A Rare Day Off!

Last week my hubby and I found ourselves with a rare midweek day off together and it was such a glorious sunny day we headed down to the beach for the afternoon!

It was heaven just to sit together at the cafe overlooking the beach sipping an ice cold drink!

Seriously, the weather down here for the time of year is crazy but I'm not complaining that the sun is refusing to give way to winter!

We strolled along the beach, so I could take photographs of the colourful beach huts!

Honestly they were every colour of the rainbow and every shade imaginable!

The sun shine sparkling on the sea on a sunny October afternoon was lovely!

Can't wait to scrapbook these photos!!

Hope you have had a fabulous week!

Christmas is coming!

Every year, about now, once the new school term is in full swing and the darker evenings are here my thoughts begin to turn to Christmas. I don't mean I rush out and shop for gifts and wrap (oh no, I tend to leave that until at least the end of November!) but I do like to really get "stuck into" my christmas cards. Most years I'm still making cards 2 days before the 25th even though I start early.

I have already made a couple a few weeks ago but today I realised I really do need to start making cards in serious numbers if I'm to have any chance of having enough cards made in time this year.

So today I made these two:

The patterned paper is MME It's the season paper and the stamps are from the Oh Christmas Tree clear stamps set.

For the first card I heat embossed the image with silver silver sparkle embossing powder, then mounted it onto some red cardstock. I made the background with more of the red and a piece of the MME Paper, knotting green ribbon around it before mounting it to the square card blank. I used mounting foam tape to raise the stamped image up a little and finished off with some little gem stones. Quick and easy!!

I used promarkers to colour the stamped images for this one, then cut them out, and put glossy accents on them which when dry made them look lovely and shiny. The little trees are then mounted on a piece of kraft and red cardstock and then using foam tape to stick them to the background which is made from a square of the patterned paper and more Kraft. I then popped a green candi in each corner to finish. Again very quick and easy (apart from the glossy accents drying time!!)

Have you started Christmas cards yet?

Shimelle's Starting Point

It's almost too warm and sunny today to be at my scrapping table but as I've got the whole day to myself (I don't even have to go on the school run later!) I thought I would use the time to get scrapping as I had seen this week's starting point last night and I really wanted to have a go. I'm not great with "wide open space" on my pages so I thought this challenge might be good for me.

So this is what I started with ....

Look at all that open space!!

At this stage I hadn't yet stuck the papers to the base cardstock as knew I wanted to place my photos off the page slightly and would need to be able to trim the overhang on the right hand side. I used Crate Random Vintage and Pattern and a small strip of Curtains and also some Crate Neighbourhood from my scraps box.

This is the finished layout ....

Not much "open space" left is there?! lol!

The "Enjoy Life" sticker, the half circle at the top left and the journal spot with the date on are all from the Crate sticker sheet. My title is thickers glitter alphas and I think the tiny letters are My Little Shoebox. I've also used my favourite MS butterfly punch, some fibres that I've had for years and orange gems. I've inked all the edges with my brushed corduroy distress ink.

Right, time for a late (very!) lunch and then I have a couple of haf finished layouts to try to get finished and I might even sit in the garden in this beautiful sunshine for a bit!

Thanks for stopping by!

WOYWW 121

Hello and thanks for visiting my desk today!

Quite tidy for me, don't you think?!! lol!

This morning I've been working on Shimelles Starting Point. I've cut my papers, inked the edges of them all and I'm just about to start sticking down!!

I'm not showing you the floor and the shelves behind me as they are a complete mess!!

There's more desks, tidy and not so tidy to see over here at Julia's blog.

Very quick post as I'm eager to get sticking those papers down! lol!

Introducing our newest family member!

We have been promising Hannah for several months that she can have a hamster and actually got her the cage for her birthday (which was several weeks ago now!) and so last weekend her patience was finally rewarded with a little trip to the pet shop where she chose this little fella!!

She has named him "Nutmeg"!! Although he has already had 1 name change in 3 days and she is now unsure if Nutmeg is more of a girl's name (is it?) so I wouldn't be surprised if it changes again! He is slowly getting used to us and likes to be stroked and loves running round and round in his wheel!

15% off at my shop!!

I try to ensure this blog doesn't just become full of shop news but I just had to tell you about the special offer happening over in my shop to celebrate the new design team!

Enter code TEAM5 in the discount code box to get 15% off your order!!

This offer will close at 11pm tonight (23 September) so be quick! Sorry, UK delivery only.

P & P is still free when you spend £15 or more and with goodies like Crate's Random Collection and SummersEnd from Fancy Pants Design hopefully you'll find something you like!

Stop Press ... MME 12 days of Christmas Collection and Lost & Found Paper Pads has just been delivered so I will try to get these uploaded today so that they can be included in the 15% discount offer!

Enjoy Your Day!!

My 1st time ....

..... published in a craft magazine!!!

I am so unbelieveably excited!!

About 8 weeks ago I e mailed off a few layouts I had made following some sketches in Scrapbook Magazine and received an e mail back saying they would hold onto them for future issues.

Today, I pop into WH Smiths to buy the brand new issue 58 of Scrapbook Magazine and there on page 46 is my layout!

It's the Beach Babe one, which you can see in more detail here when I originally blogged the page.

I showed H when she got home from school and she thinks she's famous now!! lol!

If you haven't already seen who made it to my shop's design team pop on over to the shop blog to have a look! All amazingly talented ladies who I am very exciting to be working with.