The Perfect Gift.

Christmas will soon be upon us and hopefully you are coping with the stressful run up to the big day!

You could always take a break from the lists and shopping to play along with us at The Studio Challenges. We have a challenge all about 'gifts and giving'!

Perhaps a photo from the 2014 Christmas day unwrapping frenzy or maybe there is a plethora of prezzies under the tree already this year! Why not scrap about your love/hate relationship with wrapping! As long as it has a gift/giving theme we would love to see your page linked up to our challenge at The Studio Challenges.

Here is my contribution to the gift challenge and I scrapped about my youngest daughters love of panda related presents and especially last year when we managed to buy her a giant plush panda!

The page was made using The Wish List kit from Like Forever Kit Club.

I found some paper straws in Sainsburys lately and was so pleased when they coordinated perfectly with this kit! Here I have simply trimmed a small amount from three straws and layered them on my page. 

I also remembered that I bought some felt reindeer from the Paperchase sale last Christmas and the white ones are subtle enough for this kits colour theme.

Hope to pop over and see your take on this challenge. All the details and link can be found on the Studio Challenges Blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Shine Bright.

It's sketch reveal day at The Studio Challenges Blog and this time we have a gorgeous sketch for you to play along with.

I just loved not only the simplicity of this sketch but the layers and smattering of the circles.

Here is my take on the sketch and you will have to excuse the photo quality as the UK has been under a permanent grey cloud these past few days.

I have used my Like Forever 'Wish List Kit' which is becoming one of my favourites.

The background is a vellum sheet with glitter stars and I didn't want to cut into it at all and this sketch allowed lots of white space to show it off.

Punched circles and fussy cut poinsettias make up the embellishments clusters in the corners. 

The 'Shine Bright' title was a sticker from last months LFE kit but fitted perfectly with the theme for this page.

The top cluster.

I hope you find the time in this amazingly busy month to play along with us. I look forward to seeing your take on the sketch. For more DT inspiration head on over to The Studio Challenges blog HERE. 

Thanks for stopping by today.

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Will it Burn?

Hello December!

No matter how organised I try to be in November the lead up to Christmas is always frantic and need I say a little stressful! .

In the meantime here is a layout I created last month and haven't had time to share.

We have an open fire and collect wind fall from the wood at the back of our garden. These photo's show hubby and me working together cutting and stacking the branches to take home in our wheel barrow! 

Our family have a fun saying, 'Will It Burn', whenever we see a downed tree, stack of logs or even a skip with wood in it, so I made that the title of my page.

I know it's wintry but any excuse to fussy cut a flower! 

The wood effect paper was just perfect for the theme  and a few punched pieces from the paper stack to make my embellishment cluster.

Hopefully I will be back soon with another layout to share and news on our puppy adoption.

Until then, happy Christmas shopping.

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Go Outside?

The Christmas rush will soon be on us and my craft stash will be packed away to make way for THE TREE! 

Until then I will continue to share pages when I get the chance.

Today's layout was created using one of the Like Forever kits from a couple of month's ago.

The photo is of my eldest daughter with her 'ears on' as I call it when she is plugged into the computer. She always makes funny faces when you disturb her from her game so I decided a photo had to be taken and she didn't disappoint! 

A couple of close-up's of the embellishments clusters.

I love puffy stickers and was so pleased when this kit had a packet in, check out the cute puffy house!

I hope your Christmas plans are going well and I will try and be back soon when I get a spare few minutes!

Thanks for stopping by.

Hugs

Kerry. xx

  

Happy Little Moments.

I have just had a wonderful weekend, meeting up with family at a 70th Birthday party down near Aldershot. Lots of catching up, chatting and laughs with my lovely aunts, uncles and cousins. 

Always good to get together for a celebration of any kind and makes you wonder why we had left it so long!  

Earlier today The Studio Challenges revealed their latest challenge and this time it was a image inspiration chosen by yours truly!

I loved the idea of creating a layout based on this photo that I found in Pinterest. The triangle background is striking and I loved that you can see the word 'Happy' in the mirror.

Here is the layout I created using the image.

My daughter had some tissue paper with red triangles on so I snagged a little piece to layer with my papers.

I made sure the word 'Happy' was in my title and used a frame with 'Little Moments' inside as part of it too.

To incorporate the wood from the image I used some of the wood papers from Maggie Holmes 'Shine' collection.

I do hope you can join in with us at The Studio Challenges this month. 

For more information visit the Studio Challenges blog HERE.

Thanks for stopping by today and have a wonderful week. xx

Night Owls.

I am running a tad late sharing my DT example of The Studio Challenges Autumn Challenge. But I had three similar pages that are to go into my girls albums and I wanted to share them all at once.

The Primary school my girls attended had a photography company with a difference take the official pics one year. As you can see from the photo's they definitely had a way to get the children to smile!

This is the layout I submitted for The Studio Challenges reveal and I used the same paper range for all the pages. As you can see my girls were very happy to have this beautiful owl sitting on their shoulder! 

I had three of the wooden owl embellishments which were the perfect accompaniment to the photo's. 

I hope you can join in this month with us at The Studio Challenges with the Autumn theme.

Check out the blog HERE to see the rest of the DT examples and all the details on how to play along.

As always, thank you for stopping by today.

Hugs

Kerry. xx 

Friendly Challenge - I Remember When...

It's that time of the month where my scrapping bestie Helen and I get together to share chat, soup, cake and our latest challenge.

Last month I challenged us to create a layout with 'I Remember When....' as all or part of our title.

I was experimenting with my layout using a dark patterned paper as opposed to my usual white and I think I like it! Perhaps it's this particular paper or the old photo or the splash of glitter, but whatever it is I will try another dark one and see if I enjoy it as much! (this is me outside my comfort zone!).

Using my September Like Forever Kit (my favourite so far!) I created this layout about my memories from the years when I lived in Cyprus - much like a holiday with some schooling added! I listed my memories and placed them in a pocket (top right of photo) to read them when ever I want to reminisce! 

I absolutely love the Thickers that came with the kit, I love the font, the colour and they glitter of course!

Fussy cut flowers were a must on a layout about me and I also added some other favourites - ink splats, sequins and some die cut foliage.

Inside the ephemera pack was this lovely 'Home Sweet Home' circle that was perfect for my layout about where I used to live and the acetate banner with memories in gold.

We are checking out Helen's take on the challenge now and she also scrapped a photo of herself from when she was quite young. Not about where she lived but on memories of when her little brother was born.

Her wonderful title work was produced on her Cricut and I love the boldness of it, so trendy at the moment.

Helen was recently given a new Tim Holtz die set of scribble shapes and she has used the heart one on her page, layered with doily, her favourite heart die strip and a wooden word. (not forgetting a sprinkling of sequins!). 

Helen has a new set of Brusho's too (wonderful invention!) and had a play with the yellow one on her page. Don't you just love the effect on the background and just to be totally inspirational she fussy cut some of the paper shapes out like little shaped windows!

Now I'm sure you have seen the odd cat layout on my blog!!!!

Our next challenge is to create a layout using some (or all!) of these cute cat wood veneers.

Such a difficult challenge for us both as we only have eleven cats between us!

Thank you for stopping by here today and hope you enjoyed seeing another 'Friendly Challenge'.

I will be back soon with a page for The Studio Challenges new reveal which is tomorrow.

Until then have a great weekend.

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Hello Emma.

Quick post Wednesday.

I am just off to the school run and then to work so I am writing on the run today but wanted to share my latest layout with you.

It was Bradfield Craft Club on Monday and I had a frustrating evening (I think I left my mojo at home!) trying to create with just a few supplies.

But I did have my Acorn Avenue Like Forever Kit with me so at least one page was completed!

I am currently scrapping my older photo's and so this one is of my dear friend Helen (who I do the friendly challenges with) and her first daughter Emma.

As my mojo was MIA I literally cut up a selection of different papers from the kit into various sizes and arranged them until I was happy with how they laid! 

Of course the flower paper needed fussy cutting and added for a feminine touch!

Sequins and butterflies are also a must for a girly page.

The glitter thickers are great for adding a popping title and the sweet little arrow was from the ephemera pack.

Ok, time for me to skedaddle.

Thanks for popping by and have a great and crafty week.

Hugs

Kerry. xx 

Hello Beautiful.

I have been under the weather lately, not ill but definitely feeling down in the dumps.

Maybe it's the onset of winter, with the dark nights, the cold and damp creeping into everyday chores.

Whatever it is it's causing lethargic days and  'just want to curl up in front of the telly' nights which is not like me at all.

So here I am trying to not neglect my blog and share some layouts that I have created with my Like Forever Kits, which I love receiving. There is always mad excitement going on in the LFE Facebook community when we are about to have the postie knocking at the door with our pizza box parcel of paper goodness. We are like kids in a sweet shop, eager to spend our pennies on the new and delicious offerings Nicola has to offer.

Here is a picture of the 'Hello Beautiful' kit that we have just recently received.

So far I have made two layouts with it and hope to cut the paper up some more at tonight's crop.

This is the first layout I made and apart from the doily everything was from the kit.

The photo is a selfie of my youngest daughter who (being a crazy panda lover) has just had me papering one of her bedroom walls with bamboo forest wallpaper! I was a little worried about the bright green taking over the room but I actually quite like it now it's up and she loves it, so all's good in the teenage world (for now anyway!).

The stitched vellum pockets are perfect for filling with sequins and tags and I really enjoyed playing outside my box with this embellishment.

This sweet bow was fussy cut from one of the papers.

The gold letters are just lovely and this huge 'Beautiful' wooden word was so easy to emboss and makes a real statement on my page.

This is the second page from the kit and is totally different from the first.

This photo is of my middle daughter giving me 'the look' for taking her photo!

I started out by cutting some large chevrons using my Silhouette and backing them with some plain blue cardstock and one of the patterned papers.

I tried to re-colour a white doily with mists, it came out a bit darker than I would of liked but hey that's life! I was adding darker elements to the photo and it's surroundings anyway so I went with the flow!

I used one of the stickers from the kit for my title and I just need to find what year the photo was taken and this page will be good to go into her album. 

Thanks for stopping by today and hope the weather is better where you are!

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Friends.

This week at The Studio Challenges we have a Tic Tac Toe challenge.

I personally love this sort of challenge as it's so easy to incorporate into any scrappers style.

Above is the grid showing the options and I'm sure you all know how to play (choose a set of three stash items in a row, column or diagonal).

I went for Gold, Blossom and Stitching.

I did get a tad carried away with the stitching! I had already misted the background with gold mist and hexagon mask but it didn't have the wow factor I was going for, so......out came the needle and thread!

Some more gold with these adorable flip flops!

Now I have a confession to make, I completely forgot about the blossom part of my choice! So caught up in the gold and stitching that by the time I had finished I realised that something was missing. So as the papers I was using had tiny flower prints I fussy cut one out to add into the design.

I realised afterwards that I had also added a couple of the other options in the Tic Tac Toe grid, sequins and die-cut. Just goes to show what a great choice there was for me!!

So the only thing to do now is to invite you to play along with us!

Hop on over to the Studio Challenges blog for more scrappy inspiration and for all the details on how to join in.

Thanks for dropping by. 

Hugs

Kerry. xx

Rainy Day Post.

(image source)

Today is a cold, wet, and windy Wednesday!

Whilst I am here in the dry I thought I would share a couple of layouts with you that I created recently for no reason but for the pleasure of scrapbooking!

I hardly do blog challenges anymore, reserving my time for the ones that 'speak' to me. I have been enjoying my new indulgence - Like Forever Kit Club, although with my determination to sort my albums out, last month's kit lays relatively untouched!

Still, I have a weekend crop to look forward to this weekend, sharing inspiration and CAKE with my dear crafty friends! Hopefully mojo and me will have a wonderful, creative time!

The following pages were both done using the 'Oh So Lovely' Kit of which I have very little left. I think this is my favourite kit to date mostly because it had lots of kitty embellishment!

This first layout was created for a sketch challenge on the LFE Facebook group and features our car Ginger helping me in the garden!

A close up of the banner.

This PL card was not part of the kit but in my attempt to use some of my cards I thought it worked quite well here. The puffy stickers were one of my favourite elements of the kit.

Again this page features today's cutest star asleep in a flower pot (a large flower pot!).

I seem to manage to get so much scrapping done from each kit, I think so far I have made ten layouts from this one and still have more paper left! 

The top cluster close-up.

Loved the felt hearts.

We had a bunch of paper clips in different shapes but this cute house one was my favourite!

I am currently waiting for my grocery delivery which will be here any moment, so I will say goodbye for today and I will be back with a post on Sunday. (if not before!).

Thanks as always for stopping by.

Hugs

Kerry. xx