A New Year's resolution

A bit of a strange title for August (and nearly September), but I've been thinking about my New Year's resolution as I'm about to start a new class which sums it up.

Going back to late last year, I was feeling really bored with scrapbooking. It had become a chore and I wasn't being creative at all, whizzing through the photos completing basic scraplifts. It had stopped becoming the creative outlet it was when I started in 2003. My New Year's resolution was to be more creative in 2010. I started looking into scrapbooking reatreats, as I had attended similar weekends years ago. The costs have gone up a lot over the past few years and the logistics of going away for a weekend with a young family at home seemed unlikely.

That was when I discovered Shimelle Laine's blog and online classes. Shimelle was one of the tutors I remembered from those weekends away and I knew I had enjoyed her classes. I signed up for her "Something from Almost Nothing" class, which was £10 for a month (what a bargain!). I really enjoyed the class and also took part in "Love your photos Love your pages" (see previous posts!)

I've also signed up to a gorgeous Sassafras Lass class by the very talented Leila Bentahar, but I'm yet to complete it as I've only just decided on my photos. I'm eyeing up two more classes I've found on Big Picture Scrapbooking and My Creative Classroom, but more of those later (if I feel like I can squeeze them into my day!).

With so many new products around I've found this such a great way of learning new techniques and getting excited about scrapbooking again. I've also met (online) some very talented crafters taking part in the classes who have inspired me too.

Onto the next class which starts tomorrow... "Learn Something New" from Shimelle will have a prompt every day - I'm hoping I can keep up. I've made my album. It's very mini (3.5" x 4") with chipboard covers. I've made up a box of co-ordinated papers and embellishments, so I should be able to make a little page fairly quickly.

Looking forward to getting more creative

xx

Welcome for a little one

Here's a little card I made for my friend's new baby boy. It's also my post for Bubbly Scrumptious this week. I used a chipboard frame and car and created a cloud of exhaust with a spray of cosmic shimmer (which my other half thinks sounds like somewhere a unicorn might live!). Here's another picture so you can see more of the 3D-ness. This is my favourite card I've made in ages.

Lipstick, powder and paint

I've ben trying out stamped titles and here's my layout that's on Bubbly Scrumptious today. To see more click here .

Box puppets

The summer holidays are here and so I've pulled out my box of boxes, bottles, packaging etc to get making with the girls. We were inspired by an episode of Mister Maker on Cbeebies to make these puppets from two identical sized boxes that are sellotaped together at the open ends to make the puppet.

When I asked the girls what animal they wanted to make, it came as no surprise that they requested pink cats, particularly when they saw my shiny pink acrylic paint. These worked really well ( although I did use my glue gun instead of the glue stick they used on the programme so that they could be played with enthusiastically without everything falling off!).



I'm very happy at the moment as I won one of Shimelle's challenges at the weekend! My name was picked out for the "Up Above" photography challenge (my night sky photo) and I've won a pack of photo papers of my choice. Thanks Shimelle :)

More party photos

Here's a last few photos for Shimelle's online crop challenges. Here's my photo for the smile challenge...



Here's a photo for the challenge " Portrait or candid" ...


And here's one last one for the photo challenge to take a picture at home. This was our indoor picnic as the promised picnic wasn't going to happen in the pouring rain outside!

Party photos

Here are some photos taken for the photo challenges from Shimelle's online crop.

We saw this fantastic green beetle on the echinacea on the way back from the swings this morning and it was perfect for the nature challenge...


We took this while watching the meteor shower, perfect for the sky challenge...

We were asked to add a laugh to an existing photo and so here's my funny one. I added the text and altered the colours using the Picnik website.

Party pages

I've been working on some more pages for the online crop at shimelle.com. This is my page for the "Scrapbooking with Squares" challenge. I love this type of "choose a shape" challenge as it makes sorting out the materials for the page very easy. I go through my scrap paper box, ribbons and embellishment boxes and just pull out everything that relates to the shape. I like how the squares have all worked together on this page.

This was a challenge to use a heart on your page...

This challenge was to use a downloadable alphabet on your page. It's an attempt at a simple page (as I don't usually do simple!), but there are enough fiddly bits to keep me happy.

I used my ancient bottle of Diamond Glaze to create the splashes.

Party, party, party!

This weekend there's an online crop party at shimelle.com. This is the second time I've joined in with one these parties as I found it very inspiring and a great help to whizz through the large stack of photos I've got waiting to be scrapped. This time it's a little different as there are photography challenges too. It started yesterday and we've got until Tuesday morning to complete the challenges.

This was my entry for a sketch challenge...



This is my go at a patterned paper challenge...

This is my page for a challenge about scrapbooking with circles. I've finally scrapped this photo of the boy, which is one of my favourite photos and I've been a bit nervous to actually scrap it. I also got to use my lovely new Martha Stewart button punch - hurray!

Here's the first of the photography challenges. we're to try to take a photo of a light at night and this is one of the essential items in our house at the moment...

And finally a photo challenge to get up close. I chose a game of pick-up-sticks...

Birthday Saturday

Saturday has come around again and it's my turn on Bubbly Scrumptious. I've been card making and using those adorable characters from the Sassafras Lass range Monstrosity (again). Here's a sneak peek of a first birthday card I made. To see the whole card click here

Birthday Monster!

A little post today to show you a card I made for my friend's little boy on his first birthday. I bought a kit with the Monstrosity papers by Sassafras Lass and these were some of my leftovers. I love this range.

A day at the Museum

After our recent trip to the Natural History Museum in London I ended up with lots of photos and so I've had another go at a mini book, but I tried a shaped one this time. I used a Maya Road Dino album as my starting point and then used Basic Grey Archaic range as the background papers. The papers and photos were sanded, sanded, sanded and sanded! It was worth the effort though as the edges look really great after I had inked them too.

This was my project last Saturday for Bubbly Scrumptious. Here's a closer look at some of my pages...

Inspiration in a tent

It's been a quiet week at my desk as we've been camping at New Wine. There's not much time for crafting when you're in a tent with three small children!. However there was a very inspiring art exhibition at the conference and I particularly enjoyed the work of Emily Bradbury and her lovely feltmaking. Here's an example..




I also found a gorgeous selection of glass millefiori beads at the Infinite Beads stand. I have a weakness for glass millefiori as I love making the Fimo version so much and my everyday necklace is one made with similar beads simply strung on elastic. However it needs some TLC at the moment after the children use it to swing off and so I've treated myself to some new beads.

These beads are very new to the company and aren't on their website just yet, but they said they'd be happy to help anyone who sent an e-mail asking about them.