tis the Season

there is a great "all play" challenge over at Scrap it with a song this week- all the design team have been invited to create a LO based around their favourite Christmas Carol ( well any old Christmas song will do)

I chose the line "Tis the Season " from Deck the Halls and used some of the foods in season at this time of the year that we love to eat in our family

Hope you can join us with your favourite carol

Child's PLay Blog Hop

Welcome to my little stop on the Child's Play "what's under the Christmas tree "Blog Hop. you should have stopped here from Wendy's blog but if you got here by accident or you want to start from the beginning the master list is over on the Child's Play Blog. The Child's Play  design team are blogging and scrapping  about what's under the Christmas tree this year ( actually I'm cheating- mine is about what was under the Christmas tree last year)

So here it is - a Paper Jamz guitar

And here is the LO I made.

It's called "little Rock Star" and it shows Arthur  posing Rock star style with his Christmas present last year.

And your next fabulous stop is Chas over at Scrapin Lizards

n addition to the great projects, we also have a great prize for one lucky blog hopper:

  

Here's what you need to do to enter:

1-check out each blog along the hop and leave a comment so we know you were there!

2-post about the hop on your blog

3-link your post on our special "Blog Hop" linky in the sidebar by December 31st

4-BONUS!! Create a layout based on any of the DTs inspiration items and post that link for a second entry!!

And if you get lost along the way, we have handy little list of all the stops on the hop below!! Have fun, and Merry Christmas from all of us at Child's Play Challenges! 

What's Under the Christmas Tree Blog Hop Master List:

1. Tiffany
2. Ashley
3. Devra
4. Karen Wilson
5. Janet 
6. Wendi
7. Karen
8. Chas
9. Rita

circle around

This LO is typical of me and shows my complete lack of ability to just use one manufacturer on my LO. It started well, all the paper in the pie chart is from an AMerican crafts 6x6 pad but then I can't seem to just stick to that. there,s some October Afternoon, some Kaiser Kraft, some Crate Paper and a few other bits I cna't name.

The LO is for the latest challenge at Scrap OUr Stash which is Circle around in other words use circles in any way you want.

My LO is called "so very lovely Thumbelina" when we were away in France in JUne Nancy found a tiny dolls dress at the house we were staying so she put it on her thumb and drew a little face on to make her own thumbelina.

step into christmas

Everything seems to get in the way of scrapbooking at the moment, work, Christmas, shopping, life in general so yet again I am very late

this LO is for Scrap it With a Songs latest Christmas based challenge- Step into Christmas by Elton John.

I just love the Christmas song's in the shops and this is one of my faves-  I chose a picture of Arthur sledging on Christmas Eve a couple of years ago as my picture- and the line "we can watch the snow fall forever and ever"

This was photo was from Christmas 2010- we weren't sure we were going to get back to the UK for Christmas because of the massive snow fall in Holland. We did but after a fraught journey and the children loved sledging down the hills in England ( not very easy in flat Holland) on a borrowed Old fashioned sledge

LOndon 2012

This LO is for the latest challenge at From Screen to Scrap- As usual Shazza has a few requirements to fit with the movie poster 

this month it is

red card

tearing

and a family photo

I have to say most of that was easier said than done.

I don't have any red card ( so thank goodness for an old piece of American Crafts card that had a plain red background)

tearing came from strips of paper torn from a dictionary. I bought the dictionary from a second hand book sale with the sole purpose of ripping bits out to scrap with. Its a German/Portuguese dictionary so no use to me at all

and the family photo was the hardest of all to include

luckily i had this one and it fitted with the colour scheme. The whole LO is about the photo.

It was taken at the OLympic PArk in the summer- I was taking a picture of my husband and children in front of the stadium and a voice shouted " hey you can't do that" the Games Maker didn't actually mean I wasn't allowed to take a picture rather that I shouldn't be taking a picture without me in it. He insisted I hand over the camera and pose with my family rather than hiding behind the camera

2 boys on a train

the challenge over at Child's Play this time is a lovely toy train ( theirs is under a Christmas tree but I ignored that aspect)
My LO has a tiny little train on it but the LO is also about our regular trips on a steam train to Minehead when we go and visit our friend in Somerset.

Passport photo

Passport photos are a real game to get right when the subject of the photo is under 10. Nancy was supposed to have a serious expression which means her photos make her look like a criminal in a mug shot

natural

this is a minimalist LO with lots of white space for the challenge over at Kraft it up

Park Live ZOne

this LO is about our trip to the Olympics this summer_ We had a great time and part of that was being able to hang out around the Olympic Park after out event had finished. This Photo is from Park Live where there were big screens to watch the action and see the medals being won

using a sketch

both of these LOs were made using the recent sketch at Sarah's Cards. the bottom one is my favourite I think.

the top one is a close up of the Olympic Stadium. I think the striped paper mirrors the pattern of the stadium nicely.

this one is quite typical of me. I take some bad photos but I don't delete them I quite often print them out and use them on a page. this one Nancy got too close so she's blurred in the picture but I love the natural smile.


here is the sketch

london eye

A quick post- A LO I made using instagrams of our first trip on the London Eye back in June

home

Late yet again- you'd think I'd learn.

This LO is for the latest challenge at Scrap it with a Song- the song = Homeward bound by Simon and Garfunkel and I used a patchwork effect that was highlighted on the Crate Paper blog this week and an instagram photo that my son took on my I phone of my husband and the other two children

Pagerize me

This is  my LO for the next Pagerize challenge.

I decided to make a LO for the upcoming Remembrance day coming up here in the UK in November. This summer we visited my Great Grandfather's war grave in Belgium, he died in the First World War. The photo is of Nancy at the grave side ( so her Great Great Grandfather) its called "she will remember them" based on a line from the Laurence Binyon poem For the Fallen which is read out at Remembrance Day services.

I thought there were afew things peple might use to Pagerize the LO
- the 6x6 Paper
-the tags and bits of stuff tucked behind
- something to remember a serving or old soldier in the family
- butterflies
- or the use of the scrap strip on the LO

too many photos

a quick Lo of Nancy pulling a face- this is the kind of face I get when I've taken too many photos of her and she's fed up

freedom

my little bit of Freedom- inspired by the George Micheal song ( for Scrap it with a Song)

Every Thursday evening ( husbands schedule permitting) I go tap dancing- I am seriously rubbish but hey I love it.
 the shoes were given to me by my sister- she bought them from ebay- so goodness knows where they've been but I'm in no hurry to buy a new pair. Every one else has boring black lace ups.

ray a drop of golden sun

Late again- I hate not having a lap top that works- I have to sit on an uncomfortable chair to write my blog posts and it appears to be quite off-putting by the number of times I have posted late.

this LO is for Child's Play challenge- the challenge this week is a classic movie- the Sound of Music. My daughter has been singing songs form this for weeks as she is learning them at the Saturday morning theatre school she attends. So when this challenge came up I had do use the lyrics from her favourite song with a LO about her.

Unfortunately I don't have a photo of her in her theatre school uniform but hey this will do- she is my Ray of golden sun even when she looks in a bad mood.

My First Jobs

I made this LO for the challenge at Another Freaking Scrappy Challenge- the challenge as you may guess from the title was to scrap about your first job.My problem is that I had three first jobs virtually simultaneously.

When I finished my GCSE exams aged 16it was the end of May and I had nothing to do again until September so I started a Saturday job at Marks and Spencer's which I kept while I did my A levels.
I also started a weekday job at a  pub between my village and the next - the Wicked Lady and I worked there for most all of the summer day and some evenings and some Sundays and weeknights waiting on tables.

I also had a Saturday Evening Job at the local pub ( where my sister worked washing dishes in the kitchen) again waiting on tables.

Paris

Here is my Lo for November for Frome Screen to Scrap
- I've got all three of the requirements that Shazza set on there- 
white card- 
Love in the title
and the Eiffel tower- 
the photo is a close up of the wall paper that was in our holiday home in France this summer- a bit overwhelming and very French

tear it up

This is for the latest challenge at Scrap OUr Stash- entitled Tear it Up
MY LO for the tear it up challenge broke my normal paper rules.
I tore into a whole brand new sheet of paper for this and it nearly broke my heart as I intended just to use scraps. Still I'm really pleased with the result as I used bot sides of the paper and it looks really pretty.

The Lo is a picture of my daughter eating an ice cream on holiday in the summer. i used some pretty ice cream colours torn into strips and layered up at the side of the photo.

pagerize

This is My LO for the Pagerize challenge at Scrap OUr Stash- the idea is you use the Pagerize LO as inspiration for your LO- I chose to use the three square phots in a strip from Wendy's LO- I'm loving scrapping with my Instagrams at the moment so this was a perfect way to get some on a LO

its a LO about one of our favourite places to eat- Wagamama - Nancy always has the cod cubes

More Stamp art work

so here is my latest attempt to make a piece of home decor with stamps

This time I've used stamps of the world inspired by my love of Postcrossing. I photocopied and enlarged a map of the world. Cut out the continents and then glued on stamps in the appropriate areas. this was harder than it sounds. I had to cut down the number of stamps I wanted to use for Europe as the stamps were much bigger than the size of the countries ( in fact I might make another with just Europe) and Russia is far too big- that took a whole load of stamps. It turns out I don't have a stamp from Iceland (or Madagascar) so don't get all picky on me that they are not there ( or wrong) and I had to buy some stamps on Ebay for Greenland but altogether I think it looks OK

hot chocolate

Well this is my Design Team Lo for Scrap OUr Stash. The theme this month is hot chocolate so I went with a range of hot chocolate tones for my Lo about our October holiday last year.

I'm a bit miffed this year as My children's school holiday and my school holiday from work are different  weeks so no Cornwall holiday this year :(

colour challenge

here are two LOs I made using the  Crate Paper colour combination for this month. the colours are officially- Peacock Blue, Gingerbread and dove grey

I started by making the  Wonderful View LO about one of our many turns on the LOndon Eye 

but then I looked down at myself and realised I was wearing the exact colours of the challenge even down to dove grey socks ( you can see them through the straps on my boots)- so a couple of instagram pictures later I made this LO about my outfit

There is a mix of lots of different lines in both of these- I have some brand new On Trend as well as some much older bits

I put a spell on you- because you're mine

its October, its Halloween month and the song over at Scrap it With a Song is " I put a spell on You".
So what did I do- make a pretty pretty Lo with not a witch in sight.

I decided to use the next line " because you're mine" and used a picture of me and Nancy eating ice cream on holiday this summer

Googly Eyes

the challenge over at Child's Play this week is an art and craft item- Googly Eyes

I did think about using some actual kids googly eyes on my LO but then I decided to make some embellishments that looked a bit like some instead.

I used googly eyes in the title and a picture of Nancy playing with her food- a Quaver

cuddle

this Lo is for the challenge at White with one- this month the challenge is white with yellow and stars
i used a photo from Instagram again-  Nancy and me taken by Nancy when she was messing with my phone
I used both the negative and the positive of the punched stars at the top of the LO and at the bottom afew old stamps in just about the right colours that were laying on my desk.

I have a plan for a bundle of world stamps that I have - watch this space

waiting for the flame

this LO is made using the sketch from Stuck Sketches. 

I'm loving my Instagram pictures at the moment and this is one of them. A photo of Arthur while he was waiting in the crowd for the Olympic flame to pass by. He's holding his "I saw the flame" flag

the LO is called- waiting for the for the flame

here is the sketch

                                   

flowers in her hair

here's my take on the latest challenge at Sarah's cards. its from the sketch below. its a picture of Nancy at the park in the summer- she has her own sense of style for good or bad and I often have to coax her out of outfits that are impractical for the occasion or the weather- shorts and a vest in winter?

using scrap stealing ideas~2

This LO is based on a LO I saw on the Crate Paper blog this week- the LO on the blog used washi tape stickers to create a pattern. I used lots of small strips of patterned paper at the bottom of the page
the LO has a photo of my children running about in the multi storey car park- we were the only people parked on level

using scraps- stealing ideas

I love pootling about the internet finding inspiration- unfortunately with the laptop out of action I've been doing it less and less- sitting on a hard chair in the playroom doesn't have the same appeal

but I had a little wander last week and found loads of ideas using scraps of paper

I made these three LOs and  not one whole piece of patterned paper was harmed in the process

I apologise for not sharing ho I stole the ideas from- I always forget to record that important bit of info :(

this one uses half circles in a graduated colour effect

these two uses two inch squares cut in half diagonally in a patchwork effect

both exactly the same design just with different colours

this one the wild flower meadows at the Olympic Park in London

 this one a series of Instagrams from our trip to Belgium this summer

( I am pickleboys on Instagram if you want to take a look)

Tompouce

I made this for the challenge at Dutch Dares- I know I'm not living  there anymore but I still have tonnes of photos  from out time in Holland that I need to scrap so at least if I play along I may get some done.

the challenge is to use Patterned paper only- no card- i've got 8 on here
the photo is of Stanley eating a tompouce cream cake

not picture perfect

the latest challenge at Scrap it with a Song has an October Halloween theme to it- the song is Kelly Clarkson- Dark Side but as you can see from my LO I haven't gone for a dark halloween theme- there is a line in the song that says "nobody's picture perfect" so I used that as my title.
The photo of Nancy that I used makes her look like some strange cabbage patch kid with blotchy skin- slightly odd but quite cute

While I sit and watch

This LO is for the October challenge at FRom Scree To Scrap- the  inspiration comes from "a tree Grows in Brooklyn" you can see the poster below.

the challenge involved also using
a black and white photo
a tree
leaves

I used the a leaf punch to create a border and some old AC paper with trees on but I inked up the white trees so it fitted a bit better with the other colours

the photo is of my son playing on the huge earthwork mounds at Kenilworth Castle- its called "while I sit and Watch" because that'a exactly what I was doing

twister inspiration

The challenge recently at Child's Play was Twister as inspiration

I made the top LO based on the image of the board (see below) but used some subdued colours. While I was making it I was left with the offcuts of the shapes so I used those on a second LO about our holiday last October

 

let your colours fly

I am fed up with work- it is seriously cramping my scrapbooking style- I am so late at posting everything and getting LOS done
these are for the Scrap it with a Song challenge for September ( well the top one) the song was the Beach Boys- Be True to Your School- I went for the line "Let Your colours fly" and used a picture of Nancy from the Olympic Park.  I made a quarter of a Union Jack from coloured paper-
I had already used this technique on a LO of our evening in the Olympic stadium
its called "Our Greatest Day" as the GB team was nicknamed " OUr Greatest Team"

summer nose

This is my Lo for the recent sketch challenge at Sarahs cards

It was a nice simple sketch open to a lot of interpretation. I've got the photo and the title in the same place but I've gone for bits of strips rather than all across the page , half a doily rather than a banner and I filled the space with a few butterflies.

the LO is called " Dirty Summer Nose" a close up photo of Nancy's nose with chocolate ice-cream stains on the end of it

I used lots of bits of October Afternoon Woodland Park