A weekend in the woods

I am back with some last photos from our recent Winter Wonderland Centre Parcs' visit. We went with our children, their partners, Daisy and Bear, my son's dog. If you have never been, there are sweet wooden villas dotted all around the Parc. It's a huge area set around a giant lake with a central plaza and so many activities. We stayed up in the Firs, in 2 nearby villas. It's just like living in the woods but with the luxury of central heating, a dishwasher and every other mod con. It doesn't look much from the outside but it's like a tardis inside and so cosy.

Bear loved sitting by the log burning fire.

And our villas were close enough that Daisy could pop over for her dinner.

 From our patio we could see a little duck pond and most mornings we saw them waddling around.

You can either walk, cycle or get the train around the Parc. No cars are allowed on site after you have unpacked on the Friday night. For the Festive season the train was decked out for Christmas

We enjoyed the challenge of archery.

My son actually came 3rd in the tournament, not bad for someone who has never picked up a bow before!

 He was rewarded with a certificate.....such fun!

We held a little party for my son in law's birthday on the Friday night...lots of chat and family laughter..and of course birthday cake. My son took on the role of bar tender ;0)

We enjoyed the winter wonderland, pottery painting, swimming and also a lovely evening out on the Saturday. Daisy had a babysitter.

I love this photo of Daisy my sweet granddaughter standing on the ice bench. Her coat with the mittens is so cute.

Our Saturday night meal out in Cafe Rouge.

On the Sunday our son in law cooked a delicious roast. We had such a brilliant time together. When it was time to go home this was our decorated chalk board we left behind in our villa. (Every villa has one on the wall and chalks are supplied) .Over the weekend we had added to it. I snapped a photo of it as we left.

Such  perfect family time and memories. It was really special as we will not all be together for Christmas at the same time this year.
I decided to make a Moment for my journal using the photo of my little Daisy above standing on the ice bench.
One of my favourite challenge blogs, Scrap Across the World are sadly closing this month and I decided to use their inspirational photo to make my Centre Parcs Moment.

This is their photo


For my inspiration I used the gold lettering, the gold glitter, the greens of the leaves in the flowers and the gorgeous rich pink/purple/red colours.  The mood of the board is a celebration of life and I took that mood to create my journal page. I cut down a very large rectangular paper from my stash to make a 9 1/2 X 9 1/2" square keeping the mistletoe bough in the centre above the photo of Daisy. This represents all the love and kisses we shared during that holiday. It is so hard to show the real shine that this has...IRL it sparkles and shines so well.

Here are some close ups
I stamped my Tim Holtz trees using shades of distress inks to represent the woods and added Frantage for a Christmas effect.

I stencilled a gold Christmas border using Wendy Vecchi's amazing gold embossing paste and added a pearl in the centre. The chippie is part of a Dusty attic one which I gold embossed. I could only use that word couldn't I? The photo was die cut using my Memory box stitched border.

The eagle eyed will spot that I used the left side of a recent master board I made recently was used to layer up my photo. 

I cut some strips and added them using foam to give some depth. I added various foliage die cuts and a CL icicle, 

I matched Daisy's gloves with my Memory box precious mittens die cut using glitter card and put some tiny red hearts on them for love.
I went round the edge of the paper with Treasure Gold to add even more shine and golden glow!

Here is my Moment once more in all its entirety, there is a lot of sparkle and shine here including the smile on Daisy's face.

I would like to enter my Moment into the following challenges; the future is certainly bright with Daisy and my wonderful family in my life.

Scrap Across the World December and grand finale mood board thanks guys and I wish you all the very best. I will really miss this challenge and wish I had found it earlier than this summer!

Simon says stamp Wednesday die crazy
The Craft Barn Trees
Memory Box season's greetings I have used the stitched rectangle to cut my photo and the precious mittens die.
Love to create anything creative/mixed media #25
Visions of Sugarplums 2015 Christmas/Winter

Inspiration Emporium 'tis the season

Noor Winter wonderland

Pixie's snippets playground #207 I was able to use snippets of card and even a chippie for my Moment.
Bunny Zoe 2/3 Sparkle
Country View create a scene
Wow Winter my sentiment and decorative edge are both heat embossed with Wow embossing glitter powder and I have also used some embossing for snow on my trees

I am off today to meet my dear friend Karen for our last lunch before Christmas. I also hope to finish the very last of my shopping...fingers crossed as there are just 8 days to go now............are you ready?
Thanks for visiting me today.

Back soon,

Bye for now,

Jane x