Rocking your world Friday

On a Saturday! Lol- this is why I'm late

Well yesterday was spent (for once) with my gorgeous DH.. We went out and spent the whole day together (before he had to go on to nights) .. I may have mentioned he's a firefighter?

We started off going out for breakfast to a local farm shop...I had an all day breakfast! Yum! Their sausages are to die for so I came home with some of those! Blew the diet.. again! 

Then we went for a drive.. (we're thinking of moving so we're exploring new places).. Stopping at a really pretty pub for a drink as it was a gorgeous day.

Then we explored a little more and stopped in to see my SIL & BIL for tea and a catch up..very civilised.. Then home to wave DH off.

There are very uncertain times for him in his job with all the cuts to public services and his station if closing down so he's waiting to hear if he gets to keep his job or gets a transfer to another station.. And if so..where? Here's a LO of him that I scrapped recently

and one of my DS2..  who's also a firefighter... and whose station is also closing down.. so very uncertain times for him too.

he's coming to visit us this weekend and we don't get to see nearly enough of him.. so I'm super excited and can't wait for Sunday when I get to see him... and here is one of them both together in uniform.. two peas on a pod! lol 

Last weekend you may remember I spent several hours choosing the photos to print and scrap and those to go straight into a printed photo book? Well they all arrived this week.. Two photo books and 200 prints! The books were amazing.. So perfect ..one as a mini brag book to keep in my handbag and the other a beautiful leather bound affair. However the prints were terrible! The colours were all wrong.. The teal was turquoise and they were so bleached out.. Very wrong indeed! However, a quick online 'chat' with a customer advisor soon sorted it out and I have a new set on the way.. Then the scrapping begins!

Then I joined in my very first blog hop.. over on The Counterfeit Kit Challenge.. please see the information in my earlier blog.. below. 

All in all a satisfactory and mostly good week to be grateful for...hope yours was too!

So they're the highlights of the week.. The only LOs I was been able to complete fresh this week (other than my blog hop ones) is one for a challenge that I can't share yet so hence uploading some older ones... the next challenge is taking straight photos of my LO's.. I'm getting better but these were taken a while ago.

Have a good week all!

Counterfeit Kit Blog Scraplift a Master Forger

Hi there

I am super excited to take part in my first EVER blog hop.. I have never done this before so all being well you should have arrived here by way of Milissa here and you will be part way through your adventure of seeing what everyone else is up to.

As you know by now we were tasked with taking some inspiration from one of the Master Forgers blogs and I chose this one for mine from Ashleys Blog over here

.....of course.. mine is very different but I hope you will find it to be recognisable from Ashleys.

I loved her delicate colouring and layering and I do love banners and needless to say- they're still right on trend- so although I have used very different colours.. I have emulated those lovely banners too and mounted each one on co-ordinating card stock. I then added the 'punch outs' from my Martha Stewart Fan punch to make the spray and added little aqua gems for droplets. 

I then used a Stampin' Up stamp for the rosette beside the photos and I was just about done... how cute is this little tot (my cousins first grandchild) ???

THEN... 'cos I don't know when to stop crafting and I lose all track of time.. and mostly because I was so inspired by the Master Forgers blogs.. I created a second LO! 

This time I was inspired by Lesleys blog here and chose this wonderful LO....

So I created this LO here.. which co-incidentally (!) also complies with Challenge No 3 and encouraged me to Scrap about my favourite place in the world- which in my case is my home.. so here is mine!

I took pleasure is using a few little scraps of paper and some washi and I then cut out the lettering for the title with my Slice, added flags and a wooden house, inked with a teal Dew Drop ink pad and then added some gems to the entire background and finished off with a flourish of bakers twine. 

I hope you've enjoyed my efforts so thanks for stopping by... and now you should hop over to Dawns blog here 

 Don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know you were here and happy hopping!"

The full blog hop list will be published on the CKCB blog so if you get lost along the way, head over there to find your way back onto the hop.

Scrap a sketch challenge.

Yesterday was quite a productive day as far as scrapping was concerned.. (Although that pile of ironing is still there)... lol

I was inspired by Sues Scrap a sketch challenge and created a layout that is my take on it

Here is the sketch that kick started my creativity

And here is Sues take on it.

As you can see I have switched the rectangles for hexagons and altered the number of photos but I think you can see the basis of the original sketch here.

The occasion of my photos for the LO was the day my (then) future Daughter in Law and I sat down and made 100 wedding favours for her and my sons wedding in June this year. We had decided to have wine glass charms as the favours and we ordered beads, pearls and charms to thread on to the rings. As our surname is King the wedding had a royal theme and each charm had a crown on it. The men had crown charms and the ladies had hearts with crown stamped on them. We had a bit of a giggle making them and it was a lovely opportunity to bond with her. After we had made them we put them all in tiny organza bags with a little message thanking them for joining in their celebration. I have included a wine glass charm and the paper message on the LO in addition to adding the actual charms as embellishments.

These photos bought back some happy memories of that day as we had such a nice time.

Thanks Sue for setting this challenge... can't wait for next months now.

Super excited!

Yee ha! I'm in.. what??!?? I hear you say!

Well yesterday I heard that I am to join in my very first blog hop over at the Counterfeit Kit Blog Challenge.

We go live at 7am GMT on Wednesday 24th of July... and I'm so pleased to be taking part!!

I have my LO all done just ready to share with you guys.. but to give you a flavour of what is to come.. here's a sneak peek

So pop it in your diary.. and make sure you pop by on Wednesday to say Hi!... I'm looking forward to seeing you!

Rocking Your World Friday

Hey all.. well here is my Rocking Your World Friday post.

I can't compete with Virginias naked chef (!) but I've just read Suzy and Sues blog and I am happy to report that my week went like this.

Needless to say it's been very, very hot.. so last weekend I stayed very close to home and stayed in my cottage with it's 400 year old, 2' thick walls.... where it was a very civilised temperature. I dragged some of my craft stuff down from my SCORCHIO craft room (it's south facing and has the only big window in the house) and created this LO of my youngest son and his, very lovely, GF.

The rest of the week was spent in a greenhouse (aka office) where we have glass on three sides and it was sweltering.. I was very grateful for my fan and the girls I work with who let me have their fans when I am having my own 'personal summer' moments...lol.

I also had a 3 hour appraisal on Tuesday and I'm glad to say it went very well! Phew.. I even got a small pay rise! Hurrah!

I got stuck in a traffic jam on Weds for 2 and a half hours and I have never been so grateful for air conditioning! In the evening things improved though and I went to a local crop and made this LO for this weeks UKS challenge. It's called.. Wanna Know What Love Is? and is a homage to my wonderful husband of 33 years.. for whom I am also grateful.

Then last night.. knowing I had a three day weekend ahead of me- I decided to download 928 photos of DS1s wedding in June. I am grateful that one of the large photo printing services have a special deal until tomorrow of 1/2 price large prints! Needless to say I have over 200 on their way to me.. and I am sure many of them will be seen on here in the not too distant future. 

I have also spent much of the day hiding in my cool lounge with the laptop sorting and organising two albums from the same large printing company (as they are also on offer) as I plan on buying an extra one for my Mum too... I am so grateful for the timing of that offer! and just because I can.. here are two of those said photos of my DS and my new DIL.. a LO coming soon to a blog near you. lol

Thanks for looking!

Deconstructed sketch 54

Here is my take on Challenge two of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge .  The great sketch on the blog was all the inspiration needed for this LO...  as it says on the blog... I love a good sketch! It takes the pressure off, but still lets me be creative.
Here is my inspiration:

It's so boiling hot here today.. about 30 degrees in the shade.. so the best place to be is indoors  in my craft room.. that is until the sun comes round and turns it into a sauna of course.. lol

I used a selection of papers and added a strip of adhesive ribbon through the centre and two extra yellow flowers from my stash but otherwise all of the elements came from my 'Cheerful Choice' kit which I'm loving right now.

My take on the sketch meant I replaced the threads with some paper piecing instead... and then I couldn't resist adding some little glittered paper pieces above the turned down corner. I hope you like... catch you all later.

Cheerful choice 1st LO

Here is a LO that I used my Cheerful Choice kit for July for. I found a fresh summery LO in one of the DT Blogs.. and then promptly lost it.. so I took the idea of the fresh Lo and then used a UKS weekly challenge to spur my LO.

Here is the LO.. I took this photo when out for my daily walk in the summer last year... it is such a pretty spot... and the wood cutters hut is nestled so peacefully in the woods.

July Counterfeit Kit- 'Cheerful Choice'

Afternoon all...

Here is my take on this months Counterfeit challenge. I have called it Cheerful Choice and will be starting some LO's very soon with the contents of it. First I have to browse some other counterfeiters and grab some inspiration. I also added some washi tape after I had photographed it.. so that may also appear on my Lo's

Thanks for stopping by to see what I have created...now all I have to do is put away all the 'reject' papers that are spread all over my lounge floor! lol