3 pages, 5 challenges.

I was having a bit of a rough time last week.  I was trying to start my first TAFE essay and everytime I tried it felt like I was hitting a bit of a brick wall.  I was getting increasingly stressed as I was aware of all the other things I was needing (and wanting) to get done, and yet I kept on turning to life-avoidance mode. So I took a step back from the laptop for a couple of days, got the gardening done I wanted to do, did some cleaning, and turned to Scrapbook Challenges website to feed my creative muse.  I pulled 3 challenges I thought I might like to try, and went into the vaults for some photos that might work with them.  Over the next week and a half I managed to work around other commitments and get them all done!!! (and yes I have even almost finished that first essay!)

These challenges were heading out of my comfort zone (a good thing) as they all relied on using multiple pieces of patterned paper in the one page.  For many scrappers this is a staple, but for me, I always think, oh, the expense!!!  To get around this hurdle, I headed straight for the large scraps folder and started from there.

challenge 1: "By the numbers".
The brief here was to use 4 patterned papers, rhinestones, 2 stamps and a butterfly.  All my patterned papers were offcuts from the stash, (2 are actually Christmas-themed, can you guess which ones?) I used the colours from the lined paper to determine what other colours to use.  I felt that the rhinestones should really have a 3 somewhere, and I ended up using 3 groups of 3.  I used 2 flourish stamps, and lastly my butterfly, which is actually challenge 2: make a butterfly by white-embossing onto vellum.  This was one I have had on my "to-do" list since seeing a project in "Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft (vol 16 no 12) by Jennifer Sweatman.

Challenge 3: Product Challenge  The brief here was to use (again) a minimum of 4 patterned papers, and using a punch to make a repeated embellishment.  Computer journalling was also required.


This pages also ended up fulfilling another of my personal challenges: Challenge 4: make a page using nothing but offcuts!  That's right, this page was actually made by sewing strips of patterned paper together!  (see photo at right) The elephants used as embellishments were punched from paper that is now behind the photos, and the blue circles and Sizzixed heading were from a scrap of blue cardstock.

And finally, Challenge 5, Sketch 254
As with the other pages, the 2 patterned papers I used came from my offcuts.  The title circle was cut out of the middle of the backing cardstock.
And did you notice, a few of those vellum butterflies fluttered onto this page too!

Splurge . . but just a little bit!

The other day my local scrapbooking shop was having a sale . . and I knew I was going to be in the suburb.  Much as I knew I didn't need to buy any new supplies, I was getting tired of looking through the same sheets of patterned paper, so I gave myself the following limits:

• spend no more than $5
• had to be suitable for boy pages
• had to be used quickly, not left to get lost in  the stash!

I ended up spending $3.50 on 3 sheets of patterned paper.  Just enough to freshen things up a bit!

My favourite bits are the thousand-year old Creative Memories stickers on the title which matched perfectly, and the "Fine and Dandy" tab, which is actually part of the cut-off strip from the paper!

Obssessed?

The other day I was hanging out the washing, which happened to include 2 soccer uniforms and 3 tae kwon do uniforms. I thought to myself "the only thing missing is the ballet clothes".
So later on I went back down, hung the ballet clothes up as well and took some photos for a future scrapbook page.
that's not weird is it?

Nature in all her splendour challenge

I had a peek at the earth day challenges on the scrapbook challenges webs. At first glance of the "nature in all her splendour" challenge, I thought you've got to be kidding! there were 18 elements to try and include on the one page!  but then I thought, no, I can do this.  So that was how I spent a rainy Anzac Day afternoon.

 

The other fun page I've done this weekend was this one:  Friends looked after our dog while we were away at Christmas and gave us this super cute photo.  I am totally loving making my own labels for titles and journalling.  Made totally from my stash, of course.

Banner challenge

I have just come back from a week's holiday, and had a lovely day catching up with some friends.  The men fished, the kids played (not fought all day!!) and the women did craft!! Kath gave me a stamping magazine that she had two of.  In the spirit of my motto, "focus on what inspires you to create . . ." I have decided to set myself some challenges from this magazine and milk it for everything it is worth.  I have written myself a list of about a dozen ideas to try, mostly from this mag, but also from a couple I have borrowed from the library.  It helped to have an article on 5 ways to get your mojo back, and another on using your scraps!
So, my first challenge (and feel free to play along too)
was to make a page using the current trend of banners.  Here's what I set myself:

• Use a banner on the page, 
• Other than the base cardstock, use only scraps from my small scraps box*
• use a minimum of other embellishments from my stash.

this page on Christmas 2006 for my daughter's album is what I came up with.  Other than scraps, I only used punches, alphabet stamps and a bit of ribbon.
easy and fun!  The bright colours really make it.








* A note on my scraps organization:  I have always been one to keep the smallest of scraps, and the collection has grown . .. and grown . . . I currently keep scraps in two different places, depending on their size, and divided according to colour. 

My smaller scraps are kept together in a box, up to a maximum of about 19 x 12 cm.  This is the go-to spot for cards, punching etc, and slips into a drawer when it isn't on my desk.  all the bits for this page came from here.

The other place for my larger scraps is a folder I made out of page protectors.(ones from a cheaper, older album that aren't quite 12")  Some I have cut in half and zigzagged one and a half together in a co-ordinating colour to make pockets.  I have added appropriate coloured ribbon as a tab on each pocket.  The whole thing is held together by rings.

Thoughtful spending as a reward in itself

I popped into my local scrapbooking store yesterday to spend money for the first time in 14 weeks!  I'm pretty sure that's a record for me.  I went for page protectors and miraculously left buying only page protectors!  I had a bit of a browse first . . . Basic Grey papers for example always catch my eye . . . but I remembered "only buy what you need".  Walking out achieving that goal was actually a bit of a buzz! It really was!
I then went grocery shopping and practiced there too.  Having just dealt with a moth invasion in the pantry, culling and using up items is on the agenda in the kitchen as well.  I did not buy items just because they were on special, and I did not buy other items just because I had seen them advertised and wanted to try them.  I stuck to the shopping list, and was pretty pleased with the total at the checkout!
Maybe this thoughtful spending thing can be a reward all of itself!

How do you reward yourself?

It strikes me that culling down your spending is a bit like dieting. . . . not long ago I read a diet book where the author stated that working out how much to eat is the easy part . . . for people who have a problem with emotional eating the problem is why they eat the things they eat and then breaking those habits.  For those of us who have a problem with spending more than we can afford, or with hoarding, or just spending more than we need to, the problem is working out why we do that.  I think that often, for me at least, it is emotional spending, for example, to reward myself, perhaps when I think I'm not getting the reward from anywhere else, or to cheer myself up when I'm feeling down.  We seem to have this belief that the acquiring of a new item will (however temporarily) will fill some sort of void we feel inside.
I'm enjoying my resolution to cull my craft spending (and my stash) but the secret fear is that the desire to spend will manifest itself in other areas.  Having lost over 4kg this year, I'm very keen not to replace emotional spending with emotional eating!  So that question again: how do we reward ourselves? How can we do it in a way that is healthy for the mind and body, and provides more long-lasting  satisfaction?