2014 Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

This was post was going to be a round up if what I've found so far but it's less round up more slow herding as I realise I've only taken a couple in the list. Best pull my finger out!

In the meantime here are my finds...

1. A sign welcoming people to your home town.

This is the signpost for my village. I need to capture the town one when there's less traffic around!

2. A garden gnome

These little chaps were for sale in Sainsburys a few weeks back but I think after England's departure they,ll be sold off cheap now!

10. A photo bomb. These lovely ladies helped me celebrate my birthday the other weekend and I noticed my friend's daughter had joined in the action!

Lastly number 14 A parade. The neighbouring village to ours has a carnival every July with a traditional parade of floats pulled by tractors. This year Alex's best friend had been chosen as Carnival Queen so we headed down to see the floats before the parade headed off. They were all fabulous with so much effort put into decorating them...

Thanks for stopping by. I'm off out with my camera this weekend to track down some more pictures. If you would like to join in then grab your camera and check out Rinda's blog for the full list. 

One photo. Twenty words.

                         

Another Brownie term over. One sleepover, two badges and eighteen girls growing in confidence. Loving my end of term gifts.

I'm linking up with Abi at Creating Paper Dreams for her monthly meme. Take one photo and describe it in twenty words.  Why don't you join in too?

Silverstone

I hadn't done a weekly challenge on UKS for a while but I took a look at this one and knew straight away what I could scrap.  I'd printed the photos off a couple of years ago (yep, I have a pile of pics that goes back that far...or further!) and together with some Gossamer Blue kits I'm trying to use up it was game on!

The challenge was...

Scrap about a summer or sporting event - The British Grand Prix ticks both those boxes :)
Use patriotic colours - plenty of red white and blue in my photos and papers
Use 5 photos or more - I used 5 with the help of a Shimelle 4x6 Photo Love sketch

So here is my double layout...

And the two separate pages...

In the interests of using up old stash on every layout I also sprayed some Basic Grey chipboard alphas.  Do you remember them?  The ones we used to buy before Thickers came along?!

Feeling my mojo return now after a scrapping hiatus so off to see what this week's challenge is...What has got you scrapping again?

Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt 2014

Rinds is running her fantastic scavenger hunt again this summer. This was my first find - Number 16 a sign in a foreign language. 

We have walked past this little chapel on the hill up to our apartments in Kefalonia so many times both this year and in 2006 but we had never found it open to be able to look inside. When I read the list on the last day of holiday it was the first thing I thought of to take a photo of.   Sorry this post is a little photo heavy but I wanted to share the beauty of this little church. 

Inside the altar was so ornate and beautiful...

The right hand side is built into a cave and here there were little lamps with candles burning...

It was a very peaceful place to visit and I'm so glad the hunt made me grab my camera and stroll down the road to find it open. 

I'll be back later this week with more of my finds. In the meantime it's not too late to join in as the hunt runs until the middle of September.  You can find the full details on Rinda's blog here,

Happy hunting!

Expanding Blog Hop!

The other week my friend Gemma tagged me to take part in this blog hop and with a mad busy week I had forgotten all about it until our other friend Fiona posted about the fact that Gemma had tagged her too!  So it's home from work, tea done, jobs done and out with the lap top to complete my post!

What are you currently working on?

I only have time for scrapbooking and a bit of card making.  I am trying to keep up with the 52 card challenge (but failing miserably) but mostly I do pages based on challenges I find around the blog sphere...the UKS Challenge, an online sketch group I am part of (The Sketchy Scrappers) and anything else I have time for.  I also have an idea for my neice's birthday for a heritage album. Right now I need to finish off a 6x12 page to go next to this one...

I am also working my way through Rinda's list for the 2014 Summertime Photography Hunt which you can check out on her blog here.

2. How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I'm not sure it does except it features photos of my family and friends. lol!  I get inspiration from blogs I follow including the lovely Louise, from Shimelle and Mercy Tiara videos, and from the manufacturers blogs on any new product I buy.

3. Why do you write/create what you do?

I love to record our family life, from the small things to the huge. From major milestones to little moments.  I also love to play with paper, glue & sparkly things and it is a great way to lose myself for a few hours in the midst of a stressful life.  I am learning to write more from the heart and have captured a few things now that I am pleased with such as being reunited with my brother after 18 years, the birth of my daughter 5 weeks early and a painful divorce which meant losing the majority of photos from my late 20's 

4. How does your writing/creating process work?

I am lucky to have a room I can keep my work out all the time so how much I create depends how much we have going on in the family that week.  I can spend 10 mins playing with something or sit down for over an hour.  I can get up early before the rest of the house is awake or stay up late when all have gone to bed.  I have no real routine I just try and fit it in when and where I can.  I usually start with a photo and story I want to capture and try and use up some old stash (an ongoing battle!)  Here are a few pictures of my very tidy room from a couple of years ago!

I have seen quite a few posts about this blog hop now like Fiona I have left it too late to ask anyone if they minded me tagging them. Instead I am going to throw open an invitation to anyone reading this post. If you haven’t yet been asked to take part and would like to, please leave a comment below and I will pick the first three people. Your post would need to go live next Monday, the 16th June

Thanks, as always, for stopping by :)

Title help needed...

No, not the title itself (although I have been known to ponder this for days on some of my pages!) but how to do a title on the cheap. 

I am planning on hosting a little scrap class for some friends as a fundraiser for Alex's international trip with Girlguiding UK this year. I have the page planned mostly using the items below and some bits from my stash and have kept the price down to a reasonable price. But the the title is causing me trouble...

I realise how easy it is to reach for thickers (my first love when it comes to titles) but this would wipe out any funds we might raise! 

So I'm opening the suggestion box up to my friends in blog land. So far I've thought of stamping (but I don't own much in the way of large letters) and stitching. Anybody else out there got a great suggestion I could "borrow" that is cheap and easy to teach?

Answers on a post card please (or preferably in the comments section below!)

Thank you all!

& the award goes too...

Hello, hello!  Welcome to the bank holiday weekend (or as I like to call it a whole week off work for half term! yay!)

I did this layout for a UKS weekly challenge a few weeks back and realised I had not blogged it. The challenge was...

10 points to use the sketch 

10 points to scrap something you love (doesn't need to be a person) - love of my daughter's achievements and her great taste in friends!
5 points for stitching (machine, hand or faux) - machine stitched in pink yellow and aqua around the edge of the page
5 points for inking - splatters in Mr Huey's gold

And this is what I came up with using a new kit from SJ Crafts (which I loved) plus a few bits from my own stash...

My daughter was one of the few to get two awards at the school's annual awards night which was lovely but even better was that three of her closest friends also won awards and they could all celebrate together.

Loved this kit - it's just the right size for me to scrap a few pages through the month and use it all up. (I think - except this month has been a little fraught and busy).  Definitely one I will buy again :)