Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Fun With Design



I love looking through magazines and finding nice colours that I can then put together and use as bkgd papers.

Sometimes the picture I find is so beautiful in design that I want to use it as it is. here is one such design which I also made into the negative.
I hope I am not violating any copy right, but as I am not selling anything that I use them on I assume I am not.

BRIGHT SUNSHINY WEDNESDAY

Morning all

Bright Sunshiny Morning here in England (or at least my little part of England). Makes all the difference to me when I can get up and see the sun, that is my blessing for today.


I mowed the grass yesterday and now that the sun is shining on it I can see little tufts of slightly longer grass poking up here and there. I am no gardener and find the process of trying to keep it reasonably tidy too much effort sometimes. Think it is more of a wild garden than a cultivated one. Plenty of wild flowers in it, ie dandilions and celandine, but hey ho they are a nice bright sunshine yellow.

I didn't get to bed very early last night, stayed up until I had finished another page of my Wedding photos. Really struggled with this one as the title didn't go right and my sewing machine refused to sew through the lace and cardstock. In the end I had to stick the lace on and put ribbon down the edge fixed with brads, the title I made a mess off I covered by another title on a chipboard tag. It looks OK now but, as I know what a stress I was in, it will never be one of my best pages.

Monday, May 21, 2007


I think I must be on a roll, here is the next page in my feely touchy Book of Me. I have called it Just little bits of me (which of course is my subtitle here on my blog.) The journalling, that explains why those little pictures are here, is hidden under the main photo and reads
I never wanted to grow up I wanted to remain a child just like Peter Pan. I hated becoming "a woman", as my Mother put it.
I started work in an office and really quite enjoyed it once the scary newness of it wore off.
My wedding day was great although it rain incessantly all day it didn’t dampen my spirits at all. In nearly all of the photos I am laughing. I enjoyed married life and didn’t want that to change, but all things change and the children came along.
The Birth of my first child was the best experience I had ever had up till that time and I loved being a mother and teaching my daughter how to do things. When my son came along my family felt complete and I could not envisage anything better than being a wife and mother.
Even that could not last forever and when John died I thought that my world had collapsed and couldn’t be repaired. But I learned to pick up the pieces and find enjoyment again.
Soon I will be a grandmother and I know that it will be the most exciting time to date. To be a mother watching her daughter become a mother.

Sunday, May 20, 2007

Satisfying Sunday

Hi folks

I feel I have had a satisfying Sunday. I was doing the multimedia at church this morning and for once nothing went wrong, and I was able to worship, normally I find it so difficult to really worship and remember to change the pages as necessary.


This afternoon I did the first page in my new Book of Me, things that I love about Scrapbooking really though I didn't give it a title. This page is certainly feely touchy as I have put fibres and wooden beads on it. (Note to self, get more beads when I go up to Skipton next week).





Yes I am going up there to see my Daughter and Son-in-Law. They are expecting their first child in 40 days time and its my first Grandchild too. Am I excited or am I EXCITED.

Saturday, May 19, 2007

My Saturday

Today I have had fun, I have been out with a friend to Snazzy Bears, Thanks Sandie for taking me, and bought more papers to scrap with.
I know, I know, I have a lot of paper already that I have not yet found what to do with, but I LOVE PRETTY PAPERS.


This afternoon I have made the covers to a new Book of Me, I want to do one that is not digital but using real paper and ribbons and chipboard and all the lovely thing that are feely touchy.
These have been made using some material that I picked up at the sale on Thursday, I was going to make cushion covers with it but I decided that I would use some of it on these covers. The chipboard letters I painted to match the sweetpeas and added little mother of pearl beads and two butterfly beads. A little picture of me behind a chipboard frame, and ribbons on the bookrings complete the job. Now I just have to fill the pages inside.



Thursday, May 17, 2007

Hi All

Do you like my new heading? having seen Sandie's here just knew I had to change mine.


Well the rain kept off for most of today so the stall we run at the church did fairly well today.
We run this to help feed and clothe and educate street children in Keyna. A friend there has adopted 20 street orphans all victims of AIDS, we feel that this is a good cause and we know that all the money goes to doing exactly what it is meant for.

I have been doing a digital layout this afternoon, the challenge was to use a film title, use green, old stash and stars and bling (shiny things). As I do not like to be beaten when it comes to these challenges I try to do it all digitally, even the old stash bit I used an element I had made up 18 months ago and only used the once.
I recoloured the photo and brightened it to make it golden the stars and bling are in the title and on the water, the old stash is the bullrushes.
I really enjoy digi scrapping and a challenge is not a challenge unless you have to rethink along different lines. The background paper was created on PaintShopPro using the distortion effect curlicues.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

WET WET WET
The weather is really taken a turn for the worst, I got so fed up with being indoors I decided to brave the weather, get on my bike and go down to ASDA Walmark.
One of my favourite pastimes is to go into Borders and buy a magazine then go upstairs to Starbucks and have a mocha and a muffin and to read the magazine I have just bought.
Often when I am up there I find someone to watch or talk to. People watching is another of my pastimes. Today was no exception; there was a little lad of three and a half (mustn't forget the half) who was so grown up in his talk and attitude that it was a pleasure to listen to him, mum & dad obviously loved him to bits, he was not spoilt but cared for very much. It's so good to see parents not ignoring or shouting at their children.

Monday, May 14, 2007


What do you do on a wet Monday? I did managed to get my washing done I am lucky that I have a washing line under the carport which means I can put it out any time no matter how bad the weather is.


Spent the afternoon scrapping again, and managed eventually to finish another page of my wedding day. I say eventually because I kept loosing things that I wanted, that should teach me to be more tidy but I doubt it will. As usual I can see room for improvement in this layout but as it is a paper and glue one I can't now move or remove anything.


I was not going to let anything spoil my wedding day and when the umbrella turned inside out it made me laugh.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

On a Wet Saturday in May

Saturday and it was raining, just the right weather to gather together for a Scrapaholic Crop. Debbie and her team of willing helpers came with lots of nice goodies for sale and as usual I couldn't resist, it's a good job I only have me to answer to.

I did manage to get half way through doing a paper & glue layout using two of my wedding photos, they are black & white, as I was married umperty ump years ago, but this allows me you use any colour combination I like, and as I had two sheets of the cardstock left over from May's kit I used the eggshell blue on black.

I am very pleased with it now that it is finished and made me realise that I ought to do more paper layouts.


I have been over to see a friend, she had some flowers for me for the church. Had to dodge the rain showers though just about managed to do so.I am glad I went, she is in her 80s and gets lonely, I ought to think of her more often and visit. I arranged the flowers and of course took a photo of them. The Yellow Irises were from her garden and I picked the cow parsley on the way home. Put together with some greenery and displayed in a yellow vase they make a bright splash of colour. I will take them to the church in the morning.



Thursday, May 10, 2007



Hi Folk, what awful weather out there today, rain rain and more rain, still that's a good excuse to stay put and play on the computer. I have been making patterned papers on PaintShopPro. by using little bits of scanned in magazines and blending the colours together with the warp brush, its just like doing marbled painting with oil paint on water but without the mess.

here are the two I have done this afternoon.


Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Saturday was not a good day for me I had to have one of my cats put to sleep, it was a hard decision to make but she had a growth and was by this time not able to eat. I don't think she was in any pain but obviously she was distressed.
I found by doing this LO of her it helped to relieve the trauma of it all.







On a lighter note I took this photo for my nature journal and I am really pleased with it. The journaling reads

We consider you a weed an invasive, gardener's nightmare, but when we look - really look into your heart you have such beauty, such delicateness, such feathery silkiness. There is an infinite amount of detail in each little seed that you can only have been created by our great creator God. He gave you your beauty, your strength and perseverance to enable you to withstand all that we can throw at you and still come out the victor

I think that there is a lesson there for us. With God as our Father we can have the victory over every adversity.









A place for me to put the pictures of layouts I have done that I am pleased with, to put in the poems I write and to add snippets of things that have caught my eye