Merry Christmas

Well - it's 10.40pm Christmas Eve and Abbey is still awake!! I wanted to keep her up later than normal so that she wasn't tossing and turning but I really thought she would have fallen asleep by now! I can hear her very quietly singing carols to herself and she is getting sleepy but not quite there yet. Obviously Santa wont come until she's asleep so I'm killing time. Here are a couple of pics we took tonight getting ready for Santa's arrival....

The milk and cookies


the excited family....
my little munchkin selecting the best place for her Santa Stocking to go.
Merry Christmas to you all. May your Christmas be filled with family, love, friends and fun!!

Shell xoxo

p.s.
Remember to be on the lookout for jolly, old, fat, white-bearded men bearing gifts.

White with 1

I got an email today to say I had won a prize for my entry to the White with 1 challenge for last month. I can't believe I won something just when that site is about to come to an end!

It's a real bummer, I always loved her challenges.

Not to worry....here is the layout I won with.

Pretty good considering I wasn't going to enter because I didn't like the way the layout turned out.

I'm still working on the layout I started yesterday. It's been a very busy week of activities. Abbey and I had a girly movie night tonight and went to see the Premier of The Princess and the Frog. It was a great movie. We both liked it a lot!

I'm off to work tomorrow but then off for 4 days so fingers crossed I'll get this layout done and hopefully a couple of others too.

Hope the lead up to Christmas is being kind to you all

Shell xx

It was back to work for me today :(

These last lot of days off have gone far too quickly but I guess it's just how the next few weeks are going to be. busy, busy, busy!

After work I went to Abbey's school for the end of year Principal's Award ceremony. I'm such a proud Mummy!

Here she is (front and centre) after receiving her award
and the close up
with her proud Poppy....
and with the Principal
I had to bribe her to have a pic with the Principal. A little bit of chocolate goes a long way! The things we do for a scrap layout huh!? haha

I finally made a start on the Theme Layout at Challenge Heaven today. Trying to get it finished before the end of the week so I can start on another before Christmas rolls around.

Hope the week is going well for you all and you're not too busy rush, rush, rushing through everything like I seem to be!

Shell x

there once was a little elf.....

who was so cute I couldn't stop taking pics of her and her Christmas tree.







Shell x

Mad Monday...

WHOA...what a weekend. Running to here there and everywhere. I need a weekend to get over the weekend!

Today is going to be another busy one. While munchkin is having her last Monday at school for the year I am going to take the opportunity to wrap all of her Christmas presents, give the house a good clean (especially the floors) and I'm going to fit in some scrapping!! After school we have her last swimming lesson for the year and then we're off to the school end of year concert tonight. It's really overcast here today and has been drizzling on and off for the last couple of hours. The concert is outdoors so fingers crossed it will stop soon!

Here is a layout I have been trying to take a pic of for days. It's for the Word Challenge at Challenge Heaven. Criteria is to use the word Wild, use more than 1 photo and use distressing. I have used Sketch #2o from IB for this one.

hope you're all having a fab Monday!

Shell x

Lots of pics......

We have been a very busy little family of late with pics of everything Christmas-y.

Friday night we were blessed with the presence of our GORGEOUS Niece (Isabelle 3) and Nephew Nate (20 mths) for a sleep over while their Mummy and Daddy had a night out. We had so much fun together. The kids danced to Christmas Carols for most of the evening and just had fun together. It's always nice having them over but a sleep over is even more fun.

Here's a couple of pics (please excuse the grubby faces)


is this boy not the CUTEST baby you've seen????!!!!!


and the sweetest girls on the planet....
our very non-traditional Christmas tree LOVE THE COLOURS THIS YEAR! (note the bear under the tree...he has been named the "present protector")

One day after school last week we went to the park to get some pics of Abbey to send to family in Chrissy cards. Here are a couple of those.

and this is the one we decided on. How can this not make you smile!! She was right in the middle of a good old belly laugh when I took this one. I can still hear her laugh when I look at it. I love memories like that and can't wait to scrap every one of these pics before I forget every moment!

Hopefully will get time to take a quick snap of my latest layout. I've been trying to get it done for days now.

Shell xx

Scrap the Girls

Here is my entry for Scrap the Girls this month.

The criteria was to use Christmas Carol lyrics as your title.
Jewels (bling)
Orange cs or pp and a
Yellow embellishment

I love how this turned out....

Hopefully I'll have another layout to upload tomorrow!
Shell x

December Challenges

The December challenges are up at Challenge Heaven


Word Challenge - Use the word "Wild" in your title.
You must use more than 1 photo and also use distressing on your page

Themed Challenge – Food/Cooking
You must use stars somewhere on your layout

Sketch Challenge - Use this awesome sketch from PageMaps as your inspiration.

here is my take on the sketch challenge

Quote Challenge - "A match made in Heaven"
You must also use Ribbon and doodling

Number Challenge - 1 Bow, 2 Handmade embellishments and 3 photos

Colour Challenge – Chocolate Brown, Teal (greeny/blue) and one other colour of your choice. (You may mix small amounts of black and white but please keep to the colour scheme).

Ebony and Ivory Challenge - White (Ivory) with Pink
You must ust at least 3 different patterned papers

Scrap Yourself - You must use a baby or childhood photo of yourself using the year/date as the title or in the title.

Don't forget - there are prizes on offer when you complete 4 or more of the challenges. It's a random draw...you gotta be in it to win it!!

Shell x

quick post

Hi, It's been a while since I have posted here. I have been totally busy doing everything but blogging. Lots of gym, study and socialising I haven't even scrapped for a couple of weeks but here is a couple of layouts I have been meaning to post for a while now.

This first one is a scraplift. The original is by Lisa Warren but it also fits with the Number Challenge requirements at Challenge Heaven. requirements were 1 word title, 2 pics and 3 patterned papers.


This one was for the November Colour Challenge at Challenge Heaven. Requirements were to use colours Black, Red and White.

This one was my entry for the November White with One Challenge. Requirements were to use White and Apricot and use the work Perfect in your title.

that's all I have to share as far as layouts go but I will be back soon with the challenge list for December at Challenge Heaven.

Shell x

November Challenges are up

at Challenge Heaven.

Word Challenge - Use the word "Everything" in your title.
You must use a photo larger than 4 x 6, 2 flowers and a flourish

Themed Challenge – Friendship
You must use a black and white photo and use a circle somewhere on your layout

Sketch Challenge - Use this awesome sketch from PageMaps as your inspiration.

Quote Challenge - "Your laugh is music to my ears"
You must also use 6 buttons and strip journaling

Number Challenge - 1 Word Title, 2 photos and 3 patterned papers

Colour Challenge – Black, White and Red. (You may use small amounts of one other colour but the Black, White and Red must be the dominant colours).

Ebony and Ivory Challenge - White (Ivory) with Brown.
You must not embellish with flowers on this layout.

Scrap Yourself - You must use a photo of you with someone you love other than one of your own kids.

You must use lace and handwritten journaling about your relationship with this person.

I left myself a few to do throughout the month.

This month we have 3 great prizes to give away. It's a random draw and you only have to complete 4 challenges to be in the running. Easy huh!? Come on over to Challenge Heaven and play along.

Shell xx

White with 1 entry

Here is my white with 1 entry for this month.

Criteria was to use White, Duck egg blue and distress.

I really love how this turned out. Not normally a colour I would use but now that it's done...I think I'll use this combo again.

Shell

I did it !

I set myself a goal of getting 3 layouts done last night at the midnight crop at Savvy and I did it...with only moments to spare!

I did a little shopping while I was there. The new Nutmeg range from Cosmo is SO GORGEOUS...check this out! And that Prima flower goes perfectly with it.....as does the new thickers that are also called nutmeg - they just HAD to go together.

I also had a play with the very cute Farmers Market range.

another one using Farmers Market...this one is a scraplift. There was no way I could leave out any of these pics of my little Goof Ball so I went on the hunt to find a layout that used multiple pics but without all the fuss that normally goes with putting this many pics together and after hours and hours of scouring blogs I came across this layout and quickly sketched it down and of course...I've thrown away the sketch with the blog name on it. So sorry, I wish I could have shown it to you, it was a gorgeous layout!

I'm mentally working on about 10 more layouts right now so I'm sure I will have something else to show you by the end of the weekend. Don't you love it when you try to rest and your brain won't stop thinking about photo placement and embellishments!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend ...I'll leave you with a little pic I took this afternoon at the park. The weather was SO good and we took the totem tennis and a frisbee and had a blast!

Shell x

I just can't stop

Here are another 3 layouts from the last couple of days.

This one is the Blind Scrap from Challenge Heaven


This is one I did just because. I couldn't sleep when I got home from the midnight crop on Sat night so did another layout while I was in the mood.



This one is my take on the Theme Challenge over at Challenge Heaven. Criteria was to use something from a calendar, date/day etc. scallop edge/s and a tree/s. The title is School Friends Today and then the journaling talks about how Abbey has made some great friends since starting this school and how I hope they are life-long friends.


Last night I chose my papers for the Sketch Challenge at Challenge Heaven. I'm going to make a start on it this afternoon. It's a double. I have never done a double layout before so I'm hoping it turns out OK.

Shell x

Lots to share

Over the weekend I attended a "Girls Night In" to raise money for breast cancer research and boy was it a scrap-a-thon. 3pm - midnight we scrapped, chatted and scrapped some more!

I had a great time and managed 4 layouts.
This one was a sketch challenge on the night
This one was a challenge to use Pink, Ink, Ribbon and handwritten journaling. I also doubled it up and used a sketch from What is old is new.
This one was the Quote Challenge at Challenge Heaven. The criteria was to use the quote "A picture is worth a thousand words", strip journaling, a button/s and a star/s.

This one was inspired by a layout I saw in a magazine (unfortunately I don't remember the details)
I will be back later tonight to post a couple more layouts that I have finished off today.

Shell