Layouts overload

A few layouts to share with you.

Another round of CJs

Sorry for the short absence. We've been on holiday and now I am frantically trying to make sure all the back to school supply are in order. Finally bought the school shoes yesterday...hate queueing in Clarks!
In the mean time, I am going to leave you with the posting below. I wrote this before going on holiday and have completely forgotten to publish. I'll be back with a few LOs I've been working on once I have downloaded from the camera. See you later.

The first is for my team CJ. This entry is in Sonja's book, the Birth year CJ. Oopss...now my dob is open knowledge. I took this rare opportunity to use pink papers by October Afternoon. And that photo is of me when I was about six months old. I am pleased to say that photo studio is still in existence in my hometown. ( they thoughtfully stamped their address and date on the back of the original ).

This is for a Fabric Journal that has been going on for a while. I believe we are one or two short of completion. This on is for Eleanor who challenged us to fill our pages with treasures. Mine is destined to be filled with flowers ( and a bit of bling ).
They are both in the post, hope their owners will love them.

As requested, the Chelsea book

This post is for Joanne and Haberdawoman. I finally got around to photographing a few more pages from my Chelsea book. To be honest, this book is quite simple and sparsely embellished. The judges don't usually like messy inky look.
The pages are made by tracing around some scallop circle Bazzill. I then cut the circle into 2 and then cut one of the halves into two again. I have five sections in the book, each one started with the "Memorable" stamp and the title of the show garden I am focussing one. Each section is made up using 1 semi-circle and 1 quarter-circle in the middle. They are all sewn together using modified book binding stitches ( I say modified because I can't remember the correct way to do them! ). The cover was made using Prima's embossed chipboard. My scallop hand-cutting skill unfortunately did not stretch to chipboard.

Naturally I started with the "Best in Show".
On the 1/4 circle pages, I stamped journalling blocks ( embellished with stickle ).

But this last one is from the "A garden for George" show garden. I love that this garden is slightly whimsical, with a lot of colours containing a giant photo of George Harrison and even a temple.

Produce Show

We had a village produce show last Sunday. This is actually in the next village because our own village is too small to host an event such as this.


I am not green fingered enough to tend lovingly to vegetables so I didn't enter the veg section and my garden is not big enough to grow enough flowers for cutting so I didn't enter the flower section and I can't bake too many things at the same time so I didn't enter the cookery section either. Was that enough excuse ? Which left the craft section. Now, I can't not enter the craft section, can I ?

Luckily I did, I came second in the craft section. My photographs didn't do as well as I thought, I think the judges preferred "snaps". Only one photograph won out of the six I entered and on top of that, one of my card came second and my minibook about Chelsea Flower Show came third.
My card was hand-drawn and painted with watercolour. When dry, I added stickle to the umbrella. Unfortunately the stickle just looks messy in the photo above.

The children produced some excellent work. H came second in the U16 section.

But the star of the show is my dear husband, the expert baker! His fairy cakes came first and his chocolate cake came second. I am encouraging him to enter all the cookery classes because I am sure he will triumph!

Thornham weekend

Last weekend I was in Thornham with the Wyverstone girls for a weekend crop. I had a very productive weekend. I am actually very bad at producing a layout at a crop unless I have thoroughly prepare beforehand. So as not to waste a whole weekend, I prepared 10 page kits ( with sketches ) and delighted to say, I managed to complete 8 of them. I can't share them all yet but here are some.

The first layout is based on Eileen's sketch for our Friday night challenge. I have omitted the swirls that Eileen used in the middle of the layout as my photos are too busy to take more embellishments.

The second layout features the soldiers at Kelmarsh Hall. Remember those Romans ? I love the bright colours of their uniforms which are in stark contrast to modern camouflage combat gear. Caz donated the big arrow journalling block which she got from Etsy. We had a great time exchanging our little Etsy purchases at the crop.

Last is my little boy looking really dramatic. The photo was taken at a different time from the story but it suited the story. My boys have "pet names" they call each other. Most of the times, they will answer to these names but if they are not in a good mood, it can cause bickering and that popular song title, "That's not my name" will crop up. However, this one time H was delighted when J told him he is being promoted from "Didum" to "Count von Didum".

On Pencillines this week...

is me. I am delighted to get this opportunity to do a sketch for Pencilines. This layout features my dear son who bravely waited under a fountain at Alnwick Gardens and got a good soaking. The weather is so hot this week, I wouldn't mind a similar water feature in my garden ( perhaps on a smaller scale ). Hope you are enjoying the warm summer days.

GoGo July to share

Before I forget, just want to share this, Blogger is now available in Malay. How cool is that ? Didn't realise there is a big community out there who wants to blog in Malay.

Here's a layout I did for the GoGo DT for July. I tend to do 2 or 3 layouts as my assignment. After a few weeks, I always try to do a couple more before unpacking and putting away the rest of the kit amongst my general stash.

I did this one from our quick visit to the Angel of the North. Besides the July kit, I have also used the chipboard letters "angels" from my own stash. Plus the big Heidi Swapp wings embellished with Stickle. I was dying to use the stamp but have always struggled to place it due to the size ( I think I prefer small embellishments ) but it is perfect for this LO, no ? I love the Crate Paper buttons that came in the kit because of the abundance ( how many buttons on a sheet ? ) and the small size allowed me to us with abandon.