Catch Up

Last month I had a lovely long weekend away with some fellow like minded scrappers. We stayed at Lochhouse Farm near Beattock where they feed us well and we  have the use of a lovely meeting room for our crafting.
So along with lots of laughter and chat I managed these LO's

I've been wanting to scrap this photo taken by my friend Dee for a while - used Kaisercraft Papers

This one uses the Bo Bunny Mamarazzi 2 Papers and was lifted from the Bo bunny Blog. I loved doing all the stamping and layering. The photo is taken outside Honnister Slate mine in Lake District. I can see my self having lots more fun with these papers

This is my granddaughters dog Tana and Love to see the relationship they have together. I used a mask and texture paste to create the brickwork effect

This one is me many years ago with my 2 oldest children. Used MME Collectables

My favourite I think. I just love this photo of my granddaughter with her great nana made even more special as her nana died a couple of weeks after the photo was taken. This was done with a prima kit from Jen at Wear Crafts that just cried out to be cut up

Another one with MME Collectables papers the colours are so great in them. This is my granddaughter in her Dads size 14 boots

UKS Challenge and One Little Word

Although I haven't signed up for this class I've heard so much about the one little word - so have decided that I would choose one for me and its CHANGE.

There a few things that I would like to change and continue to change throughout the year. I have already started to loose weight (well that was a year ago) and for the first time I am keeping it off. Although its a slow hard journey I am a 1 and 1/2 stones lighter than I was this time last year. I will continue with the healthier eating and so much more exercise.

Another thing I would like to change is my scrapping style - I tend to do a lot of girly, frilly LO's.
My friend and teamies first solo challenge on UKS was an ideal opportunity to do this and use paint.

I love the sketch she chose and will use this again

I painted the background with gesso first and then stamped with bubble wrap. All the edges are inked. The sewing was done with twine. Photo is my MIL on the beach at Douglas in the Isle of Man. The title is a line from a poem Happiness by Raymond Carver

A Few LO's to Share

Just popping on to share a few LO's.

Christmas has been busy and fun but its so nice to get back to normality

I love scrapping Christmas photos and using lots of lovely Christmas papers. This is Abby opening her lap top on Christmas morning. Even though she is 12 now I still love going to see her open her presents on Christmas morning. Although it doesn't show up very well I have used lots of glitter on this LO

This is the Christmas crop and Holystone and what a great time we all had. I used Authentique's Christmas range - just love those papers

My daughter her partner and my granddaughter in their lovely Christmas jumpers

More for the album I am doing for my x Sister in Law - these are her parents

and her brothers and sister

thanks for looking

December Scrapology Challenge - Monochromatic ( Guest Designer LO )

I was so pleased to be asked to be a guest designer for this month for the Scrapology challenge blog. I knew whatever the technique or theme was going to be I would have to do something wintery or Christmassy as I just love this time of year.

The theme this month is monochromatic and we had to lift this gorgeous LO from Pam - have a look at her blog HERE and this is her LO

To do my LO I gathered together lots of white bit and bobs and then cut some trees, snowflakes, branches and frames with my spellbinders and other dies. I did a little embossing on the frames to add some definition. I carefully painted all the embellies with perfect pearls to make them stand out a little more. I punched around the edge of the page with a Martha Stewart punch around the page and then placed this on another piece of cardstock on foam pads. I've used more perfect pearls on the trees, snowflakes and all around the edge of the page.

The photo is of my granddaughter a couple of years ago

Thanks for looking and please have a go at the challenge. There is a fab prize from Jill at Cardinal Colours

Lesley
XX

Some LO's to share

This is using Authentique Papers and was from a class at the Creative Heart and Soul Retreat by Tracie Hudson. Love the colours of these papers

This one is my granddaughter on her 11th birthday having a girly makeover with her friends.

This was another of the cybercrop classes on UKS and again is my granddaughter when we on holiday in the Lakes this summer

And another Cybercrop class - loved this way of using up your scraps. Its a rare photograph of me and my husband taken again by my granddaughter

Well its back to my mini book orders now 2 down and 4 to go

XX

Fancy Pants Class

This was a class at the recent Creative Heart and Soul Retreat at Antsy Hall.
We all had a fabulous time and roll on the next one in Feb

Papers were all the fancy pants hopscotch range and I loved the paper pleating technique - its so much easier to make paper do what you want when its wet

Photos are of me and my husband on holiday with my daughter, her fiance, Abby and Oliver. My granddaughter took the photos of me and Mike. A budding little photographer I think

UKS Cybercrop

I've had a fabulous week doing some classes and challenges from the cybercrop on UKS.
This was a far more relaxed event than some of the previous allowing people to take their time with their work and pick and choose which classes and challenges to do.

I have been so lucky and won three of the classes.  I have to say I was gobsmacked.

The first was - The Name of the Rose by CoventryAnn.  This was a lovely class and I knew I would do a page for a memory album I am doing for my ex sister in law after the recent death of my X mother law. Although we had been divorced for many years she was nana to my children and we always got on very well and I will miss her so much - she was one of those women who never ever had a bad word to say about anyone

I loved hand making flowers again on this LO I really don't do it often enough
My prize for this one is a large kit from Creative Craft World. I'm really looking forward to receiving it

Next was a class by AliTS - The Adventuress - a Charity shop Bodice ripper.

Lots of inking and misting on this and I had to colour the branch and the twine to match. I mixed lots of colours to do the leaves and had great fun getting very messy

The photo is of my own little adventuress swinging through the trees on an assault course

The prize for this one was a surprise from AliTS - I wonder what it will be


and finally  An Autobiography by Ifa

I very rarely like any photos taken of me or scrapbook about myself. Ifa was so right in everything she said about journalling - who will know that I haven't used the latest papers or products but wont they want to know a bit about the photograph and wont my family want to know about me.  More journalling from me from now on

I loved this photograph of me taken at the Creative Heart and Soul retreat in March by Anna Bowkis.
My prize for this one was 2 classes from Shimelle

And finally don't you just love it when someone de-friends you on facebook.  Good news in my book because at least you know where you stand and they probably weren't really a proper friend and life is a lot easier without them

Lesley
xx

Creative Craft World Challenge

I decided to enter this challenge as my lovely friend Heather was guest designer after winning the challenge last month - hoping she will show me her prize at the next crop we attend together.

The challenge is over at Creative Craft World Challenge blog and they do have some great challenges and examples. This was one of their scrap maps and I do love working from a sketch. Have a look at Heather's example on the blog its fab

Here is mine - its my granddaughters dog Tana and being a Labrador she just loves water and diving under to pick up stones or whatever is thrown in for her

I used Prima Papers and lots of fussy cutting

This was the sketch

Thanks for a great challenge

XXX

Things with Wings

This is my entry for challenge 4 in the Cupboard Trilogy blog.

The theme was anything with wings and as I love butterfly's on LO's it seemed an ideal challenge for me.

The photograph is of my granddaughter who minutes before this photo had been up to her knees in the river with her dog

Did quite a lot of fussy cutting and layering

Scrap a Sketch LO

This is my LO this month. I think a lot of the team have found this quite a difficult sketch to work with and there have been some very different interpretations.

I knew I had to go vintagey with it and chose a photo of my mum, grandma and great aunt. The papers are Prima

I cut and embossed the corner and the swirl and the lacing was done with embroidery thread












The title used American Crafts alphas placed on a cut out banner from the paper and I gathered some lace to go behind the Prima flowers

And finally the sketch chosen by Lisa was from Dusty Attic

Another weekly challenge

I do try to do the weekly challenges on UKS both to get points for my team and it gets me scrapping different things.

This weeks was set by the Bijoux Belles and was to use a sketch, shades of pink, scraps of paper, bling paints, inks or misting


My LO is of three of my scrapping buddies who I go to Lochhouse in Scotland with (shame that Donna is missing from the photo). Anyway Dee, Heather and Suzy really are special friends who share the same hobby and always make me smile and laugh. Roll on next month when we all meet up again

UKS weekly challenge

This weeks challenge was set by the EK crop run by my friend Suzy.  For a while I've been unhappy with my LO's - nothing seemed to work properly - but then I suppose we all go through that.

The challenge was to use the sketch, chipboard, ribbon or washi tape and stitching

The sketch was challenging but just what I needed. Papers are mainly from fancy pants.  I used distress ink to colour the chipboard title and to do the ink splattering.

Photo is of my youngest son in 1987 when he was about 20months old. Even so small he had excellent hand eye/ball coordination. He looked at this photograph and said he had a better tennis swing then than he has now

This is the sketch used

Thanks again for a great challenge
xx

Scrap a Sketch - Smile

Its seem to have been so long since I posted or even completed a LO. August has been such a busy month. We have been away for quite a bit of the month - in Scotland and the Lake District.

This months sketch was set by Barbara

I knew I wanted to use hessian or burlap as the Americans say but the butterfly shape did not work so I changed it to a heart.

I machine stitched the edge of the heart before carefully fraying the edges. The smaller hearts were made by mounting the hessian onto card before fraying the edges. Most of the elements are matted onto black cardstock for definition.

The photo is of Abby who wouldn't smile showing her teeth until Uncle Andrew came along and made her smile naturally

Scrap a Sketch

Well its that time of the month again for our little group on UKS to upload their LO's. This months sketch was from Scrapfriends and chosen by Heather. I wasn't sure at first but once I started to work with the sketch I loved it, that's what I love about the group, being challenged to do something a little different.

I think it might just be a sketch that I may use again.
My LO is photos of my granddaughter who is really an outdoor girl - she loves, and will walk for miles, horse rides, will tackle any assault course and has recently competed in her first triathlon. Can you tell I'm a proud Grandma

My next LO is one from Creative Heart and Soul class by Tracie Hudson. There were 3 LO's in the class but I sort of combined them all into one

The Cupboard Trilogy Challenge

This is my go for the challenge over on the Cupboard Trilogy Challenge Blog

The challenge was to use this colour palette, such a gorgeous combination of colours

Hope I've managed to get them right - anyway here is mine. The photograph is one I took of  my granddaughter for Cheryl Johnson's online portrait photography course. I love the way the light catches her face through the branches. The papers are from the Prima Songbird collection, with lots of lovely bits to cut out, so I was in my element fussy cutting the branch and birds at the bottom of the LO

Scrap a Sketch June

This month it was Dee's turn to choose the sketch for out little group to scrap and she chose this one from PageMaps. The first thing I liked about it was the stitching - I love stitching on LO's at the moment

This is my LO - my granddaughter on a recent trip to a local farm. The papers are from a recent My Creative Scrapbook kit

Scrap a Sketch May

It was my turn to choose the sketch for this months Scrap a Sketch Challenge and as usual we had a mixed response to the sketch - some loving it and some finding it very challenging. I love to see what everyone comes up with from the sketch as they are always so different

My LO is using my My Creative Scrapbook kit and as the papers really didnt match the photos totally I ended up colouring all the little hexagons and chevrons on the background paper and the border strip. Time consuming but worth it. The story really is of me dropping all my Granddaughters cupcakes whilst putting them in the fridge after she had spent so long making and decorating them. These are actually the second batch and she asked to put these ones in the fridge herself obviously not trusting me to do it :lol:

My Creative Sketches

My take on the sketch over at My Creative Sketches. I loved all the layers on the sketch and the opportunity to try and improve my stitching.

The photo is my granddaughter just after having her new fringe cut - it makes her look so grown up