SMASHing time!

Hi All

It has been a while! We got back from Canada on Sunday….strange to think that I was in Michaels craft store this time last week . We had a fabulous time away. We saw so much so it was exhausting, but I now have lots to SMASH about! Scroll down for a few of my fave pics from my hols-I won’t bore you all with the details but some of the highlights were visiting the beautiful Rockies, seeing a bear walking along the road (!), braving the Capillano Suspension Bridge and of course visitng Michaels Craft Shop! Canada is definitely somewhere we will return to, especially as Steven wants to try his hand at climbing a mountain…eek!

However, it is nice to be at home, lazing about, drinking proper tea! Lol! We were also hankering after a roast dinner so looking forward to that at the weekend…yum! Anyway, getting back to SMASHing! I managed to get a bargain green SMASH book from Walmart and I have already started documenting our trip. Below you will find my first page all about the flight and our first day. It was the first time I had ever flown so quite a momentous occasion for me! Hope you like it-I am trying not to worry about the layout of this book, I am truly going to SMASH it all in!

It isn’t very colourful though…mmm…may continue adding to it. Here is my second page so far, a work in progress! Want to print some piccies off for this one I think.

Hope you like them. I love the background papers in the green book, they fit really well with our trip as they contain coastal views, trees and mountains!

Here are a few of my favourite pics from our hols……

The beautiful Lake Louise-the water was just stunning!

Me and hubby at the top of Sulphur Mountain in Banff.

Gorgeous stop off on our way to Jasper.

Can you spot the bear?! On the roadside on our way to Jasper.

Lynn and John (my in-laws who took us to Canada) on an actual glacier! Think this is a lovely picture of them both!

A view of Vancouver from one of my favourite places, Granville Island.

The cutest little sea otter in Vancouver aquarium.

One of the grizzly bears on top of Grouse Mountain (They were in an enclosure-not sure I would have liked to have met these two on the side of the road!)

Back to reality now Isn’t too bad, had a lovely Christmas crafting day yesterday with my best friend Becky. Will upload my makes over the weekend…going to do a little more today whilst watching Murder She Wrote! My guilty pleasure

Hope you are all well and thanks for looking. Will try and do some blog hopping over the nest few days and visit you all.

Hugs
Arline
xx

** LINK TO BLOG HOP-CHRISTMAS CRAFTING **

 

Here is the blog hop post you may be looking for . Don’t forget there is also a DT call open until 31st July! Just e-mail christmascrafting@hotmail.co.uk if you are interested. Newer posts will be found below this one.

Arline

xx

Couple of cards and a reminder!

Hi All

Hope you are all well. Finally, the summer has arrived and I am free from school for 6 weeks!! Woop! Might even get time to do a bit of crafting! I am off to Canada on Thursday for 18 days….can’t believe it! Tis also the first time I have flown…eek…hoping that all will be well! I am hoping to do a bit of Smashing whilst away, or at least gather bits and bobs ready to use when I return. Sure I will have lots of piccies to bore you with too!

Before I started packing, my friend Becky came round on Saturday and we had a little play with the new Crafter’s Companion Mulberry Wood CD Rom. First time I had played with it and the images are so cute! My first card I would like to enter in to the Crafters Companion challenge this month which is ‘Ho Ho Ho Christmas’. This is one of the very cute images from the CD of Santa and I have added a little Stickles just to give it a bit of sparkle.

My second card is another of the super cute images from the CD. Love how the image builds up in stages! This was originally in a frame and I cut the four images up to make it fit a square card.

Also need to remind you about the festivities over at Christmas Crafting this month. Due to DT holidays, we have decided to extend the blog hop and challenge until 31st August. Please pop on over and take a look. You can win prizes from Little Claire, Bugaboo, Robyn’s Fetish, Whoopsi Daisy and My Mum’s Craft Shop! The challenge is ‘2 or more folds’ and remember, we are a Christmas challenge blog, so your creations need to be of a Christmas theme. Hope you can join us!

Will blog again when I return and will try and do a bit of blog hopping! Apologies for not coming to see you for a while…promise I will catch up!

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Arline

xx

Challenge # 13–Two or more folds. Birthday celebrations/blog hop/DT call!!

 

Well, lots going on over on our Christmas Crafting blog this month! It has been a whole year since we started our little challenge blog and we are still going To celebrate, we have our new challenge as always, a blog hop and a DT call-details are later on in this post.

The new challenge this month is:

Two or more folds

We want to see your Christmas cards/projects that have two or more folds in them….whether it be an easel card or more adventurous stepping combination! Here is my attempt this month:

I decided to use a decoupage sheet I have had for ages! Raided my box and I think this is a La Pashe design. Really love the traditional images. Hope you like it. It would be lovely to see you join in with us this month, pop on over and get some further inspiration from our design team.

Now onto our blog hop…

This month we are celebrating our first birthday over at Christmas Crafting-where has the time gone! Thanks to all of you who have taken part in the last 12 months and we hope we can count on you for your continued support. As part of our celebrations we have decided to have a blog hop around our very talented Design Team! We have four prizes up for grabs so definitely worth taking part! If you have arrived here from SARA’s blog then you are hopping in the right direction. If not then please return to the Christmas Crafting blog to start again.

All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning one of these fabulous prizes is to visit each blog in order, leaving a comment as you go, and then returning to the Christmas Crafting Challenge blog and leaving a final comment letting us know what you love about Christmas. On 1st August we will randomly draw four comments to win the prizes.

To continue with the hop, you now need to return to the

Christmas Crafting blog

and leave your final comment about Christmas. GOOD LUCK!

DT Call

If that wasn’t enough, we are also putting out a DT call for two more members to join us. All of the details on how to apply are on the Christmas Crafting blog so pop on over if you are interested.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Arline

xx

A little bit of Humphrey…

Hi All

Last day of freedom today so I decided to make a couple of cards! I decided to use this little Humphrey stamp today to make a Father’s Day card for my Father-in-Law. Love Humphrey, he is such a cutie! I’d like to enter this into the Sketch Saturday challenge this week, a fab sketch girls, I hope you don’t mind me altering the three items from the bottom to the side! Thanks! I’d also like to enter it into the Crafter’s Companion challenge which is ‘Embellish it’, I cannot let a card be made without embellishing it with some card candi, I’d also like to enter it into the Papertake Challenge which is ‘Anything Goes’ with an optional challenge of ‘Father’s Day’ and finally into the Totally Papercrafts challenge which is ‘Doodle it’. I have doodled around the edge of the image and sentiment, and inside.

I was delighted to be in the top three today at Winter Wonderland. Thanks ladies…made me smile this morning My next card is for the Winter Wonderland challenge this week which is a Photo Inspiration challenge. I always struggle with these ones but I hope that my card fits the bill! I took the colour, blue (although it looks turquoise on the piccie…I assure you it is blue!) and silver, and the baubles (on tree on top of igloo) from the photo…hope that is ok. I have made a mini easel card and have used this really cute LOTV image.

That is it for me today. Back to work tomorrow so who knows when I will be back! Lol! Only a 6 week half-term…just hoping Ofsted don’t decided to come…would like a quiet term…winding down for the summer. Fingers crossed!

Hope you are all well.

Thanks for looking.

Hugs

Arline

xx

A SMASHing good time once again!

Hi All

Well, I managed to do a little work today before getting distracted by my SMASH book…got some lessons planned and reports written so I was a good girl for most of the day!

Here are a few pages I have made over the last couple of days. Please scroll down to see my London and Eurodisney page if interested.

The first page I have for you is one that I have completed today. I decided that the diamond pink page in my SMASH book was calling out for some of my Hen party pics! It was definitely a pink and girly evening so seemed to fit it well!

Apologies for the slightly blurred picture! My next page is one about a trip to Canada that I am going on in July. I have popped some piccies of the things we are hoping to do whilst we are there, hoping I may be able to tick them off when I get back!

On Tuesday we went into Manchester and I visited Paperchase. I bought some lush postcards and one among them was a Paddington Bear one. It got me thinking of the TV shows I used to love as a child and so I really enjoyed making this next page!

Can you recognise any?! My final page to show you is one I have completed in my Wedding SMASH book. We were lucky enough to have our dream venue for our big day and so I had to make sure I dedicated a whole page just to the beauty of the place. It is called The Ashes in Endon, Staffordshire and is just stunning. My photos are in sepia as that is my theme for my book but I still think it looks really pretty

That is all for now. Really enjoying SMASHing at the moment. Seems to have taken over my cardmaking a little! My red book is getting so full now that I may need a SMASH band to keep it all together! I have also been working on my ‘Bucket’ list so watch this space…!!

Thanks for looking.

Arline

xx

Some more SMASHing…think I am addicted!

Hi All

Had a go at another spread in my SMASH book today. A few years ago we went to Eurodisney for my Mum’s 50th birthday. We had a fab time and have lots of fabulous memories. I really enjoyed SMASHing about it and have some more piccies that I may pop in later too.

Love the bright colours Disney things have, makes the page look so cheerful! Hoping we are able to go again soon so I can have another holiday to SMASH about!!

Hope you like it. Am working on a new blog that will tell of all of my SMASHing adventures! Going to try and keep this one to cardmaking and baking.

Thanks again for looking.

Arline

x

206 days till Christmas…!

Hi All

Second post in one day…I am doing well! I have been feeling in the Christmassy mood over the past week or so, so I thought I’d make a couple of Christmas cards. My first card is using a super cute Tiddlywinks digi stamp. I have also used some ‘First Edition’ Christmas paper which is lush….this patchwork one is sooo nice! I’d like to enter this card into the I Love Promarkers challenge this week which is ‘Digi stamps’.

My next card and final one for today is using one of my new LOTV stamps. I’d never seen this stamp before and I found it as I was trawling through their gorgeous collections! I have also used my First Edition Christmas papers on this card, this holly glittery one is lush. I have also used a Little Claire sentiment. I’d like to enter this into the Winter Wonderland challenge this week which is ‘Holly’ and the Lili’s Little Fairies Challenge which is ‘Anything Goes’.

That’s me done for today. I am busy watching Downton Abbey relaxing…so nice not to have to think about work for a little while. I am also going to bake tomorrow and make me and the hubster a little Afternoon Tea to celebrate the Jubilee! Looking forward to it…got a few new bits and bobs to have a play with so will post some piccies if all goes well tomorrow.

Hope you have had a nice day and enjoy the Bank Holiday weekend!

Hugs

Arline

xx

SMASHing time in London!

Hi All

Had a bit of a lazy day today and so I decided to do a bit of crafting this afternoon. The other day I bought some of the new London collection from Kanban, so I thought I’d get started on my London page in my SMASH book!

Here is the end result! We love going to London and so have loads of piccies. I decided to make one side a collage and the other is focused on Harrods. I absolutely adore the Christmas shop (being a Christmas nut!) and we have started a tradition visiting in the October half-term. Love the big teddies too…Steve gets a bit spooked by them though! Lol!

Here is a close up of the two pages…loved the Union Jack card that you can just about see on the collage page, and the die cut taxi from Kanban.

I was thinking about putting some Christmas embellishments on this page but wondered if it would be too much…what do you think?

Hope you like it, would appreciate any feedback you have. Am still new to SMASHing! I’m a bit stuck with my wedding one at the moment, I think I need to stop worrying about it and go with the flow…think I am trying to make it too perfect! Will perhaps have a go later in the week.

Thanks for looking…some Christmas cards coming up shortly!

Hugs

Arline

xx

Well blog…it has been a while!

Hi All

What a mad few weeks I have had! Work has been mad as it is exam/coursework time and so I have had loads to do. I have also been very busy planning two surprise weekends for my hubby’s 30th birthday! Will tell you more about that later on….

Firstly, we have a new challenge over at Christmas Crafting which is to use purple on your cards. Here was my DT card for this month using one of the fab Sassy Studio designs. They have kindly sponsored us this month and you can win 4 of their digis!

Hope to see you joining in with us this month

Right, now to hubby’s 30th! It has been driving me mad having so many secrets from him….was worried I’d put my foot in it! The weekend before his birthday I surprised him with his present from me which was a Driving Experience where he got to drive five supercars! He had a fab time and this is my fave photo from the day!!

We then went out for a surprise meal with his parents….then the next day he went and climbed a 70 foot wall! Something he was desperate to do before he was 30! Steve is the dot at the top!

I don’t know about him, but I was exhausted by the end of the weekend! For his actual birthday he went indoor skydiving!! Haven’t really got any good photies of that but another action packed day, with another big surprise meal with family and friends! We didn’t have a photo taken just the two of us but here is one of us with our friend’s daughter…she is so cute!

A fab time was had all round and I was exhausted…I felt about 50!! Hubby had a fab time though and that was the main thing. For my 30th next year I am hiding under my duvet…eek!

Finally, here is the card I made for him-promise I will stop boring you with it all now!

He is a massive gamer so this was a perfect image for him!

That is it for now, thanks for looking and now it is half-term I hope to do some more smashing and even do some more cards. I am away for over two weeks in the summer so might need to get cracking with my Christmas cards!!

Happy crafting

Hugs
Arline

xx