Spring has Sprung

Online there is lots of fall inspiration, but in New Zealand it is spring. It’s been lovely seeing all the spring blooms and being able to enjoy warmer temperatures. Spring has definitely sprung in NZ - I  have a bird’s nest right outside my window. Recently I noticed that a thrush made her nest on the resident handy man’s ladder; not a very convenient place. The resident handy man set about to build a nesting spot for her and yesterday we wrapped the support post in tinfoil to deter cats. Now I just need to find a solution to keep cats off my window sill as it is a perfect launching spot. 

Seeing as this is a crafting blog, I better get back to sharing some crafting. Father’s Day was last month in NZ so here’s the card I made for my dad. Some vintage Heidi Swapp, a ‘failed’ alcohol ink technique reused as a background, a stamp, a stamp, a paint pen, and colour sprays..

Anything Goes and Beautiful Botanicals

 Back in 2013, I went to the inaugural Creative Adventure Downunder and fell in love with the new way of memory keeping taught by Heidi Swapp - memory files. You could pack a lot of photos in one memory file album. My love for them was rekindled recently when an Australian memory file artist shared some of her memory files online. I got hooked all over again and pulled out some supplies to make one after many years.  Because the challenge at Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is Beautiful Boutanicals I made sure to pull out some lovely botanical prints to use. Once it was completed I came across some photos of my dog so I decided to dedicate it to him. Once the theme was set, I changed some of the circles on the front of the file into paw prints. You’ll have to look really hard to see them. 

The Kaisercraft paper pad I had was single-sided which doesn’t really work as well for the hand made photo flip, so I turned the pages over and sprayed the plain white side with some coordiating Heidi Swapp colourshine. 

I am entering this project in two challenges at Simon Says Stamp:

Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - Beautiful Botanicals

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Materials:

Paper - Kaisercraft

Colourshine - Heidi Swap

Banner - Heidi Swapp

Corner Punch - WRMK and unknown 

Other - file, twine

It’s that time again - Anything Goes

It’s time to enter another challenge.  It’s certainly been a while - nearly four months to be exact. Lots going on in my life impacting on my crafty time. However, I did manage to make a card for Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge because it is Anything Goes - a very easy challenge to fill.

Today’s card is made for a child’s birthday. I got some coloured card packs recently so I chose the pink one and I love that it has a matching colour envelope in the pack (not bad for $3 on clearance for a pack of 5 cards and envelopes). 

This design turned out quite lovely that I think I will make some more following the same pattern. 

As a reminder I am entering this card at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Anything Goes

Materials:

Card: Grace Taylor

Embossing Folder: Craft Concepts

Pink Metalic Guilding Polish: Creative Expressions

Silver Acrylic Paint: Maries 

Butterfly: Heidi Swapp

Colour Spray: Heidi Swapp

Sticker: Pretty Little Studio

Number: American Crafts

Silver Paint Pen: Zig

Other: sewing thread, flower

Lockdown Life

The world as we know it is forever changed by Covid-19. Little did we know as we celebrated the new year, just how 2020 would play out. Here in New Zealand, we have been on full lockdown apart from essential services. As the company I work for is considered an essential service, I am working from home. It sure gets in the way of my crafting!

My self isolation has actually been in place for a month as I had a week off work sick. Then when our PM shifted the alert level to level 2 it meant that I needed to remain at home as I fall in one of the recommended groups to stay home to stay safe. From March 23 the whole country went in to lockdown. I’ve just realised today that when we go out of level 4 we will still go down to level 3 then level 2 which means I will still need to work from home and restrict movement.  Sigh. All is well however. We have enough supplies and a family member to get supermarket supplies for us.

During March I participated in #31minutesfor31days which is simply crafting for at least 31 minutes every day in March. I got all 20 layouts done from Pretty Rustic #3 which was held in early March. No photos on them yet.  Here’s a small sample:

Last weekend, Scrapping clearly held a 3 day online virtual crop with lots of inspirational videos. I decided to give image transfer go after watching a video by Leanne Jago. My design was also scraplifted from Leanne’s video:

This weekend is a long weekend so I am hoping to get some crafting time in - wish me luck

My First Challenge For 2020

It's finally time for me to enter a challenge, my first one for 2020.  This week's challenge at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge is Anything Goes.  Recently I sat down with leftovers from putting together the Vicky Boutin album with her Wildflower & Honey collection.  I loved  the cover sheet from the 6x8" paper pad.  The album used the entire paper pad so I didn't want the pretty printed piece to go to waste.  So I pulled out the leftovers from the album and sat down to create (and maybe I also had some more replacement Wildflower & Honey pieces I may have also bought because it is just such a lovely collection #dontjudgeme).

I then did a similar design on the back using just leftovers again.  I think this kind of crafting works because I had the whole collection so I knew it would work well together.  Usually I only buy limited items from a collection that I think I can use.  It is a luxury to craft with a whole collection.

I think I really enjoy the challenge of using leftovers and stretching my creative muscles by limiting my supplies.  It's amazing what you can do with just a little. That doesn't mean that I am emptying my craft room of the excess though! I love my stash.

I am entering these layouts at Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge : Anything Goes

Materials:
American Crafts Wildflower & Honey Collection by Vicki Boutin

Apologies for the photos being the wrong way! I am using my iPad and it won’t let me rotate them even though they are the right way originally. Plus I held off posting this until today so the date would show Leap Day.

Vicki Boutin Wildflower & Honey Album

It’s no secret that I am a fan of Vicki Boutin! I enjoyed my mixed media classes with her at CAD last year but my true love is her mini albums.  At CAD I purchased a few (cough) of her then latest collection - wildflower & honey.  A short time later, Vicki released album kits for sale using wildflower & honey (as well as a Christmas one but that’s just not for me!). Coincidentally I pretty much had all of the items in the kit except for the album itself. I purchased the appropriate album and then purchased the instructions from Vicki.  They arrived recently and I could hardly wait to get started. Conveniently for me, we had a long weekend at the end of January so I got to sit down and put the album together. Boy is she pretty.

I printed the cutting instructions A3 to help me visually. The instructions were pretty clear and I only had one oops with trimming one piece (my fault). I’m happy to share helpful tips with anyone intending to make this up as I learned a few things along the way. My album didn’t come with two pocket page configurations that Vicki used but luckily I had 2 spare from an older simple stories album. It’s not a size I naturally use so it worked out well and meant I could use one of the 6x8 pocket pages for the extra pages I made below. Unfortunately I ran out of 1/4” red tape so I need to go buy some and reattach some of the flaps. The album is full of colour with different layers and sizes. All I need to do is add photos but she is pretty enough to just look at as she is right now.

After I finished the album I had a few pieces left over so I created two additional pages using just the leftovers. Feeling pretty proud of myself I have to say.

Welcome 2020

Another year has rolled around. This blog was neglected last year I fear.  I wonder if it is because a lot of my crating last year was finishing projects from classes and events so I can't enter them in to challenges as they are not my own work.  It sure feels good getting those unfinished projects completed: 20 from Pretty Rustic in March and 12-15 from CAD in August. That's a lot of layouts completed.  There is still one more from CAD sitting on my desk for me to work on.

Crafting goals this year would be to craft more.  I am considering building some time in to my schedule to craft daily. It's something I enjoy so why wouldn't you schedule it in for every day?  Another goal would be to tidy up my craft space.  It is getting tricky to move around in there and I even think I may have too much stuff to craft with.  I have already started a donate box to help me make decisions.  I find that if you have a charity in mind when you start to clear out, it helps you release more.

What's on the crafting agenda in the next few months? I already ordered 3x4 prints from my trip to Melbourne, Australia, with my mum, sister and my niece in December. I premade a travel themed Pocket Page Notebook from The Stamp Spot and a travel TN kit from Studio Calico before I went so it should come together quickly and easily right? LOL  #pocketpagenotebook #ppn.  In March I have Pretty Rustic and then Creative Adventure Downunder in May so I will have plenty of projects to work on I am sure.

Wishing you all the best for 2020 - let's make it the best year yet!