not a cloud

I have four days before I have to go back to work- I have two sets of exam papers to mark and some course work that needs marking but I haven't got my hands on yet- but do I feel like marking and preparing lessons- no - so when I had a few moments of quiet away from the children I made this for the latest Sketchy Thursday challenge

like a diamond in the sky

This is my design team submission for the latest challenge at Twisted sketches- the twist this time is jewel so I used a picture of Nancy as a little star during her Christmas Nativity and used a line from the song Twinkle Twinkle that she had to sing

If you want to have a look at the sketch and all the other inspiration why not nip over to Twisted sketches and take a look- just follow the link at the side

Little Santa and his Helper

I found a new challenge to have a go at- white with one- the challenge is to use white with one other item/colour/suggestion- this month its Christmas themed and you can use lots of colours but I used white card as my base and then the Christmas tree paper with a white background-

I didn't quite have enough space across the top for the better title of Little SAnta and his helper but its OK as is

I used a picture of Arthur dressed specially to make mince pies with me and his sister- he wore his red pyjamas and a santa hat to make a mess in the kitchen

blue face- bad photo

I apologise for the bad photo but once the sun has set there's no chance of getting a good shot in our house of anything- LO or child

I was quite happy with the blue tinge to the photo of Arthur playing on the computer - but I'm not so happy with the shadow of me taking the photo across the LO- the title ( if you can see the small letters ) is Blue Face

This one is for Stuck sketches

when Nancy gets hold of the camera

This LO is for Get Picky - Nancy loves to get her hand on the camera and take her own pictures- the problem is the outcome is always quite bonkers ( or is that a benefit)  any way I put three of her pictures together on this- one of her face blurred- one of the Christmas tree  blurred and only the top of the tree- and one of her legs!

this was the sketch

Happy hand- unhappy Anne

 

I made a bit of a boo boo when I made this LO- I was using the sketch from Another Freakin Scrappy challenge- but I failed to realise the key part was to make a LO about a  recipe- I thought I'd post it anyway with numerous apologies along with it

I also had in mind the Scrap Your Crap challenge to use a handful or more of buttons on your LO

I hope I haven't upset anyone by combining challenges

beauty

This is a LO a simple picture of my daughter  with her head in my lap- hence the odd angle of the photo-
I used the sketch from Pencil Lines for this one but I've switched it about a bit- one photo- ditched the banner, moved the journalling and because I liked both sides of the paper I punched a strip down the side and then folded it back on itself rather than have the border facing out.

darts!

A LO for Creative Scrappers

I went with a very literal version of the sketch and used it to make a Lo about the boys playing darts on Stanley's new board- It has been a bit of a mini disaster so far- one dart in the wall despite the massive board its stuck on- rather a lot of fights, tears and arguments 

still goiong

I'm quite pleased with the fact that I am still up to date with my JYC album- the pages would not win prizes and I might not have made pages about the things Shimelle suggests- but I'm getting them done and I'm quite pleased with it all

So this is a bit of a catch up

the 16th

Nancy as a star at her Nativity and a page about what I am thankful for at Christmas

the 17th

Stanley's photo from the football

and I page about the things I have bought from Folksy this year

the 18th

Arthur playing on Stanley's dart board 

and a picture of our already started Christmas cake

the 19th

an envelope with a letter for Santa 

and NAncy in the outfit she wore for her Christmas Disco

the 20th

 the LO is about tiny surprises in the post this month

I take part in Postcrossing and these are the postcards I recieved this month with CHristmas themes as well as the two that arrived today- one from Holland and one from Finland

warm

I seem to have forgotten to post this one! I looked at my post list and saw two drafts and could'nt work out what the other draft was- it was this!

The LO was made using the Pencil lines sketch 262- the photo is me warming my feet by a huge fire at the open air museum in Arnhem that we visited last year

child's play

I could not help but be inspired by a new challenge blog I came across- its so new that they are on their first challenge- and looking for a design team as well- the idea behind the blog is to be inspired by toys- when I saw what the first toy was- I just had to take part- it's this rattle toy- Stanley had one of them for his first Christmas ( he's nine now) so I had to print out a picture of him with the toy to use on the LO- here is the toy- and here is the blog- Child's play challenges

This is the LO I made- I used the idea of the balls connected by lines and surrounded my picture with circles and buttons linked by string and dotted lines of fake stitching

bright lights

The latest challenge over at Artastic is A painting by Thomas KInkade (below) 

I decided to use a photo of our tree from outside our house as my photo inspired by they way he uses light in his picture

the other requirements were- a snowman - I made one from kraft paper

a tree- in the picture

and Christmas in the title- I forgot about that one but it is a CHristmas LO- so Shazza will just have to dock the points- sorry Shazza

Here's the picture

tree 2012

This one is for the latest Sketch at Sketchy Thursday- I loved the Christmas tree shape of the photos so I used the various CHristmas tree photos from this year- what with doing JYC, a daily CHristmas photo album, my obsession with my camera and  Nancy taking any opportunity to take her own photos I have quite a few

All paper is October Afternoon

step into Christmas

 aren't they gorgeous? these are some of the baubles from my tree this year- tipped into a box so the children could easily get to them

This is the photo that I used for my Lo for Scrap it with a song- the challenge now is to make a LO using your favourite Christmas song- I love Christmas songs- love love love them and there is a long list of my faves.....

TOP five

Pogues- Fairytale of New York
Slade- So here it is Merry Christmas
Wizzard- I wish it could be Christmas everyday
Elton John - Step into Christmas ( also covered by the Wedding Present- one of my favourite bands when I was young)
Band Aid-do they know its Christmas

well I thought about these and guessed ( maybe someone can tell me ) that most of these were UK bands that didn't make it in the US and therefore a lot of Scrappers would have no idea of what they were so I decided to make a LO with lyrics from Step into Christmas because surely everyone knows Elton John!

Here it is

I tried to pick out colours from the photo- I used a Christmas label that I bought in WHSmith for the word CHristmas

just enormous!

We are up to E on our alphabet challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous


my E's are
Echo Park Paper
EK success punches
and Enormous


this photo was taken at the Liberty Park museum in Overloon Netherlands- it was the sight of one of the biggest tank battles in the second world war and house huge numbers of tanks and other vehicles from the war


The photo is Stanley standing next to the wheel of the most enormous amphibious vehicle called a LARC-60 used in the Vietnam war

and it goes on

I'm still  up to date with my CHristmas journal and with only two more days of work left before CHristmas I think I might be on track for getting this one done before next November!

the eighth

signs of Christmas from around our house and Arthur doing his tongue work on his cards

The Ninth

Christmas traditions tucked into pockets

there are posters from the pantos we have been to and visits to my sister

the photo is me preparing for another tradition- the works do

the tenth

my Christmas wrap and our vist to my Sister

the eleventh

my new fake tree and decorations

plus a close up of our decorations

the eleventh

photos of Christmases past with the children

and "floor pizza" pizza on the floor by the TV- special treat

the twelfth

\Christmas music

my top 10

1. Slade

2. Wizzard

3. The Pogues

4. elton John

5. Wham

6. Mariah Cary

7. Band Aid

8. Paul McCartney

9. Dean MArtin

10. Jona Lewie

and the children with their letters from Santa

the fourteenth

a long description of present giving

and Arthur on the computer

outings

this LO is for Kraft it Up this month- the challenge is to make a LO about Christmas traditions- we always like to have a special Christmas outing somewhere- we've been to York, London, Thomas land and last year we went to the outdoor museum in Arnhem where they had a skating ring set up and sledging in rubber innertubes- super cool fun- this year I don't know- but the boys are off to a special football match this weekend

I think maybe I'll make another about pantomimes- we always go to one in the days after Christmas- need to find a picture to use

oh my darling

 I made this as a LO for Scrap the Girls this month  they're challenging you to scrap a baby girl this month- this is the newest baby girl in the family- Ivy Clementine born in October- my little niece

brotherly love?

This one is for Sketchy Thursday 

I love these photos of Stanley on the beach last October

I didn't ask them to put their arms round each other - they just did- how super cute is that

by the third photo they were fighting again

but the love's there- even if its deep down

this photo is so that you can get a better look at the picture

the flash glare is a pain but its so hard getting a good photo on these dark nights

and on the seventh

I have three to do lists on my page for the 7th- one for the day like post the cards in the photo- on for the rest of the week- before we go to Manchester on Saturday to see my sister and one for things before Christmas
the other photo is the tree from outside our house

details

Here is my submission for the December challenge over at Scrap Our Stash

the challenge is anything goes - so this is a great way to submit and show us your stuff

I decided to use up some photos that I took months ago before we left the Netherlands and I hadn't found a way to use them

One day on a trip to Amsterdam I decided to take close up photos of various walls, graffiti, posters, street signs and floors. I wanted a record of the tiny details of Amsterdam but its taken me since MAy to find a way to scrap them. 

I chose to print off 16 at the smallest size from Picassa and made a montage of them in the centre of my page- that didn't give me much space to embellish so I stuck a strip of washi tape across the middle and combined title and embellishment by making a small banner with the title on it

Hope you like it

hotel adventure

this is my design team submission for the latest challenge over at Twisted Sketches- the twist this time is red- so I gathered a collection of red papers together and came up with this- I can't for the life of me find a hole punch in my house at the moment so I can't punch a hole in the tags!

the sketch is over at Twisted sketches if you want to take a look

I used a photo of Nancy during our great summer holiday hotel adventure where we spent three weeks in hotels while we were in the process of moving. the photo is Nancy in the middle of a king size bed reading the Gideons bible!

still doing OK

I'm trying to keep up with my JYC pages here are my latest few

the 5th- advent calendar

we have still misplaced our refillable chocolate calendar so the favourite in our house at the moment is the playmobil one- it's knights not Christmassy at all but the love it

the 6th- Christmas memories
the photo on the daily journal page is the wreath on my door- I managed to buy a hook for it today
the prompt LO is about Christmas memories-

I had this photo of me and my Dad dressed as Santa on my desk so I was looking for a newer memory to go with it- this photo of my three with Santa at Thomas land had similar memories- disappointing Santa's!
My three were not impressed with the Thomas Land santa- Stanley was seven and was almost as tall as him- he was really not impressed by a short Santa - and the photo form 30 years before is me looking very unimpressed with my |Dad dressed as Santa- my Dad never refused an offer of being Santa or showing off and being loud- this was one  of those occasions

good idea bad photo

as you may be aware- I am trying to keep up to date with the  JYC class from Shimelle but my problem is BAD photos- I'm at work all daylight hours apart from the weekends- my children are at school all daylight hours apart from the weekend so that means all photos I take on weekdays end up a bit like this- flash beach- everyone looking a bit weird and bright with a dark background ( alternatively madly blurred!) 

so this LO for Sketchy Thursday is using one of those bad photos- they both look slightly crazy- no they look totally mental

this is the sketch

what a face

the challenge at Studio challenges at the moment is Christmas paper on a non Christmas Lo- this one is about Nancy and Stanley having a cuddle on the floor- while NAncy was covered in biro face tattoos.

On here are five different Christmas papers from 3 different manufacturers- there's some.....
Making Memories
Cosmo Cricket x 2
bella bOulevard x 2

as well as scraps from other lines and manufacturers

cracking time

This one is for Shimelle's sketch of the week-I went with a Christmas theme because Shimelle did too.

These two photo are from yesterday- our friend came round ( and our son's Godfather) for our Christmas dinner tradition and exchange of gifts- the LO is about the Crackers we had- I bought them from poundland so I wasn't expecting much ( not even a bang really) but in the end they were OK- hats ( too small but they always are) jokes bad ( but they always are) and rubbish gifts ( but they always are unless you spend a fortune!) Nancy is posing with one of the terrible gifts... the worlds smallest and therefore to most useless comb in the world