The Tree 2009, and Happy New Year!!

This year is the second year that Emma helped to decorate the tree. Last year she got bored when she spied the bubble wrap which some of the baubles had been wrapped in. This year, she got a bit sidetracked with the tinsel and then with 'Elf' which was on the telly in the background, so there was a lot of prompting, and I finally finished the tree on my own! Emma chose her own bauble this year, a funny reindeer with dangly legs. We were in Debenhams choosing, and gave her the option: 'do you want to choose a nice bauble or a funny one?'. Unsurprisingly she chose a funny one! It will be fun to see the annual bauble choice change over the years as she gets older.





Here is Emma opening some pressies on Christmas morning and eating her breakfast yogurt with her Christmas cracker hat on, surrounded by her new little pony family. Lovely.





Happy New Year, whatever you are doing, see you in 2010!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a lovely day with your families, and are still enjoying some holiday (and crafting) time before the new year.

We all had a lovely time at my Mum and Dad's. Emma had far too many presents as usual, and even she got a bit fed up towards the end! 17 just from Auntie Liz alone!!

Here is a page I did before Christmas of Emma when she was about 4 months old. I used Lynne's torn aperture effect and highlighted all the swirls on the outer paper with the much loved pearl pens from Craft Den. This bouncer seat was one of the few places that baby Emma would stay put for a while without crying!!





This layout I did Monday night with some Christmas papers from Craft Den, a double layout scene of Santa and his reindeer. I thought they were very sweet for a layout of Emma's first Christmas. She was only 11 weeks old and cried almost the whole day!!







Finally, this layout I did today in 10 minute blocks in between playing at dolls house, watching Honey I Shrunk the Kids and playing Elefun!! I've had a run of Christmas layouts lately, but that's the only SB album I have left with room in it at the moment!

Pages of this Christmas to follow when I have some time!

Early Christmas pressie and Princess Poppy

I have my early Christmas pressie from Dan - a single and a triple craft rack!!!! I wasted no time in filling with my goodies and now he knows how much stuff I have, lol! I've managed to empty some boxes I had shoved here and there and fit more on my shelves behind me so it looks a teeny weeny bit more organised (not...)





I've finally got a card reader as my camera cable was broken, so I can also post the page I did at Craft Den of my other girl Poppy, my first girl before Emma came along. She is sooooo tiny, literally half the size of George, which isn't that hard as he is the size of a small dog. She is lovely and sweet and really, really loves her mum!

Fab vintage shop

I knew I wouldn't have time for any crafting now I'm back at work and I have forgotten every day to photo the layout we did at Craft Den last week. I will try my best tomorrow!

I have been a bit addicted to ebay this weekend, bidding for vintage paper ephemera, mainly 1930's Christmas cards. Not sure why except they are really lovely!

Anyway I found a fantastic Aladdin's cave of a shop on etsy.com. I am just browsing and drooling at the moment: reginastudio@etsy.com.

It's really worth a look. I am trying to stop clicking to 'buy now' button for the vintage bingo cards, lol!

Grandad Jumper!

5 posts in one week!! Don't get used to it, I'll probably have a three week gap now as I pay for having 4 days off work!

We had a lovely class as always at the Craft Den last night. I don't need to say that, we have a great time every week! I feel really lucky that I bumped into Lynne just before her first open day. Her classes and workshops were exactly what I was desperately looking for!

We did a great page using Bo Bunny patterned paper and Bazzill swiss dots cardstock. We also used the fiskars threading water and ribbon border punches and a selection of MK and retro flower punches. I had a perfect picture in my craft bag of Emma looking identical to my dad: fat cheeks, three chins, no neck, the lot, lol!! Good job he doesn't read this. My sister does though, and she will agree! Luckily Emma grew out of that stage, and is actually completely beautiful!

Ma' Handsome

Here is a layout I have done of my boy George, he is sooooo handsome. I tell him all the time and he knows it!



I took the torn corner idea from Tracey Jackson's Running with Scissors blog, using the same shaped paper as I thought it looked really effective. Everything is from Craft Den of course!

November ATC and November page

I'm having a lovely time on holiday crafting away! I am doing some housework too, promise! I really forgot about the November ATC challenge with the theme of Fireworks and Bonfire Night. Yesterday I was at Craft Den and noticed a lovely little Paper Artsy mini stamp that I thought looked a bit like a firework burst. It's actually come out better than I thought although this was attempt #4 after I realised I needed to stamp and emboss the image first, and then go over with silver and turquoise ink stamped through sequin waste.I punched a few stars and inked with silver and then silver stickles and trimmed the edge with icicle stickles.



Lynne also has some really lovely hessian, sacking type material in, which is really pretty in several colours. I have added it as a bow to this layout.
Emma has had a few eyetests since she was very small as she had a lazy eye. This last time we were told she had to have glasses to correct the vision in the left eye and hopefully this will correct it by the time her eyes have stopped developing at about 7 or 8. I was upset at first, as I thought they would mask her lovely face, but she still looks as beautiful as ever. This is my November page in my 2009 series of Emma. I also used the hessian as a centre to the heart flower, which looks really sweet. Beware though, it unravels, lol!!





Scalloped edge template, Prima pearl studs, gemstone giant pin and lace also all from Craft Den. Paper from stash.

Christmas door hanger

Two posts in one day, I must be on holiday!!! I have just done a Christmas door hanger for Emma this afternoon, thinking I would hang it on her bedroom door, but I have just realised that her door knob is too big!! Ah well, we'll take it to Grandma's as we'll be there Christmas Eve and then Santa will know where to drop off Emma's presents!! The trick will be getting her to be good until then, lol!

The door hanger, Bo Bunny 'Tis the season' papers, snowman and christmas tree wooden shapes and stickles all from the Craft Den. Lil' bit o bling, star punch and letters from stash.

Balloon!

Here is the layout we did last week at Craft Den, a really lovely page using the Basic Grey Wisteria collection. It always amazes me the different looks you can get from some papers. I used these already on a wedding page and they look so different.

Here is Emma, about 1 year old and really, really loving a balloon!! Sorry about the ironing board in the backgound, I just noticed it was there, but that's real life!!

I didn't have time to add the flowers during class as I arrived late as usual, so I punched out lots of flowers and went a bit mad adding them after. I added Tim Holtz grungepaper letters covered in bronze Brilliance ink and glossy accents for the title, the shape of which I pinched from Sue last week!

Four layouts (part two)!!

Here are the other two layouts I did this weekend. The first is a piccy of Emma sitting on a rock on Gatehouse of Fleet beach in Scotland early this year. I think she looks like a little gnome, hence the woodland style papers!





The second layout was Emma's first birthday. I have used the lovely Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice papers and my old favourite the ribbon flower which I had to have under a paperweight last night. Everything available from Craft Den, including the Tim Holtz idealogy tickets, the star headed pin and the ribbon, which is Bo Bunny as well, and I think the Tim Holtz grungeboard numbers may still be available.

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Four layouts (part one)!!

I am behind on my blogging as usual, so I have four layouts to post tonight but I haven't had chance to take pictures of them all and one has a paperweight on it to try and get the glossy accents to stick a ribbon flower to the page!

The first one is a lovely layout we did at Craft Den last week. The concertina flowers caused some stress in class!! Mine has come open and won't stick back together again. I might consider staples! I love the peephole look of this page, with the distressed, rolled edges. The papers, from Craft Den, are Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice, in the background, and I can't remember the other! The piccy is Emma at about 4-5 weeks old. Time flies.



The second page tonight is a layout I did this morning. My mum and dad had Emma for the weekend, so Dan and I had a lovely time going out for lunch and evening meal on Saturday, and then going to our neighbours 50th party Sat night. I also had (and needed, lol) a lovely lie in on Sunday morning. In between we chilled, which for me means scrapbooking! I have done 3 layouts this weekend, lovely!
The papers I have used here are Bo Bunny Gypsy range, with my various faithful punched flowers and a bit of bling. Letters and bling from stash. Paper, stickles liquid pearls from Craft Den.

Growing up

Here's a layout I did of Emma this week, playing at washing up in her new kitchen we bought for her birthday. The kitchen has a working tap, what were we thinking of? Anyway it's a big hit and washing things and adding plastic food to pans of water and serving it up to mummy and daddy is the in thing. I didn't get any really good photos of her birthday as she was ill and not really in the mood for any posing and lay down again soon after this photo, but I wanted to use them anyway.

I chose some lovely soft My Mind's Eye papers to match the photo and go for a softer look on this layout and really to start bringing myself to start cutting up all the lovely papers I have in my stash!









We also did a great layout at Craft Den on Thursday. I am not sure how we finished it as we laughed so much! I had a great time as usual, it's my one point of time out and de-stress in the week and I love it!

We used another great range of Bo Bunny papers and the Blonde Moments grey papers. We also used some Tim Holtz background stamps. I have to admit I don't look twice at these grey papers or the background stamps. I have never really seen how to use them, but I have now got some really great ideas. Just look at the great orange and brown background stamp details on the Blonde Moments paper! I particularly love these swirl stamps, they are so great. I was thinking of purchase, but I might have to be a good girl and add them to my Christmas list, lol.

I have to admit I am running out of photos! Here is quite an old photo of Emma, at her first birthday party at our house, contemplating the contents of a lovely big pressie we have just unwrapped!

Trick or Treak

Well we had a fantastic time on Saturday night, Trick or Treating with Emma!! She looked extremely cute in her pumpkin outfit for a start and was one of the youngest out and about. I was amazed at how busy the street was with all the children wandering from house to house with buckets and baskets ready! Emma got some really lovely welcomes at all the houses and was almost always offered, 'go on take another one'! I was so impressed at the number of houses on the streets round us with decorations in the windows and many people answered the door in costume, some of them without the excuse of having children with them! One house even had a gravestone in the garden! It was great! Emma was a bit shy at first, but soon got into it, when she realised she got sweets after saying these funny words that mummy prompted her to say, although she says 'trick or treak', hence the title of my page! Is she cute or what? Am I biased? I don't care!

To anyone who doesn't 'do' halloween, take a happy 3 year old trick or treating with a pumpkin costume on and I'll defy you not to enjoy it through her!

I did a layout on Sunday night with the lovely Bo Bunny Boo Crew papers and really enjoyed myself. I also got to use some more of the yummy Halloween alphabet stickers which I bought in Paris last year (Le Temple du Scrap! Who needs to visit the Eiffel Tower!) I'm also trying to do a page a month of Emma to scrapbook 2009, so this one is also October as well as Halloween as I didn't get any really decent photos of her birthday earlier in the month(boo hoo).

Funny Lil' Face

Had a great night at Craft Den last night, as usual. We used the lovely new Bo Bunny Gypsy range of papers (I had to buy some more... I had just printed a couple of great photos of me bathing Emma on holiday more that 2 years ago. She was going throught the stage of gurning at the camera whenever she saw it! I added some bling, and some sizzix cut flowers as decoration. The papers, ribbon, and delicious brads all the Craft Den. I need to take a better photo when it's light!

Latest layouts

Hi there, not been able to craft as much as I would like lately and just realised I never posted any of the layouts I did find time to do! Oops, I really do need to retire from work, it really does get in the way..

Last week we did a lovely layout at Craft Den using threaded ribbon and some gorjuss new Bo Bunny papers. We also did some stamping and embossed a huge swirled border and journaling tag. I printed a black and white photo of Emma when I got home and added the prima tiara! Princess Emma!


I managed another layout last week of Emma's first ever Christmas tree decorating. She was more interested in the bubble wrap than the baubles. I think the tree will be decorated more to Emma's style this year. These are really lovely Christmas papers from Bo Bunny 'Tis the Season' range. So much so I have found that I already had two more copies of each paper I used!! Whoops, I must really have liked them!! All from the Craft Den except ribbon and letters from stash.



I've pulled out the hidden journaling tags from behind the photos.

Fantastic Blog Candy at Craft Den!!

http://craftden-lynne.blogspot.com/

Jump over to Lynne's blog for a chance to win some fantastic candy!! Simply guess what Ava, Lynne's little grandaughter will be wearing as her Halloween costume!
Good luck!

Beautiful Bo Bunny

Lynne at Craft Den has some lovely Bo Bunny papers just arrived. Last week I picked up 'Kitchen Spice, Cinnamon'. I thought this was perfect for autumn cards and made this card with an owl stamp from my stash. Branch stamp from an oriental stamp collection, Bo Bunny flowers, craft work card sentiments, blue and brown bazzill cardstock, and glossy accents all from Craft Den.

I just picked up the Bo Bunny Boo Crew range tonight, ready to scrap some photos of upcoming trick or treat with Emma, this coming Halloween!

Emma's baby album

Finally done some more pages on my 8x8 album of Emma as a small baby. 7 down, 17 to go!!