Round 7

Firstly, thank you to everyone who voted for me in round 6. Round 7 is now up over the the creativity life blog (http://creativitylifemag.blogspot.com/) if you fancy voting!! Challenge 7 was great fun as we got to try doing a few different things to normal. I did 2 los, 2 cards, a picture, 4 ATCs (my first time to try ATCs!), an ATC holder/envelope, a fold up mini album, a box for the mini album, 3 flowers in a 'vase' (these were my favourite and I'll definitely be making more) and a bookmark! Hope you like them :)
I didn't get to do too much crafting over the last couple of weeks but I did do two los with the new Lime Rickey range from BasicGrey. It's bright, bold and fabulous! This is one of the los I did with it which I was really happy with. I had some lovely bright embroidery thread which I used to add some stitching and also added some stickles to emphasize the watery theme. I'm not usually much of a 'stickler' but I thought it worked well here.

a few more ...

sneaks ...

sneaks 'n stuff

How many times do you think a very excited boy can ask "How much longer until my party starts?" I think Oisin may have broken some kind of record on Saturday morning! He was just so excited I thought he was going to burst. Well 1 0'clock finally arrived, and so did all his friends... and they had a ball. I'm still trying to recover from the shock that my baby is now 6 :)
I have quite a few sneaks this time for the next round of Scrapbook Apprentice, so I thought I'd spread them over two posts. Here's the first few...

Rain, rain go away!

It's a grey, rainy day here today and I really do hope things get a bit better for the weekend ... Oisin is having his birthday party here on Saturday and I hope to do some games and things outside. I finished up all my projects for the next round of scrapbook apprentice last week and had great fun this time making some cool stuff that I've never tried before. We had to do one lo and one card and whatever else our little hearts desired :) We had to work with a kit and all I can tell you is that it was purple! When I first saw it, I thought purple ... what am I going to do with purple? But everything turned out really nice and I can't wait to show you some sneak peeks next week. I really hope I get through this round so you can see them in full. I'm still working on my write up though and haven't got to start any other projects yet so I just wanted to share a page I did a good few months ago at one of Laineys crops...

Untitled

After going for a good swim this morning and doing a few extra lengths, I have no energy left to think up a witty/clever/apt title for todays post so it will just have to remain untitled :)
I signed up the other day over with the Scrapbook Store for the Midsummer MegaScrap with Celine Navarro. Sounds like it will be a good day and I'm looking forward to learning some new techniques. Celine was a guest designer with StudioCalico a few months after they started up. Oisin is counting down the days to his birthday party now and I just hope he hasn't got orders in with his friends for presents!
I have a bit of a love/hate thing going on with the lo below. Its one I did sometime last year and I love lots of the individual elements like the papers, the colours, the felt rocket, the title and the memory but it's a bit all over the place. Oh well :)

round 6

As always, it's hard to believe how fast time is whizzing by! Round 6 is now up on the Creativity Life blog and there are only 6 apprentices left! These last few months have gone by so quickly.
I would just like to say a big thank you to anyone who voted for me last month ... thank you :). Challenge 6 was all about stamping so if you would like to have a look (and maybe even vote if you like what I did :), just click here. I was a bit worried when I saw the papers at first as the colours were so muted but I have to say I was very happy with the finished pages and cards ... in fact I think the lo on the blog now might be one of my favourites!
I'll leave you with a lo I mentioned in my last post, done using the scrummy gorgeousness that is BG Marrakech. I really love this photo of Oisin, his eyes look so big and blue. He was going through a phase at the time of saying 'oooooh mamma' and 'oooooooh dada' and was only about 16 months old. He'll be 6 in 17 days ....aaaahhhh!!

all going swimmingly!

Nothing much to report today! I only got two los done last week ... but I did get three swims in! I broke open the BG Marrakech goodies I've been hoarding for a while after seeing a lovely card by Julie and I have to say I just adore those colours. But the lo below (which I'm not sure if I like or not) was done with some Pink Paislee.

Sneaks

Just wanted to post a few sneaks for the next round of Scrapbook Apprentice. The challenge this time was creative stamping and we got some lovely new papers by Jesse Edwards (which aren't in the shops yet!) and some pretty flowery swirly stamps. The colours were much more muted than the bright bold colours we worked with for the last round and looked very pretty and elegant. I had lots of fun rediscovering embossing powder ... which is like sand: it gets everywhere! And I tried chalks for the first time which I really liked. Note to self: stamp more and make more use of the gazillion stamps I own!

suuny Saturday

It was a beautiful day here today and I think the sunshine really lifts everyones mood! I finished my los and cards for the next round of scrapbook apprentice earlier in the week (I'll post a few sneak peeks soon :) but didn't seem to get much else done since then, except these ...


I bought the blank letters in Wal Mart when we were in Florida last year and have been meaning to cover them ever since. So I finally dug them out and covered them with some gorgeous BG Phoebe papers that I have been saving for ages and put them over the doors in our sun room, which is where I do my scrapping.

Easter weekend...

We had a lovely Easter weekend ... Declan was off work on Friday and got to do lots of bits and pieces around the garden. The glasshouse is full and I'm looking forward to a flower filled summer! We went to the Botanic gardens after church yesterday and got some nice pictures of the beautiful tulips ... the colours were just amazing. I do feel like I need a bit of a detox now though after too much Easter egg. I felt like I had chocolate running through my veins when I was going to bed last night! (Not that I ate that much ... just more than normal :) So I went for a swim this morning to try and undo some of the damage and feel a lot better now.
I did this lo a couple of weeks ago, about a visit to Dublin Zoo last summer. I love this StudioCalico paper ... yum!