Summer to Halloween

My hubby has been working away for the last few days in Germany and as a consequence I never sleep as well. Despite not having to listen to him snoring which ought to be a bonus, I find I cant sleep, so instead I'm doing more crafting. The other night I was up till gone 1 o'clock in the morning fiddling with papers etc. 

Here are a few pages I have managed to complete. I'm quite pleased with them,you might not agree of course and think I would have been better off getting more sleep...............ha! ha! ha! 

These pages are from the summer down at Sheringham in Norfolk 

My son as Bane and daughter as some crazy doll with a stitched face all dressed up for Halloween 

Catching Up on Scraping

Well I've been very busy what with one thing and another but I have managed to get some more pages done for my scrapbooks. I'm afraid my daughter's 'This is your life' book has had to got on hold for a bit, but I will get back to it. Mind you its going to be more like a trilogy of books ha! ha! ha!

Here are some pages I have done from photos taken over the summer and my Berlin trip will follow.

In the V& A Museum

    

On the South Bank

At the World's End Public House on the Thames 

I am quite pleased with all the pages thus far but I've taken so many shots over the summer I have had to invest in two large photo albums as well. I know a lot of pictures can be stored on computer but I love printed shots there is something great about flicking through albums. So now I'm picking the best of most important or memorable shots to do for scrapbook pages and the rest are filling the albums.

Happy Valentines Day

Well as promised here is my attempt at a Valentines Day card. My hubby loved it and I guess that's what counts. I was happy with it though, I'd  have liked to have double mounted the card on the front but when I came to make the card I didn't have anything suitable colour to coordinate. 

The picture I'm afraid makes colour look slightly orangey when its really rather  pink in actuality 

Anyway share the love all of you and have a happy Valentines Day.

Pat on the Head

Another layout inspired by Creativity magazine. I realised that I'd been doing a lot of pages using red and blue cards and paper so this time I decided to go for something completely different. For this page I used a Purple Basic Brazzill backing paper over which I laid a coordinating panel from the new Papermania Chronology papers. I must say I love all the chronology bits, its sort of steam punk crossed with Tim Holtz.    

I then layered on various scraps of coordinating papers and ribbon and a picture from the Papermania Lucy Cromwell cards kit. I even made some bunting for the page from paper scraps. 

To finish the sheet I added the title. I got this set of letters from Hobby craft in their sale, but sadly since they didn't have any name on them I could not say the company who produced them.    

A close up of some of the details of the page

Year of the Snake

Kung Hei Fat Choy!

                                         
The Chinese New Year begins today  Sunday  10th  February 2013. This year is the year of the Snake, this is the sign of might and intelligence and is seen as a very auspicious sign under which to be born. It has been predicted that the number of babies born in this year to Chinese families will show a mark rise this year. 

The symbol for this year 

If you are to follow Chinese superstitions and taboos it is important to ensure that you do not cry today as crying on the New Year means you'll be crying for the rest of the year. Don't wash your hair or you'll wash away all your luck and prosperity and don't clean your house on New Years day or you'll be cleaning away your good luck for the year. I rather like the last one its a great excuse not to work today and just relax and I am always up for that.

So I'll wish you all a Happy New Year and hope the Year of the Snake brings you luck health and happiness whether you are Chinese or not.

An Abundance of Bunting

I saw an lovely layout in the Docraft's Creativity magazine the other day and decided I would like to try my own adaption of it for one of my scrapbook pages. I love the Creativity magazine its always full of ideas with all the latest papers and establishments (from Docraft of course) on display.

Here's my twist on their layout then. 

Just noticed the 'b' from blooming is missing

 I love bunting there is just something so festive about it and its use always makes for a cheery page. Its also a great way to use up all sorts of bits of colourful paper, so a great way to avoid waste. 

For this page I used a plain Basic Brazzill sheet of 12 x 12 card in blue over which I placed a piece of blue green patterned paper which had been distressed and stained around the edges. I used Tim Holtz 'Old Paper' distress ink pad for the staining and a gell ink pen in russet brown to outline the paper edges.

Close up of the embellishments used.

I then mounted the photo (its me yuck) onto two paper doilies of differing sizes. One I stuck along the base of the picture towards the left hand side and the other on the right hand side of the picture. I then mounted this on the page slightly to the left of centre on the page. I added a flower embellishment from K &Co over the doily on the right of the picture. 

Close up of the bunting 

 It was then time to add the bunting across the base of the page below the photo. I did this using bakers thread/twine linked over a series of unevenly placed brads. It was then simply a matter of adding the bunting pennants, which I had cut out of random sized and shaped pieces of scrap paper. I added them so they slightly over lapped each other which I think add to the over all unfussiness of the page. 

Finally I added the title and a small piece of journalling.

I love it hope you all do.

Has Spring Arrived??

It may be cold, well freezing actually but today I went out into the garden and not only did I see green shoots ( to nick the politicians line) but I could also see flowers. Finally after many years of trying I have at last managed to get snowdrops in my garden. As those of you who may have been reading my blog last year I  have been trying to get snowdrops to bloom in my garden for some time without success. This year, however, I am pleased to say the bulbs I planted last year have now come into bloom. 

I am thrilled finally after so many failed attempts this year I feel as if I've struck gold. I am really hoping this is a sign for the year to come, if my snowdrops can be successful maybe other ventures I am working on will be also. Hopefully it will also rub off on the rest of my family, so my daughter will get a fabulous degree, my son find his ideal job that will make use of his fantastic First class hons degree in Illustrative Art and my husbands business will thrive. No I''m not asking much am I....... giggle giggle. Well there is no need not to be optimistic is there. 

The dwarf Iris are out too pretty aren't  they