Hand Crafted Memories

I cant believe that its three weeks since I posted. Not by choice I might say I have just been busy and it just slipped my mind. I have had the last couple of weeks off work and made the most of my 'down time'. I have just had a new kitchen and Oh my what a mess it made throughout the house, I nopw have everything back in place and have cleaned from top to bottom. I had a great day our in York with friends and then last weekend was Scrapstars retreat. We had great fun and we made some great layouts. This one was started by me for the sketch challenge on the Saturday evening I never got it finished but have enjoyed this long weekend to put the finishing touches to it. I loved the colours on these papers so sunny and fun. They were given to us along with the sketch to enter into a prize draw.

Usually before a retreat there is a challenge to get you in the mood for all the fun. One of the previous Scrapstars retreat challenges was to create a layout based on a movie title. Well with all the movies that have ever been released the field was wide open. I chose the use my photos from a Nile trip that I did over 15 years ago and of course the title was Jewel of the Nile.

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.

I recently had 12 days holiday from work, this is unheard of for me. Usually I take only one week at a time, but I had leave that needed to be used up and decided to take it all at one. This of course left me with plenty of time to craft. I had recently seen some great ideas posted on You Tube   and Kathy Orta has a website where she sells the tutorials . I treated myself to a couple and set about making them. The instructions were well written and the projects were detailed enough to keep me busy for quite a few days. Yesterday I finished the first one, a recipe box for my friend. She has been talking about making a folder for recipes but has never got around to making it. This one includes a folder for recipes pulled out of magazines and an index type arrangement for recipe cards. There is also a drawer to hold a pen and spare index cards. I chose the papers as they reminded me of old fashioned tiles and Delft tiles . She has already seen the box and loves it, I just couldn't le...

At last today we have a decent bit of light, so I('ve been snapping away at my layouts. Hopefully this sunshine will keep the predicted snow away, I've used up all my snow days so am hoping that I can get to work tomorrow. This layout is the one I taught at Scrapstars.  I knew I wanted to do a travel themed page, then Caroline challenged me to make it interactive, Oh my! I picked several choices of paper and this was my first choice, it's Wayfarer by Bazzil .  and judging by the OOOHs when the ladies opened their packages I was on to a winner.I showed everybody the page and the pulled out the interactive part and there was just the right amount of Oooh's that made me happy. I was a bit worried as there is a lot of precise cutting to do, but everybody managed perfectly. We managed to mostly finish it in the allotted 2 hours, but it was lovely to see everybody move into the cropping room and carry on with the page. Every body's page looked very different but the only...

The light at the moment is terrible for taking photos of my craft projects, so it is stopping play at the moment. I can't believe its a week since we were all crafting away the the Scrapstars retreat. As usual it was an excellent weekend packed with fabulous classes and inspirational ideas. I had booked  this week off work so that I could finish everything off and I am so pleased with all my work. Unfortunately with the terrible light, even during the day I am struggling to get some decent pictures to post. Before the retreat we were issued with a couple of challenges, the first was to create a name badge using weather as the inspiration. Well at the time there was only one sort of weather around, SNOW. Rumour has it that there may be some more this weekends BRRR! So here was my name badge  and the second challenge was to create an 8 x 8 layout based on the bestseller 50 Shades of Grey. Well I've never red the book, you could certainly see the ladies that had. There were s...

This year I took part in the Scrap Whispers challenge, its a take on the Chines Whispers game but with a twist. You are sent a page made by the previous person in the link, and you have to scrap lift it but add your own twist. Usually you play in teams bot this time there was just the one chain. It has taken ages, I made my page back in August, although originally I was scheduled to make it in June. Finally the whole chain was revealed here . This was my page and it was based on the page that Amanda made. The next challenge we will be going back to teams, so hopefully it won't take as long.

A few weeks ago I posted a sneaky peek of a scrapbook class that I would be teaching at the Craft Box . Well I taught the class last week, I have shown friends in small groups how to make pages and I am a trainer by profession, so the teaching bit wasn't a problem. What did make me nervous was whether the ladies would like the page. This was the prototype that I came up with  as it was a full day class I needed to create two pages and I also wanted to use different techniques. The first page had an interactive element and I worried it may have been a little bit too advanced. I shouldn't have worried, there were 8 ladies all of different levels but everybody made lovely pages. I'm always surprised at how different everybodys work looks even though they use the same papers. So here is the page again but in the papers the class used. I loved them and the colours were just perfect. I know there isn't a title I have just placed these photos to show the pages, this is ...

I was planning to make a page highlighting all of the celebrations in the UK this year. I've had the papers gathered and some photos ready but I couldn't get them all together. That was until I saw the instructions for this months ANFSCD layout over on UK Scrapper s. It came together in no time at all.  It was another great project for using up scraps of paper, although I didn't for this page. I'm looking forward to September's project already.

Regular readers will know that I like to follow Shimelle's projects over on UK Scrappers . Each year for the last 3 years she has hosted a year long project. This year a list of stash is posted on the 10th of the month, and then the steps to make a layout are posted on the 20th. All finished projects should then be posted on UK Scrappers by the 30th. Its always interesting to see how everybody interprets the instructions.  This month was a little out of the normal for me, but it was a great way to use up some scraps that are laying around. These are all scraps from a few workshops that I took at Scrapstars. I wasn't sure of the page at first but it has grown on me.        

A couple of weeks ago Julia and I had a weekend of crafting, we made quite a few pages but my problem is picking the photos to go on them. We used the January hit from Sarah's Cards , its sold out now but it was absolutely gorgeous. One of the great points about this kit is that the design team are featured in an ideas booklet. I'm a big fan of Rachel Elliott and she had a page in the booklet. We both fell in love with it and decided to scrap lift it. I take no credit for the page idea it is totally Rachel's concept. What I will take credit for is cutting out all those blooming flowers! Here is the page  Those papers are just beautiful, I've got loads to work with and intend to use every last scrap. I am so happy that Rachel will be teaching at Scrapstars retreat in September, my place is well and truly booked.

I am sooo happy with this page, I kind of knew that I wanted to make the rolls of paper to complement the prayer wheels, but the rest of it just 'happened'. Kelly posted a recipe challenge for National Scrapbooking day over at Scrap Whispers . The page has to include 5 different patterned papers - paper rolls 4 flowers - really there are four, I cut one in half for either side of the photo 3 different embellishments - dragonfly, photo corners, 'faith' tattoo made into a plaque 2 word title - Prayer Wheels 1 type of stitching - machine stitching around edge of paper I thought it might end up looking busy but I'm happy it doesn't. 

What a difference a little bit of sunshine makes.I've made a couple of scrapbook pages this weekend and taking the photographs was sooo much easier. It also gave me the chance to wash my bed linen and dry it outside. Tonight I will have line fresh linine to snuggle into, one of my most favourite things. This page is using the sketch for this month's stretch the sketch challenge over on two peas in a bucket .This is the sketch and here is my page.

I have really enjoyed making the pages for March's Project 12 over on Scrapbook Cards and Trends Blog . I'm using the sketches to make a hole in my massive pile of holiday photos.I loved this sketch as soon as I saw it and have kept it becasue I think its one I'll use over and again. This is my take on the page, I used another of my stock of Sarah's Cards kits, once again I am embarrased to say this was still hinging around completely untouched and is from January 2010, ooops!  I love these Bo Bunny Flutter Butter papers and guess that the reason they were not used is becasue They are so pretty I would have cried when I cut into them. As it happens I didn't.

I can't believe it, I won a prize for my scrap page that I made for February's Scrapology challenge, I was so surprised, I take part in the challenges to try and stretch myself I don't even think about winning, but I am thrilled to bits. They have another good challenge this month using a sketch and adding dimension. I made the page in my previous entry and that then inspired me to make this page I love it, its really fun and proved to me that even if the photos aren't very good, its the memory that counts. The boys were really buzzing when they came back from going to watch Robot Wars, my brother didn't have his camera but managed to get some photos on his phone. I hate the pictures he gets this way they always come out really badly but on this occasion this is all we had.

The Top Secret parcel was delivered safely to Craftwork Cards yesterday morning, while I was there I had a sneaky peek of the new MME papers. OMG  they are stunning, I now have to decide which ones I am buying . Of course I want them all but I am going to be sensible. Honest! My year long project hosted by Shimelle Laine over on UK scrapper s continues. These are my July pages, I'm so enjoying this project. It is turning into a lovely record of life at this time, already looking back at the beginning of the year it makes me smile to see the snow. At the same time I'm dreading the end of the year in case it all comes back! Check out the slide show on the right of this page to see the whole year so far. (Just click on the cross to get rid of those annoying poker pets!)    Go here to check out a super giveaway from Tracie, this would be a boost to anybody's stash. So generous.

I flit between scrapbooking and cardmaking like a butterfly. I've recently had a run of card making but during my week off I did a bit of scrapbooking again. I'm following Shimelle Laine 's Document 2010 project on UK Scrappers . Over the months this is developing into a fabulous record of this year, good and bad events. I know it will become a treasure in the future. These are the pages I've made to record June in my world.

I again have picked up my scrapbooking, I have recently bought some great papers to add into my stock of papers. Not on purpose you know, they just seem to appear and money disappears from my bank account, honestly I don't know how that happens! I really want to use them but the scrapbooking mojo, just hasn't been there. Sarah's cards have a brilliant summer sale on, so the same thing happened the money went out of my account and papers arrived!Then I saw last weeks sketch over at pencil lines , no 193    and this happened.  The chipboard thickers were one of my sale purchases but there were only 2xS's so I made do with one of the 5's instead. So far nobody has commented on it, I'm sure they think I'm just a little bit mad! Also the flourishes and border were sale purchases, yummy and bargain yumminess at that!

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 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.