Five things (day 3)

Picture credits: Two Peas in a Bucket, Basic Grey, CraftCritique.com, Bo Bunny Blog, www.amazon.co.uk

Well, prompt no. 2 definitely forced me to step out of my comfort zone, but I am so excited about prompt no. 3 (yup, I'm a little behind) because it gives me an opportunity to talk about scrapbooking! Since starting my blog I haven't had much of a chance to upload my layouts because the lighting in the flat is so uncooperative. I have tried to photograph my pages in multiple spots, in different lighting and in artificial light, but it just isn't happening for me at the moment. This is sort of problematic since my blog is called Life & Layouts, but as you soon shall see, I have a plan.

Anyhoo, the image above is a collage of some of the things that have caught my eye recently. By way of explanation:

1. Coveting the Slice Tag Maker Kit - I am a big fan of tools, and I think that this is such an awesome idea for scrapbooking layouts and cards. If money was no object I would snap this up in an instant (along with the Slice Tag Maker Design Card and these sparkly rims), but sadly I have put myself on a strict budget for the time being. It is definitely on my Christmas list though.
2. Too cute! The Basic Grey Nook & Pantry collection - Cooking themes are cropping up all over the place at the moment (Cosmo Cricket's Early Bird and October Afternoon's Farm Fresh come to mind). I particularly love this line because the colours are so very pretty and versatile, but mostly because of the 'Cupcakes' patterned paper, which looks good enough to eat.
   
3. Saving up for the Silhouette Digital Cutting Tool - Wow. This actually makes me giddy with excitement every time I read about it. Just the sheer amount of things that this machine can do is incredible...
4. In my shopping basket: the Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice collection - I love the contrast of the rich autumnal colours of this line against the more delicate pinks and blues. And, because November is the dreaded month of essay-writing (7000 words), I have no time to do the accompanying scrapbook pages for each prompt. So, I was thinking instead that once I have submitted my essays at the beginning of December I would celebrate by making a Blogging for Scrapbookers mini book using this collection, which I have decided sort of matches my Blogger template.
5. Big investment: Canon LiDE 200 Scanner -This blew my budget a little bit (or a lot) but I deemed it a necessity for two reasons. 1) I have hundreds of photos from 'back in the day' when you got your camera film printed which I want to archive/back-up and use for some projects that I have planned for next month. 2) No matter how hard I try, I'm never going to have the right light to photograph my layouts. A scanner is the next best thing, and I have it on good authority that the included software has a stitching facility...here's hoping...(it arrives next week).

In other news, I took a day off from reading and note-taking to go to the Craft Barn Mini Craft Fest today. The demonstrations were very inspiring - I had to stop myself from buying up a whole load of Dreamweaver stencils and embossing pastes after watching Carol and Cheryl, and I got so many ideas from watching Carole Cann's demonstration using Glimmer Mists. Sticking to the budget theme, I tried to be as restrained as possible in my purchases:

• Glimmer Mist Spring Limited Edition in Dew Drop
• Distress Ink pad in Black Soot
• Cosmic Shimmer Aurora Embossing Powder in Arctic Black
• Cosmic Shimmer Lustre Embossing Powder in Lapis Pearl
• Inkadinkado clear stamp set (Chandeliers)
• A6 pack of white gloss card

And I can't wait to try them out! Tomorrow is another day of reading, catching up on some more of Shimelle's prompts if there's time, and eating some more of these:


As a reward for my hard work, I am very tempted to get a Starbucks Gingerbread Latte...it seems so appropriate in these cold temperatures!

Wrap up warm and have a good weekend!