Hand Crafted Memories

I have finished one of my projects from the Scrapstars retreat. It was a page taught by the fabulous Emma Trout . I have long been a admirer Emma's work and often say I'd like to spend an hour in her mind while she is coming up with her pages. I have attended a few of her classes and always enjoy them. A lot of work goes into the pages but every image you cut from a piece of paper builds into a beautiful page. I used some photos from the retreat as the them was playing, my play time always involves creating something. Here is my page I am playing with the papers in one picture, the other one shows me calling the bingo numbers at the retreat. As the weather is so lousy I intend to continue with my retreat projects for the rest of the day.

I haven't posted in a while because I've just been too busy. Last weekend was another fabulous retreat at Scrapstars in Leeds, thanks to Caroline' s fantastic organisation, ably assisted by Lesley . Each and every project was fantastic, I didn't finish anything but that's exactly what I like. It means I can continue the retreat experience at home. That of course means I also have to continue eating great food and having late nights. It was lovely to see the other delegates again and to catch up. I will post the projects as I finish them but for the moment here is a card I have just made for one of the boys who is leaving us in a couple of weeks. The joke is he makes toast for his lunch most days, and as nobody ever clears out the toaster it usually smells of burning. I sit right next to the kitchen area so I usually can still smell the burnt toast in my hair when I get home. It is a running joke in the company, of course it had to be included on the card.

This week I had hoped to get some scrapbooking done and complete more of Shimelle's challenges. I should have know n it wasn't going to happen. I did complete one more page this was for the take inspiration challenge and was the first one posted. It can be seen here . I took my inspiration from the layout of all of the pieces and this is my interpretation of it This weekend I will be at Scrapstars and to say I am excited is an understatement, sadly I will not be able to complete anymore Shimelle challenges before the deadline, but I will be doing them at some point.

Here is another page from Shimelle' s weekend of challenges. This is Challenge 9 where we can take the chance to do a project from a closed challenge. I have been trying to keep up with the ' and now for something completely different' projects over on UK Scrappers . I am rubbish, I have been completing the challenges but am late every time. So for challenge 9 I have gone to  February's project I had this page in mind but never made it so here we go, finally.

Here is another page for Shimelle's cropping weekend. Challenge 2 was to use three papers from different collections on one layout. Here I have used:  My Minds Eye Meadowlark 'Dusk' Black Polka Dot  Kaisercraft English Rose Collection, Florence Kaisercraft Chanteuse Collection, Soprano and Con Brio This project involved a lot of cutting out but it was definitely worth it.  

This is my last weekend before I attend the Scrapstars retreat over the weekend of the 20th April. I have been checking all my supplies that I need to take with me and packing them ready. To say I am excited is a massive understatement. This will be the third Scrapstars retreat, we have another fabulous selection of teachers and I recognise most of the other attendees who will be great company. I was recently asked to make some pages to put on display at the Craft Box . This is my favourite local craft shop, so I was very chuffed. I was given the papers and left to do whatever I thought. I asked Lynn to send me some of her photos to put on the pages. I have covered the faces on this page as they are not my photos. I noticed this weekend that Shimelle is hosting an on line crop, so as a pre-retreat build up I have taken part with some of the challenges and created some pages for the shop.This is for Challenge 4 which was to make a page using grey, yellow and one other colour. I have u

Each week I make my friend her dinner on a Wednesday night, and recently she has become interested in colouring in some images to make up into cards. I'm sort of self taught with Copics and Promarkers but I do like the effect i get when I use them. I've shown her what I know and she has bought herself a few pens. So now when she comes for her dinner I usually set her some homework or a challenge,I stamp out some images for each of us and we then colour them in and make a card up. The following Wednesday we admire each others handy work and then she goes home with some more images. Last week I stamped Molly Bloom with a watering can and some sunflowers, this was the card I came up with.   It took ages to cut out all those plant posts and sunflowers but I think it was worth it.  This morning I made some chocolate cupcakes with ganache centres ans vanilla frosting decorated with mini eggs. They were a trade with my brother and his girlfriend for a roast dinner. It was a brilliant

I haven't any specific plans this holiday weekend, so this morning when I got up, for some reason I started to pull out crafting stash that I know I will never use. I'll pass it on to my friend. There are now 2 bags full of stash for her and some stamps sets on eBay. Can I see a difference? Not on your Nelly. Of course the big tidy up isn't finished yet and I keep stopping to make cards while I think about what I am doing next. Here's one made with an image that I coloured at least three years ago and has been sitting in the bottom of a box of scraps. It is now in my box of stock cards.

If you would like to design cards using fabulous products, then go to Craftwork Cards Blog. They are looking for 4 new team members, go here for the details. Give it a go, you never know.  Here I'm showing another quick card to use up my coloured images, I was given these stamps by my lovely Scrapstars buddies Caroline and/or Lesley . I don't know who gave them to me but they are perfect for the high demand for men's cards that I have.

I can't believe my weeks holiday is over and I have hardly done any crafting. I have managed to get a lot of  those jobs done that are always left for later and my house is gleaming. Today it seems is the last day of our gorgeous weather so I have my bed linen drying in the lovely spring sunshine. When I realised I hadn't done any crafting I awarded today the day to craft. I have quite a few images that have been stamped and coloured laying on my desk, so I have gathered them up and made them up into very simper quick cards to add into my stock of cards. Here are the first two