My first award!

I got this wonderfully cheerful Award from Heather - thank you Heather!

I've never had one of these before, but I've seen them. For this one I have to list 10 things that give me pleasure, and then pass the award on to 10 of my blogging friends. Isn't that a nice thing to have to do? Hehee! I'm not including any people in my pleasure list because then nobody will feel left out. I love you all!

• personally giving hand-made gifts
• cooking delicious meals for my DH
• making cards and scrap-book pages obviously!
• Most Haunted
• home-made molasses chocolate chip cookies
• receiving parcels and cards
• surfing on my laptop
• 75% cocoa chocolate
• Top Gear
• a nice glass of red

 And now on to my award winners:

1. Georgina 
2. Kelly 
3. Helen 
4. Fab
5. Becky 
6. Michelle 
7. Audrey
8. Nena
9. Donna 
10. Kimberley

Over to you ladies, to join me in spreading the love and counting all our blessings.

Have a great week!

Circles, circles everywhere!

This week on Scrap Whispers, the challenge is to make a LO with 3 circles on it. I decided to go simple and sparkly with this gorgeous photo of my cousin and her little one. The grey background is actually card-stock which has been stamped with white chalk ink for a subtle, pretty effect. This is so simple that I'm still wondering whether it works!

The card-stock is all from DCWV, and the blue pp is actually from Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses range, although it works really well on this non-Christmassy page too. The flower stamps are from Maya Road, the gems are from Me and My Big Ideas, the pearls are from Queen and Co, and the lettering by Making Memories. I stamped the journalling spot using a Kaisercraft stamp, and subdued the bright white with some pearl alcohol ink.

Congratulations card

One of DH's colleagues just announced his engagement to a lovely girl, both of whom we've known for a while now. I made this card for them, which meets my card target for my no-buy challenge to myself. I just have another 14 LOs to make, then I can go shopping again except for Christmas stuff. Yay!

It also covers several challenges:
ABC Challenge - O = One patterned paper (Bo Bunny hearts)
Colour Create - red, white, chocolate, pink
Cute Card Thursday - metal mania (the brads and the Chinese coins for prosperity and good fortune)
The Pink Elephant - ribbon
Charisma Cardz - this sketch:

It's a bit heavy with all the metal works on it!

It's all scraps as usual but I remember the patterned paper is Bo Bunny. The image is Hugs and Hearts by Rubber Stampede, coloured with Copics, and the sentiment is a rubber stamp I bought at Hobby Craft - there is no label. The Chinese coins I picked up from an antiques shop and the ribbon was in a laboriously assembled little gift pack given to me by A - thank you! The brads were from my stash.

Thanks for looking!

Jet lag

We're back in sunny Singapore from our trip to the land of the Big Freeze (little old England). The jet-lag is still causing problems, especially for DH who had to go into work today, straight into a long day with a late finish. Lying staring into the darkness for hours is so BORING. But we're unpacked, and I'm working my way slowly through the laundry.

Thank you to everyone who we saw, and who put us up, and who gave us presents and bought us meals and generally made a fuss of us! And a different kind of thank you too, to the workman who broke three separate appointments while we spent one day shifting rubbish in the snow, and two more waiting in an unheated house in sub-zero temperatures. Not impressed by that.

We have less than 3 weeks left in Singapore now. Then our possessions will be on the ship to Australia, and we'll be following them. I think I'm finding the catering the hardest of all, because we can't take any food whatsoever with us. I don't want to waste any, so we're using up all the stuff from the backs of cupboards, without any seasoning left to make it tasty. Once it's all gone, we'll have to eat out, but until then my poor DH is having to put up with some interesting flavour combinations.

No crafting this week, although I really must devote some thought to what crafting items I'll be packing in my suitcase to last for the next 8 weeks. I might have to put my no-buy challenge on hold from the beginning of March until our stuff arrives and we have a house to put it in. Of course, this would be an ideal time to be crafting while DH is at work, but I'll have to see how much weight I'm allowed to pack. Paper is heavy stuff. I think I've done well so far though. I have 19/20 cards finished, 11/25 LOs and 6 Christmas cards. Plus a 12-page mini-album which I don't know how to count towards my LO total. And that was just in January. If I do have to cut myself some slack, I won't allow my conscience to shout at me.

OK, on with the laundry. Getting up off my seat will help to keep my eyes open a little longer!

Scrap Whispers Challenge - Scooby Doo

It's challenge time at Scrap Whispers again and #55 is to be inspired by Scooby Doo! What will you do with that?!

Now this one would be perfect if we had kids that went trick-or-treating at Hallowe'en. I can imagine photos of little ghosts and pumpkins being decorated with "Zoinks!" and the Mystery Machine. But we haven't got children and don't do Hallowe'en in the modern tradition so that was out.

However, we have got friends whose children are Scooby Doo fans, and of course who are still closet fans themselves. I mean you can't have grown up in the 70s or 80s and not watched Scooby Doo every Saturday morning! So... birthday card idea for godsons' Dad - perfect.

Inside it says:

I found the image on http://www.edupics.com/ and coloured it with my faithful Copics. The Basic Grey scraps came out of the rubbish bag at our Lavender Crafts crop last year with Kelly and Georgina - remember that girls? LOL I know they'd come in handy! The lettering was cut laboriously with my Silhouette, and coloured around in black. The sentiment inside was computer generated.

I just love it! I've GOT to make some more of these. If our friend is half as pleased with it as I am, I'll be happy.

Scrap Whispers Challenge - Novel Concept

This week's Scrap Whispers challenge #55 is an interesting one: to create a layout based on your favourite kids' book. But what to choose? I had so many favourites!

Does Harry Potter count? It's a children's series but I read them as an adult. Hmm. The Chalet School series and the Little House on the Prairie were probably my most re-read childhood books. Oh and Anne of Avonlea, Haki the Shetland Pony (from book club days at First School) Enid Blyton's St. Clare's and Mallory Towers series, and going back even further was Thomas the Tank Engine.

But the all-time winner had to be Winnie-the-Pooh. I love him as much now as I did when I was little. Mum recorded a tape for me and my brother to play when we were ill, or wanted a bed-time story. I still have that tape, and when I re-read the stories, I can still hear my Mum's voice giggling as she read A.A. Milne's gently humorous turns of phrase. In the Middle School I played the dairy-maid from the poem The King's Breakfast. I didn't have to learn the lines because I knew them already!

I have no photos for this LO. My precious books are in storage and there are no photos of us at that age except holidays and school. It had to be a digital LO based on my memories and E.H. Shepard's immortal pen illustrations. It's completely different from my usual style - and I love it!

I used Adobe Photoshop Elements 6, with a frame from Two Peas' Rhonna Farrer's digital kit.

How would you approach this? Have you got photos from your childhood? Or maybe of your own children enjoying the same classics that you loved? Have fun!

Another commission

We're going back to the UK tomorrow for a couple of weeks, so apart from a couple of scheduled posts, things are going to get a bit quiet around here. "Phew! A bit of blog peace" I hear you thinking ;-)

I'm taking some birthday cards back for my Mum to give to various relatives. That has been a challenge in itself, as I have to consider bright colours (yes) and sharp edges (no) for those whose sight is failing, as well as the tastes and fashions of youngsters and the middle-aged alike - not to mention those awkward men.

I think this is a safe one for my Mum to give to her aunt. It's Whiff of Joy's Shy Willow, coloured with Copics, inked with Artnic green tea, with Prima flowers, American Crafts brads, $2 store ribbon and scraps. I just did this one for this week's Whiff of Joy sketch challenge:

I turned the sketch clockwise to fit my portrait stamp, and simplified it a little.

I absolutely love this flowered paper, and if I could find some more I would buy like a shot. Well I'd get DH to get it for me to use after my no-buy challenge! Incidentally, I'm really cracking on with that. One month into it, and this is card number 19 out of 20! And I've done 10 out of my 25 LOs and number 11 is laid out on the table as I type. February won't be as productive with our fortnight's holiday (translation for the US peeps: that means "two weeks' vacation" ;-) ) but I'll be taking piles of photos for scrapping fodder for when I get back.

Have a wonderful two weeks everyone, and I can't wait to be back with you all again soon!