ANNETTE AKA VOODOO VIXEN - I THANK YOU!

Good Afternoon 

I want to say a mahoosive thank you to Annette AKA Voodoo Vixen, who having seen a recent post of mine including some of the South Africa/Lesotho layouts I was creating following said 15 year old's expedition last Autumn offered to me a selection of papers and embellishments from her time living in South Africa.

I was overwhelmed at her generosity and took her up on the offer and received a beautiful bundle of papers and loads of embellishments to create more layouts. 

I blended the selection of papers with a selection from my stash, matching in the colours, so I could use the papers to their best. 

This is what I've created from them, I've highlighted the elements used from the goodies Annette sent in italics, so you can see how much I've used and how generous Annette was! 

From safari photos

Annette sent me the beautiful watercolour type paper of the typical landscape in South Africa, together with the rub on I used on the photo

Apologies for the pixelated piccies, I've left said 15 year old in the photos but where I don't have permission from parents or individuals I've pixelated them.  I hope you appreciate why, there are a few taken at a distance where I've left them as they are.  

To Cape Point 

Annette sent me the fabulous border and the 'adventure' statement

Top of Table mountain

Annette sent me the paper with the vibrant border and the hand made papers under the photo as well as the South Africa stickers. 

Nelson Mandela's cell on Robben Island

On this one I used some of the edges Annette had sent and the excursion sticker

The route they took over the 20 day expedition

I got to use the fab geometric border and the gorgeous embellishment in the shape of Africa as well as the travel sticker. 

Their last day there and a meal out

This is one of my favourite, I used sticker strips in zebra and giraffe design, together with the zebra paper and the hand made paper tag and the metal elephant on the tag. 

As he set off 

On this one I used the hand made papers, Road Trip sticker and the other two elephant metal embellishments.

This layout uses a fabulous sketch from Scrapthology link below

http://www.scrapthology.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/sketchy-sunday-no96.html

The big five of which I document two

I was desperate to use the fabulous paper using the big five animals in South Africa, thankfully I still had loads of safari photos to scrapbook.  I also included the zebra tape and the sightseeing sticker

Trees planted whilst in Lesotho.  

On this one I've included two cards I made measuring 3.75" x 2.75" that include a tribal sticker and some of the porcupine quills that Annette sent me.

the hike to the Bushman paintings

Another favourite, using the tribal papers Annette sent and the dangling embellishment.  I don't think she realised that said 15 year old had travelled to see the Bushman paintings from my previous post - talk about ideal papers Annette! 

And another of the Bushman paintings photos, with the paper Annette sent with the Bushman style paper together with sticker strips of Bushman style images. 

Relaxing with friends

This one uses the tribal paper, stickers, a tribal border, fabulous turtle like sticker

Said 15 year old holding a baby crocodile.  

This one uses a rub on, sticker and a strip of paper together with some cut down papers and the gorgeous orange paper too. 

A meerkat at the crocodile zoo (meaning I got to use the crocodile paper that Annette sent me)

Meerkat paper from Annette, rub on and off cuts from previous papers I've used. 

Close ups of the crocodiles

Those hand made papers and 'discover' sticker

A beautiful sunset 

Tiger like sticker strips looked great with the handmade paper and sunset photos

More safari photos, allowing me to use both the zebra and grass paper and the porcupine quills as a border at the bottom. 

The border came from paper from Annette, giraffe sticker strips and attaching a feather to one of the handmade tags! 

I've had an absolute ball using up the elements Annette sent me, so much fun and I've still a few items left which I'm hoping to use on some final pages I've still got to do. 

Start doing things you love, Copper and After Lesotho

Morning all well I'm sharing some layouts I've created using a colour scheme from the CSI blog this morning.  I do love a good colour scheme, I've been sharing some over the last few days which follow another colour scheme and as I was posting them I'm thinking - brown - not really my colour when it comes to scrapbooking.  However blues and greens - well now you are talking!

So first up one of the many many many layouts I will be creating around our visit to Harry Potter World last year, we had such a fabulous day and took over 700 photos - gulp!  This one is a photo of the shield up on the wall in the great hall. 

I used my wavy boards to cut the lower paper, added some punched hearts and some hand stitching. 

Next up our visit to the Copper Mine on the Great Orme last year, it wasn't very easy getting a selfie in the dark mine but we managed a couple that were OK!  Again I've added some stitching, some enamel dots and some stamped stars to this layout! 

And finally, After Lesotho - the photo I took after said 15 year old arrived home from his expedition to Lesotho - literally the first job was to send him for a shower!  We had missed him so much on his expedition I remember how lovely it was for him to be back at home, chatting away about the amazing time he had had! 

Punched hearts and hand stitching and some hand cut 'flag elements' on this layout.

I hope you are having a happy scrapping day! 

ENJOY TODAY

Good morning, well for those that follow my blog you'll know that I've made a start on said 15 year old's expedition to Lesotho photos recently.  

He has some amazing photographs of the animals he saw on the two game drives he went on at the end of his trip, I decided to use a selection of them in a double page spread and I wrote the journalling from his perspective with his words as it were.  He did write an amazing 'diary' whilst he was away that he'll have to look back on as well! 

Hope you are having a happy scrapping day! 

HELLO SUNSHINE AND ROBBEN ISLAND MUSEUM

Good morning lovely people, well it's mighty grey and windy out there this morning, so a couple of layouts from said 15 year old's expedition to South Africa, both taken when they were still in Cape Town. 

The first is a close up of a rather cute lizard I'm sure you will agree, he was just chilling and said 15 year old managed to get a couple of great photos of him (or her actually) - isn't he (or she) cute!

Then a photo taken from Robben Island Museum, where Nelson Mandela was kept captive looking back towards Cape Town and Table Top Mountain. 

I assumed this was a rather small 'poster' sized frame, however, we have subsequent photos with the group that were standing in the frame - just to give you some idea of the perspective!

I've found it something of a challenge to scrapbook a photo that I know nothing about, so I've found that preparing the page to the point of requiring journalling is the way to go and then asking said 15 year old information.  Initially I get the factual - we were here doing this - type answer, but then I ask him other elements and the day comes to life, telling me snippets of what was said, or who bought what or if it was what he expected.  I've found it really fun up to now, I've got loads more to scrapbook and if I remember correctly a load more to send off and get printed too! 

Hope you are all having a happy scrapping day (wish I was but work beckons). 

Catch ya later lovely people! 

LINKING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER AND BLESSED BEYOND MEASURE

Good morning lovely people, well I'm sharing two more layouts this morning, these are from said 15 year old's expedition to Lesotho in South Africa last Autumn.  I'm doing lots of layouts in relation to his trip to create a single album documenting his time there. 

The first layout documents the paintings that were done to brighten the school.  The wall was initially grey breeze block - I'm sure you will agree it looks much better for some colour!

The second layout documents the hand print said 15 year old left behind.  The hand print on the left is his and on the right was a student from the school in Lesotho! 

I enjoyed doing these layouts as I played with a few stamps and ink whilst creating them. 

Hope you are all having a happy scrapping day - ooh for a day of scrapbooking! 

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 45TH OF 2015

Good Morning - well it's the 45th Friday of 2015 (and for those of you now starting to panic because we know what is around the corner - you are not alone).

I'm going to keep this one short (she says), my biggest biggest most mahoosive grateful this week - is said 15 year old landing home safe and sound. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

He has seen some amazing things and been to some fantastic places, he's also helped a remote community in Lesotho and he has missed it since returning home, overall he had a brilliant time, made some fantastic friendships and has seen things and been to places that I will never get to see.

I am immensely proud of him and so utterly grateful to have him home safe and sound here he is on his travels holding a baby crocodile - expect to see layouts in the coming weeks of all the fantastic places he's been and awesome things that he has done!

Other gratefuls (although I don't think you can top the one above) is that me and hubby had a lovely evening at Chatsworth for their fireworks display, we came across an awesome band called Mr Wilson's Second Liners, who played New Orleans style music, wearing Beatles outfits, playing 1990's rave music - you have to google them to understand where I'm coming from on this one but they were brilliant.

The fireworks were brilliant too 

and the fire garden element

The rest of this week has unfortunately been back to the grindstone AKA work, but the week has tripped along and snuggling up on the sofa at the end of the day with my two men is just fabulous!

I hope you have had an awesome week too, if you fancy joining in then pop a post together pop back and link up!

RAFTS

Good morning, well this layout uses one of my favourite paper stacks (whose name I can't recall at the minute), a great blend of colours and print - fab stuff.

Photo is from a team building exercise done earlier in the year as part of said 15 year old's expedition to Lesotho which is looming.  

They had great fun raft building and orienteering during the afternoon 

Layout is a blend of matted paper, and border punches, a bit of 'dodgy' stitching and a simple one word title.

ROCKING YOUR WORLD FRIDAY - 21ST OF 2015

Yes you read that correctly this is the 21st Friday of 2015.

So where do the positives arrive from this week, well last weekend said 14 year old had a retreat to a place in the Peak district with lots of others that are due to go on the expedition to Lesotho later this year.  This is him before he set off!

He had by all accounts a great weekend, including a walk to Kinder Scout on what was a rather windy day!  He came home on Sunday - shattered and was soon fast asleep on the floor of all places and remained there for several hours after - waking long enough to eat tea and go to bed!

We on the other hand decided to escape for a couple of nights, we rarely get to be grown ups on our own so decided to make the most of it.  We booked a hotel just outside Matlock and enjoyed an evening stroll on Friday along the river bank - strangely despite having visited this place a lot over the years I had never actually been into this part!

The Jubilee Bridge all lit up was lovely - our hotel was somewhere on the hillside

And this was the view the following morning - we could even make out Gulliver's Kingdom!

Given that we've become members of Chatsworth house this year, we also had tickets to the international horse trials so decided to combine our break with visiting this.  Not that we would normally have gone - but hey free tickets!

I love this particular set up - particularly with Chatsworth in the background!

The bar also made me giggle - you could even sit upstairs if you wanted to!

We came across these 'Rescue Bears' - the one nearest was wearing his life jacket ready for a swim - but once it was on he just wouldn't stop barking - eager doesn't come into it!

Apparently with a double waterproofed coat and webbed feet they really are ideal as rescue dogs as they proved later in the day - love that they shared the rubber ring rescue!

Then we wandered around the garden and occasionally stopped to enjoy the views!

The planting is looking awesome too!

We booked a meal out on the Saturday evening, although it was within walking distance it was also a very very very steep drive down (and back up again) and we were walking, so although I wanted to wear my sandals I actually went in walking boots!

It was a fabulous couple of days away, we ventured back on Sunday and collected said 14 year old before enjoying the rest of the afternoon chilling in front of the TV.  I crafted whilst hubby and said 14 year old slept (I kid you not).

The rest of the week is something of a blur, Monday was incredibly stressful and despite talking it through with hubby when I got home I was still maxed out.  I approached Tuesday with a different tact which seemed to work better for me personally.  I was in the process of extracting myself from one of the jobs I'd taken on this week, so I had a few difficult reports to generate and get them as far as I possibly could before finally bowing out yesterday.  I've learnt an awful lot through this process and was sad to leave but know that it really is the best thing for me and my health and I got an awesome leaving card!

So there my lovely people are my happies this week, if you fancy joining in then pop back link up and we shall come and visit!