Mothering Sunday

Being the first Sunday in the month, this is Storytelling Sunday and, in the UK at least, it is also Mothering Sunday, so I've been thinking about Mother's Days past (and presents). 

Mothers.  We all had one. Some of us are fortunate enough to be one. Sometimes we gain extra ones along the journey. As I grow older I find I’m turning into mine in many ways, and she, in turn, has become someone else. The dynamic has shifted and now I’m the one asked for advice rather than reluctantly taking it. Eventually, I hope, my daughter will let me lean on her in the same way that I am supporting my mother now.

Today I will be handing over a simple home-made Mother’s Day card and a small token gift. I too will receive a card. Or three. One arrived in the post yesterday and is waiting on the mantelpiece as No.1 Son seems to have rejoined the Human Race - I have a LOT to thank his lovely girlfriend for.

I’ve never expected too much in the way of presents for Mothering Sunday; I’d rather have a bit of TLC than an overpriced bunch of flowers or a calorific box of chocolates. Hubby “helped” the kids to buy me a garden strimmer one year - officially my worst Mother's Day gift - ever!! Conversely, the best present in recent years was this little trolley coin - a daily reminder that I am blessed with loving offspring (especially when they are less than likeable!).

So what am I hoping for today? Well, if my luck is in, I’ll be woken with a plate of Marmite toast and a mug of tea. If I'm really lucky, Child No.3 will check that any flowers she picks from the garden for decorating my tray don’t have any baby slugs clinging to them! That was a memorable breakfast in bed I can tell you!

I'm sure there will be more tales of mothering and other subjects over at High In The Sky - do check out the other Sunday Storytellers.

April Flowers

AND I've used up some Scoubis!

Sorry folks, I've been a BAD blogger!  All but one of the Blogging For Scrapbookers' prompts for week 2 are sitting here, printed out, read, but un-digested.  I have been visiting a few classmates' blogs, but sadly not the forum, nor have I been posting.

BUT I have a good reason - honest!  You see I've been playing around with my latest scrapbooking tool.  It's so clever.  Ever wanted to do lots of journalling on a page, but keep lots of white space too?  Ever got fed up with having to remove pages from an album in order to access the hidden journalling on tags and in pockets?  This clever little device is the answer!  It's a pen that writes in transparent ink!   Take a look at it in action on to top of this page:

And what's more - it comes in several different colours so that you can always have exactly the right shade.  My particular favourite is sky-blue-pink - more details can be found here.  I'm off to play some more - have a great weekend!

All Aboard!

It's time for another Counterfeit Kit Blog Hop and I'd like to welcome you aboard from Glinda's place (if you just happened along from somewhere else you may like to start at the beginning back on the CKCB).

This month's blog hop challenge was to use our kits to counterfeit one of our own pages, so I had a little look through my albums and decided to have another go with a page from last September (which completely coincidentally uses some of the same papers from last month's counterfeit kit!) based on Twisted Sketch #66.

I'm still ploughing through photos from last November's Egyptian holiday, and decided to add a second photo rather than a journalling card. The use of patterned paper instead of card as the background also changes the dynamic completely. 
 

I was also joining in with a challenge on UKS which meant I needed to use scraps, add some bunting and a stamp too. I'm not really a fan of the bunting-on-every-page-trend, but I reckoned it was acceptable on a page about boating.  My bunting is made from triangles of scrap cardstock - I was distressing the edges of each triangle with scissors when they started to come apart revealing a suede-like inner surface which I rather liked, so each trangle made two flags!

Thanks for stopping by - if you want to see more counterfeiters' in action then pop over to Gabrielle's blog to see what she has scraplifted with her kit.

Five on Friday #1

Today is Day #5 of Blogging For Scrapbookers - Are you taking part?  Are you keeping up?  Well it's 4 days since I promised myself I wouldn't post every day, which must mean I'm doing really well, not having posted since then!!  I have been good and read each prompt on the day it was posted, but then there's still plenty of time for me to get behind, especially as I am working a 9½ hour shift tomorrow!

Prompt #5 was about photos - which is lucky because I was out with my camera and wanted to share my favourite photo of the day - straight from my super-duper little point and shoot Canon Powershot A700. Love the sunlight through the leaves of this Hellebore.

I used 5 different types of card and paper to make the latest instalment of my 2011 Project 12 album.  I'm not using the supplied Pagemap sketches this year, and have decided to keep the same format each month - collage on one side and journalling on the other - hopefully I won't get bored with this before December.

Coincidentally that double layout includes page #5 from my March Counterfeit Kit - my pages haven't been as prolific this month, but not bad considering I started two weeks late!

And the final 5?  Well it's the number of audition layouts you have to submit to enter the Scrap Factor Contest over on UKScrappers.  There is a category each for paper, digital and hybrid scrappers and a massive £500 first prize for the creative soul that makes it through to the end!  Good luck if you enter :D

Blogging For Scrapbookers

I never could quite understand Blogging.  Just what was the point of it?  Keep a diary by all means, create scrapbook pages with lots of journalling, preferably on hidden tags, but sharing all that personal "stuff" with (im)perfect strangers?  NOT a good idea!

That was then ...

... this is now!

I was perfectly happy spilling my available time into UKScrappers (I belong to perhaps the chattiest team on the boards!), sharing my scrapbook creations in the galleries, exchanging comment lurve, joining in with the challenges.  BUT a couple of space-saving culls decimated my on-line gallery over there and more and more challenge sites demanded link-backs to enter their competitions ... and so this blog was conceived!

After a gestation of nearly 8 months I'm still not 100% comfortable with the whole idea - a mix of self-conscious bemusement, paranoia about identity theft, and worry about the amount of time which blog surfing can consume.  BUT I have found it strangely satisfying to share stories with other bloggers, pages with other scrappers and wander around the cyber community that is Blogland!

With perfect timing, this week sees the start of Shimelle's "Blogging For Scrapbookers" which, I hope, will hone my blogging skills, both  literally and, perhaps, lyrically!

♥ I'm not intending to post every day - BUT I do promise to think hard about each prompt on the day that it arrives and join in with the forum discussions.

♥ I'm not intending to start following all my classmates' blogs - BUT I do promise to read at least dozen a day to learn from their journeys as well as my own and leave comments to say that I've visited.

No Direction?

At the end of last year I was checking up on my boys at university browsing randomly on Facebook when I spotted that No.2 Son had a new profile picture. For a mad moment I thought he'd photoshopped his face onto a publicity shot of the latest boy band sensation on the X-factor, before recognising the other lads in the group! I messaged him:

"You look a bit like you've been on the X-Factor ... "No Direction" perhaps?"

And so this page was born - the first from my March Counterfeit Kit adding only a few brads.

I used the Sunday sketch from The Studio (loosely) and tied it in with the weekly challenge on UKS too - so sketch and paper ruffle for The Studio, bling, 1 photo and "white" space for UKS!!!

Just in case you're not an X-factor viewer ... and I count myself among that number, but I am blessed with No.3 Child who likes that sort of thing, so cannot avoid it ... here is a photo of the boy band in question (the curly-haired lad is from a local school)!

One Direction, photo courtesy of the UK Fan Club

Photo Collage

I sent a photo collage over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog by way of an introduction.  It's obviously 100% clear to me what each of the photos means, but for the record I'll explain each of them ... perhaps there's material for a scrapbook page here too:

Starting with the obvious - I love books; that's a pile of some of my all time favourites.  My house is already full of books and I do occasionally buy more, but I'm making the most of the public library at the moment - it's a wonderful (but threatened) resource and stops my house from overflowing!

Next there's a page I did for a circle journal about my favourite colour, followed by a picture indicating just how long I've been in the IT industry: punched paper tape!

After that a butterfly jigsaw piece I created as part of a jigsaw swap to represent my love of crafting, which is often accompanied by a lovely cup of Typhoo tea: my first and last drink of the day (with several in between).

Then there's a suitcase - the picture is nabbed from the internet, but I wish I owned one in real life - as it shows that I'm British and love travelling.

The final two photos show one of my newest hobbies, geocaching, and one of my oldest hobbies, Tae Kwon Do, which consumed my life for a while: I was training four nights a week and reached blue belt.  Unfortunately injuries and travelling put paid to that, but I'm hoping that the geocaching will be with me for a long time yet and will actually help me to stay fit!

It was a fun exercise to try and find photos that summed me up - why don't you give it a try - leave me a link and I'll come and find out about you!