Oh boy - a GREAT sale...

Just to let you know that Trish H. Designs at Digital Candy has a 50% sale in honour of her birthday - it ends on the 31st @ 10am so if you're interested get there quick! Here's a link straight to her store. I thought I'd just go & have a look & ended up getting 10 items for just over $15!!! I'm very pleased with the bargins I picked up :0)
For the month of August, I am a guest CT member for the lovely Tanyia's Pretty Pixels at Digital Candy! She has such awesome designs - I'm so excited! I get to pick a kit of my choice to do a couple of lo's with, the only hard part is what do I choose?!
Talking about another designer, below is a lo I did with 'Faded Charm' by Just Passin' Thru - Brother & Sister. It's the first lo I've done with a picture of my two kiddies together!


Template: Shanty Scraplift - Nicole Seitler

So my current projects in scrapbooking (apart from the number of CT's I'm on lol) is to do a 1st year book for each of my children. Recently I've created a page for each book that I want to be the very first page/cover. I've jumped on the bandwagon with these as I'm seeing these sort of lo's everywhere but they are so striking I couldn't resist! I followed instructions from Digitreats who scraplifted from Jenny Seiler

Below is Caitlyn's, she was 10 hours old when this was taken at hospital...


And below is Zach's, he was nearly an hour old when this was taken (as planned, he was born at home!)


Anyway that's all for today, hope you like my lo's & thank you for reading xx

What's been happening in the world of me...

...well, I think it's quite safe to say that Caitlyn is now potty trained! YAY!!! I'm so proud of her! It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be - which is just as well because then I might not be dreading it so much when it comes to potty training Zach...although I've heard boys are more difficult than girls...is that right?
I've also had some big desisions to make this week which has been hard...basically I've resigned from my job to be a sahm & Caitlyn no longer goes to a childminder for 5 hours a week - boy did I feel guilty (for Caitlyn) when I phoned the childminder to tell her - i was nearly crying down the phone for goodness sake - what an idiot I am!! I'm doing all this because the childcare for 2 children costs so much over here I can't afford to work lol! I was hoping that for the sacrifice of my job we might get to move into a bigger home as hubby might be getting a bit of a promotion...but I don't think it's going to happen :0( I'm gutted. As Zach gets bigger this flat seems smaller & smaller!
Anyway onto happier news - I am now on Dreamscape Designs CT over at Digital Candy! I'm really chuffed as Stephanie's designs are AWESOME and I've already done 3 lo's using her kits which are below :)
The first is of my hubby using the kit 'Hot Mama'


I used a template by Tanyia Deskins (Tanyia's Pretty Pixels) & the author of the quote is unknown.

My second lo is a brag book page of Caitlyn. Each photo was taken in July, the top one in 2006, the middle one in 2007 & the bottom in 2008. This was using 'Boys In The Sun' by Dreamscape Designs, again using another template by Tanyia Deskins.



My third & final lo for Dreamscape Designs is for a scraplift challenge at Digital Candy. I scraplifted 'Danicing In The Rain' by Linz to create 'OMGosh!'



I will leave my post there for today - I must start posting more often so they're not so long! - Sorry! But thanks for reading xx

So it's been 10 days...

...since my last post & alot has been going on!
If you read my last post you will see that we were tackling potty training my 2yr old daughter, Caitlyn...well, hopefully I'm 'not speaking too soon' but it seems it has been a success in the no.1 department, although there are still a few issues - the first being going out without a nappy (although this is more down to me than Caitlyn - I'm not quite brave enough yet lol) the second is the no.2 department. We thought we had it sorted but over the last couple of days we've had an 'accident' & today it seems as though she's holding it in :( ...do you have any advice for me?
Moving on to more pleasent things lol, it was our 5th wedding anniversary yesterday :) my mum stayed over so she could look after Caitlyn & Zach while hubby & me went out for a lovely meal - it was so great having some time alone for a couple of hours! We got home at about 10pm & the kiddies were fast asleep in their beds - it was bliss lol!
Today we went to Tonbridge in Kent with my mum, my nan, my two aunts & uncles & two of my cousins and we took Caitlyn & Zach swimming - it was Zach's first time! And I'm pleased to say he seemed to quite like it! There weren't any tears from him but Caitlyn wasn't too happy...it's been a long time since she was last in a pool. We've now decided to take them both alot more often (although only to the local pool & not all the way to Tonbridge lol - it's about an hour's drive from where I live). After swimming we went to a huge park that had loads of play equipment spread out all over the place & both the children throughly enjoyed themselves - they were totally worn out by the time it was time to go home & slept all the way home in the car!
So in between all this I've managed to do a lo - it's my first double page spread! I used 'Fun In The Sun' by The Digi Twins over at Digital Candy which looks like this...



I also used a template by Yin of Yin Designs & a folded corner template by Brandy Murray at ScrapGirls & here it is - A Great Day!



The journalling reads:
I don't think I will ever forget this day Caitlyn. It was a warm Sunday in September and we decided to take you to Edgerton Park and you had a run around with Daddy. I could have loved to have joined in the fun but I was 7 months pregnant with your brother Zach, so I stayed behind the camera most of the time. After the park you had your first visit to the beach - you just loved toddling around in the open space and you were fasinated by the sand worm trails in the sand. On the way back to the park we bought you the purple ball (your favourite colour) and you loved racing Daddy to get to it first! Then you went on the swings uintil we decided it was time to go home.
It was such a great day!

I'm quite pleased with how it turned out, although I might re-work it at a later date as there is something that's bugging me about it but I don't know what it is yet...it may be because I'm not used to doing lo's with so many photos & so few elements...I'm not sure.

Anyway on that indecisive note I'll finish this long winded post & thank you for reading! Please let me know what you think of my lo :)
Until next time,
Ellie
x

Busy, busy, busy!!!

So My little girl Caitlyn is 2yrs & 4mths so we thought it's time we had a go at potty training her...hubby is on holiday from work this week so we decided to just go for it. Until today it wasn't really going anywhere BUT today is a different story! She's gone 3 times - two of those were by herself! I'm so proud of her! She's having her nap at the moment, I'm hoping she's as successful this afternoon!
Anyway in between all this I've managed to find the time to design my own blog blinkie & forum avatar using the gorgeous 'Secret Garden' kit by Duchess Designs!
Here's my blinkie...

and here's my avatar...

I don't think they're bad for a first attempt!

I've also just finished a lo using a new cut up photo action that's going to be available soon by The Digi Twins @ digitalcandy.ca (There's also going to be a vertical version available which I will do a lo with shortly)

I was in a hanging & overlapping mood when I created this one lol!
What do you think?
Here's the credits:

From a collab kit by Divine Digital (there doesn't seem to be a name for the kit):
Brown Circle backing paper - by Kawouette
Pink fading paper & String - by July
Heart Button - (no designer name stated)
Butterfly & Heart Ribbon - by mimilou
Two Flowers & Glitter Splats - by Chris Scrap's Designs

Others Bits:
Frame (recoloured by me) - by Ellie Lash
Green Stitching - by Duchess Designs (Secret Garden Kit)
Alpha (recoloured by me) - by Foxy Designs
Cut Up Photo Action - by The Digi Twins

No doubt I'll be posting again soon, so please come back & visit me :0)

Wow - Layout of The Week!!!

There was a message waiting for me on the Digital Candy forum today to tell me one of the designers there has picked one of my layouts as lo of the week!! I'm so happy! The lo she chose is one I completed a few days ago with a kit by The Digi Twins called Declaration of Independance available here at Digital Candy (if you're quick you can get the kit as part of a grab bag for $5 with 6 other brand new items - value of $25 in total!!! - hurry tho, it goes off sale on the 8th). Anyway being from the UK I decided to scrap some photos of my little man Zach - here it is...



So what do you think? I'm pretty impressed my lo got chosen over so much talent over at DC!
I've done a couple of other lo's since I last posted as well. The first is using a kit by Just Passin' Thru called 'Let's Dress Up - Fairy princess, Clown & Doctor'. Here's a preview of the kit & here is Fairy Princess...



It's the first time I've used a curled corner & I think it turned out pretty well with the eyelets & ribbon. This was such a fun lo to do :0)
Alpha (recoloured with a paper from the kit) by Mandy Steward over at Scrapgirls.
Curled corner template by Theresa Kavouras again from scrapgirls.

And finally...I've taken part in a template challenge over at Digital Candy, which was to use a minimalist template & here's what I came up with...Sleepy Baby...



I absolutely LOVE the teddy bear which is one of a set of templates I bought from Scrapgirls.
Papers : Her Royal Highness Kit by Britt-ish Designs
Overlay: Roll Rag by Kirsty Wiseman
Font: Dingle Berries
Teddy Bear Template: Ariadna Wiczling
Template: Tanyia Deskins (Tanyia's Pretty Pixels) over at Digital Candy

Well I hope you are well & you come back to see what I've been up to soon!

Ellie
xx

Want To Make A Scrappin' Cookbook???

Because if you do you should check out the new challenge over at Digital Candy that's starting this month. Basically you do a 6x8 lo of a recipe in the themed category of the month & then you have the option of leaving it at just entering the challenge OR you can take part in the exchange! You can find all the details here.

Anyway I've done a couple of lo's over the last few days & thought I'd share them too while I'm here:0)

The first is made with Just Passin' Thru's kit - 'By The Sea' available here at Pretty Scrappy
The alpha is 'Sunshine Day Blue Glitter Alpha' by Bonnie of Silver Rocket Scraps
And I used a template for this lo it's #240 by Andrea Gold.



There's a load of challenges just starting for the first time over at the PrettyScrappy forum if you're interested. JPT is hosting the first colour challenge - I've never taken part in a colour challenge before but I'm thinking of giving it a go...for participating you get an add on to her new 'Dress Up' kits!

My second recent lo is using The Digi Twins 'XOXOXO' kit avaialble here at Digital Candy
The template (slightly altered by me) is by Sine available over at Scrap Orchard.
I love Caitlyn in this photo - she looks so cute!



I hope you like them,

E x

P.S I'm sorry if there's any typos in this post...something is going on with my typing today & it's driving me crazy keep going back & correcting everything - so I'm sorry if I missed some errors lol