Amber Snowflake #1

Good Morning to you on this rainy and blowy day,

Today I can show you what I was busy making last week
We had the Cocoa Daisy reveal last night.
I can honestly say, this is my absolute fave kit this year.
I decided to go for all the addons barr one which had silhoutte stuff which isn't me at all.
This was the first thing I made.
I just wanted to play with the pretty papers and came up with this.


I'm really not one for Christmas papers so this is so perfect for me.
I love the teals, mustard and reds.


And I got these fab October Afternoon Flower Stack Dies in this addon here.





I had some great thrifty finds last week. I got 3 hoops for 50p each.
The doilees in the main kit fit perfectly.
The stamp 'yesterday-today-tomorrow' is in the same addon as above.
I think this is my fave addon.


The kit goes on sale to non subbers on the first here.
If you are thinking of subbing, there is a special offer on right now which you can read about here.

And now for a new challenge at LESSology.
Take a look here, it's a fun one : )
Here's my sneak.


Back tomorrow with more Cocoa Daisy LO's.

Bye Bye xxx

Catching Up!!

Today is my first day back on the pc.
I felt sick last night when I went to bed with the thought of how much catching up I had to do.
Work, school stuff for the kids, Cocoa Daisy stuff etc...
The list seemed huge.
I am getting there : )

But I really enjoyed my pc free week.
I felt so chilled.
It's made me realise that I need to spend less time on this thing.

Thankfully my beautiful Cocoa Daisy kit came and I cleaned out my studio last week and felt so so creative. It's amazing what a good tidy, clean and reorganising of this place does to me.
Here's a sneak of what I made.



We have the full reveal tonight at Cocoa Daisy where you can see the full kit along with what the other team members made.
You can join in here.
We will also be announcing the crop winners.

See you later x

Good and Bad News

Good Morning,

I'm finally here again.
It feels so long.
My pc died on me big style.
It started by just going slow and crashing for a few days and then at the beginning of last week it wouldn't even go on : (
Ade was on a course all week so couldn't help me so I had a whole week pc free.
After I got over the shock I actually enjoyed it.
Thankfully everything is backed up every night on an external hardrive so we didn't loose anything.
He's been rebuilding everything since Friday evening and all seems good : )
Yay!! Thank goodness for my clever hubby. I wouldn't have known where to start.

Right now we are heading out to Kingston for some shopping.
I can't wait to get back in blogland for a serious catch up.
Hugs xxx

Hello.
I will keep this quick today.
We are having all the gas pipes replaced and the gas meters in our road today so we have no gas which means no heating.
Half way through the day and I'm starting to feel cold.
I think I need to get up from my desk and do something now.

I still have a couple of LO's to share from the Cocoa Daisy crop at the weekend.
This one is from a challenge I set called Home Baked:
(click to enlarge)

I love that Crafter Workshop Template : )


And for the Sketch Challenge.


Yes, I am an early bird : )



I also want to share with you a blog I found today.
When visiting Brit Sviggum's Blog, I found this challenge blog that Brit designs for.
Take a look. http://skissedilla.blogspot.com/ (there is a translate button to click on)
It has to be one of the most inspiring challenge blogs I've ever seen. The LO's are just amazing.
I just had to share.

Off to get warm now. I think I might put a hottie in the microwave.
I can't even make tea as my kettle only works on my gas stove and I just can't face another latte. They make me feel so full.

Have a lovely warm day xxx

Scrapping the Everyday

Hello to you on this fine Autumn day.
The sun is shining, the sky is blue and the leaves outside my studio are orange.
Love!!

Being a scrapper, it's always fun to scrap the main events in life.
The birthdays, the lovely days out, the special moments, but sometimes it's really easy to not bother with the everyday.
I scrapped this LO for Papermaze recently.


I love this photo that I took of my button jars that line the window ledge in my studio.
I just love this window. I find the colours so inspiring. A burst of colour really does lift my mood.
I think that's why most of my Lo's tend to be so colourful. It makes me happy. All of my favourite projects I make are the bright colourful ones.



I used papers from Crate Peppermint and drew around a small plate to get my circle and then stitched all the way around.
Then using glossy accents, I stuck all these buttons in place.
You can read the full blog post at Papermaze here.

Papermaze are still sorting out after the fire.
The remainder of stock is still half prize. You can see what's left here.



My teamies at LESSology have been busy making mobiles.
You can check out what they've made and play along here.
This challenge is sponsored by the lovely Nikki Sivils.



Back to work for me now : )
Thanks for stopping by xxx

Crop Hangover

It's the Monday after an amazing crop weekend at Cocoa Daisy.
I'm so so tired.
It was so fun as expected.

Friday I rolled in to bed just before 3am, Saturday 2am and then my early night last night ended up being just after 11.30pm.
So it's no wonder I'm in a little bubble today.
But the inspiration on the boards was second to none. A great place to hang out and also create.

This is my fave LO that I made.
It's for Julie Balzers challenge. Hand Lettering here.
(click to enlarge)


I doodled the title onto pp and cut out rather roughly and then doodled the word 'girl'.
I really like how this LO stands out. I love the brightness.


and I love that photo of Hollie.


Jen set a challenge based on Wall art and embroidery. Right up my street right now.
I made these.
Removing the glass from these frames. Hand stitching around the Sassfrass stickers and covering the back on the board of the frames in these hand sewn canvases.
The challenge is here.



The last challenge of the crop was Sharmaine's colour combo challenge here.


Using bits and pieces from old and new Cocoa Daisy kits.


I love these Autumn colours.

The challenges run until the end of this week. All 20 of them : )
Take a look.

I also recommend Ronda's Class : Stamp and Fabric Canvas
and please go and check out Denise's Graffiti class.
Even if the painty.messy look isn't your think take a look anyway. She is AMAZING!!

Just realised that I need to leave for school in 15mins.
I've been writing this blog post since first thing this morning. Just goes to show what kind of day it's been with interuptions etc...

I hope you had a great weekend and I hope you feel inspired by some of the work over at Cocoa Daisy right now.

Hugs xxx

Cropping with the Daisies

The Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop kicked off last night. 9pm our (uk) time.
I love this event. I love the inspiration and all the fun that goes with the weekend.
Everyone jumps in. New Members and Old Members. It's just great!!

Here's some of the challenges so far...


Anna's Fabric Challenge.

The eldest of 3 I am. The sensible one.




Emily's Knit and Crochet Challenge.



And my own Creative Labels Challenge.




We launch a challenge or class on the hour,every hour. See the schedual here.
With fun games thrown in and a special one hour challenge each day.
Come and play : )

Girly Girl

The weekend is getting closer : )
I need it.
I'm longing for this weekend.

As it's Thursday, I have my usual Sketchy Thursdays post for you.
1 Sketchy Thursdays LO.
Using very girly 'Girls Paperie' papers, matching alphas and a teeny spritz of pretty mists.
Finished off with a punched scalloped edge.
(all products from Papermaze)
Click to enlarge


My girl is so girly, so this LO really suits her.
So pleased I have a daughter. Louis is fab and makes me laugh and no one loves me like Louis does, but there's just something about having a daughter that's so special.
I'm very lucky!!



See what the other DT members did here. And play along with us too.
We have a cute sponsor this month. Bananafish studio


So, are you planning to come crop with us at Cocoa Daisy this weekend?
We kick off tomorrow.
Register here for a fun packed weekend.

Off to grab supper now.
9.15pm and still not eaten. Not good!!!

Love xxxx

Paper Bag Mini Book

Hello : )

Yay...the sun is shining today.

Today I have this new Mini Book to share with you.
I was asked to show off the Fancy Pants Designs 'Design Embellishments' from the 'Summers End' line.
**smile**
Just love this line.
To see the full Fancy Pants blog post, visit here.

I've used this paper line a few times now, but this larger embellishment was calling out to the the focal point on a larger project. You know sometimes something is almost too good to just go on a LO and then kept away in an album.
This was how I felt about this particular one. So I ended up basing this whole mini book on this one Design Embellishment.

I started off with a brown paper bag and cut it in half and removed the handles as above.


And then decorated the covers and made pages all matching.
I used the matching papers, rubbons, ribbon and buttons with the flowers from the 'it's the little things line'.
I holed through the covers and pages and tied together with the bag handles.



And to finish off and used one of the larger stickers.
I'll give this to myn Mum for Christmas.
It's full of our family photos of various thing the four of us have got up to this year.


I do love Fancy Pants : )

Hubs is making me cheese on toast for lunch now.
Yum.

See you soon xxx

Scrapping with Lists

Hiya,

Just a quick one today as I need to rush off to school.
I wanted to share with you this LO I made using Crate Paper 'peppermint'.
It's actually a christmas collection, but I'm not big into Christmas scrapping so I like a line that can be used as non christmas too.
This is line is perfect for this.


What I love about the Crate collections are the accent cards that come on the one 12x12 paper.
I decided my journaling was going to be in list form for this LO.
I'm a big fan of journaling, but if you do struggle, lists are a great way to combat this problem.


I love the circles on this pp. I handcut some out and then stitched loosely.


You can read more details on the Papermaze blog here.

Better go wrap up now and get that raincoat out : (

Lots of love xxx

My Bad!

I'm being abit naughty.
It's half past midnight and I'm still sat here.
Way past my bedtime and I have a very late one planned tomorrow too.
But the kids are sleeping and Ade's out. It's so peaceful and I like sitting here blog hopping and shopping and scrapping. It's so nice : )

I have a soft spot for MME products.
I really love them.
I created this page with them.
Aren't they fun???
I love this colour combo.


I used a 12x12 Crafters Workshop template, some mists, MME Limetwist and used my very lonely and forgotten promarker pens to blend and colour in those Girls Paperie alphas to get the right aqua.



This was all in aid of the latest sketch for the monthly guest designer spot over at Sketchy Thursdays.
Here's the sketch.
And you can upload your LO's here.
The winner will be the GDT for December.
And the lovely Tessa with Precocious Paper is sponsoring this month.


All of my materials (except the template) were bought from Papermaze.
I mentioned the fire recently. We Vanessa has updated the blog here with the latest news and photos : (
Although the actual shop wasn't burnt, there has been smoke damage.
She has reduced everything by 50% if you are interested.
Take a look here.

I guess I should think about some sleep.
Ade's just text and will be homes soon.
We are going to see Alan Carr at the O2 tomorrow night. Should be a giggle.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.
xxxxx

Friday Feeling

Booooo to techie problems!!!
I've been struggling again with my pc. Bloody thing!!
So far so good today though.

Yesterday was a Sketchy Thursdays day. A lovely new sketch : )


I grabbed my Fancy Pants - Summers End stash and made this LO.
(click to enlarge)
This photo was taken (by Nicky) of my family together when we went to see Glee in London in June. We met up with my Uncle and cousins there. I love spending time with them, shame we just live that bit too far away.

Here's the sketch.
We are sponsored this week by Paper Issues.
They have donated a lovely kit for the winner.
Come and play along here.


I love the colours in the Summers End collection.
The blues, green and orange.
A fave combo of mine.


I matted some of the stickers onto cardstock, cut up some pp and hand stitched and layered lots.
I do love it when you have a whole collection of a something. The LO's just come together so easily.


Over at LESSology we've been playing with glass jars this week.
I always keep mine to tart up for gifts, especially this time of year.
I sometimes make homemade chutney and I also like to do this:




This challenge is sponsored by The Paper Bakery.

To play along, visit here.

I need to pack ready for my class I'm teaching tomorrow : )
Really looking forward to it.
Happy Friday to you xxx

Get Aload of This!!

Our Cocoa Daisy Fall Crop.
Looks great eh?!!

Nov 11th-13th.
All times are EST (NEW YORK)

Everyone is welcome to play along and join in.
No Cocoa Daisy kits are required. Any stash is welcomed : )

Come register here.