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

The One Hundred

Have you ever expected something to be a really momentous occasion, and then realise that it totally passed you by?

I recently hit 100 followers on this here blog, and in the flurry of the True XOXO blog hop, I didn't even mention it. So here's to Christa (follower number 100) and everyone else for making me feel special and all warm and fuzzy inside.

Thank you to each and every one of you - loyal commenters, silent readers, shy sometimers, occasional dip-inners, and those who are too busy to do much at all. From the bottom of my heart, I am grateful and flattered at the way this blog has turned out - because of you. I am guilty myself of letting things slip, only sometimes skim-reading what I should instead eagerly jump on, even of neglecting those things I truly want to read and comment on but in reality look at the clock when everything else is done and see that it says 'bedtime'. I know it's hard to keep up in this environment of ever-increasing social platforms (I'm struggling, for sure). So, thank you all for being you and keeping my blog alive with your comments that make me laugh, think, want to have a conversation with you, send me off to look at your blog, inspire and more.

Now, I had planned a giveaway to mark this grand event, but I have been in a state of disorganisation lately, one that I am finding it hard to shake off. So, instead, I am going to share with you a few ideas for the future of my blog, and ask for your thoughts in return. And to one of those thoughts' owners, I will send a little handmade something to brighten their day and make them revel in the amazingness that is the online crafting community.

Before the year is out, I'd like to:

• revamp the design of the blog
• tell you more about my creative process - what happens before and around a creation
• include more tutorials

Please let me know if you agree or disagree with any of these, or if you want to see more or less of something here, or if there is something else not here that you'd like to see more or less of. I'd like to work to make this blog more readable for you, the readers. What piques your interest, whets your appetite, gets your creative juices flowing?

National Scrapbooking Day: Scrapbook Challenges Blog Hop

Welcome to the Scrapbook Challenges National Scrapbooking Day blog hop! If you're on the hop, you should be joining me from the very talented Marilyn's blog. If you have just stopped in and want to join in the hop, please start at Brynn's blog. There will be RAKs!

I'm Cheryl, Scrapbook Challenges DT member since January this year, lover of all things paper, and staver off of all things Hallmark. I found Scrapbook Challenges about two years ago, when I was still fairly new to the whole online scrapbooking community thing, and I found it such a friendly, lively forum that I stuck around. When the DT call came up I thought I'd go for it, since the team all seemed so nice and so creative. Their encouraging feedback made me feel I could contribute to the community and so I applied. Pamela certainly did a fantastic job of coming up with the idea of Scrapbook Challenges and taking it and turning it into a community - her time, effort, creativity and hard work shows, and will be missed.

Being part of the Scrapbook Challenges DT has made me scrap more than ever before - which I'm thankful for, because often it's all too easy to get distracted by other things in life. It has enabled me to expand my style - purely because of the huge amount of inspiration both the DT and the community have to offer - and it has made me think more deeply about how to construct a page. Especially when interpreting sketches...

...for this NSD/Thank You Pamela blog hop, the DT all chose one of Pamela's old sketches to make another page from. This is the sketch I chose (number 176):

As there always should be a twist, this time, the twist was to make a page along the theme of gratitude, friendship and hope. My take on this sketch looks like this:

The text reads: 'Have faith. The miracle of hope will prevail'. I used some DCWV cardstock and some 7Gypsies masking tape, and just love those Jenni Bowlin bingo cards and the Melody Ross inspiration cards.

Now, I did mention RAKs, so here are the RAKs (they're very good!) and the ways of winning them:

1.  One member who leaves a comment on all the blogs in the hop will get Chipboard Borders, 12x12 Collection Kit and a 6x6 Paper Pad from To The Moon by Fancy Pants.

2.  One member who post a NEW a layout based on one of Pam’s sketches and posts it in the HOP ON section of the Scrapbook Challenges forum will receive a package of Tim Holtz goodies.

3. One new member over the weekend will get the We R Memory Keepers’ Sew Easy Piercer, 4 Piercers, a mixed assortment of Divine Twine and 15 colors of DMC Embroidery Floss.

Well, thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment. Now, hop on over to Ana's inspirational blog to continue your NSD/Thank You Pamela SC blog hop participation!

Un Grand Merci

Recently a trip to the B&Q equivalent here ('Brico') gave me a big surprise. Don't get me wrong, I love going to these huge shops - there's always so much to look at... not to mention things to purloin, like paint samples, colour cards, wallpaper samples and so on! But this time, once I was bored of the garden section and the door handles section and the paint section, I found, tucked away in the far corner, a little artists'/crafters' section! No way!

This is where I found these stamps... they're Royal Brush, the 'Journey' and 'Viva France' sets. I love them!

I got inventive with them immediately, starting from scratch with some white linen cardstock cut to postcard size. I just started inking, stamping, and was so pleased with the result:


To finish off the postcard with a sentiment, I cut the word 'Merci' using the Cricut and then used the outline as a stencil to dab paint into.

Thanking a Man

This is a card I made for one of my fiance's students. As a thank you and goodbye present, the student brought in some good wine, which deserved a thank you card. I used pages from an old book to create the bunting, and flyer for a music event that someone handed to me on the street.