Cakey-wakey

Thank you Nigella. When you convince me to make a cake, you do me proud. This cake was for Louis’ 11th birthday, so had to be good. The only guidance he gave me was that it was to be chocolatey.

It took me a while to make the cake as I was taking a few digital photoshop classes on good old youtube and vimeo whilst making it

 

I was good and lined the tins properly. I don’t always do as i’m told but I always do as Nigella and Delia say, as they know best. Not in a know-it-all way, just in a know best way.

The chef whisking cream and butter together.

I can’t be trusted (because I am learning photoshop).

Chucking, erm, pouring carefully the cocoa/butter mix in.

Is that choc on your lips Mr Tester?

Mr Paul Hollywood would say that the cracks mean that i’ve over baked it.

So good job he’s not judging and my kid is

Bit of ganache-y scrummy will cover it up.

And a cake made for a smashing boy who i’m so proud of.

I am very grateful to him that he has grown out of Thomas the Tank Engine and other difficult cakes!

 

Pokey Stick

Ali loves a pokey stick (any object that is some form of a stick/pole/wand/sword) that he can wield.

He uses his imagination and it runs wild when he has a pokey stick. One minute he is a jedi, then a wizard, then a warlord, then……an annoying small child that has to be reigned in

The reason I’m blogging this is this picture I stumbled across today when trying to choose a beach photo for a challenge layout.

Here is my little Ali, 9 months old, first trip to the beach 2005.

He is wielding the windmill I bought him to poke the windbreak. I would never have bought Louis a windmill – I was super-crazy-protective Mum and would never have let him have such a thing

By the time Ali got to this stage I was much more chilled and let him explore much more.

He has never stopped being fascinated by pokey sticks though, anything can become a pokey stick, actual sticks from the park or walks, ends of broken spades, built lego sticks, though not robust and don’t last long. Rolled up bits of cardboard, pens and pencils, torches, recorders,  etc etc.

He loves ‘em and flourishes ‘em. It will be well worth the quids required (26!!!) to get him an actual Harry Potter wand made of wood that they are flogging in an insert with the DVD of Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows P1 he found and desperately wants for his b’day.

I painted and glittered some letters and chipboard arrows to add detail and draw attention to what gibberish I am on about.

I also de-saturated the photo to match the feel of the layout I was going for and to make the close-up pic stand out.

Look at the sun-creamed-greasy little chubster. I swear I could just gnaw on him. Oh no, I can’t, he’s 6 now and would object.

Red, White & Aqua Challenge

Shimelle held a crop last weekend; I’m positive you know that already.
I worked long hours all weekend and the week wasn’t much better so I haven’t been able to join in as I would have loved to.
I started this last Sunday morning, I chopped the paper, chose the photo, photo-shopped it (my very new, very favourite thing),

printed it, matted it and then just had time to gather a few embellies before I went to work.
Lovely Sue gave me a selection of red and aqua embellies from Scrap Angels in Cornwall. Aqua/Turquoise is my favourite colour; she knows me well
Lovely Susi, gave me the fab seagull embellie, and a few more so you will see a few more as I love seagulls.
So I was glad to get this layout finished today, which also helped me to explore how I scrapbook which was also part of our Explore class. I didn’t like not finishing the layout last week but I loved just the finishing and embellishing this morning and I spent more time on it.
I used my favourite red, debossed anchor button which I have been saving for just such a layout.

So that is my entry for the Red, White & Aqua Challenge.

Colour Combo Blog Hop–August

 

Amy’s colour combo for August was this lovely mix from Design Seeds

I like orange, or clementine as it is here. I really do. I just don’t scrap with it very often. So this is a great challenge for me to do something different.

 

My eldest son will be 11 on thursday and so I thought this would give me chance to get his tag done for the scooter he wants.

I used Watercolour paper to get some texture and my TH tag die. I used TH distress inks, Wild Honey, Peeled Paint and Pumice Stone, with some golden mint shimmer mist, some resist embossing and overstamping.

I can’t imagine for one minute that he will notice it as he scoots off down the road but you never know.

So here is the full bloghop from the beginning.

If you came to me from bunnyfreak’s blog, you are in the right order, and next stop is Lesley, her photos of Spain from earlier in the week are super.

Thanks Amy for a great colour combo.

http://amysoto.blogspot.com/

http://www.curlyscrapbooker.blogspot.com/

http://www.MichelleRoycroft.blogspot.com/

http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

http://scrapyourlife.net/

http://sugarandscrap.blogspot.com/

http://1200somemiles.blogspot.com/

http://suealthouse.blogspot.com/

http://craftygoodies.blogspot.com/

http://adriennefalzon.blogspot.com/

http://alyssephotographs.blogspot.com/

http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

http://scribblesstickingstitchingstroking.blogspot.com/

http://spud-pickle.blogspot.com/

http://www.scrapworthylives.com/

http://www.vsws.typepad.com

Explore + Photoshop = Productive day :)

My goal this week for the Explore class is to plan crop/workshop to get some local ladies interested. I have a lot of people at work who have expressed an interest and there is always room for a few new scrappers isn’t there?

 

Anyway, I was trying to make my own blinkie and branding to tie the crop/workshop together and veered off into learning more about Photoshop and I have had the best day

I have started work on the blinkie and then I decided to process some of my less than great photos into something scrappable.

We went to the beach one evening for some fresh air, it wasn’t overly warm but it was ok. The photos ended up over-exposed and washed out.

Louis digging.

After I had messed about with it in RAW and added some layers.

Alex looking grumpy thoughtful.

Post-processed.

I’m off to do some more, I’m hooked! I am going to try the hipstamatic look as well soon as I haven’t an iphone yet. Yet.

10 reasons to love the summer holidays…..

1. No school run. Fabulous.

2. Alex crafting alongside me this morning…

3. Going to see ‘Super 8’ in the sofa cinema this afternoon.

4. All day beach days…….at Woolacombe Beach, featured in a national newspaper this week, no less.

5. No yucky lunchbags.

6. Getting up later, even on work days.

7. No strict bedtime.

8. Louis is happier as he doesn’t thrive on school work.

9. Alex got to go to film school last week, they worked on the storyboard, props, dressing-up, filming and editing.

10. Lots of holiday-makers in our town making it busy and buzzy and helping our poor economy here. Although, if they could all stay at home, hotel or campsite and not drive anywhere between 6pm and 7pm-which is how long it is taking me to drive home from work at the moment-it would be nigh on perfect.

I am joining in with Shimelle’s 10 things on the 10th of the month.

 

Carnival of the Sea

This is my Explore layout for week two of the class.

Alex had his Carnival of the Sea a few weeks ago, an annual tradition at the Infants School, Mr Tucker dresses as Neptune or Poseidon (not sure which) and the classes dress in a turquoise/blue theme, pirates etc.

I didn’t get to go this year, as I chose Louis’ last sport’s day instead; (wrong choice as it turns out as Louis’ was rained off )

The layout is a bit of a cheat……….

Outrageous I know.

I made this layout of the event last year and as you can see I didn’t journal on it……I didn’t like the journaling part of a scrapbook page.

I have seen the light (Shimelle helped with that in another class, Blogging for Scrapbookers, I think).

This year I have added the journaling from that day IYSWIM.

A close-up of the photo embellishment that Shimelle prompted us to try, a great idea that I will use again.

I didn’t use a full size photo of this shot as it is not in focus. I had left the camera in manual mode and Mum didn’t notice until she got home, fortunately she checked and so got the close-ups of him at home.

Next year will be the last year one of my children will be in the Carnival of the Sea, I wonder what my scrapbook ‘style’ will be then?

A Scrappy Old Sunday

How glad I was to see the rain pounding down this morning, a great excuse to stay in scrapping.
First up is the monthly challenge over at UKScrappers.

Fudge has been with us since he was a tiny puppy and Alex was 10 months old. They have always been best buds and these are a few photos of them…..as I put in the journaling, sadly, I haven’t got any of them together when they were tiny. I wasn’t a scrapper then, I would know better now

This is the oldest one I could find of them, I am absolutely sure that Alex wasn’t about to a) pick his nose, or b) had just picked his nose……
Little boys just don’t do that sort of thing do they?

Alex watching tv and Fudge enjoying a scruff from him.

Enjoying a nap on the sofa a few days after dad died and we were all over the shop……the dogs are definitely not allowed on the sofas

Nor are they allowed on the beds, yet this is how Mum found them on her bed with her laptop playing CBeebies.

This dog…..

…..is definitely his best friend.