Showing posts with label Craft Projects. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Craft Projects. Show all posts

Wednesday, 9 June 2010

Over the past two and half weeks I've been...

Eating:
1. Chilli con carne at La Perla (seriously delicious, but a massive portion).
2. Irish cream and tiramisu ice cream sundae at Patisserie Valerie (amazing).

Ordering:

I have a confession.

After six months of sitting on the fence...of telling myself that I 100% could not justify the additional expense of a kit each month (even though I lusted after each and every one since January)...I gave in.

I am now a bona fide Studio Calico subscriber.

I experienced my first reveal at the end of May thinking that I would just supplement the main kit with some adhesive and possibly some add-on paper, thereby honouring my promise to Jamie that I would be abstemious.  

Fifteen minutes after the kits went live I was hysterically debating the relative merits of Shade Tree vs. Rec League on the phone with my nearest and dearest.  Five minutes after that, Rec League had sold out (problem solved).  That was, until I decided that I couldn't live without Front Porch.  And some items from the shop.  And some add-on paper.  And then Studio Calico kindly decided to do a 20% offer...so I got the 7 Gypsies receipt holder for my living room...and some more stuff from the shop.

I need an intervention.

Here's hoping I can stay on the straight and narrow next month (I'll keep you posted). 

Inspired by:

I signed up to Tumblr a few weeks ago.  I. LOVE. IT.  I cannot recommend it enough.  Here are a couple of things I've been eyeing up recently:  
 

 By dearcolleen - found via decor8.

 By tagteamtompkins - found via decor8

Finishing:
I finally finished the first year of my Masters on Friday!  It's been a hectic two months....but as I watched the last couple of minutes countdown on the clock in the exam hall (opposite Westminster Abbey - such a cool location!) I just felt so relieved to have some respite from deadlines and revision.  Jamie and I celebrated with curly fries, Desperados and the itbox.  It felt good to be free :)

Creating:

More on this later in the week!  But in the meantime, you can find out more here and here....

Happy Wednesday!

Sunday, 1 November 2009

All Hallows' Eve

I'm so sad that Halloween is over! Yesterday was a flurry of activity - I pottered around in the morning making the cinnamon cream cheese icing for my yummy pumpkin cupcakes (inspired by the very talented Shimelle) and spent some time fiddling around with yet another Halloween project. In the afternoon my Mum and I met up for the most incredible Serendipity-style ice cream sundaes at Fortnum and Mason in Piccadilly (which you can see above), where we also wanted to look at the beautiful Christmas decorations that they already have on display. Afterwards we went for a quick wander around the Harrods Pet Kingdom, where we saw some adorable Shih Tzu and Chihuahua puppies! It was especially sad for us because our 17 year old Shih Tzu died earlier this year, and these puppies bore an uncanny resemblance to him when he was just a little puppy. In the evening Jamie and I finally got around to carving our pumpkins after hauling them back from the Whole Foods Market in Camden on Friday...the lack of a car is a definite disadvantage in London. Anyhoo, this is the result:


From the left: Country 'Pumpkin' (designed and named by Jamie), Winifred (named after my favourite of the Sanderson sisters from Hocus Pocus), Count 'Pump-cula' (also designed and named by Jamie), and the little guy in the front is called Casper (as in the ghost), because he just looks so happy.

Jamie carved all but the one in the middle, which I very ambitiously started at 8pm and immediately regretted five minutes later. I don't think I scooped out the pulp properly, and the pumpkin was way too thick to carve using a little precision saw that I found in Waitrose. So Jamie heroically stepped in and we pushed and pulled and tugged until it was eventually finished! Once we got the tea lights inside I was so glad that we perserved because they all looked so awesome lined up below our Halloween display. In honour of Halloween we watched Hocus Pocus whilst eating A LOT of junk food - by the time we started watching Interview with a Vampire I was definitely in a sugar-induced coma, which is probably a good thing because the bits of the film that I saw were just a little creepy...

Before settling down to gorge ourselves we nipped out for a few minutes to (randomly) watch the BT Tower. Over the past couple of days it has been beautifully lit up - complete with Batman-esque spotlights - and every time I have walked past it at night I have unsuccessfully tried to photograph it. During one of my attempts last night, a guy walking past us mysteriously said to stand under the Tower at 8.50pm, so Jamie and I interrupted our pumpkin carving and dutifully stood underneath it. And this is what we saw:

It turns out that yesterday marked 1000 days until the start of the 2012 Olympics in London, and to celebrate the BT Tower got a makeover and a very impressive fireworks display. It was so cool to watch, but sad that it hadn't been particularly well advertised - there were only a handful of people there. I should also thank Jamie for taking the photos (I still had serious camera shake despite his best efforts to change all of the settings on my camera).

And, finally, a couple of the Halloween projects that I have been working on this week:




Again, not ideal photos! But I'm so pleased with the end result. I got the idea for these hanging panels from the Imaginisce Idea Gallery (click on Spooky Town for some more Halloween ideas). I L-O-V-E Imaginisce papers - although I'm not always initially attracted to the designs, the heavyweight cardstock and the 'glossy spot UV accents' (as described by the Craft Emporium) add so much dimension to whatever it is they are used for. For this particular project, I used the Boo Buttons, Bestitched, Boo Whooo?, Fraidy Cat and Trick or Treat papers - all from the Craft Emporium - with some Bazzill cardstock for each background. The accents are all cut out from the patterned papers and attached with foam pads. I used repositionable glue dots for the photos in case I want to switch the photos next year. For the corners, I used my Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper and to make the holes for the ribbon I used my Crop-A-Dile Big Bite (both purchased from the Craft Barn).

For this quick and easy project, I used the Pink Paislee Twilight collection, also from the Craft Emporium. I found this "spooky" card in the 'Pink Projects' section of the Pink Paislee website, but it is also worth checking out their blog, which is showcasing some really amazing ideas at the moment. This card was literally so easy to make - I varied the design just a little bit, using two pieces of ric rac from my stash instead of the suggested twine, and I cut out the skull and the crow (along with the nested circles) using my Slice machine and the Spook Alley design card (purchased from the Craft Barn).

Well, that pretty much sums up our All Hallows' Eve! Today was spent watching Saturday's X Factor on Sky Plus with a Starbucks Hazelnut Hot Chocolate, which seemed appropriate for such a miserable day. I couldn't believe how many leaves covered the roads and pavement on my way to the gym this evening - it's amazing how quickly the season changes in London!

Monday, 26 October 2009

Bits and bobs (and a sad farewell)

It has been such a busy few days, with Jamie's brother staying over the weekend for the NFL game at Wembley between the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday (which was incredible!). In the meantime, I have been tracking down books and doing LOTS of preparation for my lectures/seminars this week. So, not much time for scrapbooking or finishing my neglected Halloween projects...Just hoping that I get them finished by Saturday!

Anyway, I thought I would share with you some pictures from the football game on Sunday. I can pretty much say with conviction that I won't have a career in sports phototgraphy, but I can't help but love the colours and the drama of American football! I do not partake in sports (which is a good thing) and I generally do not watch sports (I tend to irritate my boyfriend) but I make an exception for football and baseball. I love the atmosphere and the 'performance,' and, most importantly of all, the food. Funnel cake is quite possibly the yummiest thing in the world!

I heard that about 80,000 people watched the game at Wembley, and there were people everywhere! They even had policemen doing crowd management at the tube station (which in hindsight was a good idea). Also, the weather was beautiful - such a contrast to the year before.


This was the only good photo of Wembley Stadium that I managed to take - a combination of the crowd and the position of the sun made it very difficult to photograph!


These floating helmets were amazing! Before the game started they were just suspended in mid-air, floating around the stadium....such an awesome idea!

During the 'Star-Spangled Banner' (sung by Toni Braxton), one section of the stadium held up the colours of the Stars and Stripes....

And, during 'God Save the Queen' (sung by Katherine Jenkins) another section of the stadium held up the colours of the Union Jack, which were both such impressive sights!

The Buccaneers were the home team, and we were sitting right behind them! Sadly they lost (7-35), which means that they have lost every game so far this season (!). I was really hoping to get a picture of Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady, but my zoom just wasn't co-operating.

On a crafty note, I thought I would include a photo of my 'procrastination project' from last week. I was setting up our Halloween display and thought that the photo collage from a couple of posts ago would add a festive touch to the whole thing. I also had a spare frame, so I printed off the collage in A4 and slipped it inside. It looked horrible! The frame wasn't especially nice and the photo paper that I have been using has an odd sheen which made it look 100% tacky. So, to further postpone my reading, I searched on Google for some autumnal digital elements. The maple leaf (or at least I think it's a maple leaf) was free from an article on about.com and you can find it here. The other elements are all from Shimelle's lovely 'Autumn Apples Embellishments' DigiKit over at Two Peas, which you can download for a very reasonable $4! The whole thing isn't very sophisticated - I just printed off the elements onto white cardstock and cut them out whilst watching Running in Heels re-runs. I attached them using a glue gun, and then used some co-ordinating buttons from my stash to fill in the gaps! This was actually my first foray into the world of digital scrapbooking and I was so excited by how easy it was. I don't have PhotoShop Elements or a similar program ordinarily used by digital/hybrid scrapbookers and I was a little nervous that I wouldn't be able to use the elements on my laptop. As it happens, I downloaded them, opened them up in Windows Explorer and then pasted them into Word! So easy.

* I should also apologise for the poor quality of these photos - there is either too much or too little light in this flat and it is impossible to take good photos. A definite problem!

And finally, I just wanted to say how completely gutted I was to find out that Scrapbook Inspirations magazine will cease publication after the December issue. I only discovered Scrapbook Inspirations earlier this year, and it is largely due to this magazine that I returned to scrapbooking over the summer. I was so thrilled to find something on our shores which in many ways 'legitimised' scrapbooking in the UK - by featuring new products and techniques, by advertising retailers and by showcasing readers' submissions in a very unpretentious way. It is a misunderstood hobby in Britain, where I have found that people are generally apathetic - even derisive - about the idea of celebrating and preserving memories. Sadly scrapbooking is either a 'waste of time', a 'waste of money', or people just think that you're completely insane. I am so sad for the staff and the wonderful design team, which had recently expanded to include some hugely talented people - I can only imagine their disappointment. I am so going to miss the thrill of excitement each month when the latest issue falls through the letter box. You can read about the news here, here and here. So sad to hear that “Scrapbook Inspirations catered to a very specialist market which has unfortunately declined significantly during the last year." Scrapbooking in the UK is already such a nascent hobby - I truly hope that this is just a minor setback.

Friday, 23 October 2009

To imitate or innovate?

I have to admit that most of the time I imitate rather than innovate when it comes to craft projects. I think that in part this stems from a little bit of performance anxiety combined with 'project envy' and a more general lack of inspiration from within. Sometimes I have days when I am well and truly inspired, but I spend many others sifting through back issues of Scrapbook Inspirations and Creating Keepsakes looking for layout ideas and sketches. More often than not I try to adapt ideas that I particularly like so that the end result bears my own little stamp of creativity, but I would love to channel my inner creative flair so that I can create some of the innovative and amazingly original ideas that appear every month in these magazines (and others). I say this because for Halloween this year I have decided to make my own decorations, and after browsing the internet for a good many hours I have found four projects which I really want to recreate. So, although I did the cutting and the sticking, the credit for these projects definitely lies elsewhere!

This Halloween frame was inspired by Carole Janson over at the Bo Bunny Blog. Ironically I can't find the original post, but you can view Carole's own Halloween frame here. It is made almost entirely out of the super cute Bo Bunny Boo Crew collection (Stripe, Here's Looking at U, Ghoul Friends, Dot and Boo Crew) which I bought online from Crafts U Love. The fence, cat, bats, 'Booooo' writing and spiders/spider's web stickers are by Stampendous, which I bought locally along with the googly eyes. I used some 3D foam pads to give the montage along the bottom of the frame a little bit of dimension, and I distressed some of the grass with a black ink pad to make it pop.




I was also so excited to receive a great big pizza box of new stash from the Craft Emporium and an EK Success punch from Art Cards which I have been coveting for the last few months. I have banned myself from buying patterned paper for the foreseeable future, but I did get the Pink Paislee Twilight collection and the Spooky Town collection by Imaginisce for my next three Halloween projects. The Prima flowers and clear stamps in the bottom left hand corner are also for a Halloween project, this time for one that was featured in the October issue of Scrapbook Inspirations by Morag Cutts (which you can find here). I absolutely LOVE the 'Spooky House' and particularly the embossed chandeliers with the bling embellishments - gorgeous!

Happy Friday!