Studio Tekturek pages on Scrap365

I have two scrapbook pages on the Scrap365 blog today using some lovely patterned papers from Studio Tekturek. This is one of them, why not pop over to Scrap365 to see the other one...

A carry everything craft bag

Woohoo! My craft bag takes pride of place on the front cover of the month's Sewing World.

Craft Stamper news

I have exciting news. I am a new contributor for Craft Stamper. You can see my first project (technically not my first as I had a scrapbook project in there a few years ago) in the new January issue as I am making some items using that fabulous free feather stamp you can see on the front cover.

So egg-citing!

Woohoo! I'm on the front cover (well, my fabric eggs and Easter chick are) of the March issue of Sewing World.

My Fimo celtic knot beads feature on the front cover of this month's Beads & Beyond too ( third box from the left on the top row).

Some nice things at the end of a yucky month

So things have been pretty quiet on here this month. We have been besieged by illness in our family for the past four weeks which, thankfully, weren't too serious but have just taken up the whole month. There has been a horrible sickness bug which hit my little boy one week, me the next week, the blonde one the week after and my husband the week after that. It has led me to a very unusual decision... I am not making Christmas gifts this year, or even handmade cards (GASP!!!).

This will be the first Christmas as a grown-up when I won't be sending handmade cards - sorry in advance to friends and family who tell me how they look forward to seeing my designs. I've bought cards from school that my girls designed so they will still be unique - just not the "finished individually at 1 in the morning" unique!

On a much happier note I am featuring in three magazines this month and even made it onto the cover of two of them - yay!

You can see my Scandinavian inspired bag on the front of the current issue of Sewing World.

My Fimo star bracelet is nestled nicely in the bottom left corner on the front of Beads and Beyond, and there is a chipboard robin hiding in the current issue of Scrap365 by me too.

Beads and Beyond

I've been meaning to mention this for a while, but the time has slipped past and this is already last month's issue of Beads & Beyond. I was over the moon to see my Fimo beads on the front cover. Beads & Beyond have a feature showing 8 "recipes" for making beads and I was asked to make 8 different polymer clay beads using a Skinner blend technique. There's a little peak into my craft room at the back too and I'll let you into a secret - it doesn't normally look that tidy!

Bags, beads and brooches

I can't believe that it's been nearly a month since I made an appearance on here - whoops! It's end of term madness here with picnics, concerts, sports days, thank you presents, birthday parties and tired children all in the mix. I have managed to squeeze in quite a bit of crafting too, but it's all secret magazine projects. I have to try to get ahead of myself now as I know not much will get done over the summer. I hoping to have some time for playing in the evenings.

One of my secret projects is not so secret now though. Can you see the little bird brooch in the right hand lower corner of the bookazine above? He's one of mine! This is a bookazine just released by Traplet and it's got loads of great patterns and projects in it. I quite fancy making one of the bags in there, especially as the handle on my everyday bag broke last week! You can find out more about the bookazine HERE.

Cover girl again!

Woohoo! One of my projects has made it onto the cover of this month's Sewing World again. There's even a mention of another of my projects too ("Memories are made of this").

On the front cover

I'm so excited as my first project for Sewing World magazine has made it onto the front cover - hurray!

A peek at a scrapbook quilt

Issue 4 of Scrap 365 has just arrived and I'm excited to say that it features a scrapbook quilt by me. Here's a little peek at the quilt.

New things and exciting news

First of all some exciting news, I've been asked to join the team writing for Sewing World magazine. Hurray! It's lovely to have an excuse to buy more fabric!

With all the magazine projects and workshops that I've been doing lately I decided to treat myself to a few new things. I am not a fan of shopping (unless it's craft shopping or course), and I particularly don't enjoy shoe shopping much. I think I'm too practical as I do stop and look at beautiful shoes, but I can't imagine when I would wear them so never buy them. I found these boots after a chat with a friend and they are from Josef Seigel and they were in their online half price sale (hurray again!). The colour is interesting and I really like the stitched detail so they appeal to the practical me and the decorative me.

I have never coveted a tea towel before until I saw this one in the Emma Bridgwater catalogue before Christmas. I thought I had dropped enough hints before Christmas but I didn't find one wrapped up under the tree, so I was very pleased to find it in their January sale (can you tell I'm a bit of a bargain hunter). I haven't used it to dry dishes yet. Will I? I'm not sure yet. I like it so much I could almost frame it.

My ultimate sale bargain this year was a new duvet cover from the beautiful shop Anthropologie. I get their catalogue in the post every now and again but the prices are so out of my league that I usually just look at the very pretty and stylish pictures for inspiration. I was so excited to find one of their patchwork duvet covers for £25... reduced from £278!

Scrap365 - the wait is nearly over!

It's not long now until Scrap365 is in the shops. It's so exciting! This morning I was reading posts on UKScrappers and it appears that some subscription copies have arrived this morning. The comments have been fantastic... " it's full of gorgeous creativity", "Full of inspiring, creative and interesting projects and techniques", "it looks great".

If you haven't got your copy yet, you can see the front cover on the blog here. The cover star this month is the ultra talented Mahlin Wiggur. I worked with Mahlin on the Bubbly Scrumptious design team and her work is fabulous - I'm a huge fan!

There has a been a small disappointment in that the first issue won't be in WHSmiths but Traplet have sorted out a deal so customers can buy the first issue with free P+P from them. The details are all on the Scrap365 facebook page .

Ta-Da! Scrap365 blog hop

Hurray I can finally let everyone know my very exciting news! I am on the Design Team for the brand new UK based scrapbooking magazine Scrap365. Have you heard about Scrap365 yet? It's a new magazine from the people who publish Craft Stamper with a fabulous international design team. I am completely honoured to be part of such a talented team of designers and crafters. It's going to be great! Hello to everyone joining me on here on the trail of the Scrap365 blog hop - if you haven't joined in yet, have a hop and you could win a great prize. More on that later...

Let me introduce myself, my name is Emy Buxton and I live near Bristol in the U.K. I have worked as a freelance crafter since 1999 doing various jobs and have been scrapbooking since 2002. I used to write for a few magazines a while ago but I took a break to have three children. I now have less time to craft but lots of lovely photos to scrapbook.

Five things I love about scrapbooking...

1. I love COLOUR! My pages are usually packed full of colour - pattterned papers, paint, inks, mists.

2. I love stitching. I like to use hand and machine stitching on my pages. I am particularly excited about free-motion stitching at the moment. I have also started working on projects bringing scrapbooking and quilts together.

3. I love making and finding unusual embellishments. I make my own bits and bobs using Fimo, chipboard, felt, paper and ribbon. I also love scouring auction sites and flea markets for bits and pieces too. The border on the page below is made with drinking straws...

4. I love telling the stories behind the photos. I am striving to get better at journalling.

5.I love being creative. Scrapbooking brings together so many of my crafty loves. I'm always looking to learn new things too.

I hope that lets you know a bit about me and my scrapbooking. If you'd like to know more about Scrap365 then you can keep up to date on the magazine blog. You can also like them on Facebook and follow on Twitter (@scrap365mag.com). The magazine will be on the news-stands and available digitally on the 18th November.

Would you like to win a great prize? How about a year's subscription to Craft Stamper AND over £20 of stamps ! To enter the competition you need to leave a comment on here and every other design team blog PLUS the Scrap365 blog. Please leave a comment on here telling me what you love about scrapbooking.

Now on with the blog hop, click HERE to meet the oh-so-talented Anna Bjorkland. Check out her fabulous use of paint.

Who me?

I've been taking part in Cheryl Johnson's portrait class and picking up loads of great tips and techniques for better photos. Our last module was really fun with lots of ideas for characterful portraits. Here was my favourite shot of the ginger one. She was a very willing model, particularly when I got out the face paints. I'm looking forward to scrapbooking this picture - oh, the stories I could tell!

On a side note you may spot my name in the current issue of the Scrapbook Magazine in the Four Ways challenge. I got to play with a "Quirky Kit" from Crafty Templates. It was a fabulous kit and I was really pleased with my page. Unfortunately I was so excited about it I forgot to photograph a sneaky peek before I put it in the post - oops! I guess you'll just have to buy the magazine to see it!

Craft Stamper - project peek

I mentioned in my previous post that I'd had a project accepted by Craft Stamper and the magazine arrived yesterday with my "Stamping for Scrapbookers" project. I wasn't expecting it so soon - time is really flying by this year (how can it be June tomorrow already?)

I'm so happy with this scrapbook page (it's very me, as it's a little bit painty and a little bit stitchy!) and here's a tiny peek at it.

Works in progress

I seem to have been a bit quiet on here over the past couple of weeks when I've been doing lots and lots of crafting. The photo above is a sneaky peek at an art quilt I'm working on for my little's boys room. I'm so pleased with the painting part of it and now I've just got to finish the sewing part. I've shown him the finished painting and he points at it and says "Choo choo" - can you guess what it is yet!?

I've spent the past few days working on a wedding scrapbook and we may be seeing the bride and groom this weekend and so pictures will follow next week. I like the recipients of a present to see it first before I upload it to the rest of the world.

I've also been working on a couple of projects for a couple of issues of The Scrapbook Magazine. I have just completed my first project for Craft Stamper too. They really liked it and have asked me to write some more projects for them in the future - yay!

Just to top things off, I've signed up to another online class called "She Had Three Hearts" about art journalling with Christy Tomlinson. I signed up as I feel my work is moving toward a more multi media approach and the class looked perfect. Christy has uploaded 28 videos in the first week! I have no idea when I'm going to find time to watch all those, let alone play with paints. The class looks amazing and I'm hoping to devote some time to it in a few weeks.

So I guess - watch this space for the results from all these projects!

A scrapbooky sneaky peek

Here's a sneaky peek at my layout that appears in the current issue of the Scrapbook Magazine. It's one of my favourite layouts that I've made recently.