Hidden Treasures...a class by Linda.

A few weeks ago now we had the Cardinal Colours Spring Weekend Crop...it was a fab weekend, people could come along and just scrap or cardmake or do anything they liked. And if they fancied it they had the choice of a few classes to choose from too. I chose to take 2, one was with Lynn and I did this page and the other was with Linda and this is the page below. I didn't actually do it at that crop, I took the kit away and scrapped it at our Blossom retreat

The papers ARE gorgeous! ( Fab choice Linda!!) so elegant and striking in the black and white....very classy!
Now I don't really get on very well with white space lol( infact I really do struggle with it!) and the original class had its fair share of white space on it ( and very nice it looks too on Linda's original page)
so I added a half sheet of another paper in the same range and just changed the placement of the little diamond sections.

The photo opened up to reveal 2 more inside from our wedding day ( the one on the front was our last wedding anniversary)
I loved Linda's addition of a little bit of colour with the ribbon and the distressing with matching ink pad and I decided to carry the colour onto some of the clear crystals we used. I just coloured them with a Promarker to the same shade.

Thank you Linda for a lovely class xxx

Here Come The Babes

the Blossom Babes that is. We were mostly all team  mates in a team on UKS and have been together several years, unfortunately when things changed to social groups on UKS things drifted somewhat and it lost a lot of what we enjoyed it for so we moved away from there....but we still stayed together!! Along the way we have grown and we now have our special honourary Blossoms too :)
I am lucky enough to be able to call ALL of these lovely, special, kind hearted souls my friends. Every year we all get together for a crafting retreat in Essex in the beautiful setting of Debden House. Some of the girls I get to meet each month at our local crop or classes, but some of them we only get chance to get together with at Debden. We do however all keep in touch online. This is a photo taken at this years retreat, sadly we were missing 2 of our regulars, Jill and Gilly ( and girls, we really REALLY did miss you, it was not the same without you both there....roll on 2013!!!) When I saw the colours in the photo I knew it would be a good one to use with these lovely papers.

They are from the My Minds Eye Miss Caroline collection, such pretty patterns and colours aren't they. The bingo card was from a sheet of Simple Stories paper, the butterflies punched out with a Martha Stewart punch and the title is using AC Thickers.

I was totally inspired by an idea on a layout I saw well over a year ago by a fab scrapper called

Davinie Fiero

she used circles and squares together and I LOVED the effect.

Anyway, all that is left to say is that I just LOVE these girls....they are the best.....and I count myself very blessed to know them xxx

The Girlies....and the long and the short of it!

This is one of the layouts I made at our recent Blossom Babes weekend retreat. I printed out the paper doll from a freebie website ( sorry I can't remember where it was, but I know I just googled freebie paper doll images).
Dale took this photo of the girls and I, on Bexhill seafront last year. Although I liked it in colour, I thought it would look better on this layout in black and white.

I have had a bit of a change lol......after having had short hair for the last 12 years, I have persevered..... and had managed to get it quite long....I had fun straightening it and trying various different *up do's*.....

But I was starting to struggle with the heat ( yes we have had a little in amongst the rainy days lol) and I just know that it would drive me nuts in the summer......sooooooooo...

 it's ALL gone again!!!!

The man from 'Dale-monte'.....he say YES!!!!!! he like it. And I must admit, it does feel nice.

My Blue Eyed Girl

Back at the very end of March, our lovely Jill of Cardinal Colours held a Spring Weekend Crop. I took part in this beautiful class by my very talented and lovely friend, Lynn ( click her name to see all the original class photos and details)
Here is my layout I made from Lynn's class,
the photo is of Lauren, taken at Chloe's Christening back in 2000!

Lynn's original base colour for the cardstock and the letters was a really lovely dusty green, but I switched mine for a blue as I felt it worked better with this photo. Lynn had already kindly crocheted the beautiful flowers and the butterfly ( thank god!! because if I had tried it would have resembled an old sock or birds nest or something lol) we then sewed on the felt flower centres, pearls and ribbon leaves.
I added a little torn section on the top right and finished it with some punched card, sewing and some little bits and bobs.

Thank you Lynn for such a lovely, fun class, I am so pleased with my layout and Lauren loves it too! xxx

Sitting Pretty....(watch out its VERY photo heavy)

This is one of the layouts I made at Blossom Retreat weekend last month. The photos were taken last year on a day trip to our local small zoo, Drusillas. At the end of the zoo park they have a gift shop and inside they sell lots of branded products, but they seem to specialise in Thomas The Tank engine for the boys and Hello Kitty for the girlies. Outside there is a little ride on machine...that is **supposed** to be for little girlies....ahem...well I guess she is one of MY little girlies eh ;)
The smaller photo *should* have been on more of a tilted angle, but it stuck fast and I couldn't move it.

A variety of different letters used, some pretty buttons and best of all the 
length of lace is from my late dear Little Nanna's sewing box, so pleased
to have had chance to use some at last :)

So....anyway, today we also paid a visit to Drusillas, we haven't been for quite a while and as we have annual passes we thought we really should put them to good use. So, if you get bored easily then I suggest you run away now lol as there are a fair few pics. Starting with this little fella, he was totally chilled out under the heat lamp.

 

If only I had taken a shot of the whole slide....it was a curled up snake and was actually quite high with a rapid downwards spiral.....you should have heard the yelps as she came down lol

Two Tyred lol

This little bucket seat spun sooooo fast I thought she was going to fly out!!! Was so funny to see her try to walk after she got out though he!he!he! ( a taste of things to come when she has been out partying I guess lol)

This young otter was absolutely adorable.....not to mention vocal! He had a very high pitched squeal.

We have never seen flamingo eggs before and today we saw 3! Hopefully they  will safely hatch, although there was a little bit of a scrap going on over one of the nests....keep your fingers crossed.

This little guinea pig made me think of Barbara Windsor LOL, check out the little grin on its face.

We managed to get a good look at the servals today too, normally they are quite well hidden, but it was lovely to be so close today.

Awwww, this teeny little fella was soooo cute, but so sad looking bless him. Looks like a little ol man doesn't he lol.

We popped in the little sweetie shop in the play area for some nibbles and I saw this! I adore peanuts, but found out a few weeks ago ( after actually trying peanut butter for the first time) that peanut butter is no where near as nice as peanuts on their own. But I decided to try this peanut butter Twix....hmmmm, won't bother trying another one though....especially at £1.10 a pop!!!

                                                 Chloe tried out the white knuckle ride lol.

On the way back to the car park the girls went for a ride around the park on Thomas

See! They did have a good time :)

                                         The one with the loooooooonnnnnnnnnggggg legs!

and the one with the stumpy ones lol.xxx( just kidding Lauren, love you really!)

Chloe is normally VERY vocal ( ask ANYONE who knows her lol) and she never passes up the chance to have a go in the zoolympics phone box. You have to shout as LOUD as you can and see how many decibels you can reach....as you can see she did quite well.

So, this was our bank holiday monday ( well it was after I had come home from work!!)
What did YOU do? Whatever it was I hope you had a good time.

Warmest wishes
Anita xxxx

May at Scrapology.....C is for Charms.

This month ,over at Scrapology,  the DT are scraplifting the work of Karola Witczak  (she is a member of the Prima design team and her work is always beautiful).  Our challenge was to use charms on our layouts and also follow the sketch provided.

Here is my entry for the DT this month. I desaturated the photo of Lauren, I really liked the soft, vintagey effect it gave. This gave me chance to play a little with my new Prima Brickwork stamp too.
I used an earring, a brooch and some charms from a bracelet to decorate the page a little, coloured the flower band with Cosmic Shimmer Mists.

I made both of the voile flowers, one was just a gathered strip with a fancy charm sewn into the middle. The other was voile which was die cut using the Tattered Floral die and then I singed the egdes over a tea light. Then popped some pearls and Stickles in the centre  after layering a few petals together.

 Here is the sketch and the original layout of Karola's that totally inspired us.

 We would love to see you enter the challenge for May....

Dream Big!

Just a quick post tonight, feeling rather pants with a painful throat and earache :( This is a layout I made a month or so ago, using MME Lost and Found II papers. I really REALLY love the glittering on them and the elements that I cut from one of the sheets.One of my nephews making daisy chains on the grass bank next to Battle Abbey ( doesn't he look like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth lol)

Right, just going to take some pills and crash out on the settee for a bit I think. Hope you have a lovely weekend xxx