How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways;

A layout all about my husband using my March Kit from Gottacraft featuring MME papers x

Thanks for looking xxx

Purple Pumpkin day :)

Today has been a Purple Pumpkin day at my house :) I wanted to use some more of their gorgeous embellishments on my projects instead of hoarding them and found something for each planned project :) The third thing I made was the LO for the MME challenge in my other post this is the first a little mini book for a friend who is expecting soon;

The book contains 12 envelopes which are stick together to form 12 pockets and concertina style pages;

There is a card tag in each envelope and an envelope for each month so that my friend can record events and weight each month and the envelope is a large enough size that photo's can be stored inside also.

My second project was an altered frame for my daughter;

I used Echo Park This and That Graceful papers, stickers and chipboard and purple pumkin embellishments to make this. I love this gorgeous flower;

and you can just see the doily peeping out here and the lovely felt and lace flower at the bottom;

So I have made a (small) dent in my PP bag of yumminess and had a fun day creating , thanks for popping by as always I am very grateful for your visits and comments x

Memories

I have many happy memories of my Nan and Gramps, they were very involved as I was growing up and we saw them often. I was recently given this photo by my gorgeous Auntie HIlary of her with my Nan and Gramps at a family wedding in August 1986 and I used it in my entry into this month's My Mind's Eye challenge;

I used the beautiful MME Miss Caroline range with papers and gems's and some fussy cutting and layering of the butterflies :) I also used some little metal flowers from my stash and some gorgeous Purple Pumpkin embellieshments.

Creative Craft World March mini kit

I was sent this month's mini kit by Louise at Creative Craft World to make a DT project with. The kit is truly gorgeous with 4 pieces of 12x6 inches card and 6 sheets of 6x6 MME Be Amazing papers along with ribbons, brads, and other lovely embellishments galore;

I decided to finally alter the box from my iPhone 3GS which has now been upgraded for an iPhone 4s and so the box is not going to be needed and to make a mini book to go inside it. I started by decorating the box lid with some of the papers, ribbon and gems and a little bit of Tim Holtz ideology;

The mini book is going to be a note of all my Storytelling Sunday tales so that in years to come when my blog is gone my family will have a record of the stories I told:) As the year is only 3 months in I haven't completed writing in all my stories and so have also left the inside of the box undecorated so far so that I can ensure the book fits in nicely once completed first;

Here is the little book all bound with the twine from the kit;

A few of the pages;

So don't forget to head over the the Creative Craft World blog to see what the other DT members have done with the kit and joing in with the new mini challenge there is some great inspiration to see x

Purple pumpkin giveaway

Purple Pumpkin are running not one but two $50 giveaways this month one on their blog here and one on their facebook page here so go on and give it a go their buttons and other embellies are to die for :)

Luckiest scrapper this evening!

That would be me as I just won $100 shopping spree from Webster's Pages on their live chat tonight to celebrate shipping week! I am still gobsmacked and stunned and ummm speechless but able to type lol.

What's more you could join me in being lucky and even surpass me as the Grand Prize is a $500 shopping spree! here is what you need to so;

Follow the instructions on the blog post here and watch the video here to answer the question. Post your answer, fb, tweet and blog for up to 4 entries into the draw for the $500 and don't think ahhh it won't be me because you never know it just might be!

Wishing all my followers a little no a lot of my luck would love to hear one of you won xxx

Webster's Pages Launch party day 4

So day four and another great prize to be won head on over to Webster's Pages to enter

http://websterspages.typepad.com/webstershome/2012/03/shipping-party-day-four-its-almost-time.html

Websters Launch party day 3

The chance to win some Webster's continues today with a chance to win an entire collection kit of your choice wooohooo :)

http://websterspages.typepad.com/webstershome/2012/03/shipping-party-day-three.html

Webster's Pages Launch party day 2

Head over to the Webster's Pages blog for day 2 of their shipping party giveaway :)

http://websterspages.typepad.com/webstershome/2012/03/the-countdown-has-begun-and-we-are-gearing-up-to-get-our-gorgeous-products-out-the-door-and-straight-into-your-hot-little-h.html?cid=6a00d8354ebd2869e2016763bd2729970b#comment-form

Inspired by a Sweethaven Summer

There is a lovely lady I need to tell you about, someone who has a blog full of inspiration, hope, joy, kindness and most of all love and whom you should all visit. Her name is Courtney Walsh and she first came to my notice as a member of the team at Webster's Pages but she is also a talented writer and her latest book A Sweethaven Summer is out now and waiting it's turn on my kindle. The book is about friendship and how a scrapbook helps bring people together perfect for us crafters :)

To celebrate her novel Courtney is running a scrapbooking challenge on her blog The Sweethaven Scrapbooking Challenge which contrary to the title is not limited only to scrapbooking but other crafts as well. For my entry into this challenge I was inspired by this piece as it is my 13th wedding anniversary tomorrow;

I created this canvas using mists, stamping, masks and Webster's Pages Ladies and Gents papers and embellishments;

I took the butterfly sticker and mounted it onto card before cutting it out to make it easier to alter. I then glued the pins behind the butterfly using glossy accents and stuck some pearls on the body and used foam tape to raise it up on the canvas;

I really wanted to write one of my favourite poems "I carry your heart" by E.E.Cummings onto Alex's little hand silhouette but it was too long and so I wrote a verse myself;

I labelled each of the hands just in case in years to come when my boys are all huge six foot plus men we will know which was which still;

This was such a joy to do and had me giving my husband lots of cuddles (now he thinks I want new shoes or craft stuff lol) as it reminded me how blessed I am to have found him and grown this beautiful family.

I hope some of you will join in this challenge it is a beautiful one which makes us focus on friendship, family and love but most of all I hope you all visit Courtney she is a beautiful one too x

Webster's pages PARTY

Webster's pages are having some super giveaways all this week to celebrate shipping week at Webster's HQ :)

Check it out;

http://websterspages.typepad.com/webstershome/2012/03/an-awesome-week.html#comments

Cuddles

The past couple of months life has flown by and I have not been doing as much scrapping as usual. Luckily for me my Fibro/ME while still being bad has calmed down enough that I could attend my monthly crop again :) Whilst there I completed my entry for this month's Purple Pumpkin Sketch Challenge which I combined with my DT work for Ditzy-Craftymess this fortnight which luckily enough was buttons :) For any-one who has wandered over from Ditzy-Craftymess please follow the link to have a look at the Purple Pumpkin site their buttons are gorgeous and their DT is amazing :)

Anyhow here is my layout;

The photo is from Christmas 2009 when my husband was back on RnR from his latest tour in Afghanistan and our youngest who was 9 months old at the time wouldn't leave him alone :) I love this photo and am so glad to have scrapped it at long last :)

Here is a close up of the Purple Pumkin buttons and embellishments, the cog, paper doily and buttons are all PP (except the little "normal" buttons) and they also do twine, crochet doilies and lots of other yummy stuff;

Close up of some of the stamping behind the pp's to give a little depth :) ;

Thank you for popping by and why not give the Purple Pumkin sketch and the Ditzy-Craftymess challenge a go? You could win some great prizes x

March's CCW Scrapmap

Sue really challenged us with this months sketch and you really have to go over to the Creative Craft World blog to see how it has been adapted by all the DT there are such beautiful LO's from everyone :)

So here is the sketch;

and here is my LO based on it;

I used some mists and cut out my own masks to make the hearts and then added faux stitching and journalling to them. I only used a little patterned paper to make the photo pop and it is from MME Lime Twist.

John Candy re-incarnated

For my third trip into Sian's Storytelling Sunday I decided to share with you a story I first wrote in June 2007 on my old and now defunct blog when we only had the 3 monkeys the boys being 7 and 4 and my daughter having just turned 3 a few weeks earlier.

John Candy re-incarnated that is my daughter! The boys never caused me any problems like she does, they didn't touch things they weren't supposed to and they certainly did not try to eat liquid laundry detergent capsules! DD has to be different not for her the easy foray into childhood with the occasional head bump and the sometimes sickness that makes Linda Blair's turn on The Exorcist seem tame in comparison oh no.

A couple of weeks ago we went shopping, nothing fancy just your normal everyday supermarket shop for groceries. DS #1 was at school but I had DS #2 and DD with me and even though I always tell myself at the end of each shopping trip never again will I fall for the "Me want walk, me hole trolley, me goog girl" routine I still end up giving her a chance. So there we were neither child was in a seat in the trolley and both behaved amazingly well during the shop they only ran off about 10 times each lol.

We got to the tills and I deliberately herded them towards the last till in line furthest from the exit with the bonus they could only run off in one direction rather than them both bolting at the same time in different directions! At the end of the till was a photo booth, my kids are fascinated with them as they "talk" to you and so they ran into it to press buttons. Awful parenting I suppose but at least they were both in sight and not able to break anything so I left them to it.

Half way through the scanning of my trolley and with a growing queue behind me DD let out a loud piercing scream! Somehow she had managed to get her arm stuck behind the bar in the photo booth (like a bar in a disabled toilet to help them stand up). Her arm was bent so that her elbow joint was below the bar and her shoulder and hand above it and she was stuck fast.

Of course a major kerfuffle ensued trying to free her arm without killing her or more realistically dislocating her shoulder and an out of action till as I couldn't exactly go on with packing my shopping with her in this position. We had a gaggle of abour 6 staff around us I imagine I was the colour of a tomato and eventually one of the ladies had a bright idea and sent a young lad off to get washing up liquid and sweets. The washing up liquid did the trick and freed her arm whilst the sweets certainly stopped the screaming and DS #2's crying in sympathy. I now will not go anywhere near a till near a photo booth as I have a sneaking suspicion DD would repeat the "trick" just to get free sweets!

You would think that would be enough for one week wouldn't you? Nope, not at all, any idea how to get a bead out of a small child's nose? No? Two days after the photo booth incident I learned how. Both DS's were at school and I was quite happily sitting with DD both of us doing some crafting and colouring when she decided to see how far her beaded necklace would stretch. Of course ping the elastic breaks and beads fly everywhere. I am quite used to this and have a lovely cup full of beads to use in my crafting or re-string. Whilst I am scurrying around picking them all up DD has a brainwave of seeing if she can put a bead up her nose! Oh and she could but the scream that accompanied the pushing of the bead prevented her from doing matching beaded nostrils! I rang the doctors to see if there was an easy remedy to this and got told no i had to take her to A&E so they could check it.

So off I rush on the speakerphone to the schools whilst driving to let them know I am coming to collect the boys early (again) as I have to take DD to A&E (again) but no it isn't a possible dislocated shoulder this time but a bead up the nose and in the process awarding myself worse mother of the year!

Eventually after a half hour drive and a fifteen minute wait for a parking space I get into A&E. We are only there 5 minutes before the nurse calls us through and asks what happened. After hearing my explanation and taking a quick look she tells me there is a simple trick which may work but it has to be done by me.

"It has to be me does it?" I ask a little suspicious of what may happen when I follow these directions

"Oh yes it is much better of mum or dad does it is keeps the child happier and calmer" says she smirking at me

So I follow the instructions, gather DD onto my lap, put my finger over the un-beaded nostril and blow a short hard breath into my daughter's mouth. My suspicions are confirmed when I am struck in the cheek by a flying bead and then covered in blood and snot, lovely!

At least I now know how to remove a bead for any further times but it only works on hard things not soft items such as raisins. So no raisins for DD until she is 18!

Thank you for managing to get through this rather long post! I do hope you join in with Storytelling Sunday 2 I would love to read your tales :)