Out With The Old - In With The New

Merry Christmas

Wishing all my readers a very merry & restful Christmas.  Thank you to my lovely (better organised) blog friends who sent me Christmas cards.  I promise to {try to} be better prepared next year!

to all my readers

We'll be enjoying our Christmas dinner this evening, waking up with stockings in the morning (assuming Santa reckons we've all been good enough) and hopefully spending some real quality time with members of the family.  See you in a few days :o)

Five on Friday #7 (Search Terms)

Do you look at your blog statistics?
Blogger lists the search terms that people use to find my blog and it's fascinating to see what brings people to me!  Here are the most popular/weirdest/funniest 5 search terms:

Top of the list = Next {Michael} Crichton or {Michael} Crichton Next - I imagine these people are looking for Michael Crichton's next novel, but come here because I read a book of his called "Next" which I included in my logging and reviewing of books during the year.

Pricked Extreme Embroidery is an odd thing to search for, but I guess that there is plenty of stitching on paper, including some string art, on here.

Helen Hunt Wearing Overalls is just about the weirdest search term ... I have NO idea how they got to me with that one at all!  Trouble is, by writing this today, my blog will come up again and again when Helen's stalkers need their overall fix ... and be disappointed yet again!

Speaking of disappointments, searchers for lego 6075 instructions were left high and dry when they popped over from Google, because while I do still have the instructions for 6075 somewhere upstairs, that's not what's published on this blog; instead it's the story of why we eat our turkey on Christmas Eve!

hand maed crad xmas - you can obviously still find my blog posts on my hand-made Christmas cards even if you can't spell :o)

That just leaves me time to wish all of my lovely readers (and Helen's fans as well)

a very merry Winter Solstice

and hope that the Mayans simply ran out of space on their calendar!

How I Scrapbook At The CKCB

This month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog the Master Forgers are posting twice each.
I shared a page kit there and my page here yesterday.

My second post - about my scrapbook process - goes live today.  Do pop across and have a look.

Summer Lovin' At The CKCB

This month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog the Master Forgers (and some special guests) are sharing a year's worth of page kits.  My page kit, using up some of my ORIGINAL stash, is up today and here is the page made with it:

Another page for our Disney 2004 holiday album: we loved having a pool of our very own with our holiday villa.
I've had that lacy cardstock in my stash for a very long time but never known quite what to do with it ... a lot of the words are quite beach themed ... but then if you look close there's also "roadtrip", "city", "plane" ... so I decided that no one page would ever fit ALL the words and to just use.it.up!!  When a cybercrop class over on UKScrappers suggested using a cricut-cut "holey" sheet to show patterns behind, I knew just what to do:

Having picked sketch #228 from Creative Scrappers and rotated it, I placed my photos onto a piece of cardstock from the page kit, trimming to make one large mat for all four pictures.

I glued this to the lacy cardstock along with a couple of punched borders and then used foam squares behind the cardstock to raise the whole thing above the patterned paper background.  I backed the alpha stickers with plain white scraps to echo the lacy cardstock and put some buttons and washi tape on the borders to add interest.

Check out my kit details on the CKCB to see just how old my now-used-up stash is ... and I challenge YOU to grab some of your oldest stash and see what you can come up with.  Have fun.

Ten On The Tenth: Lighting Up

It's getting very festive around here and I was procrastinating browsing on Google & Pinterest when I spotted how many different sorts of Christmas lights there are out there:

Yummy Lights - with tutorials

Source: cupcakes-plain-and-fancy.com

Source: a-sparkley-silver-lining.blogspot.co.uk

Source: hungryhappenings.com

Crafty Lights - with tutorials

Source: kimberlychapman.com

Source: annemarieshaakblog.blogspot.co.uk

Source: realsimple.com

Source: lacefairy1 at flickr.com

Lights To Wear

Source: youreverydaydose.blogspot.co.uk

Source: desmoinespubcrawl.com via Jemma on Pinterest

and finally

Lights To Make You Smile

Have a look over at Shimelle's for more tens on the tenth :o)

We Have A Winner!

Congratulations to Alison - yours was the lucky name in the draw for a signed copy of "Gifts From Your Kitchen" - now just waiting for the giveaway copy to arrive here and then I'll post it out to you (I already have your address)!

For those of you who were unlucky the book is half-price on Amazon available on Amazon - and there's still time to add it to your Christmas wish lists!

December Is Different

Normally on the 6th I would be revealing my Counterfeit Kit in the monthly Master Forger blog hop.  However December is usually a bit different over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog  as people are generally busier with year-end activities, have less time to scrap or have other projects in mind.

Last year we Master Forgers all did posts on various December topics - mine were recycled gift toppers and thank you cards with bonus tutorials back on my blog here and here.  This year the Master Forgers are sharing a calendar's worth of monthly page kits and tips about the way they scrapbook!  It'll be my turn next week.

In the meantime don't forget my giveaway post here - a chance to win a signed copy of "Gifts From Your Kitchen" by Debbie Nicholls - you have until midnight Saturday 8th December ... and then I'll be back with a Pass The Book to share!

Coming Home To Something Yummy

Just over a week ago I blogged about something yummy to come home to as part of Jennifer's Frosty Festivities weekend event:  mini mincemeat muffins with a link to the Debbie Nicholas' recipe on Country Heart & Home.

Well Debbie has been in touch and is offering me a signed copy of her book "Gifts From Your Kitchen" (containing her "Christmas Muffins" and many other kitchen treats) to give away on my blog.
If you would like a chance to win, please let me know in the comments below before midnight on Saturday 8th.  I'm happy to post worldwide :o) Giveaway now closed.


While you're here you might like to see something else that my kids came home to ... back in 2004.  We were holidaying in Florida at Easter time and had a fortnight filled with theme parks, swimming and sight-seeing (with a little bit of craft shopping too).  On Easter Sunday we got up early to visit Typhoon Lagoon as we hoped a water park would be quieter than the theme parks were likely to be.  We had a lovely few hours there but eventually the crowds and the heat got too much and we decided to go back to our villa to cool off.  The children were amazed to find that the Easter Bunny had been to visit while we were out, hiding our plastic eggs (secretly brought with us from the UK) all over the house and keeping the treats inside the eggs nice and cool thanks to the air-conditioning!

The third challenge over at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog was to scrap a  tradition and these plastic eggs have been making an appearance chez nous every Easter for ... about 15 years!

The children have two egg colours each to hunt for ... pink and purple for Child No.3 obviously ... and sometimes the eggs contain clues to something yummy that is just too big to fit inside!  All good fun :o)

I've used more of my November Counterfeit Kit along with one of the sketches supplied for the UKScrappers weekly challenge.  The grey chevrons have been cut from a border made with my MS Garden Trellis punch.

This month's Sunday Story theme over at High In The Sky is "Coming Home" ... pop over to see how others have interpreted it and share a story of your own on that or, indeed, any topic.