Paper Obsession

A Kitchen Makeover.. and a Scrapbook Page

I discovered Sarah's Modern Country Style blog when researching 'country style' for a commission I was asked to do for Scrapbook Magazine. I'm glad I did.. her blog is gorgeous... craft projects, home decor, even fashion.. and it's always great fun to read!

I thought I'd share the story of our home-made kitchen makeover as part of Sarah's Paint, Please Link Party. Since we moved into our Eastbourne home just over a year ago. Despite a whiff of neglect and a hastily applied slick of Magnolia paint, we could see the house had the potential to be something far more beautiful!

So here was the kitchen just before we moved in, plastic wood cladding, mould and all..

And just after the damp-proofing works created chaos..

Our initial plan was to rip out everything from this kitchen and start from scratch. My dream? Country farmhouse kitchen - real wood units painted a creamy white - wooden butchers' block workshops - flagstones on the floor... all somewhat beyond our budget! And once all the boring-but-essential repairs were complete, we realised our budget was not much more than zero.

Back to the drawing board.. and I found I was secretly pleased.. and relieved.. that we weren't going to trash those painted wooden cupboards that had been there for decades. Under the tatty lino we found some half-decent floorboards.. and an area of quarry tiles where we imagined there used to be a fireplace.

So instead of tearing everything out and replacing with cheap copies of what we really wanted, we set about making do with what we had.. building new wooden cupboards where they were needed..

sanding and varnishing those floorboards..

begging and borrowing lengths of worktop.. painting those original cupboards (Celadon by Homebase - Santuary range).. retiling the splashbacks..

I say 'we'.. it was of course my dear hubby Gareth who did most of the work..

I merely project-managed and provided artistic input.. ;o)

For a while, we had the walls painted white.. but I knew it wasn't right - the white tiles were disappearing into the background. Not good at all! I had a notion that a slightly dusty shade of pink would be just perfect. So off we went to Homebase with a die-cut butterfly in Stampin' Up!'s Blushing Bride for inspiration.. and we returned with a tin of Mademoiselle by Crown.

Wow, did it look PINK going on those walls!! But once it was dry, I knew it was a good decision.. and even Gareth has admitted (secretly) he likes it.

[Damn that mobile phone charging on the worktop..]

[Love my sink here so I can look out at the garden instead of a blank wall!]

[The fridge is now where the sink used to be.]

[The cupboard that Gareth built, along with a nice bit of worktop to fill in the gap and sit the microwave on. I LOVE my wooden painted cupboards!]

So that's about it.. a mixture of country cottage and 1950s diner? Oh, and finally.. a couple of sneaky peeks of the scrapbook layout I made documenting our kitchen makeover..

 

[It's not published yet.. will be in issue 58 of Scrapbook Magazine..]

Thanks so much for visiting..

[... and if scrapbooking and papercrafts are your thing, you might like to pop over to my sister website Stamping Obsession.. that's where most of my crafty projects end up these days!]

 

Best wishes,

Sarah xx

Journal Your Christmas!

It's started... and I'm doing it for the third year.. but this time I'm really keeping it simple! My very first JYC album was 12x12 size - and I so struggled to keep up.. last year I thought cutting the size to 6x12 would help - but I still found it hard to complete a page every day (I know it doesn't really matter, but I do hate those gaps where there should be pages!).

This year..? I've gone for an A5-size mini-album which I'll bind myself using the Bind-It-All. My pages are alternating in colour - Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive - and I'm using Stampin' Up!'s Jolly Holiday Designer Series Papers. So far, my pages consist of a 6x4" photo stuck to the cardstock with just a scrap of designer paper underneath, and the date. I haven't done any of my journaling yet, so I'll share those pages when they're finished! (I'm not really following the prompts this year - it's more of a daily diary at the moment.)

Meanwhile, here's my cover:

Apart from the green felt Thickers, everything else is by Stampin' Up! I coloured the bare chipboard letters with black ink (a messy process..).

And here's Poppy getting in on the act:

By the way.. our snow disappeared completely on Friday night.. now we just have frost.. which is almost as pretty as the snow!

Let it snow...

Yes.. we have snow! Here in Eastbourne!!

It started yesterday morning, just as I was beginning to explain the workings of my Christmas Planner project to the ladies at Scrapbook Club. We carried on regardless, while I kept a wary eye on the state of the road and gave updates on how it was settling.

Here they are, hard at work..

[If you'd like to see what we made, do pop on over to my Seaside Stampers blog for all the details!]

Thankfully, they all finished the project and the snow stopped long enough to enable them to get home again afterwards.

In the afternoon it was play time..

 

We've had some more snow this morning so there'll be more fun and games in the white stuff later, no doubt.

Have fun!

Sneaky peeks

I can't resist sharing just a little of what I've been up to last week (well, apart from preparing for and attending Stampin' Up! Convention, that is..)! I have three layouts coming up in issue 62 of Scrapbook Magazine (not the next one but the one after that) - two in the Activity Pack and one in the Designer Gallery. I was asked to use some lovely yellow and orange masking tape and some Doodle Dewdrops.. so, naturally, I needed some new stash to coordinate with them.

I can't show too much but these sneaky peeks will give you an idea of the stamps (Punch Potpourri, Tiny Tags by Stampin' Up!) and papers (Greenhouse Gala, also by Stampin' Up!) that I was working with:

If you'd like to see more cards and layouts using Stampin' Up! products, hop on over to my Seaside Stampers blog.. and by the way,there's a fab promotion just starting which you might just be interested in!

Oooops... where did the last month go?

Yep, it's been a busy one. I thought I might be away from here for a week or so.. but a whole month?!! I'm afraid 'Learn Something New' fell by the wayside too.. and I SO intended to finish the book this time!

I'll try to explain - briefly - what I've been up to..

Thurs 23rd Sept - my second ever Stampin' Up! home workshop - I spent ALL DAY getting anxious, fretting about my Make & Take etc etc.. All pointless fretting! It was a great evening, the ladies who attended were all really lovely - they enjoyed the workshop, spent some money(!) and one of them booked on to my next card-making class.

Sat 25th Sept - Stampin' Up! Open House Event at Community Wise, Eastbourne - my lovely upline Pat came down from Bromley to help out. Another successful event - we did two Make & Takes, made plenty of great new contacts and had lots of interest in my card-making classes. Hard work but I was exhilerated that we did it!

 

Mon 27th Sept - Beach Belles card-making workshop - I wasn't expecting this to be easy.. and it wasn't! The Beach Belles are a club for retired ladies which meet up in a pub on Pevensey Bay every Monday afternoon. I was asked to prepare for 12 ladies but only seven of them could be persuaded to take part. The rest were disinterested to the point of rudeness..

Sat 2nd Oct - Hailsham crop - So glad I went to this! What fun to spend a day catching up with my lovely crop friends.. and getting a few LSNED pages done too.. and I even won the raffle (again!!).

Fri 8th Oct - Card-making class - we made two cards using the SU! Vintage Vogue stamp set. My Mum & Dad came to stay this weekend and we had a fabulously busy time - and some great sunny weather!

Sat 16th Oct - My first Saturday card-making class - and we made some special Christmas cards using the SU! Delightful Decorations stamp set.

Today and tomorrow - I've been helping the children at Harry's nursery school to make bookmarks this afternoon. What fun! I love seeing the kids just get down to sticking straight away - no agonising over what pieces to use or where to stick things - I could learn a lot from them.. But the best part was seeing their pleasure in showing their mums their feathery, sparkly, stickery creations - and the pride of their mums too!

(Top: Harry's; Bottom: Charlie's)

Oh and another thing on my To-Do List.. catch up with Google Reader, which is currently up to (excuse me while I go check..).. 678 unread items!!!! Oh help..

Thank you Sian - for your comment on my Seaside Stampers blog which prompted me to get back to blogging over here.. and expect a return visit some time soon!

 

Learn Something New - keeping it simple

Wednesday 15th September:

 

Vicky Bees Toddler Group resumed after the summer holidays (well, it actually started last week but we didn't realise and missed it). It was lovely to see the ladies who run the group - they are always so friendly and welcoming - and all the mums and kids again. Every week, the children have a little crafty project to do - and the boys' efforts always adorn our fridge. 

It's good to get back to a happy routine of activity after a particularly rainy August.

Thursday 16th September:

We met up with my friend Helen and her two boys at the Bumper Bookshop in Eastbourne - I'd wanted to go for ages and it didn't disappoint. A lovely children's book shop with a great cafe, vintage books to look at, along with hand-made gifts and knick-knacks.

They do occasional craft workshops for kids in the large basement, which I only noticed as the loo's were down there and I saw a big table and lots of chairs. I asked the lady about it, said I ran card-making classes and we chatted about the possibility of me offering a workshop for children in October half term. An interesting idea!

That's all for now.. bed time!

Sarah x

Learning Something New.. but Struggling to Keep Up!

It was all going so well.. then, inevitably, a few days' worth of LSNED fell by the wayside. It's been a busy week.. But hey, no stress!

So here are the next three pages I have completed..

Sunday 12th September:

Last Sunday was a glorious early Autumn day.. warm in the sunshine, surprisingly nippy in the shade.. so we were out in the garden looking for seed pods, slow-worms and anything else of interest to small boys. Breaking open a huge dried-out poppy seed-head, we were intrigued to discover a woodlouse inside.. and then several tiny woodlouse babies! Charlie was so fascinated by this discovery he proceeded to demolish every seed head just to see what was living inside (more woodlice families in most of them).

Meanwhile, Harry looked on, apparently deep in thought..

Monday 13th September:

At the age of four, Charlie has a vivid imagination.. but I hadn't realise he could do maths! On Monday he had tied together my two washing baskets and was pretending they were the Dotto road train. He had six teddies inside and was taking them for a ride to the beach. At the 'beach', all the teddies wanted an ice-cream. So I was the ice-cream man and starting squirting pretend Mr Whippy into the cornets. When I'd handed Charlie three invisible ice-creams, I asked him 'OK Charlie, you have three ice-creams and six teddies.. so how many more do you need?' Without missing a beat, he replied 'Three'. 

Impressed, I told him the ice-creams were £1 each.. so how much did he owe me? 'Six pounds', he said. Does this mean he's going to be a mathematical genius..? Ok, probably not, but I was so proud of him!

Tuesday 14th September:

I'll spare you the full view of Harry in his underpants.. and the one of him 'in action'! Although initially very reluctant to ditch the nappies for proper pants, he actually did really well, getting through the day with no accidents! He had another excellent day on the 15th, prompting me to think 'Well, that was easy!'..

The toilet training 'honeymoon' lasted til Thursday afternoon, when he seemed to forget all about the pants/toilet thing.  But Friday was worse - he had a full-on 'accident' at the cafe in Gildredge Park - Not pleasant! Yes.. the toilet training is going to take time.. and more perseverence than I first thought.

Next week is going to be busy.  Charlie starts school on Monday, and I have parents' workshops to attend all week. I have a Stampin' Up! party booked for Thursday evening and an Open House event on Saturday.. followed by a presentation/Make & Take session for the Beach Belles ladies club in Pevensey on the Monday afternoon. EEEEEEK!!!! So much to do.. and I'm beginning to panic!

Wish me luck.. :o)

Sarah x

Three pages to share..

And here they are..

Thursday 9th September:

I tend to stay up way too late during the week - scrapping, card-making, blogging, reading blogs (am I alone in this..?). It's all very well if you manage to get to sleep promptly when you do get to bed.. but not so great if you then take hours to doze off. When Harry trotted in at 6.15am on Tuesday morning, I was awake.. and I thought to myself, 'I swear I have not actually been asleep yet!'

So after three nights of little-to-no sleep, by Thursday evening I felt pretty rotten.. and an early night was essential - particularly as I had my card-making class on the Friday morning..

Friday 10th September:

I explained this one in my previous post.. I thought I'd prepared well for my class, but hadn't accounted for the possibility of an extra student. I learnt a number of other things during the class:

• Ink pads will get contaminated
• Wood-mounted stamps will get inky
• Stamping mistakes will be made.. and hence more pre-cut pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock will be needed
• You will get through more foam pads than you thought possible
• Unless you put your sample cards in cellophane bags, they will also get inky (see above..)

Information all filed away for next time..

Saturday 11th September:

Well, what could be nicer than a bit of scrapbooking on a wet, miserable Saturday afternoon? While I was busy sticking buttons to Thursday's page, the boys decided to get in on the act.

At first they played really nicely with a handful of buttons each, making patterns on the table, counting, sorting.. then Harry decided to tip the whole jar on the table and drive his little truck through them. Before long, though, buttons were flying in all directions.. Absolutely everywhere! Impossible to be mad at the little scamps, the buttons did look so pretty scattered around the dining room, and they did help pick them all up again!

Right then.. you know what? I'm off to bed! Night night..

Sarah x

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

My Beautiful Baby Harry

Just a quick one to share a layout I made on Saturday night for a blog hop which took place yesterday.

The photo is of Harry aged 7 months, just learning to roll (he's now three).

And below is my first attempt to add a You Tube clip - some video taken of Harry performing one of his first rolls! (When you see the clutter in the background you'll understand why I made the photo black & white..)

All products used are from Stampin' Up! - full details, with more photos, are on my Seaside Stampers blog.

By the way.. the Blog Hop was to showcase some of the Stampin' Up! stamp sets and colours which will be retiring at the end of September. I didn't share details of the Hop yesterday as some of the links weren't working (Blogger's post-scheduling system was not working - aaargh!!). If you're interested in seeing all the beautiful cards and other projects that were part of the Hop - head over to Seaside Stampers and follow the link from there!

Thanks for visiting!

Sarah x