Family Christmas cards

I promise these will be the last Christmas cards I post for a while...but these are the cards I sent to my family. They're all fairly similar in style but I had a lovely time playing with some of my new 'birthday' tools and dies. These included rounding the corners with my Crop-a-dile Corner Chomper, and making lovely snowflakes with my Martha Stewart deep edge snowflake trim punch. For Jessie's cards I also got to play with my new Letraset Promarkers. These pens are simply fantastic - they create a brilliant finish with no felt-tip lines, and the colours are gorgeous. I never knew colouring could be so much fun!

'Tom'

Supplies: Paper - Papermania 'deck the halls'; Sizzix penguin die; Lettering - sizzix 'rat-a-tat' alphabet; punch - Martha Stewart deep edger snowflake trim

'Hannah'

Supplies: Paper - Papermania 'deck the halls'; Sizzix reindeer die; punch - Martha Stewart deep edger snowflake trim; dymo labeller;

'Jessie'

Supplies: Paper - Bella BLVD; Angel stamp - hero arts; Lettering - Sizzix 'Girl's are weird' alphabet;

'Happy Christmas'

Supplies: Paper - Papermania 'deck the halls'; Stamp - Personal Impressions; Gems greeeting - WHSmith;

Christmas Cards

I know...everyone else posted their Christmas creations ages ago...but I've been busy writing and literally posting my cards amongst other things. So here are a few cards made - some to send but some to sell in aid of our Church's Big Project.

The ones above were made courtesy of a trip to Tesco! Starting with a Papermania card blank, I used Tesco Christmas paper chains to cover a triangle of card...and a Tesco 'table scatter' snowflake as an embellishment. Very quick..and very easy!!!

Below, are a few from a set of photo Christmas cards I made,inspired by Fiona Beckman's card on page 83 of Papercraft Inspirations (Issue 80). Take a few Christmassy photos, one sewing machine and add in some dymo tape....

And talking of magazines...do check out p77 of the latest Scrapbook Magazine (issue 51)!!!

Scrap Canvas @ the Christmas Craft and Crop

At last....here are some photos of the fantastic canvases made at the Christmas Craft and Crop back in November. Sorry its taken so long to post them... but they're worth the wait. I loved how different each one was, even though everyone started with the same sketch and example (see below). Thank you to my Scrap Happy ladies for letting me photograph their work x

by Hazel Tyler

by Val Hadfield

by Suzanne McAllister

by Charm Hobbs

Rocky Road @ the Christmas Craft and Crop

Thanks to everyone who came to the Christmas Craft and Crop on Saturday. We had a fantastic day with some amazing canvases and layouts being created. I'll try and post some images over the next few days.

In the meantime...I thought I'd post my Rocky Road recipe. This is seriously yummy - enjoy!!!!

Rocky Road

175g margarine

2 tablespoons golden syrup

200g plain chocolate

200g milk chocolate

1 pack chocolate digestives

1 pack rich tea biscuits

Handfuls of chopped cherries, maltesers, mini marshmallows

Icing sugar to decorate

Crush biscuits in a plastic bag

Tip into large mixing bowl and add cherries etc

Melt margarine, syrup and chocolate in a saucepan

Pour chocolate mixture into bowl and mix thoroughly to coat everything in chocolate.

Tip into large flat tin and cool in fridge

When set, empty out, cut into pieces and dust with icing sugar

Christmas Canvas

Have a look at this gorgeous canvas made by Clare, a Scrap Happy regular. She has used the same sketch as I did for my 'Hannah' canvas - but with amazingly different results. I love the criss cross stitching  (using Bazzill in stitch'z) and the Sizzix Christmas tree.

Thank you Clare for letting me use it on my blog (and for the company whilst we made our canvases the other morning).

If you'd like to join the 'Scrap Canvas' class at the Christmas Craft and Crop do have a look here and drop me an email .

Scrap Canvas

At last! I've finished this canvas of Hannah when she was 4 days old. This is one of my favourite baby photos ever - I love how tiny she appears on Andy's arm - and I also quickly learnt to love the fact that she was asleep (a bit of a rarity for baby Hannah!). My grand plan is to make one of each of the children to put up in our bedroom - and as this didn't take too long I might even manage it!

'Hannah'

Supplies: paper - Fancy Pants, Creative Memories, The Girls Paperie; ribbon - RexHome; flowers - Prima; buttons - from an old pair of slippers; die-cuts - Sizzix 'tattered florals'; Bazzill in stitch'z;

I painted the canvas with some cheapy twinkly watercolours from the Works - I was going to use acrylics but I rather liked the sparkle from these paints and they seemed less heavy for a baby page. The rest of the layout is based on this sketch, minus the title and journaling:

I used my bazzill in stitch'z templates again to add some detail..and I'm really pleased with the result.

If you would like a chance to make your own canvas there will be a 'Scrap Canvas' class running from as part of the Scrap Happy Christmas Craft and Crop on 27th November. The 2-hour class starts at 11am and you can either come and scrap for the whole day or book for just the Scrap Canvas class. If you would like to know more please check out this page, or drop me an email .

True Stories

I've just signed up for the Shimelle 'True Stories' course :) For those of you who know me, I love the idea of including lots of journaling on my pages (and have a huge collection of journaling stamps to prove it), but don't always manage to actually do it! This is a 3 week course with daily email prompts to help with telling our stories...can't wait! If you fancy having a go, check out Shimelle's blog here .