Bleugh Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday...
I spent all day in bed...
This was NOT a good thing!
I was so ill, I just couldn't get up at all - what a rotten day for me :(
Today I'm a little better, and have decided that I will celebrate my birthday tomorrow instead, with a day out in town with my mum and we'll meet up with my eldest daughter for lunch. Fingers crossed that I'll be back in the mood for eating by then *lol*

The absolute worst thing about all this illness is not being able to scrapbook - I haven't even had a dream about an idea for a layout (yes, sadly I DO dream about layouts and scrapbooking quite a lot *lol*). I was hoping to sit down this afternoon and see what ideas popped into my head... but we'll see. Maybe I'll just conserve my energy for a shopping trip tomorrow (that's if hubby will want to chuck some money my way... though he was generous already for my birthday).

My Mr Perfect

I never claim that I have the perfect man... just that I have the perfect man for me - My Mr Perfect. He really is my soul mate and other half (though he says "better half"). The photograph was taken last year at the New Forest - a favourite haunt of ours, though we haven't managed to go lately. For this layout I used a core'dinations whitewash paper and totally demolished a K&Co paper called (get ready for this one... it's a mouthful!) Mira Citrus Botanical Die-cut Glitter Thermography Paper. Tim Holtz made his usual appearance - walnut stain this time, just to darken and distress the edges, and I finally used my Gesso! I used it first to blend in the photograph to the background cardstock - after sanding the photograph edges. I used it also to make a lot of the swirls and flourishes, building the gesso up over a space of time (2 days) and waiting for it to fully dry before sanding it lightly to get the effect I wanted. A few green pearls to swirls around, a bit of doodling with white, black, and green pens, a bit of sparkly fabric lettering... and it was finished!

I'm Sooo Cheap!

I went, I saw, I shopped... but found absolutely nothing that I started off wanting to buy. So I decided to go looking for 'stuff'... you know how it is - just looking for things that 'might' come in handy and useful in a crafty sort of way... one day far, far into the distant future *lol* So here's my mini-haul of possible stash: I managed to buy...
1. Some large foam letters (got LOADS of these already!) acid-free in a range of brigt pinks and orange colours... £1.29.
2. Hair rings - like wee mini scrunchies. One pot black, white and grey... the other pot brown , tan and cream. I have no idea whatsoever how I will use them - it's just an impulse space-waster at the moment *lol* I thought I'd somehow fashion them into flowers or something... we'll see. 99p a pot with literally hundreds of hair rings in each.
3. Two packs of more funky foam letters - this time bright jigsaw shapes with alphabet letters stamped in black on each mini jigsaw piece. They were so cute! Like mini bottles and pegs, I just had to have them :) 99p a bag with loads of pieces in each, I thought it was quite a bargain.
4. A mini paint set. Easel, mini canvases, paint brushes, pencils, pencil sharpener, a rubber, six mini tubes of paint, and a little tote bag to store it all in. Another 99p bargain... bearing in mind that I paid 89p for ONE tube of paint the same size a few weeks ago.
5. Lastly, a foam alphabet stamp set - quite funky and cute... another 99p find.
So all-in-all I'm quite pleased with myself in some respects... and wondering when I'll actually get around to buying those rub-ons I wanted. HobbyCraft would have been in my sights this evening... but I had to take my beautiful BabyGurl (she's 15!) to stay at her Grandmas house and missed the opening times by half an hour. Still, there's always tomorrow...

Spoiling myself :)

I was watching "A Piece Of Craft" on You-Tube and noticed that Marilyn had the most beautuful birdcage charms in one of her packs... I've tried so hard to look for these to add to a LO... but came up with nothing that was affordable. I did, however, find an amazing site on EBay that sold the most gorgeous jewellery... and spent a fortune on lockets and fob watches! Well... it is my birthday on Sunday, so a little self-spoiling won't hurt :)
With that attitude in mind, I'm dragging my eldest son to The Range with me... I would like some green embossing powder and white rub-ons. I know! What a shock! Me and rub-ons??!! But I figured I'd better start using them now... I've heard they're a lot easier to use now and don't go all flaky and bitty and rub onto the page in one lovely fluid motion. If they don't... well, you'll hear the grunting and screaming for miles!

Dreamer

My youngest daughter, Beth - she's 16 this year... how time has flown! I hated these papers when I got them - but then realised that they matched perfectly the colours of Beth's dress in this gorgeous picture of her (and then decided I really liked them after all). The papers are all Jenny Bowlin - "Tangerine Bookprint" "Love Song" and "Flight". I used a mixture of Ranger inks - Faded Jeans and Antique Linen to distress and ink the edges of the pages. The flowers were all made from scraps of the papers I used, and the butterflies are all punched from leftover papers using 3 punches I had bought for 99p each :) Then I used Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls to dollop around on everything *lol* The only thing I'm a bit unhappy with is the large butterflies - the silicone gel left grease marks coming through the papers :(

Sibling Symmetry

I love this photo of my two eldest children. That year, Naomi copied everything her brother did - it was so sweet! I used basic grey (sultry) and Crate Paper (Trendy) with lots of stamping (La Blanche and Heidi Swapp)... plus all my fave techniques - distressing, inking, handstitching, buttons, flowers, lacing ribbon, Martha Stewart edge punch... and the butterfly was part of a gift tag my youngest daughter gave to me.

Brighton Boats

On 5th February, I went to my very first craft show at Brighton, with my mum. A walk along the beachfront for some fresh air, and I came across these boats with their masts all lined up against the sky - it was about 2.30 in the afternoon, but the light was quite good (even for my phone camera at 1mp!). Plain papers were used for the LO, and I used a Martha Stewart punch for the edges of the inner blue card. The shell was one I picked up from the beach, and the knot is a sailors knot that I learned to tie just for this layout. The small frame is from Wicked Witch embellishments.
The scrolls and swirls were cut from cardstock, using the leftover matt from Tim Holtz Grungeboard as a template... I hate waste!

Take a peek...

I had promised myself I wouldn't do this... but a quick peek at what's going on over at Rosette's Blog is well worth the trip - very creative and fun! As an added incentive, put your name down for a chance to win some really lovely goodies :)

Nonna's Love...

I've had this LO in mind for a while, and finally managed to get it done (in between making gift boxes and sewing pockets into craft bags)... "Nonna" is what my granddaughter calls me - we make a joke that I'm the nanny who says "No!"... hence "Nonna". In all honesty, it's because she's only a year old and can't say much at all, and "Nonna" is easier than "Grannie" - thank goodness! The journalling reads: "Nonna may hold your hand for a little while, but your heart she will hold forever". I started off with plain papers again and used a white gel pen to create the background. The plain black card is a core'dinations plain black sheet, sanded and distressed almost to holes! The sequins are all hand sewn onto the LO, and the gems are cut-offs and leftover "bling". The flowers I made myself using scraps from the rest of the LO, and the two backgrounds are machine-sewn together using white cotton thread.

New Year, LAST year :)

Another LO I decided to re-do... though the finished LO is nothing like I planned it to be at the start. It's a photograph taken of my wonderful Hubby, New Years Day 2009. I used plain papers and card and distressed and patterned them myself. A stamped leaf pattern in many different inks formed the frame, and for the cardstock I layered branch stamps and then clear embossed the images (can't see it here properly). Finally, liquid pearls highlighting the handstitching I had done, and I think the LO is complete... but there are some changes I might make...

My Beautiful Naomi

My eldest daughter - she takes after her nan, who is also absolutely gorgeous! I love the Papermania capsule collection in Heather... it's just a shame they don't supply a 12x12 paper collection. So I used a couple of sheets from the the A4 pad, torn and inked, and then layered this onto a Core'dinations 12x12 piece of cardstock. The flowers are both from the capsule collection, and also handmade ones by me. I used a white gel pen for writing round the edges of the cardstock and also the photograph. Naomi will shoot me when she finds this on the web - she hates this photo! *lol*

Fun In The Sun...

Something a bit brighter this time. My two eldest when they were younger - poor Nomes got soaked by her big brother at least 10 times a day that summer! I don't feel completely comfortable creating the more 'fun' LO's - distressing, grunge and lots of inking is more my style *lol* BUT... I was very heavily influenced after discovering Dawn Inskip's "vegetarian" The blue paper was plain, and then embossed by me, and the yellow patterned paper is from 'Me & My Big Ideas' (CP-10), All 'embellishments' are just piccies found on free clipart sites, and then altered to suit the LO and cut out by myself (argh! *lol*) except for the button bees (from a haberdashery). The lettering is kids foam letters (only 99p per pack of over 300!). More handstitching (again!) to finish the edges.