Hellooo ... it's been a while!

Hellooo ... I know, I know, it's been a long time!

This blog has been a little quiet this year ..... But that's about to change!!

So far in 2014 I've been to several crops, a whole weekend scrapping retreat and an all day Charity crop as well as some scrappy sessions here at home, so it's fair to say I have a few layouts to show you.

I'll kick off with this one for today:

This was a layout I made for a commission for Scrapbook Magazine which appeared in issue 78 back at the start of the year for a "New Beginnings" feature.

I created a page about how we gave a new home to Lola, one of the two young kittens who had been rescued by our local RSPCA after a member of the public discovered them abandoned in a park in a cardboard box.  We actually ended up bringing both kittens home and the two sisters are now very happy with us.

The papers, stickers, fabric frame and resin flowers are from the Crate Flea Market collection. I also used some Studio Calico wood heart and arrows, Mister Huey mist, enamel dots and some of the lovely hearts washi tape.

It's good to be back on my little blog and I'll be back soon to show you another layout or two!!

Thanks for popping in!

A Sketch Challenge

The 2014 monthly challenges launched over on S J Crafts yesterday.

For our first challenge, Jennifer came up with this fab sketch:

and here's the layout I made based on the sketch

My main supplies were Simple Stories Daily Grind papers and stickers, Glitz hearts washi tape and a sprinkling of enamel dots.

A couple of close ups:

I also made a divided protector page to sit next to this one in my album - I'll pop back and show you that here soon!

We'd love you to take up the challenge as well and play along .... all the details are in this post , along with some fab examples from the rest of the Design Team. You have until the end of February to link up your layout/cards over there.

Thanks for popping in today!

My Christmas 2013 Journal

Hi everyone

December and the build up to Christmas is always crazy busy in this house but it really is one of the most wonderful times of the year for me! 

I take a million photographs throughout the festive season - ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I do take a lot!

Each year I like to select a few favourites or the ones that tell a story or were taken at special events we have been to and get them into my albums.

This year I've decided to make a smaller book as well as some larger 12" x 12" layouts that will go into my main album.

Here is my first page in my book:

The page is 7" x 7" and I'm using an album I've had in my stash for a while now. 

The album is plain cream pages held together with a book ring. The front and back covers are thick chipboard which I will also decorate as I don't think lime green arrows are very festive!

For several years now I have loosely followed Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas. This is a class which for a very reasonable initial cost gives you access every year so you can follow the daily prompts year after year if you wish.

For my Christmas book I'm using a variety of supplies , some older and some brand new. For this first page I used a sheet of Echo Park This n That Christmas matted onto red cardstock and added some Simple Stories December Documented papers and stickers, wood veneer stars, enamel dots and red gems to embellish.

Do you have a separate album/journal or book for recording December and Christmas? 

Have you started to scrap the season already or do you wait until January?

Happy December!

Sarah x

Six Cards on The 6th (October)

October's "Six on the 6th" went live on the S J Crafts blog earlier today here!

Did you know it's only 80 days until Christmas??!!

So, yes - it's definitely time to get started on those cards, if you haven't already. 

Even if you only join in with "Six on the 6th" for October, November and December you'll still have 18 cards all made and ready to send!

For my six cards this month I chose to use some Echo Park papers and stickers from the "Reflections Christmas" collection that I had won in an EP Facebook competition recently and teamed them up with a Glitz Designs "Hello December" 6" x 6" Pad. I started by taking some 12" x 12" sheets of Bazzill card in White, Stonehenge and Maraschino and cutting, scoring and folding them to make 5" square card blanks. 

I decided on a red/grey/white colour (with a tiny bit of green!) scheme for this month's six cards.

I made each card in a similar way, layering up the background papers (lightly inking the edges with grey ink) and adding doilies and stickers.

I love this red woodgrain paper from the Hello December pad.

I added wood veneer snowflakes, pearls and "splattered" a little white Mister Huey on some of the cards.

One of the Echo park sheets of papers was little vintage postcards and another was little bingo cards so I cut these up into small panels that I could use as embellishments.

On some of my cards I stamped a greeting and added twine to this one:

and a strip of red glitter tape to this one:

I made this one last and I think it's probably my favourite .... I like the simplicity of it!

Here's some detail/close ups for you:

So what are you waiting for??  

Grab some supplies and make your 6 cards!!

Even though the S J Crafts Design Team reveal their cards on the 6th of each month, you have all month (until 5th November) to link up your cards using the Linky tool at the bottom of this post. Each month you join in and link up also gives you another entry into the draw to win a box of crafty stash!!

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet?

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!