Sarah's Card August Blog Challenge

This month Sketch Challenge over at Sarah's Card is up and you can find it here

and here is my take

Products used: Studio Calico (SC) - June 2012 Kit: Cardstock - American Craft (AC) ; Patterned Papers -Basic Grey, Bazzill Basic, SC Exclusive; Stamps - SC exclusive; Punches - EK Success, Stampin' Up, Martha Stewart; Stickers - Crate Paper; Alpas - Amy Tangerine; Embellishment - SC Wood Veneer, Flair Badge - FindingNana; Silhouette Cameo

and a few close up

I cut out the arrow and 'family vacation' with my cameo, and I used the 'A' from a Crate Paper sticker sheet to represent 'A' for our surname

I used my Martha Stewart dragonfly punch

And I got some new flair badges from here

Used some of the exclusive wood veneer from SC, I think I might be addicted to these - lol.

I'll be back with more layouts to share soon

Sarah's Cards Blog Challenge - June 2012

Over at Sarah's Card, this months sketch is up and you can find the full details here

And this is my take on the sketch.

Products used: Studio Calico June 2012 kit : AC card stock; SC exclusive paper, My Minds Eye (MME) - Papers - Follow your Heart 'Be amazing', 'on the Bright Side'; MME - Paperclip, wood chip, decorative buttons; Alphas - American Craft - muse, Jillibean Soup; from my stash - SC label; Ormolu button; Tim Holtz tickets; Mr Huey mists - Pumpkin, Clover, Bonney Blue.

I added a vellum die-cut heart to the top.

and a die-cut down the side of the photo.

The story behind the photo is that after James latest hair cut, some of the girls at school asked him if he had his eyebrows shaped at the same time, which didn't go down too well, and then when he saw his Grandma she asked the same question - lol. I just told him that his natural beauty just shines through and he should be proud of it.

Thanks for stopping by.

Sarah's Cards Sketch Challenge Winner

I'm a winner. Just found out that I've won the July sketch challenge on the Sarah's Card blog.

here

This is my layout

Yipee to me ...

Sarah's Card Sketch Challenge - July 2011

Another Sketch challenge from Sarah's Cards, this is my take on the sketch.

Thanks for stopping by

Making use of my Calander Sheets ...

I normally make minibooks for any retreats that I've been on in the past, but the problem with minibooks is storing them, so for this years retreat I decided to use the Calendar Sheets and the many divider page protectors that I got earlier in the year.

So for the Sarah Cards Retreat I used papers from my Studio Calico February/March kit.

and the 'day of the week' stamps from Studio Calico, stamped with Stick Candy ink by Jenni Bowlin.

For the Scrapagogo Getaway, I used my March Studio Calico kit and Studio Calico 'Month' stamp

I just love these American Craft Thickers and of course the 'bee' stamp.

Apologies for the glare from the page protector, but I just printed off some of the photo I took on the photo call and added to the page protector.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Sarah's Card Sketch Challenge

Another sketch challenge this time from Sarah's Cards here

So here is my take on the above sketch.

Products used: Patterned Papers - October Afternoon (OA)- Campfire, Seaside; Jillibean Soup (mini houses); OA -Seaside Alphas; OA - mini alphas; OA - stickers, American Craft - Ribbon; Tim Holtz mini staples.

Add the ribbon in waves to represent the sea.

Added these for interest, even though they are birdhouse, they do remind me of beach huts.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Sarah's Card Retreat - Part 1

WOW, I had a fab time this weekend at the Sarah's Card Retreat in Warrington.

It started with Julie and Me driving up the M6 and stopping a Daresbury Village at a pub called 'Ring o' Bells' which was just lovely, the meal, service and the actual place was just superb.

Now, as some you you might know, I originally from Preston (Lancashire) but live in Birmingham ... well whenever I drive 'opp North' I still get that feeling like I'm going 'home'. I did try and pursude Julie that Preston was only 1/2 hour away, but she was having none of it -LOL.

The pub had a great menu, excellent service and even better home cooked food. We selected our lunch off the 'lunchtime special' meal, we both had Steak & Ale Pie, Mash and veg ... fab, fab, fab followed by Peach and Blackcurrent Cumble & Custard with Julie having Apple pie & clotted cream. The whole meal for the 2 of us including coffee and a soft drink cost £25.00 which was very reasonable,

we then went back throught the village and Julie spotted this on the local villlage school roof.

Then I remembered seeing somewhere that this village was were Louis Carroll was born hence Alice in Wonderland.

So here is where we stopped for the weekend

and after getting our room it was time to meet the rest of the delegates, we had planned to meet Sheena and her friends and all sit together. Don't know how it happened but I've not got any photos of the group of us together ... but we had a great time and it was great meet them and share the weekend with them all.

Then at 3.30pm it was time to enter the crop room and start on our weekend of crafting goodness.

But let me show you some of the loveiness that awaited us,

The Sweetie Shoppe - what a fab idea they were jars and jars of old fashion sweeties for us to take as and when we like.

Then we had this fab goody bag ... which included a 12 x 12 American Craft Album, rub-ons, journalling cards, stickers.

Now who can resist looking around the lovely shop with some amazing new CHA 2011 products, Yah to it all, it was just fab, and yes I definately indulged ... which I will show you later.

Obviously Julie and I were in our element, but seriously how much paper do we actually need ... LOL

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon to find out more about the classes, bingo, raffle and more see the classes that I did and the other layouts I completed.

Yah !!! for the Weekend ...

and Sarah's Card Retreat is where we are heading for the weekend. I say we, because I'll will be sharing the experience with Julie. It will be Julie's first retreat and I just hope that she enjoys it has much I have done in the past, well I've never been on a Sarah's Card retreat before but I've been on others and just love them.

It's up in Warrington, so we plan to drive up mid morning of Friday, and have lunch at a local pub, then from 3.30pm on Friday till Sunday afternoon, we will be scrapping till we drop. The weekend has been planned so that there is plenty of personal scrapping time between the 6 planned classes, which have been designed by Sarah's Card Design Team, along with make and takes, challenges, shopping, eating, laughing and just having a scrapping weekend. So I've packed my tote and a bag and I plan to use my lush Studio Calico Febraury kit and a few other bits and pieces, in between my classes and hopefully I'll be able to complete some extra layouts over the weekend.

I'm really looking forward to meeting some old and new scrap buddies ... and as usual learning some new techniques to add to my layouts.

Anyway, I leave you with layout that a did a while back, of the girls I spent a great weekend away last November over in Shropshire. I used Studio Calico January 2011 kit.

Then a few cards that I did using my Stampin' Up supplies.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Sarah's Cards - February Blog Challenge

So over on Sarah's Card Blog the February sketch challenge is up, which is this

And this is my take - Using Studio Calico December 2010 kit. The photo was taken in 2009 on a visit to Twycross Zoo. Was going to call it 'Piggy Back Rider' but has it wasn't a pig it didn't feel right, so called it 'Hitching a Ride' ... still not sure about the title but eh oh !!!

While tidying my room I came across some Crate Paper chipboard from the Brooke Collection (well I found a lot of chipboards, brads and various embellishments that I will be adding to my pages) which I added to this along with some Tim Holtz tickets.

Thank for stopping by ...

Tim Holtz - here I come ...

Yes, I've been able to secure a place on one of his workshops in February.

Sometime in September I was told that PaperArtsy was getting Tim Holtz to come over to the UK and teach a few workshops, of course I was way too late to book, but I throught it might be worth my while to go onto the waiting list, which I did and yah the week before Christmas I got an email saying a place had become available and was I still interested, well, hell yes of course I was.

Now I not OTT about Tim Holtz but I do love his products, which I have a few, and it would be great to learn how to use them correctly. So at the end of February I will be having a day in Newport Pagnell being taught by the man himself. I'm going on my own but recently found out that Debs & Rachel from the Bromsgrove crop will be at the same event which is great to know that I will at least know two people.

Another thing I wanted to do is to go on a workshop or retreat that I've seen advertised along the way, so making a few enquires I went onto another waiting list for the Sarah's Cards retreat, then last week I got an email from Sarah's Cards saying that two places had become available, so a quick text to Julie and we are now booked onto that Retreat.

So a big Yippee to waiting lists, I will be adding my name to many more in the future, because who know what might come available in the future.

Last year I was determine to learn new crafting techniques, visit different places and hopefully make new friends, but has I had commitments I was unable to put my plans into action, but hopefully this year I will be able to change al this.

So here to 2011 being my year to learn more, meet more people and hopefully do more scrapping.

Thanks for stopping by ...

Sarah Card Sketch Challenge

This is my entry for January 2011 Sketch Challenge on Sarah Card Blog.

Thanks for stopping by ...

A Busy Sunday

I love to scrap, I love paper, buttons, embellishments, punches, stamps , OK just about everything that goes into being creative.

So Why, oh why can't I think of titles for my layouts, I just keep on coming up with the same thing, so consequently I have scrapped this weekend and some of the layouts don't have a title, but hey I'm OK with that. Who says that a layout needs a title? why can't you just produce a layout without a title and be done. So unless I can come up with a title for these before they go into my albums, then they will be left has they are.

This weekend was the CyberCrop over on UKS, I didn't join in the fun, but did download a few of the layouts to do at my leisure.

This layout is based on Class designs by Sarah Youde for the Cybercrop, using Scrapagogo April 2010 kit, one of my crafting objectives is to learn to knit properly, I can knit scraves, as long as they are only knit one, purl one - LOL, but anything out of this 'safety net' I just can't do. I would love to go to a knitting class or something along those lines and learn how to do it. Who knows maybe this will be a new learning techique for this year.

This is a sketch challenge from Sarah Cards, again using Scrapagogo April 2010 kit.

This photo was taken by Sue at the Retreat, and you know that felling you get when you are really happy or excited and all you want to do is 'Scream' well that just summed up what I felt like that weekend.

Scrapagogo March 2010 Kit

And I still on my quest to use up my older stash, so out came the cardstock, you know the one that you save because its lovely. I found this Bazzill Dotted Swiss Scalloped Cardstock recently, actually got about 20 sheets of it in various colours, so will be using it up over the coming weeks.

This layout with me and James at Botanical Gardens last week and using the lovely Crate Paper - Brook Collection, with an added Prima flower and bird/branch chipboard from American Craft (something I had for a while - but Rachel reminded me of them when I read her blog)

This is using my lovely Kraft paper, which I'm running out off, but being on 'another' serious stash diet, I won't be getting anymore for a while, and using the lovely October Afternoon Thrift Shop, with some chipboard from Cosmo Cricket - Earth Love

Thanks for stopping by, back later with my GoGo Retreat Mini Book.