New Year Layout

This is my first lay out for 2011. One of my friends set us a challenge to scrap our aspirations for 2011. I'm not one who makes New Year's resolutions, but had a go at this challenge. Some of the things that I hope 2011 will be is less stressful than last year and that we are all healthy & happy. I used Crate Papers from the Prudence collection that I bought while we were in Canada last year. The title was cut using Cuttblebug Harmony font. The journaling was all done by hand. I used my new book "The Scrapbooker's Handwriting Workshop" by Crystal Rieger that was given to me by my good friend Pat as inspiration. It was very adventurous of me to do so much journaling and in my own hand. I'm so pleased with the results, it's encouraged me to do more. I hope it will encourage others to do the same. I finished off the layout with Basic Grey Popps 3D elements, ribbon and buttons. I hope that you all have an amazing new year and all the best for 2011.

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2011!!! Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and hoping to blog more this year and do more crafting and share it with you all. Thank to everyone who visits my blog. Many Blessing to you in the coming year.

December Birthday Cards

I couldn't post this until my Mom received it, but now I can. I made this card using a using an image from Digital Two for Tuesday blog and printed it out twice. I coloured them in using ProMarkers. I used Bazzil dotty cardstock and My Minds Eye's papers. The scalloped circle was cut using a Nestabilities die in a Cuttlebug machine, embossed using Snowflake Dots Cuttlebug Folder and then inked with Tim Holtz Distress Inks. The card was finished off with gingham ribbon and Basic Grey letter stickers.



The next card was for a good friend and was done using Crafty Individual stamp, Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Basic Grey papers and Cuttlebug embossing folder. It was finished off with paper flowers, leaves and a button.



The third card was for my brother in law. I always find it hard to make cards for men. I did this one using a Paper Artsy stamps, Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Tim Holtz die cut, Time Holtz Tissue ribbon, EmbelliScrap swirl shape embossed with Cuttlebug Snowflake Dots folder, ribbon and scraps of paper.

Three more birthday coming up soon in January, so I best be getting on with making some more cards.

Scrapbooking Catch Up

RIMG6125, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

Just thought that I'd post some of the Scrapbooking pages I've been working on the last couple of months. I've not done a lot of scrapbooking this year, so to do 3 LOs in a row was an accomplishment. This one is for my dh album from when we was young and on holiday in Cornwall sailing on a friends boat. The LO was done using some very old papers I had, and I don't know what make they are, but they go with the sailing theme. I printed out the poem "I must go down to the sea again" and inked the edges with Tim Holtz distress ink. I used felt and ribbon to do the edging and the title is Basic Grey sticker letters.

The second LO is from when my nephew was born back in 2006. It was done using Cosmo Cricket papers, rub-ons, paper flowers and brads. The title was cut on the Craft-Robo.

The third LO is a simple LO using up scraps of Basic Grey papers, Hero Art stamp, felt flower and a Basic Grey tag with acetate overlay.

SNOW!

Well the UK has been hit with major snow storms and it finally came to London. They are saying it's the worst weather conditions they've had in 23 years. It shut down the a lot of trains and some of the airports. It's not so much the snow, but that it just turns to ice and the UK just isn't very good at getting the roads cleared, never mind the sidewalks (or pavements as they are called here). This is what caused poor Peter's problem. He was walking up the pavement and then slipped on some ice. He put out his hand to catch himself, and has seriously hurt it. He waited for the next day to go to A&E as it was still to dangerous to go at night with so much ice still around. We had another big snow fall, so it made for better walking conditions. So he bundled up and headed for the local hospital. He was seen quiet quickly and the x-rayed his wrist. After looking at the x-ray they couldn't say either way if he has a break or not. So they have given him a splint and a sling and sent him home to rest for 5 to 7 days, unless it doesn't get any better.

Now 5 days after all the snow started we've gone above freezing and have had our typical London rain which has washed most of it away. I'm sure by Monday there will be no evidence it ever snowed. I just hope the trains will be back running on time!

Our 10th Anniversary

IMG_0354, originally uploaded by Bio-hazar.

Last week Peter and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. I can believe how quickly the last 10 years have flown by. We weren't able to celebrate on the day as both of us had to work, but we did get away for the day on Saturday. We deiced to go to Kingston-Upon-Thames for the day. We went because on the day after our wedding in Canada while we were driving to Ottawa to get my visa we stayed over night half way in Kingston, Ontario. So we went to see what the England equivalent was like.

The town it's self is much like any other urban city with lots of shops etc.,but running through it is the river Thames and we enjoyed a lovely morning stroll along the banks. We saw several swans, geese and coots. On the river there was a lot of boat activity especially people in long row boats, and along the riverbank there were many channel boats ofter with lots of potted plants growing on them. Part way down the Thames we came to a dock where you can get boat trips. We decided to take a trip to Hampton Court Palace. I was a nice day so we sat out in the bow and enjoyed a leisurely cruise along the river watching all the beautiful riverbank scenery go by.

We got to Hampton Court Palace and decided to have a look around. The palace itself would have taken 3 hours to go through and the boat back left in 2, so we just paid to go into the private gardens instead. The weather had got a bit cloudy, but it was still nice. As the clouds came in I would put my sweater on and then the sun would come out and I'd have to take it off again. In the end I just keep my sweater on cause every time I took it off the clouds would come. After that we had a nice sunny day. We strolled around the gardens enjoying all the water features, birds, manicured trees, sculptures and the few remaining flowers for this time of year. We didn't make it through the whole of the grounds before we had to start thinking about heading back to the boat. We grabbed an ice cream and meandered back to the dock and just made it in time for the boat back to Kingston.

Back in Kingston we went around some of the shops. I was quiet intrigued by one called Candy Cakes. We went inside, but I must admit that the cupcakes they sold did not look appetising at all. They were covered with this thick icing in bright colours that looked almost like play dough. We did however buy a few French Macaron which reminded us of Luxemburgerli we've had from Switzerland. We found a cafe with a few of the river and had a drink and a few of the Macarons. They were enjoyable, but not nearly as nice as Luxemburgerli.

In the evening we drove over to Epsom and meet up with a friend who we haven't seen in a long time and enjoyed a wonderful Italian meal together. We started off with olives and garlic bread, then I had a calzone, Peter a spicy pizza and our friend Geoff had a chicken caesar salad. We finished the meal off with profiteroles filled with ice cream. It was great to catch up with our friend and to share a meal together. Then it was back on the road and heading home after a wonderful day spent together.

More photo's from our day together here

New Camera

Today I received my new Canon Powershot SX210 IS camera. While it was still light out and after it stopped raining. I went into the garden to test it out. Although it does have a macro setting, I can get as close as some of my previous cameras, however as the photo's are 14M I should be able to zoom and crop and still get a good photo. I'll have to play with it a bit more to figure out all the different function this camera does. In the mean time I hope you enjoy some of the photo's I've taken today.

Macro shot of a rose

Macro of a Wild Flower (aka weed)

Smile Detection Mode