It's a Creative World

I scrap for me.

We've all had the conversation. We've all thought about and debated why we scrap. Me, I scrap for me! I scrap because I love to scrap. I love paper and embellishments and shopping for stash, and I love the process. When I die my albums may land on a big bonfire. And do you know what? That's okay. Because I scrapped for me.

In 2006 a group of very talented ladies got together to give us UK Scrappers a weekly prompt. They were Speshal! They dared us. And each week I loved to play along.

 

The thing I loved about this project, was that it got me thinking about NOW! What did I feel when I read the prompt?

 

Each prompt really made me think about my emotions. About what made me, me.

 

On that day this is what I felt. And that's also why I made a point to date all the layouts.

Looking back at the dares now, I know today I would interpret some very differently. Lets look at an example.

THINGS THAT MAKE ME MAD!

 

Oh this does make me laugh. At the time of doing this page, I was a train commuter. Selfish ignorant people made me mad. And boy did it drive me nuts when people spoke loudly on the phone or put their feet up on the seats.

Today my priorities are different, I may think about the state of the world. Politicians make me mad with their expences row, and the constant bickering and backstabbing, when they should be doing something to sort out the NHS, or education, or unemployment. You see??

It is so interesting to see how we change as people. How our opinions change and what's important to us today is not what's important to us tomorrow.

You can see the rest of my pages here.

So in 2010 we are doing a year long project called Simple Things. You can see the launch post here. This month we're working on the word, SIMPLICITY.
My project will be based around the monthly word, BUT also about me in 2010. Each word will stir an emotion, and I will art journal that emotion. The feeling will be NOW.
I am so excited about this project!

Thanks as always for visiting! And I hope you have found a little inspiration from todays post.
Caz
xx

Winter warmer

Winter Warmer!

 It looks like the cold snap is still hanging around, so why not make the most of the wonderful parsnips that are still in the shops?

Spicy Parsnip Soup(serves 4-6)

this soup is lovely and deliciously creamy with a mild curry flavour, although, you can really spice it up if you want to feel the heat!

1 medium onion
1 large carrot

2 large potatoes

3 or 4 parsnips

Dash of olive oil

1 block of creamed coconut made up to ¾ pint with warm water or a tin of coconut milk

1 tablespoon chopped coriander

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

1 tablespoon curry powder or paste

1 inch size piece of peeled fresh ginger

a vegetable stock cube

Peel and chop all the veggies into an even sized dice.

Very finely chop or grate the ginger.

In a large pan heat the olive oil and gently cook the onions without browning until they are soft.

Add the curry powder or paste and cook for a couple of minutes whilst stirring.

Add the remaining vegetables and ginger,the stock cube and cover with water, and simmer gently until the veggies are softened.

Blend the soup with a blender or in a liquidiser-add the coconut cream or milk, and enough water to make the required thickness, adjust seasoning and bring back to the heat.

Serve garnished with chilli flakes and chopped coriander.

Lovely served with warm bread

ENJOY!

Ali

X.X.X

Tag Journal

Hi Deanne here, I was so inspired by Eleanors project 2009 with the gardening theme that I've chosen a project for myself to do quite close to that.

I've made a mini book out of tags from February to December 2010 to show the progress of my allotment throughout the year.
I used gorgeous crate papers, and I'm still on my use my scrap stash too so I really enjoyed making this journal.
The front and back covers are glimmer misted, I love them as they look so dirty which resembles the allotment life brilliantly.

 
Each tag has being decorated with patterned paper on the front with the first alpha for that month

 
  On the front of the tags also I'm going to add a wallet size photo of my favourite part of the lottie that month. The backs have being left plain so I can journal whats being planted and harvested that particular month.

The pink metal tags and twine were a christmas gift last year, although I didnt want to use them in pots so I'm going to make use of them on my journal instead :)

 
Do you have something you could document each month? It only took me in total over an hour to decorate my tags ready. Cant wait for February to come so I can get started.
I'll show my progressing journal on garden time

Thanks for reading :)

Simple Valentines Card

Hi Debbie here, trying to get organised and make a simple valentines card that can be adapted to suit many occasions.

I covered a blank white card with patterned paper and cut a circle using a fiskars shape cutter. I then cut a circle in contrasting paper the same size as the aperture in the middle 2 "and slightly larger on the outside 2.5"

I then cut two identical hearts in pearlescent card and cut through the middle to the centre, one cut from the top and one from the bottom.

Then I cut a tiny strip of acetate to hang the heart from the card, and attached it to one of the hearts, (I have taken a photo with pale blue paper to show you where to attach it)

 

I added pink stickles around the edge of each heart and slotted them together when they were dry.

I attached the acetate to the top of the circle and then used the circle in contrasting paper to hide it. I stuck the frame on using 3D foam dots.

I like the 3D look of this card, it would work with many shapes and it does fold flat to go in an envelope. 

This is a simple Christmas card I made using the same method.

Thanks for looking,

Debbie x

Easy Grunge Board Mini Book

Hi from Caz!

I found myself in need of a mini book that I could use to keep a record of my DHs birthday and Christmas gifts. You see he is a fan of Single Malt Scotch Whisky. It's not something I would buy him on a whim because it's a little pricey!! so it's saved to buy on special occasions.

Each birthday and at Christmas time I really battle to remember what he had the year before. There are so many distillaries and years and casks and oh goodness it had me in a spin.

So I decided to make him a book that we could record the whiskys by distillary and he could even rate them if he had the urge ;)

 

The style of the book is quite old fashioned and so easy to make!

I simply cut 5"x3.5" pages and punched the holes using my crop-o-dile.

 

Using one page I measured where the holes should go in the grunge board and punched them also using the crop-o-dile. I had to do the holes quite near the edges of the pages so the crop-o-dile would reach.

 

I wanted the pages to be a big as possible so didn't want to make divider tabs. Instead I punched circles and bent them around the page edge. They are visable and work just as well!

 
  
The grunge board is inked with Distress Ink (Antique linen) and i've used MM mixed alpha rub ons for the title. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the rubs on worked cause i've had them years and they worked well on the grunge board too. Good ol' Making Memories :)

A very simple, easy and hopefully hard wearing mini book!

 

Thanks, as always, for popping by!
Caz
xx

Fabric decorations

You may remember my Resolutions that I posted on New Years Eve. One of them was to use my textile inspiration kits to make some Christmas decorations and I'm pleased to say I've made a start already! 

I started by tracing the shape I wanted on to silk. I then sewed on beads:

I then cut a co-ordinating piece of cotton to use on the back and sewed them together using a metallic embroidery thread leaving a small gap to put the stuffing in. (I found an old cushion and used the kapok from that). I then sewed around the remainder after adding a length of ribbon.

 For my next one I again traced the shape on to silk and then used free machine stitching to randomly stitch over the design with a metallic thread. I then sewed on sequins and beads before cutting the shape out .

For this decoration I chose a piece of co-ordinating felt for the backing before following the same steps as previously described.

Both of these will work well with our Christmas theme of blue, silver and purple. Alternatively they'll make great little decorations for any time of year!

 I wanted to make another and for this one changed to use a yellow-gold silk that I have and some Indian bindi embellishments. I used alcohol ink to change the colour of the metal before sewing them to the silk along with some beads. The machine embroidery was done using a variegated metallic thread and after adding a felt backing this thread was used along the edges.

I really enjoyed making these and can see myself making a few more in the future!

Thanks for visiting IACW!

Jo x  

  

Take one stamp

Hello, Eleanor here again, with another circle journal entry, this time it's the very last one in the circle called Take One Stamp.

Hard though it is to be the tenth person to think of a fresh creative way to use a rubber stamp, for me, as soon as I saw this particular stamp...

I knew it could only be one lion, who else, so I stamped the image onto the centre of one of my trusty 20 cm squares of cream cotton curtain lining, and fished out this messy pile:

Some many hours, no, maybe days, actually, it was weeks, later, I had to restrain myself from adding just one more stitch, (more's the pity, see below) and declare, in the words of C S Lewis:

“It was a lion, huge, shaggy; and bright it stood facing the rising sun.”

On the facing page, I embroidered a quote from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe:

Letter by letter, in a single strand of embroidery thread.

I enjoyed this immensely, and I hope the owner is pleased with my version of her  lion stamp, even if, in my haste to finish my entry, and post the journal off to her, I didn't give him any whiskers. I wonder if she will add some. I hope so.

If you have an unusual rubber stamp and can't think how to use it, try some freestyle embroidery.

Cheerio.

Simple little gift idea

Fridge Magnet Gifts by Scrapdolly

I saw these cute little fridge magnet frames in The Range just before Christmas and they made such cute stocking filler gifts. They are perfect to pop into a card and send through the post – a cheap, light-weight gift that shows you care.

 

 

They range in size from 3 ½” x 5” right down to 1 ¾” x 2 ½” and the prices go from 49p to £1.49.

There are all sorts of things you could do with them. You could actually fit a small cross stitch design inside if you were very careful. You could stamp and colour an image on card and then even add embellishments onto the frame itself to give added dimension.

 

 

 

You could put a photo inside or, you could do as I have done, and fill them with little digital scrapbook pages.

Yes, me banging on about digital again!

 

 

I made miniature digital pages using PSE 5 and then printed off the images on high quality photo paper and popped them inside the frame. They look very dimensional, are practical because they wipe clean and were just a neat way of giving an inexpensive

but thoughtful gift.

 

 

When finished pop it back into its little bag and it looks like such a special little gift.

 

I can see them appearing on fridges all over the country.

 

 

 

 

I can’t wait to see what you all come up with.

A labour of love and a

work in progress...

Hi folks from Di in sunny South Africa, sweltering in the humidity of Durban.

Do you have a problem saying no??? LOL I was so pleased when a colleague who saw my work asked me to do a wedding album for her. She has been married for 7 years and she presented me with a pile of photographs. Here they are:

 

When I saw them I was overjoyed because so many of the precious memories were black and white or sepia.

So where do you start??? I started with the papers - when I saw these papers I KNEW they were just Michelle. They looked sort of mediaeval and gentle and I just knew she would love them.

Here they are:

They colours are gentle. I bought  5 or 6 patterns in the range and 40 sheets of 'Crafty Brown' cardstock". So that's my tip -  stick to a range if you are making a big album!!!

Then I chose 2 or 3 ribbons and flowers:

And of course some very simple embellishments

Ok I have said it before : if you are creating an album with about 40 pages you CANNOT make every page a work of art. What you can do is create a work of art where all the pages fit together.

Here are some of my WORK IN PROGRESS pages, just waiting for the finishing touches.

An update of the finished album is planned for soooon.

Thanks for visiting IACW and love always from Di XXX 
 

Scrapping the not so straight photos

Okay so most of the time I tilt the camera to purposely take squiffy photos, but sometimes the only decent photo of them all is the one with the poop background and the very trendy angle! Oh and neither girl is looking at the camera! 

 

All the photos I took on this day, were either blurry, or baby girl Zara had her eyes closed! All but this one, and it happens, so who cares, it needs to be scrapped.

Not all our photos will be perfect, photo studio lit and all smiles. Have fun with your not so great photos, use them anyway. The memory is what counts!

If you have layouts with not so great photos to share, please leave us a link in the comments.

haPPy nEw yEAr! And happy picture taking :)
Thanks for visiting.
Caz
xx