Laying It Out...

...now...don't all swoon... but... I have finished my layout... it has only taken me three week so I reckon that I am getting better at scrapping ROFL Today is my day for the Bubbly Funk blog... and I used some delish My Minds Eye papers and a bit of chipboard... ok... ok... more than a bit of chipboard, but it is lush stuff, I can't help myself!





To see all about the actual LO and the way it was made and other "deets" you can click HERE and as if by magic you will be transported off to Bubbly Scrumptious :O)) Thanks for looking... have a fabbyilicious day... I plan on an inky day today I think... I fancy getting me some inky and messy projects made! TTFN ...

Hels x

Havin' A Rummage...

.. and I found some old Scrapbook albums I did yonks ago... Honestly, I used to spend hours doing LO's and, since this inky stampy malarkey took over, I haven't done a single LO. Well, I had a good old clear out when we moved and found some really nice LO's I made ages ago.. this is one of me... by me :O)) Check out how plain the LO is - nowadays I have collected a whole load of stash and would do this totally differently... actually, that could be a challenge for me, to make use the same pics and colours and do something totally new... I guess I never got past the beginner stage of Scrapping ROFL






The pic was taken about four years ago on a trip to North Yorkshire - we were on the North Yorks Moors Railway at the time and Grim did a close up *and yes, his camera did still work afterwards LOL* ... we had just been away to Skiathos for a week, hence the freckles - I don't tan, I just freckle, peel and then back to pale and interesting again LOL The pic reminded me of a nickname I was called when I was little.. FreckleFace... so that is why I named the LO this. Anyways.. I just wanted to share it - it was done long before I began to blog so I really don't think it has been seen before ... and you probably won't want to see it again ROFL Have a great day .. TTFN

Hels x

Fairy's??? Who Needs Fairy's ???

...ME!!! and PDQ cos I am having a NIGHTMARE!!!!! I started packing up the Room of Stash this morning at 09.30 - actually, I started in Gary's room where all the storage units and stuff to be altered lurks...and that took all morning - but I have been utterly ruthless and thrown out - so far - 8 binbags full of old tat! I have now moved on to the Room of Stash proper and have just had to stop - tears down my cheeks cos I found my Scrapbook Albums which have been away under the big unit for ages now...and I saw some layouts I had made that made me feel very sad... Here is a piccie of one of them;





And here is a piccie of a LO Grim made for me when I hit 5 years as a Driver...bless him, he is better at scrapping than me LOL




So, here I am ... covered from head to foot in dust - where does that all come from??? And I have done about 1/3 of the packing in the room...I have been working my way round it methodically - and am now in even more of a mess than before ROFL I am putting away an "essential" pack into a tote trolley - thank the Lordy above that I invested in one of these ages ago...it will come in handy! And... hazard a guess at how many canvases I have ready to be altered???...nearest one to it gets the pleasure of driving over to my abode and helping me ROFL Here is another LO I found....this one is my first ever meeting with Tim Holtz...can you tell that I actually went all shy??? This is also my first foray into the world of Grunge and Distress Inks..not bad for a first attempt I reckon :O))



I had better dash...oh, before I go...the news on the MRI's....mmmm, not so good - but could be a whole lot worse - I have got several degenerating discs - as well as the prolapsed ones...and the only ones that are still in tip top condition are the ones where the pins are - they have held my spine together and actually protected them. However! I have to go and have a "procedure" done...basically, they will inject some kind of anti-inflammatory and analgesic into the base of the spine - I suppose it will be the taily bit...and that should give me some relief from the chronic pain. I will have it done under local - so I am guessing I will have to be on my front with my backside exposed...not a pretty sight! Anyways... gotta go.... tomorrow I will be blogging the photo's of the horror's of "Room 62" - you will have a fit when you see just how many boxes I have done already...and still have more to do! TTFN

Hels x

My Beautiful Poppy

Evening Peeps,

Well, what better way to start a brand new year than to make a scrapbook layout of the little cat that is the reason that I started crafting in the first place. I am sure I have bored you all with this story before, but for those of you who haven't heard this before.....this photo is of Poppy, my little cat who was my very first "furbaby" and my constant companion throughout my twenties and my "single years" as I call them.




Sadly, Poppy got very ill when she was just seven years old. She had renal failure and the kindest thing to do was to let her go. This completely broke my heart and I never thought that I would be able to smile again. As I was so upset, Grim decided that to buy me a cardmaking kit in the hope that my mind would not dwell on my loss. Little did he know that he opened up a whole new world and a whole new addiction for me.

I like to think that the reason I am a crafter is because of Poppy - and Grim of course - and she is, and always will be, my source of inspiration.




So, I have this photo of her, that was taken the year before she passed away. She loved sitting in the sunshine and as you can see, her black fluffy coat often caught the sun and turned brown. Poppy went deaf when she was three years old, so whenever she was out in the garden, I made her wear a collar with three bells on it - so I could hear her wherever she was!




For my layout, I have kept it simple and used a couple of pieces of the new Basic Grey range called BitterSweet. I edged all the papers with Warm Violet Chalk Ink and then stamped and cut out lots of my Stitchels flowers, which I then edged with the ink and layered up onto 3D foam. The title is made from some Alpha stamps - and I planned on a three word title as this layout is also my effort for the challenge from months ago that I kept saying I would do and never got the chance to......see Shaz....told you I would get there eventually :O)) LOL The little dots in the middle of the flowers are DewDropz ... I just love these little dome shaped gems, they just add that little extra something to a project.




Thanks for looking and I would love your comments as I have had a comment from Grim which I have taken on board - wonder if any of you will say the same thing though? LOL




I am planning....get this....to make a Blog entry every day in January....do you think I will be able to do it though? Well, here is hoping! Oh and I almost forgot to mention.....dear Jennie from The Artistic Stamper made this photo of Poppy into a rubberstamp for my birthday last year and it is available to buy if you are interested....click here and you will be taken straight there :O))

Happy New Year to you all...may 2009 bring you much health, wealth and happiness and above all, may you have the stength to cope with what life chucks at you.

Lotsa love Hels xx

Autumn Scrapbooking Challenge

Hiya Peeps,

I have finally got round to making the scrapbooking Challenge that is set monthly on Craft Swap Forum. The theme was "Autumn" and after I had searched high and low for a photo that was appropriate, I sent my hubby out, armed with his camera, to capture some "Autumny" piccies for me.




I was delighted with all the photo's that he took....he is a very good photographer! I just had to use these three piccies though. The Avenue picture perfectly sums up the colours of Autumn and then those little squirrels....oh how sweet they are, and to get one that has a conker in his mouth not only once but twice...what a Godsend!



I used a sheet of Bazzill cardstock as the base for my page. I then cut some rectangles of patterned paper from the Fusion range by Basic Grey. On the off cuts of the paper, I stamped the leaf stamp (PSX) and then set to cutting the leaves out. I left some with the stalks and some without to make them look more realistic.




Once I had matted the rectangles to the Bazzill, I matted the photo's onto some co-ordinating Bazzill and then used silicone glue to attach the leaves, curling each one slightly so that they are raised off the page. I wanted to achieve the look that the leaves were falling gracefully from the trees.




Finally, I edged the papers and photo's with a Burnt Sienna ChalkInk and then made a couple of titles (using the same colour Bazzill as the photo mats) using my alphabet stamp by Stamps Away, edging these bits of card with the ink too.

I am really chuffed with the overall look of the page. I don't do enough scrapping so it was nice to spend an hour or two on this project.

Thanks for looking....Hels x

The Little Cat Laughed.....

Hi Peeps,
I have not been keeping up with my Scrapbooking recently, so I took time out today to make a page using a chance photo I had taken of Alfie, my cat. I scrapped this photo about two years ago when I had not been Scrapbooking for very long, and also I have more stash now than then :o))

I have some NRN Design Papers along with File Folders and Slide Mounts, so I decided to use these as I liked the grey colour scheme.

My hubby bought me a camera a couple of years ago and I decided my first photo using it would be of Alfie. However, when I took the photo, he did the usual cat thing and moved! I can remember telling him he was silly for moving, and I took another picture of him.

Imagine my delight when I got the film back from the developers and I saw this fab photo of Alfie, mouth wide open and in focus too!

For this page, I wanted a contrast from the original page, but also wanted to keep the title as I really loved the idea that Alfie was having a good old laugh! I scanned the photo into the computer and then printed off the image in varying sizes, so I could use the same photo throughout the page but with different elements.


I used one sheet of plain paper and then tore a section off a decorated piece and added this to the left of the page. I then used a stitch stamp to make the paper look like it was machine stitched on (as I am no good with sewing machines!) I then used two slide mounts in differing sizes and added two of the photo's to them. I edged all the elements on the page with black Distress ink so it all blended together. I used the main large photo and matted this onto white card. I then edged this with the black ink to blend it with the other images.

For the journalling, I took one of the little pockets that were in the NRN collection and stamped Just Clowning Around onto the front of it. I then used the smallest of my images and stuck this to a piece of card, and then wrote my journalling on the reverse. I added a little pull tab and stamped Pull This on it. The stamps I used here were by PaperArtsy and Catslife Press.






I then used an old press down self inking stamp and just changed the letters on the panel, so I could write my own title for the page. Once I had decided on the actual layout, I began to cut out some of the pawprints that were on the piece of patterned paper I had used for the edge. I positioned the pawprints and then stuck them to the page, some of the pads were placed on 3D foam, just to give the page that extra bit of dimension.



Finally, I stuck all the elements of the layout to the page and then used some Cut & Dry foam to edge the whole layout with black Distress ink, again to add that extra bit of dimension to the overall look. As a final flourish, I used a vellum sticker "Got Catnip" and placed this on the larger slide mount. Alfie loves catnip and I think that if he could really laugh, then catnip would definitely make him happy ;o))




This layout is totally different in look to the original one I did which I have added as a comparison. I am equally as pleased with this one as I was the original though. I think it is nice to sometimes re-visit old layouts and re-scrap them so you can see how your scrapbooking has changed over the years. I can see that I still have the habit of using contrasting papers on the left of the page though!!

Thanks for looking,

Hels x