Another woo hoo!

I was lucky enough for some of my layouts to be picked as challenge winners over at Two Peas in Bucket for National Scrapbooking Day. I've had some lovely prizes from there before so I am excitedly anticipating some goodies in the next few weeks.

The gallery for May has gone up over at A Trip Down Memory Lane. Between us, we were given a selection of the latest releases from Fancy Pants (I love their papers, especially the sheets of cards and strips - they really make accenting/titling and mixing patterns so easy).

I've actually done another two pages today which I have emailed across which aren't up there yet, hopefully soon.

Here's a couple of sneaks, the first is a page created using the About a Girl collection


And this second one, using the Rusted Sun collection


I love the bright colours and bold patterns on both of these ranges. Such fun to play with :)

All you need is love

Another one of my NSD creations for the Two Peas challenges. This was for the home decor challenge. Only I got mixed up with the time zones and ... oh well ...

The frame is a cheap plastic one from IKEA which I had sanded and coloured with distress inks MONTHS ago (if not longer). Distress inks don't dry well on plastic. Which is why it had been left for months.

Anyhow, now it WAS dry. I used the Hero Arts antique brocade cling stamp and Stazon ink to stamp on the frame. The patterned paper is from Websters Pages, flowers and crystals Prima (the roses were white and I spritzed them with Glimmer Mist Candy Apple). The small chipboard frame is from Delish Designs (coloured with Stazon then Glimmer Mist) and the rub on (Crate Paper) was applied to transparency and attached to the back of the smaller ornate frame.

Oooooooooh exciting!

I won over at the Bo Bunny blog for my Flutter Butter layout! So excited (as if the title didn't let you know!).

The wonderfully talented Debbie Nicholas is on the DT over there and since then I've become an avid follower of their blog. They have a great DT with lots of gorgeous inspiration ... and gorgeous goodies to drool over too.


Also, there is still the chance to win a prize pack over at Crate paper, check out the blog to find out more!


Crate Paper is another manufacturer with an inspiring blog. I love seeing how the DT's work with the products. Always a real purchasing enabler though.

Pulled an All Nighter!

I don't know how I managed it. I went to bed 4.30am yesterday morning and was up by 10am and as of now (9.20am) I haven't been to bed. Will admit to starting to feel a little tired though, so may have a nap until lunchtime.

Anyhow, I was so fired up by all the challenges I'd found I didn't want to stop. I did slow down significantly mind you.

I'm going to have to update all the challenge blogs on my favourites list. I did a trawl over the weekend and LOTS of them had gone. On the other hand, I have found quite a few new to me.

I've mentioned Scrapbook Challenges and Creative Scrappers in the previous posts. Well now I've found another Scrap and Stamp. Yep. Challenges to include stamping on your layouts. I'm up for this one! This week is to scrap either a Summer layout or to use Summer colours.


I created this layout to fit in with another couple of challenges at Hero Arts and Two Peas. One being to use cardstock only. Literally. Heck this must be THE hardest layout I have ever done. It took me hours of faffing. Okay, not helped by the time of night, but even more not helped by lack of patterned papers or ANY embellishments. I wanted bling! I really, really wanted bling! But I managed to stay strong and I stuck to cardstock, ink, stamps, heat embossing, punches and die cuts.

The die cut flowers are from Marianne Creatables and the fancy label is a Nestabilities die. I used Hero Arts stamps (All Occasion Messages, Thoughtful Messages, Four Bold Messages and Write Your Own - the ledger stamp). I guess you can say I like Messages stamps :) Oh and I used a couple of punches, my truly loved photo corner punch and the Fiskars Apron Lace punch.

Still Scrapping for NSD :)

This is my 10th completed page. It was a struggle finding papers tbh, look at all those contrasting clothes! I didn't want to change it to black and white though - it being an older photo (like about 30 years old) I wanted to keep the detail of the fashions at the time (as they could be called, not that this lot looked at all fashionable, but then again I guess playing darts for the local pub didn't really require it).


I've used the latest sketch over at Creative Scrappers as well as a couple of stamps for the Hero Arts layout challenge and other stuff to fit in with a couple of Two Peas challenges.

I used glimmer/cosmic shimmer mists onto kraft cardstock, a selection of scraps of papers (Chatterbox and 7Gypsies in the main). The smaller tag opens out to reveal several pages for journaling - once I get the story from DH - and I even included a bottle cap in homage to the pub! The picture of the layout isn't so great, but the light has gone here now and I had to rely on flash instead (hence having to photo at an angle).

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch page

So I managed to fit in the Scrapbook Challenges Sketch last night (okay, early this morning).

This is the sketch, which was a really easy one to work with


And this is my page. It tells the story of my son blowing his candles out this birthday (or not, as the case was!) it was such a funny moment!


I used Making Memories Funky Vintage for the background, Bella Blvd for the two paper strips, scraps from Cosmo Cricket and Making Memories for the banner, the zigzaggy circle and month sticker is by Collage Press and various alpha and word stickers.



They also have a blog hop going on, starting here and you can have a look at what other members have done with the sketch by visting this post at Scrapbook Challenges.

Happy (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day

There are lots of things happening around scrapbooking land .... many of the manufacturers have giveaways and challenges ... to check them all out scroll down my sidebar and work your way through the list (please excuse a couple of links are still broken, I have fixed quite a few but I still need to research on others).

Have just had an email from Hero Arts that they are having random prizes issued for people uploading layouts to their Flickr gallery so I'm going to get my desk cleared and stamps and inks out at the ready for that one too!

Another new find for me today, Scrapbook Challenges ... it's a Ning community group that has got lots of challenges AND a blog hop (which starts at Pamela's blog), all with great prizes. I'm loving the look of the regular challenges too. I can see this being quite a regular drop in point for me from now on :) And I really want to give that great sketch a go, I think it will be the next on the list after I have finished the one I am working on just now.

ETA have eventually found the list of challenges over at Two Peas in a Bucket. Check it out!

Because of my laziness in blogging recently I have a backlog of pages to share. I will start with one I did for A Trip Down Memory Lane for their April gallery, using papers from the Avignon and Venice ranges. I especially loved the colours in the Venice papers.

This is practically a vintage photograph - one of me in Bodrum, Turkey, not long after we were married, and just before the place became really popular as a tourist resort.




I created some tags by covering cardstock with the Diagram paper and colouring with my distress inks to tone in with the Venice papers. I used a mish mash of embellishments, including the fabulous 7Gypsies stickers (I can barely complete a layout without them).


I used some 7Gpysies rub-ons to add interest to this bottom tag and button. And I have to say that these pearlised chipboard Thickers from American Crafts are just GORGEOUS, love the elegant shimmer of them.