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!

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

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.

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

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!