UKS Winter Snap challenge

UKS came up with a winter challenge similar to the summer one...I do love a photo challenge

Here it is...

1. a clock at 12

New Year Celebrations

2. green or red or gold

what was left of our poinsettia...we can never keep them alive! 

3. a shop window



Foyles at Waterloo Station

4. winter trees

trees at Angelsey Abbey

5. baking...see Substitution

6. shadows, reflections or a silhouette

hanging wooden sculpture at Anglesey Abbey

7. lights



the bar at Malmaison Manchester

8. chocolate to eat or drink



a treat of choccie, a cuppa and a chick flick at the hotel

9. a bridge

the view of Waterloo Bridge

10. a cone... see substitution

11. the holly and the ivy (one or both)



both together!

12. anything frozen, icy, glistening




glistening grass!

13. lambs, snowdrops or any sign of spring

snowdrops at Anglesey Abbey

14. foot prints, crunching 



my footprints in the snow

15. bedtime



so excited by my huge comfy bed all to myself at the Malmaison!

16. cosy socks or mittens or hats or scarves



trying to stay warm on a snow day!

17. a hand-addressed letter



belated Christmas card from a patient

18. a house number the same as your birthday



number 3!

19. a cobweb...see substitution

20. a street busker, playing

busker at Waterloo station

substitutes
A a favourite from Christmas



Lindt Chocolate...yummy

B film or book



family film night complete with ice cream!

D hands



the helping hands of the bigs with the littles!

Such great fun to join in with this challenge and I even managed to make one layout...

Using five photos from this challenge plus one extra and taking inspiration from a scraplift at Spiegelmom's Scraps and Accent Scrapbooking's blog hop over at Facebook...

UKS summer SNAP challenge

UK Scrappers have been running a fun photo hunt throughout the summer and I have finally got most of the pictures... sorry font size is playing up!

1 clouds
seen from the plane on the way to our holiday

2 a horse drawn vehicle 

trotting along on the road next to us

3 flowers 

bright blooms at the villa, with a sea view

4 a summer job in the garden

BBQ for 12!

5 something typifying your holiday destination

fun at the beach

6 hats

I didn't manage this one so using substitute D

7 ice cream

great 'ice cream factory' that also did crepes

8 kites or balloons

happy 21st!

9 bubbles

21st birthday breakfast with fizz

10 ducks, swans or seabirds

on the cliff top

11 summer sunset

just as we arrived in Portugal

12 eating al fresco

outside in the courtyard

celebrating the 21st

13 somewhere you would only visit when the sun shines

an outdoor pool

14 flags or bunting

Lagos street at night

15 summer shoes

a pile belonging to 12 people!

16 fruit growing, in the garden, on a tree

no idea what these are ?olives?

17 water

taken from in the Atlantic ocean 

  

18 umbrellas

gorgeous beach view

19 glasses

cheers to the birthday girl

20 festival

non holiday pic of Reading Festival

A play

kids in the pool

B favourite colour
cocktail time!

C something that made me smile

my son balanced on top of inflatables

balanced on top of his dad on his inflatable

it then collapsed!

D friends

self timer pic of the holiday group

E just the girls

3 mums in the pool

Thanks UKS for a great challenge, just need to finish off the layouts now!

Scrapping Challenges!

Hiya if anyone is still out there following this neglected blog!

I have had such a fantastic week scrapping...last weekend Shimelle introduced a list of challenges for National Scrapbooking Day and I have been working my way through them.

This weekend I went away for the inaugral Like For Ever Kit Subscribers Retreat...it was amazing!  A wonderful group of talented scrappers in a wonderful venue (the Woodlands at Hothorpe Hall) fab food and lots of scrapping!

So here is what I have been up to....

this is for Shimelle's first challenge where I went monochromatic, used 2 selfies, hearts and old and new stash! I also used this page for the weekly challenge over at UKS

For challenge 2 'something of value' I used a page kit (prepared by Julie as a gift for each of us at the retreat), changed a few things to make it my own and came up with this layout of hubby and I, a relationship and person I truly value.

Shimelle suggested a colour block for her 3rd challenge and this fitted in perfectly with the sketch we were given at the retreat...I opened my gorgeous new Simple Stories Life in Colour bits and pieces... just perfect!

I used this picture of my Dad and I for the older photo challenge. He passed away  18 months ago and it is still difficult to scrap about him, but I loved this simple page and wonderful sentiment cut from a sheet of Simple Stories Heart collection.

The large photo challenge prompted me to use this picture of my son from several years ago taking my the professional photographer at the football tournament. Sadly he has been unable to play any sport due to illness for several years now so I haven't yet journalled on this page as want to talk to him about it.

this page combines the UKS monthly House challenge (a sketch) with a magic theme from LFE (so it had to be Harry Potter!) and Shimelle's frame inspired page.  I used 5 different frames 3 of which I altered to fit the colours/style of page.

I didn't complete a page for the circle challenge sadly, but I did make this page for the colour challenge which I really enjoyed...

My final page used a photograph taken for the UKS snap photography challenge this month (spring flowers) combining it with stash from Shimelle's first collection...I initially thought I didn't have much but managed to find a cut apart double sided sheet, some ephemera, some stickers/alphas and some cork embellishments. So other than the black cardstock I only used Shimelle's first collection and ended up loving the page.

A huge thank you to Shimelle for all the inspiration, UKS for the ongoing community and weekly challenges and of course to everyone at the LFE retreat especially the mega organised and super lovely Nicola xxx

Frosty Festivities Blog Hop 2015

Greetings blog hoppers!

Welcome to the fabulous Frosty Festivities blog hop...Jennifer Grace is giving away a prize pack of a Lawn Fawn stamp set and more (see below) - enter to win by commenting on all the blogs in the Frosty Festivities 2015 hop. The giveaway closes on Sunday the 6th of December at 10pm GMT, and is open internationally.... good luck.

I love Christmas!  I get excited every year and even though the children are now teenagers, we still have an elf, we still have advent calendars and stockings! I love all the colours, the sparkle and fun that the holidays bring....all of which is reflected in the Christmas Scrapbook supplies brought out each year.

Do you document the festive period in a particular way?  Do you take part in December Daily or Journal Your Christmas or just do your own thing? I haven't always managed to finish my journals in the past but I  love looking back at the completed pages. Not all of the Christmas ranges go with my colours or style and some won't even fit in the album as they need to be fairly flat. Making a few of my own embellishments definitely works well.

For the past few years, I have organised a Christmas Embellishment swop with my team on UKS.  This year 7 of us joined in with the remit to give 2 sets of themed embellishments to each person. We sent them out early as one of our members is celebrating Christmas in the USA and is leaving this month. So I have been feeling Christmassy for a couple of weeks now.  Armed with a few ideas from a French Scrapping magazine of Sheena's, some sizzix dies, my imagination and a Christmas film  to watch, I created these...

I chose this colour-way as a couple of people had stated they were using more turquoise and silver colours this year, whereas I am always a traditionalist with my red, green kraft and gold!I wrapped them up with a handmade Christmas card and some chocolate coins and sent them off around the country and these are a selection of the goodies I received (minus the chocolate treat I was sent that got eaten fairly quickly!)...

I feel really lucky to have such creative and generous teamies and these embellishments will go a long way to filling my Christmas album this year

I made a spare set of the 3 pocket page cards with 2 of the metallic tag embellishments, so I will post these off to someone chosen by random. If you would like to receive a set (maybe including some chocolate coins!) please mention it in your comment and I will pick a name at the end of the week.

Here's the Frosty Festivities 2015 blog hop list for you, it's in alphabetical order, 

Jennifer - http://jennifergracecreates.com/

Claire N - http://www.creativemakings.co.uk/

Clare B - http://clarebrowndesign.com/

Daphne - https://dapfniedesign.wordpress.com/

Furrypig - http://chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.co.uk/

Jacky - http://scrappyjackylive.blogspot.co.uk/

Julia - http://juliaheald.blogspot.co.uk/

Katherine - http://fruitofmyscraps.blogspot.co.uk/

Leslie - http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.co.uk/

Mandysea - http://teacupofscrapisms.blogspot.com.au/

Sheena - http://sheenasscrapsandscribbles.blogspot.co.uk/

Jennifer - http://jennifergracecreates.com/

Hope you have enjoyed perusing my blog today, next up is the talented Scrappy Jacky found here If you get lost just head over to Jennifer Grace Creates.....have fun xxx