Happy New Year!

Hi guys,

Hope 2010 is a fabby year for you all, got to be better than 2009 anyway!

So much scrapping!

It seems like I've been thinking about scrapping constantly for most of this month! Not that I'm complaining, lol.

First there was the quarterly sale at Designer Digitals, I love the all-day chat they have on the Saturday, so many fun challenges.

One of the highlights is the 30-minute masterpiece, where we're given 30 minutes to complete a LO. There are some rules, and a few freebies to help. This time there were more rules than usual, but that just added to the fun! We had to create a balanced page, use 3 rectangles, 2 squares, fully justified text, and 2 fasteners on the page. It also had to include a photo taken in October. Here's mine, using a photo I took of Amy at Dean Castle country park recently, all products from Designer Digitals.

The other fascinating chat was with Katie Pertiet, all about blending. I love blending modes, they're among my favourite tools in digi scrapping. Katie talked us through creating a LO using blending modes, not an easy task in a chatroom with close to 300 people! Here's my LO for the challenge, loved the effect, and will definitely be trying it again sometime. Again all supplies are from DD.

Then last weekend was the Wicked Cybercrop on UKScrappers - a full weekend of challenges and classes. For some reason I didn't feel as involved in this cybercrop as I did in previous ones, I hope it was just because I was so busy. The classes certainly looked gorgeous! I did manage a couple of the challenges, even completing one with paper supplies!

This first LO used a sketch, and supplies from Designer Digitals, Kaisercraft and Sweet Shoppe Designs. The second LO was completed for a challenge which required us to create a LO with no photos! This was done about midnight, so I kept it fairly simple.

Besides all these fun events, of course, I've been creating LOs using Kaisercraft digi products. I can't put up many of those yet (a whole new experience for me, ooh, a bit of mystery!), but I can show you one.

I used the Hideaway collection for the first LO, and was so proud to see it on the Kaisercraft blog! I'm so enjoying creating with these collections. They're so different to other digi stuff I use. I think it's because Kaisercraft are a paper company originally, so they feel much more like a paper collection recreated for digi. This is fun, as it means I get to play with the rhinestones and pearls that first drew me to Kaisercraft in the first place!

So, now that I've completed such a long post (at least it had pretty piccies), I must make a mental note to myself - don't..leave..it..so..long..between..posts! Must try harder lol.

Kaisercraft Digi Creative Team

I'm on it. Woohoo! That is all.

Well, of course, that's not all! I'm super excited! Running round the room excited! It's my first time on a creative team, and what lovely talented ladies are on it with me. I was so excited when I got the e-mail to tell me, and we've all been chatting and creating for about a week now, but I'm such a fretter that I didn't mention it till now.

I always loved Kaisercraft's rhinestones and pearls, can't beat a bit of bling! I do miss that sometimes in my digi scrapping, there are products that mimic bling, but it's not the same.

So when I saw the call for the CT, I thought I'd have a go. I've been digiscrapping almost a year now, and felt ready to take the next challenge!

Here's the LO I created using the free Tag This along with a couple of elements from Designer Digitals.

I've been paper scrapping for 2 1/2 years, but I never felt particularly adventurous with it. I liked my pages, but I didn't tend to try exciting new techniques.

It's different with digi, I love trying out new things! I can't exactly say I've found my style yet, can many people? All I can say is that I'm having fun lol. I tend to veer between pages that look like paper ones, and pages that could only be digi. I'm in love with brushes and masks. I love being able to flip a brush, and so find it frustrating when I go back to my stamps and find a flourish reversed from the way I'd like it for my page.

I love the versatility of digi. The way elements can be resized, recoloured, flipped and blended to match to any page. I love that once I've bought a kit the papers are there to stay. No 'saving the best papers for something special'. No faffing over that first cut into a precious piece of patterned paper. With the undo button that's never a problem.

So, I guess I love my digi scrapping. And you know the strangest thing? i always swore I'd never try it. I'd seen too many pages with oversize text floating, or fake-looking ribbons. I just couldn't see the point of using pretend ribbon when I had 10 jars of real ones.

That all changed when I took the Stories in Hand class at Jessica Sprague's site. The whole class was fantastic (and p.s. there's a new free class starting tomorrow if anyone's looking for another challenge), and the last task asked us to create a LO using a template. She provided a video tutorial to talk us through it. I was honestly hooked from that moment!

I love how many friends I've made over the last year, and indeed through scrapping in general. It truly is a wonderful, friendly and welcoming community!

What accompanies your scrapping?

I've always been easily bored, so I like scrapping as a means of multi-tasking my evenings. I can scrap AND watch the telly, I can scrap AND listen to music, I can scrap AND play on the web...oh ok, that last one doesn't really work. As I've said before, I'm also easily distracted.

If I had to choose, I'd listen to music every time. I could have the radio on 24/7, and did for several months after Amy was born. It was great during those night time feeds, to hear the radio presenter and know I wasn't the only person awake at some ungodly hour.

We still leave the radio on in Amy's room overnight, and I know I always liked to go to sleep with it on too. Though I'm starting to wonder if she's overdosed on it as she goes around singing 'B..B..C..Radio 2'.

At the moment, I'm also liking some albums while I scrap, my favourites just now are

1. Abbey Road by the Beatles

2. Gorillaz by Gorillaz,

3.Echoes, silence, patience and grace by the Foo Fighters,

4. Parachutes by Coldplay

5. The best of The Eagles.

So, what does everyone like to do while they scrap? Silence or music, telly or not?

Hot tamale, hot tamale, hot tamale hot hot...

So I spend a lot of time on t'internet. I've already mentioned Facebook a couple of times, I chat on a few forums, and I like using Flickr for my photos.

However, there is one site I go to for pure fun, Weebl's stuff. I first discovered it while I was a PhD student, so of course had plenty of time on my hands. We all become obsessed with it, and it's good to see it's still around, with new, funny videos/tunes.

I'll just include a few of my favourites here. There are loads on the site, though I'll warn you that they may not all be child-friendly. The ones I've listed are, Amy loves them.

Badgers, badgers, badgers - the original and still one of the best, also has a footy variation, and a version using the plush soft toys they now sell from the site. I got one for my sister recently - it's so soft!

Magical Trevor - another of the ones I remember from that time, a cute little tune about a magician.

Tamale - one of my new favourites after we found it a few weeks ago.

You may be singing the tunes for days, or curse me for sending you there, either way it is just a fun site I like to pop onto occasionally.

In praise of mantelpieces

We're thinking of moving house soon, so of course I've been noticing all the things I love about our current home. It's certainly a quirky house, with alcoves, and sloping ceilings etc.

One of my favourite pieces is the large chunky mantelpiece. It's so useful as a surface, and I love to take photos of it through the year.

Today it's got a thank-you card for Amy from one of her friends for going to their birthday party. There's also a printed out digi LO, some Transformers (a story in themselves), as well as a couple of photos of us. Just beside the train is a Drumstick lipbalm, which does taste a bit like the lolly, but is actually really sticky.

I really think a mantelpiece would be on my list of must-haves for our next house, I love how it can be dressed up for any occasion.

Christmas

birthdays

everyday - see those Transformers again?

I know I missed yesterday's prompt, was busy having fun at my crop. I do have an idea for it, but will save it for a day when the prompt doesn't grab me, I liked today's:)

The world is wonderful

Hiya,

Well, hmm, I said in Monday's post that my intention was to keep up with the prompts everyday.

Then yesterday I just had this thought that I've been spending way too much time on the computer. I can waste hours just flicking between forums, Facebook and blogs. There may not even be anything happening on any of them, but the whole internet is just so tempting, so alluring, so addictive! And I know I'm not alone in this addiction, all you fellow addicts know who you are:).

So last night, I had a quick check of FB before taking my daughter to settle her into bed, then I went to my bed too. At 8pm. I read for a bit, but was asleep by 10. It was fabulous!! This morning I even managed to make it till 9 before I was drawn into switching on the laptop.

That does mean though that I missed out yesterday's prompt, it's an interesting one, but I think I'll leave it for another day when I can devote more time to it.

Today's prompt is to list a few of our favourite things, or things that inspire us. I have had a wonderful day, so I'll include a few of the things that made it great.

First, Starbucks have their Christmas coffees out again. I had a yummy Toffee Nut Latte this morning, and the guy even gave me a voucher so I'll get my next one free:D.

Second, I LOVE H&M clothes, especially their children's section. Amy's grown so much in the last while, so we had a clothes shopping trip. I honestly think I could just about buy up their entire stock, but I limited myself to 4 pairs of trousers, a sparkly dress and a Hello Kitty pinafore. Wish I found clothes shopping for me that enjoyable.

Third, bumping into old friends. I saw a girl today I hadn't seen for a few years. It's cool, we lived across the close from each other when we were babies, then didn't see each other till we met again at Uni. And just last week she'd come up as a friend suggestion on Facebook, so as I can't think of a random photo for 'bumping into old friends', I'll promote FB instead.

Fourth, I have to promote one of my favourite blogs Cake Wrecks. It can be hilariously funny, with photos of professional cakes gone wrong. Have a look at the fan favourites down the side.

Fifth, I'm so looking forward to Christmas, for some reason I'm just really excited about it this year. Today I couldn't resist buying Amy this little set from Early Learning Centre. It was reduced, which was even better!

So that's my list for today, could be different tomorrow, who knows?