Sarah Hurley Challenge winner!

I entered the above LO into the Sarah Hurley November Challenge.

Click on the link for December's challenge

I was incredibly lucky to be one of the lucky winners,

 the prize was my choice of any of Sarah's amazing digi kits 

which she sells through her etsy store.

Living in France, I had to choose this one!

I'ts Crafting Time - DT Sketch Challenge

It’s Crafting Time provided a sketch for my final DT project.

Design Team Sketch.

Materials used:

American Crafts “Sixth Avenue” for the background.

Patterned papers from graphic 45 and Crate Paper.

Snowflake border and heart: Fancy Pants Designs, blue droplets: KaiserCraft, ribbon from stash.

Oh Christmas Tree.

Material used:

Crate Paper Portrait Collection – Something Blue (Red).

Fancy Pants – Tradition stickers from Crafting Time.

Mulberry tissue -  World Market. Cardstock embellishments; ribbons etc. from stash.

Method:

I scrunched up a piece of the tissue paper, smoothed it out a little then spray glued it to the red background paper. 

Spray glued the ribbon & gold net bow before arranging on the page. 

Mounted the close up photo of my 2011 mantelpiece decoration on a piece of green cardstock and placed on the page.

Then added the Oh Christmas Tree, believe, stars & redbird stickers, & cardstock embellies to finish.

A quick and easy page to do.

Santa Claus is coming.......

This was the sketch provided for the SG "Scrap a Sketch" last month.

Since we don't reveal our LO's until the first of the following month I decided to make it a  Christmas themed page.

This one features two of my Santa Clauses which I have collected for many years.

The white one on the left is my Bavarian Santa and probably should be classed as a tree topper, the Santa in the blue costume came home with us after a RV trip around Virginia, USA in 1987.

UKS November Challenge LO's

House Challenge

Week 2
Challenge: use a colour you wouldn't normally choose

Week 3
Loved the browns & sepias so much I used them again
for this LO of nephews Alex & Nicholas

November Tag Swap

The theme for November's tag swap was "washi tape".
I'm not a huge fan of it so, my tags were fairly simple this month.
Stamps, ink, Stickles, game spinners & butterflies all Tim Holtz.

Fireworks over Shelter Cove Marina, HHI.

My example for the UK Scrappers November week 1 challenge that RosieMac and I set this week.
The criteria: use the sketch, 5 letters in the title and fireworks/bling somewhere on the page.

Linking this post to the Sarah Hurley Challenge #74

"Fireworks and Colours!"

Twiddleybitz

A recent Design Team  project for It’s Crafting Time called for me to use this interesting pair of Twiddleybitz Fancy Corners.

I recently changed the header image on my Normandy Life blog to a photograph of our home taken by the Senior Partner using the ipad.

I thought it would make a great subject for a scrapbook LO.

Materials used:

Twiddleybitz Fancy Corners, inked with Adirondack ColorWash -  Lettuce and given a shabby look using Distress Ink - Fired Brick and a dull gold pigment from stash.

Basic Grey “Hello Luscious” background paper & DCWV “Old World” Textured Mat under photo.

The frame and other embellishments & alphas from stash.

Click here to visit the It's Crafting Time blog and here to browse their online store with over 3000 items in stock..

Scrapping again!

We're back from our wonderful vacation in Hilton Head, SC and despite chronic jet lag I have managed to do some scrapping this week.

Halloween 2007 and my Dad's 80th birthday
celebrated here in Normandy.

This Halloween themed LO was my take on October's Scrap-A-Sketch challenge.

2 shots of Harbour Town lighthouse, HHI,
one with sun & one without.
My take on CraftyPrincess's Paige Tooner challenge
 for the CC.

Over at UK Scrappers there's been a cyber crop going on, I only completed one of the challenges but did enjoy the bingo game yesterday afternoon!

The Senior Partner looks pensive on
South Forest Beach.
October week 5 challenge.

Other news.............fellow Glitterbugs teamie Rosie & I will be setting the UKS - November week 1 challenge, I'll post my examples here tomorrow after it's gone live.

Nephews.

In August my sister & her family came over for their annual visit and we had a great time together. Catching up on each others busy lives, visiting the market, playing board games (it rained, a lot!). 
I even had a little one on one time, in the kitchen, with my eldest nephew Alex, who, let me tell you, bakes a mean lemon drizzle cake.
Lots of photo ops for Auntie Margaret.................................
This LO was my take on the UKS September House Challenge.

Alex at breakfast time

A lot of bonding goes on during the week and I made this LO using a photo that I took of Andrew (Dad) & younger son Nicholas as they got re-acquainted with Fleur our 18 month old German Shepherd. I converted the photo to black & white to fit the theme of the first weekly challenge over at UKS.

Andrew, Nick & Fleur

and finally, a special page for their Mum's album - the two of them together, larking around, the best of friends.

Love you guys!

be-witched

The theme for my latest DT project for It's Crafting Time this week is Orange, Yellow & Black so with Halloween just around the corner I chose a witchy theme for this piece.

Materials used.

18x10 cm piece of calico, Adirondack Color Wash – Butterscotch, Ranger Inkssentials black tag (ICT), Prima Flower, scrap of vintage black lace, flying witch image from the Graphics Fairy, buttons, ribbon and quilt batting from stash.

I frayed the calico around the edges then sprayed it with the color wash, glued the tag in place then machine stitched the black lace over the top. Printed the image onto a re-purposed manila envelope and made a “cushion” using a scrap of calico, distressed with Ranger Archival Ink, stuffed with the batting and fancy stitched the edges.

Made a ribbon bow and stuck it and the flower to a corner of the cushion. Wrote “be witched” onto a strip of yellow scrap paper, added the yellow and orange buttons and ribbon.

Click on the button to visit the ICT blog where you will find projects from other
 DT members and a link to the ICT on line store.

 Thanks for looking.

Savor the Sweetness every day

This is the LO that I did for Sarah's Blue LO challenge during the Blue Brads 1st Fun Night last Wednesday.

This week is flying by and so it wasn't until this morning that I had the chance to get to it. Luckily I'd already got the photo's printed, waiting for the right scrapbooking theme to present itself, so, I was good to go.
A few bits and pieces from stash and there it was.
I think this is the quickest page I've ever done, 30 minutes, tops!

Thanks for looking.

Joining Miss Jenny @ off on my tangent

for this weeks Alphabe-Thursday
where the letter S is the Star of the Show

click on the link above to see who else is in class this week.

Blue Brads House - Fun Night.

Last Wednesday evening Sarah & Leanie from the Blue Brads House hosted a Fun Night for us all to enjoy.
Sarah kicked things off with an exciting game of Bingo! Trust me, you had to have been there! At the end there were 4 of us waiting for one word "washi". Sylphraven yelled BINGO first and won the game. The rest of us were just grateful for the chance of a comfort break, IYKWIM!
Once we were all comfortable again, with snacks, wine, tea, someone even brought a jacket potato (!) it was time for Leanie's challenge. Make something BLUE,  right here, right now and get it uploaded tout suite.
Luckily, I was only inches away from my craft table and was able to make a tag in about 5 minutes flat.

Yea! I won!
More challenges from Sarah (blue LO) & Leanie (a niche book, with tutorial) followed, the deadline to have these completed is Wednesday 26th, which is a good thing as by then I was fading fast and pining for my bed.
It really was an excellent social evening, some of us even learned something during the Bingo and we hope to repeat the event every four weeks or so from now on.

I made this tag as a gift for Sarah

If you're a Blue Bradette be sure to check the SG thread so you don't miss the next evening which is provisionally set, I think, for the 10th October.

and this tag as a gift for Leanie 

As a small thank you I made a couple of tags to send to Sarah & Leanie for all the hard work they put into making the first BB fun Night such a great success.
Thanks girls!

Peacemaker

Helen & Nina at It’s Crafting Time recently sent me the Tim Holtz mini compass mask to play with, this is what I did with it!

I spread a thin layer of gesso over the paper, (TH idea-ology Destination range), blotted it with a paper towel to dry then placed the mask randomly on the page misting with Adirondack Color Wash, in Denim, then with Perfect Pearls mist, Perfect Copper. Using a blending tool I added some Distress Ink, Fired Brick.

Then I started layering.
A page torn from a vintage French schoolbook, over that, two photographs of the schooner Peacemaker, which I took when she was docked in Savannah, Georgia, 2010.
Then a variety of embellishments from stash.
To finish the layout I stamped “The Journey awakens the Soul” & flying birds using Archival Ink, Jet Black.

click on the link above to visit the blog

there you will find a link to the online store.

 They stock thousands of wonderful craft supplies, 

including the mini compass mask that I used here.

September Trendy Tags

These are my tags for September's Tag Swap over on UK Scrappers.
Peacock(s) is the theme and I found this wonderful peacock on the Graphic Fairy's blog to download.

The backing paper is Basic Grey, the ribbons, heart & star buttons are from stash & the final touch a Tim Holtz sentiment plaquette attached to the ribbon band across the bottom of the tag.

August Tag Swap - Pink!

Canvas was the theme of the August Tag Swap hosted by Leanie on the UK Scrappers web site 

and I was lucky to receive these three beautiful tags in the swap.

Scrappyyo created this tag using a Stampotique
"Dance Party Break - up" stamp.

RosieMac created this tag to celebrate Sir Chris Hoy's Olympic success

Chris a.k.a scrapnanny
created this beauty.

close up of
"Believe"

Linking this post to Beverly's Pink Saturday blog hop,

@ How Sweet The Sound. 

click on the link below to see who else is in the pink this weekend.

White pumpkin & berry wreath

UKS September week1challenge called for Autumn themed photos & colours and leaves.

The embellishment cluster is made up of a tag from Graphic 45's  Steampunk Debutante collection;

 a bingo sticker from TH idea-ology; 

a small manila tag misted

 with Butterscotch Adirondack Colour Wash,

 stamped with a leaf stamp from PaperArtsy

 and a chipboard & and flowers from K & Company's Wild Saffron range.

bon weekend!

Learn Something New Every Day

This month I've joined Shimelle's annual Learn Something New Every Day class for the first time.

Here are pix of the front cover and inside cover of my 20cm x 20cm album that I decided to use, a little smaller than my normal sized LO's but just as challenging.

It's not too late to join the class, click here for more details.

Inside cover, with hidden journaling tag.

Shimelle provides ideas and prompts to get you thinking and I've been jotting down notes each day, in a small notebook, they will be the inspiration for my daily LO's.