Fa La La La La

It's the most wonderful time of the year! ........
(whoops, wrong Christmas carol)

This year I plan to document a lot of the traditions and celebrations, the decorations and the festivities that make our Christmas unique. Because I think we all do it a little differently, and I know that lots of us have our own specific traditions that we follow.

For example, my Mum started her own tradition of making us kids a personalised bauble for the Christmas tree. Then as we got married she added one for our partner's name as well. And then of course the grandkids got one, and well...... now we're at the point where there's too many for the tree to bear! So instead they've become a stand-alone decoration in their own right, hung from the ceiling like a colourful chandelier.

I took this photo last year of Munchy sitting on my brothers shoulders as she tries to find "her" bauble in amongst the mass.

So when I heard the theme this week at Scrapz.biz is "Deck The Halls" and my challenge to set was "Scrap Write Now" (which is where we focus on journaling) I thought I would challenge you all to dedicate a page to the stories behind our decorations. Is there a special ornament that means a lot to you? Or do you have a family tradition when it comes to decorating your home for Christmas? If so, share it with us in the Scrapz.biz gallery by the end of January (yes you read that right) and you'll enter the draw to win a scrappy voucher. Read all the details about my challenge here.

Supplies:

Cosmo Cricket Jolly be Golly Elements

American Crafts vanilla

Kaisercraft Christmas Carnival 6x6" pad

Fancy Pants Happy Holidays rubons

InLinkz.com

I'm Feeling Krafty!

Wooooo hooooo for being on holidays!!
I managed to make it into my scrap room for long enough yesterday to whip up a page for the current challenge at Kraft it Up.

I haven't done so much Christmas scrapping in ages. In fact, I guess it's been about a year...... hmmm..... alright so I didn't think that through very well *LOL*

As per the challenge guidelines this page is about one of my favourite Christmas traditions, and that's the big Christmas lunch we have at our in-laws. Turkey, ham, cold chicken and plenty of roast vegetables, plus pavalova, cheesecake and Christmas pudding of course. All washed down with a few bubbles!

 

I took this photo at last year's Christmas lunch. It's Munchy with her great-grandparents. I just know this is going to be a treasured photo in years to come so I thought it vitally important to get it scrapped, along with the memories of the moment.

I'm just loving the non-traditional colours for my Christmas pages this year. I wanted to make this one very white and kraft because I'm really digging that combo lately, but I couldn't help but throw some pink into the mix as well. And I already had these accordian flowers sitting around from when I swiped them at my cousin's wedding last weekend. It sure made my page faster!!

Make Believe

By some lucky intervention I was assigned the "Scrap a Rainbow" challenge twice in a row at Scrapz.biz (with the change of months you see). So this time around I came up with this........

The theme is "I'm Dreaming Of......." which I chose to interpret in my layout as a dreamy, breezy, soft and whimsical design about playing and using our imagination.

And as you can see, my colours are red, pink, cream and teal. That inspiration picture is gorgeous don't you think? It's straight from my Pinterest boards.

Lots of painty layers in the background. Gee I had fun with making a creative mess here :-) Those cute fuzzy clouds are from my friend Aga's shop - I've ordered about a million more! They add a great texture and became my main teal focus on this page.

Now I really wanted to use those Pink Paislee Woodshop alphas in my title, but I've already used up all my A's, so I substituted in an upside down V instead...... could you tell?!!! *LOL* Then there's just lots of other bits and pieces I found around my very unorganised scrap room.

I just loved this tree with blossoms and bird so much on this page that it's already inspired me to make a card version. I'll share that with you real soon (I haven't photographed it yet!). But in the meantime if you want to play along with my "Scrap a Rainbow" challenge then you've got until the end of January to join in to win a Scrapz.biz voucher. Read all the details about my challenge here.

Supplies:

Basic Grey Out of Print Newsflash	October Afternoon Sidewalks Ring Around the Rosie	October Afternoon Sidewalks Marbles	Pink Paislee Nantucket Crab Cakes
Cosmo Cricket Social Club Cocktail	Pink Paislee Wood Shop Alphabet Woodchip	October Afternoon Sidewalks Little Flyers	October Afternoon Sidewalks Journal Cards
ScrAp this! Fuzzy Felt Clouds	Glitz Design Scarlett Paper Layers	Prima Birdsong script	Crafters Workshop Mini Clouds stencil
Studio Calico MIster Huey Lunch Tray

InLinkz.com

Resigning my Screenwriting Position

There is a season for everything, and everything has it's season. So this layout marks the end of my season of designing for "From Screen 2 Scrap" - my very last DT submission. I've been designing for Shazza for almost 2 years now, and whilst I've loved every minute of it I just thought it was time to step aside and let some fresh faces shine.

And I just loved this months challenge - a perfect way to finish my term. The movie poster for your inspiration for December is "White Christmas"

and the extra criteria is to include white cardstock, a two-coloured title, and Christmas hats. Pretty easy criteria to meet, and we all love to scrap Christmas photos I'm sure!

Now as much as I love traditional Christmas colours on a layout, I also love to mix it up a bit and went for more of a pink and green and kraft combination here along with my white cardstock (and I couldn't help but add a silver sparkle to my diecut overlay!)

I've used a lot of My Mind's Eye Lost and Found II Blush collection which I was lucky enough to receive from them when I won their sketch competition a little while ago. And I really wanted my title to be big and bold like the poster so I opted for this stamped and handcut title combination. I'm really happy with how this turned out. Prepare to see more of this!

So if you want to join with me in my very last "From Screen 2 Scrap" challenge then head over to the blog here and check out all the details. I'll be back with more Christmas scrapping soon!

Coffee anyone?

When I heard that one of the weekly themes for November at Scrapz.biz was going to be "Wild About...."  I just knew that was the perfect opportunity to scrap this recent photo I took of my coffee cup!! (surely that's only slightly crazy right?)

The challenge I was assigned to go along with the "Wild About.." theme was the Scrap a Rainbow challenge which is essentially a colour combo along with an inspiration pic.

Inspiration image via Pinterest.

I have to admit, I worked a little backwards on this one. As I said, I chose the picture I wanted to scrap first, then I worked out what papers I wanted to use, then I went searching (via Pinterest) for an inspiration picture that would work!! Now that's not usually the way I would do it, but I was so determined to scrap my coffee cup :-)

You see, coffee most certainly is one of the things I am "Wild About" and I do believe a good coffee cup goes a long way towards your enjoyment of that coffee. I mean, everyone has their favourites right? When we recently moved to the country for 6 months we knew that the house was already coming furnished, so I packed up all my old mugs and put them into storage for the time.

But when we arrived and I found out that 'furnished' just meant they it came with a few odds and ends from the hospital pantry from the looks of things, I immediately had to go out and find a new cup! It's funny how little things like that can make all the difference right?

And so that's the story of why I'm Wild About my Coffee Mug. You can click on my supplies to be taken to the Scrapz.biz store to check them out yourself. Lots of lovely Studio Calico Countryside and State Fair here, and some gorgeous Prima bling.


Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Feeling Sharky

More wildlife petting photos to scrap!! This time it's all about feeding the sharks whilst we were on our aquarium tour on holidays recently.

The girls were able to pick up and pat these cute little baby shark, which I thought they may be a little afraid of, even though they were tiny - but they both just loved it.

In fact, if you look closely at the photo of Moodles, she has her little tongue out like she wants to give it a little kiss and a lick (which is a bit of a running joke in our family)!!

I made this little paper quilt pattern at the bottom here because it kinda reminds me of shark teeth don't you think?

Now forgive me but I do have a few more holiday snaps that have made their way onto layouts that I am yet to post, so that's coming up soon. But I do also have some Christmas pages for a couple of upcoming challenges that I am excited about sharing with you..... I just love Christmas time, so it's about to get a little festive around here :-)