Christmas Crafting...

...that's what's going on here this week. I even brought out some Christmas CDs to get me in the right mood. :)

All week I have been working on getting all the images for our Christmas cards coloured with Copics. At the moment I'm about halfway there I would say. (And then of course it's making the cards themselves too after that.) Though I'm not sure I'll get any more colouring done this week now...

Apart from that I have also been doing a lot of Creative Team work... all Christmas themed. Which is perfectly fine with me :)

Today Kay Miller has released a collab kit called Spirit Of The Season. I had some fun playing with this kit yesterday and came up with this layout...

[Supplies: Spirit of The Season - Kay Miller, Jady Day Studio (After 5 Designs)

Right I'm off to take some tablets and have a little lie down. Feeling rather yucky today and woke up with a headache etc which won't go...

Christmas Colouring...

I mentioned last week that I was working on this year's Christmas card prototype for close family. Well the prototype is now complete. For the focal point of the card I'm going for a stamped image coloured with Copic markers. I bought a few cute Christmas stamps earlier this year and I picked one of those to use. So today I'm playing with this image:
...and my Copic markers:

No way I'm going to get all the images coloured today, or even tomorrow. I think it will take several days more likely, but you've got to start sometime...

Have you started your Christmas cards yet...?

Christmas Is Coming...

Anyone getting excited about Christmas yet? I know I am!!! I totally love Christmas *smile*. My favourite time of the year! Yes it can admittedly be a bit stressful at times, lots of things to do/prepare, presents to buy and wrap etc. But that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy all the nice bits and focus on them. I totally love all the cosiness of Christmas... seeing family, the trees, all the cosy lights etc. :)

I bought some Christmas compilation CDs last year so I'm looking forward to bringing them out soon. Due to hating shopping when the shops are mega busy, we have already bought about... 80% or so of the gifts - which feels great.

Better get started preparing my Christmas Journal soon too. I'm just trying to make a final decision between two albums that I have, before I can start cutting pages to size etc.

A Celebration Blog Hop...

Shimelle's Creative Team is one year old and we're all celebrating with a blog hop today :)

And the theme of the blog hop is...? Of course ---> Celebration!

My instant thought was cupcakes (what else!) and I had some photos from August which suited some of Shimelle's kits just perfectly. Here's my celebration layout for the blog hop...

[Supplies: Count To Four Page Template - Shimelle Laine, Long And Winding Road Add-On Kit - Shimelle Laine (both from 2Peas), Fall Canvas - Amber Clegg (from the Lilypad)]

If you feel like shopping...? You can find Shimelle's kits here.

And as a "blog hop" would suggest, it's now time to "hop" over to another blog: please visit Sheri!

Working On The Christmas Card Idea...

Do you make your Christmas cards? Or buy them all? Or maybe don't send any at all? I go somewhere in the middle. Meaning close family get homemade cards and everyone else gets bought cards. To make all cards would add too much work and stress at a time of the year that is already extra busy so that is kinda my happy middle solution.

So I'm working on this year's "Christmas Card prototype" this week... I'm thinking the traditional greens and reds and something Copiced (did I just invent that word?)... I mean a stamped image coloured with Copics as the main focus. We'll see how it turns out in the end...

Leaving you with a photo of a card I made which I guess would have been more appropriate last week LOL!

[Supplies: Scary Nights - Kay Miller (from A5D)]

And, Strangely Enough, More Dogs?

Since I'm not really a dog person I'm going to add my other dog card here today and then consider the dog phase over for a while. LOL! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the super cute kits by Kate, I just have no dog photos and therefore it's a bit difficult to do a layout. Unless I made a photo-less one of course. Anyway, this is the kit I worked with as my "main kit" this time...

Fun kit eh? Have you checked out that dog halfway into the bin? LOL! Anyway, it was card time again for me and this is the card I came up with this time...

[Supplies used: Doggie Days - Kate Hadfield, Happy Planet - Kate Hadfield, Fall Canvas - Amber Clegg, Once In A While - Lauren Grier, Retro Journaling Cards - Sahlin Studio (all from The Lilypad)]

Right I'm off to think about this year's Christmas card (which I keep putting off! So who knows if I put it off again today...) and play with some Kay Miller kits.

Dogs?...

Are you into dogs? This is one of Kate Hadfield's latest kits, released earlier this week...

Aren't they cute? Lots of different dog doodles. I think they are really cute. But do you know my problem? I'm not a dog person. I'm a cat person. And not only that, but I couldn't find a single photo in my collection that featured a dog. A little problem... So doing a layout for my Creative Team work was kinda out of the question.

Time to think and come up with something else. Then I thought, just because I'm not a dog person doesn't mean that others aren't. And since I know people who love dogs I came up with the idea of going down the card route instead. So a birthday card became my choice of project and this is the finished item:

[Supplies: My Kinda Dog - Kate Hadfield, Doggie Days - Kate Hadfield, Once In A While - Lauren Grier, Retro Journaling Cards - Sahlin Studio (all from the Lilypad), Grungy Edges 5 - Penny Springmann (from SSD)]

Making Hybrid Cards...

Just before I forget I want to respond to a question that Sheila left on this thread. You were wondering where I got the album from as you couldn't find it anywhere. I'm afraid I can't help with a place to order it from (as where I bought it from, it's now sold out). However I can tell you that the album is made by Making Memories... so hopefully that helps you while searching for it. Good luck! :)

Today I wanted to show you this super cute wintery kit which I have been working with both yesterday and today. It's by Kay Miller, called Frosty Friends, and it's available at After 5 Designs.

I thought it was a perfect kit to have some hybrid fun with and decided to go for a wintery card...

[Supplies: Frosty Friends - Kay Miller (available from A5D)]

Scrapping Summer...

I just got a huge (well huge-ish... like 146 - I think it was - photos delivered from Photobox)... so sometime today I aim to sit down with a large empty space around me and try to sort these into order according to date.

I'm still working on the journaling class by Shimelle. But I think my enthusiasm isn't really there... or it's the fact that my todo list every day is huge and I feel a bit stressed about the class and can't really take the time it needs. I don't know.

Either way I'm running 1-2 days behind all the time it seems and I'm not really enjoying that. In a way I'm thinking that the best for me right now might be to give up. But I really don't like giving up so I'm not sure I can make that decision. Know what I mean? Been in a similar situation? What did you do? I know that if I give up I won't really find time to come back to it and do it another time, and that's another reason I don't really want to give up. But it would be one less thing on my todo list...

Happy Halloween!...

Hope you're all having a great weekend! My nails are Halloween-ified (orange with green tips!) and the candy is ready by the door. :)