Motors Action Stunt Show.

We missed this show in Florida (clashed with something else we wanted to see) so it was good to be able to see it here. We knew a lot of how things were done but it still didn't take away from anything the show. Even the girls sat glued to the action.

Paper is Oh my stars by Adornit Carolees, alpha stickers from Chatterbox.

Far, Far Away

The girls love the Narnia film and were quick to jump up to the photo spot and sit in the chair. DD2 thought the 'man' was real lol.

Paper here is from Once Upon A Time by DCWV with a BG rub on. (Couldn't over embellish the paper lol)

Walt Disney Studios the back lot

There are lots of things we've seen before in Florida in this park and some new ones. It's a smaller park than MGM but gets busy enough that even in 2 visits we didn't get to go on absolutely everything. Hmmm!

The newes rides were Tower of Terror and Crush's Roller Coaster. Neither of which we got to go on. The tower we got all the way to the lifts to go on the ride and the girls bottled it and Crush's was always over an hour's wait. !!!!!!!!!! No thanks.

What an adventure

After going through the gate, security check, front lot and soundstage you come to the park and there to greet you is Walt and Mickey, statue style of course.

Well obviously you have to have the photos taken there. (this LO is awaiting a couple of smaller ophtos when I can print out again ..... grrr!)

Your Passport to Adventure

This is the girls with their Dad about to enter Walt Disney Studios for the first time in Paris. Last time we were here it was just being built so it was good to do something we'd done before (in Florida) but were going to be seeing for the first time here.

Paper is from EK Success and is Mickey beaded heads. What you can't see is all the dots are red foil that shine in the light. The big ticket comes from K & Co Mira collection.

Rainforest Cafe

We love to eat in the Rainforest Cafe. The girls love the way the animals 'come to life' as you are eating. Me and DH love the food. This time we were lucky enough to eat here twice. (Once curtesy of his works as he was employee of the month for Feb so we could eat out up to an amount. We managed 2 lovely meals for the money.)

This paper is part of the CI Goofy range but with the colours in the restaurant and that frog it had to come in to use with these photos. Die cuts are the gorgeous Sweet Berry from K & Co.

Mushroom Magic

These concrete mushrooms outisde the Rainforest Cafe are something the kids love to see. With this gorgoeus K & Co paper, mushroom world, they had to have a LO of their own. LOL.

N-ice

We all love ice cream but DD1 has a unique way of eating hers.

Papers and Chipboard sticker are Creative Imaginations. Alphabet from Chatterbox.

This LO was made using a sketch from the Craft Diner forum.

Party on (the new version)

Here is the updated LO with the muchrooms photo taken out to star in it's own LO.

Party On

Disney Village is the place to eat and shop if you don't want to eat in your hotel. There are all sorts of choices there. Our faves have to be Planet Hollywood and Rainforest Cafe with Anette's Diner coming a close second to the other two. I have changed this LO since I received my Sweet Berry papers so that the mushrooms outside Rainforest Cafe are on the gogeous Mushroom World paper and Buffalo Bills show photo fills that spot. Just haven't taken a photo of that yet so have put the original version on for now.

Photos are of Planet Hollywood, King Ludwig's Castle, giant Mushrooms outside of Rainforest Cafe and the Disney Village sign.

Paper is Magical Night Sky by Adornit Carolee's Creation, chefs hat stickers from C I and alpha from Chatterbox.

What are we wearing?

These hats were so much fun but as they were expensive we made do with a quick photo session with them. (Cheats eh!)

DD1 has Scrooge McDuck on her top hat, DD2 is Goofy and I have Goofy the cowboy on my mat.

Paper is glossed images of Mickey Mouse by .... ? (someone lol), Stickers and bottlecaps are from CI.

Blast off!

Tomorrowland is where the best ride is for me. I just love to go on space mountain. Unfortunately this time there was no one able to go on with me. DD2 was too small and DD1 too chicken, even DH couldn't go with me as someone needed to stay with the girls. *doh* We had to make do with 2 goes on the ageing Star Tours. Thankfully Orbitron was always busy (and with Dumbo done there wasn't the need ha!). We only managed to see the Lion King show once (and in English) but it was very good.

Paper is left over from the Florida trip in 2005 bought in Magic Kingdom. Stickers are from CI. Not really much of a LO but this was all about the photos.

Funsville

Fantasyland is home to all those bedtime stories rides and the carousel of course. The girls wanted to do all those 'little' rides but they are so busy that we didn't get to do them all. Nearly but we failed by just one or two.

Favourites rides here are It's a Small World, the Teacups and DD2 loves Dumbo (aargh!)

Photos here are of Toad Hall restaurant, the castle in the Labyrynth (Alice in Wonderland), Sleeping Beauty's castle and Storybook land.

Paper is from C I black streamers (foiled and lovely), embellishments are also CI and the alpha is Chatterbox.

More Pirates.

Adventureland is home to The Pirates of the Caribbean ride. We all love that one. Cool in the summer and warm in the winter and spring.

Adventure Isles has a couple of ariel walkways. I don't do ariel walkways !!!!! Too swingy and high up for me. Funny enough the kids felt the same way.

Paper is from DCWV Once Upon a Time range. Buttons are Memory Mates and alpha is Chatterbox stickers. I left this LO quick under embellished as the paper is just too nice to fully cover up. Lol.

Western ho!

This is Frontierland, home to the cowboys side of things really. The girls fave ride is Big Thunder Mountain. Boy can DD1 scream her way round there. And I mean all the way round. Lol. These photos were taken as we sailed round on the big paddle steamer. (DH still likes to do a bit of sea time being ex Royal Navy- not sure this counts really.)

From top to bottom photos show the gateway to Frontierland from Main Street area, Phantom Manor, The geysers complete with dinosaur bones (sadly not working this trip) and the other paddle steamer.

Paper and the gorgeous brad are from the Wild Saffron range by K & Co, stickers are ..... ? (can't remember atm), Papermania flower and Chatterbox sticky alpha.

Pirate Girl

Well finally I have got it sorted and here is the LO I have been trying to upload for a week. I made this one using a sketch on the Craft Diner forum. Papers are Sandylion and Karen Foster pirate related of course. Stickers are Sandylion and Creative Imagination. Alpha stickers are Doodlebug.

This mask that DD2 was wearing (yes it is a mask honest!) we found in a shop at the end of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Well it was too good a photo opportunity to miss. Lol.

Skull rock

This LO uses the April sketch 3 from the Craft Diner forum.

The paper I thoughwas so appropriate for this photo. Stickers are from the same manufacturer. (Memory and the botton strip gone but I think they are Sandylion) Letters are Chatterbox stickers. (Flash from the camera optional!!!!)

These are todays uploads but stay tuned and the next pages will appear real soon. (Honest!) Thanks for looking X

We all love a parade

Papers are by Creative Imaginations. The red is Magic and the other is Black Streamer (which is silver foiled), embellishments are C I, witha Mickey Mouse hat brad and Minnie Mouse ears brad. Prima journalling pad. Now everyone who has been to Disney knows that 3pm is parade time, well in Paris it was 4pm the first day and then after that it was at 5pm. This was on the first day and yes it had been raining, but the magic of Disney doesn't stop for rain (in this case the end of some drizzle.) I have loads more photos of the parade. Heck I have loads more photos of Disney but atm they are in the photos wallets as I have no room in my book. (They will be done as soon as I can though)

Sleeping Beauty's Castle

There is a very pretty castle in DLP with extras. Not only are there the shops (of course) but there is a dragon down in the dungeon and on the first floor you can see the story of Sleeping Beauty in little characters. (neither of which we took photos of this time.)

Paper is Dreamland from Sandylion, Stickers are 7 Gypsies - Girls, Prima flowers with Papermania gems, 2 Disney brads and pink glittery peel off alphabet stickers

Main Street

First thing to take a photo of in Disneyland is of course the castle at the top of Main Street. Here Main Street was decked out to celebrate it's 15th birthday (still). As some of our days were a bit grey you could see that the banners are llit with tiny lights on. The castle lights up at night too.

Paper is a left over from a big book of papers I got in Disney World in 2005. Embellishments and journalling sticker are C. I. and the letters were cut out using my Vixen alphabet and my Big Shot. (Well I used it for something lol.)

Eurostar train trip

Papers are Creative Imaginations and so are the embellishments.

We got to Disneyland Paris via the Eurostar train which we caught at Ashford International Station. The great thing about it is the journey is just over 2 hours and goes direct to Marne-la-Vallee, Chessy. Once there you hand your bags in at the Disney Express desk (if youhave that service) and off to the park you go. Your bags are takento your hotel and wait for you there whilst you have fun. Brilliant. It meant that we had breakfast in Ashford and lunch in Disneyland Paris at 12.50 then wandered round the park until about 6pm.

Holiday scrap pages time!

So here we go then. I have finished the 12" x 12" album that I bought for the holiday LOs. Hmmm stil have hundreds of photos left though and can't find any refills for my Chatterbox album atm.

Front of the album goes to the map of france and records our journey made to get us to Disneyland Resort Paris.

Most of the papers and embellishments I bought from Scrapyourtrip.com, as I had trouble finding Paris specific papers etc in the UK. They had a fab range. I had to be controlled with my buying lol. (I'd have had them all.)

This paper is from Far and Away, Where in the world - France Embellishments are Jolees and jounalling pad is Prima.

New die cutter

Well I am in lurve with my new die cutter. I have treated myself to the lovely Pink & Black Big Shot and what a beast it is. Haven't had a play yet as I ran out of time. Well I had to re organise my stash cupboard so I could put it away. So wish it could be always out and ready for use but there we go. I am planning to have a flipping good play with it next Monday though when I have lots more time.

Today I also managed to finally get my hands on my holiday related stash that I ordered from America. I was finding it very hard to find specific Paris related items, so placed an order with Scrap Your Trip. Took advantage and got some lovely Disney bits too. Not seen any of them here so I'm happy. Only downside I ended up with a customs charge on this order meaning that I didn't save as much as I could have done. Oh well. I rarely order from the US now so it's not so bad. (I guess lol.)

Metro with a difference

When we spent the day in Paris we had a 40 minute journey from Disneyland Paris via the RER train to get us to central Paris and the first of our stops. At the station at Marne-La- Vallee, Chessy, there are a number of different types of trains. As well as Eurostar they get the TGV trains, RER and one that caught my eye a double decker train that runs on the Metro lines. There are actually 2 stations at Marne-La-Vallee all within the same building but different stairways and platforms. Only noticed that this time as we intended to use the service. Lol.

We bought an all day ticket for each of us and set off. Trains to Paris run every 10 mins so the service is fab. We sat on our first train (a regular single decker train) with just a few people on but it wasn't long before it started to fill up. The next thing that happened was such a surprise to the girls that is was fun to watch them. A man got on with a trolley with his sound system on and an accordian round his neck. He played a few songs which most people ignored but not my 2. They loved it and couldn't stop looking at him. I think they were very disappointed when he got off a few stops on. The beggar boy that appeared next alarmed them. They have never seen anything as open as that before.

Our first stop was at Chatelet les Halles and when we got off the train the maze of tunnels we found was amazing. How the heck were we going to find the train home if we had to come back to this station was my only thought. ! Andy has travelled on the Metro before when he's had to spend time working in Paris, but only from Gard du Nord and only a few stops on, even he was amazed by this station. We had to stop and look at the map to work out where we wanted to be then slowly made our way there. It seemed ages before we were at street level.

We had a short walk to the Seine and then round the outside of Notre Dame Cathedral. Last time I saw Notre Dame was in 1993 and it was dirty and under scaffolding undergoing cleaning. Now it is very much cleaner and looking what can only be described as beautiful. One of the front doors was open and a queue of people streamed from it. As the queue died down another group joined it. So we never got to go inside this time but I would love to go back and see inside it as the outside is only half the story.

After spending time there we walked along to the Metro station at St Michel - Notre Dame and caught a train to get us to the Eiffel Tower. I got really excited at this as we caught one of the double decker trains. Really it is a 3 level train. You get on the train and have a choice of going left and being on that level or right and going either downstairs or upstairs. We went down thinking that we'd go up next time. Alas it wasn't to be it was out only experience of this type of train. DH thought I was nuts when I took a photo of one as it was in the station but I had to scrap such a rare moment. How many double decker trains do we have at home?????? Exactly.

Seeing the Eiffel Tower up close was better than I thought. I hate high things, but more so if I am up on it looking down. I absolutely love all the skyscrapers in New York though and have been up high on a couple of them. I don't think I could have gone even to the first floor of the Eiffel Tower though. Too open and too much ground to see. (I hate walking along the pier over the sea in Brighton, have to walk along each plank and walk in a very wobbly fashion lol.)

This was so huge and so graceful in a way I loved looking at it, walked right through it and took so many pictures of it from all angles. I'd only seen it from the Troccadero viewpoint before and although you see it you don't fully appreciate it I don't think. Andy tried a trick shot of one of the girls holding the tower in her hand. Hope that turns out good so I can use it. The queues were enormous here at 3 on the 4 entrances to it. 2 lifts and 2 stairs, so again we wouldn't have had the time to go up the tower. (phew!)

We walked to the Arc De Triomphe as it wasn't that far. When we arrived we walked round to the Champs Elysee and stood watching the traffic round the Arch. We saw no accidents but plenty of near misses. The funniest thing that made DH laugh was when the Airport bus came from a side road and just drove straight out. He never stopped for anyone and it worked perfectly. The girls laughed at the wedding car and a following friends car that went round and round beeping it's horn and then went off down another road only to return again a few moments later. They were celebrating and having fun. We tried to find the way into the middle to see the Arc close up but found our way to McDonalds instead.

Take a tip from me Never go to McD's on the Champs Elysee at lunch time. 1. it is huge, 2. full of people and 3, absolutely nowhere to sit down!! It took us a while to get a seat and only then because I was about to split us up on 2 tables that a group of eaten eaters got up to go.

We decided not to bother trying to get to the Arc De Triomphe after lunch (DH had tried before but thought you had to pay anyway. ????) So instead we went back to the Metro and headed for Montemartre (Anvers) and to see Sacre Coeur the Basilica. We braved the steps and all the people sitting everywhere to the top. The view over Paris is amazing yet there are no distinguishing landmarks really save one. (The building with the gold roof - Hotel des Invalides). As it started to spit with rain we decided to go in to the Basilica. Again the outside was really beautiful and inside was no disappointment wither. It was absolutely quiet save for the perpetual prayers taking place at the far end on the Basilica.

All around the building are statues to the saints and everyone had vast numbers of candles people had lit, ranging from small nightlights to larger candles. We followed all round the outer edge and even DH was impressed by the building. The art work inside was fab and unlike British churches it was so warm in there. My Mum is a regular church goer so when we saw a little glass floral cross in the shop for 5 euros we had to get it for her. She'll love it I know. (Beats the fridge magnet she was getting lol.)

So with our last sight seen we decided to head back to Marne-La-Vallee. DH wanted to take us back into the mayhem of the Champs Elysee to pick up our train but I found an easier way for us to go. We got back to the Metro at Anvers and caught the train to the end of that line at Nation and from there we picked up the train to Disneyland. Rachie has always managed to sleep anywhere anytime, and she was no different in Paris. Still she is only 8 and did a fair bit of walking.

Mind you when we got back to Disneyland did we head back to the hotel? No we flipping didn't, we went into the park for a couple of hours. Lol.

Photos of Paris

As I have to wait for my photos from the holiday, I thought I'd share with you the four big tourist attractions we visited whilst we spent a day in Paris. They are of course Notre Dame, The Eiffel Tower, Arc De Triomphe and Sacre Coeur. All were amazing to see irl. To walk right through the centre of the Eiffel Tower though was the best thing for me.

Challenge LO

Yay I can get the pics to load today. I had visions of having to start all over again.

This LO is one I did for the monthly challenge on CD. As with the card challenge only a couple of us have entered. This was a recipe to follow and the original was by Mel (as in Jill and Mel - or Mel and Jill - lol) from ATDML. The only thing with mine was the flash on the photo showed up and I haven't got round to taking a new photo yet.

C/S from Papermania, Papers and sticky alphabet from Doodlebug, Memory Mates buttons - strawberries and flower, and flower Imaginisce - for peeps sake.

Almost forgot

My 'bliss' card that I made for the CD challenge won a prize (posted here earlier). I have a lovely 6" Archaic pad on its way to me. It's such a shame that only myself and one other lady entered the competition but thre we go.

Hey it's holiday time

Well almost anyway. We are soon off to see the Disney gang. Not Florida this time but a short hop away to Paris. Haven't been there since 2001 so hopefully there will be lots of new to see. The new studio park for one thing. Okay we have done the same rides in Florida before but this time they will have a French accent.

Managed to get the little pop up Paris map today. Little does DH realise that I am planning to scrap it once we've been Lol. Might have to make it a removeable item though just in case he decides towhisk me off on that romantic weekend one day. Hmmm.

I was trying to upload some of the snowy photos from yesterday but they don't seem to want to load atm. Awkward things. Anyway, I will see you soon and will (hopefully) share some of the many photos we are bound to take.

Meet Dottie

This image of Dottie looks like a stamp, but it isn't. It's a Digital Download created by my very talented friend Lou (aka Louly in blogland) and is a special for the forum members at Charmed Cards and Crafts for our latest challenge. Isn't she fun!.

Part of my scanned card disappeared again but the challenge was to 1. Use scallops, 2. Use buttons, and 3. Use dry embossing. Well as you can see I have all 3 things on my card (phew).

Why not pop along to Charmed Cards for a browse through the store and grab a few little downloads too.

CJ3 on 3C's

It's CJ time again on Charmed Cards and Crafts forum. Here is the front cover on my CJ. Papers are K & Co Wild Saffron. Die cut alphabet is Tootsie in complimentary colours and I've added los of bling to the butterflies and flowers.

I'd love to show you what my Lo was inside .... but..... I can't find any pics anywhere. I'm so sure I took them though. Oh well when it comes home I'll post it. Can't show you any of the LO's in the other CJ's wither (or they'll be getting a glimpse way before time and I can't have that now. lol)

Card challenge entry

Karen has set a challenge on the Craft Diner forum this month and here is my entry for it. The challenge was simply to use fibres on your card. Well having never used fibres on a card I racked my brains. In the end I came up with the idea of using eyelets in the corner of the card holding this beautiful glittery Mira paper (wish you could see the glitter) and adding the fibres to show the butterflies flying. I really like this cad even though it is very simple. The colours of teh Mira papers are gorgeous. I really must get on and use some more of them. Lol.

Sketch challenge 3

This is my card for the latest card sketch challenge (4) on 3C's forum. Strange thing about my card is that it looks like it's a lemon card but it's cream actually. It only looks like this on the photo but not in real life. Weird!!!

Tilda (at last)

Took me ages to find where I had stored this image on the pc. Then I remembered it was my entry for the sketch challenge 3 on Charmed Cards and Crafts. So here is my first attempt at a Tilda card.

I stamped both the bench and Tilda (seperately) and cut them out before mounting them on my base card. Went a bit mad after this card and stamped loads of images to colour in. Coloured them in in a variety of ways but haven't had the time to do anything with them so far. Oh well they are ready whenever I need a card at least.

Oh dear

I am still here, honest. I have things to show, but (or is that BUT), not on my laptop and my DH is on the pc so I can't do anything tonight. I can tell you that I have a new love, Magnolia stamps. I have 5 now, 4 Tilda's and a bench . Don't laugh, the benches are gold dust a friend informed me.

My fave stashshop is about to get some in very soon. Not telling you who that is for now so you can't get the stamps I want. Lol. Once I have mine I'll shout it to the world and you can go and buy some from that store. Then you can have fun too. If you have no idea what I am talking about stay tuned and I will put my first attempt at a card with the delightfully cute Tilda on here.

BG half pint album

These are the pages I have created so far in the album that I won last month. I am enjoying scrapping in this funny size 12" X 6". All papers are BG Phoebe (bought from Charmed Cards and Crafts) and most of the embellishments are K & Co, DCWV, 7 Gypsies and Prima flowers. The others I can't remember atm lol .

Feb Challenges on the C D Forum

This month there are four new sketches on the CD forum to have a go at. I've managed 3 so far and time is running out.


These are my efforts

OMG

I have been a bad blogger. I have things to add, honest but just have not managed to get here to do it.

Here is a token for now (it's late) My girls have a competition at school to decorate a hat or cycle helmet. Their helmets are too small and damaged now so we have used them for our entries.

DD1 turned her's into Dotty the spotty dog and DD2 has created a safety bug out of hers. Neither photo is brilliant so I will take them again and replace them. It gives you an idea for now though.

I won a challenge

Today was a lovely day here and what made it even nicer was the goody box that arrived with my prize from a challenge I won on the Craft Diner forum.

The challenge was ....... to make a scrapbook page about a craft related resolution.What that resolution is... is up to you!

I chose to scrapbook my grand tidy up and resolution to be tidy. Most of last year the table in the kitchen (where meals have taken place) was hidden under my piles of stash, photos and goodness knows what else. I spent ages clearing up and finding new homes for everything and intend to keep things this way ALL year. !!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is my lovely prize kindly sent by Jill & Mel at A Trip Down Memory Lane.

It consists of a Basic Grey half pint album with book rings, 4 sheets of coloured C/S with co-ordinating double sided papers from Chatter Box and 1 sheet of black C/S with 3 sheets of double sided black & white papers from Luxe witha sheet of die cut memos - Luxe- for journalling and 3 pieces of ribbon.

I intend to plunge in and begin creating this weekend when I have lots of time spare.