My First Blog Hop/Blog Tour

Last week I was invited by my friend Sarah to participate in a blog hop tour. You can see Sarah's post and her blog by clicking on her name above. Sarah has asked me to answer the following four questions:-

1. What am I working on?
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
3. Why do I write/create what I do?
4. How does your writing/creating process work?

1. I am not really working on much at all at the moment, I have been making tags and I have just finished making 2 Exploding Boxes that were made to order for a colleague at work who is getting married soon. Originally she wanted them as gifts for her Bridesmaids but when she saw them she decided that they would be perfect for her and the Groom's Mums instead. I have to say I wasnt overly keen on the colours but once the boxes were made up and embellished I loved them. I had also forgotton just how much I like making these pretty little boxes, think I could be making a few more in the coming months. To ne honest I havent really been scrapping much at home recently, most of my scrapping has been at the Kingshill Crop that I attend once every two months. I have however been keeping upto date with Project Life, its nice and simple and so easy to update. Its my go-to Sunday morning job, I make a coffee and head to my room for an hour or so to update that weeks page and prepare for the next week. Below are some pictures of the boxes and my more recent PL pages...I would love to know what you think of them?

2. I think that I have a certain style of scrapbooking and its a style that I tend to stick with about 90% of the time. Most of my layouts are very simple and clean with fairly straight lines and just a little bit of journalling. I subscribe to the Basic Grey Page of the Month Kits and I love doing these, they always push me out of my comfort zone just a little as there is often a lot of elements to them. I have also been getting inky recently making some vintage/distressed type tags (pics in previous post).....again this is really out of my comfort zone as I dont usually do the inky fingered kind of crafting!! Saying this though I absolutly love, love, love making them and am on a mission to add a mix of colours to my ever growing stash of ink pads. One thing I want to start making more of this year is mini books, below is a Vegas themed one I made up using a kit I got while we were there last year, I just need to print off some pics to add to it (and if I can do that this week the book can be a anniversary pressie for hubbie next weekend). I also want to get on and complete the two items below...not sure yet if I will paint/ink them, or cover them in pretty paper. Think it will probably end up being a combination of the two, but whichever I choose I will make sure that I take some pictures and add them here.

3. I have always been a crafter, even as a child I had 'making' things as Christmas and Birthday gifts. I have tried knitting, rug making, flower arranging, glass painting, decoupage and probably a lot more that I have long forgotton about! I was an avid cross stitcher until I discovered scrapbooking (which I was introduced to by a friend who no longer scraps). I bought a starter kit at a craft show and was literally hooked overnight. Despite the fact that hubby and I have no children I never seem to have a shortage of things to scrap. My main subjects are my nephew and niece.....and they are the ones that I really scrap for, I want to create a whole load of memories for them to share with their children and grandchildren one day. As a family we have inherited from our grandparents and other family members so many old photos of family and friends but we have no idea where they are or who they are with in most of them. I hope that by creating scrapbooks future generations of our family wont have the same problem and they will be able to look back and see what we were doing and where we were going etc.

4. My 'layout creating' process starts with my photos, although as a lover of 12x12 paper I have been known to take (insert the word stage here) pictures that will co-ordinate with the paper. I get my inspiration from all sorts of places...other blogs, sketches, Pinterest and of course UKS. Although most of the time I just tend to follow my instinct and go with flow.

Thanks so much for stopping by and looking at my blog and a big thanks to Sarah for nominating me. For the next part of the blog hop I am going to tag/nominate my fellow blogger Sandra Please stop by her blogs next week to see her post.

Love and hugs, Jane