Busy Becca

I have had a busy week, crafty week that is. I have been super busy doing the Let's Scrap Blog Hop and I have also finished my friends birthday present, as well as looking for new yummy recipes. I have also got myself involved in a new challenge.

I went into town today and got the press stud to finally finish the Phoebe Bag. I am really pleased with the end result. Yes my Mum did help me (a little), but who needs to know that.

My material is leftovers from my bedroom curtains, it is lovely & thick so hopefully it will be strong.

I downloaded the pattern, then cut it out. Here is the main piece of the pattern pinned to the material. The material is folded in half, so that I get a whole piece.

Here are my four main pieces of the bag. The two top pieces are for the lining. To give the bag shape you dart the bottom corners.

Here is the bags flap, I have sewn on a press stud & a button.

 The finished bag! I made the strap longer than on the pattern as I know my friend likes to carry her bag across her body, but it is not too long that you can't put it over your shoulder. I am really pleased with the end results and I am now on the look out for some material so that I can make myself one for the summer.

I will update you on my blog hop challenges tomorrow, as I have forgotten to make a note of which ones I have completed. I can tell you about the new challenge "TO COMPLETE 100 PAGES/LAYOUTS IN 2011". When I first read this challenge I thought "no way" but it is only for fun & the blog hop is helping a lot. As I type I have completed sixteen, yes SIXTEEN pages. Two are not Let's Scrap sketches, but that doesn't matter they all count. The lovely ladies at Let's Scrap have provided a link so that you can add a counter on your blog, but as yet I haven't figured out how to get it on here. So I will say bye for now, as I need to go play and see if I can figure it out.

Just a quickie

Just a quick update to let you know more is to come. My Mum & Dad came over on Sunday, Dad had a couple of DIY jobs to do for me & Mum came over to help me with the bag as it is my friends birthday next weekend. Mum talked me through making the bag & I am really pleased with how it has turned out. I am off into town on Friday to get some finishing touches. Will update the blog with the photos, later on in the week.

I will quickly mention something else though. I am not one for making New's Years Resolutions, I don't really do New Year, but this year my daughter wanted to make some, so I have gone along for the ride. I won't bore you with the none crafty resolutions, just the one that I think might be of interest. I love cooking and now that I have my lovely new kitchen and shiny double oven, my New Years Resolution is to cook a new recipe a week. That is 52 new recipes that I will be finding and making this year. So far so good, again I will update you on all the recipes when I upload the photos of the bag.

One step forward, two steps back

January is not going well, I seem to be constantly ill and if that is not bad enough I now am spreading my germs to my daughter. Yesterday I had arranged with my Mum a sewing day, I have found some fabric at home for the Phoebe Bag project. Unfortunately my little girl was off school ill, so no sewing day for me. Hopefully this bag will get made as I haven't got long.

I may not of done any sewing on the bag, but I have managed to do some sewing on a scrapbook layout. Let's Scrap are doing a blog hop, they have put together fifteen resolutions/challenges. I have done two!

This first photo is for Resolution 5, Carolina's challenge was to "Make a layout or card using a Let's Scrap sketch and you can't open anything new."
The papers on my layout, I used for my Daughter's 2nd birthday invites, she is now 6! So the pack of papers has been open for a while.

                                       

The photo below is my take on Resolution 11, Wendy's challenge was to "Use a Let's Scrap sketch to make a layout or card in the colours Blue, White And Silver."  

Success!!!

I finally got my new blog app to work. I am celebrating by adding a photo. This is the new Boden catalogue that arrived in the post this morning. I love the cover and I think that I will have to use it in a crafty project, maybe some tags??

Me & Modern technology

I love my I phone, I really do. It is the best gadget ever, it has my calendar so I can attempt to be organised, it has my phone, it has a camera (always handy), and it has hundreds of apps. I have found a few apps that will aid me in my craftiness

* I have an app that let's me take a photo and then add notes to that photo, great for crops
* I have an app that let's me do small digital pages, quick and easy and a great time filler
* I have an app that has loads of layout ideas
* I have an app that will let me write my blog

This app is the app where I have had my app downfall, I downloaded the light version so that I could try it out. I got on fine with it and thought that I would download the full version. This version let's me also add photos. Hooray I thought, blogging at my fingertips. My downfall is that I can't get logged on to the thing. What makes this even harder is that I usually ask my husband for help, but here he can not help me, as he knows nothing of blogging. I will stick with it, hopefully I will figure it out, for the time being the Mac it is.

Crop Day

Saturday was a great day, a whole day of crafty stuff and yummy cakes, what more could a girl ask for?The ladies are all so friendly at Eclectic Keepsakes, I have now met both Karens. They had a full day planned for us, and great fun it was too. I learn so much from the other ladies. They have introduced me to the wonders of the Crop A Dile, We R Memory Keepers magnetic cutting board and several different types of tape which are all now on my my wish list.

Our first project was a lovely waterfall album designed by Karen Moss. Karen's album was lovely, she is a very talented lady. It took me a while to get my head around this, but I now have an empty waterfall album waiting for some photos.

Our second project was a lovely card designed by Karen M, unfortunately I didn't finish it on the day and forgot to take a photo of Karen's lovely card, so this is my interpretation.

We then made some lovely tags, a box and a gift bag all designed by Karen Cole. These are all lovely, but my efforts turned out not so great. The box got squished on the way home, my bag does not quite meet up and I haven't finished the tags. On the up side I have the templates and am planning to have another go.

The last project I did was designed by a lady called Debbie, unfortunately I don't know her last name. Debbie's project was a lovely scrapbook layout. It used lovely sparkly papers and required a lot of cutting out and patience. I didn't finish mine on the day as again I didn't have any photos with me (ran out of ink), but I have finished it now. I am quite pleased with it, but I think that I need to get some better tape or glue because of the glitter, things don't tend to stick to each other so well.

While I was having all this fun, my lovely husband was looking after my little angel. They picked me up from the crop full of what they had been doing together. I came home to a lovely dinner and a chocolate cake. Dinner was such a success that it will be happening again.

Eclectic Keepsakes

Crop day tomorrow, hooray! I have not scrapped in weeks and I am totally unprepared for tomorrow, but who cares, I have a whole day to scrap. This will be my second crop with the ladies from Eclectic Keepsakes and I am really looking forward to it. Hoping to get lots of new ideas like last time.

On another note, I have not done anything on my new project, I didn't make it into town to look for fabric, so fingers crossed for next week. Need to get my act together as I only have until the end of the month.