Today...

...has been a glorious day.

The weather has been fab this weekend but I think today has been the best and I was able to make the most of it with my niece.

We went for a wander over to Barleylands Craft Village and had a super time browsing and just enjoying the lovely weather.

Such a shame that it is back to work tomorrow................

Introducing...

...Lcpl & Mrs Marshall.


23 May 2009 was the wedding day of my niece Kristy to Daniel Marshall in Richmond, North Yorkshire.

Despite a few problems over the last week and a wardrobe malfunction on the morning (bra strap broke on brides corset as she was putting on her dress), everything went well. The weather was kind, plenty of photos got taken, and the happy couple are now starting their lives together.

Love and best wishes to Kristy & Dan from a very proud Aunty Toni..............

They loved...

...the guest book.

It is always difficult making stuff that people have asked for cos you are never certain of their expectations. I was so please that Connie & Peter loved the book...felt I could relax - panic over.

Think again!!!

"Pete and I loved the book and would really like you to do the wedding album" - GOBSMACKED!

Guess what...I said yes...

**starts walking round in circles, muttering to self, panic mode def turned up to highest level...wanders off still muttering "why do I agree to these things"...any men in white coats heading this way?**........................

Connie & Peter's...

...Wedding Guest book.

Well here it is...I wasn't sure what I was going to do for this as I was feeling rather "wedding'd out" after the rush to get all my niece's stuff done, but a friend had asked if I would - and I couldn't say no LOL

The colour scheme for this wedding is gold and cream.

The box was made from some Kanban A4 card that I found about words/communicating and thought it would be just right and the cover of the book was some textured paper that I found by accident. As you can see - I went a bit mad with the ribbons on the binding.

If you are wondering about the cobras...that is the design that has been used on the couple's invitations so I thought I would continue the idea. An enlarged photo copy, some Mulberry paper and a bottle of gold Smooch later and...voila! (seemed like a good idea at the time but had forgotten how absorbent mulberry paper is **rollseyes**)

Pages from a MM journal stack and Anita's Glitterations...

Parchment paper and my trusty PC...

More glitterations...

More printing...

All done - I really hope the couple like it......................

I can't believe...

...it's only a week away.

In just one week I will be helping my niece get ready for her wedding.

I know it was only decided at the end of Feb that they would wed in May but even so the time has flown and when I stop to think about it I can't believe how much I managed to get done in such a short space of time - invites, favours, cards, running around trying to locate stuff for cake boxes etc. Well it is all done and hopefully this week can be spent just getting myself sorted and the car ready for the very looooooooooooong drive up to Catterick.

Fingers crossed for an improvement in the weather.............

The Session...

...comes to an end.





As you can see...the ladies came up with some wonderful bits for their books. Not all of them were completely finished as there was still some shuffling of pages to be done to ensure that the finished items were as required but I think they all did very well.

It was lovely seeing the ladies grow in confidence over the weeks and see them willing to give something a go...

I hope that this will boost their confidence for future scrapbooking projects (by the way I've been roped-in to do a starbook mini album for the first week of the next session and 3 LOs for the remaining weeks - **rollseyes**).

The ladies of the Thursday night crop at Craftily Creative would like to say a very BIG thank you to Annette West and they hope that she is pleased with their efforts.................

Work in...

...progress.

Over the four nights that made up the mini book session the ladies came up with lots of ideas for pages in their books. They had all chosen their accent colours and we had some lavenders, blues, greys, burgundy and lime creations appearing.








Once the ladies realized that there were no rights or wrongs to this sort of thing, they really got stuck in and a lot of them made good use of their card making skills - Joan decided to make a page like a mini waterfall of photos.

Annette's hidden keeper pages were very popular and were put to good use on some 'rather interesting' photos (let me mention the word "mooning" and we will move swiftly on LOL)

The books became a mix of various shaped /size pages and the ladies were amazed to realize that you could use so many everyday items - envelopes, CDs, parcel tags....

It was fab to see the books growing, week by week..............

Let me introduce...

...the ladies from the Craftily Creative Thursday night crop.


Helen is the lady in the white top trying to pretend that there isn't a camera around LOL - it is her shop and she agreed to start the crops about a year ago after establishing herself with card making classes during the daytime.

The crop is only small due to limited space but everyone is very friendly and we all have a bit of a giggle. Numbers tend to hover around the 10/12 and there are regulars. We each book a four class session in advance and the crops take place every other Thursday evening...7 'til 9pm.

Helen has been asking me to come up with some projects for a while so back in February it was agreed that I would do a mini book class that would run for the whole of a session. I have made a lot of mini books so had lots of ideas about what the ladies could include, but I was also a bit nervous as all the ladies are card makers but have only recently expanded into scrapbooking. From previous sessions it has been clear that they felt rather intimidated by the 12x12 format even though they loved doing the LOs.

In February, we had just completed another fab cybercrop on UKS and one of the classes had been one of Annette's (Voodoo Vixen) lovely mini books. I asked her if she would mind us using her "Hidden Keeper" page instructions and she very kindly said we could...so all was set.

It was decided that everyone would receive a kit of basics at the start of the session (Black/White/Silver) and as they progressed they could add colour/colours of their choice. When the ladies arrived on the first night they were all very excited by their bags of goodies and couldn't wait to get stuck in.............

Happy National Scrapbooking Day...

...to one and all.

I intend to pick up some stash this morning then have a 'play' later.

Hope you all enjoy NSD - have fun...............