Distressed valentine mini-book

Aftrer TH had taken leave of us on Saturday, we had a little workshop at Bettypepper with Wendy Morris, a lovely gal from Alabama. She gave us a wonderful selection of papers from Graphics 45 and lots of ephemera and embellishments to go with it. we didn't have enough time to finish it there, but I managed to get it done the past 2 evenings at home, adding a few photos and bits and bobs that I have here in my various *treasure* tins. Was fun making it, distressing the papers, stamping the tags etc. As nobody loves me - big sob, please - I have decided to keep the album myself! Was fun making it, thanks for looking!

Meet & Greet with Tim Holtz by *Bettypepper" Düsseldorf, Feb, 6th 2010

Today was THE BIG DAY. Tim Holtz was in Düsseldorf and visited our Scrapbook Laden *Bettypepper* Well done Betty on getting such a big fish hooked! We had a meet and greet, we each got a copy ot Tim's yummy new book , *A Compendium of Curiosities*, signed by the Master himself, and were able to chat to him, take pics, watch him work etc. It was quite expensive getting into the *Location*, but my best friend B bought me a ticket and enabled me a wonderful day. Took lots of pics, and gave Tim an album I had made, he even said he liked it! Then we had a group pic of the shop team with Tim, and he took some of his own of everyone who was there. His one complaint about Germany was that aren't enough *Starbucks* coffee shops!! But it was a day to remember for me!

Narnia Revisited....

While I was driving past snowy fields, trees and frozen ponds in the past few days I had to think of Narnia, the land where it was always winter and never Christmas. I grew up with the *Chronicles of Narnia*, that cold and magical world where you go through the wardrobe to get to Lantern Waste, part of a frozen world where time seems to stand still. I think I wouldn't have been surprised to have been overtaken by Jadis, the White Witch of the North on her sleigh, with her gang of nasty dwarves - sorry, I know that expressions like that are not politically correct today, so let's say with her troop of vertically challenged, bearded activists - or to see the gentle Mr Tumnus out and about with his shopping basket over his arm. But no, nothing so romantic crossed my path, and I was overtaken just by the usual hell-bent lorry drivers and BMW and Mercedes drivers who believe that they have a right to push you into the ditch when they are in a hurry. Neither did I see Mr and Mrs Badger, nor talking trees and stones. But if there are any Lucys or Peters or Edmunds out there - take courage! Go through that wardrobe, find Aslan, and then Jadis will have to retire to the High North with her winter, and spring will be just around the corner.

Another Family Layout

This shows a picture of my Great Grandmother Rachel, taken in 1920, when she was 50 years old. She was born in Kiew in the Ukraine, but moved to London to give her family a beter chance in life. She was a very resolute lady, who brought her children up with an iron, but loving hand.
For this LO I used coordinating papers from the *Bridgeport* Stack by SEI again. The flourishes have all been cut by hand, the edging paper has been cut into strips to make 2 straight and 2 zig-zag borders. I used the same paper for the matting behid the photo, making a space for some hidden journaling. Used some *Prima* flowers and half pearls for decoration.

A bleak, black and snowy weekend with plenty of time for crafting....

I was not in a good mood this weekend. The weather was bad, snow again, and my mood was even worse. I had been looking forward all week to cropping with my friend on Friday, but she was ill, so we had to cancel our crop, and that was the last straw. So, I got stuck into my crafting to try and tide myself over a long, cold and lonely weekend. I have been trying to use up paper from a stack of paper that I don't much like, which meant thinking of new ways to do things. Made another layout using similar techniques to the *spring-cleaning* one, just with other colours. It is a very fiddly job, cutting out petals and leaves and butterflies with a small nail-scissors, but I was quite happy with the results. I used an old photo showing the aunties - or great aunts of my husband, taken at a wedding in 1910. They are standing there so stiff and somehow looking very anxious, and I had to think of Gilbert & Sullivans *Mikado* and the *Three Little Maids who all unwary, come from a ladies' seminary...* I hope you enjoy looking at it!

Thank you Gina....

For this lovely blog award.



Now I must tell three things I should (would) never do :
I should never throw my nightdress into the toilet
I should never paint my toilet seat with Eddings
I should never go out in my PJs, especially if I want to go shopping at Tesco's!

The three people who I have chosen to get the award are Alyson (Crafting to stay sane) Joanne (Take life by the hand) and Tania (Tartantaz). So please start thinkig about those three things that you would NEVER do!!!

Spring cleaning, naked facts and how not to sort the laundry....

Yesterday I had to go out to do a few errands. It was freezing cold and the wind was biting. I went to the post office to buy a stamp, ususally not a big problem. But for some strange reason they had closed at 12:00 for lunch, an hour earlier than usual. So I decided to try the stamp vending machine. The screen is so dark, you have to practically put your nose onto it to read what is on offer. You can buy stamps for 1 cent, 2 cents, 3 cents etc. What the hell does anyone want with those? Are you supposed to put 55 or more of them on your letter? And an assortment for 5 or 10€. Didn't need those, either. Then there is a possibilty to choose your own denomination. As long as you want 5 cents or 10 cents no problem. After struggling with small change and a sign which kept telling me *not available*, I managed to get an assortment of stamps to the value of 1.30€. The next problem was finding room on the envelope for so many large, freshly printed stamps, and getting them stuck on by arctic temperatures and a boisterous wind while worrying if they were going to freeze onto my tongue....OK, they didn't, and I got the letter posted after 8 minutes of deep-frozen time. Got back home and warmed myself up with a hot coffee. Then I decided to tidy the bathroom and bedroom, which I had left in the usual mess after getting up and taking my morning bath. Wanted to put my nightdress into the laundry basket, lifted the lid and let it drop in. How lucky that I do not usually flush the basket. I had dropped it into the toilet by mistake. Quick hunt for the elbow length rubber gloves. A blue bin-bag, eyes closed and a quick grab to put the nightdress into it. No, not for the old-clothes collection, this needed to be put into the garbage bin, straightaway - yuk! I never did like that nightie, anyway.
After recovering from tidying up I needed to make some mess again, so started on a layout. Used a photo of T when he was about 2 years old, *helping* - helping to make a mess, as usual. Love his outfit! I used coordinating papers from the SEI *Bridgeport* stack, 2 as background, and 2 sheets which have been cut out to make the flowers, butterflies, vines and alphas. After cutting them out - by hand! I glazed them with sparkly mod-podge and decoupaged them to give it more depth. Was fun making it, but now I have to clear up again....