A Garlic Moment

So here's the one about the potato cakes.......It all started when we were given a really disgusting local speciality for dinner one night in our Slovakian hotel last year. We are by no means fussy eaters, I think all of us could count on one hand foods that we really don't like. So anyway we were served these grey (not a lie) lumpy, dinner plate size potato cakes (filled with a brown gravy and meat). OK, so they didn't look nice but we were willing to try them.....Ugh! they tasted of really strong garlic (you know it's strong when the garlic tastes sort of salty as well) and nothing else. So at every opportunity after that we were saying the word Garlic in a Peter Kay voice and cracking up laughing at our private joke. So getting back to the layout, this was a garlic moment captured as a goofy smile on the final phoneme of garlic.

So the layout......I like the title as it makes the viewer want to read the journalling as to why Garlic?

The Fancy Pants transparency, BG Aged and confused and Bo Bunny Xtreme Teen all worked together with Roberts bandanna and natural background. I used a Black Market tag for the journalling and my trusty Dymo label maker for 'a garlic moment'.

By the way sorry my posts are so long but all my layouts have a story attached to them, plus I just have a lot to say for myself. So if you do sit and read these.....thanks!

Out Of Control!

Here's some photo's I have been wanting to scrap for some time now of my 13 year old son enjoying himself on holiday in Slovakia. We had just finished a long mountain walk and as we came down from the mountain we came across a small kiddies amusement park. Now remember that Slovakia is only just developing as a tourist area and so apart from the many new holiday apartments and hotels being built at the moment it's not exactly Benidorm! So this amusement park consisted of a couple of run down merry go rounds and this little racing track that was clearly for younger children. Robert isn't exactly your adrenaline junkie (he refuses to go on the chair lifts, which limit our mountain walks) so apart from the racing track the alternative was Quad bikes. The racing tracks won. We had the biggest laugh in ages, he had trouble fitting his legs onto the bikes, difficulty controlling them and crashed into the barriers a few times. But just look at his face, he's loving it!

As I had so many photo's to fit on I needed a striking paper and found this Rusty Pickle Halloween paper matching perfectly with the greenery and the purple sweatshirt. The only problem was that I had cut a square out of one corner for another project. But with careful cutting of strips and matting and layering of the photo's onto purple corrugated and metallic card I managed to finish it. I highlighted the pictures by drawing wonky lines with a permanent pen around them and used the scraps of the photo paper for the journaling.

So kiddie cars 1- Potato cakes 0 ( that's another story and layout I'll show you another time.....)

Where I said YES!

I received some new papers and embellishments recently from the Anna Griffin Sierra Collection.
They are full of natural earthy tones and couldn't wait to use them. This photo of a stone dog was taken at Kew Gardens is at least 10 years old, maybe more. It was originally taken in black and white with film on a manual camera (pre-digital). The journalling tells of Kew's special place in my heart, not just the wonderful gardens and architecture but it's where my hubby proposed to me some twenty plus years ago and I said YES! I will always remember him asking "If I was to ask you if you would marry me, what would you say?" To which I replied "Ask me to find out then".....knowing that i would say yes straight away (how cruel of me...he he).

As you can see I love using lots of patterns together and mostly only use plain card stock for journalling and maybe matting and layering. The felt ribbon was also in the set and the cream flowers fitted perfectly around the matted photo size I had chosen. I used a mix of different alpha

fonts, matching them together by using stazon ink (my fav. as lovely smell, quick drying and can stamp on anything), Adirondack dabber in Pool, red stardust pen and Glossy Accents.

So even 20 years on I'm finding photo's that have strong memories attached to them that I want to preserve as a scrapbook layout, which is nice as it's boring scrapping just about your children or holidays. The next layout.....children and holidays!

That loving feeling...

Said I hadn't been shirking my crafting hadn't I? Here's a little love token I made for my hubby as a Valentine's gift. It's a covered K & Co alphabet box ( knew it would come in useful). Covered it, Prima flowered it and blinged it - done! Added photo which can be changed as box opens. I didn't have many nice up to date photo's of us together so used this one from our holiday to Slovenia 2 years ago. Love that place....hoping to go back soon.....keep dreaming of mountains, beer and cake - not always in that order:)

Japanese Style

Love these Japanese style stamps from Craftwork Cards. I could only afford one set at the time but I can't wait to get some more. Craftwork Cards do some fantastic basics like the scallop blank cards and the delicious looking Card Candy. I have a couple of different sets of the Card Candy together in a jar, they so remind me of midget gem sweets (do you remember them?). Anyway back to the cards, after stamping I coloured them in using shimmery chalks, then layered them onto some textured Amy Butler cardstock. I then inked the edges of the scallops, stamped flowers or swirls that come with the same set, added a greeting and finished with Prima flowers, Stickles and gems.

I particularly like the lime green and pink together. It will have to be to someone special before I let that one go!