What's In A Title?

The blog title is my take on my favourite quote from Stephenie Meyer's Twilight novel, when Bella realises she is in love with vampire Edward. My version is slightly less impressive than that in the book but never the less true:


"About three things I was absolutely positive, first I was an obsessed crafter, second, there was a part of me - and I didn't know how potent that part might be, that thirsted for beautiful craft materials, dies, stamps, papers, cardstock etc, and third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with scrapbooking and cardmaking"







Friday 29 April 2011

Royal Wedding Day








Yep, today was the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton. I am not a royalist and had no intention of watching the wedding but I found myself getting up early (ish) and sitting in front of the TV watching the coverage from about 9.30am, with a tray of scrapbooking stash and some papers from Websters Pages. By the end of the wedding I had finished this layout, which started off life as another scraplift from a Rachael Elliott design, but in miniture as I am too tight to buy the full size papers so used a pack of 6" x 6" Ladies and Gents papers instead. Over the period of time it took Wills and Kate to get married the layout had gone from a miniture scraplift to a 12" x 12" layout in its own right, much different from what I intended originally. When I had finished I turned on my laptop to look for a photo to go on the layout and as soon as it loaded up this photo of the happy couple on their way to Bucks Palace popped up so I printed it off and added it to the layout. The photo wasn't credited so I can't credit the photographer but whoever you are, thanks, nice photo.

Thursday 28 April 2011

So Eggcited.



Been snipping away at lots of Websters Pages papers today, really need to wear my glasses to make it easier to see when I am about to snip a flower off by mistake! Didn't get much stuck down today but did finish the layout above, wanted to use the Tim Holtz film frame die I got a few weeks back and also try out some layering using some Nestabilities so I put this layout together. The middles of the flowers are Cadbury's Creme Egg wrappers, thought it would extend the theme slightly. Not my usual style but it has lots of chocolate on it so what's not to love?

Wednesday 27 April 2011

Adore, Love, Cherish



I have a few blogs that I like to look around each day, one of my favourites is Elliott Mess, elliottmess.blogspot.com the blog of Rachael Elliott who is one of my favourite scrappers, her work is fabulous. Caroline and I went to a retreat at the beginning of March where Rachael taught one of the classes and it was fantastic. Caroline is a HUGE fan of Rachael's work and has had a scraplift of one of her layouts published recently in Scrapbook Magazine. At the retreat the first person to approach our table in the crop room and welcome us was Rachael. Caroline was like a big kid at Christmas, I don't think I have seen her smile so much. Anyway, earlier this week I was having a browse and saw that Rachael had done some fabulous layouts using some of the Ladies and Gents papers from Websters Pages. She had cut out a long strip of clocks/pockets watches then cut out flowers and created an amazing page. I never really do scrap lifts, I prefer to just sit down with a pile of papers and embellishments and try to get creative myself but after seeing Racheal's layouts I was straight on the web, browsing craft shops for some Websters Pages papers. I bought some of the Ladies and Gents papers and two 6" x 6" packs of their Ladies and Gents, Trendsetters, Spring Market, Yacht Club and Country Estate papers. My box of goodies arrived from A Trip Down Memory Lane this morning and they had very kindly thrown in some free ribbons in the same colours as the papers which I thought was fantastic as I used some of them in my layout. Hubby and I rarely have photos taken together so I had to dig around to find one from January 2007, which luckily has us wearing clothing that actually matches the colours in the papers but I could only find a single photo of Phil with people around him so I cut him out, not something I usually do but I was feeling a bit lazy. The layout above is my scraplift of Rachael's layout, it isn't a patch on hers but I enjoyed myself thoroughly putting it together and I love it so that is what counts.

Tuesday 26 April 2011

Quik Pod













When I attended a retreat a few months back, one of the lovely ladies, Debs R, had an extending mono pod type thing that she attached her compact camera to and it enabled her to take photos of her and her Dad on holiday, with both of them in the photos instead of one holding the camera and the other being in the photo. I loved it and today mine arrived - yay! The extending rod is 18" long and the pro one comes with a tiny mirror on the end, just under where the camera is attached so you can actually see what the camera is pointing at, a mini table top tripod that you can use on it's own or which screws into the bottom of the Quik Pod to make a tall tripod and also a neat little carry bag for the Quik Pod and the mini tripod. I can't praise it enough, you get group photos with you actually in them, you can take photos over people's heads at concerts and even photograph your pets without having to kneel or lay down on the floor to get to their level. To show my hubby what it could do I shoved on a silly hat and took some daft photos of myself to prove that you don't have that "my arm is stretched out" look that you do when you try photograph yourself normally. I got mine from someone on Amazon and with postage it was about £22 - bargain! I can't wait for our trip to London to get lots of photos of Phil and myself in front of the landmarks as a couple.














Friday 22 April 2011

It's Grand








Do I, don't I, do I, don't I? The quandry? I have a Cricut Expression, a Sizzix Big Shot and an old Quickutz Handtook, do I really need another die cutting machine? The answer obviously is no, but if you change the question to do I WANT another die cutting machine the answer is a definate yes. I have fallen in love with the new range of Nestabilities and the grand ones for use in the Spellbinders Grand Calibur. The small nesties can be used in my Big Shot but the grand ones are alot bigger and need a Grand Calibur to cut them.



Anyway, I am now the proud owner of the Grand Calibur, which to be honest is an ugly little machine, but I love the way it cuts large shapes and puts a lovely embossed pattern/groove around the edge. The cutting plates are well labelled and it is really easy to use. I put a small card together using a small nestability die (above) and this morning I used a large Go Kreate frame die to cut a front and back cover for a mini book, used the next size down to cut some inner pages, then used the smallest of the three dies to cut patterned paper to decorate the pages. I am going to put photos in from over the Easter holidays and bind it together with some ribbon. Can't wait to see how the final minibook will look.



I have also cut a photo of me holding a HUGE Easter egg using one of the large frame dies and have cut some larger frames in blue and red cardstock and layered the photo up. Yet another project I have started but not yet finished. I blame hubby for buying me such a flipping large Easter Egg, when I am supposed to be dieting, which is distracting me and keeping me from my crafting. Never mind, tomorrow is another day.

Saturday 16 April 2011




I seem to have been swamped this week with orders for cards from my colleagues at work. It might have something to do with me typing up a new birthday list which before was just a list of names and dates but is now in monthly sections so people know how many birthday cards they need for the month. There are about 25 of us in my department at work and everyone gets you a birthday card on your birthday so you should get 24 cards, which usually impresses my hubby when he compares his half a dozen cards each birthday with my 30 or so cards. Today I have made a birthday card for my father in law's birthday using a pre-coloured image from Lili of the Valley and some scraps of left over paper and cardstock. I also made an Easter card for my in laws using a pre-coloured Warren (the bunny) image from Craftwork Cards and some leftover scraps of paper and cardstock and I made a birthday card for one of my friends using some lovely flowers that I bought at GNPE at Harrogate last month. The Easter card I made using the design from the Craftwork Cards class at GNPE last month, taught by Julie Hickey who was lovely.


I really need to do some scrapbooking but I don't seem to have much time at the moment to sit down and scrap, at least card making is not very time consuming and I can have a card made in under ten minutes.

Monday 11 April 2011

My Guys


Seem to have a blockage in my mojo at the moment. I have been looking at three photos I want to use on a layout for about a week now but just can't seem to get creative. I took a break and did this layout of my husband Phil and my Dad, together at my daughter's 18th birthday party a few months back. Used more papers from the Fancy Pants, Happy Together kit from Sarah's Cards, can't believe how much stash was in this kit.

Thursday 7 April 2011

Fancy Pants



Today I was lucky enough to have the afternoon off work and as the house was empty I thought I would spend some quiet time in my craft room. This layout was created using the January kit from Sarah's Cards. The papers are from the Fancy Pants, Happy Together range. I have just bought the new Sizzix/Tim Holtz Weathered Clock die and I really wanted to use it so by changing the title I had intended to use on this layout to one including the word "time" I found it could be incorporated - yay! I also used two American Crafts mini page protectors to hold the photos. The photos are my hubby Phil and myself sledging at the Sno!zone at Xscape, Castleford. We had 45 minutes sledging in the real snow they create there and we were frozen silly by the end of the session by it was really good fun.

Tuesday 5 April 2011

My Daft Husband


I think as we get older we start to regress back to our childhoods, this is certainly true of my husband, who has always been slightly mad but now, at 45 years old, he makes no apology for finding any opportunity to play the fool. I used Bellaboo's February monthly kit, Love Birds by Fancy Pants to create this layout showing his funny side.

Lili of the Valley Stamps




I seem to have developed an obsession with Lili of the Valley Stamps, at the last count I had about forty of them. They are so cute I just can't resist buying them. I like the stamps with the people on, the cute or sulky girls and boys, I'm not really that into their cute animals, although I did buy a few of their teddy bear Christmas stamps. I have a few family birthdays coming up in the next few weeks so last night I made a few cards using their stamps. I especially love the stamp called It's My Party, with the little girl, complete with Doc Marten style boots, having a really good tantrum. I have used the same layout on both cards as I had a few scraps of pattered cardstock left over from scrapbooking which I wanted to use up so this seemed the perfect way.

Monday 4 April 2011

Scrapstars




Had a fabulous weekend at the mini Scrapstars event in Leeds this past weekend. The three projects covered during the day were amazing, there was a vintage wedding album designed by the wonderful Monique Jacobs from the Netherlands, who unfortunately couldn't attend but the class was taught by her good friend Jolanda Meurs also from the Netherlands. Local lass Kirsty Wiseman popped along to teach the creation of an fabulous trinket box and Caroline Lovett, the retreat organiser, taught an altered book with lots of inking and stamping.


I met some wonderful people and learnt some new techniques and have lots of things to finish so I am off now to get started. Huge thanks to Caroline for arranging the weekend. I am really looking forward to the larger event planned for September 2011 in Leeds.

For more info visit www.scrapstars.co.uk