OUr house... is a mess

Yes - we are finally back in the UK and everything is up and running- we have a phone - the internet and I can start to get back to some kind of normal- I'm struggling a little with the culture shock ( yes I know I'm only just over the Channel?North Sea but my during first trip to the supermarket I was so overwhelmed with choice I came out with 6 bottles of squash, some lamb and eight yoghurts (coconut flavour) and that's it

Any way a small sample of my moving is shown below- we had a classy moving company!
All our worldly goods came off the overnight ferry in this
This is what I am laughingly calling my scrap room
And this room made me feel like a manic pack rat hoarder who only has tiny walkways through massive piles of teetering possessions
All but two boxes inside the house have now been opened but a second load arrived this week ( items that had been in storage for three years) meaning we now have about 45 boxes in the garage to open- but out of sight out of mind!

Yes I am still counting

if anyone remembers way back in JAnuary I set myself the target of making 365 LOs over the year- the equivalent of one a day- but things have changed in y life giving me more time to scrap-( NAncy started school ) and with the knowledge that I would be moving house in the summer i ended up reaching my total some time back- this LO is actually number 446 of the year

Its a picture of Arthur playing a skittles game at the Zuiderzee Museum last year

to make the LO I cut the strips and stuck them onto a small piece of card and then punched through whole lot with my scalloped circle- I then stuck everything down and stuck my title in the punched space

Excitement

A bit of an eclectic LO this one- I wanted to use the ticket from the circus as part of a mixture of colours and papers- raiding my scrap draw to make a LO- I found these printed labels at Just Something I made - here- I printed them onto mat photo paper and cut them out- the photos are pretty awful but I'm not one who only scraps good photos ( I wouldn't have made many LOs if that was my philosophy!)

Daddy's girl

A combination of yellow, grey and blue- a very quick LO- a few 2x2 inch squares and a tiny bit of embellishment- very simple

Happy traveller

A quick post of another scraplift- this is Nancy on a horse and cart ride at the zoo- she was so thrilled - which you can just about see in her expression on the photo

I'm using up a few scraps from my scrap draw on this

wide open

I so loved the paper combination on the Fun-icu-lar LO I posted a few days ago that I made this Lo with small squares of the papers making a border- I know the leaves don't really go with a LO about Arthur in the snow but I like the combination of papers and the best thickers I had to fill the gap in the border were these large orange ones- trouble is I haven't got many letters left so the best word I could form was wide and this was the best photo I had to go with that title- I quite often get started on a LO and then start to think about what photo I might use for it- do you?

all filler- no thriller!

Yes I did mean it that way round- I'm trying to have a Lo posted every day through August even though I shall be in the process of moving and unpacking- so this is indeed just filler- I hope you still like it

There's a very tiny picture of Nancy in there dipping her fingers in the water- testing it out- before stepping in- you get a good view of her massive nappy !

Run - I think I use this title too often

I love a simple Lo- and this one is very simple- a LO inspired by Marcy Penner- I love her ultra simple style- its so together- her albums must look incredibly beautiful with their matching style- mine look lets say "eclectic"

AS the title suggests- I think I use the title "Run" too often but I love the picture of Arthur full pelt dashing through the museum- with both his feet in mid air

fun-icu-lar

I found this piece of paper in my scrap box recently- goodness knows how long it had been there - but how cute for a LO about last year's Autumn holiday in Lake Como- the photo was taken on the funicular railway in Como- a great journey up the mountain but we failed miserably to find a good view of the town from the top of the mountain!

is it wrong to copy?

I'm blogging about some old LOs while we're in the process of moving- do you find sometimes there are LOs that you see that you love so much that you want to copy it completely- not just scraplift it - copy every detail

This LO is an attempt to do that ( although I might have failed)I scraplifted Piradee whose blog is here but it was so long ago that you may take a bit of work to find it- none the less her blog is full of pretty things so its worth a look

She made a beautiful Lo with a large size banner on it - trouble is I don't have enough pretty embellishments to quite recreate her lovliness- I'm quite pleased with what I have in the end anyway

too cute

I love this combination of brown and pale blue together- super pretty- love this picture of Arthur too- sticking his head in the way at the photo booth during Paula and Dan's wedding.- shame the photo is so dark- really need to get using the photo editing facilities I have- really

nesting

How cute is this picture! A few weeks back my new bike basket arrived through the post in a massive box- Nancy and Arthur had a great time playing with the empty box and at the end of the day NAncy built herself a nest while the rest of us were outside enjoying a barbecue- she lined her nest with cushions- covered herself in a blanket and fell asleep in the box!This is the LO I made with the photo

- emergency scrapping for twisted

How dedicated am I?

I stayed on the design team over at Twisted sketches but the sketches hadn't come through by the time I was packing up to move- so I took a tiny little craft pack with me . This LO was created on a tiny desk space in our second hotel of three ( I am writing this on my last morning in a hotel before I have no internet for an unknown time)

This is what I came up with when the sketch came through- go to the Twisted Sketches site to see the sketch itself- I decided to make the large circle into a pie chart using an idea from Amy Tangerine

a recipe or three

The latest challenge from Journaling Junkie is to scrap a recipe- I decided to scrap a few that I have gathered from ny time in the Netherlands

the title of the LO is "Dutch recipes (?) to take back home"

The question mark is there because one of them is definitely not a recipe and the other two are Dutch favourites but are recipes that they have taken from other lands

for each picture the recipe is written on the back of the tag

Bobotie

from South Africa

fry some minced beef and onion and then add the following

raisins, curry paste, mango chutney, cloves, turmeric,

Put all this in a shallow dish,and top with a mixture of milk and egg

bake for half an hour- serve with yellow rice and salad

Nasi Goreng

from Indonesia

fry some chicken then add a mix of stir fry veg- meanwhile cook the rice

when the rice is cooked add it to the veg and chicken and add the spices ( coriander and ginger)

with soy sauce

in another pan cook some scrambled eggs add these to the top of the Nasi goreng-

serve with ketsup Manis

oorlog

patats met oorlog

my fave topping at the manniquin pis

it consists of mayonnaise, satay sauce and raw onion

Fun fun fun

and we'll have fun fun fun till her Daddy takes the t- bird away

well no t- bird but the song is the latest challenge at Scrap it With a Song- I printed out a massive version of the children posing amongst the trees at Muiderslot Castle near Amsterdam

I trimmed it down- so that it was long and thin and edged it and a thin strip down the side with some bakers twine- I then filled the narrow space with some embellishments, the title and a bit of journalling

its easy as ABC

Have the girls at Scrapbookers Anonymous got a great new challenge for you- the monthly stash challenge is still there but they have a new way to get you to use up your stash - the ABC challenge

Every month on the 15th they are challenging you to use a letter of the Alphabet to bust your stash- use up whatever manufacturers you have with that letter or be creative and use up a type of stash from that letter of the alphabet

So here we go with the letter A

I went with a totally American Crafts LO- nothing else used at all- I used a very old travel piece of paper- the back of an old Moda Bella paper and some halloween paper too. The travel paper was perfect to go with a Lo about our recent trip to the UK- because it was a trip back to look for new schools the company paid for us to travel business class- hilarious- because of the way the seats are arranged the boys had to sit together, I sat with Nancy and James on his own- the boys took to the business class like a duck to water- ordering their drinks and eating their food- however all three children were really enamoured by the tiny little cardboard box that held the salt and pepper pot- i had to steal one to photograph- it looked like a tiny little egg timer

I deliberately left the bar code strip on the bottom of the Lo because of the name of the paper ( actually I had to stick it on there because the paper was the moda bella paper) and I nearly ended up using another set of letters ( i was going to justify it by calling them an Alphabet) but i decided to coble together class from what I had so there are two 8s, one 7, one 4 and a Y

Why don't you give this new challenge a go- you have two weeks until the end of the month to bust your stash

American Crafts

lets just call it wishful thinking but i applied for the American Crafts Design team again- its something I would really love to do- and not just for access to the stash! I am so jealous of those people on a design team who can use a whole packet of embellishments on a stunning LO- So this is what I used as my application

1. Museum Plein Amsterdam

a bit of stitching- a bit of mist- some creative punching- and a stuck together panorama picture of the Museum Plein In Amsterdam- it's here where the Van Gogh, the stedelijk amd the Rijksmuseum are and where national events are held- there were big screens put up here for the football World Cup last year

2. A framed picture for Nancy's wall
3. A birthday card

4. my Sister's wedding favours

She stuck these little labels onto seed packets full of seeds for everyone to plant

we chose this particular American crafts paper because its called Gladys- our Nan's name- she died a few years back but we still wanted her to be there commemorated in some way- so through this paper she was!
5. a Lo you can see tomorrow- for the new Scrapbookers Anonymous challenge

old and new

finally I decided on a LO to re do for my August challenge over at Scrap Our Stash- the challenge is to go back to your old Los and find something to scrap again

In the end I decided almost by accident- I found some photos of Nancy posing for her passport photo when she was six months old and decided to make a LO

- then I thought surely I must have scrapped this already- and I had!

So here is is a Lo I scrapped four years ago when I was just starting scrapping and a Lo from now- I'm not sure my scrapping style has changed that much but my supplies ( and the amount of them ) have

The old LO

The new LO

Home with the boys

I bought this paper from October Afternoon and then had no idea what i was going to use it for- I still have one more sheet that i want to use whole but I thought it would make a nice embellishment

I love the picture of Nancy with the boys in the background- it was taken in our garden when I was trying to get a good picture of the three of them for a large photo canvas- easier said than done! I think I took about 150 photos trying to get something approaching acceptable

Again last summer

Another Amsterdam reccomendation- if you're ever in Amsterdam in the summer or your there with small children or both I recommend the Nemo Science centre- its great for kids all year but in the summer the roof is a big attraction- you can go on the roof without paying for entrance to the museum ( just take the lift in the corner to the roof)

On the roof is a city beach- there are paddling pools, waterfalls, sand pits, giant chess sets and massive fat boy cushions . The children love paddling in the water while you can chill on the cushions- these photos are Nancy's feet splahing in the water on a boiling hot July day last year

Last summer

When Arthur smiles his face can be such a picture of joy- this was last summer in the beach- we didn't get many trips to the beach but we made the most of the good weather by leaving early - I took my Dear Lizzy Shades of Summer to pose in- I'd have loved to join in again this year but with the move I didn't think I could :(

Scraplift 2

Yet another LO Inspired almost totally by something I saw on the Studio calico blog- the picture is my three last summer standing in front of a large photo at the zoo as it looked like they were standing in front of the waterfall in the rainforest - instead of standing in an outdoor cafe at the zoo!

I used a jenny Bowlin stamp behind my Lo to write my journalling on

4 eyes?

By now we should be out of our Dutch house and somewhere in transit- so this is another I prepared earlier

This was Arthur posing with some of my old frames on last summer ( minus the lenses)- I just love the look on his face and the curl of his hair! I thought this photo would look great with the 3D glasses that came free with a happy meal- I had to pint over some writing on them with acrylic paint but I think they look great

Saved for later too

Scraplift 1

This is another Lo that really tried recreate in my own way- I found the original on the Studio Calico blog- there are always things on there I want to copy.

The picture is an old one- Arthur aged about three playing pooh sticks over the bridge at out friends house ( yes he has a bridge in his grounds- yes he has grounds rather than gardens) what you can't see is that there is no water running under the bridge-( the artificial waterfall had been turned off) but its still a cute picture

SAved for Later

As you may be aware from my previous posts we are moving house this summer- we're moving back to the UK after two and a half years in the Netherlands so back in April I thought I'd save a few LOs back to post while we are on the move and to fill the gap in my postings while we get all our stuff over to the Uk , sort our house and internet connection out , and give me time until I can get back to crafting again.

If all things are going to plan the removal men should be arriving today and packing up all our stuff!

So here's one I made earlier

I was going for a vintage feel here with the October Afternoon paper and a vintage cigarette card

23 favourite Dutch things

The latest challenge over at Journalling Junkie is to document your fave things in a list of some kind- at the time you are reading this we should be packing our house to move- in fact it should all be packed and the house should be being cleaned- so I chose to document my favourite Dutch things as a memory of our time here. The 23 is a photo of a house number that I took in Amsterdam recently- the 23 things are listed in no particular order on the three tags

this is my list......

- gevulde koek

- museumkaart

-van Gogh Museum

- trains

-cycling

- mad sauce

- Sinterklaas

- St Maarten ( 11/11)

- Queen's day

- Action

-Verzamelen

- flow magazine

- Roompot

- patats met

- speculaas

-papernoten

-sport een

- Fc Utrecht

- pancakes

- The lakes

habidashery shops

- Bloemenkwartier

- ISH

Birthday challenge From Screen to Scrap

Shazza is celebrating over at From Screen 2 Scrap at the moment- it's the second birthday of the challenge site and so we're celebrating in style- running alongside the usual monthly challenge is an extra challenge- the design team has been divided up- and each new mini team has a birthday challenge- with extra prizes!

This is my LO
And this is the inspiration our mini team is using- CHildren on their Birthdays

And as usual at FS2S we have criteria to use

1. a white or blue background( he he pplka dots means I have both)

2. umbrella

3. and children on their birthdays- I chose to use pictures of Arthur and Nancy who share a birthday month of Februaury

why not come and join in- we'd love to see you there

Holiday inn

Ok Summer's here and it's time for the beach- so I have a beach LO for you. However this picture was taken during an Easter holiday so Arthur was wrapped up against the spring time chill- It didn't stop him getting soaked through

Its an old picture from 2006 when Arthur was about 15 months old but the colour of the coat Arthur is wearing fitted perfectly with the colour code of the LO

The LO is for the latest August challenge at From Screen 2 Scrap- the poster this time is Holiday Inn and as usual Shazza has some things you need to include

1. Music paper

2. red and Navy

3 a two tone title

I decided to go with a slightly subdued colour scheme for this one because the only music paper I have is cream- My new October Afternoon Rocket Age papers fitted perfectly with red ,navy and cream

I made a two tone title by using different coloured letters instead of trying to make each letter two tone like the poster

this is the poster

Step by Step

Yes - I know- I used a photo like this recently ( in colour) but i can't resist a cute photo- This is my most recent LO for the design team at Scrap it With a Song- the challenge this week is NKOTB Step by Step- I was never a NKOTB fan- I think I'd grown out of boy bands by the time they came round

I took a very literal approach to the title- and used a picture of Nancy on stilts taking it "step by step"

Scrapbookers Anonymous August challenge

Well the challenge over at Scrapbookers Anonymous is a fab one this month- use up your journalling spots- these are one thing I have loads of- and I really don't use them as often as I should- they just don't always fit with the colours or they have the wrong words on them. Anyway I thought I'd just use them up on this LO no matter what the words were- I also used some AC see through journalling stickers which I stuck onto patterned paper - in total there are 12 journalling spots on there- I'm counting the bike because its from one of those Cosmo Cricket sheets that have journalling bits on themThe Lo is about our list of things we still wanted to do before we left the Netherlands- there are still things we haven't managed to fit in but the LO has pictures from an Ajax Stadium tour, the boat trip at Alkmaar and a vist to the windmills at the Zaanse Schans

ANd here is the card I made with what was left- a teeny tiny all purpose card!