Layout: There's A Hat For That!

Hello, hello.

Today's my day to share a project over on the 3DJean shop Design Team blog ... and this is what I shared:

It's a page based entirely around a text message James sent me while he was on a wander with his camera. And here's how the conversation went ...

Not that I should have given him any encouragement to go and find a deerstalker hat just in case he might at soe point in the future stumble across more wild deer ...

... because it's something that he's entirely likely to go and do even without me planting the idea in his head ... 

He likes hats. Quite a lot. Although, fortunately for my sanity, he really only wears 'normal' hats and that's only when it's necessary to stay cool or keep warm.

Instead ... he just gets it all out of his system by trying on all the abnormal nd embarrassing ones when we're in shops, or at the big market stalls at the airshow we visit each year. During which I can be minding my own business and nonchalantly turn around to spot him admiring himself in the biggest and most ridiculous hats in the place [think big Russian furry ones, pompous military ones ... pilot's ones!] .

And all the while he keeps an entirely straight face ... until he catches my eye and I can't stay embarrassed for too long ... and we laugh.

Usually followed swiftly by my walking away from himpretending I've never met him before in my life ... ;-)

OK, not sure I meant to ramble on this much about James's hat-based foibles ... so I think I'll end it here for now!

All of the papers used for my page are from the Pion 'For Father' range currently in stock at 3DJean.

Thanks for reading me today.

Julie x

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Shop Update:

I've spent the last week working on another new range of creativity / crafty-materials packs for my shop.

This has involved:

• covering my entire living room floor with paper, card and bits and pieces for 3 days!
• designing, arranging and packaging around 35 new kits;
• and taking hundreds of photos of them all.

I'm aiming to start adding them to the shop this week ... as soon as I get a good block of time free to tackle it.

If you're someone who's bought lots of spray inks, paints and other colour-wonderful stash recently ... you might just enjoy what's inside the packs ...

I can't wait to share!

Plundering Pages for cardmaking: Love hearts

Greetings.

Today's project is a card very similar to the one I shared last time, so you can either consider this latest effort 'consolidation' or 'repeating herself' ... depending upon how charitable you're feeling! ;-)

And, just as last time, once I had chosen the image I wanted to use all I had to do was cut around it and mount it on to a card I'd already covered in patterned paper.

[Theheart design paper is 'Edition Speciale - Love' by Infocrea from 3DJean:

I used 3D foam pads to raise it slightly from the flat card ... mainly because I have a filthy 3D foam pad habit [I do like a bit of dimension to a project!], but also because it makes it easer to place a thin paper image over the top of any ribbon/twine/trimming without any lumps and bumps being visible:

 I also mentioned previously how images taken from children's annuals and storybooks often come in existing framed squares/rectangles - just like this one - making them perfect for snipping out and palcing directly on a card.

Similarly, vintage, retro or in fact any illustrations you've cut from books [or found in your Plundered Pages packs] are just ideal for:

• anyone who loves the idea of beautifully coloured images as the focal point of their card ...
• but who doesn't like to [or can't] colour-in digital or rubber stamped images themselves:

This way of crafting really does embrace the most basic 'cutting + sticking' instincts of papercrafters. You simply:

• find an image you like;
• cut it out of the book [or let me do that bit!];
• stick it on the front of a card.
• The end.

And yet as simple as it is, you'll still have made a completley unique card!

I'd love to see your interpretations on the same idea and if you've bought a pack of Plundered Pages, I'd burst with excitement if you shared something you've made with them.

I've also been considering putting together some specific 'Plundered Pages for cardmakers' kits ... and I'd love to know if you think that sounds like a good idea.

I'll be back soon.

Julie :-)

To Boldy Go Home: for Sian's Storytelling Sunday

Hi you.

Today's post is my contribution to Sian Fair's 'Storytelling Sunday' feature over on From High in the Sky. If you'd like to join Sian's merry band visit her here for further details of how to begin telling - and sharing - your own tales.

Now here's mine ...

To Boldly Go ... Home
The nearest large town to where I live is a very much maligned one. It's one often criticised and held up for ridicule and it's one which gets kicked frequently, even when it's down.

So much so in fact that several years back it was named the worst place to live in Britain.

Nice, no?

But stick around, this isn't the full story. [If it was, it would be filed under 'fiction'.] No, it's just that you need to know that background in order to understand:

• [a] why I took the following photograph at a train station a few years back; and also ...
• [b] how come it makes me laugh ... [if I'm allowed to laugh that is ... what with living in the worst place in the country and all ...]:

The advertising poster couldn't have been more perfectly framed behind the sign for Middlesbrough could it?

So, not merely is it the worst town to live in ... Middlesbrough is now apparently also The Final Frontier too!

And, whatever else they say about us [and they say a lot]... no one can say that those of us living up here, at the heart of the final frontier, don't know how to see the funny side of life!

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Thanks for reading my story. There's plenty more waiting for you at Sian's place.

I'll be back later this week with ...  maybe some scrapbook pages ... maybe more cards ...probably both ... who knows.

Happy new month to you!

Julie :-)





My Month in Numbers 2012: March

Hi, hi, hi.

March has drifted by without me being able to do anything whatsoever to stop it ... which means it must be time for another monthly round-up ... in numbers ...

27 = the number of Month in Numbers posts I've written to date!

2 divided by 3 = the number of scones bought and eaten by friends and I en-route to our twice yearly crafting weekend away:

We'd already eaten lunch and all wanted to try the scones but, inexplicably, we decided against having one each. So there then ensued an impromptu Maths exam with us trying to work out the easiest way to divide the 2 between the 3!

[For the record there was no easy way to do it! Not when you just really want to eat scone, right now, so it gets cut up any which way. And then, the other 2 decided I should eat the leftover piece ... not that I put up much of a resistance!]

3 = the paltry number of stands I spotted selling 12x12 scrapbooking papers at the papercraft show we visited while we were away. And what there was was mainly old stock.  It was so disappointing.

I mean ... it was a papercrafts show ... with hardly any paper!! Someone bring me the Trades Descriptions Act ...

24 = the number of chocolate treats hidden around the cottage as part of our Easter themed egg hunt, with 3 of us hiding only 8 treats each so we could all still play along without knowing where they all were.

And, in case you were wondering, this is what a group of fully grown adults looks like while searching for 24 hidden chocolate treats:

And ... it's just possible that both Jan and I forgot where we hid the 8th one of both ours which led to some serious searching of cupboards and memories!!

40 = the number of days until Bring Up the Bodies [Hilary Mantel's sequel to the much-featured-in-2010's-Months-in-Numbers-posts Wolf Hall ] is published. Not that I'm counting the hours ...

And, speaking of books ... it reminds me that the very unofficial [i.e: non-existent] Month in Numbers book club has had its first success. Nathalie let me know she's reading [and more importantly - that she's enjoying] Andrew Miller's Ingenious Pain after I mentioned it here last month. Yay!

600 = the approximate number of paperclips in the 2 boxes I stocked up with this month. And while they may not be the most exciting buy they are necessary as I go through a lot of them when clipping together my Plundered Pages and Interesting Bits kits.

I'd asked James to bring some in for me when he went to town, which he gladly did, but not without posing the question "Who even buys paperclips?". Errrm ... me!

Approximately 50 metres = the level of visibility we had in a quite eerie-yet-magical visit to the seaside last Saturday:

An unseasonal, very thick white mist painted-out the entire coast!

You're going to have to trust me that, on any ordinary day, there should be a beach in this photo. With sea in the distance. But not last week!

[BTW:  James and I have just had a long, unscientific, discussion over how on earth I could put a figure on the level of visibility we had last week without having measured it on the day. So we've resorted to Googling the length of the pier and then analysing the photos we took that day ... like something from CSI!]

And the reason we were at the seaside in the first place ...

50 metres = the length of the Olympic-themed guerrilla knitting which has appeared on Saltburn Pier in recent weeks:

It was fabulous to see, such good fun and there was a lovely festive feel with everyone taking photos and chatting about the different knitted scenes and characters along the railing.

But let me just give you some advice ... when you're a scrapbooker who makes a deliberate trip out to take photographs of something as utterly photo-worthy as this spectacle ... make sure of 2 things:

1. that the day you decide to go isn't the foggiest you have ever seen on a beach ever in your life ever!! [I swear there were children running down to the sea who just suddenly disappeared into the mist and out of view. This completely spooked both me and, judging by how much shouting and calling out names there was going on down there, it spooked their parents too!]. And ...
2. Make sure your camera battery is charged up. Which - horror or horrors - mine wasn't. I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold my scrapbooking head high again. I had to take lots of photos very quickly ... before the battery ran out completely!

But not to worry, I'll be nipping back there with a fully charged camera soon enough because, let's get serious here ... photos of guerrilla knitting are going to be taken and scrapped come hell, high water ... or freaky thick fog!

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So, that's how my numbers shaped up for this March ... how about yours?

If you are planning to share your own statistics, and if you'd like to take full advantage of the Pinterest pinning and the community aspects involved, then ...

... here's a quick reminder of the Month in Numbers 'etiquette':
If you're planning to share a post this month and you'd like to leave a link for myself and others to come and visit and/or pin please bear in mind it has a shared experience aspect to it, so [as I mentioned earlier in the month] ...

• when you swing by here to drop off a link to your post - please leave a comment for me while you're there. Not because I'm needy ... but because it feels fair. Reciprocal.
• please link to my blog in your post. As much as I'd like to think that everyone who reads your blog already knows what 'My Month in Numbers' means... the truth is, they don't. So unless you explain where the idea comes from and how your readers can join you in doing the same next month, they are none the wiser.
• Please take time at some point in the month to visit and comment on a few of the other posts too.

OK then .. go forth and share numbers! I'll look forward to reading them. 

Julie :-)

Plundering Pages for cardmaking: Fasten Your Seatbelts

Hi again.

Today's card builds on something I mentioned in my previous post [the one with the osprey illustration] that:

• many retro illustrations taken from kids' annuals, storybooks and encyclopedias are often square or rectangular in shape, making them ideal to feature on a card.
• and, more often than not, in stories from annuals in particular, they're already set out in framed scenes such as this one:

Click to see more projects featuring vintage papers

So, once I'd selected the image I wanted to use [for an especially adorable little boy's 3rd birthday] all I had to do was:

• cut around it;
• mount it on to a patterned paper;
• and add that on top of a card I'd covered with gingham paper and wrapped a ribbon around:

My finishing touches were made from some brown + white baker's twine threaded through a button and an old 7Gypsies word sticker:

So, hopefully, if you've never used vintage images before [or if your Plundered Pages are still lying unmolested in your stash bag] I hope I've begun to change your mind ... or to at least make you consider testing it for yourself! 

Make sure to let me know or link me up when you do! And if a step-by-step wouod be of any use to you ... just give me a shout!

I'll be back on Saturday with My Month in Numbers, see you then then!

J x

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Shop update:

I uploaded 11 brand new, one-of-a-kind, Interesting Bits kits to my shop today:

All of which meant I spent all day yesterday picking, packing and photographing an awful lot of paper and embellishments!!

[So much so in fact that today I had to explain that "Taking photos of things I sell online" was what it was that I do in front of the window all day when asked by the lady who lives directly opposite me!]

As I write, 2 of the kits have already sold, so clearly someone, other than me, out there thinks my bits are interesting too. You can drop by the shop if you'd like to see why!