Cordon Blue & A Scrap365 Sketch

Hello and a Happy Monday to you today.
I hope you had a good weekend.

I have a sketch challenge to share with you this morning.
It's the December Scrap365 sketch.
Here is my LO that I made for it.

When we were in Island of Adventures we hunted down the Mystic Fountain.
There had been chat about this fountain on the Florida Forum that I go on.  We'd visited this park on our other trips by never noticed this fountain. We hung around and laughed so much. The fountain shouts out and is so rude to people.Pretends to spit at people when they go past and make them jump. It was so funny.Louis kept trying to run up and through coins in but was going around the outside to avoid being squirted. The fountain was shouting at Louis and calling him 'Cordon Blue' (he was wearing his blue Chelsea top). It was shouting ''Hey you Cordon Blue!!'' Are you chicken???''.
We spent quite some time here, it was so funny : )

I bought lots of Basic Grey 'Serendipity & Shine on' whilst in Orlando so used some of these new bits on this page.

If you would like to see the Scrap365 sketch, you can view it here and play along.
The closing date to play along is 20th December.
Have fun : )

xxx

Celebrating

Good Morning,
I hope your week is going well.

I'm feeling excited today.
I've been struggling with my scrapbooking for some time now. I scrap loads and generally for a DT purpose and under deadline. I feel like I've kind of lost my way a little. I still always stand by my word and scrap for a reason and not just because I have to. This has always been important to me that I scrap to keep these stories for my family and no matter what else, this is the most important thing to me.
But it's very rare that I finish a LO these days and think ''I'm so pleased with that'' and then want to hang it on my studio wall. It's more the case of, that story's been told and then add the LO to the pile to file.
I've been wanting that to change. I want to get that feeling again when I make something that I really love. So I've been looking back at the LO's I've made that really stand out and seeing what they all have in common.
I've found that :

I need the white space.
I love bright colours.
Layers
A good colour combo

I feel ready now to move on and think of these factors when I scrap in future.
Some of my favourite work has been when creating using a colour combo challenge. I like the colour combos. I tend to wander in my studio and collect bits that match and lay them out on my desk before starting. So yesterday to practise this theory of mine I popped over to my lovely friend Ronda's challenge blog 'One little Word'. I used to love these challenges and was really sad when Ronda closed the blog. I'm so happy that Ronda and the girls have decided to start over again. It's a very inspiring blog.

The word is 'celebrate' and here is the LO I made last night.

The theory worked and I'm thrilled with it : )

I started with the the photo. That was instantly my inspiration for my colour combo.
It was taken the very first night of arriving in Orlando. That feeling of excitement of just arriving in our favourite place and chatting about all the wonderful plans we had for the next days to come.
We did the boring bits of unpacking and popped to Publix for groceries and then we headed to the bar and pool. It was 8pm and still so warm. We ordered pizza and Ade and I had Buds. Dipped our feet in the pool and chatted and laughed. It was the perfect evening to start and really felt like ''yes, we are on holiday''.

Like I said, I started by gathering up bits and pieces to go with my colours.
Then I lightly misted my background using 4 different mists.

I kind of decided what was going where, but when I layer I like to have the flexibility of changing my mind and also adding extra bits. Something I always do is use Double Sided Tape, this repositions so much better that pva glue and I just stick it in the centre like this.

  
This way when it's stuck in place I can slide extra pieces under if I want to.
 I carry on layering.
I love this Cocoa Daisy Stamp . It has the years and the months.
Rather than break it all up and stick to a block, I kept it on it's original packaging and used it whole.

I added a lovely cluster of Basic Grey Embellies which fitted in so well with everything here.

And it all came together so effortless. One of the things I like about the layering technique is that it's a good way of using scraps. I have a pretty dish on my desk where I create and I purposely keep odds and ends for this reason.

I feel like celebrating now. I feel like I've found my old scrappy self again : )

And to finish off I needed to add my journaling. I wanted to document this first special evening.
As always I get to this point and think ''where to journal''. As I only stick down the middle bits, I can then journal on tags and just slide them under.

And look how well my two get on. I'm so lucky that they are getting older and still remain such good friends.

After all that I'm left with my LO that tells our story, has been a delight to make and also leaves me with that old feeling of happiness as I'm so so pleased with the outcome.
I'm so pleased with this.

 
Does anyone else have their own 'thing' when it comes to scrapbooking?
Something that works for you.
I'm so happy that I've pin pointed what mine is.
Thanks for letting me share this with you xxx

My Girl

Hi,

This month we are celebrating 5 years at Cocoa Daisy.
To add to the celebrations we are having 2 weekly challenges throughout September.

Here's the first:

Gimme 5!!

This first celebratory challenge is all about the number 5.

To play along please create a LO with at least 5 layers, with at least 5 different patterned papers and 5 of something on your page.


I've used papers from the last 2 Cocoa Daisy Kits. All pretty Basicgrey papers.


I took this photo of Hollie last week.
We were having some attitude issues with her towards the end of the school year and I'm so thankful to say that she's been an absolute gem all summer long.


I made these 5 flowers by cutting the circles out the Basicgrey pp, crumpling and attaching with a pretty bg brad.

If you want to join in, play along here.
There's a lovely Crafters Workshop template up for grabs.

The first Lessology challenge is now now live here.
Go and take a look and see what Audrey, Kirsty and Yvonne have made.
I love what they've done : )

My Dad went back to the states today, so I'm feeling really tearful and sad.
We've been doing this since I was 18 and I still can't get used to it. I swear it gets harder each year.
I'll be back tomorrow with a happy face.
Lots of love xxx