52 Questions...

This is a journalling challenge started at the beginning of the year here. At the time i decided i had enough to do already, so passed on it. However, since being off work i needed something to keep me busy, so i decided to give it a go. In a way i'm glad i didn't start from the beginning, as having 12 questions to do has made me decide to do them all in a similar way. After all, i feel the key to this is the journalling. So i have just been using my Stampin' Up ink pads to colour the tags, and various stamps to decorate them.

Some of my journalling is personal, other bits just jokey, here are a few examples....

Stamps used:

Autumn Leaves; Journalling circles, swirls,

Unity;Bird,

Stampin' Up; Office Accoutrement

QVC; Fairy

Mini alphabet stamps; Studio g

Number stamp; Papermania

Stamped cards

Couldn't get any inspiration to make a LO last night, so i had a play with my new Unity stamps instead. I seemed to be enjoying myself so much that Hannah joined in! Again i used up some stash scraps (the K&Co Peabody I used to make my stamp folder covers) and this is what i came up with.

This one used a circular background stamp that i have found so useful, the flowers are stamped twice, once after stamping off the image onto scrap first to give a pale shadow, then in full colour off to one side slightly for the foreground flowers. The message and flowers are Unity march kit of the Month stamps. An old piece of AC ribbon and it was done!


The bright card uses some DCWV gutted from a scrapbook page, Peabody papers and a Unity stamp with bits painted with watercolour ink. Flowers are from Stamping Up



I think the 'Thanks' card is my fave, again Unity march stamps, a few gems from Anitas, inking and distressing around the mat and it was done. Really quick and simple.


Finally this is Hannah's card, a bit of stamping (all unity) and layering. I added the doodles for her, but she was pleased with it.

Maybe I'll get some scrapbooking done today, i do have some photos printed, and an idea, watch this space!

Organising Unmounted Stamps.. a tutorial!

Well here is a bit of a departure for me, I thought i would share what i have done today in the form of a tutorial (once a teacher always a teacher!)

I recently subscribed to a monthly stamps kit from the states, and my lovely new set arrived today. As i looked through them it struck me that i will end up with lots of stamps, and, added to my current collection, i am likely to forget what i have... some organisation is needed! Also the set i bought have no picture on the back of each one, so it can be difficult to visualise how they will look from the mirror image on the front of the stamp.

I did see a tutorial on a US blog recently (Here is the original link) but i couldn't remember where i saw it when i made my own storage, so i thought i would have a go at organising the stamps myself in a similar vein. I chose A5 folders for storing the stamps, i thought the pages with the stamps on would be less likely to bend if they were smaller (and the folders look cuter!) This would also work with acrylic stamps, and with stamp removed from the wooden blocks.

Step 1. Gather stamps. Organise them into categories. Write the heading for the category onto 2 pieces of A5 card.

Step 2. Stamp each image twice, one onto each of the 2 pieces of A5 card. One image will be the laminated home for the stamp, the other will form the index card. I left some spaces to add new stamps as later kits arrive. You can even stamp on top of the plastic with a Stazon ink pad. It is also easy to add new pages to extend the storage.

Step 3. Laminate one of each pair of cards.



Step 4. Punch holes in the laminated card so they will fit in the folder. Stick the stamps onto the laminated card, and arrange alphabetically by category. Put into folders. I managed to fit 6 sheets into one small A5 folder.
Step 5. Collect the unlaminated cards, punch holes, and arrange alphabetically. Put all of these into one index folder. A note about the word and phrase stamps; the index card for these is so useful, as it is hard to work out or remember what each one says from the reverse image visible on the surface of each stamp.

Step 6. Decorate each folder (optional, but likely for paper-crafters!) I used old stash (K&Co Peabody Scrap to Go kit)

White space and me.....

After scrapping for a number of years now i have come to the conclusion that i just don't do white space! At the crop last night there were lots of lovely muted shades, and a fair bit of white space... but not me! If i have a style that i'm happiest with it's bright, fairly floral/swirly and if there is cardstock showing...why?!!! I have loads of stash, it needs to be used!




I think this is one of the reasons that the challenges on UKS are so useful, they make me try something new. Not last night though: this LO uses Amy Butler Lotus papers (Flocked and lovely!) Prima and Autumn leaves stamps, and Bazzil bling cardstock, handwritten journalling and a bit of doodling with a lime green Sakura souffle pen. Not muted, little white space, a large title, just me!
Love these photos of Hannah too, taken on Boxing day last year at the annual family get together, she looks so natural.. i've seen this laughing face for the last 17 years, just love it!

Crop tonight

Am hosting a crop tonight at home, so have spent much of today tidying! Looking at the state of the house i think i needed something to get me moving.

Made a birthday card for a friend on a craft forum, used my embossing folders for this. I do love these, they make for a quick and professional looking card. I also used some of my hand made cosmic shimmer misted paper in the background, and some shimmered grungeboard. It's a shame but you can't see the shimmery quality of these in a photo.

While looking around the do crafts site i found this amazing book, now that's a use for an embossing folder i hadn't tried (yet!)

Using Masks

After watching Tim Holtz on You tube a while back i decided to have a go at decorating my own 12x12 papers using masks. Sadly i couldn't find any masks at the time,but i recently found some lovely tattered angels masks. The only downside of using these is that they don't stick to the paper,i used repos spray,and felted it a bit with kitchen towel to hold down the masks. (Tims stick by themselves,so i'm still tracking these down too) A quick spray with some Shimmer mist,let it dry and i had my own unique paper.

I used this along with some cardstock and the lovely new Amy Butler papers to makethis birthday page for Harry....Only 6 months late!

Aldi Scrapbooking

Now I'm not ashamed to admit that i have shopped at Aldis for over 17 years, since going on maternity leave with Hannah, so i have picked up lots of bargains over that time. Now it seems that lots of people are changing their shopping habits to try and save while they spend. A week ago i picked up a scrapbook from Aldis (Harry's last one was nearly full) for the princely sum of £6.99. They only had baby ones to suit his pages, so i just sorted my layouts and put all the pages of Harry when he was really small in this book. As an added extra, some papers came with the book.I wasn't going to use them, but i thought i would have a go as part of a challenge.

I scraplifted a LO from this months Scrapbook Mag,and after a lot of tearing,inking and distressing i'm pleased with how the LO turned out for very little outlay. I also used the date stamp i bought at a Stampin' Up party a while back, i plan to use this on my 'journal your Christmas' book for this year. Hannah looks so cute at just a few days old with black hair! I might repeat the page for Katie's baby photo, as it has been sitting in my 'waiting to be scrapped' box for ages.

Happy Mothers Day

So to my Mum and to Kathleen my MIL a happy mothers day. This is what i made for them a few weeks ago, playing about with Unity stamps and some friendly plastic, alcohol inks and fusible fibres. Since i went to the class at Stampeezee i have no problems with FP, and enjoy making things with it. The Unity stamps seemed perfect for this little project, i just hope they like them.

I also used up a bit of free and old stash in making the cards, i seem to have got back into stamping since going to a Stampin' Up party at Sheenas a while back. I love the big ink pads they sell, the range of colours is lovely, i can see me having to pick some more up in future... but where to put them?

Kev is cooking dinner as i type, no change there really, he keeps trying to rope the kids in, but is having very little luck. So happy Mothers day to all Mums out there (including me!)

Secret Card making...

I've been making cards lately but not able to post them until they had been received, so here's the first one. Sue Bubbles from the Do crafts forum has a birthday tomorrow, and as even her online name is after her lovely ginger cat, that decided the feline theme for me.

I used a set of cuttlebug folders i bought ages ago, some old See ds stamps and various colours of the Core'dinations cardstock. Also picked out some of the detail on the embossed and sanded images with glossy accents. Happy birthday Sue, have a great day!

I'm going to two crafty demos today, one at Stampeezee, the other at the Range. I really MUST NOT buy any more stash until i have made greater inroads into my current collection. I'm starting to run out of room for it all :) i just need to persuade one of the kids to come with me, am fed up of spending my time alone all week.

A Fraud...?

Well this is how i'm feeling, after seeing the doc today he signed me off for a further 3 weeks, although even the thought of seeing him last night affected my sleep again. I woke with a start as i was dreaming that a spider was running towards me and i couldn't get away. For fellow arachnophobes you can see why i woke in a panic, and couldn't get back to sleep again! (Even looking for this picture has got my skin crawling again...what is it about them that freaks me so much?) After coming out of the surgery i went to see Mum, but the stress of holding it together in the docs got to be too much. Feel OK now a few hours later.



I did have a go at this weeks UKS challenge, using some photos of Ollie recovering from chicken pox. He really loves to have his photo taken, even when he's all spotty. I like doing the challenges as they make me re-think the way i usually scrap, i prob wouldn't have used these colours had it not been for the challenge. Have had a little company this afternoon, Katie has been unwell, she went to bed on getting home from school last night, and didn't get up until noon today.... no, not just normal teen behaviour but a throat infection. I think she might be making mothers day cards a bit later.

Looking forward to the weekend, it does feel a bit lonely here at home on my own, there's only so much selly telly you can watch without going completely mad!

Keep the Red Flag Flying....

I know it's not fashionable today to be in any way left wing, but I'm so glad to be an active member of my Trade Union. I had a meeting today with my local rep, he was so kind and supportive and he really put my mind at ease. I did shed a few tears, but didn't come out feeling quite as hopeless as i went in to the meeting.

Spent the rest of the day tidying in the garden, as we did almost nothing in it last year (and it's big!) there's a lot to do. Just glad i made a start while the weather is good, and i felt up to doing anything.

Also made a silver wedding card for a friend of ours. It's odd, we are now of the age that silver wedding celebrations are coming round, it seems not so long ago that we were attending those weddings. I might do some scrapping tonight, the UKS weekly challenge seems do-able this week, and i have a cute set of photos waiting to be scrapped.

Sizzix swirls

I'm addicted (as are lots of crafters) to all things swirly at present, so i treated myself recently to some swirly original dies to cut chipboard and grungeboard. This wasn't the first use they got however: the challenge on UKS was to use fabric on a LO, not my usual thing, but i had a go at cutting felt swirls for this page of my sister at her wedding. A tip about cutting fine shapes from felt, glue the felt onto paper or card, and put the felt between a sandwich of paper when cutting. I'm really pleased with how they came out, and it has put this paper that i bought and have been hoarding for a while to good use. The cute little fairy is from a Monsoon top of katies that i couldn't bear to throw away. Those were the days, when she would wear pink!

Mum is coming round today to do some gardening... it really needs it but i can't convince myself to get on with it.

Happy 70th Dad

It's my Dads birthday today, we arranged a surprise for him and his two sisters from opposite ends of the country joined us for a lovely lunch at the Ricoh.

Happy birthday Dad!

A lovely film...

Well Hannah and I did go out to see 'The Young Victoria' today, you can't beat a costume drama, with a bit of love interest thrown in for good measure! The guy playing Albert was rather dishy too :). I took Hannah out for lunch after that, a real treat as we rarely go out together now. A fitting reward for her fab A Level grade yesterday.

On the way into the cinema i saw one of the TAs from school, she supports some of my lessons. She asked how i am, i gave her a brief idea of what the issues have been (mentioning no names of course) but she was so complementary about my teaching it made me feel a lot better. After all, she is in classes week after week, no special lessons seen, just the real teaching. And her opinion means a lot to me.

Here's the page i made at the crop on Thursday night, i used DCWV green papers, and some pics of Harry at Brandon Marsh from a couple of weeks back. I love the birds in this paper stack, as i bought some new papers the other day (where will i put them?!!) i need to make a dent in my existing stash. We had a new lady come to the crop, it would be great if we could get the crop off the ground properly again!

Some great news

Friday the 13th... but i got a lovely call from Hannah at school yesterday. She had just received her exam results for the first part of her Biology A level, and she got a grade B!!! As she was only 2 marks off an A, this should combine with the practical exam she did earlier in the year to give her a solid grade B so far. We are really delighted, although this is the only science AL she's doing, it's good to know that she's inherited some scientific ability from her father and me!

I managed to do a 12x12 LO for the first time in nearly a week last night, but my head was totally wasted after it, i just can't seem to concentrate on anything at the moment. Might upload it later.

Hannah's treat for her AL sucess is a trip to the pictures, Victoria beckons (can't beat a good costume drama!)

A snowy 8x8

As promised here is another of the pages i made at the end of last week. This one was very quick and easy, made the photo motage in PSE, used DCWV cardstock and some old dovecraft snowflake stash i'd bought for making cards a couple of years ago, and not got around to using. The embossed snowflakes are from one of the new Sizzix plastic embossing folders. I cut one out added some bling and used this in the top corner. The orange title was a total fluke.... Again i was sorting/rifling through old stash and found some American Crafts metal monograms, one i had used one of these to start the title, a scrap of orange cardstock finished the job.

Not too bad a day today... felt very low this morning, but have given the main bathroom a major clean (how we all didn't come down with some hideous disease i don't know!) so i feel like i have achieved something.