PaperArts On Tour 2013

Well what fun we had......onsies, hot chocolate, chocolate fountains, make & takes, awesome food, classes and lots & lots of laughs...

I wasn't too mean this year, and remembered by Sunday that most people just wanted an easy layout, without tons of fussy cutting, so this is what we did, or started to do, most had got the basic idea and just had the photos to add ! Hopefully they will be finished before next years PAOT !!!!

 Saturday evenings class was an experiment with tea bags, I thought it worked very effectively. We mixed the tea leaves with some gesso and spread it like sand on the layout, dried it, we then dribbled another soaked teabag over the top to give the old fashioned tea stain. After more drying we inked it with Tim Holtz's distress ink.

 Early Saturday mornings class, a few minor disasters at the beginning, but luckily they were sorted and we did progress, I introduced the ink stain splatters which everybody had a go at, and even those who thought they wouldn't really like them did and a high sale of stains was reported from the PAOT shop......

So that was another very successful PAOT, looking forward again to next year already, I know spaces are selling fast already so get in there and book if you want to go !

A multi challenge layout !

A new blog post at last !!! Here is a layout I've used for a couple of challenges, The European Scrap Battle, we had to use the colours from their blog and a new challenge that I've been stalking for a while and not yet done a layout for, despite having 5 boys, http://scraptheboys.blogspot.com.au/  this is an outdoor activity, DS4 is clearing the snow off the drive, hence the slightly rosy cheeks, boredom is setting in too !!

Teaching at Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn

Here is the layout I chose to teach at http://www.funkyfarmscrapbookbarn.co.uk/ last month. I think it was well received and people enjoyed the 'splatts' and the distressing techniques that they hadn't really done before...I think my next class will be in October, so if you're interested start nagging Hayley to put it on the website so you can sign up !!!

Local crop challenge.

OK, so we had a challenge at my local crop - we were given a pack of papers - not of our choice, to make a layout from. I was naughty I didn't like my first choice and swapped it for one equally awful, then somebody else didn't like theirs, so I swapped again with them....So as reparations, I decided I'd have to do 3 layouts with the pack. I only added one cardstock (with a hole in the middle) and one book page. There were 5 papers in my pack, no cardstock, and whilst the colours weren't my favourite, I did have some photos that would go with them. I think I did quite well !!

Catch up Time.

Those of you that know me personally are aware that my wonderful, strong, brave husband lost his battle with aggressive brain tumours on the 16th March 2013. We were all devastated, having been given a prognosis of 3-5 years and him only surviving 10 months. We are slowly putting our lives back together, and trying to carry on as were his wishes.....

In memory of Dave Rolfe (25July61-16Mar13)

I have started scrapping again and have found it very therapeutic, especially when going to crops. He always encouraged me to go scrapping as much as possible. I usually went on my own, so luckily I don't find it distressing going off on my own. I've also volunteered for some design work for Scrap365 in the next few weeks, and I hope to get back to teaching, this time at Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn, I just need to get my scrapping head back on!

CSI 73

We just got back from Turkey (after a two week break) and had these fab photos that tied in perfectly with this weeks challenge. I haven't got round to doing the journaling yet, but I'm sure I will when I've forgotten what we were doing ! I've been using a couple of new dies, the Tim Holtz small film strip, and the papermania travel die which includes this cute little plane, perfect for travel pages.

Sketchbook365 April Challenge

My take on this months challenge. I've done a lot of girly ones lately so thought it was about time I did one of the boys. I've had both these photos in my 'to do' pile for many months, good excuse to use both on the same layout. I can still see so much of DS5 in both photos, he doesn't seem to have changed that much, he's still a very sweet, loving boy....I'd rather he didn't grow up, but I suppose I can't change that !
 

Hope you have a go at the challenge details are here http://www.sketchbook365.blogspot.co.uk/ There's a lovely prize for the winner too, so get creating.