13 loves {2013}

It's the last day of the year and I've been a bad blogger this month but I couldn't let the month go by without one last post.

I loved Pam's concept of {13 loves} and joined in right away in January. I haven't been able to come up with a list every month but looking back, there are 7 lists of things that I loved in 2013. So I've decided to bring together my top 13 favourites for the year...

One

I got myself this gorgeous lipstick and it is indeed fabulous! Perfect pink to match your own lips!

two

One of the best photos ever. I was lucky enough to spend time with all my beautiful nieces and handsome nephew this year and could fill my list with photos of them. But this is just such an adorable photo, I will let it represent time with them all. Can't wait to spend more time with them in 2014.

three

A present brought back for me from far away travels. In Pink! Need to get to use it more. 

four 

Amanda Catherine Des Esty shop (here)

Still love these and they are still on my Etsy favourite list. I intend to get them for someone (or me!) next year. 

five

  

A big highlight of the year was a much anticipated concert, the first for quite some time, by one of my musical heroes for the last 30 years!  Nigel Kennedy is a genius and I was thrilled to be able to get tickets for the 2^nd row at his recent concert featuring Bach and Fats Waller – a really super combination, if a little unconventional. Actually, that is probably the best word to describe Kennedy himself… unconventional. Anyway, to get to the point, I got the chance to meet him after the concert as a signing had been set up. I was like a teenager and was thrilled to have a quick chat with him, have him sign my programme and grab a photo. It may not be the best, but one that makes me smile every time I look at it. 

Six

Scrapabilly online shop here

Back in the summer, I was invited to join the Scrapabillyhttp://www.scrapabilly.de/ design team - lucky me! Sylvia's shop is an amazing treasure trove crammed full of gorgeous stash and I'm delighted and honoured to have been asked, and so warmly welcomed, onto the team. Happy to have found a new scrappy home.

seven

Pinterest find (here)

Considering I am someone who doesn't have nice fingers (I'm a nibbler) or nails, I fall in love with a lot of nail varnishes. I didn't manage to track this one down yet but when I do, I know I will love it!

eight

Pinterest find here

So true, so true!

nine

Check out the Jingle Belles blog (here)

I'm a huge fan of the brains behind the Jingle Belles blog, Lauren and Stephanie. They are so inspirational and help us to stop the stress of homemade Christmas cards by inspiring us every week to create our pile of cards all the way through the year. I am excited to play along in 2014 and have that happy pile of cards ready to go again in December.

ten

These shoes which I spotted in the Marina Bay Shopping Mall, Singapore when I was there in December stole my heart. Every time I look at this photo, I fall in love all over again. 

eleven

My word just sort of came to me back in January and I promptly ordered a charm to remind myself of it every day. I've been working on it, quietly, in my own way through the year and am happy with the progress I made. 2014's word came to me early and I am ready to go with it as of now!

twelve

Counterfeit Kit Challenge (here)

I've been playing along with the Counterfeit Kit Challenge for nearly three years now and I love it as much now as I did back then. Love that I get to shop my stash, love that I have a pile of ready made mix and match products that are ready to go whenever I want to scrap, love the team and the awesomely creative girls over there. The Counterfeit Kit Challenge is an awesome idea and I'm thrilled to be part it. It makes me happy.

thirteen

This place. I love it. I miss Pam but hope she will come back to us sometime. I have some truly special friends over there and am thrilled every time a new layout hits the gallery. Join us {here}. We'd love to see you there.

And there you have it - the highlights of the 2013 from my {13 loves} lists. Of course, there was a lot else that I loved and was a part of throughout the year but this is quite a representative list all in all!

Even though this was originally Pam's idea, I've decided to carry on this idea in 2014 with {14 loves} which I hope to get posted on the 14th of every month. I'd love it if you joined in too.

Wishing you all a very good New Year celebration or "einen guten Rutsch ins neuen Jahr" as they say round here and thank you each and every one of you for visiting my blog. I appreciate every one of you and hope to be a more active blogger in 2014. Why not drop by and let me know how I'm doing.

Goodbye 2013... hello and welcome to 2014.

See you on the other side! 

Scrapabilly share #3

Just a quick one today to share the four simple cards I made with my Scrapabilly kit after I had finished my layouts.

A reminder of the gorgeous kit... (find it here)

There were two great sheets of cut apart items although I really was torn to use one side or the other! Sometimes it's clear that one side will be easier or will suit me more than the other but both of these cut apart sheets had great B-sides - the large polka dots and the gorgeously rich woodgrain. In the end, the polka dots lost out over the cute labels and tags and the woodgrain made an appearance as well as the A-side. Are you more of an A-sider or a B-sider? I think I'm right in the middle to be honest but that makes kits a lot of fun as I often have double the possibilities with the papers.

Anyway, here are my cards - as ever, I let the papers do all the work for me...

I added in those tiny alpha stickers for this play on the picture which I thought was so cute! 

The last of the ribbon and of the gorgeous floral paper on this one. I have to admit to adding in two sheets of green card stock to make the bases but I did end up with a full sheet of kit card stock extra (in kraft) which will be added in to the next kit that comes along.

There was a bunch of word strips and I thought it would be fun just to pile them up. The hearts could have been better positioned but never mind!

The background card stock isn't as blue as it looks here and I decided just to let this lovely word art speak for itself. Perfect a little romantic note or a "just to say hi" card to my bestie!

When I make cards, I try to make them simple and easy and not very complex. These were no exception. I ran up all four cards in less than an hour including indecisive time. Now I have a few more "just so" cards to use whenever I need them.

I could have gone on using this kit for a lot longer with the lovely designs and pretty colours. I'm a bit sad to be honest now that it's finished but there's always more paper on the way and Sylvia will always be tempting me with more lovelies so I'll try not to be too sad! Don't forget to check out the rest of the team either in the gallery (here) or their blog links (in the sidebar on the right). You won't be disappointed.

So, three posts in one week..... it's bound to be a bit longer until my next but then again, you never know!

What's on your Christmas list this year? I'm seriously thinking of a "to me" present of a Silhouette (in-joke courtesy of the Paperclipping Round Table last week!). What about you?

Scrapabilly share #2

Yesterday I shared the first two layouts I'd made from my Scrapabilly kit. You can find the kit {here} and the gallery {here} where the DT have shared their delights. You can also find links to the rest of the team's blogs over on the right hand sidebar. ⇒

Look at the gorgeous greens, reds and yellows which, when you think about it, is a great take on the classic Christmas combination of green, red and gold!

Anyway, I loved creating with these bright, happy papers and here are another two layouts for you...

I probably should add more journalling to this one. My granny adores DH and it's great to see her light up when we go to visit. There's a bit more to say than the few lines here - maybe I'll make a pocket under the main block.

Love these two alphas together

I've made myself too old! I have since changed out the 7 for a 6 and will complete the journalling as my list of things to do before my next birthday comes to me - idea courtesy of my internet bestie, Pam.

Ooo, just realised I added these little veneer stars that are back in the shop by popular demand {here} and some gold thread that I've had forever - no idea where it came from.

Back soon with a small set of cards I made with the leftovers from this gorgeous kit. Did you notice that I used a lot more paper per layout than usual? I just wanted to show off those blocks of colour and design which meant that I got fewer layouts than usual out of the kit. I think if I'd been doing my usual style pages, 7 or even 8 pages would have been no problem at all.

Scrapabilly share #1

The Scrapabilly kit is out and I'm back to show you what I created (over the next couple of days). You can check it out {here} and while you are there, don't forget to pop into the gallery {here} and see what the team's come up with. You won't be disappointed :-)

Full of pretty papers from Crate Paper, it was so lovely to come up with pages that had nothing to do with Christmas! There's been a lot of festive projects being created recently so what a great way to change it up.

The gorgeous brads and the frame overlays were a particular highlight for me! I have to confess to buying the second alphabet as an add on to the kit and then also added in an October Afternoon Mini Market alphabet sheet {here} as well as a little extra twine {here} and a piece of vellum for a journalling pocket. (All purchased from Scrapabilly).  The only other thing extra was a little mist for my usual splatting.

I'm going to share two layouts with you today and I'm thrilled to see such recent photos from the last couple of weeks used on them. That makes me feel really good to get these moments captured.

Look at that sweetie! I loved using all these random little tags and cut apart elements for my banner.

There were so many little pieces in the kit that I could use to build up my usual clusters across the page.

Come back tomorrow for another couple of layouts and please drop by my fellow Scrapabilly team members using the links on the right.

Wednesday Wonderland #21

*sniff, sniff*

I'm a bit sad today as this is the last Jingle Belles prompt of 2013. When they are not inspiring us with their amazing creations, I really miss those girls! Fingers crossed that they'll be back for lots more fun in January.

For their last prompt "Thank You... Thank You Very Much", they asked us to create Thank You cards. What a great idea to get ahead with those Thank You cards already. I send loads so this was a challenge I was determined to find time for.

I ended up making something so very simple using some off-cuts from the paper I used for my Jingle Bells shadow frame - quite appropriate somehow! Not a brilliant photo but you can find the original here on Kerri Bradford's blog. I love how mine turned out.

Created using the Kerri Bradford Silhouette die-cut. Totally copied from her site but isn't it fab!

Anyway, I used the scraps, backed them up with some Studio Calico papers and added a very small thank you sentiment. Three cards, 30 mins. Now, I LOVE that!

Now, all that's left is for me to say a huge THANKS to the Stephanie and Lauren over at Jingle Belles for another 12 months of amazing inspiration, motivation and fun. My stack of cards makes me smile nearly as much as you two do!

November Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Welcome again this month to the member Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog hop! Happy to see you here.

Hopefully, you've arrived here via newcomer Milica who I am sure delighted you with her pretty creations. If you've landed here directly, you can get to the beginning of the blog hop by heading over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog.

This month, we've been challenged to create a little mini-album to share a bit of thankfulness. "So Thankful Mini Album:  Create a mini album sharing what you are thankful for!"

I don't make many mini-books anymore, mostly because I don't have space for them all rather than not liking making them but this is the second one I've made in the last month and that reminded me how much fun they can be.

This time, I kept it really simple - just 8 pages, minimal decorations and a few words per photo - the dimensions are 4" x 4". But it still captures a few of the people who have come to visit this year. Living away from my family and friends, I am so thankful that people still like to visit. And of course, my husband is the one person in my life I am most thankful for which is why he gets two pages!

This little book reminded me how quick and easy a mini-book can be and I bet I'll be trying this out again. Of course, uploading these photos, I've realised that I used the word "grateful" on all the journalling spots rather than "thankful" from the cover. I will no doubt change those out. Now that I've noticed it, that will drive me nuts!

Why not make your own thankful minibook using your Counterfeit Kit and then share will us over at this month's Mr Linky - we'd all love to see your creations.

Thanks for dropping by. Be sure to leave me a comment to let me know you were here. It's always great to hear from you. If you haven't visited everyone on the hop or you got lost along the way, here is the full list.

CKCB  http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com/
Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk

Valerie http://myrainbowcoalition.blogspot.com/

Dawn http://www.dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com

Cindy http://www.cindyscreations-cinmfoster.blogspot.com/

Angela http://colestoucan.blogspot.co.uk

Leslie http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com

Tricia http://triciasimmons.blogspot.com

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com

Milica http://milicaradulovic55.blogspot.com

Lisa H http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com