The Magpie Makerie

Hoarder? Moi?

2011-10-17T10:27:00.004+01:00

Like most crafters, I have a stash. Well, I consider mine a bit of a hoard, as there are several stashes rolled into one. Hence the new blog name -The Magpie Makerie - I hoard pretty things, and sometimes even make things with them!

Part of my new leaf/new blog is that I want to start making things, and the new class over at Shimelle.com is all about using up that lovely paper that I've been looking after for the past 4 years (and I definitely don't collect Shimelle classes. Oh no. *cough cough*)

Our first challenge is to share our stash (luckily, not literally, though perhaps I should think about that too!). So here goes, one part sorted, one part stuffed and one part somewhere in the middle!

Cut down in my prime

2011-03-31T20:35:00.005+01:00

Just as I was pootling along quite well, I've been struck down with an 'orrible virus. So please excuse me as I defer my promises for another couple of weeks. Our family has been battered recently with illnesses (albeit minor ones, for which I am very grateful), and I need a bit of time to fully recover - or it'll just just happen all over again.

Toodle-oo for now, folks. I hope you and yours are hale and hearty x

What love can do

2011-03-27T21:49:00.005+01:00

Love can make us do very strange things.

This photo shows me confronting my fears, for love, trying desperately to hide the fact that I'm cacking myself. "Why?" I hear you ask. Well, because in about 5 minutes after this photo, I have to get into this.

Here is a shot from the top...

And here is my "she can't see me so I'll let my feelings show a little" face.

Otherwise known as "Eek, get me off this effing thing".

What is your greatest fear? Do tell...

Family resemblances

2011-03-25T21:33:00.003Z

I was always told I look like my Nana, my Mum's mum, so I suppose it's only fitting that my daughter should resemble her Nana, my mum!

This is one of my favourite photos of 2009. Prize to the person who recognises the beach...

Serendipity

2011-03-24T20:33:00.003Z

I took this photo during an online course from Cheryl Johnson a couple of years ago. I was practicing focusing close-up with fuzz in the distance (can't remember the proper photography term), and had given my daughter a satsuma to keep her still. I was just lucky to get this shot of my daughter popping a piece of satsuma into her mouth, looks like it was totally the shot I was going for :)

"Fluke!" as they say.

Five things...

2011-03-23T19:41:00.005Z

Image from: http://www.pillarcc.co.uk/hearts-in-service/

...that I spend most of my time doing (when I'm not doing childcare/housecare) right now:

1 My Kindle
2 Crochet
3 Dreaming about and planning for our future house extension which will allow me to do something about #4 and #5
4 Longing to make my own clothes
5 Buying fabric and obsessing about quilts

What's floating your boat at the moment?

Before I had my real babies...

2011-03-22T20:00:00.005Z

...I had many surrogate children. Now, take a deep breath, oh ye of faint heart. For what I am about to tell you may shock you to the core.

I like rats. Pet rats, fancy rats that is... rattus norvegicus, rather than the black rat of the "carrying the fleas that carried the plague" fame. They are truly delightful, similar in temperament to dogs, and just as easily trained! I'm giving you fair warning, there will be a couple of photos later, that you may well not want to see - I fully understand that some people think that they are pretty foul.

As I was looking for photos for this blog post, I came to the realisation that I've not scrapbooked about any of the rats so far, hence this post. Here's hoping it doesn't send you reaching for the close tab.

I've had the pleasure of knowing 22 in all, mostly in batches, and mostly females. Female rats are inquisitive, intelligent, friendly and very sociable. Our first big group were 6 girls named after 50s film stars, of which Dot (Doris) was my favourite. She was tiny, but by far the bravest of them all.

(notice I'm easing you in by not showing a picture that shows her tail!)

At one point, we had 13 - due to a pregnant pet shop rat. We gave all the females to good homes, but kept the males, 6 in all, named after Liverpool FC managers. If I could remember the names or thought you'd be interested, I'd list them! *sexism alert* They pretty much behaved as stereotypical male animals - sat around stuffing their faces with food, peeing everywhere and didn't move much. Working on their fat storage, presumably. They were still delightful, but much less interesting to watch than the giddy girls.

I shan't go on any more, but shall leave you with a photo of another glamorous rat Mazz (named after Marilyn Monroe). She was an albino rat, the ones with the pink eyes, and was a grumpy little sod. Unsurprising though, seeing as she couldn't see past her whiskers. The head-scarf is due to hair-loss, the story of which I may well share another day...

So, tell me. Do they make you cringe? Or do you want to reach out and stroke?

The thing is...

2011-03-21T20:20:00.004Z

that it's been an inordinate amount on time since I last dove into the world of blogs. It's all been a bit busy due to the birth of the bump (E.T.A. it's a girl! Heather, you are forgiven, I should've stated that she looks like her dad :) ). And I can't believe I didn't even post about it here. So hello to anyone who's wondered back to take a peek, and I'll try to do better this time!

However, I'm taking an opportunity to reactivate my blog (and hopefully my energy for it) for at least the next three weeks. Three weeks because that's how long Shimelle's "Blogging for Scrapbookers" class is. Which I signed up for this time last year, but never did anything about. But that's the best thing about Shimelle's classes is that once you've signed up, you get to play again each year, free of charge.

So, my intention is to post a pretty picture each day, and try to fill in some more meaningful words a minimum of once a week. I hope you'll be with me, and I hope I'll make you smile at least once.

Sarah

P.S. I've missed you guys x

With love from me to you

2010-08-05T19:52:00.005+01:00

Good evening folks. It is a special day today, one which you will always look back upon with fondness. Today, I shall be sharing with you my most favourite recipe, for raspberry chocolate brownies. And for this, you will either love me or hate me, but either way you'll love the brownies! I didn't get a chance to photograph today's version, so here's one that I made earlier!

So, are you ready? Here goes...

(from Donna Hay "Chocolate")

160g plain flour, sifted
200g dark chocolate, chopped
250g butter
205g brown sugar
4 eggs (I usually use medium)
1/4 tspn baking powder
40g cocoa powder, sifted
1.5 cups raspberries fresh or frozen (I reckon frozen is better, not worth wasting the fresh on this, better to make cranachan...)

Oven preheated to 180C. Put choc and butter into a small pan over a low heat and stir until melted and smooth. Put in a bowl together with the sugar and eggs (I usually mix the latter two first). Sift over the flour, baking powder and cocoa and mix to combine. Pour into a 23cm/9 inch square, greased cake tin lined with greaseproof paper, top with the raspberries and bake for 45 mins/until set. No need to defrost the raspberries.

I make half this mixture, and use a loaf tin to bake it in. It takes a little less time to cook though. It also freezes very well, though may not get a chance depending on how many people are about!

And why am I sharing this with you? Well, it's my birthday, and it seems to be the tradition that on your birthday, people expect you to give them cake. I've almost managed it :) Enjoy x

More baked goods!

2010-07-29T20:30:00.012+01:00

Today, I've been mostly eating cake. So, I'll post a couple of healthy breakfast muffin recipes that have been developed in an attempt to make me feel less guilty about needing said cakey things to fuel my baby bump (which, just in case you're wondering, is rather large and starting to be uncomfortable at 25 weeks/6 months). They both stemmed from the fact that I didn't have certain ingredients for a recipe that I'd found on-line, and I improvised with what I had in the cupboard/fridge. The basic recipe was this:

300g plain wholemeal flour
50g rolled porridge oats, plus extra for decoration
3 heaped tsp baking powder
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
100g raisins
50g pecans, chopped
50g caster sugar
100ml sunflower oil
150ml natural yogurt
150ml milk
1 medium egg, beaten
2 medium bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 small apples, grated
1 medium carrot (100g peeled weight), coarsely grated

To Decorate
Sunflower and pumpkin seeds

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C, gas mark 5. Lightly oil a non-stick muffin pan with 12 large cups (or two six-cup pans) (Or use muffin cases, like I did!)

Sprinkle with oats, sunflower and pumpkin seeds (or not), and bake for 20 minutes or till a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Leave in the tin for 5 minutes, then cool on a rack. Eat when still warm.

You can prepare the dry and wet ingredients the night before. Combine the two in the morning and you'll have a fresh-baked breakfast."

The ingredients are many, but I love the fact that you just sling them all together and give them a bit of a stir. The first time, I didn't have apples, so I put pears in, and substituted the raisins and apricots for dried dates and figs, chopped into tiny pieces. I didn't have pecans and didn't want the seeds on top, so I just put pine nuts into the mix. I also left a bit of the sugar out. Ta da!

These were really lovely, and inspired me to think of what else I could put in to up the "healthiness" factor. Have a guess. Go on....

Change the carrot for beetroot, and keep the apple. Swap the raisins and apricots for figs and dates again, and all the seeds and nuts for the pine nuts, and you get these:

Even more delish. I promise! If these are a bit too healthy for you, just wait two ticks, and read on...

August is a manic birthday month for me, with 10 all in the first two week, and four of those are in my direct family! As well as the birthday party for the first-born next weekend, Mr Love_Crafts has also requested various chocolatey treats in order to celebrate his birthday, which is this weekend. So, after my little cupcake adventure a couple of weeks ago, I found a buttercream recipe that fitted my concept of icing much better than the cream cheese abomination that curdled (see here if you have no idea what I am on about). I perked this and the cake base up with a bit of fairtrade cocoa, and le voila as they say.

I also made jams and rocky road, but seeing as those are neither baked nor as pretty, I shall leave them out!

So tell me, if you're still here... does the thought of beetroot muffins appeal to you?

Let them eat cake!

2010-07-17T19:40:00.007+01:00

Well, cupcakes, to be precise. It's fast approaching the day where I sweat and toil to make my darling daughter's 3rd birthday most memorable. It's also the first birthday party I have ever organised. It may only be 6 toddlers and their respective parents (hopefully just one half of the full set), but I am a bit concerned.

So I've been practicing. DD has requested cupcakes. And I've never made them before. Plenty of muffins, pies, quiches, cakes, blah de blah, but never cupcakes. And seeing as the only bit she ever eats is the icing, then I need to get that right! So here is our joint effort:

I thought I'd get the guests to decorate their own cupcakes with sprinkles etc. This might give the 3 boys a chance to escape the pink-fest that the party shows signs of becoming. I swear I have been as non-girly, colour-neutral as I am myself with DD, but she still professes that pink is her favourite colour. I blame society. And Peppa Pig.

And the taste test?

Believe it or not, that's a happy grin. She just had a mouthful of the icing and didn't want to swallow it too quickly!

But my favourite one is this (perhaps because it looks most like pictures of other ones I've seen):

The close-up shows that the cheese/butter icing thing has curdled a little, not sure what I did wrong. It did taste lovely though. But I'd like to get it smoother, so any tips would be gratefully received.

What did you get up to today? Do tell ;)

Yes, yet another project...

2010-07-05T21:33:00.008+01:00

...but this one was planned before. I just could not resist when I found this yarn at £1.99 a ball, half price. £1.99, for cashmere/merino/silk!! (and I rarely use two exclamation points).

I have decided to make the DD a bedspread for those oh so chilly nights that will no doubt be upon us by the time I've finished it (though having said that, it is coming together rather quickly). I just couldn't resist these colours:

and Iz was pleased too, when she saw them. She said she liked the colours, and then, without prompting, she said "and I like the pattern too". (Warning: Proud parent alert) And she's not even 3 yet.

It is a wonderful ripple/zigzag/wave that I found here. It only took me two nights to crochet 6 inches of about 5 foot width. I figured if I crocheted a cover for a single bed, then it'd last her a long while. Even though the yarn was cheap, it still cost £56 to purchase. She's worth it :)

I've nearly finished the new pastel cotton baby blanket of granny squares, I've been commissioned to make a scarf for a blog reader (you know who you are, I've got the yarn and will start it soon!), and THAT bedspread is still lurking. I've discovered a new way to sew the squares together, and I'll blog about that in the next few days or so. Promise!

But what's made me smile much more than yarny loveliness is that Iz wanted to crochet with me. I can see I'm going to have to let her have her own hook to pretend with, until she gets to the stage where she'll let me show her how to do it the proper way. And then I really will be smiling!

What makes you smile? Do tell :)

What did you do last weekend?

2010-07-05T21:16:00.005+01:00

I made this:

A real, honest-to-goodness book. With a ribbon bookmark and everything:

Totally from scratch. Well, from fabric, greyboard, paper, ribbon, thread, glue, and a few specific book-bindy bits. Including the stripey bit that protects the book when you pull it off the shelf...

Can you see it there? That's how you know it's a proper book. That, and the fact that I STITCHED the pages together, and glued them too, so that they fan out like this:

In a word, "amazing". It was the best £25 I've ever spent. 6 hours of a bookbinding course, and I can guarantee that this will be the first of many books that I make, in varying sizes, patterns, paper types and so on. And what will I do with them all, I hear you ask?

Why, line them up on shelves and look at the oh so pretty patterns on the covers.

I may even give a couple away. May.

Crochet stripes

2010-05-23T20:55:00.006+01:00

At the moment, my most favourite thing to crochet apart from granny squares, is a scarf. Not just an ordinary scarf though, a soft bamboo loveliness that is a joy to make, and from the reactions I've got so far, a joy to touch and receive. This is the third one I've made, and it's so simple.

I know it's odd making scarves in this weather, but needs must (birthday presents for boss-type men).

Just in case you're wondering how to make it, I used a yarn that's mostly bamboo, as this is light and silky (for example, Rowan Bamboo Soft or Sirdar Flirt), 2 x 50g balls of the main colour, then one of each of the other complimentary colours. I then chained as many stitches as I needed for the length, then double crochet for one row, then switched to treble. Switch as many colours, and treble crochet as many rows as you want, then finish with a row of doubles.

I have my eye on a wave pattern (See here for a gorgeous example). I just need to get one more lacy scarf for a present out the way... and maybe do some more of those 384 granny squares for that bedspread. Oh and the cotton baby blanket I started, and the amigurumi book i've borrowed from my friend...

DId I hear someone say "UFO"?

So, the reason for the long absence was...

2010-05-14T10:02:00.002+01:00

this:

It's due on or around the 5th November. So for the last 3 months, I've mostly been sleeping, when I've not been working that is!

I do hope you'll forgive me, now you know the reason. And I promise faithfully this won't turn into a baby blog *holds fingers in Brownie promise style salute thingy*. We're selling our house too so it's all a bit manic, yet depressingly craft-clutter-free in here.

Hopefully, I'll be back soon, with more tales from the crochet basket, or perhaps the sewing machine.

Late to the party

2010-05-10T21:25:00.014+01:00

Ok, so get all the usual comments about how long it's been out of the way. It's been a long and tiring 3 months, more will be explained over the weekend. However, for those of you who spotted the references to the stay at the Hilton on my tweet feed a few weeks ago this photo shows you just how glam it was:

I was teaching my wonderful friend H how to crochet. And very therapeutic it was too. We did do glam things like bask in the pool, and nibble lovely things in the Executive Lounge, but we mostly caught up on each other's lives, since we haven't seen each other in nearly 2 and a half years. So I haven't been totally lazy, honest!

But mostly, I thought I'd get this quickie post in before the next one, just to let you know about the blog inspiration party over at Copy & Paste last weekend. I haven't had a chance to fully explore all the guest posts, but I can tell you there is some seriously amazing talent over there. Go see!

One of the party posts that has stirred my blogging bone is the "confessional" type list. If you're a reader of my blog, you'll have already seen the previous two layouts I've done on confessionals here, but I thought I'd answer the well-thought out questions.

Everyone knows that I .am a crafter.. , but you'd never guess that ...I am actually a scientist too.
I'm proud to admit that I like ....keeping busy... but my guilty pleasure is .... just sitting still, reading
I'm inspired by ...nature.....and it surprises me when ..I realise just how much!
I'm always ..wanting to learn new things.. but I'm never ..totally satisfied..
I've got lots of ..crafting stuff... but I've always wanted .....more crafting stuff :).......
I tried to ...stop buying more stuff on the internet.. and it ..has mostly worked so far....
If I never .. learn to make patchwork quilts.. it will be .....my own fault....
I didn't ...cut out cakes after I had my daughter.. and now ....I wish I had!
It's not that I ..don't like going out with people but I'd really rather ..stay at home with my family..
Doing .things with yarn. makes me ..relax...
Someone once told me ..every cloud has a silver lining..and then ...I kept looking for them 'til I found them.
I'm happy to say that ..I enjoy "meeting" new friends on-line.. and even .. if I don't comment all the time, I'm still reading and appreciating the sharing of lives....

Please let me know if you blog your confessions, I'm a nosy beggar!

I know, I know. I'm sorry.

2010-03-18T20:45:00.006Z

Bad blogger. January! That's got to be the longest I've gone without a post since I started this blog. In my defence, it's been a kerazy few months with new job, passing my degree, DD starting pre-school and generally struggling to keep on top of all the everyday mundane stuff that goes on.

However, I have been taking photos. January brought snow. And I practiced my skills with the macro setting:

Then came February. More snow. Or rather, the snow that never went away. We finally bought a sledge of sorts and had some fun in the sun:

Then March, and rain. But the best thing to do when it rains is....

dress up. Oops, no sorry. I meant:

run through all the puddles. But seeing as I don't have any wellies, I just took photos. Lots of them!

But then I've also been crocheting a bit, and I've finally finished sewing together the first block of 24 squares for THAT bedspread that I've started on. And bought another 16 (Eek) balls of silver, as I decided to add another row of the silver around the edge to stop my eyeballs vibrating with the bright colours.

(The above photo is with the bumpy seams. The one below is with smooth seams)

And I love it. It might take me the next two years to finish it, but I know that when I do, I'm going to want to pat it smooth each morning over my bed, which might even encourage me to make it each day.

So what have you been up to? I know I've been bad at visiting people these last few months too, but I aim to catch up soon! Oh, and please have a guess at who my darling man was dressed up as...

Design Your LIfe layouts week 1-2

2010-01-18T15:49:00.005Z

So, as well as crocheting my little hands off, I also signed up for Cathy Zielske's Design Your Life class over at Bigpicturescrapbooking. I like her teaching style, she's really quite amusing, and her simple style of linear scrapbooking does appeal to me. I'm doing it digi though - I've packed away my paper scrapbooking stuff 'til we sell the house, and the class comes with all the digi templates needed to complete the assignments (3 a week). And let's face it. I barely manage one layout a week normally, so 3 would be most definitely pushing it!

My pages are very simple, I intend to gussy them up before I get them printed all at once, here: 12x12 LOs printed at 75p - bargain! I'll let you know what they're like once I've sent off the order.

First 2 weeks are all about balance and symmetry. All layouts use templates from the class by Cathy Zielske, and all paper is either from the freebies or the shop area of Shabby Princess.

What do you reckon to digiscrap? DO you want to try it/have you tried it? Do tell :)

Oh, and for those of you watching for more crochet squares from my gorgeous yarn... here you go. I'm planning on sewing them up as I go.

How much?

2010-01-14T14:58:00.004Z

So last night, I thought I'd better get realistic with this entire-crocheted-bedspread idea, and work out how many balls I'd need. I'm not working from a pattern, just making lots and lots of granny squares then sewing them together.

Here is where you discover my second love: numbers. I think I must have been an accountant in another life. Close your eyes if calculations scare you.

I measured my bed (80 inches) and then measured a granny (just under 4 inches), so that makes 80 divided by 4 is 20 squares wide. I added a couple extra for the "just under" , so my bedspread will be 22 squares by 22 squares. 22 squared is 484. (What? How many?? 484 squares at a rate of 3 a night, so that's 162 days give or take. Blimey. Then another week or so sewing them together. Sheesh.)

Anyway. Back to the amount of yarn needed. I weighed 6 grannies, then divided the weight of my ball of yarn by the weight of the 6 grannies. It worked out that 1 x 50g ball makes about 12 grannies. So divide the number of squares you need by the number of grannies per ball (484 divided by 12) makes 40.3 balls. I had 20. Then I'd need about 8 more of the silver to stitch them all together (this is a total guess). Eek. This yarn is £3.85 a ball. You can see that my original £200 estimate for using the yarn when it wasn't split was waaaay out. It'll cost me £200 with splitting the yarn!

But I've committed to the idea in my head, because it looks just stunning. Just look at those six squares up there with all the combinations with teal in the centre. There's another 6 for chocolate, 6 more with purple, and 6 more with green. Yum. I cannot wait. Luckily, half an hour of searching on the net located somewhere selling them at 20% discount. Even with £5 postage, I still saved £15.

What is the most expensive thing you've ever made/started on? Do tell :)

Granny Delightful

2010-01-13T14:02:00.004Z

Finally managed to take some photos of the finished baby blanket. I went with sewing up the seams, and it came together over a couple of evenings. I'm so pleased with it, I don't think I've ever been so chuffed with anything I've made for a long time.

The sewing method produced two different sides of the blanket, one with a little raised border round each square, the other is more or less smooth:

I like both. That's obviously a good thing! And after all the build-up about the wonderful yarn that I've bought for my highly-ambitious-second-crochet-project of an entire bedspread, I have made three squares:

Aren't they just gorgeous? The only pain is having to sew all the bloody ends in. When I was doing the one-colour squares, I could churn out one every 20 mins or so. These little beauties took me around half an hour each, and I spent a good hour beforehand splitting the yarn in two so I can make it go further. If I used it as is (10 ply cotton), I reckon the bedspread would cost around £200 and would weigh a good few kilograms. Warm though!

Just one more gratuitous close-up for those droolers. I know you're there :)

So I showed you mine, will you show me yours?

Another "thing"

2010-01-09T10:56:00.006Z

I'm hoping that I'm not alone in this, but I love learning. And I'm always up for learning new crafts. My latest thing is crochet; I had an old needlecraft book and some really useful videos from mikeyssmail on Youtube. With these tools in hand I picked it up quite quickly, though I'm already a knitter. After a few practice granny squares in dishcloth cotton, I got cracking with some remnant wool from my baby clothes projects.

And here is the work in progress. I am in the process of sewing the 48 squares together; I tried to crochet them, but it was too fiddly for my liking, so I "cheated". I'm hoping to finish it this weekend, so will post finished pics then.

I am enjoying this new craft so much that I've inadvertently spent my Christmas money on some really funky yarn for an entire bedspread. I think I've lost my mind. Though really, with these colours, could you resist?

Glorious aren't they? Once I start on the squares, I'll post some pictures. There are something like 24 different square combinations with the main colours being leaf, teal, purple and chocolate. I'm going to make all the outer rows silver, to pull them all together, and hopefully make your eyes go kerazy :) If it looks half as fab in real life as it does in my imagination, I'll be very pleased.

What other crafts do you do? And which is your current favourite? Do tell ;)

Merry New Year!

2010-01-01T22:45:00.003Z

May all you desire be realised through just the right amount of hard work to make it feel worthwhile!

May you have...

2009-12-24T19:45:00.002Z

...a very merry Christmas, full of love, life and happiness. And turkey, if that's your grub of choice!
I wish all my readers and friends the best of everything for 2010, and I'll see you all very soon.

'Tis the season...

2009-12-01T08:42:00.003Z

... to take silly pictures! Or rather, to improve my photography skills. I'm taking an online class by Cheryl Johnson (I've seen her work in Scrapbook Inspirations, and submitted some of my layouts to her for the readers' gallery!) (class registration is closed - unfortunately the class numbers were limited).

It's a class called "12 days", and it aims to improve my Christmas photography skills, which is perfect, because I have some pretty ropey Christmas photos. All that indoor lighting, bleurgh.

First challenge - take a festive self-portrait. Done. See above. I'd love for you to take one too, and post it, and then tell me :) Go on, I dare you!

12 days part 'a'

2009-11-08T19:57:00.006Z

Do you remember that other class I'd signed up for this November? This one here? Well, it's started, and wow, there is an incredible amount of ideas and it's only been running four days. Only 2 official class days, but we got another bundle of tips, tricks and tutorials to keep us going this weekend. One of them was for a rather cute christmas banner type thing, but once I saw the flag images, I just had to do this:

(let me tell you, I'm so envious of Kirsty's colour sense. It's awesome. Just look at those colour combos!)

It's the flags all printed out together, resized to fit an A6 card and frosted stickles traced over the lettering. I really like it. I also did a large square one here:

but I don't like it as much. Might sneak the sewing machine out at some stage and stitch a grid inbetween all of the tiles. Any other ideas gratefully received!

Lists and links ahoy!

2009-11-05T10:26:00.004Z

I made this ^ :)

Lists. Now I love lists (see Hallowe'en post for a good example). In fact, I'm often heard saying that it's one of my favourite ways to procrastinate. So, I thought that I'd give you all a glimpse into my surfing world, my other favourite way to procrastinate, blogs that I look at regularly. So here are 5 that are nearly always updated every other day. Perfect when you're feeling less than inspired.

It's A Creative World is a blog contributed to by a number of very talented people. At least one of the team blogs each day, and I still haven't made my way through all the wonderful stuff I want to make just from ideas from this site. Plus, my gingerbread recipe is featured on it today, so I figured I'd return the favour :)

Banana Frog makes gorgeous acrylic stamps, but their design team have some amazing ideas that could easily be done with existing stamp stash.

Tollipop is a blog written by a very creative lady who illustrates her own delightful tales. She has a very dry sense of humour, which I most definitely get.

Craftastrophe is possibly the scariest collection of crafts ever. They trawl the web looking for those handmade objects which only a mother could love, if you know what I mean. It's always good to see others' crafting disasters; makes me feel a whole lot better about mine :)

And finally, It's all fiddle fart is a blog I found quite recently. The lady who blogs here posts regularly with pictures of her creations, mostly cards at the moment, though she does have an eye for bargains that can be gussied up to look pretty darn tooting. There're so many ideas here, you're bound to find something to inspire you!

There are many more blogs that I find inspirational, some are in the linky bit to the right, others perhaps I'll talk about another day.

(Two posts in three days! Now I'm sure a regular reader of mine might take the mick a little for that, but I'm pretty pleased with that count. It is theoretically day 4 of the "Blogging for scrapbookers" class, but I'm just going to work through the prompts as and when I feel like it, what with the dissertation blah blah blah :) )

Blogging for Scrapbookers day one

2009-11-03T09:30:00.004Z

(I'm afraid that's about as imaginative with the title as I can get today! The Blog class officially started yesterday, but I'm fairly sure there's no-one watching to make sure I post each day)

If you're here through the links from that class, hello! Come in, sit down, have a cup of tea and a chunk of gingerbread (see recipe on the previous post). It's nice to see some new faces, hopefully I'll see you at your place too!

(If you're not here from that class, and you're interested in the sound of Blogging for Scrapbookers, then click on the square graphic to the right to be taken to Shimelle's website.)

So, my aim for today is just to make a resolution, a promise to myself that I will try to post more regularly on the blog, perhaps with a view to separating my blogs like my friend Trees (she has one crafty blog, and one blog for less crafty but no less interesting musings which is updated more regularly). Now I like that idea, and it sort of appeals to me because I do like this blog, but on the other hand I feel like if I waffle on too much about non-creative stuff then I'll bore you all rigid. And I'm taking this class because I want to record more of the daily stuff that goes on, not just that special picture every few months.

Resolution duly made. Watch this space!

You are invited...

2009-10-31T07:53:00.026Z

to join the party! It's not my party, but I am a guest and I'm allowed to bring friends. So, pop along to see Kirsty Neale and Julie Kirk's double-blogged Hallowe'en inspiration party. They asked me to join in and make a little something Hallowe'eny, so I have.

I think I've realised that I get a little carried away when people challenge me to do things. Last time was here, when Shimelle Laine challenged me to make things with her printables during her weekend party. That was 4 things. Now, I've calmed down a little today; there are still 4 things, but I've only made 3 out of paper and digital. The first was the invite that you see at the top of the post. Dead simple, with a couple of digital scrapbooking kits from the Shabby Shoppe - I used "Boo" and "Bountiful", though mostly Boo for that project.

Then I made this:

A little close-up of that tag:

This repurposed Prima flower tin was covered in printed out digi-designed paper, using the Bountiful kit. I then printed out the phrase, the digi-rub-on bird and the lettering on card, cut them out and stuck them together. Add a touch of ribbon and ta-da! Possibly the prettiest thing I've ever made, apart from my darling daughter ;)

Now I can't promise you actual party cake, but I am going to give you a rather lovely recipe for sticky gingerbread, and for those of you who may be dairy-free, you can make this one, just use the veg/sunflower oil option :)

Sticky Gingerbread

Makes 1 x 25cm/10in square "loaf"

275 g (10oz) plain flour
5ml (1tsp) ground cinnamon
5ml (1tsp) ground ginger
5ml (1tsp) bicarbonate of soda
100g (4oz) butter or margarine or sunflower oil
175g (6oz) golden syrup
175g (6oz) black treacle
100g (4oz) brown sugar
2 large eggs, beaten
150ml (1/4pt) hot water

Sieve together the flour, cinnamon and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl.
Melt the butter/margarine/oil gently with the syrup, treacle and sugar and pour into the dry ingredients (the heat helps to combine all the sticky stuff properly).
Add the eggs and water and mix well (the mixture will be very runny, but I promise you it does work).
Pour into a greased and lined 10 inch square cake tin, or 2 large loaf tins, then bake in a preheated oven at 180°C/350°F/gas mark 4 for 40-45 minute until well risen and springy to the touch. Test with a skewer to see if middle is cooked.

(adapted from the classic 1000 cake and bake recipes, Wendy Hobson)

I'm afraid I didn't have time to bake one to show you (plus there's only me to eat it, although it freezes VERY well), so you'll just have to imagine a chunk of sticky, moist cake delicatey placed on a pretty plate alongside a steaming hot cup of tea, coffee, or whatever you fancy!

Now for the last one. It's a layout that I've decided will join this one to become part of an album on "5 things". The first layout was published in Scrapbook Inspirations earlier this year, and I really enjoyed messing about with the photo. My new layout came from this photo taken on my web cam:

(a pretty scary photo in itself I think you'll agree!). Then by resizing, fiddling around with the brightness and contrast and then applying a cut-out filter effect, I ended up with this, on an 8" x 8" document:

Woah, look at those pink eyes. Can I hear you say "conjunctivitis"? :)

Now, I am currently working on the title and journalling on this, and later this morning I hope to photograph and upload a picture of the finished article, but I really wanted to make sure that this blog post was ready to go for when it all kicks off. So, pop back later and find out exactly what this layout is all about...

ETA: Done, done and done. Here you go:

I used "Thriller" font, the bargain pound alpha stamps from studio g, some my little shoebox alpha stickers, and my trusty bare chipboard American Crafts Thickers. The thickers got covered thickly in copper acrylic paint; I then sprinkled a bit of dark blue embossing powder on them and gave them a good blast with a heat gun (until it all went a bit bubbly). Great fun.
I'm very pleased with the finished article, and am now racking my brains for other "5 things" to do. Any ideas gratefully received!

Thanks for looking, and if you haven't come from Kirsty or Julie's blogs, go look at their individual and their joint copy and paste challenge blog as well. Maybe see you in the kitchen :)
ETA Apparently if you sign up for their 12 days class this weekend, you get a bonus set of printables... look here for details. I love freebies!

OK, so I lied...

2009-10-23T23:54:00.009+01:00

...I may be fitting in a little crafting, but not so much of the blogging.

Crafting for November starts here for me. It's a 12 day crafting explosion, with gorgeous crafty ladies Kirsty Neale and Julie Kirk. I quote "With twelve full projects, plus a whole bunch of bonus ideas, downloads and tutorials, it’s designed to help you make the most of your creative supplies in the run up to Christmas. What's even better is that we’ve designed each of the main projects, and many of the additional ones, to be adaptable, which means that, instead of turning into giant crafty pumpkins the minute Boxing Day arrives, they’re just as relevant at other times of year. "

I've been lurking on the Copy and Paste blog for a few months now, dabbling my toes in their challenges,but mainly just being gobsmacked at their creativity. BUT, now they're sharing it with me. Well, not just me, other people too. I just had to go along for the ride. The idea is that they are providing 12 projects for 12 days for a handmade Christmas, using (hopefully) things that you have around your house for minimal outlay, which in this climate is purdy darn tooting, if you ask me (but then, any old excuse will do for me to have a Christmassy play with card, glue and glittery stuff, really). It all looks wonderful, and if you have a browse through their blogs, I'm fairly sure you'll agree.

So, maybe I might get round to posting a couple of pics, like the advent countdown calendar I've made out of BIG matcheboxes, or a recipe book out of an old filofax-type organiser, or some of the results of the new class. Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

In addition to this, I also signed up for this class, Blogging for Scrapbookers. But that was a given really, since there's only one class of Shimelle's that I haven't taken. It was inevitable I'd sign up for this one, as it was part of my plan to change the blog layout after new year. Perfect timing. So who knows what this class will prompt me to do, I'm sure I'll love it, Shimelle has a lovely way with words and will get me thinking I'm sure!

So, I feel my evenings are going to be fraught with tricky decision-making... craft, blog or dissertation. Which would you choose?

P.S. Amazing blog candy here - go see! A silhouette die-cutting machine. Love my cricut, but I think this looks even better.

A hiatus.

2009-09-28T22:07:00.005+01:00

Dear fellow bloggers, I write to you in a spare moment before I launch headlong into the final 11 weeks of my degree. I may well be panicking, but I assure you I'm hiding it well (the above photo isn't me going bonkers). I've therefore made the decision to suspend "normal" service until nearer Christmas, and am also considering redesigning the blog completely, now that I (sort of) know what I'm doing.

I'll be lurking on your pages, and soaking up the crafting inspiration for the time when my time is my own once again. Thanks for playing along with me the last seven months!

So, please remember me in the new year, and if you can spare a thought (and believe in that sort of thing) please send one my way for good luck :)

Sarah
x

And the winner is... (take two)

2009-09-15T18:28:00.001+01:00

So, back to the draw. Or re-draw as it is. I gave Lana another couple of days, but to no avail (apologies if you're reading this and cursing me, Lana!). My daughter charmingly chose the number of the winning post, and it was SarahLP Sarah sent me a RAK last year, and so I'm very glad to be able to return the favour!
So Sarah, please email me with your address at rattuspackus at hotmail dot com and I'll get your parcel off to you asap :)

In the interests of fairness...

2009-09-12T09:12:00.002+01:00

I'm giving "Lana" over the weekend to reply to me, then I'm going to have to redraw my prize from the last blog candy - it's been nearly two weeks and no news. So, if you know Lana, tell her to email me :)

See you Monday, have a good weekend!

And the winner is...

2009-08-30T22:37:00.001+01:00

"Anonymous said...: Hi Sarah,

All the best for your degree studies - it must be hard work! I've loved your recent LOs in SI magazine. Oh, and I'd love stash pretty please!

Lana; August 26, 2009 12:24 PM"

Thanks so much Lana, please send me your name and address to rattuspackus at hotmail dot com, if you know what I mean!

And thanks to everyone else who joined in. I'm not far off my 100th post (well, another 25 or so anyway) so follow if you don't already, and keep an eye out. And keep an eye out in the December issue of SI, I'll be in there too!

Giveaway update

2009-08-25T20:06:00.003+01:00

Here's the picture of the stash for my giveaway post. Bundle includes the following: 3 sheets white cardstock; 6 double-sided patterned paper; 2 single-sided patterned paper; 1 embossed cardstock; 1 pack gel stickers; 1 pack cardstock alphabet stickers; 2 spools ribbon (probably 3 feet on each); one tree-shaped minibook.

If you fancy being in with a chance, go leave a message on the post reached by following this link here, remember to state "stash please" or "digi please", and keep your fingers crossed!

Now, about that giveaway...

2009-08-21T21:17:00.004+01:00

I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get round to this post. I've been manically working for my degree, only 7 weeks to go of my placement, and then it's all mad mad mad 'til December 12th, when I'm supposed to hand in around 15000 words split between two highly intellectual pieces of work. And with a 2 year old daughter, that's pretty blooming difficult!

So I'm hoping you'll forgive me when I say I haven't had a chance to look through my stash for prizes. My blog, however, has had its 2000th visitor and then some. Therefore, this little giveaway is long overdue. If you'd like to be in with a chance of winning some Christmas-themed stash, then leave your comment below, also adding the phrase "stash please". To get an idea of the amount and variety of stuff you might get, look here and here, my previous stash prizes. I've been known to dabble in digiscrap and hybrid too, so if you'd prefer to win a $10 voucher for either the Shabby Shoppe or Two Peas, please leave a comment and say "digi please" at the end.

I will try to have a look through some time this next week, the comments will be open until 29th August 2009, at 12 midnight GMT.

And just to pretty up the post with a layout, here's one I made earlier (this year, that is!)

Another couple of pages and an imminent giveaway!

2009-08-08T21:31:00.003+01:00

Who would've believed it, but my little old blog is nearing its 2000th visitor. I'm so pleased that so many people have passed through that I feel the urge to host a little giveaway. Again. Soooo... watch this space, next weekend I shall do just that, giving me a few more days to cobble together something tasty to pass on.

Meanwhile, I have scraped another couple of hours together today, and have managed to finish another two pages for the Simple Pleasures album:

Not the best pics, they look all flat, and there's definitely a bit more dimension to them. I'll try to take some more photos tomorrow if I get a chance. I'm liking this simplistic approach at the moment, glue and run seems to be the order of the day.

Remember, watch this space for my giveaway next weekend, and in the meantime, tell me what else YOU do for fun (keep it clean ;) )

"Go To Press" has started!

2009-08-07T20:40:00.003+01:00

So now that I've recovered from the challenges that Shimelle sent last week, I've given a small parcel of time to my cover for the album for Go To Press (go here if you don't know what the heck I'm blathering about, and you want to know).

As per usual it took me a good while to decide what paper and layout to use, but once I'd chosen an embellishment or two, the whole thing came nicely together!

I'm quite pleased with it, and can only hope that the other pages come together as well. What do you find the hardest part of crafting? Do tell ;)

Blog challenge

2009-08-07T20:29:00.003+01:00

So, first thing's first, I've been challenged by Jo to do the following:

1 Open the 4th file where you store your photos

2 Pick out the 4th photo and publish it to your blog

3 Explain a bit about it

4 Pass this challenge to 4 other blogs

Now, luckily, it's a good photo, and even more fortunate is that it's not of me!

It's of my darling daughter, a.k.a. Tink, when she was 9 months old. She's still got the same grin, though now with teeth, and also with more hair! Gotta love her. No, I have to, it's down in writing ;)

I challenge Trees, Janice, Lisa and Debs to do the same.

A secret mission from the no-stress scrapper

2009-08-01T22:26:00.003+01:00

So, there I was, browsing my email the other day when I got a request from Shimelle Laine. She was wanting to host an inspiration party on her blog this weekend, and was looking for some contributions. I was very honoured to be asked to contribute, and I was sent an assignment forthwith. Be warned if you've come here from Shimelle.com: my photos are in no way as arty and beautiful as all the other party-ers, though I am working on it :)

I tried printing out the cupcakes and one of the quotes on shrink plastic, but the only stuff I had was clear - the ink on the cupcakes was taking AGES to dry, and I'm really not that patient!

Shrinking them resulted in a bit of a messy mini-cupcake fob, which, though still useable (only just - see keyring) was not what I wanted. So I traced the original cupcake onto the plastic, dabbed white opaque StazOn over the back, and then coloured the front in with my alcohol markers.

These shrunk really nicely, so I threaded them onto a ball-chain and used this to hold my second project together. This project (a minibook) involved lots of copies of a journaling tag printed out onto cream card: I then cut then out and punched a hole in the top left corner. Easy peasy. I'm going to pick out a selection of my favourite indulgent recipes, and write them in the minibook, probably with a photo on the left-hand page.

The cover of the minibook has a cut-out chocolate cupcake stuck on it and a shrink-plastic "indulge" title, also found on the printables sheet.

So, onto the card. Cupcakes, and lots of them, deserve to be presented nicely, and so I cut a cake stand out of some white card, keeping it simple, drew a brown rim on the plates, chose some co-ordinating paper, glued it all down, added the "indulge" title and voila! One tasty-looking card.

Then finally to the easiest project of the lot. This photo:

I enlarged the printables file (opened in Adobe Photoshop Elements, not in Adobe Acrobat), and copied the cupcake quote that I wanted. This was then placed on a new layer of the photo, printed out to A4 and framed. Job's a good 'un!

It's been so useful to have this challenge, it's given me loads of ideas for future projects, but alas, there was only so much time to spend crafting this week. Mind you, I think that 4 projects in about 6 hours is pretty good. So, cruise on by Shimelle's blog this weekend, take a look at all the other blogs that she's linking to. Who knows what you might find? And if you can't make that, maybe I'll see you in the classroom for Go To Press!

Are you joining us?

2009-07-30T20:18:00.000+01:00

I feel oh so privileged to have been asked to contribute to Shimelle's inspiration party this weekend, as part of the pre-class fun. She's asked many, many talented scrappers and crafters to join the fun, and now we'd like you to join us too, for a weekend of "challenges with a chance to win a prize, free downloads for both digital and paper scrapbookers, new projects, tutorials, bargains and some surprises along the way." Read all about it HERE!

New class ahoy!

2009-07-24T23:25:00.000+01:00

My favourite time of year - a new online class at Shimelle.com! Shimelle's classes are always highly enjoyable, and this one looks like no exception. It's all about taking the stress out of scrapbooking, and this definitely rings true for me. Go take a look at her blog, if you haven't been there already (though I'm guessing most of my readers probably know me from that site anyway, so I'm preaching to the converted as it were!).

Still, worth a pop, and at about £15 (depending on exchange rate) well worth it in comparison to some of the more expensive classes around at the mo. Maybe see you in there?

And this one....

2009-07-22T21:37:00.000+01:00

...was on page 70 of this month's Scrapbook Inspirations, in the Readers' Gallery section. This is my second layout that's been published in that section (I think!). The other was this:

which was in the June issue. Two very different styles, I'm sure you'll agree! I don't think I've settled on a style as yet, I am still definitely in the experimental stage. How about you? Do you have a style that you seem to scrapbook in? Do tell ;)

I'm famous(ish)!!

2009-07-20T22:47:00.000+01:00

Go see - My layout featured on the Scrapbook Inspirations blog here. I recently completed their Ready Steady Scrap challenge, and they've featured my layout on their blog. How chuffed am I?
Really quite :)

I guess since they've published it on the web, I'm ok to publish it here. The bit I particularly liked making for this layout? It's a toss-up between the hand-cut picket fence and the owl peeking out of the layered hole in the tree! No journaling as such, but I think the title says it all.

Challenges galore!

2009-07-15T21:34:00.000+01:00

Under extreme duress from Janice, I am posting again this month! Personally I think that she is desperate for me to reach my 100th blog post, so that I'll have another giveaway.

Anyhoo. Back to the challenges. Shimelle has just posted a photography challenge involving water on her blog here. I had a go, and pulled a rather fetching little snippet (snappet?) out of the vaults. So, strictly speaking, it's an old photo, but it fulfills the brief quite nicely I feel. I pumped up the contrast to really highlight the flowing white water.

Not only that, but Julie Kirk and Kirsty Neale have set a delightful challenge on their joint blog Copy and Paste. It involves secrets. Now, I am AMAZING at keeping secrets. The feeling when you realise that someone trusts you enough to tell you what weighs heavy on their mind -my mind boggles with the honour. Consequently, I don't much like gossip, which is surely a good thing for a secret-keeper? Despite that, I'll happily share one in the name of creativity.

Font by me, photo mask by Rhonna Farrer.

It's probably a very common feeling for many women, we probably don't give ourselves enough credit for the things we do in our home life and work life. I desperately tried to think of a lovely juicy giggly secret to share with you all, and perhaps this one will open the floodgates to a whole host of them. Watch this space!

So go on, tell me a secret. I promise I won't tell a soul. x

Blog candy link

2009-07-07T08:18:00.000+01:00

Blog candy! Not mine for a change. Go here for a chance to win the above goodies!

Look what I found on my macro setting!

2009-07-04T21:46:00.000+01:00

That title isn't strictly true. I'd found them before I got the camera out, but it gave me a chance to play around with the macro setting, which I have only just discovered after owning the camera for well over a year. Manual? Me? Pah. I laugh in the face of such sensibilities.
Though perhaps I should read it, 'cause I'm fairly sure I managed accidentally to get a picture with actual BOKEH on it:

and if I'd realised that was possible with my cheapish digicamera, I might have planned the snap better. Still, I'll include a prettier one of the DD, just in the vain hope of prompting some "aw, she's cute after all" type comments.

SO back to the caterpillars. They're apparently Gooseberry Sawfly, and I seem to remember it happening last year, with me just thinking it was slugs/snails. It also explains why I've had no fruit this year - apparently it knackers my chances of getting fruit next year. There were loads of the little blighters, and if I'd have realised what they were, I'd have squished them, instead of putting them gently in the grass a long way off, thinking "Ah, don't kill the potential butterflies". At least now I know what to look for, so roll on 2011, I might actually get some gooseberries.

How long since?

2009-06-28T14:05:00.000+01:00

Blimey. I think this is the longest gap between posts in my blog's short history! Suffice to say, I've been busy doing worky-type stuff with the people at my placement (see last post), gardening, woodwork and general vocational fun. Current project involves helping the trainees all make a personalised clock out of wood and printed images. All good!

So, in my little craft world, I've been watching Shimelle's Month of Colour which is rapidly nearing its end. The challenges have come thick and fast, and I've been biding my time and thinking which ones to attempt, mainly because I have very little spare time at the moment. I had a go at Kirsty Neale's guest spot challenge last night, after being inspired by her pants (that is not as dodgy as it sounds, I promise. Check out her guest post here, and you'll see some fabulous customised vest/pyjama pants sets). So here is my card, inspired by the fab colour/graphic combo on one of her creations.

I'm definitely not a pink/green girl, but I think this looks pretty funky. I reckon I'm also going to have to get myself a few square envelopes, as this may well be my choice of shape for cards in future.

Another little project I've been working on is these little menu magnets for my fridge. Every week, I make a list of what food to cook, in order to reduce waste and to keep me sane! It usually ends up on a tatty bit of paper stuck to the fridge, and then in the bin at the end of the week.

I thought I could make a set of reuseable labels, and got these natty little magnets to hold them. I had some resin vegetables that I'd been saving for a recipe book project, but I thought they'd look good on this instead. The lettering is some plain American Crafts Thickers in chipboard, and I haven't yet decided whether to paint them. I might just matt varnish them instead... whaddya reckon?

(For those that are in the know, I'm now aware that canneloni actually two 'l's. And I'm still trying to get another two magnets for Fri and Sat - wish me luck, as I bought them over a year ago)

Lastly, my blog-buddy Trees has reached the grand total of 100 posts on her creative blog, and is giving away a generous bundle of gorgeous goodies. She's firmly convinced that only 3 people read her blog, and it's most definitely a shame if this is the case. Feel free to cruise by her blog here and leave your mark. Though if anyone else except me wins, I shall hunt them down and nick the bundle off them ;)

Everyone can write a little

2009-05-25T19:15:00.000+01:00

Yes that's right! Cathy Zielske's new class on Big Picture Scrapbooking involves micro-journaling a la Twitter or Facebook updates. And it rocks! It's one of the most satisfying albums I've made, because it's quick, personal and could be endlessly repeated or reinvented. It's a little more expensive than other classes I've taken, so I waited right up until the last minute to join. I've enjoyed it all thus far - Cathy has a very good sense of humour and this has definitely added more value and interest to the class!

I made the album from scratch, as I didn't have the funds for a gorgeous American Crafts 6x6 Ring binder. I aimed to make something a bit like a Bind-it-all Cover it, since I wanted the same effect as the ring binders. And even though I say so myself, I think I did a pretty good job! I've been saving this Tinkering Ink paper for so long, the most expensive paper I have in my stash, and it suits the purpose perfectly.

The inside covers and the paper for the title page are also from the same pad. It's got some cracking contrasts in it! I love the rich chocolate in combination with the reds and blues.

It's such a simple concept but so effective (well, it is Cathy Zielske after all, the Queen of Simple Scrapbooking!)

There are many more posts just ready to be dropped into the template, but it's just a case of finding the appropriate photos to go with them. It has the potential to build up quickly, and I like that sort of thing.

What's your current project, and do you twitter? My username is SBLove_crafts, if you're on there, drop by and let me know!
s

Ooh my very first crop!

2009-05-12T14:19:00.000+01:00

Well folks, I had a thoroughly good time last night - me and my friend Paula had our very first crop! I used to work with Paula back in the day, and lost touch when I moved jobs, but we reconnected last year after we'd both had children. Not only did we have this in common, but she also did scrapbooking - the joy of finding someone else who shared my love of paper and glue!

So, after a few months of just talking about it, we decided we'd get together and actually scrap side by side, a mini-crop all of our own. There are no crops that I know of in our area (Sheffield/Chesterfield), but if anyone else knows different, please let us know.

We chose a layout designed by Natalia Harandon in a recent issue of Scrapbook Inspirations (page 40 issue 52 if you're interested) as our inspiration, and arranged a night away from the respective squealers.

After spotting this post about the men's testicular cancer charity Orchid on It's a Creative World, I thought I'd scrap my man. He's a great fan of dressing up, and delights in growing a beard for the purpose of shaving it into various shapes. I chose the best photos, converted them to black and white, and kept the main (tastiest) photo in colour.

Paula also scrapped fabulous photos of her eldest boy at 18 months old, already as tall as his dad's lawnmower - eek! I love the colours she's used - even though they're exactly the sort that I gave away in my last post!

We plan to have another in a few weeks, and will probably do a similar thing. What do you do when you go to a crop? Take your own individual project, or have a joint inspiration piece or topic? Do tell ;)

Get that citrus zing in your craftspace!

2009-05-09T20:53:00.000+01:00

Well, inspired by the clean-up giveaway at Shimelle's blog/Twitter, I've had a tidy up myself and have decided to be ruthless. Here I have, for free, two sets of stash each comprising of a 12x12 album, a pack of citrus HOTP 12x12 paper, half the pack of citrus flowers, half the pack of brads, and half the pack of citrus monograms. They're part of my prize for winning BOB2008, and I've been keeping them in the hope that I'd learn to love bright colours. I have come to accept that they're just not me! So, the first two UK people to comment below will get a little stash boost (has to be UK, cause they're so darned heavy, sorry).Whatcha waiting for? Go comment!

Title changed to stop spam.

2009-04-29T21:30:00.001+01:00

Well, after some rather fetching moments with my darling daughter, who strenuously fights any attempts to put any pretty stuff in her hair, I'm looking for a couple or three readers who have a small child who'd love to try some of my new felt flower hair clips or bobbles FREE OF CHARGE!! Yes, that's right, FREE! I think they're delightful, and if I had any hair, I'd wear them myself, which of course you may want to do. Whatever you wish to do with them is fine, provided you don't sell them! Because that's what I'm planning to do.

The only thing I'd ask for in return is your opinion on a couple of things - the design and the price! So, if you fancy a little pretty in your post this weekend, drop me a line at rattuspackus@hotmail.com - the first 3 people to mail with a choice of type (either bobble/clip) and colour (purple/orange/blue/bright pink/dusky pink) will get the chance to help me out :)

If that sort of giveaway isn't your thing, try this blog from Charmed Stamps - they're a stamp company and they have such a lovely bundle of free stash to celebrate their new stamp range...

Update - still two samples up for grabs... email me :)

Prepare yourselves...

2009-04-28T22:05:00.000+01:00

I've actually gone and scrapped a photo of me, when I had long hair. It's really quite sad, how much I miss my hair. It's short now, for the main reason that at the moment, there's quite often bald patches due to stress. That and the fact that with a toddler it's quite difficult to spend time scrunching and combing. I don't think I could bear to go through the in-between stage - with curly hair it can be a nightmare!

Anyway, enough of my whingey reminiscence. Are you ready?

I've been trying to be a bit more simplistic with my layouts, otherwise I spend far too much time thinking about what to do. This one still took me three hours from start to finish though. I think most of the time I spend thinking about which papers and cardstock to use. I then hunt through the rest of my stash, and pick out stuff that coordinates with the colours I've chosen, sling it in the pile, and then discard it bit by bit until I get what I want. I think it looks ok, but I'll probably go back at some point to tart it up a bit.

What takes you the most time? Do tell ;)

Pay It forward Layout - it had to happen!

2009-04-22T21:47:00.000+01:00

Now my work is done with the pay it forward goodies, I can post this layout here. I really had fun with this one, but made an error which I have duly noted for future reference. That is - "title lettering should be the same type for each separate word."

I've posted the before and after, and I hope you'll agree, it was an improvement, though I have to do something to disguise the marker pen and the glue from the previous placement underneath. I might just take all the letters off an put a strip of card underneath - though any other ideas gratefully received.

I think I have a problem with Thickers. They are pricey, and sometimes I just can't bear to use too many. What's your favourite item that you can never bear to use? A piece of patterned paper? Or a strip of glorious ribbon - do tell ;)

The goodies

2009-04-21T16:14:00.000+01:00

So, as promised, here are a couple of shots of the stash that will be making its way to Floppy. It's going to feel a bit like Jim Bowen on Bullseye for the rest of you - have a look at what you could have won...

And what's in the box, I hear you say... well, I wanted to keep a few small bits and bobs a surprise - that way, Floppy gets the best of both worlds!

Thanks to all who participated. No doubt I'll have another draw soon for something or other, so keep popping back and browsing!

Hoorah!

2009-04-20T19:17:00.000+01:00

And we have a winner! It is: Floppy, who said...: Congratulations on your 50th post and 1000th visitor!! Well done :) I really should get my finger out and start my own blog...I did sign up for one months ago but haven't done anything to it!
Edited: Floppy has been in touch! And very delighted she was too. Let's see if she still feels the same when she's got the stash! I'll also make sure she get a couple of my lovely handstitched felt flowers in a co-ordinating shade. Have a looksee here at my pal Trees's blog for a pic of said flowers - I have mislaid my pics, and wanted to blog the winner asap... I'll be posting photos of stash tonight, just so you know I wasn't teasing!

Enjoy the sunshine...

50th post!

2009-04-13T08:47:00.000+01:00

It's been a while since my last post, I promise I've only been thinking of lots of lovely stuff to give away in celebration of my 1000th(!!) visitor (and coincidentally, my 50th post). So, photo to come, but suffice to say that anyone who comments on this post will be entered into a draw for a little bundle of crafty/scrapbooking goodies of various types - in shades of purple, green and pink. Lovely!

International commenters are welcome, but I reserve the right to substitute the bulky stash for something more amenable to overseas postage - say an Amazon/Ebay/digiscrap voucher or something ;) I'll close the draw on 12.00 midnight GMT Sunday 19th April and post the winner on Monday some time

Also, if you're up for even more free stuff, take a look at the gorgeous Tollipop blog. It's always choc-full of delightful pictures, photos and the most absorbing tales to accompany both. It's also her one year blog-anniversary, and so she's having a giveaway for the gorgeous framed original artworks below, plus other goodies. I have no idea why I'm telling you all about this... I want them all for myself. Mwa ha ha haaaa.

Stitch and Craft Show 2009

2009-03-23T19:09:00.000Z

So, this last weekend was my big moment, my chance to see my name in lights... well, on laminated card anyway. It was the Stitch and Craft Show 2009 at Olympia 2 in London, and the Best of British Scrapbooking 2008 winning layouts were to be exhibited. That'll be mine then! Well, along with five other far more fabulously talented people, Michelle Jackson-Mogford, Julie Kirk, Jo-Anne Cavanagh, Jane Knight and the overall winner, Kim Tomlinson.

Needless to say, I was very excited! I managed to arrange to meet up with a couple of the other winners who were also going, and we got together for a photo or two. I also got to meet the very lovely (and dinky) Rosie Waddicor, the editor of Scrapbook Inspirations - the magazine that ran the competition.

I went with all intentions of splurging on loads of stash, but managed to only buy knitting-related products. Not quite sure how that happened, but hey ho. All is good!

Right now though, I'm really wanting this wallpaper - it's fabulously decadent!

I also got to meet up with one of my "Pay It Forward" giftees, Tinkersdamn, and handed her a little cute something that I hope will be useful. The 6 spots are now filled, though I will be having a 1000 (!!!) visitor giveaway at some point very soon, so keep your eyes peeled. Suffice to say, I've had lots of fun fiddling with felt, and think I might have to make all sorts with the stuff.

So, tell me, is scrapbooking your only craft, or like me do you have crafty fingers in too many pies?

Q52 update - it's been a loooong while!

2009-03-18T20:11:00.000Z

Ok so I admit. My plan to do one a week of these somewhat fell by the wayside around my last assignment deadline, and I got a little behind. 6 weeks behind.

But I'm all caught up, so here they are:

Q6 - If I could do it all again, would I change anything?

Q7 - What would I do if I knew I could not fail?

Q8 - What was the last thing that made you laugh out loud?

Q9 - What was the last brave thing I did?

Q11 - What keeps you awake at night?

Those eagle-eyed people may well spot that Q10 is missing. It was "name 5 movies that inspire you creatively." I am hard-pushed to name even one movie, so I may just do 5 things (people, music, objects, situations) that inspire me creatively instead. THAT list is endless...

My answer to Q7 may seem mercenary, but I'm already doing everything else I've ever dreamed of, and if I fail, then hey - it was meant to be. I'm one of those people who can ALWAYS find a silver lining. And I figure, if I win the lottery, then I have a list of lovely things I could do for other people with the money :)

Pay It forward Update

2009-03-10T13:46:00.000Z

It's not been that long since I posted this, but already I have received my gorgeous gift from Sophie. A beautiful card wallet, complete with four cards and envelopes! The fabric is just wonderful, and I want more :) Thank you very much Sophie!

And so, this has spurred me on to get a move on with my PIF items. So far, I am sending Steph, Lisa, Eleanor, Sarah and Sophie a little something. All I can tell you is that it involves some of this:

from here - http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Pixie-Rose-Crafts - any more than that would give the game away. It's a new craft for me, so the results could be VERY interesting. So, watch this space, or your letterbox if you're one of the commenters (oh, and I've still got one left, so feel free to read and comment on the original "Pay It Forward" post here if you want to join in the fun!)

Scrap your Day February 2009

2009-03-03T12:52:00.000Z

Well, it soon came round again. After last month's astounding start to this project (see this post if you're curious), I was hoping for a fairly low-key day on February 25. Thankfully, I got it. The replacement carpet for DD's bedroom did arrive, but other than that it was a fairly uneventful day. That is, unless you count the first appearance of tree pollen, which is never a good day in my sniffy, red-eyed book.

I'm really enjoying the way my pages (and cards) are evolving as I make them at the moment. I start with the bare essentials, and the ideas are just popping in to my head. It's this aspect of crafting that really cheers me up. Liking the end product helps, but it's the process that I find most therapeutic!

What's your favourite bit, why do you craft? Is it for the end product, or just the sheer joy of making something?

Yet more cards

2009-02-27T14:15:00.000Z

Just another two today - my card calendar is so busy this time of year. I think I'm going to have to make a stock of them in advance. Yeah, right. Who am I kidding? That would require forward planning. Pah.

Anyhow. I'm still using the same kit I won from SI/Creative Expressions, in fact, the same piece of paper. Who knew how many cards you could get from a 12x12 piece! I'd never used patterned paper on cards before I started scrapbooking, and it's really opened my eyes. There are only so many things you can do with blank cardstock!

The lettering is more done with the pound stamps. Also, rub-ons are now my "thing". They're great, and I want more. But then there's no surprise. Since I stopped buying paper, I've been accumulating more stash for embellishment. Now I really need that house extension for my craft room...

P.S. Still one more space left on my PIF post - take a look down the page :)

Buyer beware (or perhaps baker beware)

2009-02-15T18:20:00.000Z

Yesterday, I made my most favourite recipe of the moment - apple cinnamon rolls (there would be a better pic, but I only have one left). It's a recipe I received in my Abel and Cole veg box last year in times of plentiful apples (one of their staff, Rachel, made it) and I made it A LOT. I swear it's addictive. You have been warned...

Easy Apple Cinnamon Rolls

3 medium-sized apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1cm cubes
Juice from 1 small or ½ large lemon
50g unsalted butter, chilled butter, cut into cubes
Extra butter for greasing
Plus 3 tsp butter set aside for glossing the rolls
200g self-raising flour
¼ tsp salt
25g caster sugar
2 tbsp natural yogurt
100ml milk
3 tsp cinnamon mixed with 6 tbsp caster sugar

Place apples in a pan with 2 tablespoons of cold water and lemon juice. Cover and simmer over a medium heat for 5 minutes. Strain liquid off and leave cooked apples to cool completely.

Preheat the oven to 220C. Butter a 18-20cm loose-bottomed, round tin thoroughly. Line the base with baking parchment.

Sift the flour with the salt. Drop the butter cubes one by one in the flour, coating each with flour until all of the butter is in the bowl. Use your hands to gently rub the butter cubes into the flour until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Fold in the sugar.

Whisk yogurt with the milk. Gently incorporate into the flour. Mix until you have soft, slightly sticky dough. Turn dough onto a generously floured surface – if it’s is too wet to roll out, fold in a bit more flour. Pat into a 18 x 30cm rectangle.

Spoon the cooled apple mixture evenly over the dough. Sprinkle 2 tbsp cinnamon sugar over the apples. Roll the whole lot up tightly from the longer edge. Use a serrated knife and cut into 7 even slices. Position the rounds in the tin, cut side up, and with plenty of space between them.

Add a pinch of the reserved butter to the top of each roll. Sprinkle over the remaining cinnamon sugar, covering the tops of each round. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until golden. Remove and cover with a clean tea towel and leave to cool slightly before eating warm or cold.

That is the full recipe, but I don't put the extra butter on the top, nor do I use 6 tbsp sugar for the topping - I use 4 and adjust the cinnamon accordingly. They still taste fab, and I feel a little less guilty eating them. However, I feel this good behaviour is negated somewhat by the fact that I usually eat 4 out of the 7 rolls that it makes.

Enjoy :)

Card city!

2009-02-13T21:15:00.000Z

Well, four anyway. Which is more than I've made in quite a while.
Luckily I made them yesterday before my mojo once again left me. 2 birthday cards, 1 V day (of course!) and a very early Mothers' Day card. The more observational of you may notice that I have clearly succumbed to the call of the Cuttlebug. I relented and spent the last of my Christmas money on it. And I love it! Of course, I had to get a couple of Nestability scallop dies to go with, but all in all, I am very happy.

It's the first time I've made cards since redoing my appalling effort at Christmas cards. I'm not over the moon about all four, but they have their bits of appeal.
I do love the lettering stamps (in the "always") - they were part of my Best of British Scrapbooking prize from Creative Expressions, as were the stems, the patterned paper and the pink ribbon. I thought I'd actually better make something with the stuff, rather than storing it neatly away under the bed or on the shelves.

The photo is one I've been waiting to take for a while. We have a fab Royal Mail pillar box over the road, and I've been waiting to get some decent snow to take this shot. The postie didn't make the pick-up that day :)

Crafty "Pay it forward" - what an EXCELLENT idea! FREE STUFF

2009-02-06T10:44:00.000Z

I just visited my old pal Trees's blog, she's got a FAB post about Pay it forward. (I've also gone on to leave a PIF comment at an Aussie blog, so not sure about that one - postal charges etc) Just my sort of thing - I love giving presents, so... here goes.

If you are one of the first 6 people to comment on this post I shall send you something handmade by me which shall arrive at your abode in the next 12 months. If it doesn't you have written permission to publicly denounce me as a liar and a cheat :) Trees, you don't count, cause you need something to cheer you up, so I'm sending you something anyway!

My understanding of the 'rules' are that if you are one of the 'winners' you then have to set up your own Pay It Forward handmade giveaway to the first 3 that leave you a comment on your blog and I think you also have to use the PIF heart picture in your post.

HOWEVER, I'm with Trees and her friend Soph on this one, please leave a comment even if you don't blog and if you don't feel you could hand make a gift then maybe you could do someone a good turn or make a small donation to a charity. Whatever. Just leave your comment.

52Q - weeks 4 and 5

2009-02-03T19:52:00.000Z

Back to the weekly art journal challenge for me. I'd been mulling over week 4's question - What do you see when you look into your eyes?

I wanted to use a close-up of my eye, and decided to mess about with photoshop. I converted a picture to black and white, adjusted the contrast and brightness to end up with what you see to the left.

My trusty £1 letter stamps came in handy, I've been wanting some of the making memories mini alpha stickers that I see on a lot of layouts, but these do much the same.

The "Time" is a 7 gypsies rub-on, and the rest is handwritten. All in all, I'm happy with the result!

The next week, the question was "How do you feel today?". With all the snow, I was out early this morning with my camera, snapping some fantastic scenery in glorius conditions. The front of the ATC is a photo of a snow-covered roof near me, complete with weather vane. It just looked to perfect, all clean, and against a beautiful blue sky. It summed up for me why I LOVE weather like this. Clean, peaceful and beautiful.

Simple crafting today, another couple of rub-ons and just a metal photo corner to finish off the journaling. I am thoroughly enjoying this project, but have a couple of layouts up my sleeve for this week. Watch this space ;)

What do you feel about weather like this? Do tell!

Forget Journal Your Christmas - Scrap your Day instead!

2009-01-27T16:28:00.000Z

Well, seeing as Christmas is well and truly over, I'm trying to stick to my resolution of crafting more regularly. I've had a lovely day making an album for Shimelle's free class "Scrap your day". I'm documenting the 25th of each month in photos and journaling. Her class actually started early last year, but I'm starting from the beginning. The compulsive in me won't let me start a 12-month project half-way through a year!
So here's the album I made last night (I'm definitely making use of my Bind-it-all).

The first day of the project was Sunday, and the pictures mostly show the disaster that was our kitchen. Apparently, a radiator had been leaking and soaked a wall in our kitchen. We discovered this happy event at 0:31, when the kitchen cupboards fell off the said wall, completely emptying their contents all over the kitchen!

The homesweethome title is said with tongue in cheek. The house we live in at the moment has provided us with many many horrors, due to the previous owner's pathetic attempts at home maintenance.

A happy time was had all that morning and afternoon, spent cleaning up the mess, and thanking our lucky stars that nobody had been in the kitchen at the time, and that the cat had managed to get out of the catflap in time.

I'm still doing my 52Q (years 2009 and 2007), but that's tonight's project!

3Q of 52Q

2009-01-20T21:34:00.000Z

New week, new question - Do you believe in fairies?

I always used to write a letter to the tooth fairy, and to Father Christmas (I was a very polite child :) ). And the tooth fairy ALWAYS used to write back! Father Christmas did on occasion, and bizarrely they both had the same handwriting. Must have gone to the same school :) Anyhow, I am trying to use different techniques on at least every other card: first two weeks were mostly stamping, this week I used a rub-on and some rather funky felt ribbon from Queen & Co. I am really enjoying this challenge, and have had to start ones from 2007 just to stop me from blog-stalking each Sunday!

Have you got any challenges you're enjoying this year? Or, do you believe in Fairies?

Shimelle is the bee's knees!

2009-01-16T22:07:00.000Z

Now anyone who reads this blog knows how many times I've sung Shimelle's praises in the past, but know I'm giving you a head's up for a free online class she's running that starts RIGHT NOW! You can take it at your own pace, the downloads come in bits and bobs for the next week-and-a-bit, but the best thing is that she's also giving away actual physical stash :) Go check it out - you won't be sorry!

52Q - Q1 and Q2 - Who knew?

2009-01-14T22:15:00.000Z

Well, the new year brings in new projects, and this one has tickled my fancy. 52Q. A year-long art journal challenge, but just one entry per week. I like the look of a weekly craft challenge, and I'm keeping this one small but sweet. ATCs.

I like these since they're dinky, can easily be completed in an hour or so, and allows me to try out new techniques/ideas without using masses of stash. Not like I haven't got masses of stash to spare, but still. I also decided that ATCs would mean I could use up some of that stash that I've been hoarding for some unknown reason. I mean, we all do it (mostly), but why? Wouldn't it look better on a page or a bit of altered art?
I also like the fact that it's focused on me. My scrapbooking tends to be about everyone else so far, so this is for me.

So here goes.

Q1 - What do I wish for this year? Q2 - Am I scared of change?

The joy of Thickers

2009-01-08T14:00:00.000Z

Oh me oh my. They are delightful. And I've just spent a happy half hour browsing and purchasing at Make The Moment Last, which has a New Year Sale on at the mo. I've bought a few different sorts, some colours that I don't usually go for, just because they're cheaper than usual.
And I stuck to my resolution of "no patterned paper". Hoorah!

But now, I really want a Cuttlebug and some Nestabilities. Oh, and a desk to scrap at, and someone else to write my assignment so that I can start some of the projects that are circling my brain at the moment (I've just read the latest Scrapbook Inspirations, and have loads of ideas, but no time!).

I just keep telling myself that this time next year, I'll have lots of time to craft. How do you make time to craft? And where do you craft? Do tell!

I've got a memory like a string vest

2009-01-06T08:41:00.000Z

No, not dirty and full of Rab C. Nesbitt. Just a bit patchy.

I was kindly presented with this lovely Christmas Spirit award last year (ooh, that'll be all of two weeks ago then) by Trees. The idea was (oops sorry Trees) that you must be a true Christmas lover to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with Christmas. You must link back to the person who gave you the award. You must list 5 things that you love about Christmas. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space! Pass the award along to as many people as you like.That can be 1 or 45; it's up to you. But, you must pass it on to at least one person in order to keep the Christmas cheer going! Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving them a comment.

So my 5 things:

1 The feeling of general goodwill that I get throughout the whole of December.
2 That I get to SPEND MONEY on nice things for other people without getting told off.
3 I can sing carols as I walk round the supermarket and not be thought too strange, though this only applies if it's not too loudly, and only if carol music is playing at the same time.
4 The food. I need say nothing else.
5 The prettiness that is a well-decorated tree.

And I nominate Shimelle as a person who is filled to the brim with Christmas Spirit. She's made my Christmas more fun (which I didn't think was possible) by running her Journal your Christmas scrapbook class. And the extra special bit is I get to do it again next year for free! And the year after... ad infinitum.

So, thanks to Trees, thanks to Shimelle, and I'm now off to display my virtual award in my virtual display cabinet :)

2009 already?

2009-01-01T21:32:00.000Z

Blimey. We got back from Wales and relative-visiting yesterday to find little piles of cat-vomit (fur-balls), and a large pile of cat on our bed. In our haste to leave, we (I) had left the stair gate unlocked, and the kitchen door open, and the cat had made full use of the facilities. I am guessing that all the furballs are his, and that he has not had a party and invited his mates round for a booze-up. But then who really knows what they get up to whilst our backs are turned...

And then apparently it was New Years Eve last night! I was asleep on the sofa at eleven, from sheer exhaustion of packing, unpacking, setting up the travel cot, being sociable and smiley, packing, driving, unpacking, setting up the... etc etc. Not that we were planning to do much, what with a small child upstairs asleep, but more than a glass of wine would have been good!

So... Happy New Year! I wish you all the best for 2009, and I hope it is a happy, healthy and fun one for all of us :)

Merry Christmas, Season's Greetings, A Cool Yule...

2008-12-25T19:04:00.000Z

Whatsoever takes your fancy!
Either way, just wishing you lovely readers the best of the season
And thanks for reading xx

Tell me what you want, what you really, really want...

2008-12-22T22:43:00.000Z

What I really want for Christmas is this..... Sure Cuts A Lot. I have a Cricut (which I called my Cry Cut for soooo long), but the cartridges are so expensive and hold their value, so even on Ebay they're quite pricey. But, Sure Cuts A Lot (or SCAL to "those of us in the know") allows you to cut not any only any TrueType font or dingbat, but you can also do your own designs by using InkScape. I'm dying to have a go, it looks so cool, and would be like having 100s of cartridges for the price of one, but sadly the family budget will not stretch this month. Or next month if I'm being realistic.
But, counting my blessings, one of the nicest things that happened today is, the OH said (after tidying the bedroom!!), "I've given you another box for your stash under the bed." Not only that, but he'd put the stash in the box for me :) Well trained. Available for rent, £50 an hour :)
So what do you really really want this year? If the whole world was safe, well-fed and happy and you were allowed to be selfish, that is...

Surprise!

2008-12-21T09:43:00.000Z

Well, the 500th new visitor has breezed past my blog, and as promised, I have drawn a winner from all my comments received so far... it's Debs14. I'll contact you through your blog/JYC and we'll sort out that certificate! If you're not up for digiscrap, we'll sort out something more appropriate :)

Deviation from the norm

2008-12-19T22:41:00.000Z

Well, I'm all caught up with my JYC (though I haven't posted the last two pages here yet), so I thought I'd have a quick play with digi scrap. I've only really done one other layout all by myself as it were, the rest have been made with templates, so please forgive me if it's a little basic. As with all of my scrapping, I'm still playing :) This is a photo of my DD at her very first Christmas party. She stuffed this mince pie down her so fast, I barely had time to take the photo! She is looking a bit "pie-eyed" in it, if you know what I mean!

30 to go... blog candy time!

2008-12-17T22:08:00.000Z

By some amazing fluke of cyberspace, I am nearing my 500th unique visitor. I seem to remember promising to have a giveaway in celebration of this number. Therefore, this weekend I will choose a winner from all my comments, and the winner will recieve a $10 gift certificate for the Shabby Shoppe, my FAVE digital scrapbooking site. I've gone for this prize because of Christmas deliveries, and also, I can't bear to go through my stash and decide what I don't need! So, take a look, leave a comment and cross your fingers :)
P.S. Shabby princess has loads of freebie digi kits here so if you fancy trying it out, it's a good place to start.

Gratitude and jam

2008-12-17T20:22:00.000Z

I could get all preachy and say that there are many things we should be thankful for in this country in this day and age, but I won't. Oops. Seems I just have. However, I just wanted to make a nod to the things that I especially feel grateful for, in no particular order. For me, the words were more important than pretty paper (that's often the case), so no pretties here.
Sarah - the chipboard lettering on all my layouts is American Crafts Jewellery Box Thickers, I have a severe addiction to them. They're wonderful! All who have commented on my lovely papers - they are part of Shabby Princess's Christmas papers in their two FREE digital kits - here and here. I print them out as needed on presentation quality paper. I LOVE this site, the freebies are fab, and are pretty much all I use for my digital scrapping (I make calendars and albums for rellies...).
The LO for day 17 journals my love of handmade gifts. Yes I'm a cheapskate, but in actuality, most things I make aren't much cheaper than buying, though they're greatly appreciated. When I had the time, I used to make chutneys, jams, lemon curd, mince pies, all sorts (not licorice - I'm not that good, though I make excellent cinder toffee), and pile them in a hamper-type affair. I fully intend to start this up again in 2010... I'll have finished my degree by then and I'll have the time to spend!

"By the light of the silvery moon...

2008-12-15T21:18:00.000Z

... I sit and croon"... well, journal, cut, stick and photograph anyway ;)

Days 14 and 15, great fun! I spent most of last night cutting and wrapping teeny tiny parcels to go under my tree. Then realised that the card that I'd inked for the tree trunk wasn't particularly amenable to having a rub-on rubbed on. There's a misnomer...

Still, I persevered and I quite like the effect.

Day 15 was fairly straightforward by comparison, and I'm beginning to realise that I actually quite like not having pictures on each page. I wasn't sure how I'd cope with the whole concept of journaling when I started this class, but that's sort of why I did it - to get used to putting my thoughts down on paper! So it's doing the trick then, which is a relief.

Ooh my first "award"

2008-12-15T08:43:00.000Z

What a lovely way to start the day... Colleen has (virtually) handed me an award for my blog (I promise I didn't bribe her...). I'm very flattered to recieve it, and would like to thank a number of people who made this possible :) hehe.

This means that I get to pick my fave 7 blogs and pass it on to them. So here goes (in alphabetical order):

Alison, Anso, Casii, Natty, Smarty, Tinkersdamn, Trees,

I thank you :)

Falalalala la la la laaaaaaa

2008-12-14T22:17:00.000Z

Well, I'm definitely feeling more Christmassy, I've done pretty much all the food shopping apart from the perishables, my turkey is reserved and veg boxes due on the Sunday before. All bar one present bought and I'm up to date with my prompts! Woohoo!

(I don't mean to sound smug, so apologies if you've still got stacks to do... )

The LO on the left has a photo to go with it, but it's a really bad one of me at age 11, and is definitely not for public perusal (it's AWFUL), it'll be tucked behind the journaling on the red paper. The journaling is about that particular Christmas, the whole family stayed in a hotel in Torquay that was owned by JRR Tolkien's niece. Father Christmas visited (assisted by my uncle) and managed to climb up to the balcony!

The LO on the right details just how much I LOVE Christmas music. Carols, cheese, general good quality tunes, the lost. And my favourite? Take a look at the title, it might give you a little clue...

Trees and gifts galore

2008-12-12T22:17:00.001Z

Well I have a couple of pages to share - again fairly simplistic, but I like them for that. The first is about my tree last year. It's an artificial one, for eco/financial/practical reasons. I've had it for 7 years and it's still looking good! I take my time each year teasing out the "needles" to ensure it looks as real as possible, and then throw a mountain of tinsel, lights, bells, snowflakes and whatever else looks pretty at it. I would of course prefer a real one, but it's just not feasible.The second layout is about presents. Now, I LOVE giving presents. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't like getting them, but that's not the best thing about Christmas. I really enjoy choosing presents for people, and the best bit is watching their faces when they open them (I've never had a bad idea yet, so maybe that's why!). I'm especially looking forward to seeing my daughter's face this year - the first year she's been aware of what's going on! Now obviously, the wrapping paper that's on the mini-present isn't what I'm using, but I'm not good at using clashing paper in my layouts, so I've had to compromise and wrap it in some of the patterned paper I've been using in my journal. I've flipped the tag up so that you can see the journaling, but this is not a gift tag either. Hey, it's my journal and I'll cry if I want to ;)

Finally I'm up to date!

2008-12-09T22:21:00.000Z

It's been a tricky few days, I've had too much Uni stuff to be getting along with and I haven't had much time to myself. I've been keeping up with the journaling (more or less)and was determined to get some pages made. So I made one page last night, and three tonight! Got to be a personal record... though they are very simplistic out of necessity. I shall embellish further when I have more time!

Tatting, gingerbread and JYC

2008-12-06T21:20:00.000Z

Today was a lovely day, visiting a local museum for their Victorian Christmas fair. I saw some extremely talented ladies making lace (another future hobby I reckon), and managed to get a tatting demo from a lovely lady who has been tatting for 30 years. This in itself was a good reason to have gone. I also managed to pick up a rather lovely salt dough gingerbread man decoration for the tree, which I think I'll replicate next year (again, when I've got more time!).

All of this loveliness put me in the mood for reminiscing about previous Christmases. I thought of last year, the first year of Christmas with my new family. My daughter was only 4 months old, and still at that stage where she slept for an hour, was up for a couple, slept for a couple.... Al and I each had our own traditions from our respective families, but also wanted to make this OUR Christmas. We managed very well - I asked him what Christmas means to him (food, drink, music, films etc) and combined it with my expectations. We ended up having three types of stuffing (my mum's, his dad's and good old sage-and-onion), four side dishes, and a massive turkey crown, but we ate like royalty for a week on the leftovers! It helped that I love cooking, and that we have two freezers, but I shall be doing the same again this year (though without the sage-and-onion).

What I won't be doing this year is eating a cold Christmas dinner - in 2007, Iz woke up just as we were tucking in, and so I had to feed and amuse her whilst Al got to have tasty hot grub. This year, she will be tucking in at the same time as us!

The mojo is back!

2008-12-04T21:32:00.000Z

Two pages today! I sorted myself out and managed to produce a satisfactory page for the card debacle. And also managed to journal today for the perfect Christmas. I started thinking about all the things that make the perfect Christmas for me: the tree, carols, nice food, roaring fire, glass of baileys/red wine (separate, not together!), good food, my Mum's stuffing and giblet gravy... Pause for breath and further thought... Then I realised that once you take all the trappings and fripperies away, what is left is family, and that is what is essential for my Christmas to be perfect.

The photo is of my new family, obviously there is a whole lot more of my family, but I can only fit so much on a 6 x 12 page! DD was only 4 months old last year, and this year we are looking forward to seeing her enjoying all the celebrations.

I look forward to seeing everyone else's perfect Christmases...

Third-day slump

2008-12-03T21:02:00.000Z

Today I realised how much I really don't like the christmas cards that I made this year. I made them way back in September, as I knew I wasn't going to have much time these last few weeks. No pics, suffice to say they're dull. And in no way up to my usual standard.

But I don't have time to make a whole new set - and this realisation actually made me feel quite down. Which is ridiculous, I know, there's far worse things going on in the world and in normal, everyday lives but perhaps it's the lack of daylight, or too much college work, or not enough sleep or something.

So I have thought long and hard about this, and I have come to a compromise. I will make (re-make) no more than 5, and send these to my favourite people (my mum, my partner, my daughter, my M- and F-IL and my best buddy). The rest are good-enough. I just have to keep telling myself that. Just because they aren't what I thought, doesn't mean they're not ok. Just.

Ok, so to cheer myself up, I'm going to post a pic of my darling daughter at her first christmas party today. She was a little confused as to whether to sing "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" or "Y.M.C.A"...

She also met Father Christmas for the first time: and yes, she did cry!

It's beginning to look a lot like winter!

2008-12-02T20:49:00.001Z

Today it snowed! And then snowed some more. It all melted away by this afternoon though. Luckily I managed to get some photos taken, and one went on my JYC day 2.
Journaling says: Winter for me will always bring to mind snow, ice, clear blue skies and crisp mornings. Your breath fogging fingers freezing, toes numb, but then... Then you get inside and warm up, and that feeling of bliss is wonderful. Couple it with a log fire and a glass of Bailey's and I'm in absolute heaven!

And so it begins...

2008-12-01T20:45:00.000Z

It's a short post today, I'm a wee bit poorly and have expended all my energy doing the very first page for my Christmas Journal.

And here is my first JYC page - my dedication as it were. It's a small promise to myself that I will take 15 minutes MINIMUM per day to Journal my Christmas.

My manifesto reads - "I promise: every day from the first of December to the 6th of January, I will take 15 minutes to reflect and document my thoughts for the day. This Christmas, I will make something true to my heart, with my hands, my mind, my memories, my scissors, some pretty paper and lots of glue!"

We have a winner!

2008-12-01T19:27:00.001Z

Well, it's the first of December, it's fricken freezing, and we have a blog candy winner. She's been with me from the start, she was one of my first few visitors.... it's Trees! She's a very funny, talented lady, and I look forward to seeing what she does with her prize!

Want to bring back the Christmas you used to know?

2008-11-27T08:40:00.000Z

Remember that feeling of excitement that you used to get in the build-up to Christmas, when you were a kid? Well, this is what I'm doing for the whole of next month - bringing back that feeling. Journalling My Christmas. It's a scrapbook/art journal class over at Shimelle.com (my fave site), and I'm so excited. Come join me and people from all over the world, and start to enjoy Christmas again :) The bonus is, once you're signed up, you get to participate every year if you like, for no extra cost. What's not to like?

Start December with some free stash!

2008-11-24T16:07:00.000Z

It's been great fun the last week watching the number of visitors from around the world who have peeked at my little blog, I suspect mostly via Shimelle's JYC forum.

In honour of the fact that the 100th visitor will soon be landing, I've decided to go for it and send some blog candy to someone. So I'll draw a name randomly over the weekend from all you lovely commenteers.

Ok so here’s the low-down on the freebie stash... (comment anywhere on my blog to be in with a chance – all countries welcome, though if you’re outside the UK, then postal costs will mean that I’ll leave out the 12 x 12 cardstock/patterned papers – I’ll throw in some eyelets and brads instead)

2 sheets Bazzil basic forest green card, daisyd’s “Garden Green Gingham”, Sassafras Lass double sided “My dearest”, Scenic Route double sided “Grafton Laxton Ave”, Sassafras Lass 64 pc “my dearest” cardstock alphabet (‘c’ already used), Scenic Route Grafton Boy Cardstock stickers (1 used), 2 sheets S.E.I. Simply Savoury alphabets (some smaller font letters used, still plenty left!), Some October afternoon Rub-ons, 2 acrylic stamps from Papermania Secret Garden collection, 12” Queen & Co Felt Fusion green vine (self-adhesive), 6” Queen & Co Felt Fusion Pumpkins (self-adhesive), A chipboard swirl, frame and flower from American Crafts Thickers Accents, and last but not least, 12” rust ricrac.

Phew. Now go leave a comment!

Experimentally speaking...

2008-11-22T22:12:00.000Z

I quite like my latest layout. Simple. Like me :)

Seriously though, this is only my 15th layout, so I'm still trying to get a grip on what makes a good page. No journaling on this one as yet. Haven't decided how to fit it in.

I have just made one change though - I swapped the tiny owl sitting on the 's' with the dot of the 'i'. Cute :)

I did make another layout the other day that I like more, but it's for a page for Scrapbook Inspirations as part of my BoBS 2008 prize, so can't publish it here yet. Boo.

Deprived of stash.

2008-11-21T19:25:00.000Z

Well, Shimelle's kits for her Journal Your Christmas class have gone live, and they're GORGEOUS! I really fancied this one, but unfortunately my dishwasher has gone kaput. Will not fix with percussive maintenance, and my SO will be taking off the front panel within the hour, so we'll definitely need another one. Gutted.

The "love elsie" stuff in the kit is lovely. And I could always use it next year.

Oh, I could just put it on my CC. Shhh don't tell anyone :)

Sucker. I know I'm not the only one who gets sucked into these things.

Anyone want to buy a brand new Canon Selphy ES20 Photo Printer? Seriously.
Unused, still boxed, with 1 pack of 50 colour photo paper/ink thingies. RRP £150. £100 including postage, UK only :)

Roll on 1st December

2008-11-19T12:23:00.000Z

Now I've finally worked out how to add photos to my blog posts, I thought I'd add a few of my preparations for the Journal Your Christmas class that I'm taking (http://www.shimelle.com/).

Here's the cover - it's a 6 x 12 American Crafts album, and I love it!

Here is my numbering system - I've been doing about ten each night, as they're quite labour-intensive, but I am definitely happier with these than the others I tried! I can't wait for the class to get started and to see what others are doing.

I chose 6x12 as a happy compromise between size (and therefore amount of space to fill) and the amount of time I'm likely to have. What's your favourite scrapping size? Anyone tried 8.5 x 11? This seems to be fairly popular in the States...

Finally I can blow my own trumpet!

2008-11-14T13:40:00.000Z

For those of you who get Scrapbook Inspirations, have a look on page 21... I'm so proud :)

And the centrepiece is my favourite layout - the black and white layout called daisydaisy.

Free Christmas workshops at Badgirls

2008-11-13T22:18:00.000Z

Bad Girls are hosting 22 FREE classes from the 14th November right through to the 23rd November. Get yourself over there for some serious pre-yule scrapping :)

And so it goes...

2008-11-09T21:03:00.000Z

November already, and it's been almost a month since my last post. It's been pretty hectic the last few weeks - I'm in my last year of a degree, and with a 15-month-old daughter, it's been an interesting month. Juggling is not my best skill, but I think I'm going to have to get good at it quickly!

I've been cruising a few people's blogs, and loving what I've seen. The last week has also been my first week for visitors! Ones who have left their mark anyway :) It's nice to know that people have stopped by.

My all-consuming project at the moment is planning for the Journal Your Christmas class at my old fave Shimelle's site. It's been nice to plan it all - I have my bits and bobs in a basket, just waiting for the prompts to begin. I've never been one for journals, but Christmas journaling isn't going to be difficult, it being my favourite time of the year and all that!

Anyone else got scrapbook plans for Christmas?

Completing stuff is goood!

2008-10-11T13:58:00.000+01:00

Last night I finally finished the book for my online class "you think you know me". It's taken me so long to accept that the photo's that I have are good enough! I've posted the pics on Flickr and I'm trying to post them here with very little success but I thoroughly enjoyed it :)

I have about 5 other classes just sitting on my computer, but I can guarantee it'll be a long while before they get done. I also just signed up for a "Journal your Christmas" class over at Shimelle.com (can you guess I'm a Shimelle groupie?) and I'm really looking forward to this. I know it's only October, but I think I'm allowed to be excited about my first proper family Christmas with my little girl.

I'm off to do a bit of present planning :)

Temptation

2008-10-05T17:04:00.000+01:00

It is so hard to resist the crafting urge. I see all my lovely supplies and know I've got a couple of archived classes on my computer that I'm dying to get cracking on. Instead I have to make do with planning it all in my head when I get free moments.

I see pictures of people's craft rooms/spaces and really wish we lived in a bigger house. Our spare room is now my little daughter's bedroom (and I wouldn't change it for the world). All my stash is separated into boxes. One for paper, one for embellishments, one for tools, etc... I would love to have a dedicated workspace - I could get my sewing machine out and try the stitching that I keep seeing everywhere.

How do you cope with your lack of space? Hints and tips please :)