Playing Catch Up . . . . Again!

Just as I am all up to date with challenges, scrapping and blogging life throws me a taste of reality. The past week or so have not been good times and right in the middle of the Red Ribbon House Cyber Crop all my good intentions of joining in with the fun went out of the window.  I did however manage 3 of the challenge layouts

Challenge 1 was a blind scrap life and boy was it tough to get my head around this. We were given step by step instructions to follow and its amazing how very different everyone’s LO’s were. Im not too good at sticking to instructions so I went off on a tangent with mine.

Smiles at Playtime

I used papers from MCS August main kit and the photo is
of me with our first son Joe many moons ago.

I love this Teddy cardstock sticker from the 5 & Dime range from October Afternoon

Challenge 2 was a layout using a starting point from Shimelle. It was the first time I had used one of her starting point prompts and I loved it. It was just enough to get you going but left you so much space to run with the rest of the layout.

Sandringham Estate Memories

When we lived in England we used to take out our caravan every spare weekend we had. The kids loved it. Not too far from our home was the Queen’s Sandringham Estate in Norfolk and we enjoyed many fabulous holidays there. This photo was taken in the forest park.

Sandringham is famous for the bird watching and in particular sppotting Jays. This metal badge belonged to Joe but he kindly let me snap the back off and use it on my page.

And lastly, challenge 9 (Yes I know I skipped over 3 –8!  I was hoping to come back to those later along with 10 & 11)

Just a quick fun LO. The challenge was to leave our comfort zone. I love doodling but it never seems to work out right so I thought I would play around with different doodling and this was the result

Hello

I got just a bit carried away! But it was fun to do and the finished page is um . . . . .  well, different to say the least!  The cutie peeping through the chipboard circle is Tony aged approx. 10 months old.

I have a few other layouts finished ready to upload to the blog and a  retreat to look forward to next weekend so plenty to keep my mind from wandering into the darker side life and bringing my mood down.

Thanks for stopping by,
Hugs
Dee
xxx

A Natural Beauty

Well, I may be just a touch biased with the title to the photo but hey! This adorable photo of Amy sleeping has been in my ‘to scrap’ box for a long time and when I saw the colours of the My Creative Scrapbook September kit I knew they were perfect for each other.

I have used this sketch which is from a challenge on the My Creative Sketches blog as the basis for my page.

I wanted to use the circular background in a slightly different way then usual so I chopped into it and curled the edges so that the beautiful rose pink tones of the reverse side could be seen.

I love these papers from Echo Park’s Victoria Gardens range the colours are just gorgeous.

Most of these blooms came in the kit but I have added a few from my stash supply. The small sentiment cardstock sticker is one from Melissa Frances.

The bottom of my photo was quite dark with the shadows of the Moses basket so I added a few border strips to soften the look and trimmed it with a bow. The bling was a ‘happy accident’!  I didn’t intend for it to be on the bow but I dropped it and it landed pretty much there (although at a bit of an angle!) and I thought it actually look quite different so I straightened it up and left it there.

Thanks for stopping by,
Hugs
Dee
xxx

Scraps of Darkness Kit . . . part 1.

My first Scraps of Darkness kit arrived last week and on first impressions – I was not too impressed. Now that's not to say the kit wasn’t fabulous its just that it wasn’t ‘me’ but then that was the idea behind subscribing to the kit in the first place, to take me away from the pretty pastels, the florals, the blooms and such like.

So over the weekend I took part in a Cyber Crop on UKScrappers (LO’s from that fun to follow!) and in between challenges and compulsory Bingo! I played with my SOD kit.

This is the result – Im still not sure whether I like or not, its certainly different from anything I’ve used before. The range of papers are Bo Bunny’s Et Cetera. Everything from the papers to the blooms to the alphas has had some inky done to it and then the chipboard alpha’s and scrolls had a dose of crackle medium too.

The photo is an old one which was actually a ‘proof’ from a photographer but we didn’t buy any photo’s from him as they weren’t that good! That said, I always kept this small pic because I think there is something cute about it. I altered the colour to sepia in Photoshop (something Im not very good at, but hey I try!)

I know I was suppose to do something away from the ‘norm’ with the kit but I kept being drawn to add blooms! They had a dose of distress ink to make them all blend with each other. I do like the effects of the crackle medium its the first time I’ve used it even though I have had the bottle for well over a year!

So, there you have it my first LO with the Scraps of Darkness kit!  There is ton’s more stash to this kit, I have only just scratched the surface. The other papers are from Teresa Collins and whilst still not what I would normal buy they seem a little less daunting than these Bo Bunny ones. Watch this space there will be more.

Thanks for stopping by,
Hugs
Dee
xx

And The Story Begins

 This week the challenge on UKScrappers was set by Nerlly and its been a bit tricky for me to meet all the criteria. The theme is Anticipation – scrap something I have been / was excited about and make an embellishment using something from the event. Well that was the bit that had me stumped, I just didn't really have anything to hand that I could use.

I then came up with the idea of scrapping one of my old photo’s for the baby albums I am making for my kids. I used  my August LE kit from My Creative Scrapbook and this is what I ended up with.

I cant believe I have actually scrapped this photo as I have had it hidden away for over 13 years!!  I was only 20 weeks pregnant with our twins when this was taken and I already felt enormous. It is the last photo of me during the pregnancy as I wouldn’t have anymore taken as I got bigger – and I got a lot bigger!!

The embellishment I made includes a picture from my first scan at 12 weeks which was when the twin pregnancy was confirmed. I love that scan picture –Amy and Tony look like they are sleeping in bunk beds. That is how they stayed through the entire pregnancy, with Tony on the top and Amy on the bottom.

And The Story Begins

This butterfly is from the Timeless Treasures rub-ons by Kaiser Craft.

The other criteria from the challenge was to use a clock or clock hands and to use something I didnt like and alter it.  The black floral paper in the upper circle is my altered piece. I was just plain black and white so I chalked it to match in with  the colour scheme.

Thanks for stopping by,
Hugs
Dee
xx