Tidying up

This is the last layout that needed some extras added after Saturday's crop. I liked this Scrapagogo kit but wasn't sure I'd ever have the right photo, but I think the volume of blue in the photo in both the background and the school summer uniform ties in nicely with the busy floral paper. I managed to mess up the pink cardstock supplied with the kit but replaced it with another busier patterned paper which I would never have used and it works nicely as you can only see touches of the pattern. I added the pink thickers in deep pink and the little letters this morning. The mini alphas are running out in the white as I had to adapt some of the letters!!



I have plenty left from this kit so have added a sheet of pink cardstock and a Making Memories floral paper and will pass it on to Joanne. I know she has plenty of school photos with the same dress. We may even have school photos of the same uniform going back to the 70s.

Time to get ready for lunch.

Getting excited now

Just 48 hours to go and I must remember to check in online tomorrow.

One of two layouts that had elements to add after Saturday's crop. This is another Ali Davis sketch. Although I didn't make the design team for 2011 on the new website, I was asked to be a guest designer for one month. I find Ali's sketches so easy to use for great results. Can you tell I'm a fan.

Anyway back to my page, this is of the Bath Tub Challenge and the theme chosen was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I even managed to use some of the very old rub on alphabets I always have in my tote but never use. Thank you to Lorraine for the loan of her star spellbinder dies. I'm definitely going to have to buy some for myself.




I'm looking forward to lunch with Lorraine's Monday club at Chateau La Chaire and then I need to focus on getting ready for our holiday!!

December crop

We were a lovely small quiet bunch yesterday. I managed this single layout first from a pagemaps sketch http://pagemaps.blogspot.com I was pleased to use up some old stash in the blue paper and the stitching rub ons.



I have a double page spread that I just need three embellishments on and a single that need some letter stickers. Whether I'll get that done before the next crop, I make no promises. A lovely pre Christmas crop with plenty of muffins left over for everyone to take some home.

That was the snow that was

As I was stuck at home with a chest infection this week, the snow didn't affect my week, other than having the children at home for a day and a half. here's a layout from this weekends UKS cybercrop using the photos from their half day on Wednesday. We also had to cancel Sirens Xmas party which was disappoiting as we had a fun night planned.

Scrapbook Generation DT call

I know that most of our crop group have now discovered Allison Davis' sketches. The design team call closed today and I have done this layout with the single page sketch. I changed the three photos into one large photo and took the zig zags and stars from the school badge and went with the theme. Thanks to Lorraine for the loan of the nestabilities stars which I embossed and texturized (if there is such a word). Some very old product on this layout including the Colorbok stitched paper which is about 5 years old. The zig zag on the badge translated into the ric rac and the texturizing on the stars and the stars on the badge follow through into the die cut stars and the star on the title block.

I thought I should blot out the faces of the other boys in Matthew's year but had to do it very crudely as I couldn't remember how to blur them.


Lizzie is at home with one of her tummy aches / stomach migraines. I missed my cooker class this morning but have made up both recipes. Lizzie was desperate to try out the sinful oreo cookie cheesecake which was a baked cheesecake. She had her reservations but declared it delicious

November 2010 crop

Great fun and lots of socialising, but the only thing I did at the crop was this LO based on the Ocotober 2010 Ali Davis sketch. And I worked on it most of Sunday too. Thank you to Joanne for the BG Eerie papers and Jenny for the Sissix cat and ghost dies. I put jewels behind the cat and ghost die cuts so their eyes shine out in real life. The jounralling strips in the sketch just had to be dymo strips in neon orange. More tape in lots of colours is on my list for our Christmas holiday.




Don't forget the December crop will be held at St Saviour's Parish Hall starting at 9.30am.

New sketch up at Allison Davis

http://allisonrdavis.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html Now printed out and ready for Saturday's crop. I've had the reprint from Bentley's photographic with Matthew's name now correctly spelt and they sent me a second photo too, one for the mantelpiece and one for the scrapbook. I'm easily pleased.

Now if the customer service of our blind supplier was as good I wouldn't have a dark bathroom four months after they came to have a look at the blinds, because we can't now open the blind and they should have replaced it by now

Beautifully easy

I'm enjoying putting together the Basic Grey Origins page kits for the November crop as they go together so quickly and easily, especially once you have your photos to hand. For this layout I've used M&E's 2010 school photos. Whilst looking at the group photo of Matthew's class which comes complete with all of their names, I noticed Matthew's name is wrongly spelt. Damn, I shouldn't have thrown the proofs out.


I will save the double layout for the actual crop and hope that I can put it together quickly enough to be ready when the two single pages are completed by everyone else. For the double, I plan to take some trick or treating photos this afternoon and some photos of Lizzie and her friend pumpkin carving.

It's time

... to apply my homemade spider tattoos and head to Brian and Joanne's fright night. I have just finished my red white and black pinwheel quilt and I will wash it tomorrow to take out the markings. Mustn't forget to pack Elizabeth's hat and dress for the party.

Halloween - 1

The last day of my staycation for one has arrived. Two airport runs to do today - Mum & Dad return from Mallorca at 2 and Nick and kids arrive back at about 8. Then it's on to Joanne and Brian's fright night. I cooked up a box of apples last night that Kitty gave me and as we're a bit tight for space in the freezer I used some of the apple for some scary spiced apple mini muffins for tonight's party. I think the scary ones might get left in favour of the plain ones. I need to set up my silhouette cutting machine to do some spider's web and spider tattoos to accessorise our witches' costumes.



Here's the first of the Basic Grey classes for the kit for the November crop. They go together very quickly. Do bring your photos as some of the rub ons and embellishments go over the photos. Warning - once stuck the chipboard elements don't come off!!

Still alone but not idle

Have had a few busy days - lunch at Lorraine's on Monday - always a joy. She has prepped a card making class for Sirens WI - hopefully Saturday 5 March, all welcome and was showing us the samples - I only asked Lorraine on Thursday and by Monday she was all prepped. Lorraine is a wonder woman, I wish I had her energy.

Tuesday I went bowling with WI, a great laugh and met some lovely new ladies. we were envious of the group that had the bumpers up!! Today I visited the beauticians and WI market for some lovely scones.

As well as going out a few times, I've also been quilting up a storm. I have fully quilted my red, white and black pinwheels quilt and I love the all over feather pattern. I didn't have to decide on a colour for the binding as I found some red already cut, presumably for this quilt, who knows. The binding is stitched to the front of the quilt and I just need to slip stitch it down. This is an ideal evening or quilt group activity so no rush to complete it, however I've already done one side so it may be finished this week.

Once I finished my quilting, I actually put both of my sewing machines away and cleaned my work table and the window sill. They look so neat, shame about the rest of the room. But it's a start and I hope to get a little more tidying done tomorrow and also get another quilt top pinned together for quilting.

On my own

But having fun. In my mind I'd planned a big tidy up this week, but I think that is unrealistic, but it's amazing how little extra mess one person makes compared with four.

I had a lovely e-mail from Nichol Magourik this morning to say I'd won a place on Shimelle's latest class. A great start to the day at 5.30am before taking the rest of the family to the airport.


Today I've been quilting my pinwheel sampler which I finished piecing about 4 months ago. Hopefully it will be mostly finished tomorrow. Then I'll need some help to choose the colour to bind it in - red, red/black stripe, black, but probably not white. I even managed to fit in a few hours caching with Jane.

Zip Wire Le Conquil

Another variation of an Allison Davis sketch. Thank you to Lorraine for the perfect tree die in two sizes. Finished the layout perfectly.



I'm going to have to do some cache maintenance later this week as people are logging that they've found the Le Don Carlyle cache, but not in the official logbook. If you don't find the logbook, you haven't found the cache. Simples really.

Pool fun 2010

I finished this second crop layout this morning with some dymo tape journalling. Another Allison Davis sketch with one more to come.

Saviboats

We had a lovely crop yesterday with just eight of us. A nice size as it covers the rent and doesn't get too noisy. Three of us were using sketches by Allison Davis. You can download the sketches for August and September for free, .http://allisonrdavis.blogspot.com/p/downloads.html

I had left one of the sketches at home and it was only once I'd finished that Judy said I could have borrowed her printout. Never mind. Several of us also had a play we Jenny's WRMK Sew Easy tool fresh from QVC's TSV. I loved what Liz did on her Blue Ridge layout http://jersey-scraps.blogspot.com/2010/10/monthly-crop.html.



I have two more almost finished layouts using Allison's sketches. One needs journalling and the other needs journalling and some die cut trees.

Marwell

A quick layout using an Allison Davis sketch, some kraft cardstock from SU and leftover patterned paper from one of the Gogo classes. I think this is everything I did now from Sunday as I spent hours punching holes in sketches to make a book.

Back to school

I bought this kit from Scrapagogo on Saturday. Joanne made a lovely LO with formal photos. I changed the pink ribbon to turquoise and the fancy buttons to pale blue and used some back to school photos from 2010. What you can't see is Matthew's feet which are bare as he leaves for school much later than Lizzie.



I still have two more layouts from Sunday to share. Once they come to the top of my pile I'll photograph them. I have started a tidy up of my craft room - not before time, but I fear it'll be some time before anyone else can see an improvement. Then I have 100s of layouts to file.

Gogo take shape

Another lovely day with Gogo in Jersey. Looking forward to them returning in 2011. Here's my four completed layouts for today, one more to finish at our crop tomorrow.

AN2

My first layout in about two months and I found some pages already kitted up which I can use on Sunday at our post Gogo take shape crop. This is from Kirsty's cybercrop last night. Took me almost as long to upload the layout to Facebook as it did to put it together.

Baby quilt

Here's a quilt / mat that I made for Sirens WI friend Amanda. Her baby is due on 24 September ad then she's due to go back to England in October. She will be missed.

Paper Proposals

Today sees the unveiling of the week 3 challenge at http://paperproposals.blogspot.com/ And this is the week that I was invited to be a guest designer. So without further ado this is my layout.


Thank you to Lorraine for most of the stash in the layout: Tim Holtz music paper and measuring tape, also the brad and top, Bazzill stitching template and thread. You may not be able to see but I've stamped around the edge of the cardstock to give some extra texture with a Tattered Angels texture stamp by Heidi Swapp in antique linen. At the crop on Saturday we couldn't find just the right purple cardstock to put in the brad, but I had a leaflet for the festival with me so I punched a top from the leaflet and it was a perfect match.

Flying the flag

At the Beaulieu fete last month, the Crafty mums had cute bunting on their stall. The book stall I helped on looked a little naked in contrast. So I ran up some bunting this morning. I thought I had more of the bias tape so there's only one string so far. However if anyone has any surplus bias binding in any colour, do let me know as I have made enough pennants for at least one more string of bunting.

Happy post

I ordered two issues of Sketches for Scrapbooking by Debbie Sanders and Allison Davis. Must finish tidying my desk before putting my feet up and flicking through them.

Desk tidied and returning from Lorraine's I asked the parcel man if had a parcel for me and he did. It's my silhouette flocked paper and rhinestone starter kit. Yummy.

Twilight Eclipse

Yesterday was the film preview and I bought the tickets at least a month ago ready for Lizzie's party. Apparently Jacob is hot enough that you could fry an egg on him according to Ellie. And here's my second layout of today for the Scrapagogo 6th birthday .Gogo birthday challenge You don't have to be a kit subscriber to join in the party.



The idea for the stitched string for the bunting came from Allison Davis' blog and I used the Banana Frog bunting stamps. All items from the May Scrapagogo kit once again. I love how the bottom of the umbrella on some patterned paper becomes a scalloped edge on the bunting

Challenge layout

Using the May Scrapagogo kit again as it's still out from the crop, here's a layout for the first challenge at Paper Proposals.


You may not be able to see that I've stitched a border around the whole layout and zig zagged the numbers to the page too.

June crop layouts

Both using the May 2010 Scrapagogo kit.

Hearts

One of the quilt groups to which I belong makes heart quilts when one of our members is very ill or has suffered a bereavement. This is the block I've done for the latest request which is for pink, lilac, mauve on cream. The pattern can be found here.

Another parcel

My wadding has eventually arrived, so there is going to be some serious quilting going on come Thursday. I plan to sandwich the layers at quilting group tomorrow.

Central heating is on which is both a positive (it's working) and a negative (it's already warm in the house). However there's a problem with the solar panel, so I might not get rid of the plumbers today. Fortunately I should be out for most of tomorrow. Is it just me who feels restricted by having workmen around? It's not that I want to do anything scandalous, but I feel guilty if I put my feet up to watch a bit of daytime TV or want to have an afternoon snooze.

New inflatable pool is getting well used:

Proof, if proof is needed

I have finished putting together the two quilt tops I've been working on:
Red, white, black and grey quilt a long from PS I quilt
Jan Krentz Rainbow star workshop quilt

Just the small job of quilting them now. However before doing that I need to gather supplies:
* Wadding
* Backings Puchased from Ebay and despatched
* Thread
* Binding I think I'll use black for both.

A trip into Treadles is required tomorrow to see what, if anything they have to save me having to go online. I'd love to get started on Monday with the pinwheel quilt which I'm going to do with an all over feather design with hopefully black and white thread.

Happy post day on Tuesday

My border fabric arrived yesterday, less than 24 hours after I bought it from Country Threads in Bath and they charged the postage at cost. Today I'm going to cut out the borders ready for when I've finished the quilt middle which could be this week.

I also worked on my red, black and white quilt yesterday and the top is ready, so I'm just waiting for the backing from Ebay which has been despatched, I'll buy the wadding from Astra today, I hope, and then I just need some quilting thread.

I also received an order from Yankee Doodle yesterday of Yankee Candles sampler size candles. they are all delicious scents of fruitiness. We're burning cherry lemondae this week.

Fingers crossed for more parcels today. Off to quilting at 9 via the dump to get rid of some old tins of paint.

Sewing up a storm

It’s been 3 weeks since our Jan Krentz workshops and I haven’t sewn a stitch since then. Yesterday and today I have been beavering away at my black, red and white pinwheel quilt. I was pleased that my local quilt shop had some red and black stripe in so I bought that last week. At the same time I’ve been sewing some of the pieces of the Rainbow Star together. Fingers crossed that both will be finished up to the stage of adding borders tomorrow. Then I can cut my borders at our Chez Soi group on Wednesday and also buying some wadding off the roll for them too.

I’ve also been doing some Ebay shopping for three backings from the US. My renewed enthusiasm is due in part to finding the perfect border fabric for my Rainbow Star. One of my students brought in some dotty striped fabric that she’d purchased at Country Threads in Bath over Easter. I quickly noted down the details from the selvedge and one phonecall later and my parcel should be in the post tonight.

Hopefully there will be some photos of almost finished quilt tops tomorrow and some parcels starting to arrive.

Just in case

Just in case anyone else is as stupid as me and mistakenly deletes something from an SD card, which won't appear in your computer's recycle bin. I have recovered using DiskDigger from ehre http://dmitrybrant.com/diskdigger

Cybercrop Sunday

Saturday cybercrop

I scrapped with Joanne this morning and did two more layouts and one more which just needs some stitching which will be done later. Both of these layouts use the April 2010 gogo kit.




When I finished the layout of Elizabeth Joanne pointed out that the holiday was in Mallorca not Madeira, so a few amendments to the title were necessary!!

The table has been cleaned and set up in the garden ready for me to scrap at.

Cybercrop layout 2

I need to fiddle with layout 1, so here's the 11pm challenge from last night done this morning. Off to Joanne's to crop for the morning once I've sorted out some photos. The second class in particular is gorgeous. I have my April Scrapagogo kit out and I plan to try and use it up this weekend!!

Quilting marathon

We have had six days of quilty fun with visiting tutor from the US - Jan Krentz. This is what I've done over the last two days put on my design board ready to work on over the next few days.

Back from wet and windy Mallorca

And as we drove down Victoria Avenue in the taxi yesterday, we saw Mum sitting out on her balcony catching the sun. More than we did a few hundred miles away in the Med. Never mind we did enjoy ourselves. I missed the April crop, which Joanne ran and also Claire's birthday.

Firstly a couple of holiday shots:




Today I've been completing the penultimate pinwheel blocks in red, white, black and grey. I think they'd look good with more red in the quilt? This week is going to be a quilty week as we have a visiting tutor (Jan Krentz) over and she is doing two workshops totalling five days over 6 days with a day off for good behaviour on Monday. I'm not sure my body or my brain is fit enough, but it will be good fun.

Gogo Sunday

Well some people were rudely awakened at 7am (really 6am with the hour change) by the fire alarm. I was one of those not in that area so slept blissfully on. I got up very tired and did nothing after breakfast until our sixth class. I may have gone into the shop for one last look!!

I was lucky that for class 6 with Lisa again I had the perfect photo from Bronte's recent party especially with Eleanor's pink outfit. This is a page done on an acrylic sheet with sharpies and some patterned paper.


Last class of the day was only an hour long with Vicki, Gogo's resident digi and hybrid expert. The kit included the printed cardstock for four single page layouts and four packs of embellies, and three printed alphabets and several pages of digital elements. I have finished two layouts and will keep the other two for a forthcoming crop in May.



Along with Chloe from Guernsey, Liz and I took a taxi back to Gatwick airport. We got there in very good time and A kindly got us back home early too after all the uncertainty of the previous two weeks as to whether BA would be running or cancelling the flight.

We're now looking forward to Gogo Take Shape in September here in Jersey, for which there are only four spaces left.

Gogo Saturday

Up nice and early so time to do a quick page before our first class at 10. This is a colour challenge from Design Your Life.


At 10am our first class was with Lorraine and her original used a portrait photo, but I had this family photo which was landscape so I changed it up a little. I almost finished the layout in class but wanted a journalling block which I stamped and cut at home.

After lunch, my favourite class was with Sam and we got messy. We used paint overlaid with embossing powder. This layout is very effective. We fussy cut a New York skyline but hen covered up most of it!!


Layout 4 was very pretty and the only one I didn't have a photo for. I had left ordering my photos from Truprint until Tuesday and they didn't arrive until Saturday. I couldn't get this photo of Grandma to print on my printer but it looks okay from Truprint. Lots of sewing on this layout to pick out details from the papers.


Last class of the day and one which wasn't scheduled to finish until 10.30pm. Too late for me. Lorraine's original was on a base of corrugated card but I altered it to cut the two strips from the card and added them to the top and bottom.