I just thought I'd pop in and show you a mini album I made last week. The project is available here on Lilibee's blog. The project was meant to be put together using the Sassafras Bungle Jungle collection, but I didn't have any so I used Sassafras Me Likey instead. I also improvised with the stamping as well. Instead of using a stamp to create the patterned paper in the mini album I used a piece of punchinella as a mask and then dabbed over the top with an ink pad.

If you're interested, more of this album can be seen over on Flickr or at Lilibee Studio.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend! XxX

Proof Reading!

I really must learn the art of proof reading. I read through yesterday's post twice before I published it, and it still has a mistake in it! Tony shouted down the stairs to me this morning about it.

Tony- "Rache you need to read through your blog."

Me- "Why, what's wrong with it?"

Tony- "You've missed a word out or something."

Me- "oh poo (or something similar), I read through that twice last night!"

So from now on, I think I will ask my extra pair of eyes to double check what I've written, before it's published. ;)

And now for some family news! My sister sprung it upon us last weekend, that she is getting married on the 19th March THIS YEAR!!! I'm so excited for her! They've been talking about getting married for quite some time and they thought they might as well just get on and book it. It's just going to be a small wedding party. She asked if I would make the invitations for her, I said of course I would. Deborah will be wearing an ivory wedding dress with a creamy gold sash and Jimi will be wearing a brown suit. So I came up with this for the invites.

The wording has been stamped and embossed. I used a Versamark Ink pad and Comic Shimmer Embossing Powder. I haven't done that much embossing before and I was really pleased with the result.

Thank You!

Thanks to everybody who left comments on my last post. I read all my comments as they arrive and I really appreciate them all. All is well in the baby department. I'm not sleeping very well though, but you can't have everything I suppose.

I thought I'd share a few layouts with today. I've finally managed to take photo's of them today, in the 30 minutes of sunshine we had. Woo hoo! Roll on spring! I get fed up at this time of year when it's grey every day.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fizzpopbang/

Thanks for visiting!

Happy New Year!

Firstly, thank you to everyone that has read my blog this year. I'm hoping to spend a little bit more time blogging in 2010, but we'll have to see what happens!

Anyway, I've got some exciting news.... I'm 3 months pregnant! The morning of New Years Eve was spent in hospital having a dating scan. It was the best New Years Eve I've ever had. I've been feeling so anxious about this pregnancy, so I was thrilled to see our baby's heart beating. I've had a couple of early miscarriages before Dylan was born, so it feels great to be out of the danger zone!

Oh Christmas Tree...

This year I took it upon myself to make all the decorations for our Christmas tree. Mainly for the reason that all our decorations are glass and we've got an 18 month old son, nuff said!!! I tried to use things I already had in the house, so no more money needed to be spent, I nearly managed. The colour theme is mainly red and white but there is a little bit of green thrown in there too.





These button stars are my favourite. The ribbon is slightly skew whiff on this one, but I can't tell from where I'm sat on the sofa! So I'm not going to get worked up about it!





These snowflakes were cut out using a Sizzix Sizzlit die and the Sizzix Sidekick machine. I found the felt circles very tricky to sew on the sewing machine. It won't be something I'm going to do again for a very long time!




To save a bit of time I made the decision to sew this bobble trim on wonky from the start. I figured it was better to start off wonky from the outset than to try and do it straight and then mess it up! :)


I made these decorations using the Maya Road Supernova chipboard set. To speed things up a bit I chose to cover them in white card instead of painting them. The paper in the star is sandwiched between the layers. I used my lovely Crop-A-Dile to punch the holes out for stringing them together. That has been one of my best purchases ever, I don't know how I ever managed without it!

Instead of buying a shop bought Advent Calendar this year (or ever), I made my own version and hung it from the tree. I bought these bags from Hooray Design on Etsy and stamped all the numbers on from 1 to 24, on the front of the bags. I used a set of Bam Pop acrylic number stamps. I love Bam Pop, but that's another story! To prevent any ink from bleeding through to the reverse of the bag, I placed a piece of card in the bags before stamping. Then I placed a chocolate coin inside each of the bags and a chocolate Father Christmas in number 24. I can't believe how good Dylan has been with the tree, considering it's covered in chocolate!
Next year I'm going to make a new star for the tree, I think it deserves a better one, than the 5 minute rush job I made this year. I can't decide what to do though, so if anyone has any suggestions I'd be very happy to hear them.
I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas!

Secret Santa Swap

I was absolutely thrilled to receive some happy mail on December 1st from Victoria. It's my first swap, so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I was super duper pleased with all the Christmassy things I received. My favourite item had to be the jazzy Christmas socks followed very closely by the Santa salt and pepper pots, so cute! There were also some great craft items for me to get creative with over the Christmas period. Some glittery felt, a felt reindeer to stitch together and a 3d letter R to alter. Once again thank you so much Victoria you made my day.

Also that day I managed to wrap and post the Secret Santa Swap present to marryannlucy, it was so much fun putting it all together. I'm trying to do a completely hand made Christmas this year, so most of the items were hand made by me. I hope there all ok, I get quite nervous about making things for other people!

I can't wait to take part in another swap, it's so much fun!!! Thank you so much Victoria and Kelly for organising the Secret Santa Swap. I hope there's another one next year!

Oct 1st Challenge-The Studio

Oct 1st Challenge-The Studio
Originally uploaded by FizzPopBang

I was made up this morning to discover that I'd won the October 1st challenge over at The Studio. This is only the 5th 12x12 layout that I've created, so I was ecstatic to find out I'd won a prize for it.

This month they are holding a Charity Extravaganza for charity:water , starting at 7pm (GMT) on Friday 13th November that will last for 48 hours. There will be games, challenges, special guests and prizes. Even if you can't take part a small donation would always be appreciated!