Scrapbooking Top 50 September Challenge

This month SBT50 has a tic tac toe challenge:

Here's my take:

Just like in the real game I had a few false starts before I completed a row. I started with glitter, moved to arrows and then completed leaves, washi and strip journalling.

The funky paper and moulded flowers are part of a new release from CTMH, The bow, doily and arrow are from D-lish Scraps.

And the awesome leaf is from Rainbow Splendour. In excellent news Rainbow Splendour is having a new release tomorrow. New goodies and old favourites - yay!

I took this selfie as I headed back to work after 175 long days of medically-enforced leave. The strip journalling gives a glimpse of what I was thinking and feeling but I also included some journalling on the project life card tucked behind the photo.

The journalling reads: Gosh! Look at those wrinkles... I guess that's what happens when you have a knee replacement that goes wrong, lose (and then find) your daughter in a cyclone, have another knee procedure - more painful than the last, your son starts Year 11 and more. So much more...

This year has been tough. My knee still isn't right. I don't know if it ever will be but on this day it was nothing but blue skies!

I hope you've been celebrating the blue sky days too. Life is short and can change in an instant, don't take it for granted xx

Charms Creations August challenge

You may have worked out by now that I have a wee addiction to Charms Creations. It's true I haven't seen one I don't love. Each time Charm has a sale I tell myself I'm going to be strong and resist and that I have enough in my stash to last a lifetime but then she brings out a new design and I am lost. But in reality it's money well spent, Charm's gorgeous creations go with everything - no matter what your scrappy style. I went on a retreat last weekend and all but two of my layouts featured a Charms Creation - putting that stash to good work!

Charms had another sale this week with a tantalising new embellie - the terrific tab - and I could shop without fear as I was lucky enough to win a Charms voucher over at SBT50. Yay! I can't wait for that happy mail to arrive :)

But in the meantime, I'm going to share my creation for Charm's August challenge. This month it was DYI and the creative team created the most divine examples of how you can alter a these fab embellies.

I decided to go with a straight inking option. I applied ink to my messy mat and spritzed it with water and then patted my arrow down. The colour came up perfectly!

And here's the whole layout.

These photos are pretty special, my first week back at running group after my knee replacement and I love the colours in these CTMH papers and those  thicker words are fab too. Most of all I love that cute cloud - also a Charms Creations but I just don't love this LO. It looks really flat, I added the pen outlines and that help lift it but it's still missing something - not sure what - any ideas gratefully received! It makes me a bit sad that I don't love it but you can only spend so much time staring at one LO and at least I have plenty more Charms Creations to be getting on with :)

Thanks for stopping by.

SBT50 June Challenge

I managed to squeeze one last challenge in today. I love the bright colours of the SBT50's mood board.

This challenge was a perfect match for a photo I took on Saturday. 117 days after my surgery the swelling in my knee had finally gone enough to fit back into my jeans - oh happy day!

The photo is a bit dark and shadowy as I took it inside after dark but that's what you get when you finish a challenge right at the last minute ;-)

Thanks for stopping by.

Crafty bonus

We lived in a modern terrace house for nine years. It was new when we bought it, well planned and light-filled but it had a steep set of stairs that my knee found increasingly hard to climb. My specialist advised that we needed to move to a house without stairs and so began the search for something suitable. We looked at hundreds of houses each more depressing than the last. But finally, just when we had given up hope of ever finding something suitable, we found the one.

We moved into our new house seven months ago and it is everything we imagined it would be and more. As Rob said "moving house is the best thing we've done in a long time". So, what's so special about this house?

Well, I knew the kitchen was amazing, there is so much storage space we still have empty cupboards and drawers.

And I knew the beautiful covered deck was going to be put to good use for most of the year.

But what I didn't know was that I would get the spare room just for me and my craft supplies. In the old house the spare room was upstairs and it had Rob's guitars, the sofa bed and the second TV in it. My scrapping supplies lived in an upstairs cupboard and in corner of the room off the kitchen (although designed to be a small family room, we never knew what to call this room as it wasn't a particularly useful space). I scrapped at the dining table.

Our new house has a proper family room with space for the TV and sofa bed so the desk and the credenza and my scrapping cubes moved into the spare room, referred to as the study. Added to this were the CD racks and a bookcase that didn't fit into Zoe's new room. It should be crowded but it's not. It has a big picture window that looks over the garden and lets in the morning sun making it light, airy and welcoming.

Now, the other thing our new house has is the most enormous garage with internal access. The walls are lined and there is a proper ceiling as well as large windows, plenty of shelves and a long work bench. It could easily fit four cars in it but we just have one car and a motor bike.

So, what to do with all that room? Well... It has become Rob's studio. The former work bench houses all manner of recording gear and there is plenty of room for multiple guitars and amplifiers. So what does this mean for the room formally known as the study? It's officially become the craft room and it's all mine!

The funny thing is, even though it's been officially my space since October last year, I haven't actually set it up yet. When we were unpacking boxes it hadn't been acknowledged that this room would become all mine so I just slotted stuff in where it fitted. Two and a half shelves of the linen cupboard also house my supplies and more albums.

Life got busy as it does, I had my first knee surgery and then graduations and formals and Christmas and visitors propelled us through December, January and February and by the time March rolled around it was time for my knee replacement surgery. During this time the room proved it can also accommodate a single bed as long as you don't want to access anything else in the room!

But, now my knee is starting to improve and life is settling down again, this room is my project. I'm going to create a well set up craft room that is a delight to be in and more importantly is a creative and encouraging space.

I'm really excited but I don't want to rush in and create a huge mess. so, I'm pacing myself, the first item on the agenda is to empty all those LO-filled pizza boxes into albums. Stay tuned for more updates.