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!

scraps on the floor

Several purges, a major stash buying lull and a new room later... my craft room. It's not fancy. The accessories don't match. My supplies don't live in pretty little jars and my ribbons don't make a beautiful rainbow but here it is, rubbish lighting and scraps on the floor. The desk and the unit are a scrappers staple; Expedit from IKEA. The drawer unit is also from IKEA (Alex) (another scrappers staple). I have some Cropper Hoppers; the ones on the desk are old and don't fit into the squares, the ones in the squares are the new ones that fit! Most of the boxes are from TK.Maxx, I've found a lot of good storage in there and it helps that I enjoy a good treasure hunt. The metal Coke tins house all of my Simple Stories Sn@p supplies. The tins are from BHS (they sell them at Christmas with glass bottles of the good stuff). I have a couple of wooden boxes I've picked up in Sainsbury's and Verbaudet as well. And I have a drawer in a daybed (also from IKEA - Hemnes) for craft supplies (not pictured in the photo but just behind the chair) and that's it. I have a lot more space than I did before with a lot less stuff. I'm looking to get everything off the desk so I have that space just to work on so that might mean another unit or it might mean another cull. I'm not sure yet. I still have a lot of finished albums at my Mum's so I'll need to find somewhere for them to go as well. And I've still my eye on a Raskog cart even though I'm not convinced I NEED one but they are kinda cool.

Thanks for stopping by please add a link to your craft space if you wanna share.

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.