Month in Numbers - April

Ooh here we are folks with my second time of joining in with Julie Kirk's month in numbers and this month Julie is directly responsible for two of the numbers on my list thanks to her excellent Push up Bra approach to blogging series (if you havent seen it yet hope over to Julies fab blog and take a look and maybe you could help by giving a donation to her very worthwhile cause of  Save the Children.

Okay to the numbers for the month.  First up is the two I can give Julie and her push up bra the credit for .   13 (yikes is that unlucky)  the number of blog posts this month, the most I have ever posted in a month since I started my wee blog!  That might not seem like a lot to you regular bloggers but the total of my blog postings for the whole of last year was only 33 lol.  Then 1 blog hog I joined in with on UK scrappers and 75 (wow!) the number of lovely comments left by UK Scrapper folks  on my blog hop post.  Join in with things Julie said, I did, and I enjoyed the whole experience, once the initial technical traumas were overcome, which was a long story of having no working computer, a smartphone which isnt so smart and an aged laptop owned by my Parents,  and I will not be so shy about joining in something like that again.

6, the number of fab crafting friends who got together for 1 fab, 3 night weekend crafting at Lochhouse Farm in Moffat, leading to 1 friend (Dee)being converted to art journalling while we were there

Here are five of us beavering away

I piece of extremely good news a special friend had after getting the all clear following a major operation.

24 - the number of Derwent Inktense pencils purchased from ebay following a recommendation that they were excellent for art journalling ( I will report back on that once I have had a wee play with them)

3 - the number of hours spent raking through my garage hunting for an elusive tent for my son to use on a camping weekend next weekend - only to find it had been hiding in the back of a cupboard in the spare bedroom all along *sigh*

That's me for this month.  Hop on over to Julie's place Notes on Paper to see what it's all about

Ten Minute Tuesday

Hello there fellow bloggers.

Tuesday has rolled round again and it's time to join in with Vicki's  Ten Minute Tuesday, hop over to Vicki's blog  The Biskit Barrel to see what it's all about.

This week I decided to scrap the April photo for the View a month challenge on the Lucky Snapping in 2013.blog.  I made the accordian book and scrapped January to March at my recent weekend away so only had my April pic to do to  keep me all up to date.  Each wee page is only 6 x 6.making it easy to scrap and that coupled with the fact that I'm only using papers from the one collection (Studio Calico Snippets - chosen as they have a dinky wee sticky tab for each month plus I loved the colours) meant that its easy to grab the bag Im keeping the papers, the accordian book and my printed photos for each month and get going with my ten minute slot. It's blooming hard to photograph though lol.

What will you do with your ten minutes this week?

Summer Girl

Sharing another page in my teeeny wee A6 seaside journal.  I used a stamp from a set which came free with the magazine Creative Stamping.  I wasn't impressed with the mag itself but there was a plate of beach/seaside stamps which I reckoned were worth the price so I'm sure you will be seeing many of them appearing in this wee journal.  I coloured the stamped imagine in with watered down distress inks and journalled all around the edge about how I hate the winter but love the summer.   I really admire Rosie's lettering on her pages which you can see on her fab blog here  but it's going to take me a lot of practising to make mine anything like hers lol

The Lochhouse Ladies

Hello folks.  Last week I had a  tired and back down to earth with a bump  week, having just spent a fab long weekend with my crafting friends at Lochhouse Farm near Moffat.  Lochhouse is a lovely wee place and we usually go twice a year in April and in October. This.time round there were six of us and that really is the perfect number for the scrapping space available. We always have such a good time with plenty of laughter sprinkled in among all the crafty goings on

Mary and Martin  always look after us supremely well and the food is just lush.  Its so nice just to kick back and chill out with good company and the best thing is that once the crafting stuff comes out in the lovely stables conversion it can stay there until we are ready to pack up to go home.

Unfortunately I just havent had much scrapping mojo lately so only managed one layout which was  for last weeks weekly challenge on UK  Scrappers. Its not the best photo in the world but as its such a  rare one of Fraser with his Great Gran who sadly passed away when he was two it needed scrapping for his album. After all isn't that what scrapbooking is really about, scrapping real family moments and not just always showcasing the best photos with the newest paper ranges.  I titled this layout precious moments, because that's what it was to us

I spent most of the weekend messing around with paints and inks and faffing in my art journals and even  converted Dee to the joys of art journalling.

Heres a page in my A5 Book of me journal.  I went for collaging with paper for this page and used what was left of this lovely Teresa Collins sheet as I liked the words "Happiness" and " .  I hate photos of me but quite like this one Lesley took of me at Lochhouse last October , I used some distress stains on the paper to darken it down a bit.  Having borrowed Lesley and Donnas stains over the weekend I have come to the conclusion I need to invest in these as they are fab for backgrounds.

I will be back later with some of the other pages I did but for now the coundown is on until our next one in October when are are going for the WHOLE week whoooo hoooo, bring it on.

Lucky Snapping in 2013 - April

Goodness me. Running late or what this month!  Just sneaking in with a few days of April left with my view.  Taken early this morning as  woke up early and it was such  a.beautiful, if cold morning.

I took various shots then heard some geese taking off and just managed to catch them in my photo.

I've finally managed to decide on a format to display my monthly photos and have plumped for an accordian book with 6 x 6 pages using the Studio Calico Snippets papers, film strip washi tape and Bo Bunny mamarazzi 2 stamps (which by the way stamp like a dream) all obtained from my friend Angela of Angel Crafts.  How long we have waited for the film strip washi tape so it was hard to break into it lol.  I'm looking forward to filling the book up with mini layouts each month

Ten Minute Tuesday

Hello there blogging friends.  Im joining in with Vicki and her ten minute Tuesday again.  Its such a good idea when you are short of time to give yourself just ten minutes to play and see what you come up with.

Ive been away for a crafting weekend with friends and am back shattered but happy and will do a separate post all about that later this week.

I had a play in my art journals whilst away and even converted my friend Dee to an art journalling journey.

So what did I achieve in ten minutes. Well here it is, a background in my A4 journal.  not my usual colours for a wee change Ive used pink, yellow and orange acrylic paint smeared and blended with my fingers, some stencilling with paint and a wee bit of background stamping with stazon inks and a doodley flower stamp, stamped along the bottom and  ta da a background all ready for finishing off when the mood strikes.

 Hop on over to Vickis placeThe Biskit Barrel and join in with this one

Ten Minute Tuesday - the Basics

Arrgh! Completely forgot to post this on Tuesday.  If you want to join in with Ten Minute Tuesday then hop over to Vicki's blog and have a look and see.

Ive been too busy this week so far for anything creative as Im busily trying to get organised for our bi-annual weekend away to Lochhouse in Moffat with my scrappy pals. 

Stash is everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, while I try to organise it into some semblance of order for packing lol

I did manage to get the paintbrush out but only to apply a base coat of gesso to a few pages in my A5 and A6 art journals so they were all prepped and ready to go just to grab when I got there and make a start without waiting for the gesso to dry.

Will be doing lots of lovely crafting at the weekend so hopefully will have something a bit more exciting to show next time round.