100 days of happiness: wk 2

Welcome to week two of my 100 days of happiness. I have to say I'm quite chuffed I'm still going as some days when I work all day it can be hard to think what to take a quick photo of. So this was my week

The week started off wet and cold so I was happy to get home into my dressing gown. I also rejoined Slimming World and nearly died when I got on the scales! I was also lucky to get a mid week early finish on my late shift so I was super cuffed! You know I said it was cold at the start of the week? Well it got colder with crazy wind and a touch of snow so I was glad to find my beanie hat. 

On Friday I received some great feedback from someone who I had call listening with me so I was treated to a trip to the goodie cupboard. I had to find something relatively Slimming World friendly, I think wine did the trick especially as it's still unopened. On Saturday I woke up fairly early for me at the weekend for me and was treated to a gorgeous sun rise. Then finally on Sunday I was back in Stamford for my dads 65th birthday. My Uncles wife has a cake making business and made some yummy cupcakes and a fab Joey Dunlop helmet cake.  So that was week 2. On to week 3! 

Thank You Cards

I'm slowly easing myself back into doing some crafting after having a bit of a break. I brought some new stash last week from Hey Little Magpie and did I use any of this?...No I didn't, but it did give me kick up the bum to get making something. I had a couple of thank you cards to make, as well as a birthday card for my dad.  For my thank you cards I looked through my Hello Kitty tin of odds and ends I've cut from cut apart sheets as I knew I had some thank you bits from an old Pebbles collection in there. From there I looked through my 6x6 pads which I find handy for cards and went from there. 

This card was made using papers and some die cuts from Pink Paislee Bella Rouge collection. I love this collection, I wish I had gotten more of it! 

The sentiment on this card originally had a picture of a bouquet of daisies on it which was pretty but not what I wanted for the person I sending it to so I altered it and stuck a die cut from a Fancy Pants collection over it. I matched this with some papers from American Crafts Autumn Crisp. 

100 days of happiness: week 1

To draw a line under the pants end to last year I decided to have another go at something I tried doing before and failed, the 100 days of happiness challenge. Ok I lie, I was thinking about starting the challenge again from New Years Day anyway and the events from last month just spurred me on more. For those not familiar with the challenge, basically you share a photo a day of something that made your day or just made you smile and feel better for even a brief moment.  So this was my week one:

The week started off enjoying the Christmas tree for a last day before taking it down, my decs always come down on New Year's Day. On day 2 I managed to snap a bargain from Asda, 10m of wrapping paper for 25p, but the shopping didn't stop there as the next day I placed a cheeky order on Hey Little Magpie! Although the highlight of the week was FINALLY getting my boiler fixed after having no heating or hot water for two, yes that's right TWO, weeks! 

I thought I'd try a different planner this year and one I ordered from Hobbycraft arrived and so far I'm impressed especially as it was £12, a lot cheaper than the Mambi one I originally wanted! I received more happy mail the following day when my cheeky order arrived! This inspired me to not only do some crafting the next day, making a couple of ThanKYou cards and a birthday card for my dad, but to also have a de stash the next day! The perfect excuse to treat myself to even more lovely stash, ssh! 

 

So that was week one, what will week two have in store? 

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! And in typical Jess fashion long time no blog! Well normal service has yet again resumed. In fairness things went a bit crazy work wise and crappy personal wise towards the end of 2016 but we made it through it!  Short and simple blog post to welcome you all to 2017 but hopefully more post will follow soon. Xx

The Gang's Almost All Here: Oct Sketchy Scrappers

Well as I write this winter is definetly here. We had snow Thursday night, approx 3 inches on top of the car, which is slowly thawing and looking outside it seems easier going getting around than yesterday when it was icy first thing. I'm more or less up to date with things too, only a few more Christmas presents to buy, a couple of days planned back in Stamford to get my decs, and I'm nearly up to date with Sketchy Scrappers. Octobers sketch was set by yours truly and I chose this one from my Pinterest board. 

I like the embellishments running down the side of the page, an ideal opportunity to use some ephemera packs especially those die cuts which you have no idea how to use. 

I chose to scrap a group photo from our scrappy getaway in 2015. Not everyone is in the photo as we only remembered to take a group photo after a couple of people had left, that's what happens when you have too much fun! For this reason I nearly didn't scrap it as I felt guilty for not having a photo including them but I changed my mind as this is the story behind the photo and adds to the memories of the weekend which I wanted to document.  After choosing my photo I decided to use some die cuts from a Fancy Pants collection (I can't remember the name) as the colours seemed to suit the photo. As I mentioned before this was an ideal opportunity to use those die cuts you wouldn't normally use, when else would I use a hot air balloon? 

Let's Roll: Sketchy Scrappers September Sketch

I'm slowly working my way through the Sketchy Scrappers sketches over on the Facebook group. This was the sketch for September. 

I actually chose my photo and papers a couple of weeks ago but only got the chance to actually scrap this week! All the papers apart from the background paper are from my scraps basket which I keep on my desk in front of me. I'm challenging myself to rummage through this before looking for any other papers for my cards and layouts and I've made a huge dent in it...who am I kidding it's still bursting but I'm glad to get them used up. Anyway, back to the layout...

The photo is of my niece Boo and her dinosaur Cera. I'm not entirely sure what was going on here but sometimes it's best not to ask! 

Also on my desk is little tub with odds and ends in which I've pulled for previous projects but not used. Rather than put them away I pop them in here in the hope of using them up sooner rather than later! I used a dimensional heart button from this and some wood veneer from Coso Cricket. 

Cards for Boo

Two of the most recent cards I've made lately have been for my niece Boo. The first was because she was a big brake girl when she had her tonsils taken out, the second for her third (where has the time gone) birthday.  For her get well card I used one of my favourite stamp sets from Love Cynthia who I found on Instagram. 

 

How cute is the unicorn?? I coloured it with promarkers which I always find therapeutic. I decided to go for a soft pastel colour theme   As much as I love this stamp set I always struggle with what colour to use on the unicorn. This time I went for a creamy colour but I need to think of a way colour her white without just leaving the card plain, maybe a Wink of Stella pen or something? 

I then chose some papers from Dear Lizzy to compliment the image and voila, finished. 

For Boo's birthday card I looked through my stash and found some old die cuts from Fancy Pants, I forget the name of the collection now I think it was True Friends or something like that. I chose a selection of scraps from my scraps box, including some gorgeous Stampin Up gold heart vellum, and made this. 

Have to say I'm rather chuffed with this card. I think because of the combination of the die cuts and the vellum clouds. Those clouds are so cute, I think they'll definetly be something I repeat again on a card or layout.