Inspiration doesn't mean results

Lately I have been feeling like this - I felt  inspired, but when I sat down to make something, the results were pretty disappointing. To try to get out of this hole, I decided to change my usual way of doing things:

- I hardly ever scraplift, my inspiration comes either from the photos or what I around me, a dres, ads, interior design magazines, cd covers, etc. So now I'd try to see a layout that spoke to me and scraplift or use as a base for my own. (*)
- Limit my choices. Since I had just purchase a scrapbooking kit (November's Studio Calico kit), I'd try to use it to the max.

I am not so good with rules - I quickly go of on a tangent, but it did help me to have some guidelines, even if it was to break them.

This layout is a scraplift from one by Lisa Truesdell, as seen in the October issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  I want to start submitting for publication and CK has a running call for layouts inspired by ones featured in their mag.

*patterned paper: Scenic Router (grid), My Mind's Eye
*small tag: Fontwerks
*Circle (behind photo): My Mind's Eye
*Letter Stickers: Making Memories (green), October Afternoon
*Punches: Martha Stewart (lace), Woodware (scalop circle and small circle),
*Flowers: Prima
*Stamp: Studio Calico
*Also:  Stickles, sequins, string and thread

It is a close scraplift, besides changing the design from 12x12 to 8.5x11, I didn't stray much from her design. But while hers is stunning, mine is average. Not horrible, but you would'nt pick this one up from a crowd, would you?

Analyzing it, I think I didn't nail the colours right, there's not enough contrast, there's not enough punch. I tried to use lilacs and purples and that never works for me. I wear these colours but have difficulty using them in scrapbook pages and would never thing of using them in the home.

A step in the right direction I think.

From Celtic Tiger to Celtic Meltdown

How did it happen?
Sorry for the OT title, but I can't help wondering.

Anyway, here's a suggestion of what to do in lean times.

My daughter got this blouse in Penneys.

It was marked €3, but at the cash desk we found out it had been reduced to €1.

I asked if she'd like if I added a few crochet flowers around the neckline. She said yes.

I'll try to take a photo of her with the blouse, it goes really well with her colouring.

Nice weekend!

Celebration blog hop

The Baker Dozen is celebrating its first birthday of being Shimelle Laine's Digital Creative Team with a blog hop.

Today I am celebrating my family - the family I grew up with and the family that my husband and I made.

* Digital Paper: Bazinga! kit by Shimelle Laine @ Two Peas in a Bucket
* Frame: Write it Down Prety Labels by Shimelle Laine @ Two Peas in a Bucket
* Title Letters: A New Leaf by Paislee Press and Audacious Designs
* Font: CK Ali's Hand Official

The next stop in the hop is Rani.


And here are all the Blog Hoppers:

Karen m. http://talesfromthescrapheap.blogspot.com/
Kate http://libertycottage.blogspot.com/
Avital http://www.CreativityPrompt.com
Dolly http://dollysdreamings.typepad.com
Elisa http://hybrid-alien.blogspot.com
Rani http://www.scrapyoga.typepad.com/
Yvonne http://yvonnes-inkyfingers.blogspot.com/
SJ http://www.scrappyfairy.blogspot.com/
Anso http://glitteradventure.blogspot.com/
Nadine http://hello-love.org/
Sheri http://www.auntierere.blogspot.com/

Take a look their fabulous creations! 

Halloween - from 2008 to 2010

I am convinced that I have only 10% of the stash of an average scrapbooker/paper crafter. All my papers fit in a since shelf. Another shelf for my bigger embellishments, and a few shelves for bits and pieces - so what's on the rest of my lovely shiny white IKEA storage cabinets?

Magazines (tons of them!). Plus "things-that-could-be-useful-sometime-so-I-wont-get-rid-of-them".  So I hit on this brilliant idea: why not actually use these things instead of only storing them? I'm a genius, don't you think?

Like this 7 gypsies mini book that is probably 5 years old. Since I had previously made a mini with the Halloween photos up to 2007, this one starts where the other one stopped.

Very simple, most of the digital elements are from Karla Dudley's kit which I won in her blog.

 cover

For every year, I wrote a short journaling about the kids' costumes
the opposite side was looking bare so I added 4 tiny photos from the same year

Two photos of each  child per year, sometimes with word art or doodles

there's even a photo of the 4 of us, taken by a neighbour while we were trick or treating

TFL!

*Digital elements: Swank Labels by Jennifer Pebbles @ Two Peas in a Bucket (frame), Paper Crave (bat image, not seen), Spook by Karla Dudley @ Design House Digital
*Mini Album: 7 Gypsies

{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...

 

Scrapboxes

I was taken when I saw Darcy Miller's scrapboxes in a article in Martha Stewart Living magazine. I'm sure I'd blogged about it.

With my craft space full of "things-I've-saved-in-the-hope-of-using-it-sometime", I decided it was time to start using or getting rid of them.

Of course, this little bike was way too cute to be thrown out:

If you ever go to Brazil, try to stop in the roadside cafes. Of course, there's a chance you get these yucky places with awful food and unhygienic toilets but mostly you get average to excellent food. As my Dad always say, stop where there's lots of trucks (lorries) - truck drivers know where to find the best roadside barbecue restaurants. But I am side tracking, what I mean to say is that the bigger ones, besides food, sells lots of magazines, newspapers, snacks, and an arrays of curiosities that ranges from bizarre to ugly, cute to amazing. Like this little bike, smaller than the palm of my hand, made of a single wire and bits of green and yellow plastic tubing - plus the Brazilian flag.

Inspired by Darcy Miller, who usually combines a photo with a matching souvenir, I use this photo of my son, taken Christmas Day 2008, on his new bike:

It is a recessed frame bought in IKEA - the glass on it I had broke sometime ago, but it didn't matter because I couldn't have used it anyway, as the bike was too wide to fit inside it.

One frame and one bike used. Now onto the other 100 frames and bits and pieces waiting to be used...

Always Lulu

* Patterned Paper: Scenic Route
* Ribbon: from a Studio Calico kit
* Journaling spot: Title and Journal Blocks by Ali Edwards @ Designer Digitals

This is another one that needs something. Sorry for the bad photo too.

Ah, yes, I have a tutorial for the pleated flowers in my other blog.