ALL GOOD THINGS......

.....must come to an end and,sadly, SUSANNE has decided to wrap up her IN GOOD COMPANY party!

For the last year, she has invited us to make a layout or card using her chosen 'manufacturer of the month'....I have joined in most months (Jenni Bowlin caught me out!) and thoroughly enjoyed the challenge of- some months- coming up with a LO using just one sheet of paper and some embellishments!

Susanne has likened it to deciding what party dress we'd like to wear...and allowed us to wear our own choice of  designer for the last party. Given that I like me a bit of 'MME', I have used a selection of their papers...and come up with this

My sister was determined to have a photograph of herself, me and our two brothers taken, as it is so seldom we are all  in the same place at the same time.

I used this sketch  from SCRAP FRIENDZY, designed by one of their ex -DT members KATHY

Thanks again for having hosted these 'parties' Susanne! 

Hope you've all had a good weekend...it's been a bit rainy here, but not to the extent it was forecast.

Thanks for dropping by!

take care of you

Alison xx

IN GOOD COMPANY WITH GLITTER GIRL ...AT CAMP AND THEN A SOIREE!

Before I did the 'Great Scrap Area Tidy', in honour of my friend Elaine's arrival ...and she KNOWS how honoured she is ;) I managed to squeeze in one more Layout, 

The inspiration for the paper choices came from SUSANNE'S IN GOOD COMPANY challenge,  for which this month, she is looking for PINK PAISLEE products. My background paper and the striped one are both from the 'VINTAGE VOGUE' collection..everything else is from my stash.

The sketch itself is the one used by GLITTER GIRL HERE....and I did use both Washi Tape and ribbon!

The CAMP FRIENDZY challenge was:

 to use the colors of the rainbow as your inspiration and use at least 5 of those colors. And yes, to make it easy, the colors can be any shade you want. Just make sure you have at least 5 of the 7 main colors found in the rainbow on your LOs or cards

...and finally, I'm linking up to JENNIFER'S SCRAPBOOKING SOIREE!

Have a great week my friends!

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

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

HA-PPY HA-PPY HAPPY HAPPY MAIL......

...(sung to the tune of 'Happy Talk' from SOUTH PACIFIC).


 You may remember that  last week, I shared my Happy Mail from the lovely RUTH...Well, in the space of another week  I have received this lovely card from SIAN

AND this lovely collection of goodies 

from SUSANNE (a prize for last month's IN GOOD COMPANY Challenge).

THANK YOU BOTH!

Back to the book sent to me by Ruth....'84 CHARING CROSS ROAD'

I can honestly say that this is likely to go somewhere on my list of 'favourite reads'! The first part of the book is in the form of letters between an American lady (the author, Helene Hanff) and a bookseller (from a shop on Charing Cross Rd, London!!)  starting in 1949 and ending in 1969. No torrid love affair, just a gentle exchange of letters about books, but giving a lovely insight into life on both sides of the Atlantic during the UK's rationing years. The second part of the book is in the form of Helene's diary, which she kept when she was eventually able to visit London in 1971.

In the spirit of Ruth's 'Happy Mail throughout 2012', I am offering a copy of the book(I shall be keeping the original!)  up to one of my lovely readers...all you have to do is to leave a comment on this post before Mon (23rd) at midnight (GMT).

In the meantime, I am off to look out some more photos, in the hope of getting a couple more of Shimelle's challenges completed.

Have a great weekend!

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

In Good Company......

 

Each month, Susanne from SNAPS AND SNIPPETS, runs an online Challenge called IN GOOD COMPANY. As the name might suggest to you, she asks you to create a Layout using a particular company's papers and/or embellishments. This month it's the turn of AMERICAN CRAFTS, so off I went rummaging...and I found a whole sheet and some 'scraps' of their 'Hello Sunshine range from last year, as well as some of their 'Delight' rosettes. here's what I came up with

This LO is another one to go in the Scrapbook I'm making for my niece's 18th Birthday...I have decided to leave the journalling for her to do herself, unless I was actually there at the time, hence the blank jornalling spot.

Remember if you want to be in the draw for this book, which I so enjoyed.......

just leave a comment after THIS POST.

Hope the sun's shining where you are!

Thanks for dropping by!

take care of you

Alison xx

First (non-JYC) Scrapbook page of 2012!

Like a few other 'scrappy' bloggers, I have signed up for MISS SMITH'S online class JUST ONE SKETCH. She asked us to pick one sketch that suited our style of scrapping....to be honest I'm not sure if I really have a style, but I had a look through some of my more recent LOs and decided I quite liked a couple of photographs, some layered PPs ,a smattering of embellishments and room for journalling. 


While looking through the sketches for the SKETCH-A-THON over at SCRAP FRIENDZY, I came across this one

from the ever-so-talented TRACY over at A Scrap at a Time, which I love and which seems to fit the bill.  This is my first take on her sketch

It also meets the criteria for SUSANNE'S challenge, IN GOOD COMPANY where she is looking for LOs using products designed or attributed to girls.

I used papers and embellishments by Brenda Walton(for K &co), Lori Whitlock (for Echo Park) and Anna Griffin.

The journalling Tag is from Elle's Studio...and the little reindeer are cut by my Silhouette machine!!

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

And we're off again!

Yes, I managed to our local(ish!) Shopping Centre on Wednesday and got the new ink cartridge I needed to get on with DD's album. Between then and now, I've got quite a few pages completed and am definately 'on the home run'.


The only thing is that I'm about to have to go and remove all evidence of it, as I'm off to pick DD up from the bus later this afternoon! She has decided to come home for the weekend, which would be lovely, were it not for the texts I've received this morning telling me she has a nasty cold....in fact 'man flu' she says! I am SO not a good nurse...in fact I get downright crotchety if either she or DH are poorly and expect looking after. I'm one of those people who would rather just go to bed and be left well alone if I'm not well..and therefore expect my nearest and dearest to be the same!

Anyway, I just wanted to share a couple of the LOs I made. This one is made with MY MIND"S EYE papers,as was required by Susanne's  IN GOOD COMPANY CHALLENGE  over at 'Snaps and Snippets'

This one was for a  scraplift challenge over at SCRAPFRIENDZY

Well...am off to get rid of the evidence. Have a lovely weekend.

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

Stacking them Up!

Over at SHIMELLE'S Pretty Paper Party Prompt 16 was to stack our paper. Now this is a technique I use quite often, but Shimelle suggested using some papers we didn't particularly love anymore and that way we would only see parts of the paper...but we would at least be getting the papers onto pages!


This coincided with me having looked out some K&Co papers for Susanne's IN GOOD COMPANY challenge. I haven't bought any K&Co for yonks, so it was really old stash which , when I pulled it out I realised it just wasn't what I would use anymore. 


Thank goodness for Shimelle.....and here's what I came up with

Now I've been able to throw out the scraps without feeling wasteful, as I used at least some of it and don't feel too bad about it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

In Good Company......

........is the name of a great challenge I found, when I dropped in on SUSANNE over at her blog 'SNAPS AND SNIPPETS'. 


Here's the gist of it.


'...for the next several weeks, I’m going to spend time with some of the various manufacturers’ products that I have buried in my scrapbooking stash – company by company, week by week.'


She then goes on to invite her blog readers to play along.....if you pop over to her blog you will  get the full details.


This sounded like something new and a bit different...'I'm up for this' thought I, and off I went to search through the stash.


There was only one little major problem......Susanne's manufacturer of choice this week, was COSMO CRICKET, and I haven't bought any of that for ages (imagine a very sad face here).  I knew it would have to  be in the VERY OLD stash file...in fact I had convinced myself that I had none at all (now the face is sad and grumpy...I really wanted to play!). After the second rummage through, there - right at the back - was a sheet of CC 'Get Happy'!

As you can see, I was very lucky in that it was lots of strips, which I was able to chop up (and do some happy dancing while I was at it) and produce this

I am actually indebted to Susanne, as it jump-started the album I want to  do for DD's Christmas, of the photographs she and her friends took in NYC last December, while they were there celebrating DD's 21st. I felt the paper had just the 'urban' feel/look I wanted for some of the pics!

Needless to say, as I had no CC embellishments, I had to make my own...and the 'OH BOY!' phrase worked perfectly as the title!

I then went on to do the first page, now having an idea of how I want the album to look...

I used sketch #269 from SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGES  for this page.

So my thanks go to Susanne...not just for a 'new' challenge, but for getting me started on the album!...why don't you pop over and play along?

Thanks for dropping by!

Take care of you

Alison xx

P.S. Lost all of 0.2 of a lb yesterday...but given my stressful weekend expected worse, so was happy...back on the bandwagon though!