Festival-agogo

This is the first LO using my July Scrapagogo kit. A couple of weeks ago I went to South Hill Park Art Centre to a festival. There were bands, stalls, performance art, drama and more! I have to say that it was a little bohemian for my taste, so when I saw this paper in the kit it just went perfectly! 

I chopped out some words and phrases and covered them in glossy accents - it doesn't show up in the photo. I love the coloured stickers! Infact this kit was packed with letter as there were some tiny alphas too!! I added loads of flowers which I bought from Rebecca's Scrapbooking Stash. For a 'straight line' girl I think this ended up quite a groovy LO!

Weird wood!

A few weeks ago I went to Syon Park and came across lots of strange bits of wood in all sorts of weird and wonderful shapes. They were fascinating, so I decided to scrap them for last weeks UKS Team challenge. We had to include a space / stars / water theme - hence the title, yellow - the photo mats, 4 of something - the star brads, and use up some scraps - the mulberry and angel hair papers on the background. The tiny alphas were from my latest Scrapagogo kit and I love them! Since taking the photo I have had to adjust the letters in the word weird, as I'd spelt it wrong!!

Catch up - Aspiration

Here's part two of week two of Shimelle's 'My Freedom' class - Aspiration. 

Lots of colours here due to the lottery balls (the only way I'm going to be able to retire early!) and the coloured stash (I'd love to own a craft shop!). In the top right is a card made for me by my mate Charlol, whose cards I love and I'd love to have the patience to be able to do decoupage. The Statue of Liberty appears because I WILL get to New York one day! The journalling is about my first 50 years and my next 50 years! I love how this class has come just at the end of my 49th year - everything just fits so well! The patterned paper is from my Pink Petticoat Doodlicious download, which I used on my party invites. The title is made from stickers which I inked with a 3 colour toned ink pad.

Catch up - Inspiration

I've been busy scrapping this weekend to catch up a little bit with Shimelle's 'My Freedom' class, along with completing the challenge on UKS so that I can claim points for my team, the lovely 'BigKids@Heart'.

This is my 'Inspiration' LO featuring some of the things which can make my day! 

I wandered slightly off of the sketch because when I cut my lovely suedey cardstock I was left with a nasty white line, so I added lots of lovely blooms to hide it! I've stuck with the mauvey theme for the album, but have managed to get enough different shades so there shouldn't be any repeats! Journalling was printed onto acetate and mounted on a picture of a rainbow I found on the internet. Infact all of my pictures are internet finds - didn't have the time or inspiration to take photos!! 

So, it's the Millennium Dome show 'OVO' - I  love the music and the show was stunning. I saw it 11 times!! I've used the music in several different ways in shows at school.

Stained glass window at Notre Dame - I just love stained glass and I did go to evening classes for a year before life got too hectic to continue!  

Sydney Harbour - One of my favourite places and I want to go back!! It's just breath taking! Tulips - they have to be purple or pink and I just love them - they really cheer me up! 

Finally Amethyst - my favourite gemstone and also the name of my class at school!

I'm a Wylde Woman

My new blog buddy Tracy has sent me an award. It's called the WYLDE WOMEN award and the purpose of it is "to send love and acknowledgment to women who brighten your day, teach you new things and live their lives fully with generosity and joy", which is a lovely sentiment.

The rules are:
1. You can give it to one or one hundred or any number in between - it's up to you.
2.Make sure you link to their site in your post.
3. Link back to this Tammy's blog so Tammy can go visit all these wonderful women, and
4. Remember the Purpose of the Award.

So Kirsty,  Debby,  Susy,  Amy - I send this award to you. As members of Kirsty's Kolourful and Kreative Newbies CJ, you brighten my day when a new CJ arrives and I'm already learning new things through having met you. Cheers ladies!

CJ sneak peek!

I've spent a happy day working on my entry for a 'My favourite place' themed CJ. I've been thinking about what I would do for about three weeks, but when it came to it even more inspiration struck a couple of days ago. I know that some of my fellow CJers are blog readers so I don't want to spoil the surprise by giving away any more than these sneaky peeks! (The only hint I'll give is that your PC has not gone wrong - everything is grey, white and black!) This has been the first entry for someone elses CJ and I did everything on a background paper which I didn't stick into the CJ until the very end. Even then I was terrified I'd stick it in upside down or do something terrible!! There was no disaster and all went according to plan so I can post it in a week's time and look forward to receiving he next one!!

If you want to see the finished pages you'll have to come back next April when the journals are finished!!!

Tagged!

My teamie and fellow blogger, Paige, has passed this tag to me. Lots of stuff to think about so here goes  

1. If a movie was being made of your life who would you like to be cast to play yourself?
Well, I have trodden the boards in my past so I think I’ll play myself!! It’s amazing what they can do with make up these days!!

2. You are spending a whole month on a desert island for charity and you have to choose your favourite celebrity to spend the first two weeks with & your least favourite celebrity to spend the second two weeks with, who would they be & why?
Favourite would have to be David Tennant in his Doctor Who guise. He could bring his Tardis and then we could jet off around the universe and beyond because I think a month on a desert island would drive me bonkers!!
Least favourite would be anyone who views ‘celebrity’ as an end in itself, without realizing that to be a real celebrity you need to have a talent!

3. What are your three favourite crafting products?
Brads, eyelets and buttons
DCWV Glitter stack
My Craft Robo

4. If you could invent something to do anything what do you think it would be?
There are so many worthy inventions but I think I’ll go for aomething more mundane – how about a self weeding garden!!

5. What are the last three books that you read?
Trojan Gold – Elizabeth Peters
See Delphi and Die – Lindsey Davis
The Jewels of Tessa Kent – Judith Krantz

6. QVC or Create & Craft?
I’m a QVC girl – not just for craft stuff but jewellery, gadgets, lock’n’lock, face creams, nail polish, Kiping bags ….. and the rest!!!

7. Docrafts or Dovecraft or DCWV?
DCWV – I love their cardstock – especially the Glitter Stack

8. What is your claim to fame?
Art Malik’s daughters were in my Rainbow and Brownie packs and he video’d me when I was enrolling them!!
I’ve ‘danced’ with Wayne Sleep – well, years ago I took part in a Telethon and as he was being interviewed I was behind him strutting my stuff in an aerobic class. On the clip you can just see my legs leaping around behind him!

I now have to pass this on, but as I know many of you in Blogland have already been tagged I'm posing these same questions to my team mates on UKS. We are a new team and I think this will be a good way to find out more about each other!

Gold card!

Many thanks to Debs for sending this to me. She is a fellow blogger, chocoholic and mother to LilG. We've never met, but by reading each other's blogs we know a little about each other.  I really love the way that blogging connects you with new people. It's such fun!!

I have to say that this is just what I could do with this holiday if it were a real one!!!! I've been on holiday for 2 hours and I've already started spending - gas bill, electricity bill, 3 months supply of contact lenses and a 16x15 ft bouncy castle with a slide!!

Now for the rules of this are:

1. Only 5 people allowed.
2. 4 have to be dedicated followers of your blog
3. One has to be someone new or recently new to your blog and live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the award.

So, being of a very mathematical disposition, I looked back at the comments from my past few posts and added up number of times people  had visited over the past few days (how sad is that!) Misteejay, Paige, Macpurp and Charlol came out top. 

Now for someone new to my blog who lives in another part of the world. Well, as someone who lives 'inside' the M25, any one on the other side comes from another world entirely, so this is a bit of a cheat, but my final choice is Rhona - someone I've met through Shimelle's My Freedom class. We've found we have so much in common it's getting scary - some of our blog posts are nearly identical!

I'm now officially on holiday - yay!! So what am I doing today? Going in to school to sort out my bombsite of a classroom - should get some good shots for 'My Freedom' there.

Have a great day!

Last day!

It's the last day of term and I'll be saying farewell to my Year 6's this afternoon. We've got the Leaver's Service in Church this morning and as usual I will be taking loads of tissues!!! We always end with a slideshow to music, showing pictures of the children throughout the year. This year it's S Club 7 'Reach for the stars'!

This year I made some notebooks for colleagues as a change from the usual chocolates! I love the fresh summery look of my lovely Lemons and Lilacs papers. 

Happy Holidays!

Summer fun!

With the summer finally it's way I thought I'd share this summery LO! Lots of lovely Flavia Lemons and Lilacs paper and embellishments and a few coloured paper clips for good measure. Big nephew in the garden in Switzerland.

I'm still copying DVDs - 10 more done - only another 20 to go!!!

Dig!

I have spent most of the weekend chained to my Mac trying to process the video footage of the kids on the Isle of Wight to put onto DVD for them. I started at about 4.30 in the afternoon on Saturday and by 11.15p.m. the first attempt had ended in frustration when the movie was too big to fit on the DVD!! Started again at 6.00a.m. on Sunday and by 10.30 the first stage was completed. First DVD was finally run off at about 5.00 after creation process 2 and problems with the blank DVDs and then the screen going all strange! Have now managed to copy about 10 and am giving up for the evening!!

Anyway this tale of woe is just leading up to the fact that I haven't been doing any gardening! Could do with this digger the boys had when the were little!! Well, looking at he height of some of the weeds I think a machete may be more in order so that I can hack my way to the shed at the end of the garden to get the lawn mower!!

This is one of my Easter holiday pages - back in the days when I had time to scrap!!! (Roll on Thursday!)

Travel Quest

This week has been hectic with end of term stuff, so no crafting!

Week 2 of Shimelle's class is floating around in the ether waiting for me to find the time to take the photos and find the images on the internet that sum up my inspirations and aspirations.

However in week 1 we had a little extra task in the shape of a Travel Quest - a quick trek round the internet to find maps, pictures and informations about where we are and where we'd like to go.

I began by opening up the prompt pdf and added the images to it digitally - not something I'll do again with the software I've got - or rather not got!! It took ages as I couldn't alter the position of items once I'd clicked enter on the keyboard! I chose New York as my destination and although I'd like to cruise flying proved to be a much cheaper option!

I then printed it out and decided to scrap it. I had a piece of silvery grey card with a lump cut out of one corner and a half piece of navy card which had suffered the same fate! A bit of glue later and I had a two tone 12x12 sheet. I had enough black stickers for the word 'travel' but not for 'quest' so after a bit of trial and error I used Marvy LePlume pens in blue, which I didn't like so I then covered that using Sakura glitter pens and then sloshed Glossy Accents on the top for an epoxy sticker look!!

Party Time!

Last night we 'celebrated' the end of the year (well, it will be next Wednesday) with Year 6 with a 'Red Carpet' party. The hall was decked out in gold using old curtains and some shiny stuff we found at the local scrap centre!! The tables were decorated in white, red and gold crepe paper One of our lovely TAs was a florist in a former life and created beautiful flower arrangements and table centres complete with little Oscars. Our wonderful PTA cooked chinese chicken and a veggie pasta, as well as dishing up Vienetta with a chocolate fountain.As the theme was 'Red Carpet' everyone came dressed as film characters. We had of Pink Ladies, with a Sandy, a bunch from 'Hairspray', Indiana Jones x2, Spiderman, The Invisible Man, Snow White (complete with a basketful of dwarves), Lara Croft, assorted Disney Princesses and many more. Even the staff had to dress up! The Year 6 mob went for St. Trinian's as we couldn't think of a film with 4 strong female characters!! We also had a 'Jane' Bond, Pohahontas, Maid Marian and the Head came as Scooby Doo!!!

We began the evening with a 'Movie' quiz sheet, while all the children had their photos taken with their teacher and TA. This was followed by the whole year group photo before the meal. Whilst they were finishing their desserts we held an Oscar ceremony with categories such as 'The Smiliest', 'The Quiestest', 'The Best Team Player'. These were chosen by the children and we held an anonymous ballot. We presented golden statuettes to the winners. Next came a video of some of their exploits during the year. Finally it was disco time, before a 9.30 end.

A fab time as had by all, so now I've got some serious crafting to do as I make the thank-you cards!!

Big Kids @ Heart

I've been busy with school stuff this week and my crafting has been nil! So here is a LO I made in the Easter Holidays. Big nephew caught slurping his yogurt (yes I know, more food!) I know the brown patterned paper is DCWV Glitter stack but the rest is a mystery! Didn't have any yogurt embellishments so I added an ice cream!!!! Another pink LO for the boys! It just seems to suit their messy eating habits!!

With the holidays fast approaching, I'm looking forward to loads of scrapping time! Another incentive is that I'm now in a team at UKS! We are 'Big Kids @ Heart'! It's great to be able to meet new people, but I'm also fortunate to be in a team with Charlol, my workmate and Ladybug, a fellow blogger! The team name was really a bit of a no brainer after our initial introductions - we all seem to be adults going on 5 at times!! We've only been official since Wednesday, so I'm looking forward to finding out more about my fellow teamies and exchanging loads of hints, tips and ideas.

Smile!!

More of my gorgeous Cleo Crafts kit! With paper as luscious as this I didn't need to do too much. Did some cut out bits of pattern, added some photo clip thingys, spirally bits, ribbon and the smile die cut with a touch of doodling. I wrote the event around the outline of the bottom right hand flower.

The photos are the two nephews at my cousins wedding many years ago.

My freedom - My stash!

I'm thoroughly enjoying Shimelle's 'My Freedom' class. This week is quite thought provoking with prompts about Inspiration and Aspiration.

Having decided to go with a purple / pink colour theme for my album, I realised that I was running short of purple card stock. A quite trip round the internet found loads of purple stash at 'Charmed Cards and Crafts'. I ordered on Sunday and today my package of perfect purpleness arrived! I've got Bazzill Doodlbug in Gumdrops, Fairy Dust, Lilac and Forget-me-not and beautiful Bling in Flirty, Infatuation and Serendipity! (Have no idea which is which - but who cares - they are all gorgeous!) A couple of packs of brads and I'm set for a weekend of scrapping to catch up on what I know I won't get done this week as I have parent meetings this week and our Leaver's Red Carpet Party on Friday.  

Roll on Saturday!

Playtime two!

Another play time themed LO! Another Cleo Crafts kit! I liked the patterned paper, but it had the word 'savor' using the American spelling, so I covered it up with  photo!! A little bit of everything here - buttons, diecuts, cut out paper, tag, ribbons, flowers, rub ons and a brad. Its a bit busier than my usual LO style, but that's the joy of kits. You get to play with things you wouldn't normally use. I think I'm on a bit of a mission to scrap the boys using pink!

This was a day out at a place with a slide and a train! Infact having looked at the photos more closely, I think it must have been two days and places as big nephew is wearing shorts in one picture and trousers in the others!! I have absolutely no idea where it is or when it was, but I know I was there as I'm in the photos!!!

Yummy yogurt!

I've finally had a grand sort out of all the old photos of the nephews! All the ones I really liked were put in albums when they were processed, but I now have a shoebox packed full of the left overs. Some of them will never see the light of day (they have embarrassing views of me!) and others need to be thrown as they are blurred. This is a job for another day! My plan is to go systematically through each set, scrapping the ones I like and filing the ones I don't! It could take a very long time!Here is little nephew showing the same eating habits as his big brother!!
The paper is from m Cleo Crafts kit. As the yogurt was a very pale pink, I thought I'd go all out with the bright pink background! I think the stripey paper came with the kit, but the buttons definitely did! The flowers are my pink set from WHSmith, with brads from my stash. For once I used alphabet stickers for the title instead of the trusty robo!

Travel time!

This is my second DLO in my 'My Freedom' album. I've stuck with the purple colour scheme and will keep roughly along the purple / lilac / pink lines through the whole album.

The journalling on the left answers the following questions:

Where were you born?
Where have lived?
What travel experience do you remember from your childhood?
What place in the world has left an impression on your soul?
Given no obligation, no cost, no need to act sensibly or be responsible for anything other than your own happiness, where would you travel right now?
Where is your next holiday destination?

I added the last question as it relates to the pictures. The three photos along the bottom are from my trip to Paris with a friend on 1999. The picture of the hotel is where we will be staying during our visit this year. The journalling bottom right is about taking big nephew when he was 10.

The star brads are from Poppicrafts. I decided to leave a bit of 'white space' as a contrast to the previous 'Time' LO. I could tell you that I chose the photos because the buildings / structures were of a similar shape - that would be a fib - I only just noticed that as I was proof reading this!!!

'I love it when a plan comes together!'

Time to ...

This week I have been taking Shimelle's 'My Freedom' class. The themes we have looked at so far have been 'Time' and 'Travel'. It's been quite exciting coming home to find an e-mail with the latest tasks! It's a bit like 'Mission Impossible', but the messages haven't self destructed after 10 seconds! There have been photos to take, questions to answer, things to think about, journalling to write, pages to scrap and even daily blog prompts! The only thing I really kept on track with have been the blog prompts. I even started a new blog just for the class!

I've thoroughly enjoyed the class so far, even though I'm already a little behind (I'm planning to catch up this weekend!)

Here is the double LO on the theme of 'Time'. I've never planned a double LO as one before - they're usually just two separate pages which happen to use the same papers and photos of the same event. I rather like it and will be using this technique again!!

(This post is the same as my other blog today. Double blogging is a bit mad so I thought I'd have a rest at the weekend!!)

How to handle a tomato!

I have so many photos of the boys getting into a mess with food! They can eat nicely - honest!

Here is big nephew getting to grips with a tomato!!

I used papers from the June Scrapagogo kit with some extra bits. The centre of the bloom is a piece of the red paper smothered in Glossy Accents. How did I ever live without that stuff?? I've only had it a week and I'm using it everywhere! The title was cut with the robo - another desert island must have!!

Playtime with Cleocrafts!

My July Cleocrafts kit arrived and I just had to play with the purple papers, although I can't bring myself to use the suedey one yet - for stroking only!! 

I had to hunt for the photos with big nephew and the purple coat! I knew they were somewhere but took ages to find - in the process I ended up sorting my photos! The stripey paper was a perfect match for the colours in the patterned bit of the coat!

The lettering started life as black stickers which I painted with pearlised lilac paint. I didn't like the effect, so I them smothered them in purple glitter before applying a generous coating of Glossy Accents! The flowers were from WHSmith and the small brads were lurking in my stash and the ones in the flowers came with the kit!

Flip flop fun

The June Scrapagogo kit came with a 'Flip Flop' book. It took me a while to work out what to do with it! As the most recent photos I had were of big nephew's Confirmation, I thought I'd make a book to celebrate the occasion, which I will probably send to my sister.

I printed a selection of pictures and chopped them down to the right size for the flip floppy bits. I then used some rub ons to the photos and some K&Co Addison sentiment stickers on the covers, which were papers from the Gogo kit.

I was so pleased with it that I've already taken it into school for everyone to admire! There are some staff who were there when I took in the first pictures after his birth!! (And I made them watch all the home videos of his first months!)

Portsmouth - Part Two

Last week I showed you my visit to the Spinnaker Tower. Now for the next thrilling instalment!!

On my trip to Portsmouth, we were wandering around the area surrounding Gunwharf Quays and came across this statue. It was just standing on a piece of lawn by some flats. It was just begging to be photographed. Whilst in David Bailey mode, I started taking snaps of the different ground textures. I usually only photograph people or scenes so this was a bit of a diversion.

Everything from the page is from the May and June Scrapagogo kits. I'm still amazed at how long they last! 

'My freedom' in Blogland!!

I have a new blog for the 'My Freedom' blog prompts!

You'll find it here

My Freedom

I've signed up for Shimelle's new class and have no idea what to expect! This is the first class I've ever taken part in and I'm very excited. I haven't bought any of the kits as I've so much stash lurking in corners and during the class my Scrapagogo and CleoCrafts kits will be arriving. 

Yesterday evening I started to sort out cardstock and patterned papers which could be suitable. My albums are usually a hotch potch of different colours, but I'm going for a purple / lilac / mauve theme as I have so much stuff in these shades.

I've seen that many of my fellow bloggers are taking part so I'm relying on you all for support! I know the next two and a half weeks are going to be tough as it's my busiest time at school, but once the holidays arrive I shall hopefully be able to stay on track.

I can't wait to open my inbox tomorrow!!

More Ta Da!!!

As I'm in CJ mode, here are 3 more photos of my little house book! (There was a 4th one of my sign in page but I've deleted it by mistake!)

This is my welcome page. I found some free brick paper on a dolls house website. It took ages to work out where to cut out the bricks so that all the writing showed!
On scrapbook.com I found lots of quotes on the theme of home. I used the shapes in Word to create tags the size I wanted and then typed in the quotes. I cut them out and inked the edges. I made a double pocket to hold them and held it all together with brads.
For my page I used the quote 'Have nothing in your homes  that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.' I took close up photos of loads of beautiful and useful things on my house and then arranged them in a brick pattern on the page. I then printed the text onto acetate and attached it with heart brads. I tied the tag with the quote on to the binding wire so it can be moved out of the way of the photos.
The sign in page is a row of doors ad I have photographed my front door and put it on my sign in door.

I have had a great time with this and only hope that I can do a good job on everyone elses CJ.

Ta da!!!

Well, the CJ is off in the post today, so here is the reveal of the cover!!

The theme is 'Home Sweet Home'. My original thought was a gingerbread house on the cover, but I couldn't get it to look right so I went for a more cottagey theme. The book itself is by 7Gypsies. I couldn't believe it when I found they did a house shaped one! I cut the roof, doors and windows from thick card and inked and decorated them. Bits of stray ribbon and lace were sandwiched between the window frames and matt silver card for the curtain. The heart was a bit of thick card which I again used ink pads on for the colour. The letter stickers were originally pink, so I used permanent marker pen to colour them, and then smothered the whole thing with Glossy Accents.

I decided on an interior view for the back cover. The paterend paper from my stash worked perfectly as wallpaper. The Home Sweet Home sign was a piece of thick card painted with pearlised paint and decorated with Sakura glitter pens. More inked and painted card for the mantlepiece, vase and photo frame.It's been great fun putting this together.

So, farewell CJ - see you next year!!

Royal Thursday

We had a great day of excitement yesterday! There was a special event to commemorate the the renovation of the Edwardian Clock Tower in Surbiton.  I took 17 of my Year 6 pupils to join the combined school choir, and to watch as Prince Edward unveiled a plaque. The choir sang 'When father papered the parlour' and 'My Grandfather's Clock', before having the chance to speak to the Prince as he walked amongst them, talking with them.

Once the ceremony was over, we headed off for a picnic lunch with Punch and Judy show and different musical acts. To make the day even more special, one of my pupils won an art competition linked to the event and was awarded her prize by the mayor.

And the winner is ....

I've only been blogging for three months and I'm very flattered by the number of people who stop by and take the time to comment. In that time there are many of you who I have 'spoken to' on blogs, on UKS in the forums and also had conversations on the message boards.

Paige and I have chatted several times on UKS and I count her as one of my 'Cyber friends'. She has kindly sent me this award, so thank you very much Paige. I'm delighted to accept. 

Another of my 'Cyber friends' is Toni who is on my UKS friends list and we regularly exchange comments about the posts on our blogs. She has also sent me the award, so thank you very much Toni. Once again, I'm delighted to accept.

The rules for this award are.

1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog - Done!
2. Link the person you received your award from - Done!
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs. - Charlol, Laura, Jo, Tinkerbelle, Donna, Cleocrafts,  Kirsty 

These are all fab places to visit for inspiration and a bit of gossip!

4. Put links of those blogs on yours - Done!

5. Leave a message on the blogs of the boys/girls you've nominated - Done!

Spinnaker Tower

I was born in Portsmouth, and lived there when I was training to be a teacher. I don't often go back, so last summer I decided a visit as in order.

The main attraction was the Spinnaker Tower. It's an amazing looking structure with fantastic views from the top. Fortunately there is an internal lift - I couldn't have coped with the exterior one!!

I used paper and bits from the last Scrapagogo kit and some alphabet stickers. I kept it simple, as I tried some fussier papers and it didn't look right! In real life the photos at the bottom are straight!! 

My friend Charlol

I am very fortunate to work with a fellow crafter and blogger. She is also my ICT technician and my friend.

I had a bit of a bad day on Friday and was in rather a grump (not a pretty sight!). Knowing me as she does, she let me get on with it and then she sent me a lovely e-mail reminding me of all the good stuff which goes on.

So, I grabbed my trusty Flavia Lemons and Lilacs pack and made her a thank you card.