Playing with Promarkers

The schools Easter holidays are here, so what does that mean... that's right, SNOW!!! Cue a pair of cabin fevered, stir crazy kids and a Dad who gets bored easily = chaos... Good job I am back at work again, so I can escape from it all :)

In other news, the kids did really well at their Tang Soo Do grading, both achieving their green tag belts. Good news for me is that I didn't have to then spend the weekend sewing on a new trim... saving that for the next one...

Tom's party was a success too - there is something to be said for paying for someone else to think up the party games, prepare the food and clear up afterwards ;) Especially when it is a group of hyper 7 & 8 yr olds....

So, as the title suggests, I have been playing with my new Promarkers :) Tom got a last minute invite to a party last weekend, so I thought it'd be a good chance to give the pens a go, and to also play with my new Greetings Farm stamps :) I originally bought this set for the boy with the dinosaurs, but I have found I like the little girl one just as much - she seems to have a bit of attitude ;)

I used the sketch from the Sugar bowl challenge blog again - didn't you know I love sketches? - and the paper is from a K&Co 6x6 paper pad. The sentiment is from Craftwork cards. I am really pleased with how the colouring in went.

I also managed to fit in a bit of scrapping before I went back to work - it seems like my scrapping comes in fits and starts at the moment, but hey, at least I am doing the pages ;)

This first one uses photos of Jemma at a indoor play centre way back in 2005 :) She really is a dare devil - apart from when it comes to the dentist, when she always lets Tom go first ;) - and loves any kind of white knuckle ride...
I used a sketch in the March/April issue of Creating Keepsakes. The card is bazzill, the paper is from a K&Co paper pad, the alpha stickers are Pink Paislee and Thickers. The little embellishment I think is from American Crafts, but don't quote me on that ;)

The second layout has been in the pipeline for a while... I've had the photos and the papers sat on the table for ages, but not really had an idea what I was going to do with them... Then I saw a layout in CK that had been scraplifted from another LO in an older issue, so this is my scraplift of a scraplift :)

When I saw the photo on the left of my father-in-law, I knew that I had a similar photo of Mark, so I hunted it out and voila :) I bet my father-in-law wishes he could still pull off stunts like that, but back and knee surgeries put paid to that a long time ago :(

The cardstock is Bazzil Kraft, the papers are Scribble Scrabble, and the alpha stickers are American Crafts cardstock stickers, and Thickers :)

This last layout is based on a July 2009 PageMap (now I can't have a post without a PageMap in it can I?) The photo isn't very good I'm afraid, I didn't notice the reflections on the photos until after I'd uploaded. This is the kids and Mark doing what they love best - jumping off the dunes at Lossiemouth's East Beach.

I used Kraft bazzill again (my favourite) and the papers are Scenic Route, K&C0 and Fancy Pants. I used my retro flower punches for the flower border, and then some tiny buttons and brads for the flower centres. Alpha stickers are Thickers again :)

I have another layout in progress, and have done some more colouring in too, so I am hoping to have some more stuff to share soon :) I have also been trying to find some nice white card that won't let the Promarkers bleed - some of my attempts have made my 8 yr olds nursery pictures look like Picasso ;)

TTFN

xxx

Goodbye and hello!

Thought I would share the card I made for a dear friend who is leaving for pastures new very shortly :( I am off out for a meal with her and a few other friends tonight, and can't wait to catch up with them all :)

I basically cardlifted this card from Tiets here although I only did a single gatefold instead of the double :)

The image is a Sugar Nellie Gorjuss stamp, coloured in with watercolours, and the message stamp on the front is from Elzybells. I used K&Co papers, and the butterflies are done with a Martha Stewart punch. The tags have a little message on one, and our address and phone number on the other, so we can keep in touch :)

So that's the goodbye, so what's the hello?? Well, after playing with my limited Promarker collection earlier on in the week, I bit the bullet and ordered a bulk order of Promarkers from Angelcrafts :) So I am hoping to get a bit of time to play next week before I head back to work ;)

Also I am saying hello to my little seedlings LOL

In my little propogator I now have 8 tomato plant seedlings, and a few lettuce seedlings have started to appear. No signs of the herbs yet...

Tom had a great birthday, he loved his card :) He also loved the pile of Lego that was nearly as big as him LOL. He has spent most of his spare time building, and has just the largest set left to build now. I'm off to his school this afternoon as his class is leading the assembly this week. They are telling the Easter story, and Tom is playing Judas.... hmmm. He has a black jumper to wear, because he told me "all murderous people wear black, Mummy" - and I think he is looking forward to playing the bad guy. Knowing the boy, he could ham it up and even throw in a villainous laugh bwahahahahaha...

Been keeping up with the walking this week too, doing 3 walks this week :) My legs sure are complaining, so I must be doing the old muscles some good.

Jemma has been busy singing with the school choir at the Moray Music Festival this week, she looked quite the proper school girl with her shirt, tie, skirt and long white socks LOL - nothing like her at all :) They didn't win any prizes this time, although Jemma was adamant that they were robbed yesterday, as she said "we were soooo much better than at least 2 of the other choirs". Oh dear.

Well off I go, as its a busy old weekend ahead - Tang Soo Do belt grading tomorrow morning, then Tom's party tomorrow afternoon. Will probably need Sunday to recover....

TTFN

xxxx

Happy and sad memories...

... I capture them all in my pages. This past week I have had my Papa on my mind alot. He's been gone for a long time now, but I have found myself thinking alot about him lately. So I thought that it was time to actually get some things down on paper.

This first layout was based on a March 2010 PageMap. I found this photo whilst looking through some older photos that I have on the computer. This is the last time a photo was taken of my Papa before he died. It evoked a lot of strong memories for me, and it took alot of scribbling down in notebooks to find the right journalling, as I didn't want it to just be about the celebration, the who what where when how. I think he knew that this was the last time he would see alot of the people gathered there at their Golden Wedding celebration.

I used MME paper and a Making Memories journalling page. The flowers and ribbon were from my stash, and the alpha stickers are Pink Paislee.

The second layout I did was pretty simple :) I went through my photos and found 4 of Papa (one with my Mum as a child, one with me as a baby and 2 later ones) and used a square punch to crop them.
I then made a list of all the things I remember about him, all the quirks and the things he did. I just wrote them onto the page. I used some Chatterbox paper to add a bit of colour, and the alpha stickers are Scenic Route and American Crafts, the "memories" sticker is one I have had for eons... I then used my Zig pen to draw a border. Simple, yet effective - just like me :P

Doing these layouts was cathartic for me, and getting the memories down is important to me. My kids never met my Papa, so I think it's good for them to be able to read what kind of man he was.

Moving on now, to something a bit less melancholy LOL. I got the chance last weekend to meet up with the girls from Fraserburgh at Mayne House in Elgin. Last year I spent a weekend at the house crafting with these ladies, but this year I was unable to repeat this as I was due to be working. As it turned out, I was given holiday, but other things had been planned for the weekend, so I was still unable to go :( As luck would have it, I bumped into the girls as they perused the stock in my LSS - the Papercraft boutique - a.k.a Mrs Mac's crafting emporium ;) and they invited me over on the Saturday night for a Chinese takeaway and games night. So off I went, and I had a ball. I took a bit of crafting to do - namely Tom's birthday card - which I actually finished, and then had a good old giggle playing games with everyone. Just call me the Queen of the Anagrams, as Erika is Queen of Muffins, and Jo is Queen of Paper Recognition....

Anyhow, this is the card I made :) I used the sketch from this weeks Sugar Bowl Challenge.

I used one of the Diane Duda digital images, and this one screams Tom all over LOL. Originally I had used pencils to colour it in, usually I use watercolours, but the printer ink bled... So I then used another copy of the image and used my small collection (and yes, it is very small) of Promarkers to colour him in :)
The card is made from bazzill, and the paper is Basic Grey Color me Silly - I've always loved those frogs, and they are perfect for the image :) I used some ribbon, chipboard stars, and a foam thicker for embellishment, and the sentiment is handwritten. I know Tom will love it :)

So the rest of the week is all about the boy and his birthday - I can't believe he is 8, it only seems 5 minutes since he was born. They are having a wear green to school day tomorrow, and on Saturday he is having a swimming party for some of his pals. Sunday he is having a couple of friends over to play and to have tea :) Then we only have a few weeks, and it's Jemma's turn for a birthday....

TTFN

xxxx

A few cards this week...

It's all about cards at the moment, whether it is birthdays or Mothers Day, but that's what I have been up to this week.

This card was for a little pal of Tom's, whose party was last week :) I used an old Sugar Nellie stamp, and stamped the balloon 8 times seeing as he was 8 :) I coloured him in with my trusty watercolour pencils.
This was my first attempt at an easel card, and I really like them.
This next card is for the next door neighbour of Mark's parents, who will be 90 very soon. Unfortunately she is not in good health, and it is probable that she will be leaving her house to go into a nursing home :(
I used a topper thing that I got from Craftwork Cards yonks ago, I found them when I was having a clear out!!

This next card is the Mothers Day card for my MIL. I tried my hand at a shutter card, and after much cursing and swearing I finally came up with this. I don't know why I had so much trouble.... Thanks to my Norty friend Anne, for the inspiration xx

I used my Sugar Nellie Daisy stamp on this card, and the papers are basic Grey. Again I used watercolour pencils for colouring in the image :)

This is the card for my Mum. Again I used the Daisy stamp from Sugar Nellie, and Basic Grey papers, and I cardlifted this one from one of the Sugar Nellie DT, but can't remember who - but it'll be either Marlene or Tiets as I love their work... The sentiment stamp is from Elzybells.

As well as making cards, I have been busy in the kitchen. I am on holiday from work for a few weeks now, and have a nice long list of recipes I want to try before I go back to work. Yesterday I tried my hand at Hot Cross Buns, and they turned out OK, but not very pretty looking - I need a new piping bag me thinks - and definitely not photogenic. Mind you, they must have tasted OK, as there were only a couple left this morning LOL. Today has been biscotti day, as I tried a lovely chocolate and hazelnut recipe from Feb's Good Food Magazine. They are quite tangy, as there is also orange zest in them. Might need a stop watch to time how long they last when the gannets get in....

I think there's just enough time before the school run to flick through my new CK magazine that dropped on my mat this morning... and maybe just one more biscotti...

TTFN

xxxx

A few layouts to share....

After a week of sickness, the House of Yoo is finally feeling fine again!! After my horrible 24 hours, Mark then had it, followed by Jemma and finally Tom - now you can't say that I don't share LOL. So that really took over the week, although we did make it to Mark's Warrant presentation on Tuesday afternoon, very proud moment - and another frame to hang in the downstairs loo :)

This weekend was my weekend at work, so not alot of stuff to report, although me and the kids managed to fit in a bracing walk along the beach to Daisy Rock on Saturday afternoon, Mark wimped out as he said it was too cold and too windy - pah, little did he realise that the wind dropped considerably on the beach, so it was actually quite pleasant. There was a group of photographers stationed just past Daisy Rock, probably from a camera club/class. They all had their tripods out, I think they were there to capture the magnificent sight of the huge waves hitting the rocks and creating spray. Not sure whether me and the kids got captured too though, as we climbed to the top of the rock and sat looking at the wonderful view! Plus it was the first time I had actually climbed onto the rock, usually I am the one at the bottom taking photos of the rest of them and panicking telling them to be careful!

I also uploaded some photos to Photobox for printing this week, they are all photos of Mark as a kid :) I am really impressed with Photobox at the moment, as I got this set of photos 24 hours after uploading - and that is saying something with all the snow problems this week. No snow here though, thank goodness :) So keep an eye out for LOs featuring bad 70's hair and fashion...

On to the layouts now, I managed to get a few done this week, all using PageMaps, gotta love 'em. These all feature older photos of the kids, I went through my storage folders and found some photos that I absolutely adore, and I am really pleased with the layouts I have done with them :)

First up is Jemma and her pal Daniel. These two were inseperable the whole time we were in Gibraltar. It's unfortunate that Dan now lives at the other end of the country, but thats Forces life for you.

I used a Feb 2010 PageMap for this one, and the papers are Crate Paper Mia range. I used my new retro flower punches and also my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. This is a bit shabby chic for me, but I love how it has turned out, and how the corrugated card has added some dimension :)

Next up is the boy...

This is the start of his Star Wars phase, which hasn't really gone away yet, he's now on the Lego... These photos show him with his home made light sabres, wearing Jemma's dressing gown, and pretending to be a Jedi... He had the moves to a tee. I used a PageMap from July 2009, and some of the gorgeous BoBunny Flutter Butter papers I got in a kit from Sarah's Cards.

The final layout for today features one of my all time favourite photos of the boy. Again there is a Star Wars theme, but then alot of Tom's 3rd year was spent re-enacting various scenes from Star Wars.... I took this photo on our day trip to London in July 2005, a week after the bombings. We took a River boat trip, and Tom pulled this pose as we went under Tower bridge...

I used a Feb 2010 PageMap for this one, and used up loads of scraps - there are K&C0 and Crate papers on there, maybe others too :) The label is from Shabby Chic.

Hoping to get some more LOs done this week, and seeing as I have some unexpected holidays from work starting on Saturday, I am hoping to get a few more done in March :) But I am also hoping to get some seeds planted for my herb garden, and look into getting a raised bed made and put in the garden. If today is anything to go by, maybe we have turned a corner and spring is finally on it's way - I even have washing out on the line :)

Happy St David's Day to you all

TTFN

xxxx