Cathy's Crafting

Have actually managed to fit in some crafting time this week and picked up my Everyone Has a Story project again - am planning on having a catch up during August so there should be lots more of these LOs appearing again. One of the EHAS prompts was to do with milestones and I hadn't yet created a LO about my wedding, despite printing off the photos for it before the workshop last November! Anyway I found the photos last night, got the prompt out again and came up with these, really enjoyed writing about all my memories of a very happy day.




Have also done some CJ entries this week and had my first go at paper engineering - am pretty sure the owner of this CJ won't see this hidden away here - the theme of the CJ was 'Rainforest' and my LO was about tropical butterflies:

Here are some LOs I've done recently:


This is Owen paddling in Stoke Park in Guildford, I've got a very similar picture of me in the same paddling pool about 30 years ago so I'll have to do a LO with both on at some point.


Have been having a catch up on scrapping Owen as I seem to have done heaps of LOs of Charlie and not so many of Owen. I found these photos in a box already printed at this size and thought that they were perfect to go together.



This double sided LO was for the Scrapagogo birthday bash week 2 challenge - really love how this turned out as it was quite complicated to do both sides at the time. The PPs are from the June scrapagogo kit.

This is my LO for this week's twisted sketch and this week's challenge on UKS. Unfortunately photo is not good as the weather here is awful and I had to use the flash. Anyway the journalling card (mm noteworthy in case you were wondering) reads: 'What I learned... that we are stronger and better together; that we can cope with whatever happens, that love deepens and grows'. I used bazzil cardstock and leaves, jewellery box thickers, collage press knave of hearts PP and blooms and pearls from stash. The stamp (which is part of the flourish in the bottom left) is from Banana Frog.

Now on to my CJ entry for this month, is a 'Reasons to be Cheerful' theme and I have the perfect photo and entry to make...

We spent yesterday celebrating one of Charlie's friend's 4th birthday at the fab Horton Park Children's farm which is near Epsom. It was probably one of the best children's farms we've been too (and we've done plenty) so we are planning another trip later this summer. One of their attractions is a large bouncy pillow - it took Charlie a while to get his confidence on it but after a while he was bouncing really well and I got lots of lovely photos. Jon was out at the pub in the evening so I spent the evening scrapping and came up with these:


PPs by October Afternoon, MME and Kelly Pianacci (I think); ribbon and flairs from American Crafts; felt buttons are Making Memories Animal Crackers. Buttons from stash.


PPs are BG Lime Rickey and alphas are AC thickers, ricrac from stash.
Both these LOs were based on pagemap sketches - I have only recently got this book and love the LOs it is inspiring me to create.

On to my next big project tonight. I am off to the Runways End retreat in September and we have a pre-crop challenge of a chipboard mini book to complete - I am going to use photos from our holiday to Spain earlier this year and am going to have to think very creatively to get them all in!

Haven't managed to post much this week as we unexpectedly sold our house on Monday and have been in a whirl of house-hunting, lawyers and financial advisors ever since. We've found two houses we like the look of so here's hoping...

In the midst of the chaos my scrapagogo kit arrived - I have been getting these kits since last August and I normally really like them. This month's is no exception, a lovely mix of oranges, red and greens - yummy. I spent yesterday evening and came up with this LO inspired by a pagemaps sketch. Hope you like it!



Am now off to the post office to collect my pre-crop challenge for the runways end weekend retreat in September...

So it was my 34th birthday on Saturday. We are keen campers and had planned a trip to Hollands Wood in the New Forest. We couldn't plan the weather though and it was pretty bad, torrential rain on Sat night from 8pm till about 4 in the morning so no birthday drinks outside for me! Still just going to bed really early was a treat in itself as I never normally seem to have time to catch up on my sleep.

The other thing we couldn't plan for were insect bites and Charlie got bitten/stung badly and woke up on Sat morning with the left side of his face completely swollen. We sat for 3 hours in Lymington hospital before he was sent home with some high dose anti-biotics - happily he seems much better now and his face is gradually going back to normal!

I did get some lovely presents though (largely I think because I wrote a list this year and gave it to Jon several weeks ago!) - a woodware trimmer, a lovely new photo frame, a big kids cartridge for my Slice machine, and lots of lovely new inspiration books - Sew Pretty Homestyle, The Creative Family, Homemade, and The Big Ass book of Crafts. Also got lots of money for new stash so did very well I think!

Have had a busy weekend (more of that later) so not much time for crafting, did manage to get this week's challenge on UKS completed last night. You had to use a summer theme and title, some ribbon, 2 photos and do some secret journalling. This is my completed LO:



The secret journalling is here:



Tonight am planning to do the first challenge for the Scrapagogo birthday bash and hopefully will have time to have a go at this week's twisted sketch too....

Another week, another fab twisted sketch. The twist this week was to use some acetate, which I have used as part of my circle embellishment. Love the gorgeous PPs on this LO which were from MME penny lane. The orange alphas are from the Pink Paislee fetching range and the white alphas are American Craft vinyl thickers. The photo was taken at Barcelona Zoo when we were in Spain in June and I think it's captured the boys' personalities really well - they are definitely as cheeky as they look...

Have had a manic but very fun weekend with Owen's birthday so no time for scrapping - am hoping to have a good go at it this evening though! I've been scrapping for just under a year now and these are some of my favourite LOs that I've produced in the last year. Please leave a comment if you like them!

This is Charlie throwing stones into West Bay in Dorset - made using Sept 08 scrapagogo kit:



This is all of us together on a family day out - made (again) from the Sept 08 scrapagogo kit:



This is Charlie and his beloved cousin Henry in our local park - made using Crate paper Mia collection, american craft thickers and lace from stash:

Tomorrow is Owen's 2nd birthday - I can't believe how quickly the past two years have gone and what a big boy he is becoming! As it's the 4th of July we're having an american themed bbq for him and his cake is a yellow american school bus. I made 2 lemon loaf cakes from a recipe that google found on the woman and home website. I then trimmed one side of one of the cakes, whacked them on top of each other and covered them with a thin layer of white buttercream.

After 15 minutes I covered the whole bus in yellow buttercream and added some mini donuts to make the wheels:

I then cut some ready rolled icing out to make the windows and added a cutout photo of Owen being the bus driver:

Finally I used a black icing pen, some smarties and some fruit pastilles to decorate the bus, and added some photos of Owen's friends as the passengers:

I can't wait to see his reaction in the morning!

These LOs all cover between childhood and getting married - think this section definitely needs expanding at some point...

This LO is about getting independence:

This LO is about my first job:

This LO covers how Jon and I met:

This is my layout for the first www.scrapbook-101.challenge. The challenges were to use a rock song title for the LO title, to use some old stash and to include a pleat. I pleated some paper and sewed it on to the LO - have tried this using ribbon before but love how the paper looks and will definitely be using this technique again! The papers are Crate paper Mia collection - I love these papers and only have a little bit left now :( - will have to find something else lovely to order... I also used some glitter diecuts and borders from the same range. The alphas are black shimmer alphas from making memories and some from papermania, and I think the clip is from making memories as well. I used pencillines sketch 141 for this LO. Hope you like it!