The Heat...

Yesterday it was just too hot to blog. My little "cave" (as I call it, ie the "very tiny scrapping room") is by far the way, way hottest room in the house when the weather is warm. It becomes a sauna with no air moving in or out. It's got a window and draft should be going through it like any other room (when we have all the other windows open too) but for some reason it just doesn't. So it becomes this unbearable hole of heat. Today it looks to be even hotter if anything, so I have braved the heat and entered early, armed with ice water, to get a blog post done before the afternoon ...before the impossible time LOL!

Yesterday morning (again before the room became totally unbearable...while it was still borderline on me being able to sit on the chair without collapsing in the heat) I worked on a layout for the Lilypad:

[Supplies: Capture The Moment - Kate Hadfield, Designs By Lili, Messy Stamped Alpha - Nancy Comelab, Scrap Pad Polly Love 3 - Amy Martin (all from The Lilypad)]

And talking about the Lilypad...it's a new month and tomorrow is Friday, so it's time for BYOC again. I'm busy downloading kits and will somehow try and create something in this heat once they are all down. :)

Gone Fishin'...

Wow they were not joking when they said on Sky News' weather this morning that the weather today was going to be "uncomfortable"!! Hot, humid, rainy and foggy. Like seriously hot and sticky! I feel so "bothered" and you can't even escape from it. And it's only just past 11 in the morning. According to what they said it's going to get much, much hotter (and more humid!) still. Yuck! If anyone have a good tip on how to feel better in the humid weather I'm very happy to hear it... :)

And no, I'm not going fishing as the title says... I posted yesterday about having to make a male birthday card. And male cards are the....well, no ---> male cards AND presents are the hardest! For women you can always fall back on nice bath/body products, jewellery etc if you're stuck...and pretty flowers for cards. Men? That's H-A-R-D. Anyway in the end I decided to go down the hobby route and since my sister's boyfriend is into fishing, amongst other things, I made what I believe is the very first fishing birthday card that I have ever made :)

[Supplies: Catch Of The Day - Julie Billingsley, (font) Brittany - Darcy Baldwin (both from SSD)]

Also, Shimelle's latest colour challenge was to make something using "writing in colour", so I decided to match the title of the card (grattis = congratulations in Swedish) to the card rather than going with a black title.

A Photo-Less Post...

A post without photos - that does not really happen very often for me (as I personally enjoy blog posts with photos a lot more, so I try to always have one/some in mine too). But I'm super, super busy today and I just figured it was an option between no blog post at all, or a blog post without photos. So a blog post without photos it is, for a change. I promise the next one will have an image again :)

So today... first I'm really pleased to say that my foot seems to have recovered quickly this time. Hopefully I hadn't irritated the old injury as badly as I'd first thought. I'm still being a bit extra careful, but at the same time I'm not avaoiding walking, so that feels great :) I'm really, really pleased about this as I dreaded a few weeks of not moving much.

Today is definitely a housework day (yuck!) and I'm in the middle of cleaning toilets - don't worry, I have washed my hands for this post :) - as I type this. Double yuck! Still it's things that need to be done. Apart from that I'm making a birthday card which I must get off in the post to Sweden by tomorrow!! A male card. Yes ---> sigh! Male cards are the hardest... ever. So I'm busy thinking up ideas while I'm tidying.

Pastels...

I love pastels. Especially quite bright ones. Give me the option of pastels or brights and I will nearly always pick pastels. Unless we're talking green. Green I will do in any shade and any brightness, of course :)

Anyway, I spotted this sweet summer kit in Kay Miller's shop:

...and the colour challenges that I have been following on Shimelle's blog during the last month fit perfectly ---> "scrap in pastels". Couldn't be better :) So I downloaded the kit and started playing around. The result is this card:

[Supplies: Ocean Adventure by Kay Miller]

Right, that's me off out in the garden to do some work. Lots of plants that need watering and we've got the lawn to cut etc. Just wish the sun would be out instead of this hot, cloudy and humid weather....

Annoyed...

(Warning: rant time) About a year and a half ago we were out on a walk. It was dark and the streets were full of fallen leaves. A pavement came up and I did not see the edge for all the leaves. I stepped funny and pains shot through my foot (on the top, going from the toes back towards the leg). I had to limp home and my foot hurt for weeks afterwards. Then it stopped. Until yesterday when the pain came back. It hurts when I walk on it and when I sit down it aches for a while afterwards.

And I have done nothing except for a bit more walking than usual the last two days. I'm soooo frustrated!! I guess what I need to do (?) is to rest it better but you have so much walking that you NEED to do in a day anyway and I really want to be good and go for walks too...so I'm really annoyed about this and I don't know what to do. Grrr!

Enough complaining. Time for more hybrid stuff instead and this card which I made with some cute kits from Sweet Shoppe Designs:

[Supplies: Everyday Play - Krystal Hartley, A Beautiful World - Krystal Hartley (from SSD)]

Cuteness...

I've spotted yet another super cute kit by Kay Miller. This time a bit more boy themed with primary colours. I'm normally a bit more drawn to (bright!) pastels, but this one was too cute to resist. Don't you agree? :)

If you, like me, just neeeed it - you can get it from Kay Miller's shop here. And what have I made with it...?

I, on purpose, decided not to put a title on the card. That way it can be used as birthday card or a general greeting card. Great to have a few of these type of cards ready to grab and write when you suddenly need a card without any notice :)

I'm out clothes shopping this afternoon. Desperately need at least one pair of jeans and a pair of capri. Wish me luck... :)

Rainbow Fun...

This layout was very much inspired by this layout by Shimelle. As soon as I saw it, it just made me smile. So much happy colour in one little space. So I had to scrap lift. A perfect layout to document our fun summer plans. :)

Sorry for no update yesterday. I'm mega busy working on my contribution for the second issue of Sweet Shoppe Designs' magazine "Simply Sweet". It kept me busy all day yesterday (ideas etc were sketched way before then) and I know I have a lot to do on it today too. So on that note, I'd better go and get started...

Not Sure That I Like This...

You know when you do a layout and nothing works? Well this is it...

I started off doing this layout for Shimelle's blue colour challenge as the photo is mainly a blue background. However I never got it to work. I added a few bits, removed a few bits....everything look cluttered...nothing stood out...everything blended into one big busy messy look. I left it for a day. Added some more. Still not happy. In the end I decided to finish it but I still don't like it.

At first I was not going to add it to my blog. But then I thought: why not? I think it's good to show that we all have these days when nothing works on a layout and no matter what you do it's doomed. For me, the biggest problem with this one (apart from the photo) is that it has no focal point. It's too busy and nothing stands out. I think if I was to redo it I would change the background. Still have a patterned paper but a more calm one. Maybe an orange one with little white dots or something...and then I would fit in a title above the photo, near the "totally special" stamp. With this background it just wouldn't have worked and it would have created even more of a mess LOL! :)

Another Hybrid Card...

Still got some of my Creative Team assignments to do for Sweet Shoppe Designs this month so I'm continuing my hybrid cards...

[Supplies: CNY (Bundle) - Lliella Designs , PJ Kids (Bundle) - Lliella Designs, Font: Brittany - Darcy Baldwin (all SSD)]

The month of May saw a new designer arriving at SSD - Lliella Designs. As I have said many times before, cute kits are definitely my preference for making hybrid cards. Anything cute and I'm sold. And Lliella Designs definitely fit that category. Total cuteness. Then add in owls like this and I really can't resist :)

Green Crafting...

Isn't it great when you can accomplish two things in one go? I wanted to continue Shimelle's colour challenges but at the same time I had some SSD Creative team assignments that I wanted to get working on. As it turned out, one of the kits from SSD that I wanted to work with was pretty green and I had a green colour challenge to do. So that was perfect. Challenge and CT work done in one go. I came up with this card:

[Supplies: Froggie Luv - Sara Amarie, It Starts In My Toes - Shawna Clingerman (both from SSD)]

I thought the frog in the "Froggie Luv" kit was just too cute and perfect for a hybrid card. And I mixed it with a rather pink kit by Shawna Clingerman. I really love the combination of greens and pinks together. I think that's my most "happy colour combination" of all at the moment :)