Rock Your World Friday

I've rocked on over from Virginias Blog to share with you

Well this week it has been a real challenge to think of some good things.. we've had some upsetting private family news that rocked our world..not in a good way.

Then my extended family seem to have got hold of the wrong end of the stick and thought I was interfering when I really wasn't! I am, however, grateful for the support my immediate family have given me so, Mwah, Mwah! to them.

Then I am so busy at work that I'm not sure what way is up.. but that can be a blessing too so that doesn't really count does it?

The most exciting and momentous thing that has happened this week is that I have decided to open up my house as Bed and Breakfast accommodation... and I am going to have to leave my job, so for that I'm grateful. (Some of you know I had a stress related stroke last year and that will take the pressure off) 

We're currently redecorating the rooms we will use and my dear husband has everything under control.. so for that I'm also grateful.. it'll cost quite a lot to set it up though.. so that's not so good! You have no idea how expensive Public Liability is? but on the whole it's exciting.. and for that I'm grateful.

I am shopping for all sorts of exciting new goodies, crockery, bed linen, BEDS!, pictures etc so that's exciting.. and I'm VERY grateful for delivery drivers! lol

I am also grateful for the area I live in as we are surrounded by National Trust and Historic properties - here is a selection-

This is Chartwell in Westerham.. home of Winston Churchill for 40 years

This is Knole House in Sevenoaks - the home of Vita Sackville West and home to the last remaining medieval herd of Red Deer in Kent

This is the beautiful Penshurst Pace, that has amazing gardens and is right on my doorstep to the south

 and this is Chiddingstone Castle which is literally within a 30 minute walk from my front door... it is so beautiful and they have some fascinating exhibitions there.

These amazing properties (and many more locally) are a magnet for weekenders and people looking for a rural retreat.. so hopefully my business will take off... so if anyone wants an idyllic country cottage weekend away.. I'm your girl! 

That's about it for this week.. but its all fairly momentous so I think that'll keep me going for now. Here's my cottage if you're interested...maybe internal pictures will follow next week if we get on well enough.

Have a good week everyone. 

WOYWW 1st timer

Well.. Here is a peek at what's on my workdesk! I've never joined in this blog before but thought it was about time as I've been looking at all your fabulous workspaces and, although mine is far smaller than some of yours it is my little space of heaven regardless.

Today you can see the start of a circle journal double LO that I'm working on. The theme is 'Your favourite time of Year' so I am doing summer. I have started with some pink cardstock and have so far cut out a series of circular photos of roses in my garden that I will be adding on top of a doily. TBH it isn't going as well as I'd like so it's been a bit abandoned so I may go back to the drawing board and rethink it but I'm not sure yet.

I'll be back to work today so I shan't get it finished for a while anyway.

I'm off for a blog hop to have a look at all your other work desks now. Have a good day all

Use up your scraps

A very quick blog for me today as I'm off to work momentarily...

I was inspired by two things for this LO.. on the CKCB blog it asked you to use up some scraps- not from your kit.. well I used two tiny scraps from my kit and also scraps of washi tape (??) hope that counts?

Also over on UKS- the weekly challenge was to leave at least 50% white space and use die cuts and stitching. (Mine's faux but that was within the rules- so no worries)

Here is my LO using all the elements for both challenges... be back later! Thanks for looking!

A quick LO from me today

I had very little time to make a LO today (I've finally got my son moved out and into his new home) yet I was very keen to complete the August House Challenge on UKS( UK Scrappers). This is to take inspiration from another LO in the UKS gallery and scraplift it.

This was my inspiration from UKS member Daisychain... isn't is gorgeous?








Then of course, I wanted to start scrapping my sons wedding- finally! I've been a bit scared to get started as the photos are so special to me... and I didn't want to get it wrong.. then I just decided to bite the bullet and get going anyway.. and if it didn't 'make the cut' for the final album.. then so be it.

So here goes.. here is my take on this lovely LO

I wanted to make it as close as possible to the original..but I fell at the first hurdle.. the photo I had printed was much larger so I had to 'upscale' everything. I started with a biscuit tin lid and added teal ink around the edge- stamped two overlapping rings- and took an inky sponge and wiped it in lines across the (slightly sparkly) background card stock. I added a page of Kaisercraft Chapter One embossed paper and toned it down with more of the teal ink. I then added a layer of lace and a punched border, adhered the photo and added the bird cage, flower spacer beads, pearls and stocking flowers. I finished with the title, which I then added more pearls to in order to lift it a little.



I hope you like.. please add comments as it's great to get feedback and then I'll decide if it's going to make the cut or not.  Thanks for looking.

Rocking your world Friday & CKCB LO's

This week I cannot compete with the sheer no. of photographs that Virginia has on her RYWF blog but I still have lots to be grateful for!

Saturday was a great day for me as I went  (as I usually do on the first Saturday of each month) to a crop in Golden Green, Near Tonbridge in Kent and created 4 LO's using my August Counterfeit Kit 

I have already shared two with you this week, but here are the other two so you can see the diversity of colours and styles that you can get out of one set of random papers.

This is a LO about when my DS and DH went to try on their suits for my other sons wedding in June. I couldn't go, so I had to make do with this photo that was sent to me by said DS who sent it to me by text. I wasn't expecting it, and when I opened it.. I just burst into tears! Emotions are a funny thing aren't they? 

and here is the final LO.. of my dogs one crisp spring morning earlier this year.. not a tear in sight! lol

Then on Sunday I had a lovely day relaxing and chatting with family and very little else.

Monday to Thursday I was back at work with a vengeance..boy was I busy- which is a good thing in my line of business! I am in sales and the housing market has, unsurprisingly, been in the doldrums in the last few years. This week however, everyone seems to have woken up and I have sold 7 houses! Happy days.. I may FINALLY earn some commission. I haven't been this busy in 5 years! Hooray!

On Wednesday evening I went to another crop and I made this LO.... but to be happy, although I love the Teresa Collins Far Away papers, I think my photos are a bit lost on it, so I'm not sure if I won't go back to the drawing board with it.. what do you think? 

Then last night I went to my sons house to help him start moving his stuff in there. Him and his new wife have been lodging with us since March while they do their house us.. and the light is finally at the end of the tunnel and the carpet went down yesterday. They are just waiting for their boiler to be connected and they will have hot water so they can actually move in.. they (and I) can't wait. I have loved every minute of having them here..but there's nothing like having your own space is there? Then it'll be just me, DH and the dogs again..maybe I can take back control of the remote again (my son had stolen it!)

So that's my week.. I'm off out today for lunch with a friend and then I will be home for a crafty hour or two to round off the day. I hope you all have/had a great week too.

2nd August forgery

Here is my latest LO from Saturdays crop using the August Counterfeit Kit.

The story of the LO is a good one... and it's what Scrapbooking is all about.. recording everyday events!

Back in May you may remember we held a pre-wedding garden party in honour of my DS and now DILs wedding in June. We invited many family and friends and the day was glorious..the first decent day of summer shone down on us..but... in typical English fashion... the evenings turned cold in the spring air and my dear Mum (who's 83) was getting decidedly colder and colder. So, my DS went and got his coat for her to wear but as the evening wore on she got colder still and we went and got a blanket for her so we could watch the sun set from the end of our garden.. as you can see by the shadows on the photos. She was determined to sit it out until the sun went down. then my DS2 and she got the giggles and I managed to take this lovely series of photos of them both..it was such a special day!

I made this LO on Saturday but on Sunday I noticed that the latest challenge on the CKCB blog was to incorporate something hidden so I have managed to slip some journalling in about the story of the day and this event behind the middle photograph with a concealed tag... I love these photos and couldn't wait to scrap them.

1st August Master Forgery

Here is my first forgery from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog

I had a day at a crop yesterday and made 4 LO's with the kit and I still have loads left. I thought today I would spend loading them here but sadly life took over, as it often has a habit of doing, and I ended up spending far too much time doing mundane things like cooking and cleaning!

Anyway here is the first LO I made so I will add the rest in order of how I made them at the crop.. thay will follow as soon as I have a chance to upload them. I hope everyone else spent time enjoying themselves rather than having a weekend like mine.

I used the reverse of a patterned pice of paper to start then a piece of pink card-stock as the mount to the photos and used 4 of the project life style cards as the banners and the title and then mounted the photos on too. I then made  tow washi taps fans and the 5 quilled flowers (truthfully I had been going to make loads and loads more, but I got a bit bored) so I reverted to buttons for the rest of the embellishments with bakers twine through them and added two pink brads, one that I used to secure the bronze birdcage charm that you can just about see at the bottom right of the picture. (As you can tell I'm still working on better photographs with my iPad whilst my good camera is out of action). I'll keep trying I promise! 

Catch a Falling Star

Here is my take on this months Counterfeit Kit ..The Confidence Kit.

When I first saw this the colours that seemed to jump out at me were turquoise, brown and a hint of pink with some sand and beige. This was great as I had earlier seen a lovely LO in turquoise and pink and it wasn't a colour combination I had used before and I had decided I really wanted to... so this was the inspiration for my kit that I have called 'Catch a Falling Star'. 

Here is the original- found over at CKCB that I blogged about earlier today. 

First I started with selecting the card-stock in the colours mentioned above and then I chose all of the papers to co-ordinate... I had a ball choosing the papers and found some co-ordinating Project Life style cards.. one with 'Catch a Falling Star' on it. Then I found some brown and sand camera and globe stickers and thought that these went well with everything else along with the alphas in cream and turquoise with pink and brown chipboard alphas too.

Here is my take on the kit 

I then included ink pads, brown bloomer ribbon, pink and blue brads, pinky brown buttons, pink and blue bakers twine and a number of other embellishments here with some wooden words, some pink chips and pink and blue paper clips in the shape of an aeroplane finished off with a couple of bronze charms amongst others. 

I'm off to a crop tomorrow so I am looking forward to using this lush kit!

Rocking Your World Friday.. on a Friday!

I am celebrating my online friends this week! I consider myself very fortunate that I have some good virtual friends around me.. none more so than my team on UKS!

I had some very unexpected, but exciting, news on Sunday which I shared with them..and they were thrilled for me. More news on that in the future. 

Then my week went steadily downhill... work is getting me down a bit- but you have to get on with it don't you? So once again I turned to my team and shared the pain.. and they all chipped in with some encouragement.. and told me of their work pain they had been going through.. which made mine seem so insignificant in comparison.. so for that I'm grateful. 

Then I was chosen as one of the Fab Five in the CKCB blog for my choice of Counterfeit kits .. and I was thrilled. I am steadily getting to know the CKCB group and there are some fab designers over there.. so please hop on over and have a look. 

Then I asked to join an online sketch challenge group too.. and they said yes.. so here is my latest Lo for that... please forgive the photography- I used my iPad as my DSLR is currently broken and it looks all wonky- but it isn't honestly! 

Now I'm off to look at the August CKCB to get my kit together as I'm off on a crop tomorrow.. I'm so looking forward to it.