Fairest of Them All

Parades are great for a bit of character spotting and snapping at Walt Disney World! I love to stake out a good spot for taking photos of the parades. And, to be honest at only 4' 11" it's a bit of a neccessity! We were lucky enough to catch the Hollywood Holly-Day Parade (aka the Stars and Motor Cars parade) at Disney's Hollywood Studios' (formally MGM) in December 2007 before it moved to Disneyland Paris. So, I have lots n' lots of photos of  Disney characters in their cars with the added bonus of Santa as we caught the parade at Christmas time.

To create this page I used  a sheet of Bazzill and lots n' lots of Reminisce's Fairy Tales Collection and some seriously old (or should that be vintage) red and pink metal and pearl embellishments that I think my Grandad 'rescued' from a birthday card. My Grandad was crafty like me and I inherited his craft supplies when he passed away in 2006. It's really lovely to be able to use something he had squirreled away on one of my pages.

Have a magical day!

I love you more than you know

Look at those fingers and those big eyes and all that baby drool. I can't believe my little man was ever this small. I know everyone says it but they really do grow up so fast! On Saturday morning I went into his room and I said 'good morning little man' and he said 'good morning little mummy' {cue heart melt}. I love him more than he knows. True story.

Suppiles for this page include My Minds Eye Lime Twist Fly a Kite, My Minds Eye Life of the Party, Green and Blue Petaloos and KI Memories Happy Day Puffies.

A Hollywood that never was - and always will be

One of the things I love about being a scrapbooker is noticing things I wouldn't have ordinarily noticed. Like this statue and sign in Disney's Hollywood Studios (or Disney MGM Studios as it was known then). If I hadn't taken this photo I'd have long forgotten about the statue never mind the plague. And for this I'm forever grateful to this fantastic hobby.

Supplies include; Creative Imaginations, Jolees, Reminisce, October Afternoon, American Crafts Thickers, Bo Bunny and .

Thanks for stopping by. Kx

I'm a Proud Scrapbooker

A little later than scheduled, inspired by this post by Shimelle, I bring you 10 Things I love about scrapbooking...

1. Supplies. I am not gonna lie. A huge part of my love of scrapbooking stems from my addiction to all things stationery. Hand on heart I spend more time swooning over my supplies than actual scrapping and that's OK with me. I ENJOY stroking and organising my crafty goodies until my hearts content. They make me smile. And I LOVE to see my supplies used up and on my pages for everyone to see and share their absolute beauty.

2. Shopping. Hello. My name is Kirsteen and I am a shopaholic. It's true. I am. I can honestly say that I look at new stash and new classes every. day. in. life. Searching for the prefect collection or finding a class that is 'right up my street' makes my heart sing. And why ever not.

3. Surfing. I have a PC, laptop or smartphone within my reach at all times. I have scrappy websites I check every day (UKScrappers), I follow fellow scrappers, scrappy stores and manufacturers on Facebook and Twitter. And I sub to lots n' lots of amazing blogs via Google Reader (one of my favourite bloggers - Stephanie Howell). I love reading about inspiring projects, new ideas and exciting developments in the scrappy world every day. I love that I can be a part of blog hops, and circle journals (not that I have ever done this but I could, you know) and online crop parties! Full on scrappy excitement 24/7 at my fingertips.

4. Planning/squirreling. I am a planner. I love to plan. I love to plan holidays, days/nights out, parties... in fact, I start every day with 'so what's the plan?' I didn't earn my title at university as the 'minx co-ordinator' for nothing you know. So it comes as no surprise that I love to plan my scrapbook pages. I love to collect 'things'. Tickets, maps (oh maps how I love thee), coins, wristbands, receipts, napkins, badges, clothes tags, postcards. I collect them ALL. I love to think about the types of photos I want to take and where. I love to pull out all the supplies that I think will work well with a particular project, and find that perfect paper or embellishment lurking in my stash. I have books upon books of 'scrappy ideas' (did I mention my notebook addiction?) I love nothing more than to scribble a memory down just as it's happened knowing that I don't have to rely on my dodgy memory bank to remember it.

5. Living. It goes without saying that I love to live life more than I want to scrapbook it. But knowing that I am going to scrap those moments. Knowing that I am going to remember them and be able to re-live them in far more techni-colour detail than I ever could if they weren't scrapped makes those moments all the more amazing!!

6. Sharing. I love creating pages for my family and friends. I love the looks on their faces as they look at their photos scrapped and preserved along with their story. And I'm not going lie. I like it when they woop over my 'creations'. And my heart did skip a tiny beat when I gave a friend a mini album of her wedding day as a first anniversary gift and she cried. I love that I can plan albums with them and tell them about the prefect collection I have found for their photos. I am lucky. They share my excitement. And for that I am forever grateful to this hobby that I can share with my friends and family even though they aren't scrapbookers themselves.

7. Friends. Without a word of a lie I have known my bestest scrappy friend for as long as I have been scrapping (2005) - Mandy Charlton you know who you are :) I loves her and I love that she 'gets' my scrappy obsession. She inspires me and and makes me laugh every day. Go on, go say hello to her on Twitter she's a hoot. I am a member of a team on UKScrappers, each of whom I love dearly. Absolutely Scrapulous girls - I love you!! I met our 'leader' Mon last year for lunch even though we live 100s of miles apart. We would never have met if it wasn't for scrapping and I thank my lucky stars for each and every one of my scrappy friends.

8. Learning. I have learnt so many new things about scrapping and most importantly, about myself and I am so excited about all the things I still have left to learn. And there is so much to learn.

9. Talking. Yup. It's no secret. I like to talk. And I love to talk scrapbooking. And I'll talk scrapbooking to anyone who will listen. Luckily, my husband is a great listener or slightly deaf... one of the two.

10. DOING! Knowing that I have a scrapping day or 30 minutes planned. Or that moment when a page comes together just how you'd imagined it or even better. You can't bottle than!!

I hope you've enjoyed my 10 things I love about this fantastic hobby or ours :) If you love scrapbooking as much as I do why not pop this cute image from Shimelle on your blog/signature/social networking site.

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Scrapping!! Kxx

The Magic is in the Detail

I'm not sure if you know, I guess I have kept it a bit of a secret around here but I think it's time I came clean...

I love Walt Disney World. Yup, I know, I kept that one well hidden didn't I? :p Now that you know the truth I guess I can just jump right in with a Disney page, right?

One of the things I love most about WDW is the attention to detail. I love a theme. Be it, a fancy dress party, a fundraiser, a children's party. If I can 'theme' it I will. It is no surprise that Disney World is my idea of heaven. From the tables to the chairs, from the street signs to the bins EVERYTHING is themed. The attention to detail is so great, you won't find a Frontierland cast member (don't you just love that) wandering around in Tomorrowland. Oh no. No space cowboys round these here parts. The Magic Kingdom was built over a series of tunnels called utilidors to allow cast members to move about freely from one land to anotehr without being seen in the 'wrong' place. How cool is that. I love this, I love that Disney is putting on 'a show' for their guests and the show never seems to end. There is so much to see, so much to take in. You couldn't possibly see everything is just one trip. In fact, I'm not convinced you could see everything in 100 trips to the mouse.

When I took this photo I had a scrapbook page in mind. I knew I wanted to document the little details, the little touches that make WDW the most magical place in the world. This is a lamp, yes, a lamp on a little desk in our room at the Grand Floridian. Isn't it cute? The lack of colour in the photo and that I wanted to journal about what makes WDW 'Disney' for me meant that I could really go to town with my 'Disney' supplies. I have papers, and stickers in red, black, yellow and white coming out of my {Mickey} ears and every now and then I like to pull all those supplies out a create what I think of as a totally 'Disney' page. It's so simple and so much fun. And I love the results.

Supplies include; Bazzill, Creative Imaginations, Reminisce, Echo Park and Doodlebug. Thanks for stopping by Kxx

Just Add Water

There is something about the smell of the water in Orlando that says we've arrived. A la; Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore. I am convinced I can smell it coming off the plane. I would imagine it's something to do with the amount of chlorine they add to it but I'm no water expert so we'll just leave it at, it smells different, nice different. Although, I have heard people wholeheartedly disagree on this.

Ever since the first two challenges over at Disney Scrappers were posted I have been itching to do a watery themed page. I don't have a while lot of watery photos from Disney. In fact, we've never been to any of the water parks - I know, call yourself a Disney-a-holic?!? It is impossible to see and do everything in one trip. What can I say.. we NEED to go back.

During our second trip in 2007 we managed to fit in a day at SeaWorld. OK, so it's not quite Disney but Orlando and Disney are interchangable in my mind - one means that other and vice versa. I don't just love Disney, I love Orlando, hell, I love Florida :)

Echo Park's Splash was perfect for some SeaWorld photos. I hand cut a waves, a clould and a sun and added some matching stickers. I used a very old (so old I can't remember who it's by) 'Paradise Found' rub-on and an even older SeaWorld logo die cut. Continuing to use old supplies I added two wooden embelishments that I bought in Michaels on our last trip on Orlando. I then sneezed, a big old flower sneeze. I added buttons, gems and pearls for flower centres and bubbles in the water. Thanks for stopping by. Kx

10 Things

This month I'm dedicating my 10 Things post to 10 things I love about Orlando, where I have been twice, once in 2005 and once on honeymoon in 2007.

1. Gasparilla's hotdog and fries. Especially after an 8 hour flight, having just checked into the Grand Floridian!!



2. Wild Cherry Pepsi bought in bulk at Wal*Mart



3. Lays Chips (crisps). First discovered at the kiosk in the American pavillion at EPCOT having forgotten the chips means crisps.



4. Carrot Cake from Disney's Port Orleans Riverside Resort. Must be eaten every night like ritual.



5. Mickey's Philharmagic show at the Magic Kingdom



6. Dinner at Cinderella's Royal Table in Cinderella Castle. Epecially on one week wedding anniversaries



7. Being upgraded to Disney's Grand Floridian Resort and Spa on our honeymoon trip. Yup t'is true.



8. Joanns, Michaels, Wal*Mart and Target. Need I say more?



9. Sipping virgin cocktails in Bahama Breeze



10. Disney's Days of Christmas shop in Downtown Disney. Christmas all year round!

There are other people blogging 10 Things today today. Why don't you join us? Pop on over to shimelle.com and add your link once your done :)