Monkeys and Scrappin'

I have come to a bold conclusion.

My life seems better when it has been picasa collaged.
I love the freedom of including all of those moments you wouldn't normally scrap about.
Yesterday Laura and I took Finlay to Drusillas.
The sun was HOT and we all turned pink, but it was worth it to see the Lemurs (not to be confused with Llamas) and the monkeys, and the flamingos and donkeys and Llamas (not to be confused with Lemurs)... So, here is a montage of those collective moments that made yesterday one of the nicest days i've had in AGES. oh.. and Finlay loved it too!
Monkeys, just monkeying around.

And then I came home, and felt inclined to scrap! Woo! I LOVE the cosmo early bird papers - they literally are my favourite line of 2009 by FAR. I love the colours and how amazing they look on yellow and kraft. Also loving the mini foam thickers. I don't normally use as many on a page - thicker rationing is one of my bad habits - so I felt the need to free myself and do a whole title in them. The photo was taken at the getaway with the Nikon remote! woo.
so, I made a Picasa collage of the layout too. For no reason at all, and TBH, amazingly pointless but fun.

Today is meant to be the hottest day of the year. So me and Finlay are going to be wise little owls and stay in this morning till its cooled down a bit - and then we may venture out to the park to blow some bubbles and have a run about.
xxxx

Random stuffs...

I have no real purpose to today's blog - but I need to keep my mind busy so I decided to blog a little of whats in my daily life right now, things I can see around me when I am pottering uneventfully round my little home.
First up is Finlay's artwork on my actual living room wall. In BIRO. In fact - I have a feeling its actually Precision marker 0.3 which is even more irritating, especially being that AC Precision 0.3 is my favourite of journalling pens. It may not look much in this photo, but trust me. It literally is. lol. When he sees it he says "CAT" = which means he firmly believes he is scribing me a beautiful mural to adorn our home. Um. no.

Oh well! At least I have tidy(ish) hall. If you could have seen this "before" you would be amazed!
I was too ashamed to actually photograph it - but it was a PILE of crap!! So.. in order to create order.. we bought this awesome extending table and borrowed the unit which sits underneath. I am so happy with it - the unit below contains everything that was randomly laying about - and I have a huge drawer for paint - punches and alphabets! woo! My tote parks up in front along with the bin and a giant tennis ball it seems... um.. thanks Finlay! How I didn't notice that till now is beyond me...

This lil munchkin makes me smile, and also makes me realise just how lucky I am.. whenever I am feeling a bit down, I just sit on the floor and he will smother me in books and hugs and thats therapy enough for me. We used to have this H U G E highchair in our lounge, which in essence is ok if you don't mind clutter - but I am seriously trying to embrace the minimal look. So, when we found this clamp on chair, we were delighted - It is tiny, and yet so effective. And because you can walk all round it and move freely under it etc, it feels like it has given us a huge amount of space back. Not only that - but Finlay can now sit directly with us when we eat. Which is really lovely. *FYI* = The photo below shows him holding a glass, it was a prop only. lol.

The Peonies are blooming to reveal stunning centres. They smell gorgeous too, I literally want peonies in my life forever more.

mmmmmmmmm so pretty!

So... it appears that is the end of my bloggeroo post. I will leave you for now and meander a while... speak soon lovely bloglanders.
xxxxxxxxxx

mini how to...

Ok - so normally, I don't feel I have much to share "how to" wise with you guys - but today, by accident, I came across a cool thing.. if you already do this please ignore, but for those who scrap 8.5x11 and fancy something different, then this may be right up your proverbial street.

So, I needed an image of note book paper for something digital recently, so I scanned in a sheet from a note book - and just so happened to have a A4 sheet of kraft in the printer to grab and use as a background. Well, long story short... I accidentally hit the COPY button with my giant toe whilst fumbling around the desk today - and it started printing what was in the scanner bed.
I had a stack of kraft in the actual printer from printing "little Musings" for folksy.. so at first I was like "Oh geez.. a perfectly good bit of kraft wasted" but out the printer emerged a cool replica of the note book paper on the kraft!
Cool huh!
I scrapped a layout on it.. but its a bit "mopey" so I won't put you through it lol! But seriously, go and get some cool stuff to copy right now! I am thinking... butterflies, keys, a page from a novel, etc etc etc...... Enjoy!

For mine you will need 2 x A4 kraft and one sheet of note book paper...

and a scanner which can copy - one of those all in ones...

So put the note paper in the flatbed scanner, with a kraft sheet on top to act as background. ... and then just hit "COPY"....Trim the edges off.. and you have a cool sheet of "almost" 8.5x11 to scrap! If you are religious about scrapping the correct size, then just mount it onto some white cardstock when you are done. xx

Layouts

This layout is featured in SI this month, along with the wedding one below in an embossing article. I love the "little steps" one, feels like AGES ago that I scrapped this, paint on kraft is one of my favourite things to do.. I can hear you all now saying "wow SJ.. we never noticed" LOL, but seriously I love the effect.

The below layout is my first wedding one... I am SERIOUSLY slacking with the wedding album.. I really want and need to get planning on this, after all.. it will be a year soon!
Geez!!

So, apart from that.. I really don't have a whole-lotta to say!
So I will bid you all goodnight!

xx

Grotty Snot bags.

or thats how I feel today anyway!

Ever have one of those days when you could quite happily go live in a cave like a recluse!?

Ben picked up on my mood and bought me these stunning blooms!

I love Peonies -(Peonys?) And these are soooo pretty they make me smile a lot. So delicate, so many layers.. kinda like the soul.

Another thing to make me smile today is this: I finally put the bird garland up, and the "HOME" letters that have wanted a proper placement in the flat for a long long time!

Cute huh! I am pleased with it anyway.

So. Thats all I have to say about that.

xxx
As always - thank you for stopping by!

So.. Got some Sunday Spends???!!!

Alot of people emailed me about the Bag I blogged for my Birthday, I apologise that I didn't answer you all personally, I feel bad about that :( But....... this may make up for it...........
I have two for sale! woo! AND a "Its Darling" Fawn handbag <---- adorable!
The two monkey ones are by a company called Hotch Potch - and are so cute it freaks me out.
They retail at £29.99 - (see here and here for proof lol!)
But I can offer them for sale to you today for........
£10 each + postage

You can email me via the link on the right of my blog if you are interested!

Hotch Potch Bag Pink SOLD

Hotch Potch Bag - Red/Brown STILL AVAILABLE

Its Darling Fawn Handbag SOLD

CUTE huh!

And yours at the click of a button. Woo!
Sunday pretties are the best type of pretties!

SHOP UPDATES!

New in..
Embossed Circles and Butterflies!
Butterfly Lists!
and
Cupcake Circles!

The embossed circles are CUTE! I love how they look and feel, especially the one in the next picture, they are 2" and scallopy and would like a loving home!New - butterfly lists - just like the kraft lists I have on sale normally, but this time they are a tribute to the beauty of butterflies. In textured cream and white, and smooth kraft.

And my personal favourite - Embossed butterflies.
These are divine. 2.5" at their widest, these look amazing on cards and layouts.
I love how they look and feel when embossed. So pretty!!!
4 x embossed and 2 x smooth in each pack.

Cuppies! Who doesn't love a nice cupcake? Well, now you can get them on a polka circle for added cuteness. 12 in each pack! on White or Cream textured card.

Like what you see? Well, the shop has just been updated..... :-)

Digital, Scrapping and Cardmaking!!!!

I am doing a 100% craft related post this morning.
Its that time of the month again where I get to create with the gorgeous Scrapagogo kit!
July kit is full of vintage style papers - which at first, scared me a bit - but as soon as I started working with them, they came together really naturally.

*********DIGITAL**********
GoGo's Digital Elements this month are my favourite to date, they would make cool hybrid elements if you printed them. Scrapagogo sell them pre-printed also, on the most beautiful smooth cardstock ever, well worth thinking about!
I did three layouts with the movable png files.
1: Ever After

2: Park Life

3: Memories

************ GoGo July Greetings kit*********
I love the Greetings kit - especially the gate fold cards you get, they really rock my little card making world. I just think they are un-usual and effective, especially when teemed with the cute die-cuts you get this month. Cute! AND masculine, which means I have a couple of cards I can stash away in my card drawer for those "I need a card for a man" moments.

I am also a fan of the gold sheen card this month - it is so pretty, and when used with the cosmo papers, very feminine and delicate.

************ July Create & G2P Layouts ************

My first layout is a LONG story one, which I don't know if I have the energy to type, but its about a butterfly and a strange story surrounding its appearance at my wedding.

This one is for my wedding album, nearly a year down the line and we still haven't even got our photos in a wedding album! Let alone the scrapbook version. I love this picture.
This is Finlay on the "fake phone" to his grandad (aka gan-gah *pronounced Gan Ga*

This scallop diecut paper rocks, I cut the edge of mine to use on the polkadot paper in the kit. This is me and Laura at the getaway this year.

Mum, Dad and Finlay in the woods with the bluebells.
I love them.

The edge of the scallop paper as previously said - looks friggin awesome on the polkadot paper!!

That concludes GoGo scrapping for July!!

********** Cardmaking for mum ************
I have also been a busy bee with the bigshot and making cards for my mums shoppeee.
I love the emboss folders more than I love chips. And thats a LOT folks.
I especially {Heart} the bird emboss folder. If I could fit my walls in the bigshot, my entire home would be bird embossed.

We found these pins at a local wholesalers we go to, which mainly sells floristry stuff, but also blank boxes that we paint up and decorate. They are destined normally for wedding bouquets - but obviously look way fab on cards/layouts etc!

Mmmmmmmmmmmm mini butterfly punch - I do love you.

Cuttlebug Butterfly cut and emboss system - how did I live without you? You filled a place in my soul I never knew was empty. We will be friends for life.

I made my own gate fold from a normal card, but cutting the front in half and attaching it back to the side with a kraft scalloped fold. Cute huh!

Pretty Pretty Pretty diamond headed pins - you make me drool and sing inside.
I have a whole box of you - and for that I love life.

Well well well. Thats really it, no more to show you for now..
I will be blogging cool Folksy shop updates later - new ranges, including, BUTTERFLIES! woot!
For now, I need to go outside in the sun with Finlay, some bubbles and a camera.
xxxxxx