Ta....daaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Hello : )

So, I don't blog for a whole week and now here comes a mega post.
The reason for not blogging, well nothing to tell. I've worked soild all week apart from a quick visit to get my nails done yesterday morning and a catchup costa coffee with lovely friend Claire.
So today, not only have I left the house and had chineese lunch with hubby, I've made Mum this mini book and the very last piccie here is a picture frame too that I've made today.

I'm so chuffed with this mini book. I've used all the stash from the latest Scrapagogo kit which arrived this week with some alphas, thickers and ribbons I've added to it. I've used gesso for the first time to create the texture on the cover which I loved using, lots of paint and some glitter sand too : )
I can't fit all the piccies in the 1 post, so have spread them out over 3.
We went to Charmouth over Easter. This is where Mum and Andy go all the time. Off in their little caravan. They are so happy down here and so excited when we visited last month and wanted to show us all the places they love. Seemed perfect making this book for her as she never takes photos and it's her birthday next week. I hope she loves it. We are visiting her tomorrow, so will find out then.
Here it is......

and finally the back page. Mum, Andy and my two cherubs.

I've also made up this 5x7 frame for her of the latest grandchild Millie. I took this photo of them last month. Isn't Millie just the cutest little thing??!!

I hope she likes her gifts : )
xx

Am I mad?????

I desparately wanted to go to Radio 1's big weekend in Swindon. Ade and I both registered for tickets and so did all my family that live in Swindon....the only one that got them was my 21 yr old punk brother who doesn't even follow radio one and listens to things like Marilyn Manson. He was going to take a friend who then last night decided she wouldn't go as there was a 60% chance of rain.
We went to swindon last night. The Link centre where my sister works (the ice skating bit) had some of the radio 1 dj's in. So we left the kids with Mum and all went up. Sarah-Jane (my sis) was working, but my brother -in-law, his sisters and their partners were with us. It was such a laugh and the skating was fun.
Here's Aled from radio 1....he's just so sweet.

And Sarah-Jane and me.

Anyway, we got back to Mum's just before midnight and my brother asked me if I wanted to go with him today. I ended up declining : ( I feel gutted, but I had to come back with the kids and it takes over an hour to get to ours and we didn't get home until 1.30am. To then have to drive back to Swindon this morning again and I felt so guilty to Louis as Hollie is on a sleepover tonight and we were planning to do stuff with him and I know how much Ade wanted to go too.

So today I feel sad.....I so wanted to go : (

Long Weekend....long may it last.....

I love 3 day weekends. I feel so chilled. We've had a stay at home weekend which has been lovely. Layins followed by family breakfasts at the table, we explored a new part of the common yesterday. It was so beautiful, it felt like holiday, Ade's been gardening (whilst I scrapped) had a bbq, Hollie had a couple of friends for a sleepover and we've had a trip o the garden centre today...It's been lovely.

Here are my LO's from this weekend, still making my Easter Book.

This one is for the UKS -SLYMI challenge - to scrap an outdoors photo.

I've used bits of my Scarletlime kit and some old Scrapagogo too. I love those rubons.

The story behind this photo.....my adoring Hollie's creative mind. She found a large pebble with a hole through it and it was automatically her camera.

And this one is a Cocoa Daisy challenge - I followed a sketch and used a stamp too. The sketch was turned and the stamp is a stitched journal stamp from Autumn Leaves. These bits are most Cocoa Daisy and a wee bit of scrapagogo.

My little fossil finder : )

We've just decided to go for a walk up the common before kids bathtime.

Hope you've had a good weekend. xx

CD+SL

Just thought I'd show you this LO for our Easter album I made this week.
A Cocoa Daisy challenge (we were shown an advert to inspire our LO) and I've used Scarletlime bits to make it. Some old and some new.
We are in the middle of a girlie slumber party right now.
Hollie has 2 friends sleeping over. Hope we get some sleep xx

ColorCombos

I'm having a pretty busy scrapweek. I've made another LO this morning which I'll probaly put up tomorrow now. I've used oil paints and have managed to get yellow smeared everywhere.

I got asked to be feature member of the week at Colorcombos...yay !!!
You know how much I love those colorcombos.
So here's what I made using hot pink, red, yellow and white ......

Ended up being a bit of a therapy session making this one. Got rather emotional.

If you want to take a look at what the team came up with using the same colours, visit here :

http://colorcombosgalore.ning.com/

Scrap Crazy....

Oh dear... I got it bad....just can't stop scrappin'. It's not good you know, I've got so many other things to do, but I just can't stop myself. My head is just over flowing with ideas. I blame them over at Cocoa Daisy to be honest : )

My latest lO's are courtesy of the crop.
This one was inspired by some tv posters that we were shown. I love this photo, it makes me laugh. The kids are always pretending to be super heroes : )

I've used plenty of sassafras, paint, lots of layers and the local newspaper : )

The next one is my all time fave I think. Took me forever to plan and make.

It's quite odd, I don't like the 'tynchy stryder' type music, but listening to Radio 1 last week I listened to what was being sung and the words just about summed up me getting together with Ade. So all the journaling on the LO are the song lyrics

Rather chuffed with the outcome.

All Touchy Feely

I know, I know, I know.....always going on about how busy I am, never got enough hours in the day blah...blah...blah.....I did the dangerous thing of having a quick peek over on Cocoa Daisy whilst having a sip of my latte and look what just happened !!! **roll of the eyes**

It didn't take that long.....and it was so much fun : )

The challenge was to use Fabric....I used a fair bit I think and did some stitching too.

The piccie was when we went with friends to the woods and built this den in the Easter hols.

Right.....15mins before school run....better get some work done xx

Fab Weekend

I have thoroughly enjoyed the cyber crop weekend on Cocoa Daisy. It was so much fun with amazing prompts, challenges and inspiration. I have a list to work through this week on LO's I still want to make and I haven't even had chance to have a proper look at the classes yet.

I took part in a 1hr challenge last night. At 6pm we were told to produce a 12x12 in cocoa daisy colours and include 'heart' in the title. This is what I made:

I was really pleased with my end result and. It didn't win, but Nicky and I did get a special mention.
This is my Spring challenge. To create a spring LO with what I like about spring in bullet points.

The next LO...is laid out ready. I have this huge idea in my head, but not quite sure if it will turn out quite as I would like it to. xx

More from the Cocoa Daisy Cyber Crop.....

I'm thoroughly enjoying this crop and taking inspiration from places I never dreamed I would.

Here are 2 LO's that I've made so far....

This is another for our big mini Easter book. The inspiration has come from a sketch and the LO also needed to include a heart, stamp and a quote.

I've used a combination of the latest cocoa daisy kit and some scarletlime too. I often find the two go so well together.

This next was inspired by an old 'police' cd cover. I've used the painted stripes featured on the cover as my background and told this story I've been wanting to get into Hollie's album for ages.

The story goes....When Hollie was 3 she had been learning about the emergency services as pre-school. I was nursing Louis in the lounge and Hollie came into the room with the phone telling me she had called 999. The phone then rang and it was the local police wanting to confirm that everything was ok and I didn't need help. I was horrified, I couldn't believe she had called them. I had a chat with Hollie and explained that you only called in an emergency, if something was really wrong. She said that there had been an emergency.....she was feeling cold So she had called 999 to tell them she was feeling cold.....how embarrest was I???!!!

Back to the scrapping now : )

Cocoa Daisy Cyber Crop

Yay...the time is finally here.
I've been really looking forward to the Cocoa Daisy cyber crop.
I have a couple of things started already and looking forward to the new challenges and prompts over the weekend.
I made this last night from one the older CD. prompts this month. To recycle and use up old packaging.
I've used some old parcel wrap and the daisies and made from the Dream Street rubons packaging.

This is going to be the first page of our Easter Holidays 'big mini book'.
Off to finish a LO now. Have a good weekend xx

Kits, Kits and more Kits

Well, it's been a busy week.
I've been working like crazy as the kids are now back at school following the Easter holidays. So it's been work before school, during, after and evenings. So I rewarded myself with a day off yesterday. Steph came to visit for a mini crop. I felt so chilled and loved the chat and scrap. Thanks Steph xx

I've been very lucky to receive 4 beautiful kits this past week. Scrapagogo, Cocoa Daisy and Scarletlime with the addition of their project kit this month. I love them all but there's just something that extra bit special about Scarletlime : )

Here is a LO using this weeks colorcombo. This weeks colours are pink, green, orangey yellow and white. It was set by the lovely Rhonda from Cocoa Daisy. This is Hollie during her science week at school at the beginning of the month. Everyone had to come dressed as a scientist one day.

I'm really enjoying the Cocoa Daisy forum lately. Sue is setting some fab daily prompts.
This is one from earlier in the month. It's all about showing the differences between 'him & her'.
I have these really old polaroids from Clarks shoe shop. You know the ones they take when your baby gets their first shoes. My 2 were so different when it came to moving about as babies. So I thought this was the perfect time to get this down on paper.

All these scrummy bits and pieces ar from this months sparkley new scarletlime kit.

And finally, a Cocoa Daisy prompt from this week, to go use a transparent sheet. This arrived with this months Scrapagogo kit along with the beautiful fabric thickers and the gingham ribbon too. Isn't Poppy Dog beautiful ?????

It's the cocoa daisy cyber crop starting tonight. Really looking forward to that : )

Our Holiday Album in the Making

I loved making my A4 big mini book so much a couple of months back and sitting in the mini book basket in the lounge it gets looked at so much (rather than another 12x12 album sitting in my studio) so I've decided to create another one the same size for our Easter holiday.
I have 3 of my pages made......and loads more to do : )

This is is based on a challenge on CocoaDaisy. What a beautiful kit this month!!
The prompt was to use 4 pp squares and use 3d foam on any embellishments or journaling.
So, here's what I've come up with.

This next one I've used the colours from colorcombos.

Challenge #117. And CocoaDaisy did a prompt a little while ago to scrap a LO with lots of teeny photos. Perfect for all these piccies of the kids messing about just as we were about to walk up a huge hill (Ade and myself being slightly more sensible as we'd seen the size of the hill and how steep it was, we decided to use our energy wisely....the kids beat us up it anyway though : )

These was made using CocoaDaisy bits old and new.

And this last one was the recent OLW challenge. Use the word 'NO'. I've gone on about the way the kids don't need anything to occupy them. Here they played on the beach for ages, just amusing each other.

Most of this stash arrived this week from scrapagogo. I just added the ribbon and blooms and the felt thickers.

I need to get some tidying done....and 3 cards need to be made, but really not in the mood for card making. I hate it when I have to make something, never feels the same.

Happy weekend xxx

The Best Easter Ever

Happy belated Easter. I hope all my friends had a lovely Easter break.
We've just had the best one ever. We went down to Charmouth, Dorset and stayed right on the coast in Charmouth. It was beautiful. We ended up staying longer than planned and think it will be our place for th Easter break from now on. Mum was staying nearby too, so we met up with her which was lovely. And as planned we did lots of fossil hunting on the beach. The kids loved it.

I got back into scrappin today and printed off one of our holiday snaps. Between us we've ended up with 500-600 odd photos....wow!! I headed straight for the colorcombo challenges when I got home, excited to see what was up this week. Naturally this was the first challenge I've joined in with. This weeks colours are turquoise, green, dark brown and yellow.
Here's my LO.

I've mainly used last months Scarletlime kit.

And here's some piccies of our lovely trip.

Where we stayed...Charmouth

The Fossil Hunters

Fishing With Nana & Andy in WestBay

WestBay

Very Proud Mummy

I'll come to the 'proud' bit in a sec.

I've created this LO today....my little daydreamer. I feel I understand Hollie pretty well. We are so alike in many ways. I don't see there being anything wrong in beaing a daydreamer. Daydreams are quite often the best place to be.
The wording goes 'My little Dolly-Day-Dream' 'always in a world of your own' 'I love your daydreamy creative head' 'you remind me of me' .
This LO was completely inspired by a LO on the CocoaDaisy forum. I only joined this week. (Nicky told me to) but it seems a fun and inspiring place to be. I've been getting the kits for a good 8mths now and love them.

It's abit of a scraplift and I've also used the handcut clouds and handmade flowers. Mine are made out of our local newspaper. All the bits are from this months kit and I've added some doddlebug & American Crafts alphas too.

Now for the 'proud' bit.
Hollie came out of school just now very excited. She has been awarded the gold certificate award. This is something very few children get. Only 1 per class per term. So in the whole school year 12 out of 120 get the award.

I feel so proud of her. She tries so hard, but isn't top in everything by anymeans so often doesn't get noticed. Maybe she does after all : )
Well done Hollie xxxx

April Fools

Yesterday was April Fools day. Louis really go into the whole thing. I created this LO today using this week colours on the colorcombo blog. Orange, Turquoise, chocolate and milk.

I used bit from this months Cocoa Daisy kit and some other bits from my stash too. Funny, when I first saw this pp, it didn't appeal to me at all.

I've journaled on the 7gypsies wanted tag and slid behind the photo all the things Louis got upto.

We put ketchup into his hands at the breakfast table, so when Ade came in from walking poppy-dog we said he had a nose bleed. Louis then came up with the idea of wearing his old birthday badge to school so everyone would think it was his birthday....that worked a treat and tricked kids and teachers : ) That's his badge on the LO.

He also decided to take his whoopie cushion to school. He managed to put it on his teachers seat before she sat down but it didn't go off : ( He still found it funny anyway.

I think he's already making plans for next year x

A Special One ....

A couple of special LO's from me today.
I've just made this LO using this months Scarletlime kit with the sketch from Mojoholder.

(click piccie to read the story)

And

I wanted to share this LO today.
I created it very recently, but had been wanting to since July 07.
I kept trying, but the LO just wouldn't come together. Now almost 2yrs on I'm finally happy.

I love this little story and will now file this LO into Hollie's 12x12 to keep safe. xx