OK, so I lied...

...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.

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)

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...

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...

"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

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...

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!

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!

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

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.