I had a great weekend messing around with my stash for the UKS cyber crop. Mum came over on Sunday and we decided to do the inchies challenge as neither of us had ever made any before. We really had a laugh. You should have seen the state of my kitchen there was embossing powder, two heat guns, glitter, paper and paint on every surface lol, and I have got quite a big kitchen. I would have taken a photo but we were working to a deadline don't you know!!


My favourite inchies are the ones I made using a little cupcake stamp that I got this week - I think I should call them 'The Shimelles' for her love of cupcakes lol.

I can show you a couple of other layouts now which had to be kept anonymous or secret for the cybercrop. The first one is the layout I created for the mystery challenge. I have to say when I opened the box and saw the supplies I thought....well I won't tell you what my exact thoughts were but I didn't think I would be able to do anything with it. An hour later this layout was complete and I keep looking at it because I just love how it turned out. There is a tag behind the main photo containing the journalling.


The next layout was my entry for the pre-crop challenge. We had to create a layout using the title 'Once Upon A Time'. I was lucky enough to receive 17 votes for my entry which put me third, there was a tie for first place. Anyway, how cute does Charlotte look? This was on her 4th birthday a couple of weeks ago and believe me she was NOT acting very cute for most of the day!


Finally, I did this layout today for Kirsty Wiseman's 'Scrap Your Hands' contest. The deadline is tonight and I really didn't think I was going to enter it but I made a last minute layout just so I could have a go - there is a great prize and a girl can never have enough stash, in fact I haven't got nearly enough. I have looked at the slide show on her website of the other entries tonight and there really are some great ones so I don't hold out much hope of winning but you have to be in it to win it don't you?


Had a lovely package through the door today! My lovely Mark had been into a newsagent in the good ole' USA and sent me three current scrapbooking mags.

Off to bed now as I want a relatively early night, and I have got those magazines to flick through until I drop off!

It is the cyber crop on UKScrappers this weekend and I have been very busy! The first few classes that went up were absolutely lovely and I had a great time creating my versions of the classes. I particularly like my version of Maria Hortons class as it is a gorgeous photo of Ben with silly bug toy on his head :o).

Playing Crazy Bugs

I even ended up doing a layout which was nothing to do with the cyber crop at all.



I loved Shimelle's Box of Sweets class using the huge photograph.

Who Wants Ice Cream?

This one is Mystic Nats class 'Curiouser and Curiouser' which I enjoyed doing on Friday night.

Air Day

Off to check out the final class :o)

Woo Hoooooooooo! Just had to share my excitement!! I have just had three layouts accepted on the Basic Grey gallery on the BG website.

I just put them on there last night thinking, no way will I get on there but lo and behold I just had three e-mails from them telling me they have been accepted. Of course, I had to go and check out the website to make sure I wasn't imagining things lol. Well, there I am in the designer list lol. Click Here.

I think I deserve to buy myself at least 2 new BG paper collections for this achievement don't you? Markie, are you reading this lol.

I have been scrapping but it is the Mystery Kit for the UKS cyber crop this weekend so I can't share yet. I still haven't scanned Ben's layout yet. I don't think I like it actually, I may fiddle with it a bit more first.

I got my subscribers issue of The Scrapbook Magazine today and this layout is on page 72. I sent this layout for publication 24 hours after I had completed it and I can't wait to get it back again and stick it in my album :)

I completed my layout for the Pre-crop challenge for the UK Scrappers cyber crop last night and I also completed a layout of Ben today. I can't share either as I can't be bothered to scan at the moment. Also, I can't show the pre-crop challenge layout as it goes up for anonymous voting at the weekend, not that it will get many votes. I haven't got any friends lol.

I will scan the layout of Ben tomorrow and upload it. I know I do more layouts of Charlotte than Ben but I just love doing the girly ones so much and I find it much harder to do 'boy' layouts.

If Terrie is reading this, I will ring you tomorrow but if I forget PM me. If not, I may read this and remember!!

I have been trying to catch up on things this week. Mark had 2 weeks leave before he left so the I had only done general housework and none of the more tricky things like carpet edges, skirting boars and picture rails so I am happy to report that I have done all this now :o)

I have a load of washing in the machine and it is such glorious weather that I will hang it on the line! This is new to me as I haven't had a washing line for about four years!! It is so much better when it dries naturally.

Catching up on other stuff, I went to the crop in Exeter (Scraps in the City) last Saturday and - as usual - I had a fab time chatting to the girls and scrapping. The girls that go to this crop are all really lovely and we are so lucky to have such a great group of people. Mum comes with me too so that makes it even better. I finished off a mini book that I was making for Mark to take away with him which had photos of the kids and me in. He was really pleased with it. I also managed to complete three - yes THREE - layouts. Shock horror. I usually just sit eating cake, chatting and moving bits of paper around on the desk lol.

Here are the layouts:

I love this paper!
I wasn't sure when I was doing this one but now it is my favourite of the three layouts
Left it simple as I wanted to see the paper

It was Charlotte's fourth birthday on Tuesday, the day after Mark flew to America which was a shame. Anyway, she had a great day. She really wanted Ponyville for her birthday so of course that is what she got! We also bought her a Barbie house amongst other things. My Mum bought her a Baby Chou Chou doll and Charlotte really loves her new baby. You should have seen her face when it started making baby noises, she was so excited. Bless her! She even takes her baby in bed with her every night and I am constantly having to stop the baby crying when she can't do it lol.

Here are some birthday girl pictures:

Ready
Steady
Blow

I went to the first UKS Plymouth crop on Wednesday night - with Mum of course - and it was lovely. Anna who has organised it did a great job putting together a paper bag book kit. I have yet to finish mine as I am not sure what I want to use it for yet. I need to do some scrapping! I have a visitor tonight so it will have to wait until tomorrow :( Still it will be nice to have some company on a Friday night.

Been a bit manic here as usual. Mark went away to join his ship for 3 months on Monday morning and we are all sad! It was Charlotte's fourth birthday this week as well so we have been busy!

I went to the Scraps in the City crop last Saturday and did some layouts :o) I am going to the new Plymouth crop tonight so I have to go and get things sorted now.

I will blog tomorrow.

As I said, I spent last night playing with Photoshop. Well I knew it wouldn't be long before I ended up creating a digi lo. I do love doing these because I love playing with graphics. However, I still don't really 'get' digi scrapping. I mean what are you supposed to do with the layouts when you have done them? It isn't the same as looking through a beautiful album of layouts is it? Even if you print them, is it the same? Perhaps I need to see someone elses digi layouts and what they have done with them to be convinced. I am sure Kate Hadfield could convince me lol.

Talking of Kate Hadfield, she is so talented and the kit I have used to create this layout is one of hers (a collaboration with Gina Miller). I saw this kit and although I don't really do Digi Scrapping the colours and style jumped out at me and I had to have it! It is called 'Colour Me Funky'.

Wellt is 10am and we are all still sat in our PJ's so I had better go and get everyone sorted out for the day :)

We are having a very nice Easter. The kids received an obscene amount of chocolate from family and friends which will probably last until Christmas (they were still eating their eggs in October last year!).

We have been to my brother's this afternoon for a lovely barbecue. He has the same camera as me but has a new lens so I have taken some good photographs with that this afternoon. It has a much better zoom than mine which meant that I could get pictures of the kids without them actually realizing I was taking them - this is a great advantage as Charlotte hates having her picture taken and Ben always stops what he is doing, looks at the camera and poses exactly the same way for every picture he has taken!

Anyway, I haven't put the photographs on the computer yet because I got a little bit waylaid and started playing with pictures in photoshop cutting out backgrounds, enhancing eyes and generally messing with the look of the pictures. I have loved messing around with graphics for years. I used to use Photoshop when I worked but only really used Paint Shop Pro at home. PSP is brilliant and I absolutely love it but now that I have my iMac I can't use PSP (it's only available for the PC) so I am getting to grips with Photoshop again - it's great!

Here is what I tinkered with.....

Ben - Removed Lounge Background amongst other things - still need to sort out that bit of red eye!

Aetherised the image to give it that Acid / Urban feel - I love this - Also enhanced the eyes. You can see the original of this image in the post Busy, Busy, Busy below

I was just about to do a post to say we went to Central Park with the kids this morning and I was all happy! Now I am not as the photos I took have disappeared from my camera. There were some really good ones on there too. I am really upset.

Right off to find the kids to see who has been messing with the buttons.