Expanding on a collection kit: Cocoa Vanilla "Free Spirit"

Breaking news . . .

Well first up in the most literal sense . . . on New Years Day my brother-in-law was teaching me how to slackline.  I was looking pretty good if I do say so myself . . .

. . . until the moment I came off on the edge of the mat and felt my foot twist under me!  I've ended up with a fractured bone in my foot, and 6 weeks with a cam boot and crutches.  Not the start to the New Year that I imagined!

But in lighter news I've managed to edit and upload my third video to Youtube. 

The concept of the video is "Expand a Collection".  I show my process for taking a relatively recent collection, Cocoa Vanilla's "Free Spirit" and pad it out into a larger kit using products from my stash. 

Hopefully I show that it's a process that you could apply to any collection, not just this one.

It's the first step in my third piece of news . . .

Announcing my . . .

100 page spending freeze!

You read that right, I have made a commitment to myself to not spend any money on paper crafts until I've made at least 100 scrapbook pages!

Trust me, I have more than enough supplies to make probably twice that amount!  And if you're honest with yourself, maybe you could too?

OK, so, at the end of last year I did do a stock-take of the absolute basic supplies, like adhesives, refill blades, etc.  My very last craft spending was a Christmas present for my son combined with some page protectors.  I don't want anything getting between me and my determination to complete this challenge!

Thanks for stopping by, and I'd love to hear about any challenges you might be setting for yourself for the New Year!

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something YOU!

No, this isn't a wedding post, it's the reveal of both my April Counterfeit Kit and my motto for 2013:

Something old, something new, something borrowed, something YOU.

The old and the new are pretty self-explanatory. It's all about using a balance of old and new supplies when I make a scrapbook page or other project.  It's a balance that's constantly changing - if I've recently bought up big on new supplies, I try to make the most of those supplies while they're still new.  When I'm using older photos, on the other hand, I might dig into some older supplies a bit more.

(If you're new to my blog, and interested in reading more about my philosophy, you might want to read the post here about my last year's motto, "Use what you have in a way that makes you happy".)

In the original wedding tradition, the "something borrowed" is a literal borrowing of an item from a loved one. But the way I mean it in this instance is more about borrowing ideas - trying out a new trend, or technique I've seen on Youtube, for example.  Even better is borrowing the idea of an expensive pre-made embellishment, and making my own, more affordable and one-of-a-kind version.

Which leaves something YOU.  In other words, trying out new techniques and styles is great, but it doesn't have to mean throwing out the baby with the bathwater.  The wheel doesn't have to be reinvented with every page I make, and it's OK to go  back to the simple page designs that I'm comfortable with without trying something different with every page!

So in other words, the same philosophy, just a new motto.  But I'm not going to be selfish with it . . I  don't mind if you borrow all or part of it for yourself!

But on to the Counterfeit Kit . . . (if you're not a counterfeiter already and have no idea what I'm talking about, you might want to pop over here and find out!)  The kit we're taking inspiration from this month is the March kit from Gossamer Blue:

Quite pretty, don't you think? And a little simpler in terms of embellishments than we've had in recent months.

Here's my version:

 

The something old in this case, is the chipboard pieces (not all photographed), some of the lettering products, 2 of the patterned papers . . . and the cardstock.  That's right! I've decided it's time to re-classify coloured cardstock as an "old" supply, and have included some in my kit this month.  Will I use it for backgrounds? For matting photos? For running through my Silhouette machine?  Or will it still be sitting in the bottom of the box at the end of the month?  Only time will tell!

 

 

Papers are from Carta Bella, Studio Calico, Echo Park and Basic Grey.

The B sides

I've added in some braid, buttons and DIY dimensional dots.

I decided to do some more DIY "flair" this month, too, but have left off the last step of adding the dome sticker.  That gives me the flexibility to leave them plain or add something extra based on the project I'm working on.

But wait, there's more! I thought the papers I chose this month might be a bit limiting, and liked the idea of making a "colour add-on" so here it is, in black and kraft:

In this case, the something borrowed refers to the fact that some of these supplies are "borrowed" from sources other than traditional scrapbooking supplies.  There's a shopping bag I've cut down to a 12" square, map-patterned tissue paper that was packaging from a pair of shoes, an envelope, a book page, and other goodies from a Julie Kirk pack I won last year (not all photographed).

As well as my Oxfam bag, I've included a couple of Studio Calico papers, and some plain cardstock.

The polaroid and viewmaster cuts didn't really work in my main kit, so I thought I'd include them here:

(edited to add: viewmaster cut file is a free file from As You Wish designs here; the other files are from Blinks of Life here.

OK, I wonder what I'll get made with these goodies?  What about you?  Will you be counterfeiting this month?

The 2013 fabric stash challenge (and other crafty goals)

Happy New Year, friends and visitors!  There's something unique in the air that only happens at this time of year, isn't there?  An aura of expectation, of hopes and plans and dreams.  We set lofty goals for ourselves, and who's to say we won't achieve them!

Two years ago, I set myself goals to spend less on my craft supplies and more time actually using them!  If you've become a follower sometime since then through one of the Scrapbooking challenges I frequent, you could easily assume that this meant only papercraft supplies.  But the truth is, my craft stash actually encompasses fabric, wool, and beading supplies and more!

Lengths of fabric and half-finished sewing projects that weren't exactly new to begin with have now been sitting in their boxes for another two years!

Two lengths of fur and giraffe pattern

   Last month I decided it was time to pull down some of those boxes and remind myself what they held.  As I shared with you here, it was so overwhelming it started the biggest creative block I've had since I started this blog, and for a while I didn't see a way past it.  Although I did give away a couple of lengths of fabric and cull a lot of scrappy end-pieces, there was still a lot I wasn't willing to part with.  All that fabric, those unfinished projects, seemed insurmountable.

Five of the lengths of the fabric I can't bear to part with

But two skirts (here's the other one)and one mini-quilt on, I'm ready to commit to the revised Spend Less, Craft More goals for 2013:

• increased budget to $8 per week, plus an additional $50 "splurge" at the start of January and again in July, (equivalent to approx $10 per week in total).  
• I've reduced my free "staples" to basic adhesives only.  Everything else I defined as a "staple" last year (page protectors, albums and replacement blades) will now come out of the budget at 50%.  ALL sewing notions and other items required to finish sewing projects will come out of the budget.
• Create an average of one scrapbook page per week
• Start a 2013 "Project Life" style album, although I expect to do a double-layout (or perhaps two) per month, rather than one per week.
• Complete at least one sewing project per month, from my list of fabric lengths and unfinished projects.
• Not start any other sewing projects, unless the majority of the supplies comes from the stash,.

Two mini quilts, both ridiculously close to being finished

The central panel of a wall quilt

Ten Crafty (and not so crafty) goals for this month (and beyond)

For 10 things on the 10th this month, I decided to see if I could come up with some goals I'd like to achieve over the next month or so.  There's something about getting your goals out there in black and white on your blogthat makes you so much more accountable, don't you think?
So here they are:

1. Scrapbooking-wise, I want to mainly focus on my Counterfeit Kit, and see how that works for me. 

2. Teenage cards.  Rohan's social group has suddenly expanded from a smallish group of boys from school that like to skateboard together to a much larger mix of both boys and girls, from both his school and the nearby Performing Arts school.  The potential number of parties he could be invited to is kind of scary.  So.  Teenage cards.

3. I used my overlocker for the first time in ages the other day, and when I went to put the flimsy plastic cover back on . . . . let's just say it had died.  So I think sewing an overlocker cover is in order.  While I'm at it, the thin piece of packaging foam I've been using as a Silhouette cover could probably do with a more durable replacement.

4.  Finish my soft-sculpture dragon.  Before I got into paper-crafts, I was into doll- and bear-making.  I think I was last working on this dragon about 5 years ago.  He should end up looking something like this:

But at the moment he looks more like this:

5. Send some cards.  OK, now this is embarrassing.  It's a bad habit I was hoping to break this year but haven't yet - making a card for someone, and then never actually sending it to them!  Many have graced the pages of this blog.  Cards that you hand over in person, no problem.  Ones you've actually got to put in an envelope, address, put a stamp on them and place in the mailbox, on the other hand . . . let's just say I've still got Mothers Day cards sitting on my desk, as well as all the birthdays in between.  But it's not too late!! (Is it?)

6. Last year sometime, I had a whole bunch of family photos enlarged, the aim being to frame them and hang them on the wall.  Well, I still haven't bought the frames, so the goal is to buy frames and actually GET THEM ON THE WALL!!!! (one of the enlargements has since ended up on a scrapbook page here, so I also either need to get it reprinted or re-design how all the photos hang together)

7. And while we're on the subject of hanging things on walls, I'd really like to complete a home decor project.  One that caught my eye on Pinterest lately is this one:

And now on to things less crafty, but in other ways probably more important . . .

8.  Organise how I'm going to get more organised.  Does that sound as lame to you as it does to me?  But that's kind of where I'm at at the moment.  My tiny baby step of a goal is to work out a plan of attack.  I've been pinning ideas and organisation blogs of late, in the hope that when I'm ready, I'll have a few places to start.

9. Get back on track with my Bible reading.  I am really, really bad at this at the best of times, and when I had my block of casual work recently it just went totally out the window.  So, any improvement would be good right now.

10. Get something growing in my garden other than pumpkin.  Now, don't  get me wrong, I love pumpkin soup as much as the next person, (and there have been a lot of "next people" who have also enjoyed soup from our pumpkins this winter!) but growing something else would be nice.

Quarterly review

Wondering how I'm going with the budget this year?  And the $1 per use guideline?

Well first I thought I'd quickly share with you what I've been working on in the past week or so.  Lately, as each month draws to a close, I look through the sketches and other challenges pinned to my board and see if there's any I really want to complete by the end of the month.  This month,  I realized that it wasn't challenges I needed to catch up on, it was "non-challenge" pages!

When I first started "spend less, craft more" I only knew of the existence of two challenge blogs, and my goal of completing 2 challenges per month seemed almost a "pie in the sky", no drama if I didn't achieve it  sort of goal.  But last month alone I completed 9 challenges, leaving no time for those less challenge-worthy pages I still want to scrap.

This first page I quickly whipped up about one of Maddy's Taekwon Do gradings, very appropriate with her and Angus grading again just last weekend.  It tickled my funny bone to use a very feminine floral on a martial arts page, appropriate for my once ballerina princess who is now more of a ninja warrior!

This next page is still a work in progress.  It is about Rohan's 11th birthday party, which we had at a sports centre.  I had printed out heaps of photos, and instead of culling, I decided to use Shimelle's double page and a half concept, with a divided page protector in the middle (from 4x6 photo love, sorry not sure which one, somewhere between 9 and 11?)

For this one, I am using papers from my "A Boy's Life" 6" pad, mostly off-cuts.  I decided to let the photos and story speak for themselves: no extra embellishments!  Some of you might have heart failure even considering this concept, but to me, this is somewhat of a relief, not having to come up with embellishments for a boy page beyond just the papers.

And now to the budget . . .
As of the 31st of March, I have spent $55.40, plus a rather large sum on re-inkers (see the least fun experience of the year  to read that story).  I am still working on exactly how they fit into the budget, and probably won't finalise that until I have my swap/sell/re-ink day hopefully early next term.

I have purchased:

• stamps for $17 - used those stamps 4 times and other stamps 14 times, meaning $11 worth of value so far.

• black and white tulle, which I have used enough times in terms of the $1 per use guideline, but there sure is plenty left!
•  2 6" pads at $9 each.  have used these new ones 10 times, and older ones 4 times.  
• spent $18 on empty misting bottles - used 3 times so far.  a good reason to have a review . . . don't forget to keep using them!
•  a sheet of label stickers for $2, haven't used them yet, but have used older stickers twice (I think it actually might be more, but that's what I have written down)
• I've found patterned papers a tricky one, what sort of cap should I put on how many to have in the stash?  Because I do still like the idea of some stash, as long as I am working my way through it! I have bought a total of 18 new sheets of paper this year, and have used 8 new sheets, and 2 older ones. 

So, overall travelling OK, but I seriously need to get out those misters, and keep stamping!
 

Ten things about "Using what you have"

Based on Shimelle's "10 things on the 10th" today I thought I'd share with you ten things about what this year's motto means to me:

"Use what you have in a way that makes you happy"

1. Challenging myself to look for fun ways to use what I have.  When I do on-line challenges I tend to be drawn to sketches and colour challenges, which allow me to use the products I already own, rather than product-based challenges which require anything that I don't already own!
I had a bit of a light-bulb moment with Chapter 2 of Shimelle's hitchhiker class, which is about "Starting Points".  I have to confess that prior to this I hadn't really "got" starting points and had only attempted one.  But Shimelle points out that they are just like sketches, but more versatile, because you can add the photos, journalling etc where-ever you want.  Lightbulb time!  I can decide where I want my photos to go before constructing my "starting point"!  Hey presto! Just like a sketch!  Here's the page that I did for the class:

If you know me at all, it will be no surprise that my first thought for this starting point was: offcuts!  which brings me to my next point:

2.  I tend to look through my off-cuts first, for smaller pieces.

However, this was a little bit at odds with another thought that my new 6" pads might work really well for this page, and guess what  . . .

3.  Use what's new while it's still new could almost be another motto for the year for me.  After all, I don't want to go to all the hard work of finding creative ways to use my old supplies, only to discover in another 5 years a bunch of vintage pages circa 2012 that feel old and dated!

I'm proud to say that this page ended up being a happy combination of both - the first 3 stripes are offcuts but from new papers - the third time they've been used each in the month or so I've had them!  All the other papers are from a 6" pad.(I love how the Echo Park ones are a little bit taller, so you can use them to mat a photo!)

4. Make it don't buy it.  I don't tend to buy a lot of embellishments, preferring to make my own when I can.  The hand-cut clouds on this page are a simple example.

5.  I find that  Sneaking older-products doesn't always date a page.  The scrabble letters I used in my title are amongst the oldest items left in my stash, but I think they go just great with the kraft background.  Likewise, the ribbons I used would hardly qualify as new.

6.  Having said that, I think a perfect time to use older products is on older pages, like the flowers on this page, about an event back in 2004.

7.  Getting value out of your supplies doesn't always mean using every last particle.   After making this flower girl page, I decided I am getting quite tired of  these Kaisercraft flowers, of which I still have many colours and sizes.  My $1 per use guideline I set for myself means that a pack of flowers that cost, say, $3 or $4 needs to be used 3 or 4 times for me to feel I have "value" out of it.  That means I do not need to use every flower in the pack!  I've decided to keep a certain number of each, and plan to offer the others up to crafty friends!

8.  I am trying to banish "reasons" to hoard

I have loads of buttons (don't think those jars at the top of my blog are the only ones I own!), for example, but I sometimes come across mental barriers like, but what if I want those ones for a sewing project one day, or what if I run out of those nice red ones?  I'm trying to say to myself, so what!  I'm pretty sure they still sell buttons at the shops!

9. Inspiration is everywhere.  In just over a year I've gone from someone who hadn't read a blog or attempted an on-line challenge to someone who belongs to a number of challenge websites, follows more blogs than I can do justice to, and is an avid Pinner on Pintrest.  But like my motto of last year, I try and focus on what inspires me to create.  Another way of thinking of this is focusing on technique, rather than product.

10. Finally, I try to stay flexible.  I don't get too hung up on "rules" and worrying about breaking them.  As they say in the first Pirates of the Carribean movie "they're not actual rules, more like just guidelines.

If you stayed with me through this very long post, thank you!  I don't expect too many of you to choose to follow my example (and what is probably a tiny budget compared to many!) but if I've inspired you in any way, I'd love to hear about it!

The $1 per use guideline

A few years ago I was at a papercrafts show with my sister.  We were doing a make-and-take and the girl at the booth was telling us about her friend (let's call her Jane, as I can't remember what her name was).  Before Jane would buy any new stamps, she would ask herself, "can I use this stamp at least three ways?"  Before we had finished at that booth, Jane herself arrived, and promptly began showing off the new stamps she had purchased from another vendor.  "ah yes" I said, "but can you use them three ways?"  You should have seen the look on her face as a complete stranger repeated her philosophy!

I think we all agree with Jane, at least in theory - we want good value from our purchases!  But sometimes we don't stop and think before we buy something new about how much we'll actually use it, or we have good intentions, but then our focus shifts to something else new before we've done justice to the first purchase.

So that's where the $1 per use guideline comes in.  For every dollar I spend on any given item, that's the number of times I need to use it before I buy a similar item.  So a $3 packet of flowers would need to be used 3 times before I bought any new flowers, for example.

Now, because I'm still a believer in the stash, (but in a controlled way) the other option is that the new item gets incorporated into the stash, but I need to use a similar item from the stash twice as many times.  In other words, if the $3 packet of flowers goes into the stash, I would need to use other flowers from my stash 6 times before I could buy more flowers.

At the moment I'm envisioning this applying this guideline to things like embellishments, stamps and other tools.

My first big purchase of the year is a stamp set I bought on Ebay for $17.  So, before I buy any more stamps this year, I will need to use those stamps 17 times, other stamps 34 times, or any combination of the two.

Bring on the challenge!

The set I purchased is a Stampin' Up accessory set, which matches their Family set of bodies, heads etc my sister gave me for Christmas a couple of years back.  This new set includes (among other things) a skateboard and tae kwon do uniform.  I've had this set on my Ebay "watch" list for ages now, but couldn't afford it last year.

Last night, when I dropped the kids off at Tae Kwon Do, we received the happy news that one of the women who trains there had her baby earlier this week.  So I raced home and made this card:

So that's one use down, 16 to go!

The maintenance phase

Have you heard me comparing the spend less, craft more process to a diet?  Well if you haven't before, you will today.
A good weight loss program essentially involves consuming less calories than you use, and ideally consists of a carefully controlled intake of food (ideally a balance of healthy foods), combined with regular exercise. 
In the spend less, craft more "diet", I have limited my intake (spending) and tried to focus on healthy foods (essential items I will actually use).  My "exercise" has been pushing myself to try a range of challenges.
So far so good, but what happens to so many of us  when our "diet" finishes?  We go straight back to our old habits and the "yo-yo" cycle kicks in.
That's where the maintenance phase comes in.  That's when you gradually reintroduce extra foods, including the odd treat you've been denying yourself.  You may be able to cut down on the exercise a little too, but ideally you will have found an exercise plan that you enjoy and can stick to.  You are trying to find a balance which will maintain your weight goal.
So here's my maintenance plan for 2012:

• Still limit spending to $5 per week, with the following additions:
• "staple" items will be exempt from the $5 limit: staples being defined as albums, page protectors, journalling pens, replacement blades and adhesives.
• an additional $50 "splurge" allowance will be added, which can be accessed at any time during the year
• use what I buy!! How's that for a radical concept?  Ideally, this would mean only buying products I have an immediate use for, but we'll see how that goes . . .
• reset the goal of one scrapbook page per week initially, to be revised depending on how busy I find myself
• keep the goal of 2 online challenges per month
• balance that with the goal of 2 non-challenge pages per month.  (This would include pages such as school events, birthday parties and the like where there are photos of lots of other children).  some of these I might still post snippets of, many I probably won't.

And that's about it! Wish me luck, and I wish you all the best finding balance in your life this year too

How much does your cardstock weigh now?

If you've been reading since the beginning, then you'll know that a  year ago I decided to reign in my craft spending.  Here were my three goals:

• limit spending to $5 per week, or a total of $260 for the year (considering the huge amounts of craft supplies I have loaded up in my room that really should be plenty)
• and try and create something (scrapbook page, card or whatever) at least weekly
• to have a smaller stash by the end of the year.

I quickly expanded those goals to the following (see original post here):

• update this blog regularly
• do something creative every week
• complete at least 2 challenges a month
• complete a scrapbook page a week (single or double)
• work through my "projects" box with the aim of completing each item or considering getting rid of it.
• knit my way through my wool stash 
• make a list of my scrapbooking supplies (by group) and mark each time I use each item
• be prepared to cull unused items, and 
• weigh my cardstock, and compare in 12 months.

So, how did I go?

• update this blog regularly

At 80 posts in 2011, I think that counts as pretty successful!

• do something creative every week

Again, with a total of 133 scrapbook pages and 16 recorded "other" projects, a resounding success!

• complete at least 2 challenges a month

Some months I managed 7 or 8!

• complete a scrapbook page a week (single or double) 

see above!

• work through my "projects" box with the aim of completing each item or considering getting rid of it.

not so successful.  I did complete one sewing project and do a little bit on another, but paper-crafts have definitely taken precedence this last year.

• knit my way through my wool stash 

Again, less than fabulous.  I did knit some scarves and start a jumper for Maddy, but mainly I learnt the pointlessness of having a wool stash.  I hope to use and/or cull some more this year

• make a list of my scrapbooking supplies (by group) and mark each time I use each item

I definitely kept my list, and enjoyed marking it off at the completion of each project.  But I'll tell you a secret: I still have a lot of stuff!  For example, I can tell you that I recorded that I used ribbon in 75 projects, but see that box of ribbon that is my wallpaper?  It still looks pretty much the same.  And there are 3 other boxes with more ribbon in them!

• be prepared to cull unused items, 

I still have my "use it or lose it" box of papers, and I'm hoping to have a swap/give-away day after school goes back this year.  

• weigh my cardstock, and compare in 12 months.

I totally couldn't wait to get the results on this one . . . last year's total was 21.58kg (including some storage boxes).  That is now down to (drum roll please) 17.69kg, a reduction of nearly 4kg!
The amount of offcuts has increased slightly, with the most dramatic decrease being sheets of patterned paper.

• limit spending to $5 per week

I did it! (with the help of a few presents, not least of which being my Silhouette) I did it! I actually have $13.50 left over which is totally burning a hole in my pocket right now . . .

A tour of my "work in progress" folder

I knew that the week I pulled out of "So you think you can scrap" would be when it required a product I didn't already own.  That happened this week, where 3 halloween-themed papers where required. I'm actually glad to be out, not because it wasn't fun, but because it frees me up to catch up on the many pages in my "work in progress" folder.  If  I complete one or two of these a week plus my round robin at the end of the month, I'll call this a very successful month!

 So join me on a tour of my folder, and you'll see what pages I have ready to scrap (and some of the reasons they're not finished!):

• photos of Rob and I on some play equipment.  I think it is waiting for a suitable challenge (above)
• a double of a trip to a Yum Cha restaurant with my brother and his girlfriend.  I have changed my mind a number of times on what the background and PP should be.  Currently have black cardstock ready to go, and excited about a suitable heading on the Silhouette. (left)

•  The third page based on my kid's friends moving to Tassie - this one for Angus (right).  Having trouble deciding how to position the photos, but they way I spread them to take this snap has given me an idea . . .
• Photos of Maddy and my brother from different occasions; once I printed them out I thought I had other photos for a double, but now I think I'll probably go with a single (below) 

•  A double about Rohan being 12.  It's been at this stage for ages, just needing journalling and hopefully some sort of embellishment. (right)
•  Angus's first day of Kindergarten

• A double about Rohan doing some cooking after watching Masterchef.  I have a Let's Scrap sketch that could work , and it's waiting for a challenge that could go with it. (right)
•  Rohan's school photos from this year (Year 7).
• Some gorgeous photos of Maddy on the Slip n slide.  I've had the papers picked out for ages, and a title done on the Sizzix.  Don't really know why this one didn't get finished (or why I didn't photograph it today - probably just skipped a page)
• Photos of Rohan's debating team from year 5.
• A double about a trip on the harbour on our neighbour's boat.  I was thinking about doing a "page and a half" style layout for this one. (below)

 

• Angus' birthday party from this year.  All finished bar the journalling.

• Rohan's year 5 school photos. 

And finally comes 4 pages I wanted to do from the newest lot of photos I had printed last week.  I challenged myself to use only offcuts (apart from the background PP or cardstock:

• A page each for Rohan and Angus from my sister's wedding back in 2004, when they were ring bearers.   Hardly new photos, but I realized that while I had done a mini album on the event, the boys didn't have pages in their own albums.(right)
• Photos from Christmas time about a gingerbread house kit we (attempted) to put together. (above)
  
• And the story of when we minded our friend's puppy, Henry.

Some big spending.

Wow, some money has been spent recently, which is where you, my blog comes in handy to keep me accountable to the end of the year - I don't want to come so far only to overspend in the last couple of months!
First up came a 75c sale at the Silhouette online store.  I used up the voucher that came with the machine and bought a few extra images.  Hopefully I have chosen images that will all be useful.  The good thing is that now I know they have sales, I will wait for the next one before I buy any more images.  I don't know what the exchange rate was at the time, but I spent something like about $5.  Not too damaging so far!
But now for the big spend with the big story.  At the start of last year, I signed up for a "Bazzill in a box" subscription, where I received a pizza box full of cardstock in the colours of my choice, every 3 months.  The problem was, of course, I wasn't using it as fast as I was getting it.  Just another step on the road that created the need for "spend less, craft more".
Now, you might think I would have just cancelled the subscription outright at the start of the year, but . . . the second last box I received last year was in the wrong colours, so when I pointed it out to them, they gave me the next box for free, only charging me for postage.  Now call me soft, but I just felt bad about that last box being free and wanted to buy just one more.  I did put it back quite a few times, but eventually sent in my colour requests for August.  The weeks went by and still no parcel . . . maybe they'd lost my order and weren't going to send it at all? I started to think maybe that was a good thing, and wondered whether to cancel the box . . .  but what if I sent the request when the parcel was on its way to me in the mail?  I adopted a bit of a "head in the sand" approach and did nothing at all, hoping the problem would go away, even spending a big $50+ at my LSS.  But of course it didn't go away, and one day, at the end of September, a pizza box arrived on my doorstep. I'm actually really happy with the box, I only ordered colours where I have a real gap - I was totally out of white, and other than that it's almost all blues and greens, both colours I will be using.

There wasn't an invoice in the box, so again, I'll have to wait to look at my credit card bill to know exactly how much it was.  I am estimating that I have about $15 left to spend for the whole year! That's $5 a month! At the start of the year I thought $5 a week would be hard!
9 months in, I see it as a challenge.  Bring it on, I say!

Cull if Necessary

I've got a little something to share with you . . . come closer and I'll tell you . . .

(I'm not very good at throwing things away)

What was that, you couldn't hear me?  I'll say it again then . . . .

I'm not very good at throwing things away!

Alright, for some of you, that isn't actually anything you didn't already know.  "Hoarding tendencies", I call it; they're not about to make a TV episode about me anytime soon. But who knows?  With the right trigger (or maybe I should say, the wrong trigger) maybe I'll turn into some crazy old lady whose children won't visit because she loves her collection of paper scraps more than she loves them.

So the other day,  I can't quite remember why, but I decided to separate all my thin offcut strips from all the other offcuts so that I'm more likely to use them.  Turns out I've got heaps . . . border punched strips I didn't end up using, bar-code strips from double-sided papers . . . you get the idea.

It sort of turned into a full-on purge of scraps. And if you're like me and culling is hard, when the mood strikes . . .  you cull!!!!
The more I like a particular colour, the smaller piece I will keep for later use . . . but clearly this year I have been making scraps faster than I have been using them.  When  I finished, I couldn't believe how much I had managed to part with!  I took a quick photo before taking it out to the bin.

 Just to prove to myself that separating out the strips was a worthy project, here's a card I whipped up with some of them:

The blog about the page about the blog

This week I am hoping to focus on finishing off a few almost-done pages I have waiting for some journalling or some finishing touches.  Here is the first of two pages I have been planning for a while about my blog and the whole "spend less craft more" project.
It was important to me that this page contain a range of little bits of embellishments, different ribbons, flowers, buttons and brads.  The title stickers are Basic Grey Fusion, the very first Basic Grey set I ever bought.  I needed to use both colours off the sticker sheet and the negative of a few of the letters, and that seemed appropriate to the theme as well.
If you double click on the photo to enlarge it, you should be able to read my journalling more easily, especially where I have stamped around some of the words on the "frequency grid" and added some hand-written journalling.
Hmmm  . . . . maybe I could take a photo of this blog post, and scrapbook about that, and call it "the page about the blog about the page about the blog", and then . . .

Mid year review

It's been six months since I started this blog and the "spend less craft more" project, and also the last night of the school holidays, which seems to me to be a good time to do a mid-year review.  when I first started out, my goals were simple:

• spend no more than $5 a week

To date I have spent $116.91, or just over 23 weeks' worth of the budget!  When I first conceived this plan, I thought this was going to be like cutting off all my major limbs, then gouging out my eyes.  Actually, it's been pretty easy.  I haven't been able to make any major purchases, like new stamps or whatever, but because I am focusing on using what I have, I haven't really missed that.  I actually plan to continue the tight budget, with perhaps minor alterations, indefinitely!
Next purchases: baby wipes (for cleaning stamps) and double sided tape!

• Do something creative every week.

I have succeeded in this one also.  I have to say this is probably the longest I have gone where I have regularly kept up the creative energies.  If anything I have succeeded too well . . . I didn't know at the start of the year that I would be starting an on-line TAFE course this year.  Because there is no face-to-face teaching, you can work at your own pace.  Turns out that without deadlines to work to, my pace is approximately that of a snail.  I am considering changing the name of my blog to "Spend Less, Study More, Hopefully still get some craft done".  Seriously though, I need to devote more time to my studies this term. I plan to timetable some TAFE time in my diary each week, then mark it off in half hour blocks.  I will ONLY be able to get into the craft room if I am up to date on my TAFE hours for the week!

• Have a smaller stash at the end of the year

At this point I would have to say the biggest difference has been to my patterned paper (the unused sheets that is).  As for the offcuts, well without getting out the scales again it's hard to say, but I seem to create them at least as fast as I use them.  Perhaps some more scraps challenges are in order . . .
As for the embellishments, according to my tally, I have used ribbon in 42 projects, but do you think I can tell the difference?  Stickers, I can probably tell the difference a bit more so, especially in those letter stickers where I have started using the negative.  Again, I'd love to challenge myself to use some of the lesser used embellishments if I can find the time.
But overall, a big tick for the year so far . . .

 And because I don't feel like finishing up this post without some pictures, here is some (hopefully) inspiration for hand-made journalling- and title-blocks.

A short yarn about a lot of . . . .

In some countries they might call it yarn, but here we tend to just call it wool.  For the longest time I didn't have a wool stash.  The process would go: decide to knit a jumper, choose pattern, buy wool, knit jumper, repeat process at some time in the future.  But that all changed when I came in contact with two wool stashes that were being culled.  The first was a close friend's mum, who was then battling and has since lost her battle with cancer.  I basically got first option on any wool my friend chose not to keep.  The rest went on Ebay.  The second was a much bigger stash.  So much so that when my friend's aunt died, he and his wife had a huge wool sale, raising money for the water project their son was working on in Bali.  I offered to help on the day, and needless to say, came home with . . . you guessed it, heaps of wool!
Probably close to a year had passed, and I still hadn't started knitting, quite a problem in a year devoted to crafting and culling.  And it's easy to see why the old process was so much wiser.  When you choose to knit a garment, there's often a direct relationship between the pattern and the wool it is designed for, which makes for a perfect fit. Sure, it's possible to take an 8 ply pattern and use a different brand, but many wools don't even tell you what ply they are, and when you start looking at international patterns, they speak a whole different language again!
So how to break the knitting drought?  Something flexible about size, shape, and needle size? Something that will use exactly the amount of wool you have?  You guessed it, baby, a scarf!  This scarf took me about two weeks and came with me to ballet and acrobatics lessons, soccer practice and of course kept me company while watching TV.  The best thing about knitting a scarf in winter is that once it's long enough you can wear it and knit it at the same time!
Finding a second project proved more of a challenge.  It went something like this:
Find something potentially suitable for 12 yo. and ask, what do you think about this?
"I don't like it"
What don't you like about it?
"It's wool".
Ok. So no knitting for you.  Next I find a lovely riding-style jacket I thought I could make for myself.  Until I realised by the size needles it uses it must be a 12ply.  Mine of course being 8ply.
Third attempt: find a really beautiful cabled pattern for my 7yo.  Would look lovely in the mauve wool I had picked up with her in mind.  Except then realise not quite enough wool and biggest size of the pattern may no longer fit her by the time it gets finished.
Eventually settled on a simple hooded jacket for her; it's a variegated wool that calls itself "plum" and is looking quite pretty as it is getting knitted up.  There's an adult quantity of wool so there'll be heaps left over, but at this point, I'm just happy to be knitting.
Scarf, anyone?

a new mantra, "Story first"

The page to the right sat, finished to this stage, in my "work in progress" file for quite a few months.  I had been soooo looking forward to scrapping these gorgeous photos of my daughter playing on the beach, and I absolutely loved this colour combination.  The problem, (as you'll see by the finished page) was not the large amount of white space, but rather the lack of a story to go with it.  This page is, I hope, the last one that I will scrap purely for the sake of scrapping a pretty picture. This page (as well as reading the Simple Scrapbooking book I mentioned in an earlier post) cemented in me the realization that for me, the story always has to come first (pretty pictures always a bonus though!)  I ended up journalling about the simple joy of playing in the sand, which has always been so important to our family.  Love that we live so close to beautiful Newcastle beaches!  Story told, lesson learnt.

The finished page.

This page is also significant in that it is the 52nd page I have completed since I started counting for my "spend less, craft more" challenge.
One of my goals was to complete at least 52 pages, an average of one a week.  Not that I plan on stopping!  Another of my goals is to "do something creative every week" and scrapping is certainly my number one creative outlet at the moment.