Hand Crafted Memories

I spent yesterday on the garden and today I'm paying for it, the garden looks lovely but I am aching. I'm declaring today is going to be a crafting day. Finally I've caught up with my Document 2010 project. Here are the May pages, I didn't do very much this month until the last couple of weeks, when I seemed to do quite a bit. I didn't have enough photos so a bit of creativity was called for. The photo of the Icelandic volcano and the polling station sign are from t'internet. The lunch date page was inspired by the first scrap page here . This is a blog I love looking at, I just love Keisha's style . Don't forget to check out my slide show of this project at the bottom of this page.

I have finished my April pages for the Document 2010 project, as time goes on I'm getting more excited about this album. Who knows I may soon be keeping up with everybody else! I have almost completed May as well, I just need to pick up some more photos. Page four of April, once again was scrap lifted from this post on Shimelle Laine's blog . I use this top tip so often now. The photos on the page are also from t'internet. I googled the building I work in as its a listed building and picked two of my favourite pictures. I also used this weeks sketch over on Pencil Lines for page 1. I was trying to make sure the pages were all different but at the same time trying to keep a similarity throught the album. I'm using the same 'tattered square' on one page each month, I'm alkso using a pae from my calendar and the papers all have the month printed on them. Hopefully this will all work. Scroll to the bottom of my blog to see all of the pages so far in this projec

I keep finding photos of the handbag cards, I'd forgotten how many I made, what a shame they didn't all get shown on QVC. The flash of the ones that were shown were so fleeting you would  have missed the entire television debut if you had blinked. Here is another one in the same colour combo as yesterdays.  

ere is a Wedding Anniversary card that was commisoned this week my best friend at work, he asked if I had time to make a card for his lovely wife. This couple are so lovely it was really an honour to make it for him. Thankfully he is very pleased with it and I hope his wife likes it when it is handed over. Bless him, he has just brought a lovely bottle of Pinot Grigio Blush to my desk. I shall toast their anniversary while I sip it in my garden this weekend. All of it! The card is a lovely 8X8 white card from Craftwork Cards .    The challenge this week over on Daring Cardmakers is a card to celebrate an Anniversary, I am happy to enter this card. Also over on the Allsorts Challenge blog they wanted to see a card with a tag or label on it.

This was my favourite of all the handbag cards that I recently made for Craftwork Cards. I think it's the colour combo that I used becaue it certainly wasn't technically difficult. All of the products used can be purchased from Craftwork Cards .  I have some more pages that I made for April's Document 2010 project, but the photos haven't arrived. I'll post as soon as they do.

Another handbag card, I can't believe I made so many of these cards, the kit seemed to go on forever. All of the products I used can be purchased from Craftwork Cards .

Continuing my roll of scrapbooking pages, another one for my brothers album. His eldest son was 14 this year and he is potty about cars, so for his birthday he had an experience day to drive on a race track. He absolutely loved it and came back full of the story. Already he is talking about doing it all again next year. Of course this is something that has to be captured in the album, I once againe used Shimelle's top tip of scrapping with 2 4x6 photos , in fact I totally scraplifted this page from her.

I'm on a bit of a roll with my scrapbooking at the moment, I seem to flit between scrapbooking and card making. I started as a cardmaker but realised that most of them went off never to be seen again, that's if they left the house. I end up with a huge pile and then I donate them to somebody who may be fund raising. With scrap booking its for me or more often my brother, but they are visited often by one of us.  I've just spent a back breaking two days tidying up my garden, with the gorgeous weather we're having at the moment it would be rude not to. Yesterday I cut the grass for the first time in a month, just as I'd finished smoke started pouring out of the lawn mower. There was more coming from my mower that from next doors barbeque. So I think its a trip to the tip with it and then picking a new one up. So to celebrate my lovely tidy garden and in memory of the departed mower this page uses some of the pictures I have taken over the last couple of years in my

If the weather keeps up like this I think my posting is going to fade into nothing. I LOVE IT! I lived in the Middle East for 15 years and even though I've been back 10 years I still hate not having nice weather. I am planning to tidy up my mess of a garden today and then just sit in it tommorrow. Not to neglect my crafting totally I have finished my March pages for the UKScrappers Document 2010 project. Even though there are only 3 completed months, this album is looking really good. Remember all the snow in January its great to look back on it, now the pictures look so pretty but I remember hating not being able to get out of the house. Here are my March pages. Now to start April!

I loved making this page so much on the recent Cybercrop that when my brother gave me three pictures recently, I knew exactly how I wanted to layout the page. Its amazing how different a page can look just by using different papers.  I swapped the lace for twine to make it a bit more 'manly'. I think this will be a layout I'll return to many times.  

Here is another of the handbag cards I made for Craftwork Cards when the handbag kit was featured on QVC recently. If you watch the video mine are the bright ones. This card I thought I would try and make it look like a quilted bag, with a padlock fastening and studs around the handle. Now who do I know that does the most fabulous quilted bags ? LOL, its a long way off one of these but it shows there is inspiration everywhere.

I signed up to the Document 2010 project hosted by Shimmelle Laine on UK Scrappers at the beginning of the year.The idea is you take photos throug out the month and then scrap the events at the end of the month, using your own stash. No outlay and using your own stash, this really apealed to me. Well its now May and I've only just posted my February pages! here they are, a record of my February. I am promising myself I'll finish and post March's pages by this weekend, and April the following weekend. That means I'll be back on track and ready to complete my May pages at the beginning of June. JUNE who is stealing all these months? I'm also a very happy girl, I've just found out that the Scrapping Angels Retreat I couldn't attend at the end of April has been rescheduled for the weekend of 12th June. I'm going to go as a day delegate so that is something to look forward to.

The Winter Wonderland Challenge this week is See Amid the Winters' Snow, I immediatly thought of this stamp. Its one of my favourites and is very versatile, its great for wintery scenes and mens cards. The doodling snuck in as well, I loaded the trees with stickles. you can see it a little bit on the second picture but until somebody invents a glitter camera you can't see it too well.

This week over on the Penny Black Saturday Challenge Blog its a nice easy challenge, Simply its flowers . Everybody has flowers in their stamping stash don't they? This just happens to be one of my favourite PB stamps, it's so versatile. I can't take any credit for the idea, that came from here. It is my own work and I just loved the simplicity of the card. I didn't use ink for the flowers, I used white paint for the flower and thencoloured the shading with copics. I then stamped back over the flowers to define the outline of the flowers again. This was a fun card to make.

Allsorts Challenge blog is one year old and to celebrate their birthday they are hosting a blog hop. The theme for the challenge is predicatably BIRTHDAY, quite fortunate for me because we are running out of cards for work. Here is one I made up quite quickly but I love the colours on it. I seem to be into doodling on everything at the moment, it seems to add a little something.

I've made quite a few pages over this week for my brothers album, the last time I looked I realised there wasn't a page of me for the boys. I'm on some of the pages but there were none to celebrate who I am to them. Well I soon put that right. I've no idea why this page looks purple, it's actually a burgundy paper. Each photo has a pocket behind it and a journaling tag. I've asked them to write something about me and put it behind the photo. The flower on the left was a last minute addition because the page looked a bit lop sided and blank on the left. I used Shimelle's tip of using two 4" X 6" photos side by side. I've done this a few times now and it works. Thanks Shimelle, that's a top tip!   

Let's get another handbag out, handbag card that is! I tried to combine unusual colours or create something that stood out. I was happy to see that they did when they were shown on QVC, albeit very briefly. Everything for the handbag cards is available from Craftwork Cards . I would like this as a real bag for summer, don't you think it looks like a fun summer bag? Look what I did yesterday!I had a fishy pedicure at Appy Feet .It was so good at first it was a bit like pins and needles but when you got used to it, it was really relaxing. The little fish come and nibble away all the dry skin on your feet. I'll definatly be going back.  

The A llsorts Challenge blog this week has my favourite challenge, a sketch. I used the 'kissing' technique on this card. I've tried it before but it never seems to work, not one to be put off I had another go. I'm quite pleased with the effect but will have another few goes to perfect it.

I had a day off work yesterday, a bit embarrasing when I've only been back for three weeks. I had the worst cold over the weekend, I coughed that much I pulled a muscle in my stomach. Not too good eight weeks after abdominal surgery. A few Brufen and some bed rest I'm a lot better to day and back to work I go. Last night when I'd started to pick up I made a page based on Sarah's Cards mini me class . I got the sewing machine out and stitched on a layout . I always admire machine stitching on cards and layouts but it always seemed such a faff to get the machine out. I had some repairs to do on some clothes, so killed two birds with one stone. Sarah's Cards do the most fabulous, value for money scrapbook kits and I look forward to receiving mine each month. I'm catching up with the scrapbook pages for my brother and his boys. I've been tackling the job from both ends, scrapping recent pages as he gives me the photos and working on the older ones in between and

It's true a girl can never have too many bags, and that was the thought in my mind as I created the handbag cards that were recently featured on QVC. The goodies were supplied to me by Craftwork Cards and everything is available from them. This was one of my favourites but I think it was only on air for a couple of seconds. Here you can take your time looking at it.