Hand Crafted Memories

I cant believe its almost a month since the Scrap Stars retreat. Time is flying by so quickly and I haven't posted to layouts. My first class was to focus on a technique. We took 5 photos and cut progressively smaller squares that rotated form each of five duplicate photos. It reminded me of the Iris folding that I used to do years ago. It seems like an old fashioned technique now but this gave it an update

I have had quite a productive few weeks on the scrapbooking front, there is nothing like a retreat followed closely by national Scrapbooking Day and a few challenges that get your creativity going. I mentioned previously that I was going to Scrapstars and as usual it didn't fail to deliver, it was great to meet up and catch up with everybody. Tracee Provis was one of the teachers, she is such fun and this was one of the layouts she taught.  I loved the fun colours and it was a great opportunity for me to scrap a photo from 37 years ago and my first girls holiday to Jersey. It was also my best friends birthday this week and a milestone birthday deserves a special card. She loves cakes, her garden and bling, luckily I got all of them onto her card.  

Yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day and I actually scrapbooked all day. I had a olvey day with my friends chatting, eating cake and drinking coffee and all of produced a multitude of layouts.I have spent today finishing them off and tidying them up. The one of the challenges over on UK Scrap Addicts was to scraplift a layout. The design team had taken part in a scrap whispers challenge and it is always interesting to see a layout change and then change back as it progresses. This was the layout I created for this challenge which was made from the leftovers of my friend Adeles layout that she made when I visited her last week. She passed me her bag and challenged em to make a layout from the left overs. I then passed it on to my friend Caroline and challenged her to make a layout from my leftovers.

Well I cant believe that two weeks ago it was the Scrapstars retreat again, a great deal of fun was had by all and some lovely layouts were produced by everybody. As usual Caroline set us a pre-retreat layout challenge. This year it was 'irrational fear' we had to scrap about something that we are frightenend of. It didnt take me a second to come up with the theme, my fear is heights. They dont just make me nervous they actually scare me rigid! This was my layout for the challlenge, in 1992 we went to Toronto as I have always wanted to see Niagara falls. While in Toronto we went up the CN tower and had breakfast in the 360 degree restaurant. I coped with this really well and loved the views over the city as the clouds cleared. We then went up to the viewing deck and as the lift doors opened I spied the glass floor, well that was it game over. I flew to the back of the lift and spread myself along the back wall, there was no way I was coming out. I was so scared I couldnt mov...

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.

I recently attended a full day workshop taught by Paige Taylor Evans , it was a lovely day and I came home with 4 layouts that are still waiting for photos. Before we went to the workshop they had set a challenge for us, a layout that had to include stitching and hearts. Flamingos are everywhere so I used some of my treasured flamingo paper to make this layout. 

Ooops Im a bit late posting this week, the saga of the kitchen continues and has taken all my attention. The whole of my downstairs is a no - go zone so I have been trapped in my craft room.......dont worry I coped with some guilt free scrapbooking. Over on UK Scrap Addicts they have been running a series highlighting how their design team add multiple photos to a layout. It is interesting to see everybodys take on the challenge. I bought this paper a couple of weeks ago and knew I wanted to add a few photos highlighting my trip to America. To get all the pictures on there I reduced them to 2 inch squares and managed to add 7 on there . The title is a lovely sticker from Globe Gallery, its is a vinyl sticker, and is one of the accessories for the globes. Personally I loved the stickers but not the globes, at £4 its a bit pricey for a title but I Ioved the text and the touch of luxury and it fitted perfectly onto the layout.