This layout is packed with vintage loveliness, I took this photograph of my children when we were at Kielder at the weekend and after turning it sepia I printed it on textured cardstock and embellished the layout with lots of cut and ripped Jenni Bowlin papers and other various goodies in that vintage style. I remember when I first started scrapping, I never could master the vintage or distressed style and craved to be as wonderful at it as Snipper, well 3 or 4 years later and I think I might be getting there, I'm certainly happier when I create layouts in this style than I used to be :)

Princess At Heart

Once I saw the results of the princess shoot yesterday I couldn't wait to get the photos scrapped and I had to start with this one, I've tried to maintain a whimsical feel to the whole layout and hopefully thats what I have managed to achieve!!

Finally, a making moment!

Yes i've finally had some making moments over the weekend and particularly this morning, there was a challenge on the Design Collective (link is the blinkie on the side) to create a layout using 13 things so this was the result and chuffed to bits I am with it considering I haven't scrapped in nearly 3 weeks. The pink card was made using a Heidi Swapp mask and will go into my emergency friendship cards and the other 1 is 1 of 3 for the children for Easter, Rusty Pickles Chocolate bunny paper provided the inspiration for those. Hopefully this is the start of a crafting period!!

Here's what I did with those gorgeous photos

don't think I need to say anything further, ooh apart from this was the most fun I've had scrapping for ages, oh and can someone send me a new printer, Mr Canon if you are looking in, I would love an A3 one, I'll even confirm Epson printers to be a big pile of pants!! Mwahahahaha
Oh and streamlined my WEBSITE today, need a photographer thats your place to go!

Sharing some recent makes

I've been feeling rather creative this week, funny how when life is hard I resort to craft to keep me sane, it doesn't always work but it does seem to chill me out a little.

The cards are part of my attempt to be more of a cardmaker in 2007, also I wanted to come up with some different types of cards as opposed to the traditional birthday cards, i came up with these as all occasion cards but also for people who have wintery birthdays, much like myself, also it gives me a chance to try and use some of that excess Christmas stash which I seem to have accumulated, I must keep reminding myself, Craft is for life not just for Christmas!

The layout came about because I took this wonderful photo of my daughter the other day, wondeful in all aspects apart from the light just happened to catch her in the wrong way and totally bleached out the top corner of her hair. i had to come up with a way of asving it because firstly look at those twinkling catchlights in her eyes. So I thought lets hide it a bit and the layout and circle theme really started there.

I had a real rant last night and somewhat lost the plot for an hour or two, I think though I needed to do it as i have been bottling up so much lately and if it hadn't come out it would have done damage in the end, I have an appointment with my therapist on thursday and will I be glad to see her!

I did move my blog and then I moved it back again, I decided I'm not scared or frightened so why should i move, i was here first LOL

I think though we're not destined to be in Newcastle much longer, Paul and I both have jobs now where we can easily relocate, paul of course could work for the Royal Mail anywhere in the country and as my job is online it doesn't matter where I live. I have a feeling that although we don't know where or when you can almost certainly guarantee that it will be north-bound.

Happy Sunday dear reader I'm off to finish Sunday Lunch!

Happy New Yearlington-Smythe!

Well thats what we wish each other in our house!

So here's what I got up to in the last 24 hours, a layout called Blossoming, my daughter is and when I don't want to kill her I notice just what a lovely young lady she is. Next a birthday cards, I don't really do cards but this was an exception when my hubbykins challenged me last night to come up with a birthday card, a new year card and a layout, thought I would share the birthday card and layout, the new year card was shall we say hmmmm!

The last photo I'm sharing this morning is our Cat Elphaba, she snuck in whilst I was taking photos of the layout and card, she stuck her big nose right into my lens so it's obvious dear reader that she wished to spread some new year wishes to all!

So in reveiw, and it's a quick reveiw you'll be pleased to hear dear reader, 2006 wasn't so bad, we got our acts together, conquered our own mental challenges and health problems, sorted out our financial situation and both got decent paying jobs that we both liked. We've worked hard and we're better people for it, we finally said goodbye to the tyrannical reign of Mother and for once i set myself free, 2006 really was the year or Friendship, growth, and therapy.

One thing of course has remained constant and that is scrapbooking, my reason for being, my life, my work, my passion and may that continue into 2007 and beyond.

Hubby and I both look forward to this year, a year in which we finally hope to achieve nice carpets, lovely wallpapers and maybe even a decent set of wardobes!

I wish you all dear readers the happiest and healthiest new years and may all you all achieve your dreams in 2007.

Ooh and 1 final wee iddy biddy thing, you may remember that I own a craft forum, well it's just had a major makeover and got a brand spanking new fabbaroony gallery, we've lots of exciting things planned for 2007 and prizes aplenty, membership is free and everyone is welcome regardless of location or type of craft, we are a kingdom after all! Check out the Craft Kingdom for fun, facts and much fabulousness!!

Autumn

I did this layout this afternoon in an effort to calm myself down from all the stress which is affecting me badly at the moment, being banished by your family just because you stand up for yourself is never easy but it's been happening to me for 32 years every time i've tried to make my own decisions, I know of course now that it's all about power, abuse and brainwashing, doesn't make it easy though when it's your own mother who is at the head of it. Anyway not wanting to dwell too much, liking this layout of Lovely Looby having autumnal fun. Thank God for my husband and my wonderful childen and my gorgeous group of totally supportive friends, I give thanks every day for that.

I won, I won, I won

I'm not usually one to jump around exclaiming such frivolities but just for today i'll let you all in on my news as I totally forgot to mention it when I came back from Scotland. So here's the thing, a couple of months ago I got it into my crazy deluded head that I should enter the Scrapbook Magazines scrapbooker of the year competition, I did a couple of layouts towards the three needed but as some of you regular readers may remember I stressed myself out about it so much that in the end I decided not to bother and stop giving myself a hard time, I even stipped uplaoding for a while as I needed to scrap for myself and be happy with that. Anyway I had those pages just lying about unseen when I found out that there was a competition being run by Charmed Cards and Crafts, an internet retailer, the were looking for summer layouts and this one seemed to fit the brief to a tee so I emailed it off and thought no more about it, the closing date was the 25th of September so I assumed I hadn't won. Then shock of shocks, my friend emailed Jacqui as she knew I was staying and told her that I had won the competition and this morning my prize of £110 of scrapbooking products arrived on my doorstep. I can't tell you how delighted I am, it was like opening Christmas goodies! It's totally given me a boost and makes me realise that sometimes people do see the same things as me when they look at my pages.

So share with me the winning entry which was called Bathing Beauty and features Looby at a local water park in the summer!

I've Been Busy

as you can see from all this stuff I seem to have created over the last couple of days! Firstly there's the other christmas cards for the challenge I set on the Craft Kingdom, then there's a Halloween goody bag with accompanying card for a swap and then there's the layout created with yesterdays star photograph of my gorgeous daughter! This is the second layout I have made with this months Happy Scrapper kit, all I had to add was the small sprinkling of Prima flowers!

Do you know I actually dream of cake, I was having this fantastic dream this morning about fruit pies to be exact when I hear F#@K, lovely Hubby had just awoken and realised that he'd overslept by an hour and was late for football, hopefully he got there on time, funny how much longer you get to sleep for though when there's no small children to come and get you up!

It's Monday, So Much to do

My hubby challenged me to come up with a layout using 5 photos, thats 4 more than my usual layouts so I came up with this!

The journalling reads "Looby Mondays are your busiest days, it's like you're catching up after a weekend and breathing a sigh of relief as your brother and sister are back at school"

Happy Bunny

I didn't get around to sharing this yesterday, I scarpped it on Saturday night whilst watching afterlife, finally got around to using the Cactus pink papers I had been hoarding!!

The failed photo-shoot and a layout

Sometimes you know before you set out that you'e never going to get the shots you want, firstly never try and get hubby to have his photo taken just before lunch, he'll co-operate for around 5 minutes before faking some kind of hypoglycemic coma and ranting about cake and buns every 30 seconds. Secondly don't expect a 3 year old to act any differently!

Yes not everything in life goes to plan and in my family it's usually a surprise when something actually does work!

Anyway I can home with a camera full of nothing, if you think this shot was bad you should see the rest of them!

One of my fabulous team-mates had a brilliant idea for my business, Fiona recommended that I do a Babies first year package or as i'm calling it the Poppet Portrait Package!!

The layout was created for the Happy Scrapper design team and features the fabulous swirly papers of Winnies walls, I think I took the swirlies 1 step further. Photo is of course my Looby being a princess!!

Chic!

It was Abigails turn for a photoshoot today, helping me in my quest for world photography domination and I'm so glad she did, we only shot for around 10 minutes as any longer and it would have ceased to be fun for her, she has a really short attention span at the best of times.

I guess it's been a while since I noticed just how much she's grown and how she's turning into a lovely young lady, I think she looked very chic hence the title of my first layout of the week, hadn't scrapped in a whole week, mostly due to all the photography going on and spending every spare minute on my website

I'm lucky to have a wonderfully supportive hubby and tonight I think me and him
might just settle down for a night of less internet and more top telly, Spooks returns tonight and we both love that!! All in all it hasn't been a bad week!