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!