Wednesday 30 November 2011

Two Cards for One Day

Yesterday was a big day in the Griffin household - HUGE in fact.  It was a life changing day, if all went well, for myself and especially for Alex.

In the morning I gave her this card:


and I hoped that in the evening I would be able to give her this card :


which I did!!!  She passed her driving test!  I don't know who was more nervous yesterday, her or me!  She wanted it so badly that she would have been devastated if she had failed, but I was so proud of her, not only was it her first test but she only turned 17 three months ago!

Loving my new Snoopy stamp!!!  I actually bought it some time ago, but had been saving it for this occasion, and I love it!  Had a thing for Snoopy when I was a little girl.

Hopefully back tomorrow with my first day of this years Christmas Journal!

Carole x

Monday 28 November 2011

Christmas Journal 2011

For a little while I wasn't sure if I would attempt another Christmas Journal, as for me, an important part of Christmas is the traditions and doing the same thing each year, even if we do add some new ones!  However, I really do love my finished 2010 journal - each individual page might not be brilliant, but as a whole it is lovely, and I have often flicked through it during 2011.

So, with only a little encouragement (thanks Daphne and Roxy!), I have decided to do it all again this year (must be mad!)  On those busy busy days in December when having that extra thing to do will stress me out, I must remember how lovely it will be at the end ... so please remind me!  I have made my journal slightly smaller this year, and made it portrait instead of landscape, not because it didn't work last year, just to make it slightly different!


So, here it is!  I am using Basic Grey Jovial as the paper collection and have gathered quite a few bits from that collection to add in as I go.  I also plan on using my sewing machine quite a bit, but we will see!  Today (first time crafting for two weeks) I did some more prep, cut more paper into pages and made all of my page/day numbers:


I have kept these deliberately simple and quite small as my journal is small (my pages measure 7 x 5")


So, now that I am all ready to go with my Christmas Journal, I suppose I had better get my finger out and make some Christmas cards and gift tags!

Carole x

Wednesday 23 November 2011

Beach Huts

This was a layout that I made at our second crop, but don't think that I have shared it yet.  I knew from the picture that I wanted to kind of build a beach hut around the photo ... or a row of beach huts!


I had mentioned to Daphne that I was going to be doing a layout featuring beach huts, and so she very kindly brought along to the crop with her, her lovely wave border punch and the strip of beach hut paper behind my beach huts - thanks Daphne!

Despite having to bundle up and scrunch into such a little shed, we had a lot of fun, and it was a lot more memorable than the sunny days that we had also enjoyed that week!

Carole xxx

Thursday 17 November 2011

Just the Two of Us

This layout is a result of trying to be clever and combine both one of my class prompts and a challenge that Katy set us for this week's crop.  The class prompt was to be inspired by patchwork quilts and quilting, and Katy's challenge was just to use just scraps with extra points for using the title "Just the Two of Us".  Here's what I came up with (inspired by a LO I saw on Pinterest) :


I made a little cardboard template at home but cut out all the hexagons and inked all the edges at the crop, whilst having a jolly good laugh!  I must say, this is something different for me, but I'm pleased with how it turned out (and even more pleased that quite by accident, I managed to get some trendy chevrons on my page!!!)

Carole x

Sunday 13 November 2011

Hey Arnold!

Here is another LO that I created as the result of a prompt from my online class (which I am very behind with, but which I will continue with in my own time).  This time, we had to include something that we had downloaded.  Hmmmm.  I don't normally do much downloading, so this was a bit tricky, but I solved it by being inspired by the photo:


I found a little image of the cartoon character "Hey Arnold" and used that, since he is the reason that our Arnold's name is always preceded by the "hey" bit!

I am aware that I am scrapping a lot of pics of my boys at the moment, and there are more to come (!) but they are so photogenic and soooo cute that I just can't help myself!  Sorry!

I have been busy this past week preparing my Christmas Journal!  Yep, I've decided to join in and do it again, and although it can get a little bit stressful in what is already the busiest month of the year, it is such a lovely thing to have at the end and to look back on :)

Carole x

Sunday 6 November 2011

Double Trouble

This layout was the result of a prompt called "rough around the edges" - we had to look at the edges of our papers and use border punches, distress inks, distress tools etc.  I was OK with this one, I don't mind a little bit of ink around my edges, so I just went for it big time (normally I'm much more subtle!)  I sanded some edges (including the photos) and generally just inked it up - I might even have added some splats IF I had the right ink to splat!


I also used papers from three different companies on this LO - normally I like to play safe and stick to paper collections, so I really am trying out new stuff with this class!

Since this LO features my boys, now seems like a good time to update you on their progress.  Last week, they went to the vet for their little boys operations.  This was unfortunately not as straight forward as it might have been, as very sadly, Pickle has been diagnosed with a very defective heart, and has been given a poor prognosis.  Therefore, he can't have an anaesthetic like Arnold can so we didn't know if it would even be possible, but as he had to go for another heart scan anyway, while he was sedated for the scan, they whipped them off.  We are all devastated about his condition as he is such a lovely little chap - they both are, so now that the initial shock and sadness has worn off, we are just committed to loving him as much as we can while we have him, and will try to make his little life as happy as it can be.

Carole x

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Cousins

This layout is the result of another prompt from my on line class, this time to do a layout using dots and stripes.  This is not a combination that I would normally go for, but that is the whole point of the class, to try out new things!


I think I did rather well, incorporating two stripes and two dotty papers!  I am sure that I am learning new stuff just by trying things out (even if sometimes when I read the prompts I think that I don't like the sound of that!)

Carole x