WOYWW 168

A quick WOYWW post today as I am literally mid-crafting. After a lovely trip to Bristol with my boys last week they have gone to Gramps and Grandma's house for a couple of days of fun and I'm spending the time getting creative - at the moment am catching up with my July photos in my document:2012 album - we had a manic month in July so I'm including a lot more photos than normal. Spotify is on the PC, listening to lots of music from the early 90s and feeling young...

Once I've finished this I want to put in a photo order and after that I've promised myself some LOs from some lovely new stash that's arrived this week...

5 on Friday - Crafty Projects

I'm currently enjoying some leave and one of the things on my to do list is lots of crafts, here are 5 projects I'd like to do...

1. Get some more of these lovely granny squares made for my version of this lovely Summer Garden Granny Square blanket from the amazing Attic 24 website. I've made about 10 so far and really want to crack on with them in the next few weeks

2. I quite often like the projects from the Scrapfit website but rarely participate. This month's challenge is to use pinwheels and I really love how they look on LOs so hoping to complete this challenge.

3. Am very tempted by this lovely looking book from the Book People - it's only £2.50 at the moment!

4. I've got nearly everything I need to make one of these no sew noticeboards from Hobbycraft, just need to acquire some wadding and I'll be getting started.

5. And finally this online event doesn't get started until I'm back at work but am thinking of signing up for it now and being ready when it starts to participate fully.

Quick LOs and how I did them, part 2

So these were the rest of the LOs I made by chopping up my Cre8tive kit:

Another LO about the family wedding we've just had.

2 more from our day trip to France:

And one about a family meal out

These came together really quickly, I had all 8 done in one weekend, and I genuinely did do other things that weekend too! I felt this type of scrapbooking worked very well for me and am definitely going to have another go at it soon....

Quick LOs and how I did them, part 1

This post includes a mention of a great scrap shop, Cre8tive -Katie the owner always brings along a great selection of goodies to the weekend/12 hour crops run by Parkside Craft club. I couldn't attend the crop in July but did pop in to have a stroke of her lovely stock and ended up picking up this kit - which I now notice is out of stock. I really loved the papers and embellies and though it was great value - but how to use it?

Well, inspired by this post I was brave and got the paper cutter out and cut it all up fairly quickly. I made a heap of background pages and over one weekend turned them all into LOs.

Here are some of the backgrounds... (apologies for the photo quality, I'd lost my camera (!) and had to use my mobile phone to snap these instead):

And here are some of the LOs I made - so quick to scrap like this.

Photos from a day trip to France last year:

Photos from my bro-in-law's wedding in early July - am thinking of doing an album dedicated to the day as I have lots of photos printed off.

And finally for now, playing in the park before a christening...

The only things I added were some alphas, washi tape and cardstock, and I couldn't believe how many LOs I produced, will share the rest in my next post...

Cover to cover update... Albums

So earlier this year I took Shimelle's Cover to Cover class, I hadn't done an online class for ages and was looking for something to reinvigorate my scrapping - it was fab, a great online community and a heap of ideas. During the class I re-organised all my LOs into chronological order, or what I thought were all my LOs - another pile turned up in the middle of summer. I had some album issues - just not enough, and some were so stuffed with LOs that they really needed expanding into a second volume.

Since the class ended I have been gradually buying more albums - just one a month and continuing to re-organise as I start scrapping all the photos I printed as a result of the class. I'm not fussy about having them all the same colour but I do like to get the American Craft d-ring albums as I have lots of page protectors that fit them! I've seen them on sale a couple of times and picked up 2 but I'm now at the point where I have enough and can use my funds for some other goodies for a while.

I've completely tidied my scrap room and finally got round to labelling my 12x12 storage, which means I'm now using them more effectively. From top to bottom they contain large scraps, 12x12 paper, refills & LOs and in progress projects. In general though LOs are photographed and put away in their chronological place immediately after I finished them. 

I've made up several page kits so I'm already to go if the scrapping mood hits me.

Finally I persuaded my lovely hubbie to put up some shelves in a spare corner of the room. The stuff on the bottom shelf is his, but I'm using the top one to store alphas, some unstarted projects and sewing bits, my governor folders and my magazines.

Overall I feel a lot happier in a more sorted environment and when I do sit down to scrap I am getting on with it a lot quicker and achieving a lot more. All the albums are still (and will remain) a work in progress....

5 on Friday

First time joining in with 5 on Friday - I love these sorts of posts though and have lots of ideas about 5s I want to write about all ready....

First up 5 products that are on my 'to buy' list following Summer CHA - there was a fair bit that caught my eye and I did love some of the Christmas collections but I am stash busting this year for my JYC album so am trying not to look at the Christmas stuff at all.

However after some major stash busting in the first half of this year I do need some regular PP and embellies and these were the collections that made it on to my list...

1.

First up is Persnickety by Lily Bee. I'm still into chevrons and think this mix of colours will go well with my photos.

2.

Fancy Pants the Good Life. Again love the mix of colours, and will suit the heaps of boy photos I have well. Those pennants are v cute too.

3.

Have been using Simple Stories Documented for my Document:2012 album and have found them really easy collections to use and play with. I love the colours of this Harvest Lane range and think they'll be good to scrap autumn photos on without being too gimmicky halloweeny.

4.

Echo Park For the Record 2, I've bought several EP collections and they generally get used up pretty quick. This was my favourite of the autumn collections they released and I like ALL these papers.

5.

MME The Sweetest Thing Bluebell, quite similiar in colours to the EP collection above, but looks a little softer? Love the brads and have already ordered some of this collection, mainly because it's the first one that's arrived in the UK. Just waiting for the others now...

WOYWW

Right am a first timer WOYWWer but have blog-hopped through and seen some other desks before, so hoping I get this right!

This week I have an in-progress LO that has been on my desk for a while - the bones of the LO are done, I just need to stick them together and put a bit of meat on them! The slice is out as I've been making embellies for my holiday album. Near the PC there are instructions for facepaints - we were at the Olympics on Sat and all had mini union jacks painted on...

Under them is the mini kit I put together for the half-finished LO on the other side of the desk, and behind them are some bits of wedding memorabilia I'm saving for an album. The photos on the far right are spares which I want to send to my sister in law.

This week I want to finish that LO and plan some projects for my leave period - not much time to craft though with a work trip to Manchester, and then taking my boys away with my cousin for a little road trip to see my parents and then on to a nice hotel for a few days in Bristol, should be fun!