Ink & Share Scrapbook Blog Hop ~ Sketch

Hello Crafters and welcome to my blog. This time I am taking part in a Scrapbook Hop, so if you're into memory keeping, you've come to the right place! Later on you'll see a list of names, we're all Independent Stampin Up! demonstrators from across the globe who are sharing what we love in this blog hop. You'll no doubt see many different styles (at the time of writing this, I haven't seen all the other pages yet). My favourite style is the traditional 12 x 12 layout although I have dabbled in pocket pages too.

So this months theme was a sketch.

My usual process is to choose my backing paper/card and then the photos to go with it. Yes I know its easier the other way round, but I've always been a bit "cack-handed" (a bit back to front). No doubt stems from being born left handed, but made to use my right hand as at the time my parents thought they were doing right by me. I do most things right handed now but my thought processes are usually a bit skewed!

Anyway, as soon as I saw the photos in my stash, I knew they were the ones for this challenge!  Once I had the photos, then the title popped into my head and then it took no time at all to decide on colour and the rest of the layout. I initially had stamped the circles using the Swirly Frames stamp set, using Real Red and Daffodil Delight inks, but between you and me, the circles ended up looking a little rude, so I added the flower from Sunshine Sayings in Memento black ink and it looked a lot better and fitted the colours in the photos. I backed all the photos in black card, then punched the letters for the title. I laid everything out on the 12x12 paper which comes from the designer series papers Tranquil Textures, then printed my journalling onto Crumb Cake cardstock, aging the edges using Crumb Cake ink

The back story briefly is, we were visiting Richborough Castle (ruins) in Kent (UK) and found there was a reenactment group there who were going to be put ting on a show However a lot of their members hadn't been able to attend so they did something they rarely did and asked if members of the public fancied being Roman soldiers for the day? My husband was keen and found it fascinating as they had him drilling - marching and practising formations they used in battle. He told me afterwards they used similar tactics in the modern day police service (he was policeman at the time), so felt right at home!

The title SPQR stands for the motto SENATUS POPULUSQUE ROMANUS which translates to the Senate and People of Rome

The 3rd photo showing us as a family shows our children aged then 11, 9 and 4. Now the two oldest are in their mid 30's and our youngest will hit 30 on his next birthday! When did I become old enough to have children this age, haha.

So there you go, hopefully something a little different for you. Please now move on to the next person on our list and hope you enjoy!

Stay crafty

Karen xx

Lisa Kmiec

Karen Pearmain  you are here!

Rhonda Waechter

Shirley Merker

Sandra Roberts

Lisa Henderson

Jenna Watkins

Sue McDonald

Jo Blackman

Rebecca-Jo Unwin

Cindy Mitchell-Clark