Trying to grow

Maybe I am not trying enough, maybe I am trying to make too many things but lately I hadn't made things that I LOVED. I made things that were OK, that were reasonably happy with but nothing that make my heart sing.

Then I read this in Kelly Purkey's blog:

"In May of this year something went off in my head. Or I should say, was lit under my booty.  I sat down at my desk and decided I was sick of making layouts just to get them done.  I wanted to push myself create work that would be something that I was really proud of.  Not intentionally make layouts that people would love, but make something that I was personally proud of for putting time and energy into.  Projects that I felt I was giving my best creative engery to. Do you know what I mean?"

That's it, making things that makes me proud. That's what I want to do this year. I am not claiming I have figured it out how  - or that I'll be proud of everything I'll do. But that's what I am aiming for.

I really want to do this using what I have at home instead buying more and more. I looked through copies of inspirational photos, crafts and colour schemes that I had saved (lately I've been using Pinterest for that) and I pulled two that I liked.

Based on them I went through my stash and made two kits.

Kit #1 is based on this photo of an old Crewcut catalog:

Brights against a background of neutrals (black & white). Which is something that always gets my attention. I added a bit of green to the mix, so that I could use it for my Christmas layouts - and I had kit #1.

And that kick started my resolution - I made this layout which made me proud for the first time in a while. It is very simple, no patterned paper, only a few bits from the kit itself. But it is a layout that I like now and I know I'll always like because it is simple and it has something that matters to me (the white paper is a copy of my daughter's letter to Santa - i added the buttons so it can be pulled from the "envelope").

* Cardstock: Bazzill

* Letter Stickers: American Crafts

* Twine: Studio Calico

* Font: Underwood Champion

* Other: Buttons

 And you, what you do want to do in creative terms in 2012?

September Summary Layout

I am glad I finished October's summary layout and have 50% of November done. Here's September's.

I used a sketch by Shimelle Laine.

I really helped me to get the layout done, I find hard to make original multiphoto layouts.

My home still remains mostly undecorated for Christmas,  but I put this little cuties up. They're placecards from Next. Now I need something red to complement them, anybody seen a red reindeer somewhere?

Red and White Christmas

Do you know when sometimes you get all crafty and bloggy after a long dry spell?

Well, that's me at the moment. I want to use at least a bit of my energy to get started with the Christmas decorations. We didn't do much decoration last year, but I want to put a little bit of effort this year and it is going to be all red and white. Except the tree decorations which will have all the colours of the rainbow as always.

Before  December, I always bring down a banner with little booties numbered from 1 to 24 and fill it tiny chocolate pieces for the children, our version of the advent calendar. But it was always a pain to find something small enough to fit 2 in each boot. And when I found it would always be unwrapped do I had to wrap 48 tiny bits of chocolate with tin foil. Boring! This year I decided that for this amount of trouble, I could so something crafty at least. That's what I did:

The circles are from a digi kit to which I added the numbers and punches. The little bags are sandwich bags. The original bags were too big, so I had to cut then into 4 smaller ones. Of course when I cut, I had to glue the bottom and sides again which took a while, but still I enjoyed making them.

And the photo is an entry for project 365.

Back into Craftland and freebie giveaway continued.

A couple posts ago I offered some Halloween scrapbooking stash, and the winner  :-)  is Grá, I didn't have to have a draw for this one. Grá, please contact me at elisamayn at yahoo dot com with your address so I can post you the stash!

My another giveway is My Memories Suite which I posted here. It is a fabulous prize and I'll wait a little bit more to announce the winner. Put a comment in the original post to have a chance!

Here's another digi I made with My Memories Suite, using a ready made template, I only changed the title of the layout. It traces the change in my daughter's outfit from the last 3 Halloween nights. She wanted to be scary and  she chose her outfit; a vampire; and I let her do her own make up. I have to admit it was a little bit too creepy for me, but she was happy.

As for paper and glue, I am also making some Christmas stuff, some cards like this one:

I'll post my remaining cards in my other blog next week.

Have a great weekend!

Christmas and Project 12

We were all disappointed that we wouldn't be able to get to Rio for Christmas. So were my parents and brother who were waiting for us. My daughter was probably the one that took the news the hardest. But Christmas at home wasn't bad after all and we got to Rio eventually.

Project 12 - still in Agust 2010... Sigh...

A Personalised Book

 This is an old project which I think I never shared.

When my daughter was in Junior Infants, her teacher gave to all the children in her class personalised books for Christmas. In each story, the main character had the child's name and somewhere in the story there were bits about them like their ages, best friends, etc.

The booklet was made of A4 pages folder in 4 and stapled together and had the name of a website on it, northpole.com. My daughter loved the book, and a year later, at Christmas time, we found the book and reread it. I got curious and went to the website. It has lots of Christmas related stuff, including personalised stories. To my delight, there were two more stories, and I decided to print one story for my daughter and another for my son.

There were two options on how to print the story too, one for a quick fold&staple A6 book and another option to print the story in A5 size in both sides of the paper. Which gave me the idea to try to make a properly bound book. I found a great tutorial and quickly made the two books. The one I am displaying is my daughter's - it is a bit worn out (being 3 years in a child's bookshelf), but not damaged otherwise.

Sadly the tutorial has been removed, there are other ones for single section bookbinding, but not as detailed  as the one I followed. Here's one.

For the cover I used corrugated cardboard covered in patterned paper. It is a Basic Grey pattern, given free with a scrapbook magazine and printed on a thinner, shinier paper then the usual one. That's the part that got worn out. The tutorial said to use fabric for the spine, but since I hadn't any in hand I used handmade paper instead. Handmade paper is both more maleable and stronger than ordinary paper so I figured out it would do. And it did, the spine is still in good condition.

The title page and the first chaper.

Have a go, it would made a great (and unexpensive) present for any child aged 6 or under.

{No} Joy :-)

Like last year, I'll be giving a customised 2011 calendar to my immediate family this year. Since Photobox had a special offer until last Thursday, I was rushing trying to sort out the photos for the calendar. For December I wanted to have a photo of my two children with the Santa Hat.

That was the plan. I couldn't get a half decent photo of my son, on his own or with his sister. He'd make faces, cover his head with the hat, turn back, etc etc. So I gave up, and let my children take photos of each other and of me.

Digital layout
*Patterned paper: Delovely by Paislee Press @ Oscraps.com
*Frame: Pictures + Words by Paislee Press @ Oscraps.com
*Word Art: Penned Words::Christmas By Shimelle Laine @ Two Peas in a Bucket
*Font: 2 peas Sailboat @ Two Peas in a Bucket

Journaling:

"Trying to get a decent picture of
you for our 2011 calendar is no
fun, No good photos, only outtakes. But at lease we have
some laughs."

Did I get frustrated? Me? Nooo...