Again, again!

Been to the fantastic Great Northern Papercrafts Extravaganza today with the rest of the crazy Leeds crop lot and had a great time looking, stroking and buying lots of scrumptious goodies. I bought some more lovely patterned papers, cardstock including the new Bazzill Bling, yummy, and a load of other stuff I just had to have! My purse is a bit lighter now, and so was I after all that walking around, until we went for a scrummy late lunch. It's been a long day but so worth it and it's so much more fun going in a group than on your own!

The event continues tomorrow - if you can get there I highly recommend it for a fun day out!

Got to go, I'm shattered! See you soon, hopefully with something created from my new stash!

x

And now for something completely different!

I think that's the only way to describe this LO I finished yesterday using the new Creative Imaginations Marah Johnson papers. I decided the only photos that would do it justice would be some of my one and only tattoo - a purple rose on my right shoulder. It's completely different to what I would do, but then the papers are ones I would not normally go for or use, I thought I wouldn't know how. But it got me out of my safety zone and I'm really pleased with the finished LO.

So now I challenge you to leave behind your safety zone and do something completely out of the ordinary with your scrapping. Use materials you wouldn't normally use, papers you wouldn't usually be drawn to and tools or techniques that have never taken your fancy before. I'd love to see your work, you can upload them and post the link as a comment here.

Not much else to report, work is absolutely crazy, we are down from 5 to 2 workers with my old boss at the reigns, not fun. So too tired to scrap tonight, hope I can get some more done soon.

Bye for now :)

Happy Mothers Day!

Hope you all had a good day all you yummy mummies out there. I was spoilt rotten with a long lie in, card, chocolates and flowers, breakfast made for me and a long soak in the bath while dh got ds ready. Then we went to buy dh a Nikon D80 camera, which has kept him busy all day while visiting the family to deliver cards (including the one I made below, inspired this time by a card on the QuicKutz website) and flowers.

Tonight I've been playing with some new papers I got while in the USA, the Creative Imaginations Marah Johnson range, which has a grungey, tattoo feel to it, completely different to what I'm normally drawn too. I knew only pictures of my own tattoo - a small purple rose on my right shoulder - would do them justice, so last night dh played with his old camera for the last time and got some great shots. I then downloaded some gorgeous digital brushes and learnt how to use them in Photoshop. Here are a couple of before and after shots and tomorrow I'll upload the finished LO, once I've taken a picture in daylight.

tfl! :)

Miss my camera, sob!

I still haven't got my lovely digital camera back yet, and it had the most lovely shots of my latest projects on in full daylight. So in the meantime you'll have to make do with dh's attempts in the horrible yellow light of our study I'm afraid. The first is a LO I did last weekend having finally bitten my lip and cut into those gorgeous new Basic Grey Blush papers I'd been stroking for too long, the next is the recipe tin I've made for my mum for Mother's Day, complete with laminated recipe cards taken from her old school exercise books, and the final picture is a card for my grandmother, again scraplifted from the CK Easy Patterns for Scrapbooking book.

Been a busy few days at work but now it's roll on the weekend. Not got much planned tomorrow except a few drinks for my collesgue who is leaving, but we're taking Harry a little friends second birthday party on Saturday and then on Sunday we'll be doing the rounds for Mother's Day. Should be good fun, wonder what I'll be getting?!

Typical!

I took some lovely photos this morning of the recipe tin I made for my mum at yesterday's Leeds crop, and a LO too, and I've only gone and left my camera at my in-laws! I won't get it back until the weekend, grrrr. I could get dh to take pictures of them on his DSLR, but by the time I get home work the daylight has almost gone and my desk lamp is no good for photographs. I'm really pleased with my finished projects and wanted to show them off too. It's not very often I post on here without any pictures. Oh well.

Not much to report, yesterday was the Leeds crop, the busiest I've seen yet. The shop just gets better and better too and has some gorgeous new stuff in now, including the gorgeous new PaperMania foam swirl and word stamps at a bargainous 99p! I've already used them on the LO I've already mentioned, and on the recipe cards too, so I think they've paid for themselves already!

Should be receiving my QuicKutz Silhouette this week and hopefully dh will get his new DSLR too - no doubt a Nikon D80. Can't wait, I really need him to take lots of lovely new photos for me to scrap. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of photos, but most are quite amateur and some out of focus as our last digital camera was completely rubbish. I really want some gorgeous new pictures to play with! I took some lovely ones of Harry playing with his Brio train set this morning, although I won't know how good they are until I get back my camera and memory card. He's been behaving so well since bumping and cutting his head on Thursday (quick trip to a&e but a very brave little boy), not sure if it's coincidence or everyone been more relaxed and happier this weekend, but it's just wonderful. I'm certainly going to enjoy it while it lasts!

Catch you soon. x

Birthday party recovery!

Harry had a lovely party on Saturday. Well, he wasn't so keen on going off and playing, Harry being Harry, but he sure enjoyed his meal and birthday cake, which was a relief with him not eating so good lately. He also received lots of wonderful presents from my generous friends (thank you!) I was kept far too busy to get many photos, although hopefully dh should have a few better ones on his DSLR. In the meantime, here's one of Harry tucking into his dinner.

I did get some lovely photos of my niece during the party, she is still at that age where she will pose beautifully for the camera on demand (aaaah, I remember those days). And gorgeous she is too, I'm sure she'll agree. So gorgeous, I just had to scrap the photo already and start using up some of the stash I brought back from Florida. I've been suffering from scrapper's block recently and I'm not sure that this is what I was trying to achieve, but I think it's growing on me.

Not been up to much today, just hard at work as usual. Going to have to go though, my back is hurting today. I swear, if work don't buy me a new chair soon I'll be off on sick leave. :(

OMG I've been published!

Well ok, you could say being an employed journalist I see my work published every week, bit never before have I seen one of my LOs looking back at me in full colour from the pages of my favourite magazine. But there it was when I opened up my subscription copy of Scrapbook Inspirations this morning on page 87 in the Reader Gallery, my Diamond for a day LO! I was wary of saying anything as I know all too well how things can get spiked (as we call it) from pages right up until the last minute because of cuts in pages or advertising, but now I can shout it from the rooftops!


It's been a funny old day. I was online and hitting the redial on my landline and mobile phones this morning desparate to get tickets for Take That in Manchester in December. Both me and my friend failed miserably. Then my magazine came and that cheered me up. I went to get a bath and when I came back down more new dates had been released and some were already sold out! Well I jumped back online and after another few failed attempts I managed to bag two tickets to London O2 (former Millennium Dome) on December 7! It's going to be a long journey getting down there from Leeds but well worth it! I wasn't a fan until a friend - the same one I'm taking this time - took me to last year's concert and I had an amazing night. I totally love the new album too, oh, and Jason is a bit scrummy! Lol! Here's a little treat for all you other Jason fans out there.

Also spent the afternoon at fellow scrapper's house and wow, her scraproom is just sooo nice, I'm so envious, all that space, all that daylight, all that stash, I could happily move in! Also busy handing over birthday cards made using the new Easy Patterns for Scrapbooking book, the birthdays all come at once don't they? Also got one to hand over to one of Harry's young friends at his lunch and play date tomorrow. Can't wait, but musn't forget the camera this time!

Bye for now!