Merry Christmas all x

Wishing you a very Happy Christmas from my family to yours. Enjoy the festivities xx

ATDML final Virtual crop day for 2018

A clean and simple page for one of two layouts I designed with Bo Bunny Carousel Christmas papers which were part of the ATDML kit for this month's class. As well as my two layouts I created a teeny tiny mini book for the forthcoming 12 days of Christmas as mentioned in my last blog post. It is made from 1.75" punched circles which feature tiny hand-cut baubles and leaves space for small photos. I really enjoy creating these little extra projects with my kits and it was a lovely project to start at my crop and finish up in the new year when I have my photos.

My class is up first at 10 with another by Katherine at noon and Tricia at 2pm. Go check them out along with plenty of festive inspiration on Created by ATDML blog.

December Daily - I have finished one!!

OK so I finished my 2016 December Daily!!! Woo hoo!!

As I had previously blogged I have not been the best at finishing these but this one I was the closed to completion with just Dec 25th missing so I dug out the photos from my laptop, printed them off and finished my page for Christmas day 2016.

Here is a flick through of the year. 

I have loved looking back and remembering things from just two years ago and seeing how much my kids have grown. The Timmy the Elf antics always make me smile too and I am so pleased I have a documented set of these for the year.  Now I just need to finish another year now whilst trying to stay on top of 2018 too! I will keep you posted but so far so good.

A little festive thing I made

I got a little Pinterest happy and got all festive and cut up lots of small pieces of paper and this was the outcome when combined with some bells taken off a cheap 79p Christmas decoration.

I am a little bit in love with it, but more importantly loved the creation process itself, so even if it falls apart after one year up in the house (lets hope not!) then it will still have been worth my time. AND it's yet ANOTHER Graphic 45 project from me (this year I think I have been on a role creating with what I previously found a very challenging style to work with). I do think they lend themselves to plenty of fussy cutting which can be very therapeutic on a chilly winter evening.

Advent with Kaisercraft and ATDML Scraplift Santa

 

December first and we are all reaching for our advent calendars and that cheeky chocolate that is only acceptable to have for breakfast in December!! I spent a fortune on a fancy beauty advent calendar for my daughter this year (which was her birthday present as requested) so decided to make a small one for myself rather than buy one.  The irony isn't lost on me that I spent more on a set of white blank matchboxes than I could have on a traditional advent calendar but where would the crafting fun have been in that? Plus I saw a design like this on Pinterest last year, if not the year before, and really wanted to recreate it.  ATDML then made that easier for me when they included this delicious foiled Kaisercraft advent paper in my December kit.

So this project features on the ATDML blog today as we kick-started the month of Scraplift Santa challenges.

There are a few more images over there plus a bit of an explanation on how 2 coasters and 24 matchboxes became this advent cube covered in Kaisercraft Wonderland papers

December Scraplift Santa with ATDML

Starting on Saturday, and kicking off with yours truly, the A Trip Down Memory Lane team have a bi-weekly Scraplift Santa challenge going for the month of December.

One of the DT stand in for Santa and bring you a gift of a seasonal project for you to scraplift from the comfort of your own home. No kits, no instructions, just simple images and a whole heap of festive fun every Wednesday and Saturday throughout December.

It's going to be so much fun!!

Festive Crafternoon

What a fun afternoon spent at Salisbury House on Saturday joining in the Adult festive crafternoon. I consider myself creative not artistic and am quite self critical when drawing so I was actually a little apprehensive taking a sharpie pen to biscuits of wood to create around 14 designs ready to form a rustic, nordic style wreath.

In the end I was pleasantly surprised and quite proud of my wreath which needs some sparkle and maybe a little white paint to brighten before I share the finished article. 

As always it was an absolute blast to share the experience and several pots of tea with this one! "

December ATDML Gallery projects

I found myself scrapping way more than I usually do during December with gorgeous seasonal papers from Kaisercraft Mint Wishes and Simple Stories papers featured in my A Trip Down Memory Lane design team kit.. The full December gallery from the team can be found HERE and features no less than six layouts from me!

This was one of my favourite pages I made which actually used very little of the papers and incorporated some large glittery snowflakes taken off the front of a discounted pack of Christmas cards. The red bauble BE MERRY element was from a Simple Stories Christmas collection and went perfectly with photos of the giant red baubles sat in a water feature just down from the Rockafellar Centre in New York which my daughter and I visited at the start of December.

I then added my two 6x4 photos and clustered full and partial snowflakes around the page with some smaller snowflakes, stars and other festive elements, plus my journaling and a gem or sequin here and there!

The same papers made this easy 9-grid format layout featuring photos of my family on 25th Dec 2017. I had removed the bauble element used in the layout above first from this paper and then backed the gap with another paper and covered some of the grids with slightly trimmed 4" square black and white photos.

Adding my journaling to the centre block and some hand cut flowers from the same range to the top left square my page was easy to pull together. The Christmas Cheer saying on the middle far right grid came from Kaisercraft Mint Wishes collection but the tone of the dark green matched in well enough to these Simple Stories papers to be able to sit alongside them.

Plenty more festive pages in the gallery for last month - go take a look and get inspired to get your holiday photos onto pages and in to your Scrapbook Albums.

Hello 2018 - I may blog you!

So after a very long absence from blogging due to a very busy day to day life I have made a few significant changes these last few months and am back telling my tale.

After almost 16 years with the same employer where I loved my job, but not the stress that accompanied it in more recent years, I braved the employment market and found another role thanks to a good friends faith in me and started yesterday in a new job. I have to commute now and no longer work just a short way from home but this hour journey each way will give me some "down time" and allow my brain some much needed space.

I am planning on joining in a reading challenge (which I also did last year) where the aim is to read an average of a book a week, 52 over the course of the year. I will share here links to some of the books I read (and I warn you some are real trash but I love them as escapism!). Currently I am reading the latest in the Deadly Beauties Series I started reading in 2017 by Author C.M Owens.

I am also still scrapbooking and designing for A Trip Down Memory Lane so will share my creations here for them and any other crafty bits I do. This month that will include plenty of festive scrapping of the recent season and finishing my December Daily journal.

I want to cook more foods and try combining ingredients for edible treats and meals I see on Pinterest and the internet and think " oh that looks nice". Also I need to save a few pennies and stop eating out for lunch which isn't doing my bank balance or waistline any favours!

I might also share some day to day stuff about the family too, a photo or two, who knows. I just want to record in all and hopefully inspire others to share their 2018 also. Will you join me?

Oh what fun...

Had the best time at my annual Christmas crop day yesterday!
I have been running ScrapMates for ten years next October (with a small break for childbirth!) and I do not think I will ever tire of sharing this hobby with friends new and old!

We set up a fun festive photo booth and with some inexpensive props (kit from Lakeland) we had a blast!.

Here are just a few photos!

And we have the special birthday bash to organise for next year as well with a whole heap of fun planned! I can hardly wait! I'll share our crafting from the crop this week :)

December Daily

I am undertaking the crafty project that is December Daily, or Journal your Christmas or Scrap you December or indeed a combination of them all.

I am using a 6x8 Snap Album by Simple Stories and my inside first page using the modular page protector system looks like this...

I have fake snow sprinkles with my reindeer (love him!) in the bottom pocket which I stitched closed (first time I have done that) and I can see more of that appearing in my album as the month progresses. As per my post yesterday December 1st saw the return of Timmy the Elf so naturally he will feature on a few of my pages. I have printed off my photos for Dec 1st and 2nd and am away to my craft space to play.

12 Days of Christmas inspiration with ATDML

Join us over on Created by ATDML for 12 days of Christmas inspiration. Running every other day from today until Christmas Eve.

First up is me today with my countdown to Christmas minibook / frame. More details can be found on the ATDML blog post (link above).

It features a few photos of Timmy the Elf who joined us again today, December 1st to bring festive cheer for the season, and of course to see if we have been naughty or nice!

This year he brought a trainee Elf with him called Ted - watch these pages for the daily December antics of our mischievous pair! They are sure to feature in my December Daily album too!

Adventures of Timmy the Elf

I admit to being a little sad when on Christmas eve it is time for Timmy the Elf to retreat once more back to Lapland. For those of you who don't know Timmy arrived December 1st 2011 at our home from the North Pole. He is a child watching elf who keeps an eye on the children in the family and reports back to Santa to say if the children should be on the Naughty or Nice lists. Each morning he returns somewhere different in the home, usually causing a little mischief but always ensuing a smile or two from our boys.

I created this page for the December ATDML gallery which features three photos of Timmy and his antics of 2013. It is one of several pages I have done of Timmy - pop over to the December gallery and see what the rest of the design team created along with another Timmy layout from me!