saturday crop - part 2

Here comes the proper post now!

The crop was fab - we are getting more & more scrappers now - so lots of other peoples work to look and admire. I saw some lovely heritage albums, I have not done done any heritage pages myself yet - but these were very inspiring. Might have to ask mum if she has any old snaps.

Oh and lots of stash to admire! Just when I thought I had got enough stuff, I saw a lovely punch which was a bit more than an ordinary punch - it did straight, corners, oblongs etc with a special base plate and it produces the most intricate shapes. I think I might have to pop into Percy Throwers to investigate.

I have been very busy this week so did not have enough time to prepare many layouts which was frustrating as I had 6 1/2 hours just to scrap without interruptions so I could have been very productive.

This is the only layout that I did complete.

It shows Jess and her friend having fun in the sun on their holiday to Faliraki in July this year. She came back with over 300 photos of the holiday on her laptop - so I am going to have to be very selective as to which ones I use. For this layout I used BoBunny papers, American Crafts thickers (rootbeer) and AC journaling sticker. Chipboard flowers from Gin X topped with buttons.

I made a start on 2 more layouts, which I hope to finish today.

As photos of layouts are minimal I will leave you with some pics of new goodies which arrived this week. I love this magazine which I have a subscription to - but I seem to have missed out on the July issue! I must email them tomorrow.

I bought this kit at the crop = its a Cosmo Cricket one called Cogsmo and thought it would be ideal for layouts of Ross & Liam when they were little as most of my stash is pink & girly because of doing Jessica's album first. I like the fact there are 2 of each sheet and they are all double sided - so I get plenty of options.This is another new boy kit = Rough & Tumble by K & Co. I got this from QVC and its really funky. Again the pages are double sided which is useful as some of them are too American for my taste! Just waiting for one more kit from Craft day on QVC - their waiting times are not improving!

Saturday crop - links

just a quick post to show some links the girls were interested in. Proper post later.

Etsy - this is the site for the handmade scrapping and other general crafts.

Scrapagogo - this is the link to the gogo web site and this is the link to the gogo thread on UKS.

American Crafts Journalling books - just in case the link does not work the item number is :-587065

Becky Fleck Book - I got mine from Amazon.

Auscraft - look at 'For Keeps'. 'Scrapbooking Memories'. 'Scrapbook Creations'. I like all 3 publications.

These 2 UKS sponsers sometimes have a few copies in stock = ArtBase & Angel Crafts.

Thanks for a lovely crop girls - off to see if I can find Ann's blog now!

Rainy barbecue!

How about a barbecue with a difference - a thunder storm!

it was such a beautiful day yesterday that we planned to have a Barbee for tea but Jess was out with friends and did not want to miss out so we postponed it till today - another glorious sunny day.

Unfortunately half way through - grey skies suddenly appeared followed swiftly by small drops of rain, then larger drops of rain - then bucketfuls of rain - so we had to abandon said barbecue and run indoors- leaving Steven to cook the remainder of the meat under an umbrella.

This was our first barbecue of the year and most probably our last!

Superlambananas layout

Well I just had to do a layout with these snaps didn't I. Trouble was, the photos were so bright and jazzy that I was stuck for a colour scheme. I did not want to convert them to black & white so chose the one only consistent but tiny bit of colour in all of them - her Uni ID pass round her neck!!!

The title was made using my new Buzz & Bloom chipboard - its called Distracted schoolgirl and I think it is quite funky which is what I think these pieces of art are. I painted them with acrylic paint and the added a layer of gloss. For the first time ever I have not used any PP so livened it up by doodling around all the photos with a sharpie pen. Under the large landscape photo is the leaflet produced giving the info about these structures.

Church Gems series geocache

Today Thelma & I started out on the series of Shropshire Church Gems - we have had to start doing some easy caches with gentle walks, as she is nursing quite a severe knee injury which she sustained when she fell when we were walking up on the hills in Kerry a few months back.


Our first geocache was at High Ercall Church (GC1C240) - this a beautiful little church and the find was relatively easy - her walking stick came in very useful.

We picked up the most gorgeous dragon geocoin here - I will take a photo of it tomorrow.Next was Stanton upon Hine Heath (GC1C242) and we were foxed initially as we had not read the info properly. There was a clue at the church which we had to decipher which then led us to the cache - no where near the church! Again we picked up 2 lovely travel bugs.

3rd cache was at Hodnet church - (GC1C249) another beautiful church - we do have some lovely ones here in Shropshire. Again we were a bit foxed by the clue - I was convinced it was wedged in the sandstone wall - until we read the clue again and realised it was at chest height - Thelma soon found it then! Another geocoin find!

We only had time for one more so did the church gem at Bolas Magna (GC1BVT) - I found this one first, as our geocaches were saying different things again! I did not have my joby tripod as Ross has pinched my geocaching bag for another holiday - this time he is off to France for a week! So had to try and take a photo of us together at arms length - sorry its not very good but at least we are having fun!

The Shropshire church Gems is a multi cache of 6 but we only had time to do 4 - so need to come back to find the last 2 to get the co-ordinates for the bonus cache at Peplow church

Some new scrapping goodies..

yes I know I should not be buying anymore - but its not a lot honestly.

First 2 new scrapbooking mags.

I bought Scrapbook Magazine in town and when I arrived home from said shopping trip found the postie had been with my scrapbook Inspirations mag. 2 girls from our crops feature in this months magazine -Sam on page 51 - taking part in the challenge to use an old childhood photo. Gorgeous layout Sam.
And Kathy on page 33, following the sketch. A really lovely layout Kathy, but frustratingly the magazine printed the wrong sketch so we are unable to see what the girls are working with! I have enjoyed both magazines this time - lots of inspiration - just need more time to scrap!

New book from amazon - thanks Ali for showing me your copy at the crop - just could not resist it after I saw yours.
have yet to follow a page map yet though!

Ali hope you are feeling better now and spent lots of time resting on the sofa reading your scrapping books. Do you want to borrow any more Aussie mags?

American Crafts journalling stickers and pens from QVC. I had one of these AC booklets in this month's Scrapagogo kit and thought it was great - then I saw that QVC were selling 8 books with 2 American Crafts Slicker pens for £14 - so of course I had to have that - expecting them in the post today - so will add pic when they arrive - though knowing QVC's dreadful delivery schedule, it will not be till next week that you actually get to see them.


When I went to Norwich, last week, I popped into the Range and picked up some DCWV cardstock stacks and 2 more Signo white gel pens as I can never find them locally.

And thats it - so not too bad - determined to find some time now to use them - just got to get this ironing pile finished, bake some cakes, hoover the front room and go to town - oh well- perhaps tomorrow.

Fab day out in Liverpool.

We made a spur of the minute decision to visit Eleanor today and what a lovely day out we have had.
Dad, Eleanor and I went to look for the Lambanana and baby at the women's hospital - above( where Eleanor works once a week in the fertility unit) and left Jess & Liam playing on Peter's Wii. I think my children must be the only children in the country who don't have a games console - so they were really excited to have a go on this one!
We then walked into town finding more Lambananas as we went. This one of John Lennon was outside the University of Liverpool.

Despite a big sign saying 'do not sit on the Lambananas' - everyone seemed to do so - so the Taylor children were not to be left out. Jessica despite being a super swimmer is not very agile and it was so funny watching her trying to sit on one.
even Liam let a smile show for once!

We were the sensible ones that did not climb on them!Even though the girls are grown up they are still 'Daddy's girls' .
Outside the Walker Art Gallery, I saw that there is an exhibition on featuring one of my favourite Victorian Painters - Frith - I love his paintings - but the exhibition is only on till August 10th so I am going to have to make a return journey before then.

Steven being a Beatles fan had to make a visit to Mathew Street - the home of the Cavern Club.

Liam forgot that he was on a mission not to appear on any of my photos so he smiled for a split second - then remembered and spoiled the next photo! I was so far away when I took this photo that he relaxed and actually smiled again - 2 pics in one day!
The girls had fun posing whilst we were waiting for dad as he was looking through Beatles memorabilia shops.

We walked down to the docks - only to find it was the Tall Ships race tomorrow - so lots of railing had been placed to manage the crowds - but what a disaster - it was such a mess - queues everywhere- but nobody knew what was going on at all. There were no signs telling people where to go or what you were queuing for. There were teenagers shouting something through mega phones but it was totally unintelligible so we made a hasty exit without actually seeing the docks or any tall ships which was a shameThe day was nicely rounded off with a meal at an american diner - complete with booths with leather seats. We all had burger & fries and they were lovely. The kids had the most fun though - putting 20ps into the juke boxes at each table - playing real 60's music.