Summers End

Its nice that we are having a bit of happier weather for the end of the school holidays (not least because I haven't managed to get Jess a new school jumper yet and this gives me a bit more time!)

Today my parents came for lunch as a belated birthday hello for Joe, not seen them since the wedding so it was nice to catch up. My mother is a scrapper too and so we had a good natter about it, by the time she left I was fired up to do some crafting.

I've had a lovely merry hour or so mucking about and a Layout is on its way, but I realised as I sat there that I was feeling more and more unwell and so I have decided to stop for now and have a sit down, lovely Jess is making me a cuppa so I am going to take it easy for a little while.

I've had a fun weekend, lots of socialising and a lovely meal and wii evening at Matt and Mandys, a nice meal in a pub and general merriment abound.

I am however looking forward to life settling back into the school term time routines, the kids have been fantastic and the holidays have flown by, but it will be nice to have a bit of peace and quiet again.

Boys Rock

I very nearly forgot to make my lovely little boy a card for his birthday, if Jason hadn't mentioned it last night I really think I may have completely forgotten! Its his birthday tomorrow and luckily I had plenty of time to make one today. Here it is:





Joes father had very stupidly agreed to buy Joe an electric guitar for his birthday, so I put one of those on the card (which has once again photographed dreadfully due to the weather). I can't say I am looking forward to having my ears bleeding, but thankfully he will get it tomorrow evening when he goes to his dads and as he is staying there til Monday, the first eager flush of practising on a new toy will be over!

Its been a bit hairy with Joes presents as well. As we were on holiday I put off buying them til we got back as I thought he wanted a bike and we already had one picked out. Joe decides a week before that he did not want a bike, so I have ordered his pressies online (so much cheaper!) and fortunatley the last 2 bits arrived today.

I'm really struggling with my running at the moment, I've been out 3 mornings this week, the first 2 were bad and so my distance suffered, but I put it down to a bad run (or 2) and the fact that my breathing was wrong. Today I felt stronger, I still had some problems with my breathing at the start but I got it under control, I felt my pace was up, I felt like I was doing better. I did my WORST distance ever - How? I thought that I was getting fitter and now I just feel so unfit, my breathing has gone from comfortable and controlled to wheezy and heavy, my legs feel heavy at the moment too. Its like I am running and getting more and more unfit the more I do! I shall however perserve.

Jason bought me a sports rain coat yesterday, its very lightweight and fitted and very snug even though its a 12/14 (me thinks Nike are rather mean with their sizes, cos if I was a 14 there is no way I was getting in that coat!) I wore it today as it was raining at 7am. OMG I felt like I was in a sauna, it came off at the 17 min mark, when I run I don't stop for anything so the sight of me struggling out of my coat with my water bottle in my mouth jogging along the road must have been quite comical to passerbys. I think this would be a brilliant thing to wear on a run before a big night out as it would take pounds off you in just the sweat!

Anyway you can tell I am bored and don't have anything to do as I am rambling away - think I may go and wrap Joes presents - Byyeeee

Golf Capers

Just a quickie from me today, Joe is having a sleepover which is starting in 30 mins, we invited 3 boys but unfortunately only 1 can make it, that's the problem with having a birthday in the summer holidays! Ah well at least it will be quieter for me and Joe is ok with it, they will only be zombieing out to the xbox anyway.

At last today I managed to do a Layout and everything flowed nicely, I was beginning the think I would never scrap again! I used this sketch as a starting point (from Scrapbook Challenges):



I changed the design a little bit, but you can still see the original sketch in my design here:



(unfort not the best photo as it is TIPPING it down outside so this is an indoor crappy shot!)

I used some of the flocked borders I made yesterday and I hand cut the clouds from felt and hand stitched them. The golf green is glossy accented polka dotted and the tee and ball are also glossied.

Tonight we are having a treat, roasted duck (first time I have ever cooked it myself, although its the first thing I choose on a menu) stilton mash and veggies also some sort of fancy gravy if I can think what to do!

That wasn't all that quick actually!

Flocking Borders

Hehe that sounds a bit rude!

One of my favourite things to do when I want to play but can't for whatever reason scrapbook is to mess about with borders. I LOVE borders and they feature in most of my pages. I have numerous border punches and also I have tons and tons of cut files for my robo to cut out. I recently downloaded a load of new files (I have a silhouette subscription, which is fantastic!) and today I decided I would cut them to see what they looked like.

The thing with borders (punches and cut files) is they end up being made of paper of card and therefore don't have much texture to them. Today I hit upon the idea of flocking them. I have 5 little pots of flocking powder I got free on a magazine (a marvelous free gift, in fact I only bought the mag for the gift!!!)

Being bored and having my camera to hand I did a step by step for you. I may very well be teaching my grandmother to suck eggs, but the results are so cute I'm going ahead!!

Step 1:

Take your cutout punch

Step 2:

Run it through an adhesive runner (like a Xyron X or another similar machine, I've tried other methods before but this is the only one that's given me smooth decent results)

Step 3:

With a pen or a sharp point trace around the image - this removes any glue residue around the sides or in any nooks, this is mega important because the flocking is going to stick to any glue left behind and the results will not be good if there is any glue where it shouldn't be!

Step 4:

Cover the glued punch out with flocking, then gently rub it in, recovering any bits that need it, and excess can be rubbed off until you have a clean looking punch out.

The finished Result: Taaddaaa

A lovely border punch that is now textured and furry and lush! I just think it gives a new dimension to what you can create with your punches. Picture not great but they really are full of flocked loveliness in real life! Now I just need to find my missing mojo and use them on a page or two!

What a waste of a day!

Been feeling really 'ughhhh' today, I ran this morning and it just seems to have drained me, my distance was down and since running I haven't really wanted to move all day, I have got nothing done!

I popped into TK Max over the weekend, they stock some scrappy supplies, although until this time its been mostly yucky K&Co and Laura Ashley stuff which is not my bag at all, however this time there was a fair amount of American Craft stuff. I was good however and just picked up this fabby stamp set for only £3.99.

One of the images is of a cute butterfly, Jessica and I spent a happy half hour on Sunday stamping some and colouring them in and stickling them. We have had the idea of lining them up in a shadow box with pins in them so they look a little like the butterfly collections that you see sometimes (they are hideous, but this will be cute!)

Also I finished my scraplift of this lo here I didn't do too well in the end, and there are lots of similar elements and some not so similar bits. If i'm honest I got a bit bored and found the copying was draining my creativity such as it is and so I stopped and decided to call it done, so heres mine

The slowest scrapper in the west - a Work in Progress

I really am!

I am having one of those lulls at the moment, where I can't think of anything new, fed up of the same old same old, so I am having to resort to scraplifting. I never find scraplifting very fulfilling a, its never as good as the original and b, its not 'my work' and therefore I feel like I haven't been creative.



However today it was lift or do nothing. There is a FANTASTIC scrapper who does the most amazing digital work that looks like paper layouts, I am ALWAYS fooled by her stuff, she digitally scraps like I want to paperscrap. I have foolishly choosen to lift one of her works (I will link to her etc when I show you the finished LO)



I sat down at 2.15pm to start this and its now 5pm and I am hardly anywhere with it! Its such a complex creation, so I thought that almost 3 hours of work needed some photos, so here is my scraplift WIP, not much is stuck down yet, apart from the 4 background layers, which I have had to gut or the finished layout would touch the ceiling. Things will be moved and tweeked, MANY MANY things will be added (this lady does not scrap light!)



(loving my hand drawn frame!! and the toothbrush paint splatters - why did I never think of using a toothbrush til I saw it as a technique on a blog? This is EXACTLY the type of splatters I have been after for ages.

I have a title for it, which I love and I think this layout could take me another 2-3 hours if not more as there is so much that needs to be added yet, this really is the bare bones. Now I need to go and produce a cottage pie for tonights tea so I can't play anymore

Jenga Chips

Yay the kids are back and with them they have bought back my creativity. With them here I can't get away with hogging the telly and believe me Wizards of Waverly Place and iCarly would drive even the laziest of people out of the living room!

I absolutely love the cartoony style of scrapping that I see around, the pile it high, hapzard madness that some people do so well. I knew that I wanted this layout to be cartoony and so I had a nosey on this blog here to get me started and I lifted a few of her ideas on this. Also I adore the mad crazy style of this woman too and love the lettering and stitching that she does.



So here it is, and I am pretty pleased with it too - I wish it came more naturally, but I have had great fun with this this morning. I was really struggling with misting and paints etc, they always look awful at the start, but I am learning to go with it and that what looks like a yucky sneeze at the start can actually look pretty cool when teamed with all the other aspects of a layout. I had no brown inky stuff so I used tea and slate glimmer mist.

I had a personal first today, I ran on MY OWN this morning. Jason hurt his calve muscle on Tuesdays run and so he is out of action at the moment. Getting up at 6.45am and running at 7am (there are lots of people around at that time!) on my own was a huge deal for me. I did my personal best distance too!

Riding the Vortex

Morning all




I've been having a fabulous lazy time of it the last few days, just lazing in front of the telly and a teeny bit of scrapping here and there. I made this yesterday, it shows me, Joe and Jason (Jessica would not go on it) riding these big waterslides at creally. I am NOT a thrill seeker in the slightest, I would rather poke my eyes out than go on rides, but I got talked into this one. Verdict? once was ok, but no ta, not again!! It was FAST! I also got persuaded to go on the log flume, I have a pic of us on this one that I bought just because I look absolutely terrified. I HATED it but Jason told me if I gave it a try he would buy me a craft punch!

Another lazy day today, just done some ironing and thats it. Can't even be bothered to scrap at the moment! Kids are back at 5pm so I hope I can get something done by then!

Have a great day everyone!

Birthday Card

Its my mates Les's birthday tomorrow so I knocked up this card for her (I say knocked up, you don't want to know how long it took me!)





Its a dreadful pic unfortunately, but it will have to do as I have sent Jason off to put it through her door. I misted the background card and most of the supplies are from this months Scrapagogo kit. Its not 'really' my thing this month, I don't really do delicate pretty pretty paper, but the 'bellies are beautiful this month, so I am happy, and it seemed a good idea to use the papers on a card rather than struggle with a layout.

Despite quiet no kiddy time I have achieved diddly squat today (unless you count 4 back to back episodes of Neighbours - I am about 6 weeks behind and really it annoys the shit out of me but I still keep ploughing on, like I really care what the kids latest teen angst is!!)

I ran for the first time in 11 days this morning, managed the whole 30 mins and not too bad a distance in that time, so that made me happy, what makes me sad is that Jason hurt his calf and reckons thats him done for at least a week, so I am going to have to bite the bullet and run on my own *gulp*

Funstar in Training

Its been so nice to get my scrappy supplies out and get down to it. The kids are at their dads until Wednesday and so apart from trying to tidy the house and do all the holiday washing and unpacking I have a fair bit of time to myself.




I finished this LO of Jessica on the last night of our holiday, modeling her funstar tshirt I bought her. Jessica is a marketers dream, but this tshirt only cost 3.99 which I thought was a bargain!

Tomorrow I am running again after a break of 11 days, I am not expecting it to be pretty and am dreading it actually, but as Jason says it would be too easy to give up now, and I will soon be back in the swing of it!

The wanderer returns

I am back from my holiday to Haven (was it a holiday or am I infact more in need of one now?).



We had a lovely time. It took the kids a couple of days to chill out and relax, the first 2 days were a frantic mix of never settling to one activity before moving on to the next, which left me a bit frazzled I must admit and I did threaten to pack us all back home if they didn't calm down a bit!



The middle 2 days were lovely and relaxed, we spent time on the beach, chilled out with racket games at the caravan, BBQ'ed (the kids would only let us have one night in), a bit of swimming and some card games.



Any one who has been to a Haven camp will know that the entertainment in the evening revolves around their 'Showbars' There were 2 large ones on our camp and my god were they busy - you had to get there before 5.30pm to get a seat and it was PACKED out, roasting hot and sooooooo LOUD. Also I swear Haven have only bought the rights to 10songs and if I ever hear that bloody pizza hut/mcdonald song again I will scream!! Mandy, if you read this you would have HATED it, we had a chuckle about how it would be your idea of hell, even with a bottle of wine!



For all its tackiness the 'funstars' really do work their socks off and do such long hours they must be constantly knackered, one had a bit of a wicked sense of humour and made Jason and I smirk with his sarcasm and rudeness.

However we are pleased to be home, we all missed Bruno Brookes and he was besides himself when he saw us at the kennels, my white trousers are now dog print trousers!!

I missed scrapping so much, my fault for using my iphone to keep up to date with blogs and then getting inspired and not being able to do anything about it. We were only back 2 hours before I got my scrapping stuff out and I am almost done with a holiday layout already!

On me Holibobs

Just a quick note to say goodbye to blogland for the next week, we are off on our Holibobs tomorrow.

Lisa and Fay, I did have one of my infamous rants to post today, but I should have done it straight away because I am all calm now and don't feel the need, shame really cos it was a doozie!!! :)

Love to all, and see you with lots to post in a week or so xx

One moment in time

Sometimes I think that the scrapping world is crazy. I remember once taking part in a challenge where we had to scrap our pet rock and create a back story around it. By rock I do indeed mean rock, like pebble, stone etc. I did a layout called "The Family Stone" (hey I was PROUD of that title!!!)and it featured pictures of me and Jess with our painted (yes they had to be decorated too) stone looking at it adoringly. I think I came 2nd or 3rd in that - can't remember!!

Today in my inbox at Scrapbook.com was a private message from a 'friend' asking all her 'friends' if they would consider scrapping a layout using Hallmark cards in anyway they liked. Ok. Apparently its to convince Hallmark to support the scrapbooking industry more, if they can see what people can do with their products.

So I was supposed to be doing laundry today, and I have done some (flaming water got turned off for an hour or so mid washing cycle!) but the challenge left me intrigued and so I HAD to give it a go! Tadaaaa, ladies and gentlemen I give you..........



Hallmark cards used for the frame around the photo, the flowers around the circle, the butterfly on the frame and even the scallop cutouts.

Thinking on it further, all this crazyness has come from Scrapbook.com an American site! As our American friends would say....."I'm just sayin!!"

Cute pair

I needed a sketch this morning to kick start the old creative genes and so I popped over the Sketchy Thursdays and used this one:

And heres my take on it:

With my new enthusiam for ruffles (only because they are sooo speedy to make with my new super dooper pooper scooper sewing machine) I made one from kraft with ribbon over the top. The butterflys are a bargalicious £1.99 from papermania and you get 20 chipboard butterflys and 20 dragonflies. Attachin the wire and beads for their bodies wasn't my favourite part let me tell you!

I have been very on the go today. 30 min run at 6.30 covering a personal best of 4.41km, 2 miles (or nearly) into town and back to take Jess to Holiday Camp, housework, bit of a sit down with a cuppa and then craft time yay!!!! I am having a break from laundry today, its those last few days before holibobs when you are trying to get everything washed, ironed and ready and I am being militant about what I will let people wear as I will do my LAST preholiday wash on fri morning and my LAST preholiday iron on fri afternoon - woe betide anyone who makes a mess of their clothes on Friday afternoon, - JOE that means you!!!!

A non scrappy sewing project

Fay commented on my blog last week to ask if I thought if I would use my sewing machine on anyting other than paper. I thought I probably would but didn't expect any great success.

Today I was having a go at making a ribbon ruffle on the sewing machine (SOOO much quicker) and realised that it would make a cute headband, so I got an old not used headband, covered it in more ribbon and then attached the ribbon ruffle. It was a really quick make!



Here is Jess modelling it! Its for her to wear with her one good dress as its white, navy and has a tiny bit of red on it. Excuse Jessica's messy hair!

Graduate

That is what I am !!! After my minor setback last week, today I went and did my final 30 min run and my final run of the c25k (couch to 5k) program. I also managed my best distance of 4.31km.

I'm very proud of myself, during the whole program I had no fails, no stops I just kept running until it told me to stop. I've learnt that my little legs are capable of quite a lot but more importantly I had the mental strength to just keep on. Many times during a long run (sometimes right at the start) my head and my legs would scream at me to stop, but I would have a little battle going on in my head and I would absolutley not let myself stop running until my stopwatch went off.

I never thought I could do this, I remember Week 5 Run 3 when all of a sudden you jump from 8 min runs to a 20 min run, I thought they were having a laugh! me? run 20 mins? NOT A CHANCE. Now I can run 30 mins and I am not too far off 5k. Thats my next target 5k in 30 mins!!!! Watch this space!

Pooh Sticks

I am back and feeling a fair bit more human today. Yesterday we went to the matinee of Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Tour, whilst I enjoyed it, I did think that the old production with the revolving stage was much better and more atmospheric. We did have really good seats though! I booked very last minute and chose 2 seats in a small section of free seats, when we got there no other seats around us were booked (although the theatre was booked out apart from that), so we had lots of room to move about and seeing as we were on bench seating we had a bit of breathing space, which was nice as it was very HOT and sweaty there.

We were supposed to be going out last night, but with only 2.45 hrs sleep the night before I was dead on my feet and so I stayed home and went to bed at 8.30pm!!! Whilst Jason went out and then slept in Joes room for the night, utter bliss!!! I had a good nights sleep and so felt much better this morning.

Here is what I have been making in odds and ends of minutes I have snatched since Friday. The letters are made from pizza boxes, stripped back and I traced from an old chipboard letter set and the butterfly middles is string inked black! The paper used is all Echo Park a walk in the park collection, and of course you can see plenty of evidence of my new sewing machine!