Bloggin/Journalling my December Daily/Christmas

I made my mind up that I really was going to make the effort this year and document December and the build up to Christmas
I actually did prepare some of the book in November so It made it a tad easier.
I thought I'd share some of it here
I used some of the Webster's Pages All That Glitters range for the front cover - I'm using a bit of a mixture for the book - mainly Simple Stories with some other bits from my stash thrown in

A certain four legged furry friend wasn't too happy that I was ignoring him and cutting and sticking so decided to stand right on the stool  I was using as a table right in front of me letting me know he wanted to sit on my lap!

My start to December was a really great one with some shows on Create and Craft - so I had to document those

I've been taking pics all the way through December and am definitely enjoying the more 'Project Life ' type of approach to it this year.

Will be back with more soon

Are we all enjoying the build up and are we nearly all ready ? no ? neither am I !!

Fun at the NEC with Create and Craft

Good  Sunday morning to you. I thought I'd share some photos of yesterday at the NEC on the Create and Craft stand

Sue Dindale and me did a lovely make and take  using the gorgeous Kanban Denim and Lace kit.

The tickets all sold out at 9 oclock in the morning so we knew it was going to be a busy time.

These are the fabulous cards Sue designed that we made

Busy working away

This young man was amazing - he does lots of crafting and was whizzing away !

All too soon it was over and tidy up time - every one went home with a goody bag and completed cards.

It was good to see 'our Leonie' and have a catch up 

  

I really enjoyed it, I was really nervous but it went well and was interesting seeing it from the 'other side' !

Denim and Lace

I've been very busy lately preparing samples for  the latest Create and Craft shows for Aspire Crafts
The new kit is gorgeous and I really enjoyed making cards with it
Here are some of the samples

It's a really pretty kit with some cute owls - right up my street !

                 I will be busy packing clothes and crafty supplies later for a retreat this weekend with Scrapagogo - can't wait!

Me on Monday

It was a  getting wages done before I go making sure id got enough pills,dog sorting, packing,and last minute thinking my eye was going to play up- better get some drops - making sure dogs have enough fishy treats and set Strictly to record sort of weekend for me

So now it's an at last I can relax , catch up on blogs ,read a bit and generally chill kind of Monday for me

I'll miss these little fellas, but they are in good hands with number three son at home dog sitting 

It will be oh so nice to be me for a few days. I'm determined to catch up on some books I started ages ago - all sitting there in my iBooks .... Fractured ( thanks to Deb's recommendation) Gone Girl is another one . Anyone read them? I'm also planning my friendship squares too so I can get cracking as soon as I'm back ... I might even blog some more ! 

I can't quite get the hang of doing it on my iPad though - it seems ok till I post a photo then the keypad keeps popping up when I don't want it to - hey ho no doubt I will get used to it.

This post is joining in with the lovely Sian's Me on Monday  - pop over to her blog and see what she's been up to.

What do you blog about

When you really don't think you have much to say ???

Well funnily enough I have been flicking through my blog and actually In the past I've had lots to say - so many nice comments and so many nice memories like the memory of 18 months ago - REALLY ?? was it that long ago ??
i am very happy to re- visit this post - ah wasn't it a grand weekend ?

25/03/2013

Blogfriends Unite

A few years ago I started this blog. Just to keep a diary of life,crafty bits and general 'stuff' for me to look back on. I never had the time to sit and write stuff - so thought this would be far more interesting for me. Then I decided to do an online class run by Shimelle, as lots of my friends were doing this 'picture a month' thing and it sounded great fun. After signing up I started to discover other peoples blogs.I saw their pages and crafty makes -also learned  bits about their lives and began to think of them as real friends.
We have shared happy moments and sadder moments between us and have always thought how wonderful it would be to actually meet in person.
Well,this weekend,some of us did. I'd posted about a crop that my friend Deb  and I go to which is run by Karen  a few times and the lovely Deb from Arizona had said she would love to be at one of our crops one day ..........
This weekend, we fulfilled that ambition. Deb and her lovely daughter Carrie came to the UK for a visit -  and Alison flew in from Spain - so Karen arranged a wonderful set of papers ( with a tiny bit of help from me ) and Deb very kindly hosted it .

It was just like our crops,we had cupcakes

We scrapped and chatted 

We even went to a 'typical English pub' for dinner and ' pudding'. 

The day after was also a perfect day.

Even more lovely ladies who have all been friends via blogland came together in London.

There were eleven of us altogether, a real international gathering. Helena came down from Scotland,Alison flew in from Spain, and of course  Deb and Carrie from USA.

We all got on so well,it was like we'd all met before .. it was an absolute pleasure to meet each and every one of these lovely ladies

Deb and I have shared some very happy emails chatting about our joint love of a certain Mr Donny Osmond - and some very emotional emails when we both went through some sad and trying times with both of us losing one of our parents,we always said how lovely it would be if we could make those cyber hugs we used to send each other real - this weekend we did ...and it was amazing.  

and it was so very hard to say goodbye. 

Friendship Quilt

Well... The first two squares are winging their way to their new owners .

Eeeeek! Hope you like them Abi and Alexa 

Clap Along

Do you have that 'Can't think of a title problem' when you do scrapbook pages?

I normally do a layout and then sit there for ages trying to think of something original.

On rare occasions I'm very focused and have a title and everything else in my head -probably because I have one particular photo that I want to use and love that pic so much that I have title planned etc..

Anyway, I was doing my layouts for A Trip Down Memory Lane's gallery and was using Kaisercraft.

I had this photo of himself and me on hols in July. We asked a lady if she would mind taking our photo. She was such an eccentric old girl- she had us giggling away ( well,I was).. This is the layout I did - and it really brought back that moment when we were 'happy' all relaxed and loving the moment ... And guess what? It made me think of that song . So it had to have those words from the song in it somewhere too ! 

It was COLD

 

 

Well it is for a good cause...

 

 

 

A Quilt of Friendship - Number One

I was really happy when the lovely Fiona contacted me and asked if I would like to step in and join the friendship quilt....

But then I realised that I've only really ever made a couple of squares and am not really known my erm sewing skills. BUT It's a friendship quilt right- we are all friends and It will have lots of 'me' in it! 

So,I've printed off the list of people,their colour choices - I've got the addresses.

I've consulted the encyclopaedia of quilting squares (my friend Deb) and I've raided my fabrics ...no stopping me now. 

I feel quite excited now I've actually made a start and come up with something for the first one. Eeeeeek

Simple Stories Legacy

I recently bought some of the new Simple Stories Legacy papers and bits and bobs from
here There really is a great selection of papers,sayings,and  some great packs of little and larger squares.
I've bought myself a new 12 x 12 album and am going to use a mixture of Project Life and Simple Stories to put the album together. I'm inspired because I love the papers and have some very special photos I want to scrap.I used some of the smaller elements in this layout and used distress inks through a stencil on the background.

My love of dogs echoes that of my mum and I grew up with a house never without a dog in it.

I used some Prima flowers on this layout and also some Prima Color Bloom spray  to add a bit of interest.

This is a photo of my mum with our first son on holiday in Devon in 1985 - great memories  

Another Cybercrop Class

Good afternoon everyone
I'm sharing another one of my ATDML Cybercrop layouts, this time it was  a double and the tube station theme was Oxford Street.

Oxford Street conjours up shopping for  special occasions to me so when I saw the papers were going to be Marion Smith Garment District it all seemed to fit in..

I used some photos of us at a friend's wedding last year.

There was quite a lot of layering and cutting little bits out from the papers but that's what I love.

I loved the little scissors and the top hats on these papers.

I also loved the wording 'kisses directly below the 'moustache' !

I added a few stickles here and there and inked everything as usual and some unusual rub ons made the title then that was it - finished.

 

 

 

Strategy for Christmas Cards ?

I am surrounded at home with cardmaking supplies for Christmas ...

What with the Create and Craft shows a couple of weeks ago and the lovely new paper pads and dies being released it's all very surreal ...

I sat in really hot temperatures with the fan blasting away at me preparing samples and demos for Christmas shows. Not only that - every year I say I will make my cards early and every year - yep it gets to the week before Christmas and I only end up making 'special' cards ..

With all this in mind it prompted me to think about how everyone else does it...

So what do you do ?
When do you start yours?
Do you make lots really early and store them away somewhere ?
Do you decide on a 'type' or design and go with it and make them all the same ?
Do you have a date where you have them all made by?

I'm a bit of a - let's see what I've got person and just go with the flow and make cards with what I've got and do it in bits and bobs - put them away somewhere and then forget I made them all those months ago when it gets to 'Chrtistmas'

So this year will be different, my extremely well organised friend Jane suggested we get ourselves sorted and decide what we are going to do early,have a day organising what we will make (this of course involves a weeny bit of research shopping) and then we can make them all - job done!

Being  a crafter means I have all the products at my fingertips really - so there is no excuse is there??

I really would be very interested to hear what others do out there.. any hints and tips would be greatly appreciated !

Cybercrop Layouts - Jubilee Line Wedding Memories

What an amazing Cybercrop we had last weekend. I thought I would share my classes in full here.

First up  I'm sharing  'Jubilee Line'
Jubilee puts me in mind of bunting and celebrations and flags - so I based my layout on the fact that we have been married for 34 years this year and used a wedding photo.

There's me with my 'Farrah Fawcett' type hair. All permed and blow dried.My white lacy dress -it came from 'Pronuptia' - anyone remember that shop ? I went "all the way to London"to get it !!! ,3 stone lighter and full of excitement and happiness... we had my Dad's car and he was so proud to drive us.

There's himself all slim and shy - yes he really was very shy in those early years.

I was really happy with how this layout came out and think I might even display it somewhere at home.

I used Crate 'DIY' papers and did my favourite fussy cutting of flowers so there were lots of foam pads involved. There were also some chipboard shapes included in the kit which I distress stained white and then inked.

It's really exciting when you see people's layouts after  they have done the class and to see their interpretation of it and I've loved seeing them posted on the Facebook ATDML#Create page.

 

Cybercrop Fun

Good morning -    The Design Team and me  have been very busy lately preparing classes and instructions for the ATDML Cybercrop which starts this evening.
We will be travelling around London via virtual tube stations

There will be 17 classes - including  mini albums, tags, layouts, altered projects, and challenges for you to take part in.

You can find the timetable here if you fancy using up some of your stash.
I've got three classes coming up over the weekend.

The links to the pre crop preparation for classes are here

Ann
Jane
Karen
Mel
Debs
Katherine
Denise

Here are some sneaky peeks of my three classes ..

 

 

Classes will be posted here once they go live.

 

If you do pop along - hope you enjoy it and don't forget to post your projects to our Facebook page

ATDML#Create

see you there !

 

One photo - 20 words

Taking some time out to spend some quality time together and remember why we liked each other in the beginning...

Joining in today with Abi's idea of linking one photo with 20 words.

Guest Designer for Scrapology

I was thrilled to be asked by the lovely Linda to be a guest designer on the Scrapology blog this month.
There are some extremely talented ladies over there and it was lovely to be asked to take part.
The theme this month is 'P' for Punchouts and they chose the layout below by Stacey Cohen to take inspiration from

What a gorgeous layout. It has everything on it I love - the colours and butterflies are two of my favourite things ...

We could use whatever we fancied so I used some Kaisercraft Heirloom papers and set to with some glittery texture paste which I stencilled through a star stencil.
I then used an EK Success butterfly border  punch which served a double purpose as I could use the punchouts after the border had been punched  separately to place above the design randomly.

I added a couple of little flowers and some vintage embellishments and inked around the edges .

So there we have my take on the layout - these are a special couple of photos of a special aunt of mine who recently celebrated her 80th birthday. She had a surprise afternoon tea party which was lovely for her and it was great to get together with the girls of the family too.

In my element

Life is pretty busy here in Den's Crafty Land - but this weekend is being spent in the company of some lovely people enjoying free reign to scrap some lovely projects - all Kaisercraft,courtesy of the lovely Chrissy and Merly Impressions. We've got some gorgeous projects to do ... But true to form I'm being distracted by the gift we had - a mini Project Life type album 

I don't know about anyone else but I have a collection ( or three ) of photos that I always consider not really suitable for a 12 x12 page.Why? I don't know. So I started playing about this morning and am really on a roll with it now ...

Watch this space for more pics over the weekend