What's In Your Bucket...

So I did the What's In Your Bucket? Big Picture Scrapbooking class by Aby Garvey. As I said yesterday (please read post below) I very rarely end up doing a class "like you're supposed to". Instead I get inspired and end up doing my own thing. This is how I like it.

So this class was all about the things you have to do on a day to day basis. And how to create more time for things you love...like scrapping. If you're a busy mum with several kids, lots of activities etc, I would really recommend this class to you.

...anyway, now I'm going off track here a bit! LOL! So I was doing my own thing. And I was trying to put into words why or how I can get more scrapping done. I sat down with a pen and paper and started to scribble. Soon I had 6 reasons which I changed a bit until I was happy with my plans.

... and "The Rules For Getting More Scrapping Done" had emerged. Once I had my 6 "rules" written down, I started to think about the format. I was tempted to go for something small and round, but then I remembered the drink coasters (beermats) that I had in my drawer and decided that they would be a good size for my little book.

I used lots of Chatterbox papers, yellow and white ric rac, a little chain and some black chalk ink. And my printer of course! The back is done using Catslife stamps.

Finished it...

Well I did it!! I finished the layout which I struggled so with yesterday. There are two parts which I'm not happy with (and no, I'm not going to say which! LOL!) Cardstock is Bazzill (what else?), patterned papers are KI Memories, chipboard letters are Heidi Swapp and stamps are a mixture of Scrap-Room, Banana Frog and Autumn Leaves.

I signed up for the instant (ie. you pay and you get access to it straight away) Big Picture Class called What's In Your Bucket? last night. As usual when doing scrapbooking classes, I never do them by following the directions. Instead I look at the finished article (and sometimes read the instructions, but mostly not, in this case I did though) and let myself get inspired by it. I usually end up with something totally different. But hey, what's wrong with that? :) Nothing...

So anyway, today I'm working on the "bucket" class. It's not finished yet so I can't add any photos here, but I should be able to upload sometime tomorrow. All I can say is that I'm not using a bucket (I don't have a bucket! LOL!) and that it will be a chipboard book made from drinks coasters (beer mats)...

Happy girl...

Why am I a happy girl? Because the card magazines that I have been waiting for from the US has arrived!! I don't buy the normal issues of Paper Crafts magazine. I'm sure I'd love to, but you can only buy so many magazines. However I do L-O-V-E the special card making issues they do - they are just so full of inspirations and ideas!! (Thanks Jo for recommending them to me in the first place...along time ago!)

I'm working on a layout at the moment. Which, to be honest, I had hoped to have ready by now (and possibly uploaded here), but I really can't get it right. So I'm leaving it alone for a little while with hope that I will have some genius (we can hope, can't we?! LOL!) idea very soon...

And only THREE days to go until Product Playground starts. Sooooo exciting!! Anyone else joined me and signed up?

When did you back-up your photos...

Been spending some time this afternoon backing-up stuff on the computer and storing and deleting things I no longer need. So a little reminder: when did YOU last back-up your photos and files on your computer? Could it maybe be the case that it was quite a while ago? You keep meaning to do it, but you're putting it off? Maybe this is the time to grab that empty CD or DVD and spend a few minutes backing up your important things, you never know what might happen tomorrow...

As I was sorting through files etc I found this layout which I made a few months ago. It was actually an entry for a Design Team competition. But I didn't make it, so here it is...

Meet Buster...

Ross bought me this cute little thing called an iDog from ASDA yesterday (it was a "special purchase" and only £10!!) which I just loooove! He's named Buster and he's just the cutest!! Not to mention how well he goes with my little green iPod Nano. Just the cutest accessory!! And he sits, well behaved, on my scrapping desk and keeps me company.

He will make light patterns on his nose to the music (different patterns/colours/movements/blinking to different types of music!), he wiggles his ears and I can even use him as a little speaker for my iPod as he's got a little speaker on his back!! That is soooo useful and something I really needed. :)

Don't you just hate it when the postman comes early on a Saturday and wake you up?!! Especially when he doesn't normally come the right side of lunchtime Monday to Friday. But I guess when he brings you stash you don't mind...

I can't get enough of the Heidi Swapp chipboard alphabets at the moment. They are so useful for titles and titles have been the biggest thing for me lately that I get stuck on when I scrap. I have nearly the whole page done and I just can't find a good way to add the title so it stands out etc.

And the kitchen looks sooooo cosy now! We built the bookshelf this morning that we bought in IKEA yesterday and we have already filled it with cookbooks. I knew we had quite a few, but not quite THAT many...LOL!

Swedish shopping...

I'm sooo tired. We've been in and out shopping all day (Ross had the day off). It's amazing how tired you can get from shopping! LOL! We went to IKEA this afternoon and bought a new shelf. I just looooove IKEA!! And of course I had to buy some Swedish candy too. I L-O-V-E going into the "Sweden shop" at the end - walking around the Swedish food kinda makes you feel like "home". It might sound silly but it does...

Anyway, tomorrow we're building the bookshelf. And no it's not for stash. I wish I had the space for a nice Expedit bookshelf from IKEA in my tiny little scraproom, but if you could see it you would laugh. It just wouldn't fit. No matter what you do. Impossible! However I'm still very happy with our new bookshelf because it will solve our problem of too many books - so I really can't wait to put it up. We'll finally get a bookshelf in the kitchen to keep all the cookbooks in. Yippie!!

This is another LO that I have just made. Papers are KI Memories and the chipboard letters are Heidi Swapp.

Right now I'm off to collapse in the sofa while some ribs are cooking in the oven - prepared before according to Nigella Lawson's "Finger-Licking Ribs" recipe. It's the first time we're trying it, but I really can't wait...

Scrapping...

I was asked yesterday about what ink I used to stamp with on the "Smile!" card (see pic in yesterday's post). It's just a normal black Staz'On inkpad. Hope that helps. And thanks for the nice comments about my card - made me smile :)

This is a layout which I made this morning using the latest Scrap-Room kit. The papers are by Fontwerks, the chipboard letters (both types) are by Heidi Swapp and then of course there's some Bazzill cardstock.

Off to plan another layout which I will share tomorrow...

Time to play...

I have spent the afternoon playing with my new Banana Frog stamps that arrived yesterday. Couldn't resist my swirly stamps so I came up with a quick card using them. Stamps are Banana Frog "Swirls" and "Pharmacy" alphabet and then some old Basic Grey papers etc. I can see these alphabet stamps being very useful, not only do I love the font, but the size is really good for titles without it being too huge.

Talking about playing...I really can't wait until the Big Picture Scrapbboking class "Product Playground" starts - not long now. In fact, I better go and check that it really starts on the 1st of Feb and it's not only me assuming that! LOL!

I have to confess...

Thanks to Shimelle for a great free class on making a little journal called "I have to confess". I really enjoyed this! I guess it was up to you to make your confessions as "simple" or "deep" as you wanted. At first I was really stuck for my 5 things "to confess". I was thinking about doing a page on that I like the colour green. But then again, that's hardly confessing something, as I think that is pretty obvious to most people. LOL!

So instead of I went for a mixture of things...silly ones (hairbands), kinda obvious ones (Kipling bags) and then maybe a surprising one (Chinese). You can see my pages below.

...and I got my new Banana Frog stamps. Yummy!! I soooo love these stamps. And because of the offer, I got a free binder to hold the stamp sets in - doesn't it just look so great? :)

These are the stamp sets that I got in the post today (it was two separate orders but they both arrived today - so I'm a very happy girl!!):
* Elegant Swirls

* Swirls

* Steelfish Outline Numbers

* Steelfish Outline Alphabet Set, Lowercase

* Pharmacy Large Alphabet Set

* Sewing Kit

Simple but effective male card...

Simple but effective male card class - by Anso

Please feel free to use these instructions to make your own cards. You are free to link to this page from any forum etc if you wish. Please do NOT copy this information and/or photos to use for your own classes/forums/webpages without permission. Please also note that I'm not claiming that I have invented the design,I have seem similar cards in the past, but these simple step-by-step instructions and photos are mine.

Class Supply list:

One sheet of white card (you need 21x15 cm)
One sheet of black card
Small piece if patterned paper for tie & pocket (use your scraps!)
Ruler
Paper trimmer (and scoring blade)
Scissors
Pencil
Double-sided tape, or other glue of your choice
Matching chalk ink (optional)
One 3D glue dot (optional)

1. Cut your white card to 21x15 cm.

2. Score the card down the middle (measure 10,5cm from each side).

3. Fold card. Work out the centre point of the card and draw a 3,5cm line down the centre from the top.

4. Cut down your line (make sure you do NOT cut the BACK of the card!!) and fold the edges outwards to make the “collar of the shirt”.

5. Take your black card and cut two strips measuring 15x4 cm.

6. Measure 3 cm down the long side of each piece and draw a diagonal line across to the other top corner (see photo for help. I have used a white pen so it would show up well in the photo).

7. Cut off the corner pieces.

8. Use double-sided tape (you can use another glue of your choice but I find that things like Herma, which I always use for scrapping, don’t hold very well for cards) and attach the black pieces to the card. See photo for placement.

9. Now let’s make the little pocket. Cut a 2x2 cm piece from black card and angle the bottom corners a bit (if you want).

10. Time to make the tie. Don’t get put off by how “complicated” it looks. We’re taking it one step at a time which makes this really easy. This is the type of sketch you will come up with in the end (see below). I find it’s easy if you draw this on a scrap piece of white card which you can use as your template for cutting your patterned paper. By the way, my lines ARE straight, but I often had to angle the camera so they don’t look straight just to get the camera to focus properly on the very white paper.

11. So grab yourself a piece of scrap white card and a pencil. I’ll be here holding your hand and talk you through this, so no need to “worry”. Start with drawing two vertical lines which are 2,1 cm apart. Easy? Yes! It won’t really get much harder than that.

12. Draw two lines across this (horizontal), 9cm apart. And then you draw one more line 1cm below the top line. Your piece should now look like this:

13. Draw a line 1,2cm above the bottom line.

14. Find the middle (from top to bottom) and draw a line. (This is between your two vertical starting lines).

15. Now go to your very bottom line, find where the middle line crosses this and draw a diagonal line upwards and outwards to where the second line cross. See photo below – makes it so much easier than describing it in words.

16. Now go to the 2nd line from the top. Measure 3mm (millimetres) out from the centre on each side and draw diagonal lines down to meet the top of the lines you just drew in point no 15.

17. Go back to your 3mm markers and draw diagonally up and out to meet the top corners. (Again, see photo to make it so much easier).

18. Now we have almost finished it. The final thing you need to do is to go where the 2nd line from the top meets the centre line and measure 4mm up. Then go to the top line and measure 4mm in from each outer side. Draw diagonal lines up and out to these points from the marker you made on the centre line. See photo.

19. You have your tie template done! Now cut it out.

20. Use your template to cut a tie from your chosen patterned paper. Also cut a little piece (pointed, like I did, if you like) to go inside the pocket you created earlier.

21. Now you can chalk the edges of the tie and your little piece of patterned paper if you like. I find this adds a lot of dimension to the card so I would recommend doing this. Finally attach to the card. Depending on how accurate you have been, and how you have folded the “shirt collar”, you might find that you need to trim of a little sliver of the inside “v”-shape on the top of the tie to make it “sit nice” under the collar. Test by holding in place before you glue it to the card. I have used a 3D glue dot to attach the pocket as I think it looks a bit more “natural” if the pocket is a little further out – but again this is optional.

22. And you’re finished! Now you can experiment with the design, make different ties…narrower or fatter, different types of jackets, different coloured shirts etc. Have fun and play!

I hope you enjoyed making this card. Thank you for taking my class.

Anso

Get ready...

...for a class on how to make a simple, yet effective, male card! Yes one of those cards we always struggle with. Male. Why is it so hard to make male cards?! Or indeed to buy male presents?! LOL!

Will work my hardest today on making it, taking LOTS of step-by-step photos and writing step-by-step instructions. I hope to upload later today so please come back in a few hours...

Got the "top 10" issue of Creating Keepsakes this morning. I had been hoping that it would turn up soon. So I'm rather looking forward to browsing through it a bit later.

I have spent most of the morning "arranging" things and taking some photos for Shimelle's free class. I got my photos taken, picked the ones I wanted and I have printed them out. I have even cut out my cardstock for the actual pages. I would very much like to get started right now. But on the other hand I'm waiting for some stickers in the post (and some stamps too actually!) which I really, really want to use....and due to them coming via 2nd class post, I have a feeling they will arrive on Tuesday at the earliest. Typical!! So it's a bit like ---> hrm...what do I do?!? Please tell me what YOU would do...?

...and guess who's tempted to get some more Banana Frog stamps while the sale is still on?! LOL! I shouldn't, but I sooooo want to. So I haven't actually made a final decision yet. I might just go there and browse their site and "see which ones I would pick IF I was buying some more"...

Back to normal scrapping...

Feels rather strange not having the daily page to do for the Christmas journal. LOL! Had a play around with the kit (well, one of the four) from Scrap-Room this morning and created a LO of my mum.

Papers are Fontwerks, small chipboard and arrow is Heidi Swapp. The large "MUM" chipboard letters are painted with acrylic white paint and then I have used a black Millennium pen and doodled over them. I never have the patience to sketch the doodles out in pencil first, so I just go for it and hope that I don't make any mistakes! LOL!

Looking forward to try Shimelle's new free class this weekend - though I think I will do it next week instead. Also I have ordered three sets of Banana Frog stamps in their sale this morning so I'm looking forward to them arriving soon...

It's finished...

I have just added the final page to my Christmas journal and it's ---> officially finished!! Well...page and page...it's more like half-a-page really. LOL! I needed to get the right number of pages in my journal. If I had made a "normal" page as the last one, I would have had to do another one to go on the "back" of that one too...so that didn't really work out.

Instead I made a smaller page, which I glued onto the inside of the back cover of my journal. I only wanted it to sum up why I did the journal in the first place. So I didn't really need that much space for journaling or anything. I have used huge bookrings and the finished journal is about 8 centimetres (3 inches) thick!!!

I can't believe that's it. I know I have said I didn't really enjoy doing the last few pages as it felt a bit strange to do Christmas things now. But today, adding the last few bits to my journal I feel a bit like "now what?" LOL! Maybe I will finally have time to read my latest issues of Creating Keepsakes and Scrapbooks Etc properly! And it will be nice to getting back to making some "proper" layouts again too...

Looking out of the window, the weather is C-R-A-Z-Y here today!!! It's so wet and dark and I really can't find words to describe just HOW windy it is here!!! I'm amazed the house is still standing. Bins have blown everywhere into the streets here, car alarms are constantly going off and I keep hearing sirens almost all the time (and no, I'm not joking!). Sitting here feeling a bit worried because Ross is driving all the way up from London as I type this after being on a course. Not happy with him being on the roads for hours when the weather is like this. I spoke to him earlier on the phone and he said the traffic news, which is normally a minute or so was over 10 (!!) minutes long because of the bad weather and all the problems it's causing. Not good, not good at all...