a family weekend

We’ve had a very busy few days enjoying a visit from our newest granddaughter, as you can see she was thoroughly spoilt by everyone.

enjoy today

 

Shimelle’s starting point challenge is up on her blog here along with a video and as usual I couldn’t resist having a go.

tiger cubs

Last year we took the children to see two baby tiger cubs, adopted by a little zoo not too far away. I wanted to scrap a lot of the photos from that visit and loved this class from Shimelle, perfect for scrapping a special outing.

my sketch

following on from the last post, I’ve turned my sketch around and done another layout.

Just One Sketch class

I’ve been having a play with my sketch for Miss Smith’s class here, trying to rotate it in different ways, something I’ve not really thought about doing before. I’m going to choose one later and make a layout, jazzing it up a bit.

and now for something completely different

Shimelle has a new free class over on UKS, you can find it on her blog too here

As you know I’ve been trying to keep things simple, but I had great fun trying something different.

simple recipe class

Over on UKS there is a simple recipe challenge, now I couldn’t resist that could I?

We had three colours to work with grey, brown and pink so I decided to use a photo of my daughter-in-law with her new baby. It’s not often I can use pink as I’m not a very girly person and seem to have passed on this trait to my daughter and eldest granddaughter!

sketch class

I’ve had a go at creating my own sketch for the class I’m taking by Miss Smith here.

I’m keeping it simple and hoping to add some embellishments.

here’s a first digi attempt.

keeping things simple

I’ve just started an online class by Miss Smith here and one of the first things we were asked to do was look at our layouts and pick out a few we really liked. On looking through mine I realised I like white space,a clean look, journalling and the focus to be on the photo. With that in mind and a sketch from the class to follow I made this layout of my mum.

a new class

I’ve been a very lucky girl and won a new class http://www.layoutaday.com/212pp/ by commenting on a post over on Shimelle’s blog here. I had set myself the task this year of scrapping more old family photos, telling our little story and reliving happy days so this class will be just the start I need.

Has anyone else done this class in the past? If so I would love to hear how you got on as it is very new to me.

crafty day!

this is my finished jyc11 album

a card I made inspired by a post on this blog

and one I made following a class on 2peas here

lovely

another class from Jessica Sprague, this time showing how to load a stitch brush and use it in different ways on your layout – I’d forgotten how much fun this is especially with some baby photos to scrap!

happy days

over on Shimelle’s blog here there is a starting point challenge, great if you need something to kick start your creativity! This is my take on the challenge, an old family photo, don’t you just love my Grandad  on the beach in suit and hat, the papers are american craft.

10things

Having decided to do more digi scrapping again this year I thought I would look back over some of my favourite layouts to encourage me!

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7.

8.

9.

10.

All these layouts were either from a Jessica Sprague class, Hummie’s World or a template. I’m so sorry I can’t name the kits as getting all my digi supplies sorted and tagged is another task for this year.

This post is part  10 things on the tenth, you can read more on Shimelle’s blog here

digi scrapping

credits: this was a Photoshop Friday class by Jessica Sprague

Although I’m loving doing paper scrapping  I don’t want to forget the digi so I’m revisiting some Jessica Sprague classes again. In this class you had to make the title, outlining it in white and then filling in the loops with colours from the kit. I love the effect of this and hope my brain will store the technique for future use!

Simple meals

 

Butternut squash risotto

• 250g risotto rice
• 700ml hot vegetable stock
• 1 medium butternut squash
• big handful grated parmesan(or vegetarian alternative), plus extra
• handful sageleaves, roughly chopped

1. Tip the rice into a large bowl, then add 500ml of the hot vegetable stock. Cover with cling film and microwave on High for 5 mins. Meanwhile, peel and cut the squash into medium chunks (see tip, below). Stir the rice, then add the squash and the rest of the stock. Re-cover with cling film, then microwave for another 15 mins, stirring halfway, until almost all the stock is absorbed and the rice and squash are tender.
2. Leave the risotto to sit for 2 mins, then stir in the parmesan and sage. Serve topped with more grated cheese.

I got this recipe from the bbc goodfood website and found it cheap, quick and very tasty.

daddy’s girl

I scraplifted a layout by Jen Gallacher over on the 2peas website using the November Sarah’s Cards kit – Crate Paper – Random. The photo is of my son and his new daughter.

month in photos

Having downloaded a free template from this site, I thought I would copy Rebecca’s idea and try it out with a Christmas collage. This is so easy to do and I feel it will be a good way to record my  photos this year, taking the strain of making sure I took that daily photo away but also giving a flavour of my daily life.

the final pages

 

 

I just have the cover to finish on my journal and it’s all done for the year

catching up!

Things are slowly getting back to normal here and I’ve had a little bit of time to carry on with my Christmas Journal.

Simple!

As I’ve browsed, looking at some favourite blogs, I’ve noticed a lot of people are choosing a word for the year. Over the last few days I’ve been thinking about our life here and how we want to cut back, eat less and grow some of our food. I  want to get back to good old-fashioned home cooking, to keep shopping to the minimum and be content with what we have.

With my scrapping I want to concentrate on telling the story and not creating that perfect page, this is an easy one as none of my layouts are anyway near perfect!!

and so my word has presented itself – simple, it’s also given the family a perfect opportunity to tease me so go ahead all of you!

With this in mind I happened upon this blog, I love some of the ideas on here and might join in.

I’ve also signed up for this class by Miss Smith, it looks like it could be fun and all proceeds from the class go to GirlGuiding UK.

The Christmas bike

Do you remember your first bike? For me it was waking up early on Christmas morning and seeing a beautiful blue bike leaning against my bedroom wall, so many happy hours were spent riding that bike with my friends.

My four children all had their bikes to ride but it is my youngest one’s I remember the most, the year we tried to be too clever!

The bike was bought and hidden safely in our garage and then we thought of a good trick, big mistake. The garage key was placed inside a little box with a clue and then that box was placed inside larger boxes ending with a huge cardboard box which was wrapped and looked very exciting. Of course there was great discussion on Christmas morning, who had that enormous present? Andrew saw it was his and began unwrapping it with Ian and I smiling to ourselves. Eventually the key was found and several clues were  followed until he realised what the key opened, I think by then he knew what his present was.

We opened the front door to go to the garage and unlock the gift but something had happened we were not prepared for. That night the weather had changed and there had been a very hard frost, it was bitterly cold .

Picture the scene, an extension lead with hair drier attached and six people still in pyjamas gathered around a frozen lock. It took us quite a while to open that garage door and find the bike and a little bit longer to see the funny side. Sometimes it’s best to keep things simple I think!

This story is part of Sian’s Storytelling Sunday, if you would like to take part or read more stories then have a look here