Family Stuff

Well I survived a mad weekend of extended family stuff, Ste's Mums Birthday bash was nice and it was an opportunity to catch up with relatives from Leeds in a quieter more relaxed surrounding. The christening was enjoyable to the vicar had a joke about baptizing bats to get rid of them as a hint to the parents that they should go to church more often. The reception was nice only ruined buy some guests smoking in the room feet away from the buffet an considering there where a lot of small children and babies there I thought it was pretty ignorant. I have nothing against smokers its a matter of choice but the kids at this do did not have the choice not inhale their smoke.

for next couple of days I will be putting up pairs of ATCs so here is the first pair "May be" and "Worth it" using felt shapes.

The ribbon writing I was on about the other day turned out to be a bit of a disaster when I went back to it the ribbon had started to lift and would not stick down to the backing piece so I still have to find a title solution for that LO I may print one from the PC

BDcard

Just a quick entry today as we have just got in from Ste mums party and now have to run around getting ready for a Christening tomorrow.


The image above is Sam's card that she made for her Nana's 70th birthday and the one below is the card that I made I a bit jealous as I think Sam's is better.

Melt Down

Everything in my house is breaking down my oven has given up the dryer is taking so long to dry any thing the washer is making dying sounds and the kids beds are falling apart, as well as lot of other things that are going wrong I try and fix most things in the house if they go wrong but there are things that you have to get a man in for and that costs, like to fix a leaking toilet. I'm banging my head against the wall, that does it, maybe I should I should just find the door and use the door handle to get to the other side but I like to do things the hard way.

I have completed two more ATCs yesterday I have put them up for all to see I am planning to put up a monthly thread on Carolinez Craftz forum to show off the ATC so people can PM each other an trade rather than committing to a circle of trades over an amount of time as life often gets in the way.

I beginning to panic a bit we have a busy weekend coming I have made two cards for my MIL seventieth Birthday who's party it is on Saturday but on Sunday we have a christening to go to and I still have the card to make luckily I have an idea how it will go together but also I have to find clothes to ware not only for me but the kids to as we don't really have best clothes(Sam has a wardrobe full of clothes but still tells me she has nothing suitable)

Last night I was having a go at ribbon writing, so that may find its way on to a LO soon, I asked both kids and they could read what it said without prompts so I hope it will work on the page.

Today I have put up a LO from my shoe themed book this is one of my learning pages as I was trying to use different techniques such as aging The tags where from a themed pad I usually make things like that by hand sometimes I find pre made bits restrictive.

Crochet

Why is it when you want company no one is around but when you want absolute peace and quite to concentrate every two minuets some one is bugging you, last night was one of those times I have been trying to work out how to crochet flowers I figured out how to do a square and found I had been doubling my triples and now I have a sort of flower, it needs refining a bit (OK a lot) I have put up my efforts the best one so far is the top left one but I now have to remember how I did it as I finished it late last night. The patterns for these flowers and leaves are on the sprinkles blog ( just go on to Carolinez Craftz forum and find someone with the sprinkles link) in the mid week morsels.

Schmetterling

Saturday I was a bit brain dead I was still suffering from a migraine and my words would not come out right I asked Sam "how do you spell German in butterfly" and I called her dressing gown a lady bird. Yes the men in white coats are knocking on the door right now but they better have a family wing in the funny farm as Sam called a tea bag a flea bag and the rest of our family are stark raving bonkers.

This is the butterfly LO I have been working on all it needs are a few more buttons down the right hand side but it will have to wait until I get my hands on few more. For now it can go in to my album.

Rawr

I feel better today Ste suggested that the strip lighting may have been what gave me a migraine yesterday but today its back to normal with ironing then going to Sam and Andy "I haven't seen your PE kits" to get the answer "Oh its in my bag/wash pile"then my answer to that is not printable. Dinner is all prepared so there is nothing else to do but scrap, well a gals gota do what a gals gota do!

This is one of the LOs that I was working on at the crop yesterday buy coincidence it just happens to be the same photo that I put up the other day I struggled with this one a bit as I usually have the photo in mind for a while and ideas form as to how to scrap them but it has turned out OK . I am still working on the other LO of a butterfly it was one of Ste's photos and I had to edit the date out of it but the photo looks OK and you can hardly tell ware the date was, if I finish it tonight I will post it up tomorrow.

Allergic

I had a lovely time at the crop today but I ended getting a migraine again so I think I allergic to something in the hall I did joke to Sam that I allergic to spots and dots as I don't really use them but I have today. Tomorrow I will post photos of the LOs I worked on today but now I going to nurse my aching head an see if can get some sympathy.

Yay They Taste Like Cardboard!

As I was eating my Tiger Power breakfast cereal ( Sam said "Yay they taste like cardboard") the postie arrived Ste is waiting for a parcel but he is disappointed as it was a package for me but this time not one that I ordered but the prize I won for my household bleach LO I did on the Carolinez Craftz forum and it is lush and very generous I thought it would be a couple of papers and a card stock as Caroline has to make a living as well as run the shop and forum but it is a popper kit with buttons, brads primas, ribbons,slide frames, 4 double sided patterned papers and 3 card stock it cheered me right up. I may take it to the crop that I'm going to tomorrow, which is another problem what to take? Everything is the best answer but even with Sam coming with me again I don't think we can lift that much and to top it all she told me that I don't have enough stash (something I already knew)

Dinosaur

Today we did manage to have a run out just local to Middlesbrough, on the site of the old steal works there is a little park with iron dinosaurs in so we got loads of shots there Ste managed to leave the date setting on his camera so I will have to see if I save them but our old camera even though I have knocked it the past behaved today and now I am going through the photos and tidying them up as there is some graffiti and rubbish that ruins some of them, here is one I have worked on and soon I will scrap these photos so watch this space.

The weather has been lovely today it would have been nice for a run out but life being as it is had other plans of us so hopefully tomorrow we will escape but I bet it will be gray and rainy tomorrow.I want to get some new photos to scrap, I daren't scrap to much because I am running out of photos and I have a crop to go to on Saturday.

This 12x12 is part of the out of my rut thing I have been doing this LO is using felt shapes and is another where I have used leaflets from the library.I had to add brads because the felt was detracting away from the subject, another one of my lessons learned.

Scrap Time

To make extra scrapping time I cooked dinner early today so when Ste has finished playing with his new phone and eaten his dinner(which is now cold)I can enjoy some scrapping time I still have to find some photos to scrap and I have a few Birthday cards to make.

Today I have put up a 12x12 ,I have had printer problems so I have resorted to using leaflets to create some LOs this one was quite difficult to balance and at one time I lost the M so had to make another but in the end it all came together. The art work is called Leaning torsos by Rebecca Plas.

I'm back

Well as it says I'm back, not that I've been any ware its just been a bit hectic with the school hols and and more decorating at Ste's mums more feeling grotty (old age) and life plotting against me.

I bought some different toilet tissue and on the packet it said lightly scented after much sniffing I did conclude that it was indeed lightly scented, of toilet tissue I must find better things to do with my time also affecting my sanity is a song Andy keeps singing its very infectious and is about going to "Bognor Regis as we have heard they are panda free", I wont go on as you may value your sanity.

Today I am putting up two pages I completed for a Jenni's CJ when I received it I realized I probably could have done a lot more on my cover and Claire's pages are lovely but I think my pages do the book justice now I am ready to post it an ready to go on the next one.I have had printer probs so I have had to improvise but the CJ rules have allowed for this, I found some swatches of fabric to use for these two LOs and also I have stitched on them.

I'm going to start blogging again from Monday the kids are back at school and I hope that nothing else will interrupt my blogging (but don't hold your breath)

I didn't post yesterday as we went to Ste Mums house I wallpapered about half of her living room and we all got force fed bacon sandwiches, fish and chips, cream eggs, cornettos, cheese and onion sandwiches, fruit bread and frosty bars (I don't think I missed any thing and no we couldn't just say no the MIL is very forceful) I was shattered after all that.
The two LOs for today are the 6x6 CJ entries I wrote about the other day they are very exerimental and I am not sure I like them The effect I wanted to achieve was free and wacky all I can say is that it is totally different from what I normally do.

The State Of Things Today

The kids where doing their paper round and some boys started hitting Andy on the head and running off but in the end he turned around and pasted one of then as on lookers where doing their usual acting big by saying " touch him and I'll hit ya " but they kept backing away he had sense to go and knock on one of the doors. In the end some one from one of the houses bought him home and Ste went and had a go at them and got an apology out of them but it still doesn't make it right. Andy is all shook up but now he is watching a film with friends.

Today I have put up another shoe related page in this book all the titles are done with an embossing stencil but as I have no patients I have inked it rater than embossing. This was the first time I used a coordinating paper throughout a book but I think I was a bit stingy with it and could have been more generous with it.

Sparrowhawk

Well it did it again! no proper title yesterday I have put that right today.
I have not got much news today as I all I have done is ironing Andy deserted us to CLC(to sit on their computers all day instead of sitting in front of the one at home)Sam is sucked in to hers but has homework to do and Ste is trying to change light bulbs in the dash of his car.I cant scrap until every one is in other wise I would have to move all my stash again for dinner.

I have found when taking photos of LOs with glossy prints on them and the light is not good to use the red eye flash setting, that is what I did for todays photo and it has turned out a lot better.

Here is the LO I was working on yesterday, I used up all my green daisys on it and I ended up changing the colour of the brads buy using a black permanent marker (which in the past I have used to colour fabric flowers).I have had a mini sewing machine for a couple of years now and I never used it but now it will be getting used a lot more, I ran through some organza ribbon and because of the tension being off it ruffled the ribbon a bit but it looks effective.
The the sparrow hawk was in our back garden the photo was taken through the window so it was lucky to get a couple of good shots

I have been to library with the kids today Andy sat an read his war hammer book and Sam chose a pile of books which will only last her a couple of days, I wanted to know if there where any scrapping books and there where only two in the whole area so I ordered it in to have a look but what I did come away with was a pile of leaflets to use in scrapping they are about all sorts of things art galleries theater venues wildlife areas and general touristy things I also picked up some free book marks and post cardy things so they may come I handy.

I started a new Lo yesterday in keeping with my out of the rut task I have set myself, this LO is to have printed media from the computer (witch took ages to get printed off as Ste hogs the computer)Now I am planing extra stuff to on it is a bit scary to do things you don't normally do but exciting to!

Todays photo is another page from my book dedicated to fake converse shoes , I used paper clips on this LO and added ribbon to some and made tags for text on others this is an idea I plan to use again , the paisley is a foam stamp coloured with pencils.This book was another of my learning projects and now I look back on them and find ways of improving them or adapting them for use in more adventurous pages.

I Must Do Proper Titles

I must start doing proper titles again the last few blog entries have been so rushed that I have forgot titles. Things have settled down a bit so there should be more regular postings (saying that I bet something will rear its ugly head and throw everything in to even more chaos).

I am getting frustrated at our old camera I have to work on every photo I take with it adjusting the brightness, contrast and the colour an now Sam has just informed me that I should be doing it on a proper monitor as the lap top screen is not as good an all the photos I put up may look glarey on a proper screen.

Today I am putting up the finished LO from the crop I went to the other week I did have to change it a bit as when I bought it home the top seemed empty but with a bit work I have rescued it.