Christmas Rundown

Good afternoon blogland, hope you all had very merry Christmases.  We had a lovely time, but doesn't it go past in a flash?  If I'm honest I am glad its done now, a little too much in the way of christmas visiting this year and my smile is aching a bit from it all (not to mention all the small talk required by people who ask you a question but have no interest in the answer - I'm guilty of it too!)  Yes I am glad that I don't have to go through all that fake smiling and chit chat for a while now.

Its not all bah humbug though, we had a lovely christmas eve and day, my brother did us proud with a stunning meal which he did with  very little fuss, no help wanted and he got it to the table bang on time - well done lil bro!  Christmas night we dropped the children at their dads and just chilled in our new jammies and slippers.  Boxing day we hit the sales, and I bought a kindle with some christmas money, then later to the pub for a few festive drinkies.

In the last few days we have vegged at home and I have read and read, its been lovely and restorative, I did not sleep well over christmas and the lead up and the last 3 nights I have slept til 9am each morning, I almost feel human again!

Today I felt the need to cut and stick, the printer was not being co-operative so I almost had a meltdown when it took 1 hr to print off a photo, but here we have it a lovely relaxing hour or two doing what makes me happy!

Tomorrow is NYE and a change from the usual curry and pub, we are going to our friends Matt and Mandy for a meal, I am looking forward to it immensely, I have long hated NYE in pubs and the though of a nice meal and then getting quietly sloshed in comfort makes me smile like this :D

Basking Mad

Well I know its christmas in just a couple of days and this layout is decidly summery but what can you do?!  This was my take for this weeks Twisted Sketches Challenge with the twist being 'Jewel

Right I am currently trying to play monopoly with the family and then we have to go to my sisters for her step sons 6th birthday party, so I must dash!  Merry Christmas everyone, have a good one!                    

Making my own embossing folder

Wow its amazing what you can learn when browsing the internet, yesterday I learnt how to make my own embossing folders!

Heres how:

Get an empty embossing folder and then with a die cutter cut out a shape (I went for a quatrefoil background




Stick the negative on one side and the little cutout bits on the other, you need to ensure the cut out bits fit into the negative bit, I did this by sticking the frame bit down on one side and then fitting the little bits into the holes, appy glue to just the cutoutbits, close the folder and voila! the little bits will be stuck to the opposite side.



All the while I was making this, I was skeptical, would it work? Well yes it does, here is the result, and if you turn it round you get the other impression, the frame standing pround and the cutouts depressed!

Christmas Prettiness

Yesterday Jason and I did our annual christmas shopping trip, once a year, normally late November but later this year, Jason books a day off and we go and finish off our christmas shopping, its really about an enjoyable trip picking up last minute stocking fillers and having a nice lunch out. The weather outside was frightful, i'm talking freak hailstorms that made it look like there was 2inches of snow on the ground in a matter of seconds - it was amazing!

In one of our shopping centres a cadbury garden and leisure christmas shop had opened and I got some amazing bargains!



From top left: Cute heart fabric banner £2.49 (everthing was half price!), Bauble that I instantly fall in love with £1.75, Whicker white heart £2.49 and Wooden Heart photo frame £2.49

I also bought another 100 lights for the tree as I thought it was lacking lights. I then decided I wanted them on the tree so I had to take everything off and start again, fine if you're a fan of the spartan look, but I like a loaded look and this year I bought a ton more baubles so re-doing was a hell of a job



The tree to prove my point! Its so pretty when its all lit up and I love the over produced fit to bursting look that I achieved this year!

No Christmas shopping trip is complete without an outfit for Bruno. DISCLAIMER it greatly saddens me that I dress my dog up, its naff, I'm not that sort of person but I just cannot STOP doing it! Truthfully he could not care less as this pic shows:



Job for today: Wrap relatives presents, or it would be if those bl**dy children hadn't run off and hidden the cellotape, nothing in this house, NOTHING is where I leave it!

Angels

I finally got round to making the inserts to my christmas cards today, whether I will actually get round to writing them and sending them out is quite another matter, but at least they are ready and waiting now if the urge takes me.

Having done all the boring work on the inserts and feeling a bit christmassy I decided to make another couple, nothing special just a simple cut, colour and layer job, but here they are anyway!

Look What I Made

Thats something that can be heard quite a bit in our house between me and Jessica (last week she made a winter tree scene with some cotton buds, that looked really cool!) but its also the title of this layout made for this weeks challenge at Twisted Sketches - pop on over and take a look and join in with us.

This was made whilst we were having cavity wall insulation installed, so amidst lots of drilling and noise, best bit was NOT when they were doing the outside wall that is the kitchen, and we had a little hole in the wall and all of a sudden, loads of black polystreyne balls came spilling in - arghhhh!

Its blowing an absolute gale outside and looks so cold and yucky, I have to go out in a little over an hour to pick Jessica up from school after a netball tournament and then walk her over to her old school (in the opposite direction to home typically) for performing arts. I am not looking forward to it at all, a round trip of 50 mins walking in the almost dark cold rainy windy weather.

Fish Frenzy

Phew! I have had my most productive day for a very long time, and I have actually felt proper back to my old self, so much so that I crafted (fanfare!!)

It was so lovely to sit down and get paper out today. My printer spent 45 mins being uncooperative and jamming, but I did eventually get going and have a good play.





I used for this, a piece of scalloped MME cardstock, I tend to steer away from scalloped edges as my base as I find them hard to photograph and crop, but the colours on this one shouted at me! I used my Cameo a lot on this layout, the 'fish' lettering is a print and cut using some free digital paper that I had. The bumpy border, other lettering, orange circle, note paper edge, fish and kite were all cut on the cameo, in fact even the journaling strips were as I wanted them extra thin.

I do wish we had better light for photography at the moment, but it is what it is!

Echo Park Holly Jolly

Hello, a couple of cards to share today, yesterday I got a nice little parcel in the post that included the Echo Park Holly Jolly Elements Stickers and some of the papers. They are perfect for Christmas cards and I got stuck in!

Right I am off to have a 40g bowl of cereal, I'm doing the cereal diet at the mo, where you have 1 bowl for brekkie and one for lunch and then a sensible tea, its just calorie control really, but it seems to suit me and I have lost 4lbs, regular readers will know that I do not loose weight easily so I am pleased with that in 12 days, the first week however I nearly gnawed on my right arm I was so hungry!

Being Mary

Hello, Yes I am still alive (just!) I got poorly again and so have not been up and about much this past week. Enough about that though, who wants to keep hearing about someone being poorly!!

Yesterday I managed a layout, it was nice to get cutty and sticky but I did struggle a bit and this simple layout too far longer than it really should!



This is a picture of Jessica being Mary in her Nursery School Nativity Play, when she was just 3 years old - look at those chubby little cheeks. I knew the nursery were putting on a play but I did not realise what until the day of the 'performance' and I had no clue Jessica was Mary, so it was a lovely surprise to see her in the staring role. She was very good and mostly well behaved, but she couldn't resist telling the audience in a quiet bit that "I'm going to my Nannas for Christmas - I am!" Also during a song that involved counting she may have made a rude finger gesture that I managed to get on film!!! And lets not even talk about poor baby Jesus and the way he was manhandled.

Skullduggery

My teams turn at Twisted Sketches this week, so pop on over and join in the fun, the twist was ribbon, and here is my take:

This was our pumpkin this year, I always try and do a different design each year, it looks lovely but I don't half curse whilst doing it, this years was especially tricky as I was really not in the mood whilst doing it!

I have Jess home from school again at the mo, more headaches and dizzyness, bit worrying as in the last 14 days of school she has had 6 off. I think it may be a stress thing but theres no denying that she is hot and not well, poor thing.

Advent Calender Take Two!

If you're in the UK you may remember that 2 years ago Tesco were selling these wooden advent calendars that were a bargain £5 but were pretty yucky and definately in need of altering. They were a bit like gold dust to find as crafter after crafter snapped them up. I was a lucky one and managed to get my hands on one. In this post you can see a bit of how it looked and a bit of how I did it and in this post you can see the finished result.

After last years advent I thought it was looking a bit tatty and decided that I would remodel it in time for this christmas.



Well here it is, I am v pleased with this one, much nicer all round, it took me 4 hours to do. The paper covers on the drawers were cut on the Cameo as were the numbers, and all embellishment the only thing I cut by hand was the roof panel and for the scalloped roof edge I used a punch. I choose not to overembellish the calender as I thought it looked so pretty with just the patterened paper.

Marching for Remembrance

Its frustrating isn't it when you make a nice layout and it just will not photograph 'true' this is one of those layouts, looks lovely as its standing on my easel, but the photo of it is a bit 'meh'



Joe was part of the Remembrance Parade in Keynsham on Sunday, he was the very littlest of Air Cadets in the Parade, in fact he was the littlest by far of all the organisations that properly march (of course there were scouts and brownies walking behind). I was so proud to see Joey, standing straight, chin up and swinging his arms and lifting his knees - they do a quite exaggerated proper march. I used my new Cameo a bit on this, the poppy the 'remembrance and for' lettering and also the journaling which is a Print and Cut.

I got a nice parcel of paper today from Papermaze from their fire damaged stock which in actual fact was perfect, a little teeeny tiny small of smoke but hardly noticable. Nice to get new paper and its something that always inspires me, like it did today!

Right I am off to walk the dog, who is in the doghouse as he piddled in the kitchen yesterday, I noticed a smell but thought it was the cats food, the smell was under my nose all day, and today I found the piddle under my mop and bucket. Sometimes I could swing for that animal I really could!

Look what I got!

So this is what I was waiting for allllllll last week. The Silhouette Cameo! Any one who reads my blog often will know that I create a lot with my beloved craft robo, and that I got a lot of use out of it. I saved and saved for that Robo almost 3 years ago and then for the 1st 6 months or so I didn't really use it much, this was back in the days when the software was a bit of a faff. But you may remember my 'use my robo everyday' kick a couple of years ago and since then its become second nature to make stuff with it. Its on my desk and so its ready to go.



When I saw this being talked about at first I wasn't convinced but I soon saw it capabilities and possibilites. This one cuts like a dream and cuts true 12x12 which means I can cut fancy edged 12x12 for my pages. I got this on flexi pay and was so pleased when I saw that option as I was thinking I would not be able to get one til after christmas.


This is a card I made for my sister, its her birthday on Friday and today Jessica and I sat down and had a really nice couple of hours playing with Cameo and making this. Everything on this card was cut with the Cameo.

Closeup!

I also made Jess this box which because this cameo cuts so much bigger is actually a really good size. Jess and I also spent another hour cutting and assemblying all sorts of animals which she has names, fallen in love with and put in her box.

Bangs head against wall

I know I am an impatient person, I know this, but, I am also a realistic person, so when I order something I think ok: it will be despatched earliest tomorrow which means I will get it earliest the day after that and possibly not til 4/5 days post ordering this is ok, I can live with it.

What I find harder to live with is an order that takes:

1 day to process - perfectly reasonable!

2 days to await despatch - just put it on the bloody van already - you're a big company you must have several courier runs a day!

2 days post despatch where my tracking number yeilds no result and I am left wondering who now has it? Create and Craft? HDN? who? and now on the 6th day I finally see movement its in HDN's main hub, all I can say is that it had better get down my end of the country in plenty of time to be loaded on the van tomorrow, because I want it and I want it NOW - this thing cost me considerable money!

Tell you what it is when I have it in my grubby mitts, but I am v v excited about it!

But on to the craft - here is a card I made today, totally inspired by the background used in this card here, I'm always looking at the papertrey ink releases and wondering how I can imitate them! As usual this is a mainly Craft Robo card!

Being sneaky!

Ah I feel so much better now, its lovely to be up and about and walking the dog in the field again of a morning.

I've a couple of sneaks to show you today, its really all the crafting that I have done, but the assignment is finished now so I can finally scrap for myself for a bit, which will be lovely.

I've Jessica home from school today with a temperature and general bleugh feeling, theres not too much wrong with her really but I think she needs a day off, she is not settling in too well to secondary school and is struggling to form friendships, she was like this when she started castle 4 years ago, she expects too much too soon and can't understand why girls get bitchy at times, she gets hurt and confused when someone who she hung out with one day, snubs her the next. Poor girl its so upsetting seeing her come home in tears each day, but I am confident that time will sort it all out like it did last time, i'vehad a quick word with her tutor but at the moment she wants me to stay out of it, so stay out of it I will. Still I think a day home to regroup and destress will help her.

A Christmassy kinda post

Afternoon, apologies once again for my abscence, the poorly that I spoke of last week that was slowly leaving me decided to double back and knock me for six, I've had that bad of a cough that I have pulled a muscle in my neck and one in my ribs which doesn't make for comfortable coughing let me tell you!

Today is the first day since the weekend that I have felt able to really get stuff done! However enough of my moaning and on to the craft.

These are my latest for The Scrapbook Magazine that is out today. I had 2 commissions for this one, Get the cover look, made using the free papers:

And Homespun christmas which was quite tricky for me as I prefer to scrap bright and graphic! I was also sent some Bazzill Glazed cardstock that they wanted to use, which I found quite hard to fit into the theme but I did my best!

Aww the pic on this one is cute, Jess when she was 6 having a massive hug from the schools Father Christmas, I think the poor man was a bit taken aback when she lunged for him, she loves Father Christmas!

Ive been busy today scrapping for my next commission, they want a massive 5 layouts from me this time with a technique article, step by steps etc but I am having a blast with this commission and will prob show some sneaks of it soon.

Forever Blowing Bubbles

I have been a poorly person this week, the poorly started on Monday evening and is still hanging about now, although I am feeling a lot perkier today! I haven't left the house since Monday lunchtime and I have only just got dressed for the first time since Monday!! The house is of course an absolute heap despite the children doing lots of little jobs for me. I sent Joe to the shop to buy me fish paste (I wanted sardine and tomato paste on white soft bread, it was a poorly craving!) and he came pack with seafood sauce, bless him! Kids doing jobs therefore is never as effective as me doing jobs, however every time I try to stand up, I nearly fall down with dizzyness so the kids it is!

You will have to excuse a lack of things crafty at the moment, what with a busy weekend, the poorly and a whopper of a commission to do when I am back on my feet, the old bloggeroo might be a bit on the sparse side. However I do have something to show, its my teams turn at Twisted Sketches and the twist is black, bob on over and have a look at the sketch and come join us!! Rallying cry!!! (can you tell I am BORED out of my brain??)

Right, well I can't stay here gassing all day, I've got to get back to sitting in front of daytime tv and making the bum dent in the sofa even more pronounced then it already is! I WANT TO GET BETTER AND DO STUFF!!! Over and out pip pip!

Halloween Banner

Browsing the Silhouette Store this morning, I couldn't resist getting these banner files and once I had bought them I got straight to work making this cute Halloween banner (even though I am not a halloween fan!)

Now this is not the banners final resting place, I need some help to attach it to our living room wall so for photography purposes its attached to our radiator.

In other news, I had a lovely weekend but it was far to social and far to 'drinky' so I am looking forward to a nice night in tonight, I am making Beouf Bourginon for tea tonight with piles of cabbage - can't wait. Also can't wait for the twiglets to get home, they've been gone since Friday lunch to Haven with their dad and now I am missing them and am eagerly awaiting their return!

Stop... Hammer Time

Great fun making this one! Jason and Jessica tidied up the back garden last weekend and Jessica loved smashing up a wooden pallet that we had with a hammer.



Mel: I loved your old pages, they remind me a bit of a smashbook, how lovely to have something like that to look back on of your school days! I tried to comment on your blog but it does not seem to want to let me!!

At the beginning

I was moving some stuff around on the top of our wardrobe this morning which involved moving all my scrapbook albums, of course I couldn't resist a peep and the first one I opened was my first ever album with my first ever pages made back in late 2008!

I think we all have some horrors/lovely first efforts, the ones that you look back on and smile, not because of the memories that you documented but because of how dodgy your first few efforts really were and how proud you were of them back then!

And so I present to you a few of my first ever pages: Leigh Woods, this page doesn't even have a title!!! How did I miss that? And I love my lovely double mounted journaling panel.




Back in the old days I hadn't 'found' the better paper brands, this was an old DCWV spring stack effort.




I think this one was my 2nd ever try! This was made with my very limited stash and namely HOTP papers, which I thought was da bomb back then! New Technique alert!!!!! I used hidden journaling!



This one I hate to say, appeals to me now, its bright and the computer printed letters (what were thickers back then, I didn't know!) I actually quite like still!



Some come on, post some of your first layouts to your blog and link me up, I would love to see them!

Off to Camp

Ooops i've been missing in action for a while haven't I? Or should I say missing in inaction as I haven't really done anything at all.

Joseph went off for his first camp with the Air Cadets at the weekend, he came back cream crackered, he could not even really talk and just wanted to sit down quietly for a while, he enjoyed himself though!



Sat down to make this today just to get back in the swing. The letters are cut on the big shot using thin sticky backed cork that I have had for a while. I love the little bit of interest that a bit of machine stitching adds, I just wish it wasn't such a hassle to drag it out and set it up!

Lisa thank you for your last comment, can't make Saturday unfortch as got a busy weekend and thats the only time I have for boring old food shopping - hope it all goes well though!

Over excited!

A card to share with you today for the children's dads birthday!



Just a simple one, I always find mens cards so hard to do, if they don't play golf or have a specific interest then its all a bit like hard work! The monitor and keyboard and greeting are all as usual silhouette files that I printed and coloured.

What am I excited about? The possibility of getting my iphone tomorrow, it seems that even though I did not preorder on the first day there is a good chance it will arrive tomorrow after all and I really can't wait!!! I will so be following all the hype tomorrow, checking forums and watching in real time as people receive them! Yes I am aware that I am sadder than sad, but I don't care!

Queen of her heart

I want to say "Morning" but its gone past midday so "Afternoon" ;)

Its my teams turn over at Twisted Sketches this week and the twist is 'Envelope' pop on over to have a go! Here is my take:





Joe is settling well at Air Cadets, so well in fact that I got a call from him whilst he was on parade last night to ask if he could go on camp this weekend. He is the only cadet from his squadron going, he is going with one of the leaders and loads of cadets from other squadrons, I think that is so brave of him! He came back with a kit pack that is almost the size of me, Jason said he walked out and all he could see was a backpack with 2 skinny legs sticking out walking towards him! Hes not allowed on camp until he is enrolled but they were willing to do the admin part of enrolling him early so that he could go! He will be cream crackered when he gets back on Sunday night!

Mine!

I'm a little bit (over) excited that I have preordered an Iphone 4s as my 3gs upgrade, how serendipidous that my entitlement to an early upgrade was just a couple of weeks ago!

I am very keen to try Siri, how cool to be able to have a conversation with your phone! I can't wait to ask her if I will need my coat before I leave the house and also tell her I fancy italian food and have her find local restaurants for me, and of course voice activated text messages will be ace, I hope it works as well as they seem to think it does!

The best news being that I got this upgrade for £4 less a month (im having less texts and mins but I never use anywhere near my allowance) and I can sell my old iphone to Mazumba for about £90 or so!

Christmas Lights

Good afternoon.

More drama in this household when Jessica decided to chop the tip of her thumb off in cookery at school. We had to take a trip to the docs to get it patched up proper. Jessica is not what one would call a 'trooper' in these situations, she gets very upset and we had a lot of tears. Poor little thing, but she is patched up now and enjoyed all the attention she got!

She was making soup when the incident occured, "not to worry mum, Rebeccah says she will collect it for me" she says. So we trek to the docs, its about a 20 min walk away and bugger me if Rebeccah and her mum aren't there too, so to my absolute delight, I got the soup there and then! I can't tell you how thrilled I was to sit in the docs waiting room with a container of soup on my lap, looking for all the world like the local village idiot! I was more thrilled when I decided due to the soup and the uphill nature of the walk back to jump on the bus, so we waited 10 mins, along comes the bus, he shakes his head at me and keeps going! Blind fury got me up that road and back home. I am wondering if what with Jessica's bandaged thumb and a clear container of what could well have been vomit the bus driver decided to pass on us!

And so to crafty matters and this CAS card I made a couple of days ago, I printed the christmas lights (inspired by the wonderful Dawn Mcvey) hand stamped both the sentiment and the little banner of red card and just keep it nice and simple.

Layered up those pretty little bulbs and just the tiniest bit of glitter that looks lovely when it catches the light.

Autumn Offerings

Another Silhouette card from me today, this was made entirely from silhouette shapes, the background, the leaves, the pumpkin and the sentiment, I just added the colouring, gems and glitter!





I like making these cards, I can sit on the sofa with my laptop and design it and then go and makeit when I get a moment or two. I'm rather pleased with the colouring of the red/brown leaf, it looks like I might have picked it from the garden!

Joe came back from the Air Cadets last night with yet more uniform, in 3 sessions we have been given:

3 different shirts
2 pairs of dress trousers
1 pair of cami trousers
a beret
a tie
a belt
1 heavy smart jumper
1 cami coat
1 pair of boots
1 pair of shoes

Its really sweet to see Joe taking care of it all and worrying that it is all clean, ironed and polished, shaped etc. At the moment of course I am doing most of that but its something that he will be doing once we are up to speed with it all!

Happy Halloween

We don't really 'do' halloween here in the UK, well not on the same scale as the Americans thats for sure! I've been seeing all these cute halloween cards and projects appearing all over blog land and I just couldn't resist making a couple of cards, just for the sheer hell of it!

I used my craft robo ALOT for these 2 cards, in this first one, I have cut out the graveyard frame and coloured in various greys. The cute chubby mummy is a cut file that I printed out and coloured with promarkers and the cute web and spider is a digi stamp.

This one is almost all robo, the frames (one of which I stamped a background on with an ink a shade darker just to break up all the blocked colours) the web and spider and the sentiment are all silhouette (robo) files too. The spider is covered in glossy accents!

We are finally back on line 'proper' after some modem problems, our modem was very old and just gave up the ghost, I think this new one is really helping the speed too! I won't talk too soon though!

Two for Monday

Afternoon, wow what a scorcher of a weekend most of us in the UK have had! Its still very warm today and I am glad to be indoors for the rest of the day now, with the fan going.

I have 2 clean and simple christmas cards to share today, one made with this weeks little musings freebie (which could be used for birthdays as well) and one from a digi stamp I just purchased today from this site, love her designs and I may well be buying some more!

Right, time for a cuppa I think!

More Angels

I might get into trouble with this blog post! Sounds exiting doens't it? Nah its not really. We are having modem issues at the moment and we are waiting for a techie to come out on Monday and sort the damn thing out. So Jason has kindly given me his mobile modem with strict instructions to not go over 500mb, bloody thing takes about 3mb to load each page you click on. I have no idea what it will 'cost' to post a 3 pic blog post. hehe.



So some more angel stamp cards from the fabulous little musings (link on side bar, don't want to use the mb to find her page and link direct!) I think this is my fav of the ones I have made, love love love the dusky pink with the kraft



A plain background card, which I struggle with the starkness of. I think the late addition of the lime green lifted the whole design. I used some old learned techniques with this one, the angel was stamped on the white rectangle and coloured in, I then cut another angel and layered it over the first to create a mask, then I stamped the 'wish on a star' sentiment all over the top, removed the mask angel and voila. I've not used that technique in donkeys!



And then this one that I made yesterday, soft and muted which I really like with these angel designs

Also if you have a few mins (and megabytes) to spare pop on over to this lady here who has a blog post all about the article I did in SBM the other week that featured her brilliant style!