Christmas Album Cover...

After the weekend of Christmas album pages, it was time to sort my cover. Or rather the photo that was on the cover...

I wanted something quite simple as the cover is already quite decorated with the pre-printed design.

After a hunt in my Christmas stash I found this sticker, which was a perfect fit for the cut-out in the album, spelling "Christmas":

I also wanted the year on there... and not much more really. But Christmas NEEDS some glitter so I outlined it all with Stickles glitter glue:

After inserting it into the window of the album, here's what the final result looks like:

...and I'm ready for December 1st :)

Christmas Album Time...

Yay! It's that time of the year again. Time for my Christmas album. I don't know how many years I have done this for now, but I love it :)

Most years I make my albums completely from scratch (covers and all). But November has been SO busy for me (way too busy actually!) that I just really had to think of some time saving ways... And I remembered the Christmas album by Making Memories that I bought last Christmas...

I would have loved making my own covers. But this year it just wasn't to be. As hard as it was to admit LOL! So enter this album:

It comes with a plastic protection and looks like this once it's removed:

Another bonus is that is has lots of funky pages inside already... :)

Printed transparencies, felt, cardstock, patterned papers and scalloped edges. All different pages. Just how I LOVE my Christmas album to be like :)

It came with 10 sheets so a total of 20 pages. I make my album from the 1st to the 31st of December so I needed some more. I got patterned papers and punches out and added some more pages:

All different sizes. Just how I have learnt that I prefer to have my album like :)

I have not added any dates yet as I like it flexible. This means that I can move the pages if I eg have a day when I want lots of photos featured I can make sure I use a larger page etc.

Now all that remains is to sort the cover. Fortunately it's quite nicely printed already. But I can't (see the first photo in this post) have a picture of a random family on the front LOL! So time to do something about that another day...

Are you going an album too? I'd love to hear about it :)

What Am I Doing...?

Christmas music is playing and I'm working on something... but what am I doing? Any guesses...?


More info at the weekend... :)

Getting More Copics *yay*...

First of all: Alexis (hoping you'll see this!) you asked me a question on an older blog post but never left your e-mail address, so I can't get back to you. If you see this and can post your e-mail in the comments below I'll send you the info you needed :)

Secondly: I'm really excited as I'm going to get some more Copic Sketch markers. I don't buy them very often due to the price but I got some money for Copics yesterday (it was my birthday) so I'm going to sit down in a little bit and work out what shades I need next :) *excited*

[Supplies: Digital image coloured with Copics. Beary Christmas - Kaye Winiecki, Kitschy Christmas - Sahlin Studio, Jennifer Barrette, A Thankful Heart - Tracie Stroud (all from The Lilypad)]

And talking about Copics, I have a card to share. It's made using digital kits for the Lilypad and a digital stamp (the bear with present) which I have coloured with Copics. :)

This Was Fun...

I've been playing with some more techniques from the Holiday Boot Camp class. This time lots of distress inks, perfect pearls and snowflakes. A bit more "messy" than my usual crafting but definitely fun as a change.

I can see myself doing this more often too :) (Now can someone just please give me a few more hours each day?! LOL)

It's hard to make the shimmery bits show up well on camera but here are a few photos... hopefully it gives some idea of what it looks like in reality :)

The snowflake is made using a Martha Stewart punch which I love and some Stickles. When I say "some", I mean "lots"!

I probably won't be blogging over the weekend as it's my birthday on Sunday. So I'll see you next week. Have a great weekend everyone :)

Snowflake...

A quick update today as I'm totally rushed off my feet... *and breathe*

Another version of yesterday's card:

The snowflake is totally covered in glitter. Yum! :) *smile*

I think I prefer the snowflake to yesterday's Christmas tree. As for the colours on the background... I'm not sure which one I like most. It was fun to make a slightly different version of the same card though :)

Card Mania...

...I've been in such a card making mood lately. Good I guess with Christmas coming up though :)

And the Holiday card class I'm taking is only helping to fuel my creativity and inspiration regarding cards. :)

The card below is my own variation of a card that Jennifer McGuire did for the class last week.

It's using the faux letterpress technique. It was the first time I tried this and at first I had some problems getting the ink to work in an even way with the embossing folder. But a few background tries later and I had sorted out my problem. :)

I really loved this technique and the card design in general so I'm thinking I might make another. More green card this time maybe....

Christmas Cat...

As I mentioned the other day, when I was making a card (thanks for the nice comments left on this - made me smile) for the Holiday Card Boot Camp class that I'm taking, I enjoyed that card so much that I was playing with the thought of making a slightly different one. But still the same initial design. Well, I did :)

Some of my all time favourite stamps are the cat stamps by Penny Black. And I've got a cute Christmas set with a cat hanging in a wreath which I have been meaning to use. So this being a "hanging ornament" design made it perfect to put my stamp to use :)

The image is coloured with Copics and then I have used Stickles glitter and Glossy Accents on a few selected bits. The rest of the card is the same as my bauble card from the other day.

Bauble Card...

I'm taking a short 2 week online card class by Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner at the moment that started on Monday this week. The card that Kristina made on Monday really inspired me and I got crafting. :)

This is my version of her card. She used blues for the background strips (I used greens) and she used a bauble cut by a Silhouette die cutting machine. Something that I wished I had sooo much. But seriously, I really can't justify the cost of it. So it was "thinking cap" time...

At first I was just going to use any other item (stamp?) as a focal point (ie not a bauble). But then I came across this Hero Arts stamp set which I had that contained a decent sized bauble stamp so I decided to use that. Here's my version of the card...

I enjoyed making this card so much that I'm toying with making another version of it. We'll see...

Bonfire Night...

On Saturday it was Bonfire Night here in the UK. Bonfires and fireworks everywhere. Well actually the fireworks started already earlier in the week here and some bonfires were held on Friday or Sunday too... so it's almost been a weekend of it.

Here are just a few of the photos I took. Firstly bonfire time...

And then a fireworks photo. I find these REALLY had to take (any tips anyone please?) and this was the only photo that really turned out pretty ok. Sure so the firework could have been more centred in the photo... but I still like it :)

And then we have the "failed photos". I took these two photos you can see below from the car. While it was moving and we were looking for somewhere to park the car. So really they should be totally failed photos. I was just going to delete them. However when I saw the result I kinda really liked it... they look like "spooky Halloween images". Cool! :)

I've been playing with this cute winter kit yesterday. I love winter kits. And I love cute animals! And I love the sweet little characters that Kay Miller creates, so this kit was just perfect for me. Not to mention the colours. I could not have asked for more. Greens (yay!), aqua, hot pink and white. Sooooo perfect :)

[Supplies: Chilly Cheer - Kay Miller (from A5D)]

It's been really, really dark (weather wise) here for days so the light was all funny when I took this photo. It doesn't really show the true shade of the colours. But if you check out the kit in this post you can see the correct colours!

This week has definitely been a card week for me. It might not seem like I have made so many cards on the blog, but I have some which I can't put on here yet due to Creative Team work and using kits that have not been released yet. So they will have to appear later... :)

Scor-Pal Question...

"annotations" left the following question in regards to my Scor-Pal post the other day: "I have not had any problems with my MS Scoreboard, but then again, I don't use it very often. Are Scor-Pad's channels deeper? Am glad you have one you love!"

Well to be honest I have no idea what it is that makes the MS score board jump tracks when you score, and the Scor-Pal not. So...

*grabs both boards to compare*

Hrm...The depth... it's hard to tell... The grooves on the MS scoreboard are kinda rounded at the bottom while the ones on the Scor-Pal are totally "square". I don't actually think there's much in the depth of them at all. But where there is a difference is in the WIDTH. The MS ones are narrower and I guess that's why the scoring tool doesn't want to stay in the scores of the board. Interesting!

Hope that was of some help!

I'm still awaiting my new version Scor-Pal from the US. Hoping it will come very soon now :)

Today I'm working with the following kit. I'll share what I have done when it's finished...

Birthday Card...

It's my little niece's birthday very soon. Ever since she was a baby (she's now turning 4) she's had this rabbit that's been her favourite toy and comfort without fail. She loves her rabbit!

So when I spotted a rabbit stamp a few months ago I knew it would be prefect to use on a card for her as it looks so much like her soft toy rabbit. :)

I had fun trying to match my Copics to the colour (in my head) of her rabbit. And I really enjoyed having a play with the Martha Stewart Fridge Scissors. I can see a lot of fun projects being done with these.

My niece is very "girly" at the moment and loves anything pink and/or glittery. So pink colour and glittery Stickles of course had to feature on the card too :)