Oh...I know its been ages

but I have been so busy. Not had time to doing much scrapbooking let alone blogging! Now let me see...what has happened? I was one of the winners in the 7G competition over at 'ATDML' and received a lovely box full of goodies the other day including some 7G black lace metal paper edgers! Can't wait to have a play with them...they look fabby.

My bind-it-all arrived from the states as well...but it is a xmas pressie so I have to wait a few more days before I can play with that but I gotta few ideas for little projects so really can't wait. Apart from that xmas has dominated my little world in recent days and will do for the next few too!

Merry Xmas everyone!

Emily Falconbridge Deck of Me

I have now completed 49 weeks of this little art journal...can't believe the year has gone so fast! Here are the last few but of course you can click on the link on the sidebar to see them all in their glory!

7 Gypsies Challenge at A Trip Down Memory Lane

Well, the store e-mailed a few weeks ago to say they were putting up a challenge using 7G stash so I dug out this lovely portfolio which I bought a year ago and gathered my 7G bits and pieces together and made this. I am so wrapped with it. These photos are over 40 years old and I think putting them in mini-books/portfolios is the perfect setting for them. There wasn't enough space for all 9 of my photos so I made a little insert which I thread through with black lace. Love 7G stuff!

Final class for Bad Girls...

A little xmas mini-book inspired by Celia's class...really loved doing this. I couldn't decide whether to go with traditional red and green or do a silver and blue one so I did a bit of both and it worked really well...I love it! Tempted to keep it for myself but I think I may give it to my daughter so she can record her own xmas photos in it.

And some of the pages

Had a wonderful time doing some of these classes and it has definately h elped to get me in the xmas mood. Never got round to doing Tracies class which I really wanted to do but I will do it at some time.

More Bad Girls stuff

First of all the Christmas Memories class by Bonnie


And secondly the wonderful paper xmas tree by Tinasue...I have admired this for a while and now I have my own. The photo doesn't do this any justice because its been so dark and miserable and rainy all day so the light isn't good but I was so desperate to upload it. The little bird is just a xmas decoration altered with a bit of glitter and ribbon. The papers are the festive ones by American Crafts.

Having a lot of fun in the BAD GIRLS Christmas Workshop...

Here are a couple of projects completed today...first of all the class by Anna Louis Bowkis. Really loved doing this although I had to adapt it to make it larger but all in all I am pleased as I managed to scrap a photo from last year...featuring my nephew and step-grandaughter...aw cute! I have become a big fan of these type of flowers in recent months and have used them on many layouts so I was totally in 'my box' as they say.

The other class was a shadowbox by Wendy Rago. Never done anything quite like this before but it was fun and actually turned out better than I thought and indeed it looks better irl than in the photo as well.

Whilst writing I may just put up a peak of the project I am submitting for the 7 gypsies competition over on 'A trip down memory lane'.

I am having such a scrapalicious time right now!!!

A mothers treasure...

Really loved doing this layout from the Scrapping Angels October Kit. I have a passion for layered flowers at the moment...thing is getting the pages into those albums is becoming a task in itself. What do you all do with your scrapbook pages? Do they all go into albums or pizza boxes :lol:

Mini Art Journal

Finally got round to uploading the last few weeks of Emily's challenge. I do keep up with the challenges but always put off uploading them. Here we go -

Week 37 Draw something. I can't draw!!! But did manage a flower :lol:

Week 38 I wonder:

Will my children be happy?

About the worlds future?

Whats old age like?

Whats next?

Just love this little owl stamp which came with this months scrapping angel kit.

Week 39 Someone Speshal - no pics but my friend Sharon is spesh-al. She is always so positive so this card is dedicated to her.

Week 40 - not anymore

The scroll reads ' they used to tell me that I'm not creative but I'm not listening anymore!' I just rolled it up and popped it inside the hollow bead.

And week 41 - magic carpet take me to...outer space...what an adventure that would be?

More uploaded layouts

Thought I would put up some unseen layouts...all the ones I entered the SI scrapbooker of the year with! Never really thought I could win but nevertheless, it was a great challenge and I am a firm believer of 'you gotta be in it to win it'. Having said that I greatly respect the ladies who won and would seriously like to congratulate them!

Have been heavily involved in the birthday celebrations over on UKS. They have been holding a cybercrop over three weekends and for the first two I have had lots of time to commit so have had a lot of fun doing the classes. Here are a few of the layouts completed so far. With thanks to everyone for providing the classes and challenges...'kissing the stone' was a challenge from my fave scrapbooker...Jen Hall...in which she provided a download of doodles for us to use. I got out my chalks and coloured them in plus made a few more of my own doodles to match...great fun!

Plus I notice I have been tagged by Cleo, which is problem cos I don't really know many people who blog. So if anyone fancies being tagged - let me know!

Back from my hols...

Had a lovely time in Skiathos over the past two weeks...plenty of sunshine to recharge the batteries before winter. We went on a boat trip one day and the ocean was full of jelly fish. I also got some good shots of the sunset at Agios Eleni Beach.

Think I may just have to scrap these cos I really like them.

On another note I went to Ally Pally on Sunday for the craft and stamp show...a first for me but definately not a last...just need to make sure we go earlier next time...and take more money!!!!!

Emily's Prompts

Week 36 - can't believe I am still doing this - Life is Beautiful...

Havn't updated here for a while cos life has been so busy. Two children to get back to Uni and a holiday to get organised for. Not to mention builders in and the time involved in sorting out the admin stuff for another son who had a road accident. It bugs me that even though the accident wasn't his fault...we have to be put out by it and ultimately lose money for it. His car was a little ten year old Arosa, worth more to us on the road than off it. Its been written off so ultimately we have to go buy another car which is going to be difficult on the money the insurance will pay out...feeling really annoyed about it.

On another note, I still have Emily's card to do and hope to get that done before my holiday on Friday (Greece...two weeks...yesssssssssssss). The photography course is going well. Here are some recent shots for this weeks assignment about texture.

Priceless

I am so pleased with the flowers on this layout that I just had to post it. Unfortunately I can't find the link to the site where I got them from so I apologise for not crediting anyone with them. If I should come across it I will definately put it up.

Meanwhile why don't you try some? You simply cut by freehand different sized circles, screw them up in a ball, ink the edges while they are screwed up that way you get random ink in the middle of the circles and then unfold and layer them. I added in bits of tissue paper and netting to give more texture. I also stapled the ribbon to give a sort of ruched effect. Really pleased with how it all turned out.

Photo's

Just thought I would pop in and put up some of the photos I have taken for the first assignment of the painting with light workshop. It has pretty much dominated my time in recent days and nothing else has been achieved. I am pretty pleased with these though...

On line photography course

Well having got myself a brand new DSLR Nikon D40X I figured it would be a good idea to sign up for an online course. I signed up for Cheryl's course and our first assignment was to do a self portrait and also to upload four images...two we really like and two that didn't turn out as we expected. Its been fun, I have been posing for myself all morning...lol. Cheryl will get round to give some constructive criticism which will be interesting. The course proper starts next weekend so watch this space, meanwhile we have to read the manual...ho hum.

I looovvvvvvvveeee making mini books...

Decided to enter the competition on here

http://www.scrapscene.com/gallery/mini-books-contest-entries.html

for an unusual mini-book. Not sure mine was that unusual in the end but I had a lot of fun making it. I had been meaning to scrapbook some photos of Lake Garda in Italy for some time and just needed the push. I made the book totally from scratch, using mountboard and book rings but made it into a popper book by cutting up an unused make up bag which my daughter was getting rid of and attaching the popper strips to the inside of the book. I then used some of this almost metallic nylon for the spine of the book as well...really pleased with the result.

This is my card for Emily's deck of me prompt. This week its 'quiet'...I love the quietness of nature. This was taken at Lake Garda in Italy, a place I definately intend to visit again. I continued the photo over to the back of the card which adds a spatialness to the card.