~ On Display! ~

All I can say is the days are passing by way too quickly! I've been enjoying the Xmas break and it's a welcome relief from school runs and routines. Managed to track down the iron I wanted and this is it:

A Russell Hobbs steam generator iron. Got it off Amazon for a fraction of what is selling in Argos! Just have to wait for a slightly longer delivery time! 

One of my Christmas presents to MIL is a calendar set that I made:

I used the calendar kit by Paislee Press. They are 5x7" and each month is showcased in a frame (which can be changed for each month). The entire calendar was done using various supplies by Anna Aspnes.

Finally, squeezed in some time to create this LO (despite having other stuff to do). Had the idea in mind after seeing a similar LO. 

I always document the wish lists of my boys but decided to do something different this year. I learnt how to extract figures using the quick selection tool (the net & YouTube are great resources). Luv the whimsical figures of my boys! Majority of supplies from Anna Aspnes. This is Day 12 of my December Daily 2011 album.

TTFN!

~ Why? ~

So I needed a 5x7" photo frame but can I find it in the shops? Went to 3 places (B&M, Next & Asda) and found nothing to buy. 2 of them didn't even had any in their stores! Gave up as I didn't want to waste my time chasing after it! So annoying!

Created another LO based on a technique challenge at DHD. The technique was to make use of a layer mask. Never used it before and found it very useful tool. I had to surf around to find out more about this tool and I think I'm gonna be using it much more now!

I stamped with 2 different brushes and used the layer mask to make the stars lighter. LO created using Agnes Biro/Dido Designs' Winter Whisper kit.

TTFN!

~ Spring Clean! ~

Hubs went back to work today and I was busy sorting the house out. First stop was the lounge whereby it had gotten into a state of anarchy! Cleared the room of any Xmas wrapping papers and sorted out the winter apparels (gloves, scarves & hats). Then it was the outer house that need clearing up. Typical hubs had simply chucked black bags (which contained god knows what!) out there so it was time to sort them out properly. Threw out loads of rubbish and packed stuff away! Thankfully he did dinner so that I could finish the spring clean. I'm still not done but I'll get there somehow!!!

Next on the list to get is a good iron. I'm not opposed to ironing, in fact, I do like ironing, just hate folding up clothes and putting them away! However, the current iron I have is bloody useless! Never ever buy an iron without doing some research. It takes ages to iron out any creases so much so that I've now got a mountain load of clothes waiting to be ironed as I can't bear to use the iron we now have. Been checking out reviews for certain irons and might be edging towards a steam generator one. Watch this space!

A LO that I did late last nite.... another page for my Dec album.

 Day 19. My boys achieving the next grade up in martial arts. All supplies by Anna Aspnes.

TTFN!

~ Post Christmas Shopping! ~

So we had to go to Selfridges (in Birmingham, not London) today as one of the toys we bought was faulty. I took the opportunity to visit the Cath Kidston section. I saw a bag online that I wanted, however, when I saw it in real life, it didn't appeal! Checked out others but nothing really stood out! Didn't want to buy for the sake of buying so I left it (hubs was surprised when I left empty-handed!) The Bull Ring was heaving with people. Kinda put me off shopping really as I disliked crowds and aimless shopping! I usually shop if I have something I wanna buy but I really can't be bothered to just shop for the sake of it! The only stuff we bought were stationery for the boys as they wanted pencil cases and pencils!!! 

Anyway, came home and did some scrapping. Here's one that I made for a challenge:

Using Karla Dudley's Sherbert freebie papers.

The year's coming to an end soon. This has been a pretty good year for me, craftwise. I made the move to digital, found myself on the design teams of Scrap 365 and Oscraps and the best part, had more disposable cash to treat myself (now that I'm not buying any scrapping stash! My collection of handbags and shoes have expanded since then as well as the occasional massage!) My new year resolution is to get rid of the existing scrapping stash that I owned. Doubt very much I will go back to paper scrapping. It doesn't interest me anymore. I do it if I have to (eg. assignments) but it's more fun scrapping digitally. Whatever I sell will go into the funds for a new Macbook Pro! Roll on 2012!!! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 302 ~

Today's challenge is to pick a challenge from April. I picked Day 33 entitled 'Boy Oh Boy' whereby I had to create a masculine card with a touch of pink! Here's my card:

Stamped image from Unity (yeah, I broke into a new stamp set & used it!) 

Is it masculine enough? Oh well.... TTFN!

~ Boxing Day! ~

Not many countries celebrate Boxing Day. To me, it's another public holiday (heaven knows we seriously need it in this country as we probably have the smallest number of public holidays in Europe!!!) It was another lazy day for us. The boys played with their new toys while I caught up on scrapping. I had a few LOs that needed to be done. 

As part of Simply Tiffany Studios creative team, I was lucky to be enrolled in Tiffany's class Holiday Templates 2011. It was a 25 day class starting from Dec 1 to Dec 25. Picked up some great tips from the class. I had to create some LOs though but it was fun using the templates that she designed. The class came with 2 free kits from Creshens & Paislee Press, both great digi designers. Here's what you get from this class:

Here are my LOs that I created for this class:

The first three were created before the class. The next five were done during Xmas & Boxing Day. They all made use of Tiffany's templates which certainly made scrapping them much faster.  TTFN!

~ Merry Christmas! ~

It's a quiet Christmas for us this year! We are at home. Hubs cooked a turkey and we had a scrumptious Christmas meal. Thankfully not too much leftover as I don't fancy eating turkey for the next few days!!! We bought the turkey from M&S and hubs made the sauce from the cooked turkey. Big mistake as it was too lemony! 

The boys thankfully didn't wake up too early. They did get up and woke us up, all excited to open their presents. Luckily we didn't disappoint! They didn't have a list as they didn't know what they want (so we had to buy it blind!) Can't go wrong with Lego!

I spent the day watching cartoons mainly... there were quite a few cartoon movies on the various channels so it was nice to watch them with the boys. 

I leave with a few LOs from my Dec album ....

 Day 6. My wee one playing in a concert

 Day 7. Having Xmas meal in school.

Day 11. Christmas shopping, actually more shopping for wedding!

I'm a little behind in my album but having fun nonetheless! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 295 ~

Today's challenge is entitled 'I've Been Framed'. The idea is to create a circle shaped frame with flowers. Here's my card: 

Patterned paper by Cosmo Cricket. Dug out my Prima flowers and used them on this card. Stamped image by Unity.

TTFN!

~ Le Weekend! ~

Another busy weekend again. This time it was my SIL's wedding to her Scottish fiance. She had enlisted me to help with the favours and decorations. The wedding was held in a hotel in the Windermere, at the Lake District. Beautiful place and thankfully no snow! Have to say, this year's weather has been rather mild.

The celebration started on Friday night. We stayed the night at the hotel and met some of the guests. The next day, both the wedding ceremony, meal and party was held in the same venue (thank goodness!) It was a brilliant day. I was her witness as well. Now looking forward to the photos. As I was involved throughout the day, I didn't get much chance to take a lot of photos. Anyway, managed a LO of the evening:

Used a template by Tiffany Tillman and kit by Creshens.

TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Here's a few LOs which I had no had the chance to display. Been busy with SIL's wedding preparations and assignment.

All supplies by Anna Aspnes, available at Oscraps

Just documenting my new car which we got in early Nov. Never got round to uploading on my blog!

Day 4 of my December Daily Album. I'm so seriously behind but who cares! I'm having fun documenting the days! Used a challenge template from DHD. LO created using mixture of supplies from Anna Aspnes, Ali Edwards, 

Day 5. Documenting how Groupon app has come in handy for buying Christmas presents! I hate shopping, hate crowds and definitely hate hunting aimlessly for presents! Shopping online is the way to go for me! All supplies from Anna Aspnes.

TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Created a couple of LOs late in Nov for some challenges and never got round to uploading them. So here they are:

LO created using a Cranberry Frost kit by Dana Zarling.

LO created using a Dear Diary kit by Agnes Biro.

Both LOs were done for Nov challenges on Design House Digital. The Cranberry Frost kit is an absolutely fabulous kit to play with. The colours are just too lovely!

Had a night out with the members of the PTA group in the Infant School. Yup, I still help out despite my son not being in the Infants anymore! I'm out again tomorrow, this time with my colleagues in the school that I work. It's a curry night and I'm looking forward to it! I could seriously do with staying at home and working on my magazine assignment!!! TTFN!

~ On The Cover! ~

Ohhh, just found this on Traplet site.....

Guess who made it on the cover of Scrap 365 magazine?

I have to say, it took me ages to do that LO and probably the first LO of this year. Since turning digi late last year, I have not scrapped a paper LO at all so naturally, I struggled to produce this one!  You could say... losing my touch! Digi LOs are so much easier to create! TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Saw this new kit, Christmoose by Maya de Groot:

Luv the colour tones of this kit!

Here's my LO:

Photo taken last year in Rothesay, Scotland. 

We spent Christmas with SIL and her now fiance. We had a great time there!

TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 288 ~

Today's challenge is to incorporate 3 triangles, 3 squares and 3 circles on the card! Had me scratching my head a little when I saw it but I came up with this:

Kinda obvious isn't it! Tree was digitally created using Anna Aspnes' ArtPlay Palette Christmas and Nativity kits. 

TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Played with a new kit from Jennifer Labre entitled Holly Jolly.

So gorgeous!

Here's my LO:

I'm digging out all the old photos of yesteryears.... this one was last year. Doubt very much my boys are interested in meeting Santa this year!

TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

After the weekend excitement and battling with cough and cold, managed to get a LO done. It's the 2nd last week of term and as usual, there's load of activities for the boys, with me being the chauffeur! But I just had to create... it's such a stress reliever!

In the spirit of Christmas, my boys were asked to bask for Christian Aid last year. It happened to snow very heavily that day but we made it to Solihull Town Centre. Not many kids turned up but between them (5 kids), they managed to raised £70 for an hour's play!

I made use of a free kit available from Pen Scrappers. They are holding a digi competition at the moment. The free kit has supplies from Anna Aspnes, Tiffany Tillman and Renee. Quite a fun kit to play! TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 281 ~

Today's challenge is an Ad Inspired. This was the Ad that I chose:

And this is my card:

All digitally created using Anna Aspnes, Maya de Groot and Lydia Designs kits, available at Oscraps.

TTFN!

~ Le Weekend! ~

The weekend was rather busy for me. Attended my SIL's hen weekend. It started on Friday and ended on Sunday. I had an enjoyable time. 

Friday

Friday night was spent at Oxford town centre. All 8 of us had dinner at Azizi, an Italian restaurant, but the food was terrible! The starter was good but the main meal fell flat. Didn't like my risotto at all! Another gal's meal was dead cold and after changing it twice, she gave up. We got a 10% off the bill for that! Not sure if it was the crowd or bad chef! Definitely won't go back there for sure! We all headed back as we had a full day the next day.

Saturday

We had breakfast at the hotel before heading out for our hen do activities. The organiser had booked us  to do clay shooting and hovercrafting. We did the clay shooting first. I have to say, I quite enjoyed it but the gun was terribly heavy. Managed to shoot 2 out of 14 hits! Then it was onto the hovercraft. There is no brakes and it relied a lot on body movement to steer the hovercraft. Did terribly the first time but managed it better the second! 

Lunch was at a Garden Centre, just scone, jam and clotted cream! We headed back to the hotel to rest before setting out again, this time to The Living Room at Oxford town centre. Food was relatively much better. I had steak and it was really good! There was also a live band too. In fact, the entire place was pleasant to be in. The girls played a few games, as you can imagine. I have to say, the guys, who were chosen, were quite accommodating as well. Then, we moved on to a club called The Junction. It was fairly empty so we managed to get a place to sit (although it did fill up quite rapidly later in the evening). Can't say I stayed long as I left before midnight with a few other ladies.

Sunday
Had breakfast at the hotel and then checked out at 11am. Took me roughly an hour to drive back. The boys had a Christmas party at Cubs/Scouts so left them there and did some Christmas shopping. I spent the night clearing out the 'walked-in' wardrobe. It's where I have my handbags and hub's suits are stored. It does get dusty so had a good clearing out. Didn't realise how much handbags I actually possessed! Seriously, I think I've got an addiction to them!

There goes another busy weekend! I leave with LOs of the hen weekend!

 Friday Night

Saturday Night

TTFN!

~ December Daily 2011 ~

Last year, I started an album in December, documenting what I did in the month of December. I did it digitally and actually completed the album! Yay! I enjoyed the process so much that I wanted to do it again this year. This year, I've called it December Daily (title taken from Ali Edward's journaling album). Basically, I will document what I do each day (if it's interesting enough!). Here's the first day of December:

Advent Calendars and Christmas tree dominated the first day of December. I had created those Advent Calendars years back and merely filled them with choccies for my boys! I did try to buy one but could I find any on the first day of Dec? Nada! The boys begged to set up the Christmas tree so hubs took them down from the loft to satisfy their cravings! Nice to see them so enthusiastic about it! Save me the trouble!

TTFN!

~ 365 Cards: Day 274 ~

The challenge today is "Keep It To Yourself". Basically have a winter theme on the front of the card but with no sentiment. Instead, the sentiment can be on the inside of the card. Here's mine:

Card created using digi supplies from Anna Aspnes.

TTFN!

~ Black Friday! ~

Well, in the US, it's the day after Thanksgiving which translate to sales galore! We don't celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK but any sales are welcome!

Lots of digital stores are having sales at the moment. Trying my best not to splash too much as I did quite a bit at the Digital Scrapbooking Day sales. Oscraps is offering a free Collaboration kit if you spend US$10 and above. 

Oscraps' Collaboration: We Are Family

A LO I did using the kit

The individual designers there are also having individual sales too. Jessica Sprague is offering 20% off classes and 35% off supplies. Got my eye on a particular class!

Anyway, I leave with a LO done today using Anna Aspnes' new stuff!

LO created based on an AnnaLift challenge. Lifted the use of a quote.

I've got tons of autumn kits but no LO done on autumn yet! So here's my take on autumn! Prefer to focus on the colourful nature of early autumn where the leaves are still around! TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

I came across Paislee Press through recommendations from digital friends. Her kits are adorable. I'm lucky to have the chance to play with them and this one is no exception:

This Much: Paislee Press

Here's my LO: 

My boys taken by the school photographer last year. The only year both of them were in the same Junior school. 

Had fun playing with this kit. This kit is available here. TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

Finally finished off my assignment for Scrap 365. Couldn't wait to dip my hands into some new kits at Oscraps.  Created an art journaling page based on the theme of Santa, with a twist:

Supplies by Anna Aspnes:

ArtPlay Palette Weihnachtsbaum, LoopDaLoop Arrows No1, Winter Frame Transfers No1, Christmas Word Transfers No1,  Twiggy No1, Multi Media Santa No1, Artsy Clock No2, Font: Impervious

Certainly had fun creating this page! TTFN!

~ On Display! ~

In the midst of completing an assignment, managed to find time to play with 2 kits by 2 designers. The first one:

Awkward Moments by Creations by Tinamarie

My LO created using the kit.

Here's the second kit: 

Gratitude by Jennifer Labre

I went for the subtle colours on this LO. 

These kits are now available at Oscraps. You can find Gratitude here and Awkward Moments here. TTFN!