Narrowboat

This warm spell (hope I'm not writing too soon) seemed to begin back at the end of May, after an interminable winter.
 Harry went on a narrowboat trip for that warm half term as the last of his scouting adventures before becoming an explorer.

I got messy with the background of this layout in an effort to use some old stash. I had a part set of chipboard letters, enough to spell the word Narrowboat (with a cheat on the 'w') and then lots left over.

 The bare chipboard was stuck to cardstock, then painted in brown all over.  Once dried I inked bits in black too, then painted the title letters with white crackle.

  It is an extension of a technique I saw in a class about 3 years ago (nothing in scrapping is new!) so apologies as I can't remember who first showed it to me.   I also managed to use some old K&
Company paper and stickers... using up old stash; happy days!

Can't leave the festive..

..totally behind yet, as I have too many Christmas photos to scrapbook. Even though I make my journal I always try to make sure I make one Christmas 12x12 page for each of the children's scrapbooks, and then another for my own 12x12 Christmas book.Here's the one for Katie's book. We had been making felt decorations for the Christmas tree, and Katie finished this lovely one. I got on a bit of a roll, and made quite a few this year; once a crafter, always a crafter. This LO met the weekly challenge on UKS set by my team-mate Dawn. I had to use a sketch, I drew my own based upon this lovely LO I found by Larissa on the Creative Therapy website (see the link at the side).

The next part of the challenge was to use patterned paper by altering it in some way. Funnily enough I had been searching through my crop bag and found an old, but very pretty set of Dena's Christmas papers, never used (Oh the shame of it!) so I used my Eclipse to cut 2 very large flowers, one slightly bigger than the other, distressed one edge, mounted one on top of the other and spritzed it with red Cosmic Shimmer mist. You can't see this too well in the photo, but it does look very pretty.

Next was chipboard. Another search found a Christmas set and hardly used, so the title 'Joy', gingerbread man and bauble were covered with paper and the edges sanded. Finally a piece of ribbon was required, so I used an old piece of DCWV ribbon, and pleated it under the photo. I also added buttons punched with Martha Stewart button punch (fab as it emboses too) and the ever popular bunting... well it did appear on my sketch, so to leave it out would just be rude!!

Even though much of the stash was old and languishing in my bag, I am really pleased with how the page turned out, so many thanks Dawn.

I think I need to get used to a stash diet too, as the contract for my job runs out at the end of March when the lady returns from maternity leave. I did chat to someone at a party last night who may know of something next term that could keep me ticking over. I think I'm ready for a permanent post from September, so there's no more worring about where the next job is coming from.

Out at a crop today, looking forward to meeting friends not seen since Christmas.

Holiday Memory

While down in Dorset last year we took a day trip out to Swanage.

As it was market day Kev and I had a look round the stalls, the children (including 15 year old Katie) spent this time in the nearby park. This is another page made at the November retreat ; hence the machine stitched border, we had sewing machines set up the whole weekend, so I tried to use them on my pages. Never one to leave hand stitching behind I part stitched the title, the rest is a Sizzix die, covered with Glossy Accents.

The papers are Cosmo Cricket, and the background cardstock is the very lovely embossed Core'dinations sanded to reveal the darker card behind. Sunshine is cut from paper covered chipboard using a very old Sizzix die.
Whatever you are doing, have a lovely weekend.

Scrap Like You Mean it Week 3

I have been following the prompts for Shimelles weekly challenge on UKS, aimed at encouraging us to complete at least one LO per week. With a different theme each week, lots of us are scrapping hard to meet the challenge!

This weeks prompt was to use chipboard, so here's my LO. An old photo of Harry on the beach, some Urban Rhapsody papers, and lots of chipboard for the title.

One of the best things about these challenges is the way they MAKE me use up old stash! I've had this patterned paper for over a year, and i still love it. The buttons are clear ones, so i covered the back with the paper, i had forgotten I had them, so at last i got round to using them for what i intended!

I bought the chipboard letters at the NEC about 18 months ago, so again old stuff, anf the sizzix alphabet I used for the happy part of the title is one of the first i ever bought.

So... a small inroad made, now to tackle the rest of the mountain!