Suck again

It's called "suck" in reference to Nancy's bottle

She's nearly four and she still has milk in a bottle at bed time- I really need to stop it but she never had a dummy( pacifier) or any essential cuddly toy that she couldn't be without, no blankie or any security item so that makes me feel bad about taking this away and makes me think that she can keep it for a bit longer!

This one is also for the challenge over at Scrap it with a song- My Life would suck without you

63/365

Sassy trader

My children go to an international school here and last week it was their school play- Jack and the Beanstalk ( by Roald Dahl)- so expect to see quite a few Los in the next few weeks from the performance

Stanley was a trader and I was surprised to find he had been given full make up for his part! He spent the next couple of days trying to get rid of it all-

I seem to have left the banner off the sketch when I drew it out so sorry Sassy- If I'd remembered I would have added it! 85/365
The Sketch

Scrappiest 104

What I tend to do when I find a sketch on a challenge site- Usually I am sitting at the main computer so I take a piece of memo paper and sketch it out

Then I take it upstairs and redraw it into my notebook ( as I never have it with me when I'm on the computer)

That means by the time I come to have a go at it its already changed a bit ( a bit like Chinese Whispers)

this Lo definitely changed as i drew it- the photos and the mat got a lot smaller on the LO so mine has ended up with loads of white space when the original sketch didn't have quite so much!

I found a photo that I could cut into three instead of using three small photos and then added a few embellishments! 91/365
The sketch ( find the Scrappiest site here)

Scrappiest 103

The Scrappiest 100th sketch celebration has given me loads of inspiration this week- this is sketch 103

The Lo shows Nancy in the streets of Bellaggio by Lake Como- many of the streets are just alleyways with steps running down to the lake or up to the town.

I love the basic grey Wander paper for holiday LOs- the colours and designs look great with the colours of the photos i took in Italy

90/365
This was the sketch

Scrappiest 101

The Scrappiest was celebrating its 100th sketch last week with a sketch a day- I've managed to do a few of them

This Lo is the first- Arthur asked me last week " Mummy are mosquitos vampire's pets?"

Well after i stopped laughing here's what I did.

1. posted it on facebook

2. wrote it down

3. made him pose with a vampire lego figure

4. made this Lo!

It was too good a quote to miss! LOL. I have a few others from the children I need to scrap like-

Why do dogs have eyebrows? is it to scare people?

Why do we have shoulders?

Oh and do you love that "nice Hair" sticker- free with my shopping _ they are giving away football stickers at the supermarket and they have these extra ones in as well that I have stolen from the boys!

This was the sketch

Sketchabilities

Sketchabilites has a great sketch this time But it all went slightly awry when I came to make it

The photo was too large so I have one not two and it's pushed the shape across the page

The border at the top is because I didn't have a full sheet of the paper so the strip is making up the space!
The Lo is a picture of Arthur that i took while we were on holiday last year- I sit in the back often to keep the children apart on a long journey- so I took this picture of him pulling faces in the wing mirror ( you can just about see a reflection of me !) 84/365

This is the sketch

Twisted Fresh (air)

This is for the latest challenge over at Twisted Sketches- the twist this time is fresh

As I searched through my photos I came across this photo my husband took ( a rarity) of him and the boys canoeing on the lake near our house.

The big event of the trip was the fact they saw a snake in the water- they haven't stopped talking about it yet ( and it was in September) I think it's going to be one of those "DO YOU REMEMBER THE TIME" things (oops caps lock)- journalling is on the tag under the photo

If you want to see the sketch look for it HERE Its sketch no86
sorry about the reflections on the photo

89/365

My favourite game

It may be a sad reflection on my life but my favourite game is solitaire on my laptop

Why?

It gives me a few moments of quiet while the children are causing havoc around the rest of the house

I can sit and play while Nancy is busy on the floor and still keep an eye on her ( and her brothers)

I made this Lo for the challenge over at Fave Things- i used a set of tiny cards from a Christmas cracker to make the game on the LO- although the cards you can't see all of have been cut in half to cut down on the weight and save a few for other times.

86/365

Song- My Life would suck without you

My Nancy loves to paint her face- anything will do - paint, felt pens- food so I succumbed and bought her some make up- at least it's less sticky than chocolate-

This picture is from the time before make up when she decorated herself with her paints- she's picked this up from her Grandma - I never wear make up - ever- and Nancy plasters her face saying it's making my skin smooth!

This Lo is for the latest challenge over at Scrap it with a song- I struggled to find a lyric I wanted to use until I found this picture which reminded me of the line-" pretty messed up" which became my title

This week's song is called MY Life would Suck without You" and it was only while i was sending the e-mail with my submission that I thought of an alternative LO I could have made- typical but it gave me the opportunity to make another LO (find it here)

Sketchy Thursday- ready for spring

I am SO ready for spring- so desperate for a bit of sunshine and warm enough to do something - its below freezing here and grey- hopefully I can get out of the house with Nancy at some point this week before it's too late and she's at school everyday

Anyway inspired by spring I made this LO using some of the dear Lizzy enchanted paper- I love the colours of this but found it so hard to use that I had it sitting in a pile for months

The title is "English Summer" and its Nancy and Arthur under an umbrella, wearing raincoats, sitting in a field, sheltering from the pouring rain while we were at the Festival of History

The photo was taken last July while we waited for the jousting! 82/365
Its for Sketchy Thursday and the sketch is here

Shimelle's Latest sketch- one each

I love Shimelle's sketches and I mean REALLY love her sketches- I made a few LOS using last week's sketch and three from this week's- one per child!

Nancy's LO- "show us your groovy moves" Nancy dancing while we were having a rest stop on one of our 20km family cycle rides (79/365)
Arthur's LO- Arthur dancing at the same rest stop- "on a rest stop" is the title (80/365)
Stanley's LO- F1 team Bloemenkwartier- a LO about Stanley's football team- I flipped this Lo as the photos were landscape instead of portrait= the bottom section is covered with stickers - here the local supermarket gives away football stickers every year to collect in an album- this year they have extra stickers to decorate the album- I have pilfered them to make my football Los! (81/365)
This was the sketch

Studio Sketch

I made this LO for the sketch over at the Studio Challenges this week- I though it was a great LO so simple and effective but when I came to have a go I found it difficult to find small photos i wanted to use- so I used the photo places for embellishment and added a large size photo as well.

The background paper is from the American Crafts the Classics line-

apologies for the photograph with an upside toy car in the corner (83/365)

This is the sketch

Journaling Junkie- resolution

I hate resolutions at New Year and I never make them but this year before Christmas I decided to try and stop biting my nails

It's not going to well- I have nails on six fingers but am still biting four but it's better than nothing.

If you want to reads the journalling find it here on Journalling Junkie- I'm on the design team over there and Stephanie always likes visitors- join in- she has RAKs if she has enough entries and She's always looking for new members of the team- why not e-mail her if you'd like to join us?

62/365

Twisted White

Today there is sunshine but nothing to photograph- the boys are at home all morning as they are doing two performances of their play this afternoon and evening - the neighbour has shouted at them to stop making noise in the garden and that has made me MAD.-

Anyway this LO is for the challenge over at Twisted Sketches- it's not quite my turn to start in the DT yet so I'm still able to play

The twist this week is white- so I have a white patterned background, a white doily and a white polar bear.

It's called "explore the world" and it shows Nancy running between the exhibits at The Manchester Museum when I visited my sister last year-

The paper is upside down ( the eagle eyed among you may have noticed the bar code at the top) It was all to do with an incident involving a hammer, Nancy, a fright and a spilt glass of coke while trying to add eyelets to a page- the doily is covering the biggest spill- it's replacing the circle in the sketch

Oh and if you want to see the sketch - click on the link!

And I'm linking this up to SEI's link party because the background paper is some of their old Christmas paper

Pencil lines right!

This title of this is post is wrong in so many ways!

I flipped the sketch so that is wrong- Nancy is writing with her left hand so also not "right". But the shape IS placed on the right hand side of the page!

I decided to flip the sketch over at Pencil Lines to emphasise the fact that Nancy is writing with her left hand- she's always picked up things with her left hand and now she's drawing and writing with it too. We bought her some left handed scissors so she could practice before she starts school but she keeps losing them and using the boys scissors instead with her right hand- so I think she's adaptable- the Pencil Lines sketch is on the previous post- go look

74/365

Pencil lines left

This LO is for the latest sketch over at Pencil Lines

I had to make my own template for this shaped paper by folding a piece of 12x12 in quarters and drawing out a shape- I then cut it out- drew round it onto my patterned paper and cut it out!

This appears to be yet another brolly Lo of Nancy- so sorry about that-

I tried to make a kind of clashing colour scheme on this- looks OK I think 75/365
This is the sketch

I hate wrinkles

This one is also for the Design Dollies latest sketch- I tried to mist the patterned strips in the top corner but I just hate it when my page ends up all wrinkled and mis-shapen- Its called Whoopsy Daisy and is Arthur ice skating ( or trying to )

I do love these tiny letters- It give me so many options for titles that I would never consider with a packet of thickers ( two Os, two S's two Ys - never)

This was the sketch

The back of the page

It is VERY rare that I do this but sometimes I have to make an exception.

I hardly ever scrap on both sides of a piece of paper but sometimes I just have to....

I bought this paper with the plan to use this side of (on-line as ever) and then when it arrived I saw how useful the other side of it was as well. I only bought two sheets of it- one I have cut into and therefore been able to use bits of both sides but today I came to use the second sheet- really wanted to use the other side - so I thought the latest Design Dollies sketch would be perfect to use- a simple sketch- not too much bulk get to see the paper

super- 70/365
And the other side of the paper- you'll have to wait and see

Why don't you hop over to Scrapbookers Anonymous to have a go at their latest challege- find it HERE- there's buttons

scrap it with a song- brown eyed girl

The new challenge at Scrap it With a Song is Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison

In an ideal world this would be about my daughter but she and her brothers all have blue eyes. There was only one thing I wanted any one of my children to have and that was brown eyes but I lucked out- still it kind of means they have my Mum's eyes as I must have inherited that gene from her which is nice because she never got to meet Arthur and Nancy

The green mat is made with strips of washi tape- in case you were wondering ( I've just seen the Hambly Screen prints CHA snnek peeks and they have some beautiful washi tapes to release- so sweet)

Anyway the Lo is about me circa 1974 age about 1- I still have those rosy cheeks!

15/365

A couple of sketches

1.Bug boy ( 64/365)- for Sassy Li'l sketches

Using this sketch

2. beach Boy ( 65/365)- for Creative Scrappers

Using this sketch

What can I say- I think I mad too many LOs about Arthur this weekend- and I seem to have run out of witty or clever or interesting titles. LOL

Someone stop me

Shimelle's sketch over at her blog has really inspired me this week- it's such a simple sketch but so great for using up that paper that you love but don't want to cover it up as its too pretty or it has such a large pattern on it -

Anyway while looking for paper for my first effort i found at least five more papers i would love to use in the same way here are just two

1. whoops- Arthur's first go on his new bigger bike almost ended in disaster_ I love the random colour scheme of this one and the fact that I used up some of the beautiful Hambly paper 67/365

2. You're silly- This Modern Homemaker paper is great but its such a big print that I was struggling to find something to go with it- using this sketch I didn't really need to find anything to go with it! 66/365

Oh and why don't you come and join us at Scrapbookers Anonymous- there's a really fun button challenge over there and still plenty of time to join in - 17 buttons go on try it!

Glee club- Beatles

Soul Scrappers has a Glee Club competition running until April

the first challenge is to use the Beatles as inspiration and there were a selection of song titles to choose from- the added criteria was to try and stay true to the sixties feel.

The Beatles mean a lot in our house the boys listen to them as they fall asleep every night- every year we go to the Festival of History and watch the Fab Beatles play. They were my Mum's favourite band and my sister and i had to choose one of their song's to play at her funeral ( over six years ago now)

So I was bound to be excited by this challenge

1. A Day in the Life (60/365)

The first ever scrapbook page about my wedding! only 12 years after the event!

I chose the title because having left it 12 years before i got round to this it feels a lot less important than if i was scrapping it just after the event- what I mean is that now 12 years on it feels like my wedding was just a day in the life of my marriage- not the most important day nor the best-(not when you have three children)- a great day but only one day in the whole road to here.

the 60s feel? from the flowers!

This is also using Shimelle's sketch again!

2. Ticket to Ryde (61/365)

No I haven't made a typing error - we used to holiday on the IOW for years (from the age of 5- 18) and this was played every evening in the hotel where we stayed during dinner- I swear they thought it was spelt Ryde and they were singing about the town down the road! I tried to keep the 60s feel with the colour scheme, the big flowers and the slightly flocked feel to the patterned paper behind the photo 9 Oh and pretty much got a Beatles' mop top hair cut!

Double page bonanza ( oh the show reminds me of my Granddad)

It seems every challenge at the moment involves a double page LO- and I feel like I'm on a bit of a roll with them as I've managed to get away from my usual six in a row LO

So here is a double page double bonanza for you

1. For Counterfeit Kit-

This LO doesn't have a title really and it may not need one it shows all of our birthdays in one LO- Its for counterfeit kit challenge- they get you to raid your stash and make a kit then use it for some challenges- the latest is a sketch- the beauty is they help you to make the elements in the kit as well- one lovely lady made these month bingo cards ( follow the link here and I'm sure you can find them) 58/365

the kit I made is here
Using this sketch

s

2 For Get Picky

This LO is about last year's Queen's Day or Koninginnedag- all of the Netherlands turns orange and it is the one day you can sell your unwanted stuff on the streets without paying tax! There's no car boot sales and rummage sales here and very few charity shops or thrift stores so this is a chance to grab a bargain- In Utrecht the selling starts the night before and the streets are full of people looking for bargains and selling their junk! Even the poor weather couldn't stop the crowds- This Lo shows a few of my pictures from last year- Im hoping for better weather this year 57/365

It's good to feel loved!

Just a quick one to tell you my latest exciting news- another new design team post!!!

It's so good to feel loved after a lot of rejections for design teams when I started this blog- I just have to live up to the expectations now-

And who Is it I'm designing for now .......

What a thrill! and so is the lovely Lynnda who is on the design team with me at Scrapbookers Anonymous!

When the night has come

Over at Scrapping the Music the challenge was Stand by Me- looking through the lyrics the line" when the night has come" reminded me of the time we ended up having a BBQ at night in the dark- usually we have it on a light summer evening or a lunch time but this was October the nights were drawing in and James wanted a BBQ while his parents were visiting as he believes a BBQ is less work for me !

Anyway it was getting dark when we started and very dark by the time the food was cooking- i took a photo in the candle light

Unfortunately this photo of the Lo has a very strange reflection of me on it- I appear to be a mis-shapen monster-look that's me over the sweet corn! 53/365

Umbrella overload

Told you there were more umbrella photos to come - this one was for Punky Scraps - they had an inspiration photo ( see below ) and this is what I came up with using their image

I took from it

1.the umbrella

2. the spots

3. the various colours

51/365
this was the picture

Shimelle's challenge

Over at Shimelle's blog she has started a weekly sketch challenge just for fun- I love Shimelle's style so I thought I'd have a go at her second sketch ( I forgot about last week's!) This is what I made- it's a little bit higgledy piggledy in terms of colour scheme but I quite like that.

Word of warning- I had to do an umbrella page for an upcoming design team LO and found I had at least four different sets of Photos of Nancy under umbrellas so this is number one of an umbrella series one more coming shortly and one for my eyes only for now! (54 /365)

This was the sketch