Hopes and Dreams

One of the challenges for the Onwards and Upwards blog event at Jennifer Grace Creates was a recipe challenge. 

The following items were required for the challenge -

1 small square photo (you can crop down a larger photo) or square element

Some encouraging / uplifting / happy words

At least one sticker (alphas don’t count for this)

At least 3 stars

Some yellow!

One stamp.

I also took inspiration from this post about hopes and dreams.   Mr P is currently going through big upheaval at work as they are closing all the signal boxes and relocating all the signalling controls to a regional centre so in two year's time he faces redundancy after spending all his working life on the railway.  We are now facing a lot of uncertainties about the future as it is not guaranteed that he will get a job elsewhere.  So it was nice to have his input into this layout and to document a bit about him for a change.

I used the kit that I put together for the blog event -

Paper - American Crafts

Bunting - American Crafts

Buttons - Cardinal Colours

Stamps - Stamps Away (Stars), AC Dear Lizzy date roller stamp

Bakers Twine - Sarah's Cards

Stickers - Authentique, Pink Paislee

Alphabet - Echo Park Springtime

Star gemstones - Poundland

Sequins - stash

Weeks 7 and 8 - 52 cards challenge

I have been catching up with uploading some of the cards I have made for the 52 cards challenge on UKS and also need to catch up with blogging them.

The Week 7 prompt was to feature a heart, I have already shared the Valentine's card that I made for Mr P but here is the Christmas card that I made for the challenge.

The paper is a magazine freebie and the sweet reindeer was from the same magazine, the sentiment is Stampin' Up and the punched mats are also Stampin' Up.

The week 8 prompt was to use the colours Red, Pink & Aqua - here are the two cards that I made -

The papers are leftovers from a class page kit ?? Echo Park.  The sweet teddy is a Penny Black stamp and the Rudolph is a digi-image from Digi Stamp Boutique. 

Chillax

Another layout inspired by Jennifer Grace's Onwards and Upwards blog event.  One of the posts was about Digi and Hybrid scrapping.  Digi scrapping really isn't my thing but I do like the idea of printing things out to use in your scrapbooking.

I used some flags which were a free download but I am really sorry I can't find where I got the download from - if you recognise the flags then please let me know so that I can give a link.

I used the kit which I had put together at the start of the blog event.  The papers are Heidi Swapp 'Carefree' and American Crafts 'Letterbox'.  The title is AC foam Thickers and the windmills were cut with a Stampin' Up sizzlet die. 

These two gorgeous dogs belong to my sister and niece - it is amazing that the pair of them are actually sat still long enough for photographs to be taken - it must have been a hot day as they are usually bounding about all over the place!!

Cute bear cards

The May Penny Black Saturday Challenge is Anything Goes, so a lovely easy one.

I used a new to me stamp featuring some very cute teddy bears.

The sentiments are from Pink Petticoat and the papers are magazine freebies.  The mats are Spellbinder nestabilities and the sentiments were punched with SU punches.

The Promarkers used are - Vanilla, Blush, March Hare, Tan and Pastel Pink for the bears and Capri Blue, Peony, Pink Lobster and Mint Green.  The shadow effect is Powder Blue and the ground is Pastel Beige.  I used a white gel pen for the polka dots.

I Have Chosen To Be Happy

Here is my first layout for Jennifer Grace's blog event Onwards and Upwards inspired by this layout based on a quote.  I love how the title is so big and takes up a large proportion of the layout.  I also love that it uses a mix of alphabets - a good way of using up half used packs of Thickers when you don't always have enough letters to use the one pack for the whole title.

A quote that has been resonating with me for a little while is -

"I have chosen to be happy because it is good for my health"  Voltaire

I enjoy being happy and do make a conscious effort even on bad fibro' days to be happy as I find a low mood does have a direct bearing on how I physically feel and my pain levels.  I do find this hard though when some of the people around me seem to think that because they are miserable or unhappy then everyone else around them should be unhappy too.   I have taken to calling these people Dementors as they do seem to have the ability to suck every ounce of happiness out of your body LOL!!  So finding this quote really made me happy, as when I get up in the morning I do have two choices - I can wallow in misery and bemoan what life has decided to chuck at me (and make myself feel ten times worse) or I can just suck it up, smile and count my blessings as believe me life could always be an awful lot worse.  I have a lot of blessings in my life and it was nice to be able to do a layout about the things that do make me happy.  And I know I will smile everytime I see this layout!!

I used a mixture of Thickers for the title, plus some CM alphabet stickers and some other stickers that I have no idea what brand they are.  The papers and embellishments are from a Sarah's Cards kit (March 2012) - 3 Bugs in a Rug 'Ashtyn'.  I added a scattering of assorted gemstones and pink stars from my stash.

I found a 7 gypsies journalling card about being happy and made the following list - the ten things that make me happy are Family & Friends, Holidays, Sunshine, Flowers, A good night's sleep, Music, Pampering, New Clothes, Ice cream and Chocolate.  The four things that make me ecstatic are Mr P, Marillion, Cruises and Live Music.

 

Thank you Jennifer for sharing your layout and giving me the inspiration for this one xx

A Lovely Day Out

Last Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day and SJ Crafts currently have a sketch challenge on their blog.

I used an old Sarah's Cards kit from June 2012 - Fancy Pants 'Be You'.

The photograph was taken last April on a day out at the Liberation Museum in the Netherlands.  I used an SU butterfly punch, Hobby House pink pearls and assorted sequins from my stash.

The sketch challenge is open until 31st May if you want to have a go at the challenge.

Onwards and Upwards - weekend blog event

This weekend I am taking part in Jennifer Grace Creates blog event - Onwards and Upwards.  It started yesterday and one of the challenges was to build your own kit.  I have never done this before and have stuck to either using collection packs or kits that have been put together by a retailer.  I don't have any shortage of stash so I started sorting through piles of random paper and put a collection with co-ordinating cardstock together.

I added in chipboard, bling, bunting, blossoms, journalling cards, stickers and alphabets - it was good to go to my odds and sods bag and pull out some half used sticker sheets. 

I also found some stamp sets which hopefully will be useful to use with my kit.  And now looking at these photos I realise that I have forgotten to add any buttons to the kit - I am off to rectify that LOL!!

Hopefully I will be able to make a few layouts with my kit - I rarely ever mix up papers and use an assortment of manufacturers so this will be an interesting experiment for me.  I think I may have made the kit a little bit too big as well - once I started choosing papers last night I couldn't stop!!!!