Yes, Journal Your Christmas starts tomorrow. I'm taking part again this year but have decided to blog my entries. I may scrap a bit too but advent is busy enough without another thing to 'do'!
Any scrappage will appear here but the blog posts will be over on the Blue Blog.
Hope you are all enjoying a crafty christmas and I can't wait to see all the albums this year x
We still have no internet at home but I have at last unpacked my stash and have an order for a card, as well as a couple of unfinished projects. I'm posting at church (don't worry the sermon is over) and felt I had to say something because I just found out that Scrapbook Inspirations, the lovely magazine that I subscribe to, is to cease publication after the next issue. What am I to do??? It really was the best on the market, gave me brilliant ideas and made me feel I was connected to a wider group of crafters. Can't tell you how gutted I am. I love blogs and surfing through scrapping sites, but they are not the same as leafing endlessly through a magazine in a stolen moment.
:(
Room packed so no scrappage, you'll have to put up with photography instead.
These are cleverly titled 'Garden spider eats ladybird.'
It's a very sad day.
I am about to head upstairs and start to pack away my craft space. It is to become our designated storage room while we pack for the move and so, unfortunately it is the first to be boxed.
Farewell pretty papers, so long stamps, see ya stash... parting is such sweet sorrow.
Fare thee well until November (she hopes) when I shall ooh and ahh over your loveliness once more.
And then cut, tear and stamp all over you, (you know you love it).
Until then my dear ones...
Mmm, learn something new every day. Here's what I am learning. There's not enough time. And I am in fact learning it every single day. Ho hum, pass the choccy biccies.
Here are two of the two and a half (very important that half) pages completed so far ;)
Meanwhile back at the ranch we have celebrated Eve's 7th birthday and I had the excuse I was waiting for to break out the dolphin die I found on e-bay. Zoe used one for her card, she also cut out the 7 by hand, she's so clever!
I used 7 of the little things and tucked them into a pocket on the front so Eve could take them out and play with them.
I have moved around the craft space a little and begun sorting as part of a general cull, so no crafting until it's sorted. Boo hiss.
I checked my emails about halfway through the holiday and was surprised to find a reminder for Learn Something New Every Day, one of Shimelle's classes. A mistake I wondered? Then slightly blurred recollections of signing up for something after Journal Your Christmas made their way through the mists of time.
So no idea where I'm going with it only that I'll give it a bash and that I'll be using the following scrapbooking mantras to stay on track...
1/ Just Get Something Down
2/ Use Whatever Is To Hand
3/ It Doesn't Have To Be Perfect
4/ Don't Get Stressed, Get Biscuits
Mmm, I sound like a slightly desperate scrapper, but I mean all these in a purely positive way. I have been following these 'rules' for my last couple of projects and have not only completed them but also enjoyed just getting on with it. In my LPO mini book I scribbled away in biro, stuck down random bits of paper and ended up with a real hotchpotch. No rhyme or reason, just a lovely reminder of a great holiday and I think I like it all the more for it's roughness. Perhaps the girls will come across it one day and learn more about me through the imperfections than just the writing alone.
For this class I am using a 6x6 album, one of a QVC joblot I bought a couple of years ago. It only has ten slip-in pages though so I am going to stick my cardstock on the outside of the pages and then either use the slip-in bit for the extras or I'll use 6x12 cardstock and fold it in to make up the numbers that way. For the title I used some stamps, some handwriting and some poundland chipboard letters.
Did I ever mention I don't like primary colours much? I probably won't be using these on the inside... or maybe I should, just for the challenge? In defense of the cover it looks better in close-up or in real life!
There really is a craft fairy! (I've suspected it all along).
Thanks to scrappydandydoo for the heads up for this prima giveaway at craftfairy's blog.
We interupt this wonderfully relaxing holiday to tell you to get over to Sarah's quick and enter her giveaway!!!
I have been scribbling away in my book, Eve has been scooting around sight in her high heled shoes and I bought a french scrapbooking magazine, in French! ;)
This is the life...
A couple of 8x8's for a friends wedding album. 
A little book to write and doodle in on holiday. 
Zoe's book. 
Eve's book. 
Eve's lovely list of things to take. 
See you in a couple of weeks!
It seems I have been tagged by Sarah... Choose the fourth picture in your fourth file, post it and tag four others...
This is Eve while we were on holiday in France three years ago. (She was three, check out those pigtails). I'm glad it was one of these photos because we are going back to the same place for our holidays this year. Next week in fact, can't wait! 
I hereby solemnly tag Sophie, Simone, Gail and Nikki
Inspiration came a-calling yesterday evening. Hoorah for a bunch of photos!
We are staying at Grandmas for a few days so I just have the tray of stuff I squeezed into the car at the last minute. One of those things was a Junkitz folder, mini-book thingy. You know what I mean. I whacked some scraps into it and started to make a book about my relationship and love for, the Lickeys, the woods near our home. I am not using any pictures of people just the close-ups and scenic pictures I have taken there. I don't have all the images I want, a couple will come in the next batch of pictures from the computer when I order them. I want to use the book to reflect and jot things down so it will be interesting to see how it evolves.
Here's how it's taking shape. The cut out flowers and bits are all from Christina Renee. The paper and card are all leftover scraps from other projects.
This is the second double layout minus the journaling. I doodled green leaves all around the edges and shall continue this throughout the book. 
A few close ups... 
The almost finished first pages. I am going to add a verse or something to that dark blue strip with a white pen, but it's at home! 
Very pleased with my little play!
What have you done today?
I remember when I discovered scrapbooking being so excited about all the wonderful albums I was going to make. How I was going to turn all those photos into Beautiful Things. To some extent that has happened but not so prolifically as I had first envisaged.
See that's the trouble with digital. Sure you take loads of pictures, but do you print them? I know I don't. In an effort to save precious photopaper I only print out what I'm going to scrap, but I don't really get inspired that way... so I don't print stuff out.
The other week I was pondering my lack of scrapping and my lack of inspiration and my lack of physical photos to scrap and surprisingly (to me), my lack of boring old 'slip in' photo albums to leaf through. I haven't done one of those in years.
It spurred me to action and I started to go through the albums on my computer and started to build up a larger order (rather than print at home).
I chose pictures that told a story, that made me smile, that I was proud of taking, that were a bit blurry but held a moment. Pictures that I could pop in a slip-in album and enjoy as pictures. No cutting. No craftiness. No bling.
Pictures that would inspire me, pictures that I could slip-out of the slip-in and... wait for it... Scrap!
To scrap them without pressure, to scrap as if no one was watching. To scrap them because I can.
My order arrived this morning. Oh scrappy, happy day! An envelope of memories and moments and inspiration. A bundle of photos that need no embellishment. A bunch of pictures to enjoy for their own sake. A treasure trove for LO's yet to come.
Yep. Who'd have thought. Actually printing out the pictures you've taken, to actually look at them and maybe to actually scrap them. Genius.
Have spent a happy time checking out the posts at Shimelle's party this morning, but there's only so many times you can read about a class you are not able to take part in without calling it a day :( However will just say LOADS of great ideas and am sure I will be back for the rest later in the week.
Yesterday we had a lovely time at a friends wedding. The girls were gorgeous bridesmaids and I'll put a few pics over on the other blog in a bit.
You may remember I made the invitations for this wedding and lots of people commented on them yesterday which was lovely. Never one to throw a potentially scrappable thing away I used the leftovers to make this gift for them. 
Made this yesterday for friends that have just moved house. The gorgeous house print is from Christina Renee designs (see the side bar).
Meanwhile I am cutting up flower prints for the wedding album. Lots of flower prints...
There's a chance to win a free place on Shimelle's latest class over on her blog. Hoping I might win as we are on our pre-holiday budget this month so that we can eat out lots when we are there! Anyway, it looks like lots of fun so go see!
Have had a bit of a card frenzy here what with teachers gifts and the like.
I've also had a little bit of a go with some heat embossing. LOTS of fun.
And I'm currently busy cutting up images for a wedding album, more on that when it's underway!
While reading IACW they mentioned the 'whip stitch', I had no idea what that was so I Googled it and found this site, Monkey See.
Turns out the whip stitch is the one you use for hems, so now I have a name for next time.
The lady who demonstrates the whippin' is very proper and makes it look terribly easy but the thing I loved was the health and safety disclaimer at the end.
Whip stitch is obviously not without it's perils and should be attempted only by a fully trained and equipped professional..
Intrigued also about the Secrets thing over on the copy and paste project, again via Sarah (see this is why you should post more regularly). Have just done this without thinking about it too deeply, but looking at it now it's obvious I need major counselling...
all I will say is that it is not a reference to my wedding rings!
I love Sarah's water picture as part of the 2peas weekly photography challenge. I'm not entering but I did have a rootle in my photos to see what kind of water shots I have. Mainly the paddling or watching sealion show variety it seems! Then I remembered those I took in town of the canals. Not the rush and blur of moving water but rather the still and reflection amidst the busy city.
I really like this one here but after playing around I have rotated it so that the image is the 'right' way up. I kind of like it this way.
We went walking up at the Lickey Hills today, it's a place we go to often and it was a real delight to find something new, that we must have passed a hundred times before...
Lovely giveaway can be found here at The Purple Zone, it closes on the 31st July and is open to UK residents only. Go play!
Following the giveaway (all packaged and posted by the way!) I have been blog-stalking a few new folk. I LOVE finding new ideas and LO's that make me go 'ooh'. And so it came to pass that I visited Scrappydandydoo and followed her link to the blog of Ingvild Bolme. All I will say at this point is 'Wow'. I would love to produce LO's like this and it is definitely a style I shall be experimenting with. On her blog are lots of peeks at new Prima products.
Now when someone says Prima to me I think firstly of a magazine for middle-aged women who like pull-out and keep patterns... darn I think that might be me. Secondly I think of Expensive Crafting Flowers which I have thus far avoided. But how can I resist these? Or these?
In search of more I headed to the Prima website to drool some more and then started visiting their links too.Yes, I was starting to get a little obsessed.
BUT this is where stuff started to get really fun. I found a wonderful digital site by Christine Renee, then I clicked on Shoppe... and the rest is history. I downloaded a few freebies and spent about $3 on this and some grungy ginghams. Yum.
I must admit the whole digital scrapbooking thing makes no sense to me at all. I think they look amazing and professional but that's the problem, I want my stuff to look like I made it myself even if it is a bit rough around the edges and I love the feel of the papers and all that cutting and getting messy with glue. Bliss. So I got busy cutting some of my textured cardstock to A4 and printed stuff out, then I spent a happy evening cutting it all out.
Here's my first LO, using a few flowers and a butterfly from 'Botanical Happiness II' (I and III will shortly be joining my downloads methinks), pink gingham and a tag from K&Co.
The Random Number Generator has spoken!
And the winner is... Joby!
Hi
Glad you are strong and able to resist keeping the goodies, thanks for giving us an popportunity. I am following, email is on my details if I am lucky enough.
Congratulations Joby, I shall be e-mailing when I finish this post :)
Thank you all so much for playing along and celebrating my 100th post with me. Only 96 more posts until the next milestone, so don't be a stranger!
Too hot to craft this week! I have kind of wafted around, flopping into a sweaty heap or getting cross with the children who have done pretty much the same, getting cross with each other. What can I say? The females of the family do not cope well with extreme heat! Then of course there's John, who loves it and can't for the life of him understand us wilting.
With the change in weather I hope to do a bit of something this weekend, although John is working from home today at My Table and he does like to make himself at home...
If the Random Number Generator is still speaking to me I shall be announcing my winner tomorrow.
Really enjoying the Giveaway thing. (You can still leave a comment, just scroll down to the next post). I have been surfing around everyone's blogs and getting lots of ideas for new projects, just wish I didn't have to spend valuable crafting time at work!
I will accept comments until Friday night and will announce the winner on Saturday 4th July.
Had a good visit to Delta Pi's Crafty Jumble on Saturday morning and picked up a few bargains including a card folding board thingy (I think that's its technical name), you know, they're groovy. Man. Also got a few stamps and some packs of tall cards for a pound each. A satisfying shop.
Yesterday I got a few snippets of time and put together a some cards. The first is for my biker brother-in-law, it was his birthday last week but I had complete brainblock as to his card. Then remembered some Disney stickers I bought in the States last year, this one seemed perfect, tho' must state for the record that Paul is nothing like Goofy. Ahem.
These two just evolved. Had some trouble trying to figure out how to stick down the vellum without using brads or the glue showing. It's not perfect but it'll do. I have LOADS of vellum quotes so any bright ideas greatly appreciated.
Mmm, weighing up whether to go and make another card (loads of birthdays and leaving 'do's coming up) or grab a cat nap. The hot weather is making me soooo sleepy :)
