Christmas mania..!

Finally, and yes I mean finally, Christmas is over. Now I can go back to living a normal existence. I (as I'm sure you all do) spend so much time and effort coming up with the perfect gifts, queue for ages to pay for the smallest things, and most importantly.. try to figure out what the 'in' toy will be so that I can get it early because I KNOW this is what the kids will want.

This year it was the Nintendo DS. Unexpected, but it was the IN toy/gadget. It was pandamonium the week before Christmas. People were trampling all over each other to get one. I, on the other hand, had bought my boys ones in the first week of November. Not because I had a premonition of what was about to happen, but because I had a very unexpected cheque come to me and for a change I put it to good use. Anyone who had the foresight to stock up on them made a killing on ebay. They were selling for well over 1/3 more on ebay than in the stores.... some even made double the price. Another lost opportunity to make my million *sigh*

When you've got a 4yr old Christmas can be tricky. They are just old enough to get the concept of Santa, but still young enough to change their minds on Christmas eve as to what they would like from the big, beardy guy! So to cover all angles we had our 3.9yr old write a letter to Santa both at home and in playschool.. asking for the toy we had already got. Typically, a few days later, it had all changed and it took us another week of ooohing and aaaahing over the original toy to get him to change his mind again .. PHEW! All's well that ends well.

Christmas Day this year was so different to the norm. Every year since we were married we've been to MIL's for Christmas dinner, and before that it was my mom's, SIL's.... but not this year. So this was my first year to have to cook dinner on Christmas Day and I really wanted it to go well. I am happy to report that it DID go very well and I was so happy to spend our first xmas in 18yrs without relatives present. Although I had a full roast turkey and ham dinner to prepare it was a stress free day, and all in all it was a stress free Christmas. (granted, if I see a turkey again in the next 6mths I'll be voilently ill!)

I have done NO crafting since the 10th December! I am having severe withdrawals from my Scrappy Glue and Craft Knife! Once we get New Years out of the way it's back to paper and scissors... just try and stop me!!!!!!

Secret Santa!

I participated in a Secret Santa with some of the wonderful ladies from the Craft Supplies forum and today my package arrived. Oh wow; such wonderful papers, including Basic Grey's Blush, an accordian book kit which I plan to get started tonight, notebook&pencil, alphas and a 7 Gypsies notebook to alter!! !! Here it is...

I have no clue yet as to who my Secret Santa is but if you read this I want to say a huge thank you and I love everything.

School Days Tag Book

This is the tag book I am working on at the moment. I didn't realise when I started it just how many pages (tags) there were so I ran short of embellies. Here is what I've done so far...

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by Mandy

Here are the simple rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

Here are the facts:
1-I am terrified of dogs, heights and anything that flies
2-I love games.. I have the ps1, ps2, psp, gameboy and DS
3-I never eat breakfast
4-I am an aquarius
5- I believe in ghosts, my grandmother used to visit us when we lived in her old house.
6-I have only 1 pair of shoes!!!
7-My favourite (ummm.. brunch I suppose you'd call it..) is white pudding on brown soda bread.

Exploding Pyramid

This is the exploding pyramid I did some months back. I can't remember where I got the instructions for it though :S . I loved doing this, it was interesting to make and so much easier than you'd imagine.

And opened up....

My competition entry... and other ramblings :)

I entered my first online layout competition a couple of months ago, and we got the results last week. I didn't win :( I didn't really expect to though. Here it is.......

It's plain and simple but it met all the requirements. Monochromatic layout with a contrasting embellishment, and something handcut. My swirl was both the contrasting embellie and the handcut item, so maybe that was taking a shortcut?? Anyhoo... this is the layout that won..... (hope the winner won't mind me posting the pic.. )

My personal favourite from the competition has to be......

.... and this was made by a 'cardie'!!!! Oh the shame of it! And I dare to call myself a scrapper?? I fell in love with this layout the minute I saw it, but I don't know why... I just love it!!

*****************

Anyhooo... I have so much I need to do. I have 2 paperbag albums, one tag book, one circle journal and one word book to get done in the next week or so. I have the best part of the word book done, it just needs the finishing touches. I'm quite excited about it as it turned out better than I had hoped!

I am really looking forward to getting into doing the paperbag albums... I am enjoying altered art much more than scrapping lately (I know this is because I need to sort out my pictures though, so I'm putting it off!!!) . I have just about everything I need to complete them thanks to shopping around and various people sending me stuff (much appreciated!!).

I recently made a 'thing'... I have to call it a 'thing' because it is for a very dear person who I know lurks around here! (BIG WAVE TO SHEILA.... HI HUN!!!!) Have you ever noticed that 'things' are hard to do, because you need to take into consideration that what you like is not necesssarily what they like. And your idea of 'cool' may be their idea of 'gawdy' LOL! Well it's done now...still not shipped.. (yikes!) but done!!!

Scrapwest Cyber Crop

Recently Scrapwest arranged a 'cyber crop'. Kits were available to purchase from various online stores and I managed to get 4 of them. Unfortunately .. or is that fortunately?.. I was in the States when the other kits came out, so I missed them! Such is life.......

Anyhoo.. here are some of my efforts for the classes I had the kits

Saturday's Crop!

I had a ball! Great class, great company and great shopping..... AND NO KIDS!! It was a fantastic day all round. And to top it all off I didn't even have to face driving there, thank you Deborah!!! (pssssst... that incident on the way home is all forgotten about.... kinda ;) !)

I made my first waterfall layout, and I tell you, it was a lot easier than it looked. Of course it helped that we had someone telling us how to do everything, but still, it was relatively easy. I am thrilled with the finished product, but need to sort my pics to get one to suit the colours. I WILL get a pic of it up by the end of the week, promise!! :)

After the crop we headed off to Blanchardstown.... 'we' being myself, Deborah, Mandy and Laura!... We browsed around a while, had something to eat and spent some more €€€€ in Inspiring Ideas. It was a blast girls.. thanks!!!

Christmas cards...

Today I got 8 Christmas cards finished. I had 5 of those already started but just couldn't seem to get the time to finish them, so today I decided I HAD to get them done. I'm really pleased with how they turned out too. I can't post a pic of them as they are for a card swap and some of the recipients will be lurking around here to see if they can get a preview!! (I'm on to you girls!!!) The posting date is the 14th November, so now I'm good to go!!

I have 2 other projects that need immediate attention, thanfully I have a crop to go to on Saturday so I will get loads of 'no kids' time to work on them. Assuming I can can keep my mouth closed and eyes down ;) I go to crops with the best of intentions but usually end up standing in a corner somewhere chatting, while drinking yet more coffee.

Right now my house is so quiet, everyone has gone to bed except me. It's so peaceful at this time of night. THIS is why I love to stay up! I could even scrap well into the early hours with no one to disturb me, but I have to be up early tomorrow. So now I am going to clear up my paper/glue mess and then say hello to the inside of my eyelids..... And start all over again tomorrow.

Yesterday's Crop

It was fantastic!! I didn't get a whole lot of work (can you call it WORK really?) done, but I did get a tag book well on it's way. I hope to get it finished soon, so no pics just yet. I met some more of the Craft Supplies ladies, which is always a good thing :) As usual they were a delight to be around and we had a lot of fun.

There were two craft stands there, and yes, I was weak, LOL! Along with all the other stuff, I got the cutest lime green Doodlebug craft knife...

......and here it is!! How cute is this?????!!!

We were treated to some exquisite homebaked goodies.... brownies and a cookie & choc cake! Delicious, but no doubt my hips won't thank me for it!!!

All in all I had a great time, and we hope to have another crop next month. I travel to Dublin, for our usual monthly crop, next week. Can't wait for that.....

First Local Crop!!

I am going to a crop today, in town. This is the first crop held locally and I can't wait! I have so many projects I need to finish but can't decide which ones to bring with me. Maybe I'll do the last of the Scrapwest Cyber Crop classes. I should really be getting ready, I need to be there soon. A whole afternoon without kids is just what I need right now :D

There will be much temptation in the form of the Crafteire and The Scrapbook Store stands!! I can't pass either without fantastic stash calling out to me to bring it home (as if I haven't enough!) Maybe the wallet should stay at home today... or maybe not!!

I get to meet more of the girls from the Craft Supplies site too, which I am quite excited about. It'll be great to put a face to the name, finally! There will be 2 cricuts attending today, with owners of course, so that we.. (we, being the poor souls who don't posses such delightful contraptions) can all sample their delights!

If I do get some work done today I shall post pics as soon as I can. But now I'm going to pack my tote and then I'm off....... catch ya later!

On a Roll!

Once I got my first 12x12 done I was on a roll. After all, I have YEARS of pictures to scrap. With 4 kids I suppose I could scrap forever!Here are just a few of the Princess...

The first one is her 3D scan LO, and was done pretty simply with pink cardstock, ribbon and embellishments.

This one, I loved!! The papers were from a stack a friend sent and they just suited the pics and the theme of the LO. I love how the pictures came out but as you can see her dad is quite shy ;)

This is one of my least favourites. I do like it to a certain extent but I've never been happy with that picture (and it's the only 1 got on Easter Sunday!!). I probably should've manipulated it in Photoshop but was too lazy at the time.

My Firsts!

This is how it all started.... my very first layout. I messed up a little by not knowing my glues, and I left a 'wet' streak on my ribbon but I wanted to leave it exactly as it was. It was my 1st layout.. mistakes and all.

This is the first card I made. I started out a scrapper, and I still am, but I do enjoy card making and altered art. This card I made for my moms birthday, it was a little early as we (me, hubby and kiddos) were flying out to the States on the day of her birthday. Now my mom normally is not impressed by anything, but when she realised I'd made the card she just said 'sure you could do some for us at xmas'.. which I suppose is some sort of compliment.

Welcome to my blog..

I have just started this blog as a place to post my scrapping and card making. I'm relatively new to papercrafting, I've only being doing it for a year or so.

It will take me a little time to sort out and upload my 'creations', (and figure out the workings of this site) so there is not much to look at right now.

Please call back soon though :)