Last night Kimberley Garofolo Neddo kindly allowed the Mojo Holder DT to use her layout as inspiration. Kimberley is a much published scrapbooker and a member of the Sassafras design team. I struggled with my version of Kimberleys LO and am still not entirely happy with it. Here are the two LOs:

Last night the Mojo DT scraplifted a layout by Tammy Tutterow. Tammy is an American scrapper who has worked with some of the big names in scrapbooking - BasicGrey, Pink Paislee, Provo Craft, Sweetwater, Prima, and Glitz Designs. Her layout was absolutely gorgeous and incorporated 7 photos. Check out her blog it is truly inspiring. Here's Tammy's layout and mine.

Last weekend I went to my regular crop at Stamp Addicts. As well as the above layout I also created two more.

The first used some of the gorgeous My Little Shoebox papers. It involved lots of handcutting to create embelishments from some of the paper and I used photos taken last year of Lara helping to water the flowers in the garden. I used a collage template downloaded from the BHG Scrapbooks etc website to make a grid of photos.

The second layout was so simple. I took lots of photos of the house and garden when it snowed in February as part of the 365 A Photo a Day project and wanted to make a layout of them. I used some BasicGrey paper and placed a printed transparency on top. I used some really cool Prima Galaxy Stars to embelish plus some silver coloured ribbon, a few brads, a charm and a tag. So simple but I wanted to keep the focus on the photos. I used another collage template from BHG Scrapbooks etc on this layout too

Well I think that's all for now. Hopefully be back again next week.

Comic Relief - Red Nose Day

I'm watching the Comic Relief's Red Nose Day programmes whilst I make this post. LOL at Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French and friends doing Mama Mia. To mark the occasion I decorated some cakes for us to munch while we watch and yummy they are too.

Tonight the Mojo Holder DT scraplifted Marla Kress. Marla is a fabulous photographer as well as an inspiring scrapbooker. Marla's LO was very bright and funky - mine was more subdued.

Another week gone by and nothing really to blog about! So, as usual I'll just show you the LO I did for Mojo Holder this week. For challenge #101 the DT took inspiration from a really fabulous layout by Jill Godon. I loved the LO we took inspiration from but really struggled to produce a LO I was happy with which surprised me because the style of Jill's LO is probably very similar to my own style - very clean and uncluttered and so I didn;t think scraplifting it would be a problem. Boy was I wrong! Not 100% pleased with it but perhaps it will grow on me.

For tonight's 100th challenge on Mojo Holder, the team lifted a layout by the fantastic Robyn Weatherspoon. Robyn is a Prima Endorsed Educator and is a member of many design teams.

I used a photograph of Lara and Wayne that Steven took last May Day at Southwold in Suffolk. Such a cute photo. Here is Robyn's Lo followed by mine.

Last Friday the Mojo Holder team scraplifted a LO by the very talented Elizabeth Carney. Elizabeth is on the Piggy Tales design team and has been published in several magazines. Elizabeth's LO was beautiful and I loved scraplifting it. On my LO I used some photographs of Steven taken on French Day at school last year. He really looked the part. LOL

Last weekend this little book that I had ordered was delivered. I had pre-ordered it from Amazon but when the publication date came and went and the book was still not available I cancelled it and bought it elsewhere. Not the first time Amazon have let me down! Have to admit the book was somewhat smaller than I had imagined (only about 6" x 4") but what it lacks in size it makes up for in entertainment. I am rationing myself and only reading a little bit from it each night to make it last. It's a great book - you can download a pdf excerpt from the book here . I paid £6.45 + p&p and it's well worth it.

Finally, Vicki one of my fellow 365's gave me an award earlier this week.

I'm really not sure I deserve it 'cos Vicki takes gorgeous photos without any encouragement from me, but thanks anyway Vicki. I am supposed to nominate 5 other people for the award too but have to admit that being the sad person I am I don't know 5 other bloggers well enough. :( 1 or 2 maybe, but that's all really. I know a lot of people who encourage me but they don't have blogs :( So I am going to display my award, thank Vicki once again for being so very kind and if I think of 5 people I'll nominate them later.

I guess it was only a matter of time before I scrapped some of the snowy photos and the LO I did for tonight MojoHolder challenge #98 gave me the opportunity. The team lifted a LO by Tone Jenson. The photograph of my LO doesn't really show just how much the layout sparkles. I used loads of Doodlebug sugar coating glitter on the layout. In an attempt to try and get the best photo possible I took the layout outside to photograph it in natural light. I thought it would be fun to have a snowy background so I plonked my mini easel in the snow and took the photo there. Here's Tone's LO followed by mine.

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.

Where did January go?????

Can you believe it's 31st January already? Where did that month go? We didn't do anything out of the ordinary during January but despite that the time just flew by.

Last night Mojo Challenge #96 went live. We lifted a gorgeous LO by Sharon Laakkonen. Sharon is on the Prima design team and her LOs really are lovely. My version of Sharon's LO looked nothing like the original. I used one big photo of Christopher and my Mum playing in the snow plus two smaller ones. I used papers from BasicGrey.

Tomorrow I am off to the Stamperama Papercraft & Stamping Show at Stevenage. It is quite a small show compared to the shows at Ally Pally or the NEC but I like that. I usually get there fairly early and then get to look around at leisure before it gets too busy. I have a little shopping list to take with me but no doubt things will be bought that don't appear on the list!

Last weeks two-hour premiere of Season 5 of LOST didn't disappoint. A few questions where answered and a few more asked. Episode 3 is tomorrow night and I can't wait.

Todays Mojo Holder challenge was a scraplist of a lovely LO by Jasmine Brahim. Jasmine's style of scrapping is gorgeous! Here's Jasmine's LO followed by mine.





Please do go and check out the rest of the Mojo Holder teams LOs.

By the way, if you read, this please leave me a comment. I am so curious to know who visits my blog and it would be lovely to find out who some of the visitors shown on the traffic feed are. :)

Bad Blogger

What a bad blogger I am! It's been nearly two weeks since I last posted on this blog. I've been posting daily on my 365 blog and completely forgot to post on this one!

I am so enjoying taking part in the 365 challenge and look forward to trying to come up with a new subject and something different to photograph each day. Because it gets dark in the evenings so early at the moment I am conscious that I need to try and take my photos fairly early in the day if I want to take advantage of the natural light. It will be much easier when the lighter nights are here because I know a lot of people are struggling to take photos 'cos they go to work in the dark and come home in the dark too.

I am really looking forward to this Sunday because ............... LOST season 5 starts!!! Boy has it been a long time since season 4 ended. I have to confess that I have already been on the internet and read the episode guides to episodes 1 & 2 (both being shown on Sunday) and all I can say is ....... huh! It looks like season 5 is going to be as crazy as ever! I love it and have booked the TV controls on Sunday evenings for the next few months.

Since I last blogged another challenge has gone live on Mojo Holder. Challenge #94 saw the team lifting a LO by Sarah Klemish. Sarah is a Garden Girl at Two Peas in a Bucket and a Creative Team Member for BHG Scrapbooks etc. Sarah's LO was so clean - just the type of LO I love. Not sure I did her LO justice but I got to use the gorgeous All Fall papers by Fancy Pants.

Here are the LOs - Sarah's first then mine:

There will be another great challenge on Mojo Holder tomorrow so remember to check it out.

And I promise to try and not leave it so long before I post on this blog again.

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.

HAPPY NEW YEAR

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Here we are at the start of another year. Where did 2008 go? It wasn't a bad year and hopefully 2009 will be just as good.

Just realised I've not blogged about Christmas. I'd better put that right!

Christmas this year was so much better than the previous one. In 2007 our Christmas Day was a wash-out because we were all ill at some point. This year ........ we were all fit and well ........ yipee! The children were thrilled with their presents - Chris has a new PC monitor and Xbox Game, Steven a gaming chair and gaming keyboard and Lara had 'Dancing Stage' Hottest Party dance mat for the Wii plus a jungle-in-my-pocket play set. They all had lots of little bits and pieces too in their stockings (which in our house are actually gigantic sacks!) from Santa. It's funny though how the smallest, least expensive gifts are the ones which go down best. Steven and Lara had these animal balloons from Santa and they loved them. Lara was also particularly taken with a small cuddly toy dog - no surprise there!


But the biggest hit was a Powerball that Wayne received. For anyone who has not come across a Powerball, Wikipedia describe them as "A gyroscopic exercise tool device used to exercise the wrist or to build hand and finger strength." It's basically a gyroscope inside a tennis ball sized plastic shell which you rotate by moving your wrist in a circular motion and it helps to build up muscles and rehabilitate pains. Sounds easy, but boy it isn't!

There was no scrapping during December so nothing crafty to show you, but once the children are back at school I'm hoping to get crafting again. My Christmas Day gift from the UKS Advent Swap was some gorgeous MME Laundry Line Papers and rub-ons from the Coastal range and I can't wait to use them.

On New Years Day we went for a walk at the RSPB Nature Reserve at Sandy. It was so chilly but nice to get out in the fresh air. The weather forecast for the coming week is even more cold weather and possibly some snow/sleet. I think staying inside beside a nice roaring fire will be in order.

Lastly, I've decided to take part in the 365 'a photo a day' project. I have set up another blog to showcase my daily photos and if you are interested you can check it out here.