BY 2010 Month One

The first challenge for the BY 2010 project was to use the sketch below in one of your pages:

Here is my take on the sketch:

I am really happy with this page! Hope you all like it :0)

Hop over to the next blog involved in this exciting challenge by clicking here!
A full list of the blogs involved can be found over at Liberty Cottage here!

One is NOT amused!

Sometimes a kitty just wants to be left alone!! But its so tough to do that when she is so adorable!! Considering how many Saffy photos I take, I find it shocking that I have only ever scrapped two of them! Prepare for lots of Saffy pages in the future me thinks ;0)

52 in 10 Week 4

This weeks prompt from Dolly over at Dolly's Dreamings was to scrap about music.  I decided to focus on my friend's covers band.  They have asked me to be involved in managing the band this year which is a very exciting (if somewhat baffling!!) project.
Here is my page using Shimelle's 'Welcome' template and MRD kit 'Playtime'.  Both available to buy from Two Peas.

Advice from digi scrappers appreciated...

I only started digi scrapping this year and am really enjoying it.  I am slowly aquiring some lovely digi papers and embellishments and so far have just saved them on my computer in the collections they are purchased in.
I read through the AMAZINGLY useful tutorial from Ali on her blog and she suggests storing them on the computer in type rather than collection (ie all the cardstocks together, papers together, tags etc) and maybe keeping a collection or two together (ie Christmas, Valentines day...)
Can I ask how other digi scrappers out there store their files? I like being organised when I work in any format and its driving me a little crazy!! I thought it would be better to get this issue resolved before I buy too much digi stuff ;0)

52 in 10 - Prompt 3

I'm a week behind, but will have caught up by tomorrow!! Here is last week's page for my digi version of Dolly's 52 in 10:

30/1/10 I just had to edit this by adding in a Little Musing from SJ's blog here.

New shoes...

Have you ever had one of those shopping moments, when you spy something across the shop and instantly fall head over heels for some inanimate object that (truly) you can live without but at that moment can't imagine life without?!?!
That was how I felt when I spotted these AMAZING shoes:

The trouble is, I just can't walk in them yet...at all...oh dear!

Scrap Weekly and Simplicity

This month's word for the Simple Things project was SIMPLICITY and this weeks Scrap Weekly challenge was to use tags in your scrapping.  I've been a little behind with my projects and decided to embrace the term of the month and link these two projects this week.
The word, simplicity and all its values, really does hit me straight in the heart. Despite all the things I do, crave for, love and enjoy. The simple things really are those that truly matter!!
I have decided to use a photograph taken on the month of the prompt to signify each word.  This month I used a lovely shot of the statue that stands outside my Craft Shed. It looked so lovely coated in snow, and the statue itself speaks to me of the simplicity of true and unconditional love.

As my Simple Things project is a tag book the Photo and journalling are actually tucked away inside the main 'page'.

I already LOVE this tag book!!

Our Little Musing

When I saw that SJ over at Scrappy Fairy was doing commisioned Little Musings, I just had to email her a picture of us to transform!
I can recommend her work. I'm sooooo pleased with the artwork and SJ was lovely and made sure everything was just as I wanted it! Thanks SJ!!

Here is the original photo! I'm really pleased she was able to convert it into a full body shot just as I wanted!

Tea for One

I just wanted to share this lovely teapot/tea cup set I found the other day! It is the perfect size for a nice lady-like cup of tea (so will be no good for first thing in the morning, when I require a bucket of tea!!!!)
The design on the tea pot, and gingham cup, were too cute to resist!!

Scrap Weekly Challenge 3

This weeks challenge was to scrap using 'bad' photos. No shortage of those in our house!! We often snap alot of pics using our phone cameras. They look great on the phone, but when you upload them the quality drops and they look all blurry.
The photo I chose to scrap looked blurry even on the phone, so it had no chance when I printed it!!! I love the photo though and I loved the weekend away!!!
I opted for the extra challenges:  adding my title on to the top of my photo, and using non-scrapping items (the tag which I journalled onto was actually a price tag from a dress I bought!!)
This page is going into a 'Me' mini book I started last year.

Pretty things...

Another day of impulse buys today (my bank account is really starting to dislike me!!!)
I couldn't resist this purse and bag in the little shop near to my library. They are just sooooooo cute and I love the messages that are sewn into them. They really ring true to my own Goals for 2010 that I just had to buy them (thats my excuse and I'm sticking to it!!!!) I wish I knew how to sew and make bags like this!! The only down side is the tote bag is quite small and I do love to carry a lot of (ahem) essentials with me ;0)
Forgive the following amount of photos - there are far too many I know, but they are pretty things!!!

Tonight I have been a busy bee!!!

Well, I popped on here earlier to make a list of things I really really hoped to achieve tonight never dreaming that I would actually complete it. But I am a stubborn thing when I get my mind set on something so I sat at the table and refused to move until I had completed covers for my two new projects.

THIS IS WHY I SCRAPBOOK...
I am going to do this as a concertina-style mini book. I tried this technique once before and absolutely adored every minute of making the book.  As I am working from limited supplies (my main stash being in my poor little frozen Craft Retreat at the bottom of the garden) I have completed the cover but it still needs to be glued to mountboard to make it nice and sturdy.  I need to construct the concertina pages too but that is easy to do and I should get that done by Tuesday :0)

SIMPLE THINGS (from It's a Creative World)

As I have embarked on far more projects that are sanely possible (but I'm still going to try and do them all) I decided that this recent one that I read about today, would have to be a smaller style.  I decided to follow the theme closely and am using a very simple thing as the basis for a tag book - the humble loo roll!!!!!

I have made loo roll tag books before since reading about the idea in a mag.  They are fun to make and really lovely and tactile once completed!

Here is the cover.  The down side of this format is that the book gets REALLY bulky - hence the huge amount of string I have left on the binding!!

Well, thats it for me. I'm at my Crystal class tomorrow so no scrapping to me - at least until the evening ;0)

A little note for myself...

I keep taking on more and more projects!!! I just feel so inspired creatively by everyones ideas and just wanrt to be involved! I wonder whether I'll still be so obsessed in a few months time!!

By the end of today I want to have:

• Sketched out my cover for "This is why I scrapbook"
• Decided on a SIMPLE format to follow for "Simple Things"
• Started my cover for "This is why I scrapbook"
• Organised my project diary and calendar to include weekly projects and monthly 'deadlines'
• Started the next Sookie Stackhouse book (trashy but fun!!!!!)

I just want to be involved...

I had a good a good clear out the other day and Saffy just had to help. Bless her, she always wants to be involved. Its hard to get angry at a cat - especially when they look so damn cute!!!

Happy Feet...

I was feeling really low when I woke up this morning. I still have a cold and I am just fed up of coughing! I had a lovely warm shower and used loads of Lush products so I smelled positively edible (I love Lush!!!!)
The I decided to dress in clothes that would make me smile!! I have some silly ladies-boxer style undies on (no photo to follow though!!!) that have cartoon clouds all over them. I have my fav silly t shirt but the all time smile inducer was the socks (given to me by a friend for Crimbo):

I managed to make another snow layout this afternoon - its been a day for honouring my feet really!!!

I would like to honour my past more

One thing I love about scrapbooking is the way you are honouring who you are and where you are in your life. At the moment I haven't started the HUGE project of going through our old family photos, scanning them into the PC and starting to even consider scrapping any of them. It is something I really really want to do though.  I plan to get the oldest ones done first.  It'll be a nice mother-daughter bonding experience to sit with my mom and ask her details about photos like this from when she was a little girl:

(My mom is the moody girl hugging her knees at the front!! I wonder if she can remember why she looks so serious, because my mom is never serious in photographs!!)

Hmmmm, how do I do this?

OK ladies, I need more advice.  This time about organising my album.  I have a 12x12 album for 2010.  Is it better to put the pages in as I scrap them OR to stor them in the album in chronolgical order of date (if its an event/ season etc) Help please.....

I had some fab responses to the 'how can I store my ribbons' dilema.  I took today as a sick day from work after catching the lurgy from walking in the snow and cuddled up in warm clothes with a lemsip and my ribbons! I copied the lovely idea of storing the in jars (although I only had 3 jars so need ALOT more!!)They will look so pretty when they are all done:

I spent some time in the afternoon scrapping and this is the layout I came up with. I loved scrapping it. I love the photo, I love all of the papers BUT I'm not so sure I love the page :0( I'm not sure that I have done the best I could have and wonder whether it all looks like a bit of a mess! Oh well, its in the album now and I'll just have to judge how I feel about it as time passes!

This is why I scrapbook...

For all you Shimelle fans out there - she has a new project to become involved with showing on her blog now. Click here to have a look!
As usual, She is very inspiring, and I have been thinking about why I scrapbook.

I have no children (although I do have a kitty I adore and who makes a star appearance on some of my pages!!!) and I don't travel widely.
I tend to scrapbook about myself and my partner.  I'm not someone who loves to look at myself at all, but I have found scrapbooking as a way of really accepting who I am, inside and out, and of embracing me as a whole.  I love to take a photo of an occasion, event, day out, or just something mundane but special and really celebrate that.  To spend time over it, and love it, and honour it. 
I have never been what I would think of as an arty person. This is one reason I was so amazed to discover I not only like scrapbooking, but I LOVE it!!! I try to find some time everyday to do something scrap related - this is even easier now I have discovered the joys of digi-scrapping (although it can't overtake paper scrapping for me - I just love cutting and sticking!!!!!!)
I have quite a few friends who roll their eyes when I say I scrapbook.  In fact most of my friends roll there eyes! I have only one dear friend who has become a scrap convert, but she lives many many miles away :0(  Shimelle's prompt of -how would you convince a non-scrapper about scrapbooking is a difficult one.  I often find myself getting defensive when non-scrappers look at me as if I am mad that I enjoy this so much. What's not to love??  I'll have to think on this abit more I think!!!!

Cupcake Photo Boxes

I just had to share my impulse, bargain buy of the day. I popped into WHSmith's on my way home to get the recent Scrapbook Magazine and what should I spy on the sale display but these GORGEOUS cupcake photo storage boxes for half price!!
Each is justa tiny bit shorter than a shoe box.  The lids are hinged and they each have a set of dividers for separating the photos within. Wonderful!!

I miss my Crafty Retreat sooooooooo much! We still have a lot of snow on the ground and until I have an electrician in I need to use a long extension cable to get my heater and light to work. I'm worried at the moment because although my retreat is water tight it is so cold that when I put my heater on it creates alot of condensation inside - not good for a space that is filled with perishable paper goodies :0(

I MUST contact an architect about extending our nest. We are starting to get cabin fever and I think a bigger bungalow is just what we need to create a bit more synergy in our family!! Plus that way I get a scrap studio rather than a (however lovely it may be) shed! Blissful!!!!