Hand Crafted Memories

 Project 12 on Scrapbook and Cards Today Blog is really helping me with my ongoing project of scrapbooking the photos of my travels. I recently scanned 200 photos from my trip to New Zealand in 1991.  One of the things I like about Project 12 is that I can use multiple photos on a double page layout with out making the pages look too busy. It also helps me with my brother's pages for his album, he likes lots of photos on a page. The sketches are always so lovely and very inspirational. April's sketch was this I switched it around a little to come up with this   I noticed I'd spelt the title wrong after I'd photographed the pages, thankfully the letters hadn't stuck too much so I could change the letters phew!

Happy Easter everybody. I had a lovely surprise from my friend Julia on Friday night, isn't this just the sweetest little display? She knows me too well, the butterfly will end up somewhere in my house long after the flowers have gone.  The weather over the last couple of weeks has been glorious, today started off quite dull, so my brother and his boys turned up to take down an old dilapidated fence at the bottom of my garden. It was falling down and looked very tired. A couple of hours and it was all gone, the only wages for the day was for me to cook them a breakfast. Years ago they'd have been up a chimney for pennies, now they labour in the garden for breakfast.  I laughed when one of the boys asked where I hid my camera, because they don't see it then all of a sudden it appears and I start taking pictures. It made me laugh so much. I took advantage of the rest of the day to catch up on some scrapbooking, I just need to catch up with my cards. Julia and I are planning...

The April challenge over on Scrapology this month is B is for Bunting . They want to see bunting somewhere on the page. the sketch is this I struggled a little with this, but then I reminded myself the idea is to be inspired by the sketch. Then it became easy. I like the pleated fan type of bunting, so that is what I decided I wanted to represent on my page. Here is my page I tell the same story every time I show this picture, it was taken on the Great Wall of China. How do you know, well that's the point, I could have been anywhere. I waited until a tourist was passing by that had an SLR camera and passed him mine, asking if he would take a picture of me. As this was pre digital, it wasn't until I got them developed that I got this. The only clue is over my right shoulder way off in the distance. Fortunately I had taken loads of my own shots that I was really pleased with but this was the only one with me in it.

How gorgeous was the weather today? I worked in the garden until lunch time and it looks lovely but  I needed to come out of the sun for a couple of hours, so what better excuse was there to scrapbook? I've fallen a bit behind with the challenges that I normally follow, so a long weekend is the perfect time to get things done. Over on two peas in a bucket , Shimelle has a monthly class and challenge. Beginning in January we scrapped a single 4x6 photo, each month we will create a page with another 4x6 photo, as I said I'm a little behind, March is to scrap 3, 4x6 photos. I've recently scanned a whole load of photos and came across these three from the thermal valley in New Zealand, perfect for this project. This is what I came up with.

The fabulous Project of the Month from Craftwork Cards arrived on my doorstep a couple of weeks ago. It is so gorgeous, beautiful quality papers (as always) in the most stylish colour combination of pink, grey, back and white. Immediately I knew I wanted to make a mini book. In 1991 I spent a long weekend in Paris, I was just getting into photography and wanted to have a go at shooting in black and white. This was pre my digital camera, so I used film. Sorting through these photos has made me appreciate the digital age, all of the prints were 6 X 4 and I knew I needed a variety of sizes, so they were scanned into my computer and hey presto they are now digital. I also appreciate that I can now take any colour photo and turn it black and white, but I love my photos taken on black and white film, I have them preserved as they were and can now order my photos in any size I want. Any way I digress, With photos sorted and inspiration loaded (prompted by the wedding album I made at Scraps...

There was no blogging this weekend, it would have been rude with all that sun to sit inside and just watch it out of the window. I spent so much time chopping down 'dead' things, all killed of by the awful winter. It wasn't a bad thing as this year I had planned to try and thin things out a bit. I do a bit of crafting but its a big project inspired by the lovely wedding album I made at Scrapstars last weekend. It involves the lovely Tres Chic project kit for this month. It really is beautiful. Unfortunately I have to halt the flow becasue for thew next two weeks I'm working in London. Don't you just hate that! Going back to Scrapstars, Caroline has started a Scrapstars blog so if you are free in September and want to make gorgeous projects like this , this and this go over here to book yourself a place and then go here to become a follower. Oh and if that's not enough keeping up to date there's a facebook thread (is that the right thing? I'm not ...

This is going to be quite a photo heavy blog, I can say these photos will definitely not do this product any justice. I can't believe that a whole week has passed since the Scrapstars retreat. Exactly one week ago I was making this beautiful Vintage Wedding album. We were warned that we would not finish the album in the workshop, how true. The final count was to get to this stage it took three days and I still don't have the photos for it. I am going to try and get wedding photos from my Aunts of all the relatives that they have pictures of. I think black and white vintage pictures are going to suit it very well. This class was taught by Jolanda , who stepped in at the last hour to teach Moniques class. The papers are all Teresa Collins from the Timeless collection and are very luxurious with beautiful flock on some of them.

I recently posted some projects I had made using the Craftwork Cards project of the month Warren. I then wrapped them all up and sent them on because they look sooo much better in real life. If you go over to the blog, you may see a familiar face , well name at least. Also you should check out the Inspiration section for some great ideas. I have just taken delivery of this months project pack, Tres Chic , I'm going to have to make something with it quickly. I'm afraid its so delicious my drool may spoil it. It is gorgeous! I also found the Shabby Blogs website, OMG they have the most gorgeous templates and gadgets to dress up your blog. Well I started fiddling and now I'm hooked, you may have noticed my new image. What I can't believe is, this is all free, yes you read that correctly FREE! How the heck? If you like Websters pages you are gonna love some of the FREE backgrounds. It's real easy to make the changes and there are some great tutorials for those of ...

I have managed to complete all of my projects that I started on the Scrapstars day on Saturday, I have learnt from past experiences that I need the Monday following the retreats off work, so that I can finish my projects while they are still all fresh in my mind. The beauty of retreats is that I come away feeling all inspired and this one didn't fail. I am so motivated I don't want to go back to work! This class was an altered book project taught by the event organiser, Caroline.  I had always wondered how they were created and now I know. I had all the elements together but finished assembling it yesterday. This will be another project to add with the hope chest that I created in Kirsty's class. I just need to find the right spot to display them.

Oh Boy am I tired today! Yesterday I spent the day with a bunch of lovely crafters, we had such a great day. Originally it was supposed to be a weekend retreat but for an number of completely uncontrollable reasons Caroline very generously offered for us all to have a day of crafting at her house. It's rare to meet people these days with such a generous nature as give over her beautiful house to 10 strangers and let them loose with glue, scissors and paper.Her fabulous husband made our lunch and we were not kicked out at the end of the workshops we all just drifted out of the house as and when we felt we wanted to. Tank you Caroline, I am now looking forward to September. Our morning class was taught by Jolande Meurs, she taught the class on behalf of Monique Jacobs who couldn't make the trip over from Holland. I still have more work to do on the beautiful vintage wedding album that we made so  I'll post that when its finished.  Our afternoon class was taught by the very t...