I love summer

It finally feels like summer is here now that Oisin has finished school! And the weather hasn't been too bad for the last week either ... which means a lack of crafty projects to share as it's been too nice outside :) The next issue of doCrafts Creativity magazine is out (the Creativity and Creativity Life magazines are now combined into one mag) and has a few los from the scrapbook apprentices that we did for the stamping challenge ...


Mine is a wedding lo and it's only the second wedding lo I've done! Tut, tut.
It's my lovely Mams birthday today and I made her some birthday blooms similar to the ones I did for the current round of SA. Happy birthday Mam :)

mega scrap, sneaks and Oasis!!

Firstly ... Oasis?? So Oasis played in Slane on Saturday and although I didn't get to go, it did remind me of the last time I saw them ... fourteen years ago in Slane when they supported REM. I feel so old!!!! Declan was playing some Oasis in the car over the weekend for Oisin and now he's singing 'Whats the story Morning Glory' all the time (or as he sometimes changes the words a bit ... 'Whats the problem morning glory'! It doesn't have quite the same ring to it :)
I had a fantastic day on Saturday at the mid summer Mega Scrap with Celine Navarro. I got to try lots of things I had never done, or seen before ... lots of paint (which I'm usually afraid of!), gesso (which I had never heard of before, never mind used!), photo scratching and more. We painted on masking tape, newspaper, painted with our fingers, created a lo on a canvas ... It was so much fun. I didn't get anything finished but I'll post up some pics when I do. It was so nice to see so many people there too ... hi to Simone who I got to sit beside for the day, and hi to Joanne who I met at my first CraftEire and hadn't seen since and all the other lovely ladies :)
I have a few sneaks for the next round of Scrapbook Apprentice where we got to use the lovely Tiffany range from We R Memory Keepers. Hopefully you'll get to see them in full on the CLblog if I make it through the current round :)

books, cards and movies ...

So I actually managed to finish another book! The Appeal by John Grisham was a bit of a disappointment though. There were too many characters, leaving it difficult to keep track of everyone, the story was too complicated and the ending was terrible! Over the years I have read about 17 of his other books and enjoyed those so I was surprised at this :( Not one to leave a book unfinished though, I had to see it to the end. But today I picked up Twilight, and my hopes are high for this one. I finally got around to watching Twilight the movie about two weeks ago and was surprised how much I liked it. I also went to see Star Trek at the weekend and loved it!!!
As for crafting ... I've been working on some cards ... Fathers Days cards, birthdays cards, teacher cards etc. So I thought I'd post one of my older los which I did early last year. Even though it's a pretty simple page it has always been one of my favourites ... maybe it's that BG Archaic paper!

Back to the books

Over the sunny bank holiday weekend I actually managed to read a book! In the old days (as Osin would say) I used to read mountains of books ... I loved reading, but since I started scrapbooking I have hardly read any! (I have read lots of scrapbooking magazines though!) So while the weather was unusually sunny, I dug out a book I had been wanting to read for ages and read in the sun. (I'd highly recommend Harlan Coben books by the way :)
Before I was distracted by sunshine and books I did get this lo done though ... more Lime Rickey and more stitching. When I showed it to Oisin, he wasn't impressed saying ..."but I don't even like chickens!" I tried to explain that it probably wasn't a chicken and it was just for decoration anyway, but he was having none of it!

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!!