It's Me Sarah

Apparently...this is me :)

The Recipe For Sarah

3 parts Originality 2 parts Humor 1 part Glamour Splash of Delight Serve over ice

What's the Recipe for Your Personality?

'Summer Hols'

Well the weather isn't being very nice to us for the Summer holidays is it?  Actually I have just walked down the shop with the kids and we didn't need coats!! That's the first time for a few weeks.  Hopefully the weather is going to get better now.

I had a great weekend as it was the Plymouth crop on the Saturday and after a week of not doing very much because of the weather I really needed the time to myself.  I had a great time as usual, there is nothing better than going to a crop is there?  I did some nice layouts with I can't share yet but I was very pleased with them

On Saturday evening my brother Roy and his wife Theresa came over and we got an Indian takeaway and  some wine.  We had such a laugh - a really great evening.  Mark taught us all how to play a Navy card game called 'Shit on your oppo' - hilarious!

On Sunday Mark went to  play Golf in the morning and I  managed to cook a roast dinner despite suffering slightly from a very late night and too much alcohol.  We just had a nice family afternoon  watching a film and slobbing on the settee, sometimes that is just what is needed!

On Monday we had the best news in the world, believe me we are all jumping up and down with excitement and can't wait until next month (or maybe October).  I am just so happy :)

This week has been a bit of a blur following our news because it means we have a lot of sorting out, decorating, buying things and a bit of traveling to do to welcome a very special new addition to our family.

Just because I don't like a picture-less post here is a layout I did a while back as a class but as I left ScrapDreamie I don't think it will be used now so here it is:

You can't really see it on the main image but the KI Memories lace cardstock has been attached to the layout with 3D foam to create a sort of caged effect - blimey it took ages, but it was worth it because it really adds to the dimension of the layout.

I did do class instructions for this layout so if you are interested send me an email :)

Have a good Thursday :)

Action Set for Photoshop

I have a set of Actions that I have created and use in Photoshop quite a lot and I thought some other people may like to use them.  They are mainly utilities that I use to prepare my images for use on this blog but there is a nice photo softening action I created that I like to use too.

This is a list of what the actions do:

SY Centre Point - simply places guides on your image to quickly find the centre

SY Thin Border - places a thin border around the edge of your image which is really nice for defining your images on your blog and gives a nice crisp feel

SY Blog Image Preparation - I use this one all the time!  Firstly it resizes your image to 425 pixels in width then it sharpens it and places a thin border around the image.

SY Resize 400 - resizes the image to 400 pixels wide

SY Resize 400 | sharpen - does what it says, resizes the width to 400 px and sharpens the image

SY Soften Colour - Creates a nice soft version of your photograph - see examples below:

I like using these actions so hopefully they will be of some use to other people too.  You can download them HERE.

As I don't have PS Elements I am not sure if they will work with it or not - if you try can you let me know if they work?

Some Layouts

As I said the Bellaboo August kit has gone live and I really enjoyed working with this one - here are the layouts I did with the kit this month and I have got loads of stash left to play with!

My boy have fun on the beach even though the weather was far from warm!

The Bathing Beauty layout was based on a page   from a magazine which you can see the in Bellaboo August kit newsletter, that was fun to do.

These photos were really old ones of Mark's dad which I scanned.  I wanted to use them despite being unable to enlarge them any more that this - I  am really happy how this turned out as it is very minimalistic for me, actually, I love it!

What can I say, boys will be boys.

Back from our hols

Well we are back from Haven once again and we had a lovely break.  The kids had a whale of a time in the kids clubs and doing all the party dances.  The went swimming, to a big park, to the beach, did fancy dress, made things, drank slushies, played in the ball pool and the amusement area so they had a fun packed time!  Mark and I were glad to get home and sit in front of the telly!

Here are some pictures of the kids having fun:

I just have to add this last image.  We always put Ben and Charlotte down for a sleep in the afternoon when we are at Haven so that they have enough energy for the evening entertainment - it makes a huge difference to how happy they are for the party dances etc.  One day during the holiday Charlotte wasn't very happy to get up and go out for the evening - she was half pretending because she was laughing one minute and then sulking the next!  Mark went to grab the camera to capture her sulky face as it was just a picture!

I will blog again soon as the Bellaboo August kit went live whilst I was away and I can share my layouts with you.  Due to my holiday I only had chance to do four layouts this month but I have loads of the kit left and it was gorgeous so I am definitely going to do some more with it!

I don't know why....

I haven't been blogging and I don't know why really!

We are all getting ready to 'chase the tigers' at Haven again when the kids have broken up for the summer.  It should be even better this time because Mum and Geoff are coming with us so Ben and Charlotte are going to love having Nanny and Grandad at their beck and call for a few days.  Also, when Mum and Geoff go back home Mark's sister Sharon is coming up to join us with her daughter Holly.  Mark and I may even get a night out whilst we are on holiday as I am sure someone will kindly babysit for us.

Talking of Sharon, we went to visit her on Saturday and she has bought a gorgeous little puppy called Charlie.  He is a Border Collie / Sheltie and his little face is utterly adorable (I should have taken my camera).  Ben and Charlotte spent a couple of hours playing with him in the garden.  I like him because he is only tiny and will also only grow to knee height - I am not a lover of big dogs, they scare me!

I have been scrapping a lot but it has been for magazine work and the August kit from Bellaboo (which is lovely especially if you have boys!).  I did do this layout this morning that I can share with you.  It shows two pictures of me 20 years apart and DO NOT want you to laugh at my 80's perm!

I used KI Memories papers and lace cardstock.

Summer Fair!

On Friday Ben and Charlotte had the school summer fair - well, I say summer but the rain was so bad it had to be held in the school hall and the bouncy castle was sadly out of action.  Still, Ben and Charlotte enjoyed themselves regardless and I got to have some nice conversations with teachers and parents.  Of course, face painting was on the cards and Ben decided he wanted to be Spiderman which is par for the course, but did he want to be Spiderman with a nice red face?  Um ... No!  Ben wanted to be 'Black Spiderman' - both the teacher doing the face painting and I tried to convince him not to have black paint smeared all over his face but to no avail (she did check whether I had plenty of face wipes at home first lol).  Hence I walked home, in the rain, with a butterfly and a black Spiderman!

We have had a pretty normal weekend.  Ben and Charlotte had their swimming lessons on Saturday morning and the rest of the weekend we just had some family time.  I really hate it when it is raining all the time, it literally puts the dampers on everything.  We are all getting excited about going back the Haven in the 'summer' though and  Ben and Charlotte are asking daily how many days it is until we go (that and how many days til Christmas? and How many days until their respective birthdays? !!).

I am looking forward to Saturday when I will be going to a crop to catch up with some friends :) 

Oh, also Mojo went up on Friday and we were inspired by Shannon Montez.  I created this layout using some photo's of Charlotte's dollshouse which I had already printed out because Charlotte's teacher asked if she could bring some in to show the class.  Apparently she has been telling everyone about her dollshouse - bless her!

Well, my shopping is being delivered any moment and I am housebound today waiting for the man to come and service the boiler!

I'm Not Gonna Lie to you....

...I love this programme:

Tidy!

Quickie

Just a quick post to remind you that the Bellaboo July kit is on sale today.  The design team have come up with some gorgeous projects using this kit so don't forget to check out Liberty's kit newsletter.

Here are the projects I created with this kit (+ an older layout that uses elements that are contained in the kit).

Dollshouse.....Done!

Well, we have decorated the dolls house.  In the end I haven't used any scrapbooking papers to decorate the rooms (because Charlotte is too impatient to wait for all that), I may add those at a later date.  Mark has painted the entire house inside and out.  It looks really great.  I have painted every piece of little furniture so that it all looks cute and pretty.   I have  been down to the local craft shop to buy fabric and I have made new bedding for the little dolls - with fairies on, it is so cute!  I also made a little wall hanging and picture for the bedroom wall. 

Charlotte loves it.  But it isn't finished yet.  I want to get some felt for the floors and Mark has yet to paint the stairs.  I also have some really old cross stitch magazines with some little charts in for cushions etc so I want to make some of those.  Mum kindly gave me some fur fabric which I have made into little rugs and some pink fleece which I am going to use to make some blankets. I toyed with putting some rub-ons on the front of the house too but I know Charlotte will just scrape them off so I will need to get some varnish to go over them before I do that.

I also have some fabric to make curtains and cover the little sofa - so you see, there is still a lot to do but here it is so far:

It looks much more exciting now!

Go play!!!!!

As you can see the sofa is still red.  Mum gave me some gorgeous damask fabric which I am going to use to cover the sofa and make curtains.

The fairy fabric with squares on was perfect for making the little quilts (which I have padded with Warm and Natural batting).

I wish it was mine!

Here are the last two layouts that I have done for Mojoholder.  I have done quite a bit of scrapping this week but I can't share just yet  ;)

Have a great weekend!