Sketchy Thursday

on a Friday.

With all my excitment yesterday, I didn't post this weeks Sketchy Thursdays Sketch.
Sorry about that. So here you go, a double pager this week.



Don't be put off though, if you don't fancy a double LO, you can just shrink it like I did. However pop over to Sketchy Thursdays as alot of the DT did do a double jobbie.
(click on the photo)



I'm still scrapping photos from our Florida trip this year. It seems so long ago now : (



I love how my journaling circle turned out. The lines are loosely hand stitched.



Now reading this title, I could have completely disagreed with this yesterday afternoon. Little fella drove me mad. Very tired, very whingey and moany. Early night was in desperate need.

Sketchy Thursdays are looking for the September Guest Designer right now. There's a HUGE prize going too. It's worth taking a peek. You have until 21st August if you want to join in. Visit here.

Thank you for all my lovely comments re Cocoa Daisy, really means alot x

My Exciting Announcement

And now I can share with you **smiles from ear to ear**
I've been invited to join the Cocoa Daisy Design Team.
I'm a Daisy Diva : )

I'm excited beyond belief and feel so proud to be part of the team.
I've been getting the kits for a long time now and just LOVE them. I've been a regular on the forum for well over a year now and feel like it's become my second home. I've made so so many good friends there that even though I've never met them, I wouldn't hesitate to class them as my friends.
I feel so honored to be working along so many talented designers.

Here are some of my Cocoa Daisy LO's that I've done since getting the kits. Some of these have been featured in Scrapbook Inspirations last year.










And lastly, thank you to my best friend Nicky who introduced me to Cocoa Daisy ages and ages ago. xxx

Scrap with a Twist

Hello, just a quick one from me.
Don't forget to check out Twisted Sketches later today for the new challenge.
My LO involves lots of paint and Ade on a scooter!!



I'll be back later when I get the thumbs up that I can share my news : )

Do you have an Etsy shop?

This post is for all you Etsy shop owners.
Have you seen this from Sketchy Thursdays?

Beginning Sept. 9., Sketchy Thursdays wants to help you show off YOUR Etsy shop! Do you have a crafty store? Do you know someone who does?

We're looking to help promote Etsy sellers with a month of Etsy prizes!! Each Etsy shop sponsor will get this badge for their blog.



Visit Diana's blog for more details here.

The First......

After a few very busy family days, I now have a couple of worky days to catch up on 'work'.

There's a few things going on in the scrappy world right now for me.
This last week was the first LO's from the new DT for Twisted Sketches. We are split into 2 groups.

This was the sketch with 'Rough' being the twist'for the first team.



I took this photo Saturday evening during a walk near us.



I did acually use some BG alphas. I never tend to use these, but licked a red watercolour pencil and went over them abit : )



The next sketch on Twisted Sketches will go live tomorrow. It will be my first LO being on this DT. So pop by and take a nose.

And today my first Etsy buy arrived. I'm so pleased : )
It's Ade's birthday prezzie ready for next week, so I will wait until then to show, just incase I have a nosy husband lurking nearby.



I have a very exciting announcement to make very soon. I've been wanting to spill the beans, but I understand I will be able to do so tomorrow. So watch this space xx

The Studio - Storage

This weeks The Studio challenge has just gone live. We have something slightly different in store for you this week.


This challenge is for those who fancy creating something a little different! I don't know about you, but I'm always on the lookout for inventive and pretty ways to store crafty items. Your challenge this week is to alter or create from scratch a pretty storage item for your craft space.


I had a good think for this weeks challenge. I wanted to make something that could really improve my craft space. So I had a good look around my room and decided that my paints, mists and inks really needed a better organised space.

To start this I took this empty box and Cosmo Cricket 'Nutmeg' papers.
We are being sponsored by Cosmo Cricket this month and received a lovely big box each to play with. A winner this month will also receive cosmo cricket goodies.



I took the metal piece off the front so it was flat. I completely spray misted inside and covered in the wood look papers. (I love these)



I now have somewhere to store my paints neatly.



So, thanks to this weeks challenge, this area of my studio has gone from looking like this.



To this : )



Our woodlands trip got canceled very last minute yesterday due to very heavy rain, so we ended up in our local town for Chinese and a mooch around the shops. It was however a lovely evening, so we met up with our friends for a really nice evening walk instead.

We are heading over to my sister's today. Hopefully a relaxing one.

Enjoy your Sunday xxx

First Impressions

My first impression of this Cocoa Daisy sketch, I thought beachy, blues, aquas. I selected a photo and a large journal note, but it just didn't feel right. It's now all been sat on a desk for a few days. Doing nothing.



So today is Saturday. We canceled our camping trip with friends as the forecast is wet, wet, wet. So sat in my studio first thing with Ade, having coffee and discussing our options for this weekend. He was sat at the pc looking for ideas and I made this LO. So either the LO came together very quickly or we have been procrastinating for a very long time!

The LO ended up nothing like I originally thought it would.
(click on photo)



All about 'ME'.






The girls over at Cocoa Daisy have created some beautiful LO's. Go and see for yourself. Feel free to join in with any supplies you have.

We are going to the local woods just a few minutes walk from our house with the family we were supposed to camp with. I think we are going to give geocaching a go.

Have a lovely Saturday and hope it's not so rainy for you xx

Smile it's Sketchy Thursdays

I am so so tired today.
It's suddenly hit me this afternoon.
I got up super early to start work, did some housework and had a breakfast playdate with friends at 9.30am. I made homemade American fluffy pancakes and they were yum.
So now, sitting here at 4pm, I could so easily sleep.

Let me share with you this weeks Sketchy Thursdays Sketch.



I flipped the sketch, printed all my photos the same size and came up with this.
Can you still see the sketch? It's there still somewhere. (click on photo)



A LO looking at Hollie and her gradual changes over the years.
Lots of Pebbles Inc on this one.



I have very arty kids this afternoon, Hollie is in the garden painting a couple of small,old tables and Louis has discovered my promarkers just now. He's in drawing heaven. I just hope they survive the afternoon.
I think I shall make a latte and enjoy the quiet.

xxx

Love a Bargain!

I'll tell you about my bargain find in a sec.

Today, I have this LO to show you.
Yes Sue, Louis does give me lots to scrap about : )
He does remind me of a mini version of your David at times.

So here we have Louis again.
I've been over to Creative Scrappers this week and taken inspiration from their #115 sketch which you can see here.


(click on photo)

And my tip of the day. The black trim along the bottom was pale blue. So I painted it black : ) Rather chuffed with that.



And the journaling about my odd but funny child.
The note paper came from a lovely booklet that my friend Nicky gave me. Thank you Nicky x



And now on to my bargain find.
Lat night Ade and I went to B&Q (Like Home Depot in the USA) looking at bathroom suites as the kid's bathroom really needs revamping. Whilst I was there I was looking at paint as I really want to refresh the kitchen walls.
I saw these tester pots and instantly oooohhhhheed over them. Aren't they beautiful?
I've teamed them with my Claudine paints just as a comparison.
Now don't get me wrong, I love the Claudine Hellmuth paints. Out of all the scrapbooking paints I've used, her's have been far the best. They feel so so good to use. But they do cost over £5 a pot.
These pots from B&Q cost £1.98 each, the pots are much bigger as you can see and are solid glass. I was so so excited last night. I haven't tried them yet, so will let you know. If they paint aswell as the look, I will be buying a whole load more : )



So that's it from me, a top tip and a bargain find.

Thanks again for all your lovely comments.
And Anne, I'm sorry the weather isn't so good in France, but glad you have found a way to use your time wisely : ) Hope the kids are well and having fun x

Work beacons now.
Love as always xxx

Colour

Colour for me changes everything. The way I feel, my moods. I need bright colours to make me feel happy. For example, I hate staying in a hotel no matter how grande if the room is dark. Dark 4 posters really aren't my thing, they just make me feel down. Light and airy lifts my mood no end.

Have you visited The Color Room?
I love this challenge site. It's been going for a little while now and has the most beautiful colour palettes every week. To decide on my colours before starting a page really works for me and is often how my planning starts.
Seeing his weeks though, I wasn't so sure this colour combo was for me.



That's what I like about these colour challenges though. I thought I'd see what I had matching and pulled out some old My Minds Eye - Laundry Line papers and ended up creating this yesterday (whilst I had all those little boys over playing. Which I will just add was a great success. 5 little boys playing footy, lego, writing comics and watching Jurassic Park for 5 hours. That was 5 hours of crafting for Hollie and I)



As much as Hollie hates this photo, I think it's beautiful. Ade took it during our picnic last week. I've used 3 mists & 2 types of paint. The laundry line papers. The large flower was misted too and some Bo Bunny Rubons added.



I've also got these cards to show you today. I made these for the Papermaze blog.
You can view the sketch I made to get them started, details of how they were made, along with the materials I used here.










Lots of Love xxx

Summer Cyber Crop with The Studio

A note for your diaries, we are holding a Summer Cyber Crop at The Studio on the 21st August. We have many great classes, guest designers and prizes lined up.
More details will follow soon.



One LO from me today that I made over the weekend.
Using this weeks 'Twisted Sketches' sketch I made this.



And the twist is JOY. That what Louis brings me each and every day, without often even realising it.



And as the journaling says, when we check on him at night, we just never know what we are going to find.



Have a great day.
I have a house of 5 boys aged 8 today to play.
Am I crazy?????

Real Life Friends

Happy Sunday.
A grey one here in the south of the UK today, but suits our chilled out Sunday, so no complaining from us.

A new challenge from The Studio today. This should be a popular one. Anything goes as long as there's misting involved : )
I just LOVE my mists.

I misted my whole background using a floral 12x12 die cut sheet. I love using these, just simply turn them so the correct side is face down and spray away. I also sprayed all the little tags & journaling cards.
If you want to see some of the very creative LO's from the other girls and join in too. Click here.
(Click photo to see in more detail)



I took this photo from when I went away with my Scarletlime buddies last October. We rented a huge converted barn in Wiltshire for the weekend.
Here is Emma, Claire, Fay, Audrey, Steph and me. We had such a great weekend.

I really do consider my scrapping friends to be 'friends' even though many of them live across the other side of the world and I've never met them, I speak to many of them every day and they know more about me and my life than my closest members of family and friends I see most days. It is lovely though when you finally get to meet up.



I went onto a new challenge site this week and decided to play along. My friend Amanda designs for Sassy Sketches, so I thought I'd take a look and loved this latest sketch. It instantly made me think of my June Cocoa Daisy kit. So for a change my page was put together in this order...sketch...papers....photo.
This is what I made this morning.



The Girls Paperie paper with all the circles was just perfect for this sketch. I used a couple of the circle face down to mist over first.



The photos were taken on Friday.
We had planned to visit the Wetland Centre in London, but according to the satnav our 50min trip was going to take an additional 80mins due to a couple of incidents along the way, we started another way there and announcement came through the radio that something had happened on the motorway and big tailbacks were starting, so we called it quits and stopped at Windsor instead.
We had our picnic at Great Windsor park and then went into town for a wander along the river and into Eaton, ice cream in the park, stroll by the castle and afternoon coffee.
Whilst in Eaton I picked up a couple of these handpainted saucers from a little thrifty store. Perfect to sit on my desk, so pretty and only 50p each Bargin : )




Enjoy your Sunday.
Thanks for stopping by xxx