My scrapping room - sometimes the answer is right under your nose!!

We have lived in this house now for the better part of a year and when we initially moved in it was just assumed that the small box room would be my scrapping room. Firstly by my reasoning because it was small, warm and cosy, secondly by Kennys reasoning....it was the closest room to the kitchen!!! Honestly that man!!!! Everything equates to his stomach :o) 

The canoe room

Last week I walked into spare front bedroom to see if the grocery man had arrived and as I stood there and rolled my eyes yet again at Kenny's fully inflated canoe (because every man has a bedroom for his canoe doesn't he!!) I also noticed that somehow his motor-cross gear had seemed to move into the room as well. Hmmm seems all his toys were starting to infiltrate the house, after years of me working on having them stored in our numerous sheds and loft!!


Then I noticed how bright the room was and how much light entered the room all day due to the large bay window, suddenly.....an epiphany!!! You see I love my little scrapping room but what I don't love is that it is on the side of the house which doesn't get the sun and the window is tiny so natural light is minimal making my room dark all day no matter what the weather. Not fun sitting in a room having to use lights to match up your colours! Any crafter will tell you how important good lighting is!!!

My NEW Scrapping Room!

My epiphany of course was it was time to move the canoe out and my scrapping room in!!! I'm sitting here now, typing this post admiring how loving my new scrapping room is. I've always considered myself a fairly intelligent woman so how on earth did I NOT think of this earlier!!! Look how much room I have!!!

Twisted Sketch #121!!

What a lovely number 121 and what a great sketch! This weeks twist...'punch'. Have a look at it here....

Here's my take on the sketch. I kept this layout quite simple using a die-cut sheet sheet from Bo-bunny, some very old rub ons which I worried wouldn't rub of properly.....it was a very slow process :o)

Shimelles - Scrapbook starting points!

Oh the lovely Shimelle sets the most inspiring challenges, I've been eyeing off her "Scrapbook starting point" challenges for awhile and had to join in when I saw this one. Basically the idea is to copy her layout up to this point and then take over and finish it in your own style!!

Have a look at all the details

Go to Shimelles' website

Heres Shimelles start point. It finally gave me the courage to scrap my favourite puppy photo of Samurai. Which finally means I've done the title layout  for his 8x8 album.


Here's my interpretation! Wasn't he a gorgeous puppy!! Can't believe he's 12 now!

Twisted Sketch #119!!

Oh what fun....another Twisted Sketch! I spent days looking at this....ummming and ahhhing and turning it round and round. I was determined to use up some more of my Emmas Shoppe collection but it just wasn't happening for me. I went hunting through my paper stash and came across some sheets and scraps from Pink Paislee - Queen Bee Collection, and it all started coming together......

Have a look at the sketch here.....

Turned the sketch on its side and came up with this.....

 

• American Glitter Thickers for the letters
• 2 Camelot Roses Prima flowers
• Say it with pearls and roses swirl
• and hand made felt ribbon flowers with a pearl centre

I really love this little flowers and thought I'd make my first ever craft video of how I made them.

BE WARNED: pretty dull, no nice music, my hands keep getting in the way, I burn myself with my hot glue gun and I almost stick the flower to my cutting mat. Not bad for my first video :o)

Crafty Moments Crop!!

Well last nights crop was a hoot, met some lovely ladies and had a right giggle. Lots of stash envy going on and funny chats about our pets and kids.....(obviously their kids :o))

SO in honour of our conversations last night just thought I'd dig up a photo of an old layout (pre-blog) about my chickens!!!

It turns out I'm not the only slightly daft women who names her chickens. **Waving at Katy**

Of course this is when they were at "Point of Lay" and were cute and young and hadn't as yet turned into garden vandals!!

A new crop!

Well I'm quite excited!! I love attending crops but only seem to find ones that I have to drive for over an hour to get to!!! So haven't been to many. A couple of weeks ago on UKS I found a thread advertising a new crop group starting up and it's local!!!!

First nights tonight...really looking forward to meeting some new 'like minded' people, and who knows might even get some scrapping done!! Have to get my layout for twisted sketches done now and then have to pack for tonight....gosh what do I take!!!

Birthday Card

Kennys Dads Birthday today!!! This is the card I made him, hopefully its arrived in time. More importantly though is the bottle of whiskey we sent him. Nothing better for a Scotsman!!! :o) Just in time for the cooler evenings. Happy Birthday MR W!

Feeding Time!

Been playing with a new toy whilst kenny is away. I'm seriously loving this little HD video camera. The picture is a little grainy as I had it on a low setting and it was dark. But had to share this video of a cranky dog waiting for his dinner!!

Twisted Sketch #117!!

How time flies!!! I can't believe we're in September all ready. I'm a couple of days behind posting my Twisted Sketch Layout. So need to get that sorted quickly...have a look at the original sketch here......

Now I've been dying to scrap this photo for ages. Kenny took it as an impromptu 'self portrait' at Moors valley park after we had gone for a bike ride with Samurai (in his buggy- ears flapping in the breeze!) It's a goofy shot of us and I love it!

I just adore the new My Minds Eye papers.....glitter, glitter and more Glitter!!

Twisted Sketch #115!!

Another fabulous sketch from Twisted Sketches!!! It took me a little while to let it sink and numerous hours of paper shuffling was done before I was finally happy to start cutting ....but I'm really chuffed with the results!!

Have a look at this weeks sketch here.....

I've finally got to scrap some photos of my trip to Iceland!!!

 I used my lovely new papers from the "Journey Collection" from new company called Authentique. Its a lovely collection in blues and greys with a bit of a travel theme so perfect for scrapping my Iceland trip!


Luckily I had some rose ribbons which matched the blues and some cream rik-rak. I used foam thickers for the title as well as some sticker letters also from Authentique.

The hardest part was punching the holes to weave the ribbon through, well trying to work out how to place them out evenly!!

 I love this little cardstock element. its only tiny but the little island that the metal washer circles is actually ICELAND, well I thought it was a cute touch ;o)

Shimelles- Chop your paper challenge

The lovely Shimelle has an online crop this weekend and have finally found some time to try and participate in some of here challenges. They're open for a whole week so will try and do as many as I can.

So the first challenge I've tackled:

Here’s your challenge: Create a project (layout, card, etc) that is embellished with paper rather than embellishments. Take a piece of paper (or two) and chop it up until you have enough to dress up your page!

Have a look at all the details here

I've made a little card using scraps from a sheet of paper I had in my'scraps bag' I'll add some form of a sentiment to the blank part of the card when I decide who to give it to :o)

New Stash!!

It has been such a long time since I bought any new stash. I was pretty excited to see all the new ranges coming out and had to buy some!!

 I've been looking for awhile for some papers to scrap my Iceland photos with and love the look of this range by a new company called Authentique.

Blues and greys on brilliant quality cardstock.

My favourites though are the new papers from My Minds Eye...they're just GORGEOUS! Embossed with glitter over stunning patterns, how on earth do you cut up one of these sheets!! Would love to buy more of the matching embellishments but they can get a bit pricey so determined to try make my own.

Sunshine

Breeze

Rosy Love

 

Amsterdam in Pictures!

Well what can I say about our lovely trip to Amsterdam!! Firstly would you believe it's the first time we've been on a plane together, and our first trip to Europe! Hard to believe considering we always seem to be running around like headless chooks to different countries, just never at the same time!

Typical Canal

Amsterdam was gorgeous a lot prettier than I imagined, albeit really wet!! The heavens completely opened up on us a couple of times but when it was dry.....lovely!!!

Our hotel was right beside the flower markets. Mid week though they were fairly quiet. Still saw a lovely range of flowers though.

Kenny doing what he does best!!

bike parking tower!

Now if it's one thing you can't miss it's the bicycles!! I've never seen a city so catered to being bicycle friendly to the point where its all a bit manic.

Have to say though that one of our highlights was watching this woman struggling with her full size Cello and super impressed when she managed to get on her bike and ride away!! Oh and she was also wearing heels!! IMPRESSIVE!

The Seven bridges

'Seven Bridges' is one of my favourite canal photos I took, it really captures the intensity of the canal structure in Amsterdam and how much the city uses it, plus its really pretty. Make sure you click on it to see the photo full size.

Classic bridge

A Canal boat cruise really is a must in this City, its really the only way to truely appreciate it's beauty. And after hours of walking around a great way to give the feet a break.

Lifting bridge

Fresh Corn on the Cob

We managed to find the local farmers markets too where the smell of fresh corn drizzled in butter was just too much to go past!!

Our final afternoon was spent sitting in cafe watching the world go past ( on bicycles of course) and enjoying a glass of wine and some nibblies.