It's Me, Sarah

How Exciting!

I have been away for a few days helping Anna on the Scrapping Angels stand at Olympia - hard work but also great fun.  I was so pleased to finally meet Jane Dean whose brilliant layouts were the final push I needed to start scrapbooking about 3 years ago - I really liked her, it is so nice when people exceed your expectations isn't it? 

I also met Shimelle who is just lovely and reminded me of a little girl - in a good way - she is so chatty, bubbly and bright.  Shimelle also has the knack of telling a tale, she managed to make a story about losing her way home last about 15 minutes and sound very funny!  I also met Sue Deacon (Pencil Lines) and Ann Freeman (a new ScrapDreamie girl) and lots of other people - I am so lucky to have had contact with these people, it makes you  realize that they are  real, normal people and not just avatars!

Sue Deacon came to take over from me on Saturday as I returned home from London on Saturday evening because I had to be home to enable Mark to travel to a course he is on this week.  I slept very soundly on Saturday night!  Every part of my body was aching due to the long days we were putting in at Olympia and all the lifting, shifting and setting out of stock.

Today I am the guest designer over on It's A Creative World!!  I was so happy to be asked and I loved the little project that I put together for them using a large matchbox from Tesco.  Here is a quick look at the project but you will find more detail and photographs on the IACW blog.

I also have a layout on ScrapDreamie today which I made last night and finished off this morning!!  It was made with the new Crate Blue Hill Collection, a couple of Prima flowers, a journaling pen and some Scenic Route chipboard letters covered with the Blue Hill Collection (I love doing that!).  It has much more of a tropical feel to it in real life.

So now I am back home facing a humongous pile of ironing, washing and a house to clean tomorrow - oh the joys of living the high life in London!  I have come back to reality with a great big bump.  I think I will just go and watch 'The Apprentice' and 'Ashes to Ashes' first, it would be rude not to after Mark so kindly recorded them for me whilst I was away :D

Phew!

The time monster has been again and I haven't blogged!

I am just about to go out of the door to go to London for a couple of days and I will tell you all my news when I get back.

However, I can tell you that Ben's tooth fell out and he won the Easter hat competition at school on the same day :)  He was a happy little chappie.  Charlotte, however, cried her eyes out because she didn't win.  Daddy helped make Charlotte's hat and I helped to make Ben's so I am so happy that the Mummy and Ben team won our in-house challenge lol.  Daddy thinks his hat should have won and, to be honest, I have to agree!  Daddy and Charlotte made a much better had than Ben and I.

Be Back Soon.

New Teeth!

Ben had a wonderful birthday :)  I think it is the quietest I have ever seen him on his birthday as he had his face stuck in his new PSP most of the day (I don't blame him they are great!).  Yesterday Ben showed us that he had a wobbly front tooth and, sure enough, there is a big tooth hiding behind it!  Awww, my baby is growing up :)

Charlotte had to have a booster jab at the doctors on the morning of Ben's birthday and that didn't go down too well.  There were lots of tears but a bit of cake soon cheered her up.  We had her hair cut into a bob yesterday and she looks so cute!  I will get some photo's of it soon!

Here is a layout that I did at the Plymouth crop last week, you can also see it over on ScrapDreamie today.   I love Scenic Route because their papers are high quality and each range has such a good variety of designs and a multitude of embellishments to choose from!

I wanted to create a layout of Ben that was full of movement and had a true boyish feel to it. Ben received a skateboard for Christmas last year and was having his first attempt at riding it in the local park.

To create this layout I selected the most appropriate papers from the Grafton range and created a simple ‘layering base’ in an ‘L’ shape and arranged the photographs in a group on the top of it.

For me the most exciting part of creating a layout is deciding what you are going to use to embellish it.  Here is a supply list for this project:

Patterned Papers:  Scenic Route (Grafton Collection)
Stickers:  Scenic Route (Grafton Beach Stickers)
Alphabet: Prima Marketing (Times Alphabet)
Acrylic Stamp:  Three Bugs in a Rug (Inspired Clear Stamps)
Buttons:  Foofala Bag of Buttons (Indian Summer)
Chipboard:  7 Gypsies Photo Anchors and File Tab (Chipboard Tags - Tag Along); Heidi Swapp Star and Heart (Chipboard Variety Pack)
Dymo Machine

The acrylic stamp was stamped onto the patterned paper to create an interesting background and cut out.  The circle was adhered to the photographs using 3D foam to create dimension.

Further texture was added to the layout using chipboard elements for photo anchors and the file tab subtitle.  The chipboard was covered in patterned paper from the Grafton range; the little surfboards on one of the papers were used to cover the photo anchors introducing different patterns into the project.

The alphabet letters used for the title are from Prima, the black matched this layout perfectly.  It is always a nice touch to colour the raw edges of the chipboard letters, this was simply done with a black marker pen!  I also coloured the Heidi Swapp chipboard heart with the same pen.

To finish the layout and create the feeling of movement required for this project the irregular circles featured on one of the papers were cut out and arranged along the straight edge of the photograph.  The Foofala buttons were stitched into the gaps.

I love how this layout turned out to look all…. Well, skateboardy!

Getting Ready for Six

It is Ben's birthday tomorrow and he is going to be six!!  I can't quite believe it, where does the time go?

We have been out and about today getting the last minute bits and bobs to make sure that he has a good time when he gets in from school tomorrow.  With his party on Saturday we do not have any major plans but we do have a cake for him and as he is getting a PSP for his birthday (and has no idea!) I think he will be playing that for the majority of the time. 

Charlotte is having her hair cut tomorrow evening.  It is so long that it is very difficult to keep it looking tidy, unknotted and nit free (her school is a nightmare for them!) so she is going to be getting a little bob like the girl in the Petits Filous advert.  I think it will look really cute - she keeps say she wants her hair like Daddy's which is a little worrying as he hasn't really got that much!

I have to go and wrap Ben's presents now but I will leave with a layout I did last week using the Basic Grey Two Scoops collection pack, I was really pleased with the result.  If you like it and want the papers check out this months Scrapping Angels March kit, excellent value at £7.95!

A little bit of digi!

Well I have been playing around making graphics lately so tonight I sat down and made a quick digi layout!  I am not entirely happy with it but I was only playing and it is quite pretty so I thought I would share it :)

The photograph is of my brother and two sisters and I just love it.  I don't know what Debbie was looking at but I like to think that Roy had sat on something!!

Don't forget to check out Scrapdreamie today as we will be revealing who has a package of goodies coming to them as well as featuring one of the DT's projects - see you there!

I attended the Plymouth crop yesterday and did manage to produce a layout, finish a project and start another layout which was quite an achievement!

We've been Buzzted

If you want to see what I mean then click here:

...and I loved making the blinkie :)

The Time Monster....

...is eating up my days.  It seems as soon as I drop the kids off at school it is time to pick them up again.  All week it has been like this and I don't seem to have any time at all!

We had visitors at the weekend.  Ben and Charlotte love Kim and Barry so we had some very happy (and spoilt) children on Saturday and Sunday :)

I have been busy sorting out a few scrapbooking things and I have created a couple of items for Bellaboo which I must get photographed for Liberty (I will do it soon if you are reading this!).  I have also been creating some future projects for Scrapgenie, so don't believe everything you read!  Some people like making things up.

I had a little play around the other night in Adobe Illustrator Photoshop and Image Ready to create a new look for this blog.  I do like to change it once a month and realised that I last uploaded a new banner in January so I was due a makeover!  I wanted to create something to evoke a feeling of Spring and the thought of summer to come.  I was really happy because I drew the entire banner myself using illustrator to create the bee, clouds, flowers and dotted line.  I love using illustrator to create graphics because they are created with lovely crisp and clean edges.   I can't bear pixelated or blurred web graphics, they make me cringe!   I love my new little email button (to the left). 

I love playing with graphics, I have been using photoshop for about 8 years now (I started using it at work).  I originally started with Paint Shop Pro and I still maintain that it is an great program - the 'tube' function is amazing and I used to love finding images on birthday cards etc and scanning them, cleaning them up and making them into beautiful tubes with transparent backgrounds. 

I am teaching myself Illustrator as I go - it is pretty intuitive to use and I love it. 

Mark and I are going out on Friday night to see the stage show of The Wedding Singer!! I can't wait, I must have seen the film about 20 times, it's so funny.

Here is a quick photograph of an acrylic layout I created for Kylie to use as part of her design team display at an Australian trade show.  Now, this IS a rubbish image because I took it very quickly to show Kylie what I had done before I sent it off to her and as it is now in Australia I can't take a better picture, it was hard to photograph with that shiny surface!  I have promised to give it to Mum when I get it back :)