Some News!

I'm excited to announce I'm now a member of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Design Team! Yay!

I love this challenge blog, as it always gets me to look through my stash and mix things up. For those of you who don't know about the blog - each month a kit is chosen for inspiration and you're challenged to make your own kit from items your already own - to use up that stash! There's lots of ideas, mini-challenges, and tutorials on the blog to help you out throughout the month!

I'll be back on the 1st of January with my first proper CKCB (Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog) DT post - as part of the blog hop to reveal all the DT's January kits. But for today I thought I'd show you the projects I created for my DT application! We had to make a kit based on this Wood Floor Kit by , and though we only had to make one project with it, I couldn't stop once I'd started and I made two layouts and a card:

6 Months Old:

Love & Lollies:

You Are So Amazing:

All featuring some nice bright yellows and oranges, and some scattered gems and pearls! 

I can't wait to show you what I've been working on for January... so I'll see you again soon! Make sure you check out the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog to see the other DT members announced today too! x

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Merry Christmas!

Hello all. Sorry my blog has been very quiet during December. We've had a variety of illnesses here, nothing serious, but enough to keep me busy when the kids were ill, or feeling rotten when I'd caught it off them! 

I've also been busy with a few deadlines that I'll tell you about when I'm able to! With all that, plus sending out Christmas cards and buying / wrapping presents, I feel quite exhausted. But now we're well, and all prepared, and I'm looking forward to a lovely Christmas Day tomorrow.

For this quick post I thought I'd show you a few Christmas cards that I hadn't had a chance to blog about. There were many more, some that I made in a rush just before visiting people (!), but these are my favourites...

Deck the Halls:

A card using Crate Paper Sleigh Ride, my Slice Design Cutter and the Fa La La card, and some wood veneer snowflakes.

Merry Christmas:

Using Pink Paislee City Sidewalks, some flicks of Heidi Swapp Gold Lame Spritz, and a Craft Tonic Star Punch.

Merry Christmas For You:

I've used up the rest of my My Mind's Eye All is Bright 6x6 Paper Pad now, which makes me feel sad as I loved it so much! There's also Rhinestones, Stickers, and Decorative Tape from the collection on here, plus a bit of silver string.

'tis the season:

More All is Bright on this one. I followed this tutorial from Meghann's Little Corner to make a Washi Tape feather, and I added some gold tinsel-like trim at the bottom. I need to source more of this trim as I love how it shines!

Now I'm off to arrange the presents under the tree, and then get some sleep before the children wake up nice and early! 

Merry Christmas to all my wonderful readers. I hope that all of you, whether you celebrate Christmas or not, are having a lovely few days to finish off 2012 in style. I'll be back again before the end of the year to share some news!

x

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Joy Layout ~ for an Elle's Studio Sketch

I had fun today, playing with an Elle's Studio Sketch, and using a photo from 4 years ago...

Joy:

Supplies: Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go 'Why Thank You' Paper, Crate Paper Sleigh Ride 6x6 Paper, Pink Paislee City Sidewalks 8x8 Paper (for the stars). Elle's Studio Tags from the 'Here & Now' kit, The Sweet Life collection, and 'Turquoise Pennants'; and their 'Note Tab' Stamp. Studio Calico Hey Day Alphas, 'Cherry' Baker's Twine, Heidi Swapp 'Gold Lame' Color Spritz, Craft Tonic Star Punch.

The layout was inspired by the Elle's Studio Sketch Thursday for this week:

I changed mine about a bit, but I think you can still see the sketch in my layout! I moved the twine down and twirled it around in loops, because the photo on my page was taken after our presents were unwrapped, so I wanted to look a bit unravelled.

I kept the title in the right place though! Behind the title, and on various other areas of the page there are splashes of gold mist - Valerie Cousins had used distress ink to the same effect on This Layout the sketch is based on. To do mine I splodged a puddle of gold mist onto several spots of the page, and then blew through a straw to make them spread out. You can see the shine better in these close up shots - the mist is Heidi Swapp's 'Gold Lame' Color Spritz - I love how luminous it is:

The journaling reads:

'We were at Granny's for your first New Year's Eve. We opened Christmas Presents and played lots of games, and you sat giggling and smiling at us all. It was lovely to see the joy in you!'

I like the 'Family Love' tag from The Sweet Life Note Tags set, it's subtle but perfect:

I added the 'These Are The Days' and 'Love That Smile' tags to the ends of my twine, a bit like they were the presents that had been unwrapped:

And of course I finished the page off with my usual scattering of gems, plus a few scattered stars, punched with a Craft Tonic punch that I bought the other day, and am now using on everything Christmassy!

Have you ever tried blowing the mist across your page? My daughter saw me trying it out and of course she had a go with watercolour paints on spare paper. She didn't have quite enough puff, but she liked the patterns it made!

Have you been crafting this weekend? x

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Just Chilling

Here's my cheeky boy, looking all chilled out, watching TV in his sister's chair, and melting my heart with his cuteness:

Supplies: American Crafts White Cardstock, Studio Calico Classic Calico 2 'Numerical' Paper, Crate Paper Sleigh Ride 6x6 Pad, Pink Paislee Portfolio Alphas, Simple Stories Sn@P Alphas, Stamps from Pink Paislee, American Crafts, and Banana Frog, Mister Huey 'Clay' Mist, Gems from Papermania and Hero Arts, 3D Foam Dots, Black Ink Pad, Sewing Machine and White Thread.

I love catching moments like this, as I know they're the ones I'm going to love looking back at in years to come. Plus I adore stripy clothes on my kiddies, so this babygrow is one of my favourites!

I added the heart detail surrounded by gems and pearls, to show how the moment captured my heart. I placed it up where his eyes are looking towards so he's not looking up at an empty space, and the arrows are stamped around the edge to bring the attention back down to his face:

The papers are stitched on with a zig-zag stitch to soften the edges, and I stamped some bunting to write my journaling on top of:

Finally I kept the title sweet and relaxed like the photo:

Have you captured any chilled out moments on your layouts lately? It makes me feel at peace just looking at this page, which is something I need right now, to calm me down in between the frantic preparations for Christmas. I've still got so many cards to write and presents to buy!

Finally - I'm still waiting to hear from NikkiD to claim her Frosty Festivities prizes. If anyone knows a way to contact her please can you let her know? If I haven't heard from her by next Thursday (13th December) then I shall re-draw the prize!

Bye for now, x

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