COLD SNOW ~ ANOTHER FREAKING SCRAPPY CHALLENGE

Happy New Year everyone! 
I truly hope 2016 is filled with good health and happiness for everyone.
So first blog post and new challenge for 2016 and the challenge at AFSC  is ...... To create a layout of a winter scene or colour scheme. Seems a little strange to me in Australia as it is HOT HOT HOT here and sadly many states are suffering from bush fires. 
But a winter scene I did scrap. I cannot take credit for the photo my son took this of this years snow fall ( you can see more of his photography by clicking on the link)

Cold Snow

I have kept the layout quite clean and simple as I wanted the photo to shine.

I have added a feather and a angel , as I always tell my children that the angels are plucking the turkeys in heaven when it snows. The blue beads were from a Christmas Bon Bon. The silver mesh is from a challenge win and it doesn't show up well in the photo but the sparkly gems between the blue beads is a old clip on earring of a old aunts (hope its not worth millions lol )

Hope you join in this month with the challenge.

Love , Peace and Kindness
Mary x

OH CHRISTMAS TREE ~ CSI #186

Good morning , I hope everyone had a lovey Christmas and here's to a Happy , Healthy New Year.
Today I would like to share a layout for the challenge at CSI 

and this is my take

Oh Christmas tree

Evidence ~ Stars , ribbon, hanging ornament , wood 

Testimony    ~ I have journalled on a tag and tucked in the side of the photo.

The journalling says ~ The putting up of our Christmas Tree is a special family tradition. We come together as a family , share a meal and then put the tree up together. Our tree is not colour coordinated , or have perfectly placed ornaments, but decorations from when the children were at Pre school, the colouring in is very faded now and there are hand made Santa's with missing legs. We also each have a bauble with our name on it that we place on the tree , and we have a baubles that we put on the tree for family no longer with us. A essential is to play carols whilst putting the tree up . 

Thank you for calling by 

Love, Peace and Kindness

Mary x

CHRISTMAS ANGELS ~ BERRY 71 BLEU CHALLENGE

Hello, we are having some lovely , welcomed rain here today, I am enjoying listening to if fall .
 I would like to share my layout for the current challenge at Berry 71 Bleu 
The mood board is the traditional festive colours of Christmas

Christmas Angels

My two Grandchildren carrying out the tradition of putting the angel I made as a young girl on top of the tree . The angel is a bit worse for wear now, she has lost both her arms , but hey who needs arms when you have wings ! I am glad I have kept her, and I hope she continues to be handed down through the generations.

The green sequin bow is from my Mothers craft treasures. The "Noel" chippy I have added gold kindy glitz to is from StudioFourteen40 as is the flair & green and red sparkly washi in the right hand corner . Santa washi and green vine ribbon is from Craftqueen. The Kaiser chippy I have embossed.

Tina Ollett is the GD at Berry Bleu this month and I was inspired by her layout to join in. All the DT inspiration is well .... inspirational.  I think I shall like to join in more of their challenges.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Christmas and all things good in 2016 

Love, Peace and Kindness

Mary x

GLITTER IN HER HEART ~ SCRAP AFRICA

Hello on this hot, hot day in Oz. Too hot to do much, so why not scrapbook ! :)
I really love the new mood board at Scrap Africa , so I thought I would like to join in 

So pretty 
and this is my take

Stars in her eyes Glitter in her heart

I have lots of little jars of seed beads and various beads that were my Mum's , so I thought I would put them to use.

The silver thread with little colour bits was also amongst my Mum's treasures

The quote I think I came across it on Pinterest and I really wanted to use it on a layout of my Grand Daughter

I have written some journalling which is added to the back of the layout. The journalling   ~  says Amelia 2015
So proud to be your Nana
I love your sweet soul
You don't have a mean bone in your body,
Don't ever loose that sweetness and kind heart
You have grown into a beautiful young lady
Love you to the moon and back x
Photo taken by Winkipopmedia
Hope you are managing to stay cool in Oz , warm in Europe.
I recommend popping over and checking out Scrap Africa's blog , it is full of inspiration

Love , Peace and Kindness
Mary x

CHRISTMAS WISHES ~ OFF THE RAILS SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGE

Good afternoon !
Just because I should be doing other things, I am scrapbooking ! Oh well the mood board at Off the Rails Scrapbooking really appealed to me , so this is what happened

The gorgeous mood board

and my layout

Christmas wishes

The stars are from my friend Lizzy and it doesn't show up in the photo , but I added some Kindy glitz to them to make them a bit sparkly.
The Paper pin camera from StudioFourteen40 has a touch of yellow on the camera, it also doesn't show up that well in the photo.
The photo is of my daughter in law and my two grandchildren. Our family wish has come true in that Belinda is doing really well after completing treatment for Breast Cancer, so our family is  going to have a very sparkly, happy, joyful and thankful Christmas.
I would also like to wish those who pop by my blog a magical, joyful and peaceful Christmas and wishing you everything good for 2016

Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

SCRUFFY'S LAST CHRISTMAS ~ ARTastic DEC CHALLENGE

Hello !
The 15th of the month brings the second reveal from the DT at ARTastic. The challenge this month to use gold on your layout  and the inspiration is a Artwork  "Merry Christmas "by  Alice Ju

I went with the Christmas theme

Scruffy's last Christmas

For my gold I have used Gold Angel Wings and gold rosettes and gold satin seam binding.
The PP are some from a magazine that I have torn and layered .
It has been 10 mths since Scruffy left us and I still miss and think of him nearly every day.
Thank you for calling by, I hope you join in with the challenge and pop over to the ARTastic blog for some inspiration from the DT and I am sure they would love you to visit their blogs and leave some love.
Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

HELLO WINTER ~ SHOW US YOUR STUFF CHALLENGE

Good Evening !

Tonight I would like to share a layout for the new challenge at Show Us Your Stuff
The challenge is a sketch , which is ....

this is my take on the sketch

Hello Winter

I do love Reindeer's so I snuck a couple in here. The Chippy Reindeer is from StudioFourteen40 and I added gold Kindy Glitz, the flair is also from StudioFourteen40.

I had just received a lovely parcel in the mail with the Reindeer Paper , snowflake ribbon and washi a gift from a lovely pen friend in Ireland, so that is how the inspiration began , as I wanted to use these items in a way that I can always enjoy them .

The red PL card and Gold "Hello Winter" frame are  a instagram win from Natalie Elphinstone

My handmade items are the snowflakes, besides the two big vellum ones which are Heidi Swapp. I punched my snowflakes out and then covered them with Kindy Glitz for sparkle.

The Photo I took  from the train window travelling on the Flam Railway in Norway. The trip is so pretty.
The higher we went the thicker the snow got, at stages you could just see the roof on some houses and it even started to snow which was really lovely. These little houses looked like toy houses I thought.
Thanks so much for calling by
Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

HAPPY DAYS ~ CHALLENGE YOURSELF

Hello ! 
Today I would like to share a layout for the current Challenge at Challenge Yourself. 
The challenge is.....

It made me realize that I don't have many photo's of all of us together. When the kids were little I was the one usually taking the photo's and now they are grown up our middle son is usually taking the photo's as he is a photographer, so he always gets the job and it is also harder and harder to have everyone home at the same time
But I did find this photo which is of poor quality , but I really like it as we are all together , and camping was something that we did that was a lot of fun when the children were growing up, so lots of good memories are evoked when I look at this photo.

Adventure

I have kept pretty much to the sketch and kept the layout clean and simple.
Thanks so much for calling by, I hope you join in with the Challenge at Challenge yourself , they are a lovely bunch of girls.
Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

MERRY AND BRIGHT ~ ARCHISCRAPS DEC CHALLENGE

Hello, 
I am back again with a layout for the current challenge at Archiscraps
The inspiration

and criteria to add bling

Merry and Bright

I think the layout  looks much better IRL, funny how some layouts just don't photograph as good. The pic is my daughter ,I am guessing she is about 3 (should put dates on the back of photo's)  Photo's weren't as good  quality back then, but there is still something about a old photo I love . The Reindeer is from Craftqueen. The Silver word believe doesn't show up in the photo  on the tag . I have added some clear Bling sequins for my bling. I have also used lots of goodies from my win over at Archiscraps last month. There is silver mesh under my photo and the feather , fluffy twine and silver twine are all from the win, unfortunately it doesn't photograph so well, but I loved all of it.
Thank you for calling by and I hope you get a chance to get your bling out and play along this month.
Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

WANDER LUST ~ KRAFT PLUS CHALLENGE

Hello !

Today I would like to share a layout for the new Kraft Plus challenge which is a travel theme, so of course it caught my attention 

Part of the challenge is to use maps on your layout

Wanderlust

This year we were lucky enough to have an unexpected overseas trip. The photo is a statue at the Houses of Parliament and I came across a map I had googled before we left on directions to our accommodation, so I used this as the base of my layout. The wanderlust embellishment also features a map as does the flair and green washi tape. I may have gone a little OTT with this layout. Added some random stamping on the Kraft as well.

Thank you for calling by

Love, Peace and Kindness
Mary x

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME ~ DUSTY ATTIC CHALLENGE

Good Evening,
At last I can join in with a Dusty Attic Challenge as I acquired some Dusty Attic Chipboard :)
The Challenge

Some of you already know I had a lovely visit From Lizzy during the week, the girl knows I love Reindeer's and came bearing gifts of a beautiful Reindeer cushion, & that is what has inspired my layout.

There's no Place like Home

I cut the chippy in half to place in the opposite corners for balance and I have treated them with a bit of everything, Gesso, Gold silks paint and orange embossing powder.

Lizzy also gave me the gold doily and the PP. I have used a Reindeer Die Cut and painted it with the gold silks paint.

The verse I have used is from the Wizard of Oz ~ 
Close your eyes and tap your heels together three times and think to yourself there's no place like Home.

Thank you for calling by, I appreciate your comments

Love, Peace and Kindness

Mary x

XMAS BELLES ~ SKETCHY BOARD CHALLENGE

Hello,

I have been very lucky and spent the last couple of days with a visit from Lizzy. I have to say I am missing her company today. Despite LOTS of chatting, a walk, devouring lemon tarts we managed quite a bit of scrapping. 
I did this one for Sketchy Boards Challenge 

and the colour inspiration

and here is my take

Xmas Belles

Of course there is never all the fonts you require , so one must improvise . I used a 8 for the S in Xmas (thanks to Lizzy suggesting this) and a Z in Belles for the s . The star is from Lizzy, Washi tape & vintage image  from Craftqueen. I really love the Couture Creations vintage Die Cut ephemera. I made the flower from some lace.

This is me and my two favourite girls, my Granddaughter and Daughter.

Thanks so much for calling by.

Love, Peace and Kindness

Mary x