Friday, 31 October 2008

Watoto Auction and fundraising

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K and I are set to run the Abbey Dash and infact managed 10k last Sunday and so will complete the course!Thankyou so much to work colleagues for supporting me through sponsorship and purchases of my albums.I am on schedule to be able to send my moneys raised at the end of November.Please check out www.Watoto.com and find out more about the work in Uganda.

Tuesday, 28 October 2008

Happy Diwali 2008




I will wait to hear and see the fireworks later on tonight...best wishes on this years celebrations of the festival of light...

Raising funds for Watoto this November

I have wanted to raise funds for Watoto and have 10.00 in the kitty already but November is my month for it.Alongside my creating a Tinkerbell keepsake album to send to Immaculate, my goal is to be able to send 50.00 to Watoto by the last week November. I am running the Abbey Dash on 23rd and folks i know are sponsoring me... thankyou guys. I'll also be taking my cards and albums to work and then popping them to auction to see if I can make up the difference and make this small contribution to Watoto's great cause. The link for their website is in my links list take a look.

christmas card challenge

I'm trying to motivate myself and get my creative head into Christmas mode... I thought I'd set myself a wee challenge of 4 cards a week and I've got myself going with these few cards.I hope some of my buddies might play along and I can add their cards to the slideshow as well. HELP girls inspiration is needed!

Click to play card challenge
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Thursday, 9 October 2008

clever crafters

We created this weekend, loved it...its so much fun crafting together..


mothers

I got this text today and wanted to blog it as well as forward it ...

A mum has strengths that no one will ever know.She can handle trouble and carry heavy burdens..she holds happiness,love and opinions she smiles when she feels like screaming.She sings when she feels like crying, cries when she's happy and laughs when she's afraid...her love is unconditionalThere's only one thing wrong with her she sometimes forgets what she's worth....

H's little album of growth!



Tuesday, 30 September 2008

Immaculate's lovely note

I received a thankyou hand written by Emmaculate yesterday.It was so touching and made my week..it read 'How are you? I hope you are fine and doing well.Thankyou for the gifts you sent me.Thankyou for loving me.I love you so much May God Bless You bye bye Love from immaculate'.Supporting Watoto has been such a pleasure so far please check out their website.I will be auctioning another book on ebay in October for Watoto.

Eid Mubarak

I loved making these trading cards for the girls at work..I'll not be there next year and will miss them.For the past 3 years I've worked in various communities that have honoured the 'Blessed month of Ramadan' and celebrated Eid. Activities have varied from being very involved in delivering Eid parties (lots of fun andgot to dress up too!) to creating these little tokens.


This weekends coming crafty creations

These are the mini boxes and notelets we are making this weekend.I've used ink and stamping to decorate one and then experimented embossing for a christmas one ...hoping to have fun this weekend with making these again in good company girls.The template can be found on www.melsstampz.blogspot.com ..she shares and is really inspirational thankyouoooooo


Monday, 29 September 2008

Thankyou Lou



soooo pleased with my creation from Lou's stampin up workshop visit her blogspot at louiseedwards.blogspot.com ....loved it thanks luvvy.

Sunday, 21 September 2008

large paperbag album for pre school keepsaking

Just before I tidy away ...(as I've promised a sunday meal post football to my hungry fella's) I've snapped the progress so far on this latest project.
resources include:
Rough and tumble cardstock + embelli's K and Co
Stampin up cardstock and ink
Disney alphabet
photo corners- sizzix
co-ordinating brads
...imagintation and we are on our way.
I sketched out the pages before I started and have some large envelopes for the blank pages as storage of pre school memorabilia was what my friend wanted to do with this album.hopefully I'll complete it next weeked.








Saturday, 20 September 2008

Back on track

I've two lovely projects for other people I'm getting into this weekend. I'm looking forward to the getting stuck in and am about to take the dining table hostage to get the first one on the go.I'll post photos later.This first album is going to be a larger paper bag album for a work colleague to store some preschool memries for her son.He has some favourite things and so I've sat down and chosen the colours and papers from a lovely K and Co range called rough and tumble. More die cuts are on there way and there will be plenty of storage space for things alongside some pages celebrating her little boys favourite things and areas to celbrate his transition and growth through the preschool years.
I'm also excited about getting together a wee keepsake for Harry...what a joy it will be I love doing these little 4 x 4 for boys, and they seem to like them to!think it is likely to be rustled up over next weekend.
Thanks to my pals things have lifted my spirits and my emotional barometer is back 'up there'..our canal run in the sunshine this morning was great.....upwards and onwards...

Sunday, 14 September 2008

summertime memory mini book

Thankyou to Pauline, Tess, Dawn and Lou I had a lovely birthday weekend last Saturday and our little crafting get together Saturday inspired me...thankyou so much girls.
I'm posting piccies of the completed album soon.. it was a tiny one into which I just wanted to add childhood memories and the sea side... Chel and I did a trip to Whitby this weekend it refreshed my heart and soul..yes that it where I dream to get my little retirement cottage, Sandsend Whitby...mmmmm dreams ehh.





Sunshine on a Rainy day in Pateley Bridge

Thankyou girls for a lovely walk and good company...not to mention the yummy hot chocolate and pork pies!

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Wednesday, 27 August 2008

Carnival it

Every year we 'Carnival it'... it reminds us of where we started our life in Leeds and I love it. I've created a slideshow from the snaps I've salvaged from over the years...
Click to play Carnival time
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Scrapbooking 'teens'

Scrapbook.com had this nice article on scrapbooking your child's teenage years..I liked it as I've had a problem getting any shots of my son for a while now and the unrepeatable gestures and retaliations from him if i try a sneaky shot are at the best slightly amuzing and at the worst a whole day in ruins...he is a great teenager and I'm learning so these hints and tips and observations were intersting I thought Lou might like a look for some hints and tips for her 'nearly teenager'.I tried to pop the link in my links but it hasn't worked properly yet so here it is again.

http://www.scrapbook.com/articles/doc/34685/327.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=08-26-08&utm_campaign=snapload

Football crazy


Yes the football season is about to begin....here are my little Arsenal and Brazil Edwins...inspired and guided by hubby and son's passion for the game.

I've completed my Challenge


Yep i did it Lou and Linz..Here are my cards that I devoted much of Saturday this weekend to... loved creating them and especially a special one for a friend at work to celebrate a special event for her grandson. I've got a buzz for a little challenge are anymore coming up?

Friday, 15 August 2008

Augusts Albums

These albums were created with further personalisation in mind.I've left tags and pannels less complete so as to be completed by the individual themselves.I do however, love making them more 'bespoke' on behalf of someone else.....its making them truly one of a kind like each person that makes these a real joy to continue to create...

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Making a paper bag album

I hope this makes creating a paper bag album a little clearer, especially for the lady who contacted me via ebay.Instructions are not a strength of mine I'm a bit of a freeflow creator but here we go!




Gather all your bits and pieces together...well the basic ideas about what you'd like to include like favourite stamped images, tags, diamonte's flowers.You can sketch out the design of your album before you start this can be very useful for larger albums.I often do this if creating an album for someone and it is to be highly personlised.









Cut out pages to the dimensions of the paper bag.I often cut out firm cardstock pages on which to put simular sized decorated paper/cardstock this makes a very sturdy book almost like a board book and ideal for younger children's keepsake album(they'll tolerate being handled a lot and this makes revisting and adding more photo's and memorabilia even more pleasurable).Alternatively you can make a pretty good album just adding either decorated cardstock or scrapbooking papers (slightly firmer than your average A4)directly to the paper bag.















Here I hope to be showing you the general way the pages and the paperbag work together..does it help?












Stick your decorated pages to your paper bag with double sided tape.You can embellish further once the pages are stuck but any slots and brads or eyelet decoration has to be completed before you stick.I leave plenty of space on my pages as my hope is that they will be personaised with photographs and personal memorabilia.












Remember to stick your pages on to your bags with the paper bag opening is the outer side to the page and allows the owner of the album to store all sorts of bits in the album.You can alternate the open and closed bag ends in your pages if you wish.












Once your pages are are decorated and stuck to your paper bag with double sided tape you are ready to bind them together.













Punch holes for bindings on each page.This can is time consuming..but is quite relaxing to do..simply measure out carefully the front page hole markings and then punch this first.Then use that page as a template for positioning of the holes on the other pages.I have all sorts of tools for binding but you know a simple single hole punch from the stationers does the trick well.











Finally use ribbon to bind pages together through punched holes,add fibres and co-ordinating ric rac of choice.

The Tilda and Edwin Challenge- progress!

Lou set myself and Linz a wee challenge to get us creating with a bit of focus! I've managed 5 of my 10 cards here's my favourite Edwin... but ccreating with these stamps is such a pleasure they're adorable.I've made a couple of albums as well I couldn't help it!




Wednesday, 30 July 2008

Cards ..what do you think?

I am becoming a little more confident in creating cards..We are meeting this weekend and the plan is to create some cards as well as scrapbook..here are some very simple beginnings from myself..Linz and Lou will be coming with some stampin up luxuries...thankyou girls.




Tasnims Wedding Keepsake card

'Wishes for you' keepsake cards lovely to create

I adore the shape of this template! I keep creating small albums and keepsake cards with it.I've a couple more creations coming with the beach in mind!!I'm hoping a trip to Saltburn and Whitby will inspire me to complete my beach and seashore projects I've had them cut out and prepared for a long time!The annual leave coming up will enable me time to scrapbook some family memories and complete these beach albums..a big thankyou to Tasnim for putting to use my first keepsake card in this Lily Kate cardstock by basic grey..it is so delicate with soft and subtle shades..I have to admit I've had a little stash of it but the 6 x 6 is now coming to an end, I'll be surfing the net..or perhaps have to use my 'two scoops!' (Basic Grey cardstock fans will know where I'm coming from on this)