Family History

Back in 2005 I started researching my family history, I suddenly realised when my Grandma died that I had never asked her about her childhood or life time memories and I knew so very little about our family history as a whole. So I started searching on line, I dread to think how many hours I have spent trawling through records both on line and in the local records office! It is still a work in progress but I absolutley love it and have found out so much about my family I feel that I really know where I have come from.
I have been given lots of old family photos but as I don't have a scanner I have been trying to photograph the photos as I want to use some for scrapping. I thought I would share some of my favourites with you.

 My Grandpa and his little sister Emily, taken when they were living in Canada (they were both born there but came back to England when there mother died a few years after this photo was taken)

 My Grandpa grown up and what a handsome chap! The girls think he looks like a film star and I have to agree lol,

 My Grandma as a tiny baby with her siblings and their nurse.

 My Grandma ages 12, apparantly she was walking through Bournemouth with her father and a photographer stopped them as asked him if he would allow him to take some photos of Grandma. He must have agreed as we have got some lovely portrait photos as a result!

 Another one taken during the photo session, has to be one of my favourites!

My Grandpa (the blonde one at the back) with his little sister on the right, not sure who the other children are but I'm not sure you would get a child to wear a shirt and tie to the beach nowadays!
I can't wait to get these printed and be able to scrap them.
TFL
xx

Second Page

I thought I would have another go at posting my second page that I did for SBM, the photo is of me aged 2 with my Grandparents (on my Dad's side the other layout is my Mum's Mum). I have created this page is A4 size which is great for a lot of old photos as they tend to be a lot smaller so don't get quite so lost. You can also store them in an A4 ring binder so making storage a lot cheaper.

I have used papers by Girls Paperie which have become one of my favourite ranges, the doiley was saved from underneath my orange juice at a retreat in June and inked with distress ink to age it. All the die cuts are K&Co, not a make that I usually like but I have found these die cuts shapes really useful and have used lots of them on other layouts.

TFL

xx

Miss Jones

A while ago I was asked by Linds over at Scrapbook Magazine to create two pages using modern papers with vintage photos staying away from the typical heritage look.  As you probably know by now I love vintage pages so I was really excited to get started.
A while ago I created a page of my Grandma  aged 3 in 1912 entitled Little Miss Jones (which I have posted on here before)  and as I have got some gorgeous of her through the years I want to try and document her life in photo/page form.
Page one, Little Miss Jones.

Here is page two, I have got some photos of her inbetween the two but I need to prise them out of some old albums which I think will be a very delicate operation and then scan them .

 I really love these MME papers and although they are definitley not vintage they do take on a vintage feel purely because of the photo.

I will post the second page soon, for some reason blogger won't let me upload any images now! I am sure it is probably me doing something wrong it usually is lol.

TFL

xx

Restoration

This months Sarah's Cards kit was full of Crate Restoration papers, a range which I had had my eye on for quite a while, I love it. I am definitley drawn to papers with a more distressed vintage feel, maybe it is linked to my love of history and fascination with the past.

This was the first page I made, I fell in love with the playing card paper and it was so versatile I am tempted to buy some more just in case and add it too my stock pile of papers! Emily took this photo, during the summer months she would often go out taking a camera with her, some of the shots are really good and thankfully she doesn't mind me scrapping them. I love making my pages with lots of depth and dimension and I find that layering up the papers is a great way to do this although it is a bit heavy going on the paper usage.
Right off to have my hair highlighted to get try and cover all the grey ones! I didn't realise they were so noticable until I saw my sister's wedding photos....shocking lol.
TFL
xx

Little Peek

Last week I recieved the November kit from Sarah's Cards, I know I always seem to say I love the kit but Novembers is right up my street. I finally found some scrapping time today to start playing with all the yummy stash that was in the box, I know that the subbers haven't had the October kit yet but I thought post a little peek of next months.

TFL

xxx

Fancy A Challenge?

This months sketch challenge has just gone up over on Sarah's Cards blog, the sketch this month was designed by Lianne and I really enjoyed using it.  I have used some of the new Cosmo Togetherness papers which are just gorgeous and so versatile. There aren't many papers that I don't want to cut into but the piece I have used for the background on this page was one of them. I don't even really know why I just really really loved it. Thankfully I did have two pieces in the pack but I have since had to cut into that one too!! I am definitely going to have to get a piece just to keep.

I have created the butterflies on this page using a new die that I bought recently, they are Joy Crafts cutting and embossing dies and are great. There were three butterflies in the pack although I personally think one of them looked more like a moth so  that one won't be going anywhere near my pages lol.

I think this photo of Emily is going to get scrapped quite a bit, I absolutley love it. I know I have already posted a layout on here using this photo although this was the first one that I did. I have decided that I need to make more of an effort to add journaling to my pages, I am really hopeless at it mainly as I hate seeing my writing on my pages. I must try harder!

TFL

xx

Wedding Fever

Yesterday was the big day, thankfully the weather was kind and we all had a wonderful day. Despite my duties as chief bridesmaid I still managed to take a few photos so I thought I would share a few with you. The first one is in the hair dressers (obviously!!) My sister and I were having our hair done at the same time so this was the only way I could take photos of her! 

 Emily and Justin, she looked absolutley stunning and so grown up.

 Rebecca and Justin, I know I sound repeatative but she also looked stunning and so grown up!!

 The girls and Josh, their cousin.

 When Justin and I got married 17 years ago the one thing I really wish we had arranged was a horse and carriage so I was so chuffed when Ruth said they had arranged one for their day and the girls and I would be taken to the church in it. It was only a short distance but it was amazing, Mum came in with us too and she absolutley loved it. Can you tell the girls enjoyed it?

 In the church. Ruth and Pete were signing  the registers so it was an ideal opportunity to take some snaps.

 Outside the church.

 My lovely Mum with the girls and I.

 Mum and Dad had these little icing people made by the company who did the cake. Mum took a photo of Ruth's dress up to them so they could copy it and told them what Pete and Josh would be wearing. I think they are just adorable.

 By the time we got to the reception the wind had got up a bit and it was a bit chilly! Thankfully the sun came out later but at this point the girls were a bit cold. Rebecca had travelled in the horse and carriage with Ruth, Pete and Josh to the venue and they had started with the roof down so she was chilled to the bone poor thing. A few minutes under the heaters in the marque soon thawed her out though.

 I love this photo of the girls and Josh, he absolutley adores his cousins and I just love how this photo has captured them both taking care of him.

 A family shot.

 My gorgeous girls. The marque was lovely as it had big windows in the side which if it had been really hot could have been taken down. It meant that we could see the scenery around us, behind the top table was a field of sheep and the white horse cut into the hill side. It made a really lovely back drop.

 Both the girls have got the most beautiful eyes and when Rebecca was looking up at me I just had to capture that look and then of course I had to do the same for Emily!

 The happy couple, Mr and Mrs Dean. They are so right for each other and just so totally in love, although we make fun of them it is lovely to see and we wouldn't have them any other way.
The speeched reduced most of the guests to tears, first was my Dad who made a lovely speech about Ruth. He was followed by Pete who reduced me to tears with what he said about Ruth (in a good way lol) and then Josh stood up to say a few words about how much he loved his Mummy and Daddy and how they were all going to be a family now and he was never going to leave because he loved them so much, well that was it, tissues all round lol. 

 This made me laugh, Rebecca had done really well all day at being a grown up but playing with the little ones was just too much to resist despite being in an expensive dress and high heels! You go girl xxx

I have never really scrapped many wedding photos so I am looking forward to having some fun with these. Ruth and Pete would like me to make them a page and frame it which I am really looking forward to doing and I can't wait to see the official photos, Josie is such a talented photographer ( she did our family photo shoot back in November last year).

TFL

xxx

Smile

I am not very good at creating pages using multiple photos, for some reason I always seem to go for one photo and postition it on the left hand side of the page! When we were away recently I took a series of photos of Justin and Emily pulling lots of funny faces, to really capture the moment I had to use more than one photo. Its definitely not my usual style but the page does what I wanted it to do.

I love creating pages where I can cut elements out of patterned papers and make my own embellishments (not that I don't have boxes full of ready made embellishments!!) These Cosmo Togetherness papers are great for doing this, there are printed birds, butterflies, clouds and bunting plus loads more. I have also used some of my favourite flower punches and a relatively new fern punch with has proved really useful.
TFL
xx