Oh hello Blog! ..... And WOYWW 226

Oh hello my poor, sadly neglected blog!!

I had a conversation yesterday over a cuppa and biccies with Jennifer about my blog and the fact that I hadn't blogged for ages. It made realise that I do miss blogging and that I really should find 10 - 15 minutes a few times a week to write a post. So here I am!!

And what better way to get things started again than with a post to join in with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (the biggest world wide "snoop" at craft desks!!)

So here is my desk table this morning!

Messy?  Or not too bad??

I'm in the middle of making my 4th card for my set of 6 Christmas Cards for "Six on the 6th"!!

I have discovered this morning that my box of washi (which you can see bottom right of pic) is sadly lacking in festive tape!!!  Note to self .... need more tape!

On another note .... I have started a sort out of my craft shelves/storage!

I had a BIG clear out a couple of weeks ago and sold or gave away a ton of stuff! But now I need to reorganise what's left so I can actually find and use my stash!

I have a tall Ikea Expedit unit and two smaller units beside it. I have a bad habit of just returning from a crop and dumping my craft boxes on the top rather than put them away properly. I want to sort through the boxes and store them better.

This is some of my 12 x 12 papers in need of a good sort out!

It's a slow job .... I'll do a little bit each day!

Right, time to make another cuppa and then take a wander around some WOYWW desks ... then back to those Christmas cards!

Thanks for stopping by today! xx

Six Cards on the 6th!

Hello!

Goodness, has it really been 2 months?!!  What a bad blogger I've been!

Over on the S J Crafts Blog a brand new series has started today!

"Six cards on the 6th" is all about getting organised for the festive season!

I always end up making my Christmas cards at the last minute and even some years I've had to resort to sending shop bought cards! So this new series is perfect for me. If I make 6 cards on the 6th of each month between now and December, I'll have a lovely pile of cards ready to write and post! No last minute rush!

Jennifer is encouraging us to use a "kit" to make our 6 cards each month as this saves on the decision making and constantly getting up to search for supplies. As the new Christmas collections are only just released, for my first batch of cards I rummaged through my stash and pulled out some of last years left over scraps of papers and stickers to make up my kit.

I also added a set of dies, a few stamps, ink pads, red embossing powder, red twine, red glitter tape, plain cardstock and some gems to my kit. I decided to keep to a traditional red/green/kraft colour scheme for my set of cards. I also pulled out some card blanks, my heat tool and 3d foam pads (not in the photo). Having a kit to work with certainly helped me work quicker as I didn't keep stopping to search out my supplies.

So here's my finished set of 6 cards:

 

As I used just one set of dies and limited myself to two stamps, my cards are all quite similar but I don't think that matters as they will all be sent to different people. I added one or two extra embellishments such as the little green chipboard stars but in the main I kept to my kit.

 

These three were all stamped with the "dashing reindeer" stamp.

 

 

 I think this one is probably one of my favourites from the set. I heat embossed the stamped tree image, mounted on the die cut layers, with a strip of glitter tape and 3 gems to finish. Simple!

If you want to kickstart your Christmas crafting why not join in with "Six cards on the 6th" .... pop over here for all the info and there's some great inspiration from DT member Jennifer and you can link up your set of cards over there too!

A Family Break

Last week we enjoyed some quality family time on a few days break at Centerparcs at Longleat Forest!!

 

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the millions I took.

 

This lake was lovely ...

 

.... but quite how I ended up out on it on a Pedalo, I'm not too sure!! The Powers of Persuasion of a 9 year old!! Fun though!

 

We had a lovely day out a Longleat Safari and Adventure Park.

 

Hand fed the deer!!!

 

Watched the cute lion cubs as they walked in amongst the cars!

 

This one was literally right outside our car window!

 

 

 

We took a boat ride to feed the seals, enjoyed a train ride, went roller skating, played tennis, went in the swimming pool, played ten pin bowling and ate lots of yummy food!!

 

 

A fun few days away from our usual routine!!

 

I have a feeling some of these photos may be appearing on some layouts very soon!

WOYWW 202 ~ Piles!!

Hello ... so this was the state of my desk table earlier today!

Piles!

And Boxes!!

 

I still have the pile of unfinished layouts that I told you about last week on the top left corner. I've finished a couple of them but also added another to the pile!

 

I've been getting a few layouts planned ready for a crop this Saturday so you can see a pile of photos from my "to scrap" folder and two of my boxes of stash just balancing on the edge of the table.

 

I have two new Echo Park collections that I want to use - Bundle of Joy and the Sisters Mini pack. I've been choosing my papers, photos, embellishments and alphas and creating piles ready to put in 12 x 12 plastic bags to take to the crop. Watch out Lisa-Jane, I'm going to be organised this time!!

 

This post is for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. ... the weekly nosy at the desks of other crafty peeps!

 

Right I'm off to visit some more desks!

Just another day at the beach

Every few months I take the shop to a lovely crop held at Littlegreen School near Portsmouth/Chichester and run by Sue. I'm usually lucky enough to fit in a little scrapping time in between running the shop.

 

This is the layout I made last time I went!

Living quite close to the beach we are lucky enough to be able to visit fairly often and when H was small we would often go and let her play in the sand with buckets and spades and paddle in the sea.

 

I have lots (and lots!) of photos of her playing on the beach and lots of scrapbook layouts of beach photos!!

It's actually getting tricky to come up with different titles for my "beach" layouts ... the title for this one is taken from this layout which I had pinned.

 

The background paper and the pink diamond pattern paper are from the Crate DIY Shop collection kit and I've used some pink polka washi tape, Studio Calico Aqua Thickers and a few tiny alpha stickers and brads from my box of stash!

 

I will add some journalling and the date to this layout.

 

I hope you've had a lovely weekend .... it's the last day of the school holidays here so after a walk along the beach and ice creams this afternoon we are back home to preparing uniform and school bags!!

WOYWW #201 ~ Unfinished Layouts!!

Apart from last Saturday when I had a fabulous time cropping with my lovely friends Lisa-Jane and Paula at a 12 hour All Day Crop and helping to raise a few pennies for breast cancer, I haven't had the chance this school holiday to get scrapping! Last week we had some work done on our kitchen (new worktops, sink, tiling etc!) and there was a lot of dust (how does it travel all over the house?!) so all my crafty stashed stayed carefully packed away and protected from the mess!!

 

My Dad very kindly offered to look after H for the day today so after dashing around like a mad thing this morning catching up on jobs, errands and just a little bit of housework I have settled down at my table this afternoon for a little creative time!

 

As it's Wednesday I also thought I could join in with the weekly blog hop, WOYWW where we all get to have a nosey at each others desks. If you have no idea what I'm on about take a look at Julia's blog to find out and join in!

 

So, on my desk is a pile of half done layouts.

 

Actually there is 10 in total!!

 

I've taken the photo so you can also see how I use the floor and a chair beside me to pile my boxes and bags on so they are near at hand! I craft at my dining room table and hate getting up and down to get stuff from my storage unit.

 

Some of the "unfinished pages" just need dates or journalling .... others need titles and some like the one I'm currently working on (with the banners & pic of H sat on my knees) need just about everything!! I matted the photo and cut the banners last Saturday at the crop but got no further!

 

Do you always finish layouts or do you have a pile of unfinished pages too? I'd love to know!

 

Anniversary Weekend Layout

This layout was another I made on my weekend away and  is a scraplift of this Pin on my Pinterest board. I've only recently started to use Pinterest but already I'm loving it as a great source of scrappy inspiration.

 

I've used just a few strips of patterned paper and the cluster of embellies keeps the focus on the photos! I do need to add the date to the tab on the top right corner.

 

The photos were taken on a weekend away last summer in the New Forest.

My hubby and I rarely get any time away on our own due to the difficulties of finding a babysitter (not sure baby sitter is the right term for a 9 year old but you get what I mean!!) so two days away in a hotel to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary was a wonderful treat!

 

In other news .... It's still the school holidays and I'm enjoying spending lots of time with H ... the non-spring like weather has meant trips to the cinema, shops, library and activities at home but she seems happy with that. We went out for lunch today and to visit a local museum tomorrow.

 

Those of you on school holidays with children ... what activities do you do when the weather is not great? ... I'm grateful for more ideas!