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.

Another AJ Page in my book of me

 Thanks so much to all of you who Popped by yesterday during the UKS Spring Blog Hog, all of your comments were much appreciated and it was fab to hop round all the blogs and see all the projects on view.

I cant believe this will be the seventh post I have done this month already, yes really, the seventh!!


This is wonderful that I am blogging so much and most of the credit must go to the lovely Julie Kirk of  Notes on Paper (hop on over and have a look at her Push up Bra approach to blogging series - its a fab series designed to get you on a blogging roll) Shes also raising money for Save the Children as part of her series and would appreciate a wee donation from you.

I started the background of this page after I had been to the workshop with Kate Crane and then stopped as I didnt really like it and put it away while I thought about it.  I dug out the book again on Saturday and contemplated it a bit more, added in a bit more paint,  some stamping and some stencilling through a numbers and heart mask and it began to grow on me a bit

I had bought this Steampunk Nipper Siouxsie stamp from Jean at 3d Jean and hadnt used it yet so I got it out decided she would look better with wings as she looked like she was up on her tippy toes trying to take off so I stamped up with the wings stamp which came with a recent edition of Craft Stamper.  Added some Tim Holtz chit chat stickers which read "Take Flight and Live" and I added some journalling which reads "Dont let life hold you down, stop dreaming and start living, the only thing stopping you is your own doubts, Spread your wings and fly high

UK Scrappers Spring Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my little corner of blogland.

If you are following the UK Scrappers Blog hop you should have arrived here from Soojay

If you get lost along the way then the full list of blogs can be found here 

My project was originally going to be a page in my art journal but has now morphed into a canvas for a very special friend who has had a bit of a rough week last week.

Firstly I applied a base coat of paint all over the canvas blending in each of the three colours as I went. Sorry about the quality of the photos but Im having to use my Mums ancient laptop and she has no photo editing software *sigh*

 Let this dry by heating carefully with a heat gun,   then sponge some paints through a stencil, dry off again, put the stencil back on again but slightly offset this time and sponge through with some white paint which gives a softer effect especially if you are using brighter colours.  I have also used some script stamps to stamp some interest in the background using similar tones to my painted background. Use a waterproof ink for this.  Make sure each stage is dry before proceeding to the next one.

Next up choose your focal image, it could be a stamped image or digital download perhaps.  For this I chose a stamped image with the quote "Northing is to be feared, It is only to be understood" by Marie Curie.  I scribbled on some thick watercolour paper with a couple of Neocolours which I then went over with a damp baby wipe to blend the colours in softly.  I let this dry then stamped on my image again with a waterpoof ink and tore round the edges carefully.  I taped four decorative pins together and attached them to the underside of my stamped image which I then raised up on waste pieces of chipboard before glueing to the canvas, glossy accents or similar glue is ideal for this.  I painted a chipboard butterfly purple and dry brushed some turquoise paint around the edges and finished it off with some turquoise rhinestones along its body   I glued it to the canvas with the edge slightly overhanging and then made a trail of turquoise rhinestones as a tail. 

For the final finishing touch I glued a cabochon onto a button and stuck them both to a paper bloom.

I hope the recipient likes it and that you have found something in this post that you can use to make a canvas or page of your own

Next stop on the hop is Maryanne

Heres the finished page from my previous post for Ten Minute Tuesday

I stencilled some painty swirls through a stencil and stamped some background stamping on then stamped the focal image of the two wee girls under their parasols and coloured them in with Promarkers then overstamped with some bottle tops and the edge of a credit card.  Using a mixture of my  handwriting and word stickers I titled the page Happiness is a day at the Beach.  It is to me and its been way too long since Ive been on the beach at my beloved Beadnell so Im aiming to get in a visit there for one of the holiday weekends in May.  Its not my most favourite page Ive made but its a whole new learning curve to me and Im thoroughly enjoying the learning process.

Ten Minute Tuesday (on a Thursday!)

I really enjoyed joining in with Vicki's ten minute Tuesday last week and had a go again this Tuesday but its taken me until today to blog it oops!

Another wee background started for my A6 seaside  journal. a bit basic but.I can build on it.  I used neocolours and scribbled on the page then ran over it with a wet paintbrush.  It was the first time I had used these and I dont think they really liked the fact that I had gessoed the background.  I think they will probably work better on watercolour paper.

I then sponged yellow paint through a stencil on the top right to represent the sun and stamped along the bottom with this fab stamp I bought recently - I think its by Lost Coast Designs to represent the sea.  I coloured in some of the bubble shapes with my white Uniball Signo pen, I love it , its the best white pen I have tried so far.

It needs some more work then I will post a piccy of the finished page but its not too bad for ten minutes work.

Hop on over to Vicki's Place http://thebiskitbarrel.blogspot.co.uk and see the fab background she has made this with with her ten minutes.

Oops piccie is on its side but its too fiddly on my phone to rotate round - sigh!

Better Late Than Never

Oops after being so organised in advance for the first three months of the art journal Calendar challenge set by Kate Crane  I fell at the first hurdle this month. I have been keeping an online diary on my phone though ready for when the mojo returned.


Finally today I got my book out and once I slapped on the first brushload of paint that was it, I was off.

I have to say these colours are not my normal choice but I am.trying to come out of my confort zone colourwise this year and I. am happy with the.overall effect.

I knew I wanted to feature wellies and umbrellas , yes I know, I know a bit cliched for April but as its my first year of doing it and all that I thought I could get away with it lol. I didnt have any stamped images to suit so I eventually bit the bullet and doodled some. Now I cant draw but these wee doodles arent too bad so I think I need to be a bit braver and practise some more.

It you want to join in hop over to Kates blog The Kathryn Wheel for more information.



In a bid to be more organised I am thinking of what to do on my May pages already.

Ten Minute Tuesday

I decided to join  in this week  with Vicki from The Biskit Barrel.

She has started this fab idea of Ten Minute Tuesday  and in a bid to kick start my non crafty activity during the week.  I thought it might be an ideal chance to make a start on my new wee dinky A6 journal which is going to be all about my love of the seaside.  I worked on it for longer than ten mins which has got to be good due to the drying time of paint.  I need to over stamp the wee beach but to embed it in the page as it doesnt look quite right. Not the best page Ive ever done but I will tinker  a bit more with it and see if Im happier

Hop on over to Vickis place to see what she and others did with their ten minutes

My Month in Numbers March

Ooh first time joining in with this challenge set by the very lovely Julie Kirk
31 days filled in on my March Art journalling calendar (challenge organised by the lovely Kate Crane). Cant believe Ive managed to keep up with this for 3 months yay!
418 miles round trip (via Heathers in Holystone) to attend an Art journalling workshop in Middlesbrough organised by Jean Sharrocks of 3d Jean and.taught by the lovely aforementioned Kate Crane.  Well worth the trip and new friends made including the founder of The month in numbers challenge Julie Kirk. Hoping Theres another One and I manage to get a place on.it.if there is.
4 - the number of weekly challenge layouts done for the challenges on Uk Scrappers during March giving me a points total for my UKS team The Rik Rak Ravers of 240.
2 crops attended, our own one in East Kilbride and Heather's One in Holystone
20 - the number of brightly coloured balloons released at our March EK crop in  Memory of the gorgeous Heather Cuthbert who lost her battle against cancer.
41 - the number of inchies and twinchies made for a swap on UK Scrappers.  Twinchies, not a bad size to work on but those inchies - tricky little size to work on but I eventually conquered them

Hmmmm too many! The number of Creme eggs consumed by us at work and that was before Easter lol

Art Journalling Workshop

Last weekend despite all the snow I drove to my friend Heather's in Newcastle for a.weekends scrapping. On Saturday though I drove to Middlesbrough to attend an Art journalling workshop.organised by Jean from 3d Jean and taught by Kate Crane. I was so looking forward to it but on the drive down, the nearer I got the.more nervous I became
Im not he best at going into places.on my own and especially when I dont know anyone.  I neednt have worried though as everyone was.very welcoming and friendly.
The day just flew by and I had a ball. When I got back to the.crop at Heathers everyone.had a good.laugh at the.stays of.my very inky,.painty hands
I just love playing around with inks and paints, Im finding it very.relaxing and theraputic and something which is just for me.
Kate is a great teacher and very generous with the use of all of.her own personal stuff and I came away with some great pages and my head stuffed full.of.ideas and information
It was well worth all the travelling and I hope I can manage another one of Kate's classes at sometime in the future.
Here is my favourite page of the day done in my favourite colours.  I loved the stamp with Every Silence Speaks on so stamped in on some vintage  book paper and cut the words out seperately.  I think this phrase could be.interpetated  many ways but when I saw it I  knew what I wanted to write and so journalled round the figure and continued on the bottom of the page.   My journalling reads  "I am happy witg my own silence.  People  who know me well know that my silences usually signal that  I have had enough.  I love to be sociable but but then after a while  I need some time to  myself."

To Blog or not to blog ..........

Im Following an excellent series on blogging by Julie Kirk from Notes on Paper called The Push up Bra approach to blogging. Pop along and give her blog the once over.  Its one of.my favourites due to her very entertaining style of blogging which draws the reader in and makes you feel you have made a new.friend in the blogging World. I would post a link but well due to blogging vía my phone I just cant seem to Master that as yet.

After reading her prompt yesterday and then promptly! Pardon the pun having that McFly song stuck in my head *sigh* I got to thinking about why I dont update my blog as often as I would like.  Then I realised In ok at updating when Ive made something Im happy with, a scrapbook layout, a piece of painty messiness or if I am following a challenge. But I find that when the crafting mojo toes walkabout then I neglect the blog as I feel I have nothing to say.

So we suggested by Julie out came the notebook, a funky chevron  one with kraft pages no less (at a great cost of 74p from Sainsburys) and let the note taking commence.  Hopefully this will give me the zing back to.blog a little more often.

I will definately have a reason to blog after Saturday as Im off to Middlesbrough, vía an overnight stop at Heathers in Newcastle for a Kate Crane Art journalling workshop so Im mega excited and even more so to realise that the aforesaid Julie Kirk will be there.  I will report back hopefully along with somehing lovely I have created

Lucky Snapping - Lets Reflect March

This month Anne gave us the Word Laugh to use and although this should have been an easy one I had a  piece of news the previous  week which meant laughter was not on the agenda for me.  One of my lovely local crop friends Heather Cuthbert lost her short but bravely faught battle with cancer on the Monday leaving behind her husband and three children.

Laughter was in very short supply and I thought I might just miss the prompt out all together but having  reflected a bit I have decided that laughter is indeed the best medicine.

I dont think we laugh enough in life really and it really is wonderful when we get together with family and friends and end up laughing.

At my crop yesterday we all gathered together to say a few words and release some balloons in a tribute to Heather and as we stood outside the Church Hall in the middle of an unexpected snowstorm watching the coloured balloons soaring high into the snowy skies someone remarked that no doubt Heather was up there looking down and having the last laugh saying look at those numpties standing out there getting soaked.  It made us all smile and when we went back inside and dried off we were able to share some happy memories. 

Yes indeed laughter is a great healer.

Rest in peace Heather the East Kilbride crop will miss your laughter.

Lucky Snapping - March View Challenge

Still really enjoying this challenge and managed to take my view during the first week of this month but Im just a bit late getting it blogged and linked up, sorry Jen.

This month I stopped by the Heritage Park on my way home from work.  How lovely it is that its light enough now to do that.

It had been a beautiful bright day but extremely cold and I managed to catch the last of the Sun.

I got some lovely Studio Calico snippets stash from Ángel zcrafts at the crop yesterday and the alpha sheet has 12 little tabs with the months of the year on so Im all set now to get my photos scrapped into a mini book.

The Annual birthday Shirt

The weekly challenge on UK Scrappers last week was set by my cropping friend Linda. 

We had to pick three layouts from the gallery and scraplift One, take the colour combo from One and a technique from another.  I cant Link to.the ones I chose as Im blogging from my phone as my computer hasnt been fixed yet *sigh*

I used papers from my latest Quicky Kit.  The photo is my son Fraser,  when he was young he always seemed to get a new St Mirren top for his birthday.  He still supports St Mirren but as he is 21 buys his own tops now.

Colour Me Happy

My lovely Team on UK Scrappers, the Rík Rak Ravers are taking part in our first Team cj.  After much deliberation and changing of the mind I picked colours as my theme and called my cj Colour me Happy. Im asking for my teamies to pick their favourite colour for their entry.
Ive always been a Blue girl and of all the shades on that side of the spectrum turquoise is my favourite.  Heres a pic of my Cover, very bright for me but hey its a cj all about colours after all lol along with my entries.  Ive used another one of the freaky Stampotique mermaids which Karen stamped for me.  I definately need to treat myself to one of them. My page is very similar to my canvas I made before.  My second page uses a lovely wavy and bubbly lost coast designs stamp which reminded me of the sea and I filled in some of the circles with white pen.  The little flap unties to reveal journalling explaining my colour choice linked to my love of the sea. 

The journalling itself reads "Its no surprise to most people who know me that my favourite colours are all on the blue side of the spectrum. I have never been a pink girl at all.


Off all the shades though my absolute favourite is turquoise and its my first choice for make up jewellery and the main colour I am drawn to for my crafting

I am definitely a beside the sea kind of girl and I guess turquoise reminds me of the sea on a beautiful summer day

For me there’s no better place to be than walking along the beach anywhere really but preferably at my beloved Beadnell or Bamburgh on my own and out of season when its quiet. I like to walk by the edge of the sea listening to the sea lapping the shore and watching the ebb and flow of the tide while trying to make sense of the muddle and stress that usually fills my head.

I can sit happily on the beach for hours lost in my own thoughts or with my notebook and sometimes my best crafting ideas happen there. There is both a power and a peace to the sea and I always feel better both physically and mentally for a trip to the beach"   I cant wait to get started on my teamies cjs now and will blog my entries as I go along

Kate Crane Art Journal Calendar - March

Well so far so good.  I have faithfully filled out my calendar every night. Im keeping it on my bedside table and am enjoying summing up my day in one little sentence.

To keep me ahead of the game I made by March pages at the crop the other week.   Its so theraputic just messing around with paint. Thanks to Sally for painting me the rather fab daffodil gracing my pages. Between the crop.and now I added some more "bottle top" circles and I scribbled Fine black pen round the white circley swirls.  Im happy with it now and all ready  to turn over my page from February and hope that March heralds the start of Spring.

Im booked in to Kates art journalling workshop in Middlesbrough in March so Im keeping my fingers crossed that my car actually emerges from the garage of doom before then as between One thing and another its been off the road since the end of November so that I can actually go. Its beginning  to feel like Im never getting it back although rumour has it it should be ready for collection later today!

Mini Canvas Board Swap

Well miracles will never cease! For once Ive finished a swap way before the deadline.

When Karen put this swap up on UKS I knew it would be fun.  the base for this is a 7 x 5 canvas board from The Works and we had a free choice of decorating as we wished then sending to Karen who would randomly swap these and send us One back.

Here is mine in my favourite turquoise colour scheme.  I Just love the Stampotique mermaid and her Octupet, stamped.images courtesy of Karen, but I need to get me one of these fab, freaky mermaids.  the words say embrace imperfection, very Apt  think.  This is now winging its way to Karen and I cant wait to see what I get back

Lucky Snapping - Lets Reflect February

I was looking forward to logging on to the Lucky Snapping in 2013 blog on Monday morning to see what Anne had in store for us on the second part of her Lets Reflect challenge.

Impossible was the topic for February and I was immediately stumped. This will take a lot of thinking was my first thought but suddenly today, something went ping in my head when I thought of the great weekend I had just spent with my scrapping buddies.

Its my best pal and UKS teamie Heather's 50th birthday this week and although I knew she didnt want a fuss for her birthday I knew she would just love to spend time scrapping with friends. The planning took a few months and at first it looked like a fairly impossible task. It was a feat of organisation which at times, looked like being near on impossible for a combination of reasons, including me having no car for the last couple of months, Jules breaking her leg and Lesley being involved in a horrendous crash with her gorgeous Grand-daughter which wrote her car off., but in the end we all got there, coming from all parts of the country with Dee coming from Donegal, Donna from Langbank, Me from East Kilbride, Julieann from Wellingborough and Jill from Leicester on a combination of planes, trains and automobiles!! and to meet up with the local girlies, Lesley and Julie who were putting us all up and co-ordinating the collections from airport and metro, and local teamie Wendy and Pam and Pauline also from the crop. In the end we did it and the look of shock, delight and every other emotion on her face when we all jumped out of cars in front of the hall on Friday night was just priceless and made all the months of planning and all the little white lies we had to tell worth it- some of us are never going to make it to heaven Im sure.

We had a great time cropping all weekend, being joined on the Saturday by our UKS teamie Wendy and also Pauline and Pam. We cropped all day, stopping only for a chinese takeaway in the evening and rounded off the weekend with another cropping session on Sunday followed by ten of us hitting the local carvery for Sunday dinner before we all had to disperse again. It was just great and Im sure Heather has now forgiven me for all the "porky pies" I had to tell to keep the secret.

Just goes to show that sometimes you can make the impossible happen.

I will leave you with a pic of some of us from the weekend - 8 out of 10 from our UKS team the Rik Rak Ravers.  Somehow or other whenever we arrange a meet up 8 is the maximum we get together but maybe just maybe the impossible will happen and we will get the full 10.

Inspiration Notebook

Heres a wee inspiration notebook I altered using one of the A5 Pukka Project books with moveable dividers.

The lovely Sian lent me her Kate Crane art journal DVDs 3 and 4 and I was mesmerised by them, I have passed them on now and am awaitig a borrow of DVDs one and two. 

The background for the cover of my notebook was copied more or less from One of Kates pages and I added some hearts cut from vintage text paper and.the wee words are.from a Tim Holtz chit chat Word pad.  Now I have a handy notebook to gather sketches,ayout ideas, things I want to have a go at etc. all in One place and portable enough to keep in my crop bag.  Im hoping it makes me more productive but we will need to wait and see lol.

Im off tonght down to Newcastle to my friend Heathers for a weekend of crafting, laughing, eating and drinking and boy after the week or so I have had Im so looking forward to it

Affirmation Postcard Swap

Better late than never! At the cows tail as usual me . I joined an affirmation postcard swap on UK Scrappers hosted by the lovely Stan!

We were to make three 6 x 4 postcards with a positive affirmation on.   As per the thread got out of hand with hilarious "alternative" affirmations being suggested.  So two groups were formed, one for each Type.  Ive joined both groups.  After a stressful weekend with DD in hospital I  eventually got these finishing and they will be winging their way to Sian tomorrow.  Im not very pleased with the way they turned out, more practise at the arty stuff is needed.

The positive ones read "My soul is beautiful" and the alternatives say "you dont Just have issues, you need a subscription!"

Now then a mini canvas board for another swap is next on the agenda.

Lucky Snapping, The View Challenge February

My, my for once I think I can say February has come around really quickly. Im not a fan of winter or January in particular but now that we are into February I feel its still light coming out of work at 5pm which gives me hope for the Spring to come.

I took this picture on 5 February on the way home from work. Although the poem Jen is using for this challenge says January brings the snow for once we had none in January but on 5 February we had a virtual whiteout in the morning. I didnt have a chance to get out of work to take my picture though so swung past the heritage park on my way home. Somewhat irritatingly all traces of snow had vanished so it didnt look like I was getting my snowy picture. However when I pulled into the car park and looked up at the sky it was turning beautiful shades of red and orange. So here is my February picture and considering I only had my phone with me to take it on I am mildly pleased with it.

Hoping that by next month there will be some dare I say "sunshine" in my picture. Well a girl can always dream

My First Solo Challenge on UK Scrappers

Hello, this week Im hosting my first solo challenge on UKS.

I love doing the weekly challenges and have helped host before as part of my Team and crop group.

I wanted to use a sketch as they are great for kick starting a.sluggish mojo.  I also wanted folks to use some paint or ink as I love getting messy.  I sew on a huge proportion of my layouts so sewing was a given.  Finally as this week sees the remembrance of the birth if Scotland's greatest poet, Robert Burns I asked that a either a title or a quote from a poem, not necessarily a Burns One was used.

Heres the sketch I used which I found whilst wandering around pinterest.  The photo is of myself and four of my scrapping friends and UKS teamies at Lochhouse Farm on one of our twice yearly visits there.  My quote is from the Burns poem, Green grow the rashes o, and reses "Auld nature swears, the lovely dears, with every hour that passes o, her prenticed han' she try'd on Man, and then she made the lasses o" which basically translated from the Scots says that nature was practising when she made men but perfected it When she made women.

Lucky Snapping Nostalgia - New Beginnings

When I logged on, on Monday to look at Kathijo's challenge I wasnt sure what I would blog about.

Hhmmm nostalgia and new beginnings, it was a toughie for me.

Should I hunt for a happy version or go with the first thing that popped into my head.  I turned 50 last year and decided at the start of the year to Make a Project Life type album to mark the year.  Im not quite up to date with it yet but am determined to finish it as I really enjoyed it and its been a great record of the year.

I wanted the year I turned 50 to be a happier year in my life because the last big birthday in my life was my 40th and at a party in the house with family and friends all around I remember thinking how truly blessed I was.  This thought was shattered into pieces some two months later When I discovered that my husband of then almost 20 years had been seeing one.of my very close friends.  I was devaststed and after a couple of years of trying to hold my family together he eventually left and last year finally married her.  Turbulent years followed him leaving as I began to slowly put back the.pieces of my life and hold it together, not always successfully, for my two kids.  I became determined that as I approached 50 it would mark my "Life Begins" and that I would start to see the glass was half full and not half empty.  In my 21 year old son and my 19 year old daughter I have two fantastic reasons to have a better life and in changing jobs due to redundancy four years ago I now work with the most supportive and lovely crowd of people who keep me going on a daily basis
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I have slowly emerged from my shell, discovered scrapbooking, co run a local crop, joined a Team on UK Scrappers where I have met the most fantastic friends a girl could have who have been the the greatest support and we now meet up several times a year and we have the best ever retreats in Moffat, Scotland a couple of times a year where we scrap and laugh till we cry.

Life can still be tough but I am learning to love the litle things and count my blessings once again. The former me would never have been brave enough to do any of these things.

I think I will mark these prompts in a mini book or art journal as the year goes on so Im looking around for a suitable format.

I will leave you with a pic of four of us friends and teamies at Lochhouse, our wee scrapping paradise

Kate Crane Art Journal Calendar

For the last few years I have wanted to join in with Kate Cranes art journalling calendar but have never been brave enough.  This year aided and abetted by some very talented UK Scrappers Friends Im giving it a go.

All the details are on Kates blog. the Kathryn Wheel.

I am blown away by the level of talent of all those joining in.  Im very much a beginner to art journalling so this year will very much be a learning Curve for me

Anyway here is my January and February pages and so far I have completed it every Night.  I dont promise it will always be something positive but thats life, warts and all and I guess ts important to journal the good and the bad.  I have an idea for my March pages so I will he.making a start on these soon.

Lucky Snapping - Lets Reflect

The next part of the Lucky Snapping 2013 that I am joining in with is taking part in the second week of the month and is hosted by Anne. 

She is encouraging us to build up on the positive things in life and using the initial letters from the words Silver Lining build up a wee book full of positives to sustain us through the bad times in life. Every time I hear Silver Lining I think of the 70's and David Essex singing every clouds gotta silver lining in Hold Me Close.

The first Word is serendipidty and we are to look out for something nice but unexpected which happens this week.  Well at work a few of us are going to attempt a diet (yes I know again!) And I had said I fancied having a go at The Hairy Dieters but Id need to wait till payday to splash out on the book which Michelle had already got and it looks fab.  Well When I got info.work on Wednesday there was a surprise waiting for me on my desk as Michelle had bought the book for me so that I could plan my Shopping list and we could both start together next week when we get paid.  How kind and thoughtful was that.  So that was my first serendipitous moment from this week.  My second was that Freddy our Office cleaner had heard me.wondering out loud how much it would cost to get a joiner to repair a wee section of my living room floor where the hatch for the radiator was.  He also cleans in B and Q and asked me to give him the messurements of the piece I needed and he got t all cut to.size for me and even supplied the screws I needed and instructions so that my son Fraser who is only 21 could have a go at fixing it.

Anne is suggesting we do a mini book and as Im dipping my toe in the world of art journalling Im going to try and make an art journal for this wee project. Heres the photo of my Serendipidty pages.  I still need to make covers and a wee introduction yet.

Lucky Snapping 2013

Last year I attempted to join in with a photo a day challenge as part of my Photo Fifty album buy the prompts just didnt fit in with what I wanted so I gave up and did my own thing.  Some of the lovely ladies kept it going and have started their own.challenge this year at Lucky Snapping in 2013.  The first part of the challenge is.being organised by Jen and is in the first week of the month.  Her challenge is to  take  a photo of your favourite view during the first week of each month and then you can either do a 12 x 12 layout or incorporate it in a mini book.  Im going for the mini book option so am currently looking for a.good mini book format preferably 6 x 6. 

Unfortunately my favourite views are 125 miles away in Beadnell and living in a built up new town theres not a lot of choice.  I chose this view from the James Hamilton Heritage Park of a man made loch which has this little island in the middle, Im hoping theres enough scope here to show the changing seasons.  With only needing to take one photo a month Im hoping this will be an easy one to keep up with over the year.