HAVING A CHANGE

I am having a change from scrap pages for a while or at least until I get some ideas again. Instead I thought I should catch up on a few ATCs especially as I have acquired 2 new 'swapping' friends from Leonie's club. I now swap with 3 fabulous ladies from different parts of the country. It's really exciting.

You know that I am Tim Holtz mad. Well at Christmas Tim made 12 tags over a 12 day period. Not only did he blog the tags, but he gave detailed instructions on all the techniques used. I've made 3 of them just to practice some of the skills and they turned out fabulous - see an earlier post for them. Today I decided to use the techniques from the 2nd tag to make 3 ATCs for my friends.

They have taken ages to do, not because they are difficult or take time to dry, just because I can't craft quickly!

I called them ' Fantasy Dream'. I hope the girls like them.

TICKLE MY TUM

I was going to call this page ' Fangtastic' and write something on it along those lines due to one tooth showing, but my OH named the picture so I conceded.

This was taken in the motorhome on one of the many trips Toby made with us. He loved lying in the sun and just followed it around the van. He would let you tickle his tum and if you said tickle pits to him, he raised his front leg above his head so you could tickle him - as we used to say - under his arm!

(sorry about the flash, its just caught on his chest)

MY CHAIR

I made this page to sit opposite the previous one. They are both 'clean' looking and very spring-like.

Toby loved to be outside with us and when the sun was hot I used to fasten his blankets to the chair and form a little sunshade for him. His chair was special to him and he would scratch you if you touched him whilst he was on it. That was the only time we ever left him alone. We had respect!

CAT NAP

Managed another scrap page today, plus I've sorted a page to go alongside it but havn't stuck the 'bits' down yet.

Funny how animals, especially cats, can always find the sunshine to go to sleep, even though the place looks so uncomfortable. Having said that, Toby had his own chair outside in the summer, a picture of which forms the other page I mentioned. I'll blog that tomorrow.

WILD THING

Just a bit of fun on this page.

I was really pressed for time Xmas 1996 and was frantically making mince pies one evening. I turned my back for just a moment and look what happened. Toby had been on the worktop and left a paw print in the pastry. Needless to say I had to start all over again.

We also had this little toilet which had a ball catch on the door meaning it could be pushed open. We would come home from work and find that the little treasure had been in and had a fabulous time chewing the toilet rolls to pieces!!. We had to buy a plastic container for them after that. What a darling - not!!!

RELAX

We printed this photo on the cheapest photo paper we could find in order to try a new printer. Although the paper is not thick enough for photos destined to be handled, it works really well for scrapbooks.

I started with one of the blank white 12x12 papers that come with a scrapbook and attached a Tim Holtz stencil to the lower edge. Using 4 different distress ink pads, I 'distressed' the whole page. The stencil has left a lovely white impression. I then simply stuck the photo down and added the flowers and lace. The word is from some Anna Griffin embellishments which I coloured with distress ink.

I LOVE CHICKEN

I couldn't bring cooked chicken home without being bombarded with lots of head-butting and very loud wows, - that's meow in Toby terms. He simply had to share and as you can see, he 'begged' me for some.

I thought I would do an 'over the top' page in fussyness just to show his absolute love for the stuff.

Also, there are a couple of new pics on my Flickr if you are interested.

WHITE WHISKER

What luck. I have a rubber stamp which almost matched the pattern on an old cushion we used to have in the motorhome. As you can see, Toby made himself comfy against it. Can you spot his white whisker?

I used the stamp and an archival ink pad to stamp a few images on the base paper of this layout. It's ok.

WHAT SNOW?

I feel sorry for those who have been snowed in this week, but I really wanted some winter fun in the snow.

I took a picture of what fell in my garden. Can you spot the snow?

WHERE DID HE GO??

The little monkey (ie Toby) disappeared from my blog heading. Anyway, he's back now, at least he was when I just looked.

Managed another page today in between looking out for snow - we got 146 flakes!!!!

SCRAPPING MERRILY

I had a bit of a break from crafting last weekend as we went away with friends. Our last trip in the motorhome for a while as we have so many jobs to do at home. However, I picked up on the scrapbook pages on Tuesday whilst watching Leonie on QVC. (Have you heard about her award yet?

I managed a double layout yesterday although looking at it today, I may add a little something else to the lighter bits. Some adhesive stones in a corner maybe, not sure yet.

Snow is on its way but I bet we don't get any. The North West is quite sheltered and we miss out on most of the severe weather, except gales!! Anyway, for those of you who get snowed in and can only craft in a warm room, tough!!! lol.

xx