The Ivy.

During February half term we took a day out to Birmingham on the hunt for wedding clothes.

We had breakfast in the Ivy, Hannah made the most of the photo opportunity outside the restaurant.

The papers are by Amy Tan, I also added Snarky word strips by Tim Holtz. 

The title is die cut with a Sizzix XL die, I also cut and punched embellishments from the paper pad.

Saxon Gold

In the Museum of Birmingham there is an exhibition of the Saxon hoard found at Sutton Hoo.

I used the kit I made for the Clear the Scrap Desk set. This is one of the final pages I made using up the scraps.

Just so pleased to have made five layouts with it and got those photos into my albums at last.


Even the title was made from Frankensteined letters, chopping into an 8 made the 's' I was short of.

Spring

OK, it's March now, so I think  spring layout is called for.  The photo was taken a couple of years ago in Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens of the two of us...I'm catching up with some older photos I have dotted about my scrapbooks.

As I only had one small photo I went with a grid layout, using up a fair amount of Shimelle's Box of Crayons stash.

I am trying not to buy too much stash at the moment until I can get some of my older stuff into scrapbooks.

I made 3 pages today so feel I'm making progress.

The Ivy

I had a busy half term break, during the middle of it I went on a girls day shopping to Birmingham looking for wedding clothes and shoes.

Just three of us went along, my sister, daughter and I.

We started at The Ivy next to the cathedral for a lovely breakfast.

The food and service were both fabulous...well worth the price.

Although little was bought in the way of clothes, we did enjoy the day...

and even had cocktails back in Coventry before heading for home.

Harvest

Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens have an annual apple day when they celebrate the year's harvest. 

These photos were taken a few years ago of the apples from the orchard, including many rare local varieties.

I used old Crate DIY papers and embellishments. the title is a gold foiled Thicker over an aqua fun foam, with a sub-title using letters from the DIY range.

I broke out my old Martha Stewart border punch and made use of a chipboard Polaroid frame thats's been sitting in my stash for an age.

Community Leader

On a trip to Birmingham in June, we went into The Mailbox where Midlands BBC broadcasts from.  It was a Strictly dress in the window that caught my eye, but Kev noticed this lifesize cardboard cut out of Citizen Khan (aka Community Leader!)

As he had been growing his beard over the summer term, he wanted a photo next to his 'twin'!  I think the papers are Maggie Holmes Carousel, I also added lots of stamping using multi-coloured Altenew inks and Ali Edwards stamps.

The title was die cut from a piece of chipboard covered with the paper and cut using a Sizzix XL die, and I finished the page with yet more American Crafts stickers.

Cocktail Chemistry

Wherever you go now, the use of chemistry to make cool cocktails is rife.  In this bar in Birmingham, they were using distillation to extract the essential oils from plants on the bar.

As a chemistry teacher, I have hoarded lots of science stash over the years, including stamps and papers used on this layout.

I backed my photo onto a Kaisercraft school set of papers, marking roughly in pencil where the edge of the paper would be.

 Then I stamped in grey so the images would be visible and seem tucked behind the photo mat. The bottles were also stamped and cut out onto scraps from the kit. Title is aqua edged gold Thickers. Nice!

Back to Backs

In the centre of Birmingham is a yard surrounded by a series of Back to Back houses, one of the few left in the country.  There are not many working class homes left in Britain, so the National Trust have done a great job preserving the way of life of my ancestors.

We visited the yard during Open Heritage weekend back in 2104, the girls dressed up (as usual) and tried the games, washing dolly and sweets on offer.

I used Stamps by Me alphabet for the title, stamped direct to the page with a small amount of journalling underneath. The word Birmingham is cut from a Tim Holtz print block paper.

Many of the embellishments are also from the Tim Holtz range, the photos and die cut and coloured tickets, they all seemed to go so well with the theme of the layout. Old stash always comes in handy!

Looking Back

Over the summer I spent a lot of time scrapbooking photos taken locally over the past few years.  These were taken at the Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens at a Forties Weekend in spring.

The papers are really old; some are by October Afternoon, others are Simple Stories. 

I punched the title and date from one of the OA papers. The little photos are from a set of papers by Tim Holtz, they seemed to go well with the theme of the page.

Many of the stickers and embellishments are from the American Crafts, good to get some old photos scrapped.

12x12 Festive Pages

Now my Christmas Journal is complete, I still have a pile of larger Christmas photos I want to scrapbook, so at a crop on Sunday I made a start on the big pages.

This page is about the day when I went to Birmingham with my daughter nad sister on a Saturday in December for afternoon tea in a city centre hotel. The hotel used to be called The Midland, after the railway line it is just around the corner from, so this was the title I gave my page.

The papers are by Kaiserkraft, a traditional Victorian style set, ideal for the decor in the hotel.

I made the title using funky foam in brown nd an XL Sizzix alphabet die by Tim Holtz called Deco, along with stamped letters using a very old Papermania set of Urban stamps, punced out with a palm punch.

I also cut squares and the Santa from a cut apart paper in the set, and the poinsettia washi tape is a really old reel...no idea about the manufacturer! Lots more photos still to scrap...so I'm glad I managed to fit four on this one page!

Deck the Halls

I have been making a page about decorations in my Christmas for ten years now; have I run out of ideas?  Not yet!  I visited my daughter's house at the weekend with camera in tow, ready to take photos of her decorations.

They are mostly small, close-ups as she was getting ready for a party and her preparations were filling the lounge and kitchen.

I took a good few pictures, so I can see them making it into my 12x12 Christmas album towards the end of January.

Brum

Anyone from the West Midlands knows that 'Brum' is the name we use for our second city, Birmingham.

I spend a fair amount of time in Birmingham, especially as my eldest daughter live there, and we like to shop, eat and have the odd cocktail treat in the city centre.

Just before Christmas, a large German market sets up in town. We visited briefly on our day at the ballet on the 9th. 

I didn't think I would get to use this cute festive caravan in my journal, but I do like how it seems to go with the little huts selling hand-crafted goods.

Sweet Treats

In Birmingham city centre there are many traditional arcades with traditional shops within.

My husband and brother in law wanted to visit a specialist whisky shop in one, so while they were inside we ventured into a prettily decorated sweet shops.

Walls of jars lined the shelves and a lovely tree in the window display all made the shop look so inviting. I used both Holly Jolly and Brenda Walton papers, and a little Tim Holtz gingerbread man.

The Ballet

As Christmas approached last year I took my eldest to see The Nutcracker for the first time. 

We had such a wonderful time that when tickets went on sale this winter we bought them not only for ourselves, but for my sister too.

Following afternoon tea in a local hotel (more about that in a later page) we enjoyed our afternoon at The Birmingham Hippodrome, and then had a brief trot about the German market before heading for home.  A lovely day.

Classical Flashmob.

While in Birmingham at the weekend, we were in Grand Central shopping centre when we heard the sound of glorious singing. 

Members of the CBSO choral group were entertaining the shoppers as they wandered past.  I looked online later in the day and it seemed that the singers had visited other venues in the city during the
day. 

I thought the Falala papers and embellishments were a good choice for the theme of this page!

So Happy

My daughter's boyfriend has been working zero hours contracts for nearly two years despite having both a BSc and an MSc, at last he has managed to find a permanent job, so this layout is about this success.

I used a couple of old sets of papers picked up in TKMaxx by Teresa Collins to make the page.

The title is from Shimelle's Glitter Girl range, along with a few other glittery embellishments. 

I finished off my page with  scattering of irridescent sequins and pairs of wooden embellishments.

Scrumpin'

Another layout from our visit to Apple Day, when the kids found a few apples on the trees and picked them, rather than letting them become windfalls.

The papers are one of the last Basic Grey ranges, along with any of the stickers and embellishments.

Stamps are from the calendar set by Altenew. 

The title letters are Thickers and the small ones are from the BG kit.