Cocoa Daisy Crop - Be Inspired

I have another Crop LO for you.

This time I'm playing along with Jody's inspirational challenge.
Jody has a selection of fairground pictures for us to base our LO's on.
You can see them here.

I took the circular shape of the carousel and ferris wheel and came up with this.

I documented the story from a while ago when Hollie no longer wanted homemade treats. She wanted shop bought cakes in her lunchbox at school just like the other kids.

I used to tell her how lucky she was that she had a Mum that wanted to bake nice things. Now though she totally gets it and bakes almost as much as I do now.
I love that full circle thing.
It all comes good in the end.

Enjoy your weekend, I hop you have some treats in store : )
xxx

Cocoa Daisy Crop - I Love Cookies

Day 2 of the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop.

I'm kick starting the day today with my music inspired challenge.
Please pop in to Cocoa Daisy here to check out my full challenge details and to play along if you wish.

Here is my LO.

I only stuck the very bottom of the flowers down so that the recipe card that I typed could slide out.
It's one of those recipes that's so quick and easy. Both Hollie and myself can whip it up in minutes. But the cookies are so good they don't last long. Hollie quite often makes them when she gets in from school and we eat them whilst they are still warm and gooey : ) 

 

And I love this new mask of mine from Dylusions. A little gift from my lovely friend Steph.

 

Please pop over to Cocoa Daisy today. It's going to be lots of fun and full of inspiration.

Happy Scrapping xxx

Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop & 'Get Off The Dog'

Today is the start of the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop.

The crops are always so much fun and run all weekend long.
Sadly I can't play along this time as we are away, so I've been playing in advance instead.

If you haven't registered to join in, please do so here.
It's free and lots and lots of fun.

I've played along with Sharmaine's challenge which is the first challenge of the crop.
All about creating movement in your title.
You can see here for more details and ideas.

 Here's my LO 'Get Off The Dog'

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind him touching her when it's like this.
But what really gets me is 1. when he's in school uniform ready to leave in the morning, 2. when we are all ready to go out, 3 when he's clean and in pj's. The other thing is the way he strokes her. Not soft strokes, but full on so you see the fir fly up off her and then drift around in the air or he lies right down with her so half of his body is on hers and she just looks over as if to say 'help me'.
Now we've had Poppy for 4.5yrs. You'd think it would have sunk in by now, but no. We have to say this to him several times a day **rolls eyes**

They look quite a like, don't they??!!
: )

And my wavey title.

Please visit Cocoa Daisy for some amazing inspiration this weekend.
You won't be disappointed xxx

Our Happy Place

It's almost time to visit our 'Happy Place' again.
I have that feeling of nerves mixed with excitement right now.

I made this LO for Scrap365 a long time ago using a photo that Hollie took of us with Louis last time we were there.

I'm so looking forward to all the new photos to scrap when we get back.
This time we are going 5 cameras.
Louis and Hollie have a little pocket camera each that also does video.
I have a Cannon G10 which I LOVE. A great smaller sized camera but has fab SLR functions at the same time.(plus does videos). We bought this for the trip last time as it's so handy for the parks.
Then Ade has the big Nikon SLR. Lovely but big and heavy. Not so good for the coaster days.
I also bought Ade a cool little aqua camera for his birthday in August.
It's water and shock proof and does vidoes too. Can't wait to take this in the pools and on the water rides : )

Don't forget to register for the Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop whilst I'm away. If you are registered already for Cocoa Daisy then you don't need to do it again.
You can do it here.  
We also still have some kits left here.

Lots to do now : )
See you soon xxx

It's all in the Planning

We are in serious countdown mode now.
Just a matter of a handful of sleeps before we head back to the 'Land of Mouse'.
I have partaken in some serious research and planning with this trip.
It's our third visit to Orlando and I wanted to find different things for us to do.
We are still doing all the parks but with a slightly different spin on them this time.

I've started the memory saving already.
Louis is our slower grower (I have no idea who he takes after!!) we have been measuring him to see which rides he can go on this time. A couple of weeks ago we all got measured. I thought this would be a fun thing to document whilst I journaled about our trip preparations.

Papermaze kindly sent me a very lovely box of goodies recently to design with. You can see the full contents on their site here. There is a lot for £10 and it goes a long way. I love the Echo Park papers. You can read the full blog post on Papermaze here if you wish.

I used picmonkey.com to edit my photos.

Well I'm off now to get some ironing done whilst Ade and I watch the last Harry Potter. It's classed as trip research. We will be visiting the World of Harry Potter in Island of Adventure next Monday after all **big smiles**

xxx

Tips & Tricks with Cocoa Daisy

Hi and welcome to my blog today.


I have some tips and tricks to share today over on the Cocoa Daisy blog.
I dissected this LO that  I made with my October Kit.
I like to try and use stuff more that just the one way.
I get quite a satisfying feeling from doing that.

I used nearly a whole pack of the Amy Tangerine 'Oh Yes' Stickers.
They are fabric and completely lush.
I think Amy Tangerine's collections are top of my list right now. I love how fun her products are to use.
I cut these numbers out from the SC - American Crafts - Yearbook Paper and just went around roughly with a pencil so they stood out more. As the bazzill is textured, you get quite a nice effect.

I used my Amy Tangerine packaging from the alphas and turned the photo into a little pocket.
The alphas come in the main kit. They are almost transparent and come in a brown set and in the aqua that you see here. Both in the one pack. And I used this 'Today' journal stamp here. 
I seem to have found a new love for stamps again.

And there you have my cheeky two.
I played with the photo a little to give it a slightly aged look and a slight orangey tone to match the LO.

I'm feeling abit funny today. My sister is at Gatwick right now waiting for her flight to Orlando.
We are so so close. We both have a very empty feeling when the other isn't around.
Like something is missing.
I got in from the school run this morning and just went to pick up the phone to call her. Habit!! We chat every morning once the kids are at school. As we are heading out next week, we won't have a morning chat now til 1st Nov!!
I'm so excited for them though. This is their first Orlando trip. Her kids are the same age as our's and then there's little Millie too who I scrap about quite abit. She's just turned 4 and is more excited than anyone. She wants to meet all the princesses : )
I can't wait to meet up with them next week. We are meeting at Sea World. Excited!!!

Please see my Cocoa Daisy Blog Post if you want to see this LO dissected.


Thank you for stopping by today xxx

Family History on Osney Island

Hello,

Each year when my Dad visits from USA we take a trip back to our home town Oxford. We drive to Oxford and take a double decker bus from the Park and Ride. The kids love this bit and always rush to the top at the front. Such a novelty to go on a bus : )

We drive past a little Island on the way in. Osney Island. The link is here for you to see. I've known for years that this is where my little Nanny grew up and I know the story of her meeting my Bamppy at a dance on Christmas Eve, but I can't remember ever going on the Island.
So this time Dad took us for a little drive.
We pulled up outside the house where my Mum grew up.
This house here.

Just a few doors down is where my little Nanny grew up as a child and lived with her family.
The roads are so tiny and so are the houses. They had such big families. It's amazing how so many could all live under the one roof. The island is surrounded by the River Thames and Nanny used to swim in there as a child. It was really hard to imagine them as kids playing on this road.
It was lovely to visit, I'm so glad Dad took us here.

I used my October Cocoa Daisy kit for this LO.
I used some Amy Tangerine Embellies from the Trailhead addon.

I used my JB Paint Dabbers for the background.
It's been a while since I used them

 I plan to scrap some more this afternoon.
My friend Anne is popping over, she's making her new baby's mobile whilst I play with papers.
Sounds like a perfect afternoon.

I went to a friends for dinner last night with another friend.
It was really good to catch up. Now the kids are getting older we see less and less of each other.
But it was a late one and I'm soooooo tired today. Worth it though.

Lots of love xxx

Funny Gareth Stories

Hi,

I hope you've enjoyed your weekend.
The Cocoa Daisy October Kits are now on sale today.
As they've been selling out so fast, Christine has added more this month.
I have been having so much fun with this kit. When you first look at it the colours are very Autumnal, but it's a very very FUN kit and very easy to bring out the bright colours.
Take a look at the main kit and the addons here.

The first LO that I made using the kit was this one here.

It's a very silly LO full of very silly stories all geared around my brother this summer. We love him so much, he's the baby of the family and we just love to tease. Isn't that what siblings are for???

 

I love the bit of Sassafras in the kit, a lovely pp to cut up and layer. 

There are 2 sets of Amy Tangerine Alphas in the main kit. One set has two sheets in the one pack. 1 sheet in brown and 1 in turquoise.

 

I used this 'TODAY' journal stamp for one of my stories.
Along with some of the Amy Tangerine embellishments from the 'Tailhead' addon.

 

One of my stories was a little rude to have on full view on the LO, so I slotted it behind the photo out of view from any little eyes around my studio : )

  I've got some more LO's still to do for the Fall crop coming up this month. I need to be organised as we are going away next week. I have to say though, the pages are coming together very well and easy using this kit.

I hope you have a lovely day.

It's so rainy and cold here today : (

It's definitely a latte and homemade strawberry muffin day in this house xxx