WOYWW? Buttons and glue!

First stop this afternoon after work was "Crafting Around" in Newport, after running out of glue refills for my tape runner last night in the middle of a project I decided that drastic measures where needed and I bought ten refills :) not likely to run out again anytime soon!

So here is my desk after unpacking a few items that were added to my shopping list.

I popped into Julian Graves to buy Trav some pecans and saw they had these lovely jars on special. I have a few of these and wanted four more to complete a storage look I've been after, so they were placed into my basket along with a bag of jellybabies and some chocolate covered brazil nuts (on the left). I'm fed up of not being able to reach the tiny buttons at the bottom of each jar so decided that this evening I would sort all the buttons from the minibuttons.........
Oh what a life of excitement I lead! ;)

On the left of the photo you can see a pile of satin ribbons, these are for minibooks and cards. under the ribbon is a pad of PM Christmas papers, I have been asked by Barnado's to run a class for families the week before Christmas and I thought that I would have a play about at making a 6x6 minibook for family photos.

part way through sorting the buttons (above)
My "sweet shop" style button selection (below) I think I'll add little coloured labels to each jar and I still have to add a circle of paper to to top of each jar to cover the label.


the other end of the shelf hold my RUB's with inks, ribbon dollies, flowers, and paper oddments.
My minibuttons after sorting they look almost good enough to eat!
well maybe not? I'm off now around blogland to see what everyone else is up to this evening.

A crafters worst nightmare!!!!

Oh heavens!!!!! I have run out of sticky stuff!!!!!!!! what will I do?

I was on a roll this evening dinner was done the dogs were sorted and I was ready to settled down and make a minibook for my friend. Everything is cut and inked, photos are printed but that's it!!! FULL STOP!!!!!
Thank heavens for Gok! at least i have something to watch :)


And now I can chat to Julia on facebook :)

Making a good start

I had the joy yesterday of a whole day to myself (Trav was out shooting a wedding), I had a pair of cocker spaniels over for a haircut each, but other than that and some house work I set about making a start on some of the wedding albums I am planning to make for Lucie and Steve. I have covered both front and back of a BIA 8" album and have also painted and glazed some large chipboard letters to decorate the cover with (this is staying a secret until complete as Lucie comes on here sometimes). These two minibooks are for Lucie to give to her two bridesmaids Kirsten (her sister) and Jess (here best friend). The Books are very similar apart from a few photos of each of the girls with their families.

I also had chance to make a start on an album for my sister and BIL. the covers are made and the pages are all cut but I haven't started to use any PP yet. Photos for the albums are ordered and I just need to wait now for the postman to arrive with them.

A quick tip for those who love embossing but hate mess.

So those of you who come here often will know I can't cope with a mess......... But I LoVe embossing (mainly chipboard) Just L.O.V.E it!!!!!
So how do I manage to emboss without getting that lovely sparkly powder just about everywhere????

Simples I use a plastic container! I saw this idea here on Kristine Werners blog. I adore her MACM and Finally Friday videos (check them out if you like making cards). sorry back to the idea :) Kristine keeps all her powders in plastic containers and limits the mess by about 99%. Before I used this idea I would use a sheet of paper folded in the middle to form a track to channel the spare powder back into the pot, there was always loads left on the paper and even the slightest tap on the paper would flick powder and glitter all over the place.
This new method works a treat.

*first I Paint or Ink my chipboard,
*and once dry I then give it a good coating of Versamark
(please excuse the state of my ink pad, I tried inking a shape that wasn't dry)

The Chipboard shape is then held over the pot and is coated in powder. Any spare powder just falls straight back in to the pot (thus removing the use of spare paper). I tend to use cheap pots (sold in sets of three at Tesco and baby spoons also sold at Tesco in packs of ten). giving the shape a good tap over the pot before I start to heat with a heatgun.

This is my desk after coating and heating three shapes. I promise I haven't cleaned up or wiped my mat down. Not a drop of wasted powder and no mess :)

Back to normallity......... whatever that might be?

After a few days of "randomness" (if that's even a real word?) I feel I'm finally getting a grip on things. I managed to sit down this morning for a few hours before work and make a start on the wedding album. I have sorted everything I want to use for this project into on RUB so I can keep an eye on what I'm using and try and limit myself so I don't get too carried away. Lucie and Steve would like this album sometime this year so it's going to be a another intense project similar to the AtoZ album. Here's my desk for WOYWW? yesterday I popped up to the local craft shop and picked up the card and some other little bits and bobs needed. I have had the Album covers for some time and I now have a plan of how to use them. they will be covered and then bound using my BIA. I plan to hold it all together with book rings until I'm happy with the whole album and then use BIA wires to finish.

I have chosen to use A4 shimmer card for the album cutting it down to 21"x22" in a mix of colours but focusing mainly on blue and ivory to match the weddings theme. I've been a good girl and sorted through all my stash before shopping for more, digging out anything remotely blue for me to use.

The paint I have used on the covers looks a little jade, but it matches the paper that I plan to use on the covers perfectly. (edited it add) The Album covers are being held up with fridge magnet pegs. They come in a pack of four from our family run local hardwear shop. I normally have quarters of scrap A4 paper clipped in them for little note pads and of course a few lovely take away menus :)

Also these arrived at the craft shop for my collection and they are lovely. I'm really pleased I ordered them. I have been looking to buy a new knife for some time as mine keeps working loose and I don't have a cover anymore for the blade and when I saw these in SI a few months ago I knew they where just what I had been looking for. The pokey tool is great as well. It came with three spare needles and a lid :) At least I know I won't stab myself in the hand each time I pick my tool bag up now.

What a weekend!!!

We made it to our friends house by 10 on Thursday night, hardly any traffic and a lovely smooth drive, the girls slept most of the way and shared a bag of chips with me in the back of the van at South Mimms. Friday Morning we drove straight over to the Breeders and dropped Maggie-Mae off for a dirty weekend with the handsome chap pictured below. His name is Soloman and we are hoping for a lovely litter of Blacks, Golds and Black& Tans from the pair of them.

Friday was spent with my parents giving both my mums dog (Tulula) and my cousins dog (Rolo) a haircut, I also meet my nieces westie Tickerbell, she is so sweet but wasn't happy with me when I microchipped her ;)

We started Saturday bright and early. I met my sister at the hairdressers where she and the girls were getting their hair and make up sorted for the big day.

Here is the newly wed Mr&Mrs Owen-Drawbridge

and another of all the lovely ladies in our family
Kirsten (my Niece), Bab's (sisters MIL) Jack (in Nanny's arms), Tanya (my sister), Lucie (my Niece) Pat (my Mum) and Me.

& Me having much missed cuddles with my Dad.

Jack's AtoZ album went down a storm and was passed about through-out the day. Lucie and Steven are over the moon with it and I just now have to start thinking about making them a Wedding album to match :)
We had a great weekend and are now safely back home with the long job of sorting through a little under 2000 photos to look forward to.

Painting Spoons

There is something so nice about a bridal spoon, and hopefully something really nice about getting a handmade one.I have chosen a deep blue ribbon that I think is as a good match to the bridesmaids dresses. rather than doing my normal spoon which is to attach loads of primas and buttons. I wanted to try a little free hand painting. Now I'm not the best with paint but I'm pleased with how this has turned out.

I even added a little ladybird on the flower stem.

The wedding is Saturday, all our camera batteries are charged or charging, the flash cards have all been emptied (all 20GB), my dress and Dh's suit have been collected from the cleaners, the suitcases are almost packed, the dog sitters have been arranged, a stud for Maggie has been booked (we should have puppies before Christmas) the ferry tickets have been bought and ......................now I'm just praying now for a good weather and a problem free day for my lovely niece and her chap.

scrapliftng again

I do love a good scraplift!!! there are so many great LO's out there on the web and in magazines, so many lovely idea's and ways to show off our lovely photos. Sometimes I really enjoy the ease of lifting an element or the whole LO. I'm sure many of us have done this and I think there is no shame in it. After all to copy something is the biggest form of flattery you can give.

I saw this LO a few months back on UKscrappers and fell in love with it. Having ordered the same piece of making memories PP by mistake about a year ago and didn't really know what to do with it (I just had it stored away in my pp bag until this morning) This Lo gave me a reason to use it.
I really like all the elements of the original LO by Rachel, but wasn't able to get my sewing machine out and do the stitching parts. I love the bleached out look to the photos and have tried to recreate something similar. The only piece of the original Pp i used is the white and jade edging. I then took four sheets of OA pp and cut them into 5cm pieces. these i patched worked out onto a scrap piece of paper and then mounted the edging on the top, this was all stuck down onto a sheet of Kraft 12x12.

I bleached out the photos on my editing programme ( I use the really basic and easy "picture it") for all my photo editing. Anything I want really fabby I let Trav do in photoshop. I covered a few of my flowers in stickles and used a few stars and the title from an OA dye cut sheet

Alpha's are making memories and I finished off with some string and buttons.

and by the way......

I went with the black polish and it's lush!!!!!
It's really Black and gives good coverage!

I found her and I caught her!!!!!

I managed to tempt Mojo out of hiding this morning with a large bowl of Jellybeans and a can of Cola (I swore of Coke -a-Cola about eight weeks ago) She wasn't free for long as I crammed her into a jar and screwed the lid down tight. I'm not cruel though, I gave her a good supply of buttons, thread and paper to play with and a few ladybirds as friends. She promised me she wouldn't go away again if I let her out but I'm not so sure!!!
Not sure if you can see into her little glass home but that's a mini version of how I'd love to look in there (funky clothes and biker boots), shame I'm not brave enough for this look :)

After finding my little crafty friend I managed to complete two LO's that's this weeks and last weeks SLYMI :)

Week 37 use metal.
OUR TRUE FRIENDS

apart from the CS I used only scraps on both LO's My metal for this LO is the with LO tag on the top right of the LO. it was pink when I bought it with a good covering of green paint and then a slight dabbing with a brown ink pad I changed it to suit. I added a few dabs of stickles (flicking the back of the LO to round them off) I used Thickers and AdoreIt alphas for the titles.

SLYMI wk 36
Scrap the Magic

It would seem that many of the people taking part in this challenge are Disney lovers and visitors, I however am, and am not. I have been, but many years ago & I didn't want to scrap 20+year old photos that are already part of another album. So thought long and hard about the magic in my life at the moment!
That's easy!!!!!
Trav! he's my magic

When we got together 8 years ago many of our so called friends at the time assured us it wouldn't last. We were too different! Trav was the outgoing friendly bloke and Me well I'm the quiet (until you know me) type that doesn't make friends easily and often seems grumpy (I'm just deep in thought). Well so much they all knew!! We are totally suited and balance each other perfectly!
Have a great Thursday all

WOYWW?

Still not really crafting. it's almost four weeks since I have done any real scrapping, other than pulling together last weeks SLYMI LO. I haven't the energy tonight to even try and scrap this weeks LO. The new job is really quite draining, I'm still hoping that once all my training is complete and I settle into the standard work routine (who am I kidding I work with children..... What routine?????) I will recover Mojo from where ever she is hiding and I can get back to scrapping up a storm.

I popped into Boots today during a break between "death by powerpoint" sessions and picked up two new nail polishes. the cherry one I have had before and I love it! and the black one is a new colour on me. My task for the evening is to clean, file and repaint my nails.
Now which colour should I chose?????

I shall also be enjoying a glass of mid-week wine, something that doesn't happen for me often but with two more days of training to look forward to I need a glass of the ol' vino

How much do you spend on ink?

Since buying this little beauty a few months back I seem to be spending a fortune on ink cartridges each month. I have tried shopping about on the net and looking in local shops for BOGOF deals but my ink bill still comes to nearly £60 a month!!!!!! Now I'm the first to admit to printed a few too many photos when preparing to scrap but I'd rather have a few too many and then make an extra something than not have enough photos or the "wrong" photo. but even I know £60 is too much ink usage!!! I was advised to only buy epson ink for their printers and over the last five years (since scrapping) that's what I have done but I think it's time for a trial and so enter the continuous ink supply systemThe whole thing with 100ml of each of the six inks came to a grand total of £35. Now I'm praying the "what you pay is what you get" won't apply here. I have read all the reviews and they are all positive for this product, keep your fingers crossed for me as I would love to be able to just buy the ink each month and top up the tanks as they run low.

It will be a week or so before I get chance to wire it all up and have a play, as I still have ink in the printer and I'm determined to empty it before using this new toy. I'll let you know how things go.