CHA Here I Come ....

Yes I am.. and I really can't believe it.
I am actually going to CHA!!!!

We leave for LA tomorrow morning. 
I'm so looking forward to meeting lots of my Cocoa Daisy girlies : ) 

Before I head off I wanted to share this LO I made for Louis who is turing 11 this month.
My baby boy.

I used my January Cocoa Daisy Kit. I love these colours.
I went into lots of detail on the process of how I like to make my LO's, you can see this blog post here at Cocoa Daisy if you fancy a look.

Well, we are packed and we've checked in online.
Ade is coming with me and we are starting with a couple of days in Santa Monica before we meet up with the others and then we plan to have a couple of days after CHA to explore a little further down the coast. Ade worked there quite a few years ago so wants to show me various places.
I haven't been to California since 1996, so it's been quite a while. Wow, I was 21 then. Such a long time ago : )

My inlaws are coming to look after the kids so they can continue their normal school routine and my Mum is coming to have them here over the weekend. We have lots of nice things planned for them but I still feel sick about leaving them : (
I love my babies.

Anyway, next time I check in here, I will hopefull have some lovely photos to show and tell.
Lots and lots of love
Lisa xxx

Happy Day - Cocoa Daisy

It's funny how sometimes looking back on a Happy Day can make you feel a little sad.
I scrapped booked this photo of the kids in Magic Kingdom.
The day was so perfect in everyway, I get butterflies just thinking about it.

We had a lazy morning and got to Magic Kingdom late morning. It was so so hot, early 90's.
We wanted to walk to Tomorrowland but stopped at The Aloha place for Dolewhips to cool us down so we could walk to the otherside of the park.
The rides were almost all walk ons, it was just so easy.
We left before the parade started and went for a swim at the resort and had a Disney dining reservation at Ohanas restaurant at the Disney Polynesian resort at 8.30pm where we saw the Magic Kingdom fireworks whilst we were eating.
A perfect day.

I used my January Cocoa Daisy kit again.
I got a new Crafters Workshop Stencil with the kit. This one here.
And this new Maya Mist.

Can you tell how much I am loving this kit???

River Adventure - Cocoa Daisy Sketch

Hello,

Are you ready for a scrappy challenge?
Have you scrapped much over the holidays?

Stephanie launched our Cocoa Daisy Sketch challenge yesterday.
I do love her sketches.

I made this LO last night using the sketch and my January CD kit.

I loved making all these layers with the bits and pieces mainly from the 'Elizabeth' addon.

I love the large foam Thickers, but grey was the wrong colour for this page so I brushed over them using a Prima Chalk Ink. I praise these inks so often. They really are wonderful and so so easy to use.

I also used the Prima Inks on some bubble wrap around the design along with the Raspberry Pie Ink on this grid background stamp.
 And lots of hand stitching whilst we sat watching 2 episodes of 24 last night.

We took these photos whilst we were in the Aquatica Water Park in Orlando.
We loved the rapid and the lazy river and kept going around and round. It was so much fun.

I really need to step away from this pc now.
I have so much work to do and a Christmas Tree to take down, which then means lots of cleaning : (
I love Christmas but don't like the clearing away after.

Don;t forget to check out Stephanie's sketch here.
You have until 14th Jan to play and the winner gets a $10 voucher to spend in store.

xxx

First Story of 2013 - Cocoa Daisy

It has to be a silly one, doesn't it?!!
: )

I was so pleased when my January Cocoa Daisy Kit finally arrived on 31st December.
Poor Christine, sent it out priority on the 12th : (
I was just relieved to get it though and have been happily scrapping since.
I LOVE this kit.
It's called 'Pemberley'. It has some beautiful soft tones with the added touch of spice.
I really do love it.

So when I got scrapping, I knew I wanted to use the October Afternoon sticker sheet for a story. I was thinking along the lines of a conversation, but couldn't think of one.
Then I thought it would be really fun to tell the story of the Christmas Morning Text.
Here it is:

It all gets a little crazy when my sister is around and I always end up reverting to my old childhood self. We have such a laugh together.

When I received a text from my sister early Christmas morning showing me a photo of Millie in her new leotard I instantly started laughing and ran upstairs to the kids dressing up box as I have the same leotard from when I did ballet. The leotard is age 8 but I still manged to squeeze in to it and Hollie photographed my doing the same pose and we text it straight back saying that I got the same leotard from Santa.

 Hollie and I were in fits of giggles, Louis though was just looking at me like ''what on earth are you doing now???''

There is lots of MME in this months kits which makes me very happy : )
And I got the 'Elizabeth' addon which has these Pink Paisley words and journal bits.
I love the word 'Seriously' that was in it. A word that Hollie uses all the time.

So there you go.
My first silly story of 2013.
Hopefully the first of many : )

I'm going to continue with this kit tonight. Stephanie set the new Sketch challenge today here.
So I've just printed some pics for this. I have another story to tell.

Thank you for the kind comments re my fave LO's of 2012.
I hope 2013 has been kind to you so far.
xxx

My 2012 Faves

Happy New to you.
I hope you've had a lovely Christmas and have been enjoying all the festivities.
Just a little note to say thank you for visiting my blog this year and I hope you have a wonderful 2013 : )

Here's my favourites from 2012.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Lots of love Lisa xxx

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to you.

We've been busy preparing for Christmas these past few weeks.
Watching movies, baking, visiting friends and family.

 

Louis and I made candy cane bark for the first time.

And I've continued to craft and work through December this year. Usually both dry up this month.

I'm about to finish work for the day in a minute, once my last order before Christmas is packed up and then the post office trip is done and I can become Mum again and start the many jobs that a Mum needs to do on Christmas Eve.

I hope you have fun with your family and friends.
Happy Christmas xxx 

Captured

Hello.

So, today 21.12.12
Will it or won't it???

Louis has been in a panic for months.
He's a worrier at the best of times.
We've been counting down the days left at school whilst he's been counting down the days til the world ends.
He didn't want to sleep last night as he was scared, but was straight out : )
Poor thing.

I have a DT LO to share today that I made for the Scrap365 January sketch challenge.
The challenge has gone live today and runs until January 17th.
Here is my LO.

I've used some fun October Afternoon 'Modway' papers on this LO. The arrows were all cut out from one of the papers. The metallic mists are from Maya Road.

I love the kids faces on this photo. It was a ride photo taken at Magic Kingdom on the Toy Story ride. It captured them so well : )
Louis ended with 603'800 points whilst Hollie had just 7700. The camera captured her looking over at his score whilst he was laughing at her. What perfect timing!!

And I've used bits and pieces from some previous Cocoa Daisy kits.
And I love that large 'Today' journal stamp from CD too. I've had so much use from that. It's great to have a journal stamp that actually has a decent amount of space to journal in.

Please pop over to the Scrap365 sketch blog to see the sketch here and see what the rest of the team did with the sketch.
The challenge is being sponsered this month by :  http://www.indigoblu.com/

The kids are finishing school at 1pm today, so Ade and I are going to wrap the last few bits. The Waitrose shop has just been done. So all grocery shopping now finished. I cleaned the frdige out before unpacking, so I think we are more or less sorted.
We are taking the kids to see Nativity 2 after school : )
We always like to see a Christmas movie at the cinema.

I hope you are feeling festive.
And good luck with the whole 21.12.12 thing **cheeky grin**

xxx

A sneak into 2013

Hello.
I'm sitting here and tired and looking forward to bedtime already.
We went to see Mumford and Sons last night.
They were amazing.
We are quite fortunate in that we get to see quite alot of bands, these were at the top with the best.
It felt like a proper raw gig. Nothing fancy, just in their words '4 dudes that love to play music'.
The stage was covered in different instruments, stuff everywhere.

We then took a longer drive home through London.
The lights were so pretty : )
Finally got to bed after 2am.
A lovely evening.

Anway. I have some sneaks to share today.
Wanna see??

 

Please meet the first Cocoa Daisy kit of 2013.

Pemberley

Mr Darcy addon

Elizabeth addon

Netherfield addon

And the Stamps.

I'm loving the look of this kit and can't wait to get my hands on it. The US girls have their's already so mine is due anytime : )

Must go now.

Have a great day xxx 

Every Little Helps

Hello,

I hope you are well and enjoying the build up to Christmas.
The kids are getting very excited.
Louis has the whole 'end of the world' thing going on his head right now. He sat at the breakfast table on Monday and I was thinking just 4 more days to go until they finish school for the year. So I said to him, ''Louis, just 4 more days to go''. All smiley and happy. He replied ''what til the world ends???''.
He then later asked me what would I do if I really knew for sure that the world was ending at the end of the week. I aksed him what would he do. He said '' open all the doors of my advent calendar''. That's a 10yr old boy for you I guess : )

I don't have too much else to share today. Well I do, but I'm having pc problems again : (
And I can't sort my photos right now. Ade has it in hand though and I should hopefully be up and running properly again later. It wasn't as simple to fix as he first thought. It never is!!

I did want to share this though that I found on my friend Julie's blog today.
After the awful news on Friday I think it's left everyone so stunned and wanting to hold on even tighter to our babies. Your heart goes out to all those families so far away and yet there's nothing you can do.
Amber Kemp-Gerstel, a scrapbooker and a child psychologist has come up with a wonderful idea to help those poor children that have experienced things no child should have to go through.
Take a look at her blog and have a read for yourself here.
I think it's such a great idea.

Lisa xxx

Good Ol' Gesso

Gesso is one of those products that I just can't be without anymore.
It's a must for me.
I use it on it's own as a base or I mix it with other products too such as paints or sprinkle over some glitter. It's so fun and versatile.
I get asked so often during classes what I use it for.
Here's a couple of projects that I've used it on. 

Here is an older LO that I made for the Craft Stamper Magazine last year.

Papers:Fancy Pants Designs - Summers End

I loved the old wall that Hollie was stood up against. It's like an old tunnel at the Royal Virgina Gardens. It was a fun afternoon with Dad and my sister and her family. We got a bit lost, the little boys needed a wee ( and a #2) and there was no toilet in sight. Not like you can just let them go behind the bushes eh!! It's funny the things you remember : )

I wanted to bring out the old brick wall and had a really good Cocoa Daisy Wall Stamp. I laid on some gesso for my background and added some molding paste too. I used a little orange ink on the brick wall stamp and pressed it in to the gesso and paste to get this great effect. I splashed a little gesso around too.

I also altered this old table last year.
I bought it from a thrifty store. It was dark brown and rather boring. 

 Ade was always complaining that we needed a coffee table, but I didn't want one stuck in the middle of the room. So this seemed like the perfect idea. It's small enough to pop around the side of the sofa, but he pulls it out when we have a coffee.

I cleaned and sanded it down a little and then covered it in old book pages and painted over with gesso once dry. I hand cut a big heart and misted over and typed up these words to add. I covered it in modge podge and it was finished. I have to say I'm so pleased with it. It fits in with our lounge room perfectly and over a year later still looks as good.

I also added some Bakers Twine to the table legs and used gesso over the top.

It makes a great primer. I always use it on canvases before I start painting. I also enjoy adding it to patterned papers if they are really busy. It tones them down a little.
 There are lots of different types to buy.
Just experiment and have fun.
That's what this is all about eh?!!
  
xxx

Quickie Cards

Hello,

I've been making some quick Christmas Cards.
I don't send out many but like to try and make the ones I do.
Each year I come up with a simple design.
This year I've used the October Cocoa Daisy Tree Stamp. I ran the card blanks through the printer and printed off my favourite quote from my favourite Christmas movie Elf.

Added some stickles to finish and they are done!!
For the Countdown to Christmas - Week 2 at Cocoa Daisy, we are sharing home made Christmas Cards if you want to come and see here.


It's been a lovely weekend here. Busy but lovely.
Some movie watching, some game playing, lots of cooking and baking, friends to visit Saturday evening and we also got Hollie a  new big desk for her room.
I feel so tired today and woke with no voice.
Not good!!

I need to finish a LO now.
See you soon xxx

She's Easy to Please - My Minds Eye

Good Morning To You!!!
I have a little My Minds Eye to share with you today.
My Minds Eye are one of my faves and have been for a long time. I just find their products so easy to use. Their December challenge is to scrap a wish list.
Hollie's wish list instantly came to mind when I read this as it's such a funny one.
A laundry Bin and Blu Tack.

 

 You might think that the list is easy, but it makes it such hard work. She never really asks for anything. Louis is very precise with what he wants, such detailed lists : ) But not Hollie.

We just always hope that we get it right each year.

I've used a good ol' mish mash of MME products and collections here.

The beautiful papers from 'The Sweetest Thing' that were in my Dec Cocoa Daisy Kit.

I included the trimming from the edge of the paper that shows the collection name. 'the sweetest thing'.

I've added a little '12 Days of Christmas' here and there. The 3d stickers on this photos with some flat backed gems from the same range and brads too.

A little 'Lime Twist' journal tag and some MME twine there too.

Plus some pretty vellum that I added under the paper layers, a Cocoa Daisy Date Tab Stamp, 

Some Maya Road Rubon Butterflies and I also used a Maya White Mist. It's the first time I've used it and it gets the big thumbs up : )

My sweet girl.

Yesterday morning we had a nice surprise.

It snowed!!

We walked to school in it but then the sun came out and it was gone again.

And yes Hollie does own a coat, several infact. Getting her to wear them these days though is a whole new story **rolls eyes**. I've decided it's another battle I'm choosing not to pick.

Work for me again today.

I have some lovely big orders to work on that I shall take in to the family room, sit on the floor with a latte (or 2) and watch Christmas Movies. Gotta love working from home.

I also want to work on some SCRAP365 magazine stuff too.

Happy!!!!

Hope you have a good day too xxx

Christmas Extravaganza at Sparkle Dreams

Hiya,

We are having a Christmas Extravaganza day at Sparkle Dreams in Swindon on Saturday 15th December from 11am-3pm.

There will be demos all day along with makes and takes and big offers on too plus mince pies & cupcakes : )

I will playing with Mixed Media supplies all day and also have a little taster class if you fancy giving it a go at 12.30pm. We will be making teeny canvases like this. (the easel comes with the canvas)

It's just £5 per head for the mini workshop and that includes all your materials and you'll have a mini piece of art to take away with you. The class will last about 30mins.
And you don't have to make a Christmas canvas. There will be examples with a little house and a heart too or you can just do your own thing : )

Solance and Sandie will also be there demo-ing scrapbooking and using Tim Holtz distressing techniques if you fancy stopping by.

Free refreshments all day, all ages welcome, beginners or advanced.

See here for details.
My mini workshop does need to be booked pleased as we are limited with numbers so please call up Sparkle Dreams to make your booking.
 01793 855472 

Thanks : )
xxx

Hello Friend - Cocoa Daisy Sketch

Hiya : )

I hope you are having a good week so far.

Today I have the latest Cocoa Daisy Sketch challenge for you.The challenge runs until 18th December. You can see the full details here if you fancy playing along.
Here you go.

And here's my sample LO to go with it.

I used this months CD kit. I love these happy colours and the 'Simple Stories' stickers and papers are so fun to scrap with.

 

I used this photo that I took of us whilst at Magic Kingdom on the Jungle Cruise ride. It was such a boiling hot day. 

This LO is about Ade working from home now and the fact that we are spending practically 24hrs together at home. (I also work from home).
It's made me realise what great friends we are that we can make this work. It is hard at times and we've needed to adjust in certain areas, but it is working and the majority of the time I'm loving having him home.

Don't forget to play along with us at Cocoa Daisy. I'd love to see your LO's : )

Thanks for stopping by today xxx

Papermaze Christmas Blog Hop

Hi and Welcome to the Papermaze Blog Hop.

I'm not a Christmas Scrapper.

I get chance to scrap most days, but I just don't enjoy Christmas Scrapping. 

I've given up with all the Christmas Journals. I just can't keep them up and then feel let down after when I have another half made/completed journal. So last year I found a way of having a teeny Christmas Mini and not feeling the pressure to keep it up throughout Christmas. So this year I've made the same kind of Teeny Mini and feel so much happier. 

Here it is:

I've used the Jillibean  Christmas Eve Chowder - Bite Sized Bits. I've cut them all up and used them as my pages.

I've decorated with the matching Jillibean Soup Die Cuts.

And also these matching Stickers.

Once all the cards were stuck back to back and inked, I holed them in the correct order and added a book ring.

I used some ribbon from my odds and ends jar and a little glitter here and there and the mini book is now done.

I will now add a little journaling throughout the month and a few photos.

Easy Peasey!!

If you are playing along with the Papermaze bloghop here is the list for you to hop through.

Papermaze blog - http://scrappaperscissors.blogspot.co.uk/

Wendy - http://wendymckee.blogspot.co.uk/

Carol - http://www.kraftypieces.blogspot.co.uk/

Karen - http://apapergallery.blogspot.co.uk/

Lisa - http://scrappyfairies.blogspot.co.uk/

Lou - http://prettypaperandchipboard.blogspot.co.uk/

Anna - http://mycreations-anna.blogspot.co.uk/

Back to Papermaze again - http://scrappaperscissors.blogspot.co.uk/

  

 You will need to leave a comment on each blog as you hop through.

There will be one lucky winner picked at random at the end and they will receive this lovely kit of Christmas Goodies.

Seeing as it's almost Christmas and it's been a while since I've offered some blog candy, please become a follower here if you aren't already and I will also pick at random one person and will post out some goodies too : )

I'm thinking stamps, pretty things and a little chocolate too. It is Christmas after all. 

 Thanks so much for playing along with us.

Please visit Lou next:

Lou - http://prettypaperandchipboard.blogspot.co.uk/

xxx