Challenge Masters Scraplift Challenge

Yesterday evening I went to the local Plymouth craft group which Lisa from Totally Crafty runs and managed to complete the LO for the Scraplift challenge on Challenge Masters - can you tell I'm addicted to this new site? Apologies for the poor lighting for this photograph, but it's been another dull day here and trying to take photos late afternoon is not easy.


The photo was taken while Jill and I were in London at the end of September - we'd found out where we had to go to see the Lion King and as we still had plenty of time before the show started we wandered around the local area and were amazed by all the beautiful architecture of the builidings there. The evening was made even better as the sun was shining brightly and it was a great evening to walk around London - we ended up at Trafalgar Square before heading back towards the theatre, but not before having a quick drink in the public house just down the road from the Lyceum Theatre!

Challenge Masters Card challenge

The challenge was to create a Round Card (could be 2 or more circles combined or scalloped, but round shape) with a Christmas Theme and it had to have something Blue on it (either paper, ribbon, embellies, markers, etc.).

I have used my CM circle cutters to create the circular card in my latest SU favourite colour Elegant Eggplant and combined this with Gable Green and Tempting Turquoise. I've used the snowflake stamp from the SU Scandinavian Season set to create the background on the large blue circle and added Stickles to give it a bit of sparkle, although I don't think this shows up in the photo. The tree is from the Joys of the Season set and I've also used the text stamp from this set to create the background on the Gable Green smaller circle. The Merry Christmas greeting is from the Loads of Love set. To finish it off I added some of the gorgeous white satin ribbon from SU.

Now which challenge is going to be next?

Open House winners

A few weeks ago I had an SU Open House where those that came along were able to browse through the new catalogues, have a play with the SU goodies and I did a few demonstrations on the various tools SU sell. As part of the Open House I was offering customers who placed an order the chance of winning three different prizes. I extended the offer to anyone who placed an order with me during the month of October and this evening I finally managed to get Bryan to help me with drawing the winners.

The winner of one of the Sale-a-bration sets from earlier in the year is Pauline - I will be bringing your prize along to the Newton Abbot crop at the end of the month.

The winner of the corner punch was 'persuasive' Lisa who runs the Plymouth craft group on a Tuesday evening.

Finally the winner of the Gable Green ink pad is my new recruit Faye - I will be sending it in the post to you very soon.

Thank you to everyone that came to my Open House and for all those lovely ladies that placed orders with me. A big congratulations to all the prize winners too.

Challenge Masters Sketch Challenge & SLYMI 13

Another LO completed today - gosh I seem to be on a scrapbooking roll at the moment, I'm going to make the most of it while it lasts as I'm sure the mojo will desert me before long - but I've had so much fun this weekend it's unbelievable. This LO is for the Challenge Masters Sketch challenge - group No3 that I've joined, as I said before so many to choose from - but it also qualifies for the SLYMI 13 which was to use stamps on your LO. Now those of you that know me well know that would not have been a problem for me as I have so many to choose from.


I opted to go with a photo taken of Ian on San Blas Island last April when we were on our cruise. It was a beautiful island and was certainly a little paradise. You could walk round the island in about 10 minutes, the centre of the island filled with palm trees and obviously surrounded by beautiful clear blue water, which was so refreshing to bathe in. Ian says he could quite happily live there - so could I providing someone could deliver craft stash to me on a regular basis!

We called round to see David, Vicky, Connor and Elisha today, haven't seen them for a few weeks and it's amazing how much Elisha has grown in just that short time. She's smiling now, although I wasn't able to capture one of them on camera. I did however manage to take this one of her asleep in her buggy just before they were going out for a play in the park. Connor was his usual adorable self and dragged me along saying "Come on Nanny" as we played with his trains, did a puzzle, did some colouring and looked at books together - I just love him to bits.

Slowly but surely...

... I'm working my way through the SLYMI - I managed to get another one completed before going to bed yesterday evening. This was SLYMI 12 which was to use a sketch - I've kept it very simple this time. The photo is of the cakes I made a few weeks ago for the open house I had at my house for my crafting friends - it was the first time in ages that I'd done any baking and both Ian and Bryan were very relieved to see that there was some cake left for them after the open house.



It's hard to believe I used to do lots of baking when the children were smaller - I even used to make their birthday cakes and each year I'd make a Christmas cake too. I probably had less time then than I do now and yet I managed to get it done. Having said that I was blog hopping the other night and came across a link on Janice's blog to a great blog called Let Her Bake Cake which has loads of recipes for baking and yesterday I set about making one of the cakes. Citrus, polenta and almond drizzle cake was the cake I attempted yesterday, very easy to make and today we tasted it for the first time and it was delicious (not that I think Rosemary would approve but what she doesn't know about won't hurt!). Ian and Bryan also enjoyed it and I think it's one that will be repeated in the future. I ran out of icing sugar for the top of the cake so the topping didn't have as thick a layer as the recipe called for, but it didn't really make a difference.



I also made a tried and tested RC Banana cake yesterday and this morning I made a Cheese and Celery loaf - something I used to make a lot of once upon a time. As I was making that on the same page was another recipe for Barm Brack that I used to make all the time so will be doing that again very shortly. I have had a great weekend just baking and scrapping, just a pity that my week of 'me' time is coming to an end and I have to go back to work tomorrow!!!

Challenge Masters BOM and SLYMI 11

As promised here is the LO I have completed for the 1st Book of Me challenge on Challenge Masters - it also helps me to complete another SLYMI LO. For the Challenge Masters challenge you had to create a LO and list 10 things about you - thought it would be easy, but actually it's quite hard thinking of 10 things about yourself or at least I found it hard. I've used scraps of paper from the July Kenner Road kit. I have managed to get so many LO's out of that kit and I am now really just down to the scraps of it. Perhaps I should really have a go at making some cards out of what is left - I hate throwing any pretty papers away. For it to qualify for the SLYMI challenge I had to use fabric on the LO so I've used a scrap of fabric that came in one of the kits I've had loitering around for a while and used it create a wall hanging effect with my photo attached to it. So pleased to have got another one completed!

So many wonderful places to visit...

... and thanks to Janet I have joined the Ch{all}enge Masters site where they have a variety of challenges every month. You can take part in as many or as few as you like - loads of inspiration. So far I have decided to join in with the blog challenge and the Book of Me challenge. If you want to join in with the challenges then just click on the blinkie on my side bar- there's sure to be something there for you.
I've almost completed the Book of Me LO so will hopefully upload that later today - it will also qualify for another page in my SLYMI album!