31 Mar 2011

Messy Messy Mess Mess...

 ...but my mojo is definately here somewhere because I have been so on the ball with the crafting. Scrapbooking or card making, its all pottering along nicely. The problem I have is that every time I go to tidy, I start to just pick at bits and pieces, do a bit here, do a bit there and then its all messy again. Having said that, its quite hard to craft on top of so much stuff and every flat surface has something piled upon it. I had my friends from home up at the weekend, and none were surprised at the messiness of the room, nor at the fact that OH & I have to have seperate rooms. "Stuff expands to fill the space!"

So what have I been doing to create all this mess? I really got into the "In the Meadow" papers that came with a very recent copy of Simply Cards and Papercraft. I made a whole selection of cards, mostly from the papers and die cuts that came with them. I 've sectioned off a few to make some new baby photo frames for a couple of friends. That has lead me on to a mini-book from some other SC&P papers, but I need to find some images. I also attacked the butterfly stickers in the Papermania birthday set and made 6 good cards for general purpose. There is a Double scrapbook page of pics of my nephew and his 2 aunties at Christmas, plus 2 more on the go of me and my best friend, and 1 to be started. All piled up on the desk.

I've also got back into the stamping and really getting the hang of the pro-markers, the mixing and the general colouring in. With Ally Pally coming up, I'm gunning to get some more, the range of greys is definately on my list for blending purposes and Elephant colouring. I read it somewhere on the internet (UK Scrappers I think) and it really does give a much deeper colour, especially to the Reds.  Other potential purchases are some envelope templates that craftwork cards have released and to expand my collection of distress inks and get some blending pads. I have been using stippling brushes and they do give a nice effect. But for the pale colours (which account for 2 of the 3 I have, it really needs to be pads. Or RSI. 

Birthday time has just (literally) come and gone and a lot of goodies have come my way. I've spent the money from grandparents on a few (lots) bits from Crafty Devils, including the new v2 Bind it all, a hobby arts stamp I saw in a magazine (Actually, it was SC&P, again) and some nice santa stamps. I also got a lovely new camera lens, wide angle, which gives lovely short depth-of-field shots for portraits. I took some really lovely ones of my party, very easily with fantastic results. I'm hoping that with it I can get some really good shots of my nephew without using the flash and them being blurred or grainy. And also some good stealthy ones of my family. See this picture of the crisps and dip. I just literally pointed and shot. For those who are interested there is also one of Fishfingers.

When there is some daylight I will post up pictures of all the bits I've made and finished. Its all a bit yellow in here at the moment. I have some ideas for a light box as we have a deluge of cardboard boxes around and a lot of spare white 12x12. Hopefully this should make photos easier to take no matter what time of day it is. 

Love Elliefantasy

16 Mar 2011

What's going on with me

Hello to all of you lovely people. Yes I have been rather absent but very busy. So what have I been up to? 

For most of last month I have been trying to make some progress on my family tree. I have the idea of doing it in scrapbook forms, and so I have started to collect more detailed and throrough information. But the more I looked, the more information I need to find and it is very much spread about. This is not a quick and easy job, but something I need to make headway with so I can make a start on the scrapbooks. 

Mini-A-Month. I have done most of February's, though most of it was done in March. Its a really cool little book based on the theme of Love and the pictures are from a friends wedding that I went to in 2009. I haven't started March's yet but hang on a couple of weeks and something will turn up. 

Cards & Layouts. The pics below are of some cards and a layout that I made at the weekend, the layout is of me and my newphone, opening his present on his first birthday. The cards are made from the kit box that I mentioned in my previous post, just one sheet of cardstock did 4 birthday cards. I've also got the hang of the Tim Holtz bits that I brought at Stamperama, and with Ally Pally just around the corner I am planning to get some more ink pads and other bits.

Parties - With my birthday coming up shortly I had planned a massive Piratey affair. Work and timescale have meant that it's been postponed for a few months, however its giving me enough time to plan it properly and there will be a few crafty bits that I can share with you all. 


So, hope you have enjoyed catching up, see you all soon.

Elliefantasy xxx