Cupcake Bakery...

I've been working on quite a few birthday cards this week. For July and September birthdays. As I know I have some weeks where I won't be able to use my craft desk so I need to get them done ahead of time. Things are drying and well, honestly... I haven't really had the time to get them photgraphed yet. :)

Above is a layout which is a little bit different for me to make. I'm a fast scrapper which means I'm not a huge fan (simply because I don't take the time, not because I don't like it) of making my own embellishments. It doesn't really go with fast scrapping. However this time I had the idea already from the start of making some sort of sun on the layout so I decided to go with the idea and I really enjoyed it. Not something I will do every time (as it is a lot more time consuming) but definitely something I will try again in the future :)

Must make time to get more paper crafting in... somehow...! It makes me so happy :)

The New Distress Inks...

...they have a lot to answer for! LOL! There's no way I could resist the new seasonal distress inks by Tim Holtz. Especially this new summer pack. I think it's my all time favourite distress ink colours. That green....yum! And, finally, a hot pink - yay! And what a great blue! :)

Most of the other stuff that I got, I'd had in my online shopping basket for like... 2 months or more. Some paper, some washi tape... ok, quite a bit of washi tape, zig zag stamps and a cool crossword stamp by Hero Arts. I believe that this stamp is quite old now *reaches for stamp*....2009 it says, but I have been wanting it for a long time now and this was finally the time. I figured you could do lots of fun writing/titles in the grid with stamps, stickers etc.

Right, I'm off to start playing with ideas for a birthday card for mum. Probably using that Hero Arts stamp. It's not her birthday for a while yet but we have a busy summer ahead so I need to get it done while I can... :)

The Scarf...

Thanks Sharon for the comment on my last post and for wondering how the scarf is going. I'm making progress :) I'm not knitting every day or anything so I expect I won't have it finished too soon, but even if you only sit down for a short while you do notice that it's getting longer :) I have probably done about 60-70 centimetres at the moment (guessing).

Above is a photo of my work in progress. I picked the loom parts I needed to do the width (of the scarf) that I wanted and assembled it. It was really easy to start and I found some very helpful videos on Youtube too (not that it was really needed as such).

I'm using a quite varied yarn. I've had it for ages! It varies both in looks (colour and shimmer) and in texture (more thick and fluffy or more thin and wispy). And it's so soft and cosy!! Above you can see the "front side" of the scarf. I could have made both sides look the same by doing knit stitch in one direction and purl stitch in the other...

...but since I'm brand new to this I wanted to learn one step at a time and really get used to it, I'm doing only knit stitches. This means that the backside gets a different look (see above), more of a stripy effect. I like it :)

This is very much fun so far :)

Trying Something New...

About 3 or so years ago I decided I wanted to try and knit myself a scarf. Knitting which I had not done... since school I think. Knitting which I could not remember how to do. I got mum to show me and I made a (if I can say so myself) a pretty good scarf. And enjoyed it so much that I decided to make one for my mum too for Christmas. Then I got busy with other things and the knitting was once again forgotten about...

Until the other week when I spotted this: the Martha Stewart Knit & Weave Loom Kit. Ooooh now that looked like fun :)

I tried to talk myself out of trying another craft. But the more I researched it on the internet, the more interested I got. Of course. So an order was placed...

I bought some yarn last week and I'm now attempting (yes you guessed it!) my first scarf using this knitting tool. The first few rows I found a bit fiddly. Trying to get used to it. But now I have really gotten into it and enjoy it a lot so far. And it's pretty fast too!

I'm still unsure how much I will use it (will my interest fade?) but I guess it's a tool that you have forever. And I already have three projects in mind LOL! So that should keep me busy for a while already... :)

Greek Basil?...

Strange thing to blog about and maybe even more strange to scrap about... But this is the story...

 [Supplies: Almost Summer Chevies - Amy Martin, Perfectly Imprefect Alpha - Tickled Pink Studio, All Stacked Up Clusters Vol 14 - Captivated Visions, All Stacked Up Backgrounds Vol 6 - Captivated Visions, Sketch Pad Papers - Sahlin Studio (all from The Lilypad)]

We needed some fresh basil for a recipe the other week and decided to buy a pot at the supermarket. As we got there - typically - they were out of basil plants. What to do? Then I spotted something called Greek Basil. I've never seen this before and it looked so pretty and neat. A pretty decent size plant too it was. So we decided to try that.

Now, a few weeks later, it's grown a LOT and looks super pretty. I find normal Basil plants can sometimes run away with you a bit and get rather tall but they kinda fall out sideways and don't always look so nice after a while. This Greek Basil seems super happy and has now doubled in size. I'm hoping it will stay happy for a long time as I'm not sure how easy they are to buy since I'd not seen it before at the supermarket.

Party...

Well not a party as such. At least not now. Just a party layout. But it took some time before I came up with the idea. This is what happened...

Kate Hadfield released a digital circus themed doodle kit which I wanted to work with as part of my CT commitment last week. Only I had no circus themed photos. So I was a bit stuck...

I sat looking at the kit for a while but really didn't know what to do. Until I started spotting the banner, and then some stars and then balloons... All items that did not necessarily have to have something to do with a circus. Balloons... kids' birthday party. And an idea was born for my layout below :)

[Supplies: Jellybean Toes - CD Muckosky In Training - Kaye Winiecki, Erica Zane Big Top - Kate Hadfield (all from The Lilypad)]