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.

What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (16 January 2013)

It has been a long time since I joined in with WOYWW.  Life just seemed to be in the way.  Such things are so unfair when you have crafting fun to get on with.  This is my desk this morning.

 



 

Messy but much tidier than it has beenfor a long while.  A bit of ink spraying yesterday and if you look closely you can see I have bitten the bullet and joined Slimming World again.  It needs to be done and I am quickly approaching the big 4 0 and I need to lose some of those extra lbs.  Sadly there is quite a few.  I'll be back later today to tell you all about my first weeks results on the scales.  All I will say is shocked!

 

Moving on to my chair is my Studio Calico delivery. 



 

 

I've now subscribed for all 3 kits; scrapping, card and Project Life.  Loving the project life pack:

 

 

I really do love their acrapping kits but I have noticed they do appear to be getting smaller and this month the prices went up, the postage went up and the free delivery kicks in now at $125 for international orders.  The card kit which I have been having for 3 months now are not in my opinion that great.  I am seriously thinking of cancelling this kit but the stamps are nice and I don't have any greeting stamps in my kits as I don't make cards but the amount of scraps I have and the amount of money I spend on shop broughtcards that quite frankly are nothing special isgetting silly.  This year I am trying to make all my cards and not buy any.  Whether I can keep this up with Christmas cards will have to be seen later in the year.

 

Well that's my crafty space this week.  Fancy sharing yours?  Then pop on over to Julia to join in.

 

Thanks for looking.



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.

Studio Calico's Sunday Sketch

This weeks sketch at Studio Calico is based on a card.  This is my interpretation:

I then turned my LO in to a double:

Photos taken at our recent visit ot Wenlock Abbey ibn Wenlock Edge.  I'm off to Bromsgrove Crop today so will be back with some more LO's made using my Summer Lovin' CKC kit and some photos of our Welsh summer break during the week.

 

**Edited to add, I won a prize with this!  Really happy, this is the first project that has won a competition based on ability.  Have won a few prizes in the past when random LO have been chosen but this is the first for my actual work and it's on Studio Calico and enteries are really high.  May just have floated downfrom the clouds by the end of the weekend.  Just so, so unexpected.

Summer Sun

After all the rain we have had this year it was lovely to have some sunny weather and like a lot of people we wanted to make the most of it.  The first week of the holidays we went to Benthall Hall which is near Munch Wenlock in Shropshire.  The House did not open until the afternoon and before our picnic lunch we went to Wenlock Priory.  The ruins are so lovely and the Priory must have been a wonderful sight all those years ago when it was built.  

Here are  few pictures:

I am really happy how these photos have come out and I could not wait to scrap them.  When I saw this months challenge over at Once Upon  Sketch was the seasons, I knew the exact photos to use and the story I wanted to tell.  As per usual Liam and Freya were messing around and when I asked them to stop Liam just told me they were having fun in the sun while it was here.  Well who am I to argue!

This is my LO:

Made with Studio Calico Memoir papers, October Afternoon buttons and brads from my stash.   I am also entering this LO in to the challenge at the Child's Play Challenge blog where the challenge was to take inspiration from a beach ball.  I have used lots of circles on this LO with the PP plus brads and buttons.

Thanks for looking and lets hope we have another week of summer sun.

The Duchess & Lady Freya

When we visited Benthall Hall they had some costumes to dress up in.  You know what its like, the kids want to dress up but you have to do it too.  So here we all are:

Now you have stopped laughing here is the first scrapbook page:

I have entered this LO in to Studio Calico's Design Team Challenge.  Must dash as we are off somewhere special today.  I'll be back this week to show you where we went.  I'll give you a clue; the kids re really excited and so am I to be honest aas this really is a one off experience.

Strike!

Another Studio Calico LO for you this fine Monday morning.  This one is a scraplift of the featured LO.  The LO had one large photo, I estimate it to be a 10 x 8.  I hadn't got any photos that large printed and to be honest I don't think I actually have any photos that I haven't already scrapped that could withstand being enlarged to that size.  Therefore I cut four 6 x 4 photos down to 3 1/2" square to make a 7 x 7 collage.  Very simple LO with just a bit of embellishment top right, a title, a strip of pp and 2 circles bottom left. 

Made with Studio Calico Memoir papers.  A few close ups:

This was Freya's first time plying skittles and her first go was a strike.  She was so happy nd jumped up and down for a considerable amount of time before doing a happy dance.

Thanks for looking and hope you enjoyed your weekend x

Two Challenges for Frosted Designs

This picture was taken at Wenlock Priory which we visited the first week of the school holidays.  Although a lot of the priory is just rubble there are some parts which are not.  The whole site is lovely for photographs and we took advantage of these fabulous backdrops.  Here is my LO:

 I am entering this LO in to the current Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs which is a colour challenge.  Your project has to contain red, yellow, sky blue, turqoise and cream.  Some close up pictures:

The second challenge is a sketch.  This is my take:

Both LOs made using a mix of Studio Calico monthly kits with some American Crafts embellishments. 

2 Months

Thats how old little Thomas is in this photo.  In fact he is actually 3 months old next week and we are off to visit for his 3 month photo shoot at the weekend.  This is my LO which I gave a sneek of yesterday.  It is based on this sketch from Studio Calico and is for their Sunday Sketch Challenge.

Those ink splashes that I showed yesterday on my WOYWW post have got a little lost.  Typical eh?

Here are a couple more photos from his 2 month shoot:

The Camera Never Lies

Hope you are having a restful Sunday enjoying the Olympics.  I havew entered this LO in to 2 challenges over at Sudio Calico.  The first challenge was a sketch and the second challenge was to use a long title.

Thanks for looking x