Paper Obsession

Carry on stash-busting!

Every night, Gareth and I lie down beside Harry and Charlie, holding their hands while the baby monitor plays five minutes of lullabies to send them peacefully to the Land of Nod. I must confess I love this part of the day.. I often find myself planning my next layout, or dreaming about ideas for starting a crafty business.. it's a productive time!

Tonight I found myself thinking about how Shimelle's class 'Something From Almost Nothing' is drawing to a close, and how lovely it would be to continue with the inspiration and the challenges to get using those old bits of stash.

I'd like to share some of my ideas and see what you think...

• The simplest idea would be to open a challenge thread on Shimelle's forum for members to post challenges - say once a month - and perhaps attach an example layout for inspiration. I loved how Shimelle found links to some incredible layouts on Two Peas In A Bucket for the buttons prompt. Maybe we could do that too, for extra inspiration!

• Another idea might be to start a new challenge blog, initially for SFAN participants and promoted through the SFAN forum, but there'd be no reason why others could then join in. Of course, the blog would promote Shimelle's class - her materials, free printables and video tutorials are absolutely top-notch and I'd recommend her class to anyone!!

• A different idea I had, but still related, would be to start a stash-swap challenge! Participants could put together a small kit of old stash, maybe based around a theme - say, several scraps of patterned paper, some brads, eyelets, stickers.. you get the picture! - and then swap them with someone else in the group. The challenge would be to create a layout or other project with whatever you've been given and post your project to the blog or forum.

I have a couple of other ideas swirling around in my head too, but I'll leave it at these three for now.. don't want to overwhelm you!

Any thoughts? Would you be interested in participating in any of the above, or have you had any other ideas? I look forward to hearing from you!

Buttons... I've used a few...

Thank you so much, ladies, for your kind words yesterday.. my Dad arrived home from hospital yesterday afternoon and sounded very chirpy on the phone.. my Mum, however, said she felt like 'an old rag' after what he'd put her through!

So, life can return to normal, more or less, which means I managed to do a quick layout last night, inspired by Shimelle's prompt on using up some buttons.

I've been meaning to scrapbook this 8x10 inch photo for ages, and tried to do something with patterned paper scraps last week, but no go. Buttons, on the other hand... a simple heart-shaped frame and white cardstock background... (almost) voila!!

I couldn't resist adding a couple of birdies, die-cut with space-dyed felt (from 21st Century Yarns), with feathers for wings (got these from a toy shop in the craft section) and Hero Arts black pearls.

The alphas are Basic Grey, from the 'Perhaps' and 'June Bug' collections. The journaling tag was inked with blue chalk ink round the edges and with purple and blue inks in the centre using sequin waste as a stencil. Loving this technique!!!

The photo was taken in February 2008; Harry was nearly 6 months old (and a little chubby, it has to be said!) and Charlie about 20 months old.

I've been having thoughts... and ideas... about 'Something About Almost Nothing', and the fact that it's nearly over (boo-hoo!!). I'll do a separate post on this a bit later.. I'd love to know what you think too, so please stay tuned!

A lucky escape

I couldn't bring myself to post yesterday... it was a bit of a harrowing day.

It started at 7.45am with a phone call.. we were lying in bed, debating who'd get up for the first shower. Gareth answered, and it was obvious that it wasn't good news. I had some idea of what it might be about, but I was wrong.

"Hi Sar, I'm afraid Dad's in hospital, he's had a stroke." The words hit me like a sledgehammer. It had happened on Sunday night, about 11pm, and Mum leapt to the phone, immediately knowing what was wrong. The paramedics arrived within ten minutes and were brilliant, as were the ambulance team and hospital staff. It seems Dad was fortunate to have suffered a very mild stroke, or Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA), and within a couple of hours he was showing strong signs of recovery.

Monday was a difficult day, though, as the 24 hours following such an incident are critical as further attacks can occur in this time. Thankfully, though, he was fine last night and 'slept like a log'! Dad's scan and other tests seem to be very encouraging, and he is due home this afternoon. It's the second time he has had an incident like this, however, and Mum and Dad really need to think through their options for the future.

Look after yourself, Dad.. we love you and want you to be around for a good while yet!

While the cat's away...

...the mouse will play! Gareth was out for drinks after work last night, giving me a whole evening of guilt-free scrapping.. and I managed to complete two layouts that I'm really happy with.

The first of these was in response to this month's challenge on the Fiskarettes blog. It's a sketch challenge, and the prize is a year's subscription to one of a whole range of craft magazines, including Craft Stamper, Scrapbook Trends, Simply Handmade and several others. Well worth a go - the closing date is Monday 12th April so get to it!

I've just checked the rules and you're allowed to post your entry to your own personal blog, so here it is:

 
The journaling reads:

'He might look as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, but at 15 months old, Harry had an alarming habit of throwing his cutlery across the table... often closely followed by his plate. Thankfully he's grown out of this now (although he's still no angel!).

As you can see, Shimelle's lessons have really sunk in:

scraps of cardstock - check!

assorted alpha stickers - check!

My second layout of the night was based on Shimelle's Friday prompt - using flowers - and her sketch. You know, I'm really loving sketches at the moment! Also, I think I'm beginning to embrace white space and let go of the urge to fill it with stuff. Perhaps the clean and simple style is not beyond me, after all!

Julie - if you're reading this - thank you for the purple hydrangeas!

The journaling reads:

'Harry! Don't step on the flowers!' I called in vain.

'I wouldn't!' he called back.

I don't know where he's got this phrase, 'I wouldn't!' - usually uttered whenever he is doing just what I have asked him not to do. Infuriating... but so cute at the same time!

Finally... Julie Kirk very kindly did a post on the Gauche Alchemy blog yesterday which mentioned my article in this month's Scrapbook Magazine. Two of the layouts I did for the article used lots of gorgeous sparkly bits from Gauche Alchemy's mixed media colour kits.. which, of course, I mentioned in the article! As a reward for getting their name in print, GA are going to send me a little goodie bag.. result!!

Have a happy weekend.. :o)

New Blog Header alert!!

Excuse me while I test out a new look! :o)

It came about as a result of an email newsletter I got from BasicGrey, in which I noticed they have branched into the world of digital scrapping... and were also offering blog banners, backgrounds etc. After wrangling an upgrade from Typepad to a proper Pro account (so that I could customise my banner), I tried to upload one of BasicGrey's banners.. not so easy. Then I thought perhaps I should try and make my own anyway.. 

I simply resized a photo of the butterfly collage I made last year and added the text (using Rough Typewriter font, downloaded from Dafont.com).

After a fair bit of tinkering, I think it's working ok - at least on my computer. I use Mozilla Firefox.. if you use another browser and it looks all wrong, please let me know!

Could this be the quickest layout ever?

...whipped up this afternoon while Harry snoozed on the sofa and Charlie played at nursery

...inspired by Shimelle's prompt on using stickers (and I certainly have enough of those)

...also inspired by this post by Anso to pick a bunch of photos that make you happy and scrapbook them.

I love seeing how my boys... and the garden... have changed in the last two years.

Sometimes it's the details in the background that can catch your eye.. like the abundance of flowers in the borders... reminding me that occasionally it's good not to 'go in close and cut out the distracting mess behind the subject'!

Sticker count:

• Papermania embossed glittery butterflies: 3
• Papermania epoxy flowers: 12
• Fabric/cardstock arrows and rectangles (from Pound shop): 5
• October Afternoon circle label: 1
• American Crafts Thickers: 7

TOTAL: 28 stickers!!!

I really enjoyed doing this layout... it was quick (about 30 minutes, must be an all-time record), easy and fun!

Guess who's in Scrapbook Magazine this month?

Oooh, can you possibly guess?

I was pleasantly surprised to find this issue on my doormat yesterday, a whole three days before it's out in the shops. Turn to page 36 and you'll find an article on using black & white photos in bold, colourful layouts, written by me!

The article, including three layouts, was commissioned back in January as a result of the Scrapbooker of the Year competition (of which I was one of nine runners-up). It seems so long ago that I did these layouts but I really loved doing them. When I get them back, I'll photograph them and post pictures here. But if you do get the magazine, I'd love to know what you think of what I wrote, as well as my layouts of course!

My next commission is to come up with a sketch and matching layout with the theme of Summer, again for Scrapbook Magazine. It will be in issue 47 (out in about three months) and is a work in progress at the moment! Here's a sneak peek of what it may involve...

That's all for now... except to say a huge THANK YOU to everyone who left a lovely comment on the post below.. I really appreciate every comment!

Killing three birds with one LO?

Not literally, you understand... it's just that I've been working on this layout since Friday - when Shimelle's class prompt involved using up your patterned paper scraps. Inspired by one of the gorgeous layouts in the prompt, I punched about a million circles out of my Basic Grey 'Urban Prairie' papers.. and then fell prey to scrapper's block. My original idea just looked rubbish so I had to leave it awhile.. until I thought of using them to form scallops around the edge of a smaller piece of cardstock, then mounting on 12x12.

I felt the blue cardstock was a bit plain so I stamped it with some lovely Basic Grey swirl stamps using Clear Embossing Ink, which seemed to have a watermark effect like using Versamark. In the morning, though, I found it had all but disappeared! I could just make out the swirly lines, so I went over the stamping with a Sakura Souffle green pen - and now it looks like doodling!

Monday's prompt was all about using ribbon.. reminding me that I had a bundle of Urban Prairie fibres tucked away that I've never used. I fancied threading them around the edges of the layout in some way.. then - lightbulb moment - thought of my little-used Bind-It-All. What a simple way to get nice evenly spaced holes all around the edges of the cardstock. I really like how this turned out.

I decided the layout needed something to fill the space on the left.. either circles or birds. I went for three birds as I thought they echoed the little blue bird in one of the patterned paper scallops at the top. I loved its closed eye and eyelashes, so tried to recreate that on my die-cut birdies.. particularly as I'm also blinking in the photo! The third 'bird' I'm metaphorically killing? Well, I've used metal brads for their eyes. I think that counts.. :o)

The birds were die-cut using the Shapeabilities Nesting Bird dies. I added hand-cut wings, flower sequins and inked around the edges. On one of the birds I used some sequin waste (punchinella) from Gauche Alchemy as a stencil and dabbed ink through it. Love that effect!

The layout is simply about how I'm happy that we are following our dream by moving down to the South Coast, happy to be closer to our family.. and just happy to be on the beach!

Thanks for looking.. if you made it this far! ;-)

Spring is in the air

Happy Mothers' Day to any mummies reading this! I hope you were truly spoiled today. Me? Well, there was no breakfast in bed (can you imagine, with a two-year-old and a three-year-old leaping around beside me?! It would literally be in the bed..) but we did have a very lovely walk in Grangewood Park this morning. The sun was glorious, the squirrels were out in force.. it was a perfect Spring day.

 

Harry has been poorly with a really nasty cough for the last few days (complete with awful nights of little sleep) but seemed lots better today. The boys had both made me beautiful Mothers' Day cards and also decorated a gorgeous little photo album with chipboard and foam hearts while we were at Toddler Group on Friday (I would not let them leave without doing one each!). Gareth very thoughtfully bought me an American Crafts 12x12 cloth album in Cardinal Red - how on earth did he manage to know that was just what I wanted (ahem.. I might have dropped a small hint)?!

So here's the evidence...

 

Fab... what more could a girl desire for Mothers' Day..

Hand-made cards from my sweet boys (born to craft, methinks)...

Charlie's message, faithfully transcribed by his teacher in Nursery.. and his signature... had me in tears!

And finally, here's a picture of the title page of my 'Celebrate Life' project, which I'll be putting in - oooh, let me think - my new AC album!

Have a great week!

Celebrate Life... the album

So Shimelle's eagerly-awaited new class started on Wednesday... and so far, so fabulous! The first prompt was designed to get you using up all things metal - brads, eyelets, frames, tags and so on... I must have hundreds of brads n' eyelets which I rarely use. The prompt contained some really lovely ideas for using these things.. and then a sketch for the title page of the album project, Celebrate Life (interpret as you will!).

Here's a couple of peeks at my title page..

I'll take a picture of the whole thing in proper light tomorrow (if we get any) and post a list of the supplies I used (hint: it includes LOTS of brads).

The second prompt, which Shimelle posted today, includes some fabulous ideas for making use of patterned paper scraps.. let's face it, who doesn't have mountains of them?! I am VERY keen to tame my paper scrap collection, it really is getting out of hand.

Talking of which, if you have any top tips for organising paper scraps... I'd love to hear them!