THE EVIDENCE SPEAKS FOR ITSELF!

I DEFINATELY have two teenagers in residence... even without actually seeing them,can you tell?

I have to confess to not even have looked into their bedroom...but given that it's Kirsty's room, it can't actually be any worse than it normally looks when occupied!!

I'm enjoying spending time with  them, as I usually only see them for 'flying visits' when I'm in Scotland...mum and dad are enjoying having them here too, as although they see them more often than I do, it's not for as long spells as when they were little.

The older niece is the one who turns 18 next month, and it's her album I've been making...I'm glad to say she has told me she 'loves' it, even though there are still a few pages to do. I'm hoping to get these done over the next few days, and then it will go safely home with her..though I think  I'll have to lend her a little case to take back as hand luggage, as it is quite a weight!

Hope you're all having a good weekend..and have perhaps seen a little sunshine?

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

TRIPLE WHAMMY!

Today I resisted playing with my yummy new papers...though I have had a few occasions just to go look lovingly at them.....as I wanted to get my page done for SUSANNE'S IN GOOD COMPANY challenge. Each month she has been challenging us to create a layout, using papers and/or embellishments primarily from one company (she chooses a different Company every month). 

This month, the chosen Company is OCTOBER AFTERNOON...if you have any in your stash why not come and join us?

Being that it's too  hot here for my brain to do any serious work, I decided to take the easy route and use SHIMELLE'S most recent STARTING POINT

So I had a rake through my stash and found some October Afternoon 'CAMPFIRE' papers and some '5&DIME'...and here's the result. There's a mix of other stuff from  my stash in there too...funny how it doesn't seem to matter how much I dip into my stash, it never seems to decrease very much (if at all!)

The layout also works for one of the Bonus Challenges over at CAMP FRIENDZY

I only have a few more pages left to do for my niece's album, and then I'll get back to scrapping some of my own pics!

Hope you've all seen even a LITTLE bit of sunshine this weekend!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

OFF TO SUMMER CAMP.......

......NOT literally I hasten to add, but the brilliant DT over at SCRAP FRIENDZY have put together a summer of challenges, inspiration and prizes. Why not come and join us..I can assure you of a warm welcome and lots of fun!

We have had a few Pre-Crop challenges, and this is the layout I made for the third of these

The challenge was based on making S'MORES, which appear to be a great camping tradition in the USA.

SOURCE

To make S'mores make sure to pack:
Graham Crackers (texture).........vellum and twine
Chocolate (2 shades of brown).....dark and light brown on papers
Marsh-mellows (something white, and something round) * can be 2 different items......white flower and brads (round)
and last but not least something to roast them on! (something to stick your marsh-mellows on and roast)......stickpin

Hope you're all having a good weekend, and that your weather hasn't curtailled your activities TOO much!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

Edited to add that I'm adding this to JENNIFER'S SCRAPBOOKING SOIREE......why not pop over to see what it's all about?

THE BABY LAYOUTS....

......for my niece's album, that is. You may remember I mentioned that mum and dad had brought my niece's baby pics with them, so I have been scanning and printing in my spare moments..and even got a few LOs completed over the weekend.


I used this 'Starting Point' from SHIMELLE

 

and came up with this

and then, using this sketch from SKETCHABILITIES

came up with this one

I have left the journalling blank once again, but will be able to fill it in soon, as the Birthday Girl is having a pre-birthday, post-exam break here in just a couple of weeks time....beds are going to be in short supply here by the end of the month!

Thank you all for your supportive messages after STORYTELLING SUNDAY... as SIAN commented, 'what a wonderful bunch of people scrapbookers are'...to that I add bloggers too!

Thanks for dropping by!

take care of you

Alison xx

THE SILLY SEASON HAS STARTED!

If I were to tell you how often I have been to airports and bus stations over the last week (all of them at least an hour- an hour and a half's drive away), you would agree about the silly season title...and it's not finished yet! Tomorrow, I have DH's aunt to take to Alicante for 12 noon..and I had a text from DH this morning to say that he is arriving (totally unexpectedly) at 9.30 tomorrow night..so a double whammy!!


I am really happy that DH is getting here for a few unexpected days...he is a great help with mum and dad...they both love him to pieces and he really does make them laugh!


In between taxi-ing, I have managed to get a couple more LOs finished for my niece's Birthday.

I can't believe how young my brother and SIL look in this!

A double page spread I did for some of her copious amount of 'Friends' pics

I've been experimenting with Washi tape!

The REALLY good news is that mum and dad have brought over the final pics I need, which are the all-important 'birth' pics. One of the reasons I find it  so hard making albums for other people, is that you are constantly reminding them to scan pics for you and they think they have months in which to send them....they don't realise how long an album can take to do (well, at least how long it can take ME to do!)

Anyway, must go as it's Line Dancing tonight!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

IN GOOD COMPANY

This month, SUSANNE over at SNAPS AND SNIPPETS is challenging us to scrap using SASSAFRASS products, for her IN GOOD COMPANY challenge.

On rifling through my stash, I discovered all of one sheet of Sassafrass (Woodland Whimsy),so tried to be a bit creative and use both sides, plus the scalloped bottom edge, as well as some fussy cutting. I also 'gutted' the sheet, so that I had the outer blue border, and attached some Bazzill CS to it. The doily shape under the flowers is the cream paper cut on my Silhouette, and inked a bit.

I have just realised what a dreadful picture this is...apologies!

Please consider joining Susanne's challenge, as she is threatening to call a halt on it  due to lack of interest, which would be a real pity. It has made me  much more aware of what products I actually have in my stash...and use them! I had had this particular sheet for a few years, and hadn't been able to come up with a way to use it until now-thanks Susanne!

I am abandoning COVER TO COVER for the moment...tomorrow I'm off to Barcelona for a few  days, as this is Kirsty's last half term there and this will be the last time I won't have to pay for a hotel!!

Kirsty will come back down with me for a few days, and then I have a friend coming over for five days...I'm hoping to dip in and out of COVER TO COVER, but certainly won't be participating  in the way I was expecting to!

Hope you're having a good weekend

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

COVER TO COVER -Prompt 2

You will  notice that I am already running a day behind with this class!


The 'homework' for Prompt 2 

1.Have a look at the photos and ‘get rid’ of anything you really don’t want to keep. This means different things to different people: if you shoot sixteen of the same shot to get one you like, you might want to delete the other fifteen and keep the winner. But you might be quite happy to keep all sixteen if the sheer number of images doesn’t phase you (or your hard drive) in the slightest.


I went through the folders of pictures I've taken so far this year. I already keep my photographs in folders, by year and then separated into months. I also have folders for individual projects,like the album I'm doing for my niece's Birthday, minis I've made etc.

I discovered that I've taken 500 photographs this year, but by the time I had deleted those which were 'excess', I had whittled that down to 220!

2.From the remaining photos from 2012, what have you printed? Assuming you’re happy with the prints, you can ignore those images for right now. Let’s look at what you have not printed. Make a new folder so you can grab anything you want to print. Err on the side of printing a bit too many rather than not enough (don’t worry about the price right now - we can edit it down later if needed). Go through all unprinted photos from 2012 and drop

anything you can ever imagine wanting to print into that new ‘to print’ folder.

I actually ended up doing the opposite of what was suggested by Shimelle, and made a new folder for my 'already scrapped' pics for every month...it means when I go into that month, I can see immediately what pics I still have to work with. This works for me, because I still intend printing my own pics.
When I open each month now, my folder looks like this

It will definately be helpful, if I do this each time I make a layout- then I know exactly what stories are left to scrap. The funny thing is that I do  this when I'm working on individual albums...I have no idea why it hasn't occurred to me to do so with my chronological albums!

 3.Sign in with the photo printer of your choice and upload all those images to your account.

Sorry Shimelle, this just isn't going to happen for me......apart from the fact that I actually am quite happy printing my own pics, the mail between Spain and the rest of the world is a bit unreliable, to say the least.

I'll leave you with a couple of Layouts  I managed to get done for NSD....both were for challenges over at SCRAP FRIENDZY.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

COVER TO COVER...Prompt 1

Yes, SHIMELLE has a new scrapbooking class (it started yesterday)...and after much humming and hawing I decided I would sign up for it.

The first Prompt asked us to:

Take a photo that helps describe your current status with scrapbooking. You might have dozens and dozens of albums. You might have two. You might be completely happy with your albums. You might have a big stack and no books or ideas on where things should go. Share your photo (and more details if you would like) with us either by posting on the forum or writing a blog post.

I do actually keep my scrapbooks in chronological order...much easier since I started using D ring albums...I changed from postbound to these, about a year and a half ago. I don't scrap chronologically....I sometimes scrap recent pictures, but I often go through my photo archives- which I keep on my hard drive- to see what catches my imagination.

These are my albums from New Year's Day  2007 till the present time..one day I shall date the spines! I hasten to add that there are lots of pre-2007 albums in various places around the house.

At the moment, this is acting as a 'Holding Album'....the LOs for my niece's album, LOs for Stuart's eventual album and LOs for a 'My Life' album (about me) are all in here.... until I send for more.

I print my own photographs, as I like to use different sizes on my pages...I know it probably costs me more in the long run, but I never know what sizes I'll use before I actually start a layout!

I am in awe of some of the bloggers I know who are VERY much more organised than me.....but my 'system' works for me, so I'll stick with it...unless of course Shimelle is about to enlighten us with something that 'fits' me better! 

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

A BIT OF 'SUPPORT'

 It's OK people: I''m  not actually in NEED of support, I just want to share some layouts I made this week with the help of a couple of sketches over at SKETCH SUPPORT, which, incidentally I was inspired to go looking at  after checking out some of SUE'S  layouts over at LIFE & MEMORIES....I do love the inspiration as I go blog-visiting!

These are another few pages to go in my niece's album....although her Birthday isn't till mid-July, I wanted it ready by mid June, as I'm going to the  UK for a wedding then...but it now looks as though she is going  to come over here after her exams at the end of MAY...thank goodness I started early..I wouldn't want to be working on it while she's here!

WARNING!!!!....PHOTO HEAVY POST!

I used this sketch( #21), as the inspiration for the first two LOs

I must also give credit to Jemma (aka JIMJAMS), as the filmstrip inspiration came from her LO HERE.

The fab chevron ribbon came from a package I received this week as a prize, from  THE STRINGERY (from their Bloghop a couple of months ago)

The final LO was inspired by this sketch (#17), though when I look at it, it was very much a starting point, not a final destination!

Here are the two pages separately

Just a reminder too, that if you want to be in the draw for  this book

just leave a comment at the end of THIS POST by the end of today.

Hope you are having a lovely weekend...I'm off to pick Kirsty up in an hour or so..she's decided to come down for a few days, as it's the May Day holidays at the beginning of next week, so no Uni....the downside is that she's starting to bring her 'stuff' back as she finishes at the end of June. Guess what mum will be doing next week?

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

TWO NEW LAYOUTS....

...inspired by SHIMELLE'S ONLINE CROP from this past weekend but, in one case used for another THREE challenges...I think that might be a record for me!


Shimelle's Challenge #11


Using two different types of pattern....I used a paper with spots and a  paper with diamonds and triangles....

The journalling reads:

We couldn't believe the storm we woke up to, the morning we were due to travel from E.K. to Newcastle. On the ten min. taxi ride to the train station, we encountered fallen trees, flying dustbins and other assorted debris..and then discovered that the trains to Glasgow weren't running. One brave taxi driver agreed to take us into the city...where we soon discovered ALL trains (and most other forms of transport) were cancelled in and out of Scotland. MANY cups of tea and coffee later, we eventually got a train at 4pm that afternoon to Carlisle, and had to get the Newcastle train from there. 

The LO also qualifies for the challenge over at ANOTHER FREAKIN' SCRAPPY CHALLENGE  using  the topic 'storms' or 'Spring' and using this sketch

  

As I used the PICCADILLY line of papers from BASIC GREY, it also qualifies for SUSANNE'S IN GOOD COMPANY CHALLENGE  and, finally, it met the criteria for a 'flower' challenge over at SCRAP FRIENDZY!

SHIMELLE'S CHALLENGE #5

Sorry the pic is at a dreadful angle...and the photos themselves aren't great quality, but I've resorted to copying  some of my niece's pics from FB ..if I don't , I might never get this album done- I hate waiting for other people to send pictures!

I rotated the original 90 degrees....used 4 pics instead of one panoramic one..kept the pale background and the butterflies.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

Shimelle's Online Crop

In case you hadn't heard, SHIMELLE is having an Online Crop, over at  her BLOG. I have managed to complete three challenges since last night....but you don't want to see what my scrappy area looks like right at this moment!


CHALLENGE #1

and here's what I came up with

I rotated the sketch and worked horizontally, but kept to the positioning of most of the elements....instead of circles, I went with stars..but I think you can still see the inspiration pic in there (somewhere!!)

CHALLENGE #2

Create a page using 3 or more Paper Collections

Another one for my niece's album

The PPs are all PRIMA (MELODY Collection), 

AC  Thickers for the Alphas

MME Fine & Dandy packaging for the Journalling Spot

Washi Tape from Paperchase... embellishments a mix of Prima  and AC....ribbon from my stash. 

CHALLENGE #4

Use Grey, Yellow and another colour

Another page done for the 18th Birthday!

I think you can see I chose blue as the other colour! The background paper IS yellow, though doesn't look it in this pic.

Am off to do a bit of blog reading now, to see if any of you have been joining in!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx 

HAPPY MAIL AND A LAYOUT

Getting back into the swing of things after our long weekend, I took myself (and Boo)down to the postbox yesterday, expecting to find the usual junk mail or perhaps a bill wanting paying. Imagine my delight when, not only were there no bills OR junk mail, but a package...HAPPY MAIL..for me!!


I couldn't wait to get back to the house, so that I could get it unwrapped. I knew from the 'sender' address that it was from the lovely Queen of Happy Mail herself, RUTH, but had no idea what to expect.


After  rushing allowing Boo to 'do her business' in her own time...I got in ( totally forgetting to take a pic of Ruth's parcelling skills) and opened my package, to discover

THANKS RUTH!

this book and the ubiquitous pretty postcard, which Ruth seems to have an endless supply of! 

I hoped to  get started reading the book last night- it's one I've been considering ordering for my Kindle, so was really keen to get into it- but that didn't quite happen!...hopefully tonight!

I also managed to get another LO for my niece's album completed, using this sketch

from PAGE DRAFTS.

You'll notice I'm using the glittery nail polish ploy again...and I'm leaving most of the journalling spots blank, so that Jennifer can add her own journalling.

Thanks for dropping by..and thanks again Ruth for the Happy Mail!

Take care of you

Alison xx

Another LO for the 18th Birthday Album

I have mentioned before, that it is my eldest niece's 18th Birthday in July...and she has always reminded me that she would like a Scrapbook album of her life so far, from me.


This is the latest page I have made, from her12th Birthday

I cut the doily out with my Silhouette machine and misted it, then applied clear, sparkly nail polish to it... a tip  passed on from my lovely friend HELEN over at SCRAP ADDICT...I can't believe how well it works- it's my new favourite technique!!


I truly hope you are having a restful, happy Eater weekend...I go to pick DH up this morning, so my weekend starts then!


Thanks for dropping by!
Take care of you
Alison xx