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