvas sheet before sticking it down and the opposite magnet is sewn in under the lace bloom. 

Not bad for a 34p note pad eh!

You Are My Sunshine

A quick and simple LO for this week challenge on UKScrappers. This challenge, set by the Bijoux Belles was right up my street. Pink and Bling being on the menu! Another part of the criteria was to use up scraps which was perfect for dipping into my scraps box and fishing out some odds and ends of pink paper.

Thanks for stopping by!

Melted Chocolate

Regular visitors to my blog will recognise this photo . ..   5 flaked out chocolate labs back in May of this year NOT enjoying the mini heatwave that hit Donegal.  This is one of my all time fav photo’s and Im pleased to have been able to use it for the House Challenge on Ukscrappers this month.

The theme we were given to play with was ‘Work, Rest and / or Play’. Obviously I went with Rest!

My journaling is written on the little tag that sits tucked in at the top, complete with exact time and date that the photo was taken.
I used my Cricut to create a stencil and inked on the melted title.

There is a lot of random stitching on this LO just because . . .  I like stitching!  The small tags have pawprint ribbon on them but it doesnt show up too well on the photo’s.

Well the cooler weather is moving in fast here in Ireland and the nights are drawing in so I don’t think the dogs have anything to worry about with regard to overheating for the next few months!

Thanks for stopping by!

Challenges, Challenges!!

 

We all love a good challenge don’t we ? UKScrappers weekly challenges are a great way to get me scrapping and most weeks I do try to play along.

Last weeks challenge was a tough one for me mainly because it asked for an Autumn themed photograph and I didn’t have one in my ‘to scrap’ pile so I had to rummage through the older pics from my click box under the bed (Yes, Im sure everyone has one of these!). I found this adorable pic of Joe way back when he was a wee munchkin. He had been given this wooden aeroplane by a family friend and desperately wanted to fly it so we headed off to Belton Park to have a play. Trying to explain to a 3 year old that a heavy wooden aeroplane wouldn’t actually fly was fun in itself!  I know the photograph isn’t particularly Autumn themed but it was taken in the Autumn of 1998 so it was as close as I could get. The trees in the background are starting to lose their leaves and the colours changing so the Autumn element is in there.

The other criteria for the challenge was to use leaves on your LO and a colour scheme made up of the traditional Autumn colours of green, orange and yellow. The papers are all from my old stash pile with a few tiny bits from the scraps box thrown in.

Time to Fly

I punched my leaves out with a Stampin’ Up punch and then drew on the with an embossing tool :

Now onto this weeks challenge, which was much easier for me as it was made up of all my favourite things. Use the sketch provided, use chipboard, use ribbon and sew on your LO. This challenge was designed for me!

The photograph I chose for this one is another from my oldies (that rummage through for the Autumn themed photograph actually produced a handful of pics which have now found themselves sitting in my ‘to scrap’ pile x) I just love this photo of Amy & Tony back in 2001 having a hug. We were all dressed up for a party and waiting in the hallway to leave when I snapped this. They were always hugging each other and holding hands and I love it that they are still as close today, if not more so.

The colours on the photograph play a big part in what papers I chose to scrap with and this one was screaming out for the new Fancy Pants papers I bought recently  Country Boutique. The pale browns and blues were perfect.

 

As part of the sewing element I made a lace flower and finished it off with a button centre. The two butterflies represent Amy & Tony.

My chipboard element came in the form of this square with a heart cut out. I actually used the reverse side showing the raw chipboard colour (the ‘real’ is hot pink!) and inked the edges to make it blend in.

The little cherub is so cute perched there!

Im almost out of this paper now but I love it so much I think a re-order is on the horizon.

Thanks for stopping by!

A laugh is a smile that burst’s

Its the 1st of the month so that means time for the reveal in our Scrap-A-Sketch group on UKScrappers.  The sketch was chosen by Barbara. I really liked it apart from the butterfly on the background. I did consider changing it to another shape but in the end I decided to just eliminate it altogether.

I absolutely love this photo of Amy. It was an ‘out take’ from one of our many photo shoots for me to practice my newly acquired photography skills. She loves to pose so is a perfect model for me to use and whilst the posed shots are lovely they are not as great as these ‘natural’ ones. She was working hard at her perfect pose when we both burst out laughing (I cant remember why). I kept shooting and I got a few of these laughing frames.

The title for my LO came from one of those cute cat pictures that was on FB and I immediately knew I wanted to use it with this photo.

I used the centre of the sketch pretty much as it is including placement of the embellishments. For the first time I tried stitching on the photograph. I’ve seen it done and admired it many times but was not brave enough to punch through one of my own photographs until I thought about it and decided that it’s a digital image that I have on my computer, if it doesn’t work out I can just print another one!  Don’t you just love digital photography ?

I added a tag tucked behind the photograph and on the back of it is the journaling about how this photograph came about and when it was taken.

Thanks for stopping by!

Should I Stay or Should I Go ?

A title taken from the well known track by The Clash  . . . .   perfect for this LO of Joe that I did for the weekly challenge on UKS.  Niki set the challenge and part of the criteria was to scrap something that has happened recently, within the last month.  These pics couldn’t be any more recent  . . .  they were taken on the day the challenge was set. Joe reading over his Leaving Cert (The Irish equivalent to A Levels) results and trying to decide what his next should be. He is only 17 so quite young to be going to University although he was offered a place at NUI Galway to study Science with a specialist subject. We gave him all the support he needed to make his choice and after a few days of stress and indecisive dithering he made the choice not to take up the offer but to stay back and resit to improve some of his grades and head to university next year. It was a relief for me . . . .   Im not quite ready to have my baby move out just yet (will I ever be ?? . . . lol)  He is a bright and sensible boy and I think he has made the right choice. 

Other criteria for the challenge was to use sewing, tearing and ribbon. All of these are evident on my LO. I stitched on tags that I had made as well as round the edges of the page. The various ‘hidden’ tags hold the journaling which tells the full story behind Joe sitting the Leaving Cert at 17.

I drew round the flat alpha stickers to make them ‘pop’ and highlighted the 17 on the ruler to indict the age of Joe.

Thanks for stopping by!

3 In A Bed

Recession has hit us here in Templemoyle the same as it has everywhere and it became even more apparent the minute I saw this   . . . . .

The budget is stretched more and more each month but rest assured everyone here does have his/her own bed . . lol    I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw Mia Pinkerton had climbed up on top of mum Coco-Bean and brother Bruno . . .  definitely a photo that will be appearing on a LO soon.

A Total Lack of . . . . .

everything!  Crafting, blogging, online chatting and Pinterest browsing. Why ?  Well, I’ve been suffering from a bad bout of reoccurring migraine. I’ve been a sufferer for as long as I can remember and its something you get used to but the latest cluster of attacks I have had really threw me and zapped all my energy. 

Thankfully I’m feeling on the up and up now and the new glasses I pick up this Friday should help a little especially with my computer time (a girl needs her online quota!).

With a quiet house this morning I have managed to spend some time scrapping and produce a LO for the house challenge on UKScrappers which was a colour combo challenge. These are the colours for the challenge, which I absolutely love and could use over and over again.

My old Epson photo printer has finally given up the ghost so I am not very organised with photo’s as I usually wait and print off what I need / want for a particular LO so this time I had to sift through some older photo’s and find one I liked that I thought would work with these colours. I settle on this photo of the three kids from March 2009 (gosh that seems like forever ago doesn’t it ?). I chose it because I liked the green and grey tones in the background and also if you look up close you’ll see that both Amy and Tony have a little touch of pink on their clothes (Amy’s T-shirt peeping out from under her jumper and the lettering on Tony's Fleece) – perfect match to compliment the challenge colours.

Be Seated Little Ones

I used a mask and some ink dabbers to add some interest to the background paper and then distressed some scraps of patterned paper to create a matt for the photo. The leaves are punched from the Owl Stampin’ Up punch.

A little chipboard heart embellished with a pink gem is layered onto a heart sticker  . . . . .

To add in a little touch of the accent pink colour I printed off a sticker using my Brother Label Maker which I have had for almost a year and never used before then added a bit of stitch detail in a shade of pink underneath. I kept the alpha’s ‘naked’ and just dabbed a light touch of ink onto them through the same spotty mask I had used for the background.

To finish off I journalled round the page about our day hiking in the Glenveagh NP and how tired the kids where when we came upon these three seats in a clearing in the forest just in time for them to take a much needed rest.

This morning has been a lovely scrapping time . . . .  its good to be back x