Dispatch Rider

My grandad ( on my dad's side) was a dispatch rider during WW2.

On seeing this re-enacter at Upton Park dressed as he might have been, I needed to get a photo of him.

As Grandad worked on the buses as an inspector, I added bus tickets as embellishments.

Shelter

Here is Harry sitting in a recreation of a WW2 Anderson shelter.

The shelter was put up at The National Trust's Upton Park.  Again, I used my Clear the Scrap Desk kit to make the layout.

Plenty of stickers from an American Crafts sticker book, the punched border is made with an EK Success notepad punch.

A few black enamel dots finish the page.

Below Stairs

Whenever we visit National Trust houses, I always enjoys seeing the areas below stairs, Wightwick Manor before Christmas was no exception.   The servant's hall was beautifully but simply decorated in comparison to the upstairs of the house.

Decorations were homemade, parcels wrapped in brown paper... it all made me think of how my ancestors probably celebrated Christmas.

I'm getting to the end of my Christmas crafting now, nearly time to clear the 12x12 Really Useful Box,  ready for next year!

  Just one more page to go.

A 12 x12 festive page.

I always like to make a few full size pages each year to use my left over photos and festive stash, here is another one about a visit to a National Trust house we took back in December.

In the nursery, Hannah was caught by a grumpy volunteer touching a wrapped parcel and wasn't too happy about being told off!

I tried to use up big chunks of my JYC paper along with embellishments and a few Frankensteined Thickers to make the most of the packs.
Just 2 or 3 more Christmas pages to go, then I'll pack up my festive stash until the autumn.

Above Stairs

Wightwick Manor was beautifully decorated in the run up to Christmas, so I took lots of photos on our visit.

On the page I managed to fit in 5 photos and journalling.

I don't think it looks too crowded.

Another Whightwick page

This time, the layout is a column style and shows the exterior of the building from the garden.

More really old papers here.  The background is by K&Company with a few blue splatters. 

I picked up the other papers in a bargain outdoors/camping style kit from TKMaxx a year or so ago, and it is nearly all gone now. The journalling card is from a PL kit with the edges squared off, and the title letters are from the kit too.

I added stickers from the kit and my American Crafts sticker books so the layout didn't look too dated. The column idea comes from a class by Shimelle, it's good to shake up the designs every now and again!

A Beautiful Home

Although Whightwick Hall is a very large house, it has a very homely feel with signs of the family who once lived there.

Now run by the National Trust, the house does have very large rooms, like the great hall used for entertaining visitors.

Even within the hall there are corners to cosy up in, like the two sofas next to a fireside or a settee in a bay window overlooking the garden.  The bedrooms were not grandiose either, again, just cosy.
I used Graphic 45 papers (Artisan) for the page and a chalkboard background paper.

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!

Whight wick manor

Back in May we visited a lovely Arts and Crafts House just outside Wolverhampton run by the National Trust.

The parlour was set up for a suffragette's  meeting with a desk for the lady of the house to invite her friends to the gatherings.

I chose papers to match the William Morris wallpapers and used them from the Maggie Holmes Carousel range.

The title is a Sizzix die cut (Deco), I would like to visit the house again, I think before Christmas would be lovely.

Yew Gardens

It's been so long since I blogged, I began getting lazy back in the summer as it was so hot, but I did do lots of scrapbooking so hope to share it over the next few weeks.
Back in June, we visited the National Trust's Packwood House and had a good walk about the gardens. 

I love the yew gardens at Packwood, it was such a hot day we arrived early.  Looking back now, it's hard to remember back to those days when it was so hot we couldn't sleep at night and work was just awful! And we complained about the heat so much!

I made my first use of the Box of Crayons range by Shimelle, The horizontal lines picked up on the vertical ones of the hedges in the photos. One of my favourite items in the range is the 6x8" journalling pad. 

I chose a paper with curved lines to place both my title and handwriting. Most of the embellishments are from the range, including the cute puffy sticker, Thickers and washi tape.

Brownsea Castle

This was the only photo I managed to take of the castle on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbour.  Although the building is owned by the National Trust and we are members, it is leased to the John Lewis partnership and used for corporate events and holidays for employees. 

Members can visit the island and there is a cafe overlooking the harbour where we had coffee and a cake.  This is another page from the #clearthescrapdesk class by Shimelle using old stash. most of this is Amy Tan with an added  journalling block from a Project Life kit. 

Stickers and embellishhments are from the American Crafts sticker books, and the glittery title is by Shimelle.

The washi tape is from the Little by Little range by Shimelle, and I even added a brand new puffy sticker ticket from Box of Crayons. 

Brownsea

A few years ago, we took a trip around Poole harbour on a boat which dropped us on Brownsea Island. This is where the scouting movement began over one hundred years ago and one of the few places where elusive red squirrels can be found.

Another #clearthescrapdesk layout here from the second set of stash I put together. As I had three photo I used the shelf style layout to fit them all onto. 

My stickers are all by Maggie Holmes, with the letters and speech bubble by Paige Evans.
The background cardstock is by Trimcraft, and the multicoloured piece is by MME. 

The little border was cut from a Paige Evans paper, as the journalling says, we sadly didn't spot any of the rare little squirrels.

The Kitchen Garden

These photos of Kev in the gardens of Attingham Park were taken in the autumn a couple of years ago.

Again, I used Paige Evans paper, this time in a grid style layout.

The title is made up of Thickers along with some handwriting.

 It does look a little bare, but I had less stash with me that was appropriate. I would go back to it if I had time, but with so many holiday photos to scrapbook, I think I'll call it done!

Powis Castle

On our way to Aberystwyth  during half term, we broke the journey with a visit to the National Trust house at Powis Castle.

The building is high on a hill overlooking the Severn Valley,  on a clear day you can see for miles; unfortunately when we visited the hills were shrouded in low cloud, so the view was not great.

 The terraced gardens under the castle were lovely, I took lots of photos so I think I will be making multi photo layouts.

I used more really old stash for this page, the papers were designed by Amy Butler, and must be around ten years old. I added Thickers, flowers cut from the papers and Nuvo drops in pink and transluscent crystal to make the page feel a little more up to date.  More Powis pages to come, as I have lots of photos to scrapbook.

On the Way to Wales.

We spent some of half term in Aberystwyth visiting Katie, taking Kevin's mum and dad with us.

On the way, we broke the journey by stopping at Powith Castle.

The house was lovely, as were the gardens; it was just a pity the weather was poor, as the incredible view was obscured by low cloud.

Standing in a high position (as many castles are) the gardens were a little behind ours in a more sheltered position, so many of the spring flowers that have 'gone over' closer to home were still in bloom.

The wisteria was looking gorgeous.  I used to have one at the front of my own house, but when we had to repair cracks in the brick and plaster work, the insurance company insisted that the cause was the wisteria (not the incredibly dry winter and spring we had just undergone) and insisted we cut it down.

The gardens were terraced with some ancient clipped yew trees forming the backdrop of permanent planting.

The tree were so old that they formed hollow domes inside, perfect for a den!

We only walked along the first terrace, as the visit was just to be a brief one to break our journey; the roads to Wales are not the fastest!

 In the house, we had fun below stairs as there were a few costumes to try on for photo opportunities.

 
Hannah would have enjoyed this. :)

Grandma dressed up as a maidservant, pouring tea for John and Kevin! All in all, I would recommend the castle as a great place to visit, and being members of the National Trust, it was free for us to get in.

A National Trust Layout

I included photos of the day we went to Charlcote Park just before Christmas in my Christmas journal, but I liked the pictures so much that I wanted to use them on a 12x12 page too.I have  few photos taken over the Christmas holidays that I liked so much I decided to make a few full size scrapbook pages using them.It also helped to use up some of my JYC stash too.

These photos were taken in the week before Christmas, beautifully decorated in Victorian Style.

It was a lovely day out, all the downstairs rooms contained trees decorated with small gifts, I particularly loved the two huge trees in the entrance hall.  After a little wander about, a mulled wine and a rummage in the shop, we left for lunch... a lovely day out.

Most of the supplies on this page are from Basic Grey 25th and Pine, including the banner at the top, the wooden stars and the background papers.  The 6x4 card and date are from Simple Stories, and the Thickers are left overs from my JYC kit from Shimelle.

Christmas seems so long ago now.....