Christmas trees

Another layout for my Orlando them park scrapbook which should be finished soon. I can then move on to my other books which are all started but have lots of pages still be made.  These pics were taken in The Magic Kingdom. The Christmas parades are always fabulous and you can't help singing along.  I was lucky enough to win a Fiskars circle cutter on their Facebook page and although it is meant for fabric I knew it would also be very useful for scrapbooking.  Normally I draw round plates and bowls but circles aren't that easy to cut by hand.  I used various Christmas tree dies to echo the trees in the pics.

As many of you will know I love reading and a friend told me about an author, Steve Cavanagh. I hadn't read any of his books but when I saw his latest novel for £2.50 in Tesco I bought it and loved it. A very clever story which kept me guessing. This was a stand alone novel but he has also written a series of 5 so I bought the first three. I do like to read books in order if I can and I can highly recommend him. His first novel is called Defence.

Disney parade

I never feel that a scrapbook layout looks as good on the screen as it does in real life but then I suppose that is often true of cards as well. I am really loving my scrapbooking and am so pleased with how many pages I have done already this year. I love using Pinterest for inspiration on my layouts though the finished page is always quite different to the original but it is a great starting point. I love how this page turned out. As usual I used a variety of papers. I used Spellbinders tag and La La Land heart banner dies.

Looking forward to an evening out with an early meal with friends we haven't seen for a while and then an ELO tribute band who are supposed to be very good.

Over the moon

For the latest Crafts Beautiful magazine I was commissioned to make a Wedding card. This is 7x7 using some lovely Nitwits papers Romance and Roses. The sweet image is from All Dressed Up and has been coloured with Copics and diecut with a sitched scalloped die from The Works. The ribbons are from Crafty Ribbons, flowers from Wild Orchid.  The border die is from Doohickey.

James in the rain

I still have several images left from the old LOTV art pads and although they are no longer sold you can buy James with his umbrella as a digi stamp or a coloured digi. The papers are a mix of MFT and the stitched clouds are also MFT. The sentiment is from the LOTV teenage girls set.

The powerboat racing season starts this afternoon so hubby will be leaving straight after lunch to get the rescue boats ready and then he will be driving one of the rescue boats when the racing starts at 5.30. So I am back to having an afternoon and evening crafting. I am hoping to get lots made today.

Santa Claus is coming to town

Another page for my Florida theme park scrapbook.  This splendid Santa was part of the Macy's parade at Universal Studios.The papers and title are from an old Me to You Christmas pack.  I added some Bo Bunny embellishments, diecut some leaves from a Sue Wilson poinsettia set and added a poinsettia from Hobbycraft and some Christmas butons. The stocking bunting was made with a Memory Box die.

We had our fourth line dancing lesson yesterday and I am pleased to say we are still loving it. We have really got the hang of three dances but need more practice on the one we learnt last week and the one we learnt yesterday as that had some steps in it which we found trickier.  Looking forward to  my monthly back massage and facial this afternoon.

The caterpillar became a butterfly

I haven't used this lovely stamp for a long time. It cam from Hobbylobby in America and is by Stampabilities. I went for the shabby chic look again, distressing the edges and using Dusty Concord distress ink. The papers are some old Studio Light ones. I added some cheesecloth, cream hessian and some butterflies from Docrafts.

Islands of Adventure

These photos were taken several years ago at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park in Orlando. We loved Seuss Landing as it was so colourful and full of fun animals including The Cat in the Hat.  I used a mix of papers from Pink Paislee and Echo Park. All the embellishments are from Echo Park scrapbook kits and the letters are American Thickers.

Mother and father of the bride

I had an order for a Wedding card and a card for the parents of the bride. I decided to keep it quite simple and pretty. I typed the sentiment and diecut it with a Spellbinders floral oval. I added some Tattered Rose distress ink to the edges. The double heart is a Gummiapan die, flowers from Wild Orchid and butterfly from Poundland. The paper is Anna Marie blissful pink.

We bought some plants yesterday so this morning we will be planting up pots and having a tidy in the garden.  The weather is incredible for April. It should last until Tuesday according to the latest forecast and then go down to about 13 degrees.

Happy Easter

This is the Easter card I made for my Mum. It's another LOTV stamp which is available as a digi, This is Spring bunny and daffodils. I have coloured it with Copics, diecut it with a Lawn Fawn pierced rectangle die and used the pretty new papers from First Edition, Gardenia.  I really like the simple layout but thought maybe I would add some flowers. They just didn't look right so I kept it with clean lines.

We are meeting some friends for lunch today after doing the Tesco shop.  I hope you enjoy your Easter.

Amongst the primroses

I had a request for an Easter card and found this very cute coloured simply print image from LOTV. The papers are some new ones I bought recently, First Edition Gardenia. I don't know why the backing paper looks grey when it is actually green. I used MFT pireced banner and wonky stitched oval dies. The sentiment was in my stash and the butterflies are from America.

Flower arranger

I seem to be having a Lili of the Valley week for some reason. I found this in my images to colour and thought I fancied colouring the flowers orange for some reason. First I needed some papers and opened one of my paper drawers at random and the first sheet on the top was orange! How odd was that. I don't think this stamp is available any more but as they keep bringing out old stamps as digis maybe it will appear again.

Image - LOTV

Medium - Copics

Papers - Lilybee Head over Heels

Dies - Go Kreate frilly 10, MFT stitched inside and out rounded corner square

Punch - Martha Stewart fern

Flowers - Hobbycraft

Looking forward to seeing Mum today. She is coming over to visit us so we will be off for out for lunch somewhere after a catch up.

Look at that sea

I have used an old LOTV coloured art pad image and some old LOTV papers for my 7x7 card. Aren't the colours of that scene wonderful.  I distressed he edges, added some pale blue lace, flowers from Wild Orchid and some clouds made with MFT stitched cloud dies.

We are off for our third line dancing lesson today. We have been having a practice at home to the music. I thought Graham would be better than me but he can't remember all the steps for the three dances we have learnt so far. We were in fits of laughter the other day as he was trying to do it. Once he followed me he was ok. All good fun and exercise.

An old favourite

Some of the first rubber stamps I bought were Sugar Nellie and I treasure those stamps and must use more of them. They did also bring out some digis later on and I love the sweet girls, this one is Sophia. I haven't been colouring too much lately, something I need to remedy so I rummaged through my stamped and printed images and decided to try this one. They are great images for practicing hair colouring and I am fairly pleased with the way she turned out.  I kept the layout simple so she could really be the main focus of the card.

Image - Sugar Nellie Sophia digi stamp

Medium - Copics

Papers - Lilybee Head over Heels

Sentiment - LOTV

Dies - MFT scalloped stitched border, x stitch circle (no packaging bought from a friend)

Punch - Fiskars tag

I ma having a haircut and colour today. I would love to have my hair with some red in it but each time I have tried it the red fades really quickly. My hair just won't keep the colour so I stick to blonde and caramel colours now.

Coffee Time

I used to only drink black coffee and low fat hot chocolate before bedtime. I was suffering from acid reflux and was advised caffeine can cause it. I don't drink fizzy drinks other than mineral water so needed to look at drinking less coffee. I hadn't drunk tea since I was a little girl and although I have tried it a few times over the years I just didn't like though I wished I did as a change from coffee. However I gave it a go and after a few cups of black tea I found I really like it. A couple of people told me if you try something 7 times you will get to like it. I also tried some herbal teas as they are caffeine free and guess what I found some I love. I don't like fruit flavours but I love peppermint, buttermint and chamomile and now have chamomile before bed and it really helps me sleep better. So if you had told me a year ago I would mainly drink herbal tea and black tea and hardly ever drink coffee or hot chocolate I would never have believed you.

So onto my card which is all about coffee! I bought a 12 x 12 pack of Laserowe Love Coffee Time from Swedish House Crafts and this is the first card I made. I inked the edges with vintage photo distress ink and distressed them all. I added some cheesecloth, crimped kraft card and a wooden cup, saucer and spoon I had in my stash.

Do unicorns dream?

I don't know how unicorns dream differently to any other animal. Oh wait, they aren't real are they.  I used a lovely stamp and sentiment stamp from LOTV. Coloured with Copics, I used the same MFT hearts paper as yesterday, well I do have two pads of it. I used stitched square dies from The Range, that lovely star semi circle die again and some little star dies.

We are going to a cancer charity event today in Wymondham and will probably have a look round the town too with a spot of lunch. 

Snow White

I am so pleased to be sharing my first post as a Guest Designer for Paper Nest Dolls at Swedish House Crafts . Have you seen the new Fairy Tale stamps, they are so cute. This one is Princess with Apple and I have coloured her with Copics. I thought it wold be fun to paper piece her dress and bow for a change. The papers are MFT, I bought a new flower die from Swedish House Crafts. It is by Lady E and is number 5, hydrangea. It is the first die of this make I have bought and it cut and embossed beautifully. I added some ribbon, LOV teenage girl sentiment and used a Joy die for the leaves.

Ithon Crafts commented on my post yesterday and asked if she had embedded comments or a pop up window. You have embedded bu I can't tell you that as I can't comment on your blog!  To change it you need to go to settings, comments and choose pop up box.

Blog commenting

I am getting very frustrated trying to comment on blogs which have embedded comments. I always comment using my iPad as it is so convenient and I once got a virus on my laptop when I opened somebody’s blog. My laptop had to be repaired so I don’t use my laptop for commenting.

For some strange reason most of the time blogger will not let me comment as Marianne’s Craftroom on embedded comments and if I try to comment it won’t publish them as it thinks it is an anonymous comment. If you have embedded comments rather than a pop up box I would love it if you could change it in settings please. Just go to comments and change to a pop up box. I know I am not the only one with this problem.

Thank you x

Boat trip

This is my 9th scrapbook layout this year, probably more than I managed time for all of last year.  I am determined to get this scrapbook finished. I have several on the go and tend to do a layout for whichever one I fancy but I only have three pages left to do in this one, which is the first one I started back in 2008! It is a big scrapbook mind you and as I say I have done layouts in other scrapbooks during that time.

The journalling explains the picture. I used papers from various packs as I often do for layouts. The Simple Stories Summer vibes backing aper was a perfect match for the photo. The seagull is from a Bo Bunny pack, the border is K&Co. I used various nautical and Lawn Fawn bunting dies.  The blue mesh stuff I found in my stash.

Penguin love

The Christmas pile is coming along nicely and here is another. I have used one of the coloured art sheet images from the LOTV Christmas mix sheet. I have used some old Papermania papers, not many of this pad left now.  he embossed piece is recycled from an old Christmas card. I coloured a doily with Victorian velvet DI and then black soot. The ribbon is from Crafty Ribbons, snowflake bunting die from The Works and trees are Doohickey slender fir die. I added some pearl pen dots for the snow.

Last week we went to our first line dancing lesson and we loved it. It is an absolute beginners class and there were about 18 of us. If you are thinking cowboy hats and Yeeha you are wrong. Looking forward to our second lesson today. Yet another hobby to fit into our busy retirement, no time to ever be bored.

Let's Dance

One of the things I am enjoying with doing less magazine work and less craft fairs is having more time for scrapbooking. I have done a few layouts this year so far and this one is my favourite.  The photo is from The Magic Kingdom, Disneyworld. The bus stops a few times down Main Street and the performers get off the bus and sing and dance. I used various papers to pick up on the colours in the photo.  I used an old Marianne die for the sign and added a 3d Stop sticker. The cloud and sun were made with MFT dies and the balloons with a Marianne die.

Shabby chic new home

Back in shabby chic mode for this one.  I wanted to make a multi layered and textured card and really love how it turned out.

Sentiment - Inkylicious

Paper - Crafter's Companion Vintage Wedding

Lace and ribbon - Crafty Ribbons

Paper flowers - Michaels, Florida

Die - honeycomb die (no packaging, bought from a friend)

Metal flower, key charm and burlap flowers from stash

I need to stocktake all my cards and gifts today ready for the new financial year, plant a couple of pots for the garden and so some other odds and ends. Then this evening we are out for a meal and the theatre we are seeing Paul Merton and chums. Should be funny.

A snowman and a penguin

I thought it was time I made another Christmas card and as I have a lot of LOTV coloured art sheets I used one from the North Pole sheet. What could be better than a snowman and a penguin.  I love the background colour so teamed it with some of my fave papers Bo Bunny Altitude. I kept the layout simple as the image is quite large, adding a LOTV sentiment and layering some snowflakes using MFT layered snowflake dies and aqua glitter card.

The powerboat racing season start after Easter so hubby is going off for the day with some other volunteers so start getting the rescue boats ready. The engines all have to be fitted and tested so he will have a fun day. I have some ironing to do but that is all so I shall be crafting, scheduling some blog posts, reading, and doing a jigsaw puzzle. It is lovely to have so many hobbies. 

Lego

I have had a little break from crafting but yesterday I was back in my craftroom and made two cards and this scrapbook layout.  I was inspired by a layout I saw on Facebook which actually is very different to this one bit I took the idea of framing everything and placing them together. I used various papers, go Kreate and MFT stitched dies and American Thickers letters.  The layout is from a few years ago in Florida. We only went to Legoland as we had free tickets. 

The park was previously Cypress Gardens and we were pleased to see they had kept the beautiful gardens.  The park had some amazing creations all made from lego but many of he attractions were for young children. The sun shone and we enjoyed it but it is only worth paying to go there if you have a young family.

Cardmaking class pics

I really enjoyed my first cardmaking class last week and so did all the ladies who attended. As you can see Prima Rosa is a packed gift shop. Everywhere you look there is something new to see each time you visit. The tables were all pushed together for the class. We love going here for a drink or a light lunch.

As most of the ladies are not cardmakers and the cards had a lot of layers they only had time to make one but they were all very pleased with their cards and all made different variations of my sample cards.  I look forward to doing it again in a couple of months.

Mother's Day

Well I have been so busy doing other things that I haven't had time for crafting nor have I had time to post on my blog for a couple of days so I am finally sharing my Mother's day card. 

Image - Inkylicious

Papers - Craftwork Cards

Punches - EK success retro flowers, Hobbycraft dove

Lace butterfly - Facebook group

Wooden butterflies and seam binding from stash