It was lovely to leave the cold ad snow in Teesside on Thursday and ecgange it for the warmth and sun of Egypt. We have come to the Hauza Beach hotel in Sharm to celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary. So those who have logged of for scrapbook insoutstion will just have to make do with my ramblings and photos from my blackberry! I will try and remembe to have fun whilst recording our adventure. I managed to do my usual when we first come away on an all inclusive break, sample the strength of the local brew. I got so drunk on the first night I was ill and didn't get up until 11am the following day. Even then I needed painkillers to get rid of the hangover before I could face food. Well now I know how strong it is and in future will moderate my drinking For today anyway... ------------------

Just before I go on my holidays, I thought I would share some digi-scrapbook freebies with everyone. I have been involved in the forum KindredCreations.com and they are arranging a mega free kit for February with about twelve designers taking part. I posted a picture of the sample pack earlier, but now here is the link to download the kit and also a free Quickpage designed with other elements. The link for the Quickpage is HERE The kink for the sampler kit is HERE You can access my part of the kit but you will need to join Kindredcreations to access the rest of the mega digital kit. I would love to see what you create with the kit. please send me links to your gallery or blog.

As we are off on our holidays on Friday, I thought I would test the blogging from a mobile. I will be amazed it it works! ------------------

Our beautful granddaughter finally decided to arrive in the world after we have all been eagerly waiting. In this photo she was only 19 hours old and desperate to look around! There will be lots more photos and scrapbook layouts created showing this little beauty in the next few years. I have recently joined a new forum and my what a friendly bunch they all are. Kindred Creations have let me join in the fun of creating a mega FREE collaboration digital scrapbook kit. Over 10 designers are each creating a smaple kit based on a set pallette. What a brilliant way to get your hands on loads of free digital scrapbook items. I have only included a few of the items in my sample for the kit. So you can join Kindred creations forum now and get the free samples from a range of designers.

After 9 months and 16 days if waiting Baby Daisy Grace Allen finally decided to make her presence known. Born to my eldest daughter Lyndsey today by C Section at 15.26 GMT weighing a healthy 8lb 15.5oz and 53cm long. I cant wait to travel down to Manchester to see her tomorrow. I have my camera ready and will post back photos.

I have been loooking for some challenges and inspiration for my digital scrapping and answered a call in digishoptalk forum to join a new creative team. I was overjoyed when Angel from www.PrettyScrappy.com emailed to say she liked my work. I chose the Paperhearts kit from seen here . I decided to see what types of layouts I could create from it as I loved the little bears and cupcakes which are prefect for birthday layouts. But I also wanted to use the heart frames for other themes. So I incorporated photos of my unborn grandchld at 38 weeks. Although it is much bigger now it is 41+ weeks! The lazy little thing has still not decided to join us in this world. Hopefully it will be dragged out to see us in the next two days. Watch this space for news... The first layout is my third birthday party with a new sparkly partydress, cake and candles and cups of tea in best china. They dont have parties like that anymore!

We are still waiting for our grandchild to be born. Our daughter is now 10 days over her due date and getting bigger and bigger. We hope that everything is well and baby is born with some intervention early next week. I hope this lazy baby will stay happy and contented when it emerges into the world. There is a large family waiting to meet him or her! As I am waiting, I used the Waiting to Happen kit from MGLscraps. This kit is so versatile and perfect for scrapping our waiting game. The layout is of my daughter Michelle when she showed teenage attitude.

Well all I have to report today is that there is still no sign of our grandchild emerging. My daughter is now 10 days over her due dates and the newest edition to the family is still warm and cosy inside. It shows no sign of wanting to emerge and meet the family! Ah well. I have freebie quickpage based on my new Warm Olives kit available here if anyone would like it. The photo is of my eldest daughter and soon to be mother of our new grandchild. (when the monkey takes the cork out!) Enjoy, I would love to see what ypu do with this quickpage.

After a weekend of waiting near the telephone for our grandchild to appear I spent most of the time loading up clothes on to ebay. These are not mine but my mothers and mother in laws who need a bit of spending money. I was sick of ebay (and waiting!) when I saw the challenge on UK scrappers to scrap in red and black to celebrate the Chinese new year and to scrap an animal. What a perfect colour scheme to scrap this photo of Akira, one of my daughters kittens. The journalling says: Akira was abandoned in a box a few days old. he was named Akira after a Japanese Manga warrior. With such a name, it is sweet he stil sucks his paw when he goes to sleep. I used my favorite Crimson Gypsy kit again.

While I have been sitting waiting for new of the impending birth of our new grandchild, I have been playing with photoshop . This is another one of the quick page designs created with the lovely Crimson gypsy kit from mglscraps. I added the photo later. Well I will create some more while I wait for news. Although we are hoping it may be a planned delivery on Friday 23rd January! fingers crossed all goes well.

After I used the last template, I have found a few more challenges using templates. This one was the template challenge from the pickleberrypop forum. The original had lots of flowers but it wasnt suitable for a cat photo. I used the Crimson Gypsy kit from mglscraps.com. The colours and textures are like jewels. I think my laptop is about to pack in as some of the keys no longer work. I keep typing then have to go back and correct mistakes as letters do not register. The worst key is the letter g, that one needs a good hard thump to et it to work.

You get those times when everything seems to go wrong, the cat is sick and it is looking serious and expensive. Mother in law is very time demanding as she recovers froma long illness. My mum has to go for further test and is worried sick. My dad is upset as his pet guinea pig died at the weekend. We seem just to be lurching from one crisis to another. I am not sure who our new year 'first foot' was but they are definately sacked for next year. As a form of stress relief I have been scrapping when I have spare time. I have enjoyed creating quickpages and have loaded some freebies on the website HERE I have realised that the photos screw up my design processes. so I have designed the page first with just a place for the photos and then find a photo to fit in the design. I know it seems like I am scrapping backwards but it works for me, This one was based on a free template available from digi shop talk forum and using the wonderland kit from createwings.

These two beautiful bears were photographed near the top of Grouse Mountain, Vancouver. They had been found as cubs and rescued bby the rangers and given a safe area to live. We were told by the ranger that they both had a pool each as they were quite territorial and refused to share. The photos were taken with Canon 450 DSLR.

After the work was done we planned a day trip sightseeing. It was a day when we used almost every form of transport. We awoke to an extravigant omlette breakfast in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver , Canada and planned our day trek up to the top of Grouse Mountain. The long walk down the main street showed us every type of store and quite a few homeless people begging on street corners. Our next transport was called the sea plane, which was actually a hovercraft type thing but looked very much like an aeroplane on the inside and had a pilot so I suppose it counts. That took us over the river to the otherside of Vancouver where we waited for the local bus service. Linda decided to go off and buy a coffee at this point and we missed the bus which was conveniently times to co-incide with the arrival of the sea plane. So we had a half hour wait for the next bus to come along and jumped on. We got off the but at the car park for the National park and queued for the cable car lift to ta...

When I got the photos back from the wedding I realised mine were not as good as I was expecting. So I decided to learn more about photography and take a class, after searching round local colleges I could find a course to meet my needs which was more than loading photos frm a digital camera and less of a qualification which was all 'arty' and developmental. After reading a few mags I decided to buy myself my first SLR camera and to undertake some workshops with professional photographers. I have my new toy, a Canon 450D but I dnt have a clue about lenses and f stop things. I am hoping to pick up the technical settings as I go along. This was one of the first photographs I took with the new camera. It showed the rain over the sea but then the sun came through the clouds and shone on the sea. This photo is exactly how it came out, it hasnt been enhanced in any way. Ilust love the detail in the sky.

I have been catching up after my son's wedding. I cant believe how much it took out of us from getting the fvours and rom ready to trying to prepare the house for guests (and then try and look after them!) So this week I am back at work but have also been relaxing with digital scrapbooking. I created a small album as an 'alternative' wedding album and have sent it of to photobox for printing. I was surprised what a good deal I got from there. I might have to spend even more on other projects! As we have been all wedding-ed out and are back at work and still in need of a rest, I have finally got round to booking flights to visit my sister who lives just near Lisbon, Portugal. I must admit that I have been trying to book these for so long but it seemed a nightmare trying to get a price which didn't equate to the cost of a family of four in Barbados! I want to go back and visit Penna Palace which was a moorish castle with stunning carvings amongst other tourist spots. ...

This is my first layout for ages. I have been busy with wedding preparations of favours and outfits. I have even just finished making my hat for the occation of my sons wedding. this layout is of my daughter Michelle in her favorite ballet tutu. I used the wonderland kit from Createwings creations.

I thought I would try something different today. I found this lovely large paisley stamp from elusive images. So I heat embossed it in a nive glossy balck and had great fun colouring it with sakura pens and sprinkling glitters. It turned out better than I was expecting, but I think it was shaping the acrylic text stamp to the paisley contour which finished it off.

It seems it is sunny everywhere except the North East of England. While the sun scorches the fields inland, we have mist and drizzle on the coast and a temperature drop of about 7 degrees. I needed to bring some spring into my life so created this layout of our cat lyla sunning herself last week. I used the new Wonderland digital kit from O'scraps. I think it is a brilliant kit and may get used for lots of cards.

I has been a lovely weekend, even though the sun was not scorching the grass it was warm. The Cats were out in the garden chasing flies and stalking each other in the bushes. Back to work today and I am being trained on a new computer system. On a less techie thought, I created a card for a colleages birthday yesterday using the craft robo to cut out the age and then my beloved cuttlebug for embossing the background. Magnolia stamp coloured with prismas and blended wih sansador. Lots of glitter for one of our 'Glitter Girls'. The baby card is also for a colleague and used the Litte Cotton Rabbit stamp which as coloured with water colours first then highlighted with Sakura pens. The background papers are TLC and the letter cut from felt card.