Snow...

We had a bit of a snowstorm last night. It snowed nonstop from about six until midnight. I can't help it, but I really love it when it's snowing. Soooo cosy!! You just can't help getting excited by it when you see how pretty it is outside.

Unfortunately today it's not minus degrees anymore so the snow is rapidly disappearing and turning into slush - yuck!

This afternoon I have been making a Valentine's card for Ross. But since I know he reads my blog, I'd better not put up a picture of it!!

...and right now I'm experimenting by making a chocolate cake from a book I got for Christmas. It will be totally dairy, gluten, wheat, barley, rye and egg free (!!). When you cook like that, you kinda learn not to have too high hopes on things. However I can report that the cake mixture tasted incredibly yummy (YESSS!!!)...sweet and chocolatey and no-one could guess it's a bit "different". Let's see how the cake turns out...

A little box for my stamps...

Recently the Scrap-Room kit that I subscribe to have started having an add-on of clear acrylic stamps. Which I of course couldn't resist. WHo can? Only I know me and if I don't have the stamps to hand, they won't be used. So I have thought of a good way of storing these little packets for a while now. And I decided to join my mission with my Product Playground class and do something with a frame...

The only suitable and quite small thing I could find was one of those standard ugly cardboardboxes (should have taken a "before" photo really, it was that ugly and full of brown tape too )...that when you cut in half you see a wavy middle. That was what I had that would be suitable, so that was what it had to be. After a little paper (Basic Grey and Imagination Project), a lot of double-sided tape and quite a few buttons (there---> I have my frame - a frame of buttons!! LOL!) I ended up with my little box to hold my stamp packets.

I chose the Basic Grey paper for the outside as it's "cheery and happy" and it makes me smile. And when you're going to have something on display it's nice if it makes you smile...

Excited...

I have been thinking about it for a few days and I'm so excited as I finally signed up for the My Word Big Picture Scrapbooking class last night!!! I really can't wait and it now feels so right - like I definitely made the right decision. I guess journaling is something we can all do with improving on and for me it really seems like a good thing to do. So often I find myself thinking about how on earth to write something without it sounding "silly" or "stupid" (or at least worrying that it will do). So I feel really, really excited about this class and I can honestly say ---> I can't wait for it to start!!

We've been recommended either the "Uni Power Tank" or the "Pilot Permaball" pen for the "My Word" class. Anyone know if you can get these in the UK please? Or something similar? I've been doing some searches but I'm pretty much stuck at the moment - so I'd really appreciate some help and advice here please.

...and talking about classes. Today was the second week of Product Playground, so it was time for a new item (or in this case itemS!) to play with. This week it's "frames and corners". Corners will be lots of fun! I like making my own corners from matching cardstock etc so I will have lots of fun playing with that. Now frames is something else...something I don't use very much...and indeed, quite often not really like either. But then I started thinking that a frame doesn't have to be the "typical rectangular" ones we normally associate it with. As long as it's FRAMING something, it has to be a frame no matter what shape it is. And once I thought of this, I really liked the idea. Especially since I discovered how much I enjoyed using my circles yesterday - they can be frames!!

Anyway, I have been sitting here in the snow (well not literally, but it's been snowing outside since nine this morning and still is - sooo cosy!!) working on my first layout for the class using corners. I used Basic Grey and Fancy Pants papers and well...it's pretty much a scraplift from a layout in the "Top Ten" Creating Keepsakes.

Last day...

Today (I believe?) is the last day for the bookplates section of the Product Playground class I'm taking over at Big Picture Scrapbooking. So I figured my goal for today was to make at least one layout using a bookplate...

This is made using Scenic Route papers and I got the idea for the circles from a recent copy of Creating Keepsakes. I'm starting to really get to like working with circles so I can see myself using a bit more of those in the future.

Exciting, exciting, exciting...what will tomorrow's new item be for Product Playground I wonder...

Okay I'm off to do some boring, but necessary, stuff like sorting out some washing, putting the machine on etc...

I took the challenge...

You know when you have one of those days...Your wake up and feel generally unmotivated, your head hurts and you feel like you're coming down with something and creativity is as far away from your brain as possible? That was my morning today.

I really wanted to scrap, I had made sure I had the time to do it, but still it just wasn't happening. I couldn't find any energy and ideas for it. Yet I really wanted to do another layout for the Product Playground class. So I want to thank Carin for setting me the following challenge, which got me scrapping:

At least 70% has to be covered with patterned paper. Use a colour you won't often use (even if it's on a tiny embellishment) and put some of your title in a bookplate.

And this is what I came up with. (The background cardstock is actually white - even though on the photo it looks blue at the bottom!) I definitely passed on the 70% patterned paper (Chatterbox - both the striped and the blue) and using a colour I don't normally use (BRIGHT red on the title). As for the "part of title in bookplate" I guess you could argue if I really did that or not. I figured that putting some of the title in the bookplate would mean the title had to be very small. And it didn't really work for what I wanted. So I compromised and put the date in the bookplate instead.

More cards...

Been playing around with my bookplates again. Managed another two cards today which I have just finished. First one is a "Thank You" card. Not my normal colours at all (pink, purple and baby blue) so I'm not sure what I think of it yet LOL! But still, I had fun making it and I enjoyed making the base card a bit different by making the back larger than the front (see the two-toned lilac/purple card, which you can see is darker on the inside).

I also make a "Happy Birthday" card using several squares with rounded corners to make the "background". Again, I set myself the challenge to only use scraps of paper and card to make these cards. It's soooo rewarding when you succeed and you see how much use you can actually get out of scraps (that is IF you use them in the first place, and not just keep saving them! LOL!) I decided to use a black pen and "dot" the bookplate to make it a bit more different and hopefully give it a more "designed" look.

By the way: Blogger seem to have had an ongoing problem for a week or so with showing photos (I know it's not only my blog that's affected). If a photo doesn't get displayed, RIGHT-click on it and choose "Show Picture" and it should appear. Hope that helps :)

Don't you just hate it...

...when you have no internet connection?!! Our internet has been down almost all day and has just come back up. So this will be a very quick update (in case it goes again) showing you my latest layout (can't decide whether I like this or not) using bookplates for the Product Playground class...

Bookplate mania...

Well my Sizzix oval bookplates die did arrive about 30 minutes after I posted on here yesterday. And I love it. I have now got another pile of bookplates painted and cut. A whole 56 (!!) of them. Someone better get creative...

I also finished my first layout for the Product Playground class yesterday. And I managed to use four bookplates on it so I felt pretty pleased that the goal had been achieved. Papers are by Scenic Route and bookplates are cut with my Sizzix, painted with acrylics and then Glossy Accents on top. Still trying to finish off my second layout...

Quick bookplates project...

Waiting, waiting, waiting... For the postman that is. Told you we get our post late!! Still have hopes that my oval bookplates die will arrive today though...

Managed a quick bookplates project yesterday. (For those wondering: "grattis" is Swedish for "congratulations"). But I set myself a double challenge. Not only to use the bookplates (which was part of the Product Playground class I'm taking this month), but also to use nothing but scraps. Paper is by Chatterbox and everything is scraps...even down to the ribbon and the Bazzill that makes up the base of the card. Just shows you how useful scraps can be...!

I'm currently working on my first layout for Product Playground. Well I'm actually working on two layouts. One is nearly done. The other one I'm having problems with at the moment, I keep moving things around on the cardstock and I just can't seem to find anything I like (that's why I started on the second one). Time to browse some scrapping magazines for inspiration me thinks...

Time to play...

First of all I want to answer a question yesterday from Toni-Ann about the title on my chipboard book and whether it was done using a printer or stamps. It was all done using my printer. I just played around with different fonts on my computer until I found something that I liked. Hope that helps :)

And now it's ---> time to play! The Product Playground class has officially started!! I really didn't expect to find any info until in the afternoon our time (thinking: morning-ish in the US), but there it was all ready when I turned the computer on this morning. How exciting!

I have spent all morning cutting bookplates (which this week is about) with my Sizzix machine (I'm expecting the oval bookplates die too - which will hopefully arrive tomorrow!) and then painting them with different acrylic paints.

Now it's time to play and see what I can come up with using them...