I have been a busy little bee tonight - I have been helping Kirsty from UKS redesign her blog! It took me a while to do mine last week but once I worked out what I was doing it's pretty easy...(LOL, yeah, it's always easy when you know how!) have a look at Kirsty's blog here and see what you think - I used the Bear Necessities kit from Nitwit Collections to make the blog banner with, as Kirsty is a fan of bears!

I finished this LO last night - but couldn't think of a title without resorting to something cheesy like "Laugh" or "Smile" - how many LO's must I already have with those titles! So in the end I just went with a "J" for Jessica. I used it as part of my Painting With Light portfolio to illustrate a shot that I wasn't very happy with, but then CJ worked her magic and showed me that cropping the photo actually worked really well! So of course, I had to scrap it after that....
I was inspired by a LO by Kelly Goree in the 2 Peas gallery for this one.

Pulled a couple of old sheets of paper out of the stash pile for this LO - SEI Penelopes Potpourri and Aunt Gertie's Garden (where do they get the names from!). Spent ages cutting the flowers out and doodling outlines on them, then completely changing my mind about the entire LO and changing it to end up with this one, which I actually quite like!

The words guaranteed to strike fear into most peoples hearts....take a self portrait! For CJ's Painting With Light class we have to put together a bit of a portfolio, part of which was the dreaded self portrait. The portrait also had to include our name in some way, but not added in later in Photoshop (foiled again!). I armed myself with tripod, gorillapod and remote control for the camera and got snapping...
Here's some of the ones that didn't quite cut it! First location was the kitchen. Quite liked these but I think the light in there was making me look a bit washed out...

Number 2 came very close to being picked!

Numbers 3 & 4- I changed locations and went up to the bedroom. This is me sat on the bed, facing the window, camera on gorillapod on the window ledge. I know these are totally overexposed but I actually really like them! If I had managed to get my name in the shot I think one of these would have been it!

Then I started messing about with mirror shots (after I had cleaned the mirror and got rid of all the stuff on top of the chest of drawers behind me)Which wasn't going to badly till SOMEBODY wanted to come and join in!And then I couldn't take a decent picture for laughing. So the one I finally decided on was the next one - again, sat on the bed, camera on window ledge, but this time I actually managed to get my name in the shot!Phew! Thank goodness that is over with!

Here's the layout I created from todays prompt for No Place Like Home (crikey, think I will just put NPLH from now on. You'll know what I mean, won't you?).

I managed to use up some older stash on here too, you know, all the stuff that you buy and then save for a special layout....that never gets used! So the Heidi Swapp ghost letters and the MM scrabble tiles have finally had their day ;-)

The rest of it was just scraps really, and I also discovered that I don't have ANY pictures of our house AT ALL, and at this point it was too dark to go and take any! I made do with a picture of the view from our living room window instead...

I am (hopefully!) going to be a busy girl for a few weeks as I am not only participating in Shimelles online class There's No Place Like Home but I have also signed up to Cheryl Johnsons Painting With Light photography workshop!

We have received our first class prompt today from Shimelle, so I need to go and jot a few ideas down about that, and I also have some homework to do for PWL - I need to take a self portrait (oh no!) and find some photo's as part of my portfolio. I'm really looking forward to both of these classes!

Another little bloggy revamp - thought I would have a new blog header, courtesy of Rachelle Anne Miller, who does the most gorgeous illustrations...trouble was that there were sooo many to choose from! I can see that I may be changing the banner weekly for a while!

...you try to sign in to Blogger using your work email address and password. D'oh! And then stare at the screen for a good minute wondering why, WHY is it telling you that your password is wrong, when clearly it isn't....oooops.

Have used Scenic Route and Rusty Pickle papers, Queen & Co felt ribbon (lots of!), Heidi Swapp chipboard letters, bling and tree stamp from the March Scrapagogo kit. The label is from a digital kit by Jennifer Pebbles which I traced and cut with the Craft Robo.

The pictures were taken last May in Epcot, it was the Flower and Garden Festival while we were there and we saw some gorgeous displays! Winnie the Pooh and friends were in England, just near the Rose and Crown and Harry Ramsdens fish and chips ;-)

Had a bit of a bloggy revamp! (Well, OK, I just went from black to white but hey, it's a change!)

I think the cocktail bar reference is quite apt aswell, as this is a piccy from Tenerife last year and we certainly look like we have had a drinkie or two, LOL! Used some of the papers and thickers from my Scrapagogo Feb kit, along with the Technique Tuesday frame from the pack I bought in Florida last May and have been saving for that special LO - grrrrrr, just use the bloomin stuff! And those velvet Thickers look fab but my goodness they are a pain to use, they just don't stick.....

Next, another Tenerife layout, showing one of our favourite holiday pastimes - the mini golf tournament! We played almost every day I think, I can't remember who the ultimate champion was now!

Have used K&Co Amy Butler paper and some scraps of Scenic Route, Q&Co felt ribbon, foam Thickers (at least these ones stick!), and a little journalling spot from Feb Scrapagogo. Oh, and some buttons ;-)

And then heres one that I did yesterday - again, its a Tenerife pic, but it really makes me giggle, the way that you can just see Claire jumping out from behind Ste's shoulder! I used Basic Grey Obscure papers, Chip Chatter alpha and some Technique Tuesday chipboard circles.

Thats all folks - am off to play with the contents of my March Scrapagogo kit that arrived on Friday....

Just a quickie to share the card I made for Mothers Day last week - I was inspired by the lovely hybrid cards on this blog and this is what I came up with! I used the Waddles and Whimsy kit from Nitwit Collections, there are some gorgeous digital kits on that site, can't believe I have never seen them before! I cut the flower and border from the kit on the Craft Robo and mounted them on little foam pads to make them stand out a bit, and finished it off with a bit of ribbon and some little sparkly gems. The letters were Making Memories glitter alpha stickers.