Everyday Obsession....

I have been spending a bit of time in my craft room lately while I have become a netflix widow (thank you weeds), and I managed to make a quick layout one evening, quite a feat for me seeing how long it has been since I have been in that room.

Both my husband and I work within the coffee industry and these little paper cups of caffeinated goodness are a daily must, they are a huge part of our everyday life

I have been enjoying making layouts without the traditional 12x12 sized sheets of pattern paper and using paper from smaller sized stacks and project life cards, also how great is that thickers font?  I was not sure how I would ever use it but it was perfect for this layout, I love when things like that come together.

Long lost layouts....part two

Part two, another couple of layouts that have skipped getting photographed.
I am not the photographer in the house and nor does editing photos appeal to me in the whole scheme of things so I will just use that as my excuse shall I.

These layouts are both from the same day when my brother in law and his girlfriend came over and stayed with us, so we took them out on a bit of a tiki tour as we call it and showed them some of our city.

I decided to try a different approach with this one as most of my layouts are layered and I went with a blocked design instead, I really liked the way it turned out but the only thing that frustrated me was that I still could not get anything straight.  I have no idea how I always muck my measurements up but even with my fancy cutterpillar pro I still get slightly off lines.

Again, Thickers love.....I adore this style.  The other alphas are from Prima and those gorgeous blue enamel dot things, well they are a million years old and are from a company called cloud nine which was owned by Fiskars, lucky I have tons of them as I use them all the time.  

Mixed and layered goodness.  This is a real mix of the old and new, the heart is actually two pieces, a fiskars stamp and a handcut heart stamped with a stampin up stamp, a Kaisercraft diecut, Lil Davis design chipboard heart and a echo park sticker.
Also how amazing is that chevron pattern paper, will be a sad old day in my house when that one runs out.

   
Please excuse the wonky photo angle....
Paint and ink and splattery stuff, it was nice to get all the messy stuff and have a play around.
This is a super, super plain and simple layout but again these were photos that I didn't want to take the focus away from, they are what makes this layout and everything else needs to compliment them. 

I didn't use any pattern paper on this layout just cardstock and some MAMBI (me and my big ideas) Pocket Pages, I bought them with the full intentions of doing project life but it is not for me and this is a great way to get rid of some of those cards.

CITY....would you believe that I have had those sticker for possibly the better part of 8 to ten years and they could very well be the very sheet of alphas that I ever bought.  All these years and I held onto them in the hopes that I would a use for them and what do you know.....perfect.  This goes way back in time to the days when alphas were not all that common, we didn't use chipboard and Thickers were not even a thing, yep that old.  

Long lost layouts....part one

Well it has been a while since my last post here but never fear I have been doing some scrapbooking here and there I just have been a bit slack getting them posted up, so slack in fact these two quite possibly were startedsometime last year....yep, sigh.

These are both from out first camping trip away of which we have had many adventures since but I really want to have an album dedicated to all of our little and big trips away.

 This is a pretty simple layout which makes it all the more frustrating considering I went back and forth with it for months, in saying that though this a photo that doesn't need to be over embellished or dressed up, simple is best.  

Those Thickers.......I love them, great slim line size and the colour goes with so much.

Now for those stars..... Not wood, nope just kraft cardstock, a star punch double layered and glued.  I would love to have  some of those Studio Calico wooden shapes  that everyone seems to use but at the time of making this layout they were super hard to find in Australia and they were damn expensive so I made do with a much cheaper alternative, will so so this again.

 

This layout was also one that drove me insane trying to get it to work.  It looks 100% different to what I had originally envisioned and I just could not get any of the layers straight.  Again nice and simple and also sticking to a certain colour palette.

 

I used quite a few pieces from the Echo Park mini kit The Great Outdoors and from one of their first collections A Walk In The Park, I love how easy you can mix and match within the lines the release.

Haul

So the last scrapbook haul that I posted was totally supposed to be it for the year until I made major dents in my stash....I hang my head in shame because I outrageously failed my spending freeze in spectacular fashion over not one or two trips out and about but on five separate occasions including four to spotlight.  I am ashamed and have subsequently banned myself from travelling anywhere near that side of town so I can avoid the place where my husbands money enters and never returns i.e. SPOTLIGHT.

Stationary is kind of a big deal to me, big deal.  I love it but that's kind of where it ends as I am one of the most disorganised people I know.  My cupboards are immaculate and organised to an inch of there lives but everything else is a mess and all that gorgeous stationary is used for a week and then shoved in the draw of no return until one of the kids needs something to draw in.  No way they are getting there hands on these goodies, I have a thing for floral and bright colours and anything cupcake related....big kid at heart always.

Oh my goodness I am dying from the cuteness...look at those adorable stickers and little plastic envelopes, tooooo cute. 

Fabric goodies.  I love fabric especially printed quilting cotton the trouble is I have grand ideas, limited sewing skills, even less patience and I am fairly lazy when it comes to actually pulling out my sewing machine so I just keep adding to my already sizable stash and I don't make a dent in it.  In my defence I actually do have plans for all of these fabrics and I didn't just buy them because they are pretty *cough cough* all other fabric purchases I have made in the last two years.  I am going to make pretty ruffled edges and trim some white tea towels with the pink kitchen print fabric, I am going to make an apron and a cricut cover out of the cupcakes and I am making a skirt and an apron for my daughter out of the dog print....wish me luck.  

Maggi Holmes Love Notes was all on major clearance and I picked these up for half off the sale price, so the $4 stack was only $2....what these prices are too insane for me not buy them.

 

 

Just a few things that I did pick up throughout my trips back and forth.  The thickers were both on sale and there was no way I was leaving without that map print set.  The Heidi Swapp stuff was on 30% off, Kaiser was 40% off except for the collection pack and the carousel stickers were just too adorable for me to leave behind.  

 

American Crafts goodies.  I bought these on my first trip out to Spotlight when they first started reducing all the older stock, I realise that these are all older stock but I didn't buy into the whole Amy Tan/Dear Lizzy stuff bandwagon when it first came out and at $3 a piece I was happy to pop these into my basket.

Assorted bits and pieces I have picked up from my LSS and from Big W.
I have many photos from our trip years and years ago at the Auckland Zoo and I  have never scrapbooked them but I also have never really found a line of paper or embellishments that I liked enough but this echo park line is perfect.

Albums.   I have been waiting for AGES for a good album sale and finally Spotlight had 50% off so I had to go and buy some.  On the day that I was there I bought two buuutttt when I went back a few days later they had the brown Amy Tan albums at $1 each WHAT THE ACTUAL......seriously $1.  I bought three, I could have bought more but I can't be too greedy, actually I should  have bought them just for the refills which I have already put to good use. 

I seriously need more crafting and less shopping in my life.  Life has been stressful sick and busy lately and my craft space inhabited by a family member staying with us so there hasn't been anything actually happening in the scrapping department.  Bring on the end of the week when my house is actually clean and empty and the kids are not sick and at school.

Well that took a while....

I am not going to lie....I am a slow scrapper but these have been a long time in making.

I started both of these layouts in September.....2012.

When I started these layouts I was house sitting for a friend and took a scrapbook kit I made from my stash but then I kind of got stumped on the both of them, one was finding the right alpha stickers and the other was more of an embellishment issue.

 

Nosey Norah.
I Just loved this American Crafts paper when I first laid eyes on it but it has proven to be very difficult to actually use, finally I found the perfect photo but the busy pattern made it hard to work with and then place any kind of title but time was my friend and then finally Thickers to the rescue, once I found the bigger of the fonts it was easy to match something else in and that was the black typewriter alpha that is an early 2000's Pebbles, how I love finding uses for my vintage stash.  Another notable old stash appearance is from those glorious Sassafras Lass corner stickers and that green leaf which I believe is Green Tara from the pre 2005.

Make a note of this moment.
This one proved the most difficult to finish off as I just could not find the right embellishments to finish, and as much as I love the papers that I used they are very different from the colour palette that I would normally use.  The best part of this layouts though is that gold dot vellum peeking out from behind the photos, I totally missed out on that most coveted Dear Lizzy vellum when it made its rounds in the scrapbooking world but I figured that with a stamp I already owned and some gold embossing powder I too could have a comparable product....winnning.

Spotlight and happy mail...

 

Dear lizzy goodies, so many pretties

Kaisercraft pads are 30% off

DCWV chalkboard and fabric stacks, just wish they would get in more DCWV stacks, I've been waiting for years.

Thickers....

Ruby rock it project cards, can't wait to use these in my project life.

The most AMAZING fabric I have ever seen, stupidly I didn't buy any and I know it will be gone buy the time I get back, also I suck at sewing and I already have far too much fabric.

Pearl spot cotton, so pretty in real life, so pretty...

HAPPY MAIL!  So I got some money from Jase for my birthday and I bought a box of goodies from craft online, sadly they didn't have the 6x6 crate paper pad I ordered but i still got my free shipping and it only took two days to arrive, so happy :)

Ohhh and there is 20 sheets of Bazzill Kraft cardstock under all those goodies, seriously as rare as hens teeth around these parts.

Crafting to post....

I have actual scrapbooking to post, that's right I scrapbooked.
To be fair I have had  these layouts sitting on my desk since September of last year, but I finally got my act together and I finally got some crafting done.

I am finally getting the hang of these boy layouts, I have always found it far more easier to scrap with pinks but these days I am enjoying the blues and greens and cheeky dirty faces in photos.  These layouts are a good combination as usual of new and older stuff, nothing  majorly old in these but just a mixed lot of stuff from my stash.

American Crafts goodies picked up on sake from Spotlight this week.  This is the last purchase like this in a long time for me, I am now on a spending freeze of sorts with only consumables and products for project life and my Wedding album allowed to be purchased.  I have enough stuff for me to comfortably craft from my stash for a while so I am being responsible with my cash and trying to make more things than I buy.

Purrty fabrics.  I am no sewer by any stretch of the imagination, my mum was an amazing seamstress and I have two friends who make the most amazing things but me......not so much and to be honest I don't really enjoy sewing all that much.  I do however hate paying huge amounts of money for things that I could easily and quite comfortably make myself and when I manage to get awesome fabric really cheap who am I to refuse.  I am really lucky to have a fabric clearance store around the corner from me and I am currently in the process of drawing up plans for some small sewing projects so who am I to refuse such pretty patterns ;)

A haul post....

Generally as a rule I don't do haul posts,  I don't buy terribly exciting stuff, I actually buy very little these days as I scrap quite infrequently and lastly most of my stuff comes in dribs and drabs a sticker sheet here, four sheets of cardstock there, nothing worth doing a post about.

A few days ago I went to my closest Spotlight looking for some fabric and I just happened to hit paper crafters heaven, discount scrapbook supplies....

Kaisercraft, Bella, Pebbles and American Crafts paper all reduced to 70c a sheet the five sheets at the front are either embossed or glittered, I don't think I have ever bought paper that cheap before.

 The glitter ribbon and the the glitter dots were all 99c a pack from Riot Art And Craft and the American Craft Remarks stickers and rub ons were from Spotlight and were all wait for it......50c a pack.

I have never seen specials like that before and I normally never get those kinds of prices, very lucky indeed.

I left quite a few things behind especially at Spotlight but after the cleaning and re-organising I did the other day adding in more supplies that I don't need but was cheap was just not going to work, it is a hard lesson that I am slowly getting better at, leaving cheap craft stuff behind and only buying the things that I will actually use.

That's it for me for a while though, I honestly have very little time or mojo these days for crafting and I can't keep buying things if I am not using them so that will most likely be the last craft shop I do for some time.

Blog version 2.0

So sometime last year I decided to delete the old blog and start again.  I just had the realisation that I wanted a bit of a change plus I felt that I had outgrown the old blog which I had been merrily contributing to for the past four years, bit of a big decision for me but one that feels right. 

I have taken a few months off from blogging after I deleted the old one as the reality is that I really have not had the time to dedicate to a blog.  The last few months have been a whirlwind of planning a wedding (which is pretty much almost here, eeep), working and running a household with two small children and just general life responsibilities.

So what have I been up to in the last few months?  Here are some projects that I have been working on:

So there is, a few months of creating right there.  I actually wish that there was more to show but another thing that suffered during the past few months was my creativity which is silly really as I was working in a shop environment that sold pretty papers & embellishments.

TFL, Erin