Doesn't Time Fly?

I can't believe that I've not posted here for a month! I have been so busy lately. Work and life in general (i.e. visiting Jenni, fetching Karen from Uni, and a busy period at work) has meant there hasn't been time for crafting. So, I'm back today with two quick scrapbook pages in my favourite colour - blue - to show that the photographs still need scrapping and the mojo's still there to do it! Thankfully.

The first features some photos from a sunny day spent at Shoreham-By-Sea with DD1 and her partner Tom. They met at college and have been together now for three years. Doesn't time fly?

I used Papermania and Tim Holtz papers, Graphicus stamps and some orange brads.

The second layout shows DD2 and her friend Ginny in Cannes in May. They were there for the annual Film Festival and were very lucky with the weather. It seems like a 'home from home' with the seashore and McDonald's! Karen's back home now for the summer, with her first year at Uni completed. Doesn't time fly?

Again I've used Tim Holtz papers, and stamped on them with Papermania alphabet stamps.

I'm away after today for a few days, but I will be taking part in WOYWW this week. The 'time manipulation' wonders of Blogger allow me to set the post up in advance, but I'll be back and checking everyone's workspace Wednesday evening. I hope to see you there!

Student Footwear

My youngest daughter, Karen, loves to hunt for clothes in Charity Shops. In the past she has managed to root out bargain items from Karen Millen and Topshop, among others. Her latest find at Easter was a brand new pair of Converse trainers (her favourite) in pink, and they've hardly been off her feet since!
Looking at her most recent photos, with her wearing the aforementioned trainers, I spotted that her male University friends also favour brightly coloured shoes, and there was the idea for my layout.
Here's the work in progress..........

.........and here's the finished page.

I used Papermania scalloped cardstock, free papers from Scrapbook Magazine and a sheet of K&Co flowered paper to make a bright, Spring background. A few buttons and ribbon, a quotation from Oscar Wilde, and plenty of doodling completed the page.

Call me old-fashioned....and I know you will....Karen loves wearing her trainers the way she does, but they look to me as if they should be worn as boots!

King For A Day

At last I've been crafting again! And here are some details from the light-hearted page I made this afternoon, showing my dear Hubby after he had finished the Brighton Marathon last month. I used a sketch from The Scrappiest for my inspiration.

You can see the 3D elements of the flags and the crown, and the brown circle tag beneath the main photo. This pulls out to reveal a second photo, shown below.

The title 'King For A Day' is a bit of fun because Hubby's surname is King, and it seemed appropriate for the layout.

Firstly, I cut out the background shape from plain blue card and then used a Versamark pad to create a watermark effect with the Hero Arts clocks stamp. I also stamped onto white card the crown, the Papermania alphabet title and the clocks once again. Then I distressed everything with Tim Holtz distress inks. The journaling card is from My Mind's Eye and the orange card that I used for the flags is from my box of scraps.

At the end of the event, the King decreed that he will enter both the London Marathon and the Brighton one next year. They will be just one week apart in 2011.

Personally, I think the King is mad!

Living Here

Today I made a layout with some of yesterday's photos. My visit to Hove Seafront made me think about living where I do, and my journaling reflects my thoughts about this city. We've lived here 16 years now and my daughters do not remember very much about Aylesbury where they were born.
Aylesbury was very flat, with little to do unless you drove somewhere else, like the Cotswolds.
In contrast, Brighton and Hove City has something happening all year round, has a Metropolitan atmosphere..... and of course... it's by the sea (or rather the English Channel!) and the chalk cliffs of the South Downs.

I kept the colours on my page to white, blue and green and managed to use up scraps from my scrapbox. A Martha Stewart border punch and Papermania alphabet stamps were also used to make this simple layout.

I will link my layout to the Scrapbook Challenges Blog, the first time I've entered one of their Challenges. They have lots of sketches and challenges every month, all entries are due before the month end, and you can enter as many as you like. Go on over, take a look around.

Love Me, Love My Dog

Well the weather's been atrocious on the South Coast today, so what else could I do but get out my table and do some crafting? I'm glad I didn't have to travel anywhere today.

These photos are of the first Christmas after my husband and I got married (hence the sepia tones!) and I've been meaning to scrap them for a while. Remembering the main event of that Christmas Day, I decided to record it today on the layout. It was not a happy day for me and I ended up in tears. The journaling around the page tells the sorry tale:

All was going well. The guests had arrived: Mum, Dad and Great Aunt Hilda. It was the first time I had cooked Christmas lunch and wanted to impress everyone. I went into the kitchen to find King, Denis' dog, eating the chicken I had taken out of the oven, and the turkey gone too! So we had cold ham and all the trimmings!!

I used gold glitter spray and a masking technique for the date and also sprayed over the BasicGrey stickers which form the title.  I used a Papermania bauble stamp and gold ink to keep the 'gold theme' going. I'm afraid the photo doesn't really show how sparkly the layout is.

When I married my husband, I inherited his dog, King, too! Love me, love my dog, as they say. King was diagnosed with bowel cancer soon after that Christmas and it then became obvious why he had behaved the way he had when he had always been such a well-trained dog. Sadly, he was put to sleep the same day my husband was told the news. He was devastated because King had been his from a puppy and was over 12 years old. They had been inseparable.

Christmas Cards Again

Sorry for the poor photos today, the light is very bad again. I'm back to making Christmas cards once more! Thankfully, only a few more to go and I will have made the number I need. I'm back to my favourite colour, blue, and have used Daisy Ds paper and stamps from Creative Expressions. I used sparkly embossing powder 'Disco Black' from Stamp 'n' Stuff and a glitter Sakura pen in blue to colour in. The stamped images are 3D which doesn't really show on the photo.

These stamps are made to be used with Nestabilities circle dies, but although I love the small scallop circles in the range, I cannot justify the cost at the moment. I have a circle cutter and swivel knife which just has to do instead!

I was inspired by Kaz on her blog 'Slightly Wonky Crafts' to try white embossing on purple patterned paper.

Here I used Graphicus and Papermania stamps and detail white embossing powder.

But I only made two purple Christmas cards as I prefer the black embossing. It's more dramatic I think.

Each to his (or her) own.