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

My Creative Scrapbook Blog Hop

My Creative Scrapbook are holding a blog hop until Friday - pop over and have a go

There are four kits each month - my favourite this month is the Limited Edition - just my style

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

My Mini Book

We take it in turns on our team on UKS to run a little challenge for the rest of the team ( I still need to do mine)
This was Dee's and she created this fantastic mini book with full insrtructions for us to do.Why dont you pop over to her blog and you can download full instructions Here
I decided to do mine on some of the places I love too - its been a labour of love with lots of hand stitching but I'm pretty pleased with the way its turned out

and a few close ups of some of the pages -
I called mine home and away as although I love travelling its always lovely to come home and I do love my home

Portrait Photography Workshop

I'm currently doing a 4 week photography work shop on how to photograph people by Cheryl Johnson
This week was to use an adult model - my wonderful prospective daughter in law Helen obliged. It was hard to tell who was the most nervous but we did end up enjoying the session. I found it easy to choose my location for the shots but not so easy to direct, but we muddled through and I'm quite pleased with these

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:

Thankyou Kirsty

After not blogging for ages and trying to change the look of my blog and failing miserably I need to say a big thank you to Kirsty Wiseman for changing all this for me. I still have lots to learn but I've got a much better base to go from now

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

Scrapstars

I had a wonderful weekend in Leeds at the fabulous Scrapstars Retreat. Its got to be the best one around - fabulous teachers, great company, shop (Bellaboo) and lovely hotel. Thank-you Caroline and when is the next one.

These two LO's were from classes taught by the lovely Emma Trout. I loved her classes at the last retreat and these two were just superb again.

This one taught us about using masks and making our own and lots of lovely layering. The photos are my granddaughter having fun on a bouncy slide

This class we used tissue paper as a background, scrunching and sticking along the way. I'll definately use this technique again. Again loads of cutting and layering.  The photos are of my daughter and her fiance and a sneak peek of her wedding dress and this LO will form part of an album of the preparations for their wedding that I'm doing for them. Needless to say the groom wont be getting a look at this LO till after the wedding

Scrap A Sketch

This months sketch was chosen by Suzy - I loved it with so many possibilities and I just knew I would use the set of photos of Abby dismounting Liam. Its so funny watching her get down. She looks so comfortable riding him and handles him really well and its only when she is getting off you realise how small she actually is.

I used papers from an MCS kit - The title reads The trouble with riding a big horse ........ its a long way down.

I managed to do the LO over last weekend whilst away at the fabulous Scrapstars Retreat  and the additional alphas were bought from Bellaboo

My Creative Sketches March

Here is my go at the March sketch challenge over on the My Creative Sketches Blog
Its a lovely sketch and there are some fabulous examples over there.
My LO is my daughter's christening in 1980. I've used the last of one of my MCS kits and added some lace around the doily and the edges of the pattern papers. The title was cut on the Cricut

It was an old photo with some damage and I'm quite pleased with the way it has scanned

My Creative Scrapbook Challenges

This is my LO for the My Creative Scrapbook March challenge - to use different textures on your LO. I embossed and inked, used twine for stitching, chipboard, misting, burlap, lace (inked)...

The photo is my daughter Jen when she was 4 in Beddgelert in Wales at the gravestone of Gelert the faithful hound of Prince Llewelyn.

The story on the tombstone reads

" In the 13th century Llewelyn, prince of North Wales, had a palace at Beddgelert. One day he went hunting without Gelert, the Faithful Hound, who was unaccountably absent.

On Llewelyn's return the truant, stained and smeared with blood, joyfully sprang to meet his master. The prince alarmed hastened to find his son, and say the infants cot empty, the bedclothes and floor covered with blood.

The frantic father plunged his sword into the hounds side, thinking it had killed his heir. Tho dogs dying yell was answered by a child's cry.

Llewelyn searched and found his boy unharmed, but near by lay the body of a mighty wolf which Gelert had slain.

The prince filled with remorse is said never to have smiled again. He buried Gelert here"
I was taken here a girl by my parents and cried at the story of Gelert. I think Jen was too young to understand

My Creative Sketches has another fantastic sketch on their blog ( closing date 14th April )

I've been really lucky with previous sketches and have won some lovely prizes as a random winner. I'll be uploading my entry tomorrow

This is my attempt at the weekly challenge on UKS. Its also a challenge on the Creative Craft World Blog I love these photos of my granddaughter and my sons girlfriend and they had such fun while I was practicing my photography.
I used papers and embellies from a My Creative Scrapbook Creative Kit

MCS Sketch challenge

Here is my entry for the MCS sketch challenge over at My Creative Sketches


I've used the beautiful Bo Bunny papers, lace, flowers and inked the chipboard frame and all from the MCS kit


The photo is of my gorgeous daughter and granddaughter taken on New Years Eve

LO's

Here are a few of the LO's I've done over the past few weeks. My blog has sadly been neglected.
I've also been doing an online photography course with Kirsty Wiseman. I have to say its been money really well spent. I have loved every minute of it and from being a total novice having just got my DSLR at Christmas I can now shoot in manual. Thank you Kirsty you have taught me so much
The first LO is of some of the shots I have taken while learning


This one is a family holiday many years ago when the children were young and was for a weekly challenge on UKS set by EK Success crop run by my friend S

This is granddaughter skating outside the Life Centre in Newcastle. We all had a fab day out there. I've used the lovely MCS January kit

and finally my new found love of my camera. I used the MCS Feb kit and this LO was for a challenge on the MCS Forum to use hearts, handmade flowers and to scrap yourself. Hard when you hate having your photo taken but I have hidden a bit behind the camera

Thanks for looking.

I've got a lovely day tomorrow going to see the wedding planner at Beamish Hall with my daughter and her finance

My Creative Sketches #1

This is my submission for this months sketch over at My Creative Sketches
Its well worth entering as I was lucky enough to win twice from the randomly picked entries. My prizes arrived today with my kit and are packed with paper and embellishments.
My LO is one of the few I do of me and is of my role as a support services manager with Northumbria Police. The hidden journaling details how I began my career there as a temp and worked my way up to be a member of the Senior Management Team

I used one of my MCS Limited Edition Kits (Websters Pages)