Number 19

Scrapping Inspiration

March 28th, 2012, in Inspiration, Papercraft

I’m setting aside a little time today to get stuck into some scrapbooking pages. My list of pages to scrap never ends, so screw the housework, this needs to take priority! Hopefully my husband doesn’t read this… Nah, he’s cool with my scrapbooking, as long as the house DOES look respectable!

I’ve still got a long way to go on my scrapbooking journey till I’m happy with my original ideas, so in the mean time I’m getting inspired, and scrap lifting pages I like. Here some I’ll be using for inspiration in the next few days:

shimelle scrapbooking layout using scraps 1
By Shimelle Laine

Scrapbooking Layout

By Shimelle Laine

Scrapbooking Layout

Starting Point By Shimelle Laine

Scrapbooking Layout

Studio Calico

Scrapbooking Layout

By Elles Studio

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Scrapbook: Sleep Songs

March 17th, 2012, in Papercraft

I am a paper HOARDER. And I am a scunge. I hate to think how much a page costs when you patterned paper for the background, and it frustrates me to no end when you WASTE patterned paper by putting stuff on top of it! These are the main reasons why I almost always use blank paper as the background. Don’t believe me? Scroll through the 12×12 layouts, it’s pretty rare to see a patterned background paper!

The problem with being a hoarder of course is that you end up with LOTS OF STUFF. That stuff has to go somewhere, and it has to be used somehow. It is also hard to remember what you have, when you have so much of it. SO, I am starting a new ‘thing’, and anti-hoarder ‘thing’, whereby for Lior’s scrapbook I use patterened paper for the backgrounds, and only use plain cardstock minimally. Can I do it?! I hope so!

So here is the first page I’ve done (but not the first page in the album) for his scrapbook. I REALLY like it with the patterened paper background. It means I can scunge on the embellishments a bit.

The journalling is as follows:

Sleep Songs

1. Amazing Grace

2. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star / ABCs

3. Ni No, Ni No

4. Jingle Bells

5. Hey Jude- The Beatles

6. Waltzing Matilda

7. Little Drummer Boy

I’ve got the Simple Stories Baby Steps collection to use throughout the album. I like that the colours are generic- I’m not a HUGE fan of blue for boys and pink for girls. The background paper is from the Picadilly collection by Basic Grey, and this sheet is ‘blue plate special’. I’ve gone through all my new papers from my Christmas present, as well as my ‘stock’, and have put together all the blue/aqua + yellow + grey sheets, as this will be my colour scheme for his album. I wanted it to be the colour scheme for his room (it was yellow if he was a boy, peach if he was a girl), but money and time I didn’t have, so it’s just a mish-mash! So I’m giving up on the room idea, and just doing the scrapbook. It’ll last longer!

Did you have a colour theme, or general theme for any of your scrapbook albums?

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Lior’s Baby Scrapbook: Title Page Photo Vote

March 16th, 2012, in Inspiration, Papercraft

There are many perils associated with asking people you know to vote on something for you. One of which is other people not having the same emotional attachment to what they’re voting on. Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?!

The other day I asked on Instagram, Twitter, my personal FB, and this blog’s FB page which photo (from the selection above) they thought should be on the title page of Lior’s scrapbook. The page will just be nice paper, one of these photos (possibly enlarged- depends which one it is), and his name & date of birth. MAYBE it will have his birth details (weight, length, time, etc), that depends a little on which photo I use.

These were the results from the vote (Make sure you ‘like’ Number 19 on FB so you don’t miss out on the other votes and ideas we post!):

One photo that didn’t get any votes was the collage of the ultrasound, and him on his first day. I know it’s not the best PHOTO, but I know how I felt when I looked at him, laying there in the same position as the only ultrasound picture I have of him. My heart lept, and it was a defining moment of “Wow, THIS is the person who’s been inside me for the last 40 weeks”. I know it sounds silly to think that, but I think there is a bit of a mental leap to make (well, there was for me at least) connecting all those special mumma/belly moments with this little person who is now outside me.

So that one didn’t get any votes, and it made me realise that people just didn’t know WHY that was a special photo to me. Why it was even in the running. Of course I love the photo that got the most votes too. The one where we’re kissing him and it says “We <3 Lior Picard Carbis”. If I use this one I think I’ll enlarge it so it takes up the entire width of the scrapbook page, or close to it.

Now this is obviously one of the less great things about asking people to vote for something. But maybe this is better. After all, I would like to tell the STORY of why this is a special photo, and I can’t do that on the front page. And also, this is an album that lots of people will view, some with no real connection to Lior at all. So maybe it’s BEST if it’s just a generally nice photo, which is self-explanatory, then something that is SUPER meaningful…

Thoughts?

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Hanging Old Newspapers On The Wall

March 16th, 2012, in News

So a little while ago I shared a video on my other blog about how Luke and I hang those old newspapers up on the wal l with the 3M command hooks. Well, we entered the post in a little competition, and made the top 8! So now we’re looking for some votes! We promise not to spam you all with constant requests for votes, so we’ll only do this once!

If anyone’s feeling generous, we would appreciate you moving your mouse over to their facebook page, and voting for our entry. Our entry is “Hanging Old Newspapers On The Wall”. All you have to do is ‘like’ our entry!
https://www.facebook.com/CommandBrand?sk=app_262100443840702

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Craft Room Horror

March 8th, 2012, in News

Want a quick peek at the messiest craft room ever?! It belongs to me, and sadly, I even made a video documenting how atrocious it is!

Head on over to And Sew We Craft to see how why I haven’t been doing much crafting lately!

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This Is How I feel…

February 28th, 2012, in Inspiration

I saw this video over at Ali Edwards the other week, and it’s been sitting, open, in my tabs every since then. I watch it every now & again, and I think, yes, this is how I feel.

I was so glad that I stumbled upon it, because I had been feeling like with everything I do creatively that it’s just not good enough, and I was getting a bit disheartened. I have tried my hand at SO many different arts & crafts, and I think it’s safe to say that not one is remarkably easier for me to get good results with than another. Sure, there are things I like better, and that attract me more, but I’m not necessarily better at them then something else. It’s hard to know what to do in a situation like mine. Should I continue to be mediocre at everything, or find one skill to focus on and get better at? Should I continue trying out all different things, becuase maybe I just haven’t found the thing I’m ‘good’ at…

And then I come back to the part where actually, I think some crafts hold more value then others (for me). Scrapbooking (for me) is worth persevering with, becuase it is memory keeping. And that’s something I’m passionate about. So if this video has taught me anything, it’s that I need to keep going with scrapbooking, and that I CAN learn to get better at it! Hopefully it inspires you to keep going with what you love too.

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Lior’s Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

February 23rd, 2012, in Quilting

I have finally finished Lior’s very hungry caterpillar quilt! I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out! I did all the quilting myself- some more practice of the free motion quilting. There are three different quilting sections- The border, the dots, and the pictures. Each one I chose to quilt differently, in order to match the style of the area. For example: I quilt traced around the pictures, and then outlined the white area. I outlined random circles in the circle area, and I did a swirly pattern in the border.

So there it is- all finished!

Very Hungry Caterpillar Quilt

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Free Journalling Tags (Download)

February 17th, 2012, in Digital Creativity, Papercraft

Just wanted to give you all a heads up that you can dowload these rad journalling tags from Two Peas In A Bucke t for FREE at the moment!

They’re great tags for birthday layouts, thought you could get creative and use them for invitations!

Free download here.

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Accent Vlog

February 17th, 2012, in Digital Creativity

So a few people around the place have been doing these accent vlogs. I know they’ve been around for a while, but I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now.

I have been working on Lior’s Hungry Caterpillar quilt (STILL!!), & will show you a preview of how it’s going soon hopefully! Well, hopefully I’ll be able to show you the finished thing soon!!

Here is a copy of the words and a questions:
The instructions are to say these words:
Aunt, Route, Wash, Oil, Theatre, Iron, Salmon, Caramel, Fire, Water,
Sure, Data, Ruin, Crayon, Toilet, New Orleans, Pecan, Both, Again,
Probably, Spitting image, Alabama, Lawyer, Coupon, Mayonnaise, Syrup,
Pajamas, Caught

And answer these questions:
What is it called when you throw toilet paper on a house?
What is the bug that when you touch it, it curls into a ball?
What is the bubbly carbonated drink called?
What do you call gym shoes?
What do you say to address a group of people?
What do you call the kind of spider that has an oval-shaped body and extremely long legs?
What do you call your grandparents?
What do you call the wheeled contraption in which you carry groceries at the supermarket?
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
What is the thing you use to change the TV channel?

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Hey Baby!

February 5th, 2012, in Inspiration

So I’m only THREE weeks late it letting you know that I’ve had my baby BOY! He is beautiful. Needless to say my hands have been rather full, and sadly, not with craft projecst (happily, they’ve been full with baby boy though!).

His name is Lior Picard Carbis. He was 3775 grams, and 54cm long. It took 2 days and 4 hours from when my waters broke for him to be born. 10 hours 1st stage labour, 6 hours second stage. It was a bit of a marathon, but he eventually got here on the 13th January!

Hopefully in a few weeks I’ll have be back into crafting properly, in the mean time, here are some photos of the little man!