thankful

 this is for the latest challenge at Scrap it With a Song-

Being that Thanksgiving time of year the challenge is Kelly Clarkson - Thankful

 I decided to go a little unusual and make a LO without any photos

Instead I made myself a banner and attached journalling strips on each flag with something I am grateful for- i also added something in the little envelope the bird is holding

my list

my children

my sister

my husband

chocolate

the Internet

Scrapbooking

Sky + ( our equivalent of Tivo)

Its a LO about my son- last year he brought this turkey home- he added things he's grateful for on the wings

his list was

my fish

my car

paper

my tv

my shelf

cute or what?

I really need them all to write a list this year- in their own handwriting- 


honestly I am hopeless- I knew this was supposed to be the Blog hop but then I SCHEDULED IT WITHOUT THE HOP BIT!


so here is where you are supposed to go next- the delightful Dana

you and me

My latest submission for the design team at Twisted sketches.  the twist is ribbon - I've managed to squeeze on two kinds- the pink polka dot in two places and the ribbon flowers across the journalling. 


if you want to have a look at the sketch hop over to Twisted sketches by clicking on the link at the side- go on you know you want to.

the photo is quite self explanatory- a photo of me and Nancy- its a bit blurred but I took it myself so I can't expect much more!

the aliens have landed

this is my take on the latest Dutch Dares sketch- I've used some photos from Utrecht- just round the corner from our friend's apartment is this fabulous sculpture - its on a building known as the inkpot. I can't remember who it's by but I did write it on my LO

I feel really glad about the bad  photo but I've just started back to work this week full time for the first time in nine years and at the moment I go to work in the dark and come home in the dark. I thought if I leave this photo to take until the weekend i'll forget and be too late. So here it is



the sketch

playing keep

using the October Afternoon sketch

the LO is about Arthur's first match playing in goal when he stayed rooted to his line and looked petrified for the whole of his 20 minutes in that position- at least he saved a penalty!

freedom

the kids running free on the beach after three hours in the car

using the Sketchy Thursdays sketch ( a second one)

subdued colours using some Chap paper from AC

photo booth

using the sketchy Thursday sketch- a picture of me and Nancy at my Sister's wedding in the photo booth!

the sketch

Hope Springs eternal

Ok  so I might have been clutching at straws but I entered in the design team call for Hambly Screen prints-  I can think of nothing better than getting on a manufacturers design team- I would love to have enough stash to use huge numbers of papers and embellishments on one LO- instead of saving them up and using them sparingly!

the call asked for at least on LO that hadn't been seen before- here are the three that I made 

1. I'll have a Utrecht

while we were on our last holiday in the Netherlands  we went to a very splendid ice Cream parlour-  they had so many to choose from including ones named after all the Dutch provinces- we lived in Noord Holland but we were very close to Utrecht- the Utrecht Ice cream was right up his street- raspberry and lemon ice cream topped with orange juice and then covered in whipped cream- I used the apothecary jar rub ons as they looked like the ice cream serving dishes

2. Camera shy

had to go with some chevrons- and here's me using my Hambly papers sparingly

3. One I made for Sarah's cards- already posted

4.  memory store deposit

A few not so good photos in a handmade envelope- with a few rub on embellishments

waves

this one is for Get Picky

I changed it a little bit as I had this left over paper from a punched out sheet- so I punched out parts of the photo to fill the gaps and then punched out more circles to overlap

the sketch

making a splash

this one is a lovely simple sketch from Stuck sketches

the photo is the two boys throwing stones into lake Como on our holiday last year- the title refers to the fact they are making a splash with the stones

this is the sketch

climb high

this LO is for the challenge over at Pencil Lines


The photo is Nancy and Arthur climbing on the rocks on the beach at Perranporth in Cornwall. the journalling is about the fact that the tide was coming in and the children were still climbing on the slippery rocks- Its more about my paranoia as a parent than what they were doing!


this is the sketch

more numbers

These numbers are for my JYC with Shimelle

I only just finished the album from last year so this year I am determined to finish earlier- lets say the end of January at the latest- there deadline set!

I made these using a sheet of the new Christmas line from American crafts

unfortunately they numbers only go up to 25 but the sheet did have extra shapes so what I did was stamp some small numbers to stick on the shapes for the rest of the month and into January ( not all of them would fit on the chair so these show only up to 30)

this is a close up of number three

Numbers

Ok so Blogger's messing me around at the moment. These photos were the right way up in Picassa, the right way up stored on my hard drive BUT Blogger decides they need to be upside down or sideways! grrrr.

I have decided to do two Christmas albums this year! ! Two! 

this one is going to be a Ali Edwars December Daily style one- as (correct me If I'm wrong) it seems to be a much more simple idea than JYC- I intended to choose one photo for each day and write a little about each photo- maybe on the hpoto itself before I print it

I decided to use up some old papers for this album- mostly stuff that was not Christmas paper .

I also decided on five different styles for my numbers- but all of them using the Ormolu flair dates I bought a while back

the first using these great wooden gift tags I found in Marks and Spencers- I used the back side of them as they are printed on the front- this is the title page

the second using doilies ( upside down)

the third using a piece of Websters Pages paper that has front doors on it ( sorry its sideways)

the wooden tags again as a page number

the fourth using gift tags in the shape of Gingerbread men

and the fifth design is with kraft luggage tags

color

This was the my failed effort for the D challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous- all the paper is DCWV from various stacks that I have languishing in a box! but the printer went mental a the photo ended up over two pages so its glued together. In the end I thought it was a little plain for a design team submission but I love the simplicity of it

thankful 1,2,3,4

the latest challenge at Journaling Junkie is a Thanksgiving one- you have to choose inspiration from the list of

colours- yellow, teal, and cream

multiple photos

a list of things you're grateful for.

or any combination of! I did all three

I decided to make a LO about the bits of Nancy I am thankful for as I just made a Thankful LO for another DT project

the journaling reads

there are so many things I love about Nancy 1. the cute face, freckles, big eyes, just adorable 2. her odd little felt pen tattoos- these look like measles 3. that she likes me to do her hair in the morning 4. her imagination- at the Wolves she decided to make up the score as she didn't like the real one

thankful 2

but I decided to make another thankful LO inspired by a LO i made of my daughter's Christmas list where I photographed her handwritten Christmas list

I asked my three to hand write a list of the things they are grateful for

this is what they said

Nancy (age 4)

telly

shoes

food

santa

chairs

eyes

school

Stanley (age 9)

wii

tv

play station

computer

electric guitar

dsi

ipod

kitchen

house

parents

grandparents

food

drinks

toilet

bed

school

friends

football club

cricket club

Santa

birthdays

life

brother

sister

name

Arthur (age 6)

bed

treasure box

guitar

kitchen

computer

Santa

Grandma

Grandpa

chocolate

for Arthur and Nancy I rewrote their list underneath  the handwritten list so we would still be able to read and understand it in a few years

Decorations

Its getting to that time of the year and I am still no where near having scrapped all of last year's photos! 


I have to say I am SOOOOO fed up with the plastic tree we have- we have been talking about getting rid of it for about six years- but  for the last three years we have been away from home for over a week around Christmas because we have been travelling back to the UK so there was no point in getting a real one- we talked about getting a new fake one but they were very expensive in the Netherlands- so maybe  this year......


Anyway the photos are of the decorations on our tree - this year I AM changing them- I love the pale blue, white and crystal that we have but for the last few years I have been buying bits in bright colours to go on the little tree in the hall- this year i think I have hoarded enough to put them on the BIG tree.


This Lo  was for the Scrapbookers Anonymous mid month alphabet challenge! this month we are up to the letter D- so the Lo is about Decorations and I used DCWV paper to make the tree and the background paper- I cheated a bit by using some American Crafts washi to make my decorations- so this might not be the main contribution for the challenge!

SPARKLE

this one may be my main submission for the D challenge at SCrapbookers Anonymous- I left it to Lea nad Theresa to decide- because I couldn't!I'm hopeless at making decisions! 


All the papers are DCWV and the subject is  Nancy  Decorating the Christmas tree last year- 

at the works "do"

this LO is for Shimelle's sketch of the week and also part of her Christmas crafting weekend - so the added twist was to make a Christmas LO

The sketch was designed around those pages with a border round them- the ones- it turns out- that many of us aren't very good at using- I'm also hopeless with papers that have a big design across one corner- I never know where to put the picture and can't work out how to embellish over the designs!

Anyway back to the Lo

this photo is of me aged about 4 at my Dad's work's Christmas "do". ( is that a particularly British turn of phrase?)  My Dad was playing Father Christmas that year so that might explain the look of confusion on my face

And if you think the reindeer looks slightly odd it's because it's a mirror and its reflecting the underside of my conservatory door!

all the tiny little silvery dots are from a packet of thickers- no I didn't steal all the dots from the i's but there were loads of little full stops on the sheets so I used them

old gold

Another using the Scrap the Boys challenge for Inspiration- they asked you to scrap your bys team colours


Our team is Wolves- Wolverhampton Wanderers- and they play in Old Gold- AKA orange! hence the orange papers- the boys are posing in their Wolves Kits at the start of the Almere City Run they competed in last year

the list

This LO is about Nancy's Christmas List this year- its a doozy

she wrote it in her own hand and if you look carefully you can see she's getting the hang of writing

her list reads

a computer
3 dollies
8 dolly heads
smart man
sun glasses
13 houses

I'm not sure about the dolly heads! but the smart man is not a real man its a Prince Nicholas doll and the 13 house is a set of Peppa Pig houses that nest inside each other-

I'm hoping this qualifies for Shimelle's challenge about journalling to document holiday memories that are missing from our albums!

getting started

this weekend Shimelle had a Christmas craft weekend- to help us all get ready with cards and ready for Journal Your Christmas if you happen to be getting involved

Last year I won a class pass for the class on the day it started so I was nowhere near ready for it- In fact I only finished it  yesterday- I put a concerted effort to get something down for every day even if it wasn't what I really wanted- at least its done ( well as done as its gonna be- I went back through my photos and found I didn't take any photos on the 28th and 29th so I had no idea what we did!)

Anyway this year I shall be prepared- well vaguely

I've chosen to use a 6x12 American crafts album

and yesterday I cut down some photo protectors to go in between the 6X12 page protectors ( I had some for 12x12 albums so I cut them in half)

I thought this would give me the flexibility to add some 4x6 photos or journalling and I could put three pages on one or use the three spaces for one day- we'll see how it goes




I also ordered some papers from AC so hopefully by the end of the week I'll be able to cut some papers down to size ready and make my page numbers!

tag your it

the first challenge to help you use your Counterfeit kIt is up- and its called tag you're it- the challenge is to use tags- simple as that

So here is my version- I cut some tags out of my kit papers- added some string with staples- I really need a hole punch that can do individual holes!

hope you like it

only read this if you are over 18- 11.11 11.11.11

Ok so Dear Lizzy had a challenge to photograph what you were doing at 11.11 on 11.11.11

and this is where I have to be careful what I'm saying- at 11.11 this morning I was just returning from the supermarket and hiding the Christmas presents I had bought! this explains the need to keep the post away from small believers in the fat guy in red (IYKWIM)

I really wish I had been doing something more exciting but I had to go and collect a parcel from the post office and by the time I got there it was 11 am- time for 2 minutes silence for remembrance day in the UK

so I observed the silence in the car and then rushed home for 11.11  as I didn't have my camera with me

anyway by the time I got home there was no time to get organised and do something interesting 

so this was it

colour challenge

This is what I put together for the Crate Paper Colour Challenge- this month the colours are, pink, orange and blue

I used some of the many photos I took of odd details in Amsterdam, walls, graffiti , posters etc

 these three went well with the colour scheme- I thought

I added some Crate chipboard in matching colours

 

I also came up with this but I'm not so happy with the LO

the photo is Nancy dressed as a real medieval princess- in a hairnet, and wimple- literally pinned in

she wasn't impressed- she wanted pink and pointy- if you know what I mean!

TREASURED GOLD

This Lo is mt DT submission for the latest challenge over at Scrap it with a song- the song is Rolling in the Deep by Adele

sometimes I think I'm not quite the person for this challenge blog-! there was me thinking I didn't know what this song was  and then I watched it on you tube and realised  I did know it and in fact i really like it! shows what attention I pay to music these days!

I chose the line from the song- treasured gold- my sister just had a baby (in October) and she posted this picture of her and the little one on facebook- she used Incredibooth on her I-phone to get the effect which I love- the golden tones of the photo also worked well with the line I chose 

so high

a quick post- this photo is of the viewing platform at the very top of the tropical biodome at the Eden Project in Cornwall- I took this photo while Stanley and James were right at the top. they were the only two of us brave enough to to go up and then they didn't stay for very long!

i think I cheated

No I don't really move at the speed of lightening but Julie T-W had revealed her LO for this sketch  from Sketchy Thursday a little early

So I got ahead of the game and whipped one up!

This LO is of photos I took of flowers at the Eden Project in Cornwall last month

unfortunately I only know the name of one of the flowers- top left is a Dahlia- they happen to be one of my favourites

the others are all tropical flowers from the tropical biome 

naturally chilled

Ok this Lo is also using the same design as the last two but this one is for Shazza over at Artastic


this month the inspiration is from the painting Bacchus by Caravaggio. Shazza has three criteria-  a bow, a wine glass or bottle and some grapes ( or fruit) I have been thinking about this for days- started it twice and in the end thought hey I can live with the extra diva point for the grapes ( sorry Shazza- naught I know) but I just couldn't find anything that fitted with what I had


The Lo is a photo of some wine that i had chilling in the garden - in the snow- last winter- hence the title "Naturally Chilled"


this is the painting