That Green Bird...

Thanks for the app suggestions the other day, I really enjoyed reading about your faves :)

Gemma - I have never heard of Resco Bubbles and Doodle Grub... so I'm going to check them out after making this post. Thanks for the tips :)

Helen - Well the update for Angry Birds HD is out now so I guess you'll be happy with more levels. I already have Angry Birds (plus the HD version) and love them to bits. Wanna know something really cool? Well, to me it's cool anyway... LOL!

See the green bird (the latest bird to be added)? Well, I invented it!! How fun is that?! I sat there on the sofa one day and talked to Ross about how I'd want a bird to behave like this and that and that it had to be green (of course!). He said that he was going to write to the makers anyway and thank them for a great game so he told them about my idea. We had a quick reply thanking us for the idea and that they would pass it onto the development team. The next update featured my GREEN bird - so cool! Would have been even cooler to have a mention in the iTunes store, but hey... at least I can smile about it being "my bird" that's in the game :)

Marja - Ross has got Plants vs Zombies and loves it. I have not tried it yet. Which sushi game is it that you're playing and would you recommend it please? Hope you get your iPads soon - you will LOOOOOVE them :)))

"When" Layout Class...

Supplies needed:
Sassafras – Take A Chance
Sassafras – Love Letters
Sassafras – Say Timber
Sassafras – In Love
Sassafras chipboard stickers, Fur & Fabric Pal Around #25007
Sassafras chipboard stickers, Fawnd Of You #21127
Bazzill Kraft Cardstock
American Crafts – Thickers – Green, Prancer #42812
Corner Rounder

Also needed:
Glue (I use Herma removable)
Black journaling pen (Zig Millennium)
Charcoal Chalk Inkpad (optional)
Cuttlebug + “Tiny Bubbles” embossing folder (optional)

Start by cutting your Bazzill cardstock to size. I scrap in true A4 size, so I cut mine to 29,7x21 centimetres (cm). Please feel free to adapt to another layout size if you prefer. 8.5x11 or 12x12 would work great for this too.

Pick your photos. I have 3 photos at 10x6 cm (15x10 cm landscape photos that I have cut down to the required size).

Get the “Say Timber” paper and cut out the two tree trunks as indicated on the photo below.

Hand cut (they do NOT need to be perfect…and shouldn’t be) two ovals for the trees. One from the “Love Letters” paper and one from the “Take A Chance” paper. Ink the edges if you wish and emboss using your Cuttlebug.

You should now have these pieces to create your trees with.

Cut a piece from the “In Love” paper. The same size as your photos. 10x6 cm. Now decide in which order you want the photos and lay those out together with your journaling piece of paper on your desk so they form a rectangle. Use your corner rounder on the corners shown in the photo below.

…and then attach these parts to your layout.

Add your trees at the right side of your photo arrangement, letting one tree go over the edge of the layout (cut off any part that hangs over).

Write your journaling. Draw the outline around your photo arrangement. Two hand drawn lines that are meant to be closer together and further apart in different places. Go for a really lose hand drawn look.

Get your chipboard and cardstock stickers and create a little collage in the bottom left corner.

…and your layout is finished!

I hope you enjoyed my class! Wishing you lots of fun creating your own version!

My iPad... And Favourite Apps...

I totally L-O-V-E my iPad and use it so many times a day that I wanted to make a post about it today rather than doing something crafty for a change (oh yes, I will still scrapbook later today, just not blog about it). And I mainly want to talk apps. Who can get enough of apps? :)If you have an iPad, or indeed an iPhone/iPod Touch, please, please let me know about your favourite apps? I'd soooo love to hear about it :)

And mine? Well I thought I'd pick my top 3 that I use most at the moment (this does change a lot though). Of course I use things like weather apps, TV guides and news apps a lot, but that's not really so fun or different to talk about. So let's talk games...

We Rule / We Rule for iPad - This has been a favourite of mine for quite some time now. I really love how cute it is and there's something very addictive about that farming business. Really love this game. :)

Bloomies - This is one seriously cute game! Grow flowers, water them, buy pretty bees and butterflies that collect nectar. It's just super, super cute!

Godfinger / Godfinger For iPad - My latest addiction. I have only played it since the weekend but it really is an addiction. Do not start unless you have time to check on it several times a day LOL! Love it though.

Apart from that I'm very much into puzzle games. I have got some great Mahjong games. The Mahjong Artifacts games (1 and 2 and 1 for iPad and 2 for iPad) have really nice graphics. And I loooove linedrawing games like Flight Control (for iPad) and Harbour Master (for iPad).

If you have a moment, please let me know what your favourite apps are. Thank you :)

Thank *You*...

First of all, I wanted to say thanks to Cate for the comment on the class review (and thanks for the tip about 2Peas). Yes it's a bit disappointing when a class is not really what you'd expected. But hey, I guess that's bound to happen occasionally. I'm taking another BPS class at the moment (just started) which is looking very promising, so I'm sure I'll be posting bits about that on and off. I'll let you know how it goes...

And also I want to take the chance today to say THANK YOU to everyone that leave me comments. I can't keep saying "thank you" in every post I write (if nothing else, that would be rather boring to read LOL!) but please do know that YOUR comments are always very appreciated and I DO read every single one of them. If I haven't noticed them already myself, I do get an e-mail for every comment left so there's no chance I miss them. So thanks for taking the time to leave comments - it really makes me smile :)

Wishing you all a great Friday and a perfect weekend :)

A Review...

Sometimes when I see BPS classes that I'm interested in, I'm searching the internet to see if anyone who's taken the class previously has written any opinions on it. Occasionally I find a little sentence here or there, but usually not very much. So I have decided to take the time to write a little review of the recent class I took. It's by Darci Dowdle and it's called "A Bakers Dozen".

It's a 4 week class and today is the last day. So the perfect time for me to summarize my thoughts on it...

Firstly the price. Now I can't remember exactly what I paid for this class but I'm pretty sure it was not mega expensive. So a good price for 4 weeks.

The concept I like. Something I'm not really used to... working with the "unknown". Gathering supplies beforehand (not knowing why or what they will go together with). This was a challenge for me LOL! It felt hard (easier just to wait and see what was needed later) but I stuck with it. Probably a very good challenge for me. But still definitely not "me" :)

Over the 4 weeks we did 13 layouts (some of these double LOs). There were also a few extra projects mentioned throughout (though not with any prompts/special instructions).

Now there's one thing that really let the class down for me. And I have thought a lot about how to write this... I still don't know. I don't want it to come across as a nasty comment. But at the same time you're taking a class and you're expecting a certain type of "standard". And if this is going to be a fair review I really need to mention this as it was something that honestly disappointed me a lot straight from the first day of the class...

I know we all scrap differently and we all have different styles. Some like the clean & simple look others a more "messy" look or a very embellished look etc. There are so many styles and I think that's great :) Even if I only lean towards certain "styles" or "techniques" myself, I love to see ALL styles. Anyway, I'm going slightly off topic here. I just wanted to explain that this is not a "style" issue as such. But to be really honest here, I was disappointed in the teacher. Not the way she teached but the layout examples. You pay to take a class by a *teacher* and then you expect a certain... I don't know? "Skill level"? "Standard"? It wasn't really layouts that were teacher material (a cynic might even start to think about the BPS family connection here). It feels harsh & mean to say this and I have taken many, many classes and NEVER felt this way before. This was a big let down for me so I feel like I have to be honest about this...

Conclusion: Am I glad I took this class? Yes and no. I'm glad I faced the challenge of working with collections of supplies I had no idea beforehand would be paired up. I'm glad I have 13 new layouts in my albums. Would I take it again? No probably not... I would love to be inspired by the layouts in the handouts rather than feeling pressure thinking how can I change this into something I love for my album (and don't get me wrong, I have nothing against doing your own thing and I mostly do, it would just be nice to be inspired by what's presented).

Hope this, very honest, review is of help to some of you :)

This...

...is where I want to be right now, today, this very moment...

...but I'm not. Instead I'm hundreds of miles away in the UK LOL! This is my most favourite beach in the world, right by my parents' summer house in Sweden. (And yes, that's about how busy it gets!! LOL!) We spend a few perfect weeks there every summer. But as it's not time for that yet...

...I'm trying to enjoy the nice weather in the UK while it lasts. I had some nice lunch outside and now I'm going to grab a book (= my Kindle!) and do some reading in the garden before the sun disappears :) Then onto some CT work later.

A Great Day Out...

I hope you're all having a nice weekend :) We definitely are so therefore I will keep my blog post rather short today...

[Supplies: Happy Planet - Kate Hadfield, Penny Pincher - Kate Hadfield, Splash-Tastic! - Kate Hadfield, Simple Singles Templates - Gina Miller, Ice Cream Parlor - Gina Miller, Blocked Patterns - Gina Miller (all from the Lilypad)]

I think I mentioned earlier in the week that I was working on some CT work for the Lilypad. One of the things I wanted to achieve for this week was to get something more done with the cute tree doodles in Kate Hadfield's "Happy Planet" kit. At first I was a bit stuck with what photos to use, but when I remembered about a great day out which was perfect to scrap :)

Right I'm off to enjoy the rest of the weekend. Have a great time everyone :)

Summer Memories...

They're digging up the road and re-tarmacking a road nearby here and it seems to be affecting our internet... or at least I believe that's why. So I'm going to take the chance to get this post written while it seems nice and stable (fingers crossed!)

The page above is done for the BPS class that I'm taking. As before, I went rather different than the prompt. One reason was that we'd been told to gather 4 photos from a season or a trip. That was all the instructions we had. So I did, only it was NOT mentioned that they should all be in the same format (ie all landscape or all portrait) so when we came to scrap my photos didn't really work with the layout design suggested. So I went with 3 photos instead. But I guess that's what scrapping is all about. Adapting and designing to fit what you want to do/have available :)

So I ended up with a page of nice summer memories after all :) If you're wondering what's going on in the photo on the left, we're all (well everyone's not in the photo) playing a Swedish outside game called Kubb. Lots of fun when you're a few playing :)

Sun And Blue Sky...

Yes finally a day of nice weather, sun and blue sky! It makes me smile so much :)

I sat outside before and enjoyed my lunch. The weather was just perfect. Nice and sunny with a bit of a breeze - just how I like it. (Just as much as I like sunshine and nice weather I also hate it when it's too hot LOL!)

Anyway I'm keeping this really short today as our internet has been going on and off all day and I better press send on this before I lose the connection yet again! LOL!

Can't Get Enough Of My Kindle...

I've been doing lots of digital scrapping Creative Team work today. One of the things I decided to scrap was my love for my Kindle... which I really didn't quite expect to get that HUGE! Anyway, here's what I did...

[Supplies used: Penny Pincher - Kate Hadfield, Splash-Tastic! - Kate Hadfield, St Paddy's Pranks - Kate Hadfield, Simple Singles Templates - Gina Miller, Shabby Krafts 2 - Amy Wolff
{Tiddly Winks} Ruffles, Ribbons & Strings - Amber Clegg (all from the Lilypad)]

And my journaling goes like this...

*****

I was so unsure when I placed my order. Was it the right thing to do or not? I love the feeling of REAL books, would I miss them too much? I instantly loved my Kindle when it arrived and felt it was a good purchase. Then fast forward 2 months and I had a few unread paperbacks which I had bought just before I ordered my Kindle. I said to myself that I HAD to read these before I read another Kindle book. And this was when it really hit me. I was reading these paperbacks and all I could think about was that I wanted to read on my Kindle. I really was dying to read on my Kindle again! BIG eye opener!! I forced myself to read all the paperbacks but honestly, I was sooooo happy when I was back reading on my Kindle again. And I could never ever have guessed this back in January when I was wondering whether to buy a Kindle or not! I’m still kinda amazed in a way. I still love real paper books but I love my Kindle books so much too!
June 2010

Family...

So anyone watching Big Brother? :) The very last BB seasons ever (unless some other channel takes over). I'm watching. For 10 years it's been a summer tradition to watch BB every evening. I can't give up now, on the 11th and final season can? LOL! And I love it that the live streaming is back too - signed up straight away :)

Oh and I'm looking for a BB iPhone app, anyone seen any around which is running for this season please?

The layout above is the 3rd for the BPS class. Apart from your photo you were supposed to scrap a receipt from your weekly food shop. A fun idea. But I find that our receipts fade SO quickly (maybe US ones keep better?) so I didn't really want to use a real receipt on my page only to have it faded and unreadable maybe already as soon as in a few months. So I went with my own idea a bit on this one. :)

Mum & Me...

This is my second layout for the BPS class. We'd been told to pick a vertical photo and a patterned paper that went with it (I picked the sparkly dotted one)...

In our egg carton went a chipboard heart and a matching ribbon. We had no idea that that specific compartment was to go with that specific photo... but it's fun to try and work with what you have got. :)

Again my take on the layout sketch is pretty different. I moved the whole main focus on the page over to the right and added in some more details... using a corner punch, flowers etc.

Starting The Class...

Remember this from a few days ago?

...the quite mysterious start of a BPS class that I'm taking. And a lot of gathering different supplies and different photos together. Without having a clue about how they would go together. I totally embraced it and went with it. Having no idea of the outcome...

During the last few days I have been working on the first layouts. And waiting for some better light for photos. But since it's so dark and rainy here (not to mention so cold that we had to put the heating on last night!!) and no hope of it getting better at the moment, I brought the camera out anyway...

This is the double layout which I made following the first prompt. Having said that, mine is not very much like the original by the teacher anyway. He style is very "plain" (very little embellishments etc) so I took the general idea and then made it a lot more "me" instead :)

And One More...

This is the final of three layouts that I did for the BYOC released at the Lilypad on Friday...

[Supplies used: {Tiddly Winks} Ruffles, Ribbons & Strings - Amber Clegg, Line It Up - Amy Martin, Shabby Krafts 2 - Amy Wolff, Simple Singles Template Painted 2 - Gina Miller, Paint Rubs - Lauren Reid, This Summer - Valerie Wibbens (all from the Lilypad)]

The other two layouts that I made were pretty brown/grey in the look so I decided to go for a lighter look for this one, mixing in some pinks and bluey-greens :)

Working some more on the BPS class (A Bakers Dozen), which I'm currently taking, today. Got a layout done this morning and I'll see if I can get started with another one later. But first I have some chicken which I need to get cut at marinated in tikka masala paste and greek yogurt - yum! Better run or it won't be ready for cookingtonight :)

More TLP BYOC work...

I showed you my favourite BYOC picks on Friday and then a layout over the weekend. But I did more scrapping that than with the yummy kits :) Another layout that I created using some of my favourite Lilypad kits from this month is below. I used a photo (which I really love!) of me, Mum & Dad taken in the Lake District the other week.

[Supplies: {Tiddly Winks} Ruffles, Ribbons & Strings - Amber Clegg, Start Of Summer - Amy Martin, Shabby Krafts 2 - Amy Wolff, Garden Party - CD Muckosky, Cosmic Blooms - CD Muckosky, Flip Flop Alpha - CD Muckosky, Fruit Smoothie - Gina Miller (all from the Lilypad)]

Check out the doodles by CD Muckosky, aren't they great? :)

Progress...

Yesterday I went through my personal top 3 picks from this month's Lilypad BYOC release. And today it's scrapping time...

Well actually that's not really true... as I did this layout earlier in the week, ready for Friday's release. Having said that, I actually AM scrapping today, just not using the Lilypad kits... or indeed doing digital scrapping at all.

Today I'm scrapping the paper way. Following one of the prompts from the BPS class that I'm taking at the moment. Fun :)

[Supplies: {Tiddly Winks} Ruffles, Ribbons & Strings - Amber Clegg, Start Of Summer - Amy Martin, Shabby Krafts 2 - Amy Wolff, Stamp It - Emily Merritt, Messy Machine Stitches Borders - Emily Merritt, Fruit Smoothie - Gina Miller, This Summer - Valerie Wibbens (all from the Lilypad)]

My Kit Picks...

I mentioned the other day that I was working with the new BYOC stuff from the Lilypad. And today all the kits are finally available in the shop. There must be... over 50+ new kits I think. I'm not kidding. A huge colour co-ordinated bunch of kits to choose from. :)

As usual (and it feels like this is getting harder and harder each time!) I will try and pick my top 3 and tell you why. So here we go...

Mega ribbon kit :) I'm so happy. I love ribbons. If a layout is "missing" something, adding some ribbon normally solves that problem.

This fun alphabet by CD Muckosky just makes me smile. Not to mention that I love tall & narrow letters. I find a lot of alphabets are quite "fat" and it's hard to make your titles fit - so this one I like a lot!

And finally a paper pick! I love, love, love kraft cardstock. Both as "real" paper and while digi scrapping. You can never go wrong with kraft so this had to be one of my picks.

If you have some time tomorrow, please come back to see what I have created using these...

Home For Christmas...

No I'm not making Christmas plans quite yet (even though I totally love Christmas and would be very happy to do just that) LOL! It's the title of the layout below and that's why I picked it as my blog title for today :)

This morning I have been really busy grabbing some of the new Lilypad BYOC stuff that goes on sale on Friday this week. Lots of great kits to pick from. So I have kept myself busy downloading, unzipping, tagging and scrapping. I can show you, but not until Friday at the earliest...

And talking about Lilypad, I'd better get back and get some more scrapping done with the BYOC stuff. Have a great day everyone :)

A Bakers Dozen...

I mentioned this a little bit on Saturday already. A Bakers Dozen is a new BPS class that I'm taking that started last week. Rather than doing my usual (grabbing the stash and jumping in ONCE we get down to scrapping and I know what we're doing) I've decided to embrace this class fully and follow every mysterious stash gathering prompt that we get. And it starts out rather unusual... with an empty egg carton...

(Please excuse my poor photos, the weather is terribly rainy and dark here so they are pretty rubbish flash photos).

Each day for the last 5 days we have gotten an e-mail to fill up certain parts of the egg carton with certain items. So and so many brads here, so and so many buttons that co-ordinate with a piece of ribbon there etc. The whole point is to use your stash and not buy anything new. And I'm loving it!

If you don't have a certain something, the substitute with something similar. Like one day one of the things to go into a certain compartment was a green crayon. Now I'm not actually sure I have ANY crayons... so I added a green pencil instead. Will hopefully work :)

Apart from the egg carton we're also gathering stuff into 13 big envelopes. Or I'm gathering mine into 13 12x12 zip lock bags as I did not have a full 13 BIG envelopes to hand. And what are we gathering? Photos and some patterned paper.

I have no idea where this will end. I'm guessing a random numbered egg compartment gets combined with a random numbered envelope (zip lock bag!) for a layout... but who knows. I'm quite enjoying following this to the letter without knowing exactly what or why I'm doing certain things... :)