Spring Cleaning!

I just felt like a spot of spring cleaning yesterday, so I decided to have a clear out in the craft room and rationalise my storage. There is nothing that makes me feel more satisfied than having a good clear out! It's therapeutic!

On left here is my desk that I pinched out of DS1's room when he went to Uni. It may well be going back to him when he comes home soon for the summer. I use this for my sewing machine.

Most of my craft things are stored on this bookcase here. I like to use old wooden wine crates for storage and wooden drawers from IKEA that I have covered.

I wanted to have an inspiration corner in my room as I have lots of items I have collected, so I used the top of this bookcase for a little display.

Finally there is my small bookshelf that was here from when this room used to be DS2's bedroom. Just enough space for my jars and tins and a few books.

All my papers are stored in Studio Calico crop bags, in this wooden box here, just under my desk.

At the other side under my desk, I have DS2's old TV unit with some 12 x12 RUB's on it and a handy little shelf for MIL's old typewriter that I am enjoying using for journaling at the moment.

Popup layout

I have always been intrigued by these when I see them around and after seeing Tracy's, 'pop up' project, during Rebekah's blog hop, I decided to have a go at a 3D layout myself using the mystery kit for the cybercrop. I picked the house, as I was trying to link with the theme of the "houses" in Monopoly. The principles of pop up cards are simple enough, you just need to do it on a larger scale for a layout version! I wanted it all to lie flat afterwards, even the 3D chimney, so it would go into a page protector in an album after having displayed it for a while, so I needed to take this into consideration when planning the design.

I made a dummy run using some scrap card, made some necessary adjustments and then moved on to my mystery kit papers - October afternoon, my favourites! Once the basic mechanics were worked out, it was a case of decorating it all with the supplies we were given. As you probably know already, I have a thing about dimension, so I was looking for ways to add texture. The ribbon suggested roof tiles and the red gems suggested apples, so I made my roof, using strips of ribbon and my 'Tiny Attacher' stapler and then hand drew a tree with "cloud" like branches, adding the yellow flowers for texture. The pinwheel paper suggested the pin wheel flowers to me, so I hand cut them and then unwound the paper clips we were given to create stems. It was voted winner in the cars category by fellow UK's members. Thanks.x

Tattered Florals die

This was one of my favourite classes from the cybercrop at the weekend, called Fleet Street by Karen. I slightly altered the sketch to use just one photo and seeing as I had taken delivery of my Tim Holtz tattered florals die that morning, I decided this was a great chance to use it.

The orange patterned paper, on the layout, is a Studio Calico paper and the central strip is an 7 Gypsies Avignon paper. To make the flowers using the die, first tear out some pages from an old dictionary and spray mount them onto a thin sheet of card (out of a shirt packet!!) then spray them with Glimmer Mist in 'Caramel Apple' and dry them. Place the sheet of cardboard backed book paper over the die and run through your die cutting machine to produce four gorgeous flowers!! Layer them up or use separately. Spray more pages without the cardboard backing, in Olive vine for the stem and Orange Maya mist for the other flower. The orange flower was made using a set of circle punches of various sizes.

 The two green flowers were made from a 3 inch circle punched and then cut in a spiral. Depending which way you coil the spiral, you get two different flowers! Coiling from the outside inwards gets you the tight bud flower, coiling from the centre outwards gets you a more open, flatter bloom. TFLx

'Week In The Life' album completed

Just completed this mini album and got up to date after the Cybercrop.  TFLx

Cybercrop is over :(

As the Monopoly Cybercrop, comes to an end,
We’ve met and we’ve chatted and all made a new friend,
We’ve completed our classes, we’ve ‘snapped’ and ‘uploaded!’
The printer’s in meltdown, computer’s exploded!!
Last night I didn’t get to bed ‘til three!!
Don’t anyone mention ‘wire work class’ to me!!!!!!!
My first ever class, had a technical hitch,
But some fabulous entries came after that glitch!!
We’ve distressed and we’ve painted and “gesso’d” it said,
I think that tonight I will fall into bed!
I’ve photographed layouts and challenge galore!
I’ve even got things I have glued to the floor!!!!
I ‘popped up’ my mystery kit, glimmer misted some plastic,
I have to admit, the results look fantastic!!!
I made a great canvas, for a shadow box frame!
(Even though my desk top will not be the same!!)
It’s over!!! My goodness!! Whatever next???
No wonder my family is looking perplexed!
I was ‘revved up’ and speeding through class after class!
Thanks to Scrapbunny, she’s a wonderful lass!!!
My team was the “cars” we have scrapped with great pace,
Here’s hoping we’ve done enough to win us the race!
It was all in good fun, in pursuit of our art!
I’m grateful I had the chance to take part!!!!

Thanks to all my team mates and everyone who tackled my first ever cybercrop class, I enjoyed it all. TFLx

Today is the day! Cybercrop day!

Here is one of the layouts I have been working on for the Monopoly cybercrop over on UKs. The challenge was called "Vine Street" and you had to produce a layout using a vine in some way. Well, I decided to make a vine! I stamped my leaves in distress ink "Bundled sage" then spritzed them with water and lay them across a pencil to dry to give them shape. Then I stamped a few on the background card stock. I used some of my left over rusty wire to make the tendrils of the vine! What could be more apt for a photo of the family on holiday in France a couple of years ago, standing together under a vine! One of my most favourite family photo's ever!! (Look how young DS2 was!)

I love these leaves!! I will definitely be using this technique again!

Talking of leftover rusty wire, that is what I used for my first ever cybercrop class! I mean, I was so excited to be asked to design one, I can't tell you how thrilled I am!! I am just a little nervous as to how my first online class is going to be received!! I had to choose a technique and the first few I was thinking of, had already been used by other class teachers, so I really had to think outside the box and came up with my class, inspired by an article on a wire-work artist, I read, whilst on holiday in France a while ago. I can't post a picture here just yet, but will pop back at 4pm and update with my finished result! If you want to join in, go here and join UKs then you can download the class for free! Lots of great classes going on there today! Mine is called Pentonville!! What else! Lol! TFLX

The class is now up! A bit late due to a slight technical hitch!!

The Big News!!! (In pictures!)

Last night we had......

and darling son two won.....

the award for "Inspiration and creativity" awarded to the Year 11 pupil who has most inspired others with his creativity and dance!!!

Proud mummy moment!! I just had to share!! From this....

to this...............

We have been down this road with him! We are so proud of his achievement! It is a performing arts college he attends and it could not have been better for him, not withstanding all the dance he does outside of school, all that he does at school is more contemporary so he has had the best of both worlds.

On another note..... I would just like to share this.....

view I took from my back door this morning! I am officially a surrogate granny!! TFLx

Week in the life day 1 and 2 scrapped!

So sorry I have been missing, but unfortunately I have been unwell! Not a great start to a week in my life project! Hubby decided to share his cold germs around and he is on antibiotics for a bad chest infection and I have no voice, so I am now on antibiotics too for my voice box! Great! Maybe I should photograph his and hers tablets! I forgot to photograph the doctors and the chemist today, but after the looks I got yesterday, covertly photographing the post office, I am sure people were thinking I was casing the joint for a ram-raid!! lol! They obviously have not heard of scrapping! I must admit I had to covertly photograph the bin men too today! Well its all about the everyday stuff this album so warts and all today! Anyway, back to the photographs! I did print off and scrap Monday on Monday night. I printed a few wallet sized prints and did some journaling. Today I printed off Tuesday's pictures, this time as a collage sheet for a change. I took them up to the craft room and added a few embellishments too and stamped my days of the week.

A few items in the envelope for Monday including menus and a receipt from the post office, Tuesday has more journaling tags about different events. I am just printing off the collages for today and find I took a lot more pictures today!

Love this photo on Tuesday of a nesting blackbird right outside my window! I was scared to peg the washing out today in case I frightened her!

I have the receipt for the chemist shop today to add! That will be interesting in years to come! Getting more into this project as we go on! Will be in the craft room scrapping today's pictures first thing in the morning. Photographs today included the bin men, the wheelie bin, washing machine and clothes on the line, dressing table, make up, wardrobe with doors open, craft room and tubs of pansies by the front door. Love today's picture of Barney too! TFLx

Week In The Life - Day 1

As I shared with you yesterday, I am starting the Ali Edwards "Week In The Life" project today. (See link in yesterday's post.) I am hoping, in the future, it will be interesting to look back on a typical week for me at this point in life. It may seem boring and insignificant now, but who knows, in the future it may make us look back and remember things we would have forgotten.
Monday for me is a "work at the PC day." Since I was off work with stress a few years ago, I have made all my school work condense into just one day. That way, I have the rest of my week to rest, relax and recover, it works for me and I am lucky I can do this as I am only part time. My 'everyday' things cropped up today, like my regular blogging and walking the dog. I had not bargained on having a cold today, so I have recorded the  new "First Defense" spray I am trying to ward it off! Other pictures are few, a trip to the post office and drop off DS2's dance bag, Barney's picture and that's about it for today!
I have printed off the photo's at wallet size and stuck them on the first envelope pages. I have journaled on a card in the first envelope pocket and included my receipt from the Post Office. A simple start but it's what I did today! Mostly, sitting right here!

Maybe this PC will look outdated in the future!! Notice my giant coffee mug to hand. TFLx

Ready for some more journaling??

I am starting Ali Edwards "Week In The Life" project next Monday (on a smaller scale), hoping to run it something like my 'December Daily.' I have started by making my album and have found the perfect papers to use in one of my SC kits (of course!) This paper even has the days of the week on it!
Another of my "Home Bargains" purchases, last week, was a packet of 50 manilla envelopes of different sizes for 99p! I have made this album using two sizes of envelopes, C6 and C5. If you open the flaps of the envelopes and turn one of them over, you can join them together by sliding one flap inside the other and sticking them down. I added extra double sided tape to the self seal strip to make sure they were secure.

From this photograph you can see the smaller envelope makes a pocket on the left hand side. Now you can fold the page you have made in two and then punch it with a Bind-it-all, (I made the pages asymetrical.) I made seven pages like this and bound them together using a large wire.

Now the fun part of decorating the pages with patterned paper. I like to leave a border of the Kraft paper showing so I cut three sizes of patterned paper, one piece in a small size for the front of the smaller envelope, one piece in the medium size for the back of the smaller envelope and two pieces in the larger size for the large envelope front and back. I inked the edges of them all using distress ink in Brushed Corduroy and a blending tool, then stuck them down with DST.

This means for each day of the week I have a medium front page for some journaling, a pocket for extra pictures on tags or maybe some ephemera and then two larger pages for a story about the day or anything incidental. If I need more space than this, I can slit the end of the larger envelope open and use it for storage or extra journaling cards and tags.

I cut some days of the week tabs from the left over patterned paper and stapled them to each page with my Tiny Attacher. I am all set to go!

My plan for the week is to have the album on my office desk and to add to it each day when I am blogging. I will hopefully be taking my smaller camera around with me and then I can add photo's of my daily routine to the pages. I will embellish it all, including the cover, at the end of the project. If you fancy playing along, then check Ali's blog out. I think this will be great to look back on in the future. TFLx

From this.... to this....

Remember this packet of paper lunch bags I bought for 89p at "Home Bargains" last week? Well, now six of them have been turned into a lovely paper bag album here.

I followed the pattern that Mary Anne used in her album here on You Tube, which was also featured in Scrapbook Inspirations, and then I covered them in K&Co Madeline papers.

The first set of interior pages are half folds that meet in the centre.

Three section page that opens on the left.

Three section page opening on the right.

The two centre pages have tags inside them for extra photo's or journaling. I just need to decide what I am going to use it for and then I can add embellishments afterwards. There is another lovely  mini album made with these papers here on You tube that inspired me to buy the paper pad and the chipboard butterflies.
My mystery kit arrived yesterday for the cybercrop, so I just need to decide what to make with it! I am going to make some kind of layout this year, but just not sure what! Last year I made a mini suitcase here housing some mini albums and a photo frame.
Yesterday, I took the plunge and ordered a Cuttlebug, as Tim Holtz dies are proving just too tempting with my birthday on the horizon! TFLx

I don't do cards.....

but here is another! Two in one week!I used some of my embossed flowers I won in the blog hop recently, courtesy of Laura who sells these in her Etsy shop. I like the idea of cards, but somehow, I just get stumped! It takes me ages to do them, even longer than a layout!! I must put more effort into cardmaking and maybe I would get quicker!! As you can see, Sue is going to be 40, so this is for her! The pipe cleaners were from Tesco, in their Easter section. I like the 6 x 6 format, but never have an envelope the right size!
So Spring is officially here, I just heard my first "cuckoo" this week. We have mown the lawns (well I say we, but I mean hubby!) three times already and the patio has been power washed and the garden furniture moved back into the main position from it's winter position, so that in itself should be a cue for more winter weather!! Lol!
Have finished school for the week so I need to get some light relief crafting done! Have a couple of ideas for mini albums to start and a paper bag album to complete, so better get cracking!
DS2 had his first GCSE today, his dance practical, so I have my fingers crossed for him that he has been able to do it how he wanted to, as he had a tight chest last night and a sore throat! He is aiming for an A* and nothing less will do for him! TFLx

The "scary" page

I decided, for some reason, to push the boundaries of my journaling experiment and complete a scraplift of a page from Scrap Book Magazine's Rachel Elliot, but with NO photograph! (Shock! Horror!) I have come a long way since I was frightened of journaling that's for sure! Well, what is a blog if it isn't writing about yourself? And I am not scared of that!! Lol!

So what do you think??? Scary enough for you?? Or have you already given it a go! Sometimes it is the story that is important. The pretty paper just makes it look nicer!

Short post tonight, tired out after my first proper day's teaching since my operation! I need a lie down! TFLx

Quick post - back to school

Today we were back to school for a training day. I stayed until lunchtime as I am only a part timer! Had time tonight to make this card and an identical 6x6 layout for a fat book page. I added the word 'aunty' to the card for a girl at work who has just become an aunty for the first time and was in fact her sister's birthing partner! Based it on a cover of a mini album I made before.
I have ordered my mystery kit for the cybercrop today, from 'The Craft Emporium' and a few October Afternoon papers fell in the box too! The next Studio Calico kit is based around them, so I figured a few extra would not harm!! Lol!! I have made most of a paper bag album with 6 lunchbags from "Home Bargains" not quite finished it yet as I keep breaking off to do other projects!! Need to have an early night tonight before school tomorrow and because my sister is back from France and has brought me a couple of Craft magazines to drool over! Can't wait!! Whoops! Look at the time!! Lol! TFLx

Big Star Wars Fan!

This may be the last layout I make for a few days as it is back to school tomorrow :(

Need to get my head around school planning today as I have, as usual, left it all until the last minute! Where does the time go??? Tomorrow is a training day and then back to it on Tuesday.

Anyway, this photo is a scanned and reduced image of a portrait DS1 had taken at MGM studios in Florida when we went in 2005. They transposed his head on to Anakin Skywalker's body and I just love it! I combined it with a 'Sci Fi' looking paper with binary numbers on it and some yellow accents that I picked out of the title. The Cosmo cricket "Game Over" card reminds me of the "Star Wars" game we used to play in the Students Union Bar when I was at college! Very old hat now, but great fun then! I added a star trinket pin to echo the theme too.

This was another experiment in journaling, to journal in the "white space" of a layout on the ledger paper. Stitching and the embossed clouds add texture and the single corner rounded, echoes the circular punch outs on the layout.

I have to admit to being a Big Star Wars fan too! The day we had this taken, just happened to be Star Wars weekend at MGM and there was lots of extra things going on to coincide with the release of the latest film! Just having his photo taken with all the different characters was great fun in itself! I loved the white storm troopers! The original film was out when I was at school and it was huge!! I did not intend to pass my love of it on to DS1 but he became a huge fan himself and had lots of Star Wars figures and Lego ships when he was younger, infact we have kept it all in the loft!! So, back to the drawing board! have a nice day! TFLx