Secret Santa

I'm in love with this page.

As well as trying to keep up to date with my scrapbooking, I'm also tracking backwards to old photographs. This one is not that old, only from 2013. 

This was my form's Secret Santa, and we all had so much fun over the Christmas pudding hat... Definitely one of the bet gifts given. I got sweets, which is unfortunate, because I'm actually not fond of sweets... sigh.

I had great fun constructing this page as I set myself a challenge to not use any patterned paper, and to just throw any type of Christmas motif at it. It ha Christmas trees, Christmas puddings (of course), snowflakes, holly, stars, sweets, candy canes... All in such bright colours! The end result is strangely cohesive... It embodies the chaos and wonder of Christmas for me.

Roses Are White

I may be on a Leave of Absence, but I still have university pride! Because, of course, the University of York is the best. I mean, it has the largest plastic bottomed lake in Europe and everything...

Anyway, the layout marked this years War of the Roses. Less violent (only slightly) than its namesake, its a university-wide sports competition between the Universities of York and Lancaster. This year it was York's turn to host it, so, naturally, we thrashed 'em. ROSES ARE WHITE! (Yet for some reason our sports kits are black and yellow...)

This was also my first layout using the gorgeous pieces that I was so lucky to win from Elle's Studio: the yellow is just perfect. I'm also looking forward to using the stamps more... Stamping has never been my thing, but perhaps now I can be encouraged to use them more!

I love how this page came together, it was gorgeous to formulate, and everything worked so seamlessly, something which doesn't happen to me often! I'm very proud of this layout, and my university, so this one is definitely going into my favourites list.

Inspiration Realisation: 3

Found on Pinterest. Image credit as quoted in the image.

Next in this small project, I decided to pick one of the sketches I'd been hoarding... Sketches are one of those fantastic inventions, though, that can be replicated again and again, but to such varied results! So, I thought it was about time I had a go at using one.

(By the way, take a look at Susan's original post for this sketch, teh examples are truly beautiful!)

I turned this sketch on its side, sticking pretty close to the design, only really switching the place of the journalling and extending the embellishment along the diagonal. I replaced the frame with a cinema ticket, as it helped to tell the story behind this page.

I really enjoyed working with this sketch, and I'm looking forward to try and use it again, perhaps compare the different outcomes.

March Favourites

Another of this year's favourites, this time from March. I learnt from before, and stuck with a busy patterned background. I liked using the black card too, with the white pen. It's something different.

There's not a lot to say with this page, I try to keep them simple. If you want to see the previous ones, see:

January, February

First and Last

This page is very meaningful, and it took a lot of courage to get it down onto paper. It feels good that this page should go live on the blog today, as, all being well, I will be waking up in York, next to Him, for the first time in six months. And it's going to be amazing.

Having my degree frozen meant that I got thrown into a long distance relationship. This means that for a lot of the time, we only really communicate via technology. However, he still has his degree, and sometimes his days were busy and I was left out of the loop and alone a lot of the time. The one thing I clung to was wishing him goodnight and a good morning. We still do this now. It's just a little way of coping telling each other that we're thinking of them. I tried to get all of this down, because, even if this relationship doesn't last, it's still a good lesson to learn.

In all of my layouts that have involved Him, I've tried to keep the colour palettes gender neutral. Here I really liked the idea of using these different greens. The different patterns are all subtle enough but add enough interest to a relatively mundane picture. The birds as the main embellishment though, have a rather symbolic, personal meaning.

This page means so much to me, and I am proud that I managed to complete it.

Inspiration Realisation: 2

In a second post of my new theme of Inspiration Realisation, I turned to a food recipe I had hoarded. Food inspired projects are probably the easiest to realise, as most of us have the ingredients already, it's just putting them together that takes a bit of thinking.

I collected this recipe a few months ago, of Parmesan Pull-apart rolls:

Find the recipe Here

They looked amazing. So I decided to give them a go.

My Parmesan perhaps cooked a bit more than the original recipe, but I love the colour on it. They tasted delicious too, they didn't last very long in this house at all!! It's definitely a recipe that I would try again!

What projects have you been realising recently?

Challenge: Valentine's Day supplies

I had fun with this page, setting myself a challenge to try and use my Valentines Day stash. I hate Valentines Day, but magazines always seem to come with freebies centred around THAT holiday, so they just end up accumulating. So I decided to use them... with a picture of me and my best friend. 

I look rather over excited in this picture, and I am, but perhaps not for the reason you would expect. This was one of the first times I'd been out and about since I got ill. Even this mundane drive made me happy. I was so lucky to have Emma these past months, she's made time to come see poor ill me, keep me entertained and generally look out for me. Not many would do that, and I am eternally grateful. Hence why I loaded this page with hearts.

It's nice to have a best friend.