~Echo Park Combination~

Morning..

I have a layout to show you today, using Echo Park. Mainly the Sweet Summertime range but with a bit of a Walk in the Park thrown in as well!

I traced around an old die cut paper shape that I had to create the star.

I used some of the stickers from the sticker sheet and the alphabet which is also in this range.

I also used some pegs which I brought from the Scrap a go go show a few months ago, but you can buy them at lots of craft shops.

I used a couple of journalling spots, from Elles Studio.

Thanks for Looking

Anna

...Where have I been?...Eating Cake!...

Well I have been busy preparing for and celebrating Jacks 2nd Birthday!

And what a busy week it has been!

On Friday it was Jacks last day in the 'baby room' at nursery, so I brought in a cake for him to share with his friends and gave the girls my camera to take a few pics.

Saturday was a very busy day indeed, with two party's lined up. The first was at a local children's soft play area called Birch Farm. This was from 11-1pm, the kiddies really enjoyed playing and then we had some food followed by another cake!

Later on at 4pm we had another party at my Mum and Dads house, which was for Jack and my Mum whose birthday it was on Friday. We had lots of family and friends round and sat in the garden and had a BBQ. Jack was very lucky and had lots of presents but was still more interested in playing in the garden with his cousin!


I asked my friend Yvie to decorate some cakes that I brought from asda and to make some matching cupcakes. They went down a treat! The blue pinwheels for Jack and the Green flowers for my Mum. You can visit here blog here..shes very talented indeed!


So its safe to say we had cake overload at the weekend!

Jacks actual birthday was on Monday and we went to Legoland Windsor. We had a really lovely day although because of the school holidays everywhere was absolutely packed! Some of the rides had a couple of hour ques. Even some of the little rides for Jack had long waits. But it was fine, we still got to enjoy lots of the rides and activities :)

Jack playing in Duplo land..

Lee and Jack in Miniland..

Jack with Lego Wendy from Bob the Builder..

In the maze..

We watched the pirates of skeleton bay show, which was very good.

When we got home Jack opened the rest of his presents! and then we were ready for bed!

A busy but fab weekend!

So not much time for scrapping and I have to say that lately I really haven't been able to get into it. I have been starting and not being able to finnish pages for a while now, I just don't have the inspiration to finnish them. But last night I sat down and made myself do a page and I actually finnished it and was happy with it! Just need to carry on now!

I'm off to photograph it in a bit (when the weather brightens up a bit!) and I'll be back to show it!

I have also had a request to show a more detailed version of my album of cards. I will prep this for some time in the next few days! If you have any requests of things you would like to see on here then please just ask! :D

tfl

x Anna x

..4 Years..

I started this layout at the papermaze crop a couple of weeks ago. But I didn't have time to finish it. I have been working on it over the last week and finally finished it over the weekend.

Again this is another photo from Centre Parks, which is what I am currently working on.

Its a random LO really as it combines lots of different ideas that I have seen and lifted all into one layout. But other than these details the LO itself is really simple. It has been nice to work on it over the last week and do a bit at a time and be able to come back to it, as its in different sections.

I have used Girls Paperie range of papers and die cut shapes on this LO.

I used a tag as a base to create a 'mini book' which has some journalling in. I have used a little peg to keep it shut as it was flapping open!

The butterfly - I have made these alot now, so have sort of adapted them in my own style. But originally the ideas came from Wendy Mckee, along with the string of shapes which she used on a frame not so long ago.

TFL

X

~ Albums Post ~

A little bit later than planned, but here it is..

A week or so ago I decided to do something a little bit different and do a post showing how I create albums. I know a mixture of scrappers that create pages to make albums of certain things and those that just make pages, and put them in albums in no particular order, just as they make them. Personally I am an album maker, every page that I create has a place where I know it will go. So each of my albums has a theme to it. I think that how you use albums has to be a personal choice, of what works best for you :)

These are my albums..

The albums that I use are a mixture of Creative Memories (great quality, but quite pricey) and toploader albums, which I have got into more recently.

Above is my album for my pics of Jack (currently, and until the album is full)

Below is an album of our holiday to Majorca last year.

Now, I tend to have an album per holiday - because I usually take enough pics for that to work well! However when I first started scrapping I did just use to scrap pics of holidays so I have two older albums which are just of holidays.

This album is of all of Jacks cards from when he was born. I wanted to make a really simple album to display them in, as they are nice to keep, I wouldn't want to get rid of them.

This is one of my older 'holiday' albums that I have just mentioned. It was from several years ago now..oh how our scrapping styles change!

This is my all about me album. It starts with baby pics of me, right up until more recent ones. I need to replace this album for a D-Ring one, it is not even halfway full and already sticking out alot!

This one is an album of Jacks naming day in 2008. A lovely day with so many pictures, that I had wanted to create a whole album of it.

Probably the main album that I use is the year books, you may have noticed a few labeled in the pictures. Basically I used these for day to day events that happen in one year, such as birthdays, days out etc. I create a 'month' page which is then followed by usually 3/4/5 pages of things that we have done in that month. On the month pages I use a large Jenni Bowlin Calendar card, along with a few small pics from the month and make the page in the usual way. Sorry I forgot to upload the pic to show this!

I'd be interested to know how you all do your albums? If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them!

On another note...The 3 DT finalists were announced last week on the studio blog.

Congratulations to the ladies that made it! You can see the announcment here.

Sadly I was not one of them, which I was really disapointed with. I have been applying for lots of DT calls for the last 10 months. In the last month or so, I had got to a point with my scrapping where I thought I was good enough to finally make it and I did get so close. So for that reason it made me feel a bit sad..and I had a 'why do I bother' moment! Lol, but the next day I was fine about it and felt really silly for having spent the night before being so sad about it! I don't want to loose sight of why I scrap so for now, that is what I am doing :D

My baby boy is 2 a week today..arrrgggghh..where does the time go?? We will being spending it next Monday at Legoland. He also has two partys on Saturday, one at a soft play centre with his friends and another with the family later in the day! A busy weekend ahead with lots of pics to show, this time next week :D

Thanks for sticking with me, a very long post tonight I know!

Be back tomorrow with a layout :)

x Anna x

Some Scrapping...

Today I have a couple of layouts to show you from the Papermaze cropping day on Saturday.

At the moment I am mostly working on my photos from our recent holiday to Centre Parks. I like to do albums of different things such as holidays and I also have a 'yearbook' for every year. (Look out for a post soon on my various album system that I would like to show you) Anyway I wanted to make a title page for this holiday album. When I saw this page, I new it would be perfect to lift as I wanted to do lots of journalling for a 'holiday diary'. So it was my inspiration to create this layout. I have used the new Bo Bunny Sun Kissed range.

This next layout features a couple of pics taken on fathers day. It uses the Fancy Pants range called Like father like son, which is perfect for Fathers Day. I also used some Maya Road clocks which are very cute.

When I brought the house frame from the post a week or so ago I also brought this 'Love' sign, which was really cheap so I thought I would do something with it. On Saturday I sprayed it with purple glimmer mist, and I really am no expert at this as you can probably tell, it doesn't look perfect.

But now I'm stuck. What else can I do with it? Any Ideas? Or any advice about Glimmer mist, maybe I could re-spray it?

Lastly, you may or may not have noticed that over on the studio blog they have cancelled the voting for the new DT, instead the current DT memebers will choose the winners. To be honest I am of course very disapointed as I was just about winning at the time of cancellation. But I do agree with the decision and I do think that it is the fairest way to judge for this sort of a competition. It did become all about getting votes rather than remembering why we were there in the first place..for the scrapping!! You can see the post here. So I just want to thank you all so much for showing me your support I know I have gone on about it ALOT lol, but it really does mean so much to me!

Look out for my 'Albums' post coming later on in the week and I'd love some feedback on my 'Love' sign.

See you soon

Anna

Check this out..

Hello!

I have to say I feel say I feel so happy at the support I have had in the last 24 hours in particular. I am now 3rd and only a couple of votes off 2nd and first place on the studio blog. So again thank you soooooo much to everyone who has voted I am so grateful!!! Don't forget the voting closes on Weds so there is still plently of time to get your votes in. Again I really appriciate every single one so much!

But anyway....

Check out the lovely Lou Collins' new website original keepsakes. She creates beautiful layouts and has now turned it into a business. So if your ever after a present for someone this is perfect and they can even be framed. Have a look and keep it in mind! Her work is seriously georgeous!!

Good luck Lou

Be back soon

Anna

xx

..Needing your votes...(desperatly!!)...

So the voting has opened on the Studio blog and all of the layouts and cards from the finalists are up.

Here are mine and a few close ups...

My layout...

My Card...

Seriously on my knees begging for votes..I am currently last :(

If you could take a few moments to vote for me I'd be sooooo grateful! Follow this link here to vote. The voting closes on Wednesday when the top 3 ladies will be on the design team!

Thanks!! Anna xx