More L&L

To go with the card I showed in my last post, I made this notebook. I'm getting known around school for these books  and people know that when it's a special occasion they'll get a book!!. I've had one commission, the rest I give as gifts. I do need to get some more orange blooms as I used the last one on this book.

Lemons and Lilacs return

Over the past few weeks I've had a couple of  birthday cards to make and I turned to my favourite lemons and lilacs kit. I've just about finished one of the 12x12 sets and am working my way through an 8x8 set. Just one 12x12 and an 8x8 to go. I'm not sure what I'll do when I run out, as I'm not sure it is easily available. I just love the colour combinations.

90th birthday!

I love rub ons!! I have a couple of sheets of birthday rub ons where the greetings are all jumbled with pictures of presents. I always find it a fiddle to get the greeting I want, so this time I just covered the paper with a whole bunch straight from the backing sheet. I'm rather pleased with the effect. The 90 is made from some white stickers which I heat embossed in gold and them smothered in glossy accents. A bit of gold mirri card lightens things up a bit. It's still a little dark, but as it's a man card I think that'll be OK! Happy birthday Uncle Fred!! (It's actually on Saturday, so don't let him read this blog!!)

The 'Tupperware' Game

A family favourite to play at Christmas is a game which Mum first played at a 'Tupperware' party. One pack of cards is dealt to the players and a second pack is called card by card. if you have the card called them you can pick one of the prizes in the middle of the game. There are usually about 6 'silly' prizes (I once played this where the most popular prize was a potato!). Once the 7th card is called the player can take a prize from another player. This continues until the last card is called. At the end anyone holding a prize gets to keep it!!

Finally pictures of Mum and my sister.

So, that was my Christmas album! Hope you enjoyed it!

Chill in Rapperswil!

Here we are in Rapperswil, just wandering round and chilling! It was a bit chilly too, despite the blue skies.
As we turned a corner to head back to the car park we came across this wonderful life size nativity scene made from wood.

(Apologies for the minimal blogging - it's been a busy week and I'm shattered!!)

Scenic view!

We decided to get out of the house one day, leaving the boys to play on the computer, and go round Lake Zurich to Rapperswil. As usual I was snapping away and took this scenic picture - more by luck than judgement. It was about 11.30 in the morning and rather hazy and I was trying to get a shot of the mountains - they are there, honest!!

(Sorry for the wonky photo!)

White Christmas

Our white Christmas in Switzerland. The snow didn't last long but it stayed pretty murky all day!! The snowflakes were one of my prizes in the card game we play every year!!

Pressies and Pandoras!

We always open our presents on Christmas Eve after dinner when we are in Switzerland. When the boys were younger we also had stockings and pressies on Christmas Day too!
I started my Troll Bead collection this summer and when I mentioned to my sister that I'd like a bead for Christmas, she didn't think they sold them in Switzerland. As we were walking from the airport to the station, we passed a jewellery shop and, lo and behold, there were Pandora beads. I chose the ones I liked and then Mum and my sister made the final selection! (I did also buy the pink one for myself)

Boys will be boys!!

At 16 and 14 the two year age gap can be enormous when one of you is still at school and the other is going to work. Fortunately the nephews do get on well most of the time - well at least when we are visiting - with only the occasional play fight for the sake of the cameras!!

Crafty Cow!

Every year my youngest nephew gives us a hand made present. This year was no exception, but he did leave it a little late and made them while we were there! For several years he has used a glass painting kit to make decorations for the windows. Mum and I got to choose a decoration for ourselves and we both chose a cow (must be my Hampshire farming roots). In the end I decided to put the cow onto a LO because last time I used one of his decorations it got stuck to the window and fell to bits when I tried to remove it!!

Fog and food!

We can down from the mountain to find fog. We stopped at Einsiedeln to take a look at the cathedral and browse round the stalls.

In Switzerland the Christmas celebrations take place on the 24th, so we had a Swiss meal then - ham in bread dough, potato salad and lots of other salad stuff, and traditional English Christmas dinner on Christmas day. The best of both worlds - yum!!

Coffee and cake

Here we are at Brunni again. While the skiers skied we enjoyed the sunshine and went for coffee and cake!!!

Brunni

On Christmas Eve we went up in the mountains above the fog and cloud to a place called Brunni. My brother in law and nephews went skiing and we watched!!!!

Christmas scrapping!

I've just about finished scrapping my Christmas in Switzerland so I thought I'd share over the next few days. As we'd gone 'empty handed' but 'full pursed' we needed to go shopping at the 'Seedam Centre'. The Christmas decorations were amazing - ice people polar bears and penguins!

Engagement!

My first ever engagement card! I used paper from the Primavera kit I was given for Christmas by the lovely Charlol. I added the love script overlay, the love embelishment and another rub on message. Not the usual lovey dovey type of card but it's very me!! I hope my God-Daughter likes it! I love it!!

Thanks!

It's 'use up scraps' time again! Pretty background paper and the mats for the chipboard 'Thanks' are from my scrap supply. I then just threw blossoms and bling at it. I'm rather pleased with it. Just need to find someone to send it to!!

Merry Christmas!

Yes, I know I'm a bit late, but I wanted to show you the card the children made at school which went out as our 'corporate' card.

This was all great crafting - they stamped and coloured the image, created the shaker part of the card using acetate and foam tape, added lashings of glitter and then compiled the card with the shaker and a peel off greeting!! Everyone was very impressed by the card, although not so much by the glitter which seemed to escape from the snowman when you least expected it to!!!

(Apologies for the fingermarks - they are mine, not the kids!!)

A birthday card!

I couldn't think of  a snazzy title for this post!

Now that I've sorted out my scraps it was easy to find a piece of paper for the background for the card! Ribbon, bling, brad tag, rub ons and 'voila!' - a birthday card!!

Now I have to find something suitable for an engagement card for my God-daughter. I've not made an engagement card before, so that'll be my challenge for the weekend.

Binding again!

In my drive to use up my scraps I'm now into making little notebooks!! They are so easy to make and make great little gifts. Now I'm building up my basic stock, all I need to do is to add appropriate embellishments on the covers when I decide who I am giving them to!! 

Snow!

Back to school today! This was the sight of my garden when I left for work.....
....and when I got home again!

It was a training day today so there were no children. Hopefully they they have all had a chance to play in the snow today and make the most of it!!

I think these photos will be making it to my monthly album. As I only have 20 pages for each month, I'm taking photos each day and then each week pick some of the best to scrap.

Who new?

As an avid Doctor Who fan, I was glued to the TV set last night to see who was going to be taking over the role from the delicious David Tennant. I think the choice of Matt Smith has come as a bit of a surprise to people and certainly some of the opinions on different forums are less than supportive. I suppose the new regeneration will divide the current Doctor Who fanbase into those who are genuine Who followers and those who are just DT fans. I, for one, will be watching Series 5 and look forward to some cracking storylines (although I will miss DT's gorgeous interpretation of the Doctor)

Here is the page I made for my January album - not quite complete yet - I need to find a picture of Matt Smith to put under the photo of DT.

2009 - More or less

Last summer I intended to start a series of monthly albums documenting my the start of my 50s. Unfortunately the fractured elbow rather put paid to crafting so I'm starting again!

The most obvious place to start was with my resolutions. Well, less resolutions but more things to do. I put them in two columns - things to do more of and things to do less of. Hidden behind them is the first picture of me taken this year. A self portrait with no make up - not for public consumption, but just looking at it should help me to do more of the things I should!!

Bound it all!!!

Well, as part of my effort to keep my resolution to be tidier this year, I have spent a happy hour collecting all of my scraps of cards and paper which were lying in heaps and have bound them together with my BIA. 

I've gone from this 

To this!

I now have five booklets of random scraps - couldn't face putting them into colours! - which I'm going to use for cards,  minibooks and smaller scrap pages. I can see what I've got easily without having to rummage and so I might just get to use some of it up!!

Happy New Year!!!

Hello all!!! 

Hope you've all had a great Christmas and New Year.

Sorry I've been away so long. Life got a bit hectic with the fractured elbow, a visit from Ofsted, Christmas stuff at school and life in general. There was either no real time to craft or I was just too tired!!!

So one of my New Year's Resolutions is to craft more and blog more. I'm now off to find some pictures of the little bit of crafting I have done recently and will be back with them later!

Happy 2009!

Love Debbie x