Not all jobs are boring!

And mine definitely isn't!

Having recently been given the responsibility of Social Media at my place of work, Utopia Bathroom Group, we have been discussing various ideas over the last few weeks, banding suggestions around and deciding on a plan…

Last Monday was a fairly busy day at work, no different to any others in that respect, but that was soon to change! Having had an idea to celebrate the 12 days of Christmas, with some giveaways, a brainwave in the night developed this idea into becoming the 'Twelve Daves of Christmas' as along with one of our joint MD's and another Director, we have a total of 13 people named Dave who work at Utopia.

Again, you may ask is that really that remarkable? As a company of 160 employees, I personally think nearly one in 10 is!

And so the campaign was hatched! What you can accomplish in such a short space of time once mindset is in place is actually quite remarkable!

Tuesday saw the design, Wednesday saw the sign off of the campaign and teaser FB posts and today sees the launch!

What can you win?

There will be a series of prizes which increases day by day and accumulates the possible entrants who will be entered into the overall prize to win £1500 worth of Utopia Bathroom products. Today, as it is the first of the month, sees a Sap day for two up for grabs, tomorrow you can win two electric toothbrushes and so on, until 12th December, where will be giving way 12 duck radios!

Then on 13th December, all 78 lucky winners will then enter to win the overall prize of £1500!

Kinda cool even if I do say so myself!

What's more its free to enter so pop on over to Utopia's Facebook page, like and share the word and who knows - it could be you!

What a great weekend...

How fast time flies when you're having fun and there was plenty of that last weekend at the 11th GoGoGetaway...

I taught four classes over the weekend, starting with a simple one for the first class on Friday night!

We decorated the cutest pegs, covering them in musical tissue paper print and did masses of intricate cutting... the Prima papers are way too pretty not to!

Rose Inca Gold was also used to embellish the page - gotta get me some of that stuff!

After assisting Nicola in her canvas class and Janice in the prettiest class where you decorated a tailors dummy, it was time for my second class...

I'm personally very into white backgrounds at the moment and loved this class, with yet more intricate cutting... We used model magic by Crayola to create some Prima style tiles, which were stamped into and left to air dry.

The last class on Saturday evening was so cute, creating a wee nest for the birdies to lay their eggs in...

Sunday morning saw my last class 'Tashtastic'

Such a fun layout to finish on after such a busy weekend...

Ladies, I had a blast and if you enjoyed yourselves half as much as I did then you'll have a brilliant time indeed!

Cats... and not the musical!

Having been asked to be the Special Investigator for October over at CSI, case file 94 was right up my street!

As a lover and owner of seven cats, I had never heard of the book 'I could pee on this and other poems by cats' written by Francesco Marciuliano. The cover of this book was the inspiration for the case file.

With my eldest cat Cuthbert being a Ginger Tom and the book being such an obscure title, I ordered it from Amazon for my husband, on the basis that he would take a photo of Cuthbert reading the book and I would then scrap it!

After many attempts, we hit upon the perfect shot, although Cuth wasn't too impressed!

I used some Project Life cards that my friend Julie had given me and embellished them with rub-ons, ribbons and a button.

One of the CSI prompts was to journal from your pets point of view... something I thought would be really tricky to do actually flowed quite freely!

Cuth is now 15 and whilst he's getting those tell tale old cat signs such as a bony spine, he's still a cutie and I love him to bits!

Those gromits were great 'ey lad?

Never ones to miss out, we went to see the Gromits exhibition in aid of the Bristol Children's Hospital in early September.

If you haven't heard about them, 80m Gromits were located in and around the city of Bristol amd with the aid of a map, you had to locate them!

We visited on the very last day, so only had chance to see about 24 before these loveable pooches were congregated together for a final weekend of viewings before being auctioned off.

And who could have dream't that each would have sold for £18,000, with the majority being sold for around £35,000 and the dearest raising a whopping £65,000!

Case File 93 was the perfect excuse to scrap the Gromit photo...

Two weeks today

And I'll be packed and ready to wend my way to Theobalds Park for a weekend of fun and laughter at the 11th GoGoGetaway!

I'm teaching four classes and thought I would share with you the sneak peeks the delegates have got to see - with the option of seeing the class layout in full before the event, something GoGo has never chosen to do before but it seems to have been a bit hit with the ladies!

Yummy, with lovely Prima papers...

 So, so very fun!

Totally adorable, so tweet...

Very very pretty and delicate, again beautiful Prima products!

And on that note, I must dash - off to spend the weekend scrapping with some great friends in Derbyshire...

ARE YOU READY ASHBOURNE?

Special Investigator for CSI

A while back I was contacted by CSI to ask if I'd like to be one of their Special Investigators for the month of October...

Of course I leapt at the chance and what a fantastic first case file I had to work with!

Case File 92 - such a pretty palette of muted pinks and blues...

I used one of my current favourite techniques of cutting an oversized title, inking the edges and then by putting the wording back onto the layout, the title becomes very much part of the background.

I used ribbons and charms to replicate the book markers, layering them to add interest.

CSI challenges me to journal, which is so out of my comfort zone! But once I've composed my wording, I realise that the sentiments are far more free-flowing than I ever imagined!

Case File 93 is due at the end of the week... watch this space!

Away for the weekend....

I've just returned from an amazing weekend with GoGoGetaway down in Swindon, having taught a layout class and project and whilst I'm gagging for a glass of vino before bed, I felt I must blog about the lovely time I've had...

So I got to sunny Swindon on Friday at about 5pm - the venue was perfect, so light and airy. The room was set up, each delegate not only got their kits but a bag, complete with pretty much everything they'd need for their classes including inks, adhesives, spritzer, wash tape and a cute polaroid stamp from Websters!

Saturday morning and there was already a few eager ladies waiting to get in to the hall! The first class was a layout class using the cutest chipboard mini polaroid frames...

Washi tape was used to cover string and create a twine...

Cute hey? And I love the picture of Harvey's nephew Barny - he's a lot older now!

Nicola taught the second class, a mini book, or should I saw maxi book!

And then all too soon it was time for Janice's make and take - a maze book, which I must learn how to make - genius!

Sunday morning and it was time for my project class...

Everyone used the cutest stamp and made pockets so that photos slot in and out and can be swapped for others whenever you want - so cool!

Nicola did her final class, a really pretty layout and then all too soon it was time for goodbyes!

But I don't think it'll be long before we see the Wanborough lot again!

This could be becoming a habit...

Just lately my scrapping time seems to be getting less and less, but taking part in the weekly CSI challenge not only is encouraging me to play along, but I'm well and truly stepping out of my safe zone of colours...

This last weeks challenge was used to a colour palette of typically Royal Red, White and Blue but with a twist of fresh green. I remembered the photos taken last year at the Diamond Jubilee and knew they'd be perfect to work with it!

Although virtually impossible to see the individual members of the Royal family, the huge screens enabled everyone to get a good view.

When you take part in the CSI challenge you have to use all five colours along with two items of evidence from a long list. Normally I use more than two, but this week I went a bit overboard and used nine!

The papers are mainly from one of the new Kaisercraft ranges Porcelain Rose. Big Ben came from a postcard found at IKEA and the gingham base paper was from the Cook range by Ruby Rock-it

I'm already really excited by the colours in case 80, so much so Nina had to oblige in her new bikini...

I've solved another..

I'm getting really into the weekly challenge on CSI and this last weeks' case was no exception...

The reds and browns were certainly down my street, but coupling them with celery green wouldn't have been a colour combination that I'd have thought would work... somehow it really does!

So yesterday morning, bright and early before I left to go to my crop, the Silhouette came out as I'd decided I wanted to cut out my title and layer bands of patterned paper behind...

But what to have as a title?

I looked on the internet and came across this famous quote by Walt Disney, which seemed very apt. After a bit of manipulation, I discovered how to increase the width of each line of text to create a panel of wording - and so I was sorted!

My two elder step-daughters and I all wore matching red spotty dresses from Primark when we visited the Magic Kingdom in Orlando in the Summer of 2010 and my youngest step-daughter had a handmade Minnie Mouse costume... It was so cute to see us walking around, watching heads turn - we even got asked where others could buy the dresses from!

I have an alternative dictionary, whose entries sometimes makes me blush! In this instance the entry wasn't rude, just a definition to describe how the phrase Mickey Mouse has become synonymous with amateurish businesses!

Fingers crossed we might get back to Disney World again one year!

Inspired by CSI

Over the last couple of weeks I've been taking part in the weekly CSI challenge,  I thought it was about time considering I'd been a member since last Summer!

This week took me out of my comfort zone, both scrapping in colours I would never normally pick and journalling to top it off!

You Rock depicts the fun we had with our close friends at V Festivsl 2011 and especially the great memories of the Strongbow tent and the many uses for the bandanas they gave us!

We have been the last three years and seen many amazing bands and although we're not going with Paul and Hilary this year, we are going with my three step-daughters, one of whom hasn't been before!

And we'll get to see Kings of Leon and Beyonce... cool! 

I used a selection of the evidence along with the testimony in the form of a save the date type journalling.

Guest blogger for Shimelle

Firstly, and totally none related to scrapbooking, I want to wish my Dad and all the Dad's in the world a wonderful Fathers Day... Enjoy, relax and be merry xxx

Anyway, back to the post! A while back the lovely Shimelle asked me to guest post for her, taking part in a sketch challenge...

Now I'm a big fan of using a sketch as a starting point, especially when you've only got a small window of opportunity to get crafty.

So upon seeing this sketch, apart from the obvious two photo's (and as primarily a single photo scrapbooker, I was a bit apprehensive!) it was the panelled background of diving the page into quarters that I really noticed! I never really gave any thought as to what Shimelle's page would look like, so to see it in all it's glory this morning was great!

What's so nice about this wonderful hobby is how we all interpret things...

As you can see I opted for distressing a single page to reveal the paper behind. Having seen how lovely Shimelle's layout looks with this panelling, I may well use this sketch again!

Having recently purchased a Silhouette Cameo (actually Santa bought it!) I've been discovering a new found love of cutting machines...

I'm big into cutting my title, keeping the positive and negative pieces and then sticking them back together again to create a flat title that forms part of the background.

I've used this technique in numerous layouts including these...

I really like it, until that is I get bored of it!