Hi friends!
Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted here. I've had a few other things going on so I haven't been in the craft room quite so much since my spending freeze finished, and any scrapbooking stuff has made it to Youtube but not here.
I had enough positive comments about doing my 100 page spending freeze that I decided I wanted to share what I learned through a series I've created called "Scrapbook Spending Freeze 101". I have 3 lessons already loaded on Youtube, with probably another two to go.
There's also a group to join on Facebook, and it's for anyone contemplating a Spending Freeze, whether you're ready to start straight away or not, and don't worry, I'm not forcing you to do all 100 pages if that sounds too daunting!
This page tells the story of how I broke my foot at the start of this year!
Not only is it the story of an accident, but it is a page on which a few accidents happened. We want all our pages (and process videos!) to be perfect, but that's just not real life, is it? I'm glad I persevered with this page - I'm happy with how it turned out, and mistakes are how we learn, right?
Thanks for visiting, and let me know if a short series on doing a scrapbook spending freeze is something you'd be interested in watching?
It's the end of our two week mid year school holidays around here, and the time in the craft room over the holidays is always a bit erratic, and the time on the computer to blog about it even more so!
But I've grabbed my turn on the computer tonight to finally show you what I've been up to over the past couple of weeks, with pages using my last month's Counterfeit Kit and my Cocoa Vanilla "expand a collection" kit (with not much Cocoa Vanilla left!)
Let's start with a challenge, shall we?
I do like a good sketch challenge, and Stuck?! sketches is one of my regulars:
Dolphins and whales are always wonderful to watch, but ridiculously difficult to photograph! On this dolphin cruise page I put a frame around the other dolphin watching boat and the little speck in the water that is a dolphin fin!
I also completed my July Stash It Monday video for the Crafty Mavens Getaway channel, which went live a week and a half ago:
And some more pages:
A warning: the last page I am going to show you is about my son's infected toenail that he had a couple of years ago. Scrapping doesn't always have to be about the good stuff all the time, does it? But if you have a delicate stomach for such things, you might not want to scroll down to the end!
But exciting news!! The pages I'm showing you bring me to 99 pages out of my 100 page spending freeze! As you can imagine there is much rejoicing in my craft room as I come to the end of this phase, (and much thinking about what I might buy in my first purchase). I think page 100 deserves a process video, don't you? Hopefully I'll be back with that in a couple of days.
I had high hopes for finishing my spending freeze this month, starting about 5 pages on the long weekend, but then life got in the way!
I have a drawer full of photos waiting to be scrapped and it is in a woeful state! I started this month by going through an envelope of photos and making up little page kits from my June Counterfeit Kit, mostly just paper and cardstock. I did pull some more supplies as needed - this doesn't bother me at all! I see a kit as a starting point and have no problem pulling out extra stash.
This first page has a process video and is for Scrapbooking Top 50's challenge for the month:
The photo I chose to scrap isn't the most non-perfect photo - it's really just the bad lighting, but the story is definitely "real not perfect", telling about an attempt to make a pavlova with stevia instead of sugar, early on in my sugar-free days.
I had some white rub-ons in my kit, and I decided to rub them onto my background and then do my gelatos over the top. I love how that turned out!
Hi friends,
If you didn't already know, I am on the current Design Team for the Crafty Maven Getaway Channel.
My latest video is up, this time I am doing "Sketch It Out Thursday".
I wanted to do a current sketch challenge, and ended up choosing this one from Anna's Craft Cupboard. . .
Here's the inspiration board for the week:
As you'll see in the video, I was inspired by the watermelon red/pink, the black scripty writing and the sunset!
Although I didn't quite meet all the goals for my April kit, (what with a holiday, work, illness and other projects), but I decided it was time to put it away and start again. A few bits and pieces have moved into my latest Counterfeit Kit, and I made 7 pages in total:
The bright colours in this kit were perfect for this page about Maddy's Drama Club performance, where her character was a stand-up comedian on an X-Factor-type show.
Another one from Maddy's primary school days, this time a Book Week Parade:
And a string of birthday pages for the boys:
For this page, I resurrected the method of using both sides of a sheet of patterned paper by cutting it a third of the way across, flipping one side and reattaching it, in this case by adhering a thickish offcut of cardstock at the back and a packaging strip on the front. Actually, that was one goal I think I did achieve this month, I think I used at least one packaging strip/thin strip of paper on every page!
Finally, a fun page where I was reading "Winnie The Pooh" with our pet rabbit on my lap - we all need to be exposed to the classics, don't you think?
Did you spot my DIY flair on some of those pages? I've recently uploaded a video to Youtube outlining my super-cheap and easy method, along with a couple of tips:
Two of the pages above have process videos, also - if you want a laugh, I totally recommend the Bookweek one if you haven't already watched it - Maddy and Rohan do the voice-over for me and it's very funny!
Thanks for visiting, as always I love sharing my creative process with you!
Every couple of years or so I consider joining a Scrapbooking Kit Club. I look at all the different websites, compare the style, the amount of papers, embellishments, stamps etc, then do the maths: kit plus postage(mostly international) times conversion rate. The result is always the same - I simply cannot justify the price! I actually have a bit of an idea up my sleeve I want to try once my spending freeze is over, but in the meanwhile, I've got the Counterfeit Kit Challenge to keep me distracted!
Excellent timing, because who was in my top 2 kits this time around, but Felicity Jane! This month's inspiration is their May kit, "Willow":
So pretty! How close can I get to making a similar kit? You can watch my process and find out:
After doing 80 pages on a spending freeze, I was stoked with how great this kit pulled together! With any luck, this kit plus the odd other project will see me through to the last 20 pages of my spending freeze. I can't wait to start playing!
