Beat The Christmas Rush

Our 4th month of beating the christmas rush by making our christmas cards 5 at a time each month. I now have 20...wait no, I don't as I only made 4 this month due to the clock beating me, but I am still ahead of that wily old devil, time. This time last year I hadn't even thought of christmas cards and now I have a stash :)

If you want to join in at Creative Craft World and beat the rush then you can here. I loved this card from our challenge entries last month for the amazing colouring job.
Deanne it is superb, I am inspired to get out the copics and have a practice :)

I loved this one too for such an unusual design which would definitely catch my eye if it came at christmas! Love it Gail, I am inspired to look out for this die or a similar idea, so thank you.

So this month I made some stepper cards which came about as I was commissioned by my Lauren to make a birthday card for her boyfriend Adam and she wanted it to be a "bit layout-y but definitely a card". 

I immediately remembered this card made by Susi for her daughter's birthday a couple of years ago that I much admired and thought might come in handy for the children.

So thank you Susi :)

 I made a mix of steppers from the template with papers from MME, October Afternoon and Simple Stories.

I think some of them need a bit more embellishment and I have cut out the 5th stepper so I will finish that off before putting them in my pile ready for December happy mail.

I am a bit addicted to steppers now :)

Creative Craft World: Minikit

A lovely mini kit from Lou at Creative Craft World this month. Lovely subtle colour palette, it reminded me of the papers I used to make my first minibook back in 2009. I would love to be able to compare them but I sent it to my Aunt with all the children's thank you notes for christmas pressies.

We are having a challenge as well for you to create a project smaller than 12x12 here.

I made a daybook first and I will print some small 2x3 photos of our trip to the beach last night, always worth noting the first trip of the year and the last for interest really, last trip was 6th October which was pretty late. 

I simply folded the pages I wanted to use and added some vellum from my stash and then stitched down the middle to hold it. I folded over one of the doilies and added a flower. a bit of stamping and embellishing and then left it until I can get the photos printed.

Next I made a card, love how the doily stands out against that chocolate brown.

To use up the rest of the kit I made some dinky bunting.

 I used the remainder of the white cs and cut it into 2x3's

 Then decorated them all and then stitched them together using the kit's twine.

All done :)

So please go ahead and join in this month's challenge to be in with a chance to win.

UKS Blog Hop prize winner!

Thank you to everyone that left such lovely comments on my post for the UKS blog hop.

So without further ado the winner of the lovely Simple Stories Vintage Bliss Paper Collection is...

Tracey

"Lovely los, thanks for sharing. Very clever use of the QR code. I have been dabbling with some divided pps too but not gone for whole hog with Project Life yet. I enjoyed your video, very helpful, felt more like seeing it all in the flesh.

UKS - mumof4girls"

So congratulations Tracey, if you email me at jennie.hart.1@gmail.com with your details I will get it in the post to you :)

UKS Blog Hop.

Welcome along to the UKS blog hop, you may have arrived from Scrapdolly and her beautiful accordian album, it is just gorgeous; if not and you fancy joining in then you can go back here to the start to get the full list and start from the beginning. There will be fantastic blogs to see and there is a prize if you follow the hop round.

I am excited to be giving away a prize too, this is from me personally as a thank you for reading my post. I hope you enjoy it and the details of what it is and how to join in are at the end of the post.

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I wanted to show you how I am incorporating my traditional 12x12 scrapping which I love and my project life type scrapping in divided page protectors which I also love. This post then becomes almost the start of a serial of posts I am writing about my experience of project life and how I got to where I am; which is with one album at a time with all my types of scrapping in it. 

I know you are eager to get on with the hop, but if you fancy learning more then you can see my intro post here. Which explains all the influences I have had around this change over the last couple of months.

So my scrapping is about this year's annual Easter egg hunt. 

I concentrated on getting video footage of it as I have only been able to record footage over the last 12 months so I am capturing as much of what is left of their childhood as I can, which they really enjoy ;) This did mean that I didn't get brilliant still photos though. 

So I edited and uploaded the video and then turned it into a QR code to print and add to the page.

I then decided which was going on the 12x12 layout and which was going on the 6x4 scrapping and how much journaling was needed to go with them.

I looked at which papers I used in the album in the pages before these ones will sit and decided whether I will use them or move into new stash and if so how they will fit together best. In this case it was the start of the second album of the year and I finished the last one with Amy Tangerine's 'Yes, Please' line so I went back to that, which was no real chore.

Once I did that bit I cracked on with the 12x12 layout. Love this bit, I like to find a challenge or a sketch at least to guide me. In this case it was Suzy's great challenge on UKS a couple of weeks ago.

(I must just mention my poor child's chest, he had been poorly with a nasty cold and then d&v over 3 weeks, he isn't well covered at the best of times but I can reassure you that those bones are covered again, not much but they are covered!)
Since I have adopted this approach I have not worried too much about getting all the journaling on the 12x12 and now add them to a 6x4 which is scrapped with the leftovers from the 12x12. I add the date and a comment where to find the journaling if it isn't going to sit directly opposite.

I then use some more of the papers to add to the slots opposite the 12x12.

Here you can see the QR code in the top left slot so that as a family we can scan and watch any accompanying videos as we look through the album. (Feel free to scan it yourself and watch the hunt, or you can click the link here.)

A photo and journaling of the chocolate haul he found on his hunt are below that. (of course the chocolate haul helped with the bone covering as well :) ) 

On the right I used a 6x12 off-cut of paper and split it into 3 down the right hand side. Ali wrote on one and I stapled in one of the clues for the hunt. (Thank you to Susi for the lovely post-its, they are very useful and pretty :) )

I have also included a video of me showing the album if that helps to see what I mean any better. If not you will at least have a laugh at my country bumpkin accent :) I did not write a script, I have not edited due to time constraints so let's suffice to say that I am especially proud of how I call it 'The Easter' and also of the funny noise I make when I mention seeing the sun! This is my first video where I talk so please go gently, pretty pleasey-weasey?

Project Life: April from Jennie Hart on Vimeo.

Ok, so thanks so much for visiting my blog on the hop, to qualify, as I am sure you know by now, for the UKS prize you need to leave me a comment.

To qualify for a prize from me which is a Simple Stories collection - Vintage Bliss- *fans herself over excitedly*

To enter: Please tell me in the comments whether you think the video illustration is helpful? That's it, then you are entered for my prize too. 

Entries close at 20:00 GMT Sunday 21st April 2013.

I will then pick the winner from a random generator and announce the winner on my blog. Full details on how to claim your prize will be given at the time.

Next stop on the hop is Soojay's fabulous post, enjoy the rest of the hop and thanks again for stopping by...

Storytelling Sunday: Pick Your Precious|Cinderella

One of my favourite things to post each month is Storytelling Sunday, hosted by Sian at From High In The Sky.

We tell stories and this year we are telling them about belongings we consider precious.

Cinderella.

A second month with something made by my Granny and this time my beloved Cinderella doll which I remember having from a little girl although none of us can remember from exactly when.

Poor Cinders, she looks so sad with that tear on her cheek. I remember when playing with her that I couldn't wait to get to change her into happy Cinders because she looked so sad it broke my heart.

And she was so easy to change into happy Cinders because she is a topsy-turvy doll, you flip the skirt the other way and ...

There, all sparkly eyes and pretty dress.

Her original necklace and her plait have gone unfortunately and her lace is adrift but I think I will be leaving her as she is.

If you would like to have a look at more topsy-turvy dolls there are some here on pinterest.

Papers are from Dear Lizzy.

Thanks for coming to see me.

Curious Coastal Charm: Creative Craft World

Very nearly all the C's in the world in that title :)

Have you blog hopped from Ali on the monthly Creative Craft World Scrapmap? If not and you fancy seeing what the DT have been up to then you can find the full list at CCW. Gorgeous work Ladies.

Saunton Sands; it's not my favourite North Devon beach, but not too shabby either ;)

As part of the Lucky Snapping challenge I am hosting to take photos of your favourite view, I am taking the views from the South West Coast Path between where I live and where I work. This was one of my favourites from our walk at the end of february. 

It was disastrous. I wasn't dressed well enough and was on the scale of cold to frozen at any point during the walk, my shoes weren't suitable either. 

We didn't take the map, the expensive one that I bought specifically so we didn't get lost, yes that one. 

I know that even though I know this coast I need to take great care in the sea and on the coast and to take a map and mobile and let people know where we are. It's just that as well as knowing these things you need to actually do them. 

Unfortunately we went the wrong way, we were too worried about cutting across Braunton Burrows as the Marines train there and there were warning notices at each turn off, so we thought it was safer to carry on. Well, we wished we had taken the risk I think as it took us 10 miles instead of the 4-5 we had planned for. 

Lessons learned. I have lovely new walking boots and won't be going anywhere again that is more than 2 minutes from a main road without a map and GPS signal.

Anyway, the walk itself was stunning, Croyde beach, where we left off from an earlier walk;

I hope the scarf found it's owner, in hindsight I should have pinched it so it was at least warming me up.

You can see the sky is trying to clear and of course there is always a surfer on croyde beach. In fact at midnight in January I expect they are in there :)

Mum going around the headland.

Another part of the coast path eroding, it is an ongoing battle to find alternative paths for the maintenance team and of course, you do have to take care. We edged around here very slowly and gingerly as that brown was slippy mud.

That glorious view again;

I hadn't yet scrapped all of the photos, so this scrapmap was perfect to use the other to show some detail shots and showcase that view.

Love this line from Amy Tangerine.

Ok, time to hop again over to Lou's blog here.