The Happiness Blog Hop!

Welcome to The Happiness Blog Hop! You should have arrived here from

Fun Mama, but if you haven't and you'd like to join in, start here where Stephanie will explain what's going on. She might also tell you about a little giveaway she's running if you ask nicely :D

Stephanie runs the My Scrap Happy Project on her blog, and challenged us to write a post that combines scrapbooking and happiness in some way. Easy, I thought, I scrap because it makes me happy. Done. But that would be a very short post! So I thought a bit more about why scrapping makes me happy, and I decided that, for me, it's about exploring my creative side to create small pieces of, well, art I suppose, although I don't always think of it like that. I find enjoyment in the whole process: I love to take photos; I was a stationery addict long before I 'found' scrapbooking supplies so becoming addicted to those was inevitable; and who doesn't love cutting and sticking?! 

I thought I'd share with you two of the things that make me the happiest when scrapping - gorgeous patterned papers, and photos of my lovely puppy. Enjoy!

I made this minibook with the May kit from The Sampler, a sheet of patterned Kraft card from Papermania and my Bind-It-All. The reverse of each page is currently blank so that I can add lots of journaling later.

To enter the giveaway from Scrapworthy Lives, be sure to comment below! You can earn one entry per blog. So that means if you visit everyone’s blog and comment on each of their blogs, you can get 13 entries! All entries must be posted by Friday, June 3 at midnight Central Standard Time (Chicago, IL, USA). Stephanie will ship anywhere in the world. The winner will be announced on Sunday, June 5 on Scrapworthy Lives.

Scrapworthy Lives

1200 Some Miles

Take a Picture and Remember This

Scrap Your Life

My Life In Photos & Words

This Kalil Life

Fun Mama

Scrapping Mojo

XNomad's Blog

Nuggets

The Constant Scrapper

Pie For Breakfast

Scraps & Sass

Abstracts Mixed with Extracts

Adorable You

Just a quick post today to share a layout using the May kit from The Sampler.
I also used a circles mask from Tando Creative, with a Ranger paint dabber, and carried the circle theme through the rest of the layout.
I'm still busy stripping wallpaper - if it wasn't for the promise of a brand new craft room I'd have given up long before now! Oh well, back to it... :D

 

June Sampler Kit Sneak Peek

Can you believe it's nearly June already? Where is this year going?! I'm loving this sneak peek (no pun intended!) and can't wait to start creating with the June kit from The Sampler.
Don't forget that you can still join in with the May sketch challenge, head over to Holly's blog and link up your take on the sketch - she's giving away a whole May kit!

My Cutie

I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying creating with the May kit from The Sampler - the colours are just delicious and tone together so well. This layout came together so easily and I'm really pleased with it.

I adore the fabric frames, and chopped one in half for this layout, to stretch that lovely purple colour even further. I added some white fabric flowers from Precocious Paper, but everything else on the layout is from the kit. I chopped a couple of the stems from the Prima spray and tucked them into the bottom flower to add a pop of colour.











The alphas that came with the kit were lovely fabric Thickers, in white with yellow detail, but they didn't really go with my layout as they were, so I altered some using Charcoal chalk ink.

I managed to have a rummage in the top of one of my packing boxes, and dug out a Tando Creative mask and some Cosmic Shimmer mist. Unfortunately the colour is just a little too pale and doesn't really show up on the layout. I think I was a bit heavy handed in my desire to make it show up, and managed to crinkle the background card. Add that to bumpy walls in the new house and my layout hasn't really photographed very well. I'll have to find a better spot!

{play}

It's sketch time at The Sampler again! The May sketch is lovely, I really enjoyed working with this one - although that could also be because I haven't done any scrapping for over a week so it helped to calm my withdrawal symptoms!

After a couple of unfortunate delays, my May kit finally arrived last Thursday - the day before we moved house! So I had to, very reluctantly, put it to one side and concentrate on packing up and moving the rest of the house. The last few days have been a whirlwind of sorting and unpacking, with a bit of diy thrown in, so I've had no time (or space!) for scrapping. Finally though I managed to clear a portion of the coffee table and sat down last night with my May kit, a parcel that had arrived from Precocious Paper on the same day, and my emergency tool kit. So this layout was completed with rather limited supplies!

I love the colours in the May kit, and picked out the blues and lemons to complement this photo of Donnie playing with his favourite toy. The journaling reads 'forget expensive cat toys - give Donnie a pair of plastic ear plugs on a string and he's the happiest cat in the world!'
All my punches are still packed away, which meant I couldn't create the detailed edge that I wanted to, so I cheated a little by choosing a sheet of patterned paper from the kit that already had printed detail around the edge. The only bit of the layout that isn't from the May kit is the large flower, which is from Precocious Paper.

I've got some wallpaper stripping, painting and flooring to sort out, and a trip to Ikea to organise, before my craft room will be up and running and I can scrap to my heart's content! In the meantime I'll just have to grab my scrappy time when I can, and will hopefully be able to share some more layouts with the May kit very soon :D
If you want to join in with the May sketch challenge, head over to Holly's blog and link up your take on the sketch - she's giving away a whole May kit!

Colour Combo Blog Hop!

Welcome to the Colour Combo Blog Hop!

If you have been following the hop you should have arrived from Lesley.
If you have just happened upon my blog today and would like to join in, the full hop is listed at the bottom of this post :D
Our challenge is to take this gorgeous colour combination and create a papercrafting project with it - a layout, card, mini book or off the page project - the choice is yours!

I had some gorgeous My Minds Eye 'Stella & Rose' papers that I knew would be perfect for this colour combo. The title and heart are both from a Maya Road mini chipboard album, which I've covered with patterned paper and doodled on. The felt roses are from my LSS, and the rub on quote on the photo is from October Afternoon. I used Shimelle's sketch of the week from 27th April for this layout.

This is quite possibly my favourite photo of my parents (sorry Mum!) and this layout will be taking pride of place in a shadow box frame on the wall of my new craft room (when I eventually get in there!).

Here's the blog hop list in full:
http://amysoto.blogspot.com/
http://scrappin24-7.blogspot.com/
http://scribblesstickingstitchingstroking.blogspot.com/
http://throughthecameralens.typepad.com/
http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/
http://blog.mshanhun.com/
http://alyssephotographs.blogspot.com/
http://www.calendulafitzpatrick.blogspot.com/
http://spud-pickle.blogspot.com/
http://www.scrappingmojo.blogspot.com/ (you're here!)http://www.michelleroycroft.blogspot.com/
http://handmadebykirsty.blogspot.com/
http://www.vsws.typepad.com/
http://scrapyourlife.net/
http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com/
http://snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/
http://craftygoodies.blogspot.com/
http://adriennefalzon.blogspot.com/
http://airbs.blogspot.com/
http://1200somemiles.blogspot.com/
http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/
http://www.curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/
http://xnomads.typepad.com/

Your next stop is Michelle - Happy Hopping!

Always So Full Of Laughter

In celebration of Scrapbooking Day last Saturday, Shimelle had a series of challenges on her blog. As it was also the last day of scrapping that I had before my craft stuff was all boxed up in preparation for our house move I thought I'd join in! This layout is for the first challenge, which was to use a patterned paper background. If you've been following my blog for a while (thank you if you have!) then you'll probably realise that this was a tough challenge for me, as I tend to go for plain cardstock backgrounds. 

I went for a combination of Glitz Design 'Love Nest' papers, and Crate Paper 'Restoration' border and phrases stickers to build my layout. I've scraplifted Shimelle's layout from the challenge, just to ease myself in gently! I used the polka dot pattern for my background, as it's patterned, but not so patterned that I was scared to use it! 

I kept the layout quite clean and simple, without too much embellishment, which I think works against the patterned background. I generally prefer lots of embellishments on a page these days, but I thought that it would be too much with all the patterns. I used alphas from Fancy Pants and Thickers, and my trusty butterfly punch. The flowers were from a past Sarah's Cards kit so I'm not sure what they are, ditto with the small alpha stickers - in fact, does anyone recognise them? They came on a small sheet, with lower case at the top and upper case at the bottom. I really like them, and can see myself wanting some more when they run out, so could really do with knowing what they are! If you know, leave me a comment, I'll be very grateful :D

Escape to the Country

I just can't get enough of Crate Paper at the moment! Here's another layout for The Scrapbook Garden using the Portrait collection. These papers are so versatile, even though this is my fourth layout using the same collection, I don't feel like I'm repeating myself at all. 

I used a photo that I took of a gorgeous row of cottages for this one - whenever we go to visit my DH's parents we take the dogs for a walk (they've got a Jack Russell). They live in a fairly rural area, so the walk is through some gorgeous countryside, and then completely in the middle of nowhere you come across these lovely houses!

I used white cardstock which I aged with Antique Linen Distress Ink, before layering patterned papers, borders and phrases stickers from the Portrait collection. I've also used a Maya Road chipboard frame to highlight the title and create an embellishement, and a bingo number.

The title is made up of Thickers, Sassafras Lass chipboard alphas, and Adornit alpha stickers. I've also used my Martha Stewart butterfly punch. For a change. 

I used sketch #79 from Let's Capture Those Sketches for this layout. Have you got a favourite collection that you can't seem to stop creating with? I'd love to know! 

Smile for the Camera

I've seen some gorgeous grey and yellow layouts recently, like this one from Shimelle, and I've been itching to create one myself. Fortunately, the lovely grey patterns in the Crate Paper 'Portrait' collection that Ann sent me from The Scrapbook Garden, along with the gorgeous yellow scalloped cardstock that she included, were perfect! 

It wasn't hard to find a photo to go with my colour scheme - I've got that many! This photo of my friend Carrina was taken at our wedding last summer - it's a typical Carrina pose, she's always got her camera with her, and is always taking photos - and the results usually end up on Facebook! 
I dug out some grey Bazzill cardstock and went to town with Dylusions spray ink in Lemon Yellow, and a Ranger paint dabber in Snow Cap. I added the Crate Paper patterned papers, and a couple of border and phrases stickers from the same collection. I cut the journaling spot and the camera piece from the accents sheet, cutting the camera piece in half so I could use the lovely yellow colour in two different places.  

The title is in three sections, 'smile' is a Kaisercraft rub on, 'for the' is made of Fancy Pants alpha stickers, and '{camera]' used Thickers. I've also used a small flower from the Thickers pack as an embellishment above the photo. I'm so pleased with how this layout turned out - I think it's one of my favourites so far :D 

June left me a lovely comment the other day about how I seem to be able to 'magic up' scrapbook pages, and that she'd be looking out for some tips. That got me thinking about my tutorial page, and I'm wondering about putting a tutorial together on how I create a scrapbook layout. What do you think? Leave me a comment and let me know - would a layout tutorial be useful?

Birthday Planner

It's my Wednesday Extra post over at The Studio today - pop over if you'd like to see how I created this birthday planner :D

DSLR Photography in Focus

Just a quick post from me today - I've got a guest post over at 'The View From Here'.
Lorraine is doing a series on DSLR Photography and has invited a number of guests to talk about their experience of owning and using DSLRs. My post today is about the process that I went through when I was deciding which camera to buy.
I hope you'll pop over and have a look, I'm sure Lorraine would be delighted to see you!

Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring!

I was so pleased when  Lynn and Linda asked me to be Guest Designer for Scrapology this month. The inspiration is a sketch based on a gorgeous layout by Liberty Chance, and this is my take:

If you fancy giving this great sketch a go, make sure you send your layout to the Scrapology team - there's a great prize up for grabs!Thanks for having me on the team ladies!