A few before I go on holiday

I know some of you don't believe how quickly I scrap but I really am fast. I got home from taking Nancy to playgroup at quarter to nine this morning and I am now sitting at the computer at 11 am having made five LOs , photographed them and uploaded them. Yes really.

Here the are ( for various challenges)

American Crafts - one for a boy ( I am getting ahead of myself and guessing this fits the criteria but we go away tomorrow for a week and i wanted to enter the challenge)

There are American crafts papers here from the Dear Lizzy spring and Christmas collections, City park and a remarks journalling spot as well as thickers

This is for the Design dollies hearts challenge. I bought this badge to use on a LO of Nancy but I didn't want it to be overshadowed by too much paper so I thought this worked. The badge reads " and though she be but little she is fierce" It is a line from Shakespeare which sums up her look in this picture
One for \scrap it with a song- Born to be wild Arthur is dressed as a wolf. I love the striped socks sticking out of the end!
I know I said I don't like one LO for two challenges but again it is a sketch and another challenge. This is for Sketchy Thursday ( see below) and Scrapping the Music the song this week is "Bubbly" I took the line " you make me smile"

And finally sketch for Pencil Lines
using this sketch

And to show you the lengths I go to this is where I was taking photos yesterday. The sun had left the garden and inside all I could get was subdued colours so I went out to the middle of the road and crouched on the central reservation in the mud!

one for a girl

One for the American Crafts Blog Challenge to scrap a girl page. I've used various American Crafts papers from City Park, Dear Lizzy , Letterbox and the Valentines series plus of course Thickers.

pets and sketches

I don't usually make a LO for more than one challenge but I HAVE BEEN FEELING SO ILL THESE LAST FEW WEEKS THAT I thought I could justify it ( Not feeling well enough to go back and sort out yet another Caps lock incident)

This LO then is for A Few of MY Favourite things scrap your favourite pet challenge but I used the sketch from Stuck sketches for it ( that's OK isn't it one sketch and one theme )

this is the sketch

The LO is about our dog Oliver. We got him with the name because we wouldn't have stuck Oliver with our surname Hardy.

In on the Dare

Yet more excitement this week. A few weeks ago I did my first Effer Dare challenge and was then chosen to be in on the next Dare. I was given some digital elements and told to scrap my new motto or mantra.

I was so thrilled ( even though I was there by default I think but still I was there with people like Amy Tangerine whose blog i follow.)

This is what I made.....
MY Mantra turned out to be "I don't do digital" as I struggled for hours in my ill state to do anything. So in the end I printed it out, cut it all up and made this.

retro vintage ninja

The challenge over at Pink Ninja's was to go vintage. I presume 70s is vintage enough so I did me. I went with this photo because the paper I had in my scraps box reminded me so much of our old wallpaper. On second glance it's not quite so similar but near enough.

So Exciting

Did anyone notice the little button appear on the blog yesterday? No ? Well it took me hours to get it there in my woolly headed ill state of mind. I have had no time to get excited about my news because I have spent the week on the sofa under a blanket having children shout at me to get them a drink.

Anyway the big news is....

I AM ON THE DESIGN TEAM FOR SCRAPBOOKERS ANONYMOUS. hOORAY. ( YES i AM SHOUTING. NO I DIDN'T HIT CAPS LOCK BY MISTAKE)

anyway their aim is for people to use up their stuff, admit they have too much, accept it and use it up. Once a month they will have a new challenge ( on the 1st) and challenge you in various ways to use up your old stuff.

The current challenge is to use up some old paper, as old as possible, at least three different kinds from three different manufacturers. Anyway I had a go at this challenge before I knew I was on the team ( see post- one with old paper). I also made a couple of pages for the DT challenge itself which was to use the old paper but with a sketch thrown in as well

Here are my efforts....

more sketches (Too ill to post)

Made these two Los a few days ago but I've been feeling too ill to post them. It's my son's birthday party tomorrow and I have nothing organised, no cake, no party bags nothing.

Both of these LOs have sewing on them but they are a little hard to see

Anyway this one is for Pencil Lines

And this is for Scrappiest sketches
from this

design dollie sketch

feel ill, quick post design dollie sketch

back again.

Loved this sketch wanted to use it for a wedding photo but couldn't find anything suitable so ended up with a picture of Nancy going all shy after dressing up in the costume at the Zuiderzee Museum

the return of bug boy

The pictures I took today are bad, I mean real bad, I left it too late in the afternoon and all the sun was gone, now I am a bit strange when it comes to taking photos but to go and stand in the middle of the road for sun is a bit too much ( so you'll have to put up with it [ four times if you read all today's posts])

This Lo is inspired by a photo over on Papercraft Star ( it is for this week's challenge)

I took a few bits from the original photo

1. the colours

2. the circles at the top

3. the line at the bottom

4. and kind of the Halloween theme

5. the spider

We don't really do Halloween here in the Netherlands ( although they do have a party at school usually, but this year it falls into the school holidays {boo}). We have St Marten a few weeks later on the 11th of November when the children go round with lanterns and sing songs for sweets.

Anyway it looks a bit halloweeny because Arthur had had his face painted that day ( he is a clown if you can't tell) and the paint had begun to smear and run.

the spider is from a bag of Halloween goodies that Grandma brought over from England this weekend

sketches

The pictures I took today are bad, I mean real bad, I left it too late in the afternoon and all the sun was gone, now I am a bit strange when it comes to taking photos but to go and stand in the middle of the road for sun is a bit too much ( so you'll have to put up with it [ four times if you read all today's posts])

This one is for Sketchy Thursday GDT comp. The challenge was not only the sketch but also to add orange and punches. Now in my family orange is easy to use, we support the Wolves who play in old gold so if ever anyone is wearing their Wolves kit orange paper will tone in. Stanley was wearing his shirt on his birthday last month ( he was eight) but this LO is more about the difficulty of taking a good birthday shot.

And now one for Kraft It Up

for all those lovers of Kraft paper this is the place to be challenged. this time it was a sketch challenge. I sorted out some stuff earlier today to use for the HMITM 10 things I hate challenge where you had to find old stash you didn't love any more and although I didn't use it on this LO I dug out these frames. I often buy stuff in non scrapbook shops to use for scrapbooking and then find it hard to use.

vogue

The pictures I took today are bad, I mean real bad, I left it too late in the afternoon and all the sun was gone, now I am a bit strange when it comes to taking photos but to go and stand in the middle of the road for sun is a bit too much ( so you'll have to put up with it [ four times if you read all today's posts])

Scarp it with a Song's song of the week is Vogue by Madonna

I tried my version of those i-pod ads from a few years back with cut outs of Nancy and Arthur dancing but I has to use one picture of Nancy because the grin on her face is so unbelievably cute. Nancy is thrilled that Strictly Come Dancing is back on the screens because that means Saturday night is dance night.

10 things I hate

The pictures I took today are bad, I mean real bad, I left it too late in the afternoon and all the sun was gone, now I am a bit strange when it comes to taking photos but to go and stand in the middle of the road for sun is a bit too much ( so you'll have to put up with it [ four times if you read all today's posts])

This is for HMITM ( link at the side) the challenge was 10 things I hate both in terms of stash I hate and a list of things as well. I have such a hard job using journalling bits, pre-made spots, tags, blocks,etc never seem to fit with my designs so I dug them out stuck on 10 and found I quite like it. But I really hate the photo I took hence number 8 on my list
the list reads

1. I hate the way my husband loads the dishwasher

2. I hate bananas

3. I hate it when my children whine

4. I hate tidying up and sorting out washing

5. I hate the fact I can never find anything when my Mother -in-Law has been to visit

6. I hate dog poo

7. I hate the dentist ( and I hate it for my children)

8. Now I hat self timers on cameras

I hate pyjama days

9. I really hate snow

10. I hate that I bite my nails

* I hate my printer

I Liked the LO so much that I made another of my son and the things he likes. That was because when I was looking for a photo of me to use I laid his photo on the LO to see how it would look and whether I should take a picture of me (hence number 8)

the creative type

The challenge was to make a LO about someone inspirational in your life, well had to be my Mum. I printed off a few small images of her and then write a list underneath of words that remind me of her. you might notice it says taker in of waifs and strays, well the dog in the top photo was one of those waifs and strays that ended up eating a car ( well the inside of it). My Mum would also take in various of my sisters friends, let them stay for weeks and drive them to the motorway so they could hitch hike. If she ever disapproved she never seemed to show it. I want to be like her. I think I need to add a few other words 0n there like open or open minded. I wish she was still here

I'm only here for fun

I couldn't resist the latest effer dare swap ( even though it said no international applications, hence the title of this post)

I love taking feet pictures for what they say about where you have been and done. So this weekend I documented the outings me and my new golden Converse took, so on the LO you can see home, walking at the castle, collecting conkers, walking on the grass, our gravel drive, the zoo, feeding the fish, lunch, and me waiting for the horse ride to finish.

if you look closely the v for gravel looks a bit odd. I've lost my v and have to use part of W!

Lo title is a reference to the Eurovision winners of 1984.....

Herreys with Diggiloo Diggiley which had a line about me

and my golden boots

I really loved that song.

Sassy Thursursday ( I have a cold)

I have to tidy my scrapping space up today for visitors over the weekend. I managed to fit in two LOs before the mammoth task began ( and I managed to used some of the MOO cards I made but never found a way to use them)

One for Sassy Lil' Sketches

Using three photo MOO cards and still getting lots of space on the LO
This was the sketch

(oh bother I forgot about the size thing)

And one for Sketchy Thursday

I loved this simple sketch and managed to make an autumn looking LO even though the walk took place in January! Used some new and old Bella Boulevard for this.

Some more sketches!

Pencil Lines #207

I thought I would love this sketch, plenty of scope for border punches and using up three photos but in the end I resorted to my usual one photo LO and then patterned paper to fill up the rest of the space. Still no thickers!

Lets Capture the sketches

Last year at school Arthur would apparently tell everyone on every Monday that he had been to Egypt , every Week. So when we went to the zoo and found this mural we had to photograph him next to it ( he then took it to school to "prove" he had been. LOL. I love scrapping little things like that that are easily forgotten.

Oh Really

Hmm. Its not east to photograph a LO on a transparency is it? This is for the Dirty scraps challenge, Really? Its called "Do you really think you look good like that. Really"

It's about the fact that Nancy likes to paint her face with whatever is available, paint, felt tips even make up!

All about me

The challenge over at category stories was to make a LO about yourself. I keep mentioning this but I am out of thickers ( I mean there is not an e to be had anywhere) so I decided to use the numbers on this layout to really use up my stocks.

I have detailed some stats about me, I have done

this for the boys before but never me.

Stats are

36 years old

3 children

married 11 years

2 years in Holland

5 foot 8

10 stone 7

size 12

On a similar theme Gutter Girlz asked you to finish off the line " I am A........"

Well with my lack of thickers it has morphed into I blog instead of I am a blogger which is what I intended. I am rather excited about blogging I haven't

been doing it long but was thrilled to reach 1000 page

views last week ( thank you :)) There are a few other hints on there about what I am, cook , cyclist, sewer, postcrosser, housewife, mother.

Oh and the technique was to add some fabric

LOs about HOme

There are two LOs here because I don't think it's fair to make one LO and submit for lots of challenges

Studio Challenges has the challenge of home and I chose to use this photo of our house from the garden at night with all its imperfections on show, washing, dinner left on the table etc...

which brings me to the second LO which is for Scrap it with a song. The line I chose was "Through the Darkness there is light" which would have been good for the photo on the first LO but what came to mind first was the Wolves. The Wolves motto is "Out of Darkness cometh light" so I scrapped a LO about Stanley's trip to the Wolves at home at the Molineux which turned into an impromptu tour. The photo shows him walking out of the tunnel with the aforementioned motto.

A color Challenge

This was for the colour challenge at Design Dollies the colour combo was Red , blue Ivory and brown ( although it looks green on here). I am seriously out of thickers so titles need to be stamped or sentiments. I thought I might hide a note for Nancy behind the For You sign

The Green Green Grass of home

This is what our garden looks like, bald tired covered in leaves and footballs. I tried to do a LO about it for How Much is Too Much but my printer is bad so....I tried the LO with two photos.

I wanted to use the image above but it wasn't really a good colour and in the end I preferred the picture of the children playing. Nancy is fixing her bike and the boys are playing football, the colours work better with this photo but I thought I'd show how the LO could have looked and how the grass does look
The reject
The HMITM challenge was to cover all the senses with

touch - use textured paper ( dotted Swiss)

sight - use your favorite patterned paper in your stash ( Thrift shop October Afternoon)

smell - use something on your page that, if real, would have a smell (e.g, flowers, cupcake accents, etc.)- the pear or the mushrooms

taste - use food-related embellishments or paper- the mushrooms or the pear

sound - use song-title or song lyrics somewhere on your page- The Green Green Grass of Home

the sixth sense - take this quiz and let it inspire your journalling (hmm. I took the test but I'm not sure it told me much, I don't have posters on my bedroom wall anymore and my favourite night out (a restaurant) wasn't an option

a scrappiest sketch or is that a sketchiest scrap

I keep writing list of Challenges I want to do and I always write this down wrong- but I know what I mean. Here is my take on the latest sketch. The snails will have to do instead of a pie.I might add a picture of a bike if I can find one( from the Cosmo Crickets papers)