A Year in Review!

Today it's my turn to review the year and what a massive year of change it's been again for Team Hurley but once again my wonderful team have adapted to every new challenge and consistently produced wonderful projects and inspiration for this blog and for our Lookbook, still going strong and notching up thousands of readers every month!

I thought today I would round up my favourite posts of the year - a great starting point if you're new to this blog!

Firstly, the year rounds up from Clare and Jaine have been marvellous, I've really enjoyed reading how they have changed and grown over the year, amazing work from both of them this year and they both have incredible things lined up for the new year - I can't wait to share them with you!!

Jaine's easy watercolour technique was fabulous and I just love the effect this gives (don't forget to use a Staz on ink pad so it doesn't run!!)

Both Carol and Nicole made great use of their Silhouette machines this year and shared some fabulous projects with us, these were my favourites though.

Claire and Ria made great use of stamps and embellishments in these projects.

We also welcomed Susie in December who has joined us through our month of December inspiration and I'm looking forward to seeing more of her work in the new year.

Finally, after a month of inspiration for documenting our Decembers, my girls have come up with a fabulous calendar project for the new year, you can see the start of it here and I'll be back with a free download and some more information later this week so you can play along with them all year long!

Thank you for being part of our 2014 and we look forward to bringing you even more in 2015!

Happy New Year everyone
Sarah x

Documented December - Day Thirty - Clare's Year In Review

When I look back at 2014 I can honestly say it's been the most exciting and hard working so far!!
You might want to grab a cuppa, this post is looooooooooong lol

It all kicked off when Sarah asked me to become part of the Special Editions Stamp range, alongside the very talented Jaine. Never in my wildest of dreams could I have predicted this new and exciting adventure.

Here's a set from my latest release.....

Another highlight was going on a trip to London to spend a few day's with Sarah and B. Of course you can't be a tourist and not do tourist stuff, so on a whim we went on a boat cruise! It was the most fun ever, proper belly laughed which may have been ignited by a pre cruise cocktail ha ha!

Love this picture and one for my Documented 365 page for sure!!!

January saw the launch of the Sarah Hurley 365 Inspiration blog, showcasing Sarah's wonderful products. Here's just a few of my projects, some documented 365 and then some of my favourites.....

Documented 365

Doodle Dolls

Documented December

Charm Street Cuties

Clare Brown - Special Editions

December saw the latest release of the Look book. I always get giddy with excitement when this comes out as we don't share our projects beforehand so it's a wonderful surprise for us all.

 2015 is looking to be even better!

January see's the launch of our calendar projects where you can download the free template and share your projects with us.

Here's mine

As for what else we have planned you will just have to wait and see! lol

So that's all from me for now.

Have a wonderful New Year!

Clare x

Documented December - Day Twenty Eight - Jaine's Year in Review.

Wow, for me it's been a whirlwind of a year which has seen me working harder than ever on projects and designs. 

Right at the beginning of the year I vowed to take up pocket page style scrapping on a regular basis. This meant creating a page per week which was brilliant. I absolutely love it and even though I did fall behind over the summer (I'm still catching up now) I'll get it finished and start a new one for 2015 because I've totally fallen for this type of memory keeping. I found it easy to do and a whole lot less intimidating than full sized layouts. In the beginning I used a lot of Sarah's pre-cut journaling cards from the earlier monthly kits but now I cut my own from patterned paper and even make my own too with stamps and embellishments. 

Talking about stamps and pocket page scrapping, I was thrilled to see my very own stamp set come out especially for Project Life pages. These won't be one offs as I've plans for more like them next year.

I got to do lots of art journaling and messy stuff too like this one which I created as a tutorial to backgrounds.

 Backgrounds are the most important part of a journal page project for me and so it came quite naturally to design my own background stamps. These two sets got me really excited and gave me lots of ideas for other backgrounds in the future.

 

Creating the pocket page scrapping also led to more 12 x 12 layouts as I wanted to create at least one per month.  It's made me a lot less anxious about it and I've truly enjoyed creating them.I hope I can keep the same momentum up in 2015.

I know 2015 is going to be busier than ever but I'm ready to take it on. 

I want to wish you all a very happy New Year and what ever you do I hope it brings joy and prosperity.

Jaine x

Christmas Bookmarks

Hello, thank you if you have joined me (Claire N) today. I am sharing with you a set of bookmarks that I made for the Sarah Hurley Xmas lookbook

If you head over to the Lookbook I have written out a full tutorial on how they were made.

The small charms are made by stamping the cute characters onto shrink plastic, and then threading them, along with small silver seed beads onto some cotton, before attaching them to the bookmark.

To make the snow background I had to think outside the box. I didn't have a snow background stamp, but on the Doodle Doll Princess Girl Stamp Set there is a sequin waste background stamp, and by repeat stamping and pattern matching that does a pretty good job.

Materials used

Christmas Tags Jolly Holly Stamps

Crafty Impressions Christmas Crackers Stamp Set

Doodle Doll Princess Girl Stamps

New Year Fun

Hi All,

Nicole here with you today. You may all still be in food induced comas on the sofa watching telly and eating chocolates? If so - enjoy!! I am sharing a fun new years card today using some Sarah Hurley products.

I used the Tickets and Labels stamp set to create a background on a card base using the solid and open triangles in the set. I used two colours, peacock feathers and mustard seed. I stamped in a random pattern and in random directions.

I took some scraps of Sarah's papers and added a strip of red line tape to them and added distress glitter to this. I also die cut out the numbers for 2015 and added glossy accents on these and more distress glitter.

While all that was drying I splattered some ink onto my stamped background.

When everything was dry I stamped some stars onto the background and put it all together.

It is a fun and simple card to make and can be switched up into any colour scheme you like!

Documented December - Day Twenty Five - The Big Day - Nicole

Hello and Happy Christmas to you all!!

It is Nicole here with a quick project share with you....

It is a tradition in our house to have some sort of home made decor and it usually is something 3D and fun. To this end I used the Santas Workshop kit along with a shadow box to make a fun Santa's workshop decor piece.

I hope you are all having a lovely and food and family filled day and enjoy the rest of your day!!

Merry Christmas!!

Documented December - Day Twenty Five - The Big Day - Claire

I would like to wish you all a Very Merry Christmas, and hope you have a fabulous day with lots of fun and laughter with family and friends.

Here is day 25 to go into my Documented December album (featuring last years tree)

And here is my tree for this year, I will add a second page for day 25 into my album to include this, when the bustle of Christmas has passed. 

Thank you for logging in a joining us today, and on behalf of Sarah and the rest of the Design Team Girls, I would like to say a big Thank You for all the support you have given us this year. We have lots more planned for you. 2015 will see lots of exciting projects, and we would love for to join us.

Take care, and Very Best Wishes

Claire Newcombe xxx

Documented December - Day Twenty Five - The Big Day - Carol

Good afternoon from Glasgow, and a very Merry Christmas to you and yours.

I made this card using the amazing Christmas Carol Doodle Doll Stamp Set, Christmas Tags Holly Jolly Stamps and Holly Background Stamps. 

 At this time of day our dinner preparations will be well underway, isn't that one of the best parts of Christmas? The dinner with all the trimmings?  

For me Christmas has never been about what is under the tree but more about who is with you, and who you will be spending time with over the festive season. Today it is just hubby, me and Aggie Cat(who will also indulge in a full meat based dinner), though tomorrow will be a lot busier as we are going to our nieces for a Boxing Day Buffet. And we can't wait to spend time with our 16 month old great niece, 2 nieces, sister and brother in law, my nieces partner and his parents. Of course there is always a wee touch of sadness as we remember the people who are not with us, and this year more so for a few of us as it is our first Christmas without a loved one. Light a candle for them and put it on the dinner table, or on the window as they are never far from our thoughts.

I hope you all have a fantastic Christmas Day full of love, laughs and memories! 

Remember and pop back later as a lot of the team are posting throughout the day, hugs, Carol xx

Documented December - Day Twenty Five - The Big Day - Clare

The big day has finally arrived so I'd like to say a mahoosive

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

 It's hard to believe this is my 4th Christmas on the design team, where has the time gone? 

It's without a doubt I have had the most wonderful year and I'd like to thank you all for your support, you totally rock!

Of course it doesn't stop there, wait until you hear what we have planned for 2015, it's going to be epic!

Here's Day 25 of my Documented December. I sneakily took this picture while both boys were downstairs engrossed in a Christmas film ha ha.

Here's a card from me to you.....using my ice skater girl stamp set

The design team are posting their Christmas wishes throughout the day so be sure to check them out.

Have a great day where ever you are!

Clare xx

Documented December - day Twenty Five - The big day, Jaine

I can't believe how quickly this has come around, the big day!! 

Even though my girls are all grown up, we're all like small children when it comes to Christmas Day and they still have stockings which are filled with little things. This will continue until I have Grandchildren I imagine. 

This year is slightly different though as for the first time two of my girls won't be sleeping at home on Christmas Eve. Here Christmas Eve is the big feast night where presents are exchanged and the twenty fifth is a chill day like Boxing Day is to us. So they'll be off celebrating with friends and sleeping over to arrive at home on the morning of Christmas Day.

When we celebrate at home we have the turkey, trimmings and even manage to get crackers which does amuse any foreign guests we have joining us. I'll have worked some magic on the table and made it look  perfect.

I want to wish every one of you a very happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

Jaine xx

Documented December - THE BIG DAY!

Hi Everyone

I just wanted to take this opportunity to wish you a MASSIVE Happy Christmas from everyone at Hurley HQ!

I'd also like to thank my fabulous team for their inspiration throughout December - they've come up with so many fantastic projects, it's amazing!

If you're chilling out after your dinner while you read this then why not have a flick through our latest issue of the Lookbook, once again my lovely girls excelled themselves and there are some cracking projects for you to have a flick through.

I'll back in a couple of days with my round up of the year and a little something for you if you've been following along with the calendar posts - in the meantime, I'll leave you to your Turkey and Christmas Pud - my lovely team will be posting throughout the day with their messages and projects if you're having a crafty Christmas!

Thank you for dropping by today!
Sarah x

Documented December - Day Twenty Four - Something For Santa

Would you believe it's only 1 more sleep until the big day!

All the presents have been bought,wrapped and tagged, the fridge is crammed with enough food to feed a small army and the dining room is kitted out in decorations. 

However there is just one very important task still left to do and that is to sprinkle the reindeer dust on the front lawn, then put out a little snack for Santa and Rudolph.

I was told that Santa rather enjoys a mince pie and a little glass of mulled wine. Rudolph on the other hand would prefer a carrot, because as we all know carrots help you see in the dark lol.

This is a picture from last year and this time I decided to use Sarah's FREE Tinseltown digi kit. Never attempted this before so I'm a bit rusty lol.

Here's my layout

Here's a step by step tutorial

1 -  Copy the scallop border from the red recipe card, then paste it onto the menu card.

2 - Create a circle (I used GIMP) and fill it with the green colour.

3 - Open up the picture file into GIMP, copy and paste the image onto the menu card. Then reduce           the size of the image to fit into the circle.

4 - Next add the sentiments.

5 - Using a star image add 3 small stars around the circle. 

6 - Again using the star image but add a large star on top of the scalloped border (I changed the                 colour to green), then add a smaller red star inside.

Tomorrow Sarah will be kickstarting the day then Jaine will be showcasing her Documented December layout. 

From 12 noon the design team will be posting throughout the rest of the day so please pop by if you can and perhaps leave a little Christmas cheer!

Clare x

It's Christmas Eve!

Wow, what a super quick month December has been and super busy for all of us too! Today it's me,Carol, sharing a Christmas make with you all! Rather apt with my name don't you think?

I made this PL Lay Out using the idea of the "12 Days of Christmas", as my PL Page Protector had 12 pockets.  I won't go into full details of everything I did as I would be here until next Christmas lol.

Unusually for me I actually wrote/drew out a wee plan as I knew I was going to be putting a lot of different things in this LO.

Not a very comprehensive plan, but enough to get me started!

As you can see there is rather a lot of different techniques used from heat embossing to Cameo cut outs, die cutting and dry embossing.

All of the papers are from last years December kit, and the stamps are all available here including the adorable Christmas Carol Doodle Doll Stamp Set. All of the Silhouette files I used are available from Sarah's Silhouette Store, the journaling cards are a must have item for us Project Lifers.

I hope you have enjoyed my post today and have a magical Christmas Eve, I will be back tomorrow to share a card and say Merry Christmas.

Thanks for popping by, Carol x

Documented December - Day Twenty Three - Christmas Traditions

Christmas traditions are important, and some of them happen without you realising sometimes I think. Some are handed down through generations, and there are others that are newly born, particularly when you have your own family and children.

Every year I (Claire N) make a Christmas Cake (and mince pies on Chrsitmas Eve), but out of the four of us I am the other one who eats it. Mum & Dad won't be here this year to help me out either, opting to post pone their annual visit until the Spring.

With us, I always make my own Christmas cake and mince pies, even though i am the only one who eats them. They are my most favourite sweet treats of all I think, so I really really look forward to this time of year for that reason.
When I am making the cake the boys love to join in, they both have a fascination for cracking the eggs, and have been known to argue over it....LOL!
Anyway they do chop the Brazil nuts and glace cherries for me, and then everyone has to have a stir of the mixture, make a wish and bring us good luck for the New year.

I must admit I do look forward to that first slice with a cup of tea, usually on Boxing Day, I think it is top of my favourite cake list.

Thank you for joining me today, see you again soon.

Christmas Gift Tags

Hello there! Ria here again today.

Christmas is just few days away so these holiday tag projects I’m sharing is just right in time.

I have three different tags that can be done in no time. I used a combination of Christmas stamp sets from Sarah and each are very easy to make.

I have a lot of ribbons in my stash that are waiting to be used for a project and this is one of those times to make use of them. I also used a combination of ribbons by layering them together and added some twine too for an accent color.

First up is the tag using the Charm Street Cuties  Christmas Girl stamp set. I stamped the sweet girl partially from the right of the tag and colored her with promarkers. I then added some shine using the Wink of Stella clear glitter. I also stamped the sentiment in a cut banner shaped strip.

Noticed the white strips and dots in the gift boxes? I did that using white gel pen for some design.

For this second tag, I die-cut a document page insert (the ones that you use for scrapbook page layout) then stamps the mini ornaments using the same Charm Street Cuties  Christmas Girl stamp set. I also did additional stamping using the Christmas Labels Stamps. The white embossed stamping pops right up against the dark paper.

This third tag is very simple. I stamped the ornament from the traditional Christmas Ornaments set by Jaine Drake. I colored it with markers and added some shine again using the Wink of Stella glitter pen.  I also stamped some stars around the ornament.

 

For all the tags, I added blue gems and small inexpensive ornament in the twine for some added décor. 

Here are the three tags altogether..

That’s it for now and we’ll catch up again soon.

Supplies used

Charm Street Cuties  Christmas Girl stamp

traditional Christmas Ornaments set was created by Jaine Drake

Journaling card from Sarah Hurley