12 days of Christmas ...

I've been playing along with a Christmas layouts class - well I should correct that .... I've been attempting to play along with a Christmas layouts class - unsuccessfully it seems.  Have all good intentions (like always) but just can't seem to eek out sufficient time to get them done.  Not all bad news though I've done four so far so a quarter!! of the 12 layouts - I'll get there in the end and add them here as I go along.


Day 1 - inspiration from Darcy Dowdle

Day 2 - inspiration from May Flaum

Can't show this one atm as it's an inspiration piece for January From Screen 2 Scrap.

Day 3 - inspiration from Karen Grunberg.

Day 4 - inspiration from Tami Morrison

Non Australian Christmas wishes ...

I've done very little non December Daily or Journal Your Christmas scrapbooking this month - in fact I've been a very bad blogger all round.  It will be on my New Year's resolution to do better in 2012.

I have however, put together a layout for ARTastic where this pretty little painting "A blessing of Christmas" by Thomas Kinkade of a wintry snow scene got me to thinking about how irrelevant I find Christmas cards we receive each year with these types of depictions are to us in Australia where our Christmas' are usually hot and summery.

Added criteria was to include a snowman, Christmas tree and the word "Christmas" in the title.

 

Wild weather ...

Baby it's wild outside - we had 125mm of rain in a 24hr period (mostly between 5am and 6.30am) making 12th Dec the wettest December Day for 91 years where I live.  Roads were closed all over - long delays everywhere.

Anyone for using the drive through for a Maccers breakfast?

My hubby drove to work in this ..

10 things ....

My 10 things post this month for Shimelle are links to 10 gorgeous free Christmas scrap goodies ...

1.  Christmas Sayings

2.  Word Art poster

3.  Printable Photo Box

4.  Adorable Sock Snowmen

5.  Holiday Gift Tags

6.  Christmas Card printable

7.  Christmas tags and more

8.  Christmas printable to frame

9.  Christmas Wreath

10.  Can't have 10 Christmas things without including some holiday cheer ...

Christmas crafting with Shimelle ...

Yes it is November - you haven't slept a month and Christmas has snuck up on you unawares.  This sort of freaks me out .. not because it's Christmas craft or it's Shimelle but because it is a "in your face" reminder that Christmas is just around the corner and for us in Australia that means school holidays (OMG!!!) and in my case, 7 weeks of them and the summer heat and flies - no not the flies!


But I digress - Shimelle has put together a series of Christmas challenges for those that follow her AND she's also tied this in nicely with her Pretty Paper Party class I have been attempting to do this past month (BTW this class was brilliant - one of her best - do it if you can).




Card Challenge


Create a project with a circle design in the centre (of a card, a scrapbook page or another crafting project) OR create a project using your supplies in a different-than-expected way.


This is a card I made last weekend at a crop day.  There are circles stamped on the base of the card and the ornament is circular in shape.  I've used small pieces of left over paper and cardstock.

Tags -  Create a holiday gift tag design that’s easy to replicate!


This design is so quick and easy and uses up all those little pieces of scrap.

Cut - Create a project with a design you have cut from patterned paper.

Scrapbooking Wakeup Call


Share a link to a favourite Christmas project you have made – whether it was this year or many years ago (just not something you have made this weekend).


I have two layouts that I very much like - one in paper and one digital but very simple which is my style.


This one uses a photo from Christmas 2001 when my son was 3 and a total live wire.  We had gotten through the two's relatively unscathed only to be greeted with the tumultuous three's in triplicate.  Getting him to sit still for a photo was near impossible on a good day and throw in the excitement of Santa and Christmas and wow - we were in trouble.  This was a rare shot and thereby special.

The next one is a happy photo from Christmas 2009 showing two siblings comfortable in their relationship.  I hope they remain this way for their lifetimes.

A Christmas dilemma ...

It's not often that I am torn but torn I am this year.

Christmas scrapbooking .... yes I know it is ONLY November and here we are talking about ..... not only talking about it but actively participating ...  in it.  Thank you SO much Miss Shimelle and Ali E :)

Last year I started getting my pages ready for December Daily and very nearly completed the prep on them only to decide at the eleventh hour that I really preferred the Journal Your Christmas method of portraying the silly season and went on to do my 2010 album in that vane.  Not that I don't love what Ali does but my family aren't great doers of Christmas stuff and I just worry I won't have enough daily "things" to fill an album - at least I used to worry about that but now I'm convinced that the daily "things" are just as much about Christmas as the Christmassy stuff is!

So this year I find myself with a large box of Christmas scrappy goodness and packets of Christmas scrappy papers - pretty papers you might call them ! - and I'm torn.  Do I use the pages I nearly had ready last year for Ali or do I do a new Journal Your Christmas 2011 album with Shimelle?

The obvious answer is to do them both but my head tells me that could well be a recipe for disaster - doing one major project is hard enough and will  push the boundaries of time and effort at this usually busy time of the year anyway but to attempt two?  I don't know - maybe.  I am toying with using the transparency sheets and then using the digital templates Ali has for this project to create a 6x8 photo montage and then just print these out at a photo lab - a hybrid method might streamline the process, perhaps.

I could then use the cut 6x8 Christmas paper in an album for Shimelle in a more traditional sense ... again perhaps.  What I really need to do is make a decision SOON.

Remembering ...

        11.11.11

At 11 am on 11 November 1918 the guns of the Western Front fell silent after more than four years continuous warfare. The allied armies had driven the German invaders back, having inflicted heavy defeats upon them over the preceding four months. In November the Germans called for an armistice (suspension of fighting) in order to secure a peace settlement. They accepted the allied terms of unconditional surrender.

The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month attained a special significance in the post-war years. The moment when hostilities ceased on the Western Front became universally associated with the remembrance of those who had died in the war. This first modern world conflict had brought about the mobilisation of over 70 million people and left between 9 and 13 million dead, perhaps as many as one-third of them with no known grave. The allied nations chose this day and time for the commemoration of their war dead.


In 1997, Governor-General Sir William Deane issued a proclamation formally declaring 11 November to be Remembrance Day, urging all Australians to observe one minute's silence at 11 am on 11 November each year to remember those who died or suffered for Australia's cause in all wars and armed conflicts.

10 things on the 10th ...

  10 things I have enjoyed in the last 10 days ...

1. Listening to Adele – absolutely love her ...

2. Reading new release books – Kathy Reichs and Matthew Reilly

3. Enjoying scrapbooking on-line classes (Pretty Paper with Shimelle)

4. Going to Open Houses in search of the perfect property ...

5. Making Christmas cards

6. Going to the movies - Midnight in Paris, if you haven't seen it you must, just pure delight.

7. Preparing the pool for summer fun ...

8. Getting the garden in order – weeding and pruning and removing old plants ...

9. Preparing for Journal Your Christmas with Shimelle and December Daily with Ali ...

  10.  Spending time with family ...

Hmmmm ...

Somedays I just feel like this ....

Plover chicks ...

Our local resident Plovers have chicks again this year.  Three this time - we can only hope they manage to get them all to adulthood.  Most years they lose one or two along the way - from dogs and cats and careless drivers.    These little guys are past the tiny baby stage and might have more of a fighting chance.  Mum and Dad are extremely protective of the babies and challenge anyone that comes too close - they call constantly to the chicks to keep them together.

So very cute.

Cleaning ...

This house is the dustiest I have ever lived in - and I've lived in a lot of houses!  I'm not sure if the high raked ceilings are to blame,  the ducted air conditioning, the proximity to the national park or what?

This is what the tops of my kitchen cupboards looked like when Dh and I decided they needed a good clean

EOOOOOW !!!!  How bad is this????  Easy to see where the display item sat eh?

And then 30 minutes and several buckets of clean water later ...

SUCCESS !

Being Guest Designer ...

I'm Guest Designer over on ARTastic for November which is kind of exciting.  


The challenge this month is to use this picture - Bacchus by Caravaggio as inspiration.  The extra criteria is to  use fruit or grapes on your page, a wine glass or bottle and a bow.

As challenges go this one was actually rather difficult as trying to find a photo that would work was enormously frustrating.  I had no wine related embellishments at all in my stash and a quick trip to my LSS held no joy either.  Eventually I decided to go with much of the criteria in the actual photo.

ARTastic for October ...

Over on ARTastic this month we are finding inspiration from this rather different painting - Dr Jekyll's Hideaway by Maryanne Jacobsen. 

The added criteria for October is to add a house, trees and have an overall spooky feel to your page.

I must admit this one really had me thinking.  My kids have never done Halloween and the few dress up spooky pictures I have taken over the years have long since been scrapped.  Hmmm what to do??  Then I remembered a visit to my MIL last year where I dragged her around an historic graveyard in Windsor in search of the final resting places of a number of  distant "first fleet" relatives - could there be a suitable photo in this lot?  And luckily there was.

I've kept this layout reasonable plain and quite dark to add to the spooky feel and included a hand drawn and cut out tree and suitable spooky house.

A little something ...

Having trouble uploading my last two layouts to Peta's challenge so need to host them somewhere fast.  These are for the 26th and the 29th.

LSNE - 30th September

The back of the carpark across the road from where my daughter works part-time has a resident population of wild ducks.  I caught them napping when I dropped her off tonight ....

Being Sassy in September ...

I've been doing pages based on sketches from Sassy Little Sketches this month via Peta's September competition on Scrapbooking From Scratch.  

Sketch 1

I've been redoing a few pages from my now 18 year old daughter's album - not the whole album just some layouts/photos I really didn't like and were done when I first started scrapbooking.  These photos were one set from that small pile -  I'm much happier this time around!

Sketch 2

I used this sketch for a fun layout on my son and his rather obsessive attachment to his computer.

Sketch 3

This sketch really appealed to my simple style and I'm pleased with how my layout came out.

Sketch 4

Really like  this page  - I'm using a one off pic from Christmas a number of years I hadn't scrapped before. Love that it captured a quiet moment on Christmas Day.