A Diva in the House - and a 50th card

No I haven't lost the plot completely, It's my other half's 50th birthday tomorrow and he has been a fan of Alice Cooper since the 1970s. I couldn't get a signed card for him so I decided to do the next best thing and make an 'Alice ' themed card! Not sure what he'll think of it tho!

I keep seeing these lovley little houses on peoples Blogs - and have been wanting to have a go at one for a while. No idea what you are supposed to do if anything but I've had a 'Wonky House' template that I got from Dan 99's blog a while ago - so I thought I'd have a go.I got some new stamps at Stamperama a couple of weeks back and one of them was a Diva sheet of stamps, so have used 'Marilyn'. Again, I don't know what you are supposed to do but I enjoyed having a play.I made a cupcake card for my friend's daughter's birthday too. Well, am off to hang the streamers up and put the presents out for his birthday tomorrow now...

Blimey, it's been a whole week since I last posted.I've been busy sorting pressies and booking a weekend away for my other half and I for his 50th birthday. He has finally caught up with me! We are going to the Black Forest in Germany in a couple of months so have been sorting flights and hotels and buying him a couple of other pressies. What with work and going to Mum and Dads this week has flown by. Anyway I have managed a layout and a couple of cards. There are a few bithday celebration challenges going on over at the Scrapagogo Forum , so I have done a couple of those. One was a layout with 'Celebration' as the idea and the other was a sketch to follow. I also made a quick card for our Nephew's baby who turned one on Thursday. On another note, if anyone can help me I'd be very grateful, for some reason I can't work out how you include a link and replace the link with just one word. I've tried all manner of ways and I still can't get it. I've also been to Blogger help and I got very frustrated and gave up . It's obvioulsy easy cos lots of Bloggers do it so if anyone could leave me a hint as to how to do it I'd be eternally grateful. I know you have to put the one word in between these <> somehow - but no matter what I do it won't work!!

My Freedom Aspiration Layout

Well, they went off bright and early this morning to Middlesboro to watch their beloved Spurs in the first away game of the season,so it was off to the hairdressers for me - then visiting Mum and Dad - then home to an evening of scrapping and a take away curry. They arrived home very late and very fed up - it was a long journey there and an even longer one back cos they lost :-( So they have all said they are not going to away games again (yeah right) and promptly fallen asleep watching Match of The Day! Meanwhile, I have had a lovely time catching up a bit on 'My Freedom' by doing my 'Aspiration' Layout. There are many things I want for the future and I managed to put down a few of them. Paying off the mortgage was one of them and owning a nice cottage in the country but I can't see either of them happening till I'm at least 90 and then I'll be too old to appreciate it....
For some reason I can't seem to get the other two photos of the individual pages to upload anything but sideways,I've tried everything but they just won't load the right way-so will just have to leave it as the double layout...very annoying!

GoGo Kit Layouts

My August Scrapagogo kit arrived today so I decided to have a play this evening. They are having birthday celebrations over at the GoGo Clubhouse and there are challenges and classes to do. The mini golf layout is a challenge based on a sketch by Karen. The other Tree House one is one of my own. It's a really lovely kit this month and I am definitely going to use it lots!

Title Page and 'old' photo layout

I have at least done my title page for the 'My Freedom' class so that's one done!
I borrowed my Mum and Dad's album of our wedding (28 years ago) and managed to get one of the photos that I really like scanned and it hasn't come out too bad at all. As I haven't got Photoshop ( something else on my list !) I wasn't able to 'play around' with it. Anyway this is the layout I did with some Anna Griffin papers and journalling. I must admit,I had the papers and didn't think I'd use them as there aren't any weddings coming up in the family.It was Scrap & Chat night last night so this was the layout I did there.

Busy Evening

I had a nice evening messing about tonight - I finished a page I started last night using a stamp from Scrapagogo (I think) and some of the Scarlet Lime kit from last month. I kind of loosely based the layout along the same sort of lines as the last one I did which was one of http://www.mmwwaahh211.blogspot.comLauras/ - then I decided to have a play with some of the new stamps I got at Stamperama on Sunday and make some ATCs. I found a card that I had started a while ago so finished that too ! So a good time was had getting messy using Distress Inks- I havent made any ATCs for a while and I forgot how quickly you can get quite a few made when you are in the swing of it. The pics might not be too clear as the flash still won't work on my camera but at least they came out reasonably well..... and yes Deb I really will catch up with that class !

Holiday Pages

I had a lovely evening yesterday, watched the second episode of 'The Tudors' and really enjoyed that, we had a nice take away and I managed to get a couple of layouts done from holiday. We were looking for a particular restaurant down by the marina that had these chinese warriors standing in the foyer, and yep we found it! I took the started warriors layout to Scrap & Chat the other night and Carley helped me decide the layout. On the other one,I decided I fancied a bit of cutting, so I used some Laura Ashley papers which I've had for ages and not used. Its our 28th Wedding Anniversary today (where did that time go !) so we might go out for a meal later. Am off visiting parents now and shopping etc etc.

New Friends and Teeny Hero

I started a layout from a kit that Ann put together for the crop on Saturday and finished it this evening. I can't believe that it was now over a week ago I was supping a 'Pink Butterfly' cocktail or two in the lovely balmy evening after a lazy day in Portugal. Hey ho. I'm thinking I really must get back on track with 'My Freedom' as I haven't caught up after being away.One of the blog prompts I missed was about who was one of my teeny bopper heroes. No question- Donny Osmond and the Osmonds. As many of my scrap friends who have been bored silly by my photos of them from earlier on in the year will tell you.!! When I was a teenager (all those years ago) you were either a 'Donny' or a 'David Cassidy ' fan. I was mad on Donny - being an only child I spent most of my time making scrapbooks ( the kind you used to get in the newsagents that had like blotting paper pages and a whitey front cover), my mum still has all mine in her loft. I can remember being really jealous of some girls at school who had some American magazines with gorgeous glossy photos of Donny in and they were ones I hadn't got- end of the world. I also remember sending off a cheque that I had pestered Mum and Dad for to the Rainbow at Finsbury Park and praying that I'd get a ticket to see the Osmonds. Luckily I did. Ialso remember the power cuts that were happening so often at the time then because of the miners being on strike and the 'three day week' and trying to do homework and cut pictures out by candlelight or oil lamps that mum and dad had. Very vivid memories for me - seems so long ago yet like yesterday ! Anyway am off to have a surf now as I think after speaking to the camera shop today it looks like I might have to get me a new camera .

Back Home

Well, that went far too quickly, just home from a great week away in the sun. It was nice to catch up on some reading (actually read a whole book - 'The Other Boleyn Girl' by Phillippa Gregory) and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a bit miffed cos my camera decided that the flash didn't want to work so some pics came out ok but others are not good at all.I spent a really nice day scrapping yesterday with some friends I met at the GoGo retreat and it was lovely to get back into it again. We did a nice Summer based layout page and a CD case with a little booklet inside for notes on the CD. Thought I might back up some of my fave pics on CD and keep them in it .I also did a layout based on a design by the very talented Laura www.mmwwaahh211.blogspot.com/.
It was great to see Hilary again and also Ann and Jude - and I made some new friends too .