Scrapbooking like a Superhero!

Three years!

I haven't blogged for three years. What have I been doing?

It just hasn't seemed like a priority for while. I've been busy being a mum, being a teacher, crocheting and a hundred and one other things that I had to or wanted to do first.

I have been scrapping during this time. But it has  been a little slower. I've dabbled in project life, but I don't think its really for me. And I've continued doing 12x12 layouts - mostly at my monthly crop.

But over Christmas I had a bit of a blitz on my craft room. Don't get me wrong - its not now an organised, immaculate, magazine worthy room. It's still a mess! I still have too much stuff. But it did remind me what I had and inspired me to get stuck in to some of my stash.

This corresponded nicely with Shimelle launching Scrapbook like s Superhero on Facebook, relaunching her Glitter Girl videos, and setting weekly challenges on a Monday. The combination of all this plus my own Christmas stash review has really made me want to get stuck in and consequently I have done over 30 layouts this year.

One of the best aspects of an online scrapping community is sharing your layouts. I get so many ideas from other layouts I see online and of course its really nice if someone posts a comment about your layout.

Last weekend Shimelle hosted a scrapbooking weekend of challenges. They have inspired me this week and I wanted to be able to share them back to her website. And so here I am... blogging again,.

Here are four of the layouts that I completed off the back of the challenges from last weekend. Ill post back again soon with more layouts from the Monday challenges so far.

Weekly Challenge - Using Maps. This is easy for me as a Geography teacher I have loads of globe and map themed stash.

Using a large photo  ( I also used from very old Basic Grey)

Using frames. Again used some quite old Basic Grey.

Circle Challenge - really pleased with this one!

10 on the 10th - Project Life

Hi Everyone and Happy New Year

Its hard to balance everything. I am busy part time teacher and full time Mummy to Matthew. I often work at home in the evenings or at weekends.  I love to read - books and magazines. I like to take photos. Just organising and uploading those can take time. I try and bake more and enjoy looking at new recipes and ideas for family meals. I like to swim. I like to chill out and watch tv . I love love love to to scrapbook. I like to read blogs and stay on top of new scrapbooking products. And to be honest there are just not enough hours in the day unless I give up sleep - and to be honest I like that to!

And so sometimes my blog suffers and for the last three months it has taken a back seat to a number of things such as processing 48 university applications for my sixth form students, preparing for Christmas, learning how to use my new iphone and ipad and the other things that keep up busy in life.

But Im back ( for now anyway!)

This year I am going to have a go at Project Life. Project life is scrapbooking with a difference. I take a lot of snapshots, especially now I have my iphone. Just snaps of Matthew. I am also aware that whilst I have a lot of scrapbook pages for Matthew to look back on I dont always record the little details of life. So I am going to do Project Life in 2013. It means I can include little photos that dont deserve a while layout but tell me about life at that moment. It will be a place for tickets and receipts of things we may have done. It is a place to try and get other people to record our life - especially my husband. It wont be all photos and I will try and include more journalling.

Ive made a start and here is my front page. ( photo to follow)

So what is my 10 on the 10th - well it is 10 things that I should include in project life - but little things that I dont always record in my scrapbooks.

1. Books - what I am reading or Matthew is enjoying
2. TV and Films from that week
3. Funny things Matthew says
4. A text or email message from a friend
5. Cards and Invitations
6. Journalling by my husband
7. Receipts and tickets
8. Food we eat or new recipes tried.
9. Matthews favourite toy that week
10. Little achievements/events - such as last night we booked a weekend away at Centre Parcs

So all you fellow scrapbookers out there - any tips and ideas. As a newbie Im really keen for ideas.

Ill update here with pages.

Top 10 Books on the 10th

Matthew loves his stories - especially at bedtimes. I thought it would be great to make a little list of his favourites. So here it is - the current top ten!

1. Bear Snores On
2. Lost and Found
3. The Disney Winnie the Pooh books
4. Kipper Books
5. Hippo wears a hat/Chocolate Mousse for Greedy Goose and One Mole Digging a hole - the Julia Donaldson collection
6. The Biggest Kiss
7. Is it Bedtime Wibbly pig?
8. Aliens  Love Underpants
9. When the Dragons Came
10. The Gruffalo

And just in because I havent blogged much recently - here is recent picture...

Making sandwiches

10 on the 10th - My Birthday in numbers

On the 10th of the 10th I try and take part in Shimelle's 10 on the 10th alongside lots of other bloggers.
In September this is easy as it falls on my birthday. So here is my birthday this year in numbers.

1. Today I was 41.
2. I started my day with 44 lengths of the local pool. Im taking part in the Aspire Swim the Channel in 12 weeks challenge and today was the first day.
3. So far I have raised £286 but my target is £750.
4. I went to the parade to Our Greatest Parade in London to watch 700 athletes on 21 buses. It was an amazing experince.
5. I took 300 photos today!
6. I made 1 Victoria sponge for my birthday dinner and 12 cupcakes to take to work tomorrow.
7. I received 31 facebook messages saying Happy Birthday . A sign of the world we live in in 2012. 3 from overseas. Such a great way for people to stay in touch.
8. 20 days until my birthday present from my husband when we are going to stay overnight in a spa hotel and leaving little Matthew with grandparents.
9. 43 emails arrived in my in box at work today. Usually I read them even though being part time I dont work Mondays. But today they can just wait until tomorrow!
10. 364 days till my next birthday. Shame I'd like one every day!

Two Holiday Layouts

Managed a little scrapping this week and have now done a few layouts from our holiday.

The first layout is of the first day. It was raining but we didnt care. We put on our wellies and went to the Donkey Santuary. Matthew loved the animals and climbing around. Our first activity on the Isle of Wight!

I was inspired by this beautiful layout. I used some Authentique papers but added a basic grey flower and used my new butterfly punch and some paperpearl pens.

 

The second layout is a basic grey sketch. I used some old paper from the Kioshi collection. I love the soft colour palette.The photos show Simon and Matthew enjoying the beach at Sandown. Holidays are perfect for doing this things you dont always have time for. Matthew absolutely loved the beach and Im so pleased we were able to take him 4 times during the week. 

Lily Bee Challenges

Just a quick post with a couple of layouts that I have done recently for sketch challenges on the Lily Bee Blog.

The first layout was inspired by a Lily Bee sketch and used the Victoria Park Collection - love using pink to scrapbook Matthew!

The second layout was inspired by this sketch and uses a selection of the most recent ranges including buttercup and picking out the yellows, blues and greens from other other collections. Ive added a few butterflies and resin flowers but the papers, stickers and journalling card are all Lily Bee.

10 on the 10th - Holiday highlights

Didnt quite get round to blogging my 10 on the 10th yesterday but did write it down ready for posting. A few weeks ago we went on holiday to the Isle of Wight. It was the perfect location for a two year old. Lots of things to do and the weather was kind to us.
Here are my 10 holiday highlights:

- Matthew loved the Ferry - or what he called 'the big big boat'. His first time on any kind of boat.

- Lunch in the car in the rain - only one day of very heavy rain - but all British holidays need a picnic in the car

- Flying a kite on Sandown beach. It was just fantastic.

- Rock pooling at Bembridge beach

- Visiting the Seaview Wildlife Park - Matthew loved the area where you walk through with the wallabies and would have spent all day stroking them

- The Owl and Monkey Haven - a lovely project rescuing animals that are no longer wanted or are not fitting in at other zoos

- A walk in the woods - collecting pine cones and finding crickets and ladybirds on tree stumps

- The great escape tunnel - at a farm soft play - Matthew lay on his back and went through the tunnel on a pully system, He loved it!

- Visting the lemurs at Amazon World

- First proper ice cream (he has had ice cream at home or restaurants - but this was Matthew first day out ice cream all of his own - he has had a few more since!)