Hope you have all had a wonderful Christmas with your friends and family. We have had a wonderful time. My son Richard and his wife Charlie and their two children came to stay for five days. The children really loved all their presents but Corey was more interested in playing with my microwave saucepans and some old corks from Asti Spumante. We spent a couple of hours playing together in the kitchen while Tyler was busy playing with his new Marble Run game.

Here is a photo of Corey having fun in the kitchen. He loved my old Flour Grader cookie cutters which we have had since our children were quite small.

We had just finished unloading the dishwasher and Corey decided he wanted to close the drawers.

He just loves opening and closing doors and is always trying to shut us in the fridge.

I have just finished my card for the December 2012 Recipe Card Challenge at Digital Scrapbooking Studio and would like to share it with you. It is a recipe for Lazy Mince Pies.

My daughter Susan made some of these for us and they were absolutely delicious.

Wishing you everything you wish for in 2013. Happy New Year to you all.

Just a short post today as we are busy getting ready for Christmas.

When I saw the wonderful mini kit that Scraps-n-Pieces were giving away for their December 2012 Use it all challenge, I just had  use it to make a layout of my lovely heart-shaped bowl. The colours in the kit were perfect.

Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Well, here we are one week before Christmas and all the cards are written and sent and all the parcels are wrapped. This is the first year that we have not been scrabbling around at the last minute wrapping the presents.

We have the Christmas Village set up on the hall cabinet and the tree in the front room is decorated. The porch and the front room window have curtains of lights which look gorgeous when it gets dark. We have decorated the back bedroom for when Tyler and Corey come to stay. There are Winnie the Pooh Christmas stickers in the window and a row of snowman lights which are used as night lights when they go to bed.

Here are a few photos of the decorations.

 

 

I had a surprise parcel delivered this morning - it was a Christmas present from my friend Liv. A beautiful heart shaped turned wooden bowl. We had to put it on the sideboard straightaway and fill it with fruit. It looks wonderful.

Thank you so much Liv.

Christine of jusme digital has made  a wonderful contribution to the December 2012 Build Your Own Carry Out at Scrap Takeout. You can find the ten sets of 'Slide' that Christine created here:

http://scraptakeout.com/shoppe/search.php?mode=search&page=1

or you can buy the 'Slide' bundle here. That way you can get ten sets for the price of eight.

Here is the preview of the bundle:

 

 

I made two layouts using various sets of the 'Slide' papers and elements. The first is using photos of some of the cards I made:

The second one is using a photo of Tyler and Corey asleep at either end of the sofa.

Aren't they just cute?

I made a third layout using 'Glorious Christmas' by Country Liv's Graphics. If you click on the title of the kit it will take you to her shop at Scrapbird where you can buy it for only $5.25 (30% off the normal price).

The photos in the layout are of Liv's Christmas Village which used to take up the whole of the dining room table. It is absolutely gorgeous.

Liv is giving away a freebie on her Blog. It is a set of Christmas Gift Tags for you to print out and attach to your Christmas parcels:

 

Why not go on over and grab this wonderful freebie and while you are there you could sign up for her Newsletter and collect some wonderful freebies.

When Tyler came visiting at the beginning of December he made some Christmas cards (with a little bit of assistance from me). He was really good and chose the stickers himself and even stuck the foam pads on the mats - one in the middle and one each corner. I just lifted the backing a little and he peeled this off and stuck the mats in position. He made eight cards in all. Quite a lot for a small boy's concentration span.

Here is Tyler with a couple of his cards. He has such a wonderful smile which is so infectious. I bet you are smiling looking at him!

He also started making some paper chains but didn't get them finished. He is coming to see us this weekend with his Mum and Dad and brother Corey. Perhaps if there is time he will finish his paper chains.

The new kit by Country Liv's Graphics is in the stores. 'Glorious Christmas' is a really wonderful kit full of rich gorgeous papers and glittery elements just perfect for scrapping all your Christmas photos. I just love the little parcels.

I made a second layout using the kit with some great photos of Tyler taken by his mum Charlie. Looks like Christmas really tired him out. By the way the lights he is holding are battery operated - no child was harmed in the making of this layout!

If you would like to buy this wonderful kit you can get it in any of Liv's stores listed below:

http://www.lollipopsngumdrops.net/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=68_319&products_id=14394#.UMjmnKx23To

http://bellazingarostudio.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_110&products_id=1515

http://scrappingyourmemories.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_315&products_id=16494&zenid=8a1e5a4bd533280f2d47fb3a8f467175

http://digistyledesigns.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_206&products_id=7595

http://scrapbird.com/shop/clgs-glorious-christmas-p-10078.html

Here is a link to Liv’s Blog so that you can go on over and grab some wonderful freebies or sign up for her newsletter.

http://countrylivs.blogspot.co.uk/

Liv also has a Facebook Fan Page here:

https://www.facebook.com/CountryLivsGraphics

Please go on over and ‘like’ her and she may have a surprise for you.

I have made another layout with this kit but I will save that for tomorrow.

My good friend Liv of Country Liv's Graphics will be releasing a new kit in her stores tomorrow and I have had a wonderful opportunity to work with it prior to its release. The kit is called 'Glorious Christmas' and here are the kit previews which I am sure you will agree give you a tantalizing look at this wonderful kit..

The element preview:

The papers:

Some more detailed previews:

This is the detailed sneak peek that Liv put up on her blog. Isn't it gorgeous.

 Here is one of the layouts I made using 'Glorious Christmas':

I made it into a Quick Page which Liv gave as a freebie in her newsletter today. If you go to her blog and sign up for her newsletter you may still have a chance to get the Quick Page as Liv usually gives the links to her freebies in a couple of editions of the newsletter.

Come back soon and I will give you the links to grab the kit from Liv's stores. I am sure you will love working with it as much as I have.

I will also show you the second layout I made and perhaps Liv will have some more freebies to share with you on her blog.

I just wanted to share with you today a layout I made for the November 2012 mini kit challenge at Scrap Takeout. We were given a mini kit and had to use all the pieces of the kit in the layout. The photos were taken of my grandson Tyler by his mum Charlie.

Do you remember the layout I did of Charlie using Liv's Mia Bella Zingaro kit? Well it has been turned into a Quick Page and you can download it on Liv's Blog.

Here is the preview of the freebie.

Why not go on over and grab the Quick Page and while you are there you will find plenty of other freebies to download. If you sign up for Liv's newsletter you can get even more freebies. You can subscribe to her newsletter by filling in the form you will find on the right hand side of her blog.

Christine of jusme digital has a wonderful new kit called 'Abnormally Attracted' in her stores here:

http://scraptakeout.com/shoppe/abnormally-attracted.html

https://www.digitalscrapbookingstudio.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=13_391&products_id=13563&zenid=5d6a6a17641a08937bb921fba4a8f811

http://www.jusmedigital.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=74&products_id=214

I made two layouts using this kit. The first one is of my lovely daughter Susa.

The second one of Tyler having fun and is called Friendship.

I made a kit for the November 2012 Create a Fairytale Design Challenge at Scrapping Fairytales and I would like to share this with you.

Here are the previews to my kit.

 

Here are the download links. Make sure you download both parts to get the full kit.

http://www.mediafire.com/?o3mb6ohq39qogho 

http://www.mediafire.com/?xb2p31v8a58nrwl

I included quite a few plainer papers this time and lots of frames as I find that I personally use these quite a lot in my own layouts. I hope you enjoy using the kit.