Fish and Chips

The first of two layouts created using the January kit from Merly Impressions. The layouts were designed by Chrissy and I have added a few twists of my own. The design is created with the Ubud Dreams collection from Kaisercraft.

The photo was taken last last year shows my dad with my brother on their last visit to Wickham Bay, a lovely fish restaurant, near where they live in West Wickham. This restaurant has been decorated with weathered wooden panels and tiles which are an exact match for these papers! - You can just about see the tiles in the photo.

The main difference in my layout to Chrissy's lovely original was missing out the fussy cutting flowers as they were not really appropriate to my theme. I also gutted the centre from the frames and added my own centres. I created the wording on the computer and printed them onto some scraps of patterned paper to fit inside the frames. I machine stitched around the edges of the papers using a navy blue thread rather than the hand stitching suggested.

Thanks for the design Chrissy - it has made a lovely memory for us of our dad.
Back with the next one tomorrow.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x

The Magic of Merly

A big thank you to Chrissy, Paul, Merley and the team of Merly Impressions for another great weekend retreat at Wyboston Lakes in Bedfordshire. I was great to make new friends and catch up old friends throughout the weekend. Linda and I travelled to the retreat on the Friday so we were already there for the start of the event on Saturday morning. We did quite a bit of retail therapy on the way!

When we arrived at the retreat on Saturday morning, everything had been organised beautifully and this is what greeted us when we arrived in our cropping room (one of three).

This was my little work space for the weekend 

Chrissy's attention to detail is simply amazing. And I cannot imagine how many petals and butterflies she must have stamped and cut out - so much patience! You can see the booklet we were all given with detailed instructions for all the projects. The pizza box contained all the kits,

This beautifully decorated bag contained the bonus project and we had been asked to bring a small photo of ourselves along for this.

The lovely jar held a few tiny embellishments and lots of questions to break the ice and get us chatting - but I think we are all pretty good at that!!

Here are Chrissy's original projects (all using Kaisercraft products) for the weekend - I will be back with my interpretations once they are finished off.

3 layouts

An off the page project

and a bonus project (this was hiding in the little bag).

Before we went away we were given a little homework, to make a card for someone else on the retreat. Here Is the lovely card I received from Lorraine - thank you.

this is the card I made, using one of the techniques from the Creative Chemistry 101 class

A great weekend all round.

Thanks again Chrissy and team, and enjoy your well earnt holiday.

Thanks for looking

Lynn x

ALPHAS !

Our cropping group the Blossoms went away for our annual retreat weekend in March. We usually take a small gift along for one-another, this year I made these initial alphas as we has been looking at photo prop ideas.

I saw an article in an old copy of Creating Keepsakes Magazine:

I made an initial for each of my scrapping friends going to the retreat. So between Hobbycraft and The Range, I managed to obtain all our initials in 8" paper mache 3D letters. I painted each letter with acrylic paint and covered the front with patterned papers, then added names and embellishments from my stash. Each one was created in that persons favourite colours:

... 3 x A's, ...

... 3 x L's ...

... 3 x J's ...

... an S ...


... a W ...

... and a G.

 This combination didn't allow for any clever spelling out of words, but I did my best! 

... weekend away was arranged for the ...

We went to East Park on 21st March which happened to be  

Anita's birthday - any excuse for cake and celebrations!

We had a great time enjoying ourselves,

it's the ...

... on theses weekends!

Much time was spent ... 

sing & laughing

so we ended up with ...

... ache!

We set off in our cars packed to bursting with our ...

... and we tried not to ...

... behind.

Once we arrived we stayed within the impressive ...

s

of Easthampsted Park.

Some of us with out initials

We also had lots of other props!

Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Dad's Album

My Dad was 80 years old on Tuesday 1st October and I have been putting an album together for him for some time. I gave it to him on Father's day but there were a few gaps as we were searching for photos of specific events. 

today we are having a tea party for him with family and friends, and her will be reunited with the album, now complete except the very last page which will feature his party.

So here is the album containing some newly created layouts together with many made years ago and other in-between. (Lots of photos in this blog post!)

Green Fingers - My Great grandfather Robert Ephgrave in his garden in Tewin. The photo we have had for a while, but only recently we found out that Dad was named after him. The layout was created at a Scrapaholix retreat a quite a few years ago, designed by Mandy Webb with Scenic Route papers.

Smithfield Market - My Grandfather Charles Banks worked as a porter in Smithfield meat market later on in his working life. I created this layout with Basic Grey Ambrosia papers a few years ago at a Cardinal Colours Crop. More details HERE.

 

 Royal British Legion - My Grandfather again, this time as part of the Royal British Legion. Again I created this layout a few years ago and it is Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter papers. More details HERE.

Danger is our Opportunity - This is a more recent layout and was made in a class designed by Anita. It is a photo of Dad's cousin Kenneth Banks who was a spitfire pilot. See more details HERE.

Margaret - Another Scrapaholix class page featuring Margaret (Ephgrave) Banks, my grandmother. The journalling pulls out on the tag.

 First Born - a scrapbook page I created for a Scrapology a couple of years ago. We were scraplifting Ingrid G. The photo is my Dad back in 1933. More details HERE.

Spit and Polish - A layout created at Debden this year. My dad with his mum in the back yard of a flat they liven in in Beckenham for a while.  More papers from Basic Grey. More details HERE.

 

My Father at 4 - A Scrapoholix design from many years ago. Lots of metal and glass embellishments.

 Festival of Britain - A photo taken by dad in 1951 at Trafalgar Square during the festival. For more details see HERE.

Let Me Tell Your Fortune - This design was by SJ and this is another Scrapology Design Team layout. More details HERE. Dad at a fancy dress party.

1950's Style -Another layout designed by the clever Anita with photos of my lovely Mum and Dad Dad's parents on holiday in St. Mary's Bay. More details HERE.

Love is All You Need - A layout using Basic Grey papers, and a Kelly Goree layout scraplift  - I think!

 

 A layout of Mum and Dad before they married. This was created recently for a Scrapology DT challenge.

Another Scrapoholix kit dry brushing with Acrylic paints. Mum and Dad with their friends Sybil and Bob.

Mum and Dad's Wedding 1957. I designed this page for Scrapoholix for a class on dry embossing vellum.

A page of my own with baby me and my Mum and Dad.

Me with my Dad in the back garden. There is a pocket behind the photo containing another precious photo. 1961

My sister Sylvia. A recent layout made in a class designed by Linda.

When my brother arrived on the scene in 1986.

First grandson Mark James. born 1982

Another layout designed by Linda for a class. This is a pencil portrait Dad drew of my three children - his 2nd, 3rd and 4th grandchildren, all arrived within a few minutes of one another in 1992!

Samuel James arrived on the scene in 1993. Here is is visiting his grandad.

 Mum and Dad in their garden in Beckenham, just before Dad retired and they moved to Fairlight.

First great-grandchild Jamie arrived in 2004

Then Jessica Grace arrived in 2006.

We all clubbed together to treat Dad to a Tiger Moth flight for his 70th Birthday. A CSI layout.

Golden Wedding in 2007

The four generations of the family at West Ham, Dad, my brother Rob, my sister's boys Mark and Sam and Mark's son Jamie.

Dad gave Catherine his car this summer as she is learning to drive.

I first gave Dad this album with a few pages missing back in June on Father's day. I finished it off and returned it to him for his birthday at the weekend.

 

Emily and Dad looking at the album.

 

Mark, Jess, Jamie, Kerry and Nina having a look at the layouts.

Thanks for looking.

Lynn x