Here is our little crop project for the 28th!

The cute little box it comes in... i'm going to keep mine but I guess it would make a sweet little gift.
The folded jacobs ladder book...

And these give you a little peek of the inside:

For the kit you will need to bring:

3"x2" photographs (I used black and white and 5 but you could use 10)I filled my jacobs ladder with piccies of my little boy but it is easily girlie project too.

PVA glue/book binding glue (I used pva)An old paint brush (or something to spread the glue) Adhesive for your piccies/journalling spots in the jacobs ladderPaper trimmer/scissors/ whatever you use to chop up sheets of paper

Black ink pad or dark purple (I used black versa for the chipboard edges - it seems to soak in better and staz on for the journalling spots)

Black/Navy/Purple journalling pen (I used a dark blue one)

Also you will need a mug/beaker

Your lunch

Other projects to work on if you aren't having a kit or you're a super speedy scrapper! And of course we all want to have a good peek at what you've been creating...

Yourself!!!

It's v.late here...

... it's nearly midnight here and i'm very tired. Today we took Ben into town to get him measured and brought his first pair of proper shoes. It really has made me think ~ 'he's just NOT a baby anymore'. But I was sp excited for him, despite him trying to tug them off the whole time. He's walking a lot later than Emily, not that i'm complaining (!) and in any case he can crawl faster than Emily can run...

Random facts of today:
I am SOOO pleased for someone I know who is going to be an Auntie in around 9 months time (*grin*) and I know she is too. Congratulations Auntie and of course Mummy...
I finally went and collected my creating keepsakes today ~ ummmm lots of food for thought in there. I must admit it just gets better, well... the adverts do. I just drool over EVERYTHING in there.
I have just about finished the kit make for crop. I would photograph it and add it to here and of course on UKS but... I know i'm not so good with artifical light shots... so it's a job for tomorrow.
Emily thinks Aunt Adelaide (from Nanny McPhee) is vile and fishing ~ it should be vile and vicious but for some reason she is sure that Lily says vile and 'fishing'...
I collected all the kit stuff today and spent the evening cutting ribbon lengths, cause this takes a whole HEAP of ribbon to create!

I PROMISE to upload pics of the crop kit tomorrow and show you all what i've been up to... but tonight, it's late... i'm tired and in need of some real sleep tonight as last night was one of those nights where I dreampt far too much and it was far too real and far too scary and a couple of times I found myself out of bed...

Night, night xxx

Some good~ness...

'Idol' Who is your idol? This was a challenge from the Mojo holder blog. It just took my fancy. And this piccie has needed to be scrapped for some time now. It's the last one of my mum before she was really, really ill and it's certainly the last one of us together; looking like peas in a pod! How I used to hate it so much when I was younger and people in our small village used to tell me how much I looked like my mum! Now, i'm proud to be like her. She was and still is my idol.
There is a whole heap of hidden jornalling on the cosmo cricket journo tag and journalling underneath the piccie too. (and it's the first beautiful owl bead i've used!) I'm not too sure it's totally my style ~ I always seem to scrap pics of my Mum on papers that aren't truly my style... but I figured it went with the hideous wall paper in the picture (!)...

This little book I made with just bazzil, ribbon and paper scraps. It was so easy. I have yet to fill it all but i'm planning on scrapping Emily's christmas list in there, a cute reminder too of the year she is going to give up the 'doodies' (dummy).
A little halloween treat ~ I LOVE halloween. It may have alot to do with a huge love of orange, dressing up and all things spooky. This book was made in much the similar way to the christmas one - just with different coloured bazzil. I just enjoyed doodling away on the little piece of scalloped cardstock. Doodling just has to be one of my best scrapping abilities atm.

All arranged!

Ok, I have been a busy bee organising stuff for our new Basildon crop! I confirmed the hall today (Nina, it has wheelchair access if your Mummy wants to come along!) I also finished our kit up (ordered some bits anyhow) and am going to post the piccie on here tonight, if I manage to get my photos printed out! (Until then i'm keeping it as a surprise!)

So, our crop:

It's on : 28th of October
At: Luncies Meeting Hall, Luncies Road, Basildon, SS14 1SG (email me/leave a message for directions!)
Time: 10-5pm
Cost: £8 per person with refreshments included

There will be a kit avaliable (I am still pricing it atm, but will have a definate cost on Sunday pm ~ it will be around £4, I think!)

You will need to bring ~ a picnic lunch... (although tesco's is just round the corner for pre-prepaired sandwiches), Scrapping stuff ~ basic tool kits/any projects you are working on or want to share with us... I would love to see what you're working on or have created! And most importantly ~ Yourself!

We will be having Pandora's papercraft there so you may want some cash to buy some yummies!

P.s. I wanna say a B-I-G thank you to both Sandra and Jane who have been alot of help, advice and support in sorting this all out. Thank you xxx

Crop!

For a few days now I have been under the understanding that the Billericay crop has come to an end... and so it has got me thinking. A new crop, organised by me... hmmmm. Last night I pm'd Donna who ran the Billericay crop to confirm she was no longer running it and what was happening. She was absolutely fine with me starting one up and so this afternoon I have been looking for halls...

I'm sure the one which we used in Billericay would be fine but it's nice to know our options. I'm really excited about it all and can't wait!!! Yay! There is just so much stuff to think about though and my head is whirring with ideas... So today is a day full of promise.


and this girl loves this monkey SO much...

Simple Doodling...

It really is as simple or as complex as you want to make it. I chose a piccie of Emily but entiled the page 'i love you' so it really fits for anyone. I *heart* the love, elsie papers and they do go with the 'doodly' style so I used a little 'betty' paper and cut it into a zig zag-ed block ~ using a pieces of bazzil I had as a guide. I used bazzil bling too and the doodlebug glittery paper. The chipboard hearts are some v.old tlc stuff I had from when I started scrapping (tonight, I ripped open the packet for the first time!) and of course my old faithful zig pen...!

This is how I have arranged my paper and card onto my page. It's simple and leaves some room for doodling but not heaps to make you feel overwhelmed...
Firstly I drew around a huge circle (it was my two littlies drum!) in pencil to give me a circle guide. I then went over in my pen, it wasn't neat at all... don't worry if you're not a perfect artist or super confident with your pen - I find if I don't think about it, it's easier... start thinking about it and my pen is all over the place! The circle then has two other circular lines inside the first being quiet wide with randomly spaced circles inside and the second having closely spaced lines all around the edge. The more randomly placed the circles and lines look, the better...
Here, i've added quiet alot. The lettering which I have drew free hand onto the page but following the edge of the circle. I have added some shading/3d parts on the letters and then filled with the similar style of lines as in the circle. It also detracts any mistakes or 'wobbles' you may have made in your letters! For the 'love' I used the negative chipboard heart and backed with glittery cardstock. The positive part was used overlapping slightly the edge of the photograph and adding wings which I hand drew in the glitter cardstock and overlaying with a lined cardstock (actually an old library card insert)
I have used 3d foam under the wings (one layer under the middle of the wing and two layers under the end tip of the wing) and this was done for both layers...
I know the flash is SUPER bright (it's what you get for not knowing how to alter the shutter speed!) but the chipboard heart negative is backed with the glittery cardstock to coordinate with the wings. See the close up doodled letters (if you don't feel confident to draw them free hand, why not draw around chipboard letters and then add in your own shading/3d doodle afterwards?)
Here, you can see how in the lines of the wings I have added roughly written words (it reads: all you need is love ~ over and over again) and dotted around the heart and the negative heart edges, also the photograph too. Around the patterned paper I have drew fake stitches (really simple - anyone can do this!)
Lastly the overall LO. I have journalled inside the circle but you could leave it blank ~ or if you're feeling brave doodle some more in there. Around the bazzil bling piece I have drew 'x' and 'o' just so it doesn't seem so much of a 'block'.

I am sure I am going to get the watercolour paints out tomorrow and tint all the doodles in blue/red watercolours just so it isn't so stark on the white paper. I am sure that pencils/wax crayons/ pens would work just as well! The name of the game is to experiment and have fun! Doodling on you scrapbook pages isn't about things looking immaculate and perfect. If everyone copied this LO, each one would look SO much different to the next. (and plus i'd be so chuffed!) It, I hope shows you that those girls I know who are scared of their pens ~ to pick them up and have a go! Or why not try doodling with a versa mark pen and then heat embossing what you're done in a fabby shimmery powder?!

And lastly thank you to Ali Edwards for pushing me to share the love of doodling with you all!!! In the week i'll do some more and doodle little piccies too. I have the most fabby little halloween project to share... complete with doodles!

So today...

...I have been feeling inspired. And sad. Today was Lee's fathers funeral. I totally feel for him, Kev went off this morning at 9am to drive over to Surrey which was where his funeral was. He said Lee seemed to hold it all together until afterwards when he was looking at the flowers. I just know how today feels for anyone who has lost a parent. It really is OVER. They really have gone. There is nothing of them anymore. And of course people now start to forget. However, us as children do not. Someone once said to me that it gets easier with time. It doesn't. I won't lie. It NEVER gets easier. We just learn to cope better with the loss. We come to terms with it. But there are days when it feels like such a wrench, the same as the day they actually died.

It makes me think of mum. It makes me wonder if there is something after this life. I am not particularly religious but I have been known to visit a few psychics and clairvoyants. I said the last time that I wouldn't again. I've visited the 'duds', the ones who are fishing for info. But i've also visited a few that were truly amazing. They just looked at you and told you stuff that NO ONE ever knew but you. Your feelings right then. And your whole past. The last one read my tea leaves and made me cry so much, I just knew she would be the last. I had satisfied my curiousity for there must be more... How else would she know such stuff without having someone else tell her, someone who wasn't here? How could she look into my tea cup (rather Harry Potter ~ Madame Trelawny-esque) and tell me stuff no one knew. To tell me I had my mums old diaries and she wanted me to read them; something I had fought with myself over in those weeks. How did she know about the lilies I took for the nurses who cared for mum simply because I love lillies and knew mum hated them and would never of wanted them. How did she know that when I sat with mum that Tuesday night both Jill and I heard things that make my hairs stand on end. No one knew this stuff. No one knew the funny stuff she told me about me and mum too. I know there must be more. I don't know what but I live in hope that she is at peace and no longer in pain.

And for Lee. I truly am thinking of him. It will be hard but i'm sure he will be ok. He has wonderful friends around him who all love and care for him. xxx

And now for inspiration~ I got Ali E's zine today. Wow. It inspires me. This one talks about teaching people what you know. Sharing our creativity... so I think on Sunday I will do a post about my doodles. It's gonna be simple and easy to make. All you'll need is a piece of bazzill/plain cardstock, a great pen that you love (any colour and any make, as long as you love it!) and a photo of someone special whom you love ~ your hubbie or other half/kids/pets/sister/mum... anyone. It's gonna be a little project of about 6x6 inches so only have a 2x4 inch piccie...! The point is gonna be to have fun. So come and play!!!

And this girlie http://www.scrapinstyletv.com/profile_3414.html is the absolute best today. Check out her newly uploaded 'this is me' journal quote page. Cool. Hoping my album is half as good as hers.