A little sneak for 2012

Where HAS this year gone? It seems to have passed so quickly....absolutely flown by. I wonder what 2012 will hold for us all? Lots of love, laughter and hapiness I hope :)

Just thought I would make my last post of 2011 a little sneak of the next challenge from Scrapology I had an absolute blast creating this layout...just wait til you see the beautiful pages that the DT have designed....gorgeous! We hope you will feel like joining in with us :)

Just a short one tonight ( bet you breathed a sigh of relief lol), so I would just like to leave you with every good wish from me to you for a Happy and Healthy 2012, may it be filled with love and luaghter in large portions for all of us.
See you next year
Warmest wishes
Anita..xxx

And I think to myself.....what a wonderful world.

Hello there....I hope you and your loved ones had a wonderful day yesterday and that it continued on into today :)

I have just a few pics to share with you if you will indulge me...xxxx

Firstly this snap of the candles in our bedroom window ( taken first thing yesterday morning when our girls came charging in, as always, to open their stockings in out room ( well, it's tradition lol). I loved how all the reflections shone out through the double glazing.
One of my favourite gifts were 2 very special charms for on my bracelet. Dale bought me the ' 'LOVE' spin wheel and the 'Soul Mate' cube bead and I am thrilled with them and very touched that he bought thenm for me ( I also had some of my fave perfume and a beautiful figurine....I will share that sometime :) ) I had some really lovely pressies and feel totally spoilt.

Check out this divine, handsome little chap. He is a Charlie Bear and my very Best Friend, Sue, gave him to me. Oh my gosh he IS the softest, most cuddly bear with a gorgeous face and puppy dog eyes......and the best thing is his official name is..........Sprout!!!!
Thank you Sue sooooo much, I will treasure him and look after him well Hun..xxxxx

The girls had lots of lovely presents and were totally spoilt.....but one of Lauren's favourite things ( albeit probably the cheapest too) was a pack of 'rub on' transfer finger moustache's lol...so we had a little photo session.
After the girls had opened and sorted most of their pressies.....they both decided to climb in their sacks instead lol. I made these sacks for them both a few years ( when Chloe was a baby infact) they are all stitched by hand and I used calico and fabric from Debbie Mumm. I am hoping they will last a good few more years.


I hope you have all had a wonderful time too.....and been spoilt. Let me know if you post some pics...I would love to come and have a look.
Right, I need to get to bed....back to getting up for work at 3.30am in the morning ( booooo....hisssss!)
Catch you soon ok
Warmest Wishes
Anita..xxx

Pssssst! Christmas is coming.......

I popped up to one of our local garden centres the other day with the girls.....and look who we bumped in to LOL. We half expected to see a big basket underneath and find they were doing tethered balloon rides....but alas no!


Our Christmas tree is filled to the brim with glass candles and baubles that have been collected, hand made or given as gifts over many years ( I have over 300 on there!) and I thought I would share just a few of them with you(( don't panic, it will only be a few....not the whole lot lol).

Starting off with my gorgeous new Angel who has taken pride of place at the top this year. She was lovingly created and kindly given to me by my lovely and much loved friend Lynn
She is so multi talented and her needlework is just neat and lovely, Lynn made several of these gorgeous Angels and gave to all her cropping friends.
I have had this next dec for several years. My dear, late Little Nanna bought me this one and it looks amazing in the dark. You place a fairy light up underneath the fireplace and it casts a warm glow through the hearth and is truly beautiful. It always fascinated by my girls when they were little and they used to stand gazing at it.
Next comes this lovely Micky Mouse, he came all the way back from Disneyland USA. You pull his string at the bottom and his arms and legs jump about like a jumping jack.

My lovely Mum gave me this gorgeous little crocheted cupcake this year, its really dinky with its pearl sprinkles and fits perfectly on the tree ( I also have some glass cupcakes that I bought last year)

This next dec means a lot to me.....they may only be made from old plastic egg boxes, but they hold wonderful memories of my own childhood Christmases. I made these bells with my Mum when I was nearly 7yrs old ( so yes, they are antique lol) The plastic is soft and very fragile and the glitter is now dull....and the foil *dingers* in the middle have had to be replaced more than once. But I love them and each year they hang very near the top of the tree...at the front :)

And this is my new glass one this year. I just fell in love with him when I met up at Snowhill Garden Centre with another lovely friend Zoe aka Mrs Wonka
He reminded me of old fashioned kitsch style dec and more to the point, he looks like he has a pile of sprouts on his shoulder ( yes, yes, I know its prob just a green scarf....but I like to think he was bringing home the sprouts for Christmas!)

So there were a few of my fave's ( hope your eyes haven't melted into your keyboard with boredom lol)

Yesterday we popped along to a local warehouse shop for a nosey about and whilst there Lauren found this....... lol and so she gave us an impromptu performance.



And then round the corner she found this guy. I wonder what she asked him for?

I would like to wish any of you lovely bloggers out there who may amble along here once in a while a very Merry Christmas and I wish for you a New Year that is filled to the brim with Love, Laughter and happy days....


Warmest Wishes
Anita....xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

A Bo Bunny Birthday.

Earlier on this month it was my best friend's, Sue, birthday. She just LOVES the Gabrielle collection from BoBunny so it was a no- brainer as to what papers I had to use for her card :D



I decided to make and easel card and cut up the sheet called 'Cut-outs'. I then just added Stickles, Liquid Pearls, a punched leaf and a chiffon flower.

We went out and had a lovely lunch at the Yummy Noodle Bar in Eastbourne....delish!
Hope you had a lovely day Hun xxx

Scrapology December Card Challenge

Chrissy from Merly Impresssions is our card sponsor this month.

She has set the challenge to use leaves on our cards...whether it be leaves, leaf shapes or leaf colours ( I just LOVE the colours in the autumn leaves, don't you?)

Here is my card for the DT this month.....I have to say it turned out a bit differently than the one I pictured in my head LOL.



I used 2 different leaf punches to make the wreath and then added some flat backed gems, a Craftwork Cards sentiment and a lovely K&CO brad for the top( because I am rubbish at tying lovely ribbon bows!!)

You have plenty of time to join in with the challenge and we would love to see what you create. Why not pop over to Scrapology and see what super cards the DT have made and have a look at the amazing prize that Chrissy has kindly donated for the lucky winner.

xxxxxxxxxxxxx

The BESTEST Christmas Wreath in the WORLD!!!

Yesterday I spent a couple of fabby hours with this lovely lady here called Zoe, AKA Mrs Wonka.

We met at Snowhill Garden Centre nr Copthorne and spent a nice time drifting in and out of all the sparkly decs and beautiful trees and twinkly lights before popping for tea and cake ( would have been rude not too eh ;) ). Then we popped into the small Hobbycraft for a nosey.
When we left we gave each other our Christmas gifts and Zoe also bestowed me with this!!!!!
Is it not THE most awesome wreath you have ever seen???
Each sprout has been popped into the ring using a cocktails stick ( I feel their pain but I bet you loved stabbing them Zoe didn't you lol)

All those lovely little green orbs of lushness, all nestled together, cuddled up to create a ring of happiness and all finished off with a lovely organza bow....jeeeez that girl knows the way to my heart :).
Just how clever and how thoughtful is she? Thank you Zoe so much, it was fab spending time with you and I just love my wreath Hun :) ( I can imagine how you must have felt with the smell of sprouts on your hands and in your car lol)

So.....what thuper duper extra special and unusual chrimbo dec do you have to share? Leave a link if you have one, I would love to come and see it.

Warmest wishes
Anita..xxx

F is for Filter over at Scrapology

This is my DT layout for December over at Scrapology.
I had great fun creating it and I am really pleased with how the back ground came out, I used white and blue tissue paper that I scrunched into PVA all across the cardstock. When it was dry I dry brushed it with acrylic paint and then rubbed silver acrylic paint across it too. I used my filter to make the punched cirlce. To start with the filter chewed up in the punch, so I popped it between 2 sheets of copy paper and then punched it again....voila! It works perfectly like that and not a chewed up chunk in sight!!!
The flowers are made from long strips of twisted tissue paper too.







For December, Scrapology chose to lift a super layout by Pamela Young.


We were challenged to create a page using 'filters', you can buy filters from Fancy Pants, or create your own with coffee filter paper, tissue or other papers. They can be used as they are, or they can be coloured with mists or paints. They can be pleated, cut, bunched or scrunched. We
Here is the sketch for this month that we followed




Our lovely Jill from Cardinal Colours has donated an Echo Park Merry Christmas Collection Kit with coordinating cardstock.




Here are a couple of close ups of my page for you to see :)


Why not pop over to the Scrapology blog and see what the rest of the DT and this months guest designer have created.....then take part yourself! We would love to see what you create.

Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Would you like a Joanna Sheen Original?

Would you like a Joanna Sheen Original Card?

Joanna kindly sent Scrapolgy the original card she made for our November card challenge, signed.

Would you like the opportunity to win this fabulous card?

We are having a raffle, £2.00 per ticket with all proceeds going to the Ellenor Lions Hospice Charity,
for more information see here.

Please Contact Scrapology using the details in the sidebar for more information and to purchase one (or more) tickets.

Such a lovely prize and a very worth cause so, please, dig deep and have a go.

The raffle will close on the 16th December once the challenge has finished and the winner will be announced on the Scrapology blog.

Good Luck :)

I can see a Rainbow!!!

I am a bit behind with blogging this lol, but a couple of weeks ago Lauren asked if we could make a rainbow cake....normally these are just ones where we make a deep sponge cake and throw in lots of sprinkles so they melt when the cake is cooked and then we also cream up and sprinklise the outside of the cake too......but after having seen some layered rainbow cakes online I thought we would try one like that instead......


well we were REALLY happy with the results! What do you think?

The cake itself stood at just over 6 inches tall in the end lol and had 8 eggs in the mix!

The colours were lovely and vibrant ( I am surprised we were not bouncing off the walls and ceiling lol). After sticking each of the layers together with buttercream I had to try and cover the outside of the cake and then hold it on its side whilst Lauren poured sprinkles all over!!!
Then she piped the top of the cake with swirls and decorated it......

fancy a slice? :)

Sweet Dreams are Made of This!

I have just spent a really lovely evening in the company of my lovely Sister and my eldest Daughter. We went to the cinema and watched this.

There was lots of this


And a fair amount of this


BUT
not nearly enough of this!
( I feel the need to complain!!!)


So I am going to take these lasting thoughts and go to bed and have Sweet Dreams ;)
Nighty Night..xxxxx

Framed as a family.

Something a little different than a layout......this wooden frame is 11" x 9.5" and was already white when I bought it. I used some swirly stamps and black Staz-On to stamp on the Family cut out section, just to try and make it stand out a little more. I took the photo whilst we were on holiday back in August and we were on a river boat trip on the Thames :)


The papers are from My Minds Eye and are from the beautiful Lost and Found 2 collection....absolutely gorgeous and very glittery in real life.


Using some of the paper left overs from the layers I made some spiral roses and then I used some flat backed gems in the corners of the frame and the centres of some of the flowers just to finish them off.


It made a nice change to make something other than a layout.xx

Scrapology November Card Challenge

Over on Scrapology the card challenge for this month has been set by and sponsored by none other than Joanna Sheen. She and her team have challenged us to use an image from the gorgeous House Mouse collection.
Here is my card for the DT.
I decided to make it into a small easel card and added some Stickles, GlitterDust and Glossy Accents along with a sentiment from Craftwork Card.


Just a little close up.....he is such a cutie isn't he...passed out on the buttercream LOL.
Why not pop along to Scrapology and check out the vast gallery of DT creations for this month ( and Joanna's card too!) and also you can find out how to enter the challenge yourself and see what prize is up for grabs from Joanna.

Warmest wishes
Anita..xxxxx

Our Pumpkin Posse "11

Every year we visit the local pumpkin Patch and every year I make a layout of it....so here is my page for this year :)
You know me, I just love to pile on loads and loads of lumps, bumps and sparkles and I couldn't break my habit so I am afraid this one is no exception LOL.

I have ripped, inked, glossed, glittered, beaded and stuck and I am really pleased with the result.
The pumpkin head on the bottom left even lights up and has flashing eyes and mouth LOL, I got him from our lovely Jill at Cardinal Colours and the beautiful irredescant beads came from her too( she has a super selection of beads!) and the copper nailheads too!

Next year's visit to the patch will include one more little one....my Sister is due to have another baby at the end of January, so I wonder if I will have a new neice...or nephew?



now onto things that are not anywhere near as nice or cute as little ones....eeeeek, check out this big old fella who was just outside our back door the other day ***shudders*** he really was huuuuuge ( I could even see the hairs on his legs lol).

YUK!!!!!!! I hope he stays OUT in the garden and doesn't think he can come inside....I shall have a rolled up newspaper waiting for him if he does!


Right, I am off to do some scrapping....hope you are having a fab weekend too..xxxx

You got more rabbit than Sainsbury's!

Well that was the infamous words of Chas and Dave anyway LOL. I have 2 cards to share today ( please excuse the poor pics of them though). I have recently discovered the delights of Warren, a cute little character from Craftwork Cards
and thought I would use him on 2 birthday cards that I had to make over the last couple of weeks. The first one here was made for Linda . We celebrated her birthday at our crop last week as it was the same day ( hope you had a lovely day Linda :) )


This is the second card that I made for my Auntie for her birthday. I have just got some of the Warren christmas images too, so I guess thats what will be appearing on my chrimbo this year....best get cracking on them then lol.

Right, just a quick fly through for me today, but I will be back with a layout tomorrow hopefully.
Wishing you all a wonderful weekend..xxx

November with Scrapology...F is for Fabric Flowers

This month over at Scrapology we have chosen to lift a lovely layout by Hannah Young, please go and enjoy a visit round her blog Handmade Hannah

Here is my contribution to the DT. I used papers from Prima and scrapped the photo of our eldest, taken at an awards night ceremony.

*** I know the layout looks really crooked round the edges.....but its not....honest!! ***



The flowers are made from some satiny type fabric, I sprayed the flowers and the doily with some Cosmic Shimmer spray. I die cut some sprays of leaves and also added some crystals. I also printed out some butterflies, Stickled them and then totally coated with a thick layer of Glossy Accents, which then dried and they look almost ceramic.


I took a 2nd sheet of the same background paper, cut out the little girl and the balloons and then raised them up on foam pads. I added some Stickles, Liquid Pearls and then, when dry, I coated them with Glossy Accents.

This is the sketch that we worked from

And this is the original layout created by Hannah.

If you would like to play along with this challenge then you have until Dec 5th to create and upload, we ask that you create flowers from fabric, lace or ribbon and that you also work from the sketch above please :)
Really hope you are inspired to enter....as always there will be a super prize to be won.
Warmest wishes Anita..xxx

Happy Birthday Mumma!

Although today is Halloween and everyone celebrates that, we have even more of a reason to celebrate! It's my wonderful Mum's Birthday.....and this year is no ordinary birthday, its a big one! Its extra special, just like she is!
So Happy Birthday Mummy, I hope you had a super special day yesterday sharing it with everyone and I hope today is a really lovely one for you too. I am honoured and very lucky to be your Daughter and we all love you so very much....xxxxxx

p.s. please don't beat me too hard for sharing these photos LOL..xxxxx

My Mum, her parents and 5 of her 8 siblings ( she is the little girl on her Daddy's lap)


Here she is with 6 of her brothers and sister's........she is the youngest girl in the middle of the picture ;). Don't they all look so smart in their Sunday best!


Looking cool in her dark shades with one of her older Sister's...I just ADORE the clothes from this time.


With my little sister.....what a little cutie.xx



See! Even I was quite cute....once....a LONG time ago ;) !

Going away for a holiday with 7 of her brothers and sisters and their hubbys and wives.....I don't think the Isle of Wight knew what had hit it LOL.

Having a little cuddle with her first Grandchild. Not only is she the best Mum, but she is the Best Nanna too!.xxx


On Holiday with Nanna and Grandad and visiting the Blue Pool.

All the girls together.....now that looks like a kitchen full of trouble LOL.x

And to finish....my Lovely Mum and Dad.......
Happy Birthday My Lovely, wishing you the best day and looking forward to spending it with you......xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx