Happy New Year

Hi all,

Happy New Year to you all. I for one am really looking forward to welcoming in the new year tonight. I am staying at a friends and shall be up to see 2012 in, watching the fireworks in London on the TV. Next year will be a big year for me, with many exciting and daunting times ahead. It will be a year of decisions, travelling, finding my feet on my own and continuing to work my socks off. Bring it on, I'm looking forward to it.

I've just been having a look back, looking at this blog and everything I've made and shared with you over the last year. Wow, it's flown by, I can't believe I made some of those things nearly a year ago. I've made a little compilation, with a project from every month of this last year :)

There's been scrapbooking, mini books (which I still haven't finished!!), cakes, photography, digital scrapbooking, jewellery making, cards and canvases. It's been a busy old year :)

I apologise in advance for periods of absence this coming year. I have modules in January which I am already having to get revising for and panicking about. I shall fit a little crafting in where I can and pop by every so often.

Just thought I'd mention to you, if anyone is looking for a way to kick start their crafting in 2012, Miss Smith is running a little class in January called Just One Sketch. It's only £5 to join, and the money is going to help Kirsty fund her trip with GirlGuiding. Visit here for more details and to sign up :)

I hope you all have a great start to the coming year, and enjoy any celebrations you have tonight or tomorrow :)

Thanks for your continued support and delightful comments, you're all lovely.

I'll be back next year :)
Hannah :) x

Christmas presents, biscuits and an Oxford update

Hi all,

I'll start off today by sharing with you the gifts I made for my girl friends. I decided to create a She Art girl for each, on an 8x10" canvas, with the girl based on them. I created an outfit that resembled an outfit I know they have or the style of outfit that I associate with them, and a saying that sums up their best quality. So here goes. I shall show you the canvases on here, and then shall post close ups of each on my Flickr page.

I hope you like them, and I hope my friends like them. Some have already opened them, but not all :)

I decided that whilst I had a little time and wanted a bit of a break, I would do some Christmas baking. So the other day I found a great recipe and set about baking some Christmas Spice Biscuits. I must say that actually they are really nice, even if I say so myself.
It was great fun to spend some time just baking, listening to carols and Christmas songs on the radio and smelling the gorgeous Christmas spices and the biscuits cooking. I had to take a photo of them ready to scrapbook, and took quite a few during the baking process, as I never seem to take many photos at Christmas, so am taking a lot this year as I have a Christmas pad that I am desperate to use :) I also really wanted to fetch out our 50mm lens and crank the aperture to f1.7, I love this shallow depth of field and don't seem to use it enough.
Here are a few of the biscuits :)

The recipe is here

So onto my Oxford news. Well I'm afraid to say that it isn't good news. I had my reply letter today and I have not been given an offer to Oxford. I say it's not good news, obviously I'd have been very proud to have received an offer and it would have been nice, but I'm not upset or bothered by the news, so it's not bad news. I am incredibly proud to have got as far down the Oxford application route as I have, and the interview experience was so brilliant. You may remember me writing shortly after visiting Bath university earlier in the year how much I absolutely loved it. Well it hasn't changed, and Bath and Oxford are both up there joint top of my university list. I haven't yet heard back from Bath, so my hopes now rest on there, and would be equally overjoyed getting to Bath as the course is amazing. Thank you very much for all of your support and encouragement throughout the university application process, I haven't given up hope yet and shall keep you updates with the further twist and turns of my application. :)

Ok, think that's it from me now.
If I do not get back on here before Christmas, I wish you all a very Merry Christmas, I hope you all have a great time.
Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Update

Hi all,

I've finally found time to just sit in front of the computer and type!! So here goes, a bit of an update on my hectic life.

We've now broken up from school. Yipee, I'm looking forward to the slight break I'll get over this Christmas. I have scrapbooking I want to do, a driving theory test to prepare for, Christmas decorating to do and lots of school work ready for January exams.

So, I'll start by telling you about Oxford. I went down to Oxford last Sunday afternoon and arrived at my college, Lady Margaret Hall, in time for the evening dinner. Straight away the college felt so friendly, everyone would speak to you and it was easy to make friends. I then spent the first evening settling into my room and chatting away to people in the JCR (junior common room). I was first up for interview for our subject, with my interview at 10am no the Monday. The interviews are very strange. The tutors are all lovely, and I didn't feel too nervous which was good. As expected the questions were tough, and it's incredibly hard to possibly say whether I think it went well or not, because no one knows specifically what they're looking for, and you don't know if you're what they want. It didn't go horrendously bad though, and I did my best. I then went into Oxford in the afternoon to shop a little and enjoy the gorgeous city and Christmas feel. I had another interview on Tuesday, everyone applying for Experimental Psychology gets 2 interviews, and my second was at Somerville. This one didn't feel too bad either, it was very different from the first as the tutors had obviously conversed and the second was a lot more about the subject and not about me. Again, I tried my best, an whatever happens now, I know I tried my best, showed them the real me and I'm proud enough to have got to interview.
We shall hear back from them in the next few days, they said that reply letters shall be sent by the 20th, so I'll know by Christmas. I made so many great friends whilst I was there, thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and shall be happy either way, whatever the outcome, as it's been a great journey and I am proud to have got this far.

Here's a few pics from the trip

My mock exam went ok on Thursday, it was a Biology mock. I am finding Biology quite hard at the moment, there is just sooo much to know and to apply to strange situations. I'll definitely be doing a lot of Biology work over Christmas to try and pack my brain with the facts.
We also had our sixth form Christmas social event on Thursday, which was great fun :)
I have finished and given out my friends Christmas presents. I haven't yet sorted the photos I took of them, so I shall show you their presents another day :)
I managed to fit in a bit of Christmas baking yesterday, it's ages since I've baked. I've made some Christmas spice biscuits, and they are really quite yummy even if I do say so myself. Hoping to make some peppermint creams later today, I LOVE peppermint creams, soooo gorgeous, yum yum :D

Ok then, I think I'll leave it at that.
Bye for now,
I'll be back another day.
Thanks for looking and for all of your support.
Hannah :)

Last TPV DT work :(

Hi all,
I have had a busy time these last few weeks and especially days. I arrived home yesterday after my Oxford interview, it was a great experience. I shall visit back here another day and tell you all about it, but for now I am here with my very last TPV project to share with you :(

It's so sad that this is my last, but I am also looking forward to handing the post over and seeing what the new DT creates with Abby and Suzanne's great challenges.
So, here we are, my last project

This weeks challenge is..

Anything goes

..so we'd like to see any of your projects that you make this week. We know that everyone is incredibly busy at this time of year, so please just join the challenge with whatever creative paper projects you make. The prize this week is..

.. this great Dots and Stripes Christmas collection from Echo Park. These pads are gorgeous, we have a couple and the colours and patterns are great.

To win this prize, link up any paper project to the TPV website here and you shall be entered into the random draw :) Good luck.

Here's a close up of my project this week, a card made for my form tutor at Sixth Form.

I have used a paper from the absolutely gorgeous My Mind's Eye O'Christmas Tree pad. This pad is divine, I wish I had some better Christmas photos to use these papers with. I selected the poinsettia paper, cut a panel, then carefully cut out 3 of the glittered poinsettia's, layering and shaping them to create the flower. The only thing that annoys me about this card is the sentiment. It's not straight, which really annoys me. It's not too obvious, but it's obvious enough for me!!

Right, I had better go and get some revision done for my mock exam tomorrow.
Bye for now, I shall be back another day to tell you about Oxford :)

Hannah

Ornaments

Oh no, Christmas is drawing so scarily near, I really wish I had time to concentrate on presents and Christmas cards.
It is definitely going to have to be bought Christmas cards this year, and I really hope I get time to make my friend's presents, I have a lovely idea in the pipeline, I just need the time to change that from an idea to reality!!

Anyway, I know some are really looking forward to Christmas, James is. He cannot wait for us to start opening the advent calendar tomorrow, that marks the beginning of Christmas for him and I can guarantee I'll be dragged out of bed as soon as he's woken up to open it. We're sharing this year, we've bought a lovely Lindt Calendar and we've decided I'm opening odds, and he'll do the evens. He's got the best deal as the 24th is a lovely great big door!! :D

So, with Christmas drawing nearer, the challenge blogs start to get Christmassy. So, today I'm here to share this weeks TPV challenge.

Today is the beginning of another challenge at TPV, and we're asking you to

Now, instead of including an ornament on a LO or card this week, I fancied trying something a little different. So I made some Christmas ornaments using card and paper. We have a red and white theme to our Christmas decorations, so I found some good paper and card, a couple of tutorials and sat down to make. I hope you like the results. Here's a close up.

Circle ornament
I used this tutorial to make these. It was an easy tutorial to follow and I like the results. I first tried it with book paper, and I think this one is my favourite. It works really well with paper, and I love the honeycomb affect that is achieved by the selective sticking of the sheets. The red and white bauble is made using the same tutorial, but this time with card (slightly embossed and shiny, although the photo doesn't really show that). This is a lot harder, and I would probably recommend sticking to just using paper as the card doesn't hold as well, and very strong glue is required to hold it in shape at all.

Teardrop ornament
I have used this tutorial to make these. This one is slightly more tricky to follow as the instructions are not altogether that clear, but I found looking at this picture helped me to work our the instructions and how it should look. I love this, an additional element that you can make once you've mastered these teardrop shapes.

So, I hope you like the ornaments, and please do leave a comment and link up if you have a go at these yourself.

I hope you decide to play along with this TPV challenge, we have another great prize up for grabs.
Our sponsor this week is the lovely Tessa with Precocious Paper

I love Tessa's embellishments, they are so gorgeous. Look at the two kits you can choose between if you are the winner of the ornament challenge.

So yummy :) The colours and appearance of these embellishments are fab, I really wish I lived in America, I'd have every single one of her sets, I just cannot afford the shipping and risk of customs :( I did however find digital versions of her gorgeous flowers and rosettes at the brilliant digi store The Lilypad the other day and they were straight in my basket :D

So, pop over to TPV and join in with the new challenge :)

We are also having a DT call at TPV at the moment. My time with them is drawing to a close with only one project left, and now it is the time for all of you to try for a place on the DT!! It's a great team, Suzanne and Abby are lovely, and it's a great experience. Thanks ladies, I've had a great time with you.

Both James and I are off school today because of the strike. I know I'm probably quite unique in saying this, but I wish we were at school today, it's quite a critical time for year 11's, 12's and 13's at the moment, so time of school is a ridiculous waste.

Bye for now, and thanks for all of your lovely comments on my recent post, I'm so excited and looking forward to the experience, and it means a lot to have all of your support too :D

Thanks, bye,
Hannah :)

Very exciting news

Hi all,

I have some news to share with you all. :)
You may be able to guess . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . but you might not . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I don't know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . shall I just tell you anyway . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

I've been given an interview at Oxford!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Soooo happy, feel so chuffed to have got through to the interview stages. I heard from them on Wednesday. I had an email from the college I've applied to and I felt fully prepared and psyched up to open it and for it to be a rejection. I had been following the updates on the college website and that had said you will hear one week before the interview date. This email arrived earlier than a week before the interview so in my head it was definitely going to be a rejection. Nevertheless it wasn't, and to say I was happy is an understatement!! I have told all of my family, everyone, I am really chuffed :D
I get to spend at least 1 night in the college, shall have the opportunity to meet and socialise with existing students and other prospective students, and get 2 interviews, one at my chosen college and one at another of the colleges. It's all so exciting :D
I shall be sure to keep you posted, let you know how it all went, and of course take photos a plenty so I can scrapbook the experience. I am so grateful to get through to interviews as I can experience life in the college even if I do not ultimately end up there. :)

Then more news, I've just logged on to my UCAS account and I have, today, been given another offer, this time from York University with conditional grades of AAB. UCAS seems to be a little behind as I haven't yet had an email to confirm the offer, but that was a lovely pleasant surprise when I logged on :)

Been having a great week. Had a great driving lesson on Tuesday, and now I am on my Dad's car insurance I can go out in between lessons. Mum is a great passenger, she's managed to remain very calm (not that my driving's bad, but it must be nerve racking letting your daughter take control of the car!). Yesterday I drove us both shopping which was lovely, I had a day off for a progress check day, so we made good use of the time to ourselves without Dad or James to drag around Christmas shopping. Oh no, I've just said the dreadful word, the day that is gradually drawing so much closer and I have not got anything sorted yet!!

Anyway, that's enough about me, you may be able to tell I'm ever so slightly excited and hyper by the amount I've written!! Sorry :D

I hope this post finds you in a good mood too, I hope you are all well.
Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Thanks

Hi all,
Sorry once again for being absent, I have meant to pop back and let you know how everything has been going, but it's so busy here that I haven't even had chance for that. Today though, I will make time to update you all.
First up though, it's time to say thanks to TPV. At TPV, the current DT are nearing the end of the time with the challenge, and that unfortunately includes me. Boy has it gone quick!! Team B have 3 more challenges left, and today I am here to share one of those, so now it's down to 2!
This week's challenge

Thanks and Thankful

At TPV, this weeks challenge is to use 'thanks' or 'thankful' on your paper project. Share a little thanks, make a project and link it up to TPV. The prize on offer for this challenge is:

A lovely set of sentiment stamps from My Creative Time.

I look forward to seeing your 'thankful' projects.

My card was made to thank an amazing group of people that I spent my half term with. During the half term week I had a week of work experience with the NHS, working with one of their IAPT groups. I had a thoroughly brilliant time, I learnt so much, met many great people and enjoyed experiencing Psychology as a profession. I really hope they liked their card, I just had to make one and send it, I had appreciated the work experience so much.
Here is a close up 
I got inspiration for this card from one of Mum's card magazines. I had seen it a while ago and loved it, so knew what design I would use for this card. I used a mixture of papers and ribbons for this card, then stitched white zigzag lines along the edges of each. I hope you like it.

In my last post I mentioned my entrance exam for Oxford. I had to sit the TSA exam which is for those wishing to study Psychology, Economics or Philosophy. I was the only one from my school taking that exam, so was sat in a little room on my own. The test was hard, very, very hard, although I wasn't expecting anything else, they have to make it hard as at the end of the day they only want those with the highest ability. I don't think it went particularly well, it really didn't, but I have to wait until January to get the results form the test. I should hear back from Oxford in the next few weeks to find our if I have been short-listed for interview, so I shall just have to wait until then. The exam was bad, but since I have made myself be positive, I tried my best, I worked hard to practise as much as I could before hand, and I shall just have to wait to hear back from them, I can't change anything now. I shall let you know when I hear anything back.
My application was sent off just over a month ago, and I have so far heard back from one of my University choices making me an offer, which is very exciting, I'm pleased to know they've received it and that someone likes the look of my application :) I'll keep you updated.

Since the entry exam I have felt like I can breath a little more, although I have since devoted myself to my A level subjects as I have modules in January and I've let them slip a little whilst preparing for my entry exam. So, it's work work work here, hence me being so quiet, but I don't mind, I know that the effort I put in now will be beneficial and it'll help me get where I want to be. :)

So, I've updated you up to the current day. I'll try and keep you posted, but for now, thanks for reading. I hope to see your entries over at TPV this week, and I shall be back here soon. :)

Bye for now,
Hannah :)

Laughter is the best medicine

Hi all,

Well, I for one, definitely agree with the saying that laughter is the best medicine.
I have been absent from this little old blog quite a bit recently, because life is at that crucial stage for me where it throws a lot at you and asks you to cope. School has become very busy. I have been working like crazy to make sense of the madly insane and difficult entry exam I have to do for my Oxford application (which, when you are reading this, I will have just completed this morning!!) When life is this hectic, time to yourself and time spent with others is so valuable, and you really realise that laughter is the best medicine, it changes your entire mood for the better, for at least a short time :)

Anyway, you may ask why I am talking about laughter being the best medicine?

Well, this week, that is the challenge theme over at TPV.

Here is my project for this challenge

This weeks challenge at TPV is sponsored by The Paper Bakery.

They are going to give the lucky random winner $20 which can either be used off any of their single kits or off the first month's subscription price. If you haven't seen their gorgeous kits then do head over to their website to check them out. To win that great prize, create a paper project using this weeks theme and then link it up to the TPV blog here. I'm looking forward to seeing all of your entries this week.

For me, I knew exactly what photos I would scrapbook for this challenge, and I knew I'd need a double spread to fit them on. I took these photos a few months ago for one of CJ's brilliant photography workshops, and I hadn't yet had chance to scrapbook them. Do you remember me making a fuss about finding the moustache hambly screen print at Ally Pally? Well that's because I knew exactly where I wanted to use it and had been waiting to find it before scrapping these photos.

It took me a long time to make this LO, but I am pleased with the finished product, I think I managed to reflect the fun of the photoshoot in the LO which is what I wanted to do. Here are some close ups of the details

I was inspired for this LO after seeing Miss Smith's challenges for last month. One of her challenges was to scraplift a LO she loved, and this got me thinking. When I knew I wanted to create a double LO for these photos, I knew exactly what page I would scraplift.

This is the work of Leeann Pearce, an amazing Australian Scrapper who has a truly inspirational style. I had seen this LO of hers on her blog and in a magazine, and LOVED it. I'm sure you can see the inspiration of her double LO on mine, without me saying where it has influenced me :)
(Leeann, I hope you don't mind me scraplifting one of your LO's, please let me know if you do)

Thanks for looking, I shall be back another day to update you with everything, once this entry exam is done and I can spare a little time.

I thought I would just leave you with a close up of some of the photos in this LO, hopefully they'll make you chuckle and feel better. They were so fun to take, we had such a great laugh.

 ...and a final photo, unfortunately I didn't fit this one into the LO

Bye for now, and I look forward to seeing your TPV entries.

Hannah

A TPV recipe

Today at TPV we have a recipe challenge for you.

Here's my project for this week

So, the recipe,

Now, as a  family we don't celebrate Halloween much, so this was quite a challenge. I decided to scrap photos taken from the only Halloween where we did celebrate. It was quite a while ago, both me and my brother look so young in these photos. We dressed up and carved our home-grown pumpkin. I made the pumpkin myself from paper as I don't have any Halloween embellishments. I found it tricky to stick to only 3 buttons, but I managed, using gems instead of those extra buttons:)
Here's a close up

This week we are sponsored by one of our favourite returning sponsors...

Scraptastic Club do some brilliant kits, check them out here.

So, to be in with a chance of winning that prize, use the recipe to make a paper project, then pop over to TPV blog to link up your project.

Bye for now, thanks for popping by.

Hannah :)

Little forest friends

Hi all,

Today I have a few things to share with you.
First up, today it's team B's turn again over at TPV.

Today the challenge is...

Create a project that includes a forest friend

You have already seen a sneak peek, but here is my full project :)

I made this card for a friend, who's birthday it was this past weekend. My friend loves animals, especially little cute pictures of them, so this suited her perfectly, and I had to use this cute little hedgehog. 

The image stamps are from Little Clare, which I have stamped and then coloured using Mum's coloursoft pencils. I have then cut the images into 4cm squares, and cut three squares of the same size from some of the  lovely October afternoon Modern Homemaker papers. I created 2 coordinating flowers using a small punch, outlined with a pen to match the design of the images, then have sewn around the edge of the patterned squares using a sewing machine. The sentiment used is one of the gorgeous Paper Smooches sentiments, and then I finished the card with a wrap of twine.

This week we have a great prize for you from Scrap-friendzy kit club, 

Look at that yummy kit, and all of that can be yours :)

So, head over here to the TPV blog to see the rest of the DT's cute little critters and also link up your own entry. I'll see you there :)

I hope you like my card. My friend liked it, but she loved her gift even more. I created these for her

(Taken using our 50mm lens at f/1.7 - I decided to play with it and take this after being inspired to use it more by the brilliant Shimelle's camera school posts)

(Taken using the Hipstamatic app on Mum's iPhone -  I LOVE this app and seriously want an iPhone now)

She loves sushi, and these earrings really appealed to her. I have created them out of Fimo, following instructions from a superb little book I bought a while ago. I was so pleased that she liked them, there is something really  special about being able to give gifts to your friends that have been handmade, especially when they love them.

So, I am now back into the swing of sixth form, with a lot of work and deadlines to keep to. I have my TSA entry assessment rapidly drawing closer for my Oxford uni application, so am busy at the moment juggling subject work with practising the many different required skills for the entry exam. I am also continuing with my driving lessons, I've managed roundabouts, dual carriageway, slip roads and a bit of manoeuvring now. :) I'm afraid this means crafting is taking a bit of a back seat, I will still be doing it when I can, but it may be a bit less frequent. 

So, from me, bye for now, thanks for popping by.

P.S. I was very thrilled to be a featured project at The Colour Room last week with this LO. Very chuffed. Also, congrats to Katherine who had her great work featured again for the second week in a row :)

Hannah :)