Scrap Like You Mean It

You know Shimelle's Scrap Like You Mean It weekly challenge on UKScrappers? Well, in two weeks time [March 12th], Crafty Templates will be sponsoring Week 11 which is based around scrapping with fabric. And Leo has put together a special Quirky Kit for the occasion ... and you need it.

But don't take my word for it ... have a look for yourself:

There's also a cupcake design fabric option too. So, it's got cupcakes, Russian Dolls, crochet trimmings, luminous yellow ruffled ribbon, one of Leo's signature rosettes with a badge in the middle ... I could go on ...what's not to love?

And if that's not enough to convince you, how about the fact that it costs a mere £4:00!!! £4:00!!!

So give Starbucks a miss for one day, or make your own sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and then revel in the loveliness that is the Fabric Sundae Quirky Kit.

You know you want to.

Now the hard sell's over with [I think the marketing lecture I sat in on today has had an effect on me!] here's something pretty to look at. A sneaky peeky of my layout using the kit which you can see in full on March 12th. My but those dolls are cute!

I told you we could.

If you've been following my notes on paper from the beginning you may be familiar with this, my very first blog post in which I detailed my adventures into the unpredictable realms of Circle-Journal-Land. At that point I left you with the cliff-hanger about whether or not my long lost CJ would be returned unto me as some form of Christmas miracle. So....what do you reckon happened?

Yeah, that's right. Absolutely, precisely nothing happened. My stocking was bare. No mysterious unmarked parcel on the doorstep. Nothing. At all. It remains lost in the pit of crafting disasters ... you get the picture.

However, my team members stayed true to their intention to replace what I had missed out on and their entries into my new journal came rolling in. I've posting them here as they all sent me their work individually so, unlike when a CJ travels around the group, no one got to see any anyone else's contribution.

So, here is my Saying Yes CJ ... Take Two ....

My front cover:

My Introduction page - complete with envelope containing the whole 'stray CJ' saga:

'It's All About Saying Yes' :

This layout was created using my Gauche Alchemy Acme Kit. It includes two pockets into which I've tucked lots of tags - on the backs of which I've written lots of things I've said 'Yes' to over the last year. [These range from taking a screenwriting class and a Banana Frog workshop to entering the Best of British scrapbooking competition ... and more...].

Sarah Said Yes to 'Saying No':

Roo said Yes to 'New Skills':

Tracy said Yes to 'Climbing Mount Snowdon':

Clare said Yes to a 'Flight in a Microlight':

Margaret said Yes to a '3 Day Sponsored Walk' :

My page - 'You Decide on the What and the Universe Will See to the How':

This is an idea which I truly believe in ... and have fittingly celebrated it here with lots of glitter!!!! The vintage music sheet was from a QTea kit in 2008 and I was delighted to see that the song lyrics on it matched this idea perfectly: "Stop hiding behind a pillow, whenever the sky looks gray. Get up! Get out! And meet the sun half way." The quote on there in the pink speech bubble has a similar theme ...but is a touch more risque. It reads: "Ethel thought she'd pull it and see what happened" and is actually from a playing card sent to me by my friend Anna...who else????

I worked on my own pages for it while I was at my local crop and have shown everyones' work to the ladies who'd initially warned me about the perils of CJs before I began. They were extremely impressed by the quality of the work that has obviously gone into it and have come to their own conclusion that perhaps the best way to secure yourself a good Circle Journal is for people to pity you!!! I hope that this isn't strictly true ... but rather selfishly, I don't mind if it is right now! I now finally have my very own completed Circle Journal. At last!

My page 'Hope Blooms'

So, has my tale of good crafty folk chipping in to save the day restored your faith in human nature and left you feeling warm and fuzzy yet? Well, read on and you may get even warmer-and-fuzzier .... there were two of us whose CJs went awry and two of us who were given a second opportunity. Karen 'arranged' to have Audrey as her recipient in the UKS Secret Santa Advent Swap. She then used all her powers of subterfuge to get us to each contribute to a journal entry which she turned into a wonderful Christmas Day surprise for Audrey - a complete 'Strong Women' Circle Journal.

The Sign-In page:

It was a hard year for many on our CJ team and in between sharing news of bereavments, ill health, moving house, falling off bikes [that was me!] we sometimes found time to talk about papercrafting!! I don't mind admitting that once we knew all the CJs were in their rightful homes and that our chat thread would soon be closed some of us [yes, that'll be me again!] felt a little adrift and a touch teary.

We had ourselves a theme song to get us through [at the same time as being fully aware that we sounded like a gang of emotional drunks] ... do you remember what it was ladies??? How about one more for the road??? .......

"And now, the end is near, and so I face the final curtain ...."

Thank you 'CJs CJers'.
x

The early bird.

I'm early.
A fact which, if you know me by now, you'll realise is nothing new as I don't like to be late. I think the only time I was really happy to be late was when I was born a week overdue. I blame that on it being January and if there's anything I like more than being punctual...it's being warm!

But my Project of the Day over on the Banana Frog blog has been brought forward to rescue a damsel in distress whose project for today is a little delayed.

So, scoot over there today for some early St.Valentines Day love. Which is only appropriate really as J and I are going out for a meal tonight instead of tomorrow ... see, everything really does happen for a reason.

:)

All you need is ....

... love? Definitely.

But how about ... all you need is love plus two free packs of Banana Frog stamps?? Even better!

Each month the Frog blog sets a challenge for you to use Banana Frog stamps on a project and all you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is link to where you're showing off your project online. And you can do that can't you? There's a new Banana Frog Flickr group you can drop it straight into, leave a comment on the original Challenge post or even Facebook it. Basically Bev has done everything possible to make it easy for one of you to win some of her stamps [short of coming round to your house and assessing your work in person!].

So get out thy BF stamps and get started, there's no excuse not to.

The theme of This month's challenge is 'Love'. So, just show us something you've made with any of your Banana Frog stamps - and interpret the theme any way you like - on any form of project. It can be card making, scrapping, altered art, mini-books, paper crafts, fabric crafts, hovercrafts... in short, if it's neither illegal, immoral nor will it pose a threat to international security and it somehow involves Banana Frog stamps and 'love' on it ... then we want to see it!!!!.

The above photo is not my entry to the challenge it's really a sneaky peak of my next Project of the Day for the Frog blog which, as I contribute on the 14th of each month, appears in full on Saturday and as it's St.Valentines Day I've gone a bit romantic on you.

Pop over to the blog on Saturday (a) to show me you care/ tell me you love me / leave me a comment and (b) to see further pics of the card above and 2 other cards I've created on the theme.

See you there Saturday and in the meantime - show us some love!!
:)

Round Here.

Firstly I'd like to say thank you for the compliments you've been bestowing on the bag I showed you in my previous post, everyone likes to think that their efforts with glue and scissors are appreciated from time to time - so thank you for telling me so. Now it's my turn.

The rosettes I made were totally inspired by the beautifully funky handmade rosettes which Leo from Crafty Templates makes and includes in her super cool Quirky Scrapbooking Kits. I think I've mentioned before how I love round, circular, circley type, round designs and embellishments haven't I? So imagine my delight at getting little parcels in the post which include Leo's fab circular creations!
Below are some examples of the projects I've made using the Quirky Kits and the rosettes.

This felt and patterned paper embellishment was part of the Quirky Kit 'Christmas Journal'[which is still available you lucky things - I dare you to get a head start on your Daily December 2009 project!!]:
This red & white delight is part of the 'Somewhere in Wonderland' kit:

As is this black & white polka dot darling [I can never ever get enough polka dots ...ever!]:
And this 'deer' little thing was from the first Quirky Kit - the 'Natureific' kit.

I'm not allowed to tell you about how I got the cutest new kit delivered this week, which includes an utterly sweet and lovely fabric rosette [in polka dot fabric no less!!] which has a little something special in its centre. Nope. I can't tell you about any of that as it's for a special, highly top-secret kit which isn't out for a few weeks.

So, by all means go and bestow your love of the fabric rosette on to Leo but if she asks why you're all suddenly interested ... you didn't hear it from me. OK? ;)

A bag for every occasion.

This is my latest project using parts of my Gauche Alchemy Acme kit.

It's a year-long project inwhich I aim to photograph one outfit I wear each week and add it to the album. As it will be an ongoing project I need an attractive way to store it and all the materials I'm going to use on it, so I've made myself a matching bag [I told you I liked clothes ... and bags].

The hessian bag I'm using started life as a give-away I received while attending a lecture commemorating 10 years of the fancy library on campus at work [yes, that really is how I spend my free time!]:

Taking all of the fabrics which came with my Acme kit I hand-stitched lots of rosettes to cover up the printed design on the bag. The idea of flowery-ness [as I don't usually use flowers on my craft projects] was partly inspired by this very pretty project from my talented cropping companion Hannah Milburn which featured on the Banana Frog blog, and partly influenced by another highly bloom-y layout I made with the Acme kit [which you can see here].

I fixed the rosettes to the bag using my newest-most-favouritest product: Crafter's Pick 'Incredibly Tacky' glue. I'm not even being paid to say this, but it's amazingly good, it dries clear, it held everything perfectly in place...it is, in fact, incredibly tacky - who'd've thunk it?

Once I had everything glued into position I added loops of matching [and clashing] ribbons to the rosettes. Finally I cracked open my button & bead boxes [yes, they are all colour co-ordinated, you'd expect nothing less surely?] and sewed one into the centre of each fabric flower.
And here's the finished result ... ... complete with all it's contents safely tucked inside: I think it's an improvement on storing it all in one of my plastic boxes and at least this way, it won't look too out of place if I leave it lying around the house. Better still it's going to keep all my bits and bobs in one place, within easy reach, meaning I'll have no excuse for not keeping my 52 weeks of fashion album up-to-date ... famous last words eh?