ATDML Alphabetical Challenge - Letter E

Another challenge is up on Created by ATDML with yours truly and we have moved on to the letter E. There are a set of prompts over on their blog which I illustrated with the layout below which not only met these criteria but also rose on this months #Calvinball2019 challenge.

I really love this grey/white striped background paper which I bought lots of as I think it adds just a little something more than using cardstock which inevitably ends up being my background for 90% of the pages I create. I kept the colours soft and beach line for this page bringing in the sandy colours and blue for the sea. Great to be using up my wooden pieces for the Calvinball challenge - most of which I have had for over 5 years, so at the moment when point stacking is permitted, I get 3 points for using these wooden stars!! 

I'm not competitive at all me(!!)  but wish I could stay home, read all morning and scrap all afternoon whilst the challenge is on - this going to work for a living might pay for all my craft supplies (among other life essentials lol!) but it reduces my crafty hours drastically!!

Calvinball 2019

So I stumbled across a scrapbooking challenge running throughout the month of March based on the Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon. The rules change every day and require you to incorporate certain items on your scrapbook pages for which you score points.  You also get points for sharing on social media platforms, commenting on fellow designers pages and more. It seemed a little complex to start with but I think I am getting the hang of it now and even made myself a spreadsheet to keep track of all the points you can earn!

Of course the main aim is to get you scrapbooking more and prompt using up your supplies which is all good fun. If you want to search for what people are creating for these challenges use the #calvinball2019

My first two pages are below where I made my own floral paper using stamps, then fussy cut them out and added enamel dots and buttons to the centres. I painted my black stripes on both pages (which was inspired by a page I saw but forgot to pin on Pinterest so I can't now give credit to the amazing designer - if you know please tell me!!) and also added flicks of black paint.

Both titles were cut from a pattern paper (Crate paper I think) and lots more stamping of leaves and flowers directly on to the backgrounds.

As I am taking part in this challenge, plus have two crafty days this month away with friends AND a retreat next month to design and prep for expect lots of crafty blog posts this month!

BookClub 8/52 - The Rumour

Next read from me is a Sunday Times best selling Thriller with a twist which several people on my Goodreads up have read and it kept coming up as a recommendation as well so here  are some of the reviews. I will let you know what I think

"In this chilling tale of paranoia, suspicion and accusation, Lesley Kara keeps you guessing until the final page." (Paula Hawkins, No.1 bestselling author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN and INTO THE WATER)

"A great debut with a slyly clever premise and a rollercoaster ride to the very last sentence." (Fiona Barton, bestselling author of THE WIDOW and THE CHILD)

12th Birthday party at Zorb Football

Well I think he had a good time at his joint party with one of his rugby friends. I spent most of the time laughing every time they tried to kick a football in these giant zorb balls!!

I have a great scrapbook page idea to make with my photos too featuring lots of circles!

ATDML Alphabetical Challenge D

We are on to our fourth challenge already in the Created by ATDML Alphabetical challenge and the letter D.

Plenty of options to inspire your next page.... and even I will be joining this one as we go along as I haven't had time just yet to illustrate it.

February ScrapMates pages

Bargain hunting in the January Hobbycraft sale afforded us a crop kit with lots of variety this month and we sold out of kits and even had the lovely Teresa visiting with us all the way from Wales.



We used the Hexagon Thickers alignment tool as a template for this second page where I still need to add my title but I could not find my alphabet stamps for love nor money in my craft room. Perhaps time for a tidy up again!!  I do get great pleasure out of using something designed for one purpose for another entirely and my Thickers alignment tools come in very hand as templates and don't take up much toom. Link here if you want to see what these are - available on Amazon, Hobbycraft and other online craft stores.

February ATDML Virtual Crop Day

Triangle madness from me this month where I created two pages and a card from Kaisercraft Golden Grove papers - nice and fresh and sunny to lift a chilly wintery day!

Plenty of texture on this page with lots of fringing, and whilst it took a while to create this page I am really pleased with the effect. As long as this page took the second page was much, much quicker, a simple combination of triangles, a mounted photo and title used this very heavily patterned paper range to create a simple more graphic look.

And there was enough left over for a quick card too.