Tag Archive | papercraft

Smash!-ing

Mar22

I was born a scrap-booker. I didn’t know it but that’s exactly what I was doing when I spent my summer holidays cutting things out of magazines, collecting tickets and postcards and taking photographs galore. I had a separate scrapbook for all things related to my favourite football team Aston Villa, my holidays in Germany with my sister and the Olympics. I would pretend I was a magazine editor and put together a “publication” every week made up of my favourite cuttings and stories and sometimes I illustrated them myself.

When I went on holiday I’d collect everything and stick it in a scrapbook. Receipts, tickets, paper bags, they are all kept for posterity. In those days the scrapbook was a cheap affair consisting of thick, recycled grey paper which was very absorbent and very dull. Scrapbooking today of course is a multi-million pound (or Dollar) industry and I love saving my memories with lovely papers, flowers, embellishments, ribbons, buttons etc etc.

However, anyone who is a serious Scrapbooker knows that it takes time. Lots of time. Each page is a work of art and is meticulously put together. I find that if I focus on a scrapbook, I don’t have time to record daily memories so when I discovered Smash! booking I couldn’t wait to start! This is what SMASH-ing is all about;

“SMASH from scrapbooking specialists K & Company is for moments and musings that stick. If you love to journal, collect sketches, tickets, old photos, cards, snippets, lists, dreams, recipes… then a SMASH folio is the perfect way to bring together your story and create a wonderful piece of art that goes wherever you do. A brilliant collection of matching stationery includes sticky notes, mini pads for jotting, calendar accessories, decorative tapes, bookmarks, dividers, handy 2-in-1 sticks that are both a pen and glue, and more. SMASH books and accessories are ideal for ongoing projects and events , journaling your travels, a customised daily planner and diary, or simply recording and reflecting on your everyday inspirations. See it, love it, stick it…SMASH it! Part journal, part sketchbook, part scrapbook – SMASH is irresistible!”

When it came to deciding what theme to have for my first SMASH book I got stuck! After all that. There is so much I want to do but it was all jumbled up in my head until I thought that my first attempt would be a book of inspiration. It will be something I can look at when I need a laugh, a smile, a bit of encouragement and endorsement and to help me carry on regardless.

So, I am in the process of sorting out all my inspirational quotes, pictures, poems etc for my first book. I can do this around my neice’s wedding scrapbook and other projects and refer to it periodically for support.

I will let you know how I get on but if anyone has done a SMASH book already please let me know how you got on (pictures very welcome!).

fence

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The Wedding scrapbook

Jan5

I have now completed 30 pages for my nieces wedding scrapbook and have had to buy another album to put them in. I am going to limit myself to 52 pages in total which, by the time I’ve added photos, journaling, tags and the matching embellishments, will make a couple of really lovely mementos of the day. No two pages are the same colour or design although I have used the same paper in some of them.

It is a difficult task to do as each page takes a while to design, plan out and complete. I wanted to get as much done before the wedding as possible so that when I get the photos of the day, I can finish off the pages quite quickly in weeks and not months. If I had left it until after the wedding, it may have been a Christmas 2014 present instead of the wedding present it is.

I don’t really want to use any of the official photos as they will already have those presented to them in a formal wedding album. Instead I will be taking lots of photographs myself and will try to capture the more informal and personal moments during the day.

I have planned the scrapbook so that there is plenty of space for journal entries, both visible and hidden behind photos, in mini-envelopes and on tags. I have also tried not to take the emphasis away from the photos and journal entries by making the pages so full of embellishments that they draw the attention. It is a difficult balance to achieve and only time will tell whether I have been successful. I like to include lots of surprises in the scrapbook and the happy couple will find lots of them when they come to explore each page. That’s the fun of scrapbooking, you can include all sorts of very personal touches like mini-letters, words of wisdom, poems, favourite things etc etc and it is great fun for me contacting everyone for their contribution.

Scrapbooking is a great activity for me especially when low on energy and fighting fatigue. I get lost in the design and creativity, it is very relaxing and I like to feel that I have done something constructive. It is also a hobby that you can leave for a while and pick up at a later date with ease.

I recommend it!

A creative mess

Jan4

Following on from my earlier post I managed to “persuade” hubby to go and visit his friend in Leicester as I was planning to “open my shop”. This is what he objects to (in the nicest possible way) as he has given up trying to make me tidy up as I go along.

But what I can’t get him to understand is you cannot suppress creative urges just because you are focusing on keeping neat. All that divine inspiration would disappear in an instant, lost forever.

Anyway, who cares when your scrap booking intentions exceed expectations and you make a lovely page like this? I have now prepared 29 pages ready for the photos of the wedding day, hen party (ies) etc and I can’t wait to finish the project although I shall miss it when it’s over and done with. I have had to buy a second album to fit all the pages in as 29 will probably end up as 59 but it will be a very personal present and something which I hope that Pippa and Dan will treasure for a long time.

Pippa's wedding album Page 29

PS We had a different postman today who arrived early and hubby had to sign for the package…..sadly my scrapbook papers arrived in a 12″ x 12″ cardboard box so it gave the game away and I had to confess to my indulgent spending. 😦

Butterflies and Bows

May10

This week has been a real struggle and my emotions have swung from a complete melt-down on Monday, when I truly thought I was heading for hospital in-patient treatment to a mini-high on Wednesday when I thought I’d cracked this latest episode of depression only to dip again yesterday. Depression can be a roller-coaster of a ride and I have certainly experienced the very lows and some mediocre highs over the last few days.

I have committed myself to going back to work on Monday. I am not 100% yet but I have to make the effort and start to get back into routine. It will be tough. Very tough, but fortune favours the brave and I am determined to challenge this illness as best I can and I need to be back with my friends and colleagues.

In the meantime, I have been trying  very hard not to sleep during the day in preparation for the long days ahead. I have kept busy without exerting myself too much and although I feel exhausted, I know I must not give in to the fatigue without a fight. A regular sleeping pattern must be established if I am to return to work successfully so no midday naps allowed!

Instead, card making has taken priority today, and another design inspired from an article in Craft Stamper.

Butterflies and Bows.

Butterflies and Bows

Butterflies and Bows

Gorgeous.

Exploding box

May8
Exploding Box

Exploding Box

Today I made an “exploding” box, something I have never attempted before but which I will definitely do again as I am really pleased with the results.

I was inspired by an article in Craft Stamper magazine, decided to have a go and even though I didn’t know what my theme would be, it came together nicely as I went along. I still need to decide what to put in the box as a surprise when the lid is taken off and the leaves inside explode, but it can wait until I find something a bit special.

The box is made of three separate layers, each one slightly smaller than the outer layer. The corners of the flaps are rounded off and the lid is also made out of coordinating paper.  This particular box took 3 pieces of 12″ x 12″ double-sided paper and 1 piece of 6″ x 6″ paper for the lid and therefore it is a fairly economical project.

It would make a lovely birthday present or alternative to a card and you could even scrapbook it and add photos, tickets and mementos to transform it into a personal gift.

Lots of ideas but I must go an cook dinner. 🙂

Inside layer

Inside layer

Middle layer

Middle layer

Outside layer

Outside layer

Forecast-Warm and sunny

May5

005

Summer-John Clare

Come we to the summer, to the summer we will come,
For the woods are full of bluebells and the hedges full of bloom,
And the crow is on the oak a-building of her nest,
And love is burning diamonds in my true lover’s breast;
She sits beneath the whitethorn a-plaiting of her hair,
And I will to my true lover with a fond request repair;
I will look upon her face, I will in her beauty rest,
And lay my aching weariness upon her lovely breast.

The clock-a-clay is creeping on the open bloom of May,
The merry bee is trampling the pinky threads all day,
And the chaffinch it is brooding on its grey mossy nest
In the whitethorn bush where I will lean upon my lover’s breast;
I’ll lean upon her breast and I’ll whisper in her ear
That I cannot get a wink o’sleep for thinking of my dear;
I hunger at my meat and I daily fade away
Like the hedge rose that is broken in the heat of the day.

It appears that for once the weather forecast is right…it really is warm and sunny and even anticipated to get warmer tomorrow. If I felt well in myself, I would suggest that we go away for the day but the thought of travelling, traffic and lots of people persuades me that I am much better at home, taking my time and keeping myself busy in between periods of fatigue. I am still shaky from the high-dose medication and I have difficulty in concentrating or focusing on a task for any length of time, but I am definitely improving.

It is lovely to feel the warmth of the sun at long last and let’s hope this weather is set fair for a long time to come.

Card-Wise old owl

Card-Wise old owl

Card- Life's a beach

Card- Life’s a beach

More drawers

Dec28

My sister was well into her forties when, at a dinner party, I understand that she confessed to still having knickers bought by our mother when she was at Uni on the basis that “a girl can’t have too many drawers”!

I went to boarding school and it seems that I suffered the same fate as Big Sis and was wearing mum-supplied underwear for many a year despite claiming that I hadn’t enough drawers for my drawers.

Perhaps that explains my love for upcycling chests of drawers as a hobby as and when I can get hold of them-subconsciously thinking that I need wall-to-wall storage for my underwear! If that’s the case so be it, but I enjoy taking in orphaned and unwanted wooden drawers and transforming them into a piece of furniture that is not only functional, but looks good too.

Here is my latest project-just awaiting knobs 🙂

009 008 Drawers