Pinkfresh Studio Oh What Fun - Winter Magic

One final layout today using the Oh What Fun collection from Pinkfresh Studio.

My layout today is a wintery layout using the papers, etc in the collection which are mainly blue in tone.

On a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock I smooshed some blue watercolour paint and when this was dry I splattered some white acrylic paint on top to create a snowy background. Using my sewing machine I then stitched round the outside edge of the layout using gold metalic thread.

I layered pieces of the Merry Everything and  Home for the Holidays papers as well as a piece of the packaging from the pack of chipboard stickers in the centre of the layout and then added my 6x4 photo on top. My photo was double matted with white cardstock and gold glitter card. More machine stitching was added to the papers and the edges were roughed up with my fingernails.

From the Good Tidings cut apart sheet I fussy cut a house and used this as an embelishment. 

I printed my journalling onto a label from the cut apart sheet and added this to the layout. A matching frame from the Merry Everything paper was tucked under the left side of the photo.

Using the word 'magic' from the sheet of Puffy Phrase Stickers and some navy blue Pink Paislee Foam Thickers I created the title below the photo.

A chipboard sticker was added to the top right corner of the photo.

I felt the layout needed an extra pop of gold so I added torn strips of gold glitter card on the edges of the layout and some cut strips to the central cluster.

The layout was completed with the addition of the date using die cut gold glitter numbers and some snowflakes also punched from the glitter card.

Winter Wipeout

Another layout today from my weekend away called 'Winter Wipeout'. I am making a concerted effort to make more multi-photo layouts and for this layout I used 3 photos of Wayne & Lara playing in the snow earlier this year. The layout was probably subconsciously inspired by Canadian scrapper Stephanie Klauck's layouts.

I am also trying to 'Stash Bust' and use old and new papers from various manufacturers. For this layout I used papers from SEI (white spot background), 3 Bugs in a Rug (blue spot), Cosmo Cricket (snowflake) and My Little Shoe Box (blue square). The snowflake border which is stickled and embelished with adhesive gems was punched using a Martha Steward punch that I borrowed from Linda (Thanks Linda - I love that punch and must get one myself). The large glittery snowflakes were from a pack of Colorbox Doo Dads, the title lettering is made from American Crafts Thickers and the pom pom trim at the bottom is from Maya Road. As an after thought I also added some very old Doodlebug rub-on stitches.

Snow, snow and even more snow.

Th last 7 days have been very, very snowy. This week bought the heaviest snowfall to hit the UK in 18 years and brought a large part of the country to a standstill. The boys school were closed for most of the week (Lara's stayed open all bar Friday) and even Wayne was unable to get into work on Thursday. It reminded me of winters when I was a little girl when we seemed to get far more snow than we do now.

I took LOADS of photos! Here are a few.

Monday, we woke to what we thought was a lot of snow - little did we know what was yet to come! Lara and I built a snowman and she and Steven had a snowball fight.

Tuesday, no more snowfall and we thought it was going to melt away. Steven built a snow creature - I thought it looked like a Moomin!

Wednesday, The schools were all open and we thought that would be the end of the snow.

Thursday, was the worse day! More heavy snow! Wayne and the boys built a huge snowman.

More snow fell Thursday night/Friday morning and it did so for most of the day. More opportunities for the children to play in the snow.

Saturday was, in Lara and Steven's words, 'the best day ever!'. We went sledging on the hill that I used to sledge on when I was a little girl. We all (apart from Christopher who choose to stay in bed!) had a go - even Nana. We all had a great time.

So far today we've had no snow, the sun has been shining and the snow is finally starting to melt. But, the forecasts says we may get more snow tomorrow or Tuesday! Its been lovely but I think now we would be happy to get back to some sort of normality.

Last night Mojo Holder scraplifted a LO by Mara May . Mara designs for Pink Paislee, American Crafts and Sassafras Lass. I used a real mix of papers on my LO - 7gypsies, Rusty Pickle, GinX and CherryArte. I love creating LOs using a combination of papers from different manufacturers especially when they have been languishing in my pile of papers for a long time. That said, I did also use some animal print ribbon that I bought just last week. Here's Mara's LO and mine.

Thank you Mother Nature - We had snow!

Just a few days into January and we had snow! Last year we had to wait until March (Easter Sunday to be precise) for our first snow of the year but this year on January 5th Mother Nature obliged and when we awoke we had a nice covering of snow. It couldn't have been timed better as it was the children's last day of the Christmas break so they were able to play in the snow and enjoy it while it lasted.

Introducing .......... Snow Bear!

Who lives in the garden all covered in snow? SPONGEBOB CARROT NOSE. SPONGEBOB POT EYES. SPONGEBOB .......... CARROT NOSE!!!!!!!!!!!! (created by Steven)

Tonight after a break, a new challenge went live on MojoHolder. Challenge #93 was to scraplift a LO by Becky Novacek. Becky designs for, among others, Autumn Leaves, Fiskars and Melissa Frances. Her work is amazing. In my version of her LO (which actually bore no resemblance to Becky's LO) I used a photo from our recent snowy day.



Finally, I am taking part in the '365 - a photo a day for a year' challenge. I have a separate 365 blog which I'm uploading my daily photos to so if your interest pop along and have a look.

13 sleeps until Christmas

12th December - 13 sleeps until Christmas and I am actually feeling fairly festive. Letters to Santa have been written and posted and the Christmas tree and decorations went up yesterday . The majority of the cards have been written and posted (although I have a few still to make) and the presents have all been bought. The children have just one more week at school and then we will be on the final countdown to the big day. I can't wait. Since I last posted I have opened another 6 advent gifts. I was sad to learn just after my last post that this advent swap will be the last one on UKScrappers. I had said that I was unsure whether I would take part again and now the decision has been made for me. It won't be the same next year without my little gift each December morning, but it was good while it lasted.

Lara's birthday party last weekend was a huge success and the cake was a real hit. I'm glad I decided to make her cake - she was really pleased. I was disappointed with the photos I took at the party, but these two weren't too bad and hopefully with a little editing they will be better.



Yesterday I was looking through some LOs and came across some which I created back in April whilst away on a scrapping weekend with some friends. I loved making this one of Lara. It was pure luck that the photo captured the snowflakes on her eyelashes and I felt I had to scrap it. I've not had time to scrap this week so I'll leave you with this LO.

We had snow!!!!!

Yes, we finally had our first snow of the year - yippee - on Easter Sunday! It had been trying to snow for several days and eventually on Easter Sunday we woke up to a light covering. Not enough for a snowman but plenty for a snowball fight or two. I had begun to think that I had missed all photo opportunities during the last few months . We were all ill at sometime or other over Christmas so only got a handful of photos then. We had no snow during January or February (when if we going to get snow we usually would) so no photos then. And, I didn't have my camera with me when Steven got a certificate in his school end of term assembly or when Lara did her Chinese Dragon dance at her Easter assembly So this snow at Easter was a bonus. By the time we got around to our Easter Egg hunt the snow had all but gone and I guess we won't see anymore until next Winter.

Mojo #55 went live on 14th March. We lifted a LO by Jaimie Emmerton. Jamie's original LO was such a sweet Lo of her wee dog ..... Awwwww. My LO featured Steven in a thoughtful pose.

Unfortunately I didn't manage Mojo #56 which went live on Good Friday. The power supply unit of our PC decided to call it a day with a very spectacular spark and puff of smoke which left me with a half finished LO which I needed my Craft Robo to finish and even if I had finished it I had no scanner or photo software to upload it. It was a shame because the LO we were lifting was by a scrapper called Kelli Crowe whose work is gorgeous and the rest of the team came up with lovely LOs.

With the PC all mended, i was able to complete challenge #57 last Friday evening. It was a LO by Kelly Mccaleb. Here are the two LOs.

I know I keep saying it but please do pop along to Mojo Holder. We have some great scrap lift ideas coming up in the next month or so. You really wouldn't want to miss them.