potty people!!

yes, potty in more ways than one....

The day we drank the Mojito's is not one I'll forget. We walked around the coast in Ibiza, and found this other beach. Really pretty, with a fantastic beach bar. A billboard proclaimed they sold the best Mojito's on the island.. how could we not try them? It would have been churlish after going all that way... ;-) So of course we did.

Carl looked doubtful when they arrived. Swampy liquid filled the glass and stuff that looked like pondweed and frogspawn floated around...

He eyed the brew suspiciously.... "Are you sure we should be drinking this?" he said.

Mine - obviously half demolished - shimmered seductively... "oh yes, I said... in fact, I think we should have another!"

And so we did....

If you're going to live - live dangerously... is there any other way?

Magistical Memories: Potty People and White Oak Leaf.

My package arrived! I've got 11 packets of Magistical Memories chipboard to play with so i'm one happy bunny today!

All I need now is some time.. ha ha.

On the Lilypad there's a gorgeous collab which has just been re-released Funky Junky and Funky Junky Christmas which includes a free gift - a set of 8 ready-made Christmas and holiday cards - so if you never got them last time around, now's your chance. I just love kate's newspaper baubles, I can see me using them a lot :-)

Talking of the lilypad, I used some of kate's digi designs yesteday to make my Mojoholder layout.

Sarah's sketch

My hybrid layout


It's a bit different for me but I love how it turned out. I think i'm finally starting to accept my work for what it is. In the past i've been my own worst critic.. do you think everyone does that? I'm very unforgiving of small mistakes I make and give myself a hard time over stuff when it doesn't turn out perfect - yet I'd never be like that if it was someone else's stuff... so why kill myself? Anyway, I like this layout - love the pics and like how it's simple, but still me iykwim?

I used 3 different ancient papers again - they look ok, who'd know? who'd care?

And the embellies are all from Kate's woodland whimsey set

I'm still all colded up here... I'm feeling rough as hell but I have to get on - I have a heap of stuff to do... but luckily for me, all to do with scrapping. Carlo has said he'll do all the housework and cooking today. I love that man!

happy saturday, and as always, thank you for popping in :-)
jk xxxx

Christmas Memory Box (altered for magistical memories round 2 DT Call)

I'm still waiting on the postman to deliver my chippies for the 2nd round of the competition, and it's so frustrating knowing everyone has them but me. No matter, thanks to the girls ATDML, I managed to get hold of a film strip and some book plates and a few other bits (Thanks Jill!) so I had something to work with. My fear is that the package will turn up on the 23rd when everything needs to be in on the 25th and i'll be disqualified coz I have nothing to show!

Anyway - this is the project I did manage to get done :-)



I bought this old pencil box at a boot sale, I think it was 50p ( me and my thrifty finds...) lol :-) I told Carlo I would alter it and he said it was ghastly and anyway, it'd be too much trouble...


Pah! What do men know? :-)

First thing was to sand it back a bit and then repaint in acrylic. I chose a nicer red - Christmas Red by Anita's. Then came a lot of inking - of course ;-). It's lined with inked spotty paper, and the lid covered with a beautiful scripty heavy paper - sorry, no idea what, but ancient.

The magistical memories filmstrip was painted, as was the bookplate and folk heart, then inked and once dry I outlined everything with a Krylon Bronze leafing pen. Fiddly, but looks gorge.


I dyed some silk flowers, and outlined them with bronze pen, and decorated the paper ones with bronze stickles and pen also. The heart was wrapped in crinkly copper wire, and I altered some pewtwr brads with krylon pen. Lace coloured with 7 gypsies colour wash. Rub on, deco brad, ribbon and fibre make up the lid pull, and finally everything was drybrushed with copper gold acrylic.

The hardest part was finding and choosing suitable old pics to shrink and sepia tone - I have too many!

Inspired by the idea of making a memory box for the coffee table I hope to fill this with old photo's of Christmas past, Santa notes and other memorabilia for the family to browse.

Thanks for looking - I hope you like my project!

Family news, Vin went up to Birmingham's Carling Acadamy last night to watch Bullet for my Valentine, Black Tide, Bleeding Through and Lacuna Coil with his mate Ollie ( and Ollie's mum and dad, who are considerably braver than me...) He came home with ringing ears... lol, but had a brilliant time and escaped the Mosh Pit's with his life! I shall now be subject to listening to this for days no doubt.... pity me!

Ok, work calls. More later!

jakey xx

Run Postie Run!

I'm waiting on my chippies!!!!!
Some of the girls have their MM chipboard already - some have even completed projects... Me? I'm still waitin...... :-( Really hope they come soon.

Just one Lonely Sketches! LO today.

Scruffy & Stripey Alpha by Kate Hadfield - Lilypad

Snowflakes and border things by Stacey Mann - Lilypad

It was good scrapping these piccies of our old boy. It's been months sice we had to say goodbye to him and we all miss him loads. We even think we see him, or hear him round the place. Carl nearly fell over going into the kitchen the other night coz he thought he saw (well, felt...) Henry under his feet. He trod on the strap of my handbag and panicked thinking it was old henna's tail...! You know when you do that, and you're doing that hoppy, jumpy, trying to balance thing, coz you daren't put your feet down in case you squish the cat?

God..I did laugh... but seriously - we really all DO think we see him... weird eh?

He's out with us in the snow, but he never really liked it. He was just so nosy he couldn't bear it if we were out there and he wasn't, so he had to follow... daft old thing.

Anyway, got things to do!

thanks for dropping by :-)
jkxx

A trip down memory lane GDT spot

Jill and Mel from A Trip Down Memory Lane asked me to do a GDT spot for them this month, which of course I was delighted to do! They sent me some gorgeous Scenic Route Sonoma goodies to work with and I had a lot of fun playing with the stash.

Their November Gallery is now open and stuffed with inspiration, as always. Look out for Suzanne, she's their latest addition to the DT and one of my fave scrappers ever.

MINI BOOK: home is wherever u2 are

A layout of Ruben on valentine's day - And I actually used my Robo to cut the title... omg... don't faint!

And this one cracks me up - me and jazz at Sanna's house last year at our Murder Mystery Party. It was the first one we'd ever done and we were all so excited. We had a brilliant evening until the barman got sick.... not that that stopped us! We just carried on regardless, right to the grisly end... when we discovered that I - Ginny Tonic - was the culprit!

And a little Christmas card

And that's it from me for today.

It's ffffreeeezzzing and we all have stinking colds here.... oh joy. I'm off to try and get some ideas together for my Mag mem submissions... hope my mojo doesn't desert me now!

hugz - jake xx

If life gives you Lemons... be grateful!!!

Happy Birthday today to my mate Lemon!
And I'm always grateful to have her Lol!! :-)

Hope you have/had a smashing time at the crop and I hope today is super nice for you! Have fun spending your pennies sweetheart - love you loads, jk xx

MOJOHOLDER 7th Nov, we scraplifted Molly Peckham:

Sarah's sketch

My layout

have a smashing saturday everyone, off to cook dinner and get ready for the X Factor! Praying ITV behaves itself.. we missed the results last week coz of the stupid rain!

jk x

BLOG CANDY - magistical memories chippies!

Check out the magistical memories blog today for a chance to win the same package of chippies us DT hopefuls who are going through to the final are getting! Crystle is generously offering 5 packages... yep 5! sets of chippies - and all you have to do is leave some praise or a comment for your chance to be in the draw!

get over there and get it done!

1 down 1 to go

WoooHooo!!!I got through the first part of the magistical memories DT call! :-)

We had to make 3 things with our own chipboard and I submitted the wallhanging from here, the halloween board book from here, and this LO. From the submissions received they would pick 20 - however, in the end they picked 27 - so obviously some very tough competition out there.... eeek!

Anyway, my submission was clearly enough to get me through to the final which is going on now... They are sending us some products to work with and from those submissions will pick 9 chipboard artists for their 2009 DT.

I intended to apply for this last year and didn't at the last minute, and have often regretted that so thought i'd have a go this year. I can't say I honestly expect to get through, but if you don't try and all that... plus, I'm possibly at a slight disadvantage because being in the UK, my package will take longer to arrive, meaning I'll have less time to work with it, but ces't la vie ... i'll just have to get a wiggle on when it comes I guess.

Anyhow, we'll see ;-)

A hybrid LO today using a pic which was taken last year when Carlo and I found ourselves surrounded by ALL our children at once... now, that's not something that happens very often anymore, and was a cause for much excitement and silliness - as you can see :-)

Me and my clan: happy 2b together

So, poor as this pic is - and I know it's dreadful quality, I love it, of course.
All digi elements printed and cut out by hand.

credits:

Tiff & Kate's wordy bits - Thanksgiving
Kate Hadfield designs - Gobble Gobble

As always, thanks for dropping in...!! jk xxx

how long ago was this?

Time flies. Rube's was just a baby here... and now, he's a big boy of four. It's mad.

Lovely bright LO using one of my fave colour combi's, some pics that needed scrappin, and tamara's latest sketch. Loads more inspo on the blog :-)

Right - back to work, I have loads on so no time for idle bloggin.... more when I have something to say ;-D

jk x

diggin the dirt

Well, not literally... but it seemed a good title for my little project using Jacque & Kate's fab overdrive collection :-)

Actually, I'm pretty disappointed with my photograph, because this digger is quite 3D IRL, it just doesn't show up here at all. I tried to photograph it from an angle but the flash ruined the pic completely, so maybe tomorrow I'll take a pic in daylight and try to show it up a bit better.

I nicked this cardboard lunchbox from mattie's party - Donna got them quite cheaply on the net - and I thought it would be fun to dress it up a bit with diggers and stuff. I should imagine any little construction fan out there would love to eat a picnic lunch from a customised box like that, and if it encourages them to eat when they'd rather be playing then you're halfway there eh? I remember when Vinnie was little, he was a total nightmare to get to the table if he was in the middle of a game!

Very quick, easy little project - in fact, if you was planning a theme party you could make up a batch of these in no time :-) If anyone wants the addy of the company that sells these boxes lmk, I'm sure Donna will still have it and I'll happily pass it on.

As always, thanks for dropping by

jk xx

Long shot

It's a long shot I know, but I applied for something recently, and the wait is killing me. Lol. I know I don't stand a big chance - there are so many very talented scrappers out there who could knock spots off me in the scrappin stakes... but I fancied a go and i'm keeping my fingers crossed... and my inbox open! :-) Will keep you posted, good news, or bad.

This week's Mojoholder is up, a lift of a Teresa Collins page - and it's another fab scraplift from the girls. I always feel lucky to be part of this talented, happy little team and really enjoy doing the lifts each week. Mine rarely look too much like the original... well, none of us do a direct lift ever, but that's the fun of it - I love to see the different ways my teamies interpret the same layout and make it their own. Anyway - here's mine - my middle two on a girls night out... misbehavin as usual!

The black spotty flowers were blinged up with liquid pearls by Ranger in pastel raspberry, and there's stickles and micro beads at their centres. I'm not certain where the lil crowns come from... did someone rak me them? Not sure, but they're painted in pink acrylic and outlined in black pen, though the colours don't really show up much on this scan. Oh, and I used Teresa Collins papers ! (um....how original...)

Sarah's sketch

Ok, that's me for now, Got a lotta Lost to watch, so must get on...
Hope you all have a great weekend, and manage to stay warm and well :-)
Big scrappy hugz from me!
jk xx

Lost

That's what I'll be this weekend.... Lost.

Or rather, in Lost heaven :-)

My Carlo has got me the boxed set of season 4 on DVD and we plan to spend the weekend holed up away from the cold catching up on all our fave characters... Sawyer, Jack, Kate, Sayid, Hurley, and the others... we've got plenty of provisions in - so no need to venture out - and tbh, I can't wait! Lol!!!

How sad am I? Are we? :-D

Ok... this layout has nothing whatsoever to do with Lost the series... but it it sorta fit with the title of my post today so here it is. It's something I made ages ago which was going to be for a challenge thingy way back in August that never went up, so as I've posted a few LO's recently made with summer pics to try to forget the cold crappy weather we're having I thought I'd air this one too...



(and I bloody well wish I was lying under this tree in Jazz's garden right now, instead of shivering my ample butt off here, let me tell ya's!)

So, have a great day all, I'm off now - and if you take my advice, you'll go and get Lost too xxx

more parky than park...

Oh yeah, the nights are drawing in, especially now the clocks have gone back. I couldn't believe how dark it had got so early last night... and Brrrr! chilly too!

Seems hard to imagine it was only a few weeks ago we all sat in the park on blankets sipping Pimms, nibblin nibbles and chillin in the sun. I was born in the wrong country I reckon coz I don't do dark and I don't do cold.

This LO I did for tamara's sketch blog, working from this sketch - no 68.

I quite like how these sketches are making me use lots of pics on a page - something I don't do nearly often enough. Another four hundred years of these andI might have made a small dent in my photo pile... ;-)

huge hugz everyone, stay warm!
jake xx

PS Jazz!! You are your mother's daughter, alright.. shame on you!! (is it good? lol)

It's all orange

So, did you all enjoy that extra hour in bed then?

Nah, me neither... Not last night, and not the night before. I woke up several times last night and finally decided to get up at half 5. Never was one to lie there trying to doze back off. So i'm on my 2nd coffee, and thought i'd fire a quick post up before work.

God, I hate that word.

Work.

What do I want to go to work for? When I have stuff here I'd rather do?

The minute I win the lottery it's goodbye Work. Forever. I won't even have the word uttered in my presence.... so there.

Now that's out of the way I'll get on. I've been a busy crafting bee of late. You know how you go up and down... sometimes you can't be bothered with it all... and sometimes you can't stop. Well, i've been on one and i'll get it up here bit by bit, as and when I can.

First up - a little book I decorated and prepped ready for the halloween photo's from Jazz. We spoke on the phone last night and though Ruben was not that well, he had a great party and the event was a huge success. The Pinata went down a treat, everyone dressed up and the kids had a brilliant time. And Meemee wore her outfit! Yay!

I don't suppose she wore it for long... but I can't wit to see the pix all the same :-)

The Hybrid Book:

This was a Magistical Memories naked chipboard book I won last year from Scrapajack's decorated with loads of fun digi images of kate's

I'm not sure what the papers are before anyone asks... sorry, but i'm useless at remembering things like that. I think the majority of them are by AMM, but they're not current - they'll be last year's, or even older. I'm using my stash, remember?

All the digi stuff is from Kate Hadfield's store at the Lily Pad:

Tiff and Kate's halloween wordy bits

The witching hour

Trick or treaters

So that's it for now... best go and get ready to go to that place! Oh the curse of being poor...!

Have a great day - more later!

jk x

who's that girl...?

So, I asked Vin what he thought of my lil wall hanging...
It was just a pretty thing I made using a bigish jenni bowlin chipboard flower, a bit of pink wire and lots and lots of kate's gorgeous goodies. Just a lttle thing... but I loved it.


He said it was lovely - really pretty, and such a cute photo of Jazz.....

I'm smilin now....

I asked his dad next, what he thought... He loved the dimension and all the inky edges... { he does like an inky edge, does my Carlos... ;-) } He marvelled at my patience in cutting all the elements out...
...Oh, and he loved the picture of Jazz....

Only it's not Jazz! It's Donna!

It's Donna and my adored kitten Moth - in the garden of the first little house we ever bought years and years ago, just a few days before Moth was stolen from the front of the house. We were distraught and contacted the local paper as we lived near 2 schools and feared kids may have thought him a stray and carried him off. They used this picture in the paper - and Moth was returned to us next day!

But what's uncanny is how like Jazz Donna looks in the picture!
And Jazz's baby Jenna is the spit of them both lol!

Pic is a bit blurry as she never sits still, and it's off her dad's phone, but you see what I mean? The image!

I have to say I really enjoyed making this thing.

First, I painted the chipboard frame in pink lemonade acrylic, then dry brushed it with cherry blossom pink, before inking with warm red, rouge and dark brown inks. The background paper is BG Blush ( not sure which one as used a scrap but easily identifiable if you want it) , and all the elements come from Kate Hadfield's
Funky Junky Doodles which are available from the LilyPad.

Click image for close up.

And here's my mojoholder LO from last night:

Very tongue in cheek layout, having a playful poke at my youngest two! And again, another hybrid Lo using Kate's stuff. can you tell I'm hooked?

This week we lifted Janna Wilson
And this is the sketch Sarah made for us to work from:



Today is Ruben's 4th birthday party, though it's not his birthday til tomorrow. And last Thursday was Matilda's 2nd birthday. Mattie had a night garden theme at a soft adventure playground and looked totally adorable in her cute little dress from Next.

Love these pics of all the huffin and puffin!

She looks very cute here but trust me - she's a minx! Well, she's two - what else would she be? However in fairness, it has to be said, she behaved remarkably well at her party considering all the kids there and all the excitement going on :-) She was in fact the perfect little hostess!

Now I gotta admit, I have no idea at all who this character is - which is actually quite worrying... because it means Great Grandma (who's knocking 90) has her finger on the pulse better than me... but i'm sure many of you DO know.... wanna enlighten me? lol!

Rubie's having a halloween party, and Jazz has promised hundreds of pics. I'd better get some photo's of Minnie because I sent her an outfit!

A pumkin cloak and hat... !! In Chihuahua size!!

i know she'll scratch it off, but I could resist it. How cute to see a a chuhuahua in a halloween costume :-)

Can you say ahhh........?

hugz everyone! more tomorrow!

jake x

fairy rings... and things.

So, this is the first piece of work I made for Kate Hadfield's hybrid CT at the lilypad which of course, I've just joined. I've been meaning to scrap this photo for ages and never got round to it but katies digi stars and toadstools were perfect so there you go.... another one done!

All digi elements printed, cut out and stuck down - by hand! Lol!

The journalling reads:

Fairy rings... usually found in places where fairies have had a gathering. Toadstool rings tempt people who are hoping to see fairies, back to the same spot over and over again. However, non-magical people cannot see fairies; and anyway, fairies seldom meet in the same place twice, so it is somewhat silly to return to a toadstool ring in the hopes of glimpsing fairies...

Doesn't stop me checking tho! :-)

Today is Tadpole Tuesday at the lilypad and Kate has this on offer :

Grab it today - perfect for jazzing up your halloween goodies - and it's just $1.00!
Normal price $3.49 - Bargain!!

more laterjk xx

owww... sore sore throat...

well...sore sore throat and ears actually.

I thought it was a toothache at first because it was kind of like my jaw? But it's not, it's my throat and my ear.. and it's not very nice. BUT - as I hate being ill, i'm dosing up and attempting to soldier on. Those extra strong Lemsips are a blessing, let me tell you.

Today my 2nd LO for tamara's sketches dt went up, but looking at it there i'm not too happy with it. For some reason the words round the edge look like they're in straight lines and um.. actually, they're not.
Just so you know, okay? :-)

This is the sketch, which I flipped on it's side:

and this is tildy bum looking as cute as ever. She looks just like a little angel - do NOT be fooled... she's a rascal!

So that's me for today - got lots on, so have to fly

more tomorrow!

jkx

There's been excitement!

Yep - good things for me :-)

First I got a parcel for a GDT spot - and it's gorgeous - totally wonderful colours, and very very me.

And second, I joined Kate Hadfield's hybrid CT!


I'm really excited about this as I'm very keen to do more hybrid work and finally put this Robo to use! I've had it almost 10 months now and I think i've used it 5 times... but that's going to change :-) Kate's work is just amazing and i've always been a huge fan. Her doodles are so clever and colourful and I can't wait to start for work for our undisputed digi scrapping queen. You can buy Kates stuff and find loads of inspiration at the Lily Pad

My only niggle is that I can't make the animated blinkie work on here! Grr!!! Blogger drives me insane at times, and i'm sick of wasting time trying to make it work.In fact there are some real issues here with blogger and photobucket. The other day all my slides packed up - you may have noticed they were missing? One minute they were there - the next that box came up saying they were all empty. And when I try and add anything from photobucket now all I get is a box saying image moved or deleted. I am SO angry about it!

Is anyone else having issues like this - or just me?

X factor last night was a disappointment. I'm no MJ fan so that didn't help, but I thought at least half of them were rubbish - and how the hell did Ruth get into the bottom 2?????

Aaaanyway - gotta run. More later when I have piccies to post.
jk x

Organised...? Me? Pah!

First off, my little planner (previous post) was picked up by:
http://organizedchristmas.com/

And was featured here:
http://christmasplanner.com/

For some reason this both tickled and delighted me, especially as they said such nice things! I'm not normally noted for being organised despite the fact that I am actually paid to be an activity organiser/coordinator ;-) (erm, for that...read fraud...).

Anyway, there are some smashing ideas on the site - loads of organisational printables and downloads, and heaps of pretty inspiration too, so if you have a few mins spare pop over and have a look.

My Mojo layout for last night was a lift of a page by Michelle Lanning.

I did the sketch... don't laugh!

And this is my layout. I'm loving this colour combo lately:

The spotty green paper is something I got free in a magazine a hundred years ago - but it looks ok on here roughed up a bit I think :-)

The journalling reads:

Hey Vin - I know you think you look pretty hench in these photos... well, guess what? You Do!

You're losing the boy shape... And I can see the beginings of the man you're going to become.

See the muscle definition growing.

See that cute triangle shape the girls are going to love.

Just never forget dude - this girl loved you first!

Ok, i'm off, got a pizza box full of goodies to play with for a GDT spot :-)

Have a happy saturday folks! leave me a comment and put a smile on my face!

hugz

jake xx

it's that C word....

Yeeehah!

Hard to believe I know... but it's almost time for the C word to be mentioned...

*gasps all round!!*

Keep it to yourself but I 've already mumbled it a few times today... And no, I haven't taken to profanity (well, no more than usual anyway) but over on IACW we're getting ready for the Christmas season by offering up a month of creative inspiration, hoping to get everyone crafting in plenty of time this year :-)

Somehow I got to be the one to kick it off, and my post went up this morning, but check in everyday to see what the other creative girls are coming up with - there's some gorgeous projects on the cards and we've got ourselves all whipped up with Christmassy excitement lol - Like a bunch of kids we are, and we wanna share it with you!

This is was the lil project I made to start us off. Very simple, really quick, and made with stuff you almost certainly have lying around, it's cute, might make a nice pressie - and cost pennies. I'm really getting into this thrifty 'use your stash idea' now and lovin it! Initially it started off because I was too poor to buy anything, but now it's fun seeing what I can make with ancient papers and embellies :-) I actually get a kick out of seeing what I can do with it. So....

My Christmas Planner :



This year I’ve managed to get ahead of myself and I’m keen to stay that way! So I thought I'd make a Christmas planner so I can scribble notes, write lists and jot down ideas as they come to me. I've got a date stamp and a calendar stamp for December and I deliberately chose a square booklet to alter so that if I get an idea for a Christmas layout it’s the perfect shape for quickly sketching it out while the idea’s still fresh in my mind.

If you're making one you might want to include some or all of the things I have here:

Recipes/menu,
Buying/decorating the tree
Card listsGift lists,
Posting dates for friends/family around the globe,
Countdown of days for jobs to be done,
Ideas for teachers/tutors gifts,
Shopping lists for fresh foods from various suppliers
Card making ideas/colours/papers
Photos of things you’ve made
Ideas for xmas entertainments, games and family get togethers
Putting up the decs

Oh...and… your own wish list of course!! ;-)
(then leave it open on the coffee table.....)

Coz I'm always so pushed for time I didn't have time to make my planner from scratch, but those of you with a spare half hour and a BIA could make this in any size or shape you wanted. Personally, I picked up a cheap chipboard notebook from the poundshop mainly because it was square - and therefore handy for sketching layouts and cards.


First remove the binding wires carefully - you have to put them back afterwards so take care not to bend them out of shape!

Then cover the outside and inside of the chipboard covers. I used my cropodile to punch holes where the wires go. Cover one side and punch - this will give you a guide once you've covered the other side.

Once you've covered it, dress up the front with your chosen embellies and carefully reassemble the book.

I added a cute festive peg which came on some flowers I got last year, so I could safely save Christmas tokens, vouchers and offers - why not have a hunt around and see what you can find or make which will suit the same purpose?
Thanks for popping by the blog and hope you enjoyed this simple sweet tutorial :-) You wouldn't believe how quick and easy this planner was to make so if you're a list maker like me - get crackin - Christamas is coming!! ... oh and my friend bekka has another planner on her blog - it's gorgeous and perfect if you love pockets and lists... like me!

hugz - jakexxx