WOYWW

I've been wanting to join in with What's on your workdesk?  Wednesday for ages but my desk always looks like a bomb has hit it.  Today, however, I have realised it's never going to be tidy so I might as well bite the bullet and show you what a mess I try to work in.

If you click on the photo you can see more of the desk - there are dog poo bags just above the big black scissors lol!  I didn't put them there, Holly borrowed my gillet and emptied the pockets on to my desk.  There are also some gloves and a used tissue under the bags.  Mmmm....nice :o

I'm in the process of making some robin Christmas tree decorations.  I made loads last year for craft fairs but I was asked for bigger ones so I'm having a trial run.  In the background  to the right are some Christmas cards I need to photograph for the Creative Craft World beat the Christmas rush and in the centre at the back are some iPad covers I have been meaning to upload to my shop.  The box at the left holds some of my most used dies.

Right, I'm going to check and see if anyone else is as untidy as me lol!  If you fancy being nosy, check out the WOYWW link.

Breakfast by request

This week it's my team, the Bijoux Belles turn to set the weekly challenge on UKs and as usual, we honour one of our teamies and this time it was the turn of Chris, who is the newest member of the BBs.

Here is the challenge:

Chris is a keen traveller and we’d like you to use a holiday theme for your page. She is one amazing cook, so please include something food/cooking related. Chris has a January birthday with garnet as her birthstone so please use some bling and/or something red in colour. Finally, Chris says she finds journalling a challenge, so please do a fair amount on your page.

In summary …

For 10 points – a holiday theme - a vacation type holiday or a festive holiday such as Easter, Christmas, etc
For 10 points - something food or cooking related
For 5 points - bling or something red ... or both if you like
For 5 points - lots of journalling (hidden is fine)

This is my page:

On Christmas day, Holly had to work a 7 hour shift starting at 830 a.m.  I realise lots of people have to work over Christmas but it was a first for anyone in our family so I wanted to make a special breakfast for her.  She asked for Christmas morning muffins so I was up at 7, baking:)

I've used snowflakes because our place mats had snowflakes on them and the presents represent the gift on the photo.  Holly wanted us to open one present before she had to leave - we were allowed to chose which parcel she had from under the tree.  I thought it would be nice if she opened her Ugg boots so she could wear them to work!

Beat the Christmas Rush

Today is the launch of a new challenge on Creative Craft World called Beat the Christmas Rush and the idea is to make 5 Christmas cards each month so that by the time we get to December, we all have a nice pile of lovely handmade cards ready and waiting to be written and no last minute panic as normal.  In fact this year, well, no it's last year now, I had to buy some cards as I got caught up in doing craft fairs and everything else to do with Christmas was pushed to one side.  I don't want to be in that situation again because I know that my friends and family who expected handmade cards and got bought ones, were disappointed.

So, on the 25th of each month the CCW design team will post links to a Christmas card.  The target is to have btween 10 and 50 cards stored safely ready for December.

If you want to join in the linky part, just share a Christmas card posted on your blog, mention BtCR  and link to CCW.  Pop around to a few of the other linked blogs and leave a comment saying BtCR sent you and we will feature our favourite cards in next month's post.

If you make it all the way to November 25th, posting every month we will enter your name into a draw for a Christmas surprise and anyone who leaves a comment on my blog every month will also be entered into my own prize draw for a prize.

Happy Christmas!

As I have been making a few simple thank you cards

I thought I'd carry on in a similar vein with some simple Christmas cards.  I've even done the inserts *yawn* and the envelopes *yawn again* to match:)

So, are you going to join in?

One of my favourite Christmas cards I have pinned is this one

 - I love the simplicity of it but it looks so effective.  You can find details of it here.

See you next month hopefully.

Wedding invitations

I've been making Adam and Lucy's wedding invitations on and off for months and now after some help at the weekend from the happy couple they are finally finished and in the post:)

and this is one of ours:-

In case burglar Bill is reading this, I have covered up the address.  Someone with more savvy than me would have been able to blur it out but I wouldn't have a clue how to do that.

I now have to start on the Evening invitations:o

Fun

It's a great weekly challenge by Suzy on Uks:-

I love a sketch as a starting off point for a layout so please use the sketch to inspire you for 5 points. sketch is here

I am well known for sewing on nearly all of my layouts so I would love you to use some sewing on your layout somewhere (either faux or real) for 5 points

I also love making an inky/painty splattery mess in general so please use paints and/or inks on your layout for 10 points

Finally as this week sees the commemoration of the birth of Robert Burns, Scotlands greatest poet I would like you to use a line/quote/title of a poem (this does not necessarily have to be a Burns poem) in your layout for your final 10 points


It was Holly's birthday on Saturday and we went out for a meal to our local Beefeater and then had birthday cake at home.

I didn't use a quote from a poem so I can't claim the points for that:(

I cut a butterfly out of a Coke can because Holly could keep this company going alone by the amount she drinks of the stuff lol!

Creative Craft World mini kit

I was lucky enough to receive one of these kits to play with this month and unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of the contents.  

I decided to make a mini book for Holly as part of her birthday present.  She went to London recently and I was going to save the photos to scrap at my retreat but decided to use them for this book.

It's an accordion book and I used two of the chipboard buttons covered in the papers as a closure for it.

From my stash I added the London buttons, the bull dog clip and some red cardstock to highlight the photos, everything else including the tickets and the twine came in the kit.

I hope Holly likes it:)

Boys will be boys...

but so will a lot of middle aged men:)

My page for the monthly challenge on UKs.  We were just given a simple sketch to use.

Chris was working at a client's house just after Christmas and was given a chain saw so he couldn't wait to put it through its paces.   He'd acquired part of  a tree trunk and wasted no time in cutting it in to "reindeer body" sized pieces ready for making into reindeers to sell at Christmas.

Some close ups

I used some tape measure ribbon to make in to a rosette but you can't really see what it is on here.

Dec 25

I'm slowly getting back into scrapping - it's hard going and my pages aren't turning out quite as I'd like them to but I'll get there in the end I guess.

We've been away for the weekend and came home today because of the weather so as soon as I'd unpacked I got straight down to do the weekly challenge on UKs.  It was very straight forward this week, use a sketch, use new stash and use 5 of something.

I made the (5) fairy lights out of felt, the new stash was some ribbon and pom poms and this was the sketch.

A day out in London

Holly went to London yesterday with some friends and I now have quite a few photos to scrap which I will probably save until the Bijoux Belles annual retreat held in March.  However, I decided I wanted to scrap one of them straight away and this is the result.

I've used the criteria from the weekly challenge on UKs:-  

Use only 1 photo (preferably a large one) - 10 points
Make the most of your scraps - 10 points
Use a meaningful quote - 10 points

Here are some close ups.

I used a London button from my shop

and in this photo some of my felt buttons

For some reason which I can't sort out, the colours appear quite washed out in my LO although they are not in real life.  I tried taking the photo in several different locations but this is about the best I could manage.  Of course if I knew what I was doing with a camera, I might get a better result lol!

New Year scrap map

Well, it's the New Year and a new scrap map from Creative Craft World to kick off the first Saturday in January.

This is what I have done with it:)

The red flower is a Basic Grey furry rub on - what a nightmare to apply lol!  I shan't be using them again in a hurry.

Why don't you pop over to CCW, have a go and maybe you could win a prize.

The View Challenge

My lovely friend Jen has started a new challenge over on Lucky Snapping in 2013.  The basic idea is to take a photo each month of a view that you love and see how it changes over the coming months.

I took a picture yesterday from the door of my craft room but I seem to have lost (ok deleted) that photo so I'll retake it tomorrow.  However, there was an additional prompt today to take a picture from your kitchen window so I have and this is it.

I hope by next month I've tidied all the pots and got rid of the dead plants but I won't make any promises.