Toot Toot Tuesday Welcome Virginia

One of the Creative Girls, Katherine (you may know her as Sutty) told us about her friend and UKS teamie Virginia. She said:

"She is a fantastic scrapper, and loves stitching on her pages (much like me :)) and the most amazing art journaller....she creates stunning pages which I know you will love.  If you would like to find out a little more about her and see her work her blog is http://celtichouse.blogspot.co.uk.  Please join me in giving her a warm welcome to our blog."

Nuff said, here's Virginia, we are all delighted to welcome her onto our Creative Team:

Hi Everyone, I'm Virginia AKA Celtic Angel on UK Scrappers.  I'm a long time scrapbooker and art journaller, I  also love mail art, general creativity and playing with paint and have been doing a positive post once a week on my blog for quite some time now.  I'm so pleased to be here, when Katherine first asked me I was "yay" followed by gulp!  I've loved the blog for a while but to be asked to join was a little overwhelming, then I got scrappers block (you know the bit, where you can't consider managing anything creative), what on earth could I share?  I over thought the post (nothing new there) and decided on some intricate and complex task, but finally my hubby said why don't you just write about what you are doing now - so I thought - why not!  So these are some of my current obsession and this post is about how easy these are to put together - don't believe me then read on.

Currently I'm back in scrapbooking mode in a big way, I tend to move from art journalling to scrapbooking and back again with a mix of mail art and other such delights in between.  It's potentially the huge stack of photos on the right hand side of my desk that I'm currently in scrapbooking mode and with another break away looming I didn't want to be getting the next lot of photos through without making a dent on the last lot.  However, my layouts were lacking a certain something.  I think it could be said that I'm a frugal scrapbooker, I don't like one hit wonders (you know the ones we drool about in the shop but often can't justify the cost because well once they're gone they are gone) I like things that have longevity that I can drag out of the cupboard time after time to create something new.  

Like most scrapbookers I hoard paper, I can't help it it's in my 'just in case' nature.  So I have two methods of storing the scraps a large 12 x 12 folder and a small box for all the tiny pieces that I can't let go.  This is what the small box normally looks like 

full to the brim with those scraps, but how about putting them to good use, you need a few of these 

and one of these

and a few stampy words - go on go and have a rummage, you'll be amazed at what you find

now have a mass cutting session and a mass stamping session

then add a sprinkle of some other basic ingredients, glossy accents, inks and some foam pads

once you've finished die cutting your shapes, cut out your words and then start layering inking and creating, a few glossy accent dots and you're good to go! 

This lot without the glossy accents

and this lot with

so next time you get scrappers block and have no idea what to do, just do a bit of die cutting (and if you don't have a die cutting machine, don't stress just cut some basic shapes out, rectangles and squares work just as well.  Stamp yourself a few words (or write a few statements up on a simple computer document).  Do a bit of inking, layer up the elements with the foam dots and soon you'll have a stack of these.  So when inspiration is lacking you've got some homemade embellishments, ready to go straight down on those layouts (middle bottom of page) 

and this one bottom right of photo

I hope this provides a little spark of creativity for you when scrappers block hits next time - just set about creating some little embellishments - much fun I promise you. 

Comments

[Katherine]

It's fantastic Virginia :)

[Lynne]

Fabulous, I'm off to sort through my scraps, thanks for the inspiration. x

[Joanna]

I enjoyed nosey-ing round your craft stuff, Virginia! Great ideas for inspiration, thank you :)

x

[Carmen]

And there's me thinking you sat and cobbled together all your layers while you were doing the page Virginia :) Great idea and a lovely peek into your creativity.

Congratulations on getting onto the team too :D You KNOW I love your stuff!

[Eleanor]

Lovely chatty inspiring post Virginia, and I love the photo of the dies all carefully in their little pockets. Sigh. :)
E
xx

[Erika]

Great idea.

[Susan Foulkes]

Fabulous idea! And ,as a recipient of some of Virginia's embellishments, I can say that they look even better in real life!

[Sarah]

one of the most productive people I know, and now I know how :) great tips Virginia!

[Debbie]

Wow think I need to tackle my scraps, brilliant ideas thanks x

[Scrappyjen]

Great ideas! You are a star Virginia!!! jenx