More From Wicken Fen

Still chopping up the fabulous Quirky Kit! Today I decided to make a couple more layouts from my trip to Wicken Fen with the Parental Units last month. This way I get a bunch of layouts that match each other.

My Mother proving that she's still fun, despite being a Grandmother-To-Be, just don't call her Granny!

I wanted to use the Cosmo Cricket Material (Sunrise pattern from Early Bird), so I turned it into a folded ribbon.

I made four of the flower embellishments, so they're all used up now.

Quirky Kit Layouts

The first couple of layouts using the latest Quirky Kit. Another one is on my desk for this afternoon. I'm enjoying my plan to get a layout a day done while I still can.

Maria and Susi enjoying a Tea Cake at the Deli in Olney.

I decided that the best way to get started was to attack the kit as much as possible and cut into as many bits of it as I thought I might need. Otherwise I know what I'm like, I'll just use ordinary rectangular pieces because I don't want to muck up the patterns.

Knife in hand I cut out the detail from the Good Living sheet, it was just crying out to be cut into, so I did. The signpost part I've lifted up on foam squares and I decided that I needed to make one of the signs point towards Olney! Even (reluctantly) used one of the adorable resin birds.

I was on a roll by this point, so I made up some flowers with Red Tomato, Charme, Brooch, some netting and one of the AC rose brads. The kit came with two sheets of Kesi'Art alphas, so I used some from both packs, rather than hoarding. The black and white houndstooth is material, which makes the layout rather touchy-feely in real life. I stitched that on at the bottom to keep it in place.

My Mother's Incorrect Footwear

My parents took me to Wicken Fen in February for some exercise. Almost didn't happen as it turned out my Mother had left her wellies and walking shoes at home. However, a nice man from the National Trust told us that it was possible to reach the first Hide on the new, mud free, boardwalks. So we were able to go birdwatching and look at squirrels.


This involved more attacking of the papers!

I cut the Webster's Page Die Cut in half, cut out a few of the circles from Amazing Views and Epicea and used the woodgrain side of Bouleau. Stampin' Up Circle Circus on the flowers, one of the resin flowers and the last resin bird - yay me for not hanging onto it forever.

Right. Time to go work on another! I want to use up some of the Cosmo Cricket material today, it's the Sunrise pattern from Early Bird. Yum!

Chip Time

The title for this was supposed to be "Time for Chips" and that was when I realised that my Thickers had no O, so I had to change it!


We went to this chip shop in Olney last year during our Retreat, this year we went twice! My teamie, Sarah, suggested that I save a chip fork for future scrapping purposes and here it is.

Since taking this picture I've made a fish for the top left hand corner. Suddenly had the urge to colour something in. Might update this later.

Photo was taken by Jen.

Beer Festival 2010

I made this at the weekend as I realised I still had lots of the last Quirky Kit to use up and the new one was on its way.

Quite happy with how this came out. I took the photos on my iPhone, so they weren't the greatest quality to begin with, but certainly better than nothing. The kit was a good mix of masculine colours as well as the lovey dovey pinks, which was perfect for this layout. Greys and blues for John and pink for that fabulous pink and yellow cheese - made with port, if you were curious!

I suppose this year the Festival will be rather dry for me, but they do have fabulous cheeses and a family marquee, so no reason to stay away! :)

Another Weekly Challenge

Still having issues creating straight photos, no matter how hard I line up the camera!

The only summer themed papers I had were the thin substandard AC ones, so I used them despite being a paper snob! They aren't so bad as long as you layer them up and make the page heavier. I even managed to throw in a little October Afternoon and Echo Park, so not all bad!



The criteria this week are as follows:

5 points for including blue - plenty of that!
10 points for Summer themed photo - taken at Summer School in 2009, our last day and a visit to Rumbling Kern.
5 points for journalling - check
10 points for a home made embellishment - I made a flower / circular thingy, not entirely sure what to call it!

Quirky Kit

The March / April kit arrived this morning and I have chopped into it straight away rather than holding on and stroking it. No time for stroking, must crack on!

Suddenly started raining and the light has gone, so pictures will have to wait until tomorrow.

Counterfeit Kit Challenge

Grr... why do I discover fun things to do when I'm about to Pop and can't play with them?!

Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

Although, now I think about it, I seem to remember them mentioning this on the Paperclipping Roundtable a while back, I obviously just didn't take in at the time how inspirational it really is. Darn.

Spot the Mistake!

This is why I'm never keen on the cheap American Crafts album kits from the cheapy shop.

Do you see the problem?

Well, half the alphas don't peel off with sticky backs, but that's not it...

There's no O.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Lolly

The theme this week at Creative Craft World is "All Things Girlie", which I'm not, so I went with a cute picture of me as a child. Lolly is my childhood nickname.


I don't own an awful lot of pink or feminine scrapping stuff, but I do have some American Crafts Dear Lizzy. This is the kind that comes with the album kits that they sell in T K Maxx, the thinner variety that is single sided and tears as soon as you look at it. Have to say, I'm not a fan, but the albums are great and most of the American Crafts embellishments are perfectly fine. Besides, £7 for a 12x12 album, embellies and some paper? I'm not complaining about that! ;)

The circles on the sketch have been transformed into lots of large flowers and I've layered up some Primas and AC flowers on top of them. Jazzed up the flowers with Artemio stamps and, dare I say, the large blue brad is by Laurence Llewellyn Bowen?! In my defence, he was another cheapy from T K Maxx and the brads aren't bad, although the paper sucked!

I did manage to semi-distress some of the AC papers without it tearing and I stitched down one of the corners that refused to stay stuck. Punched some Martha Stewart butterflies out of Sassafrass Lass (woo! I mixed Companies again!!) and made my own journalling spot from some more S. Lass.

This week I used Distress Ink in Tattered Rose.

Well, that's it. March is all but over and my GDT spot at Creative Craft World has ended. I've had a great time this month and look forward to doing future sketches ~ depending on Baby, of course!

Doctor Who - Impossible Astronaut Prequel

Project 12 - March 2011

I haven't even looked at the official P12 sketch for this month. Sue gave me a Crate Paper mushroom at the Retreat because I didn't want her throwing it away and I was sure I could do something with it. She gave me a matching piece to go with it and this is what I've come up with.


I cut out some holes and popped our faces inside. I used the circles from the hole making as spots, which means this is probably a toadstool now, not a mushroom. First official use for my new Circle Circus stamps from Stampin' Up. Made myself some grass for the toadstool to grow in and added some of the cute characters from the other piece of paper.


Various photos of the Bijoux Belles, the lovely hot chocolate I had, Maria glaring at me in the Deli and Janet enjoying one of Sarah's cupcakes!

I already had the Little Sprout stamp set, so I added on some extra mushrooms, an owl and a tree.

{click to enlarge}

Two pieces of patterned paper, a sheet of cardstock and a piece of scrappy white paper. Oh, and some left over lined paper and a title from an old Quirky Kit. Pretty minimalist!

I Get A Kick Out Of You!

Ugh. I really need to get Paint Shop Pro onto this laptop. I took these pictures in decent daylight today, which has washed out the colours and I can't get that colour back just using Picasa and Picnik. The colours of Circa 1934 are so much better than this photo would have you believe.

Yes, I appear to have spelt (spelled?!) February incorrectly...


Decided it was about time to Scrap the Bump. One of the elements has "I get a kick out of you" on it and I decided that would make the perfect title, even if it is a bit small!

A quickie of Alex the Lion to cut into some other Cosmo Cricket that I'd just been stroking!

Bile Beans!

The plan is to attempt a layout a day between now and Arrival Day. To get the creativeness in while I still can and enjoy this me time while I still have it. Also to cut into the newest papers, or papers that I've been stroking for too long. I managed to chop into the Tim papers straight away and I've done the same with these.

Shiny new Echo Park For the Record.


Took the photo from York City Walls and I made most of this layout before I even realised that one of the little cut-outables had "York" on it! I'd like to say it was planned, but it wasn't!

For more information on the history of Bile Beans click here or here.

Weekly Challenge Time

Another week, another challenge over on UKS.


Two photos, Stamping, Bunting and using up scraps. The paper actually came from Susi, so it's actually using up her scraps, but I'm sure that still counts. Also used up scraps of BGs Lime Rickey and Liberty by Scenic Route. The cardstock is scraps as well.

Last years summer barbecues. I got rather drunk at the first one and discovered I was pregnant a few days later! The second BBQ was a sober affair.

New Tim Papers

I'm weak-willed when it comes to stash offers, so when I saw an offer for two Tim Holtz paper stashes that came with a set of Salvage Stickers and a Distress Ink in a colour I don't have (Tea Dye), I had to do it. Really I should be saving for Frankie and not spending baby money on stash, but paper keeps, right?

At least I cut right into them rather than stroking them for so long that I didn't get a chance to use them this side of the Impending Arrival.


This one is Retro Grunge. I'm not sure about the large prints on them, but the smaller versions are very usable and the backs are in nice plain (distressed) colours, so I will probably end up using the backs more than the fronts. I do need a decent journalling pen though, none of mine really show up or work well on this shinier type of paper.

Had great fun inking the tag!

The City of Truro at the National Railway Musuem in York. This is Crowded Attic and even features a little steam train on one of the papers, so that had to be included. This is my favourite of the two ranges, but I'll get plenty of use out of both.

Using Up Kits

Just a couple of layouts using up some more of the leftover kits from our Retreat classes.

{Fancy Pants - Love Birds}

John on our Balcony in Paris. He might look happy, but it's a long way up and it's very cold out there. As soon as the picture was taken he hurried back in. Fair enough, we were using our balcony as a fridge!

{Nikki Sivils - Sweet Cherry Pie}

Duncan and I in the back garden playing in our lawnmower boxes.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Paris

The theme this week at Creative Craft World is one landscape photo.

Oh, good grief! This happened last week! I need a photo in a size that I haven't got and can't get. Well, I was all ready to chop down a 6x4 picture to make it more landscapey, when I realised that I always panic without thinking things through.

In the 1990s I had a camera that took landscape photos alongside normal photos (and another size that I can't recall). I wanted that camera. I loved that camera. My Dad said it was a silly camera and eventually I'd not be able to get the film for it or the novelty would wear off. He was right, of course! But before I gave up on my expensive toy I did take some landscape shots. I've not scrapped any of them before as I only have one copy of them and no idea what happened to the negatives.

So, here's my first layout using a truly landscape photo:


I pushed the landscapeyness even further by making it a 6x12 layout.

Almost chose a landscape shot of Grand Canyon, but I'm still loving my shiny new Rouge de Garance Gustave papers and as they feature architectural elements of the Eiffel Tower and this photo has the Eiffel Tower in it - small, but it's there - I had to go for this.

Then I went a little Eiffel Tower crazy! Used a Prima mask to add a little Distress Ink (Vintage Photo) tower to the left side, although it doesn't show up well in real life, let alone this photo and also a little piece of the Parisian ephemera that comes with the K&Co Maison paper pad.

It's very unlike me to mix Paper Companies on on layout. I do try, but I have a habit of keeping them together, so mixing K&Co with Rouge de Garance is quite startling!

Bun on the Plate!

Here I am in the Olney Delicatessen and Tea Room eating a delicious tea cake!


Using up some of the Echo Park paper from the Retreat Class, along with an old doily.

Thanks to Jen for the picture and Maria's friend for the title!

Melman at the London Eye

I have a new laptop, it doesn't have Paint Shop Pro on it yet and if I can't find the disk it never will! Anyway, I now have to edit my layouts using Paint (which is a lot funkier on Windows 7 than on my old laptop), Picasa and Picnik. I think that will probably do for now.


This week the challenge was to use white space, one photo and bling. Used my new Rusty Hinge distress ink as well, which works beautifully on giraffes.

Retreat Layouts 4

Finally, the using up of Lily Bee - Vintage Poppy. This is the very last of my final Sarah's Cards kit from last year. I mainly scrapped our Isle of Wight holiday with the kit, so chose some more pictures from that trip to use with these scraps.

John being brave on a high wooden bridge.

Another case of what was in my head not coming together on paper. I was goingfor something a little more like the Edinburgh Castle layout I made in June, but it's failed rather badly. I might have to add something to it later when I'm feeling more inspired.

After these two layouts I had planned on using up some of the gorgeous Up, Up and Away by Kaisercraft, but my mojo and ability to sit failed me. So I prepped some baby pages for Frankie's arrival. I managed six (I think) and will take their pictures in the future when they're finally complete.

Retreat Layouts 3

Oh yes, even more Road Trip! Although, to be fair, as the plan was to use up scraps and most of my scraps are Road Trip related, it's hardly a surprise.

This time I'm using up MME - Breaking Free.

The extremely windy Elephant Butte! Managed to use the planned butons this time... and Sue's mini alphas. Thank you Sue. :)

Pima. The tour guide made us have this photo taken.

Retreat Layouts 2

My next pre-prepped kit was MME - Round and Round to get some more of my never-ending supply of Road Trip pictures scrapped.


A bit basic, but does the job. I'd planned all sorts of things with buttons before I came away and then totally went off the idea. All the buttons returned home with me!

This was an attempt to include some tourist information leaflets. I'd dragged so many home from America only to leave them in a folder and never look at them. Again, this is a bit on the basic side, but my excuse is that I just couldn't sit fussing over it for too long before having to get up and sit on the recliner in the sitting room! In fact, I did the stitching in there. Annoying puffy feet.

All the final pieces of Round and Round gathered together and plopped down! I'm pretty fond of this one and I even did some fiddly cutting out.

Retreat Layouts 1

My plan for the Retreat this year was to only take offcuts of my old papers, do a bit of pre-Retreat planning, add some embellies and create my own mini kits. It worked to a certain extent. I did get bits used up, but between the planning and executing stages I changed my mind about how I wanted things to come together. Unfortunately, by that point, all my stuff was at home and I was in deepest, darkest Olney! Never mind!

Two wedding layouts using MME - Love Me Do.



I prepped the butterfly at home using Faded Jeans ink, Faded Jeans stickles and GA. I then buggered up the layout by using my new Chipped Sapphire ink on the title after I'd stuck it down. I managed to ink the alpha, the paper, the butterfly AND the photo.

Luckily, I've not played with the photos so it doesn't show up too badly! Actually, neither of these came together exactly as I'd hoped.

March Week 1 - Spring Retreat

I managed to scrap this photo of our first retreat whilst on our second retreat. The challenge arrived just at the right time, I'd taken lots of offcuts of Junebug with me and had planned to piece them altogether in a mosaicy / quilty way. This just meant it was given some structure.


I now realise that I need a square punch (thank you Susi!) and a Sew Easy (thank you Sue!), but this is no time to be indulging in new stash... or is it? The excessive use of GA doesn't show up in the picture, it's a lot shinier in real life.

Anyway, Spring in the title, scrunched flowers, a splash of yellow and squares. All included.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Springtime

This week at Creative Craft World the Scrap Map Saturday theme is "spring / seasons".

Thought at first it might be a problem as I didn't seem to have many pictures from Spring (or autumn, or winter...), certainly not eight of them! I don't have photo printing capabilities at home, I always send them out to be printed, so my photos are always sized at whatever options I'm allowed on Photobox.

Then it occurred to me that, obviously, sketches are jumping off points, they're for kick starting your mojo and sending it off to scrap. My mojo came up with this:

{Forde Abbey in Dorset, Easter 2009}

I cut one photo into six pieces, displaced them a little and filled the gaps with daisies and my journalling. Also made my own background with Distress Inks (mustard seed, peeled paint & faded jeans) and a Maya Road butterfly sheer sheet.

Once I'd done that I didn't want to cover up my background any more than I had to, so I added a teeny title.

Then I had to go away and play with the Sheer Sheet as I'd not used it before and it's FUN!

Retreat Classes

Thought I should at least get one entry up tonight about Retreat #2 before my muscles decide I can't sit here any longer! So, I'm starting with the classes that we took with Sandie Vincent last Saturday. I've not played about in PSP trying to sort them all out, quite frankly, my arse cannot be arsed!

{Nikki Sivills - Sweet Cherry Pie}

I used pictures of Baby Me for the first class, desaturated so that they (hopefully) match the paper a little better.

{Fancy Pants - Love Birds}

Again with the Baby Me pictures!

I then became overwhelmed and exhausted. Making a little person is quite tiring and upsets your insides. Anyway, I didn't do the final class when everyone else did. I was guided through it later that evening when I was feeling a lot better. This is the result:

{Echo Park - Little Girl}

I had another Baby Me picture all ready for this one as well, but in my absence from class, Jen printed out these fab pictures of the Bijoux Belles cupcakes that Sarah had made for us. Quite a few of the others used this picture too and it matches the papers a lot better than my original choice would've, so yay!

The classes were great fun. I learnt some new skills and all the paper ranges were ones I'd never come across before and probably would never have considered buying. Being outside the comfort zone was a new experience as I'd not taken scrapping classes before.

Scrap Map Saturday ~ Fun?

My first layout as a Guest Design Team member for Creative Craft World - and I choose to scrap a picture of me in a bikini!!

The theme this week is 'circles'.


Oh yes, don't I look miserable! I never really grasped why going to beach is a fun thing to do. Sand gets everywhere. Of course, now I go to the beach, turn my back to sea and study the geology of the cliffs. Much more fun than beachballs. Although, I suppose I'll have to take my baby to the beach at some point. Maybe I'll suddenly discover the fun?

This is the very last of my Cosmo Cricket Snorkel paper, had so little that I punched the smaller circles from the larger ones and teamed it up with Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety to make it go further.

I Distress Inked the background with Broken China and Faded Jeans, then Glimmer Misted over the top. Still a bit of a newbie when it comes to Misting, but I'm pretty happy with how this came out. Doodled on the circles (yes, I cheated and used a Template!) and the journalling lines.