Medieval Make Believe

Last month whist at the retreat I put together this layout using photos of my daughter taken a few years ago at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. Well, I put about 90% of the layout together and have been tinkering with it ever since.

I used papers from My Minds Eye (Wood), Crate Paper (Pink) and October Afternoon (Music). I also used more scraps of My Minds Eye paper to make the bunting and the concertina/rosette  flowers. The flags were made by gluing some of the bunting to wooden cocktail sticks which were topped with a pearl bead. I added some flat back pearls and perfect pearls to add extra detail.

The hardest part about this layout was the title. My crafty friends had many suggestions for titles but in the end I settled for 'Medieval Make Believe' which I cut on the Craft Robo. 


Oops, just realised one of the pearls from the top of the flags is missing. Must have fallen off during photographing the layout. Off to find another. 

Half Term Holiday

Last week was the school half term holiday so we took our usual autumn trip to the coast. For the last few years we've gone to Norfolk but this year we had a change and went over the border into Suffolk. The weather wasn't great but we had a good time and came back refreshed and relaxed.

We went out and about a lot whilst we were away. We visited three English Heritage properties - Leiston Abbey, Framlingham Castle and Orford Castle. Believe me, we aren't on a mission to try and visit every English Heritage property in the UK, nor are we on a mission to bore the children (LOL), but as they were all fairly close to where we were stying we thought we may as well take advantage of our membership.

We also had some long but chilly walks on the beach, a shopping trip to Ipswich and a day at Jimmy's Farm. We had followed the goings on at Jimmy's Farm on TV so it was nice to go and see the place for real. It wasn't as big as we thought it would be but the children enjoyed seeing all the animals as well as exploring the Woodland Walk (with den building) and the adventure playground.

Whilst we were away it was Halloween. The children were initially quite disappointed to find that they wouldn't be at home for Halloween and wouldn't be able to go trick or treating with their friends, but we promised them that we would have our own little Halloween party while we were away. So we took Halloween costumes with us and on Friday night we carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, watched 'Winnie The Pooh - Pooh's Heffalump Halloween' DVD ( LOL - as scary as we dare go for Lara! ) and gave the children bags of halloween novelties and sweets. They were more than happy. The apple bobbing went down particularly well!

While we were away 2 challenges went live on Mojo Holder. Challenge #87 on October 24th was to lift a LO by the wonderful Janna Wilson. Her LO was gorgeous! I scrapped photos of Wayne on his Driving Day in June.

October 31st, Challenge #88 was a scraplift of Teresa Collins.

There are some lovely scrap lifts coming up in November so do make sure to stop by Mojo Holder.

One last thing, while I was away I bought this book. It's by Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge fame. I had seen him plugging the book on TV and thought it sounded interesting. I'm half way through reading it and it certainly is very thought provoking and also at times funny. It is about how after a long and painful Christmas shopping expedition, Robert Llewellyn had a revelation. He realised he had enough stuff; he'd had enough of rampant consumerism; he would simply stop shopping for a whole year. Hmmm, now I wonder if I could manage that ??? .......... Nah, but it's a good read anyway.

Bad Blogger - Very Bad Blogger!

OMG! It's been over 2 months since I last updated this blog! How did that happen? Several times I've thought "I must update my blog" but something has cropped up and it never was updated. So, sorry to anyone who checks out my blog and has found me AWOL.

Sadly, apart from my weekly LOs for Mojo Holder I haven't really done a lot of scrapping. For one reason or another I had to miss two of my regular monthly crops and with me preparing my portfolio for my CiLCA qualification, the children being on school holidays, us away on our family holiday for a couple of weeks and all the usual chaos before the children actually finished school, scrapping has had to take a bit of a back seat. But the children go back to school next week and I've booked my place at next months crop and so hopefully I shall be a more active scrapper soon.

I did over the summer miss a few Mojo Holder challenges but managed more than I missed.

Challenge #69 on 20th June was a lift of a LO by Delphine Millereau. I used a photo of Lara ... no surprise there!!!

Challenge #70 on 27th June was a scrap lift of a LO by the mega talented Karen Day. I used photos from our trip to Framlingham Castle, Suffolk in May which we hope to visit again in October.

Challenge #71 on 4th July was to lift a page by Shannon Montez. I used a photo of Lara ...... again! ( I really am going to try and scrap more photos of the boys but Lara is so photogenic and far more obliging when I'm taking photos that she is often the subject of my pages)

Challenge #72 on 11th July I missed but do hop along to Mojo Holder and see what the rest of the team did when they scrap lifted a LO by Sarah-Jane Dowsett.

Challenge #73 on 18th July was to lift a LO by the multi talented Christine Middlecamp. I used photos of Lara at Wrest Park. I really enjoyed creating this LO.

Challenge #74 was also good fun. A lift of a LO by the amazing Nic Howard. I scrapped photos of Lara on the beach at Westward Ho!, North Devon.

Challenge #75 on 1st August was a LO from the amazing Stephanie Howell. It was a lift of a fabulous multi photo LO and I used photos of Lara in the pool on one of the very, very few hot sunny days we had this summer.

Unfortunately I missed Challenges #76, 77 and 78 because we were away but my LO for Challenge #79 goes live tonight. Please do have a look at Mojo Holder. My team mates are amazing and their LOs are always so stunning. Do also check out the blogs and galleries of the scrappers who allow us to lift their LOs. They are all amazingly talented scrapbookers and so inspiring.

Right gotta go finish making a chocolate cake with the children. We made the actual cake earlier and hopefully it is now cool enough to sandwich together. Yummy. Be back soon......... I promise!