Multi challenges with one page!

Time for a bit of doodling methinks!

Well, I entered the UKScrappers monthly house challenge, the sketchabilities sketch no. 59 and the Once Upon a Sketch November 15th challenge with pretty much the same page.

Now, for the UKS one I did it last minute and could not get a good photo and I also wasn't completely sure I was happy with it but you can find it HERE. I like the basic structure but it didn't feel quite finished.

So, I had a little play with it, rearranged stuff, did a bit more outlining and here it is for the lovely people at OUAS. I did play a little fast and loose with the sketch and I'm still not sure of the blue felt butterflies, but I had some fun doing it.

The focus was about being a woman, and for me the greatest part is being a mother. It's a rollercoaster ride emotionally, but one I never want to get off!

Finally I stumbled upon the sketchabilities sketch HERE and the small photos/white space and the sketch pretty much fitted in with what I had just done so, what the hey, it's up there too.

This is the first time I've done a hybrid layout - the doodling elements came from everydaymomideas from a free digikit which can be found HERE so thanks to her for that.

Thanks for looking.

Once Upon a Sketch

Thank you to all of the fantastic design team at OUAS. If you head over to their site HERE you will see why. My entry for the November 1st challenge got a special shout out. It means so much to me, particularly as it is not an easy subject. And congratulations to all the entrants, there were beautiful layouts there and a well deserved winner!

And thank you to all the lovely and caring people who took the time to comment. They all made me cry (not difficult at the moment) but they are all appreciated very much.

Finally, they are doing a giveaway at the moment so what better time to head over if you've never checked it out. It's one of my favourite inspiration sites. I love the fact that it has a focus on the importance of telling a story and not just creating a beautiful looking page. My layouts don't always work but they mean something to me and that's what matters.

The giveaway is HERE if you want to check it out. It's a gorgeous looking Melissa Frances kit (see below).

Thanks for looking.

November 1st Once Upon a Sketch challenge

I love Once Upon a Sketch and I always find loads of inspiring examples on there. I've never entered the challenges before but this one really sang to me so here goes.

It follows the sketch pretty closely (it was a lovely sketch) and it does have journalling on it, but in Braille. The subject of he page was about when and why you started scrapping. Well, it was because of my dearly beloved youngest daughter. She was an incredible girl who lost both her sight and eventually her life to an optic glioma. For those who don't know Braille the journalling reads "Why do I scrap. It started when I found out you were blind as a way to make photos interesting for you. Now it allows me to spend time with the photos and memories I have of you Isabelle." The photo of her hands is her reading.

The page has lots of texture - there are embossed bits, scrunched ribbon, fabric flowers, buttons, intricately cut chipboard, glossy accents - everything but the kitchen sink. I still always add lots of tactile things to my pages and when I do scrap it always reminds me of her and how she loved to play with mummy's scrappy pages.

Thanks for looking.

Time Flies layout

Well, I did this for a weekly challenge over on UKS and I was going to publish all of it here (you'll see what I mean in a minute) but I haven't been able to take it outside to take a photo as it has done nothing but rain for the last 3 days! Anyway, the challenge was time, bling and patterned paper so I came up with this.

I made a clock using SCAL, used some MME and October Afternoon papers, some old Anna Griffin stickers and Bazzill edges. When you turn the hour hand of the clock it reveals a little pic of my eldest at that age, There are a couple more views here but there are 12 photos altogether on the page. I think the most I've ever used before is 4 so really piling in the photos on this one!

Thanks for looking, and happy scrapping.

I won the monthly challenge on UKscrappers!

Thanks to all the lovely people who voted for my Carnival layout on UKscrappers I won the October challenge. It really cheered me up, especially as there were some extremely lovely layouts as competition. I have only ever done one crop and I have no IRL scrappy friends and I'm no good at judging my own stuff, so it was a proud moment for me. Thanks again.

Happy Halloween

A bit late I know. I just wanted to share the little treat bags that my daughters made for the local trick or treaters - aren't they cute and aren't my girls just so talented. Special thanks goes to svg shop for the treat bag svg which can be found at http://svgshop.com/blog/2010/09/22/free-svg-file-135-ghost-halloween-treat-bag/

Long time no blog!

Well, due to dear daughter's tummy bug and being off school for most of the week I am so behind with my Shimelle class that I have decided to have a break and do some next week with my girls. I think it's the sort of scrapping they'd like and hopefully we can have some fun together. It's not my usual style so we'll all be learning something new!

So instead I did a Halloween mini book for the October week 3 challenge over on UKScrappers.co.uk. The challenge was to use Halloween colours, an unused stamp and one photo of a non standard size. A mini book with one photo was a challenge so I filled the pages with a poem and a load of Jolees stickers. I used WRMK papers, some metal charms, American Crafts ribbons and the base was a Clearscraps acrylic house album. Now, I was going to leave part of this clear but after an unfortunate incident involving some alcohol inks I was left with a sickly brown acrylic shape (and table and fingernails) so I ended up covering it all up with paper, but I think it looks okay.

Here is the rest of the album.

Hope you like it and thanks for looking.

Happy scrapping to you all.

Shimelle class - first layout

Well I did it - I finally made a layout from the Pretty Paper Party class by Shimelle. The idea was to use those little scraps of paper to make something new.

First, here is a piccie of some of the papers I chose.

Hopefully you can see the bits and pieces that had already been cut out of them by my dear daughter (and used to decorate her dolls' house!). Well, I chopped what was left into strips and just went for laying the strips out to echo the grass skirt my other dear daughter (and her horse) is wearing in the photo. The picture is terrible quality - couldn't find my good photo paper at first, and now it's run out of ink so I can't reprint. It's of a competition at my daughter's old riding school where you had to dress up your pony. She and her pony wore matching grass skirts and leis and she won first prize, even beating the pony painted to look like a zebra which I thought was pretty neat. Oh, and if you ever need a grass skirt to fit a pony, believe it or not I have one!

Off to go and drool over the next prompt.

Happy scrapping everyone.

Pretty Paper Party - the first challenge

Oh no, I feel like I'm falling at the first hurdle! The icebreaker is to take a picture of your paper and, I'll be honest, there's just too much of it that I'm scared to. Stacks and stacks of unused (though not unloved!) paper everywhere. I have a big drawer unit and cupboard full of paper but even so there is a huge pile of boxes of the stuff in the corner of my hall. If anyone has ever read the Dirk Gently books by Douglas Adams (brilliant by the way) then that pile of paper is just like Dirk's fridge. I am now hoping that I can get back on track with the next prompt, providing that it's to actually do something with the paper rather than just looking at it!

Pretty Paper Party

Well, I've decided to start the pretty paper party over at www.shimelle.com. Wish me luck - it's the first time I've done anything like this but I have a lot of photos, a lot of paper and a lot of time so I'm hoping this will kickstart me into action. Class starts tomorrow so let's see how we go!

They're just coming thick and fast now!

And hot on the heels of the first post we have this - my entry for the UKscrappers October house challenge which can be seen HERE.

So here's my entry - the journalling is pants as I'm not sure when or where the photos were taken (must ask the inlaws). The wonderful ferris wheel came from Monica's Creative Room - she has some wonderful cut files and is a very talented lady - much more than I am!

First post!

Well, I think I'm about ready to come out the scraproom and into the big wide world of blogland.  Not really sure why I want to do this, I just know I do so here we go... The first thing I'm putting up is a page I did for the August house challenge on UKscrappers.  It didn't win but I like it and one of my daughters ended up snaffling it for her room! The monkey, tree and girl in a jeep all came from myscrapchick.com, the other die cuts for the signpost were from the basic shapes on SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot). The paper is a mix of old Anna Griffin stuff and Bazzil.