bored and miserable

Hallo everyone out there. I know I haven't been around for a while. Thing is I fell over and broke my wrist, so there's been no scrapping or sewing recently. My craft room is bored and miserable and so am I. I've got the kids home for the summer holidays and it's quite a challenge entertaining them one handed.

We've been doing country themed activities this year and so far we've been to China and England and now we're in Hawaii officially though looking at the weather you'd never guess. I went to sleep last night and when I woke up I thought I'd slept through to November. Never mind, we're gonna have an indoor Luau party. The kids are being brilliant and doing amazingly well with just a bit of direction from me. Take a look at some pictures I manage to take with one hand

 Making boxes to hold fortune cookies.

 And making the fortune cookies!

 Fashioning our own Chinese lanterns....

 and visiting Chinatown

 Our grand Chinese party

 YUM YUM

Sarah mastering chopsticks.

 The London City skyline

 and sheltering from the inevitable rain

 Posing with a policeman.......

 ...and the pearly queen and king

 The changing of the guards at Buckingham palace. The first time we've ever been

 Outside Buckingham Palace. The Queen's no where to be seen

And at Horseguards parade.


Hope you enjoyed looking at my pictures and will be back hopefully very soon with some crafting projects

A welcome surprise and a UKS challenge

My dad who is nearly 67 years old has stopped smoking. I was well and truly gobsmacked when he told me yesterday. We've been begging him to stop for years all to no avail. But last week he went to the GP who read him the riot act as to how he's burning his money and his lungs. He was given visions of oxygen tanks and ICUs and he finally got the shock that was needed. He's on day 2 and I'm really proud of him as he's been a chain smoker since he was 15, so 'Way to Go Dad'

Over on UK Scrappers a delightful challenge was set. We needed to use a sketch, have a star on our LO, use the letter H in the title and have a group photo or a group of photos

 I used the lovely Chapter One collection from Kaisercraft for this LO. The background is black cardstock and I used the iecut paper over that. The flowers are cut with my faithful cuttlebug and the Tim Holtz tattered florals die. The title spots and label were also cuttlebugged with spellbinders dies, and the date tag is a little journal card from the collection. The weaving is black and green narrow ribbon and I aded lots and lots of bling to my LO. There are little white stars stamped in each corner of the black CS though they don't show up very well in the pic. In the middle of each star there is a green gem. I added some lace and bling to the title label and finally used white thikers which I also blinged up for the title. The mini alphas are My Little Shoebox.
Thes pictures are of a newly renovated synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem. I visited this breathtaking building while I was in Israel in June and I even managed to pray there. I was truly inspired. Thanks for stopping by

A New Layout - And a tooth disaster

After being busy with sewing, circle journals and minibooks, I decided to do a LO today.

This one features my DD- she's the one in the pink - and some of my nieces doing each others hair. It's been lying around for about 5 years waiting to be scrapped and today was its lucky  day. The main background is blue cardstock with yellow cardstock over it. I then used several different pps from the fabulous Ad Lib collection by Bo Bunny. I guess you've noticed by now that Bo Bunny is my favourite manufacturer at the moment. I used my clever tassel scissors to cut the red paper to look like hair. The trim I picked up at a market stall somewhere. The rosette is made from some fabric with a button and gem to finish off.  The painted dots are done by dipping the rubber end of a pencil into different coloured paint dabbers, and the images below the 'hair' are stamped with the Ad Lib stamps and green and brown Stazon. A little gem in the middle of each flower finishes them off. The stars which you see either side of the rosette snd in top right hand corner of the photo are cut with a sizzix bigz die and my faithful cuttlebug. Finally to finish the Lo I added some brads, a trinket and a little bit of doodling.

And what about my tooth? Well I had some root treatment done last week and a temporary filling put in till my next appointment. This morning while I was eating my breakfast I heard a crunch that had nothing to do with my Sultana Bran and that was followed by a nasty pain. I quickly discovered that my filling had come out and the tooth has loosened. So I'm off to the dentist again tomorrow for him to see what can be done. In the meantime I'm drugged up on painkillers, so I'm not responsible for anything I say or do. Thanks all for stopping by

Another CJ

My new CJ is a real fun one. It's called the Tell me a Story Circle Journal and it's over on UK Scrappers. Each member of the team starts a story and sends their book onto the next person who continues the story. The last person ties up all the loose ends and finishes the story to send back home to it's owner. Obviously the story can't have too complicated a plot because it's just ten pages of book. I am really looking forwards to reading everyones' stories and to see how mine is interperated. I deliberately wrote mine so it could go anywhere really. It is about a guy, Andrew who wakes up very late on a day that has the potential to change his life. That's all I know, the rest is up to the rest of the lovely ladies in this group.
Because my story has a time theme, I used the lovely luscious Timepiece collection from Bo Bunny. Here are some views and details

This is the front cover. It's another of those pictures that won't stand the right way up. I bound it to look like a hardback book and deliberately left it without a title as I want the full imagination of the writers and a title might put ideas into their heads. I added a little pocket watch to tie in with the beginning of my story.

This is the welcome page which hopefully clearly explains what I want.  If not anyone who doesn't get what I'm on about can always give me a holler and I'll try to give a better explanation. The string which holds the trinket came off a parcel I received in the post that day. I buy far too much stash and really need to use up some stuff before I buy anything else, because my craft room is literally stuffed to the hilt.

This is the inside front cover. I used a Martha Stewart edge punch and I distresses and inked the edges of my papers. I'm really into distressing at the moment. I really like the old time feeling it gives to my projects

And above is Chapter 1 which launches the reader into Andrew's very important day and how it all goes awry before he even gets out of bed

This is the LO on the right hand side of my double page which  is all clocks and watches to depict the panic my protagonist has when seeing the time. I thought this little quote was a very apt one for the setting of my story.

Above is my sideways on sign in page. I made little tags in the shape of open books and have asked everyone to sign and date one tag

Not forgetting my acknowledgements. I know the book isn't finished yet, in fact I've just about got it started, but I am so sure everyone will do a brilliant job, so I knew I could thank them in advance. A special thanks also goes to my family for let me get on with my creative madness.

And lastly this is the inside back cover which is the same as the inside front cover. Thanks for popping over and taking a little look