Paper Obsession

Getting organised...?

To be honest, I'm spending far more time scrapping for JYC than actually getting organised... but I'm loving it! Here's my page for day 7...To Do:

Supplies:

Kraft Bazzill cardstock

Love, Elsie 'Noel' patterned paper

Not sure what the Arrow paper is...

The cards in the pocket are Shimelle's downloads, printed on to cream cardstock and stuck back-to-back.

Stamps: Banana Frog 'It's All About Stars', 'Pharmacy' (alphabet), 'Journaling'

Pink sequin mesh, pink tissue paper ribbon

Here it is from the side so you can see the pocket:

So far, as you can see, I haven't ticked many of the boxes on the checklist cards.. oh dear.

Getting organised? Slowly... very slowly.

Childhood Christmases - the good and not-so-good!

I thought I was going to admit defeat with Day 6 - memories of Christmas past. But then last night I decided to just do it! (Actually I couldn't bear seeing an empty space where that page should have been.)

So here is Day 6: Childhood Memories - Good and Not So Good!

The journaling is written on two IKEA notecards, folded into the envelopes and held down with hand and foot paperclips I found in Tesco ages ago.

Here are those cards opened up:

Other supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Kraft

Patterned paper - Love, Elsie 'Noel'

Stamps - Banana Frog 'Pharmacy', Do-Crafts See D's 'Whimsy Letters and Numbers'

Inks - Versafine Black, Colorbox Queue Chalk Inks

Snowman - free with a magazine, either Papercraft Inspirations or CBeebies!

A JYC update...

I've been so busy keeping up with JYC that I haven't made time to post anything to my blog, so I thought I'd attempt a round-up of my first week's pages.

Here's Day 2: the weather...

Supplies:

Patterned paper: We R Memory Keepers - White-out collection

Journaling block and photo corners: Bo Bunny(?)

Black cardstock: Papermania

Letter stickers: American Crafts Glitter Thickers

Blue glitter

Day 3: Christmas Cards...

Supplies:

Blue cardstock: Papermania

Patterned paper: ...can't remember...

Stamps: Banana Frog (Pharmacy alphabet and Build-a-Bloom for the journaling lines)

Dymo labeller and black Dymo tape

Note to self: I really MUST get on with making Christmas cards!

Day 4: Perfect!

Supplies:

Cardstock: Papermania

Patterned paper: ... drat! I should keep those cut-off strips on the bottom of my papers

Magazine clippings: Cath Kidston winter catalogue and Co-op magazine

Felt letter stickers: Papermania and American Crafts

I just LOVE the Cath Kidston catalogues, her stuff is so idyllic! They contain lots of inspiring articles such as activities to do with children, not to mention pictures of things that make me want to have a go at making them myself (like the robin tree ornaments and cookies above)!

Day 5: The Countdown

Supplies:

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics (Hilary)

Patterned paper: Love, Elsie 'Noel'

Journaling tag: Bo Bunny (?)

Letter stickers: BasicGrey

I'll be back soon when I have more pages and other news to share!

JYC Day 1 complete!

My supplies for this page:

Bazzill Basics cardstock

Pink Martini paper

American Crafts Thickers Daiquiri Black Foam

Bazzill Basics Pompom trim

Green lace

Blue felt, cut with Spellbinders Flower die

Doodlebug pink brads

Hero Arts black pearls

Font: Trinigan FG, downloaded from Fontspace.

It's 'Journal Your Christmas' time again!

This year it's going to be different.

This year I will be better organised, I will have my album and all my pages prepared in advance.

This year I will keep it simple and I will keep up!

I guess that just about covers Prompt One... my aim is to try my best to write, blog and {I hope} craft a little something every day... whether it is 'on-prompt' (ugh, what a horrible phrase!) or just notes on the day's activities and my progress towards getting ready for Christmas and the New Year.

....

Well, I am slightly better organised than I was last year.

At least this year I know what I'm doing and what the prompts are likely to be!

I have quite a few pages more-or-less prepared so it should be a relatively simple matter to add photos and words (in theory at least...).

....

Meanwhile.. On Saturday I attended my first every all-day crop, organised by Pat of Bromley Scrapaholics. It was a fantastic day, Pat kept everyone happy with cups of tea and choccie biscuits and had even organised a raffle and a prize for the best layout. I managed to complete my Karen Foster Countdown Calendar, using Love Elsie 'Noel' papers, and got a fair bit of my Christmas planner done too.

Here is the evidence...

The boys were thrilled to find a Malteser and a Cadbury's Snow Bite each in drawer no. 1 this morning. The rest of the drawers will be filled on a day-by-day basis for obvious reasons...

Here's my Christmas Planner as it is so far:

(Why, oh why, could I not see that 'Christmas' would not fit into that space?!)

These fab calendar pages - by Jane Dean - were downloaded from the Papercraft Inspirations website. The colouring-in was laborious but I do like the effect!

I made the 'To Do' list myself, totally inspired by Jane Dean's Christmas Planner!

I made these pages too - drew the outlines with a black fineliner pen and photocopied, then coloured in using pencils.

I hope it'll be a useful tool to keep me organised in the run-up to Christmas. Other sections will have pages for recording Internet purchases, holding receipts, Christmas menu ideas and recipes... and anything else I think of.

.....

Just to finish off, here are a couple of cards I made using my new Cuttlebug Snowflake die:

Think I might add a stamped 'Merry Christmas' on the bottom one, but I'm scared I'll mess it up (which is highly likely - I'm not the neatest stamper..).

.....

Time to get Harry out of bed and pick up Charlie from nursery... I'll be back later (I hope) with my first JYC page to share!

A money-saving top tip for Tim Holtz fans?

For a while now I've been trying to get into Tim Holtz's distress inks. Having watched a few of his You-Tube videos and stalked his blog, I've been dying to get my hands on some Distress Inks and have a good play. I bought three of them at the Big Stamp & Scrapbooking Show back in September but have been almost too scared to have a go in case I just can't do it right! Not to mention the fact that I don't have a non-stick craft mat like the one Tim uses in his videos. I saw one at the BSSBS but couldn't justify the £15.99 it was selling for.

Then a couple of weeks ago, in the new Clas Ohlson store in Croydon, I saw something that looked, for all the world, exactly like a Tim Holtz non-stick craft mat. It was actually a TFX Non-Stick Baking Sheet... it says on the back of the box, 'Suitable for cooking and baking in the oven... nothing burns or sticks to the surface...'.

And the best thing about it? The price... £2.99! I don't know what the difference is between this and the Tim Holtz version, but I can honestly say it does the job just fine.

OK, so my first distress-inked tag was by no means a masterpiece - but at least now I'm having a go. If you have a Clas Ohlson store near you, get down there and invest in one of these.. and get inking! ;o)

{By the way, Tim - if you happen to read this - please don't get the hump with me.. I LOVE your products and my lucky find will only encourage me to buy more of your fantastic stuff, honest!!!}

Harry's little book of 2009 - pictures!

Following from yesterday's post on Harry's day, I thought I'd share a few pages of his 2009 mini-book so anyone interested can see just what I was talking about!

Here is the cover:

I made the book using burgundy A5 thick card (simply because I had lots of it) and a slightly larger chipboard cover, bound using the Bind-it-All. I have been restricting my patterned paper to a 6x6" pad of BasicGrey Archaic papers (although I may sneak a few other bits in as supplies dwindle!).

Here is the inside front cover and facing page:

 

Here are my pages for March:

The stamps are by Banana Frog and there is hidden journaling on a card behind the photo.

Here are the pages from April:

I have put all my completed pages in my Flickr photostream (Mini-books set) if you have a burning desire to see more!

18th Nov = Harry's day

On the 18th of every month I try to record a few details about Harry's day and complete a page in his mini-book. It's a bit like Shimelle's 'Scrap Your Day' class but focused on the new things Harry has done over the past month, the funny things he says and what he did on this day. I do the same for Charlie on the 23rd of each month.

I am not entirely up-to-date with the scrapbooking side of Harry's minibook, or Charlie's come to that. But if I take a few photos and write down a few things, I can do the scrapping when I have time.. at least there's the theory.

Harry's day:

Morning:

• hot Shreddies and raisins for breakfast, plus 'milksnake' (Actimel + milk)
• drawing/scribbling on the dining table, occasionally on paper
• watching Postman Pat videos (for the umpteenth time)
• dragging chairs into the kitchen to help me wash the dishes (please, no)
• drinking 'pink milk' (strawberry Nesquik) and eating Humzingers

Lunch:

• 'bubbly cheese' on toast with Branston pickle and baked beans
• throwing cutlery on the floor, smearing bean-juice on face and hair
• NOT liking having face and hands wiped

Afternoon:

• taking Charlie to Nursery, riding on the Buggy Board
• NOT liking being dragged away from Nursery
• having a nap (peace at last..)
• a quick Jaffa Cake before going to collect Charlie
• splashing in some DEEP puddles in the park

• home for a complete change of clothes
• back out to the charity shop (bought some lovely eyelash wool) and newsagent (the new Craft Stamper magazine.. couldn't leave it there)

Evening:

• dragging chairs into the kitchen to help mummy make dinner (nooooo....)
• pizza, oven chips, carrots and sugarsnap peas, followed by an ice-cream for dinner (we don't eat junk food every day, honest!!)
• bathtime = let's see who can splash the most water onto the floor
• stories - 'Shhhhh, Duck - Don't Wake the Baby!' by Jez Alborough is favourite this week.
• bed at 8pm.

Harry's favourite things:

• Going to the park
• Chasing Poppy the cat
• Splashing in puddles
• Postman Pat (Po-po Pat) - he can name all the characters
• Helicopters (Ta-ta-ta), ambulances (La-la-lance) and trains
• Scooting around on his trike

I'll be back soon to share my mini-books as they are so far.. now there's an incentive to get some scrapping done! ;o)

Mallow Magic... the layout

Just like the proverbial London buses... no blog posts for five days then two turn up at once. I've been up to my elbows in various projects over the last few days, largely prompted by the start of Julie Kirk and Kirsty Neale's 12 Days class, amongst other things. I will share what I've been doing for this class in a couple of days.

For now, though, I would love to share a layout I did to record the story of Charlie and his first taste of marshmallows (blogged here).

and a close-up...

As you may be able to guess, I used giant bubble wrap dipped in pink and white paint to create the background splodges on black Dotted Swiss paper - enormous fun!

The alpha stickers are American Crafts Thickers (Smoothie) and black Dymo tape. The rest is just Bazzill cardstock and little scraps of other card. 

Thanks for looking!

Six Flickr Favourites

Here's a little mosaic of some of my favourite photos on Flickr.

1: 'Thinking of You' by kiaraleestudio

2: 'Eyes up' by PlanetCoco

3: '20090916_Port_Lympne_Wildarena_0119' by Darren's

4: 'Scooterin'' by Stitchy Wishes

5: 'Banished' by Nabview

6: 'EXIT' by petervanallen

If you click on any of the links above, you will be taken to the photo in Flickr, where you can explore the artists' other photos - which of course I heartily recommend!

Thanks to Kirsty Neale's post, "Glorious Technicolour", for inspiring me to try out this mosaic feature by BigHugeLabs.com - I have been struggling for days to find a good way of getting some Flickr pictures into my blog and this is perfect!