Scrapping

I have been gradually moving through my Jessica Sprague class and have completed the main task from lesson 2. I learnt so much from this one lesson as I said in my last post. The idea of the page was to do 5 things you love about a particular person (or at least that was what was shown in the example and tutorial) but I decided to do mine about 5 things/possessions I love. Here it is.The photo used to illustrate my love for reading shows the book 'The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time' by Mark Haddon. It was my favourite book until recently I read one that only just topped it! I'm sure the others are pretty self explanatory.

I have had a very creative day today, well apart from helping do chores around the house this morning. I have been playing using my new knowledge of Photoshop, using the idea of creating a mask and then clipping in papers. I created this bunting strip as a little practise piece and was rather pleased. I am still to learn how to add shadows which would no doubt improve it, but here it is anyway using a range of papers from multiple sources. I tried to make it look funky by doing a hand-drawn wiggly line string.

Now onto the proper scrapbooking (sorry I will always refer to it as that!!). I started a page about a year ago, yes a year ago, and have finished it today. It's already celebrated it's first birthday!! I got a new phone for my birthday last year and so wanted to do a page about it. I started but never finished so today I decided I had had enough and got stuck back into it. I am pretty sure that if I had done it last year the title would have been very different and I would have added journalling, but seen as the journalling now wouldn't fit the photo (the screen of my phone has I love my new phone typed visibly onto it) I have kept the page very simple. I hope you like it. :)I have coloured the chipboard lettering with an ink pad and then stamped a fine grid stamp over the top in a contrasting colour. I really liked the way they turned out so you'll see more of this being done in the future no doubt.

Bye for now, Hannah :)

Lesson 1

I am a bit behind with my Jessica Sprague Up and Running with Photoshop classes, I have just finished the first lesson and everyone else has just started the third! The first lesson and bonus lesson involved completing a quick page, here are my finished pieces.

This was the main task, I chose to do the page about my mum.

This was a quick page we were given as a bonus to practise our skills. I took this photo of my Grandad last week on holiday and it suited this page really well, it gave me a chance to write down all the special things about Grandad.

So far I have enjoyed the course, but it looks like it's going to get even better. I am half way through completing the second lesson page and have learnt so much from it. I can't wait to see what's in store for the next few lessons. I will be sure to share it with you.

Until next time, happy scrapping.
Hannah :)

Family Holiday

Hi everyone,

I felt my blog needed to become a bit more summery, I hope you like it.

This post will be purely about family life, scrapbooking will come a bit later.

It's been a long time with no posts. I've been away for the past week on our family holiday.

We had a lovely week away in the North Yorkshire Moors with my Nan and Grandad. We stayed in a gorgeous converted barn which was really well done and a real home from home. I have been to the N.Y.M. before many times when I was younger but didn't remember much, so it was lovely to go back and refresh my memories of the area.

As you can imagine I took many many pictures. Here are some of them.

One of the main reasons we return to the North Yorkshire Moors is the North Yorkshire Moors Railway (N.Y.M.R.). My Grandad loves steam trains, and I must admit there is something I really like about them too. The smell, the beauty of them travelling through the countryside, the history, I can't decide what it is I like the most about them. We used the N.Y.M.R. to travel around quite a lot whilst we were on holiday.

We stayed in Goathland (a.k.a Aidensfield!!). As you wander around the picturesque village of Goathland there are so many reminders of the Heartbeat series that was filmed there. My Parents and Grandparents have been holidaying in Goathland since before Heartbeat and have seen how much it has changed the village. It's so busy there now, in a way it's such a shame, but it gives you good photo opportunities!

The area is so beautiful, this photo is of just one of the many cute little chocolate box cottages and little streams in the villages.

We spent some of our days at the sea. The weather was amazing whilst we were away. We are used to horrid full days of drizzle, mist and rain when we go to the moors, but this holiday we only had one day like that, all the others were really warm and sunny, lucky us!
This is possibly one of the most photographed views of Whitby. These Whale Jaw Bones were placed here to frame the old cathedral on top of the hill (which has since had a modern church built in front of it!!).

Another day near the sea, this time Robin Hoods Bay. We actually went down onto the sand this time as Rolo was allowed. James enjoyed making sandcastles, even though we didn't have a spade so he did it with his hands! And finally this photo. I took this photo of James whilst we were on the train. I am so proud of it, it really shows James in his natural, comfortable state. I can't wait to scrap it. :D

We are now on official summer holidays so no doubt lots more busy days and photos to come, along with scrapbooking of course!

Bye for now, I shall be back later to post my Jessica Sprague Digi Scrapping progress.

Hannah :)

Some pages to show

Sorry it has been so long, I've been busy in a funny kind of way, I've constantly been finding things to do and never getting round to blogging.
It's been so hot here, the garden looks like a desert! It must have been 3 weeks or so since we last had rain!

I've had time to scrapbook and that's the main thing. I have done two pages of my mini book about James. Here they are.

The page that is a pull out tab is all about my oldest memory. James had to go into hospital when he was a toddler, and I have very clear memories of this which I have now documented on this page.
As this page shows, James used to have so many soft toys on his pillow that there was hardly any space for his head! I have stapled pleated ribbon to this page which is a technique I seem to be loving at the minute, you'll see it again in the next page.

Paper Proposals Challenge

If you want a weekly scrapping challenge and haven't found this site yet, head over there with this link.

I didn't do the first weeks challenge as I never found time, but I've attempted this weeks challenge, to use a card creatively. Here's my card used creatively.

It is a page to put into my Upper School book, a page all about my hilarious geography lessons (the text on the TV screen reads 'Dick Head, Executive Co-ordinator', that should explain some of it!!). This is the card as a card would stand.
I have shut the card and stuck it with a bit of cardstock sandwiched between to create two pockets for a certificate and tags.

I am so pleased I followed this challenge as I don't know how I would have fit so much information and memories into the same space.

I have done some scrapbooking shopping this week too, I have used some of my birthday money to increase all of my lovely stash, and concentrated my purchases on my plan to create a mini album about my Prom. I need to do a bit more of my other mini albums first though as once I've started too many I never seem to go back to the old ones.

I have set myself a challenge. If I'm going to take an AS level in English I need to read books. I don't though. I don't read enough at the minute so I have set myself the challenge to read at least 5 books over the weeks before I start sixth form. I have been out this morning and bought a few books that look really interesting, and I can't wait to get started through them.

The Jessica Sprague class I mentioned in my last post was postponed, so it started today :) I haven't completed the first task yet, but it won't be long. I shall post my progress as I complete the tasks.

I also just wanted to say thank you very much for everyone's lovely comments from my last post. I really enjoyed making the cake and hope you will see more in the future as I hope to get back into it and do them more often. I have been editing some of my prom photos and have a good collection, so watch this space for layouts in the future. Thanks again, all comments are really appreciated.

Hannah :)

I'm 16 :)

Hi everyone. My first post as a 16 year old!! A tired one at that after having roughly 6 hours sleep last night following our school prom!

(This may be quite a long post, I'll just warn you now!!)

I had a party at our house on Wednesday evening which was the first time James had met some of my friends and the first time they've been round to the new house (even though we've lived here 6 months!). James absolutely loved having all of my friends round and ended up nearly losing his voice he was chattering so much!! We all enjoyed the evening in the garden.

Now I shall reveal more of the butterflies I showed you in my last post. I decided to decorate my own birthday cake as I haven't done any cake decorating for at least a year, due to moving and then not having space to do it, and wanted to get back into it. I found a gorgeous cake in a book and adapted it to the size of my cake. I really enjoyed making it and am very proud of the result (well what was the result before it was eaten!). Here it is:

(This photo looks a lot more yellow than I thought it was, the cake was a much lighter cream than it looks in the image)

Then Thursday, my birthday and prom day. I received some amazing gifts, I am a very lucky person. I had asked for a point and shoot camera as I had accidentally broken the family one a few months ago, and I was lucky to receive one for my birthday from my Nan and Grandad. I spent the whole morning reading the manual and practising so I could take it to the prom. I received many other gorgeous presents, including jewellery, money, tops and chocs.

I had my hair done for the prom at my normal hairdressers and loved it. We were supposed to be going to the prom in a limo but, as my luck goes, it broke down, so we ended up going in a range rover. As you can imagine I was devastated, I've wanted to go in a limo for years, but at least we got there. I'm afraid to say that the whole prom didn't go smoothly. Me and a few mates missed all of the food as we didn't feel hungry and then they'd run out by the time we did, so I was rather hungry by the time I got home having not eaten since lunch! We also paid money to have professional photos done, to then end up having 2 photos taken as the queue was massive and people kept pushing in!!

However moaning over, it was lovely to be able to be outside and enjoying the warm failing light of the evening. I managed to get some nice photos and it was really interesting to see which styles of dresses people had gone for and the boys in suits looked so different. I'm not a dancing person, I avoid the dance floor like the plague, but as soon as my favourite two songs (Queen 'Don't stop me now' and 'We will rock you') came on I couldn't resist! It was lovely to be able to dress up and I loved my dress, it was so comfortable. Comfortable isn't a word I'd use to describe my shoes though, by the end of the evening my heel ached like anything and the majority of the girls had taken their heels off. At least I now possess a pair of heels and can walk in them. A few photos to show you, taken by mum before I left.

I took this photo at the prom with my new camera, it isn't the best but it really shows the happy lively atmosphere of the dance floor. I would've liked a lay-in this morning but because James hardly saw me yesterday I got up to see him this morning. I'll sleep well tonight, that's for sure!!

I've been out this morning with mum as she needed to take photos for a course she's doing, so I practised with my new point and shoot to get used to the scene settings and buttons.Here's a photo I took which I was very pleased with.

A quick bit of scrapbooking for you. We purchased photoshop a few weeks ago and I have joined one of Jessica Sprague's online digital scrapbooking courses which starts on Monday. For a bit of initial practise I have created a page using the tutorial and downloads she provides you. Here it is, a page about me and mum. I can't wait to start the course now.

Thanks for looking, I hope I haven't bored you.

Bye for now,

Hannah xx :)