Index card & fabric folder.

After an annoying morning where the bank got my appointment time wrong and then a pair of amazingly wonderful high, high heels I'd spotted didn't fit me, I returned home, put the kettle and got down to some crafting.

This is what I made:I simply took a pack of blank index cards [50p for 50 from Wilkinsons] and wrapped fabric around them:

Using one of the cards as a template I marked the positions and punched a hole in my fabric:

I then eyeletted the hole to strengthen it and used a small bookring to attach the cover to the cards:

I then hand stitched a length of ribbon around the cover to act as a wrap closure.

As the note above mentions, the fabric and trimmings used are from the 'Hot Date' Quirky Kit from CraftyTemplates.

So, there you have it, a handy, pretty book to keep in my bag. I could use it to make notes about crafting projects, to keep shopping lists or just record my day. If I'd had it with me this morning the first entry in it would read:

"Bank appt @ 10:00am - not 10:30 like they tried to say! Tried on most perfect, high, grey, ankle strap shoes - didn't fit. V. bad. Even shop assistant said it was a shame!"

New Quirky Kit: Hot Date

I'll keep this nice and simple.

Crafty Templates have just released the latest Quirky Kit - called 'Hot Date' - which can be used to make a 2010 calendar or diary.

I've just received mine ....and it's beautiful . You'll probably want one. I know what you're like.


p.s: it comes packed in a pink box and includes sticky backed woodgrain vinyl. Need I say more?

The one with the chimp.

Us scrappers - we're not hard to please you know. No. Not at all in fact.

The simple combination of a yellow flower /black and red teapots /cerise table mat pretty much made Hannah and I light up with scrapping joy on a recent girlie day out to The Art Cafe which is exhibiting some of Hannah's work.

Before any food or drink could be consumed we each drew our cameras for a shoot out:
[Note how the flower considerately faced the camera in both shots. Weird eh? It's almost like two mad women obsessively moved the crockery etc around whilst seeking the most perfectly scrapworthy shot .....].
Everything I've used on these pages is from Gauche Alchemy. The card, trimmings and ephemera are from the 'Ball and Chain' mixed media kit and the pink bits and bobs are from the coloured-themed embellishment kit, all of which is available from their ArtFire shop. [The alphabets: model's own!]. Yes, the colour kit is called 'Pink Parts' .....the Gauche girls are in the process of allowing you, yes you, to choose new names for their kits. If you think you can think of something appropriately unique to name an orange kit then head over to their blog now where, for your trouble, you'll be entered into a prize draw. In fact they're hosting several giveaways at the moment so it's all yours for the taking!
Now, seeing as how you all stuck with me through my brief flirtation with misery in my previous post allow me to offer you some light relief ... at my expense ...
In an attempt to pull myself up by my bootstraps on Wednesday I embarked upon my Banana Frog 'Stamping School' project for September thinking that getting it completed a month early would lift my spirits. Until .... until I crouched to adjust my near-complete project, which I'd laid out on the floor just beneath an open dresser drawer .... and then I stood up.
Long story short: lower backs + the corners of solid oak drawers = pain; watering eyes; slight breathlessness; a pathetic phone call to sympathetic [but unsurprised] James; a lovely bruise and a swelling that gave me the appearance of having 3 buttocks. [Which I haven't].
Fast forward to Thursday night where I'd showered, applied Arnica to the unfortunate area and arranged the waistband of my jogging bottoms in a sort of low slung, extreme hipster style ....and I think you know where this story is going don't you?
I then attempted to unplug my laptop which involves leaning over a mini filing cabinet ... directly in front of a window ..... which has a house directly opposite it. Whilst mid-lean, balancing on one leg and at full stretch with my arms I could feel the waistband slipping and could do nothing to stop it! If it was not for my T-shirt being so long .... well, let's just say my neighbours would have had a front row view of those 3 buttocks.
So, there I am all aching back and joggies around my ankles when I manage to unplug the plug and straighten myself up, luckily with the majority of my dignity still in tact. Until .....
.... until I spot a pencil [from the pot I'd been leaning over] sticking out of the bottom of my T-shirt sleeve. Which is when I realised that, to add insult to injury, a chimpanzee had lodged itself into my armpit:

Dignity? Dignity?

Who needs it?

Personally, I think it's over-rated .....

Blogging it out.

I'm not strictly in the best of moods. In fact, I could be accused of being 'not myself' today. Evidence for the prosecution includes:

[1] I went grocery shopping and bought a hair dye on the spur of the moment.
[2] I had my car window open with the stereo absolutely blasting, something I never do [OK - so I was blaring out Coldplay - but still ...] and
[3] I attempted to burn off a Subara Impreza WRX at the traffic lights.

Clearly it's a case of identity theft. And my victim is some flash boy racer. I plead guilty as charged. But before you pass sentence please take the following into account:

[1] I've got lots of stuff, things, projects and plans on my mind.
[2] I'm not sleeping too well [although last night I did dream about kissing The Mentalist ....so life's not treating me that cruelly!]
and, more significantly,
[3] My friend HannahBanana is moving away which means, for a while, there'll be no more of our fabulous crafty / gossipy days in which we make very little art, drink very much tea, share all there possibly is to share and cry laughing at everything ....even the difficult stuff ... especially at the difficult stuff.

So go easy on me.

Something which should lift me a little from this malaise is that I managed to complete three of those UFOs I was telling you about here last week. Two of them need some more journaling in them to be entirely 'done' - but I don't want to rush that just for the sake of it.

I finally gave my book of motivational quotes a title. It's a quotation from the Roman poet Virgil:

"They can who think they can"

I'm finding it particularly apt at the moment and am currently working on the 'think I can' bit.

The following are another few quotes which should help me achieve what it is I'd like to achieve ....without feeling overwhelmed:

Anyway ... I'll brighten up soon, I always do. Plus, I've got good things to look forward to.

In a month's time: I get to see both Hannah and Dave Gorman again.
In a week's time: I'll be playing with the Crop-a-dile Big Bite I've ordered, and
In five minute's time: I'll be drinking my third cuppa of the day.

Life's not too shabby really. Not at all.

Not at all.

:)

xx

Measuring creativity.

Hello.

Sometimes my body and my mind have differing agendas.

Sometimes my body wants, more than anything, to sleep ...while my mind prefers to strike-up into full blown idea-sprouting and planning mode.

Sometimes this comes in useful.

When I was younger the solutions to homework problems which had hitherto eluded me, quite often dropped into my drowsy 'Inbox', just as I was drifting off to sleep. I soon learned that, to prevent me either [a] forgetting the ideas or [b] having to get up out of bed to scrabble around in the dark, or worse still, have to turn the light on, to write it all down ... I needed to start keeping a notebook by my bed. Which I still do.

I've even been known to write in it in the dark [James has often pondered on how I manage to do this while maintaining not merely legible but relatively neat handwriting ...I don't know ...I guess it's literally, one of my hidden talents!].

This week, the little team of creatives who hang out in my sleepy brain took advantage of an odd bird-call which has started waking me at dawn each day .... and they started shouting ideas at me. There's been all sorts going on in there; from ideas for future design team projects and blog topics to thoughts of belts.

Yes, belts.

So, I've paid several visits to my buckle tin in the last few days which, as the name tends to suggest, is a tin ... of buckles. I've picked them up from various antique fairs, junk shops and crafty places mainly with the intention to use them on papercraft projects.

But when my belt-related-inspiration struck ... I was happy to have a selection of belt-related accessories on hand.

Before going out yesterday morning I managed to see one of my sleep-defeating ideas through to fruition with the aid of an old measuring tape, a brushed metal buckle, two eyelets and a Silent Setter: I love it, even though I'm aware that it's a tiny bit eccentric and am I'm almost certain it drew a few looks from people when I wore it yesterday.

James however, says that the looks I received might have been because I was - and I quote -: "the hottest thing there yesterday".
But ... considering that 'there' was actually an exhibition of scale models, railways and Meccano ... and was thus filled with scale model, railway and Meccano enthusiasts ... in all honesty, and without a single hint of false-modesty, I can't really say that I was faced with a lot of competition in the 'hot' stakes!

It's the thought that counts though isn't it?

:)