More Challenge Layouts!

Wow... three posts in a week for various challenges!
I have had a great week and am feeling really inspired by the challenges from Shimelle! I'm also enjoying seeing what so many others have done for these challenges as well - it always amazes me how the same suggestion is taken in so many directions by different people!

This layout again meets two challenges - I can't seem to help combining these though.. it is the Half Page challenge - where Shimelle encouraged us to leave at least half of the paper blank(!) and also the "Signature" challenge - butterflies seem to be a permanent fixture on my layouts recently, regardless of the topic of the page!!  I can't seem to leave them alone... made worse by the fact that my Uncle has just come over for a visit fromTexas and brought the gorgeous Martha Stewart Punch All Over The Page Butterfly punch with him - I have been waiting (im)patiently for weeks for this so I see a lot of butterflies in my future!

The half page challenge was difficult for me to get started as I feel the urge to add more things if I see white space and I truly admire the brave people using plain white cardstock for this one - I just can't do it though - so I used this gorgeous patterned paper that I have had for several months instead! 

I think that I will be using this half page idea a lot now too as I love seeing so much of the pretty paper and I may actually get through some of my older stash this way as I have lots of papers that I can't bring myself to use as backing papers as it covers too much of it and I can't decide how to cut them up!

C x

Scrapping Old(er) Photos!

Another challenge from Shimelle's Proud to be a Scrapbooker online crop... this one was to scrap an old photo and was just the nudge I needed to make a page that has been sitting in my To Scrap box for a long time... my graduation pictures!

Again, please excuse the poor quality picture - I will find some natural light soon!

I bought the paper a couple of years ago and had been trying to work out how to use it as I didn't want to cover up all the lovely phrases and I couldn't bring myself to hack it up either so I have just left it.  However, I have been learning new styles over the last couple of years, including hidden journalling and learning that a simple page is also acceptable, so when I was flicking through my box looking for an older picture I decided that it was time this paper had its day! 

The hidden journalling also let me tell the full story of the day, where I have previously struggled to scrap this sort of photo as I do not like my handwriting when I write more than a couple of (visible) lines, so overall I am really pleased with this layout, despite it being very simple.

C x

A Productive Weekend...

I have had great fun following along with Shimelle's online crop this weekend and I am really pleased that I managed to carve a bit of time out of a busy weekend to sit down and complete a couple of pages and get the bits together for at least a couple more... hopefully I will get to complete (and blog) those too before next Sunday!


My first page started as my entry for the Sarah's Cards August challenge to use at least 5 different patterned papers on a layout..I had the five but the page just felt like something was missing... and none of my current stash of journalling cards seemed to fit so the first challenge this weekend was perfectly timed... a set of free printables from Mary Anne Walters which had the perfect size and colours to fit my stalled page!!  So here it is...

(please excuse the poor lighting for the photos.. I am currently scrapping in a corner of hubby's office in the loft with no natural light!)


With the happy feeling of getting this page off of my pile of "needs something more" I decided that I will use this weekend crop as a chance to catch up on some pages for my 2010 holiday album.


With that in mind, my second completed page is a bit of a cheat, as it covers two of Shimelle's challenges - it is the intro page for my album and I started preparing it for the stickery challenge of using two sets of stickers... I have used some Making Memories Passport stickers and a few layered chipboard stickers from the Just Chillin range and then I threw in some American Craft Princess range as well to add a bit of colour, but was really struggling for a title... until another challenge popped up.. to cover something I Love - and there it is - a perfect title to sum up how I was feeling - I Love Holidays in Cornwall! 

I Love heading down to Cornwall - I think this trip was our 7th visit in 8 years!  I love it so much that I cornered hubby when I finished this page and got him to tentatively agree to some dates for us to disappear for a long weekend there next month (babysitters permitting!) :-) Yay!


C x

Long time, no blog!

Hi all, remember me?
You do...I am impressed...I'm not sure I even remember how to use blogger it has been so long so please bear with me - I have already failed (twice!) to post this from my phone and have now snuck off to a quiet corner with a laptop to write this as I am determined to post it now!

Who knew that one extra day off in the week made such a difference!  I am now back at work full time (instead of 4 day weeks) and suddenly there just aren't enough hours in the day and weekends pass in the blink of an eye!  I have managed to keep up with reading blogs and following some tutorials but as I have been doing so from my phone it is fairly difficult (and massively time-consuming) to attempt to comment on anyone's posts so I am afraid I have let this lapse - sorry everyone - I am trying to keep up with you all though and I am hugely impressed with how regularly some of you post!

I was really excited to see that Shimelle has organised an online crop this weekend, Proud to be a Scrapbooker, and I have managed to squeeze some time into this weekend to retreat to my craft area and play along as a...


VJ, Rachel and I have continued to have our monthly crops (on a Sunday now that I work Mondays) so I am getting some pages done and am (mostly) keeping up with my Document 2011 but scrapping time between crops is basically non-existent right now! I am determined to have some "me" time in the next few evenings to join in the fun with this crop and I have already completed a page for one of the challenges so I will be back later tonight or tomorrow to post this up!!

C x

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