Deck the Halls {day 12 and 13}

The number card is from the stash of cards I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December main gold kit. Day 12 is a super quick page with no journalling, I haven't even taken the photos for this page yet but I want to take some photos of my decorations. Which I will do as soon as I get some decent light. It sucks going to and coming home from work in the dark.

I intend to fill all the pockets apart from the number card with photos. 

Day 13 - the elves left gifts today which was really kinda handy as we had a Christmas lunch date the following day. I am really loving the elf thing this year, Jack is really buying into it and is pretty much towing the line. I'd say the elves need to leave a yellow (naughty behaviour) card every 7 days or so to keep Jack in check.

For the number card I've used a card from the Project Life kit Be Fearless, I added a doily and the number 13 from The Stamp Spot kit.

The other cards are a mix of MME and Project Life Golden.

Here are the boys in their jumpers :) Thanks for stopping by.

We Wish you a Merry Christmas {day 10 and 11}

Day 10 documents a card my brother and sister-in-law sent this year - a photo of my gorgeous niece. I'm going to trim the card down and pop it into one of the 4x6 pockets after Christmas. I've left a space for a photo I took of our pile of cards waiting to be sent out this year. All of the 4x6 and 3x4 cards I have used for both day 10 and 11 are from the Project Life Golden kit. The 4x4 cards are from the Teresea Collins WRMK Studio Gold Instagram set.

Day 11 documents me suffering a major blonde moment. It's been two years since my friend moved to New Zealand and I thought it would be a lovely idea to send her some flowers. What wasn't such a great idea was to send them to an old address. The florist tried to deliver the flowers but no one was home. The new occupants of the old house arranged to collect the flowers from the shop which they did. I told my friend the story to give her a laugh and her friend in New Zealand hunting the flowers down and brought them to her! How amazing is that! 

Thanks for stopping by.

I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day {day 9}

Just a quick page today to document the boys advent calendars.

 

The number 9 card is from the stash of cards I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December main gold kit. The 3x4 reindeer acetate is part of the kit as well, I've just slotted it in. Nice and simple! The 'advent' card is from the project Life kit Be Fearless and the journalling card is from the Golden kit (I think). I've added some Teresea Collins Tinsel and Company stickers and a white doily (also from The Stamp Spot's gold kit). The 'advent' alpha's are Thickers. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer {day 8}

After the yellow card disaster on day 6 Jack was pretty determined to turn things around. And he did; his behaviour was so good the elves left gifts, for all four of us. We found reindeer slippers for everyone and antlers for the boys under the Christmas tree in Jack's bedroom. Jack couldn't believe it and he thinks the elves must've realised just how upset he had been to receive a yellow card the day before. I love how Jack buys into this it's really been my favourite Christmas tradition this year. The elves technically left gifts on the 7th December but as we also put the tree up on the 7th I'm recording this story on the 8th day. I'm not too worried about exact dates - it's all the same festive season give or take a day or two.






















The number 8 card is from the stash of cards I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December main gold kit. I've said it before but I wish I'd made more of these. The 'epic' card is from Heidi Swapp's Glitter Project Life kit and the 4x6 gold foil card is from the Project Life Golden kit (I think). I added a couple of Teresa Collins Tinsel and Company stickers to the cards and some journalling to finish off.

I've left a space for a 4x6 photo as I want to take a photo of all of our feet in the new slippers.

Thanks for stopping by!

O Christmas Tree {day 7}

Today we put the Christmas tree up. Jack was in charge of adding the branches. Noah couldn't even wait until the tree was up before trying to crawl underneath it. It's hard to see from the photo but he is under the tree in the photo of Jack adding the branches (top right of my page). Hopefully we won't have a repeat of last year 'opps the tree fainted' when Noah (age 1 at the time) pulled the 6' tree over and thought it was hilarious.

I made a bit of a boo boo ordering my photos. I meant to order a 4x8 of our Christmas tree (to be cut in half and placed in the two landscape 4x6 pockets) and a 4x6 or of the boy's little tree but I managed to get that the wrong way around. Seeing the photos printed now I might order the photo of Jack adding the branches to the tree as my focal point. I intent to add some embellishments to that photo as well since it's so big I'll have a bit more white space.






















This card is from the stash of cards I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December main gold kit. I hand stitched the Christmas Tree using a Bazzill template. The metallic thread was a little tricky to work with; it snagged a lot. But Michelle gave me some good advice - split the strands of thread into two and stitch twice. you still get the nice thick threaded look without the headache. I'll be doing this next time!

Thanks for stopping by!

Blue (yellow) Christmas {day 6}

Uh oh - the first yellow card of the season was awarded today. Jack was beside himself. Noah, couldn't give a monkeys. It seems the elves from the North Pole Behaviour Department really do frown upon bad behaviour. After 6 days of green cards Jack was disappointed. He drew as X instead of colouring in their progress charts to illustrate just how unhappy he was. **snort snort*

I used the last of my pre-made date cards for the 'No 6' from The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 Gold Kit for today's page. I need to make more of these in advance next year they have been a huge help. The washi tape is there to stick the page to my Expedit unit in an epic fail to take a half decent photo of the page at 7.30 on a bleak dark and wet day here in the UK.

 

As this is the reverse of my day 5 I used some more of the Teresa Collins Studio Gold Instagram cards. I added some American Crafts glitter tape and the words 'Uh Oh' using Teresa Collin's Tinsel and Company alpha stickers from The Stamp Spot kit. I didn't have any suitable filler cards; they were all too cheery and I wanted to convey the dark mood *snort snort* so I dug out a couple of Project Life Midnight Edition cards which I think work great. I added the word 'yellow' to the 'today was...' card.

P.S. No children were hurt in the in the making of this (less than festive) page and it resulted in totes amazeballs behaviour the follwing day. So totes amaze that the elves left gifts! (they were so impressed).

 

Thanks for stopping by.

Peace on Earth {day 5}

Day 5 or as I like to call it; the one with bangers and mash and the mini victory. Friday 5th December was Ian's work day/night out. I was working all day, Jack was at school and Noah was in change of Grandma. I am not a cook, in fact I hate cooking. Lucky for me and the boys Ian does all the cooking in our house.  I decided to 'cook' bangers and mash' (this is pretty ambitious for me). The boys are both going through a fussy stage so I wasn't overly looking forward to presenting them with my efforts. It's one thing to hate cooking and having to cook, it's another thing to have a toddler throw an almighty wobbler because he's offended by the peas you have had the audacity to put on his plate. After grilling the sausages for an age (turns out I had the fan in the oven on too) they were finally served with my offering (I was pretty impressed even if the mash was nuked shh). I placed the plates down and beat a speedy retreat back to the kitchen to watch from behind the door, hoping not to make eye contact. Why is it that a perfectly happy toddler can turn Tanzanian Devil over the slightest bit eye contact...? They said NOTHING. Neither of them uttered a word of dislike. Neither ate very much either but I'm taking their silence as a mini victory. 1:0 to me.

I used a new page protector (for me), Design J from Becky Higgins Project Life collection. I broke this new size out for one reason and one reason only; I have a WRMK Teresa Collins Studio Gold Instagram kit and I'm not afraid to use it. I wanted to break into this card pack and I needed some 4x4 pockets to do it. I used the 3x4 card I'd already made (these are proving to be a great starting point for my pages. I wish I'd made more) with The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 Gold Kit. It is one of my favourite cards as it includes one of Michelle's exclusive flair badges.I added two 4x4 cards from the Tesera Collins set, another pre-made card (from The Stamp Spot kit but also a Tesesa Collins card from her Tinsel and Company collection and the Fa La La word sticker (also TC and Tinsel and Company).






















I also broke into the new Becky Higgins Golden Themed cards - that's the little 3x4 you see on the left. There is so much gold goodness out there at the moment I'll be going for gold throughout 2015 as well!

Thanks for stopping by.

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree {day 4}

Day four brings a Christmas birthday! Today was Grandad Oooeee's (the kids have three Grandad's so we have a Grandad, Grandad over the bridge and Grandad Oooee) 58th (I think) birthday. I used one of the foundation cards I created in advance using The Stamp Stop's Documenting December 2014 gold kit and added the 'happiness' sticker from the Teresa Collin's Tinsel and Company collection. The stripy white and gold card is from Heidi Swapp's Project Life Glitter Kit and today I've broke into another card kit; this one is from MME Charmed Record It collection. I'm going have to say I've not rating these cards at all, the designs are great but the quality is lacking. The cards are thin, thin, thin and the sort of shiny card that I wouldn't fancy writing on at all never mind adding good chunk of journalling.

The journalling card is from Simple Stories The Story of Us. I added the 'moments captured' sticker to cover up something 'wedding-y' and I think that works great.

The journalling reads; Today is Grandad Oooeee's birthday. We didn't get to see him as it was a school/work night but we sent him these photos of the boys with the caption 'they've just heard how old Grandad is.

Thanks for stopping by.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town {day 3}

The 3rd story in my December Daily is seeing Santa! We went to visit Santa in his grotto at Dobbie's Garden Centre on 30th November but I'm not sticking hard and fast to documenting only what happens on any given day. In reality sometimes nothing happens, sometimes a lot happens. Some days I will document the everyday. Some days I'll document Christmas stories that happened outside of December and some days I'll document out of sync because I might have two stories from one day that I want to tell. In a nutshell I'm winging it. And for me, that's the only way to go. If I get too bogged down looking for things or trying to fit things in, I'll fall by the wayside straightaway. December Daily, for me, is about documenting 25 Christmas stories and they might not all be completely festive either but I'm OK with that too.

I love this 4x6 journalling card from Simple Stories The Story of Us but it needed a little tweaking to work with my festive page. 
















I added some stickers from the Teresa Collins Tinsel and Company collection. The tiny little 'together' sticker is from The Story of Us collection (it's not just for weddings!), a strip of American Crafts Glitter tape and a Flair badge from Hey Little Magpie. The journalling reads: Noah cried the entire time, Lily covered her eyes (which is an improvement on last year), Jack and Nia were super stars.

 

The 3x4 cards are from the stash of foundation cards that I created using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 gold kit. I just added the title 'meeting Santa'. 

As always I've added plain Project Life cards to remind me what photos go where. I'm going to do an online order today and I'm looking forward to sharing by finished pages with you.

Thanks for stopping by.

Pennies from Heaven {day 2}

For the second year running the boys have been hand picked by the elves from the North Pole to take part in the North Pole Behaviour Department programme! Jack is very excited. Like last year, Noah couldn't care less but he's only two so we'll give him that.

The elves arrived on Sunday 30th November as they know the best time to visit is when we aren't all rushing off to work and school. Two good boys meant that the elves left two green 'good behaviour' cards and Christmas onsies as a special reward.

The number two card is from my stash of foundation cards that I created using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 gold kit. The journalling stickers and the gold doily are also from the kit. The other cards are from the Heidi Swapp Project Life Glitter Kit. The washi tape is My Mind's Eye.

I popped plain Project Life cards in where my photos will be and wrote a wee note to myself so I know which photo to order and in what size and orientation.

Thanks for stopping by.

All I Want for Christmas is You {day 1}

I get to start December Daily with a celebration as the first of December is our wedding anniversary. To celebrate this year we went to see the Musical Wicked at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. If you haven't seen it you should, it's fantastic. I booked the tickets in advance (November 2013 in advance) and it was well worth the wait.

I pulled out some The Story of Us by Simple Stories. I mentioned recently in my The Story of 'The Story of Us by Simple Stories' post that I don't think this collection was solely for weddings, I think it works pretty well for wedding anniversaries and Christmas albums with a gold theme too.

I created a double spread. I go with what I have. If I have loads of photos I'll have a double page (more if needed) if not then I'll use one side of a 12x12 page protector or I'll use a smaller Project Life page protector like the 6x12 you see here. I don't stick to a hard and fast rule (I make it up as I go along). 

You might notice I have some plain cards with 'photo' written on them. This is because I don't print at home and while you might think that would be a bit of a show stopper for a project like December Daily it's not. I plan my pages with my iPhone in my hand (I take all my photos on my i Phone) and work out which photos and cards I am going to use for my pages from there. I order my photos online from Truprint and I'll probably do this two or three times during 1-25 December.

The number one card, the All I want for Christmas card and the Meet me under the mistletoe card are all from my pile of foundation cards that I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 gold kit. I used the Story of Us Sn@p Cards (there are loads of cards in this pack that could be used for non wedding projects) and the Sn@p Cuts (none of these cut cards are wedding themed) and this gorgeous card from my brother and sister-in-law. 

  

We received so many lovely cards this year but this one matched my colour scheme perfectly and was easy to cut down to fit into a 4x6 pocket. I'm a sucker for bit and pieces and find it hard to throw anything away so it's great when I can include something in a scrapbook.

Thanks for stopping by.

Stop the Cavalry {first page}

I have a front page! My first page for December is made from foundation cards I had already prepared for this project. I added the titles; 'Our Story' and 'My Reasons Why' and some journalling. All supplies are from The Stamp Spots Documenting December gold kit.

The journalling reads; my reasons why, to remember. I have a terrible memory and this daily document will help me remember Christmas 2014 in January 2015! (and in years to come). To share our story with friends and family and especially the boys. To enjoy the magic. 

Basically, December Daily for me is a reminder to ENJOY and SHARE the MAGIC.

We Need a Little Christmas {winner winner}

And the winner is... 

Mandy Charlton!!! Mandy can you email me please to arrange shipping.

 

Thank you to everyone who entered, I'm going to You Tube all of these songs over the festive season. Here's Mandy's:

http://youtu.be/-sdmfFKsbvw

Thank you everyone! And a huge thank you to Michelle at The Stamp Spot for sponsoring this giveaway.

The best way to spread Christmas Cheer, is singing loud for all to hear {and Giveaways}

There's no better way to spread Christmas cheer than a giveaway right?

I think I mentioned it in my previous post, Michelle from The Stamp Spot makes her own flair badges (she is crazy talented) and you can win three of these exclusive to The Stamp Spot Christmas flair badges!

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is, post a comment below telling me what your favourite Christmas song is?

Mine is Fairytale of New York. I think it's the swearing that appeals - Merry Christmas your arse!



I will choose a winner using a random number generator on Sunday 30th November at 9pm (GMT). If you are the lucky winner, please contact me within 24 hours via email at kirsteenmonteith AT hotmail DOT com to arrange delivery of your badges. In the event that the winner does not make contact within 24 hours I will announce a new winner on Monday 1st December 9pm (GMT) (so we can get these badges out to you super quick).

Good luck!

Holidays are coming, holidays are coming... {foundation pages}

I'm super excited to be flying the flag for the UK as a member of The Stamp Spot's (Australia) Documenting December Design Team 2014. I am working with the shops main kit which is a very festive and in vogue - GOLD!

               

I'll be adding my December pages right into my existing Project Life album which is the Amy Tangerine Live the Life you Love, Love the Life you Live album. Although, this album is pretty full and I'm only up-to-date to September so I may split 2014 into two albums. Luckily I have a gold 12x12 WRMK album waiting in the wings.

A first for me this year is a bit of forward planning. I've been busy creating a stock of 4x6 and 3x4 cards that I can slip into my album during December. Everything you see in this blog post is from The Stamp Spot's main Documenting December 2014 kit.

This is my title card for December. I chopped three elements from the kit - the embossed bauble, the white doily and the gold tag to fit onto this 4x6 card. I added a piece of twine, ribbon, some alphas and that lovely Santa flair badge (the flair badges are actually made by the owner of The Stamp Spot - Michelle).

I'm storing my cards in a 12x12 divider so I can see them easily - right now I have a couple of page protectors that look like this.

 

I've kept my designs pretty simple, it's a busy time of year and keeping things simple helps me stay on track. When I decide on a design I like I run with it until I get bored. One design you'll see throughout the cards I have made so far is to cut a doily into four and use the pieces to mount the dates on. 

I've added some sequins to this doily to give it a little texture. Adding a doily quarter to my cards is really helpful as a starting point.

   

For more inspiration pop over to The Stamp Spot blog where other members of the design team are sharing their albums and preparations for documenting December.

To learn more about December Daily® please visit Ali Edwards.

Thanks for stopping by.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

With only days left of November, I am well and truly getting into the Christmas spirit. Kicking it off with this festive read from Mary Kay Andrews. Christmas Bliss is the 4th book in the Weezie and BeBe series but I stupidly missed out the third book - Blue Christmas. Really? What a wally. Still, another good read from Mary Kay Andrews and great for getting you into the Christmas spirit.

 

I also bought this lovely black and gold chevron notebook from Tesco (would you believe it).



They also have this cute gold notebook which proved pretty tricky to photography without getting my hand and my phone in the reflection. My phone is gold though so I let it go. Did I mention my gold phase...

I'm using the notebook to jot down any December Daily® ideas I have.

 Anyone else feeling festive?

The Story of 'The Story of Us' by Simple Stories

I loved The Story of Us collection when it was released by Simple Stories in the Summer but I thought it was way too themed for me, I had no wedding invites and no intention of digging out my old wedding snaps so as much as I loved it I didn't buy it. Until... Autumn 2014 and my gold phase. There. Is. Not. Enough. Gold. In. The. World. Who's with me?

I made it my mission to buy all the gold in the {scrappy} land. And there is a tonne of it in this collection and lots that you could easily use for projects that aren't even wedding related. I'm intending to do another blog post on using this collection in a non wedding-y way soon. But it didn't hurt when my uncle sneaked off, got married and gave me with the prefect opportunity to break out this sparkly collection.

I bought the following items from Craft Island, they are all still in stock but the stock is low so buy now if you have your eye on anything. You can view the whole collection here.

12x12 Collection Kit (you NEED this, if only to get your hands on the exclusive overlays)
12x12 Simple Basic Kit (this is a no brainer if you are a gold junkie like me it's not themed in the slightest and would be perfect for documenting December or Project Life or any layouts!)
Sn@p Bits and Pieces (there are so many bits in here that aren't wedding related; hearts, birds, butterflies)
Sn@p Chipboard Stickers (why ever not!)
Sn@p Cards (again there are plenty of cards that could be used for non wedding projects)
Sn@p Cuts (none of these are wedding themed!)
Sn@p Insta Squares (because I have a WRMK Instagram 4x4 Album Made Easy in gold and I'm not afraid to use it (and again loads of cards that can be used for non weddings themed projects)).

How can you not Love that Love chipboard..? Love. Love. Love.

This is all from The Story of Us collection along with a gold doily (where have I been, I've only just discovered doilies!) and some Prima Marketing flowers.

I popped it in a frame to give to my Uncle and his wife as a wedding gift. The frame is a Ribba frame in black from Ikea. These frames are seriously inexpensive and are perfect for 12x12 pages. I stick photo holders to the backing sheet that comes with the frame to hold the layout in place.

Anyone else going through a gold phase?

Blog Your Heart

Here are the "rules".

Here's my heart today:

1. I have a new blog template. I know, it's not deep nor meaningful but it makes me smile and this is my first blog post with the new design so I couldn't not mention it. I wanted something gold and bokeh - I think I hit the jackpot with this blog design from Shiny Magic.
2. I need to get back on the diet/exercise bike (literally or at least I would if we had an exercise bike but those things never work for me - at 4' 11" I'm just too damn short for it to be erm well em comfortable) or the treadmill, we have one of those, in the shed. I don't even have to go to a gym to use it, I can go in my jammies if I want to. But I don't.
3. I am just going to write and post this blog. I'm not going to dwell, rewrite, reread. I'm just going to hit publish. 
4. I hear people talking about being present a lot. I get it. I want to put the phone down more. Sit, talk, play with my kids, watch TV, read a book, SCRAPBOOK!!! and not CONSTANTLY have my phone in my hand.
5. I'm nervous and excited about moving home. We are moving. Well (90/10% we are moving). Not far, literally up the road. We need to move to get Noah a place at Jack's school. We need to move further away (and across a main road) from the school to get ourselves back into catchment. It's as simple and as ridiculous as that. I'm not annoyed anymore. I was. But now I'm excited about the new home we get to live in. And kinda dreading moving us and two kids in one go. We are planning to move into a rental house between selling our home and buying the new one but that's just 'a plan' it might not happen.
6. I have post office phobia same as Stephanie. I've have a parcel well no it's not even a parcel it's a gift for a friend in New Zealand that I bought at least a good 6 months ago that I've not boxed or addressed let alone taken to the post office. WTF.
7. I am reading Helen Fielding's Mad About the Boy. I love it. I know it's been slated. But I love it. I can't help talking or writing in strange disjointed manor similar to Bridge though. 
8. I have a spot on a December Daily Design team this year and I am worried that a) I won't be able to keep up and b) that I'll produce rubbish. 
9. I'm a little bit excited about Christmas. I need to curb my spending though. I am a shop-a-holic. I am terrible stash dieter and food dieter to boot.I am hopeless.
10. I have re-read and corrected the post (although I'll still have missed bits).

Thanks Stephanie for giving me a kick up the blog posting ass.

I'd love to know if you have joined in and if you have please link up on Stephanie's blog. xx

Happiness is a Bella Blvd. Collection

I've been playing with Bella Blvd's Playdate range - clouds, strawberries, polka dots... what's not to like. I started off with the clouds and playground papers for my background. I really wish I'd though about where I was cutting the playground paper as I'd have liked to have seen a row of swings along the bottom but it wasn't until I'd stuck it all down that I noticed. I just filled the space in anyway and there is one swing set showing. I love the bright happy colours and the general cheeriness of this range and I love that you can easily mix and match from other Bella Blvd collections. The clipboard clouds and pink stripe scalloped border are from other Bella collections.

 

I am a Bella Blvd. junkie without a doubt - I have Tiny Tots on my NEED list :) Do you have a favourite Bella collection?

Cutest Igglepiggle I EVER saw

Oh. That. Face.

I've been playing with Bella Blvd. All American. It doesn't need to be the 4th of July.

I started off with a 12x12 of Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock (you know the stuff - no matter how clean you think your fingers are you STILL manage to transfer grease on to the card???). There are so many lovely patterned papers in All American collection that I wanted to use them all. I settled for eight, cut into strips and inked with Color Box Cat's Eyes Sky Grey. I added a whole load of clouds, some I punched using my Fiskars cloud punches, one KI Memories Puffies, one from the Bella Blvd. Sophisticates Clouds clipboard stickers, and one wood veneer cloud from Freckled Fawn.

I added a couple of the cut out cards from the collection, washi tape and a lot of stickers (mainly Simple Stories Sn@p and Bella Blvd (All American, Baby Boy and Everyday Bookplates)), a wood veneer globe and flair badge from Two Peas in a Bucket (Etsy shop) and some red rik rac.

Thanks for stopping by Kx

Stitched Up

There are so many lovely patterned papers in the My Mind's Eye My Girl collection that I couldn't pick just one, two or three so I picked five and made a quilt. Hand stitching all those squares (they are 2.5x2.5") is a little bit of a labour of love but I think it's worth it. It's also really simple to do (gets my vote right there) and the stitching is quite therapeutic and can be done in front of the TV (multi-tasking at its best).

 

And here is the boy version (at Jack's request - not one to see a hand stitched  layout go past him) using My Mind's Eye Boy Crazy.

 

And man, that boy is crazy :)

All supplies are from Craft Island. The massive Craft Island sale (everything is 40% off) is still on at the old Craft Island website. For all the latest news and new supplies from Craft Island take a look here: website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter.