Scrappy Sunday (3 February 2012) On A Tuesday

Over the weekend I was super busy and unable to find time to write this post however during the week I was super busy and scrapped and scrapped.  My review week runs to a Friday and I declared this week a Project Life week.  We are already on week four of the year and I still have gaps in last years project.  Not big gaps, just scrapping gaps.  Apart from 6 weeks all the other weeks have the photos printed and filed in the album.  I just need to pretify them.  So this is what I did:

 

 

 

 All 10 pages.  Some are part weeks as I need to sort through my huge pile of printed photos and there is the odd week that needs printing extra photos.  A big preparation day needs to be scheduled to get on top of this.

 

This years album has all the photos ready.  Just need to put a photo print order together.  Again, time needs to be found.  Time when I don't have kids interupting me every 5 minutes.  I can wish!  I am going to continue this years album by using current stash up.  Lets face it there is plenty to

 

Then there are these LO's which I posted in the week as they are competion entries:

 



 

A total of 11 LO's this week.  A little bit more on track now.  Perhaps I can achieve 365 LO's this year after all.

Sketch To Scrapbook Challenge January 2013

This year in collaboration with 2 Peas In A Bucket Shimelle is putting a monthly kit together.  The unusual part of this monthly kit is if you don't like one of the items or already have it in your kit you can either leave it out or substitute it for another project; in other words, you tailor this kit to what you want and really is the best of both worlds.  Sounds good to me but sadly this month there is no spare money for scrapping supplies so I will have to use what's in my stash this month. 

 



 

As of today Shimelle has shown 3 LO's on her blog made using this kit and has set a challenge based on each LO she has made.  This first challenge is to use this sketch:

 

 

Really love the LO Shimelle made, especially the camera paper in the kit but show me a LO of Shimelle's that I don't love! Guess what?  I have that paper in my stash and but just couldn't bring myself to cut into it. 

 

This is my interpretation of the sketch:

 

 

Thanks for looking.



Scrappy Sunday (27 January 2013)

We are still in January and already I am behind with this project.  Very behind.  I had high hopes of creating one LO for every day this year.  I should have 27 LO's made and instead I have only made 10.  Not good progress really. 

 

Here are this week's efforts, all 3 of them:

 

I have also 2 LO's part completed which will get finished this week and I am aiming on completing 10 this week.  With some luck I should have no kids off school to hinder me this week.  Closing schools for 2 inches of snow is getting ridiculous now.  Having said that they will probably be shut this week due to floods now the warmer weather is on the way and the snow is about to melt.

 

I am fast approaching me 500th post and am currently looking at some prizes to celebrate.  But there is going to be work involved, nothing as simple as just comment!  There is no crafty fun in that.

Scrappy Sunday (20 January 2013)

Loved the scrapping round up I did last Sunday.  It was so much easier on my time than doing separate posts.  I did post on Monday but that was as part of an entry to a craft challenge.  I think apart from craft challenge posts I am going to continue with a weekly round up. 

 

These are the LO's I have completed this week:

 

 

 

This LO is taken from this gorgeous LO made by Stephanie Howell.  Just love her work and her LO's are so beautiful.

 

 



 

This week I have made 4 LO's including the Sarah's Cards Challenge LO:

 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your snowy weekend x



 

Sarah's Cards January 2013 Challenge

There is a new scketch up at Sarah's Cards.  Quite straight lines and very graphic just what I like.  I have kept my LO quite simple.

 

 



I have used Amy Tangerine Sketchbook with a little Shoreline from American Crafts.  All bright fresh colours.

Scrapping Sunday (13 January 2013)

I posted on Wednesday that I am intending to complete a LO for every day this year.  We are only 13 days in to the year and I am already behind.  I understand this will be a challenge but I need to reduce my stash and preserve memories for Liam and Freya.  I am also intending on having plenty of fun adventures and challenges which we naturally need in order for me to document our lives.

 

So far this year I have made 3 LO's and completed another week of Project Life 2012:

 

 

Hope to try and get a few more done this week.



Crafty Plans For 2013

I really am not looking forward to packing our house up  when we eventually move and really think this is the best time to down size some of our belongings.  I know what I am about to say is very rude but my crafting supplies need to be down sized too, yes, I admit I have too much stash. You would never have guessed I had too much, but where do I start?



 

My expedit is full to the brim with paper and yarn, a further shelf unit is full of yarn and then there are baskets galore scattered around the house filled with yarn.  Apart from the odd ball all of the yarn has a purpose with 90% of it for projects already started.  Crochet wise I must get working on those WIPs.  I find it very hard to believe that I only completed 4 projects last year; a cot blanket, a pram blanket and 2 hats.  The hats were not included in my one a day tallies yet I managed to complete 502 stripes, rows or squares last year.  Why then do I have so many WIPs which are less than 30% complete.  According to my Ravelry account I have 23 WIPs at present.  To be honest I think there is about another 4/5 not listed.  Lots of work is needed to complete these.  This year I intend to complete one a day again and I am currently on track which is at least a positive towards completion of the many projects I have began. 

 

 



 This week I have been working on the Rowan Cashmerino DK blanket.  I need 96 squares and have now completed 50 squares and surprisingly I have sewn in all the ends as I have gone along.  Happy with this progress but I had wanted to complete this by Christmas but life just got in the way.  The aim now is to complete the blanket by the end of February.  Seems a long time but I need to be realistic with what I can achieve.  I just don't crochet as quick as I used to due to carpel tunnel and finding time always seems to hinder progress.

 

Knitting wise I just have one seam to sew up to complete my grey cashsoft chunky wrist warmers.  Max of 10 minutes yet they have sat there unloved for about 9 weeks!  Then I have my Nephew's owl hat that needs sewing then eyes, beak and ears tufts made and attached.  Again so close yet very far from completion.  These projects will be completed by the end of next week.

 

2013 will be the year when I do some serious work on the many projects I have started and I will do my best to ignore any new yarn and projects shouting out to me.  Its clear a large number of projects need to be completed before any more are started.  But let me think, didn't I say that last year??  Wasn't 2012 going to be the year of completion?  Oh well, it just happens doesn't it or in my case it doesn't happen, lol.

 



 

Then there is paper crafting.  Paper, paper, paper every where.  I spent the latter part of the year sorting scrapbook kits out.  I had tended to keep the kits in the boxes they were delivered in as I found it easier to use them that way.  I could have a good look at what I had and then just shut the lid. However, the number of boxes were taking over.  I couldn't store them all as I had more kits coming in than LO's being made.  I still have Scrapagogo kits unused and I stopped the subscription 2 years ago.  I also have plenty of Sarah's Cards kits untouched and then there are all the Studio Calico kits. But don't get me started on the number of paper collections I brought in addition to these kits.

 



 

The kits packed into plastic pockets and then stored in these files look much better.  I still need to purchase anpother 5 files to unpack all of the kits but I am getting there slowly.  Even though I am getting organised and compacting my stash I must vastly decrease the quanity I have and quickly.  I can't bear to throw any away which means I need to scrap, scrap, scrap.

 

I took part in Shimelle's class Cover to Cover and I have gone through old albums and noted all the missing stories.  I now need to sort out the photographs for these LO's which I want to work on doing this month.  Completing the actual LO's is not essential I just want to get organised and get the gaps ready to be filled.  My next aim this month is getting on top of Project Life 2012 and September to December Document 2011.  Yes, you did read that right, I have yet to complete my 2011 album.  Then there is the Christmas albums; 2011 and 2012 need finishing. 

In order to decrease my stash I could say I'm not going to buy any more this year but lets be honest its never going to happen.  Instead I plan on completing a one a day for my scrapping too.  This year I will make 365 LO's.  A little ambitious but I will count my Christmas albums as 1 LO per page I make and they are smaller albums, Project life will be 2 pages per week and I intend on keeping up with this years as well as completing last years album.  As with the crochet I won't necesarily make 1 LO per day but I will average this over the year.  Must get started as I have yet to make any LO's this year but I often find I struggle to scrap when the kids are off school as Freya always wants to scrap as well and my table is not big enough for the two of us.

 

Wish me luck because as well as moving house, renovations and life in general I'm going to be very busy crafting this year.

& Monkey Makes Two

Thought I would sneak in an entry to this months challenge over at Sarah's Cards.  

Made using the New Amy Tangerine collection Ready Set Go.  You can find the sketch here.

Tuesday Tallies (13 November 2012)

I really don't know where the past few weeks have gone.  I've hardly done any crafting yet I can't tell you what I have been doing.  Life I guess!  I have been busy on a couple of projects.  

I've knitting a hat, just need to sew it up and add the decoration which I am hoping to get done this week.  

Knitted 1 wrist warmer which only took me one day.

Worked on my Springtime Throw.

Worked on Rowan Cashmerino DK Granny Square blanket - now completed 30 squares.

And started a new blanket after I went away on holiday and ended up with no crochet but bags of new yarn.  I have completed 8 colours on this blanket.

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Pop on over to Carole to take a look at some other yarny work.

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Google Eyes

This week at the Child's Play Challenge site the inspiration is carft based; google eyes.  The minute I heard this I knew the exact photos I wanted to use.  Some photos of Freya pulling funny faces.  This is my LO:

LO made using Basic Grey's PB & J papers.  This takes my LOs made to 65, just another 35 to go then I can subscribe to a monthly kit.  To be honest I really haven't noticed much of a dent being made to my stash even though I have made 65 LOs.

 

Pop on over to the Child's Play |challenge site and take a look at th other inspirational LOs.

The Great Pumpkin

Today sees the release of this weeks challenge over at Child's Play Challenge blog.  The inspiration this week is the Charlie Brown film 'Its The Great Pumpkin'.

I have scrapped a picture of our pumpkin lantern from 2 years ago with lots of pumpkins and orange ink splats which I made with my new splat mask.

 

 

This fun challenge is open until the end of the month as are all the other ones released this month.

 

Big Hugs

At the beginning of September I was really surprised and honoured to have been chosen by the DT at Child's Play Challenge as one of their Top 3 for August.  I was then invited to be guest designer during October.  Soon after the announcement Tiffany e-mailed me the challenges for this month.  The first challenge was green slime.

 

 

My Mother being who she was would never allow such a thing for my Brother and I.  But I do remember all my friends having the slime and playing together with them.  I have taken the colour green as my inspiration and I used green paint and have gone a little messy with inks drips on the black cardstock.

 

                

 

I loved getting the paint out and being messy.  Paint and ink splashes are not something I do very often and I am always cautious about what I am trying.  I tend to struggle about when to stop, too much or too little and it never seems to end up as I imagined.  However, I was happy with the end result and proceeded to use the paint drips as a mat for my photo.  I am really looking forward to being part of the DT all this month.

 

I was even more surprised last week when I visited the Child's Play blog and saw that I had been chosen as Top Three for September and invited yet again to be part of the DT for November. 

 

 

I can't believe that this is happening, my LOs are being recognised and I am being asked to be a guest on a design team, wow.  Somebody needs to pinch me and pinch me quick lol!

 

Thanks for looking and enjoy your day x

 

 

A LO Is Made....

The past few weeks have been a little strange mojo wise around here. When I was in Wales for the summer all I wanted to do was scrap and couldn't as I did not have many supplies. Then I got home to all my supplies and just no mojo! Just so typical.

 

This weekend I went to my local crop in Bromsgrove and to be honest I wasn't that productive.  I worked on my LSNED album.  I have 3 double pages to put the papers on,18 pages for journaling and all the photos to add that also need to be sorted and printed.  I also managed to LOs.  One I can't show you until Thursday as it is a GDT item but I can show this one:

 

 

Photo of Liam and freya climbing on the rocks over the summer in Wales.

 

I collected some of the photos from over the summer and I am really annoyed with myself.  I spent what seemed like forever making collages for my project life album and it appears I didn't upload them. Very very annoyed with myself and this now puts back the work on the album!

I was hoping to continue joining in with the Counterfeit Kit Challenges but with a lack of mojo last month I only managed a handful and have many supplies left in August and September's kit.  I havent even managed to look at this month's kit in detail and I dont think I will have much chance to this week either.  I may therefore skip making a kit but use up the two kits I already have.  This LO was made using my August kit bringing the tally now to 11 LOs.

I will show you my Guest DT work and share some news for the Childs Play Challenge site on Thursday as well as my LO for last weeks challenge that I have been unable to blog until now.

Reach For The Stars

This is the third LO made using my CKC kit, Take Note.  I have used mostly October Afternoon papers and embellishments with paint, ink splashes and stamping; a combination I rarely use.  Alphas by American Crafts and Authentique.



I am entering this LO in to the current challenge from Scrap 365 magazine on their challenge blog, Scrapbook 365 which is to use this sketch.

Good Times Together

Another photo and LO from our trip to Wenlock during the summer holidays.  This time a LO for Liam's album.

 

 

 

Made using September's CKC kit Take Note.  I am entering this in to the current challenge from Child 's Play Challenge site where the inspiration is pencils.  I have used paper rolls to represent the shape of the pencils plus a pencil sticker.  How I am going to store this in a page protector I'm not quite sure as the paper rolls are quite bulky.  Was really happy to discover last week that I had been part of their top 3 for August and I'm really looking forward to being a guest on the DT in October.

Smiles

This post is all about newly discovered scrap challenge sites.  Love that they are UK based and the inspirational DT work is fantastic, well done Ladies.  The first new challenge blog is Happy Scrappers.  This month they have set a challenge to use buttons and bows. 

I have also discovered a further three craft challenge sites.  The first is Whoopsiedaisy which I am entering this LO in to as it also challenges you to use buttons and bows this week.  The second site, My Mum's Craft Shop which also challenging you to use button.  The final challenge blog is Jelly Park Friends where there Friday challenge was all about the children.  This photo was taken at Christmas which to me is really for the children and my personal excitement for went many years ago.  My button stash is huge so these challenges have helped to make a dent.


I am typing this on my blackberry and can't link to the sites above, however as soon as I can get on my laptop I'll put the links up.

LO made using my CKC September kit Take Note.  Mostly picked American Crafts papers with some MME with twine bows and lots of buttons.

{Heart}

This month for the challenge over at Sarah's Cards I have used their February 2011 kit which contained Glitz papers.  Its hard to believe that I had this kit 18 months ago and this is the first LO I have made using it. 

 



 

Another LO for Liam's album which I am concentrating on at the moment as I really have so many gaps compared to Freya's albums.  The LO came together very quickly with this lovely sketch and the DT have made some stunning LO's.

Lego Pals

Last month Lisa Jane did a series about her love of 6 x 6 pads.  There were some lovely ideas and at the end of the series she set a challenge to scrap with 6 x 6 pads.  This is my LO:

 

 

Picture taken over 2 years ago when we had a short break in Legoland for Freya's birthday.  I have scrapped lots of photos for Freya but very few for Liam's album.  I have sure American Crafts Shoreline which I have both the 12 x 12 and the 6 x 6 pad.  Just love these bright colours which go wonderful with the lego models. 

Snowdon Mountain Railway

Over the summer we wnt to Snowdon.  The weather was fantastic and I thought, finally I will get to be at the top of Snowdon without any cloud.  Lets face it, I've been to the top 12 times, surely no. 13 will be the lucky one!  Well it wasn't to be this time, five minutes from the top the cloud came down heavily.  The pictures used on this LO are actually a postcard that I have cut up and done in a photo strip style.

 



 

Made using MME Miss Caroline.  I am entering this LO in to the challenge at The Colour Room where the challenge was to use sea green, red, kraft and a cheveron.  I have made my own chevron with Mister Huey's, a studio calico chevron mask and kraft card.  I have used this sketch. 

Summer 2012 CHA Releases; Being Thrifty & Selective

Lots of new releases from CHA have started to hit stores and I am loving some of them more than I should.  I really do have an overload of supplies and I don't think I will ever scrap at least half of what I have.  Yet as new CHA I buy up loads.  This year like a lot of people the purse strings are getting tight.  I don't drink, I don't smoke, I don't do the social scene like a lot of other people and alot of other things that so many families do; my kids do not have all the latest gadgets and to ensure they are grounded they never will and then there is the fact that it is only me. 

Well, summing that all up money is limited and like a lot of families purses are being tightened.  This year this is my NEED list:

MME Sweetest Thing - Tangerine, Honey, Bluebell and Lavender*

MME Indie Chic - Citroen, Ginger, Nutmeg* and Saffron*

ECHO PARK Everyday Eclectic

ECHO PARK - For The Record 2 Documented

ECHO PARK - For The Record 2 Tailored

October Afternoon - Woodland Park

Bella Blvd - Birthday Book (Liam's Papers)*

Bella Blvd - Birthday Girl (Freya's Paper)*

Bella Blvd - Thankful

* just the ones with asterisks to buy now and I really think that will be it for this CHA releases.

There are a few other ranges that I have seen but to be honest they are just not jumping out at me.  I blame it on the fact I have so much paper and I really am thinking about costs.  Paper sat on a shelf doing nothing really is of no help to anybody.  It looks pretty but I will never use all of it.

What are you needing from these releases and are you at the point when you know this hobby has taken over your life and you can not buy any more supplies?

As every post needs a photo, here's some of the 1.200 photos I need to go through from our 3 weeks in Wales this Summer.



Thanks for looking.