1st day at school

Over at the Creative Craft World blog theres a scrap challenge to show love & the following sketch.

Well I love my lads to bits & I think my scrapbooks show this so I had to do a page which featured them.

I have to admit that after the summer hols I also loved it when my 2 lovely lads when to school. Kai started Pre-school & Zack started secondary school. It was nice to have that short break to regain my sanity & they both needed that extra social interaction.

To make the page my own I tend to look at a sketch, figure out what I want to do & then wont look at the sketch again until the end, I find this helps retain the inspiration of the sketch while making the work my own.

I wanted the pages to be the same but to also resemble the difference in the types of schools, ages & personalities. On Kai's it has trains (one of his favourite toys), abc's, simple lettering and crayons, on Zacks theres more complex shaped letters, maths equipment (his strongest subject) and equations. The background paper is core coordinations which I used to create a blackboard look.  I put the date on the small blue books and after taking the photos wrote on the schools names up the side of the photos (for the safety of my children I did the photo before this, as well as smudging any clue to the schools they attend)

Whats On Your Workdesk Wednesday

Now that I have a table to work on (YAY!) I thought I'd join in with Julia's Whats on your workdesk wednesday.

This is my workspace where I am sitting right now, please ignore the table cloth, its temporary until I get a new one but I want the table protected from all my ink, glue etc.

This piccy was taken just after Lunch, my youngest is enjoying sitting with me after nursery to eat our lunch which means I need to do a quick tidy to make space. It also allows me to put away any craft stuff I've finished with.

Lets see, highlights....

The plastic bag contains a feathered necklace I shall be altering for my MIL to turn it into a hairclip for her to wear to a wedding. The wooden cylinder with blue sequin flowers & green leaves is the start of a clock I'm making, its ready for spray painting but I need a free, dry day for this.

The fruit bowl & lanterns are standard items on the table for when its tidy (i.e craft free)

My staple craft items .... laptop, & external harddrive with photos on. Oh & ofc the glass of Pepsi to keep me going.

& finally....

My scrapbooking pile, a box of plain coloured 12x12s, some sheets & stickers I've chosen for the next layout, 6x6s for mounting photos, guillotine & glossy accents.

Thanks for dropping by, feel free to nosey around & ask questions :)

New Table = Scrap Motivation

I am soooooo happy that I have a kitchen table to work on, it means I can get my scrapbook stuff out, or any other crafty items, without worrying about having to put it away so we can sit down & eat, or that the kids will knock a drink onto it etc. With this new found freedom I have been scrapping away happily

The journalling works as 2 seperate pages but the title and layout tie the 2 together. As I was mainly in the kitchen on christmas day I didnt get many photos but the internet & photos taken at a later date helped out.

I scuffed up the edges of the centre paper and inked them, this was to give a softer edge.

I have decided to try & start at the last photos of 2010 & work my way backwards ... as well as trying to keep upto date with any current piccies I take. Its a tall order but I can at least try.

On a different note my lounge is almost done, I need to sew the seat covers & a cover for the foot stool, as well as waiting for my curtains to arrive. I could do with some more large ornaments for the display cabinet, I'm thinking skulls, maybe a few gothical figurines or comic book ones, but these shall be collected in time (& when I have the money ;-) Soon as the majority is done I'll post piccies of before & after.

**waves**

Hi all, sorry I've been away but its busy busy busy here, my alterations are going BIG scale, :-) that is I'm decorating ;-(

I've also set myself the challenge to Scrap at least once a week.

I've barely got time to tweet let along blog ..... talking about tweeting, I know a few of you already use it but for those who dont you might want to pop over to Notes on Paper where Julie is doing a free course about Twitter.
Personally I love twitter, I use it to chat with people, keep up with current events, get advice, & have the odd moan ;-) I shall be following Julies course to see how I can use Twitter better.

Julie says the course is for peeps who want to....
•read about what on earth twitter.com does and is;

•learn about how Twitter might be useful to you;
•get more out of Twitter than you already are;
•hear practical ideas on making the site work for you;
•uncover some of the more artistic values and uses of Twitter.

Julie is far more eloquent than me so hop on over & take a look, & if you join twitter my username is @Lady_K_Black.

Pay it Forward

I've just entered a "pay it forward" at I Speak Melsh, so here I am paying it forward :)

I promise something handmade to the FIRST 5 people* who leave a comment here. However, to be eligible, you must repost this status, offering something handmade to 5 other people. The rules are that it must be handmade (or homemade) by you and it must be sent to your 5 people some time in 2011. Ready, set, GO!

*I'm adding a couple of proviso's to the people I'm willing to send to, just to make it a lil bit more fair on all of us.
  1. you must be a regular reader here.
  2. you cant have already entered this on my personal facebook account
  3. yes Mom this is real, no you dont have to enter as I'm happy to make you something anyway (she asked my lil sis if the fb one was for real & missed out on it :(
  4. I except swapsies (i.e say if Melsh was fast enough to be in the 5 first comments then I'd happily send her something)

Night time bookmark

I made this bookmark to go with a set of books I got for my sister-in-laws birthday.
I used star beads and wire, along with little silver ball beads and a moon charm.

Curried Butternut Squash Soup

Zack & I made a curried butternut squash from the Christmas Issue of Jamie Olivers cookery mag, similar to this one. Zack would normally turn his nose up at this type of thing & refuse to eat it but because he did most of it himself he was willing to give it a go.

It is delicious Winter food, warmed us all up, especially served with homemade rolls (the kids shaped them after the bread maker made the dough). There was enough for us to have for lunch the next day as well, it went down really well after walking back from pre-school with Kai.