A Little Christmas Cheer...

Following on from yesterday's post about projects with the new Lilypad goodies... Here's a very quick and simple idea for a little Christmas cosiness on your dinner table in December...

[Supplies: "Jingle All The Way" by Kate Hadfield, "A Little Plain" by Kaye Winiecki (both the Lilypad)]

The napkin rings are super easy to make. Use cardstock to keep them pretty sturdy. Cut a band to go around the napkins...measure to a size/width that you like. You could use coloured cardstock to do this...I printed some pretty red digital paper onto white cardstock.

Then find an embellishment that you like to put on the front. I printed out the cute Santa from Kat's kit which I showed you in yesterday's post. I can see something similar being done for New Year's Eve...maybe in white...some pretty snowflakes...glitter...yum! :)

Lilypad Friday...

It should have been last Friday but it was postponed to this Friday instead. The Lilypad November BYOC went live this morning. I was busy earlier in the week working on some little projects using some of the new goodies. I was so pleased to see that they had included some Christmas items in the collection too. (If you didn't already know: I love Christmas).

As I was on a walk to the post office about an hour ago I was trying to make my mind up about which was my absolutely favourite BYOC kit this week. Considering they have...I don't know... 30? 40? new kits, it's a little tricky. But I came to the conclusion that this probably is my fave out of all of them this week:

I guess I just can't resist Kate's doodles LOL! And her doodles+Christmas...well that's me sold :)

[Supplies: Border Frames - Jenna Desai, Jingle All The Way - Kate Hadfield, A Little Patterned - Kaye Winiecki (all from the Lilypad)]

Gimme 5...

This was a cool little project we got to do for Cathy Zielske's BPS class. Gimme 5. The concept was very simple. She'd created these pages for us that you were supposed to give to people in your family to fill in. Then you'd add patterned paper and two photos per person/page.

I'd have loved to make mine into a minibook and include pages from my mum, dad, brother and sister. Though it's not so easy when they're in another country. So I had to give up on that idea (as I wanted handwriting and not computer journaling). But hey, that can be a project for the future :)

And you know what, these were my first layouts (they are 8x8) where I used my new Cuttlebug embossing folders on. Yay! I made them a few days after I got the Cuttlebug. Not sure how obvious it is in these photos (for some reason I saved them very small - sorry) but the patterned paper squares (with the circle on top) on each page have been embossed with these yummy swirls. Love it :)

Found It...

You are the best blog readers ever! When I posted about my missing stamp yesterday I didn't really expect to get anyone commenting about it at all. Instead you all started suggesting by which company it might be. Brilliant! Thank you! And thanks to you, I found my stamp (which was driving me totally insane yesterday).

I just KNEW as soon as I knew which company made it, I would know where it was. And indeedy! As soon as I read Julie's comment about Banana Frog I knew she was right. And I knew straight away where the stamp was as I don't keep them in the box with my other acrylic packs but instead in a little Banana Frog folder. So thanks everyone, you're the best, and an extra thank you to Julie :)

Today I have been working on some Christmassy little projects for the Lilypad CT. But since the products don't go on sale until Friday I'm afraid I can't show any photos yet, sorry. I can show you the card I mentioned yesterday though. It's for my niece who's one next week. I decided to skip the title on the front (and just write inside instead) - that way the card can be displayed on a shelf at any time, if you wish.

[Supplies: "Beary Good" by Heather Roselli (SSD)]

Where Has It Gone...

Don't you just hate it when you need something in your stash and suddenly it's impossible to find? I have this great faux stitching stamp (like a row of cross stitch) which I wanted to use for a layout today. You know, when it would have been just perfect, to finish your layout off? Well of course I can't find it. I can picture the acrylic stamp strip in front of me...but I just can't picture the packaging so I don't even know who makes it. And I have been through my box with acrylic stamp packages three times now. It's not in there. If only I could remember what the packaging looks like or who makes it, I'd have a lot easier finding it I think. But after 2 hours of hunting I'm stuck... I have used this stamp a lot in the past...who makes it? And where can it be? LOL! I'm sure when I'm doing something totally different later it will all come to me...

I've been working on a birthday card this morning for my niece who's 1 next week. It's finished now but I still need to take a photo of it. I'll see if I can get it on my blog tomorrow. After that I did some more for the BPS class by Cathy Zielske. For some reason BPS seem to start their week on a Thursday. I try and not get more than a week behind, if I can, and as of this morning I have 3 layouts to do before Thursday to stay on top of things. We'll see how it goes... Leaving you with a layout that I did for the class last week:

Little Animal Cards...

Just a quick post to show you an animal card I did earlier in the week. I couldn't resist some super cute cat and dog kits at Sweet Shoppe Designs the other day and they turned out just perfect for shaped cards. I also have a dog card to show you at a later stage.

[Supplies: "Cat's Meow" by Heather Roselli (SSD)]

Using Lots Of Photos...

If I had to pick one thing that I specifically like about Cathy's class it would be the fact that we use so many photos on the average layout. Sometimes you have some photos that are not "wow" on their own, or you have lots of photos from an event that you might not want to scrap over loads and loads of pages in your album. Making multi photo layouts solve these problems. And yes multi photo layouts are not something new and I have done it many, many times in the past.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that what I like in this class is that nearly every layout we do is a multi photo layout and that is a great feeling. There's something so nice about looking at a layout spread and seeing a whole "occasion" together. Love it :)

My Little Christmas Project...

...well actually it's not that little...or at least it's pretty time consuming. You spend a few hours and...well, it doesn't look like you have spent a few hours if that makes sense. Anyway, I'm doing this round little Christmas rug that you have under the tree. I don't even know if this is something you have in England (?) in general (I have never spent a Christmas here) but it's something I have grown up with and when I spotted a kit for one last December I couldn't resist. The design kinda "fades out" on the sides and the "back"(as what would be around the back of the tree) of the rug is just completely plain...and of course you'd have your tree in the middle of the rug and not to the side like it's shown in the picture. This is a photo of the outside of the packaging:

I bought it at the end of December last year and it only arrived one of the first days in January. I did sew a little then. Just some of the little sequins that are spread amongst the larger items. Then I kinda forgot about it. And I only "discovered" my kit this week again...

I've been working on it for hours and hours this week and really enjoyed it. Sewing and listening to a Harry Potter audio book on my iPod. Really cosy! I have nearly finished the gingerbread house (which is at the "front" and the biggest feature on the rug) ...

I just have a little bit left on the snow at the bottom of the house. The white "candies" need some red on them too. I hope to continue working on that today if I get the chance.

Hope you're all having a great Friday :)

Space...

It's Thursday which means a new week of the Cathy Zielske course at BPS. Week 5. And I have just been watching (well I'm half way through it as I type this) the really cool slide/audio recording that Cathy does for us every week. This one is a long one, I have already been watching for over 20 minutes and I'm guessing I'm about half way through. Love it! I really love it! It's so great when she talks to you and shows you things...as opposed to just reading text in an e-mail. Just great :)

And this week I know I will love, totally love! We're doing "white space" - something which I have always loved in scrapping and use a lot. I'm yet to get to the point in the slide show where we see this week's assignments but I'm sure they will be great :)

[Supplies: "Harvest Moon" by Melissa Bennett & Amanda Dykan (SSD)]

Oh and for those of you wondering about my Cuttlebug. Am I using it? YES!! I still totally love it and I have actually been using it on some of the layouts I have done for Cathy's class. Those layouts are yet to be photographed, but hey, you will see them soon I'm sure. Today is definitely not a day to take photos - totally dark and rainy. Yuck! But to summarise: yes I'm soooo pleased I bought my Cuttlebug.

So Much Fun...

I'm really enjoying the class by Cathy Zielske. To be really honest, the price of the class seriously (!) put me off, but now I'm so glad I went for it anyway. This is the next page from the album that I have to show you...

This was possibly the page that I have had most enjoyment doing. Why? Well apart from the fact that it was the perfect way to scrap lots of very similar photos of my niece, and apart from the fact that I got a chance to use the super cute ladybug rub-ons, it was the way we did the page. We were actually given the grid. To print out on some nice textured Bazzill cardstock. And then we were to fill in the squares with photos, text, paper etc. I just found myself really, really enjoying the process of this page. Probably because it was so different to how you would normally scrap. But it really was so refreshing, new and fun that I'm sure I will try this method again. :)