Oh Holy Night

After walking the dog last night I am seriously considering hibernating for the next couple of months if these FREEZING temperatures persist!  Either that or he's going to have to learn to walk himself.

Thankfully I don't have go to work, which means I don't plan on leaving the house for the next 2 days, so fingers crossed it may have warmed up slightly by the time I next venture out.

Good thing is I get to play.......scrap, blog, etc.

Today I'm finishing up with my second page from a recent Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using the Tinsel & Company collection by Teresa Collins. (You can check out the first here).

I loved using this line and from one that is NOT a Christmas scrapper, that's praise indeed!

Oh Holy Night.

Lots of the usual layers on here starting with a cut background using the Silhouette brand chipboard, and ending with a cute little peek-a-boo folded corner.

I made use of lots of stickers and the lovely brads that come along with this line too.

So there we have the first one into the book for 2015!

Well maybe not quite as technically it's sitting in the store right now but you know what I mean.......still lot's more to go.

I'll be back tomorrow as it's time for a Sketch-y Friday over at Scrapmuch?

See you then,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - Christmas Past.

It's the 15th of the month folks which means it's time for a little Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond our usual boundaries.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Lisa Moen. Lisa is a busy scrapbooker who takes on every creative challenge with gusto; she works layering and clustering beautifully. This month she has a seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" Scrap A Christmas Past.
We all have them- one Christmas that sticks out more in our minds than others. Maybe it was when you were a child or maybe it was more recent. Maybe it was a gift you received that makes it memorable. Maybe a special visitor? Create a page, with or without photos and tell us the story behind that Christmas.."

OK so this challenge was actually a little tricky for me as anyone who knows me is fully aware of the fact that I'm not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Anything with a theme, I tend to steer well clear of and unfortunately this includes festive pages.......I know - what kind of a scrapbooker am I?!

I did create one 'Christmas Day' page quite a number of years back and included 6 years on one page! Lol

So for today's project I had to root back through bunches of old photo's till I found one which triggered a little something in me.

Christmas to me has always been about Family, and although I now live 3000 miles away from the majority of mine, it's the memories of those Christmas lunches shared with parents/Grandparents/siblings that I hold dear and miss so very much.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of one of those family gatherings, but I do have one which kind of changed my Christmas perspective.

One which commemorates the start of our own little family Christmas, marked by the birth of my first born.

Blessed.

I realize it's quite ironic that this photo shows my daughter surrounded by a huge pile of gifts (what can I say.....first Grandchild on both sides = spoilt rotten!) because that's not at all what this page is about.

It's about a new beginning.  New memories.  New/Old traditions, and although I would jump on a plane in a minute to experience one more Family gathering (if only finances would allow Christmas airfares!), I cherish these new family memories which will become our legacy.  They say you don't appreciate the joy of Christmas until you have children and I guess this is true.  I certainly hope I get to experience one of those Christmas lunches where I'm a Grandparent surrounded by those I hold near and dear.

On with the deets.

Papers are from a fabulous new festive DT Kit I was generously gifted by Two Scrapbook Friends......'Tinsel and Company' from Teresa Collins.  This collection is everything I look for in a Christmas collection.......if only I scrapped those kind of pages more often!  It's the perfect mix of 'modern' patterns paired with luxurious 'gold' elements.  I still have one more page to complete for the store, but find myself torn between jumping right in there and not wanting to cut into a sheet of patterned paper - it's so pretty!

Most of the inspiration for this page began with the gorgeous 'wreath' cut file I snagged from the Silhouette store......love it!

Lots of layers too of course but I continued the traditional theme by hanging the ribbon behind.

The title was cut from a sheet of glittered cardstock, again using my Silhouette.

There's an abundance of awesome stickers and brads included in this collection so I made use of most of them by either laying flat or 'popped with foam dots.

I'm not sure if you can tell but there are also wooden stars coloured with gold or silver marker, resting in the background clusters too.

That's about all from me but we encourage you to check out each designer's creation for Inspiration Elevator this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

             Jayne Morgan - that's me!

Wendy Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you again later this week.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Joy

It seems only fitting that I should share a Christmas layout on here today in the midst of our Winter Wonderland out there.

This page is another I seemed to have missed blogging, and was the second I created using my Two Scrapbook Friends DT kit 'Cozy Christmas' by Simple Stories.  You can check out the first here.

I'll confess (as I seem to do regularly on here!) that I'm not a huge fan of this page.  I loved the first one using this collection so I guess I must have used up my quota of creativity by the time I got to this!

I don't hate it exactly........just (definitely!) not my fave.  I think it has something to do with using a large number of photo's on a single page..........I'm a single (or maybe 2) photo gal at heart.

Joy.

Busy huh?

I'm definitely missing my white space......probably another reason I'm not a fan!

I made lots of use of the die cut collection pack included in the line, some are layered and others 'popped' with foam dots........

I do love that kraft washi I've been hoarding in my stash.  It has random phrases printed on there and space to add your own journalling.

I cut a few Polaroid style frames with my Silhouette and used them to highlight a few of the photographs.

Everything sits on a background of stenciled chicken wire pattern, and finished with randomly scattered enamel dots.

Phew, that's about all for that one and as I'm usually a 'NON' Christmas scrapper, I think that should keep me going for a while!

Have a great weekend........keep warm out there and I'll see you on Monday for a fresh bunch of goodness from Inspiration Elevator.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

A Winter's Tale

This is a second and rather late in the day post from me!

If you're looking for this month's Inspiration Elevator challenge.....please scroll down or click here.

Otherwise stick around as I have another layout to share.

The reason for my late appearance is that firstly, I've been meaning to share this page FOREVER, and secondly, I wanted to submit it for the upcoming edition of the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired magazine, and the closing date for that is......well.......today!

Last minute of course - no surprise for me!

Anyhow, let me get on with some details.

This layout happens to be the first page I created using my recent DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends.  This time around I had the pleasure of working with the yummy new Christmas collection from Simple Stories......Cozy Christmas.

I loved the combination of woodgrains, glittery prints and traditional red, green and gold colour schemes throughout.........visions of a log cabin Christmas come to mind.

I had one of my 'struck with inspiration whilst lying in bed moments' for this page which if nothing else, usually means the outcome is interesting!

A Winter's Tale.

I do love how this turned out - pretty close to what I envisioned in my head for a change!

There's obviously lots (and lots!) of torn layers including patterned paper, corrugated paper and zipper trim from Maya Road.

I happened to have a few zipper pulls in my stash, so I added one of those too along with a little faux stitching.

There's 'snow' on there, in the form of Martha Stewart Texture Paste and a Tim Holtz stencil.

Lots of layers were provided by a few patterned papers, enamel dots, and the ecclectic die cut pack you can find with this collection.

As you can see I also trimmed the photo into a 'tag' shape to add a little interest.

Finally, the simple title was cut using my Silhouette and layered with glitter cardstock.

That's about all.......probably one of my faves for this year I think.

If you are local and would like to create your own version of this page, Two Scrapbook Friends are holding a workshop at 6.00pm on Wednesday 3rd December where you can do just that!  You can contact the store for more details or to reserve your spot.

So, onto the second reason for my late post.

As mentioned, I am submitting this page to the Let's Get Sketchy Get Inspired Magazine in the hope that I may get lucky and achieve another publication.

This is an awesome online publication full of lots of inspiration from crafty gals far and wide.  I was totally over the moon when the last edition was released and yours truly found she had made the cover!!

Totally honoured and thrilled to bits!

Anyhow, the next edition will be brimming with seasonal goodies, so my page will be submitted to their 'Mood Board' challenge.

Here is said board:

Fingers crossed but I look forward to the next issue regardless.

OK, I think that's just about covered everything so it's time for PJ's and a little snack for this gal.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #263 - 50 Shades of ?

Good morning.

Here I am bright and early with this weeks challenge over at.........

and NO........we have not altered the tone and theme of our challenges at Little Red Wagon, as my title may suggest!  That's just my feeble attempt at a little witticism whilst presenting a challenge for 'Monochromatic' creations this week.

For anyone who's unsure of exactly what I mean, I'd like you to choose one colour for your project (neutral whites, creams, black etc. are also allowed) then create using a variety of shades in your chosen hue.

Just to be clear.......it is not mandatory to use 50 shades!

For my sample I took the clean and simple route and created a single layer card, although in reality there's cardstock, ribbon, patterned paper, foam dots, and more cardstock so I guess it's not one layer at all!

However I did make a head start on my Christmas cards so this makes me happy.

It's pretty difficult to tell from the photograph but I added a little glitter too, which also makes me happy!

However I'm also a little sad, as this will be my final challenge for Little Red Wagon.

I've thoroughly enjoyed my time serving on the Design Team over the last couple of years, and I have been grateful for the constant source of inspiration shared by my fellow Girlfriends and those who have participated in our challenges.  However life's busy schedule means it's time for me to move on.

I hope you'll be able to join us with this weeks challenge.  Just remember to link up over on the blog and check out what the Girlfriends have been up to this week.

Have a great week, and I'll be back again pretty soon,

Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #247 - Christmas in July

Good morning.

I just headed here to post my creation for Sketchy Friday over at Scrapmuch? and noticed that my post for Little Red Wagon did not go ahead as I had planned this week!

Duh!!

Note to self: make sure you click 'publish' once you've scheduled a post!!

Oh dear.......me late again......what can I say?

So anyways, you will have two posts from me today.

Let's start with a belated one for............

and this week, Jan would like you to get a head start on those Christmas preparations whilst you're enjoying some sunny temperatures, cause it's 'Christmas in July'!

I just couldn't quite bring myself to dig out the red, green and golds while the sun is shining so nicely, so I went with that lesser know Christmas colour combination...........orange, teal and brown!!

Do you think it'll catch on?!!  Lol.

I used an image from Prairie Fairy I found in my stash - coloured up with Copic's probably two years ago and just waiting patiently to make it to a Christmas card.

I used a little Glossy Accents on her specs and Liquid Applique for the fur trim.

You still have time to get a head start on your own Christmas creations, so why not join in the fun and link up over on the blog.

The Girlfriends have some fun inspiration waiting there for you too.

Have a great day but I'll be back shortly with today's second post!

Till then,
Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #217 Christmas.

Hi there, how's it going?

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and Santa was good to you!

Apologies for not being around here much this last week but the crafting cupboard has been closed while I took a few days off.......I say this this, which really means I worked Christmas Eve, had Christmas day with the family and was back in on Boxing Day......the joys of working retail!

In between everything I feel as though I've been baking constantly.......4 dozen Christmas cookies, 3 dozen mince pies, 2 dozen chocolate eclairs, 1 tiramisu, a platter of chocolate dipped strawberries etc.etc. and a partridge in a pear tree!

Of course I feel blessed to have the luxury of enjoying all these things so no complaints here.......just not much time for crafting!  This now means of course that I'm late with this weeks post for..........

Oh well, can't have everything!

It's Rosanne's turn to host this weeks challenge and she'd like to see anything Christmas.

I have a cute little project to share with you today as Santa was really good to me.......I must have been a very good girl this year because my long awaited gift arrived in the mail last week, courtesy of my hubby........my very own Silhouette Cameo!

Anyone that knows me is aware of how much I wanted (needed!) this thing, so it's probably a good form of self preservation on my hubby's part, cause he longer has to hear the pining, whining and general nagging!

Anyhow, at this point I'm not too sure what I'm doing with it but I thought I'd have a little play.......an experiment of sorts for this weeks project, so here goes:

I feel as though I've cheated which of course I have, because other than a little glue and the slightest effort, the machine did most of the work! I also now realize that it's not really Christmassy - more Wintery but......too late!

I added a little vellum behind the windows for effect and a touch of ribbon to the top, so I think it's pretty cute especially if you add a battery tea-light in there (if only I had one!).

That's about all for now, so head on over to the Little Red Wagon blog where you can check out even more Christmassy creations, just in case you haven't seen enough this season(lol).

I'll be back whenever I can steal a few more minutes of time, so till then have a wonderful weekend,
Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #216 - Christmas with Non Traditional Colours.

Good morning.

It's that time of the week again, time for a Little Red Wagon challenge............

and this week Regan would like to see something Christmassy (of course!) but in your 'non traditional' colours, which basically means NO red and green.....got it?

I went with that (un)common Christmas combo......burgundy, blue and a little grey/black in there too!

The Prisma pencils and OCMS came out again for this one, and there's a touch of sparkle on his hat too.

Papers are oldies from my stash......Bo Bunny I believe, and the digi is also an old freebie from Di's Digi Designs.

You know you have some non-traditional Christmassy papers lying around somewhere(for that matter you can use anything!) so why not enter this weeks challenge by linking up over on the blog.

The Girlfriends have some cool and groovy kinda creations for you too.

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you Friday.......the first day of the Christmas break......wish me luck! LOL.

Take care,
Jayne.x.

Songs of Christmas Blog Hop.

Hello and welcome to the Songs of Christmas Blog Hop with Two Scrapbook Friends!

You should have arrived here from the lovely Tracy's blog, who I know had a wonderful project for you to feast your eyes upon.

As I'm sure you're aware by now, our Blog Hop is all about the Songs of Christmas so the inspiration for my project comes from the song "The Twelve Days of Christmas".

Now I'll admit I'm using a loose interpretation of the song, as my creation is more like the '24 days of Christmas', but as there is no festive jingle of that title that I'm aware of, this is close enough!

Yes you may have guessed, my project is an Advent Calendar of sorts........a flip chart countdown to 'the Big Day' if you will!

Here goes:

I was fortunate enough to be re-gifted one of those ornate scrapbook display frames by my girlfriend Carola (she will definitely have something to say if I don't get the obligatory mention in there!), which coincided with me trying to recreate this 'Advent' idea.............a project is born!

A trip into the Two Scrapbook Friends store found me the perfect Christmas papers........Nordic Pines from Bazzill.......non-traditional, a touch of black, a little Kraft........what more could a girl want?

An evening (or two!) of thinking, measuring, re-thinking, re-measuring and more embossing powder than I have used in the last 10 years finally got me to this point.

I liked the idea of a chalkboard background as it is for my kiddo's after all, so I used a white embossing powder to create a chalk-like effect with various glue pens and stamps.

The scrabble letters (never a disappointment!) received a little TLC from various Distress inks and Liquid Applique.

No Christmas project is complete without an appearance from the Jolly Old Elf himself..........

and I used a 'pearl' embossing powder and a steady hand to create the subtle graffiti background.

As far as the 'flip tags' go we started at 24 of course on the 1st of December, are at 19 right now (just in case you weren't aware of that!) and will work our way down to one more day to go.......Christmas Eve!

A little burlap and ribbon finished things nicely and I think that just about covers everything.

Hopefully you've been inspired to run out and create your own Christmas project, or maybe just finish the 101 tasks you have left to do in the remaining 19 days!

Either way, you'll have some wonderful ideas and a few Christmas songs in your head to put a skip in your step.

It's been a pleasure as always, but just a few important tidbits before you leave:

In order to be entered to win the special prize all you have to do is hop from Blog to Blog, and leave a comment on each as you go. Simply check back at the Two Scrapbook Friends blog on December 10th to see if you are the lucky winner!

Here are the featured blogs in our Blog Hop:

Shelby

Joanne

Tracy

             Jayne - that's me!

Darcy

Jodi

Amanda

Christa

Audrey

Janice

Ann

Carolyn

As you can see from the list, your next stop will be with Darcy who I'm sure has a fabulously festive creation in store.

Have fun hopping and I'll be seeing you again soon,

Jayne.x.

Little Red Wagon #214 - Here Comes Santa!

Hi there, it's that time of the week........

Yep, time for another creation to satisfy this weeks challenge and today it's Jan's turn holding the reigns.

We are officially into the festive month of December, so she'd like to see the jolly old elf himself.......Santa!

I've had a busy week so far with the usual Christmas panic that the 1st of December brings. Throw in a sick kid too, and I'm back to the usual scramble to find my creativeness the night before my projects are due!

Never fear, I completed the task (at 12.40am to be precise) and here's the outcome:

Isn't it strange how I like this one better than a fair few I've pondered over for a few hours?  There's a message in there somewhere!

A bit of a mixing pot on here really - cheesecloth, fabric snowflakes, glitter, sequins.  I like to call it the "throw it all on there and hope for the best" approach!

Papers are last years Christmas collection from Authentique, and the vintage Santa digi is a really old freebie I snared once upon a time from Digital Two For Tuesday.

Hop on over to the Little Red Wagon blog and check out what the rest of the Girlfriends have been up to.  You can enter your own creation whilst you're there......no excuses - 'Tis the season and you know you have loads of Christmas creations in the works!

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be seeing you tomorrow......I have a layout in mind!

Enjoy the day,
Jayne.x.

Songs of Christmas Blog Hop

Just stopping by quickly to let you know exciting things will be happening this Friday!

The Designers and Friends at Two Scrapbook Friends will be participating in a Songs of Christmas Blog Hop beginning at 11am on December 6th.

Be inspired by twelve amazing Christmas projects that are based on some of your favourite Christmas songs. You will need to hop from blog to blog, leaving a comment on each in order to qualify to be in a draw for a special prize from Two Scrapbook Friends!

The Hop will remain open from December 6th to December 9th at 11:59 pm (EST), and you can join in at any time. The Winner will be announced on December 10th on the Two Scrapbook Friends' blog.

Watch their blog on Friday, December 6th, so you will know where to begin!

Got it?

See you then,

Jayne.x.