Kit Killer

That's really not as bad as it may sound. Over on the Studio Calico forum people regularly talk about 'killing kits'. As in - use up as much as humanly possible. I take it to mean use up all the paper/card, as many alphas as possible and preferably all the embellies, but no major worries if not (embellies are always my hoarding weakness, kits encourage me to actually put them on layouts - yay!)

So last night, out of the blue, I had a desire to start killing my kits. Scrapping hits me like that on occasion. (plus, the amount of add-ons and extras I just ordered for Dec. SC kit I think it would be wise to get some old ones out of the way!!)

It was also a good excuse to get some of my photos that are sitting on my desk waiting to be scrapped, scrapped! So here we go -

This used up the bulk of the scraps - lots of layers in there. Also that 12x12 sheet, upside down, as the background. I added thickers that weren't in the kit as the 2 that came with it (the tiny yellow ones here and some glitter MM ones) are lovely but too small for a title - I love my titles nice and chunky! Now, the title of this one ended up getting a song stuck in my head which worked quite nicely for...

This one! One of Marcus Fosters songs from his new album - worked nicely for a couple of photos I took when I went to London in 2008. (seriously need to sort out my photo pile!) The chunk of BG paper in the middle was from the kit, I added the alphas (oh my goodness, why didn't I order 5 of these?! Love them!), & the border sticker and journal spot from another SC kit. See how I mounted the photos? This is in tribute to 2 of my teamies (Debbie and Patty) who were singing the delights of a good mounted photo on a layout on the retreat the other week. I realised I haven't mounted a photo in years, so here we are - just for you 2!xx

And last, but not least, this guy! The last remaining chunk of paper, and a bit more layering with the last scraps. Also used the last Sassa flower embellie from the kit, plus thickers, gems, a brad from a diff kit and the border stickers that were cut down from another kit.

And that's it! 3 layouts, one evening, Metropolitan is killed! All I've got left is some washi tape, some tickets (which would have been used by now but I've lost them!!) and I think there's a star pin out there somewhere too...that would be nice for my DD now I think about it...I'll start the hunt today!

You know, I think I quite liked this approach to scrapping. Now to apply it to the rest of my kits! I wonder how many I can kill before the Dec. kit arrives?...hmm...

TFL!xxx

I think I now know

why I never made Dec. Daily until after the month - I want to finish it now!!

*must learn patience...must learn patience...*

Anyhoo, as I want to use 2 pages per day I was left with a spare front page so I put this together -

I *love* this CP woodgrain. I've ended up with 3 sheets of it thanks to SC & ES but I kind of want to get more...so pretty...

Anyhoo, it's just a simple page with my wish for the season (health, happiness & a little snow please!). I finally managed to use the ttv pic I took of the tree in Jan '09. I love this pic but for some reason I never scrapped it...ah well, worked nicely here so all worked out in the end!

...oh fudge...it was Dec '09...*sigh*...I've already muffed up the 'happy' in my journalling...urgh...

Yeah, ok...super...so, there's my first page! *rolleyes*

Bring on the first

My beautiful kits from Elle's Studio arrived so I was free to make my cover (I knew there were '2011' tags in there that I need to use up this year - of course - so thought I should wait for them. Amazingly it arrived from US a lot quicker than I expected, even more so for this time of year!).

Well, if all else fails, this is the earliest my covers have been completed. Now just to see if the insides get completed before the end of Jan...(yes I know, end of Jan not Dec, but let's be realistic here).

The only thing I wonder is how long will that tag on foam dots last?...Ah well, it won't be a huge repair job for future me.

Should I give a run down of products?

Lily Bee dotted paper,

Elles Studio exclusive kit tag 'Dec 2011' (it had red stars that I covered with kraft ones as they were a bit bright with the rest of the colours),

Echo Park Chipboard Santa, stickers & newspaper print PP,

Crate Paper Stickers.

Studio Calico Mr Huey Mist 'Shine' (this came in the Jack Frost kit and I am *loving* it! It gives a sort of pearly/shimmery effect...so pretty - I predict this will be used on every page!)

Can't wait to start putting this one together! Really hope we have a little snow for at least one day. I think I've been spoiled after last year. Stupid warmest November for years. I keep waiting for this supposed cold snap! Sigh...

Anyhoo - there's the start of my Dec. Daily! Tfl!xxx

WOYWDW

What's on your workdesk weekend edition -

I've been hibernating in the craft room the past few days to keep my mind of other things. First I made this (sorry, last) weeks challenge on UKS - different size pics to normal (I can't remember what I cut them down to!), glitter (on alphas), autumn colours/photo, paint. I think that was it...

Another one done for my Isle of Wight album.

Next up - you may or may not remember me taking part in Ali Edwards 'A week in the life' during the last week of July. I took all the photos, got them developed, sorted them out into PPs (wrmk ones - 6x12 with 8 3x3 squares round the top and bottom) and they've been sitting there ever since. I was looking through my 2011 album and decided they just weren't going to fit - I'm almost out of space and I've still got Nov & Dec to do! So...what to do...then I remembered - back in May I put together an album ready for our holiday in June which we weren't able to go on. I'd made a few pages for each day so I could journal while we were away and add photos when we got back. Holiday was for a week, a week in the life - ah-ha! Don't you just love how these things end up working out?

I *love* how my front page turned out (I'm not being ego filled - it's the font/sc stamps, not what I did!)

I need to find a way to include similar in my Dec. Daily this year.

All the different coloured card 'first' pages also gave me an excuse to use my new rainbow of chalk inks that I picked up from Studio Calico last month. So pretty, and the pale grey stamps really well onto dark card. Just need to add in the journalling and any bits of embellie I can fit in - fun!

After that my brain was too tired to think of the journalling but I wanted to do something more so yesterday afternoon was spent trying to get a handle on what this years Dec. Daily will look like while watching Carry On Sergeant - Phwoar Nora! (you need to have watched it to get that quote...trust me, it's hilarious)

My 'little' collection of Christmas papers/embellies. I've got Elle's studio Christmas and Winter collections winging their way to me so I can't do too much prep without them. I have figured out my size though - finally! After looking through countless DDs I decided to do this years pages at 6x8 - I quite like the idea of having the odd photo as a page and it's also a good size to cut a sheet of 12x12 into without too much waste (I could use the 4x12 strips to decorate other pages).

I'm really looking forward to putting this together.

I'm hoping this year I'l be able to keep up to date day to day (or at least a catch up at the end of the week). The one thing that's missing from my other 2 DDs, thanks to me making them 6 months/almost a year later, is journalling. That's another reason I'm going 6x8, plenty of room for me to ramble on! It's nice making pretty books to look at but without words they're only really worth anything to me as I have the memories, for anyone else they may as well just be looking at a photo album.

I've cut up a few sheets of paper and card but can't do much else now until Dec/Elle's kit arrives so I need to find a new project to occupy my mind for the next...week and a bit...hang on, week and a bit?! What?! Blimey this year's gone faaaaar too quick!

Now I'm off to find some winter/Christmas type low energy activities that I can do this Dec to make my album a bit more interesting to look at lol

xxx

Progress!

They've been chasing each other round every day since the weekend, but the past 2 days they've also curled up on the bed together.

Before Pip would run off (or run Taz off!) if Taz so much as looked on the bed. Now he lets (!) him on the bed with him.

Progress!

xxx

A million photos later...

Actually, I didn't take as many photos as I thought I would. In fact most of the ones I took are in this post...

But where did I go to take these photos? Magpie retreat of course! Woo!

Dad drove me all the way to fellow magpie Stacey's house (and also picked me up in Cambridge on Fri - isn't he wonderful?! His necks hurting him again though - wish I could have found a way to get there without him doing hours of driving :(

On our way! There was fog & mist all the way, but it's so hard to photograph! Loved this bridge - not only was it a lovely brick one (fed up of all the metal all over the place!) someone had added 'Give Peas a Chance' on the side :) Should give my uncle a shout out for lending us his sat nav - fabulous things!

A beautiful vase of irises were waiting on the table - such pretty colours!

Debbie and Patty on a log run on Sat morning - such strength!

The house - it seems to fit autumn so well I can't imagine visiting at another time of year!

The ground was covered in beautiful red leaves - I snapped a shot on my way to photograph a giant mushroom that Vanessa had spotted on our way off to CTM in the morning.

Check this one out! I was about to photo the one I was looking for when I spotted this next to a patch of little mushrooms (that didn't upload...hmm...) Anyway, it was so surreal I had to prod it to make sure it was actually a mushroom. It was. Very cool!

And here's the giant one. When I say giant, I mean tall. Very tall. Tallest mushroom I'd ever seen - about a foot tall? Maybe taller actually...not great with height guesstimations! Bit wary about the fact that all the grassy bits underneath it had turned black...oo err! Didn't prod this one!!

I brought a stack of papers that I didn't ever see myself get round to using to see if any magpies would like them - thankfully they did! They were all perfectly nice, from kits etc...just not my style. Only brought a few back home with me - yay for some space!

Here's Stacey, our baker extraordinaire! She made our birthday cake (4 years old! We'll be off to school next year!) and, quite frankly, the most delicious chocolate brownies ever. Seriously. We took a poll and we all agreed. Yum.

Check out the ahm-be-harnce - woo!

Yum yum yum - our Christmas dinner was delish! Thank you to all the wonderful chefs this weekend, I think I gained a stone in weight lol

Oh, and something very cool - just as we sat down to tuck in the Coca Cola holiday advert played, this being the signal of Christmas starting of course! How cool was that!? Almost as if they knew...

I hope the other photo isn't as blurry as mine!

We did our page kit, secret santa and an advent swap after dinner. Here's Karen & Emma opening theirs.

Before we left on Sunday we checked out our mojo and twitterings layouts - well...most of us...!!!

*finally* managed to herd everyone together to get the group shot!!! (dad was waiting in the fully loaded car at this point!) Then I was off! Sob! Times like this I *really* wish we lived a fraction closer!!

A couple of shots on the way home. Their were some lovely views but dads windows were showing the brunt of 2 days of long driving and weren't that clear to see through - eww! This tunnel was cool - it was actually tunnel shaped!

And we came out the other end to this view - plane trails, blue skies and a very cool bridge.

The final bit before home - the sun was a lovely colour but oh was it blinding!

Today I feel like hell but oh it was worth it! Such a lovely weekend with such lovely people - crossing all my fingers & toes I can find a way to go next year too!

xxx

Such a busy weekend

Warning - photo heavy post!

The past few days have been exhausting but lots of fun!

The little dude was finally allowed out unsupervised - shock! Mum was cowering in the house once she realised he went on the roof (he's basically sniffing out Pips route). Now, you'd think to get off from there he'd jump onto the bin from the lean to roof? Nope. He decided to 'slide' down the fence panel he climbed up. All I can think is he figured if he can spider it upwards, he can spider it downwards. He couldn't. Ouch! Nice little lesson about gravity there!

After all the mushrooms I found in the woods on holiday this was a fun discovery in the back garden!

Here's one of my focal pages for Oct. Doc. 2011. This is a 99% scraplift of Nicole Samuelsgorgeous DT creation for Studio Calico's October kit, Field Guide. 99% only because the photo was too big to put on the tag and I wanted to add some journalling.

Here's the other focal page - enjoying the bonus summer time that appeared at the end of Sept/start of Oct. This was my layout for the UKS weekly challenge too - full points but I can't remember the rules!...90% patterned paper...bling?...umm...ooh, time! That's why my journalling was about bonus summer 'time'! Genius! This also used the SC Oct Kit - the paper was an exclusive Sass/SC combo - yum!

Here's my attempt at fireworks. Sparklers are about as wild as we get in this house. We've had these hanging around for about 4 years so I finally decided to light them and try and get some photos as it wasn't quite as cold as Bonfire Night usually is. (yes, yes, I could have done them in the summer but I forgot - okay!?)

We used up 4 packs and mum and dad stood outside the back door waving them around for me to get photos - don't I have the best mum & dad ever?!

Today was a trip to the RNLI Lifeboat College for a birthday afternoon tea. See those 3 cake stands? There were actually 4 of them! Originally there were going to be 8 of us but 4 cancelled at last minute so birthday girls hubby brought their 2 gorgeous girlies along to help bump numbers and get all this scrummy food eaten up!

In summery -

Best scones ever.

I do *not* like dill.

The raspberry's were the yummiest I've tried all year.

Apparently coffee is an acceptable substitute for a girl who likes the concept of afternoon tea, just not the actual tea part. And yes that girl was me.

Check out this beautiful sunset we were lucky enough to see -

And I came home to the boys having a bit of a...err...disagreement. Taz is starting to stand up for himself (have I mentioned his name on here yet?...) 'you bop me on the nose just because I want play? Well, I'm going to bop you back!' Yeah...not the best plan little dude!

However, all is forgotten when there's a dish of leftover cauliflower cheese sauce on offer...

Cute!

And now? I think I'll get some much needed sleep!xx

plannings

Still trying to decide what to do about this years December Daily. *finally* managed to get last years done last week (here it is before being decorated - yes, yet another episode of Bones on in the background!)

I keep seeing so much inspiration all over the place it's just so overwhelming! Should I pre-make an album or wait until after the month? Should I use book rings or an actual album with page protectors? Either way, what size should I use?! Decisions decisions...

You'll be happy to know I managed to resist the Studio Calico w/Ali Edwards DD kit. So tempting but I have far too many Christmas papers already! If it was just the album and the embellies it may have been a different story...!

I'll leave you with this photo. I got up in the morning, opened my door and discovered these 2 in the hall. They both charged into my room (aka the forbidden zone thanks to my allergies) so I figured I'd snap a photo before getting rid of them (of course!) - it's Taz's eyes that make me laugh

So cute!