I'm a happy Hooker!!!

As some of you know, I've been off work for about 4 weeks now. Somehow I haven't felt in the mood for doing anything papery at all while I've been off. I've only made about 3 bits of jewellery too. The creative input needed for two of my favourite hobbies has somehow eluded me, but I hope when I get back on track I will feel inspired once again.
However, I have had something to keep me occupied. I've been learning to crochet. It's been satisfying my need for creativity without straining my brain! I did a sampler piece of a few different stitch types, then made this gift bag for a friend. I made the body of the bag using a few of the basic stitches, then a scalloped edge taken from the beginner's book I had bought, and a flower pattern that I found online.

I love the simplicity of crochet: once you have learned a few stitches, all patterns and designs are pretty much a variation of these. You can take it anywhere, just a ball of wool and a hook are needed, you can pick it up and put it down, and it doesn't take over the whole living room like certain other hobbies of mine!
Also, as any crafter knows, its fun to make things that are small and pretty! I'm hoping that I can make some cute flower embellishments, to use in scrapping and even jewellery making. I love taking different craft elements and fusing them into something unique.

First Jewellery!

So I'm really enjoying making gemstone jewellery, having already bought loads more beads than I showed in my last post! (naughty! My gemstone addiction is just replacing my paper addiction as I've vowed not to buy any new papers!)
I've already sold a couple of the pieces, and hope to do a couple of craft fairs maybe at some point. I'd happily keep all the jewellery for myself, but I can't afford to fund this hobby if I do! Haha.
So I'd love to know what people think, and any ideas about what stones or colour schemes people would like to see if you were looking at a jewellery stall.

 Black Jasper pendant (love this leaf!) with pretty orange Carnelian, and mini Tiger's eye, picture Jasper and green Jade beads. Phew!
 



 

White Coral with red Jade illusion flower pendant, little bit of experimentation with the flower.

Lovely statement necklace in orange Jade and brown Agate. This will be a present for my Mum, she loves bold jewellery and orange, so I hope she likes it! 

Amethyst and lilac Pearl cuff with earrings. Lovely colour scheme for a prom or a wedding!

Purple Agate with Labradorite set. I've put my bracelets on stretchy elastic, as I hate fiddly bracelet clasps, and this has enabled me to sell them at low prices. They are proving very popular!

Coloured pearl and haematite earrings, really simple. I think I'll keep some of these!

 

Cute Dalmatian Jasper hearts, with coral and jade. Love this set, Dalmatian Jasper is one of my fave gems. It always amazes me that nature can produce such gorgeous patterns!

 

 So I've got some scrapping swaps and challenges to get on with, time to put down my pliers for a bit (easier said than done!) and go and fiddle with some matchboxes ...

Shiny Shiny pretty pretties!

I may not have time to do much paper stuff for a while, as I've just taken posession of this little bundle of loveliness! I keep just picking them up and touching and looking at them. Ooh. preciouses!

I've dabbled with a bit of glass and plastic bead jewellery over the years, very simple stuff, but I've always loved gemstones for their amazing natural bright colours and fabulous lustre. If I buy myself- or anyone else- jewellery, its usually gemstones in some form. So I thought, its about time I have a proper go at this. Even if I end up keeping all the stuff I make (though I wouldn't mind selling some so I can afford to buy more gems!) its still another string to my crafting bow.

I'll definitely be posting some pictures of them when I've made some! Though knowing me I'll be mulling over ideas for a while before I can bring myself to start. At least with beading, I can cut the wire and start all over again! Wish me luck :)

Slushy stuff!

 I received the most beautiful flowers from my sweetheart for Valentine’s Day. Though I must give him credit, he often buys me flowers, the dark tulips and white roses were a lovely combination.

I was very stuck on this layout to start with: I didn’t want to detract from or overpower the flowers, but I wanted a dramatic and romantic piece too. I thought I might use a little piece of the DCWV 12x12 photo stack red roses paper, but in the end I went big with it instead and I’m glad I did. I like the fact that this piece evolved: I wasted paper cutting pieces I didn’t use in the end, but it’s all part of the process. I also considered at one point using the whole of the paper cellar die-cut hearts sheet, but it looked very pretty cut up as a photo mat. I only wish I’d realised earlier it was self-adhesive as I struggled to try and glue it neatly…silly me!

I don’t get too hung up on journalling if I just have a little to say: sometimes the title is enough. For some reason I stamped the writing straight onto my LO when I’d nearly finished everything else, instead of doing it first: brave? Or stupid? Haha. Either way, it worked, and the fact that I used an inky grungy font anyway meant it wouldn’t have mattered if it had been a little messy. The writing is quite subtle and blends into the background somewhat, but this is what I was trying to achieve. To me, it mimics the words, “the closer I look…” because you have to look a little closer to see.

I was inspired by the Feb week 2 team challenge on UKScrappers, and also by the  SJ Crafts february challenge so I put together a combination of the two. Thanks for the lovely inspiration!

Two Girly Cards

This is the kind of girly I can cope with - no fluffy bunnies or anything too cutesy! I'm sharing a couple of cards- one quick, one that took a bit longer. The more time-consuming one, I made last year. It was the first one I made with my Tim Holtz birdcage die- now a firm favourite. Though I made it before I started blogging, I was always in the habit of snapping my favourite cards in case I wanted to go back for inspiration later. Sometimes its hard to give them away! But obviously as this one was personalised, it wasn't too hard to part with.
I actually used a freebie paper from a magazine for the background. You never know when they might come in handy so I never throw them away (who am I kidding? I never throw anything away!) So I used the TH birdcage and vintage market alphabet dies, the bird and letters are cut from the First Edition desert blooms paper stack. The hanging charms and flower are from Making Memories. A lot of input from my trusty promarkers, especially the Coral.

The second card was a cutting-and-piecing quickie for the 52-week card challenge. The paper is all from the DCWV 8x8 Street Lace stack. I love the lace and net look of these papers, very vibrant but a little bit saucy and naughty. The stack also has green, turquoise and cream papers as well as the pink, all have the black lace theme going on. I'll definitely be using this stack up quick! My black versacolor inkpad got a workout too, and my fingers were pretty sore after all that cutting!

Monthly Makes for January

I've been relatively productive this month, taking part in scrapping and card challenges on the UKS forums. I also decided to join in the Monthly Make for 2012 on the Felt Fairy's blog (see badge at the bottom of my blog). This month I have made my first ever ATCs, for a swap, and a card that I can now put up because the person I sent it to should have got it by now!

ATCs represented a completely new challenge for me: being creative in such a small space. When I scrap, I tend to leave space rather than fill pages up too much, but being able to fit everything I wanted onto a little card was a challenge for sure. I made a series of 6, entitled "Secrets in Lace", and 5 have been swapped; I kept the first one as I thought it might be nice to hang on to my first ever ATC. I'd be happy to make one-offs or more series if anyone wants to do a swap, just let me know.

 This card was really fun to make, it came out more like a scrapbook layout than some of my cards, but it was for a lovely friend so I wanted to spend a bit more time on it, hence I've used more techniques, more layers than I usually would: inking, stamping, die-cutting, collage. I liked the contrast of the girlie pastel dress and bunting against the aged feel of the stamped background.
Now I'm on a roll with my cardmaking I'm starting to enjoy it more, like I used to when I first started. I think taking inspiration from scrapping has really helped so I'll try and keep up with the 52 card challenge for the rest of the year!!

Kitschy Kitchen

Recipe album kit by Melissa Francis: Kitschy Kitchen...the name says it all!

I found this cute kit in my stash after having bought it ages ago- typical me! And as my favourite recipes are mostly scribbled on scraps of paper and chucked in a kitchen drawer I thought it was about time I did something about it. 

As well as the album, I’d bought some of the coordinating bits: tags, cardstock stickers and extra recipe cards: they definitely added a little something. As an experienced crafter I felt afterwards that I could have easily made this album up myself with a couple of D-rings, some chipboard and a few papers, which would have been cheaper and given me more creative freedom (the covers come already printed), but I like how it turned out and that’s the main thing! 

I added some of my own ribbon, a frame sticker and a paper doily to the album to personalise it more. I’m not usually one for kits, but this one was fast and fun so maybe I’ll try a few more…

Scrap-Happy!

 I've always been into papercrafts, but started scrapbooking in earnest about a year ago. Due to time constraints, I haven’t managed to complete that many layouts, but I've had real fun putting pages together, preserving photos in a way that will be lovely to look back on in years to come! The two layouts here are from photos about 4 years old but scrapped at the end of 2011. I have included vintage styling in both, but the effect is completely different! 

With neutral colours and lots of stamping and distress inking, the Mad as a Hatter layout looks like an old piece. There is hidden journalling and another photo behind the main picture: I love to include interactive elements in pages. On both pages I've used Graphic 45 and Tim Holtz products. Both brands are great for vintage-look/ distressed-look pages, Graphic 45 producing exquisite papers, and Tim Holtz specialising in altered art products. I wanted a dramatic look for the Love Story layout, so while the page elements are still mainly in a neutral colour, a black textured background was used, with red accents to compliment the photo. I've also included some mushy journalling about my friends in the photo!

I didn’t want to fill up my posts with product and technical info, but if anyone would like information about the specific products or techniques used, I’m happy to share. Also, this is the first time I've photographed my scrapbook pages, so I'm still getting used to that and the photography isn't great! Still, you get the idea. Now I’m off to think up some scrappy ideas for the collection of Graphic 45 papers I bought recently, gorgeously entitled Steampunk Debutante!