Mondays

Who likes Mondays? I must admit I am not keen, DH off to work, DD back to school, housework for me. Well usually housework for me, but this week I decided to put the housework off for another day. Why? Well to scrapbook of course!

I was reading ATDML Blog when up appeared Karen's Sketch for the Just One Sketch Class. ATDML are doing a give away and are offering a £10 voucher to spend in their store, if you submit a layout using Karen's sketch & it gets picked out of the hat. Well I love Karen's classes at crop, so what a great way to avoid doing housework on a monday morning.

Here's my take on Karen's sketch, the photo of the layout is not great as the weather is pretty horrible outside.

I have attempted a couple of close up shots to show some more detail to make up for the bad lighting. You can't really see the title in the top photo.

I love these flowers, I think that this is my fourth layout this month with them on. They are so simple to do, just cut out some circles, ink the edges, scrunch and then attach. Simple!

I used Kaisercraft bubblegum hills papers, which are great for a girly layout.

I raided my ribbon stash too, I would have liked to of used orange ribbon, but I couldn't find the right colour orange.

Right I am off to do some housework and hope that I might get to have a go at my Just One Sketch homework. Hope the weather improves x

Taking a look at how I do things.

The New Year brings new adventures and I do like to try something new, as it is too easy to get stuck in a rut. Just before Christmas I was reading Karen's Blog and she had mentioned a class that was starting January. The class is called Just One Sketch and the proceeds are going to the Girl Guide Association and seeing as my DD has joined the brownies this year I thought that I would have a go.

Miss Smith is the lady running the class and in her first prompt she asked us to take a look at our most recent layouts and pick out our favourites and look at what design features most on those layouts. For me this is jumping in at the deep end, we have skirted around the issue of what type of scrapper I am at crop.

I am a tidy, safe scrapper or if we are being honest, I am an anal scrapper. I have lots of of white backgrounds, clean lines, punches for edges, use stamps occasionally and if I am really being brave I might add the odd bit of glimmer mist or flourish. I am not huge on loads of embellishments and I use other people's sketches all the time. I love classes at crop as we tend to do all the things that I am not brave enough to do on my own. I am a scrap wimp! Maybe my New Years resolution this year should of been, BE BRAVER!

So we that all being said, next prompt was to design my own sketch. As I have already said, I use other people's sketches all the time. So how do I start this, well by using somebody else's sketch of course. My friend Laurie is well ahead on the homework front had has designed her sketch. So in true Becca fashion I used Laurie's sketch.

Well what can I say, I liked the sketch, it had room for a white background, clean lines and not too many embellishments, perfect. It also meant that for another day I had put off designing my own sketch.

OK, so what happened to the trying new things and being brave, all put on hold because I wasn't happy with my hand drawn sketches. I saw the chance for a new app and I took it. I downloaded iDraw for the iPad. So another evening was spent learning how to use the app. I am really pleased with this app as I can see that I will be using it a lot in the future.

And here is my sketch, basic I know, but I am really pleased with myself as it took me out of my comfort zone and I have had to learn something new. I think that it has potential.

Here's my finished layout, clean lines, lots of white background, punched boarder. I know I can work it on it.

So far this class has taught me to have a look at what I am producing, I know that my layouts are not to everybody's taste but they work for me, for the moment. Next step rotating the sketch.

 Maybe this year will be the year for the new bolder scrapper Becca. We will just have to wait and see :)

Just a quickie

I have finished my Christmas album, just need to decorate the front :) It was a little more fiddlely than I thought, but I am pleased with the results. I used two layers of chipboard for the album covers, I think for my next album I will try & find something else as chipboard is expensive and not that easy to find in big sheets. The pizza boxes that new stash arrives in might be the way to go.

My homework for today is to get started on my Just One Sketch homework. I need to look at my past layouts and workout what type of scrapper I am. I'll let you know how that goes.

Feeling Productive

It is the start of January and I am feeling very productive, I almost feel like giving myself a tap on my back. Strange how it is the simple things that please us. I have been scrapping to my hearts content, so my January is off to a good crafty start. 

Last weekend was the Eclectic Keepsakes Crop, I love these days, I know I pretty much say it every month, but I can't help myself. It is so lovely to hang out with ladies who get the crafty thing. We had some newbies this month which was nice and as always there was the usual banter and gently teasing of me. This month was a little different as there was no actual class, so I actually got some layouts completed as well as doing plenty of chatting.

What am I saying, some stuff done. I completed FOUR, yes four pages. I made it my mission this year to do some Christmas layouts. I took lots of photos and even planned out some layouts in advance. Unfortunately I left them on the kitchen table, but my ever loving husband flew to my rescue and drove all the way home and then back again, with the layouts.

I love this photo of DD, her eyes are so big and she truly is full of Glee, she is such a huge fan. The papers are old Christmas ones, but I love that they are unusual Christmas colours. The pink works perfectly with DD dressing gown (the photo doesn't really show that).

For the layout below I used a sketch from the Sketch2Scrap app. It is so handy to have them on hand. I used a Hipstamatic photo (another iPhone app). I really like the effects, but the photos do come out a little dark once printed out.

Another Hipstamatic photo below, I used more traditional colours as they work so well with the big bow in DD's hair. 

My final layout features me and my lovely new boots. I scrap lifted a page from Julie Bonner's Blog, I was searching for some inspiration and I came across her blog. She has some lovely ideas. I also got to use the lovely papers that I bought at the last crop. 

I have actually done four more layouts this week, but I will show you them next time. So as you can see I am off to a flying start. I have started to make my 12x12 album to put my Christmas layouts in, this is proving a little tricky, but I am hoping to have it finished before the weekend, as there will be no crafting during the weekend as we are off to an outdoor show. Not exactly sure what it entails but I am sure that it will give me a chance to take lots of photos. 

Have a good weekend x

Merry Christmas!

The week before Christmas was spent making and dealing with illness, luckily we managed to kick the illness before Christmas Eve. DD and I made crackers for Boxing Day.

  We made decorations.

For our tree in the hall.

We decorated our Christmas cake.

DD made jam tarts for Father Christmas.

               

Together we made a centre piece for the table.

I have not done any scrapbooking but I hope to rectify this in the new year. I have failed in my target of 100 layouts in 2011, but there is always 2012.

For the first time in many years I actually have plans for New Years Eve, let's hope it is a good one. See you in 2012 x

A crafting high

As I sit here writing my post in between blowing my nose & sips of lemon & honey, I am still on a high. I feel like I have achieved something & I hope that, that feeling lasts a long time. Why do I feel this way? I feel this way because I sold something at the Colchester Christmas Market, if I am honest I sold a lot of things at the market. 

Vicky is the mastermind behind the whole thing, she organised us the table (lucky for us we were inside). She had the vision of how our table should look. Yes we do look very bundled up, it was so cold.

She also introduced me to the other lady who shared our table Lou. Lou is a true artist, the amount of detail that goes into her work is amazing. I fell in love with a red felt pin cushion that Lou had made & I made sure that it was mine by the end of the evening.

Here is our stall in all it's glory. You can see my bags hanging in the background, my owls were on the tree. Vicky had seen somewhere a great way of showing our brooches in a cake tray. As far as I am aware there were no other stalls like ours.

So now I have Christmas to look forward to & some scrapbooking to get back to. I think that I might fall a little short of my 100 target, but we will see. I have managed to just about keep up with documenting the run up to Christmas & I do plan to take lots of photos over the festive season.

Next week I have lots of things planned to do with my DD, we have decorations to make, mince pies to bake & stollen to attempt. So I might manage a sneaky post before Christmas. 

So that is what my blog looks like!

I hold my hands up, I have been a very bad blogger, so bad in act that I am now on Santa's naughty list. I can't believe that it is now December, I missed the whole of November. In my defence I have been busy, I have managed to go on holiday, start to prepare for a craft fair that I am attending, go to two crops as well as help my lovely husband buy a flat for him to stay in during the week. There is also all the usual Mum stuff too, going backwards and forwards to school, gymnastics, brownies and swimming with my DD.

My scrapbooking has gone completely out of the window, but after this months crop at Eclectic Keepsakes I can't wait to get back to it, I am brimming with ideas, it all needs to wait until after next Wednesday. Next Wednesday is a big day for me, I am being brave and I am attempting to sell some things at the Colchester Castle Park Christmas Market. I did say after my last attempt at selling my cards that I would never do it again, but my lovely friend Vicky has talked me round. Fingers cross that I sell something, I am feeling a little nervous. I have been busy making flower brooches like the buttonholes that I did for Vicky's wedding, I have also made some owls, covered journals and lastly bags made out of wool jumpers.

The bags started as an idea after I read The Inadvertent Farmer's Blog she had made a lovely bag and provided instructions on how to do it. Great I thought, something different, the hardest part has been finding the jumpers as they need to be 100% wool.

This was my first attempt, I am really pleased with the end result. What pleased me more is that I realised that I can get two bags out of one jumper.

I used the leftover sleeves to make the bag below. I cut down the seam of the sleeve to open it up, if you do this with both sleeves you then have a front and back. I used dowelling to make the handles sturdy. At some point I hope to add a how to, to my blog.

Here is another in purple. Foe the flower I used the Big Shot to cut out some hearts and a circle.

I think that this grey tote is my favourite, my Mum helped me line it . I have used brooch pins on the flowers so they can be moved or even taken off. Mum even used the shirt pocket, as a pocket inside.

So there we have some of my bags that I am hoping to sell (fingers crossed). If anyone fancies popping along, the Christmas market is next Wednesday 14th December at Colchester Castle, from 3pm. I would love to see some smiling faces and you never know you might even pick up some bits for Christmas. 

Then hopefully I will be back to normal :)