Scrapping Tonight

As some of you may now be aware I have closed the doors on Pencil Lines. 

What started as a few friends challenging each other with a sketch to produce a layout each week, turned into 15,000 visitors a week, an amazing and talented group of scrapbookers that formed my design team over the last 6 years. Pencil Lines has had 267 amazing guest designers, 267 unique sketches and a published book.

Pencil Lines and its design teams have been featured on numerous blogs and websites all over the web as well as magazines from the UK, US, Russia, Brazil to name a few countries!

Pencil Lines has worked with gorgeous products sponsored by the best in the business, and you the readers have also received amazing prize packages from our sponsors over the years.

sketch 1 provided by Becky Fleck

my first layouts for Pencil Lines, eek!

This is not a decision I have taken lightly, it has been months of decision making on my behalf, and close friends listening to me talk things through with them.
It is no secret that my passion for scrapbooking is dwindling and my love for the craft is not there like it was.
I resigned from my design team spot with Nikki Sivils and I blogged here not that long ago that my heart just wasnt in it.
I have spent the past 7 years scrapbooking on demand, with deadlines and for manufactures, magazines and design teams. I rarely, like many scrapbookers out there like me, have the time to scrapbook for me, for pleasure. I could see that I wasnt dedicating 110% to Pencil Lines, to the many readers out their and to my design team. I knew the time had come for me to hang up my coat and call it quits.




I am sure it has not come as too much as a shock for alot of people, and for some I know it has come as a complete surprise.
I will be working on putting all the 267 sketches into a PDF format and selling for a nominal fee where a percentage will go to charity.
I also have a few books left and will sell those at the reduce price of £9.95 incl postage in the UK. Overseas will be plus postage. Drop me an email at pencillinesketches@googlemail.com or leave a comment here if you would like to purchase one of the few remaining Pencil Lines books left.

I have had the most amazing 6 years, so many people to thank, amongst them are Sue Deacon, Annie Hafermann, Tracie Hudson, Anam Stubbington, and Leah Fraquharson. Each of these ladies worked extemely hard behind the scenes to make Pencil Lines the success it was. From contacting sponsors, readers gallery winners, guest designers spots and our facebook fan page, all of these were possible because of the amazing team I have had behind me, thankyou form the bottom of my heart.

Thank you typepad for making us a featured blog, we are all so proud of that achievement.

Finally, thank you to everyone who let Pencil Lines grow, the support you gave myself and the design teams over the years. It is you that made Pencil Lines the success it was today....

Thank you for reading this far....
Anna xxx

Today was crop day and although there were only 4 of us and myself we still had a great day, and I believe it or not, scrapped 4 layouts!!! A new record for me, I rarely manage 1 layout at a crop, LOL.

This layout is for Pencil Lines sketch 244. Leaving very last minute I know but scrapping time has been put on the back burner these last few weeks.

I am using up my drawer full of left over kits, and this is another one from Kenner Road.





Supplies : Kenner Road Kit, word strip Scenic Route, Bakers Twine, button Such Sweet Tierney

The weather here is glorious, very hot and sunny. I have sports day tomorrow for both the girls and hope to have all my layouts blogged this week for you with some sports day photos!

Thanks for stopping by, hope your weekend was a good one.
Anna x

Like all siblings, they have their good days and their bad days. My girls are no exception to that rule. They either adore each other or are fighting each other. They change how they feel about each other like the wind changes direction, and its hard to keep up with them, LOL

But when I capture special moments of my girls laughing, loving each other and truly being best friends, sisters, my heart melts and I am so glad I am tethered to my camera!
This was one of those days, and this is just a few from a series of photos taken of my two messing about, giggling and just finding fun in the smallest of things.

I love my girls  to the moon and back.

When I designed this sketch I didn't have these photos in mind, but I am glad that when I pulled the sketch out to play with, these photos sprung to mind immediately. I used an old Kenner Road Kit to complete this layout.


Best Friends - Pencil Lines sketch 242







Supplies : October Afternoon, Sassafras Lass papers, Cosmo Cricket chipboard, Sassafras Lass felties

 Do pop on over to Pencil Lines to meet this weeks guest designer and see what the rest of the design team did with the sketch.



Thanks for stopping by.
Anna x

Its feels like an age since I scrapped and headed into my studio. The past few weeks have been hectic here, our personal life is pretty tense at the moment.
I did find some time to scrap today and at last managed a layout for Pencil Lines, talk about last minute!

I had fun going through some older papers, and picked out some American Crafts Dear Lizzy papers and also played with a Little Musing. I used photos from last weeks trip to Brampton Woods.






Supplies : Dear Lizzy Spring Time, Little Musing Angel digital stamp, AC thickers, Letraset Promarkers

I cannot say goodbye before mentioning the Royal Wedding, wow they are the most gorgeous couple around, beautiful, breathtaking wedding. I cried buckets, and so wish I had gone down to Hyde Park now. We did have a garden party planned but the forecast was not good so we canceled. That's was Ok in the end as I got to watch with Peter and blub lots!


Thanks for stopping by, I will try and be a bit more frequent with my posts this week!
Anna x

 I was asked by Amanda from Scrap Rat to be her April guest designer for the launch of a new kit company here in the UK. I did share a few sneaks the other day , and I am now going to share the layouts in full.

i will be framing this at some point

Supplies : Scrap Rat April Kit

I also used some of the kit to do my Pencil Lines layout this week, just added a few flowers and a vintage card from Kenner Road to the mix.






Supplies : Scrap Rat April Kit, Prima flowers, Nikki Sivils yellow polka dot, Kenner Road flash card, diecut form stash!

Have you popped over to Pencil Lines yet? The new design team are with us officially now and the inspiration is mind blowing!
Don't forget we also have a Pencil Lines Fan Page over on Facebook.

Check back tomorrow for an amazing giveaway to launch my photography site Anna Bowkis Photography. In the mean time please go and check out my fan page on Facebook and "like", you never know it may help you win the giveaway;)

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

I have had a lovely day with the girls and Peter, Nana, brother and partner! I cooked lunch, and I really dont mind as I enjoy cooking. We had Roast Beef with all the trimmings and I made 2 puds!
Nigellas Lemon Meriunge Cake and Hestons cherry and chocolate pudding.




The day started with Izzy presenting me with a home baked cake that she made in the morning (she got up at 6.30am to bake it!) for breakfast!!!! Hey its never the wrong time of day for cake LOL. The girls bought me a gorgeous Momiji doll and a cute cuddly rabbit.



Izzy prepared the table for lunch and also picked flowers from the garden to add to the table. Lilly sang to us after lunch and the girls then put on a puppet show, with us all in the show. I must share pictures as Izzy and Lilly had built a stage and made puppets of us all including Suki!!



I actually made the time and effort to have a photo taken with Izzy today. I read a really interesting article, "Is there a perfect time?" to have a family photo shoot. I wont delve into it here, but please take the time to go and read it, it will make you be in front of the camera just a bit more often!



Finally tonight Pencil Lines sketch 232 goes live with our new design team, so exciting!! and our guest is pretty awesome too as is this months RAK!

Pop on over and be inspired!
Hope you all had a lovely Mothers Day UK mums, and as always, thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Very excited to announce the new Pencil Lines Design Team tonight. Are you on the list?

Pop on over to Pencil Lines to sign up for our newsletter and learn more about our new Design Team. Why not join our Face Book page too!
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

..... with a Kenwood Mixer.

I can multi task whilst baking now I have a Kenwood all singing all dancing mixer. I have had it for a while now and it was the subject of a 365 photo last year. Today it was the subject of my Pencil Lines layout.
I provided this weeks sketch, and using the title of Lorraine Pascale's new book, "Baking Made Easy" as my title with a twist.
I used some Bo Bunny papers I have had for a while, and an old sheet of Pink Paislee, and then added lots of flowers "heart", and some pearls.


Baking Made Easy with a Kenwood Mixer





Supplies : Pink Paislee shaped paper, Bo Bunny Pattern Papers, stickers and alphabet, Making Memories and Prima flowers, Butterfly embossed punch, Kaiser Craft pearls.



Pop on over to Pencil Lines to join this weeks sketch challenge and to enter our readers gallery RAK, this month sponsored by Owl Tree Studio. For our digital scrappers, don't forget to download the FREE template!

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Pencil Lines are looking for 12 new design team members. The entries I have received have been outstanding and this is not going to be an easy choice by far!
If you are still thinking of applying, STOP,  head on over here for all the details and apply, what do you have to lose?!

sketch to enter the DT search copyright Pencil Lines the Sketch Book

Deadline is 12pm GMT 28th of February. I am taking applications from the UK and international, digital, hybrid or paper, everyone's creativity is welcomed.

Cannot wait to see your entries :)

Anna x

Pencil Lines the Sketch Book has been out nearly a year now, and I havnt shared any layouts here on my blog. This layout of Lilly as a cat was one of my favorite sketches from the book, and a favorite layout still. Lilly has had several cat costumes over the years, and has spent many fancy dress party and Haloween dressed as a cat. Now she is nearly 8, dressing as a cat is no longer something she cares to be. I am so pleased for the memories I ahve in my scrapbook layouts and photos now...

Miaow



page copyright of my book. "Pencil Lines the Sketch Book"



Supplies: Cardstock Bazzill, Pattern Paper My Little Shoebox, Buttons making Memories, Flowers Making Memories and Prima, Alphabet American Crafts, Crystal swirl Prima



 What I loved about this sketch is  it allowed me to use paper scraps and lots of embellishments I already had; definitly a stash busting sketch/layout!

Pencil Lines the Sketch Book is still available here

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Pencil Lines sketch 224 has gone live with guest deisgner Fauve van Maanen. Fauve also provided this weeks very versatile sketch, and she also designed 2 layouts!

I chose a photo that I had taken with my IPhone for my 365/2011, of which will become part of my Document 2011/Project Life 365. I printed my photo to resemble a polaroid as well.



We have had a lovely weekend spent with friends and Rock Band, just perfect! Sunday has been a chilled out today and for dinner I cooked Delia Smiths (Chinese Belly Pork), Hung Shoi Pork, currently advertised in Waitrose. Here is the link if anyone's interested. Healthy eating regime is going well as is my exercise plans. How are your 2011 regimes panning out?

Hope your weekend was a relaxed and fun one!
Thanks for stopping by
Anna x

Pencil Lines is live with a sketch by myself and guest designer Lisa Saunders from the UK. I stumbled across Lisa's gallery over at UKScrappers and just loved her style and had to invite her over to guest with us.

I chose a photo of Izzy in her Dad's hat to scrap, and kept papers simple and loaded the embellishments! I have kept to the sketch, but quite loosley! I didnt add a shaped piece of paper as I love the shaped edge on the background paper I used. I used little flowers instead of the circles on the sketch.





Supplies : Pattern Paper Prima, embellishments, Sassafras Lass, Paper Mania, Cosmo Cricket, Fancy Pants, Jenni Bowlin, Alphabet Prima

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you had a lovely weekend
Anna x

Odd title you may think, now that its 2011, and I agree it is, but I scrapped our 2010 New Years Eve for Pencil Lines sketch 220 this week.

As some of you may remember, the past 2 years we have had a fancy dress New Years Eve party and are surrounded by our closest friends and family, and this is the case most NYE. This year we decided to spent NYE on our own. Come 10.30pm the kids were well and truly in bed, I was in my PJ's and not a drink in site!!!
That day we had had a HUGE kitchen clear out and came across a Kenwood Smoothie Pro that Sue had given us and it now has a place on the kitchen top, being used regulary I am glad to say. But its first outing was on NYE where it happily made Peter and I Margarita's; a whole bottle of Tequila's worth of Margarita's.
Peter and I had a lovely evening, just the two of us watching Jools Hollands Hootenanny, an absolute must on NYE, whilst enjoying lots of Margarita's!!
The night ended up with us having a fit of the giggles and 2am and Izzy barging in our bedroom, hands on hip giving us a right telling off!
Quite a night to remember, LOL

So here is  my layout, 8" x 11" photos, taken with my Iphone using instagram (a must have app!)




Supplies : Bazzill cardstock, Hambly transparencies, Such Sweet Tierney buttons, Scenic Route chipboard, AC alphabets.

Tomorrow I will share my 365 project I am doing, all with my Iphone and Iphone app.

Thanks for stopping by
Anna x