catching up...

I seem to be constantly behind on something at the moment. Never quite catching up on all the jobs that need to be done.  BUT, I am getting there and I have some, now, very tight deadlines.  Evidence part one above, a sneak of some mail art I have made, all it's waiting for it to me to address it and pop it in the post!

And look.... Can you see that, decidedly scrappy if you ask me! Another project completed. Just a peek though for now. Secret squirrel work and all that. 

The next job on the list is to review a book for Waterstones.  This has had to wait a little while until I got my new funky specs. Ahh, and now the text is clear.  I do need to get a shimmy on though as the book is due in stores in a couple of weeks and I am the worlds SLOWEST reader!  I'm saying that but I can rattle through John Grisham books quite quickly so it's time I put down my current book and read through this one and got the review written and submitted. 

I once worked for someone who said I like to work to the JIT Methodology - Just-In-Time. That has to be THE most accurate statement anyone has ever said about me, but with all these deadlines and builders due in very soon I really do need to catch up.  

Wish me luck!! 

I love it when

creativity strikes, or as the case may be at the moment, scrappy mojo hits!  As you know I’m re-scrapping my wedding photo’s and have ordered a pile of cardstock and a new album to keep them in when they are done. 

Last night I couldn’t wait for the new cardstock to arrive so I started this LO featuring some of my closest friends and based it on a sheet of kraft cardstock, but it didn’t look right, so I hunted through all my cardstock until I found a sheet that it did suit. Phew. This morning I finally found the CD with our wedding photo’s on and printed out a smaller version of the black & white shot.  ta-dahhhhh, all finished now.

I am really pleased with this one, another HUGE improvement of the original layout.  And Sarah – I am completely re-scrapping them, not scrapping them again.  The old papers are lying on the floor waiting to be used for scrap and stamping on.

revisiting

Over the weekend I decided it was time I had a clear out of my scrappy supplies as I have more paper than I can use, so I was hard on myself and now have a pizza box full of cardstock and patterned papers to take to my crop for rehoming. 

While I was about it I sat down with some of my old albums and have since made the decision to re-scrap my wedding and honeymoon layouts.  I know it’s nice to look at the progression of your style, but honestly, when I started scrapping I had no style.  Badly matted photo’s plonked in the middle of pages with very little interest on the page. Weddings are important, so I want to create pages that I want to look at, so above is the first new page.  Trust when I tell you it’s a thousand times better, although I’m not convinced I have finished with it.  We’ll have to see.

The next layout is another look back.  We ran out of ink in our printer so I had a hunt for a photo to scrap when I went to the local crop, that or sit and twiddle my thumbs!  I found this one of Rosie’s feet and finally finished the layout on Friday.

A little stash busting went on here with lots of brads, stickers and a feltie being used.  All of which I have had for a while.

        

That’s it for now.  Today is one of my rare kid free days, and I have tons to be getting on with while the house is calm.    Thanks for stopping by!

Sketch scrapping

I rarely ever use sketches for scrapping. I just have an aversion to them, even though I have started to create sketch challenges for my local crop, but just recently I they have started to grow on me, and more importantly means quick scrapping when the mood takes me.  Yesterday I spent a couple of hours meandering through blog land and at one point landed on Shimelle’s blog and found her sketch of the week.  I loved the big blocks of patterned paper and promptly printed off an A4 sized photo from our trip to New York in November 2010.  I trimmed it down and then pulled out a couple of virtually untouched GoGo kits and set about chopping them up.

I know it doesn’t follow the rule of thirds, but to print the shot out smaller just felt wrong. I just love the simplicity of this layout and feel inspired to get stash busting.   Just need to get some photo’s printed out now and hopefully I’ll then be able to justify the pile of unused kits currently hiding in my cupboard.

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Being a guest

This month I’m a guest, in this case a guest designer for A Trip Down memory Lane.  It was a real privilege to be asked, especially as ATDML was the first store I ever did any scrappy shopping with.  I loved the papers that I was sent to work with and simply put - I ran out of time to use them what with out trip away and all the chaos that comes with coming home again. I’ll be sure to share more layouts with you when I get five minutes to scrap.

The December gallery is now live, so head on over and take a look.  There are, as always, some fabulous creations there, and I’d really like to say Thanks to Mel & Jill for inviting me to join their talented team of designers this month.

Thanks for stopping by!

Been at it again…

 

Yes, more scrapping.  Think it may have something to do with a pile of “school” photo’s that have been sitting waiting to be scanned in, and that fact that once again my little craft space seems to be shrinking so I must use up my mountain.

This layout is one I created for a class I held at my local crop. Thankfully all the ladies that took part seemed to love it – big phew!

And after all that scrapping, I’ve managed to do a little art journaling as well. How could I not? 

One background ready to work on, all done with acrylic paints.

And a finished pages, stamped and doodled in my mini journal.

That’s probably going to be it from me now until December as Chris & I are off to New York soon for our annual “just us” break that happens to coincide with my 40th, and that means packing up my journaling travel kit to take with me.  I think that is going to be harder than packing clothes!

Thanks for stopping by!

My floppy flips

A couple of weeks ago Rosie and I went shopping for some new shorts for Jamie, and being girls we also took a peep at some shoes.  Rosie only has little leather baseball type shoes and really could do with some sandals of some description.  Enter Next, and these fabulous flip flops.  As soon as she saw them she wanted them.  It’s all I can do now to stop her sleeping in them.

FB Status….

I don’t  know about you but Facebook has kinda crept up on me, meaning that over the last six months the days have become shorter as a result. Know that feeling? LOL.

I decided, it has to be said after a mooch around Effer Dares, to create a page to record it for my Book of Me.  And this is the result.  I thought the madness of Sassafras suited it really well.  Unusually for me I have printed out my journaling for this one with status updates copied directly, with the time stamp, from FB.

The journaling  on the right reads -

“ Facebook has crept up on me. Its responsible for too many lost hours.  Hours for one, I could have been scrapping.  We could have a tidy house.  We could have a fully stocked cupboard.

No longer content with playing FarmVille, there is PetVille, Mafia Wars and Vampire Wars. …and I even do status updates.”

Thanks for stopping by!  (I’m off for my lunch now – and not facebook! LOL)

*Festival*

You saw the sneak peeks, now here they are in full, my designs for the the SBK Club Festival kit which is now available for purchase.

In addition to the kit I’ve used a couple of buttons from my stash and some SBK “Fusion Patch" flowers. The flowers are just a fabulous quality – really thick paper, which meant they didn’t tear when I used them. I hate think paper flowers, I just don’t have the patience for them. Maybe I’m just too rough!

You can find more designs by the design team here.

Birthday {blog} bash!

Firstly, HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBEKAH, whose blog bash this is.

Secondly, WELCOME to my blog if it’s your first visit, and welcome back if it’s not. Hope you’ve enjoyed your blog hop so far!

I sat and thought for ages about what I could do for you. As I’m a card maker and a jewellery maker I thought about doing something there, but most of us have made a card at some point and if you don’t already make jewellery sharing a project with you could prove hard on your pocket if you wanted to have a go. So, instead after much pondering I went with a 12x12 layout. Highly original huh!

There is a birthday theme to it though. Well, sort of. That photo, it’s me when I was a mere ten weeks old. Feel free to go “"awwwww” at this point, or as I did “wow, a face only a Mother would love!” LOL.

I love a distressed look, and thought it suited the age of the photo (which is a copy not the original) so having chosen the papers I set about inking and curling the edges.

The cream 7Gypsies paper was screwed up and sprayed with a small amount of glimmer mist. Once dry it was flattened out and then I went over the crease mounds with distress ink using an inking tool. A little spritz of water to wash the ink and then a quick dab with a cloth, and it’s ready to add to your page.

The flowers are just small lollipop ones made from scraps. I used 1.5”, 1” and 5/8th’s” punches. The edges have been inked and then glued together with good ole glossy accents. The centres have been done with small beads. I added glossy accents then dropped some beads on, once dried I added a second layer so that they pop out a bit.

The leaves were hand drawn, in my case using a fine sharpie pen, and the cut out. I wasn’t precise when doing this at all, either in the drawing or cutting.

Once everything was suitably shabby I stuck all the paper to the cardstock background and then, in pencil, drew where I wanted my “vine” to go for the leaves and flowers. Following that line, and again I wasn’t accurate (I’m far too impatient) I went along the line with a paper piercer and then stitched the vine/stalk on.

Now the fun part, adding the flowers and leaves along it’s length with glossy accents. I tend to keep going until it feels right. You may want more or less.

Then it’s just the addition of a few butterflies with beaded bodies and you’re done.

If you do do a layout based on mine, or using any of the techniques please let me know. Leave me comment as I’d love to come and see it.

Supply list:

• glossy accents
• black pen (I used a sharpie)
• Distress Ink (a brown one) & Inking tool
• Bazzill Cardstock
• Patterned paper: 7Gypsies –Karma, Staastburgh & Requiem ; Basic Grey – Garden Party & Waffles; Giraphic 45 – Domestic Goddess.
• Tim Holtz frame & ticket
• Embroidery thread or scrappers floss in dark green
• Small beads
• Date stamp
• Circle punches
• Butterfly punch (Martha Stewart in my case)
• Border punch
• Paper piercer
• Lace

Thanks for stopping by and joining in Rebekah’s birthday {blog} bash! Your next stop is to the very talented Nicola Booth, so go get yourself a nice fresh cuppa and enjoy the journey.

If you want to go back to Rebekah’s blog you can click here .

It'll stick

but only if the wind blows!

I've had a copy of this photo of Rosie pinned to the wall by the PC for ages and keep meaning to scrap it, so with a the kids free day disappearing faster than I care for, I printed out a copy and did a fast scrap. When I say fast it actually took me just over an hour.

Lots of distressing and inking going on, some Maya Road pins and an idea pinched from the extremely talented Rachael - a little piece of lace tucked behind a rip in the paper (hers is much nicer though).

Right, that's it from me for today. I've been a right little blogger the last few days. There will probably be tumbleweed rolling by next time you visit!

Thanks for stopping by.

Pogo Monsters

Fed up with the snow yet? I know I am now. It wasn't too bad when Jamie was on school holidays, but now he's back I am not enjoying walking it in with a pushchair, or to be more accurate, half pushing - half dragging a pushchair through it.

I did force the kids into a mini photo shoot on Wednesday though as the school was shut and they seemed up for it. I have printed the shots out on a polaroid pogo - I just love it. No, they are not colour accurate but they are proper polaroid pictures as we remember them. The kids were sat in front of my bed and that's a chocolate colour quilt cover behind them.... you'd never guess would you. I was determined to scrap them quickly and this is what I came up with.

As always, thanks for looking!

More hours please...

I really could do with more hours in the day at the moment. Not because I have lots to do but because I'm putting off doing it ("it" mainly being the housework). You know it's bad when you pop to get a pair of scissors from your desk and end up spending half an hour finishing off a LO. I'm just far too easily distracted at the moment, but that will change tomorrow as I've got a list of things to get done by the end of the day and I don't intend to spend the rest of the week running round like something headless.

Anyway - after that ramble - the LO I allowed myself to get distracted by. It's from Shimelle's class at the October GoGoGetaway. Now that feels like a very long time ago now.

The Twilight Zone

If I had to say which was my favourite class from GoGoGetaway, I would probably say this one - The Twilight Zone with Nicola Kerridge. I had such a sweet photo of Jamie to use on this and wasn't sure how he's take to me making him into a full blown Monster, so a subtle Devil seemed in order. I loved this technique and could run and run with it. It's in need of a little more paint but I really wanted to share it with you.

The things I do....

Another layout about me and the things I do. This one is to record a small habit I have when Chris is away for the night.

The journalling reads:

"The things I do.

When you are not here I stay until up until midnight because I can't go to bed on my own. When I do finally fall asleep I do it on your pillow. I miss you when you're not here."

Thanks for looking!

Seven random facts

It feels like a very long time since I last blogged. I'm on a mission at the moment, firstly to spend less time on the tinterweb...not easy when there are so many wonderful blogs to read. And secondly, I'm also on a bid to become more organised so that when Jamie starts school this week and Rosie is in nursery I can have guilt free time to craft, or just sit with my feet up and read blogs.

The layout above was one I did at my local crop on Saturday. I've probably mentioned before that I've decided it's about time I appeared in my scrapbooks. Having not had kids until my mid/late thirties I have visions of any Grandchildren not having a clue who I am as I will have long since passed away, that's assuming my two, firstly have children and secondly, leave it until the age I did.

So, back to the layout, "Seven Random Facts" and they are:

• there is a tidy person bursting to get out of me
• i have my nose pierced
• never suggest I wear pink if you value your life
• i love the autumn. It brings woolly tights and long boots to me
• i can't resist red shoes
• i'm a qualified reflexologist who hates feet
• i have never had short hair and probably never will

That's it from me for now. I hope to be back soonish with my LSNED pages, or at least a post to say what I have learnt so far.

Thanks for stopping by!

A little bit of comfort....

Thought I'd share another layout I did whilst we were away. I had to wait until we got home to add the butterflies and I didn't take the stamps away with me. Sorry the photo isn't the best.

This one is about Rosie sucking her thumb, something she does when she is tired or upset.

Think I'm going to have to find a source for those Maya Road pins, I just love them but only have a couple left. The stamp on the photo is Ali Edwards from Technique Tuesday.

The butterflies have been stamped onto patterned paper, cut out and then stamped on the reverse and finally directly onto the background paper.

Thanks for stopping by for a look!

So, that layout then....

Home sweet home, and a chance of getting some better photo's of it.

I wasn't sure about this paper when I first saw it, but having sat for a while staring at it I though it should look like my pin board, so I chose a few photo's of Jamie and some random bits and pieces from a box of embellishments I took on holiday with me and just stuck them on.

I decided to include that gorgeous Melissa Frances frame from scrapagogo, by using it to frame a scrap of paper that I liked, so now you know what I've done with it. I also adore that tiny key from 7 gypsies from the IM kit. Think they go really well together on the page.

Thanks for looking.