I am never gonna look back: Challenge YOUrself #29

Hi everyone welcome to another month and another Challenge YOUrself  challenge. First of all I must apologise for being AWOL for last months challenge, I did complete a layout for challenge 28 but as we had no wifi I couldn't do a blog post to go along with it but I will share it with another time if you want to see it.

Anyway onto this months challenge, and this month is a little different to normal as we've teamed up the guys over on the Scrap it With a Song blog so you have two challenges com into into one to play with this month. For those who don't know the Scrap it with a song blog, each month they give you a choice of two songs to inspire you whether it be the title or one of the lyrics. This month the songs are Best Day Of My Life by American Authors and So Am I by Kensington. To go along with this our challenge is to use this mood board. 

I was inspired by a line from Best Day of My Life, the colours of the mood board and incorporated a sunburst and feathers into my layout. 

This photo was taken the summer before I joined Slimming World and the line "I am never gonna look back" struck a chord with me as I wanted this to be a reminder of how far I've come and how I don't want to be that weight again. 

I used papers from Studio Calico Wanderlust collection as the colours matched the mood board while the patterns complimented my dress. For my background I used some mists from Mister Huey, Heidi Swapp and Tim Holtz and tried the packaging technique. When I saw the sun bursts I knew I had a Shimelle Stamp Gemma gifted to me so used this. 

I finished by using stickers from Simple Stories

Make sure you pop over to both blogs to check out both Design Teams work and to join in

Last of the Dukes Farm layouts (finally!!)

Here are the last two layouts I made at Dukes Farm wwwaaaayyyy back in March! After this I'll finally be up to date yay! 

While we were away the For the love of pretty paper Facebook group posted their monthly challenges. One challenge was to use labels, twine or arrows on a layout. I looked through the stash I took with me and managed to use all three on my page. 

This photo I snapped of me and my mum on the train when I took her down to London last year. I used papers from Amy Tangerine, Dear Lizzy, Crate Paper and Teresa Collins. Most of the embellishments are from Simple Stories apart from the word stickers which are Crate Paper.  

My final layout is for a sketch challenge Sue on my Sketchy Scrappers group set over on her blog. I was too late to enter with everything that was going on but never mind. 

I scrapped a nice summery layout, just what we need to cheer us up when the weather is crazy and going backwards at the moment. 

Notice that the wafer on Ian's ice cream is broken. This is because he started eating it before I told him off as I wanted to Instagram our ice creams first! I used papers from Amy Tangerine, Cosmo Cricket and Simple Stories. I used some die cuts from Dear Lizzy Fine & Dandy as this was the perfect (and probably only) layout where they fitted the theme. 

So I'm finally up to date with sharing my layouts! Hopefully I'll have something new to share with you soon x

I'm back!!!!

Sorry for the huge gap between posts, I hope I've not kept people on tenter hooks waiting to see ore layouts from my weekend away to Dukes Farm which was AGES ago now! 

The reason for my hiatus? I've transferred my job and relocated up north to Bradford. Everything happened a bit quick and then when we got here it was two weeks until our wifi went live! But we're settled now and adjusting to our new life, so far so good I'm pleased to say. 

So, back to the layouts. These are the last of the ones I scrapped for Shimelle's online crop, hopefully I can remember what the challenges were!

This layout is for the circles challenge. I punched some circles out in different sizes and went from there.

In case you can't tell the photos are from the Harry Potter studio! To be honest I'm not sure what I was thinking with the colours but it's done now!

I think this layout was for a scrap something old or from the past. I decided to scrap a photo of my grandparents old post office which I've had printed for ages but done nothing with

This was the last layout I scrapped that weekend. This was for a colour and travel challenge. We needed to use Kraft, red, yellow and blue. I decided to scrap a photo of Barmouth harbour taken last year when we went camping. 

I'll be back soon with the last of the Dukes Farm layouts, I promise I'm not planning to move in the meantime so it won't be so long this time! 

Dukes Farms Layouts: Shimelle's online crop part one

Ok so it's been two weeks since Dukes Farm and I've realised I've not actually shown you any of the layouts I scrapped! While we were away Shimelle held an online crop over the whole the weekend with a number of challenges, talk about perfect timing! 

The first challenge was to use one of the previous weekly challenges to make a layout. These were to scrap a selfie, make a monochromatic layout, use hearts or globes, or to mix old and new stash. I decided to opt for hearts with a mixture of products from an older Dear Lizzy range (Lucky Charm) and a new(er) collection (Fine & Dandy) and scrapped a photo of a future crafter in the making. 

I used some of Gemma's gorgeous Heidi Swapp Texture paste through a stencil for my hearts, I think I definetly need to invest in some of this! 

Next I scrapped a layout for her Scrap something you value challenge. I decided to scrap a photo I had been carrying around for some time, the last photo I took of Buster. I chose this as I will always value the time we spent with him and the love he gave us. 

I used papers from Amy Tangerine's Stitched collection. There was a cut apart which said Never Stop Loving, and I used this as part of my title. 

I'll be back, hopefully soon, with the other layouts I made for the crop. 

Dukes Farm Layouts: Sketchy Scrappers

This time last week I was tucked up in a barn with 9 fellow crafters and 3 husbands for our annual getaway. This year we tried somewhere different and stayed at the gorgeous Dukes Farm near Craswall on the edge of the Black mountains. 

I had a productive weekend and made 10 12x12 layouts and a shadow box layout for a friend. I managed to catch up on the most recent Sketchy Scrappers sketches which I have neglected recently. First up I caught up with February's sketch which was set by Karen

I loved this sketch and stuck pretty close to it. I chose some photos taken last summer of Boo "helping" nanny and grandad water their plants. 

I used papers from Echo Park and Little Yellow Bicycle. I thought the Little Yelloe Bicycle paper at the top fitted the photos perfectly so I chose the saying to be my title. I received a heart stamp in a grab box some time ago and used this on a scrap from my scrap box. I finished with some labels and tiny word stickers from Crate Paper. 

I also managed to scrap March's sketch which was set by Caz

I moved the centre piece to the left and scrapped a photo taken when we went to seaside for a day last summer

I gutted a piece of Fancy Pants paper for my background and layered papers from Simple Stories & Amy Tangerine on top to keep with the summer feel. For my title I used Thickers from Dear Lizzy Serendipity collection, the letters in the set were different colours but I was able to make my title with all the same colour. I again used more labels and a sticker from Simple Stories, face it when else am I likely to be able to use an anchor sticker if not on a layout about a beach trip! 

Remember When: Challenge YOUrself #27

Welcome to sunny March and a new Challenge YOUrself challenge. Sorry for the delay in posting this, I've been away this weekend on a scrappy retreat and forgot to schedule a post (slap on the wrist!). This months challenge is to use Chevrons on our pages.

Before I started my page I thought I would use my chevron punch or embossing folder both from Stampin Up. But as I continued to look I found a piece of Chevron paper from My Minds Eye, the colours of it reminded me of an old photo of me from 11yrs ago when I used to dye my hair bright red so my page went in a completely different direction. 

As the colours matched my photo I decided to use the rest of the Cut & Paste collection. I also experimented with the background with texture paste, distress inks and stencils, I'm not normally one to do this for fear of screwing it up but decided to just go for it! 

So that's my page. Why not pull out your chevron stash and create a page too. Remember to pop over the blog and check out the other DT layouts and link yours up to win a prize. 

Cards for the mums

Happy Mother's Day to all the mums out there especially my lovely mum. I'm currently in deepest, darkest but beautiful Herefordshire on a crafty retreat so won't see my mum but I made sure to drop her card and present off before I left. For the Mother's Day cards this year I dusted off a very neglected stamp set from Stamping Up, when I say neglected I mean I brought it cos it was so pretty then never used it but don't tell anyone that! Anyway I dusted off the stamp set, grabbed some Distress Inks and made these lovely cards. 

For the blues I used Peacock Feathers & Cracked Pistachio and for the pinks Picked Raspberry and Spun Sugar. 

While I was in the flow I also made a birthday card for Mumma B whose birthday was last week. 

I used some die cuts from Dear Lizzy Fune & Dandy, if there was any occasion I was going to use that dog die cut this was it! I mixed this with papers from her Daydreamer collection.