Wednesday 29 June 2011

Girl guides 1930s style

This One is for the latest sketch at Pencil LInes


I used an old photo of my Nan in the girl guides in the 1930s- she's the one top left- but she looks a little too old to be in the guides! I love the hat she's wearing and her uniform is pretty amazing as well. I used a piece of old pattern paper as the background that I bought in a charity shop.

Sorry about the glare on the photo and sorry for the lack of sketch at the bottom but blogger won't let me put anything under the picture at the moment- why not go and look for it here

and here are the bobs

This Lo is made using the latest sketch over at October Afternoon- its based on a grid and I used a few different OA lines to put this together as well as an old wild card. I love the greens and yellows of the papers with these pictures of Nancy in the daisies
And this one is for Sketchy Thursdays _ loved this sketch too- with its line of bits- I used another wild card that says _who are you? I thought it was perfect with this picture of Nancy- I love the look on her face - she really looks like she is wondering who the little boy is.
the sketch


Tuesday 28 June 2011

a bit of stuff

getting this one in quickly for Shimelle's challenge this week

It's Stanley in one of the underwater shots we took on holiday in May- I used some Echo Park and a few old bits of Cosmo Cricket snorkel paper from a while back
the sketch

scrapbooking sketch and page ideas


at my sister's wedding there was a photo booth- this was my favourite shot from the photo booth- me and Nancy wrapped in a feather boa- sharing a big sloppy kiss- I've changed the Lo around a little, shrunk down the size of the central section. added slightly different sized mats but I'm pretty pleased- its called giggle in case you can't read the title very well
the sketch

And another Sassy sketch

I found these two photos of Nancy pulling faces at the park today- the photos are from summer 2009 so I thought it was time to use them! the contrast between the two photos led me to call it naughty or nice? but really she's always nice!
And the sketch

Counterfeit

Here we are again with the Counterfeit kit blog hop-
(if you've arrived here first you could always go back to the beginning first (here )
this month the challenge was all about I- and we were asked to make a statement on the LO beginning with I...... I started making a LO from my kits with tags and then chose a phot0- then I realised it was a picture of my daughter- so I finished the LO ( its below) and started again with the same plan

There are not many photos of me and I don't like any of them- so that's what the LO became- a LO about how I hate photos of me- I always look a little ( very) goofy.

The next stop on the hop is the lovely Milissa - her blog is Here

Saturday 25 June 2011

A couple of things with an artistic bent

Artastic

Shazza's latest challenge at Artastic is Argenteuil by Manet ( see below)
she asks you to include
a photo with two people
a boat
some striped paper

I really would have rather use all spotty paper but thankfully the Echo Park paper has stripes on the back in the same colour so I used those.
there is a boat on the journalling card but I chose a photo of Nancy and Arthur because it had a boat in it as well- on our recent 31km cycle ride with the children we stopped of for lunch at a lake with a beach- within seconds they were in the water, within minutes they were down to their pants and not long after that their pants were soaked through and had to be abandoned for the rest of the trip- the journalling and title is all about our impromptu paddle
the art for inspiration



Fave things
The fave things challenge at the moment is to scrap your favourite artist- I don't really know who is my fave artist but I do know my favourite museum to visit is the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam- until recently when Nancy started school, we would visit together- arriving at 10 am when the museum opened and to avoid the crowds who all started conscientiously on the ground floor we would go upstairs to the main exhibition of his work and spend about 20 minutes alone , just me, Nancy and Van Gogh's sunflowers and Lilies- Nancy would dance around the rooms, pointing at the pretty paintings and then as the crowds arrived we nip off to the cafe for a quick drink- it didn't matter that we were only there for about half an hour- it was all i could expect from a three year old and we had museum cards that let us visit for free any time we want- so what I'm saying is Van Gogh's paintings hold special memories for me of our time In Holland

On the LO I've journalled about what I said above- I "stole" a few of the information leaflets in different languages to use as the PP on this LO and punched some circles from the leaflets as well.

A couple of ........

A quick couple of challenges I entered on manufacturers blogs
Crate Paper Challenge
They have a cute little sketch on the Crate Paper blog at the moment- it was a good opportunity to use some of their boy related papers from the Toy Box line with the pictures of Stanley on his survival course
the sketch

June


they have quite a few challenges over at October Afternoon- this one was a cute and simple sketch- I thought the orange papers would look good with Arthur's tiger face- there's another cute sketch this week that I need to get round to doing
this was the sketch

June OA Sketch

Wednesday 22 June 2011

My muddy boy

I just love this picture of Stanley from last weekend- his face is a picture of endurance after his survival training with his football team- he was covered in mud from head to foot- soaked to the skin and hosed down with cold water at the end of it all- he says's he enjoyed it but you can't tell from this photo.

I love the way the photo was taken as well so all you have in the background is the mud an pools of water- perfect- ( thanks to the football team for taking the photos and sharing them with us)

we love collecting

This is one thing the children will really miss when we go back to the UK- the supermarkets here often have things to giveaway with your shopping- every year there have been football stickers to collect and recently our nearest supermarket had these Monskeys to collect- right now Arthur is collecting animal cards "superdieren" to put in an album- he often asks to go to the supermarket so he can stand outside on the special mat and ask people for spare cards!

This Lo is using the Dutch Dares sketch shown below


I usually try to do something Dutch with mY Dutch Dares challenges to prove I'm not some kind of intruder! the title of this means collecting

Monday 20 June 2011

Mud Mud Glorious Mud

Stanley had a last outing with his football team this weekend- they took the boys on some survival training- which involved lots of Mud and water- Stanley's clothes were so heavy in the bag when he brought them back, and despite having been through the washer twice they're still not clean- for the bin may be? Anyway the photo shows why his clothes need washing twice- he's dragging himself from a muddy pool onto a soggy muddy bank- nice- they literally hosed the kids down after they'd finished

Watch out for a couple more of Stanley this week

This LO is for the Pencil Lines sketch shown below
the sketch
Sketch 243b

A glimpse of the future

Its my turn at twisted sketches again- its another wedding photo of my Sister but this is one for me- you might not be able to see it from the picture but if you look very closely in the background of the photo you can see Stanley hanging around outside what was the bar- drink in hand- looking every inch the teenager trying to get some alcohol!

Stanley spent most of the evening (when not on the bouncy castle) mixing up horrible looking concoctions made from cola, orange juice, lemonade, dr Pepper and then pretending to enjoy them ( i'm sure he was pretending)

Anyway the twist was "time" so I called this Lo "Glimpse of the future"
If you want to see what the sketch was look here

POker face

My latest design team work for Scrap it with a Song- this week Lady Gaga and Poker Face

Well when I read the lyrics I thought they were a little raunchy- So I thought just go with the title Poker face with a picture of the boys looking serious- but could I get a picture ( well obviously no as the LO doesn't have the boys on)

So then I looked at the lyrics again and found two separate lines to combine - first " I promise this" and second " I love you" this allowed me to make a cuter, sweeter LO from the song


Friday 17 June 2011

My 15 seconds of fame

In Amsterdam at the moment there is a massive screen, like a marquee at the cinema, which is showing peoples names for 15 seconds at a time. Its part of the Stedelijk Museum which is the contemporary art museum and during their massive rebuilding programme they have attached this huge screen to the side of the building- you can see the size of the screen on the top LO

I signed up the children and myself for our 15 seconds but unfortunately it was at 2 am :( there is a live video feed but there was no way I was going to wait to see it. But it appears the live feed didn't work so they rescheduled all the names and ours was at 06.53 am. Not great but there I was at 06.53 am with my camera in front of the screen- the pictures are a bit blurry but proof our names were there.

This Lo is for the Get Picky sketch- I decided I didn't like the four photos on the sketch page- I was going to put the print out with the name of the art at the top but it was too big.

So I decided to make it a two page LO and moved the small photos to the second page- hope get Picky don't mind


the original sketch

Three- is the magic number- not two

Stuck Sketch
If you look carefully ( very carefully) at the bottom of the orange tag at the bottom of the picture- right where the heart is - it says *not two- not sure why but it inspired my title of "three" both for the LO and the blog post
I used this photo because I was playing around with editing on the computer- I was quite pleased with how the photo turned out
the sketch


Counterfeit kit- sketch- there's an extra challenge at Counterfeit kit this month- a sketch - I decided to use the sketch for another wedding LO- these are various scenes from the wedding ceremony
And a repeat of yesterday

I made a LO yesterday, about Nancy as bridesmaid, that I loved but I really wanted it to go in the album for my sister- so today I made a copy- not an exact one as I only had one sheet of the paper I used - but near enough- I used a different dress for my Betsy McCall-

Thursday 16 June 2011

JOurnalling for DAddy

The current challenge over at Journalling Junkie is Dads- very apt for this time of year

This is the challenge set

Dad's are usally do-ers.
Celebrate all the things your Dad (or the Father of your children) does for you.
Take out the garbage, provide faithfully, check all the doors are locked up tight at night etc

My Lo is called Dad's most important job

My journalling reads

the BBQ is James' area of cooking expertise the one time he wasn't around to light a BBQ he set it all up ready with strict instructions

( I really wanted to write more but I didn't want to write on the green spaces I had at the bottom)

So here's what I added on the back of the LO ( no place to hide a tag either!)

When we go away on holiday our little BBQ comes with us- you like to feel your taking the burden of cooking away from me by having a BBQ or three while we're away- you've barbecued in the rain, the snow, in the pitch black, in a thunder storm !

the rings

You may get a little bored of wedding LOs soon- although I only have about 20 photos that I actually think are good enough to scrap thanks to James

This is a photo I took of their wedding rings - I used the sketch from Shimelle for this page- at the moment I have left the luggage tag blank. I'm not sure what to write on it, maybe I'll leave it for Paula to write on what she wants
scrapbooking sketch and page ideas

Betsy McCall and the Counterfeit Kit ( hey that sounds like a mystery story to me)

The Counterfeit kit mini challenge is to use and advert as inspiration for a LO.

My sister got married this weekend so I have a few photos to scrap of the day ( just a few- in fact not as many as I'd like to have as i was bridesmaid and didn't have control of the camera)

This Lo shows Paula and Dan saying their vows- I used the advert below as the inspiration- I'm making her a wedding scrapbook as her gift and I thought I'd use kraft card stock as the basis for all the LOs-

the advert


This Lo is also the wedding and also the Counterfeit kit- Nancy was bridesmaid in her own way- she spent most of the day with a dirty face, muddy shoes and cola and cherry stains down her dress!

Do you like the little girl on the LO? I found her at the link below. They have Betsy McCall paper dolls from the 1950s to the 1960s that you can download and print- there is an example of a page below. I think I am going to frame a few for Nancy's room

Find the paper dolls here- Betsy McCall

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Scrapbooker's Anonymous card


Its that middle part of the month when Scrapbookers Anonymous add a little extra to their challenge- use the scraps from your LO to make a card- well this months challenge was to use up some 6x6 or 8x8 papers. My LO used strips of paper to make a border (its at the bottom) i used the left over strips to make a folded flower for my card

My last Scrapping the Music guest post :(

I have been so lucky to be asked to be guest designer over at Scrapping the Music for two months but this is my last LO in the role :( now I have to go back to participating in the challenges as they go live :)

so my last challenge is the song Heaven When we're Home by the Wailing Jennies- I chose the line "walk a while"

This Lo nearly ended in disaster- I decided to use my bird on a wire punch at the top of the page only to find mid punch that it was broken- the metal punch plate had snapped along the wire bit and well the whole bit tore at the top of the page hence the slightly odd bit of paper at the top that is the repair

The LO is a picture of Nancy walking through the woods on one of our evening cycle rides- I think she was a bit fed up of being cycled about on my bike and wanted a bit of freedom

Wednesday 8 June 2011

twisted Summer

The twist with the latest Twisted sketch is Summer- I think we've already had our summer- a few days of warm weather in April and May that we will look back on fondly in the rain soaked days of August- I saw the UK papers were predicting a scorching summer again this year- nothing more likely to bring on the rain! Anyway- that means we've already managed a couple of trips to the beach- this is Nancy in her shades- yes I've already scrapped this photo but that's never stopped me before

I used the leftovers from some Chipboard letters to mist a cream alphabet on the cream grid paper- look closely and you can see it
i used some stapled on bakers twine to make the frame that's on the sketch- go check it out and I stamped some butterflies to add as embellishments
Hope you like it- 359/365
Nancy has been looking over my shoulder while I type this- she keeps poking her finger in to try and type so I'm going to let her have a little go now at the end of this post-

kjdgfhhglilkggrn,m.l;llkjlkhihigtutyugggggggdsafgolggtrgokt6gry6uplyuyu8i[philuj[plipujipi8u7i8j8-pok.nkgtokh6u[o,tgtr[pik[]j[ot'iu[;[pk[;p;i[;iouj'p;
'][]o]y'ujplu[plo'fo[o[p;u;k;i;i8u8p8op88kulu;7uj[p87[u8lh;//j.jkjj;l;j;mujjkhkhhkjoijhhglblkhylkmkhkkjhuykjjkjjjj

Crate Paper Wedding Challenge

Over at the Crate Paper blog they are having a wedding week. They have three challenges and I am entering two of them

Challenge 1- DIY wedding

My Sister is getting married on Saturday and I made the favours for her- these tags are set to go on seed packets - hence the label - plant me

I delivered 100 of these to my sister a couple of weeks ago so I made two more using Crate paper for the challenge

The originals are made from American Crafts botanique paper - mainly because they had a paper called Gladys- mine Nan's name - she died nearly seven years ago so its a way to have her at the wedding

Challenge 2- capture the day

the challenge deadline is JUne the 11th- the very day of my Sister's wedding- so scuppering my chances of scrapping her wedding- so I went retro- back to 1977 when I was a bridesmaid age three.

i went with a retro colour scheme of brown and yellow to go with my faded photos

Oh and I'm the chubby bridesmaid on the left

using my kit

I was looking at my counterfeit kit and the stack of remarks that I had included in my kit and I thought how pretty they would look used on masse - so here's the LO I made with label stickers ans bits of label stickers- some of the stickers I stuck onto patterned paper and then stuck on

I have to admit that some of the bits of paper were not in my original kit but I didn't want to start cutting into whole sheets of paper at this stage- I need to wait until the mini challenges come along!

The Lo is a recent picture of Nancy eating ice cream - she loves to smear it all over her mouth and chin at the moment- I hope this is a short phase.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Something old, new, borrowed and blue

Here is my effort for the Something old, something new, something borrowed something blue challenge at Scrap Our Stash- its perfect for the wedding season coming up or for weddings gone by- including my wedding from 12 years ago- ( this is only the third Lo I've managed about it)

I decided to use the challenge name as the title of my LO- I started trying to use things on my LO that fitted as well but only got as far as old and new ( bits of paper) I didn't have anything to borrow and I didn't want to add anything blue to the LO but it did give me a chance to journal about my old, new,borrowed and blue things from my wedding

the journalling reads
My something old was a handkerchief that Joan was given as a wedding gift in 1946 when she married Dick and left for the US. She sent it back for me to use on my wedding day- I tucked it into my bra! My new was my dress, veil, shoes etc.. I borrowed some pearls from my Godmother Christine, my Mum's best friend and my something blue was a tiny ribbon flower that I sewed inside the hem of my dress - I was not a girl for garters. 27 March 1999 Sandridge

350/365