A Mini A Month - Jan New Beginnings 2

Sorry its been so long. Here is the album made, I haven't yet put any pictures in, still can't decide what to do, but I have time to worry about that later. I loved making this, and will have a go at some more later in the year. I didn't quite twig that the envelopes didn't have to be open, but hey, that's no bother, I have a nice album with pockets in. Another tip. Leave yourself loads of ribbon to fasten. My jeans hem isn't quite long enough to cover the thickness of the paper and the embellishments that are on the pockets. All in all though, I'm happy about how its come together, with the colours and papers. For those who wanted to know about the rosettes, see this post at Sticky Inky Scrappy Mess, though mine aren't stiffened, its just fabric. But the method still works out fine.

Love Elliefantasy 

A Mini A Month - Jan New Beginnings 1

So, here we go, making the first book. Its not too late to join in either, the instruction post is here. 

After reading through the instructions, I actually changed my mind over what I wanted to make the mini-book about. Originally it was going to be about resolutions, but the book lends itself to pictures so well, I've decided to make it about moving into our first brought house in the middle of last year, and have pictures of the rooms as old and new. I want to see if I can make little mini-mini books to go into the envelopes so that there is plenty of room for pics and journalling. 

The decorating theme is brown and blue, partly because I am trying to dig into my massive Claire Curd Papermania paper stack, and partly because I managed to make a couple of fabric rosettes from the cutoffs of some superlong jeans. I'm not a big sewer but they've come out really well. When I put the final pics up, I'll link over to a fabulous blog I love, Scrappy Sticky Inky Mess where I saw the video for how to make them. Trying to carry the theme on, I've used the hem as a clasp and will make it close hopefully using some sticky back velco. I'm also going to try and find some denim digital paper, or to carry Karen's "don't buy anything" theme, I might take some pictures of my jeans. The envelopes are just begging to be turned into Jeans pockets.

When I'm done, I'll put up another post. I really encourage you to join up and have a go. I've done this much in just about an hour and a half and I honestly had no difficulty in finding the bits I needed and letting my mojo spark off. At the end of a pretty pants day at work, this is just the sort of pick-me-up I need.

Love Elliefantasy xx 

A Mini A Month

This is a challenge that I mentioned in a previous post. Karen, who is on UKScrapbookers is doing a fantastic challenge about creating a mini book every month. The format is really good, first prompt is about the subject, second prompt is a list of materials and the third prompt is instructions to make the book, with 2 weeks to actually acheive it. So there is time for reflection, a way to document the year and the opportunity to learn new things. One of the other features of this challenge is to try and use existing stash, but we'll see how that goes. 

This months subjects is about New Beginnings, and I'm going to use it to document some of my resolutions for the year. Some are going to be those listed in my JYC album, but there is a new one that I have been trying out fairly successfully for the last couple of weeks. 

As someone who works full time, its hard to make sure that the things that need doing around the house and all the little non-work related jobs get done. I used to put them off and put them off until I couldn't any more and would end up stressed and busy trying to fit them all into a couple of evenings. I would then resent the time away from things that I wanted to do, even though it was spending too much time on those things that meant I had this enormous pile of chores. 

So this year I have been going with the theory of doing 1 thing every evening. So something gets done but its only one thing that takes maybe half an hour maximum, leaving the rest of the evening free, no matter what time I get home. I've made this work for me and cleared a number of things to do, tidying up the bedroom, making a friends birthday card, hand-washing some clothes. This evenings job was to have a quick tidy-up. I washed-up in the dead time between my OH and myself getting home and then just cleaned the bathrooms after dinner. 20 mins of work and the house is clean for the weekend when I have a lot of time to play and a lot of things I want to achieve. Things that wouldn't get done if I had the mundane chores to do. 

I find this theory manageable as I know that I will acheive things that have been piling up and piling up, but still having dedicated time to relax. If there is nothing to do, well thats fantastic. But 20 minutes of work and then a well earned play in my craft room is more than good enough for me!

So, check back in a couple of weeks when you can see the completed mini-book and the other resolutions that made the cut. Also, over this weekend I hope to get a few bits scrapped, some craft room bits completed and make a start on the JYC album, so I hope you might stop by once or twice to see how I'm getting on.

Love Elliefantasy xxx