5 Reasons to....

For this months Sarah's Cards challenge we were asked to use some pins from pinterest chosen by the DT to inspire our layout. I chose these three from those selected;

I wanted to scrap this photo of Phil and our 4 monkeys just after he returned from his second Afghanistan tour in spring 2010. I used Authentique papers and started by cutting the 6 hearts to represent our family of 6 and sewing them onto the cardstock using the WRMK sew easy tool and some grey twine. I layered up the pp's and some burlap and lace and a couple of quotes and added the journalling tag and photo. I made some bunting using the ruler pp and counting my reasons out and added the wording which was from stickers rather than written on the card itself.

I am very happy with how it turned out and the family like it too :)

Aaaaaaeeeeeyyyyy!

Any child who grew up in the 80's with Happy Day's is now doing the Fonzie "Aaaaeeeyyy!" lol I had this great photo this summer of my eldest doing the classic Fonzie pose and it made me think of The Fonz straight away. I cannot be the only 30 something to get excited when you see Henry Winkler appear in anything else and exclaim "It's the Fonz" he was my first crush and remains a much loved character of mine still today.

For this LO I followed the fab October Creative Craft World Scrap Map which I thought fit in with the theme I wanted to acheive. I used some watered down white acrylic paint and "stamped" with some bubble wrap that I received with at Creative Craftworld kit to create the circles on the card. I then used the September CCW Kit to make the LO with layers of paper behind the photo and some of the buttons to highlight the circles. I didn't want to leave the top left pp bare so I added some of my favourite Fonzie quotes my overall favourite being "What d'you do, send your brain on vacation?" (Said to Chaachi when he burns down Arnold's).

Thanks for coming by again have a lovely day x

Stuck sketches

I recently found the Stuck blog which have two sketches each month for people to have a go at. This is the October 15th sketch;

I thought this was a really pretty sketch and gave me an idea so I had a go at it using Websters pages Ladies and Gentlemen pp and these pics of my DD modelling her new wooly hat. As the journalling explains any excuse to model is fine by Kari lol

The "mirror" was fussy cut from one of the pp's and then using a craft knife I cut around the flowers on the mirror to slip the photo into it as if it were a reflection. The lace trim is again my own attempt at crochet. Thanks for popping by x

October Purple Pumpkin sketch

I loved this month's sketch below and had an idea of what I wanted to do that was a little different to make the vertical "stripes"First I masked a section of my off white card and then using Wild Honey distress ink I coloured the rest of the card with the colour deeper at the masked edge and fading out to the edge. I still need more practice with distress inks but I do love the effect. After it had dried I removed the masking tape and chose some bright cheery papers from Echo Park's country drive. I cut the photo's out (again I love the way this looks with some photos) and used the lovely purple pumkin embellishments to make a little cluster with my title "Little Man" which is Alex's nickname. I added a couple more stickers, some stars above the photos and a little journalling about Alex accessorising his Halloween mummy outfit with Kari's Hannah Montana hat lol

Family

This week's (just gone as there is a new one today) challenge on UKScrappers was from Ally and was to include one photo not 6x4, a stamp you haven't used/used in a long time, and halloween colours. I had this photo of me and my brother in 1989 which was 7x5 and I was planning on orange pp's to go with my flaming hair lol. The challenge had me sorting my stamps out and I could not believe it when I found this great Family stamp which I had never used!

Websters pages freebie

Did you know the WP blog has a freebie every friday? This week is especially brilliant as it is a multi freebie with each of the DT choosing their favourite thing to make up a super freebie parcel go check it out on Websters blog

Charmed cards and crafts mega giveaway

There is a fab giveaway at Charmed cards and crafts follow the link here all you have to do is follow their blog link up to a post of yours where you have used a coloured image stamped or digi (no need to do one specially for the comp) and then post about the giveaway on your blog. Good luck x

Another mini

I enjoyed doing our family mini so much that when I got the fab Creative Craft World kit I knew I had the perfect photo's from Alex's first Halloween and that there were so many I wanted to make a mini book rather than a layout so that I could include them all. I added a couple of bits from my Echo Park Apocathery pack to increase the variety but most of the mini is made from the CCW October kit with Girls Paperie papers and stickers.

I made the book using one 12x12 sheet of cardstock and some folding. Initially I made one which was 4x4 in size with 18 pages but the size was too small for some of the photos so that is saved for a future book and I made a second one at 6x6 sixe with 8 pages. The first photo on the cover is a little dark but it was the only one outside I just wish our fab decorations the kids helped me with showed up better and I had to include it purely for Alex's mega strop being recorded lol.

Artsy scrapping

At my crop saturday I tried a more arty type of page playing with distress inks and stamping and using minimal paper products. I am happy with the result although the picture here makes the photos look darker than they are. I am going to have another go at this style maybe later today but definately this week.

The joys of Autumn

This year is the first time that our littlest monkey, Alex, has really discovered how much fun fallen leaves can be. I got some great photos of him one sunny afternoon playing in the leaves outside the school waiting for two of the bigger monkeys and chose these 4 as the best. I used the gorgeous My Minds' Eye Lime Twist papers which I am now running sadly low on and a couple of ribbons, a button and some alpha's from my Gottacraft kit which came with the Lime Twist papers.

Thanks for popping by hope you like my little cheeky grinning boy's LO too :)

Ernest Hercules Brookes

I found this photo of my Gramps with my daughter shortly after she was born among the photo's from my Gramps' flat. It is a special photo as Kari was born shortly after we lost Nan and it was the first time Gramps met Kari. I knew I would have to work hard to do the photo justice on a Layout and using Websters' pages All about Me range I hope I did ok.

Joyful song

This is my entry for the monthly Scrapology challenge which can be found here and is focusing this month on a page by Georgia K Keays.

I love this photo of Kari taken on Dylan's birthday earlier this month and chose the papers from my September Gottacraft kit featuring Crate Farmhouse to go with the photo. I thought the bright cheery mix of colours suited both the picture and Kari to a T.

I was a little stuck at first for a title but then thought her name meaning would make a lovely title and carry on the bright and happy theme to the layout. When we found out in 2004 we were having a little girl the name search began in earnest. We eventually settled on Kari which we pronounce carry although it is also pronounced kah ree and I found it in a book by one of my favourite authors, Dean Koontz (the doctor's colleague is called Kari). When I did some research I found the name originally came from France meaning Joyful song although it is now more common in Norway, Iceland and Finland as both a male and female name. As I am part French and I love to sing I thought I would never find a more perfect name.

I hope you like the layout and the story behind how Kari came by her unusual but not crazy name (I think she is the only Kari in the UK) thanks for popping by x

October challenges

I completed some layouts this weekend for the first two weekly October challenges on UKScrappers. The first one is for week 1 set by Suze who asked we use 3 lots of 3 things (I have used photo's, paper hats and report cards) Blue but not pink and a household item (paperclip)

The week 2 challenge was set by me :) and this is what I decided on;

This week is my mum's birthday and so I would like your LO to be about a mum whether that is yourself, your mum, or another friend or loved one's journey as a mum - 10 points.

I love to see lots of details on a LO so I would like you to include at least 3 different shapes on your LO. Your photo/s can count as one shape but the others have to be from your embellishments or pp's - 10 points.

As mums are true diamonds lets see some sparkle on your pages - 5 points

Finally I would like to hear the story behind your LO so please include some journalling - 5 points

First LO is of my mum

The second is about me the journalling is on the back but I forgot to add some bling lol. I did however get to use my Purple pumpkin buttons :)

Too cute to spook

I completed this LO last night for the UKScrappers October house challenge. We had to follow a sketch and use orange and I was so excited to use these gorgeous Echo park Apocathery papers. We love halloween and spooky stuff here and have great fun decorating and pumpkin carving. These pics are from 2008 and I have to get the 2009 pictures done as little Alex was so cute in his costume :)

My first mini *PHOTO HEAVY*

A few weeks back I bought a gorgeous mini book kit from Handmade Hannah and was very excited about it but when I got it I wasn't sure where to start. I didn't know what photos to use, what size to make it, or how to use the glassine envelopes lol but earlier this week I decided I was not going to let this adorable little kit languish in my stash, picked out some photos, grabbed my August Gottacraft kit to expand my paper choices and went for it.

I decided to make my covers 6 1/2 inches square and then have various sizes of pages inside and over three evenings finished this book which I adore I hope you like it too :)

This is one of the envelopes the reverse has "Our story" written on it and a journalling card inside describing how we started off our life together;

I made my own Acetate overlay with heat embossing and alcohol ink staining;

The glassine envelope has a tag in on the front as you can see a photo of Joel and on the reverse some journalling about Joel's years as an only child;

Another envelope a window one this time with a photo of Dylan inside and a journalling card;

Another glassine envelope this one tucked behind the main photo, this tag has a picture of Kari and journalling about how she ruled the roost lol;

I had a problem with this page as I wanted to include all 3 photos but they wouldn't fit so I made them flip down like pages in a book;

That's it I think I need to add an envelope with journalling about Alex but all done otherwise, thanks for struggling through this massive post xxx