Our Brilliant Stars

When we were planning our wedding, we knew from an early stage that more than mere observers, we wanted people to be involved in the wedding. So in our intricate detailing of how our day was going to pan out, we included a lot of people, and from those people, we asked for quite a lot of things.

I’m sure it’s fairly normal to ask family members to help out – all of my family decorated the venue for us on the day, my mum made all the cakes the day before, and his close family hosted welcome drinks for guests the night before – and when it comes to the bridesmaids and groomsmen, there are pre-set, etiquette-driven, certain particular tasks that fall into what you would call the ‘normal’, ‘standard’ or ‘to be expected’ category. But what we asked of our bridesmaids and groomsmen went beyond the norm – then again, our whole day did, too.

We assigned certain responsibilities to each of them, such as asking one of the boys in braces to be the music monitor; we got the polka dot princesses to manage the quiz during dinner by collecting and marking the answer sheets; they all ushered the tables into the ceremony room for our own personal ceremony after dinner; and they each invented and asked vows to the bride and groom to make sure we were going to look after each other. They did a lot more besides this – an awful lot. For that we are eternally grateful, and so touched by the distance they went for us.

It’s for this reason I wanted to make this layout a fairly uncomplicated page: to show off the simple fact that we are so thankful for these friends and what they shared with us on our wedding day; they really were superstars. The true meaning of friendship came out on that day and we will not forget the feeling of immense pride and joy at having these people present at our wedding.

It’s another Scrapbook Challenges sketch – up this week on the forum – in fact, I designed this one myself (except Brynn, SC Queen Bee, jazzed it up and made it look all snazzy like that):

it didn't look this good when I handed it in

The double-page version looks like this:

i tried smooshing it all onto one page, but it's better on two

And a rare double-pager from me looked like this:

Scrapbook Challenges sketch #279

Using only Bazzill cardstock and MME Quite Contrary patterned paper, a few snips of Happy Days paper, alphas and journaling cards, some Happy Days and For the Record stickers, AC Thickers and Bitty Grunge stamps from Tim Holtz to get the circles into the layout, I created a panorama of what I hope is love, gratitude, awe, respect and happiness.

they really were superstars!

Thanks, you lot, for helping to make our wedding day so awesome. We will not forget. x x x

Guest Creative Scrapper

And so for the exciting news!

Kristine at Creative Scrappers contacted me last year to see if I wanted to be a guest on their blog... and of course I said yes. Why would I say no when the blog is just about my favourite source of sketch and layout inspiration?

You can read my guest post on the Creative Scrappers blog but I'll show you what I made with sketch #192 here:

Creative Scrappers sketch #192

Our first engagement photoshoot was uncomfortable for me. I am not great at posing and really needed to be directed more strongly. Out of 500 photos there were about 50 I liked, and about 30 made it into the final collection. Which all makes me more happy that we got this one - full of attitude, looking totally comfortable and acting quite the poseurs.

rockabilly say yes!

The page is a memory of our discussion about props: he had his hat, I had my handbag... and then at the last minute I said 'Bring your guitar!'.

me and him, in object form

Echo Park collections make up the majority of this layout - I seem to have kept scraps from Life is Good and For the Record which match well with Happy Days. You'll also find some Lily Bee, Crate and Jenni Bowlin in there. Credit also has to go to Basic Grey for their postal stamp... don't you just love the black on black of the heat embossed postmark?

I'll be using this technique again

A big thanks to Kristine for asking me to be part of the Creative Scrappers scene! If you haven't heard of them already, you should go check them out now. They are really very, very good.

Rebelationary

Well, welcome to the Punky Scraps blog hop! If you're just popping in, the Punky Scraps challenge site is having a blog hop to welcome in the new DT... of which I am now a part :-). If you're on the hop, you should've arrived here from the blog of Sarah Hurley. And if you want to join the hop, start here.

For the next year I'll be a Punky Rebel, putting out layouts, techniques, challenges and inspiration on the Punky Scraps blog along with my Punky DT mates. I'm totally rockin' out now I'm officially a Punky Rebel - there's maybe a bit of a swagger to my crafting, a bit more bristle to my brush. Being a Punky Rebel helps me feel like I fit in somewhere - and since fitting in is something that's always been an issue for me, I'm super happy right now!

Confession time. In the scrapbooking world, I've often struggled with the pink, sparkly side of things: too many flowers, too much glitter for me. It's taken me a while to find my scrapbooking identity, and I know each day will add a little more to it, but even so, I know what is not me. So, to me, the Punky style means being brave enough to go against the grain - and no one should take offence or exception to that. Whether it's the techniques on the page, or the subject, it's about not being afraid to scrap how, and what, you feel. Being a Punky Rebel will help me shake off the last rags of fear I might have about going against the grain, having as I will a support network of like-minded Rebels happy to challenge the norm.


With this in mind, let me show you the blog hop sketch we've layed out to:

What I layed out looks like this:

Punky Nat, the brains behind this whole operation, has a tasty RAK to give away to someone who comments on all the blogs in the hop.

A few close ups of my page:

Now, to continue hopping, head on over to the talented Elin's blog. Thanks for stopping by!

Just for the Record: I'm Lifting Again

Look at that. I'm getting good at this headline-creating business.

It's layout time. More specifically, it's gorgeous spring yellow, For the Record time.

A blogospherical friend of mine who is rather good at making layouts (not to mention dresses, and cards, and mini albums) made a page a while ago that I kept thinking about. In creating my most recent layout I managed to lift her and use masses of the amazing collection that is For the Record. It's so versatile, with so many different potential 'looks' - I can't stop praising it.

What I'm loving about this page, other than For the Record: clouds, journalling, masking tape and Versamark stars. Thanks to Sabr for the inspiration!

When I Was...

Not only is the April scraplift challenge about to go up over at the True XOXO Girls blog, the blog has also had a facelift and will soon be featuring posts from us Lipstick Chicks throughout the month to further inspire you.

My page for scraplifting this month is made - finally - from a kit supplied by the lovely Sandra at GottaCraft. The photo is from a couple of years ago, when I was interviewed by the BBC for an event I'd organised. My mum, of course, scrapped the photo straight away, but I kept it, not knowing how to. Then 'For the Record' came out, and suddeny it all made sense. I put the two together, and this is what I got:

I've included lots of close-ups, because I love this collection so much, and to show you how it has inspired me...

The gorgeous reds, yellows and greens are offset so strikingly by the black and white. I paired this with bakers' twine, painted flowers, a doily and a transparency.

I can't get enough of this collection. It's  a good thing, then, that there's still quite a lot of it left in my scraproom!

If you play along at True XOXO Girls, you are in with a chance of winning a yummy kit, as always, so get on over and get lifting!