A New Start is on it's way

Hello my fellow scrappers!

It's the last day of 2008... when I was younger I was always busy hosting a New Year's Eve party... usually fancy dress. Not done that for a while. Currently at home, but I am not idle!

I have cleared up my office/craft room in order to start 2009 with a clear desk.

As for Resolutions...? Well the main one is to "Go with the Flow" a little more. How about you? what are you planning to start... stop... improve?

AND.... will you scrap about it? LOL

Christmas brings a new meaning to multi-photo layouts!

Hi there!

Here's a little "heads up" for the January Newsletter!

MULTI-PHOTO Layouts! You just know you are going to have a mountain of photos after family get togethers... and with New Year's Eve on it's way... even more, well maybe for those party goers!

Anyway, in the next Simply Scrapbooking Now.com Newsletter (available early January) there are not one... not two... but SIX sketches for you and all of them multiphoto layouts. So subscribe now if you are not already a subscriber (it's a free online newsletter) and you can be "packing in" those photos to your scrapbooking pages very soon.

Merry Christmas - a different greetings card

Firstly Merry Christmas to all, and for those not of the same calendar... good wishes to you anyway and always. And thank you for stopping by whether a regular visitor or if this is your first time visit!

This is a card (front) I created in Photoshop Elements using the "Enchanted Forest" FREEBIE digital scrapbooking kit from Vicki's Blog (it's a collaboration kit with Sweet Blossom Designs too).

This was my card to my husband and I wanted to create something different from the usual traditional or "funky" Christmas cards that are available. I just didn't like what's on offer in the shops!

So I made this quickly on the computer and adhered it to the front of a tall thin card with a white fibre on the spine and little metal wreath embellishment inside the bottom ring of sparkles.

Another Hybrid creation!

So thanks Vicki and Sara for getting me out of a hole!!!! LOL

Colours - inspiration from everywhere

Look at these photos... aren't they lovely. I think they are beautiful !

They evoke an emotion.. at least they do in me.

I realise that the photographer has "fiddled" with these shots, but still... the one of the boardwalk is fairly true to nature.

Twilight is my very favourite time of day. My hubby reckons Dawn is best, but I'll take his word for it, I am a night person, not a morning person!

Sometimes, on my way home from work (this was before my daughter came along) I would park my car a short way from my house (at the time we lived amongst fields) on a high spot where I could soak up the soft rays of the autumn or spring evening sun. It was a lovely feeling. Sigh.

The pictures here are from the "sunset of the Day" widget on the left hand side of this blog, courtesy of Blogger (scroll down a bit if necessary), so you can all enjoy these lovely photos.

Oh and by the way... it's official, Santa has finally finished wrapping my daughter's presents... wink wink!

Are you Scrapbooking at this time of year?

Hi there!

Well... as the title asks... Are you Scrapbooking at this time of year? Do you have the time? Do you have the Will? LOL!

My time, probably along with thousands of others, has been taken up with shopping, etc for the festive season. Made even more wierd by the fact that I haven't "been shopping" for quite some time actually.

You see I'm not your average woman... I dislike shopping - especially clothes shopping! Shoes I buy when I have to but find it difficult to buy comfortable ones, so mostly go home empty handed. Clothes shopping... I loathe because of all that undressing and dressing again... "boring" as my 5 year old daughter would say! So I find shopping a bit of a chore at the best of times!

And since my daughter has been born (2 weeks before Christmas) I find myself unorganised in general and getting all tetchy and uninterested in it all, and that's not how it should be, is it?

SO... a News Year's Resolution for me (there are many others!!) is to PLAN, plan, plan.

I shall write my "Plan for an Organised Christmas" and you never know if my plan works well next year... I will sell it as an ebook! LOL

I think I shall make a scrapbooking layout about my New Year's Resolutions, and I'll make a FREE overlay for you, or maybe some word art to add to your Layouts if you'd like to join me?!

Freebie Frenzy Winner - and a Ribbon Holder eBook Give Away

Well... Miles (my hubby) has a cold! It's not Man-Flu because he will actually "keep going" (too much sometimes) - he was vacuuming this evening... so I can't complain about that.

He's got a right "streamer" though, and at the moment he is tucked up on the sofa bed in the lounge watching the television... I think it's the Royal Variety Performance on BBC!

Apparently there's nothing else on, he tells me!

Anyway, I only know this because I have just been downstairs to ask him to stick a pin in the Freebie Frenzy piece of paper.

So... the winner of the kit is..... (but also see below)

KIM...! Well done to you... you need to send me your postal address via this email address.

And as a RAK (Random Act of Kindness) the second "pin hole" tells me that I will be sending a copy of my Ebook...

... to Debs, who has a blog "Pink Dandelion".

So let me know what email address you want me to send the book to Debs.

Thank You to all you lovely people who took part in the Freebie this month.

As for the picture above... it was one of the photos I had to "stage manage", but it came out quite well I think!

Freebie Frenzy Time again - Scrapbooking kit up for grabs

Here we are again, middle of the month and so it's Freebie Frenzy time for all you lovely subscribers to the Newsletter.

Just leave a comment on the blog here and by this time tomorrow (8.30pm GMT), you could be a winner of a lovely kit! Doesn't matter where you are in the world... I will post it airmail to anywhere!

The kit and includes:
10 pieces of Dovecraft 8x8 paper (from the Retro Floral collection)
2 pieces of white card
a pre-printed page of quotes and titles and a tag template
6 ribbons approx 12" each
and a pre-printed tag on cardstock.
There are also some (splat type) flowers and colour various co-ordinated brads in the kits too.

If you aren't already signed up for the SimplyScrapbookingNow.com Newsletter you can sign up top left of this blog (just under the header) and then leave your comment. You never know... somebody has to win!

And a RAK will be going to a second winner too, so don't delay. Winners will be announced tomorrow evening.

Good luck.

THIS FREEBIE FRENZY IS NOW CLOSED.

Another event to Scrapbook

Hi there!

Well I am glad that's over...! What am I talking about?

My daughter's 5th birthday party for what turned out to be 16 kids plus a couple of siblings.

Gosh I'm tired, everyone kindly said it was great and the kids enjoyed themselves.

Me... I would call it slightly controlled chaos! I'll be honest and say that at times I felt a little out of my depth... it's over now. Next year... I'll take my daughter and a few friends somewhere and that's it. It's so close to Christmas that December for me, has become stressful.

And I sure don't want to be one of the millions who find this month a stress inducing nightmare!

But, of course, I have some photos... I hope... hubby was in charge of photos and I did have to stage one of daughter blowing her candles out after she had already done it once, but hey... that's showbiz!

I'll be back soon with the SSN.com Freebie Frenzy Alert!

Scrapbooking Thank You Thursday!

I posted an item late last month all about taking the oppotunity to make Thursday and day to say Thank you to and for as much as possible. This is a life improvement thing!

Well here is a page for my Thank You Album.

I found the quote, by Mother Teresa, over on this blog, and thought it so lovely, it inspired me to make a little page for my Thank You Album. (6x6)

Decorations using recycled catalogues or scrapbooking materials

Here is a great "Recycling idea"!

It is Flower Garland idea from a blog called Zakka Life, which has lots of "natty" ideas actually.

This is the link for the tutorial for these flowers.

They are made from the pages of catalogues. You could, however, adapt for scrapbooking paper, as although you need a number, these are just strips of paper.

Also it's a jolly good way to keep the little ones occupied for a while, and with the materials of just an old magazine and some glue.... it's a winner!

Scrapbooking layout using FREEBIE journal block

This is an 8x8 layout I made really quickly as an example of how to use one of my free downloadable Journalling blocks.

I printed this one directly onto some Bazzill Basics cardstock and my journaling AND title are incorporated on it.

Very simple, effective page.

This journal block is one of 3 I have designed and is avaiable for subscribers to my newsletter to download (via an article in the December newsletter).

They are suitable for traditional scrapbooking (just print out and use - technically called hybrid scrapbooking) and for digital scrapbooking.

Sign up to the newsletter via this blog (top left) or via SimplyScrapbookingNow.com.

If you have left your name and email address on the EasyRibbonHolder.com (or .co.uk) websites, then you are already a subscriber!!

Woo hoo - I'm connected again

I'm back online boys and girls... phew, what a lot of catching up I had to do!

So I have nothing Scrapbooking to post here yet... but will be back shortly with some tidbit!

Sunday

Well all Great Plans......

I am currently sitting in a friends shop (luckily a computer shop!) using his internet connection to check the WWW! I have been offline for nearly 48hrs.

It's getting to the cold-turkey stage, I think I'm starting to twitch! LOL

Anyway... this is just a short one to say... I'll be back soon!

Oh... it looks like such fun!

I've been in conversation with a lovely lady over in the US this evening called Terrie... hello Terrie, [waving].

We got to talking about our daughters and I asked for a photo and/or a layout, and she sent me these lovely layouts.



Now you can't tell me that you don't just want to be "in there" getting stuck in with all that FOAM!!

Oh, the freedom of childhood!!! FANTASTIC... it makes me want to get out the shaving foam RIGHT NOW! and oh...... how MY daughter would like to get her hands on that lot!

Thanks Terrie for these lovely layouts, I just luurve the title and your little one is very cute!!

The lady in the picture is Terrie's daughter's Nanny by the way (carer type, not grandmother!LOL)

And what's more... is that these pictures are of pages in an album which Terrie made for the Nanny for her birthday... what a thoughtful gift! I would have loved to have received such a gift when I was a nanny (for a couple of years!).

Great!