Hello Everyone ... Long Time No Speak!

Okay so I’m back. Yep I know I’ve been gone for months and I don't really have any excuse as I’ve had loads to blog about, but I just wasn’t feeling in the mood to write and so I didn’t. But I’m back (finally) and feeling somewhat revitalized and so maybe I’ll be blogging regularly again, although I’m just about to hit a quiet period with not much in the way of entertainment going on so maybe not. Who knows – perhaps I’ll finally finish my New Orleans holiday blog (oops I’d forgotten I hadn't finished it – I could have sworn that I had the last time I had a burst of activity on it) and get round to doing the Crete Odyssey blog now that I’ve got Mrs H3’s photos.

So time for a HUGE catch up and be prepared it’s going to be a long and bumpy ride, so long in fact that I’ve had to split it into several posts – the general, the film and the music.

First a few photos that I’ve been promising to post, but never got round to:

The secret paper scrapbooking project (post below). As some of you may have guessed the project was something for Dr Jen and Michael’s wedding. It was my contribution to a scrapbook of the wedding which was organised by Shazzer. As you can see it was rather basic. Yep I know. How did it take 5 hours to complete this? Well the tale of woe is below, but hopefully it was worth it to give the Doc and hubby some happy memories of their special day.

And while we’re talking about the wedding here’s a few photos of it.

Doctor Jen, Michael and their families

Sinners together again (LtoR): Jen, KW, Doc, Shazzer, Me, TJ

Me and Mrs H3

And here's the pictures from Warwick Castle from April. Assorted pictures of hats, castles, waxworks and birds of prey and of course the largest trebuchet in the world. Once again I’d recommend this as a fabulous day out to anyone in the area. I couldn't decide which ones to post so I've put them all as a slideshow.

Finally a late congratulations to Jo and Paul who celebrated their 1st wedding anniversary last week. Hard to believe it's been a year since I was in Italy, how fast is time going?

UKS Cybercrop Final Day

So here I am posting my final layouts of the cybercrop. Unfortunately work once again intrudes in the creative process and I have finish early.

At the final tally I managed 8 layouts – 5 challenges and 3 classes.

Challenge 1 – Blank Cheque – to use only plain papers:

Challenge 5 – All Inspired – A layout based on one of a choice of film titles – of course I chose the obvious ‘All I Desire’ and I think it’s fairly obvious who I chose as my subject for that particular layout!

Challenge 7 – Oscarlicious – A layout in the classic black and gold of Oscar. Another Kiefer layout as the colour scheme didn’t fit with Jo’s wedding pics. Still who’s complaining?

Challenge 9 – Ladies Night – A layout showing something glamorous. And what could be more glamorous than my sister in her wedding dress?

Class 5 – Up Close and Personal by Claire – The original was done in black and white, but I love this pic of Jo and so it was the perfect substitute.

So in the final tally I managed 290 points and some great layouts! Now I just need to wait and find out if the Drama Queens won the crop.

Day 3 Cybercrop Points = 290

UKS Oscars Cybercrop Day 2

Okay so it’s the end of day 2 of the UKS Oscars cybercrop.

Have to admit to having not been very productive yesterday evening mainly due to having to install Office 2007 and then get to know how to use it before I could do anything – it’s weird compared to all previous versions of the programme, but I’m loving it so far. Also the first few classes weren’t really my sort of thing as a digiscrapper – the first was to decorate a manikin and then do a mini book for it to hold, then there was a challenge to make embellishments etc. However, this evening I’ve got into my stride and managed to accumulate 130 points for the Drama Queens.

Now I know they say the point of the cybercrop isn’t to get points it’s to have fun and do decent layout’s (and to that end they’ve hidden the score and they won’t be announced until the crop is finished – please let us see the running total Scrappybunny *beg beg*), but as we all know - for me points are the thing. They are the thing that actually get me scrapping. Let’s face it I didn’t even get round to looking at the classes for the last one which had no points attached to it and neither did several of my sinner mates.

Of course I’ve made it difficult for myself (why not eh?) because with the exception of one layout I am expecting the rest will be of Jo and Paul’s wedding and so I’m having to adapt the classes to fit the colour scheme that I’ve been using for them.

So far I have managed 2 classes and 1 challenge, although I’m anticipating completing a few more before I go to bed (after all I haven’t done my traditional cybercrop Kiefer layout yet).

So here’s what I’ve done as of 11pm tonight:

Class: The Colour Purple by Beckie – this class used lush velvet papers etc.

Class: The Stuntman by Sarah – how not to be afraid of white space it said on the blurb!

Challenge: Media Mogul – a layout based on a movie poster. I used the one for Pride & Prejudice (shown below)

So I’m off to read back through the challenges and see what else I can do easily otherwise I might be making a start on my Kiefer layout.

Day Two: Cybercrop Points = 130

Scrapbooking, Photography and More

So tomorrow is the start of the Oscars cybercrop on UKS. Although I meant to get more involved in the run up this time I haven't had a chance but I am certainly hoping to get something done over the weekend - hopefully a few more layouts of Jo's wedding.

Tomorrow is also the start of Shimelle's new photography course 'All Systems Go'. The idea is that every 25th of the month for the next year you spend all day taking photos wherever and whatever you're doing. Jo told me about the course as she'd heard about it on a photography course that she's doing called 'Painting with Light'. I've decided that I shall give it a go - after all it's only the commitment of 12 days out of my next year. You never know it might even improve my photography

Anyway here's a reminder that Shimelle's given us

If anyone else wants to join in then check it out here. Oh and it's free to join in so no reason not to give it a go!