A Christmas Card swap

Hello!

Today I am here to share with you a Christmas card I made for a swap over at Kit and Clowder.

I have used the gorgeous stamp Spritz from Saturated Canary which I purchased back in 2012 as he reminded me of my Hunter who was born in August 2012 ;)

I had so much fun colouring him up and coming up with the card design!

Here is the finished design

I started with a kraft base, a white layer which I have used a stencil and gold colour shine by Heidi Swapp. Popped little Spritz up, did some heat embossing in gold and added some twine, some bling and a La-La Lands die cut from a Heidi Swapp 6x6 paper.

Here is a close up of the little guy

COPIC COLOURS I USED

SKIN: E000, E00, E21, E11, E04 and R20

HAIR: E21, E25 and E29

CLOTHES/WINGS

BLUE: BG000, BG01, BG05 and BG09

TEAL: BG10, BG13, BG49 and BG78

CANDYCANE: R22, R24, R29 and R59 Also C0

And a funny little story to tell too!! As I said, I brought this little cutie because he reminded me of Hunter. I had not told my big guy Jacob this information and while I was colouring him up Jacob came into my craft room and said "Mummy, why you colouring Hunter?" How cute!!

And lastly, just a little close up of the embossing

I also just wanted to quickly show you a before photo of this little guy which I coloured in 2012 shorty after I purchased him.

WOW!! I still actually believe how far I have come!! I remember being SO proud of my effort on the 1st one!! If you are contemplating taking colouring classes, please head on over to Kit and Clowder and sign up!! Alyce is truly an AMAZING teacher and best of all, in the online technique classes, is the personal feedback on EVERY image you upload!!

Thank you for stopping by and happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx

Life Zesters January Challenge

Hi there!!

A super quick post today to share the new January challenge over at Life Zesters!!

This month the challenge is "Show us your style" Pretty easy, hey!! Even if you don't have a "style" yet why not try some pocket scrapping for the 1st time. You could even win some great prizes!! 

This month's prizes include a $50 voucher including post from Scrapbooking From Scratch

and

A $50 voucher including post from Simply Stamping with Narelle 

Make sure you head on over to the blog to see all the details!! 

And without further ado this is the layout that I have shared as part of the DT.

I have found my style can change from week to week but this spread is pretty much what an average spread will look like for me!!

I have used papers from the Simple Stories Daily Grind 6x6 paper pad and also some of the cut apart sheets :)

And, yep, top right photo is intentionally blurred ;) And hubby will do some journalling for me on the grid card below the photo.

A 3x4 card from the cut apart sheet that I have added a few bits to for our title card for the week.

And just a few close up's of some of the detail throughout the page.

Thanks for stopping by and make sure you head on over to the LZ blog for all the challenge details and if you haven't already "like" them over on Facebook here. We are doing a little give away when we reach 500 likers!!

Happy scrapping!!

Mel

xx

14th to 19th December

As promised I am here to share some of our DD!! Still a bit behind but I am totally and 100% ok with that!!

I shall warn you now, lots of photos this post so enjoy :)

First up I just want to share with you where I am typing this post from. We are in the very beautiful Margaret River - approx 4 hours from sunny Perth. It is our last full day here and it has been just what the 4 of us needed!! Relaxing, fun and together!

Here is a little peek at where I am currently sitting :)

It is beautiful and peaceful here.

I hope wherever you are enjoying the 1st day of Twenty-15 is a happy place :)

Ok, so 1st up Day 14

My rather cute big boy with my rather cute nephew :) We were all so excited that he and his family made the trip "home" to Australia for Christmas!! These 2 though, priceless!!

A little close up of the detail. A balso wood star die cut (left overs from earlier cards), a tag from the kit and the numbers also from the kit, again, glossy accented :)

Day 15 was a LONG day!! We found out that Pop wasn't do so great so I totally used Ali Edwards' idea for her wrapping paper and documented something for the season

And a close up :) All the bits are from TSS kits ;)

Days 14 and 15 as they are in our album

Day 16 as it currently sits in our album. I got the phone call reasonably early to tell me Pop had passed. After much, much consideration and thought I decided that I wasn't going to write specifically about that, way too early but wanted to focus instead on this girl. This is Ellen. She is a new friend of mine and has been an amazing support to me this year. well, technically, last year, 2014. I met her through weight watchers and she has not only been an amazing support and friend to me but a total inspiration too. She was with me when I got the call and she put her arms around me and hugged me. 

This day card was initially intended for us to visit some lights that are fairly local to us - the numbers were originally gold but I changed those out. Needless to say, we didn't visit any lights this night.

Love, love, love these thickers!! I think I will do some messy machine stitching to finish off this card when I get home.

Immediately to the right of this page is the photo I printed at 5x7 of my Pop. I chopped down some chipboard to size and painted the back white and stuck the photo on the front. Punched some holes and that is done for now. I have decided while editing these photos and doing this blog post that I will add in a label with his dates and call it done for now.

And day 16 and Pop as they sit in my album.

Yay!! Our cards were finally completed and posted!! WAY late for me but DONE!!

And a close up :) All the goodies again from TSS kits :)

Day 18 was my big boys very last day at Kindy!! I seriously cannot believe that his 1st year at big boy school is done and dusted!! 

Pixie helped out with his lunch and he LOVED it!

So, you probably noticed that there is not yet a day number here. I have a 1 and an 8 in the teal all glossy accented and ready to stick but I left a stamp at home that I wanted to use on that label. It is a stamp I had custom made and it is the hashtag I used for his year at school - #JWSKINDY2014. So I will stamp that when I get home and use pop dots to attach the label on top of the star and find the perfect placement for our day number - currently thinking a tiny bit under the top right point of the star and above the gold circle.

And a couple of snapshots from the day :)

And the 2 pages in the album.

Last up today, day 19

A trip into the Perth Zoo with hubby's family. On the hottest summer day we have had so far this year!! But it was fun!!

Mostly supplies from TSS kit but I also added in a chipboard piece from the FF kit and a gold heart I die cut with the left overs from my Santa and Believe words I cut on my cameo.

That is it for me today!! Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have enjoyed seeing our album so far!!

Happy New Year and may 2015 bring everything you wish for!!

Mel

xx

More news and an update!

Hi there!!

Well, as the title suggests I have some more exciting news to share today!! I was approached by Marelle over at Life Zesters and was asked to join their DT!! Of course, I said yes and am so, so excited to be a part of the amazing team and am very much looking forward to working with the other girls on the team!!

You can find the blog here

You can find us on FB here

Throughout this month they have been announcing the Design Team girls one by one and wow!! I truly am honored to be a part of this great team!! Make sure you head on over to the FB page and "like" it so you can play along with the monthly challenges and keep up to date with all the happenings!!

As you are aware my DD dropped on my priority list but as of last night I am now completed up to day 19!! Last night (we are away on a lil family holiday) while all the boys slept I stayed up and did some more work on our album and completed days 17, 18 and 19!! I also snuck in some colouring - my copics just call my name!! Haha!!

Anyways, we are off to do some exploring today and I hope to get some photos taken and a blog post written sharing some of our DD pages!! Until then, do head over and like the Life Zesters page and I can't wait to see you play along!!

Mel

xx

Sorry I have been MIA!

Hi there lovely followers!!

As I'm sure any of you who are following along have noticed I have well and truly been MIA! 

My grandfather (or Pop as he will be always be) passed away last week. It has been a very hard and very LONG week for me. He was the closest thing I ever had to a father figure in my life, always just there and now he is not. And I have been very fortunate in that I have not lost anyone that I loved like I love Pop. So, rough week. Priorities changed, shifted and stopped at times. 

I have gotten as far as completing up to day 16 in entirety and have shared up to day 13. Day 14 is all about cousins re-united, 15 wrapping supplies; thank you so much Ali for sharing yours, LOVED it and have totally done the same, 16 I focused on a very dear friendship to me and a photograph of my Pop (he passed on this day) that I have printed at 5"x7" and mounted on chipboard, no words are written, simply dont know where to start. I will share hopefully before the New Year but no promises. 

I have printed days 17 - Christmas cards POSTED, 18 - my big boys last day at Kindy, 19 - a very peaceful 10 minutes to myself at the Perth Zoo, 20 - some Christmas lights and possibly a fun catch up with friends, not sure what words I will write as yet, 21 - a relaxing couple of hours at the beach with my family and a friend and her hubby and 22 - a family "tradition" of sorts - Cally the Calendar Bear - which sadly, seems to have stopped working. It is now 9:20pm on the 24th so really, some embellishing and some words and I will be caught up.

I just wanted to drop in and share that though I have been absent I have somewhat stayed on top. It's been a long, hard, sad week but now my Pop is at rest and I can start to grieve for him.

Thank you so much for following along on our December journey. I am going to share the photo of my Pop that is in our album, well, just because I can. The photo was taken on my Wedding Day and he looks happy.

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas with those you love and look forward to catching up and sharing our DD with you.

Mel

xx

13th December

Welcome to our day 13!

Super quick post today as we are about to head out the door for the airport to greet some family that are coming from overseas!!

Not exactly a Christmas themed story but today is all about my big boy CHOOSING to share with his little brother!!

A fairly simple date and journal card for the day :)

I added some wood veneer that I had coloured up both on the above shaker pocket and the date card with the arrow :)

And how it looks in our album!

Sorry for the short and sweet but any questions I can get back to you tomorrow!!

Have a great rest of the day or night, whichever time you are reading this!!

Mel

xx

12th December

Hello and welcome to our day 12!!

The focus of today's story is hubby and his last day at work for the year - YAY!! This is his very first Christmas where he has had a real break in his adult working life! Prior to his current job he was either in retail (horrible, horrible hours throughout the silly season!!) or as a FIFO worker which meant he was either home by chance or we celebrated on a different day when he was home. He has a whole 3 weeks off and we have even booked ourselves (the 4 of us) a mini holiday to one of our fave local-ish destinations Margaret River after Christmas Day. We haven't been since we had kids - we are so excited!!

He baked up a bit of a storm for his workmates for a lunch they had yesterday and we managed a snap of some of the tasty looking treats he made (I am yet to taste as I am only feeling "normal" today - FINALLY!) that made it for day 12's photo of the day :)

I layered up a gold glitter die cut with the 12 from the kit which I have not only glossy accented but prior to applying that I stamped in gold ink just for something a little different :) A couple of veneer stars from the kit and our photo and date card are done!!

A close up of the little embellishment cluster on the bottom card. This started as a 6x4 grid card. I stuck down the 2 lots of washi tape then I have attached the sewn pocket to the right hand side of the card and slipped in 2 of the recipes Alan used. A flair from the kit and some twine from my stash. Oh, and of course, the journalling :)

The front of the recipe cards - I simply created a new doc in PSE10 at the right size to fit in the pocket and copied the recipes over. Popped both onto a 6x4 document and printed onto kraft cardstock. Trimmed them down, rounded the corners, did a little bit of writing on the back and voila ;)

And just in case we ever need to find where he found the recipes my little bit of writing on the backs of the cards :)

Thanks for stopping by to take a look at our day 12. I am off to get some lunch - I am feeling hungry. And grateful that I am feeling hungry, that means things are improving!!

Mel

xx