Explore. Outdoors. Fun.

It's hard to believe that it's been almost 2 years since we went to Whinfell Forest (Center Parcs) in Penrith. We really need to think about going back. It's a really magical place for kids. And I won't deny I didn't enjoy floating around in the onsite spa for an evening either. While the men-folks were golfing (or simulating golf I can't remember) my Mum and I went exploring with the boys and I snapped this photo of Jack sitting on a toadstool. I'm not sure if he likes posing or if he's wise and knows that the quicker he smiles and has the photo taken, the quicker I stop whining.

I used Bella Blvd.'s Campout. With all the trees and wood grain I think this collection is perfect for scrapping a Center Parcs holiday. The patterned paper with the tree print is called In the Woods and I'm pretty sure the brown wood grain is the free pattern paper you get when you buy the collection kit. This is actually the back side of the front page you see with the kits name and the details on the collection kit. The green and white polka dot paper is the back side of Lets Go Camping. I added a tonnes of stickers, some from Campout but some from other Bella Blvd. kits. I usually mix and match my Bella blvd. as it's really easy to do that with Bella kits). As there wasn't a heck of a lot of colour in the photo I wanted to make the red of the toadstool really pop so I added a heap of red embellishments. Including some red wood grain washi, an acorn flair (that could be October Afternoon), some yellow/orange netting (I'm sure that has a proper name..?), a KI Memories Puffy, a felt toadstool, chipboard and finished off with some Thickers for the title.

I'm really looking forward to scrapping more of this holiday and possibly booking another one soon!

And the award...

...  for not blogging in 2015 goes to me. Not a single post in 2015? Poor.

We moved house. We decorated our old house, we put it on the market, we kept it tidy (with two kids - this was the hardest thing we did last year), we sold it, we packed, we looked for a rental, we found one, we moved in, we looked for a new house, we found one, we put down a deposit, we picked all of our extras (after visiting EVERY SINGLE Taylor Wimpey show house within a 20 mile radius) and then we waited, waited, waited until we gave notice, we did viewings at our rental place, we packed (again) and we MOVED! Finally 11 long months after we put our house on the market we moved into our new home.You can see it all in squares at https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/youngsyearlongflit2015/.

Between houses I managed a little bit of scrapbooking. Not much. Seeing all my crafty stuff boxed up and sat in piles in my Mum's house and in our rental house made me realise (and feel a little bit sick) just how much stuff I have accumulated over the last 10 years. I had a massive clear-out and another just last week so I'm feeling much better about all of the things although there is still way to much but I'm aiming to use it all up (snort snort) rather than purge anymore (at the moment).

I just wanted to say hi and I'll leave you with the page. Supplies are: Simple Stories The Story of Us, gold Thickers, a gold doily and lots of Prima flowers.

Happiness is a Bella Blvd. Collection

I've been playing with Bella Blvd's Playdate range - clouds, strawberries, polka dots... what's not to like. I started off with the clouds and playground papers for my background. I really wish I'd though about where I was cutting the playground paper as I'd have liked to have seen a row of swings along the bottom but it wasn't until I'd stuck it all down that I noticed. I just filled the space in anyway and there is one swing set showing. I love the bright happy colours and the general cheeriness of this range and I love that you can easily mix and match from other Bella Blvd collections. The clipboard clouds and pink stripe scalloped border are from other Bella collections.

 

I am a Bella Blvd. junkie without a doubt - I have Tiny Tots on my NEED list :) Do you have a favourite Bella collection?

Cutest Igglepiggle I EVER saw

Oh. That. Face.

I've been playing with Bella Blvd. All American. It doesn't need to be the 4th of July.

I started off with a 12x12 of Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock (you know the stuff - no matter how clean you think your fingers are you STILL manage to transfer grease on to the card???). There are so many lovely patterned papers in All American collection that I wanted to use them all. I settled for eight, cut into strips and inked with Color Box Cat's Eyes Sky Grey. I added a whole load of clouds, some I punched using my Fiskars cloud punches, one KI Memories Puffies, one from the Bella Blvd. Sophisticates Clouds clipboard stickers, and one wood veneer cloud from Freckled Fawn.

I added a couple of the cut out cards from the collection, washi tape and a lot of stickers (mainly Simple Stories Sn@p and Bella Blvd (All American, Baby Boy and Everyday Bookplates)), a wood veneer globe and flair badge from Two Peas in a Bucket (Etsy shop) and some red rik rac.

Thanks for stopping by Kx

Stitched Up

There are so many lovely patterned papers in the My Mind's Eye My Girl collection that I couldn't pick just one, two or three so I picked five and made a quilt. Hand stitching all those squares (they are 2.5x2.5") is a little bit of a labour of love but I think it's worth it. It's also really simple to do (gets my vote right there) and the stitching is quite therapeutic and can be done in front of the TV (multi-tasking at its best).

 

And here is the boy version (at Jack's request - not one to see a hand stitched  layout go past him) using My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy.

 

And man, that boy is crazy :)

All supplies are from Craft Island. The massive Craft Island sale (everything is 40% off) is still on at the old Craft Island website. For all the latest news and new supplies from Craft Island take a look here: website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter.

Ready, Set, Go!

And I'm off!!! I made a start on Noah's scrapbook!!! I blogged about it over on the Craft Island blog. Please pop over and say hi :)

Summer Love

I wonder if I'll ever stop using kraft cardstock... for a while I wouldn't have dreamed of using it; too plain, looks like a cardboard box, boring. Look at me now...

Supplies include; kraft cardstock, Bella Blvd Sunshine and Happiness, American Crafts badge and Thickers, washi tape and the new Amy Tangerine stencil set.

Dizzy Lizzie

Digging out an old collection (an oldie but a goodie - what's not to love about Imaginisce's Enchanted - even the name is magical) I've made baby steps toward scrapbooking again. Four moths have passed since I last stuck paper to cardstock and it's about time I get back in the scrappy saddle.

I did start with a sheet of pink Bazzill but I couldn't neglect my old friend - kraft. The papers and most of the embellies are Imaginsce's Enchanted. The little teacups are from Reminisce's Fairy Tales collection and the alpha's are Thickers. The photos are of my Goddaughter Elizabeth on the Teacup ride. I entered the page into Scrapping the Magic's March Challenge - huge thanks to Jo for the insiration that got me scrapping again!

Craft Island Design Team Blog Hop

Welcome to the Craft Island Design Team blog hop - you should have arrived here from Lets Get Krafty with Debbie. If you are lost just head back to the Craft Island blog.

Each member of the design team was asked to create a project using Bo Bunny's new festive collection - Mistletoe.

For my project I decided to create a scrapbook page using a photo of my big little man - Jack. The photo was taken one evening in Decmeber 2010 when he was two years old.

I started off with a sheet of kraft cardstock and created a die cut banner adding some hand stitching to hold it all in place (along with some teeny tiny bits of double sided sticky tape to hold it in place while I stitched!). I added some Mistletoe embellies, alaphs and inked the edges using Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Black Soot to finish my project.

To be in with a chance of winning a Bo Bunny Mistletoe Selection Pack, simply leave a comment on each of the design teams projects. The winner will be picked at random on Wednesday 14th November at 9am. Good luck!

Grandma's Round-Up

***don't forget to enter my 100th blog post giveaway here***

My 10 Things in May brought you ten pages/photos/projects on my scrappy to-do list. Today I made a start on number five on my list; to look through my Mum's 'Jack' album and take a note of what is missing. I started by taking photos of the pages that I have done and here they are...

I made this page today using Bo Bunny's Blast Off! The photo was taken at Edinburgh Zoo in September 2009. It is a photo that my Mum loves (not that she doesn't love EVERY photo of 'Grandma's little star', hence the title), so I really wanted to include it in the album. I like the page so much I am in the middle of creating another one of my album.

Jack's second Halloween and the first time he did his 'funny smile' face. Supplies for this page include MME Boo to You, Bazzill, Thickers and K&Co.

Jack's first Halloween at only a little over two weeks old, using Bo Bunny's Whoo-ligans collection. I think most of the embellies are by K&Co.

This is Jack at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre in Livingston. I used WRMK's 72 & Sunny.

Jack's first Christmas and first Santa costume. I think the embellies are by Reminisce but I'm not too sure.

Jack in the snow December 2009 not too sure whether he should laugh or cry. I used Echo Park's Wintertime.

Jack only 6 weeks old doing the funny 'hands up' thing that babies do. Suppies are LYB Babysaurus.

Jack's first ever photo! I used Simple Stories Baby Steps for this page.

This is as far as I got but it's a good start. I now know what I've done and can think about what else I would like to include.

I would love to hear about any projects you are working on for other people? Thanks for stopping by, Kirsteen x

In with the Old and the New {kinda} and a Giveaway

~Welcome to my 100th post and a celebratory giveaway!!!~

I've been 'saving' the Little Boy sticker from Echo Park's Little Boy collection for as long as I can remember. Why do us scrappers do that? Where better to keep our coveted supplies than in our scrapbook albums? So I challenged myself to use it.

Moving out of my comfort zone a little more I looked past the kraft cardstock for once and reached for an old sheet of blue WRMK sewn cardstock. I really like the stitched detail and I think this is definitely something I will try to recreate using my WRMK Sew Easy tool. I added a few embellies from some of my favourite ranges; the little owl is from the DCVW The Green Stack, the sun, cloud and tree are by Bella Blvd. (part of my recent birthday haul - I can't recommend these enough - the are lovely) and the pin badge is American Crafts.

I'm really pleased to have transferred some much loved bits from stash to paper and to have scrapped this photo of my little man from early 2010 - he looks so grown up to me in that photo even now two years on.

To celebrate my 100th blog I'd like to giveaway a £20 gift voucher for you to spend at Craft Island. All you have to do is become a follower of my blog and post a comment on this blog post either linking to a project where you have used a coveted item of your supplies or simply tell me about something you have been hoarding for that 'special' project. The closing date is Saturday 30th June. And I'll announce the winner on Sunday 1st July.

Thanks for stopping by x

In the Summertime

And from an old collection to a new one... so the thing is, stash bought for your birthday operates in a silimar way to calories eaten on your birthday - you know the fat free, point free, check free, syn free ones...? This meant I could treat myself on my birthday and it did not affect my stash diet AT ALL. Obvisouly :p So, I treated myself to Echo Park's Hello Summer and Bella Blvd.'s Sunshine and Happiness. I can't get enough of these Summer colours and I'm loving that I managed to use them for a page for Jack's album too.

This is Jack after a hard days work at Edinburgh Butterly World (and when else can you really go to town with butterfly embellies on your little man's pages?!). Seeing Jack sleeping a a rarity as he usually wakes the second I open his bedroom door (although more recently he has been sleeping with the door open so I can sneek a peek more often - not so good in the middle of the night when you want to sneak to the toilet - which happens A LOT at 30 weeks pregnant!) so I always try to snap him when he falls asleep in the car. I then crane my neck as much as possible to look at him. Don't worry I'm not the one driving when I do this! No fellow motorists were harmed in the making of this layout.

Supplies include; Bella Blvd. Summer and Happiness, Thickers, Bazzill, AdornIt, KI Memories Puffies, Martha Stewart butterfly punches, Sizzix Subshine die, Sassafras Lass Felties, gems and a little lone red brad.

I really wanted to make a point of using the gorgeous stickers in the new Echo Park Hello Summer collection rather than hoarding them for that 'special' project (that never transpires) so I really went to town with the stickers on this one. The photo is of my little neice enjoying a bounce in her Jumperoo. Isn't she a little cutie pie. Supplies include: Echo Park's Hello Summer, Bazzill, Thickers, Sizzix Sunshine die, ribbon and decorative pins. Thanks for stopping by x

Digging out an Old Collection

How many must have collections lie in your scrappy supplies unloved, unused, forgotten about? Please tell me I am not the only one who has to have a collection like yesterday and then promptly forgets all about it? In light of my recent attempts at a stash diet I decided to dig out one of my unloved but much loved 'must haves' - Farm Fresh from October Afternoon. 

I love the whimsy colours and the little peas in a pod are so cute. Supplies include: Bazzill, October Afternoon, Thickers, Bella Blvd. chipboard jounralling spots, Sizzix Sunshine die, decorative pins, ribbon and KI Memories Puffies. Thanks for stopping by x

what i LOVE about you... {take two}

...or should that be take three... I scraplifted my what i LOVE about you... page which was orginally a scraplift of Jaime Warren's page as part of the recent online scrapbooking event Shimelle Laine ran. Are you still with me? what i LOVE about you {lets just call it take two} is a page for my little neice or nephew's album.

Again I used Echo Park's Dots and Stripes Metropolitan and Candy Shoppe kits, but this time I added a lot more pink, some paper blooms and a pretty Petaloo bloom. I used my new Big Shot flower die to cut the layered flower and to add some dark blue embellishments - who knew it was possible to be dark blue embellishmentallty challenged..? And some of my new Queen & Co Trendy Tape (I'm loving the tape but had to reign myself in from using too much - it's addictive!). The alphas are a mixed of Thickers, Bo Bunny Boo to You and AdornIt. I've added some buttons, ribbon, tulle and a decorative pin as well. I've left lots of space for their Mummy to add some journalling too. Aren't they the cutest??

Back to the Magic

I picked up this cute 8x8 Mickey Mouse album while we were on honeymoon in Orlando in 2007. Once home and scrapping, I found 8x8 scrapping wasn't my thing. I just don't work well with this size, I don't know why as I love 4x6, 6x12 and 12x12 so what's up with 8x8? Who knows, but after a few pages I was sold on the idea of giving up gracefully. Recently, I sold the 8x8 album but was left with a stack of lonely pages sitting on my craft desk.

Continuing in the stash busting spirit (and generally clearing my craft desk) I decided to repurpose my pages for some 12x12 living.

I stuck each layout onto a sheet of 12x12 cardstock and added some embellishments. For some reason my original 8x8 pages didn't have many bulky embellies. I have no idea why. I wish I could ask my former scrappy self - why so flat? Did I have an aversion to foam pads perhaps?! I also added some long awaited journalling to each page. Hey younger me - why no journalling?! Now I have some new(ish) layouts for our honeymoon album and more space on my desk.

Where's your smiles for Mummy

Where's your smiles for Mummy is a phrase that Jack has heard a lot. Much to my enjoyment he is currently going through a happy to be photographed stage. I can't lie; never looking at the camera and the inability to stay still for one nano second was not my bag. I'm so pleased we've moved on to this new poser stage. I'm fully prepared that it won't last and I am making the most of it armed and dangerous with my point and shoot. But there was the captive audience stage where he couldn't move (much), didn't comment on his outfits and happily posed all the time (although it's safe to say he didn't have many other options).

Ages ago I made use of a special offer at Truprint for a collage print. I had no idea what I was going to do with my print but I think it was always my intention to chop it up. As a scrapper who relies on online photo printing I am always looking for ways to print in a size other than 4x6 (although I love my 4x6 dont' get me wrong) and this seemed like a great idea. It's really simple to create, just pick your photos and Truprint (or I'm sure any online photo printer) does the rest. 

In the spirit of using existing supplies, and I include my pre-printed photos in this, I thought it was about time I put this collage to good use. Three years sitting in my craft room was not part of my grand master scrapping plan (I just checked my Truprint order history which goes back to early 2010 - this order isn't even there). Time to get scrapping!

Keeping the layout Truprint had already given me all I had to do was cut the photos and stick them down in the same order (losing a column and a little from one of the photos on the left hand side to make this it fit onto a 12x12 sheet but I am sure you can order collages in A4 to get around this. 

I added a couple of strips of papers, a title, embellies and some journalling - a super quick layout with lots and lots of photos to look back on.

Supplies include; kraft cardstock, Bella Blvd. Baby Boy paper, stickers and chipboard, Simple Stories Baby Steps alphas, gems, brads and Thickers.

Rollin Rollin Rollin

When Jack first started to roll, he rolled only to the left. When he reached the sofa he would indicate that he wanted to be taken back to his starting position at the opposite side of the rug. Such a precious memory, I wish I had blogged/scrapped this at the time as we had to do a little detective work (looking back at old photos and video) to remember the details. This makes me sad but makes me even more determind to blog/jot down (scrap!!) the little details and the big milestones as they happen. This is even more important to me with Jack's little brother on his way! How do you scrap with two??? Practically? Will there be time? How do you decide who to scrap?! I'd love to hear your strategies?

This page was inspired by Shimelle's second challenge to mix three or more paper collections on one layout. I have to be honest I NEVER do this. I am a lazy scrapper. I don't want to spend too much time on one page. I don't have (or at least I didn't think I had) time to search through collections upon collections to find papers that match. I simply scrap by collection, adding the odd embellishment from another collection/manufacturer but generally sticking to one range. I was ready to mix it up, to give this challenge a go and I am so pleased that I did.

I think I cheated a little however, as I picked collections that have really quite obvious and similar themes - baby boy and animals.

Supplies include; Bazzill (kraft cardstock), MME Lime Twist Fly a Kit (blue star and grey/brown polka dot papers, red stars transparency), LYB Babysaurus (yellow stripe paper and stickers), Bella Blvd. Baby Boy (yellow cloud paper, star and bodysuit borders stickers and chipboard), LYB Baby Boy Safari (chipboard and journalling spot), Ki Memories Puffies (red flowers) and American Crafts (Thickers). Plus some lace, tulle and decorative pins.

I love the introduction of the red from MME - I would never have thought to add red to the other collections. I am so pleased with the results that I am going to keep these supplies together all mixed up. Here's to mixing it up and blogging/jotting things down more!

what i LOVE about you...

I've really been struggling to scrap this photo of my gorgeous Goddaughters. The colours of their clothes didn't fit with any of the pink girlie collections I had bought to scrap their pages. So the photo has been lying in a drawer for ages unscrapped. Until today...

Insprired by Shimelle's first challenge (Shimelle is hosting an online scrapbooking event this weekend) and armed with Echo Park's Dots and Stripes Metropolitan and Candy Shoppe kits I made this:

Lots of mad colours (in my opinion) that I would have never thought to use together but love the result. I added some buttons, lace, tulle, gems and decorative pins along with some journalling spots for their Mummy to complete. I'm really pleased that I have finally managed to scrap this page and that I am happy with the results.

Welcome to the World

My little neice arrived safe and sound last week; a little bundle of loveliness. In preparation for her arrival I created a couple of pages for her very first scrapbook. I decided on the Amanda Blu Woodland Animals album for her. I have the Robots version of this album as well (in fact I have three but that's a whole other story). The albums have a lovely touchy feely fabric embellished cover which you can't help but stroke. You really need to see them in the flesh. They are gorgeous. My little man loves his 'robots book'. He is always 'just looking' at the cover :)

I used Simple Stories Baby Steps, Prima flowers (Whisper Collection - Celebrate and Classic Lace - Aria), a Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, some Kaisercraft gems and pearls and Lullaby Thickers. I inked the cardstock and papers with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

 

A little slow on the up-take, I am fast becoming a kraft cardstock convert. I just can't see past it at the moment. It's so easy to work with no faffing around trying the match papers to cardstock. No pulling out oddles of one colour of cardstock to find that really you have nothing out of the masses that actually matches. Urgh. 

In other news, I am throwing a  Gruffalo themed birthday party for my little man's 3rd birthday. Amazing! Said the Gruffalo.

Fairest of Them All

Parades are great for a bit of character spotting and snapping at Walt Disney World! I love to stake out a good spot for taking photos of the parades. And, to be honest at only 4' 11" it's a bit of a neccessity! We were lucky enough to catch the Hollywood Holly-Day Parade (aka the Stars and Motor Cars parade) at Disney's Hollywood Studios' (formally MGM) in December 2007 before it moved to Disneyland Paris. So, I have lots n' lots of photos of  Disney characters in their cars with the added bonus of Santa as we caught the parade at Christmas time.

To create this page I used  a sheet of Bazzill and lots n' lots of Reminisce's Fairy Tales Collection and some seriously old (or should that be vintage) red and pink metal and pearl embellishments that I think my Grandad 'rescued' from a birthday card. My Grandad was crafty like me and I inherited his craft supplies when he passed away in 2006. It's really lovely to be able to use something he had squirreled away on one of my pages.

Have a magical day!