Southern Girls - New Beginnings

It's a happy day for me today. I'm celebrating my 21st Wedding Anniversary, yep, I am sadly old enough for that to be true, though I was a child bride, truly! I'm going to be having a sweet celebration with my handsome hubby, but as usual we will have the kiddos with us too. What I really want to do is go and see the Hobbit, so fingers crossed Nanny can have the kiddos this weekend for us to sneak out for a 'big kids' night. I'm so looking forward to seeing it.

But apart from revelations of how old I'm getting, I'm actually here to share the first of the Team Lou posts for 2015 from the Southern Girls Challenge. I'm so excited to have been asked to stay on with the team and look forward to another year hanging out with these cool gals. We have our other wonderful blog mama Tracy back with us this year, some truly awesome sponsors and we will be going back to fortnightly challenges, so theres plenty of fun to be had at Southern Girls this year. Be sure to follow the blog, so that you don't miss a challenge! Our fab blog mama Lou, has been busy redesigning our challenge and giving it a little facelift. I think it looks fabulous! Check it out.

Now on with challenge #102, it's an easy theme of 'New Beginnings'. We'd love to see all your makes that have a 'New' theme, New House, New Job, New Baby or you could go for 'New Stash' as I'm sure there'll be a few of you out there who have some fabby new stash from Christmas. 

I've been a little self-indulgent and made myself and 'New Diary'. It's going to be my Promarkers diary, for jotting down combos I like, playing and trying out new combos. I've not been that organised before with my colouring, but this year I'm giving it a go. I really enjoy my Promarkers, but I'm just not that savvy yet with them, so this year, I'm planning to have a lil' play and this notebook will serve as my record keeper for these trials. 

We have two fabulous sponsors this challenge, The Paper Doll Company and Lacy Sunshine Stamps. I've used the sweet 'Rory - Time To Colour' from Lacy Sunshine for my image as that bag full of crafty goodies, was perfect for my 'New Creative Diary'. Heather very generously provided stamps for all the DT to use. I was feeling in a zingy kind of mood when I was colouring her, so I went for a pop of orange, but toned it down with denim blues. I have of course, used my fabby Promarkers to colour her.

When I was hunting for papers to work with my lilac, blue and orange pic, I found these gorgeous First Edition papers on my desk. They don't match the theme of my colouring exactly, but I coloured the image with Green eyes and she's wearing denim, so with a bit of a stretch it kinda works. I love the Kraft coloured Cotton Lace I've used here and have been wanting to use it for a while. I stuck with Kraft diecuts to tie the Kraft book cover in. 

I bought a Magnolia Doohickey Magazine not long before Christmas, which arrived just after, with this lovely key die in it and the Heart Doohickey too, which I've used as leafy splashes here. The flatback flair 'The Story' button was from The Paper Doll Company, which is run by the lovely Belinda, one of our Southern Girls DT. Do check out her store if you've not shopped there before. I've bought some really fab wood chip and flair goodies from there. I went through so many different versions for this make. I had lots of dies cut, tried lots of layouts and paper combos, but in the end, I pared it back and went for this simple layout. I just can't seem to get the 'lots of layers' frou frou shabby chic thing happening. I really am a more CAS kinda girl. It's not quite as I had envisioned, but not wanting to get embellies caught in the spiral binding, I think it's a good fit for my 'New Creative Diary'. I'm excited to start using it now!

I hope you had fun looking at my wee crafty adventure and that you'll come on over to the Southern Girls Challenge and join in the fun with us. Check out what my talented teamies have been up to too! I look forward to seeing what you come up with. See you again soon. Big hugs, Wends x

P.S. If you've not yet joined in my 'Top 12 of 2014' challenge, there's still plenty of time. Celebrate the fun you had last year, by showcasing your favourites. Link up 'here'.

Challenge Entries: 

Papertake Weekly: It's All New

Inky Chicks: #45 ~ Anything Goes

Crafting Musketeers: #21 ~ Hats/Valentine

Party Time Tuesdays: #194 ~ Anything Goes

Stamping Sensations: January ~ Dies & Punches

Crafty Calendar Challenge: January ~ What's New? (New Dies & Book)

Lacy Sunshine Challenge: #49 ~ Sparkly & New (Sparkle on the ABC tags)

I Love Promarkers: #252 ~ Hobbies (I've made a Promarker Blending Diary)

Crafty Cardmakers: #130 ~ Something Old & New (Old Lace & Papers, New Dies & Book)