Advent fun continued! (WOYWW)

Not long to go now and I am possibly even more excited than Alex!  Today is his school nativity play in which he plays a traveller who has to say 'Bethlehem is far away'. Of course I was sat there with all the other parents bursting with pride at my little boy who spoke his line more clearly than anyone else.

That is why I am late in showing you my desk as part of WOYWW.  This is what it looked like yesterday evening not long before going to bed.  You will notice the chaos of Christmas papers and absence of my usual mug of tea...that is because my mug was sitting downstairs all washed up and ready for today! The chaos on my desk is a whole host of freebie papers that came with scrapbook magazine last year (and probably the previous year as well!).  I have decided to use them to make a mini scrapbook album of events that happened on the run up to Christmas this year.

This is the third page I have made so far using Bo Bunny papers and showcasing a rare picture of me (hugging Alex who is, as usual, pulling a very silly face!).  I am entering this into Kaboodle Doodles 'Christmas Anything goes' and the crazy challenge 'Christmas time'

The next page is of Alex meeting Santa last weekend.  I just love the panel that says 'Dear Santa, I can explain'!  I am entering this into SSSS 'giftspiration' (the whole album will be a gift for Alex and the page is about santa giving him a gift), My Time To Craft 'santa' and Lasting Memories 'be inspired by The Polar Express' (I was inspired by 'believe' - the background paper on my layout says 'i believe in santa).

Finally to finish I wanted to share this page from my faith album which is all about Advent.  On the lefthand side it is all about the things that Advent is not (stress, rushing, shopping, cleaning, cooking, a race to Dec 25th) and on the righthand side it is all about the things that Advent is...(expectant waiting, hopeful anticipation, and cheerful preparation of God coming into our lives).  Enjoy the rest of advent.
Love,
Caro
x

Surprisingly organised!

Sadly Alex was ill on Thursday and off school again on Friday.  This meant that I had two days off work and as a result have finished wrapping all the presents (except Alex's!) so I am feeling surprisingly organised as far as Christmas goes.  Just the food preparation to do and that can't be done until next weekend. 

We put up our new wooden crib this weekend which totally fascinated Alex...he spent a happy few minutes sitting contemplating it.

As a result I decided to make a mini scrapbook page using the photo.  I have actually decided to try and do an Advent scrapbook...there wont be a page for every day, but I will put the key events into it.  I am finally using some free Bo Bunny papers that I have from the scrapbook magazine as the basis for most of the pages.  This one also used a scrap of K&Co paper, and some gold card, gold peel offs and a little yellowy gold gem.  The text at the bottom is from John 1 v14 (The Message version) and seemed totally appropriate for the theme of the page.  The Nativity stamp is from Hobby Art and is probably my favourite Christmas stamp.  I am therefore entering this layout into Simon Says Stamp 'what's your favourite?', Crazy4challenges 'use one of your favourite holiday stamps', Flourishes Timeless Tuesday 'Christmas, but non-traditional colours', Delightful challenges 'very blingy' (lots of gold & sparkle here), Paperplay 'star', Creative card crew 'star' and crafty creations 'wise words' (you can't get much wiser than the Bible in my opinion).

It is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge and this time I chose the theme of 'last minute Christmas' and we have three different sponsors (Crafty Ribbons, Doodle Dragon & Paper Pretties). I was given 'Wolfie skating' by Doodle Dragon to use in my creation so I chose to continue with my Advent/Christmas preparation album by scrapbooking the images of Alex skating on the ice last weekend.  The papers, with the quote 'The most wonderful time of the year' help to actually turn this creation into something Christmas related!  I am also entering this into Aud Sentiments 'use a sentiment appropriate to the holidays',and Delicious Doodles 'Anything but a card'.  I hope you all have a lovely week and that the run up to Christmas isn't too stressful...only 4 more days of work for me! 
Love,
Caro
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Mary & Joseph come to visit! (WOYWW)

At church we have a little set of wooden figures; Mary, Joseph and their donkey, and throughout Advent they are travelling to different families, one each day, and it is our turn to host them.  Alex was so excited to go round to his friend Jacob's house to collect them and then to play with them at home where they are sleeping the night in his room before going onto a new family tomorrow. I'm not sure that a trip on a pirate ship was what the leaders at church had in mind when they suggested this, but there you go!

This is my desk as it was yesterday morning, no room for me to sit...Alex was busy making a decoration for his junk model tree out of Tim Holtz cogs.

Here is the completed tree with the decorated cog set at the top like a star, and a present underneith.  Perfect combination in my humble opinion!

This is my desk as Alex left it for my WOYWW entry...covered in bits and pieces with the cuttlebug to the left, some stamps that he was interested in besides it, the cog die that he used and my berol pens along with the piece of paper that was used to protect my desk.  My mug is there ready for me to drink while tidying up the mess ready for work (I work from home on Tuesdays).  My desk today is rather empty and boring hence me showing the mess Alex made with it instead.

I have also been busy with my Faith book and this double page spread was based on an evening I went to at Ecclesall Church last week.  I finally managed to journal it.  The evening was all about using scripture and God's word to protect your mind from all those negative thoughts that creep in, in essence about taking every thought captive.  There was an activity that we did with umbrella's hence the computer graphics I generated for the left-hand page and the righthand page contains my thoughts and some illustrated scriptures.

I have pretty much finished with Christmas preparations (apart from wrapping presents) but I did need a couple more cards so here is a quick and simple Christmas card I made using Cosmo Cricket paper and a little wooden snowman.  The paper is red and a pale green (not the usual bright green) so I am entering this into Kaboodle Doodles 'use the colour red', CCC 'Merry Christmas' and Speedy the Fox and friends 'red & green' challenges.
That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Christmas decorations!

Well we have had a wonderfully Christmassy weekend full of anticipation as to what's to come!  Yesterday we put up our tree and decorations much to Alex's delight. 

In the afternoon, although it was freezing cold, the sun was shining, so we wrapped up nice and warm and went to our local park only to discover that there was a huge sheet of ice on it.  This turned out to be a source of great joy and fun as we spent a happy 45 minutes sliding on it...knee slides

and spinning stunts from Alex, and a rather more cautious upright slide from me!

This morning it was the toy service at church.  Lots of children bringing loads of toys for those who don't have any, combined with a lovely message of giving.

To finish off the lovely Christmassy weekend, at the indoor play area I took Alex to see Santa (a rather young a skinny one, I might say) which he was delighted with, so all in all we had a lovely weekend.

As part of our Christmas decorations Alex made this little Christmas house, all by himself...he refused to let me help him!

He saw the ones on the Simon Says Stamp and Show blog and decided that he wanted to have a go at making one...I gave him the box, card, wrapping paper, selotape and glue and let him get on with it and this is what he came up with.  I am entering this into the SSSS 'house rules' and Freshbrewed 'Christmas'

This is my latest Christmas card, made with white embossing over a white background and then a splash of red with the red snowflake ribbon.  I am entering this into CCCB 'photo inspiration challenge (I took the colours as my inspiration), Tuesday Throwdown's 'white Christmas', Simon says stamp 'snowflakes', Aud Sentiments 'anything goes with a Christmas sentiment' and Stampin for the weekend 'let it snow'.
That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Christmas card frenzie! (WOYWW)

In some ways it is not hard to guess what is on my desk today!  It is covered with copies of our Christmas letter which I am in the process of folding, and to the back you can see the already addressed envelopes, and in the wooden tray to the left of the desk are all the cards I have made. The pen is there ready for me to write the cards and I am being fortified by a large mug of tea!  Why am I showing you my desk in its state of organised chaos?  It is as part of WOYWW, the brain child of Julia, where we all get to nosey into each others work space.  Take a look and join in with us all!

This Christmas card is my entry into this weeks Less is More 'red and green' challenge. It was made using free paper and red card, and a spotted red Christmas tree embellishment which I was given for my birthday! I am also entering this card into Stampin for the weekend 'use some texture' as the embellishment is corrugated.

This second card I am entering into Kaboodle Doodles 'circles' challenge as the wreath is stamped into a circle shape and PTW 'anything goes' challenges.

Finally I am entering this card into My Time To Craft's 'snowman' challenge, Paper play 'green, pink and cream' colour challenge, and Crazy4Challenges 'snowman' challenge.
That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Advent is here!

It is Advent and time for lots of Christmas preparation and fun.  Yesterday we went to the Kelham Island Victorian Market and had a wonderful time pottering round the little stalls...I didn't buy much, but did very much enjoy looking.  Then today we met up with my brother and his family in Milton Keynes (about half-way between both of our houses) and the boys had a fantastic time playing together at the huge indoor play area there while the grown ups had a wonderful catch up session. A wonderful start to Advent.

It is also time for another Quirky Crafts challenge, this time set by Diane, which is Christmas tags.  I went for simple tags that can be used for presents. They are all one layer, printed out on the printer, cut to size, coloured with promarkers and then edged with distress inks, and finished off with Christmas ribbon which was curled using scissors. This first set of three used our sponsors, Paper Pretties, digital images: 'wrapped up Rudolph', 'Oh tiny tree' and 'Claus'. The sentiment was also from Paper Pretties, and round the edge I stamped some Holly leaves (a freebie stamp from a magazine). I am entering these into Stampavies 'Anything but not a square', Pixie Dust's 'Winter holiday creations' and Fussy & Fancy's 'I love Christmas' challenge.

The second set were made in exactly the same way using our second sponsor's, Doodle Dragon Studio's, images coloured with promarkers and highlighted using pearlescent glue. The blue distress ink was highlighted with silver snowflake stamps (Hero Arts) and edged with silver ink (not sure how well the silver shows up in this photo mind you!). I am entering these into the Simon Says stamp 'Anything goes and CTT 'snowflakes' challenges.  That is all from me for now.  Have a lovely week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

What happened? (WOYWW)

What happened to this week?  I can't believe it is Wednesday already!  Thank you all for your messages of support last week...everything went well at work.  I have spent the past 10 months putting together a new Masters course at the University where I work and I finally received all the approvals so the course is now live and open for applicants!  We just have to wait and see if anyone applies now.

This weekend Alex and I braved the wet weather and headed into Sheffield city centre for the Christmas market and the lights...he wasn't sure about the Doctor Who stuff,

but was very impressed with the shark in the fountains.

As it is Wednesday already here is my desk which I am sharing as part of WOYWW.  It is remarkably empty at the moment (the result of working from home yesterday). To the very left is a pile of Christmas papers and embellishments with an even larger pile on top of my smash book.  My mug is half-full of lovely hot tea, and you can see my Christmas tapestry stamps at the back of the desk alongside some others that need cleaning, as well as my latest card and a pencil!

This is the card that was on my desk which i have made for Less is More's 'Glammer & Glitz' challenge.  I am also entering it into All Sorts 'Bring on the bling', FTT 'gold or silver' (gold in my case) and SSSS 'project with heart' - the gold charm is a heart shape.

My next card was very simple, a free patterned paper mounted on red card, and then on the base white card and embellished with a red and white corrugated cardboard tree.  I am entering this into Delightful challenges 'red and green', Kaboodle Doodles 'stripes or polka dots' (there are both), and Ooh La La 'spots or dots' challenges.

My next card uses papers and images from Crafty Individuals with a little hand drawing in the corners.  I am entering this into paperplay 'sweet angel' and Delicious Doodles 'something that flies' challenge.

Finally I made this card using a Purple Onion corner swirl stamp, a sparkly green tree stamp and two different sized gold stars.  I am entering this into DCM 'twinkle twinkle little star' challenge.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone and I will try and be a bit better about visiting this week.
Love,
Caro
x

Stress! (WOYWW)

As usual Alex borrowed my desk before school yesterday morning to create a 3D robot with my help.

Here is the final product -we didn't have time for the arms!

I am feeling somewhat stressed today...I have to finalise all corrections for all the paperwork for the main work project I have been working on all year, and it has to be done by lunchtime!  No pressure then!  This is why my desk looked like this yesterday during the day, once Alex had finished with it...rather boring and covered with work stuff. Why am I showing you my desk you may ask?  It is to join in with a fascinating blog hop at Julia's entitled 'What's on your workdesk Wednesday'...pop over and check it out.

I did take a little time off yesterday evening, which is why it is now looking like this...somewhat more creative and interesting. My smash book is off to one side, and the two latest Christmas cards are sat in the centre with various Christmas stamps shoved to the back.  My mug is sadly nearly empty of tea, but as I am now at work (this post is on a timer - I hope) I will have a fresh mug in my hand by now!

The latest page of my faith smash book is quite simple...When I saw the background paper I thought of two verses from the Bible 'There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens' from Ecclesiastes and 'Be still and know that I am God' from Psalm 46:10.  I decided to do type out each verse, with a little explanation as to its meaning, and then a prayer related to the explanation and verse.  I surrounded each of those with a mixture of 3 different leaf stamps, in three different colours, and finished it off with a gold leaf in the bottom righthand corner of each panel. 

I have also made some Christmas cards.  The first one used two pieces of white card, one embossed with a snowflake pattern, some bright red snow flake ribbon and pearls.  The sentiment is stamped onto white card, then layered onto red card and then stuck onto the background with foam pads so that it 'pops up' from the background.  I am entering this card into Speedy Fox 'Pop it up', PTW 'ribbons and pearls', and Creative craft crew 'anything goes'.

The second card used two Cosmo cricket papers, cut out with two different die cuts.  I then added the wooden snowman embellishment, three little pink star stamps in the corner, some stitching detail and the sentiment.  I am entering this into Less is More 'hardware' (I hope wood counts), Crafty cardmakers 'more than one punch/die cut' and stampin for the weekend 'stitching'. 
That is all from me for now.  Have a great rest of the week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

Fun weekend.

It has been a lovely and happy weekend...Street dance followed by shopping, lunch and a fun walk through the autumnal woods yesterday, and then church this morning and a play area with friends this afternoon.  Perfect!

Crafting wise it is time for another Quirky Crafts challenge set by Cazzy 'Come to the Quirky Dark side' which means no cute images and using dark colours.  We have two sponsors this time so please go over and check the challenge out.  I was given 'Medusa' from the Stamping Boutique to work with so I coloured her with promarkers with the snakes in her hair coloured in red with sakura stardust added on top to make them 'pop' a little (it doesn't show up too well in the photo sadly). I used Hot off the press papers for the background, layered up to frame medusa. I then heat embossed red round the edge. I then added a black gem to the bottom left, and a tiny one on her sash and in the centre of the flower at the bottom. Finally I added the two 3D mulberry flowers and the ribbon. I am entering this tag into PTW 'flower power', and Crazy4challenges 'create a tag' challenges.

The next card was made for Less is More's 'hardware challenge', in this case the 'hardware' was a metal stocking charm.  The main image was actually a sticker from Bo bunny and the stamps were from Crafty Individuals. I am also entering this card into All sorts 'its a gift' as there are lots of gifts featured on the card and Penny's challenge 'Anything goes'.  That is all from me for now.  Have a great week everyone.
Love,
Caro
x

midweek chaos (WOYWW)

Yes! It is that time of the week again where I get to show you Alex crafting at my desk before school, except today's picture is slightly different as this time he is sat on my chair modelling the mask he made! The reason for the slightly moody face is that apparently he was being a ninja and 'ninja's don't smile mummy!'

Here is my desk as part of WOYWW as it was late yesterday afternoon in the midst of making a retirement card for a work colleague.  You can see the sequin waste I was making honeycomb patterns through by stippling with a brush, my craftmat, some adirondack ink, a pile of work hiding underneath it and the distress ink pads (very dull!), my mug of tea (in need of a re-fill), a compass (used to help me drawing and cutting those hexagons) and various other crafting detritus!  Hiding at the back next to the mug is the most exciting thing on my desk at the moment - that wonderful box of bits from JoZarty - I have rummaged through several times and keep spotting new things each time - so much fun! You may also be able to see a cute charm hanging down which was included as a present with the box. Thanks again Jo!

This is the completed card. Sue is bee keeper and runner hence the images on the card.  I am entering this into OLL 'someone special' challenge as Sue is a special friend as well as a colleague, and into MTTC 'vintage' challenge as all the images are vintage.

I have continued to work on my faith smash book and this lastest page is all about God's strength.  With Alex being slightly hyperactive, and Tim's illness added to me working full time, I often feel tired and as though things are overwhelming me slightly (such as housework, shopping, cooking etc), yet in the Bible there are lots of references to God's strength being sufficient.  I have to learn to lean on God's strength more and more in my weakness and this page which is full of Bible quotes is designed to remind me of this.  As well as the Bible quotes there is one of Alex's drawings (God makes me strong in the dark), and on the righthand side my drawings to remind me that God makes me stronger than I think.
That is all from me for now. Have a great week everyone.
God Bless,
Love,
Caro
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