Published!

I don't know what it is about seeing your layout in a magazine that makes you feel any different! I mean if you like your layout, surely thats the main thing. I really don't understand it, but for some reason it really does feel great!! I picked up my copy of Scrapbook Inspirations this morning and was so happy to see my Natural Beauty layout in the readers gallery. When I got the email to request my LO, they mentioned that sometimes LO's are cut from the gallery due to space restrictions, so I was afraid mine would be chopped!  But it wasn't, so I'm a very happy chappy today :) 

Birthdays and Boxes

April is a busy birthday month in my family. My Dad, three sisters and my nephew all celebrate their birthday! So I made a batch of birthday cards over yesterday and today. 

But it was very hard to concentrate on cards when I had just got a much anticipated box of BasicGrey goodies in the post. The new Archaic and Cupcake ranges are just gorgeous and I just love the chipboard stickers. 

Sing when you're scrapping

I love to listen to music while I'm scrapping and my latest purchase, Dreaming Out Loud by One Republic, is really good. But my best find in a long time was a cd called Hand Built by Robots by the very talented Newton Faulkner. I got it a few weeks ago and it's one of the best cd's I've listened to in a long time.

Today I finished my third layout using my fabulous StudioCalico kit. There is so much lovely stuff in there. (And it was well worth getting up at 5am to order the add-ons!!) I did two layouts of my handsome little monkey Oisin and finally got around to doing one of our wedding photo's. I have been scrapping for about a year and a half and have been married for almost 10 years (can't believe that...am feeling quite old!) and this is the first time I have done a wedding LO. I have so many older photo's I'm dying to scrap but I always seem to scrap my sons pictures. So many photos to scrap...so little time. Anyway, here are the LO's.

Easter Hols

It is so nice to have Oisin off school for the Easter holidays. And so nice not to have to get up early! Tuesday was a beautiful sunny day so we decided to go to the zoo and brought my niece Erin along too. 

Oisin was supposed to go to a party today so I was having a look through some of my cards. I love the little fairy/angel stamps from Hero Arts on this one.

I used to make quite a lot of cards but since I started scrapbooking, I only make them when needed! 

Got my first StudioCalico kit yesterday and I can't wait to get stuck in. It looks absolutely gorgeous and I have to say that the designer gallery on their website is really good. 

CraftEire

CraftEire seems like a distant memory now but at least I have some fab LO's and new friends to to keep me going! I met the lovely Beckie Dreyer there and have to say a big thank you to her. When I mentioned to her that I was there on my own, she invited me to sit at her table where I also got to meet Jane Dean and Beckie's friend Hils. What a great start to my first scrapbooking event! 

I thought I'd post some of the layouts I did there. I was really happy with all of them and it was great to try some papers I wouldn't usually go for. The first layout is called 'Smile' and was done with lovely bright paper from SEI. I stayed pretty true to the layout Eva did in her class but did change the colour in the flower centres to yellow to match the yellow flower in the photo. I think it's a very happy page!

The next layout is a double page layout that was done in Amber Janes class. The paper is from Ki Memories was a perfect match for the pictures I had from Oisin's fourth birthday.

This layout was done in two parts using an acetate. I love this picture of Oisin and had been wanting to scrap it for ages. The papers from K&Co that AnnaMarie used in this class were ones I never would have chosen but I was surprised how well the LO turned out.

These papers from Fancy Pants are just gorgeous. I changed the layout just a little from the original in Amber Jane's class, leaving out the glittered wing die cuts and adding some journalling and a title instead.

When I saw these papers from Sassafrass Lass, I thought 'yuck' (sorry Eva!). But I found the perfect photo with Oisin looking through the telescope and added some chipboard stars and a few gems to give one of my favourite LO's.

Now I just have to finish off the two mini albums I started !

Relax!

I had a very relaxing morning this morning! I had a wonderful facial and massage at the Sakura Spa in Roganstown. Thanks to my lovely hubby Declan for the voucher!!

The layout opposite is one of the first layouts I did. I entered it in a DoCrafts competition last year (it had to use mostly PaperMania products and this was the only layout I had that fit the bill). At the time I didn't really think it was great but it has really grown on me. And Oisin still loves that woo-woo! 

It's a start!

Well, I thought I'd never do it, but here I am starting my own blog. I recently returned from the wonderful CraftEire where everyone seemed to be talking about their blogs, so I thought I better at least give it a go! CraftEire was so much fun and it was so great to be able to talk about scrapbook stuff with others who seemed to love it as much as me. I didn't realise there were so many fellow scrappers in Ireland.

 I was kind of relieved there were others who got excited by the thought of beautiful patterned paper, fabulous tools and cool embellishments!

I started scrapping about a year and a half ago. My first time to see one of my layouts in a magazine was in the letters page of January's Scrapbook inspirations. That was the 'Dress Rehearsal' layout above. I don't know if appearing in the letters page counts as 'being published' but I was so delighted to see my layout in print. 

Then in February I found out that I was a runner-up in Scrapbook Magazines 'Scrapbooker of the Year' competition. I thought I was going to burst I was so excited.  

I didn't know I had won anything until I picked up the magazine in Easons as they didn't let me know in advance. I got a real surprise when I saw my name and layouts!

Here are the layouts I entered for the competition. The first one is called 'Take Time to be Silly'. It has a few self portraits of Oisin and I making silly faces.

This next one is called 'The Monkeys' and the photo in this layout is of Oisin in Universal Studios in Florida.

My last layout is a double page layout called 'Things You Say'. I had been keeping note of a few of the funny little things Oisin said for a few months and had wanted to put them all in the one layout.

I still have to figure out how to get things looking exactly how I want here but hopefully that won't take too long!