Dare 42 Rehash that stash

When this Dare was first talked about I will admit that I snickered about the 'OLD' stash we were discussing. Having scrapped for a few years now I have indeed seen trends come - go BANANAS and then sink without trace! I did eyelets, mulberry paper and vellum when I was first starting out and I used them because they were THERE!!! Don't get me wrong I often use products as a springboard for inspiration- there's nothing better than a lush piece of paper or a new embellishment to make you wanna get scrapping. In my early scrapping days eyelets came along and I bunged them on every page going! Part of the attraction was pay back on my children- for once it was ME making the noise Bwahahahaha!!!
Somehow though the thought of using things I had mentally discarded was strangely daunting. Then I felt smug because I have a bit of a 'thing' about NOT hoarding and if something is not being used it gets sold, RAK'ed or recycled. I could NOT therefore have any 'old' products- could I??
Well yes I could- I had two folders STUFFED with the most dreadful shades of Bazzill cardstock (remember the monochromatic phase?) garish vellum (well everyone used it) and a real mishmash of stickers (mostly z's, w's, q's amd x's!!). OOPS!!!!
Well these two folders were perfect for my cardstock scraps I use for my QuicKutz and my 'new' sticker collection so I HAD to empty them out.
As I looked through the hoard I started remembering WHY I had bought a particular piece of vellum and what I had used it on, or WHEN I had first seen this paper used and where I had bought something. I started to feel all nostalgic!!
So I sorted through all this stash and found some lovely vellum and MM definition Stickers perfect for this layout of 'Miss Acorn's' birthday! Using vellum was an excuse to let fly with the eyelets although this time I used my Crop-a-dile so it was a quiet affair!!

Materials
HOTP Vellum
Bazzil Cardstock
Daisy D's Paintchip
Eyelets
White alphabet stickers
QK Revolution Abigail Font

Oooh Lushie's Lushness!

More Dollies last night and *swoon* they were divine- NORTY Jaq LOL. I treated myself to a silver chain as I want to wear my Dollies on it- HAVE to show them off as much as possible as they are so darn lovely!!

Going off half cocked!!!

Some people seem to thrive on drama and controversy don't they? Also these type of people alsways assume that everything is a dig at them or a slight in some way. This is not a point of view I can personally ascribe too because even when a dig IS actually directed at me I often as not Miss it- I spend most of my time living in the Land of Vague you see!
So when Stacey Julian set up a scrapping prompt site I didn't feel compelled to join nor did I feel that she had stolen something from me- why would I??
Well our Design Collective is being regarded by some as The Borg Collective and that 'Resistence is Futile' (thanks to Fiona for reminding me of my fave all time Star Trek baddies!!). I am sorry to say this is NOT the case- would some people LIKE it to 'be so'???!

Unlike the Borg we promise not to ' add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own' although we would love to have feedback and input we will keep it to purely scrapping matters only and you can keep your minds and bodies to yourselves!!

IF you would like ideas and inspiration from the 14 designers involved then please come along and play as scrapping with others is always so much more fun than working away on your own. If you are afraid that we are going to assimilate scrappers into the Collective then fear not- that's not our thing!! After all it's just paper and Herma innit??!

5..4..3..2..1 BLAST-OFF!!!!

Introducing a new and exciting concept in scrapbook design inspiration.

Our team of designers are renowned for their diverse and creative approaches to scrapbooking and altered art projects. Their wealth of creative experience in designing new and innovative pages and projects is already being tapped into by leading magazines, retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers in the scrapbooking industry. They now come together to bring you a whole range of fresh, fabulous and inspiring ideas for your scrapbooks and other memory art projects.

The team comprises: Fiona Beckman, Clare Brown, Jane Dean, Amber Harrop-Johnston, Debbie Jewell, Karen Leahy, Elaine Loughlin, Jennie Leon, Ali McGovern, Karen Miller, Debbie Nicholas, Katie Shanahan-Jones, Suzanne Torr and Kirsty Wiseman.

Classes will be issued four times during each calendar month on the 3rd, 11th, 19th and 26th. By subscribing to The Design Collective, on each of these dates you will receive:

• one major class project;
• two additional inspiring projects (taking a variety of formats such as challenges, new ways to use something, themed pages and so on);
• a range of tips and ideas from the design team.

A newsletter will be sent direct to your email box with the relevant classes in the form of attached pdf files. Classes will focus on different design elements and techniques and will cover a whole range of projects from layouts to mini books to gifts and altered items. You can choose to print out the classes or save to disk; whichever format you choose, over a period of time you will be creating your very own Design Collection to use over and over again to create beautiful and meaningful pages and projects.

In addition to issuing project pdf files, we will be hosting a blog to keep up to date with all the latest news and a community forum for subscriber chat, help from the design team and a gallery so that you can share your work with us. And we will also host two cyber crops over the course of the year for even more fun, challenges and inspiration!

For just £10 a month (and NO! that is not a typing mistake!) you will be getting four major project classes, eight further classes and a wealth of knowledge and tips from the design team. That works out at under 85p per class! Plus, there will be no having to buy expensive class kits as we will be positively encouraging you to use up that stash mountain in the corner of your room! You choose what supplies you want to use, to match your own photos and themes, you get to stay in your pj’s and scrap in the comfort of your own home, whilst having the class designers to call upon for help and other subscribers to talk to in the community forum. And think of the money saved on petrol!

We will also be incorporating a Loyalty Scheme which will reward subscribers with additional benefits on the completion of a six and twelve month continued subscription with us. Subscriptions will be taken on a monthly basis, paypal is preferred but we will also accept bank transfer. This way you don’t need to pay out a lump sum up front, just the monthly subscription charge of £10.*

We will be taking registration bookings from Monday, 12th March (for first mailing 3rd April). To make sure you don’t miss out on any important updates and registration details, please register your interest** by emailing to subscriptions.designcollective@gmail.com
and keep checking for more information on the team blog http://designcollective.typepad.com

Notes:

* Subscriptions will be due on the 2nd of each calendar month to ensure you continue to receive the classes without interruption.

** Registering your interest at this stage is not a final commitment.

Scrapbook Sisters DT Gallery

Scrapbook Sisters Design Team Gallery is up and looking Lush!
I really loved the kit as it was full of things that I'm sure those girls knew I'd lurve- 7gypsies, 3bugs, Rusty Pickle and stuff to alter. I spent a fun weekend creating, getting inky, painty and having a thoroughly good time!
I had the chance to play with an alterable fan for the first time along with acetate images so that had my creative juices flowing as wll as the Tim Holtz Distress Ink flying! So pop over to Scrapbook Sisters and have a gander at their gallery there's a wide variety of products there for your inspiration.

Pancakes and Lent.

We had Pancake fun on Tuesday! Thanks to Delia for her recipe which is a winner even from the very first pancake- you know that first one that you usually have to throw away because it's soaked up ALL the fat in the pan and looks like a deflated balloon!! The OLD Tefal pan did sterling service again and I lost a few pounds sweating over the gas ring!!
It was lovely to make pancakes for everyone as it's one of the few things we ALL eat without any fussing! In fact there was deadly silence.....eating!
We love ours with Sugar and Lemon, occasionally Maple syrup. As you can see 'the Boy with
the Hair' was extremely positive about pancakes and wore a beaut of a sugar beard when he'd finished!!
I missed my Ashes yesterday laid low with a headache (I suspect I'd been pretending to 'think' too much!) but DH and I have decided to forgo ALCOHOL for Lent.....madness.
We're focusing on how good a lovely cold beer will taste after 6 weeks without!

Dollies

Just a quick piccie of my new beads- 'DH' bought me 'Bed of Roses' for St. Valentine's Day which is beautiful! Here it's next to another new Dolly Bead called Purple Rose which is slightly transparent- lush!

Been Stocking Up!

It was that time to stock up on some scrapping essentials- nothing beautiful or that makes you go 'Oooh" but those things you CANNOT scrap without.
I had a pizza box of Bazzill Cardstock arrive from PaperArts yesterday. I use
black, white, cream and dark brown cardstock such a lot that I decided I needed to top up my stocks I also ordered some Crimson cardstock too as it' s a lush shade of red (I'd used it as part of my Scrapbook Sisters DT kit) yet a red Bazzill cardstock seems to be as rare as hen's teeth!!
Yellow or orange now I'd find that as easy as pie (are scrappers anti yellow and orange??!) but red- it's hard to track down....now don't all stampede to the shops and buy it all up, I don't want to be responsible for a world shortage of Red Bazzill!!!
My Hera supplies arrived this morning from Gina's Crafty Ideas- I tend to get a bit twitchy and nervous if the Herma stocks fall below three!! I don't know how I EVER managed to craft before I found Herma- it's such a Godsend just cannot manage without it!! The kids use it too if they have school projects etc- I mean it's BAM! and it's stuck- no messing and no waiting for drying either- magic!! Oh dear I sound like a dodgy cleaning product advert don't I??? *snigger*

Well I have Inchies to play with- I was happy as a crafter in ink and Glossy Accents on Monday so I'm going back for more today!! Clare Brown- damn you for giving me a new obsession!!! LOL. See Clare's Blog for examples of her lucious Inchies- small on size but BIG on artistry!
THis will sound daft (feel free to laugh at me!) but until I cut out and 1x1" piece of card I didn't realise HOW small an Inchie was- mad aren't I??!!
Right off to play!!!

Dare 41 is up!!!!

A Week in Pictures was this weeks Speshal Dare and what a toughie we all found it! Having said that there is an bucket full of stonking inspiration on the Everyone is Speshal Blog! It seemed that the tough subject made us all stretch our scrapping muscles just a little bit harder resulting in some really unique layouts!
I took the title literally and used 35 1x1" photies to show what we'd been upto since Wednesday. I decided on 35 mini photies for the simple reason I have 7x5" photo paper!!! A No Brainer there!! Some of the things we'd done had been so ordinary that I had no photos- for example we'd been to Blockbusters and rented 'Open Season'. I found a piccie of the Open Season DVD online and used that. Other things I took slightly 'staged' photos of (such as our 1st Hot Cross Buns of the season!!) to remind us!
I used Photoshop Elephants 2 and opened and resized my piccies to 1x1". I then opened a 'New' 7x5" document in File and moved the resized piccies across- time consuming but it worked out really well.
Because of the mix of colours in the photos I chose a neutral paper as the background and was delighted to discover this 7gypsies 'Home' paper was ideal as it had a graph paper effect on it so lining my photies up was a snip!
My Autumn Leaves Clear Scribble Stamps and my Arrow stamps from Ness at Papermaze were used AGAIN- I love those stamps SOOOOOOOOOO much!!!
For a splash of colour I resorted to WHSmith's Watercolour pencils!! That is when I can wrestle them back from "The Blonde One's" grasp!! I simply went over the stamped images with a coloured pencil - job done!
Coming after last weeks celebration of 'Simple Pleasures' this challenge to recors a week in pictures was ideal. It made me appreciate WHAT we do in a week even if it's not the BIG stuff like birthdays. As a family we enjoy watching funny DVD's and then quoting lines from them, having a cakie from the shop, buying the first Hot Cross Buns, making popcorn- all silly, inconsequentila stuff REALLY but it's OUR stuff and it was lovely to capture it for the future!

Layout Materials
Patterned Paper: 7gypsies
Autumn Leaves Stamps: Scribble alphabet; Hearts and Stars; You are Here
Other: Watercolour pencils, Tombo Black Pen; 7gypsies Gaffer Tape.

*Snicker*

From my pal Nigel- made me chortle!!



These are from a book called Disorder in the American Courts, and are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ATTORNEY: Are you sexually active?
WITNESS: No, I just lie there.
______________________________


ATTORNEY: What is your date of birth?
WITNESS: July 18th.
ATTORNEY: What year?
WITNESS: Every year.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact?
WITNESS: Gucci sweats and Reeboks.
______________________________________


ATTORNEY: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And in what ways does it affect your memory?
WITNESS: I forget.
ATTORNEY: You forget? Can you give us an example of something you forgot?
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: How old is your son, the one living with you?
WITNESS: Thirty-eight or thirty-five, I can't remember which.
ATTORNEY: How long has he lived with you?
WITNESS: Forty-five years.
_____________________________________

ATTORNEY: What was the first thing your husband said to you that morning?
WITNESS: He said, "Where am I, Cathy?"
ATTORNEY: And why did that upset you?
WITNESS: My name is Susan.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you know if your daughter has ever been involved in voodoo?
WITNESS: We both do.
ATTORNEY: Voodoo?
WITNESS: We do.
ATTORNEY: You do?
WITNESS: Yes, voodoo.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Now doctor isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning?
WITNESS: Did you actually pass the bar exam?
___________________________________

ATTORNEY: The youngest son, the twenty-year-old, how old is he?
WITNESS: Uh, he's twenty-one.
________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Were you present when your picture was taken?
WITNESS: Would you repeat the question?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: So the date of conception (of the baby) was August 8th?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: And what were you doing at that time?
WITNESS: Uh....
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: She had three children, right?
WITNESS: Yes.
ATTORNEY: How many were boys?
WITNESS: None.
ATTORNEY: Were there any girls?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: How was your first marriage terminated?
WITNESS: By death.
ATTORNEY: And by whose death was it terminated?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Can you describe the individual?
WITNESS: He was about medium height and had a beard.
ATTORNEY: Was this a male or a female?
_________________________________________

ATTORNEY: Is your appearance here this morning pursuant to a deposition notice which I sent to your attorney?
WITNESS: No, this is how I dress when I go to work.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, how many of your autopsies have you performed on dead people?
WITNESS: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: ALL your responses MUST be oral, OK? What school did you go to?
WITNESS: Oral.
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Do you recall the time that you examined the body?
WITNESS: The autopsy started around 8:30 p.m.
ATTORNEY: And Mr. Denton was dead at the time?
WITNESS: No, he was sitting on the table wondering why I was doing an autopsy on him!
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Are you qualified to give a urine sample?
WITNESS: Huh?
______________________________________

ATTORNEY: Doctor, before you performed the autopsy, did you check for a pulse?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for blood pressure?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: Did you check for breathing?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: So, then it is possible that the patient was alive when you began the autopsy?
WITNESS: No.
ATTORNEY: How can you be so sure, Doctor?
WITNESS: Because his brain was sitting on my desk in a jar.
ATTORNEY: But could the patient have still been alive, nevertheless?
WITNESS: Yes, it is possible that he could have been alive and practicing law.

Valentine ATC's

I was lucky enough to be included in another forum ATC swap- many thanks Fiona! I am posting my ATC's this week because I got in a right mess last week with the snow and the kids at home- I tell you it doesn't take much to throw me out!
I received ATC's from my pals this morning and very LUSH they are too- I will post piccies later!
ATC's are soooo much fun- a real chance to experiment as there are no rules and you have such a small canvas to work on there's less chance to be intimidated! For the first time I stamped and UTEE'd pieces of CD then stamped into the hot UTEE- such fun! Plus I FINALLY played with my shrinkie dink plastic from 3djean along with her gorgeous embossing powders!

St. Valentine's Day

Wishing you a very LOVELY St. Valentine's Day!!!

February Song (how appropriate!)

I ADORE this song- I mean like play it over and over again type adore and then play it some more! I heard it on Radio 2 first (yes I am a TOG!!! Well my Mother started me off when I was little so I never stood a chance, did I??!!) and it was one of those soaring tunes that just wedged itself in my brain.
Maybe the tunes sets my Irish Genes twanging?!! OK Josh Groban is NOT Irish but his lilting barratone puts me very much in mind of Brian Kennedy, maybe the curly , floppy hair helps too!
This song is a cracker, guaranteed to inspire and make you
swoosh round your living room in double quick time with the vacuum!

Dare No. 40- Simple Pleasures

This weeks Dare was a celebration of the Simple Pleasures in life. Pop along to see everyone's take on this at Everyone is Speshal.

Layout Materials:
Patterned Paper: Rusty Pickle; Autumn Leaves
Other: DYmo Tape; QK Studio Font; QK PAige Mini Font.

*Happy Dance*

Jaq released this weeks beads and as soon as I saw Purple Rose I knew it HAD to be mine *maniacal laugh* I just LOVE the colours and the translucence *sigh* can't wait to have it nestled up with my other beadies.
So lucky to have such a talented lady as Jaq making these 'one offs' for us.
Imagine we can get our hands on hand made, exclusive beads for about the same price as a Troll bead- fantastic! They really are very special
and I love them!
Jaq's eye for colour is superb and I have NO idea how she gives her beads that liquidity but I love it- I'm sure if I look closely enough
at her beads that the I can see the colours swirling!! Besides being such an amazing jeweler and glass maker she is also a stunning scrapbooker- I tell you if she wasn't so darn nice you *might* be tempted to pinch her!!!

Snow Fun!!!

Well actually it's LOTS of fun!! Rather shocked this morning to find school STILL closed *frowns* apparently ice is a danger.
WHY does that poem about the sort of fun kids USED to have spring to mind Hmmm?

SO HOW DID WE SURVIVE? (WARNING WON'T MAKE SENSE TO UNDER-20s )
ACCORDING to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 60s, 70s and early 80s probably shouldn't have survived because:
Our baby cots were covered with brightly coloured, lead-based paint which was promptly chewed and licked.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, or latches on doors or cabinets and it was fine to play with pans.
When we rode our bikes, we wore no helmets, just flip-flops and fluorescent spokey dokey's on our wheels.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat-belts or airbags - riding in the passenger seat was a treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle and it tasted the same.
We ate chips and bread and butter pudding and drank fizzy juice with sugar in it but we were never overweight because I we were always outside playing.
We shared one drink with four friends, from one bottle or can and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building go-carts out of scraps and then went top speed down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes.
After running into stinging nettles a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in theForThose morning and could play all day, as long as we were back before it got dark.
No one was able to reach us and no one minded.
We did not have Playstations or X-Boxes, no video games at all.
No 99 channels on TV, no videotape movies, no surround sound, no mobile phones, no personal computers, no DVDs, no internet chat rooms.
We had friends - we went outside and found them.
We played elastics and rounders, and sometimes that ball really hurt! We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones but there were no lawsuits.
We had full-on fist fights but no prosecution followed from other parents.
We played chap-the-door-run-away and were actually afraid of the owners catching us.
We walked to friends' homes. We also, believe it or not, WALKED to school. We didn't rely on mummy or daddy to drive us to school, which was just round the corner.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls. We rode bikes in packs of seven and wore our coats by only the hood.
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of ... they actually sided with the law.
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. And you're one of them. Congratulations!
Pass this on to others who have had the luck to grow as real kids, before lawyers I and government regulated our lives, for our own good. For those of you who aren't old enough, thought you might like to read about us.

Walking in a Winter Wonderland!

We had snow yesterday and I mean SNOW- it was big, white, DEEP snow!!! Fabulous!
And it snowed all day-lovely!!! School was close
d (for the first time in 12 years-New Head) and so there were three happy sproggies in our tree yesterday! Much galloping was done in the snow and snowmen were built.
The snow is STILL here today!

Loving this!

I eagerly downloaded Norah Jones' new album on the 29th and I have not been disappointed.
I am a fan, regularly listening to her her other two albums. Both DH and I find them great to listen to whilst we are crafting!
Particular faves from the new album are Sinkin' Soon and My Dear Country which are on 'replay'. A great album to savour and enjoy.

Speshal Dare *39

Here is our challenge for this weeks Speshal Dares. This inspiration came from The Daring Card Makers. It was to be make a romantic layout but on a card. I kinda played with the idea and made a card as part of my 12x12 layout. The central element of the layout is a card that opens and has piccies of the sproggies and all of us goofing around. The idea was to celebrate all the fabulous things that DH and I have experienced since we've been together. We've been together for sixteen years and married for eleven of those! Sounds such a long time and yet it feels as if we're younger and sillier than ever!
Celebrate everything and everyone you love.
Wishing you a Happy and Loving Valentine's Day.

Layout Materials.
Patterned Paper; Basic Grey Blush
Bazzill Cardstock, Embellishments; Making Memories Brads, Lil' Davis Frame, 7Gypsies Gaffer Tape.

Speshal Dares!

Baked with Love.

This was my first Dare with the Speshal Girls
the theme was 'Shake Rattle and Roll those Pots and Pans.'
To me the kitchen aways remind me of my Mum and her baking days. These were great events that my brother and I would relish. The cooker would be turned on and the bowls, utensils and ingredients would appear on the kitchen worktop. Perhaps one of my fondest memories is of 'The Book'. This was the cooking tome which my Mum always used. It was a 1957 version of the Good Housekeeping Guide to Cookery. It has a thick black , embossed leatherette cover and is filled with hundreds of pages of recipes embellished with the most glorious colour illustrations.
The book is now mine but for me it mean 'Mum's Bake Days'. To celebrate these memories I used images from the cook book on my layout along with a photo of Mum and I taken in Yorkshire (where we had a lovely kitchen) in 1975. Things always seem idillic when you look back to when you were five, don't they??!

So pop along to the Speshal Dares website to see all the girls' takes on the kitchen theme. Fantastic work and inspiration as ever lay-dees!

Layout Materials:-
Patterned Paper; Rusty Pickle, Daisy D's
QuicKutz Washington Font.

Holiday Memories

Scrapping this picture of 'The Blonde One' on the
beach at Deauville made me long for the smell of the sea.
Deauville was such a revelation for us. Having been only to UK beaches we loved the cleanliness and the relaxed family atmosphere of this beach. This particular day there was a very stiff breeze whipping the surf up and yet it was warm and invigorating at the same time. It was a delicious day and we galloped around madly. I think that like ponies and horses the wind drives children a little wild- maybe it's all that extra oxygen being forced up their nostrils !!!

Layout using various plain Basic Grey papers in blue shades.
QuicKutz Washington Font.

Still in Quarantine

We're on the mend but still not quite 100%.
Hopefully it'll be back to school tomorrow!