Christmas in June!

Yep that's what Jo has dared us to do this week. After digging the Christmas Craft box out, which was buried right at the bottom of the pile, this is what I came up with.Super simple, Rubber Soul paper, Swiss dots Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Grosgrain ribbon, Hampton Stamp and the star charm from a charity shop, if I remember rightly it was part of some sort of charm/dangly thing!

The Christmas box is now safely tucked away again until Autumn :)

I've also been tagged by Lavender Rose

TEN YEARS AGO

I was at Art School in Aberdeen in my second year. I was living the student life in my first proper flat with a fab friend and partying hard. I thought I spent the summer working as a Trolley Dolly on the trains but thinking about it I think that was the Pizza Shop year. It seems so very long ago now, I hadn't even met my husband then and to be honest it's hard to remember what happened when, lol! I mean I was a teenager then, well just!

FIVE THINGS ON TODAY'S 'TO DO' LIST

Laze about for the morning, I love Saturday mornings lounging in PJ's.
Update my blog- done!
Get some washing on the line as its gorgeously sunny with a good drying breeze.
Watch Doctor Who, I love it :)
Hmmm I can't think of a fifth, I try to do as little as possible on a Saturday, does order takeaway dinner count?!

SNACKS I ENJOY

Twiglets
Worcester Sauce crisps, I'm so glad they brought them back.
Humous and crunchy crusty bread
Cake, any kind, I'm not fussy when it comes to cake!
Tesco's version of Milky Way's, I think they're better than the real thing.

THINGS I WOULD DO IF I WAS A MILLIONAIRE

First would definitely be buy a house, or buy a plot and build a house, and go on a long holiday somewhere sunny and hot, actually maybe while the builders were getting on with it. I'd help out my family, buy Matt his dream car, then I'd probably try and be sensible and invest the rest for a good return, actually I'm not sure there would be any left by then.

PLACES I HAVE LIVED

Aberdeen - Silver when it's sunny, grey the rest of the time
Pembrokeshire
Isle of Lewis
Angus - Which is now home

I'm not going to tag anyone mainly because I haven't had the chance to do much blog reading (sorry) but if you haven't done this one then do it and leave me a comment and I'll come and see!

Happy Saturday :)

A stitch in time

I made these last night in front of the telly. How funny was Russel Brand on Have I Got News For You! I used to think he was a bit of a plonker but he made me laugh last night so he's gone up in my estimations. It's so cold here this morning, theres a really thick layer of frost on everything and the birds are going mad for their food. I wish I could get a good pic but whenever I take the camera near the window they all fly off, clever little things, maybe they're shy. The decorations are really simple. Die cut felt in the sizzix and blanket stitch the edges sewing in a bit of ribbon as a hanger. I had plans to sew on buttons but I actually quite like them plain, and they'll go perfectly with our traditional red and gold tree.

2 days til the mag I'm in comes out! So exciting!

Christmas boxes & Randomness

I've been making these dinky boxes for a while now, the perfect way to wrap diddy things. This one's inspired by a tutorial on Splitcoast but I made up my own measurements cause they're deigned for american sized paper. Actually I didn't measure at all, just guessed the lines on my scoreboard and it worked. I can do a 'how I do them' if anyone gets stuck.
This one is inspired by Lauren, but again, I adapted it to my scoreboard for ease. Both are made from one sheet of A4 card, printed with Pink Petticoat and the edges trimmed (my laser wont do edge to edge printing) and finished off with ribbon. Now I'm not going to tell you what's going in them incase you're getting one lol.
I've been tagged by the lovely Kim, 7 random facts! This is a difficult one, m sure I've done it before so I'll try to think of another load of random facts.

1. I love a real log fire, it really makes a house a home for me, I love the smell of burning peat too, reminds me of growing up on the island where we dug our own peat.
2. I went to Art college in Aberdeen and got a degree in Design and Craft - 3D design. I made lamps from clear cast resin, I'll have to share some pics sometime - they're prints though as we used film then so I'll need to get the scanner out.
3. I'd love to get into scrapping but I just haven't been able to yet. I have put our wedding album together now though, no decoration just a print a page - so I may scrap some of those pics soon.
   
4. I am not named after the Fleetwood Mac song Rhiannon, I was born before it was released... just!
5. I can't abide this 80's fashion trend, I like flares and funky 70's patterns and remember skin tight jeans with zips on the ankles first time round. Yeuuuch!
   
6. I love snow, it brings out the big kid in me, not too keen on driving in it though.
7. I'm a last minute minnie and have my own unique organisation system which looks chaotic but there is method in my mess somewhere!

If you're reading this and haven't done it... YOU'RE TAGGED!!!

Eeeek!

Yep, I had one of those scary moments when I realised its only about 5 weeks til Christmas, Panic stations! So yesterday I went for it and managed to make 25 Christmas cards, all similar but different, and I'm feeling a lot less stressed out about it now!


All papers are DCWV and all images are pink petticoat watercoloured in. And here's my best crochet work for all those who think I've mastered it, I so haven't lol.

Got to go and find out who's been kicked of Strictly Come Dancing.... bye for now xx

Piles of Parcels

Thats the theme for this weeks Santa's Little Extra Helper! The pics not 100% true to the colours of the gorgeous Figgy Pudding papers as I had to use the flash. They're great but you only get one of each in the 6x6 pack, making them hard to start using!
I've also been playing with Marieke's gorgeous papers, such Fab colours, I love them. I made this for a pal who's just got her very own place with no flatmates, oh the joys! I remember my first solo flat really well, only your own mess to contend with!
Thanks for looking and keep warm, it's still baltic here and even crocs with socks aren't keeping my toes warm!

Autumn Oddness

We're battening down the hatches here for the first big storm of the winter. Its forecast to be gusts up to 80mph from the northwest tomorrow so its gonna be chilly. Still, storms like that are pretty rare over on the east coast of Scotland, On Lewis they were practically weekly. Its been a weird autumn so far, my sweet peas are still flowering when they should all be dead now, heres a pic with the orange leaves of the woods behind... very odd.

Here's my little extra for this week, spot the scallops again, Matt thinks I'm really overdoing them now!

Autumn Leaves snow stamp, Cuttlebug die and English paper Co paper.


And also, I've been tagged by Jo, thank you!

1. If you could have 100.00 worth of scrapbook paper or assorted embellishments, which would you choose?

It would have to be embellishments. I am a complete paper addict but don't always have enough finishing embelly bits so I'd stock up on some gorgeous ones.

2. If you had to choose between using only stamps or rubons, which would you choose?

Stamps every time, you can use them again and again and have them in any colour, plus I could make my own rubbons with the pc if I really needed one!

3. If you knew how to do both awesome cards and layouts but could only do one for a whole year...which would you do?

I'd do cards, and mini books that were pretending to be cards! Is that cheating? I suppose I could wait a year to scrap the wedding pics, which I've finally got back by the way and theres some fantastic ones.

4. Would you rather own a scrapbooking store or have your own scrapping room at home...(can't have both he he he)

I have my own craft room already, how lucky am I! I wouldn't want to run my own shop, the stocking and examples would be fun to do, but I'm a rubbish salesperson. I'd be telling folk they could get their Double sided tape, 4 rolls for a pound, in Poundland... so not to buy mine! But that said, if I could own a shop and have a team of employees to staff it, that would be ace!


5. And last but not least, what is your CURRENT cardmaking or scrapping style....Now this can be tough to nail down!

Hmmm, I'm not really sure. I like playing with lots of different techniques. At the moment I'm really enjoying stamping and getting more confident with my doodling, and I always seem to use patterned paper and I love my scallop scissors. Does any of that constitute a style?

Thanks for a fab tag, I've seen this one everywhere I would have tagged already so if you're reading this and haven't done it yet, youre tagged, leave a message and I'll come and nose at your answers!

Smile

I've been given an award by Ying Pang and Nic!
I'm so glad I've made people smile, its such an important thing to spread a little joy round the world. I'm so inspired and uplifted by all the things I see and read in crafty blog world but here's my favourites who've made me smile recently. And darn it, loads of you have been nominated already but if you've done it already and I nominated you, sorry I must have missed it!

Kate
Dingle
Jo
Saffa
Keryn
Scrapbook Widower, so funny cause it's true!
Tracie
Lisa
Louly
Joanne

Pass on the smiley award if you have time!

And finally a card! Done for a Just Bex Challenge, Bloomin Christmas!

Tree-mendous

Firstly for Jackie who left a message on my previous post, sorry I can't click throught o your blog, the scallop scissors are from Artbase... here. I have the cloud ones, hope this helps, they took me a while to track down too.

This weeks Santas Little Extra helper is Christmas trees, and here's my contribution!Scalloped edge this time is BG notch tool with Cropodile holes, papers are DCWV, stamps by Autumn Leaves & Hampton Art and lots of inking with Brilliance goodness.

I downloaded some delicious Pink Petticoat papers at the weekend so I've been working my printer hard, some delicious designs. I've been experimenting with printing straight onto coloured card too, some interesting effects, and some really clashy ones too!

More Frames

Lynnes framed dare has really inspired me, so many wonderful entries on the DCM blog. Here's a couple more Christmas cards along the same lines. Traditional colours and something a bit different. That Merry Christmas stamp is from one of the little studio G sets, really cute.
Another fab delivery today from Artbase, finally got the fiskars cloud scissors I've been hankering after for ages, luberly juberly. Also got a copy of Papercrafts, the US mag, I love it. It's so full of ideas and even the ads are inspiring me, maybe its just cause they're all new to my eyes!