Tag, you're it!

Just a quick hello, no pictures as all this week I've been clearing out, tidying and cleaning ready for the house being valued today (postponed until Thursday now, grrrrrr) so no time for scrapping.

Anyway, Kirsty has tagged me to share 7 random facts about me. So here goes!

The rules are:-
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself some random some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their name (linking to them)
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs

So here are my 7 random facts

1. Saturday is my favourite day of the week
2. I have one tattoo - a purple rose on my right shoulder
3. I hate raw tomatoes, but like cooked ones in meals and tomato-flavoured foods
4. I am one of three sisters
5. I have caterpillar-like stitches up my right thigh and a metal plate and three pins in my leg
6. I'm incredibly short-sighted with a contact lenses prescription of -5.5
7. I love to watch Scrubs, My Name is Earl, Ugly Betty and Dead Like Me

I'm going to be naughty and share some of Kirsty's tags: http://twintroublesjourneythroughlifex2.blogspot.com/ - Erika
http://blog.flynnstones.co.uk/ - Karen
http://creatingspace.typepad.com/creating_space - Anthea
http://rewarddesigns.blogspot.com/ - Rachel
http://iscrapthereforeiam.blogspot.com/ - NattieG
http://www.olibobs.blogspot.com/ - DiO
http://www.scrapchatterbox.blogspot.com/ - Mitchy

Bye for now!

x

Holidays are coming!

Getting into the Christmas spirit a bit now, which is very unlike me at this stage in the year. No doubt I will be fed up of it all by Christmas Eve. Anyway, I have been busy making cards, tree decorations and even a 3D advent calendar using matchboxes, which is part of my design team assignment at www.papercraftjunkies.co.uk - the challenge will go live to you guys on Monday, check it out as it's a goodie!








Not much else to say really, work is really difficult at the moment so just don't feel too chatty. Hopefully normality will resume soon!

x

One more ...

... yeah I know, posting twice in one day, it's not like me! But I just wanted to show off this card, which I made for the Papercraft Junkies challenge. I won't tell you what the challenge is, but it will be going live on the site very soon, so check it out!

Bye for now... again!

x

Good day today!

Well they say things come in threes, and today I've had three lots of good news.

Firstly I won £50 on the premium bonds my uncle bought me for my 21st birthday, and the bank cashed it despite it having my maiden name on, and spelt wrong too!

Secondly, work have decided to take on another member of staff, which will take so much pressure off, and hopefully, give me more of an opportunity to get trained up and in a better position for promotion, whether that be in my office or not.

And finally, my boobs LO won a prize on the It's A Creative World blog, which is fantastic. I'm so shocked, I never expected to win anything, but I'm so pleased. I haven't got much scrapping done lately, and it's been a struggle, so this really means a lot to me.

No pictures today I'm afraid, just wanted to share that with you guys. Back really soon. :)

N x

Expose!

I can't believe I'm doing this, but here's my effort for the Scrap Your Bosoms challenge to mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month on the It's a Creative World blog.

I quite like this, love the colours, and tried to incorporate a few different and new techniques or styles for me. It will do anyway!

Not much else to report, work has been mad today and I've only just finished from home so I doubt scrapping is on the agenda. Although I should really make a start on a few things I need to get finished like yesterday!

x

Back to the cold, dark nights

Got back from a wonderful, sunny seven days in Florida to, yep, you guessed it, good old English rain and, thanks to the clocks going back on Saturday night, cold, dark nights too.

But we all had such a lovely time. The weather was mostly good, including some scorching days in the theme parks, and I managed lots of stash, clothes and presents shopping in between visits to Sea World and Universal Studios and splashing with Harry, who has decided he absolutely loves swimming now (what a change from last time we went, he was water phobic and went into complete meltdown at the very sight of the pool!)

Here's some photos, which I hope to get round to scrapping VERY soon, using all the gorgeous new stash I bought there.

My favourite shop was by far Scrappy Boutique near Florida Mall. It's a lovely little shop, packed with brand new-release brand names, all absolutely gorgeous ranges and matching embellies. I bought almost everything I wanted and it still hardly cost anything. So any visitors to Florida, you must go check it out!

Managed a little scrapping tonight, a LO about my boobs. Yes, I said boobs (stop giggling at the back!). It's a challenge on the UKS website, and I'm just scraping in before Wednesday's deadline. Or I will be, if the batteries in the camera get put on charge so I can photograph and upload it.

Better get to bed, I can hear Harry still sat up in bed talking to his new Shamu cuddly toy - at 11.30pm! Something tells me I'm not going to get a good night's sleep tonight!

Byeeeeeee!

x

The countdown is on!

Less than four days now until I, sorry, we, jet off to Florida! I'm so excited, I have my list of scrapping shops, my shopping list and lots of space in my suitcase for all my bargains! We've just been to collect the last of our dollars too, they smell sooooo good!

Been a busy bee getting ready and scrapping too. Managed to get another CC LO done and also an autumnal one after taking hundreds of photos of mine and a friend's boys playing in the fallen leaves. We also took a trip to Eureka so I'm sure more LOs will follow soon. Must get my CJ done first though before I go.

I'm currently on a training course from work, which is going well, it's something new and interesting. Just hope I do ok with the practical stuff tomorrow. Then it's in work for just one mad day on Thursday and then we are off. Please let the weather stay nice for us!

Catch you soon, if not before we go then very soon after! :D

x

A quick visit

Not been scrapping much lately, still, as I've had so much to battle against, again. I won't bore you with the details, but in a nutshell I've been rallying round for my mum who is devastated my step-dad is acting so badly and seems to have left for good and a work colleague of mine died very suddenly in a road accident a fortnight ago.

This year seems to have gone from bad to worse, thank goodness a holiday is just around the holiday and that we're now all going. Yep, me, dh and ds are flying to Florida next Friday for a whole week and I can't wait. Dh has never been before and I know he'll love it. The boys joining me is not going to scupper my plans to stash shop til I drop, and hopefully we'll get some lovely family pictures now.

I've started to get scrapping again thanks to a CC and the crops, although my mojo is still lacking. But if there's anything all this tragedy has taught me it's that I must stop moping and start living and just live every day to the full.

Here's my latest offerings. The first three are classes from the CC, the fourth is a complete scraplift of a LO in my favourites on my laptop (sorry, there's no name but you are one talented lady whoever you are!) and the fifth is my own work and a LO for an album I'm making of my granddad for my mum for Christmas.

Bye for now.....

Natalie x

A whole month again!

Sorry, as usual, didn't realise a whole month had passed without me updating on here. Yikes! There's been too much going on, birthday, anniversary, family problems, job stress, a job interview (didn't get it) and decorating and cleaning. I'm shattered.

Anyway, been doing a few LOs, mainly at crops, and here they are for your enjoyment or otherwise!

Better dash, dh and ds are getting grumpy! Hopefully I'll be back really soon to show you my creations using the gorgeous new PaperMania papers and vellums (yes, it's true, PaperMania has gone a bit gorgeous! You have to check them out!)

Byeeeee for now!

Natalie

x

My comeback is long overdue I know!

Sorry for the long break, I have had a lot less time to scrap since going back to work full time and DIY projects at home have taken up all my spare time. In fact, my stash is currently in boxes (gasp!) while we swapped over the office and Harry's room. Harry now has a lovely little boy's bedroom and nursery and I, sorry, we (dh and I!) have a lovely light and stylish study. Well almost. The walls are done, just need to lay the laminate floor and get the desks, storage and everything else in.



Anyway! I haven't done any scrapping since my last update on here, shocking, until now that is. I am very honoured to have been picked as a design team member for Papercraft Junkies (connected to the Crafty Carrot online store) and I think this is just the kick up the wotsit I need to get my mojo flowing again.

I've already created my first DT LO, and although I struggled to conjure up any creativity at first, slowly it came and I'm really pleased with it. I promise to post it here just as soon as it is revealed on the Junkies website.

So that's me. Hopefully, once my new office is finished - and I can really sit down and scrap again - you'll me seeing a lot more of me.

So bye... but only for now!

Natalie x

Back shortly!

Sorry for the break guys, I've been so busy working full time again and it's really tiring me out. I've only been back five weeks and I've already had tonsilitis again. I'm also on a healthy eating diet now after allowing the weight to sneakily creep on, so instead of snacking on an evening I've been going to bed early and getting enough sleep to allow me to get up early, shower AND have breakfast, which is nice now I'm getting used to it!

Anyway, so with all that going on, and the refurbishment of the bathroom, I haven't been near my craft area in a couple of weeks. However, since as I have a CJ to make, design team calls to enter and a birthday card for dh to make this week, normal service should be resumed shortly!

See you soon! :)

Natalie x

A Shimelle-inspired day

You'll never guess what I did this morning? No, not work, which makes a change, I sat at my desk, feasted my eyes over the latest Scrapagogo kit and scrapped! I had the morning off due to working late every night so far this week and because an electrician was in to put spotlights in our bathroom (they look fab!), so I used one of Shimelle's LOs to help create this one using a picture of my mum and grandad in the late 50s.

It is the first heritage-style LO I've done and I'm really pleased with it even if it was a scraplift. I did alter it slightly and used different colours to reflect the theme.

I think I'll be doing more of these soon as I scanned, copied and printed a pile of photographs of my grandad throughout the decades and I'd like to have a few LOs or even an album to remember him by. And there are some lovely family photos among them too.

I also completed a LO this week using the gorgeous new Love Elsie papers, which finally arrived at work after a round trip of England thanks to Royal Mail! They are lovely and really easy to use. The photograph I used is even inspired by one of Elsie's in her 52 challenges book. I will post a picture later.

And this last LO I made after last Saturday's crop, just because I liked the shapes I cut out for it. I'm not sure if it works or not, but it will do - for now! Lol!

Right, need to eat, I've only had a sandwich all day! Back soon :o)

Natalie x

Just a flying visit!

This is just a quick hello as we have a busy day planned, and I'm already being nagged to come off the computer. We're visiting family and also taking Harry to a friend's birthday party, which will be fun.

I just wanted to upload my recent work though. The first LO is one I completed at yesterday's crop using an old black and white film picture of my husband at a music festival (aaaah, them were the days!). And the other is a scraplift from a LO in the April issue of the fab US magazine Scrapbook Trends.

I have more to post, so I'll be back to do that later :)

Got to fly, bye for now!

Natalie x

My space

Finally got round to tidying my craft space, and taking and uploading some pictures. It's still a work in progress, although I think as long as I'm buying new stash it will always be as I have to add and re-think my storage solutions to accommodate it all! Lol!

I'd like it to be fresher with lots of pretty things on display - everything is packed and hidden away - although I guess it wouldn't be very practical for taking to crops now would it?!

See you soon!

x

Sad times

I have been away from my blog for a few weeks because my grandad, who had been very ill, died on May 16. It was still a bit of a shock though and - I can't say too much mind - we are having to fight the local NHS trust for answers about his condition and death. So the last few weeks have been a bit of a blur organising and attending his funeral, helping my gran with paperwork, errands and at home and comforting my mum too, who is totally gutted, as are we all.

For his funeral I decided to make lots of tags from card or patterned paper, to go on a book ring. Each one was decorated with a picture of him and on the back was space for people to write a comment, thought or nice memory. We collected a fair few after the funeral - the crematorium was packed with people, the staff struggled to close the doors! - and these will be kept by my mum and shown to my son who is too young to understand and might not remember him as time goes by. I'll take and upload some pictures when I can, but I just wanted to say a huge thank you to Lesley and Kerrie for cutting me some tags and patterned paper to help complete this project in time - thanks a million girls, I couldn't have done it without you. Also thank you to everyone who sent kind wishes during this difficult time.

I've tried to keep myself busy to take my mind off things, completing these LOs. The first was using my ScrapaGoGo May kit, which is scrummy, and the second is a Pencil Lines sketch LO in response to a design team call they've put out. Well, I can dream can't I?!

My next project, once I'm ready will be to do a few LOs, or even a mini album about my grandad. After he died we started collecting up photos of him and now I have a bundle of wonderful pictures of him all the way up from childhood waiting to be scanned in.

In the meantime I'm going back to work full time this week after two years flexible working following having Harry (I'm even working tomorrow - Bank Holiday Monday!) and I have to prepare a LO as guest designer for the Mojo Holder inspiration blog - how exciting is that! I better get cracking really.

Bye for now. Sleep tight grandad.

x

Colour me happy!

I've gone all colourful with my scrapping of late, first of all with this scraplift of a LO from the February issue of Scrapbooks Etc:

The original was about a little girl's crafting, but I've used the same design for a rare LO of my dh. I've also finally worked out how to make pictures look good in black and white using Photoshop - ok, I admit it, dh showed me! I used my beloved Cuttlebug to cut out the hearts from patterned paper and thick card and foam pads to lift them from the page. But I was left with all the negative cut outs, which were equally as pretty. I'd vowed to use them on a LO, and I did and this is the result:

Well my week off has flown by and today is like any other Friday, ds and me sat at home waiting for the postman before we can go out and watching CBeebies! We're going round to my mum's later and then tomorrow is the Leeds crop, which I can't wait for. There should be a fair few of us all chatting and scrapping this month!

Erm, not much more to say. The house looks like a bomb has hit it with me ploughing on with the last of the decorating in the kitchen and the bathroom wall pulled down to move the door to accommodate the new suite, which will hopefully be fitted in about a week's time. Aaaaarrgh, there's debris everywhere, I can't wait for it all to be finished. I just hope it's done quicker than the kitchen, which we started last September!

Bye for now! :)

x

Testing 1,2,3

I'm testing that I can actually upload to my blog. Our broadband connection has been almost non existent for the past week and painfully slow at the best of times. It's been testing my patience no end, as have a load of family stresses, not least my grandad being so ill and in and out of hospital more times than is humane.

So the last month has been a whirlwind of family visits, work and quite a bit of scrapping thanks to being on a roll earlier last month, then the UKS cyber crop and also an additional mini crop I held for National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday. Here are some of my favourite LOs:

I've finished another LO this weekend and am just putting the finishing touches to another, so hopefully I'll be able to post those very soon. I'm off work this week, so I really do mean soon this time!

tfl - catcha soon :)

x

I think she's on a roll!

It's only Thursday, and already this week I've completed three LOs and a CJ DLO entry - I think this is a record for me! Maybe it's my new-found confidence that I've realised I can cut into a gorgeous piece of paper and create something just as lovely from it, or maybe it's all the photos that dh has been taking, and also recovering from the broken pc storage box. Anyway, having suffered from scrapper's block recently, this is a very welcome change!

This LO was completed just a few hours after I received the ScrapaGoGo kit - as soon as I opened it and feasted my beady little eyes on it I knew I had to use it straight away. And this picture dh took of Harry playing in the park last weekend was perfect. I've used a lot of journalling for probably the first time, but I'm glad I got down some feelings about Harry and my hopes for his future.

And this is a CJ entry for my Handbags and Gladrags team - no peeking if you are a member!

Back soon I hope!

x

GoGo-Gorgeous!

Well I'm a happy bunny because today I received my first ScrapaGoGo kit a subscription and it is utterly gorgeous! I never could have thought so many beautiful things could fit inside a yellow pizza box - all things I had been eyeing up recently but not got round to buying. I can't wait to get it all out later and start creating with it. I also just got a large stack of photos from Photobox. They have an offer on until midday tomorrow, 70 photos for 1p each. I ordered Monday night and they arrived today - now that's service!

Last night I decided to sit down and actually - gasp! - cut into some of the scrummy papers I bought at the Harrogate Papercraft show last month. Here is the result:

Got to go-go! Catch you all later :)

x

Apologies

Sorry peeps, I know a while ago I said I would keep my blog updated regularly but these last two weeks have been such a blur of family issues (including my grandad who is very ill and deteriorating and my troublesome sisters) and also spending time with Harry amid the sunny weather I have not had a moment to sit down and scrap, let along update my blog.

Anyway, I'm back now, having managed to beat my scrapper's block to complete what could possibly be my most favourite LO yet. I'm not sure how it came together, I wasn't sure it even would, but it did and I love it. Dh's new Nikon D80 camera is getting me some wonderful pictures to scrap, especially with all the good weather lately and the fact both boys have been off for the Easter holidays. Anyway, here it is, pictures of Harry chasing his mummy round the garden, hence the title!

I also managed to get another LO done at the Leeds crop yesterday, which was great fun as always, although I should really have got more done (I always say that though and I never do!). This one is inspired by a LO in the Easy Patterns book (yes, again!).

Right, got to go, dh is calling and I'm shattered. I have work in the morning, plus a meeting to cover in the evening, zzzzzz, so I better go get some sleep. Hopefully the week ahead won't be as manic as this last one. Here's hoping.

x

Work hard, play hard!

Been so busy at work due to being short staffed, but I made up for it at the weekend with a day of pampering on Saturday (nails, eyebrows and hair - all long overdue!) then it was my best friends' engagement party, which was good fun. Harry stayed out overnight and a taxi was booked to take us home so we could really let our hair down.

Then on Sunday we went out for lunch with the in-laws and enjoyed the afternoon in the garden. The sun was shining so dh mowed the lawn, I cleaned my car outside and in and Harry played and washed too. Our friends came round and we cracked open a bottle and had a mini barbecue! Today has been just as nice and dh, who is now off work for Easter, met me for lunch in a beer garden. Bliss. Summer is almost here and I can't wait!

Anyway, not done too much scrapping lately, just a quick LO of Harry's handprints, which I took last week. My how they've grown since his last prints at six months! I'd seen a few floating around on UKS recently and they've inspired me to scrap Harry's as part of his year album. And I also completed a 12x12 to play with my new Silhouette, this time a scraplift of the gorgeous LO below (I'm sorry, I've lost the link, but whoever you are it is gorgeous).

Bye for now :)

x