Return of the Astronut!

These photos had been waiting to be scrapped since Christmas and so I had them all ready to go in a homemade kit of papers and embellishments. However, the finished product turned out completely different to how I imagined- to start I'd only envisioned a SLO! The star themed lace cardstock never got touched either. Funny how these projects evolve... I misted the background using some chipboard pieces as masks. I think originally the pieces were actually meant to be flowers, but they looked like gears and cogs to me! The background paper was the reverse of old Crate Paper that I had lurking about. I used some Cogsmo paper from Cosmo Cricket (again old stash) and cut out all the cogs. I put one large one on the left to balance out the 3 photos on one side and one at the top to fill in some of the space. I also put this one slightly over the join to link the two sides together. I also added a cluster of smaller cogs here too using foam dots to make them pop from the page. Taking inspiration from the Cosmo paper I could see arrows that were made with perforated lines so I hand stitched arrows around the cogs using my WRMK Sewing tool. I added a couple of the element cards from the Cosmo Cricket line as well as a Fancy Pants star acetate border that I had lurking in my stash box and some alien/monster stickers that I bought from Paperchase. Some scanned images as I couldn't photograph it well as a DLO (excuse the fact the scanner has cut the edges off). LHS: RHS:

The title was a play on words and was a favourite line of mine from ToyStory3 which is my sons favourite movie. He was desperate for a Buzz Lightyear at Christmas which made me think of Rex's line in the movie when Buzz goes 'all Spanish' - "It's the return of the Astro-nut!" . Typically I didn't have enough alphas in one range so I delved into my spare lettering stash and pulled out a range of font styles in co-ordinating colours. To make sure that the play on words is highlighted, I underlined the word 'nut' using hand stitching.

My only issue with this LO is that the paper has curled slightly where I misted it (I'm v.new to misting)- I'd appreciate any tips on how to stop this?

Thanks, L xx

Sarahs Cards Layout Challenge- December

So there are challenges and there are challenges! I usually find using a layout easy and it's a good way to get my mojo in gear and at least get myself started with scrapping so I've been enjoying doing the Sarahs cards challenges. Anyway, this month the layout was this one and boy, have I found it hard!

I think my problem is that I try to overthink things and when I look at what others have done, I always then think mine isn't as good and get a bit disheartened. I know I need to lighten up a bit (ok, a lot!) and that is one of my resolutions for this year. I can't be a perfect mum, wife, scrapbooker etc and sometimes I need to give myself a break and accept that I've done my best given the time I have.

Anyway, miserable bit aside, I've been thinking about and playing with ideas for this LO for days to the point where it's driven me crazy! I knew the photos I wanted to use but they were portrait instead of landscape so I had to rotate the sketch. I then played with the elements until they were in a fashion that I liked. It really got to the point where I knew the deadline was coming and I just needed to get my butt in gear and get things stuck down etc and see what happened. As it was, Emma was a fab girl this afternoon and settled almost straight away in her basket, Jack was happy enough as always in front of a Postman Pat DVD so I quickly put this LO together using stash from the December kit and I'm actually quite pleased with it. As a bonus, I'm pleased to be playing in pink for a change! What do you think?

As a bonus for reading all that, here's a photo of my little girl taken last night. Cute huh?

I heart my MK!

I started playing with my MK last night and I'm truly hooked. Admittedly, there are certain items I either don't like or don't know how I'll use them yet but I guess that's part of the challenge! I've started on one 'project' and kept saying to myself , "I'll go to bed after I've done this" only to find myself carrying on! I'm really getting into the limitations of the challenge too and not throwing away anything just in case! lol. We're away at a wedding this weekend so I'll be desperate to get back so that I can continue to play.

I'm also keen to see what other challenges the UKS cyber crop team have for us over the week. Roll on to next Friday and let the fun and games begin!