today

giddy

I set out to make a layout that I could see so clearly in my head that I knew it would come together really quickly and this layout did come together really quickly (except the title scrabble game with my remaining letters), but it looks nothing like the layout I had envisioned (that will just have to wait for another day).

I love these thickers, I wish I had bought more than one pack, they are such a great size, and I love brown as it’s so usable. This is based on the Pencil Lines sketch 247. Or it might be, I didn’t base it on it, but I made it after seeing the sketch and it’s really similar so I should credit.

It’s not often A. and I get pictures of the pair of us with him looking remotely like himself so this is a really nice picture, you can see from his very red ear that there had been a fair amount of alcohol consumed for this event to happen.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: American Crafts

Other: ribbon (Pebbles), glitter brads (American Crafts), ribbon flower (Bazzill), flair (American Crafts), thickers (American Crafts Dear Lizzy), uniball signo broad gel pen

heart

I’m really enjoying just playing around with pattern at the moment, and although the pages might not be the most technically advanced or indeed telling the greatest stories theyare capturing how I’m feeling right now and often little bits of sayings or phrases that mean a lot to me/us.

this was a snippet from an instant messaging conversation with A. just one of those little passing moments that means nothing except to those involved.

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Papers: My Minds Eye, Cosmo Cricket

Other: letter stickers (Adornit), glitter brads (American Crafts)

yummy ice-cream

I love finding a paper I forgot I had and then knowing exactly what I want to do with it, and with this cute ice-cream paper from the American Crafts backyard collection I just knew it was calling out to make some really cute summery cards.

I think the colours are so summery and have cheered me up during this grey scottish summer.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: American Crafts Backyard collection

Other: button (American Crafts), rub-on (Pebbles)

I'm gonna be (500 miles)

It’s a little over 530 miles (to drive) between where I’m living and A. is living. I’m so grateful for modern communications for bridging daily the distance between us. But it would be remiss of me to chalk this layout up to the distance between us, no matter how well it fits the Proclaimers song, for there is another reason why this song makes me think of A.

The tv show ‘How I Met Your Mother’ has long been a favourite of ours, and of course ‘I’m Gonna Be’ was the song that was stuck in the tape player of the fiero. In one particularly road trip episode A. was laughing so hard and the ‘it’ll come round again’ that we had to rewind two or three minutes of the show because he missed it with the laughter.

I’ve never seen him laugh so hard at anything, it was totally unexpected (and really the joke wasn’t that funny but it just fitted in with pieces of his life right then), and I had to document the moment where A. normally so stoic and proper was lost to sheer elation.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: thickers (American Crafts Foam White Latte), round brads (American Crafts), heart brad (unbranded but I wish I could get some more), uniball signo white broad gel pen, glossy accents (Ranger).

so very much

My recent card class cards had me cutting out cute hearts from My Minds Eye and Cosmo Cricket papers on my much loved silhouette, and I intentionally cut a few too many to make a couple of scrapbook pages whilst I was at it.

Cardstock: white (American Crafts), kraft (Bazzill)

Patterned Papers: My Minds Eye, Cosmo Cricket

Other: Thickers (American Crafts), glitter brads (Amierican Crafts), brown pen (stabilo)

life is too important

I love making a page just featuring my favourite quotes, this one from Oscar Wilde is so true; if you can’t laugh at life is life worth living.

I’m also loving the combination of grey and yellow that I’ve seen about quite a lot in the last few months. I used it on my ‘not all those who wander’ layout, where I also used the same thickers.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: thickers (American Crafts), white uniball signo pen.

one more hello

Summer card camp is nearly over :(, and I have to confess one thing I am disappointed in is that I had hoped that I would learn a little more about combining colours and the whys of why they work. I’m fairly colour safe usually, I wouldn’t choose to use 5 different colours on a card, so I have had to stretch myself as part of the class.

I’ve picked up loads of 6 x 6 pads of late and I don’t think I could have completed this class without them. Cosmo Cricket and My Minds Eye to the rescue. This card is a bit of an odd size, 7 x 3” or there about, I wanted tall and thin but had the limit on my paper pad only being 6” so I had to cut the card down to keep the proportions.

Cardstock: generic, American Crafts

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket, My Minds Eye

Other: rub on (Pebbles), glitter brad (American Crafts), white uniball signo broad pen

Silhouette shapes: cute heart and stars labels

thinking of hearts

Another card for the summer card camp I’m doing.

I really was quite productive last night, but it was a side effect of making a scrapbooking page, which I’ll no doubt share later. Again I printed the background myself.

Cardstock: generic

Patterned papers: cosmo cricket, my minds eye

Other: glossy accents (Ranger), embroidery thread (unbranded)

Silhouette shapes: nested hearts.

june 2011

Finally I’ve managed to get up to date with the month by months, I’m not going to fall so far behind again (she says). I’ve gone super minimalist on this, June should be nice summery things but the weather really hasn’t justified it.

Highlights in June included getting promoted, being told I had a month of summer school teaching to do and rain.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: Thickers (American Crafts), glitter brads (American Crafts)

sweet hearts

Another card for the card class.

I’m pleased to say last night I was headache free after making a concerted effort with my posture all day and rearranging the position of my computer in work. I’m doing my best impression of a pianist sat with straight back and straight wrists typing away.

In an interesting twist on just how unsunny it is here in the beautiful summer of Aberdeen, I’ll tell you about the photography conditions here. I live in a first floor flat, so no outside to get nice shots, I do however have a large picture window (5 square meters), it is so dull and grey here even in the brightest part of the day that my camera is shooting with shutter speeds of around 1/12th of a second. That means blur, or flash. So I can only apologise for my complete lack of finesse with the photography right now.

The frame and message I printed myself, and when I get myself organised I’ll try and upload the file somewhere.

Cardstock: generic

Patterned papers: cosmo cricket, my minds eye

Other: glossy accents (Ranger)

Silhouette shapes: nested hearts

if I wish hard enough...

I’ve really not been feeling great of late, I’m frequently getting headaches just where my skull meets my neck on the right hand side. I don’t want to sit and create when I have them, and I’m getting them most evenings. It’s probably due to really bad posture when I’m working at the computer all day, I’m trying to make a conscious decision to fix it, but bad habits are hard to break.

As a result I didn’t make any cards for last weeks colour challenge class, when I sat down to play I didn’t want to have to sort through stuff to find the correct colours. This week I’ve made a bit more of an effort.

I wanted the white to really stand out so I used the black.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: rubon (Pebbles), brads (American Crafts)