Egg Hunt

My kids are all in their twenties, but still love an Easter egg hunt in the spring.

This year was no different!
Papers are by Dear Lizzy, title uses an ancient alphabet stencil by Tim Holtz, stitched around and coloured. 

Marshmallow Toasting

My nephews love the chimnea and toasting marshmallows on a cool summer's day is a great way to spend the afternoon.

The photos are old ones, so I'm glad to get them into my album.

For the title I used a mixed font, the first part is with Thickers, and I wrote the second part using brush script, something I have been practicing over the last month or so.

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.

The Orangery

My close friend from school days has a beautiful Victorian house up in the east midlands.

When she first bought it, one of the most outstanding features of the house was the original Orangery.

Although there was a fire in there, they did manage to save it, and following its restoration it is totally beautiful and deserving of its place in my scrapbook.


I used Trimcraft tropical papers, they seemed to go so well with the plant theme.

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!

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.

March?

With it snowing again today, I thought I would make a page using photos I took back on the first of March this year.  I don't think there will be this much snow this time, but as I look out of the window the flakes are pouring down as I type.❄❆❄

I subscribed to a class by Shimelle called 'Clear the Desk' with the aim of using up lots of my stash.  This layout follows class one and is the second layout in the series.  I made up a kit and have so far made two layouts from it.  The aim is to use the kit including scraps to make as many layouts as possible.

The blue background paper is so old I have no idea what it is, wood board paper is by Docrafts and many of the embellishments are from the Starshine range by Shimelle.

I added a few stamps and a Thickers glitter title to finish off the page.  I have completed my Christmas pages, so will post these in the upcoming days.

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.

The Green Man

On Apple Day back in October in Castle Bromwich there were lots of things to see and entertainers on hand.  One was this Green Man, a traditional pagan symbol of nature and the changing seasons.

He made for a perfect photo, along with the harvest on display and the flower beds which were still looking lovely.

The layout is made using Paige Evans Turn the Page range,

I used some of the 2x2 squares in each embellishment cluster along with sequins, puffy stickers and some items (birds and the star) cut from papers.

As the backing paper had a geometric theme I chose to add some similar elements from a Papermania range, the title hexagonal title letters and the diamond clip.

Pumpkin Patch

Firstly, sorry about the quality of the photo of the layout today, it was dark when I took it and with it being dark it was tricky to get the camera to focus.

The photos were taken at Castle Bromwich Hall on their Apple Day, the pumpkins were still sitting in the patch so I decided to use Halloween style papers.

They are a mix of Graphic 45 patterned papers as I think G45 make the best range of spooky papers, lots of elements to cut out as embellishments (the pumpkins and stamps) and a rich palette of colours.

The title was cut from fun foam using the Tim Holtz script alphabet dies (tricky but worth the effort).

A sprinkling of purple sequins finished off the layout.

Beautiful Girl

Here is Hannah looking very pretty at the start of the summer in Castle Bromwich Hall gardens.

I made use of smaller photos and broke into my Glitter Girl stash by Shimelle.  The phrases are cut from a 2x3" card, and cut the camera border, also making use of a few of the branding strips.

I love the puffy shaker sticker, they are so cute!

I finished the layout with enamel dots and made the title with a handscripted word alongside a puffy sticker.

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!

Another Powis page

When we travelled to Wales back in May, we took along Kevin's mum and dad for the short break. It's been ages since we had a few days away with them; when the children were small they came along to Weymouth with us a few times. Seems so long ago now.

On this page, taking centre stage is the photo of John and Kathleen, with the gardens of Powis behind them. As the castle is high on a hill, the wisteria is much later coming into flower and so was still in full bloom.   Smelled gorgeous.

To make the page I used more really old stash, a set by WRMK that must be over 10 years old.

 The stamp is by Altenew, embellishments are partly chipboard some wooden ones and a few enamel dots to make it look more up to date.

Ancient Yew

On our recent trip to see Katie in Wales, we stopped off at Powis Castle on the way.  In the gardens were many amazing yew trees, knowing how slowly they grow I think they must have been extremely old.  Some were so ancient  that they had hidden shady dens inside.

The trees formed a strange lumpy hedge below the castle keep within the beautiful gardens.  I made use of some very old stash to make this layout...I love it when I make a dent into it.

The page formed the second of a two page layout, so I used similar papers to form a DLO. They were by Amy Butler, I think I bought them around 10 years ago!

Washi tape, wooden buttons, Thickers and enamel dots brought the layout more up to date.

UKScrappers crop page

The 5th of May was National Scrapbooking Day, so UKS  ran a mini crop to give us a few challenges to scrap. This first layout of mine is from photos taken at Arbury Hall back on May Day; the challenge was to use poetry for a page, so I used a Christina Rossetti poem for these photos of the trees and bluebells in the gardens.

I had scrapbooked bluebells before, so it was good to have a new challenge to make a different layout.

The backgound card and embellishments are mostly Anna Griffin, with some Papermania woodgrain and washi tape thrown in for good measure.

The title is die cut using the Xcut script dies (again) from rose gold shimmer card.

Artist at Work

The second of my layouts using Paige Evan's papers about my friend exhibiting her artwork a couple of years ago.

She is a wonderful watercolourist, and did demonstrate her skill at one point during the afternoon.

The papers and embellishments match the two pages, they do look good opposite each other in my album. :)

My Friend's Garden

A couple of year ago, a scrappy friend of mine took part in an open studio event where her house and garden were home to her art work as part of a local exhibition.

Her small, shady garden looked so lovely that I took lots of photos; only just got round to scrapbooking them!

I used Paige Evan's last range, lots of floral papers and embellishments made it the perfect choice for this subject. The cut-apart card made for my title, and lots of fussy cutting to add flowers to the page.

I made this the second of a DLO using Paige Evans papers, the cut-out zig-zag strip on both, to match the pages.

Beautiful gardens.

On our visit to Upton House last month, the gardens had just burst into leaf and bloom and were looking absolutely glorious.

The house sits on top of a hill with the gardens behind it dropping down into a valley. Nearer the house are more formal areas, looking beautiful with tulips and wallflowers in late spring.  Incredible flights of stone steps take you downwards, passing the kitchen gardens and a swimming pool, to a lake at the bottom. When we were there the lake had been drained for repair, but was due to be refilled again by the end of the year.

 I used a piece of Amy Tan Better Together paper for my background, and some gold striped paper (which I had been hoarding!) by MME along with lots of chipboard shapes, die cuts from the Starshine collection, and completing the page with faux enamel dots made using Nuvo Crystal Drops.

 I think it would be nice to revisit the house and gardens later in the year, maybe to see some autumn colour.