5 on Friday

First time joining in with 5 on Friday - I love these sorts of posts though and have lots of ideas about 5s I want to write about all ready....

First up 5 products that are on my 'to buy' list following Summer CHA - there was a fair bit that caught my eye and I did love some of the Christmas collections but I am stash busting this year for my JYC album so am trying not to look at the Christmas stuff at all.

However after some major stash busting in the first half of this year I do need some regular PP and embellies and these were the collections that made it on to my list...

1.

First up is Persnickety by Lily Bee. I'm still into chevrons and think this mix of colours will go well with my photos.

2.

Fancy Pants the Good Life. Again love the mix of colours, and will suit the heaps of boy photos I have well. Those pennants are v cute too.

3.

Have been using Simple Stories Documented for my Document:2012 album and have found them really easy collections to use and play with. I love the colours of this Harvest Lane range and think they'll be good to scrap autumn photos on without being too gimmicky halloweeny.

4.

Echo Park For the Record 2, I've bought several EP collections and they generally get used up pretty quick. This was my favourite of the autumn collections they released and I like ALL these papers.

5.

MME The Sweetest Thing Bluebell, quite similiar in colours to the EP collection above, but looks a little softer? Love the brads and have already ordered some of this collection, mainly because it's the first one that's arrived in the UK. Just waiting for the others now...

WOYWW

Right am a first timer WOYWWer but have blog-hopped through and seen some other desks before, so hoping I get this right!

This week I have an in-progress LO that has been on my desk for a while - the bones of the LO are done, I just need to stick them together and put a bit of meat on them! The slice is out as I've been making embellies for my holiday album. Near the PC there are instructions for facepaints - we were at the Olympics on Sat and all had mini union jacks painted on...

Under them is the mini kit I put together for the half-finished LO on the other side of the desk, and behind them are some bits of wedding memorabilia I'm saving for an album. The photos on the far right are spares which I want to send to my sister in law.

This week I want to finish that LO and plan some projects for my leave period - not much time to craft though with a work trip to Manchester, and then taking my boys away with my cousin for a little road trip to see my parents and then on to a nice hotel for a few days in Bristol, should be fun!

I'm back...

Not had much time to post recently, summer is a manic time for me at work, and I've not had a full day at home since June! - Have worked a lot of weekends and on my days off we've had a whirl of weddings, parties and events. It's been a great couple of months but I am now craving some time to catch up, clean my house and relax. Luckily this is my last week at work before some much needed annual leave.

The last week has been all about this:

We've been lucky enough to go to Olympic basketball, hockey and football, and yesterday was a particular highlight when we watched Andy Murray win gold on the big screen at Wimbledon - just fantastic. I am so loving having the Olympics in our country and only an hour away by train - we feel so lucky and have become complete Olympic addicts. We've now got a break from going to events until the Paralympics start when we'll be back at the Olympic park to watch athletics, swimming and wheelchair rugby. Am already planning a devoted scrapbook album and saving lots of memorabilia.

I've managed to fit in a fair amount of crafting and am planning some catch up posts, and hoping to start joining in with WOYWW. Have also carried on reorganising my albums after Shimelle's cover to cover class so will be writing a post about that soon...

ATDML Cyber crop challenge 5

Loved this challenge, haven't done one like it before - use 1 sheet of cardstock, 2 PPs and 3 photos, plus some embellies. This LO came together so quickly and I love the mix of colours.

This was a trip in 2009, Owen looks so tiny - he was only 1! I found the photos on a drawl through my digital archive inspired by Shimelle's Cover to Cover class - and this has gone straight into my 2009 album.

ATDML Cyber crop challenge 6

This challenge was to scraplift one of the ATDML design team's LOs from the May or June galleries. I picked this LO from Helen Howden who was the guest designer for May.

I liked the placement of the photo and embellies, and wanted to have a go at recreating the ribbon embellie.

This was my version:

The photo is from a day out at Wisley in 2010 and I'm very pleased with the ribbon embellie - it was surprisingly easy to make. The buttons were free with Molly Makes a few months ago and this is definitely a stash busting LO - nothing new at all :)

I'm back....

Have done more than my fair share of this....

Been loving this sort of scenery...

And even did a little bit of this...

It was a fab holiday - have been back to reality with a bang for a couple of weeks now and definitely had some post-holiday blues, but there wasn't much time for moping as it's our busiest time of year at work and I had a hen weekend last weekend.

I've already ordered over 100 photos of the holiday and put them in one of these albums, I'm now adding some journalling and making it a bit more pretty but my aim is to have the album complete in the next two weeks.

Have also enjoyed reading the challenges on the ATDML blog's online crop this weekend and hoping to get a few of them completed before next weekend's deadline.

Document 2012: April

These were my pages for April, made at my monthly crop last weekend:

The pages came together really easily this month, I had lots to scrap and talk about - not sure I'll have so much for May - have spent quite a bit of time crafting, which I do have some photos for - and getting ready for holiday - am not sure piles of clothes and washing will make for a very interesting month!