Paper Obsession

Catching up on some learning

Where has this week gone?!

I keep thinking of things I really want to share here.. but just haven't found the time to sit and write. So now I'm all caught up (momentarily, anyway), I'll try to keep it succinct!

Sunday 5th September

A thought struck me while in the kitchen today.. 'I'm SO much happier when Gareth is home!'

I realised how hard things could be sometimes with Gareth working away Monday to Thursday. How everyday life just got on top of me at times.. especially after several nights of not-enough-sleep. It was just really good to have him around.. for cuddles, for laughs, for the adult conversation.. and of course for the boys to have their Daddy.

By the way, this is the FIRST time I have used bunting on a project.. expect to see more of it on future pages! (Yes I know.. I do catch on to trends a bit late in the day!)

Monday 6th September

One of my hopes for Learn Something New this year was that I would try to enjoy cooking a bit more. And I have been making an effort! I've invented a dish involving cod fillets, assorted vegetables and olives in a rich pasta sauce (the Loyd Grossman ones are a favourite).. oven-baked with cheese on top. I've done it twice now and it's delicious!

Actually, that's an aside.. my page today celebrates an Apple & Raisin Crumble which was also pretty fab.

I want to add a few bits to this page.. it needs some apple stickers or something!

Tuesday 7th September

The boys and I enjoyed a 'crafty afternoon' together on the dining table. While I scrapbooked, Charlie and Harry drew round their hands and coated them with glitter. Harry, exhausted after his morning in Nursery, got very frustrated with his efforts and took a nap on the floor by the cat-flap. Poppy looked most unnerved as she came through to find a sleeping Harry in her way.

These photos go in the little envelope.. there's journaling on the back of each one.

Wednesday 8th September

Reading The Copy + Paste Project blog this evening, I learnt about a neat photography trick called 'Tilt-Shift', which makes landscapes look as if they are miniature models.. and just HAD TO have a play immediately (thanks Kirsty!)!

Also on The Copy + Paste Project was a post by Julie about using song lyrics in your projects. That instantly brought to mind one of my favourite albums, Dead Calm by Morcheeba, which I've been playing a lot lately.

So I took this photo...

...let the Tilt-Shift-Maker do its thing, added some poignant lyrics, and ended up with this...

And here's my page:

Well, I think that's enough for now.. except to say all the papers are from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper stack by Stampin' Up.. and are only available til the end of September. If you'd like them, pop over to Seaside Stampers for all the info.

Thanks for popping by,

Sarah x

Happy New Year! Two little projects to share

Well, we survived the Christmas season, happy and virtually unscathed. We had my parents over from South Wales for the big day and then traveled down to Eastbourne for New Year with Gareth's parents. It's been so busy I'm afraid my little blog fell by the wayside for a while.

I have a ton of Journal Your Christmas pages to share but rather than post them all here, I have uploaded all I've done (so far) to Flickr, along with descriptions and details of supplies used. My JYC photo set is here if you fancy a look - or just click the link to the left to go to my photostream!

Meanwhile, I have a couple of small projects to share - first, another of my UFO's (UnFinished Objects) which is now Finished. It is a small canvas, covered in patterned tissue paper from IKEA using Mod Podge, as described by Kirsty Neal in the 12 Days Christmas workshop.

For several weeks, this was how it remained, until I had a sudden flash of inspiration just before Christmas and finished it off in just over an hour. My inspiration was this piece of ribbon, bought at the wonderful Knitting and Stitching Show back in October.

Using my Cuttlebug and Spellbinders Birds die, I cut two medium-sized birds from blue felt. I then hand-cut three hearts from red felt and stuck the smaller ones on to the birds with the third one to go in between them. I added a pink and a blue brad to each birds for eyes.

Next I stuck some red and white gingham ribbon around the edges of the canvas as a frame for the birds. Finally I stuck on the birds and the heart in the middle, using Art Glitter Designer Dries Clear Adhesive (it's brilliant stuff!).

I was going to add the word 'Peace' in letter stickers but NONE of my sets of stickers had more than one letter E so I gave up.. I might come back to it some time but I quite like it as it is, for now at least!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxox

My second little project to share was an unexpected - and much appreciated - Christmas present from Gareth. It was a 'Make Your Own Heart Decoration' kit from Accessorize, containing everything you need to make a cute stuffed heart - felt, floral fabric, ribbon, buttons, gems and wadding, as well as thread, needles, pins and a plastic thimble.

I sewed it all together while curled up on the sofa on Boxing Day, watching 'Flushed Away' and eating choccies. Bliss! It looked lovely on the Christmas tree and I can imagine making lots more out of scraps of fabric to give as gifts, maybe stuffed with dried lavender or other herbal smelly things.

These kits are now selling at half price (£3) in Accessorize - a nice pressie for someone crafty perhaps?

The UFOs are piling up!

I blame Julie Kirk and Kirsty Neale. I have a mountain of half-started/someday-to-be-finished projects, cluttering up every available surface, since their 12 Days: Copy + Paste Christmas Project.

I guess I should also blame my *tiny* attention span and easily-distracted nature.

Here's a quick run-down of a few of my current UnFinished Objects...

Exhibit A:

An antique printer's tray, bought off eBay last week, now propped up on my desk behind the laptop. Someday I will paint it and fill it with fascinating found objects and hand-made treasures (Kirsty: I definitely blame you for this one ;o)

Exhibit B:

A pile of gesso'ed clothing tags, inspired by Julie's project. Someday I will get around to transforming into a miniature art journal full of insightful quotes.. just not quite sure when.

Exhibit C:

A mod-podged and napkin'ed mini canvas (Kirsty - I actually leaped for joy when I saw your project with the same IKEA napkins as I'd been hoarding for months). Someday I will complete the artwork with a silhouette of something cut from patterned paper.. or maybe felt.. or fabric..?

Exhibit D:

A painted canvas, complete with fabric and felt collage of tree and bird. Except it's not complete yet. Someday I will decide I like the way I've stitched on the leaves and stick it all together. No really, I will.

I hope that by publishing this little list I might, just might, get round to finishing something. Someday soon.

12 Days... One project complete... {eventually}

Last night I managed to FINISH one project from the 12 Days class.. and I am feeling pretty pleased with myself, I can tell you! Although it was very nearly at the expense of my iron, not to mention my sanity.

The project is a fabric notebook cover with a very cute appliqued dog. I decided to adapt the idea to cover an A5 ring binder, using scraps of fabric I've been hoarding up the loft for quite some time. I knew they'd find a use one day!

Making the cover was remarkably straightforward - it even fitted the ring-binder! My next task was to use Kirsty's template to trace a sausage dog on to Bondaweb fusible webbing, iron it on to fabric and cut it out. This cut-out dog would then be ironed on to the cover. 

I was about to cut out the dog when I realised I had traced it the wrong way round. Bah! Not really wanting my dog's backside to be on the front of my folder, I tried again.

This time I traced the dog correctly but then made a fatal mistake attempting to iron the Bondaweb on to my piece of fabric. My Bondaweb was NOT 'paper side uppermost' as it should have been... and it bonded itself very firmly to my iron. AAAAARGH!!!!

After salvaging my poor iron with brown paper, salt and elbow grease I was back in business, managing to get the dog ironed on to the cover the right way round. I added a white ear, machine-stitched around the whole thing and sewed on a black button nose and a green eye to finish.

So here is the completed folder... ta-daah!!

I think I'm going to use it to store my Banana Frog acrylic stamps. Apart from the Bondaweb-on-iron disaster, this really was quite a do-able project (i.e. if I can do it, anyone can..). I might even make a Christmassy one with a reindeer on the front to use as a Christmas planner. 

Thank you Kirsty - for inspiring me to make a dent in my huge bag of scraps, for your fantastic instructions, and for all the other projects which I will eventually have a go at!

Trick or Treat?

{Digital kit: Thrilling October Free Kit by Cherie Mask - from 2 Peas in a Bucket}

On Wednesday, I had a delightful message from Kirsty Neale and Julie Kirk inviting me to take part in their Copy + Paste Trick or Treat blog party to celebrate Halloween. To say I was thrilled would, of course, be something of an understatement!

My mission - which I chose to accept, thank you very much - was to make a Halloween-themed project (my TRICK) and post it here on Saturday. After a fair bit of brain-racking, I decided to make a cuff bracelet using felt and buttons in Halloweeny colours - orange, lime-green, purple and black.

After measuring my wrist, I cut a strip of black felt 6" long by 2" wide, followed by a strip of purple felt 6" long by 1.5" wide. I stuck them together with a bit of Wonderweb hemming tape, then sewed them together using a blanket stitch. 

 
Next, I gathered a heap of buttons in the chosen colours and sewed them on randomly using contrasting embroidery thread. At one end I sewed a loop of black elastic cord and made sure there was a nice big button sewn centrally at the other end.

As if by magic, the bracelet goes round my wrist and is held together by the button and loop. Tidy! Not sure how many outfits this will go with post-Halloween but I am rather pleased with it :o)

 

Now for the TREAT part...

As you will no doubt be aware, Kirsty and Julie are hosting a workshop called 12 Days:: A Copy + Paste Christmas which starts next Thursday (5th November). As a special treat, if you sign up for the workshop this weekend, you will also receive a FREE bonus download! Just click here for details of this special offer.

And finally...

I have two sources of inspiration I want to thank: firstly the Green Gal, who has some beautiful hand-made pieces on her blog, including some gorgeous button bracelets. Secondly, the Hero Arts blog which included some Fall colour palettes a few weeks ago as part of a challenge. I thought the orange/green/purple/black combo just screamed Oct 31st.

If you've read this far... thank you SO much for dropping in.. and enjoy the rest of the Halloweeny fun!

Copy + Paste :: A Quick Quiz

I should be writing a list of instructions for my dear in-laws who are coming to look after the boys tomorrow while G and I go to a wedding... but then I had a quick peek at the 12 Days :: Copy + Paste Christmas blog, and before I knew it, I was doing a quiz. I just couldn't help myself.

Here's the blurb:

Try not to think about it but give your first, instinctive responses to each of the following options ... some of your answers might even surprise you!

And here's the quiz:

This OR That?

fabric OR paper

ink OR paint

grungy OR clean

cut with scissors OR tear with bare hands

measure OR just guess

careful OR haphazard

hoarder OR minimalist

Christmas OR Summer holidays

music OR talk radio

drive OR walk

gym OR beach

cook a meal OR buy take-away

fruit OR cake

ironing OR crafting

ironing OR vacuuming

my friends OR my own company

talk OR listen

you OR them

always OR never

half-full OR half-empty

yes OR no

And yes, some of the questions were surprisingly hard to answer.. some I wanted to say 'BOTH!' and some I wanted to explain, to qualify my answers..

Here's what I came up with (my answers highlighted):

This OR That?

fabric OR paper.... BOTH!!! but at a push, fabric

ink OR paint... I'm loving a bit of paint right now.. though I love ink too.. Both again?

grungy OR clean.. actually that's a tough one too..

cut with scissors OR tear with bare hands... I have to admit I'm more often a cutter

measure OR just guess... again, I do tend to measure though I'd like to say guess

careful OR haphazard... TRICKY one!! Sometimes both at once

hoarder OR minimalist... no problem with this ;o)

Christmas OR Summer holidays... tough but I'm in winter mode right now

music OR talk radio... Five Live is always on round here

drive OR walk... easy!!

gym OR beach... gym, are you kidding?!

cook a meal OR buy take-away

fruit OR cake... it's the shameful truth

ironing OR crafting... Hahaha!!!

ironing OR vacuuming.. it's good exercise

my friends OR my own company.. quite a tough one, this.. but friends do make me happy

talk OR listen... both really but if I have to choose

you OR them... what?!!!

always OR never... now I'm confused

half-full OR half-empty...

yes OR no... definitely YES!

I think on another day, my answers would be totally different. On the first few questions, I really think I have a split personality.. I can be fastidious about measuring and cutting, trying to get everything just perfect.. but then I LOVE the look of more apparently haphazard, carefree stuff - I just find it quite hard to BE like that. Maybe I need a glass of wine before crafting to release those inhibitions...

Thanks Julie and Kirsty.. this was fun.. and illuminating (sort of)!! And now I should get back to what I was meant to be doing ;o)