Mini LO

This is a LO for a mini book that was organized by Lizzie (one of the ladies on 3C's forum) as a surprise pressie for our 'boss' on the forum and owner of a very nice online shop. (With so many tempting things and loads of choice.) I'm of course talking about Charmed Cards and Crafts.

The book was received in time for Christmas by Karen and was greeted with total surprise and a few tears of happiness by her. Phew, it was touch and go for a while as some pages didn't arrive until after the last posting date and some after the book had been sent. (Karen will add those in at some point though.)

This was my offering. It is of course K & Co papers Peppermint Twist and some of the die cuts. I used my new Vixen alphabet and reindeer die cuts and icing rub ons. Finished off with Papermania silk flowers and a little fuzzy Santa's face sticker. It's all on a 4" X 4 1/2" LO and Lizzie put it all into a little book with all the other ladies LOs before sending it all to Karen.

Where does the time go?

I have been a bad blogger since my last entry. I just haven't had the time to get here before Christmas. Then I went down with a horrible cold just before Christmas and felt dreadful, and since Christmas DH has been home from work so I haven't been able to even sit at the pc for more than about 15 mins and once a day. !!!! The girls have been on their's a lot too (thanks to DD1 being Sims 2 mad!), so I couldn't get on there even.

Anyway I have been creating some bits. Some are still on the camera and others can't be shown yet as they belong to the CJ I have here. It's all about to finish though so next month I will be able to post pics of everyone's LO's and mine in everyone's too. Will that make up for my lack of entries? Hmmmm not sure but I think it will help.

Here is another of my favourite types of cards atm. I made one also for my sister who's birthday is 31st Dec, but I forgot to take a photo of that one. Doh! This was for DD1's friend though and is very similar.

One like Shell's

Here is my take on the lovely birthday card my friend Shell made for our friend Lou's birthday. I liked the card so much that I asked Shell to let me in on the instructions.

Papers are the double sided from K & Co Dollhouse scrap pad to go. Embellishments are a little sticky stones for bling and Prima flowers with brads.

This card is so much nicer than the one I had originally made for another friend's birthday next week so she will be receiving this.

Birthday time again!

So Monday was my birthday and I received several lovely hand made cards. (Including 3 from M & S ! Thanks DH and DD1 & 2)

Here are the others from my friends. So nice I had to share.

This one above is from Shell.

This one on the right is from Sharon

This one is from work and was made by Sharon

This one is from Lea.

All of them little works of art. Thank you all.

Smile in a CJ

This entry is one I did in the first CJ I took part in and is one of my favourites still. I just love the way snowflake the white gorilla has a cheeky grin on his face. The poem is great too. I was sent the 2 together in an email originally and saved it in the event of wanting it some time. When the What makes you laugh CJ came along it was the obvious choice for me to put in as my LO.

Here are the 2 pages in close up.










Papers and the embellishments are K & Co.

Sketch Challenge

There is a sketch challenge running on Charmed Cards and Crafts forum.

You need to use the following:
Ribbon
Chipboard

Why not pop along to see and take part even.

Here is the card I made for my DH using the sketch.

Here is the same sketch for a Christmas card.

DH's birthday cards

It was DH's birthday yesterday and the girls both wanted to make him a card. These are the results from them. Okay they had a bit of help from me but they did the decorating themselves.

And

No pics yet as the girls have sealed the envelopes already, but they have helped me to make cards for thier Dad (my DH's) birthday. They knew exactly what they wanted to make just weren't sure how they were going to make them. DD1 wanted to make an ATC topper style card and DD2 a waterfall card. His birthday is on Friday so I will post pics then. I would just add though that they did a great job.

I still have my card to make. What the heck I'm doing beats me. Might have to wander over to Lou's or Juliet's and see what they have been up to. Bound to find a great idea there.

Most of today has been taken up with shopping in town and the 'H' word *eek* wth just a bit of crafting with the girls. This evening it was writing out loads of price labels ready for the school Christmas Shop at school on Tuesday. (Not to self - I am NOT doing this next year.!!!!!!!!!!) Still have to stick them on all the things yet. Oh well at least my back is feeling a bit better, typically in time for my doctors appointment about it tomorrow. Oh well. I'll tell her what went on and see what she says. My money is on the family 'disease' - sciatica. I can't be the only one to not get it after all.

And another one

The papers for this LO really deserve a tropical beach, but this was DD1 on Ryde beach (the Isle of Wight) - not so tropical. It's again using a sketchfeatured on the Craft Diner forum.

Papers are from Crate Paper Crush collection, Sand and Island. Island is the pretty orangy one. I have really found a love for these papers recently. They are double sided and textured. So nice I now have quite a few in my stash collection. The stickes I used are from Creative Imaginations from the tropical set by Pamela Woods. Journalling stamp is out of a set from Lil Davis.

I have been crafting, .... a bit.... honest!

This is one of the LO's I created using the new craft forum Craft Diner. There is a thread there showing sketches. I've used pencil lines before for the challenges we did on 3C's forum and enjoyed working from them. So I decided that I'd have a go. With all the thinking done for you these kind of LOs take no time at all.

The background for this is a nice festive green Bazzill Bling C/S. Papers are Doodlebug and the die cuts are K & Co Peppermint Twist. (What you can't see on them is all the glitter. Hmmm! Oh well.) This ws DD2 a couple of years ago before we went to a party. She was only 6 then but looks much more grown up than that. Scary.

New Craft Forum

Well the doors are open on a fab new craft forum. Why don't you take a look http://craftdiner.co.uk/forum/ It's been fun testing it out with the other invited guests and I thoroughly recommend it as a fun place for crafters.

Oops yet again.

I am back with the latest craft offering. Must admit that I haven't had as much time to do things just recently. A bit of extra work and some back ache have prevented my creative juices flowing.

My small local circle of friends CJ is coming to an end and these are the last pages in the books. It's swap over day this weekend and will be great to see what creations will greet me when I get my mitts on my CJ. It's a first CJ for the other 3 adults taking part and also for the daughter of one of the ladies. My 2 girls are old hands, almost, at adding LO's in CJ's for those wanting to see their work. I gave everyone enough time to sort out their stash and get pages done. No honest Deb 4 weeks is enough, but sometimes you just need to make the time. LOL. Not sure if we will get to do a 2nd CJ between us, as one found it hard to fit in with her life, and another went from a full time teacher to being a part time one, and is going back to full time in Feb. So she won't have as much time on her hands from then. Shame but it happens sometimes I guess.

The CJ this time was entitled Life's A Beach and was about your most tranquil place. I chose the beauty in Yosemite for mine. The journalling is tucked away in a mini folded origami style album. (don't know the real name for the type of album lol) Papers are from BG and dress it up buttons and K & Co word stickers form the main embellishments.

DD1 chose Discovery Cove in Orlando as her restful place .

DD2 went for the beach. This one is in St Pete's Beach, Florida at sunset.

My big niece's birthday

I also have been working for a while on a mini album for my 'big' niece's 40th birthday. With 2 men in her life I figured she needed something girly, so went for all the pinks, lilacs, mauves and purples in my C/S collection. I had more than I realised so soon had a huge number of pages. It's the first time I have made a book to be filled in with photos later and by somebody else so I found it a bit of a challenge. My niece is a scrapbooker too so she will be finishing off the book herself. Some pages I added some embellishments to but others I left just with the patterned paper. Hope she has suitable embellishments.

The majority of the book is for people to sign and leave her messages about her now having reached 'old age' or as my DH said ' her peak', (not sure if her presents will include an 18 year old male though,) so those pages are only lightly decorated so that there is enough room for the guests to sign. I hope there are enough pages as she had invited 100 people she warned me. The party should be a good laugh as it is fancy dress. Not saying who I am but if you check back at a later date you might well see me in a photo and work out my character. (I won't be in full costume but it should be obvious who I am aiming to be.)

Here are a few examples of the 60+ page book.

Oops

Well doesn't time fly. I really don't know where this week has gone. I haven't had much time to craft. I spent about one day, where I did lots but all on the same project - a 5" X 7" album so that I could put DH's photos of his karate trip to Japan in to a keepsake. I worked hard all morning and then as he was away overnight for work (again) for part of the evening. End result a very nice album but with the cover upside down. BUM! was a word that came to mind and there were others. !!!!!

Here is the cover (before I altered it) Look at the lanterns and you will see that they are defying gravity.

This is the same cover with a little extra embellishment to hide the most noticable bit of the error. I have to say I prefered it without the extras but it's my own fault, I should have checked which way it was before making the holes in. Lesson learnt. (well until nect time lol)

Tag time again

I've been tagged by Juliet but I haven't had time to sort that out yet. Been a busy and tiring week. I will get to it soon, but DH has just arrived home and will be looking to get the pc back. I've not had much time to do any crafting this week either. I threw 3 LOs together the other morning and today made 3 tiny gift cards. Hopefully this weekend I will get the time to do a bit more. And post some things on here too. Hmmmm!

Here's the start of the tagging.

1)If you could have 100.00 pounds worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments,which would you choose?
Embellishments (I think) I have so much in the paper line atm, althoughI have lots of embellishments too but I think I could do more with them right now.

2) If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons which would you choose?
I have some stamps and a few pads and pens but I use more rub ons than stamps so I have ot stick with rub ons.

3) If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts ,but could only do one for a year which would you do?
Layouts, it's where I began and what I still feel I'm better at (most of the time lol)

4)would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home (cant have both,lol,) ?
Hmm well from somebody who has to use the kitchen table to craft on, a room of my own would be fab but to have a store would be even more fab. All those supplies at myfinger tips and floor space when the customers had gone. Ha!

5) And the last but not least ,what is your current cardmaking or scrapping style?
No set style. Sometimes I used sketches and others I just go with the flow.

I'll find others to tag soon, honest.

Just a quick card

Here is a Christmas card I threw together last night. I made the snowflake on Sunday though. The snowflake is one the Chippies out of my challange prize. I used the snow writer too and drew lines which I then covered in silver glitter. Once that had dried I used white holographic glitter glue to go round the rest of the snowflake. Love the finished result. I then chose navy blue card and some snowflake paper from Papermania. The snowflake is on 3D foam and a piece of blue glitter thread added. Just one last thing, a silver peel off saying Merry Christmas. Job done. Shame the glittery look doesn't show up well. IRL it is all shimmery and glittery.

Bum!!!

I decided yesterday to send photos of the wedding book to it's intended receiver. Thought I'd give her the head up that I'd made it too. Caught her at home making dinner but she ran to her pc to get the email.

She loved the whole thing, but had to tell me that a while ago they bought a guest book and she put it away and then forgot about it. It was her OH who reminded her about it. Having discussed it with her OH they thought it would be perfect to put their reception photos in. Hmmmm, just one problem there. It's only 4" x 4" so they'd have to be mighty small. Not really suitable then. I suggested that it could be used for family and friends who weren't able to attend the wedding, so they could send them a message in it. A sort of alternative guest book. That idea went down well so now it would look as if that is going to be it's purpose.

So with the little wedding guest book and box made, I turned my attention to the CJ I have been working on and finished my LO last night. DH has got into watching some silly american police show about the daft things people do in their cars. Yawn !!! seen them so many times before they bore me now. Mind you I can watch my recorded craft shows over and over again and not get remotely bored. I got so many things out to try on the LO and ended up having to tidy as I went. Wasn't sure about the end result last night as I always have quite a full page normally and this is much more minimal than I regularly do. This morning however I looked again and think it is fine. I like it just the way it is. It doesn't need anything else so it is staying that way. Going to get the girls to do theirs next. Can't post pics as it could be seen by Lizzie and that would be a no no until it gets in her hands. Not long now to wait. So exciting to get them back and see everything.

This morning in chatting with my other niece, bride to be's big sister, I might now be making a 2nd boxed album. It is soon to be her 40th birthday. 40! That puts her in my decade again ha! Only thing is that she is having about 100 people to the party she's throwing. Not sure that my mini album would hold enough room for so many people to sign anything but she has thought about doing a book herself so that 2 could go round. Now that work, so long as people only sign the one book that is. Who knows what happens with a bit of alcohol inside some people. (BTW It's a fancy dress party with the theme of childhood villains and heroes. Now shall I be bad or good?) Think I'll go and check out my supplies and have a think.

Oooh She's a one

So the Pinkster got me with the same tag that Karen did. (Karen tagged her when she did me.) I failed so badly last time round too with the smile award and only found 2 people to tag on to. Even with adding a couple of friends to my list, I still have no new people to tag for the questions, because they have all been done. This also means however that I have answered the tag before so I'm sure my answers can stand for this go too. Lol well they are so there !!!!

Gotta go, got crafting to do and hopefully finish so I can post it here tonight.

Finished it

My stash arrived today so I could get on with the wedding guest book I am making for my niece. She gets married at Gretna Green on 9th December. It was meant to be a wedding at home next July, but after going to a friend's wedding in Gretna earlier this year, they found it to be everything they wanted in a wedding. So they pulled out all the stops and brought everything forward to go for their dream wedding. Hope it's not too cold for them, but I've suggested fur lined knickers might be advisable if it is. Lol.

Unfortunately we can't go to the wedding, too many things against us for it, but to be invited was nice. I've never been to Gretna or Scotland for that matter. Well unless you count standing on Hadrian's Wall many years ago. One day maybe. ?????

Anyway I was aiming to finish off the CJ I began yesterday but the guest book called me louder. (Sorry Lizzie but don't worry it will be done in time.) I decided to use the 7 Gypsies small boxed accordian book. There are only about 40 people invited I believe, so this is hopefully perfect for the guests to sign.

I thought about it before starting and went through my papers deciding to use my K & Co Bailey papers. Not exactly wedding like but oh so lovely. I decorated the outside of the box before putting it together, but I forgot to decorate the inside first too. Luckily I bought a 2nd kit just in case, so I took a template from it and carefully added it to the first box. With that sorted I was in full flow so I moved on to the book. I decorated each page with more Bailey papers and then added a white square of paper, rounded at each corner, for the guests to write on. Embellishments had to be fairly small so as not to take up too much room. I used peel offs and Prima flowers with adhesive gems mainly, with fibres between the folds. Alphabet letters are from Basic Grey, Mellow Maude.

The whole thing took me about 3 hours from start to finish, in between doing the washing and checking on the girls every so often. I really like the end result and I hope my niece will too.

Photos were taken tonight so aren't best quality. I will replace them with daylight ones next time I'm here.

Another one

I've been tagged again. This time by Karen. Thanks XX I'm going to have to put my 7 facts on later as I'm 1/4 way through finding my craft table and DH has just returned from walking the dog. Can't be sat here for long or he'll be moaning at me. (The pc is his baby) Also the washing has just finished and so has the tumble drying load. So it means only one thing. That H word for a bit. And I so wanted to play some more with my prize goodies. So what if I have glitter everywhere, and the snow writer comes off. Hmmmm? It says it does. !!!!!!

Okay then Karen I'm back to finish what you started.

1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs

1. Done

2.
1. I was born and raised in Brighton.
2. Uncooked bananas make me sick (since having DD2)
3. I speak 3 foreign languages. French, Swedish and German. (Sometimes in the same sentance lol)
4. I am a chocoholic.
5. My stash collection seems to grow faster than I can use it.
6. I give up 3 afternoons a week to help out in school for my 2 DD's classes. (I also work at school over the lunch time. Must be mad)
7. I'm a true Sagittarian. If I have money in my pocket or purse I have to spend it. I also love to travel.

Now on the 'tag 7 others' front I don't have that many people I follow that I can tag. Plus those I do follow I think have been tagged already by at least one of the others. So I will have to come back to this bit when I can see who hasn't been tagged.