Crafty Tuesday: Look Away Now If You Can't Bear Scrapbooking

Something for Crafty Tuesday! Oh boy oh boy!!!!

On Sunday, just before I was struck down with the dreaded lurgy (I don't think it's Swine Flu but you can never be sure, oink oink) I attended a whole afternoon of scrapbooking indulgence.


The first thing we had to do was this little 'project'; a sticky notepad folder. The front was meant to have clever embellishments in the shape of a gift tag with meaningful words stuck on but I stuffed mine up so when I got home I pulled it off and found a Little Nutbrown Hare to go on it instead. I really should listen to the instructor more carefully, and frequently.
This is what it looked like when you undid the bow.
So that was pretty ordinary :-) But my Mum is getting it in the mail for her birthday and I know she will love it because I made it for her especially and after forty blah blah blah years she still loves the little handmade presents I make her. Don't you Mum?

I did do something else with my afternoon however. I actually added some pictures to a page I did a while ago.


I personally don't like the overlapping photos idea much but Himself with his designer's eye said I needed some way to pull the page together as all I had to start with was Dorothy the Dinosaur. :-D

Not much to show for myself I suppose but I had a lovely relaxing time doing it. And I won the raffle so I got some free papers and stickers and that can't be bad right?

Want to see more craft? Click over to Barely Controlled Chaos for Crafty Tuesday.

Crafty Tuesday

I am so excited because I actually have craft (done by me) to post today. A plethora of craft in fact! Firstly, I made it to 'scrapbooking' on Friday night where they introduced us to this puzzle piece cutter thingy. We were challenged to do a spread using the puzzle piece as a theme. There were a variety of demo layouts to try and copy or, like me, you could do your own thing. Each of the puzzle pieces has a name on it, which I have cloned out (roughly) in 'Paint'. I do not know how Himself and his ilk do this kind of thing for a living. I have about zero patience for it. As evidenced here.

I was relatively happy with the finished effect as, I explained to Himself, it was a bit of a 'Ready Steady Cook' affair. You know the show where they present the chefs with random ingredients and they have to come up with something? Well, that's how this went. I had a folder of random photos, a selection of pages and coloured paper and the theme to work with. At least I finished it for a change!

I was so inspired that when I got home I finished a few more pages.

Himself doesn't like this one. I think I should have back mounted the photos but I was wearing out at that point. I might go back and do it if I'm feeling keen.

These ones were pretty simple but they had been sitting in the album, not stuck down for from 1 to 3 years depending on the photo! :-) At least they are in now.

And finally, the piece de resistance, at least it will be when it's finished; knitting!

I am making a cardigan for Oustiti's new baby Rosalie!! I am determined to finish it before the holidays are over otherwise it will sit around being unfinished until Rosalie is 25 and having her own babies!! :-)

Do you have any craft to share? There is usually a bit to go around over at Carrie's.

Crafty Tuesday

EEEK: This is a bit of a fuzzy start but I promised Carrie over at Barely Controlled Chaos that I would definitely post for Crafty Tuesday today and as this is the front page of the Baby Angel's album, you get it in all its blurriness. No I cannot be bothered taking another shot. Besides, it is my least favourite page...

Now let me explain a bit about my scrapbooking.

When I arrived in Aus 5 years ago I was adopted by the most wonderful bunch of people at my local church. They took me (and the BA) under their wings, plied me with champagne at the Rectory on Friday nights and danced the Time Warp with me whilst wearing VERY silly pants. Me, not them. Which reminds me, I must get a copy of that shot. The fact of the matter is, Anglicans are party animals.

Anyway. Time went by and they moved to another church and I moved to another church but we kept in contact and then the lovely Jenpa (not her real name) started running scrap booking evenings. On these evenings she usually teaches us a technique and then you get time to play and scrap at your own pace. So that blurry cover page is my first project from scrapbooking nights. Here's my next couple.

Since then I have continued to love attending scrap booking nights with my bottle of champagne and occasional bag of Dorritos in hand. We do our 'set piece' or variations upon it and then retire to the nearby home of friends to solve the problems of life the universe and everything. Here are some of my more recent projects. Now are we spotting a similarity, nay an anomaly here? Yes! It is the complete lack of photos!!! Which, when last I checked, are an integral part of scrap booking!!!!! Here is one where I let my inner rebel go wild. The exemplar we were emulating was more seemingly attired... And my most recent effort for those with young children will be instantly recognisable...But alas! Still no photos!!!

What does this mean? Could it mean that I am enjoying the champagne and company much more than the scrapping? Perhaps. But I do like to sit and fiddle with the cutters and create something. Could it be that I am too lazy/stingy to get a decent cartridge for my printer and print out all the requisite photos? Perhaps. Maybe I just don't have the time to sit down and finish anything.

Whatever the reason, you can be sure I will be back at scrapbooking whenever I can get a night off ! There is something very therapeutic about creating someone else's design and then fiddling with it. (see puppy in lower RH corner of puppy spread and nude sunbather!!)

So that's my crafty contribution Carrie. I cheated a bit as it is a cumulative but you can giggle away with me on Tuesdays as as I fail to put anything more onto the pages and yet continue to make more pages. Avec champagne. And who knows, maybe one day I will have a completed page to share.

Perhaps I should make greeting cards.

If you pop over to Carrie's you'll usually see some lovely craftiness on a Tuesday.