12 on the 12th and other things

Why do I blog?

One reason is because I want to keep a record of some of the little things in our lives that we may look back on. It will help with the details. Just the other day I was reading some of my old posts about Matthew's first few days and Id written that he took 1 hour 45 minutes to have  bottle - now his bedtime bottle is gone in a few minutes - he loves it!

I also like to keep a record of my scrapping and of course its a lovely way to show off your work. One of  the things I love about scrapbooking is that I do it for me and my family but it does mean that I might be the only one to see my pages ( my husband isnt that interested). But by going to crops and blogging it does mean  you get some feedback on your work and we all like a bit of praise if someone says something nice.

And I like to enter challenges. Last night I went to a crop armed with some challenges Id added to my Pinterest folder and managed to complete three layouts during the evening. By having a blog I can enter into the challenges easily. Ive been honoured to have been featured on Shimelle's favourite scrapbooking starting points twice in recent weeks. And of course a place to show any design team work Ive done.


So tomorrow I will show you the challenges but today is about blogging and recording the little things.

So yesterday was the 12th and so I take part in a 12 on the 12th photo challenge. Here are my photos ( sorry cheam croppers if you dont like them).

Top row - Debbie, New girl Helen, Jo, Sandra F
Middle row - Petra - Sandra B ( had to include this picture - sorry Sandra), Sandra again and me
Bottom row - 3 layouts and us at work ( or chatting)

What else has been happening?

Well Matthew is under the weather. He has been full of cold this week and Im sure he has a sore throat. Last night he had a high temperature, made himself sick crying and was awake for nearly 3 hours ( yes - we are tired today!) Ive taken him to the doctor and chest/ ears upper throat are clear so its probably just lower throat and we just need to dose him up with calpol and nurofen and give it a couple of days.

However, he did wake up from his lunchtime nap in time to sprint down to Toys R Us in Colliers Wood. Matthew loves Fireman Sam and when I found out he was visiting during the school holidays I had to make sure we went for a photo op. Matthew was very in awe at first, but he did get braver. Lovely photos for the future - the day Matthew met the hero next door.

Hopefully Ill be back tomorrow to show my 3 layouts from the challenges I completed last night and I hope to enter some of Shimelle's challenges too.

By the way Ive made a few changes to my blog design etc - any thoughts?

10 things on the 10th - Matthew right now!

Ten things about Matthew right now

1) He loves Fireman Sam. This obsession has been going on for sometime now. He can't tell you the name of our cat but can name the main characters in Fireman Sam. I'm taking him to see Fireman Sam at our local Toys R Us on Friday.

2) He loves the Lion King. He hasn't actually watched it all the way through - but he has seen it a couple of times. We also have a book which at bedtime he likes to read to his soft toys. Bless!

3) He is talking loads. He has a pretty good vocabulary but is now saying lots of mini sentences. At the Easter Egg hunt on Sunday he was saying Egg - where r u? Today he was saying 'very hot'. These are just two examples of his developing language skills.

4) He is obsessed with jigsaws. Loves them. He  quite an active boy but this is something he will do quietly and concentrate on. We have a few that are for three year olds and he does them easily.

5) White tiger is one of his favourite cuddly toys and he loves to change his nappy!

6) He loves going in the garden and asks to go out every time someone puts their shoes on. He has a tunnel and a tent and lots of balls. He has mini golf clubs, a rugby ball, footballs etc. A sportsman's son!

7) He is getting very independent on the stairs. We are still very cautious as our stairs have a bend in them and they are quite steep but he can pretty much do it on his own.

8) Favourite foods are pasta, mango, grapes, chocolate mousse, fish fingers, tinned baby carrots,  cheese, ham, toast (if you ask him what he wants to eat he usually says cheese/ham/toast), and of course he loves chocolate and cake.

9) Favourite songs are Baa Baa Black Sheep and the Animals went in Two by Two ( and the theme tune to Fireman Sam)

10) I'm really pleased with his developing manners. He has said please for a while now ( useful skill when you want something), but now he says Thank you, says pardon when he burps and in the last week or so has been making the sign for sorry.

And in 12 days time he will be 2 - where does the time go?

Here is a cute picture from Easter Sunday:

Lily Bee Challenge and Shimelle's starting point

Happy Easter everyone! I gave up chocolate for Lent (as did many of friends and family) and today was pleased that I could indulge in a treat. To be honest I haven't eaten very much as we have had a lovely buffet tea at my mum's and a neighbour baked us a cake so there really isn't any room, but we did get an egg at the Easter egg hunt we went to today so we have shared that. Lots more in the fridge though!

Time to share two more of my layouts from yesterday's crop.

The first is the current Lily Bee sketch challenge. I totally love all four of the new Lily Bee collections and know I will need to buy all of them but my favourite is probably Buttercup which I bought from Gottacraft. I am really liking yellow and blue right now. You can see the sketch here.

I'm really pleased with how this came out. All the papers and stickers are from the collection and I just added some golden yellow twine, some paper pearls and a couple of flowers. The photos is of three of my university friends Warren, Jeremy and Phil and Phil's wife Nora at a recent reunion. The blue clouds and sunshine fit the collection well.

The second layout is from Shimelle's Special MME Scrapbook Starting Point. The photo is from the same day and I have used MME Miss Caroline collection. I love this combination of colours - pink and aqua and I loved adding all the little brads, butterflies, flowers and tickets. A lovely starting point - thank you Shimelle.  

Basic Grey Challenge

Today was crop day. I was really looking forward to it as I didnt get to the March Saturday crop or to any of the March Thursday evening crops. Today therefore was a chance to do some  serious scrapping and a chance to catch up with the girls, and of course a trip to Starbucks and Sainsburys.

Today I completed 5 layouts. Three of them were challenges from different websites. Tonight I'm going to blog about my basic grey challenge layout. You can find the challenge here. The challenge was to use Basic Grey solid papers only. This was quite a challenge for me as I love patterned paper. However, Ive been inspired by lots of layouts recently that use geometric designs - hexagons, triangles etc. Whilst at the crop I raided my friend Sandra's punch box and was drawn to the little diamond and thought I would get punch happy with it. The girls were quite intrigued to see what I was planning as I noisely  punched away from some of my sheets of solid basic grey colours.  I used the punches to create this layout. Im pleased with the design and wouldnt have done it without Basic Grey and Sandra - so thanks to them both.

I will  post the other challenges and layouts over the next few days. Happy Easter!

My exciting scrapping news

I have had an exciting few weeks with my scrapbooking. Not only was I asked by my friend Sandra to be a member for her design team at Gottacraft, I have also been asked to be a guest designer for a big US name. I'm so excited.
And it is for ...













Heidi Grace Kress at Clever Handmade.

Yes Heidi is back with her new lines and I am absolutely chuffed to bits to have been asked by her to be  guest designer on her blog.

Here's how it happened. I saw that Heidi was launching some new ranges and posted on UKScrappers to see if anyone in the UK was going to be stocking it. Sam, who does all her media and press stuff, saw the post and had a look at my blog. She then mentioned it to Heidi who came on my blog and left a post. I can't tell you how excited I was to have Heidi post on my blog and especially when she said how much she loved my blog and layouts and would I be a guest designer. Of course I said YES!

You can check out some of the new designs here, here, here and here.

Then, after a couple of emails with the lovely and very helpful Sam, I was sent a box of lovely new goodies to play with. Ive done a couple of layouts now and plan to do a few more over the next couple of weeks. I'm going to be featured on Wednesday 6th June but I'll be putting up some sneaks before then. You can read all about their first guest designer Annette Allen here.

I'm so honoured to be working with them and still smile every time I read my blog post from Heidi. Thank you Heidi and Sam - you made my day!

Basic Grey scraplift

Simon is out , I have no work to do as its the holidays (well I do have work to do but it can wait for one evening) and so Ive been scrapping.

Ive been inspired by  this  absolutely beautiful layout by Susan Weinroth on the Basic Grey blog. Its stunning itsn't it and although what Ive produced tonight bares (or is it bears) very little resemblance, I know I will come back and scraplift this again. I love the repearting hearts and  the colours. I was however inspired by the repeating pattern and so went to work with some small luggage labels (do we all have these in our scrapbook stash?), some old Basic Grey ( Green at Heart ) and a very recent photo taken at the Falconry display taken at Wisley on Saturday. And hour and 15 minutes later and here is the outcome.

By the way there are three questions in the above paragraph:
1) is Susan;s layout stunning?
2) is it bears or bares?
3) do we all have luggage labels in our stash?

Answers please....

Inspiration from Shimelle

As you know I like to do challenges. One blog I follow is Shimelle's and she gives lots of sketches and starting points to help me get going. Ive dabbled in a couple of these recently but tonight I finished two off with journalling and a few extra bit,s and completed her latest starting point.

Here they are:

This was a starting point from the week before last. Whereas Shimelle's layout is flowery and girly, mine is very much boyish and grungy. The photos are Matthew at a recent birthday party we went to rocking his stuff with an inflatable balloon. I used some Simple Stories Awesome with  some prima buttons and MME Kraft Funday bits.

The second was a sketch.  I used some Echo Park papers that my lovely friend Sandra gave me in our crop advent swap and used some of the tags and embellishments she also kindly gave me. I didnt know if I was going to get a chance to use them this year as the snow came late but when it finally appeared in February Matthew was straight outside exploring.

The third is this weeks starting point. I used some new Bo bunny papers and embellishments which I have been dying to use. I used a cogs mask in the background. The photos show Matthew on a train track ride on holiday last year and I was pleased to get them scrapbooked.

 Thank you Shimelle!