Hand Crafted Memories

I don't know why I haven't posted for over a week, mostly I've been tidying the craft room and with this gorgeous weather I've done quite a lot of work in the garden. Judging by the rain that is coming our way, it was  small window of opportunity that I had to take advantage of. I've also spent a lot of time chasing down a die for the Big Shot that I wanted, after visiting two local bricks and mortar shops I ended up on the Internet. it took hours but finally I have found it and although I wanted to play with it this weekend it will be here for the next one. I did get chance to play with my new Tim Holtz stamps, I love these blue print style stamps and decided to make a good luck card to add to my stock of cards.

Another card for the Winter Wonderland Challenge , this week they want to see a Christmas Tree on the card. I've used one of the fabulous Lili of the Valley stamps I bought last year. I picked this stamp up as I was leaving the shop and to make up the numbers for an offer that was on at the time. It has turned out to be one of my most used stamps. I also managed to use up a few more scraps that have been laying around for a couple of years. Another card ready for Christmas, I will nearly have completed everything I need, no more rushing at the last minute.

Today is my best friends birthday and each year I try to make her a special card. As Theresa is getting into card making herself, she takes the card and analyses it until she works out how it has been made. Each year I try and make a better card than the previous year, for a while I have been admiring these cascade cards and after a couple of attempts I finally worked it out and came up with this   It was lovely to watch her face as she opened the card and examined it. She has even taken it with her on holiday.Now I have to come up with something unique for Christmas.

I can't believe I've blogged every day for a week, even more I've crafted every day. Today's challenge is  on the Winter Wonderland blog. They want to see a penguin on the card. I had the perfect stamp from Lili of the Valley. I had to get this stamp as soon as I saw it and I still think it is incredibly cute.

I'm posting this page but its one I've struggled with quite a bit over the week. In fact this is as far as I've got and I can't work out why I'm not happy with it. Ironic really as that's the title of the page. This challenge was to use the name of one of the dwarfs as the title on  the page. I am posting it as it is but I think it is one that will be revisited until I am completely happy with it.

Well I am really on a roll at the moment with my pages, its amazing what a challenge can do to get me motivated. I have made a page everyday this week and that is after a full days work. The Scrap Whispers Challenge I have completed today is the Jack and the Beanstalk challenge, we had to include some polka dot paper to represent the beans (the blue background paper), the word 'Giant' for the giant (the Big Easy) and some leaves to represent the beanstalk (around the photograph). New Orleans was a fabulous surprise when we saw it, I'm not sure why, I don't know what I expected. So I really had to go searching for my photos of New Orleans to record this. Only when it was all finished did I realise it was the word Giant and not Big that should have been used. Oh well its done now and I have a lovely page for my scrapbook.

Well look at me, still going with the National Scrapbooking Day Challenges, almost a week later. I came home from work and ate my meal, then straight into the craft room to see what I could conjure up. This Scrap Whispers challenge was to use three on the layout. What ever you used there had to be three on there. So I used three photos, papers word title, journalling blocks, stars and sticker embellies. I think that qualifies.

Still celebrating National Scrapbooking Day with another layout for the Scrap Whispers challenges. This one is themed around the Frog Prince, how on earth was I going to interpret this challenge. The remit was a free for all so we could interpret this anyway we chose. I went back to my newly discovered pack of old photos and there without too much searching were these photos. I could actually have entered this into the Cinderella challenge had I thought about it earlier as these photos are so old, the little boys in the photos are now into there 30's! The embellies on the page are as old as the hills as well, I would put them at least 8 years old. Too late though as they are going into the Frog Prince Challenge. Hos so I hear you ask? Well the journalling tells the story of taking my nephews fishing and coming home with nothing more than a jar of frog spawn. I have even put some dew drops around the photo to represent it.

Moving on to another challenge set on the Scrap Whispers blog to celebrate National Scrapbooking Day. The Cinderella themed challenge was to take something old from your stash and turn it into something new. Well believe me when I say, I was spoilt for choice with the 'old' part of this challenge. In the end I decided to use a stamp to create a card. This stamp was one of the very first I ever bought and each time I have a sort out, this one always survives the cut. I don't use it anywhere enough and its got to be a few years since it last saw ink. In searching for some co-ordinating paper, I found this lilac paper from a kit I bought off QVC . Well it has to be at least 4 years since I bought anything from there, so this qualified as well. To top it off I found the exact colour of ribbon, again this has been in my jar of purple ribbons since it was cut out of a friends top before she threw it away. The sentiment is from a newish set of Teeny Tiny Sentiments from Stampin U

The next challenge I took part in for National Scrapbooking day over on Scrap Whispers was to lift a card based on the Princess and the Pea fairy story. If you know the story it is about a princess who could feel a pea through many layers of mattresses. This is my take on the card posted here

Yes I know it was on Saturday, but I've been a bit slow off the mark. I have been taking full advantage of the lovely weather to give my garden some attention and to catch up with all the washing. Today looks like its going to be more of the same, so after a trip to the supermarket and another hour in the garden I am promising to catch up on some of the challenges that were set over on Scrap Whispers . I have also decided I have too much 'stuff' in my drawers and cupboards, so I have slowly been going through them and de-cluttering, believe me its very liberating. In doing this I have rediscovered some old photos, so what better incentive is there to scrap? This is the page I made for the first challenge, the theme to all the challenges is fairy tales. This one is based on the tower that Rapunzel lived in. A starting point of a tower made from layers of paper pieces was set for everybody then we just had to see where it took us. Utilising the newly discovered photos from

I love taking part in the Scrap Whispers Challenge, each time they have one. We have just completed the latest round and my teams layouts are here . Its so interesting to see how the page develops from beginning to end, and also to see the difference between the teams.  This was the page I submitted I felt it was time to use up some of my washi mountain and this page was perfect for adding loads of different tapes to.