All in a lather

Hello there

Yes, it's me again, so soon after my last post; less than 24 hours in fact.

Catherine, true to form, set up the September scrapbook sketch this morning. So of course, I just had to respond to the challenge. To add more pressure on me, a couple of my friends said they'd do a page too. Mara actually went ahead and did an extra fast page of her travels to Prague, which is lovely.

I've not had alot of fun doing these pages, I have to admit, as I had photo issues on the computer; I definitely won't bore you with information about that. I think you can tell that from the pages, as they're plain and not exciting at all. At least I've created some memory keepers from my efforts.... and completed my challenge of doing the August sketch inspired layout and the September one all in less than 24 hours.

I will be trying another version of this sketch by the end of September, as these don't 'do it' at all and I need to get my mojo back for scrapbooking. I did some pages on CraftArtist this week too but they're not great either but hey, I do what I can, when I can. I have the memories stored in place, so that's what matters in the end.

Now for some calming tea and biscuits, if the rowdy kids next door will stop getting their ball into our garden.... mmmm, it might take more than tea to calm me! 

Take care out there and stay calmer than me :-)

I beat the deadline

Hello there

Just a quick post as I managed to get a scrapbook page done last night. Now that in itself is a bit of an achievement, as I'm just not managing to get any done lately. It's also an achievement as I created it from inspiration from Catherine's August August sketch challenge. It's September today of course, so I only just made it. July's was completely missed by me unfortunately.

That's not a good photo of it but it'll have to do I'm afraid as Catherine will post about her September sketch today, so I'll have to seize the moment and try to do that today. Last of August, first of September. We'll see.

Dawn - sorry the photos of the Dalek aren't very big in the layout, I'll try to get time late on to just add a photo of that for you in full size.

Where it says Snugbury's on the layout is actually a tag attached to the hidden journalling section and where I've sneakily added yet another photo without ruining the actual layout. I needed to write a fair amount for this trip, so I thought it best out of the way; there's more writing on the back of this tag.

Take care out there and go look at 'Dalicks' in a field if you can :-)

Little monkey

Hello there

Yesterday was my eldest nephew's birthday, so I had wanted to scrap him in a page (that sounds painful and slightly illegal :-) )

First issue was that the layout I was following was Catherine's Moments and memories June layout and I didn't feel inspired to just use the one photo I had in mind at the time, so I got distracted - I know, I hear you; what Diane? Distracted? Never!! :-)

Second issue was that three photos of his younger brother took my attention from the same holiday and I thought they'd fit on the layout well. I was tired after being awake since 3.30 and at work for eight hours from 6am, so I just had to run with it.

I did most of it last night but was called away for our get-together movie watching of Madagascar 3 on Sky premiere. I'm sure it is a great film but I was sat in the most uncomfortable seat (well, the pouffe to be exact) and was falling asleep, so I gave up after half an hour. I finished the page off this morning.

I always have remnants of stuff on my desk and the dark blue card just happened to be one of them, which goes perfectly with Owen's t-shirt and the green polka dot paper was a spare on the top of one of my paper pads. A few die-cuts from Cricut Craftroom basics cartridge and some leaves leftover from some cards I made recently and I was done.

I used the cut-offs from the main photo to hide the
gaps at the top and bottom of the vertical blue panel.
I like this!

I used the negative from the star cuts as a
stencil to improve the backing paper.
I also used that ink on the journalling patch,
which is photo paper that was sitting on my desk

The page, as ever, has much better colour than these photos, so I'm rather happy and I hope that Catherine likes that I've used her layout as inspiration. I'm crafting with her tonight, so I'll soon find out :-)

Take care out there and enjoy your moments and memories, whilst I go off to do some housework and then try this layout with two photos I've now decided to try with my eldest nephew.

I also need to find time to watch Madagascar 3 but I'll have to watch it alone now! :-)

Colour scheme

Hello there

I've still got tonnes of stuff on my left hand side of this desk which needs stuff doing to. There's paper packs, cricut mats, glue, paper scraps which I insist on thinking I can use, patchwork pieces waiting to be sewn together; I've even got instructions from the Stampin' Up weekend event I went to a couple of months ago along with a pack to complete some cards. Never mind, I will process them soon enough. Like yesterday for example I completed another scrapbook page with some.

You hopefully will recognise the papers from a layout I did last month using Catherine's layout. I've also made a card with these papers as I love the colours. That's the glory of digi papers; you can just print off as many or as few as you like; as these were 'Inspire club' members' freebies from the Crafter's Companion website.

Another few cards in the making still

The two pages as they appear in the album

These photos are from the same holiday my daughter had as that last page, so it makes for a kind of double page, which I seem to really be getting into - it's a great way to use up excess papers and keeps photos of the same event together.

The journalling was written on some packaging card I had on my desk, so it's in-keeping with the 'naturalness' of the mud theme and it gives a definite purpose to one of the little tickets.

Sometimes the face says it all:

Take care out there and for all you British readers, enjoy the sun whilst it lasts!

P.S Just as I wrote that I looked out of the window to see that the sun has hidden behind the clouds! Hopefully it'll be back soon :-)

Phew!

Hello there 

I did it! Just in time too. I'm even pretty happy with it. 

Please see my last post in order to explain how this page came into being - check it out

I made a writing error with the journalling but I don't have
time to deal with that but everything else
went really well

I forgot to mention that I got some new buttons too yesterday, so I had to use them as well. 

I loved using the hole screw tool to make holes all over the place, especially down the side of the page, as I thought of threading ribbon through it and the ribbon matches the ribbons on their medals in the photo. Rather pleased about that quick thinking.

The layout design from Catherine's blog, led me to have to put ribbons or equivalent down from the journalling, although in the layout, the photo was meant to go there. It now makes the journalling look a bit like a rosette, which is very apt for the subject matter. 

Go check the layout out for yourself and perhaps give it a go - don't forget to tell Catherine as she loves to see how other people interpret her designs.

I'm so pleased I achieved this goal I set myself tonight and with such success. I've still got lots of things left from the printouts I did, so I see me doing some cards or another layout with photos from that holiday, another day. 

I'm off on this current holiday now. I'm taking a craft project with me, so keep an eye out incase I get round to finishing it and blogging about it.

In the meantime, take care out there and 'live more, laugh often and love much'

Get it together Diane!

Hello there

Here's the deal. I've got a download package free from Crafter's Companion which has been sitting on my desk for a long time and every now and again I cut some flowers out and fiddle with it. I bought an X-cut screw hole punch yesterday in my first ever visit to a Range store; so cool! Catherine's layout of the month is sitting waiting for me to give it a try.

There's also the added complication of a couple of things. I'm busy listening to Lady Antebellum's Golden album full blast making it hard to concentrate and we're leaving the house at 3.30a.m tomorrow to go on hols. Can I do something in the short time I have available?

You'll have to come back in a few hours to find out, won't you?

Take care in the meantime

Music No.2

Hello there

Oh dear my subject title reminded me of the song 'Mambo No.5 - I'm now singing in my head with a bit of a body wobble :-) - such a happy song though.

Here's the second of the scrapbook pages I've created using the freebie Music layout pieces and the cut-file, as described in my last post.

There are more photos and the journalling on the tags behind the
raised photo

The stitching work and the inking of
the letters with a Spectrum Noir pen
make alot of difference

Putting the layers at different levels
yet connecting letters to those,
made it flow so well

I really like how easily these came together. I've never done a double
page layout of any kind. With several photos for one event, I
could definitely be persuaded to try this again. 

If you're into your Cricut, I'd recommend keeping an eye on Cricut Craft Room in conjunction with the project page on the Cricut website, to give you ideas for what to do with the cuts.  I saw on Obsessed with Scrapbooking's blog that they have got two new layout based cartridges out which look great, so I'm going to have to be quick to get these preview type cuts done quickly before I have to buy a cartridge :-)

Take care out there

Music

Hello there

This layout was done after I got inspired by a Cricut Craft Room cut-file from the Cricut project page. I found some free cuts on CCR which are items for various layouts but I needed to see an actual example of what those cuts could create and I loved the example using the music layout on that project page, so I promptly imported the cut file and got using the free dies - all FREE I say - how brill!

Sorry about the poor light but our weather is so bad, I can't expect it
to be much lighter during the day. I've used my daylight lamp, so
that stops the photo being yellow in tone but it's given alot of shine on
the M and U

The journalling is on a tag behind the photo

The background paper is fab; it's from the Stampin' Up Tickets and tags kit I think. The lines on it made it so easy to line up, as often my lining up is far from perfect. I also think it fits this theme/photo to a tee with it's grungy feel. Most of the papers are from Heidi Swapp's Sugar Chic pad; it's perfect for the colours and patterns in the photo. The silver/grey marbled effect paper has been in my stash for a long time; I hadn't thought it would die-cut very well but it was easy peasy and looks a treat.

The machine and hand sewing was great fun too and the washi tape, well, it just had to be done :-)

I'm going to have to get a few layouts done quickly whilst this is still going for free, as there are more photos of this night I want to capture and some other photos of another 'gig' my daughter went to a couple of months ago. I could do a double page layout of this night using the same papers as this and mixing it up a bit with the die-cuts and design.

Let's hope I get time, as 'him indoors' is back tomorrow from a holiday he's been on with his mum, so I might have to forego some crafting. How bad am I, that I am reluctant to give up that for a catch-up evening with Chris?! Don't get me wrong, I love Chris but I'm also a tight mare and don't want to give up the chance of using a freebie :-)

Take care out there

Gotta be quick

Hello there

Yer, I have to be quick now as it's 23.19 and Chris is in bed asleep and I'm not ready for sleep just yet, as I wanted to finish a layout I started yesterday. I've been doing it whilst tendering my laptop at the same time. My laptop was sick last week but I've had it back this evening, so spent all night re-doing everything as it had a complete restart. That's the second time that's happened in less than six months, so I'm not a happy bunny with technology. I'm three quarters of the way to semi normality with it. I wont start a rant on that because I'm meant to be making this a quick post :-)

Edit: - It took me quite a few tries to get this photo right of the glossy accents on the waves last night. For some reason Blogger kept putting the photo upside when I inserted it but it's done it correct, first time this morning??!! Maybe it's just like me and more awake this morning   :-)

The envelope where I put the journalling was cut at 4.5inch -
it's from the Wild Card cartridge- the doily on page 52.
The word 'Chillin' was created with the same cartridge's alphabet function.

The ripple effects shadowing the shape of the photo mounts was a last minute add on, which really ties it all in, as I wasn't really happy with it before then; hence this late night. It was a happy accident, as I was actually looking for some other embellishments I know I have somewhere or other and then I found the Americana bahama blue paint which I've never used and had forgotten about and KNEW that was my saviour for this layout and then the idea popped up.

Finding the paint and a working
computer ended a good day

That topped off a great crafty day for me as I also had a lovely few hours at the Crabapplecrafts birthday celebration, where several demos were going on all day. I enjoyed them all but Rae Dalal is very good company and showed us some great techniques and some new Dylusions sprays and goodies including the two below;

Right, times up and it's almost 23.45. Let's see if I get grief for brushing my teeth and getting into bed late. Wish me luck :-)

Take care out there and try not to upset 'him indoors'.

I'm shattered

Hello there

Yes, the title of this post says it. I have to get up at 5a.m on Mondays and Tuesdays and start work at 6, so they're not the best days for me energy wise. Tonight I wasn't feeling enthused with life as it's been blowing a freezing gale and the walk with the dogs was not fun. I'm a warm weather girl for sure.

Tonight though I've completed a layout which my friend Catherine created the sketch for, for our crafty session last week but due to us all having too much of a good time chatting, we didn't get to do the page. 

I've been able to escape the weather and just play away doing this. My sweetie carriage full of fruit pastilles, my glass full of Ribena and off I went.
This photo doesn't do the colours of the Afternoon Daydreams simply scrappin' kit from SU, any justice at all, as the colours are much more vibrant in real life. The journalling tag is a Cosmo Cricket one which goes brilliantly, as I wasn't convinced that the tags in the kit were the 'mood' I wanted for this page. The lace isn't real lace; it's the amazing Viola's lace stamp around stamp from SU embossed with tempting turqoise embossing powder - it's lush! :-)

The inky stains were just me playing around after I'd done the dribbles down the right hand side of the page. I just dropped some pool party ink onto the card and then blew it around - good fun! The bubble space it created was perfect for the title. Just like Maggie enjoys playing around with hairstyles, I like playing around with scrapbooking!

Ya gotta love distress crackle paint!

It might be disgusting outside and I might be ready to drop asleep but this has filled my soul with good stuff.

Take care out there

Time

Hello there

Tonight I've actually managed to get some crafting done! Last week was awful with my daughter in hospital or very ill at home, so I either didn't have the time or I just couldn't focus on crafting. Thankfully, she seems fully recovered now, so life is getting back to normality now. Change is nice but we can do without that sort of change.

I had intended on doing a friend; Catherine's sketch as appears on her blog but I couldn't remember the date she'd posted about it and by the time I got round to asking and finding out, I had already got underway with some die-cut remains from a couple of weeks ago. Yes, stuff sits on my desk for a long time, even if I do have to clean it around when my mum comes to stay for the weekend :-) Catherine has set up a monthly challenge of creating a sketch and getting her readers to interpret it and share with her. My sketch for her will have to wait for another day now - that's no problem, as Catherine is used to me being slow. Head on over there (after reading this of course) and have a go yourself.

If you saw my last post, you'll recognise elements of this page, as they're the same as I used on that scrapbook page i.e the stamp die-cuts and stencil and the postcard from the Steampunk digikit designed by Sarah Hurley for CraftArtist.
I've also added a gorgeous little sheep from Create A Critter cartridge.

I had to do this as the top photo shows a field, which actually had sheep in it, who got out of the field when we were there - very funny and not dangerous, as I think there's only about 5 cars on the whole island of Muck. It's gorgeous!

I used the stencil from the sheep die-cut and created almost little shadows of him in the right hand corner under the title. I love fun little elements like that, which are impromptu ideas, off the cuff, so to speak. 
The font of the title is 'loop de loo' from the Lyrical Letters cartridge - I sized it on Cricutcraftroom.

The bird tag is from a kit I have and there's that postcard again. I also used some Tim Holtz tissue tape in a couple of places on the page, as I thought that they fitted the theme really well.

Well, I did enjoy that. A stress free, productive yet relaxing evening. Don't mind if I do! :-)

Take care out there

Freebies

Hello there

Last week on Cricutcraftroom they had another pile of free images on there just for a week; every week there's a different cartridge/range of images that you can cut for free. I didn't like the actual images they had on there but my eye was caught by the photo mats, which have the slits cut out for you to fit your photo/topper in. So I got to cut out a pile of left over card in a couple of colours. Today's layout uses the cut outs and the negatives from that. 

I got my layout inspiration from a Basically bare blog entry. Although after saying that I just went with the creative flow really with the materials I wanted to use and what I have/found, which I find to be so satisfying.

I wonder if you noticed the dribbles again - my Stampin' Up ink
is going to get lots of use, me thinks! :-)

I had intended on using some wire to replicate the swirls on the float but whilst I was searching for it (I still haven't found it!) I came across this punch; I keep them at the back of a shelf as I don't really like them but oh boy, was I pleased to find this one at this time - it was meant to be! :-)

Yet again, I used the cut outs, and the negative and I also used sections of the die-cut as a stencil for the background. The only reason I used the top right hand corner negative piece though, was to cover the spraying mistake I made there. Happy accident!

Sarah Hurley and Serif also saved the day with the postcard from her digikit on Daisytrail which I found whilst looking for a postcard on CraftArtist.






Yay- another great creative morning!
Now to wait for the text from the school saying that it's closing due to the snow. Some schools have shut already but thankfully my daughter's school aren't soft!! ;-)

Take care out there in whatever weather you have, as I know that Sydney have had over 45 degrees today, so that won't be any fun either, as it can cause bushfires.

Is this enough?

Hello there

What a morning I've had. I've been sat up here in my little room after a good long walk with the dogs, on a very cold January morning in the U.K. with tiny bits of sunshine thrown in. I've been watching Louise Nelson again but on Vimeo this time, as I watched her Jumpstart 2013 video last night and was so inspired by her style and Debby Lewis's take on her video too, that I had to create myself. I've probably said this before but so often I just get inspired and then that's it. Just sat in front of the computer getting inspired. How is that inspired? It only works if I actually get off my bottom and create. So guess what? I actually got off my bottom! :-)

I got a piece of packaging chipboard and coated it with gesso. I was even enough on the ball to remember to cut it down to 8x8in, so it'll fit in the album I want it to go in. How good is that?!! :-)

The next step has loads of layers, in a practical sense as well as in the layout sense. I spritzed, masked, blobbed and dripped all over the place. Although, no, not all over the place, as I purposefully tried to keep most of the design in the bottom right hand corner. 

It would be rude not to add some Perfect Pearls mist  :-)

Some crude banners I made by just rubbing some
ink onto some left over packaging material

Louise's main focus in the Jumpstart video is crackle paint
and the different products available to do it. I used a blue
Ranger one, as it's the only one I have!

This is a lovely mask but I really wish it was a stencil- the
negative of it is clear plastic, so I find it too hard to use.

I love the finished result, other than that stupid base banner - dozy me placed it too far out, so I had
to cut it down and made a hash of it :-(

To answer my original question; yes this is more than enough for me. It's nowhere near as good as the other members of the Creative Jumpstart but we're all at different places on our creative journeys, so I'm happy.

Take care out there

Scrap happy

Hello there

Whilst surfing the net, I came across Katherine's  (Sutty)post for today -Fruit of my Scraps. Katherine does amazing scrapbook layouts, plus all kinds of different crafts. She's one of many whose work I almost drool at.
Therein lies a problem though. When I'm constantly exposing myself to such creative people, a) I'm not creating myself whilst looking at websites and b) it gives me too high expectations of myself. Those reasons partly explain why I don't scrapbook anywhere near enough. At the beginning of the year one of the goals I set myself, was to make a scrapbook page a week - visit here if you want to see what else I set myself up to do. I haven't managed to do a page a week and that's another reason why I'm always hesitant to do one, as I'm slow as I'm out of practise.

To break that chain of nervousness/hesitancy, I need to scrapbook more. That's it. Not a complicated, high faluting solution at all. Just do it. Get on with it and similiar phrases. So last night, I took the tone and feel of Katherine's page and interpreted it in my way. I told myself from the start, not to expect it to be like hers but just to go with the flow and what I felt was right. That's exactly what I did and I'm happy with the outcome and the process I went through.

Crafting can be compared to how life should be; it's not all about the outcome, it's more about how you got there. Some of you might look at my layout and say that certain things are 'wrong' with it (as I often do) but it's my presentation of memories which are important to me and my family, so that can never be wrong. I'm making our memories more apart of me and my creativity, to preserve it for the future, when my memory might be even worse than it is now :-)
I've got 7 photos on this page, as the central photo has two photos underneath the flip up front section. This way I get the whole trip on one page, which is fun for me and practical since I don't scrapbook that often. It creates a conversation piece in itself of our memories of the day.

Strangely for me, there aren't any die-cut shapes at all on this page. I used the Dear Lizzy 'Twinkling lights' mason jar as Katherine did and some of the papers I used are also from other Dear Lizzy papers. The background paper was a great find out of the huge K&Co. pack, as all those words are summer related, which is perfectly apt for the event the page is highlighting. The waves at the bottom right are part of a K&Co. citronella travel adhesive border pack I got in Florida - lol- I've only just realised that they're adhesive; as I looked at the packet to see what they were called, so I could let you know..... see, blogging helps me in more ways than you think! :-)














Take care out there and try to do what you enjoy