Una tarjeta de cumpleaños para Monica

.... otherwise known as - A birthday card for Monica.

Mark is off to Jacksonville on Monday, for work purposes and also to have a good nose round our new city. He is going to check out schools and areas to live, and meet his new colleagues in the US Navy.
A British colleague put him in contact with an American family who live in the area we want to, and whose children go to the schools we are interested in. They got in touch, and invited him to a birthday meal while he is here, so I thought I would make a card for him to take with him. Monica comes from Chile originally, so I got my Google out (!!!) and found a couple of Spanish phrases to put inside her card...

I used the sketch from The Sugar Bowl, and would like to enter this for their latest challenge. I decided when I saw the sketch, that I would do something a bit different, and made the front part of the card a triangle.

Here is the inside of the card. A quick translation - "Dear Monica, Happy birthday, Hope you have a great day". Unfortunately without Google, my Spanish is limited to Dora the Explorer...

I used Bella Bunting on my card, coloured in with ProMarkers. The papers come from the PaperMania Summer Bloom set.

Now I hope that a) Mark remembers to pack the card, b) he remembers to take it to the meal, and c) that she likes it!!

Off to work now, TTFN

xxxx





Epic catch up...

I cannot believe it has been nearly 3 months since I last posted! To be fair, we have had a lot going on - a huge amount actually lol.

The big news, is that Mark finally got his posting notice. The even bigger news is that it is a posting to Florida! OMG, even now I still can't believe we are going! We fly out on the 1st of June - only 70 days away. Our passports and visas are back, our flights are booked, and our shipping removal has been booked as well. That goes on the 17th April, and in it will be all my crafting stuff :( But, I know I will have plenty of  places to go shopping when I get there ;)

I have a few layouts to share today, to add to the catch up. I started taking 12 photos on the 12th of each month this year, as I thought that it would be a good idea to document our final months in the UK and the first few months in our new home in Florida. Compare and contrast, in a way.

So here is January. I have been using sketches that have been posted on the Facebook group I am in, and you know how I love sketches! The "twentytwelve" border is a SVG cut file from Kerri Bradford, as it the 12 in a circle and the title. I am really getting to grips with using SCAL and have even downloaded the Inkscape program to help with dividing and adapting files. I found a whole set of Karen Foster calendar papers in my stash, so this is a great way of using it all up! I love the colourways of them too, which helps cut down the colours I use. I am trying to make it more about the photos and the journalling than the design ;)

I have kept the same elements to do my February page.

And the same for March. Makes it all easier ;)

I am frantically trying to make all the cards I will need before June in the next few weeks before my stuff goes. In fact I need to make one tonight... Mark is going out to Jacksonville next week with work, and he has been invited to a birthday party! So, I am going to make a card for him to take with him.

I promise I will be back. I want to share some of the cards I have made, and also share the last few layouts I did for Nuts About Sketches as part of their Design Team :)

TTFN


xxxx

Looking backwards, looking forwards...

December is always a busy month for me - working in retail means I am usually working more hours which leaves less time for everything else. And the blogging really fell off the radar this year. Big style. But I did have a good December. I spent a week in Dundee helping to set up a new store, which was a great experience, but exhausting. It hasn't done me any harm with the company either ;) I then worked the night shift the week running up to Christmas, sorting and counting all the customer food orders. I don't think anyone was left without a turkey this year ;)

So now the turkey leftovers have been eaten, and the bells have rung in the New Year, I thought I would come here to share my 2011 and my thoughts on 2012.

2011 wasn't a bad year really. Amidst all the uncertainty of what was happening with Mark's job, we carried on with the everyday life, trying to keep some control over something we really had no control over at all. As friends found out their futures in September, we still were no further on to finding out what the RAF has in mind for Mark. We still don't. So, for now, we carry on as normal.

Craft wise, I had a very good 2011. I was picked for 2 design teams - Sassy Lil' Sketches and Nuts About Sketches - both sketch blogs. Unfortunately Sassy Lil' Sketches closed in October :( but I am still on the NAS design team. I was lucky to have projects published on the online magazines of Scrapbooking.com and ScrapStreet, ticking off another of my "to do's". But I think the highlight of my scrapping year was to be asked to do a sample layout for the PageMaps blog and newsletter in November. I have been a long time fan of Becky Fleck and her sketches, and this for me was akin to meeting royalty!!! I was really proud of the layout I produced as well.


So, on to 2012.  With the view that sometime this year we will be moving, I am trying to get more organised. Purge and de-clutter are the new watch words for my year. I really want to make the whole house moving thing a bit easier by being prepared. Wish me luck!! So I am trying to be more organised by using planners and calendars and post it notes. We shall see how long it lasts, eh?

Something else I have been trying to incorporate into my routines, is some kind of exercise. I am very anti exercise LOL. To be honest, I have been blessed with a very low maintenance body LOL. But I do know that I need to change my attitude to exercise, especially after the year I've had regarding my health. Some weird and wonderful symptoms reared their head in 2011, and after several consultants appointments and an MRI scan, I have been told that essentially all my systems are normal. However, I am still having symptoms. I was put on medication before Christmas which has seemed to help with my ability to cope with the symptoms I am getting, so I am actually more positive for 2012. But I do realise my body is not as young as it used to be, and with me reaching the big 4-0 this year I think that I will need to start taking care of myself a bit more. So that means some sort of exercise...

Craft wise, this year I just plan to continue as I did last year. I am keen not to take on too many commitments, and I have a nice pile of UFO's (Un Finished Objects) that I really want to either complete or let go of this year. I am still working on my craft room, trying to pare down my supplies so I have only what I use and not what I think I will use ;)

So in essence, this year is going to be all about organising and simplifying. I am also hoping that by doing this, we also curb our spending a bit. I am planning to do a wee bit of shopping in the sales - I have some vouchers from Christmas to spend, and I would like to treat myself to some new essentials with the extra wages I earned in December. But no scrapping supplies LOL. Now THAT is going to be a challenge...

TTFN


xxxxx

Happy

Sunday was the local Hopeman crop, an enjoyable afternoon full of chat, laughs, tea, cakes and of course a wee bit of crafting!!!

I'd taken a couple of page kits, and managed to complete one layout (apart from title and journalling) and half finished a second layout.

This is the layout I almost completed at the crop, after I had added the title and journalling at home :)

I used a 8.5 x 11 horizontal PageMap from November 2011. The photo is of my Grandparents, taken whilst on holiday in Eastbourne around 1952.

The papers I used are from Pink Paislee. I love double sided papers! I had fun decorating the circles with punched butterflies and tiny flowers. I added a bit of handstitching to finish things off.

TTFN

xxxx

Nuts About Sketches week 187 :: On a log

This week over at Nuts About Sketches, Shawn has created a beautiful one page sketch. Sometimes I just love to have a single photo on a page, especially when it is a favourite photo of mine. The sketch called for a 5 x 7 photo, but I just matted a 4 x 6 photo onto a piece of 5 x 7 cardstock ;)



The photo is one of my favourites of Tom and Jemma, and was actually taken with a wet film SLR camera. I would love a DSLR one day, although I know I cannot justify one right now, from both a financial and an ability perspective. From the roll of film I took, maybe 3 or 4 photos were any good LOL. Never mind. The "photo shoot" (in the loosest terms of the phrase) took place at Roseisle, in August 2006. My kids never stick to the paths, always ending up in the middle of the forest as they seek out things to climb on. This fallen tree didn't escape lightly LOL.

I used Bazzill Basics Kraft cardstock, and papers from American Crafts, Prima Marketing and My Mind's Eye. The title was made with raw chipboard alphas from PaperMania, which were inked with Walnut Stain Distress Ink, and then covered in brown Stickles. The tiny alphas are from Making Memories.
The leaves were from my stash, and the butterflies were made using a Martha Stewart punch. I added some stitching, using a Bazzill InStitchz template, and a length of green rik rak finished it all off.

Please head over to the blog to see the other beautiful layouts from the rest of the Design team!

TTFN


xxxx

Nuts About Sketches week 186 :: Special Day

This week, the sketch over at Nuts About Sketches was a fantastic 2 pager. As ever, Shawn manages to fit lots of photos on the sketch without it looking cluttered. I was drawn to using some old photos again this week - I am really going through a heritage phase just now!

These photos are of my Mum's Christening Day. I love all the photos of her with the close family - with her parents (my Nana and Papa), Little Gran (Great Grandma), Big Gran and Grandpa (my other Great Grandparents) and Auntie Nellie (sister of Little Gran).
The originals of these photos only measure 2.5 x 3.5, so when I scanned them in I decided to keep close to the original size, and just scale down the size of the layout instead. So this is an 8 x 8 double page spread :)
I used My Mind's Eye papers again - a bit of Lost and Found with a bit of Stella and Rose thrown in :) I used Martha Stewart punches for the butterflies and the border.  The letter stickers are PaperMania, and the gems are from Kaisercraft.

Head over to the blog to see what the rest of the girls have been creating!

TTFN


xxxx

November PageMaps sample:: Walk

About a year ago, I put my name forward to Becky Fleck over at PageMaps to say that I would like to be considered to do a sample layout for the monthly newsletter and website. I didn't think anymore about it, until October when an email came from Becky asking if I was still interested in doing a layout, and it was for the November PageMaps reveal? Interested? Boy, was I ever!!! PageMaps has been my go to sketch site since forever LOL, and it was the first sketch site I ever found. It was a long time before I realised that there were other sketches out there, so Becky has been like a sketch Goddess to me for many years. To be asked was such a big thing for me!!

So after I had finished running roung the house like a mad woman, and stopped chanting OMG over and over again, I got down to the nitty gritty and made my page. And I must say, that I love this layout. Simple it may be, but oh my, I just love it! Thanks Becky, for your great sketch!

As you can see, I was given a 8.5 x 11 Map to work with. I just flipped the sketch, as the photos were placed on the left hand side of the sketch, and  I have a thing about people looking off the page...

The photos show my Mum (aged about 16 months) walking along a wall holding  my Great Grandfather's hand. This is the guest house they were staying at whilst on holiday in Eastbourne in 1949. I have a whole album of these kind of photos to work through, and I love seeing the family connections.

I used some of the beautiful My Mind's Eye papers from the Stella and Rose collection - I am loving this colour combination at the moment, especially on my heritage layouts. I made the rosette using an edging strip from one of the papers, and scored it at 0.5 cm intervals using my Hougie board. The title was done with American Crafts Lullaby foam Thickers - I coloured them using a ProMarker (Cool Grey 5) and then added Black Diamond Stickles on top to add some texture.

I'd also like to say a big thank you to Francine, for featuring me as Inspiration du Jour over at CraftGossip.com today!

Thanks for stopping by the blog today, I hope you enjoyed your visit :)

TTFN


xxxx