Moments like these

The theme of this months blog hop with Memory Keeping with Stampin Up is to use your favourite project life kit. My mind went instantly to the Moments Like These set! Since this was introduced at the launch of the new catalogue it was the one kit I knew I had to have straight away.

I've made a special page this month for my gorgeous step daughter Emily. She is 23 tomorrow and she's been working really hard to set up her life in Epsom near London. We are so proud of her achieving her degree in Fashion great things lie ahead.

Happy birthday Emily have a fab day xx

I've also spent some time making some pages from last years holiday to Berwick upon Tweed. 

I don't think the pictures really do the pages justice but it feels today that there hasn't been an ounce of natural light in my home to take a decent photograph. 

Lastly I made a quick card using the card from the kit and my brand new stamp set Lighthearted Leaves. I can't wait to make some more designs with this set of stamps.

I'm really proud to share the pages of our team. Thanks for visiting and please visit their pages too! Kate x

http://lhiggins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/welcome-to-november-blog-hop-with.html

http://remarkablycreated.com/2015/11/mkplsu-hello-december-project-life-by-stampin-up-advent-25-days-of-kindness/

http://www.lenfantcheri.com/blog/2015/11/08/my-favorite-kit/

http://conibaer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/memory-keeping-with-project-life-by.html

http://scissorspapercard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/mkplxsu-my-favourite-kit.html

http://juliesjapes.blogspot.co.uk

A special welcome to our guest blogger Debielle Bernauer: http://craftdivas.blogspot.com.au

Hello Autumn

Well it's been a long while since I updated my blog but I'm so happy to share with you this post. It's time for the members of the Memory Keeping with Stampin Up to share our blog hop!

My pages are inspired by my lovely friend Adele. After reading a post about being in the moment allowing yourself to 'just be'. It included a gorgeous autumn scene picture which I have included on my page.

I don't think I'm alone when I say the Winter months are the hardest for me. Darker nights and mornings and the sense that the outside world is damp and decaying doesn't make me want to rise and shine!

So with this in mind and a promise to look after myself in the colder months led me to a lightbulb moment. I decided to look at my diet and generally what I could do to promote wellbeing. 

For me, as someone who loves to cook, this meant looking at food a little differently. I'm keeping focused on nutrition by having green smoothies and cutting out junk and empty calories. 

My Project Life pages are dedicated to a new positive way of thinking and a promise to embrace the change in season in a positive way. 

It's a change in style too, as it feels more like a 'journal' page but it also felt good to set some goals in my mind for the months ahead. I've even done a doodle of a stag and I haven't tried to draw for years despite being a former art student.

I want to thank Anna for her generous loan of cards from the beautiful Seasonal Snapshot Project Life set from Stampin Up. Together with the accessory kit it is the ideal set for Back to School, Halloween, Autumn through to Christmas. Anna is also our guest blogger and has made some beautiful pages from a Halloween social we attended with our two boys.

Here are the links to the other beautiful pages. Enjoy! And thanks for visiting x

http://scissorspapercard.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/mkplxsu-seasonal-snapshot.html?m=1

https://delysc.wordpress.com/?p=5773

http://lhiggins.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/seasonal-snapshot-project-life-cards.html?m=1

http://juliesjapes.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/memory-keeping-with-project-life-by.html?m=1

http://dailymusingsofaninspiredmind.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

http://conibaer.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/memory-keeping-with-project-life-by.html?m=1

http://www.lenfantcheri.com/blog/

Happy Times

The title of this Project Life set from Stampin Up! is so fitting. Happy Times! I'm sharing today some of my favourite days of Autumn and the colours of this set are perfect.....OK so it helps that Oscar's jumper is very similar in colour to Crushed Curry too.

I wanted to use some stamping this time and I used Lovely as a Tree and the Hardwood background stamps to make my own Project Life cards. I also saw a great opportunity to mix in some of the brand new Expressions Natural Elements to go with the earthy colours of this set.

I made another little pocket with the photograph and slid a little tag top journaling card inside.

The new Project Life pocket pages were the first things on my wish list when the new catalogue came out. I made some unique 5x5 cm square cards with a little bit of stampin in them.

These pages wouldn't have been possible without my lovely friend and mentor Julie Kettlewell. We spent a couple hours in Julie's craft den having a catch up and putting these pages together. She kindly gave me some goodies to make these pages possible. A big thank you sent your way! Xx

So now the links to the other members if the Memory Keeping with Stampin Up! Design team. Hope you enjoy our little blog hop! 

http://www.clairedaly.typepad.com/

http://www.juliesjapes.blogspot.com/

http://conibaer.blogspot.com/

http://remarkablycreated.com/

http://www.lenfantcheri.com/blog/

http://www.scissorspapercard.blogspot.com.au/ 

So much to do and no time to do it in.

Ever feel there are not enough hours in the day? Well the last few weeks have been hectic to say the least. I have decorated our living room and dining room, been out for friends birthdays and looked after my little boy when he was poorly. As well as the day job. Phew! 

This has left very few moments when I could sit down at my crafting (dining) table! Beside making some special cards for friends I have seriously neglected my Project Life folder. Life is just like that sometimes. 

I am part of an amazing Project Life Design team and am constantly inspired by our member's beautiful pages. Our monthly blog hop is today and I am really excited to share these pages. I have used the brand new Moments Like These Project Life Kit by Stampin Up and we are all featuring designs using the same kit.

After enjoying a great day in the park with my husband and little boy I knew I would have 45 minutes to an hour to create my pages.

The beauty of Project Life is that it can be as simple or complicated as you make it. I was short of time so apart from a tiny bit of cutting down two photos and a few glue dots the pages were done.

I used some washi tape to make a tab to pull a journal card out from behind a photo of a giant crab. I glued around three edges of the photo so it left the top open to slide the card in. I really love the stickers that are in the accessory pack too. They make it so quick and easy to embellish the photos that this page was finished in no time.

So do you want to see a little more if this gorgeous Project Life set? Then hop along to see the rest of the Design Team's pages. Enjoy! K x

http://www.clairedaly.typepad.com/

http://www.juliesjapes.blogspot.com/

http://delysc.wordpress.com/

http://conibaer.blogspot.com/

http://remarkablycreated.com/

http://www.lenfantcheri.com/blog/

Memory Keeping with Stampin Up! Project Life

Around this time last year I started a project that's very close to my heart. I wanted to document Oscar's first year in this world. Through my love of card making and meeting the very lovely Julie I stumbled upon Project Life by Stampin Up. 

This is a fantastic system where you can take your printed photographs and quickly place them into pocket pages, embellish and journal around them. I have done scrapbooking before and really enjoyed it but Project Life felt like a fantastic way to sort my photographs easily without having to decorate an entire 12 x 12 page. Perfect for a time poor new mum using nap times for crafting instead of housework. Ha!

The first pictures of Oscar reminded me of what a difficult time we had had in hospital and getting him home. I would often get upset looking at them because it reminded me of the scary time we had. The great thing was, putting the pictures into the Project Life pockets, writing little notes really made all the difference. I felt like I was celebrating his arrival by taking so much care over the pages.

I could then see how far he had come and developed into a strong, heathy and mischievous little boy. Talk about therapy!!

Recently I was asked to join a Project Life design group where we set a design challenge each month and Blog Hop through all our pages. I'm really excited to be asked and there's part of me that loves being given a brief and theme to work from. This month was on the theme of 'Happiness Is' which is a lovely Project Life set from Stampin Up. Made up of bold colours and graphic patterns and designs.

Here are my pages:

I also made a special card that opens up to reveal some further journaling inside. This was made with two Project Life cards and some washy tape to create a hinge. I will share a little about it in another post.

I would like to introduce my fellow design team please find their pages and hopefully some inspiration to try Project Life for yourself.

http://www.clairedaly.typepad.com

http://www.juliesjapes.blogspot.com

http://delysc.wordpress.com/

http://www.scissorspapercard.blogspot.com.au/

http://conibaer.blogspot.com

http://remarkablycreated.com/

http://kims-scrapbooking.nl/

http://www.lenfantcheri.com/blog/

Enjoy! Kate x

60th birthday

This year seems to be a vintage year! I have made a few cards with '60' on them. 

Starting with my mums birthday card signalling in the new year since then sixty really has become the new forty!

The theme has continued and here are some of the highlights! I particularly loved creating a very special card for a 60th wedding anniversary. 

I will share a little more about this card in another post because it is a frame card. I made a special box to put it in too.

My last card was a male card, sometimes  I think they are a little harder to do. I did a quick survey ( asked my hubby! ) but he said basically men are not that bothered about a card, or the theme! Straight from the horses mouth. I wonder what he would say if he didn't get one??!

 Just a little P.S it was my husband birthday and here's the card I made. Must remember this colour combination in future. 

 Hope you like it too and it inspires a little crafting. That's all from me I'm currently decorating and must pick the paint brush back up.

Creative block ....

Hello everyone, I hope you have had a lovely Saturday. I have mostly spent mine shopping and having a nice lunch with my Husband and Son.

I have been so lucky last week to have been asked to make a few cards for friends and a special commission for a retirement card. I did however find my self with a strange case of creative 'block'

It also happened this week that I also had my step son Ellis' thirteenth birthday card to make. Such a big milestone needed a special card but I found my self distracted by just one card that seemed to take up far too much brain space.

I wanted to tell you about inspiration and making the design you have in your head translate to a card. My commission was for a retirement card that needed to be pink, have balloons and plenty of bling. Excellent! I thought I had just purchased the 'Celebrate Today' balloon stamp set and some beautiful strawberry slush cardstock what could go wrong? 

Well, nothing did go 'wrong' I just could not get my head around what elements to add and what to leave out. In the end I had to leave the card overnight on a few occasions and just let those creative ideas circle around. What do you do when you have a creative 'block'? 

I often look on Pinterest for inspiration. Sometimes this can lead to hours of lost time spent searching through different ideas. I do love Pinterest and the fact you can collate inspiration. The only downside is I can often end up with too many ideas and don't know where to start. You can find the link to my Pinterest in the top right hand corner, please feel free to follow me.( and get absorbed in the Pinterest bubble for a while)

Then to make matters worse after completing it and being pleased with my crafting endeavours I forgot to take a photo before I delivered it! Doh! Although I did recreate it for a 30th birthday card and it looked similar to this ( I can tell you the second one was much quicker to make!) 

Here's a few of the other cards I made. 

They are not 'exclusively' made from Stampin Up! products but I thought I would share any way. I have got used to the quality of Stampin Up! Products and what they can produce. It is a novelty using different cardstock. I hope you like the concept and the colours. X

Design challenge

I was so please this week to have an inquiry from a lovely customer who found my page through Facebook. She sent an email asking if I could create a wedding card that incorporated tartan. This got the brain cells moving, as I imagined all the ways I could 'stamp' rather than buy some tartan papers. 

I also wanted to use colours that were more suitable for a wedding. This is the result I would like to share.

I used a combination of Sahara Sand, Wisteria Wonder and Basic Gray inks to layer the lines to gether to make a tartan pattern. 

I then finished the design with a combination of the Blended Bloom and 'Your Perfect Day stamp sets. 

I hope you like the design, I will share the technique I used to make the tartan with you in the next post. It's Easter here and I  am looking forward to a lovely Sunday dinner at mums with my family.... That's if we don't scoff too many Easter eggs first. Happy Easter everyone!

Gold Soirée

So yesterday I was asked if I could make an 'emergency' 60th birthday card. It's always nice to be able to make something for a friend in need.

I knew I wanted to use the beautiful Gold Soirée papers and I love the way they coordinate with Calypso Coral and Pistachio Pudding cardstock.

I made a trifold card out of one sheet of a4 card and used the papers on alternate sides. This gives the layered effect when it's closed. I finished this off with a flower from Petal Potpourri stamp set and matching punch. I hope you like!

Now to venture out and dodge these April showers! 

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