It's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas.

Tomorrow is December 1st and it's beginning to feel a bit like Christmas. I have started my Christmas Shopping and earlier this week a gorgeous box of goodies arrived from the UKScrappers Advent Swap. 25 presents all wrapped up in black papers with gold tags each bearing a clue to the contents of the presents. My Secret Santa hasn't revealed their identity yet but the postmark on the box was a clue (I think) and I therefore have my suspicions. I've been comparing the writing on the tags to the handwritten journaling on LOs posted in my suspects UKScrappers gallery and I think they are a close match. Time will tell is I have the right person.


I hope the person I have sent gifts to hasn't guessed my identity yet - it's nice to keep them guessing.


Friday night was Mojo Holder Challenge Night and challenge #92 was to scrap lift the awesome Betsy Veldman. I loved Betsy's LO - so bright and cheerful. I scrapped a photo of Lara and used BasicGrey Euphoria and Scenic Route papers.

Not much time for scrapping

I've not had much time lately for scrapping and have only managed to complete my weekly Mojo Holder LOs.

On November 14th (which also happened to be my brother's birthday as well as that of HRH Prince Charles) challenge #90 was to scraplift a LO by Norwegian scrapper Ingvild Bolme. Her LO had a real romantic/vintage feel - mine didn't! I used some of that really challenging kraft patterned paper from the Sonoma line by Scenic Route and some photos of the children taken last year of them hiding amongst the plants at the Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens, Dorset. Here are the two LOs.

On November 21st, Challenge #91 was a lift of a LO by Nichol Magourik. Nichol's LO inspired me to scrap some photos of Lara taken when she was just 10mths old. Here are the two LOs.

Apart from those two LOs and some bits and pieces I've made for the advent swap on UKScrappers, I've not done any other crafting and with Christmas fast approaching I doubt the situation will improve much until the New Year.

Oh one last thing. Do you remember my exploits last year whilst making a doggy shaped birthday cake for Lara's birthday? Well ..... I know I said 'never again', but ..... I have bought another shaped cake tin and this year I will be attempting a cake in the shape of ..... Sponge Bob Square Pants!!! Am I mad?? We will see!

Last week on Mojoholder we scraplifted the fantastic Molly Peckham (another scrapper whose work I had not come across before). Her LO was beautiful - lovely colours, lovely composition, lovely photos. It was a pleasure to scraplift. I used photos taken just last month on Halloween, of Steven carving his pumpkin. The concentration on his face was priceless.

Here are the LOs:



Tonight we're lifting an extremely talented Norwegian scrapbooker. Make sure you check it out.

Half Term Holiday

Last week was the school half term holiday so we took our usual autumn trip to the coast. For the last few years we've gone to Norfolk but this year we had a change and went over the border into Suffolk. The weather wasn't great but we had a good time and came back refreshed and relaxed.

We went out and about a lot whilst we were away. We visited three English Heritage properties - Leiston Abbey, Framlingham Castle and Orford Castle. Believe me, we aren't on a mission to try and visit every English Heritage property in the UK, nor are we on a mission to bore the children (LOL), but as they were all fairly close to where we were stying we thought we may as well take advantage of our membership.

We also had some long but chilly walks on the beach, a shopping trip to Ipswich and a day at Jimmy's Farm. We had followed the goings on at Jimmy's Farm on TV so it was nice to go and see the place for real. It wasn't as big as we thought it would be but the children enjoyed seeing all the animals as well as exploring the Woodland Walk (with den building) and the adventure playground.

Whilst we were away it was Halloween. The children were initially quite disappointed to find that they wouldn't be at home for Halloween and wouldn't be able to go trick or treating with their friends, but we promised them that we would have our own little Halloween party while we were away. So we took Halloween costumes with us and on Friday night we carved pumpkins, bobbed for apples, watched 'Winnie The Pooh - Pooh's Heffalump Halloween' DVD ( LOL - as scary as we dare go for Lara! ) and gave the children bags of halloween novelties and sweets. They were more than happy. The apple bobbing went down particularly well!

While we were away 2 challenges went live on Mojo Holder. Challenge #87 on October 24th was to lift a LO by the wonderful Janna Wilson. Her LO was gorgeous! I scrapped photos of Wayne on his Driving Day in June.

October 31st, Challenge #88 was a scraplift of Teresa Collins.

There are some lovely scrap lifts coming up in November so do make sure to stop by Mojo Holder.

One last thing, while I was away I bought this book. It's by Robert Llewellyn of Red Dwarf and Scrapheap Challenge fame. I had seen him plugging the book on TV and thought it sounded interesting. I'm half way through reading it and it certainly is very thought provoking and also at times funny. It is about how after a long and painful Christmas shopping expedition, Robert Llewellyn had a revelation. He realised he had enough stuff; he'd had enough of rampant consumerism; he would simply stop shopping for a whole year. Hmmm, now I wonder if I could manage that ??? .......... Nah, but it's a good read anyway.

Autumn

Autumn - au·tumn n. 1. The
season of the year between
summer and winter, lasting from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice and from September to December in the Northern Hemisphere; fall. 2. A period of maturity verging on decline.

Don't you just love Autumn? I do. Maybe it's the colours. Maybe it's the light. Maybe it's the crisp, chill in the air. Maybe it's because I was born in the autumn but what ever it is I love it. After summer it has to be my favourite season. The only thing I don't like is the damp weather. But that I can put up with.

We went out at the weekend to Wrest Park. I was hoping to get some nice photos of the children playing in the leaves but they weren't obliging and the photos I took were nothing to write home about. But whilst we were out we did collect some autumn leaves (like you do) and when I got home I decided to take some photos of them. i was really pleased how they came out and may just blow some up to put on the walls.

Remember me telling you Mojo Holder challenges were going to be on a Thursday in future? Well ......... they aren't LOL. We have decided to stick with Fridays so check out Mojo Holder every FRIDAY for a new challenge.

Last week we lifted the amazing Michelle Lanning. Her LO was stunning - so bright and it used four photos. I love multi-photo LOs. Here's Michelle's Lo and my version which shows photos of Lara at Easter.



Don't forget to check out Mojo Holder this Friday. We will be lifting yet another utterly fab scrapper.

Forgot to say - I have a new blog header courtesy of digitalscrapbookpages.com. Let me know what you think.

Woods, Wheels and Wellies

I know the title is very tenuous but hey ........ it is Friday!

Have you been over to Mojo Holder today? Last night challenge #85 went live and our NEW design team was also revealed. We have said goodbye to Candy, Nicki and Sandie who because of other commitments have decided to leave the design team but joining us are Jamie, Maria (who some of you will know as Ria979902), Paula and Sheena. I'm really pleased to welcome the new girls on board and look forward to working alongside them in future.

Last nights challenge was to lift a LO by Martha Bonneau. Martha is a designer for Sassafras Lass and Sistv. Martha's LO featured a chipboard house. Mine didn't! I tried (honestly) to incorporate a chipboard house but the LO but it just wasn't working so the chipboard went in the bin and I used another photo in it's place. LOL.

My LO used photos taken at BeWILDerwood in Norfolk. They describe it as "A curious tree house adventure park" and is based around the fantasy book 'A Boggle at BeWILDerwood' by Tom Blofeld. Tom Blofeld is the land owner of the 50-acre which has a natural,healthy and back-to-basics ethos to natural play. The 'Theme Park' has amazing tree houses, a sky high broken bridge, zip wires and slippery slides plus opportunities to build dens in the wood and a maze. It's great for children and my three really enjoyed it when we visited last October.

Whilst sorting out yesterday I came across some LOs I did earlier in the year but never uploaded. they were really simple LOs but used some really challenging papers from CherryArte. I bought the papers on a bit of an impulse and took ages to use them! Don't tell me I'm the only one who does that? Because the Los were of my boys and to prove to everyone that I do scrap my boys I'm uploading them.

Today, was Harvest Festival at Lara's school. As well as taking in produce which would go to a local mother and baby home, they had a visit from a chap from the Fisherman's Mission to talk about the 'harvest of the sea' and he organised a competition to decorate a welly boot! So earlier this week out came my retro flower punch and a circle punch and a sheet of dotty stickers and Lara set to work decorating her welly. She didn't win but she was happy with her entry.

Have a great day. Be back soon.

Mojo Thursday/Friday???

LOL after telling you Mojo Holder challenges would be on Thursday in future, we had a few hiccups last week and the challenge didn't actually go live until Friday. LOL. Oh well ....... just check the site Thursdays ...... or maybe Fridays ......... the challenges will be there one day or another. LOL

So, challenge #84 (which went live on FRIDAY) was a lift of a LO by Michelle Clements. It was a LO with a clear acetate background and not at all within my comfort zone. I've never created a LO with a clear background and Michelle's LO also included paint!! Shock horror! PAINT!!! Agh. When I'm scrapping I am not at all patient. I hate waiting and anything that doesn't dry instantly really irritates me. I usually end up poking them with my finger to see if they are dry and leaving finger prints because they aren't. So most of my LOs are really very simple. But, I took this weeks challenge by the horns and dug out some black acrylic paint and splodged it round the edges of my acetate, and you know what? I actually quite enjoyed the process! I didn't like waiting for it to dry mind you but I may just be tempted to dabble more with 'wet' stash in future. LOL.

So back to the challenge, Michelle's LO was gorgeous and had real rustic feel to it and I used some Halloween photos of Lara on mine.

This weeks challenge should be live on Thursday so do check it out. There may also be some exciting news announcements.

Mojo Thursday

Mojo Holder challenges have now moved to Thursday evenings so last weeks challenge, to scraplift a LO by Linda Albrecht went live a day earlier than usual. Linda Albrecht is a Designer for Pink Paislee, Melissa Francis and Art Warehouse and the LO the team lifted was gorgeous. I used a photo of Lara in the snow and threw loads of lace and ribbon onto the LO to create a really pink, feminine LO.




Linda has some stunning creations on her blog . Pop along and have a look - you will be amazed at how talented she is.

As I said before Mojo Holder challenges will now be on Thursdays. I've already completed my LO for this Thursday and all I can say at this stage is that it took me way out of my comfort zone. Have a look at Mojo Holder on Thursday evening when all will be revealed.

Oh my word ........ 2 posts in less than a week!!! Well, I've got a few minutes spare this afternoon so thought I'd update the blog now rather than in a months time as is the norm. LOL Mind you, I don't actually have much to update. LOL.

A new challenge on Mojo Holder went live on Friday. We scrap lifted the fantastic Ronda Palazzari. Ronda's LO was fabulous but oh boy did I struggle to come up with a LO! I think the rest of the team struggled with this one too. The majority of us LOVED Ronda's LO when we saw it and really wanted to lift it but actually putting our own spin on it was way hard. Pop over to Mojo Holder to see the team's efforts and here (as always) is Rondas and mine.





Apart from my Mojo LO I've not managed any other scrapbooking but hey........ the weeks still young.

Sunshine

Something very strange has happened this week! The sun has shone! Summer in the UK this year seemed to last just one week - well we only had one week of real summer weather. The rest of the time the weather was, to put it bluntly .... awful. Wet and windy! But this week the sun has honoured us with it's presence and it is so welcome. Wonder how long it will last.

Since I last blogged three more weekly challenges have been posted on Mojo Holder with another due tonight. And tonights is a cracker - a real challenge though so please go and have a look.

On August 29th we scraplifted a layout by Rita Weiss. Rita is a designer for Prima and Jenni Bowlin. I used a cute photo of Lara in the garden. She gave me such a cheeky grin that day - I had to scrap it.

September 5th (which just happened to be Wayne & my 21st Wedding Anniversary) was a scrap lift of a layout by Kelly Purkey. Kelly is a designer for American Crafts, Fiskars, as well as part of the 2008 Creating Keepsake dream team and a Two Peas Garden Girl. I scrapped a rare photo of Christopher.

And, last week September 12th we lifted Lea Lawson. Lea is a previous Creating Keepsakes Hall of Famer who has been published numerous times. I love the title of Lea's blog - Leascupcakesandsunshine - cute. I used photos of Lara on the beach at Northam Burrows, North Devon.

I have also created three more layouts - just for fun. They are all scrap lifts. The first two were lifts from my favourite ever scrapper, Kelly Goree and the third from Nic Howard.