Do More of What Makes You Happy For Country View Crafts

Good morning and happy Wednesday - welcome to July! So this month the restrictions are being eased again, and life should hopefully feel a little more like normal. Except for queueing at Primark, that's not normal! And don't get me started on leaving all the litter on the beaches, what is wrong with people!!
I must admit the longer that lockdown has continued the less I have gone out - even when I could. We are very lucky, we have a lovely garden (thanks to Neil) but I could easily turn into a hermit. The virus has made me see that life is very precious, and you never know what is around the corner, so we should all do more of what makes us happy, hence my choice of theme for this month's challenge at Country View Crafts.

I do love to take crafty classes, and as that has been a no-no, I've taken quite a few online and watched lots of Youtube and Facebook tutorials. 

This was my Dad's Father's Day card from last month and was inspired by a tutorial on the Graphic 45 blog by the amazing Gloria Stengal. She makes such beautiful things and makes it all seem so easy and do-able. I'm a stamper and have never made an album or anything like this, so it was WAY out of my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed making it, and Dad loved it too (phew)

I scaled everything up from the tutorial as I like an 8x8 card, and I wanted to keep the photos to 6x4.

This is the front, it's taken from one of my favourite collections, 'Kaleidoscope' Don't try and make me choose between this and 'Ocean Blue'  The only problem is the spelling of colour/color but it just looked wrong when I covered this bit up, so I gritted my teeth and left it alone.

 This is what you see when you lift the cover. They are papers from an 8x8 pad and ephemera cards. There is a selection of G45 goodies here in the store.

 The photos just flip out and are stuck down with photo glue so they can be taken out and changed.

 All of the photos are selfies on my phone and mostly from holidays, so I seem to be on most of them. You think a photo is just a photo until you need to use them in an album or a card. Then you realise that a)some are landscape, and others portrait. b) You never get everyone to look at the camera at the same time. c) The camera adds 3 or 4 chins/stones, and d)someone always gets half of their head chopped off!

 More photo's on the back, with a very rare one of us all from Christmas (it's a few years old now). My Dad is always photo-ready - that's definitely not something I've inherited from him, I'm the one that's squinting, sneezing, or just looking like a muppet in general.

This is the very back page with another ephemera card, I've also written the greeting here.

There's also a little video here showing the grand opening. I was doing the filming so I've not suddenly developed hairy hands. We had a great system, I would elbow Neil on the head and he would turn the page!

So I hope you join in with our challenge and show us what you love. Take care and have a very happy July xx