Pumpkins and Christmas pages....what a combination. I'm either too early for one or too late for the other!

It might be cold and frosty but at last the sun is shining. "YAY "So today Rebel and I ventured outside to take some proper photos of my projects. Although I do apologise for the long shadows on them!!


I have added some numbers to my DDA pages, using a variety of fonts and chipboards, and have put the stickled felt tree on the front for now. There is no point putting the ribbon on the rings as I don't know how bulky the book will be when it's finished.

My finished page for the Crafting in Style November sketch challenge is of Ben in his Halloween Costume. I have also used Liz Webers sketch to host this months sketch challenge on The Paperparadise Forum although I can't see any players yet.......


The photos were taken a couple of weeks after halloween, but hey that's artistic liscensing for you and bad English weather prevented me on the 31st!!

I can't deny I struggled with this multi-pic layout but at least it's done. Melissa Frances papers and some punching, painting and distressing. .

Basic Grey letters painted and glazed. The tiny felt circles are from a car boot sale. I think they were for doll making?
These photos were taken in the early morning sun in the woods near my in-laws house and sad but true I did plan them in advance. Why else would I take a halloween costume in my suitcase in November!!
I flicked the larger flower with distress inks as it was a bit bland. I must get some Coffee coloured glimmer mist ASAP
Is this not the most gorgeous blog candy giveaway? Even more inspiring when you see the types of beautiful creations that saltescrap makes with them. Click HERE for your chance to enter. I know I for one would love to win that lot!

Enjoy the sun while it lasts because tomorrow the kids and I have to wrap up warm for a trip to a theme park to see Santa and the forecast is for frost all day!! .....brrrr.....Just like last year when we went!!

TFL xxx

This box came from a set of three from Lidle, they are really strong and covered in a nasty floral paper. So I set about making it nice and christmassy.
The blue snowflake is free with this months cardmaking and papercraft magazine. I only bought it for the freebies!! So if any one wants a mag......!!!

The "Merry Christmas" tag is from my Cosomo Cricket collection and has the "Do you Believe" on the flip side. The tag is removable so it can be displayed into the New Year too.The velvet flowers are Bazzil I think and the medium blue ones are Prima. Pearls from Mark Richards and Prima "Caught in Crystals" for the bling.

I have used my 75p felt Tesco snowflakes again,and think they are quite a good colour match and the little flower centres are from my sweet MIL the florist.

I was quite pleased with it until I saw an advent calendar on Mo9cas blog which has 24 little covered match boxes in it!! Check it out HERE. I may have to rush out and buy those darned little boxes after all!!

Moving onto my December Album....I have found a site that has the cutest Calendars in Swedish but hey who cares!! I am a convert to the saying "God Jul" anyway. Mirabyll has clocks and shapes and journal spots all perfect for overlays and tags for your DDA. Click HERE to download some and don't forget to say thanks to her!!

Did you ever do anything really dumb and I mean really dumb? I bought this 49p thick felt tree from B&Q last night to put on or in my DDA and it was a bit dull and boring so I grabbed my stickles. Now knowing that one was empty I thought seeing as I am going to use a load I'll cut it in half and scrape out the old stuff.

DUH!!!! I cut the wrong one.......the problem with these things is they always feel half empty so I can't tell which is which and they seem to last forever even after I have bought another one!

So I stuck it back in but have a feeling that it'll dry up before I use it next!!

Talking of advent calendars my Sister in Law Helena has set up a new blog to showcase all Handmade Advent Calendars. It is only in its infancy but she already has some great stuff so check it out HERE and put it in your favourites as she will be adding to it all year round.

Tune in again for more mishaps!!!!!!

Love Ruth xxx

Journal your Christmas.....should I be bothered?

Well actually yes I ought to journal my Christmas because my photos never turn out on Xmas day how I expect them to.

When Georgia was 4 they were all blurry because I was ill and I only took 3 photos all day. Last year there were a few photos but they got lost when I hadn't backed them up. So I guess my best chances are to do more journaling and less pictures. Therefore I have joined the ranks of crafters who are falling for the sneaky tricks of Shimelle and Ali and getting us to write our thoughts down on paper!

I know the rules are that you are supposed to make your own album and I have in a way I just didn't use left overs because I'd spend all day trying to colour match and not have enough of the right supplies and it's not my fault I just can't help myself!!! You know I can't do eclectic so don't make me fight it!!

I started with 6 sheets of Cosmo Crickets Christmas Papers 12x12 from Tillys shop and 2 pages of matching tags and journaling sheets.

I cut each page in half and then took off 4 inches, creating 2 pages of 6x8 from each. Being double sided means I can get at least 24 pages into my album and space for more by using the left over strips for pockets and flaps.

So far there is no definite cover just a collection of pages that make the cover. This way you can see onto the next layer, (obviously no photos...and knowing my luck there probably won't be any!!).

The Cosmo Cricket tags are perfect to just add in between the larger pages, and are already printed with journaling ideas on each side.

Using the whole page of the 12x12 has left me with only the tiny bottom strips that you cut off, so I have chopped them up to make pull tags on the edges The leftover 4x6 is turned into a pocket or flipped over sideways and left as a flap and when placed horizontally can host a regular photo or 2 small ones or a sweet sentiment.
I may have nearly run out of Christmas embellishments but at least I still have my masses of co-ordinating alphabets from the QVC TSV in October and they are a perfect match!!
So now I need to make tags for the pockets, put numbers on each page and decorate a few more of them so I'm ready to go in 4 days........eeeeeeekkk!!!!!

Finally I would like to congratulate my friend Stephanie Garbutt who is the British 2008 Winner of Scrapbooker of the year!! Congratulations Stephanie you are so talented and you really deserve this. Please pop over to her blog and leave her a comment I'm sure she will be thrilled.

Ruth xxx

I give you my heart for Xmas.....

My local library controls it's own book budget and you can request any book you like!!
In fact they are quite grateful because it means more variety on their shelves. So I thought I'd try the system and it worked!!
I ordered Altered Art projects by Jill Haglund, I don't buy many books as I prefer to spend my money on supplies so I requested this book out of curiosity and because it had such good reviews.

I love Deb Trotter and Carlene Federers' work as they do the ultimate cowgirl themed altered shadow boxes and I have always harboured a secret desire to be a cowgirl!

These hearts were inspired by Audrey Hernandez you can see hers on the cover.

Helena gave some ultra thick chipboard and I mean ultra thick!! I had to cut the hearts with a craft knife. These are 2 in a series of Xmas decorations for a family member. I just need to get hold of some more suitable photos of the rest of my siblings and get them posted before the deadline! Yikes!!
The reverse side is covered in a Victorian style Xmas paper.

Thanks for looking and leaving such lovely comments.

Ruth xxx

Altered Russian Dolls

I found some Japanese Momiji Dolls the other day on this blog site and fell in love with them. I'm not normally one for collecting such cute things but these are so cool. They come in a tin which is gorgeous and have a little cavity in them for hiding notes. Plus they have added accessories like bags, notepaper and the most beautiful material, what more could a girl want!!

Kokeshi dolls are made out of wood and look a bit like Russian dolls with heads and hair, and it was a combination of these two that gave me the idea to make my own.

I bought these dolls nearly 3 years ago with the intention of altering them. I searched for really cheap russian dolls and found these ones at a Car Boot sale, they were painted with Sponge Bob Square Pants and in my opinion needed saving from such a fate!! I originally stamped some tissue paper and covered them with mod podge but I was never happy with the result.


Meet from left to right Yoko Lilly and Suki

So when I glimpsed this beautiful pack of handmade Japanese papers in my stash that my sister Sarah had sent to me from Australia last Xmas I knew just what needed to be done!! I have also entered these in the Artygirlz challenge which this week is take inspiration from someone else's blog or work.

My sideways bow on Suki is supposed to represent a Kimono.
These papers are so luxurious, I love the printing techniques, colours and the gold in them. I was worried that applying the mod podge would ruin them but it helped me too smooth the paper down into shape and rub out the creases.

Flowers Galore

I have the coolest Mother-in-law. Brenda is a trained florist and gave me a box full of paper flowers and stamen with a note attached "found these little drawers just do your thing"!!! I love it when someone actually gets what you do!!!

TFL xxx

Awards and best ties....

No it's not the Oscars but I have received a gorgeous Artey Pico award from the multi talented Irene Dunne in Queensland, Australia. Irene is an Artygirlz artist who loves entering challenges and has such a varied blog Check out the little blue car mini-book it is soooooo cute!!!. Thankyou Irene I am chuffed to bits with this award!!

The RULES for presenting this sought after Award are:

1. Pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also for contributing to the blogging community, no matter what language.

2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his or her blog.

3. Each award winner (upon acceptance) should show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her or him the award.

4. Link to the Arte y pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.

5. Show these rules.

The five winners I have chosen are:

1) Jamie who is so talented because she takes the time to carefully turn each layout into a never to be copied masterpiece

2) Trine whose work is inspiringly beautiful and full of delicate antique delights

3) Merel aka Dutchbird because her work is honest and sweet and she takes the time to leave so many crafters the loveliest comments.

4) Monnica aka mo9ca whose cards are full of distressing and antique touches and her layouts are so vintage they should be in museums.

5) My daily fix of Inspiration who remains anonymous but has compiled a list of the yummiest blogs for us all to indulge in!

Nicki Love has left me an award as well, which I also received from Amykins too but I haven't passed it on yet. So here goes........

And here are the rules:
1. If you've been tagged, you can put the logo on your blog.
2. Link the person from whom you received the award.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Put links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message on the blogs you've nominated.
I nominate these 7 people:

Daniel because he's young, he's talented and he's hot!! Well hot in the crafting sense
Karola because her work is awesome and her photographs of it are beautiful. Maybe one day I can photograph my work as well as Karola does.
Anne whose posts fill up my dashboard on an hourly basis!!
Agnieska who can whip up a batch of Christmas cards faster than I can make fairy cakes
Isabelle the Queen of Mini Albums
Melissa because only crafting can make a person this happy and she knows just how to spread her love!!



Which leads me nicely onto this young man who is wearing his best tie which his father assures me all 3 boys had these matching orange ties. But then again it was the 70's we had orange clothes, curtains, bedspreads and sofas in our house!!!!

I made this layout using the Paperparadise October kit. Not my usual style but still alot of fun.

Thankyou to so many new viewers who have left such lovely comments and to my regulars as well. I am feeling quite humbled this week and a little bit puffy chested!!

I hope you enjoy your Sunday whilst I am sleeping zzzzzzzzzzz

Ruth xxx

Childhood memories of our car.......

My parents bought their first car when I was born in 1972. It was a second hand Rover 3 litre and we loved it.



The number plate was AA which we all thought was very special as no one had a car older than ours!! The seats were red leather and burnt our bottoms when we sat on them in the hot summer in just our togs (swimming costumes). The front seat was one long one and sat three people and I loved sitting between my parents whilst the others squabled in the back!! We spent our childhood going on picnics and swimming in rivers and canooing on the pond and our huge car could fit full size umbrellas, chilly bins and small surf boards in it.

I cut the Bazzil cardstock to shape and applied crackle glaze direct to the paper, waited for it to dry and brushed a thin layer of acrylic to the edges.

An cluster of paper and silk flowers with a thistle leaf and Prima "say it in crystals" in each corner.

The patterned paper and brown lace are from the Prima Marketing Urban Cosmos range and came from the PaperParadise October kit.

Special thanks to Amykins who sent me this award. Amy is a dedicated oncology nurse in the US who is just the sweetest person and makes lovely crafty things to cheer up her incredibly ill patients. Thankyou Amy xxx

TFL Ruth xxx

Altered Advent Calendar

I have been wanting to make one of these for about 2 years now, and I have looked at wooden ones in all sorts of different styles, then I spied this cardboard one in a supermarket in bright garish colours and thought "just perfect for altering thats the one for me". It was the cute chimney that won me over!

I couldn't resist adding some snow to the chimney cap. The roof tiles are punched circles made from white glitter card. Each drawer is decorated with an assortment of Melissa Frances christmas papers and various other branded embellishments. With the drawers open

Just the right size for my favourite chocolates in each one!!
Four little hearts are tucked away on the top of the chimney and the drawer for Xmas Eve is hidden behind the big white heart!!
Now I just need to use up all the left over scraps and get on with some urgent card making. Why do I always avoid doing these when there are so many wonderfully talented cardmakers out there to inspire me?

Update: Thankyou to all of the crafters who have e-mailed me and left such lovely comments, I am overwhelmed by the wonderful response. I have had many people wanting to know where to buy the house from. I purchased it from Tesco's for the grand sum of £6 about one week ago.

TFL xxx