Hand Crafted Memories

I love using sketches for both my cards and scrap pages. Regular readers here will know how excited I am when any of the card challenge blogs that I follow use a sketch for the challenge. I also love Pencil Lines for my Scrap Book pages because they give us a new sketch every Sunday. I know I've been missing for a little while from the Pencil Lines challenges but I will be back soon. At the recent Scrapping Angels retreat in our goody bag was a sketch and some lovely goodies from the Scenic Route Loveland collection . This was my take on the sketch. I want to use a photo of me on it but at the moment don't have a decent portrait B&W picture so I've just used this one until I get one, I'll then add a title and journaling. I just wanted to show you how I interpreted the sketch. From this I got this   I have no image in my head of how it will turn out when I start, it kind of evolves. As long as I start with coordinating papers it usually works. By the way the hands...

Nikki Sivils is a fairly new name to scrapbooking supplies in the UK, I was lucky enough to use some of her Flaming Butterflies papers in a great class at the recent Scrapping Angels retreat. The class was led by Anna Bowkis , the papers are not something that I would have picked or used but I am a definite convert now, they are gorgeous. The Design Team over at Daring Cardmakers have used some of these papers for this weeks challenge if you want to see more.

I can't believe that a week ago I was at the Scrapping Angels retreat at Wyboston Lakes . I was there as a day delegate and although it was a long day I loved it, I really liked all of the projects I made and I'll post them here over the next few days. One of the classes was to make a mini album out of an old book, this was a long class but we used the gorgeous papers from Prima. Lots of bling and flowers were added after we had stitched the pages together. This class was taught by Tracie Hudson , I have no idea where she gets her inspiration from but she definitely passed it on to me by the bucket load. I was lucky enough to get a book with a turquoise colour which suited the project perfectly, when I opened it up there were pictures inside the front and back covers so I adapted it a little bit to keep the pictures in. Here is the book we made, I can't begin to tell you how beautiful it is in real life.

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.

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!   

Well I'm back from the Scrapping Angels retreat and absolutely shattered, I had a great weekend that has really inspired me. I have loads of ideas rolling around in my head that I would like to get down on paper. I took today off work to catch up on sleep and try to finish off the projects I started but didn't quite finish. So far I've managed to get to the doctors, dentist and bank I'm also through my washing and ironing, what a !bore so I've only managed to complete 2 pages but here they are. The first one was Summer Soiree taught by Debbie Jewell This second was was a make and take kit that I bought from 3 Jolly Scrappers , I sat in between classes to create this one. I need to find photos for some of the other projects that I made but I'll post them as they are finished. I also need to catch up on my weekly challenges for posting, no time to relax.

OK, I am now officially excited about the Scrapping Angels retreat this weekend. I have everything packed and in the car and I'm ready to go and be inspired by all sorts of scrapping loveliness. I've also noticed that I have had over 1,000 hits to this blog. When I first started this I asked, who would possibly be interested in what I do or make. I also wondered if it would be something I would continue to maintain. I am enjoying sharing what I create but it seems people are interested in looking at them. I hope that some of the hits inspire others, because I have to admit without blogs I would have some very 'dry' periods. If anybody is at the retreat this weekend that reads this blog please come and say Hi, it would be nice to see the faces of readers. you'll recognise me by my badge . Here are some more of the oriental cards I made. and a little gift bag.

I'm off to the Scrapping Angels retreat at the end of this month and have had real fun creating my name badge. This was our pre-retreat challenge. I can't begin to say how much I'm looking forward to it. I have had to start packing for it already, not because I'm taking loads (I can't really, three people with craft stuff in a Citroen C1, it's going to be tight). But because I'm busy almost very night and I'm working right up to Friday tea time. We're all travelling the night before to Cambridge as it's a 21/2 hour drive and we would have to set off at stupid o'clock to get there for the kick off on Saturday at 9. After all we want to enjoy all the fun! I have learnt from a retreat I did last year and I've taken the Monday off to recover. The challenge was to create a name badge that said something about you the only rule was it must have your name on it. What does this say about me? My best friend came for her dinner this evening and tho...