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

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

Elephants should be grey

This is my very first ever ever challenge card entry for the new monthly challenge over at Little Claire. I love their stamps, and I love elephants and they are so lovely as to do some really wonderful Elephant stamps. Here is one of a set called "Lots of Fun" which I picked up from their stall at Stamperama on Sunday, along with a grey Pro-Marker pen.

Now I really love Elephant stamps, and as well as my Little Claire ones, I also have the Ellie range from Stampasaurus, the cutest Elephant in the whole world (apart from the one that acts as my avatar and has her own place on the rocking chair in my craft room) Now my elephant is Pink. And for her that is a very suitable colour. (She is also dressed in dungarees, and you don't see many elephants dressed in those!) But really for stamping, Elephants should be grey. But what do you do when you don't have a grey Pro-Marker pen? I have tried Pink, Blue and Purple. All kind of funky but not quite Elephant-y enough for me. I have also tried using a different kind of pen, but it shows against the clear effect of the Pro-Markers So finally I can do Elephants in the colour that they were meant to be!! I will obviously be getting the lighter grey colour so I can do 2 different kinds of grey elephant. What kind of crafter would I be otherwise??

For those who are interested (and for the folks at Little Claire) the Stamp is Lots of Fun coloured with Pro Markers (Cool grey 2, Pink Carnation, Powder Blue and Leaf Green) and the water picked out with Glossy Accents. The cardstock, both yellow and green is taken from a double-sided sheet, out of a Papermania Birthday collection box (for which I must say a big THANK YOU to my mum who saw a few in her local craft shop reduced to £8 and cleared the shop of all sets, sending one my way!!) The flower and button are from the same box set. The card candy is Craftwork cards, from the Candy store and the Peel off (which didn't come out well with the flash) is from an unknown source, I can never keep track of where I got them from. 

I'll let you know how I do in the challenge, but putting that aside, this is a fab stamp and a very easy card to make. Its so nice when it all comes together. 

Love Elliefantasy xxx

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

Happy Happy Happy and I love My Robo.

So first proper project of the year is some 1st Birthday invitations for my nephew. Whilst in shock over the fact that a year has passed since he was born, I relished the thought of a new, non Christmassy project. 

Mr Men are a very nice and simple make as the style is very much hand-drawn. This lends itself well to someone who isn't quite perfect in the drawing field either by hand or digitally. They also involve blocks of colour, again good for digital images and stash saving.

Mr Happy was actually cut on the Robo, which is why I have a salute to that wondeful machine in the title. 32 cuts in only 4 sheets of yellow 12x12 done in only 30 minutes whilst doing something else at the same time. The shape was easy to construct, after all Mr Men are based on regular shapes. So 5 ovals  and a couple of rectrangles later I have a perfect Mr Happy shape which cuts cleanly and quickly. We save a lot of time and a nice job remains a nice job and isn't a chore. 

The background is done on PC, Capitals and script as per the Mr Men covers and a 1 for my nephew. Mr Happy will be stuck on using foam pads and job's a good'un. The print quality isn't that good but that will be rectified with a new ink cartridge. There is a nice invite insert sheet to match up inside. All I need to do is put it all together and hope that my back is happy with me sitting down for such a long time.

Love Elliefantasy xxx