Hand Crafted Memories

Sometimes you've just got to do it, I need to remember this. Like many scrapbookers out there, I seem to collect more pretty papers than I use. With each new release of paper my resolve not to buy anymore just crumbles once I set eyes on more prettiness. A short while ago I purchased a class from True Scrap featuring Shimelle Laine and great instructions of how to go stash diving. The idea is that you collect a bunch of coordinating papers and plain cardstock, then you just chop the patterned papers into blocks. Because you've cut it you have to use it. I gathered together the My Minds Eye, Lost and Found papers, I used mostly blue based colours and mixed up between the groups. That was as far as I went for a few weeks, I still didn't want to cut the paper, they all looked so lovely together. I watched the video a few more times, then when the craft room needed tidying again I found I was gathering the papers to put them back. Why? So I just did it, I cut them up, some o...

At last I have made time to finish another of my Scrapstars projects. This was a fabulous class taught by Rachel Elliot t and using the gorgeous Country Estate papers from Websters pages . There was lots of cutting in this one, but it really was worth it. I won't be using this photo. I seem to have made a lot of pages with recent photos of me on them. So I'm saving this for 'just the right' picture.  

Here are the last three Frosty and friends cards that I made from last months Craftwork Cards project of the month. These die cut images are just fabulous and for those of you who love your Promarkers or Copics, they are perfect. Once you've got your image coloured for the focal point the rest of the card is easy.

Oh dear I'm a little bit behind with my kits for Craftwork Cards . I received the Frosty and Friends kit a few weeks ago and spent a couple of evenings colouring the lovely images, then I just seemed to stop. It was only this weekend in another attempt to clear the decks in my craft room that I realised I hadn't done anything with them. Then to highlight  the matter even more my next kit has arrived. Oh dear! I had to get my finger out. So here are the first two that I made how lovely is that candi?

Its been a while since I went into my craft room, just to play. I have spent a couple of hours making little boxes to finish off one of my Scrapstars projects I need 36 in total. Its taken me 2 hours to make 18 so I'll continue that another day. I haven't made card that isn't for a request or a design tam for ages. Today I made one just because. I have a card idea in mind and I want a little bird to make it but I can't find what I have in mind. I do have the bird and branch punch from Stampin Up , so I thought I'd make a Robin using it. The boxes I've been making were made using the Kraft cardstock from Papermania, so while I had it out I made my card. I love how it turned out. This week over on Winter Wonderland they want to see a Robin somewhere on the card, so this is perfect for that challenge.

I know that its three weeks since the retreat but the projects are still going, where else do you sing up for a retreat that has three fabulous days of tuition that are followed by weeks of producing beautiful work. I can create a page on my own in a couple of hours but the things that are really worth working on, take a lot longer. One of the projects that just captivated me was a suitcase that had a lovely mini book inside, taught by the amazing Lida De Witte . We used the beautiful Victoria Garden papers, I just love them.I have finished the project, and just now need to find just the right photos.      

Yes this is definitely the retreat that keeps on giving, I still haven't come down from my recent retreat Scrapstars . You will have seen one of the pages we made under the guidance of the fabulous Emma, well here is another one. This page was based on the latest trend of memory jars, where you collect memorabilia and store it in a jar. We were to create this page and the memory jar element was a CD type case to store a memory in. I decided to use a past memory and call it dreams. My wedding day, because although I am no longer married it really was a day full of dreams. I recently followed a thread on UKS where the question was do you record the bad and the good on scrapbook pages. My personal thought is if you can deal with it sensitively and you need to do it why not. I can't ignore the fact that I was married for 6 years, or that I just had the most fabulous wedding day. So here I am talking about the dreams I had on that day. I don't have any mementos from the day bu...

I was asked last week for to make a card for a baby boy, then quite by chance Ineeded a baby girl card as well. I have this thing about making new baby cards in pairs, I've no idea why but usually I like to make one for each sex. The stamp on the baby girls card is one I use loads and it always makes me smile, it looks great for both boys and girls. I've had the little boat on the boys card in mind for some time now, I tried everywhere the get the embossing folder that you see in the background. You won't beleive how happy I was when I finally got my mitts on it.  

I'm doing well its only the 9th of the month and I've already made my page for Septembers 4 x 6 photo love . I had actually decided on which set of photos I wanted to use, there are about 15 photos to this set so once I had them printed the harder decision was which 9 to use. This months page is built around an acetate pocket and two large photo cards with pictures on them. I had several printed acetate sheets but none of them suited the idea I had in mind. I used a plain acetate sheet and stamped a pattern on them, perfect just what I had in mind. Here is September done:  

I had such a great time in Emma's classes at the recent Scrapstars retreat that I thought I would practice my spraying technique. I can see an improvement but its not quite there yet. There are still some blobs on the bottom right of the layout. I also got a bit excited and sprayed the whole page, but I kind of like it. What I did try and like was to stamp and clear emboss on the white cardstock before I started. Then when I sprayed I rubbed over the embossed are to get the ink off the embossed doily and also to blend around the edges. i loved this effect and will be doing this again. I still had loads of Websters pages , all about me paper left from the class so I sat for an evening and cut out all the little detail. I now have an Emma Trout esque style page. Well it is in my head anyway, I have a long way to go to reach the level of her stunning work. It's a start though and one I'm pretty chuffed with.

I tidied my craft room for three hours, and could finally see the counter top. As a reward I allowed myself to finish another of the pages I started at the Scrapstars retreat last weekend. I am a huge fan of Emma Trou t's work and have attended 4 classes taught by her now. I am always amazed that she 'sees' things in papers that I completely miss until she points them out. Last weekend we made two gorgeous pages, this one was designed to teach us how to use glimmer mists and painting. I need practice with the mists so that I don't get the spots, I did get a few on this page, but far less than normal. We then cut out the elements from Webster's Pages papers, All about me . I'm really loving Websters Pages at the moment and these classes have inspired me to look at them in a different way.    

Part of the fun before a retreat is the chat that goes on in the forums and on facebook. You get to 'know' a few people that without the internet wouldn't be possible. It also allows the build up to begin with a few pre retreat challenges, last week was the fabulous Scrapstars retreat and the challenges set before were to make a name badge and a mini me page. For the name badge, I had made one for the April retreat but didn't get around to using it, so I fished it out and tidied it up. The tutors from the event judged the entrants and I was lucky enough to win, I got a yummy box of chocolates, I was absolutely thrilled. They are still in my fridge, I ate so many goodies over the weekend that I'm keeping these for a Sunday evening in front of the telly watching Dowton Abbey . The other challenge was to make a mini me page, the dimensions had to be 5.75" x 3.75". It had to include our name and say something about us. This was my mini me page  What this says...

I have had to press pause this week on the crafting front. I am surrounded by the most gorgeous half finished projects but I am finding that I start to craft when I get in from work and I'm still there at 1am. This is not good for me when I have to work the next day. So I am not allowing myself in the craft room beyond 10pm. Another reason is the craft room is a dump and until it is tidied up so I can see where I am going the crafting has to stop. One thing I could do while I was sitting watching TV was to make the lovely little kasudama flowers I learnt to make a while ago. I fancied making a flower ball, so one evening while watching TV I used up some scraps of paper and made this It only shifted some papers scraps and the craft room is still a tip but I love this ball. Today is a beautiful day so a lot of the shrubs and plants in my garden are getting a good trim ready for the winter, looks like the crafting will have to remain on pause for just a little while longer.