Lost!

We recently spent a few hours attempting to escape from a local Maize Maze.

The three of us went our separate ways and the last one "out" had to buy the ice creams.

HE had the map but still couldn't find his way out - I rest my case!

My "Hello October" counterfeit kit was perfect for this layout - all those arrows facing different ways!!!

He's not the best map reader in the world and on our road trips he will ALWAYS get us lost.

Is it just a man thing? He cannot possibly look for road signs whilst talking, reading a map or anything else for that matter and never tells me what I should be looking for so

sometimes the air is "blue" inside those hire cars.

It was quite satisfying watching him trying to get out whilst I was safely at the end!

Reasons to be Cheerful Part 4

My fourth layout created using Wearcrafts

12 Pledges Kit - Cheer

tells the story of the the child when she had Chicken Pox.

She was only about 4 weeks into starting nursery when she developed the spots 

and was more upset that she couldn't go for two weeks 

than she was about having itchy and annoying pimples!

The current challenge over at

The Studio Challenges

is to scrap lift one of the Design Team layouts.

It was such a difficult choice but in the end I chose Anna's starry layout

which had previously been scrap lifted from Cari.

Anna had changed Cari's triangles into stars which I then turned into spots to fit in with my layout.

So, it's not the fact that the child had Chicken Pox that cheers me 

BUT the fact that we are very lucky on this island of ours 

to avoid the world's more debilitating illnesses.

Yes, we may struggle at the time to contend with Chicken Pox or Influenza 

however imagine having to cope with ebola where there is no medical help.

Don't forget that Jen and Virginia have been playing with this kit too
so make sure you stop by their blogs to see hoe they've been using Cheer.

Killed it!

This weekend was the monthly crop that I attend and love.

Having put my October kit together the night before

and

being in the know re. challenges, I have already killed my kit and it's only October 1st!!!

"Hello October" 

was an unusually small kit for me 

and I thought I would get maybe one or two layouts out of it 

with maybe a card created from the leftovers.

So on Saturday I was quite shocked when

six layouts were finished with a few leftovers to make 3 cards.

I can't show you them all right now but this

first one is probably my favourite and follows this month's sketch at

The Memory Nest.

The challenge closes today so get in there quick if you want to join in!!!

I have flipped the sketch and created this layout about this cheeky little boy

whose smile was so contagious and all because he could see his face on DH's camera screen.

These kids have nothing but they ALWAYS smiled and melted our hearts.
My journalling (as always, is hidden on a tag)

I hope you'll join me in the coming days/weeks to see the rest of my creations.

Bye Bye September...

Hi and welcome from one part of Cheshire, where you have hopefully been ooh-ing and aah-ing over Jemma's kit, to another only 7 miles up the road.

September was an "odd" month for me to say the least.

I didn't get a lot of crafting done and really missed my forging friends.

By the time I got around to checking out the October Kit which

this month, our Queen,

Laura 

had chosen to tempt us all with, it had disappeared into cyberspace.

Luckily, one or two of our super duper and well prepared Master Forgers had saved the images (phew)

and I was therefore able to shop my kit.

On first inspection, I knew I had quite a few of those patterned papers in my personal shop BUT

they were a bit flowery for me and I just don't "do" flowers!

So why did you buy them I hear you ask - well, could it be for the "B" sides?

So, I've already told you that I don't do flowers so, in my little scrappy world, I've turned them into dots, words, chevrons, zigzags - yes, you guessed it, anything but flowers!!!!

Just as I was putting my kit together, DH handed me some A4 clear plastic
"can you do anything with this?"
Having just seen the arrows with the dots on (did you see them?) and remembering those candy dots that we all once bought, "of course" came my reply and with that my little cutting machine jumped into action...

 then it dawned on me that with that little cutting machine, said plastic sheets and some liquid pearls,
I could also make these...

So simple, don't you think?

I then added in some washi,  chipboard accents, alphas
and a couple of word sheets

to create my kit "Hello October"

A smaller than normal kit for me this month which will hopefully be used up in no time at all.
(That statement may be answered later today when THIS post goes live!)

So before you head East a few thousand miles and drool over Leslie's blue box 

I would love to know - do you "do" flowers?

Our Queen, Laura:  http://beadsbuttonsandbirds.blogspot.com 

Julene: http://julenebydesign.blogspot.co.uk

Jemma: http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com

Lesley G.: http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk

Leslie: http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Lisa: http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

Lynnette: http://www.sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com

Margie: http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com

Susanne: http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com

Stephanie: http://skylinepaperie.blogspot.ca

Reasons to be Cheerful Part 3

Good morning!!!

Here I am again sharing another layout created using the latest

12 Pledges Kit - Cheer

put together by ScrappyJen, owner at Wearcrafts.

Have you seen all the fussy cutting on her creations, it sets my arthritis off just thinking about it, give me a punch or a die and a trimmer any day!!!

At only £5 for this kit it is well within most people's budget.

Budget, did I say budget?

>>>Budget Challenge>>>Scrapbook Magazine>>>Page 58>>>ME!

I was recently asked to create three layouts on a budget of £10.

I spent far less than that and so can you if you buy this fabulous kit from Jen.

Anyway, I digress, here is my latest layout using that £5 kit.

Unusually my journalling is on the front of my layout (yeah ok, it's printed but it's there)
and says...
"Every time we stopped to take a photograph we were surrounded by at least ten children asking for gifts or bon bons.
On this ocassion, we had stopped to see bricks being made when 20 children surrounded the car. As soon as they saw I had sweets they mobbed me!!! I walked away and asked them to line up (I didn’t want to miss anyone out)
They finally realised that they wouldn’t get anything unless they formed an orderly queue.
They stood patiently in line while I gave each of them a few sweets.
That is until they saw the skipping rope!!!"

Being able to give these children just a little something gave us real pleasure during our holiday...

Another reason to be cheerful!

Virginia is also creating cheer over on at CelticHouse.

Snowflakes and Music

Now I don't really "do" Christmas Cards but as my sister had asked me to make a couple of snowflake cards for her I decided that I needed a new die - any excuse for a bit of shopping!

Having seen some lovely ideas on Pinterest, I ordered the Dazzling Snowflake Memory Box die

to create quite a classy card don't you think?

The child is getting quite exceed already about Christmas and has already 

started singing Christmas songs (argh!) which brings me quite nicely to the prompt over at

Our Beautiful World...

MUSIC

This year she took her Grade 5 violin exam. 

She was devastated when she came out, thinking she had done really badly with the pieces AND the scales and apologised for failing!

Well! She didn't fail at all...

...she passed with distinction!!!

She still thinks the examiner got her mixed up with somebody else!

Reasons to be Cheerful Part 2

If you saw my post a couple of days ago, you will know that

Wearcrafts

have released their September Kit - Cheer.

All it costs is a fiver and at the time of writing, there were two kits left.

Another of my many reasons to be cheerful is that we, as a family, are very lucky in many ways.

One of those reasons is that we have had some great holidays and we enjoy travelling together

to many wonderful destinations.

Don't get me wrong, we have our disagreements and cross words

but we generally have some fabulous and truly memorable moments.

This year we travelled to Madagascar

(you will be seeing a lot of the photos being scrapped over the coming weeks/months)

and this shot was taken high up on a rock in the Isalo National Park.

The views were amazing!

I hope that she continues to travel and has fun along the way as she grows older.

More inspiration can be found with Virginia and Jen.

I will be back with another cheery layout in a couple of days...