I'm moving...!

Come find me here: http://scrappydo.wordpress.com/

I got persuaded to give the other site a go - so far I'm liking it. you'll find all the familiar stuff so come visit and say hello!

Weekly Dare for Ink-Stains

Okey-Dokey, I've just posted my first card in a weekly challenge over on a great Canadian site: Ink-Stains. It's a great card making community - very friendly ladies over there.

The challenge was: to make a card using a stamp of anything that can be found in the forest. This could be....a bird, bear, moose, insects, fairies, pretty much open really!

I have a neat dragonfly stamp so I thought I would use that.

Stamps are from Hastings Rubber Stamps and Hero's Leaves quartros, Bazzil cardstock, unknown pp, coke ring tab, metal brads, versamark ink, and the foil from a tin of Quik Milk flavouring.

Bottleneck!

Hmmmm... I mentioned in an earlier post that I had so many ideas I wanted to get done and that my creative juices were flowing. Well, they are - at least in my HEAD!

I'm not sure why, but it seems when I sit down to do something, I can't quite work out how to pull it together. Might be the humidity, or the heat - or just about ANYTHING!

Last night when my scrapping buddies were over here, I was expecting to be on a roll. Well, it turned out that after getting the cards done that I wanted to have finished last night, I couldn't work on any of the layouts that I have noted! How does that happen??

** There's a white background challenge for the SE forum - didn't have the photos printed as I had only taken the photos a couple of days ago. Maybe I will print them off here at home. Quality won't be so great - but that page will hopefully get done.

** There's the BOM challenge issued by Janine - I'm planning on doing my handbag contents. Nothing much has changed so I know I can do the pic for it - I just NEED to do it!!

** There's the sketch that I know will work really nicely for a few pics I have from a couple of christmases ago.... I just can't quite find the right paper. Think I've got one pattern sorted, but it needs some stripes..........

I know htat there are going to be 101 projects coming up - I'm about to pick up that motherload of photos soon! I just need to get on and DO IT!

So this brings me to the thought of the day that I got from Ali Edwards' newsletter. What is my Personal Creative Manisfeto? A WHAT??! I hear you ask. In a nutshell, I guess I'd interpret it as a personal description on the philosophy behind the creative stuff you do- a creative mission statement. She's challenged us to think about building one for ourselves. After reading this, I kind of had the thought that maybe that is the bottleneck issue for me. WHAT am I trying to create? Who am I thinking I'm creating it for? At the end of the day, it's all meant to be fun and something for me to enjoy doing instead of angsting over whether I'm doing it well enough for someone else to like it. So, I'm thinking that maybe I could spend 10 minutes pondering this idea further. Hopefully at the end, I'll know a bit better and actually get those ideas OUT OF MY HEAD or notebook and ON TO PAPER!

In the meantime, I DID manage to stick the final piece on a layout - so I did complete one last night in the end.

A RAK

I'm doing my first ever RAK today - someone on the SE forum has a Birthday. I won't names names just yet as I am hoping I will have time to run it over to her this afternoon.

I seem to be using a lot of serviettes at the moment. Would not have said it is a signature, but for the moment, it's allowing me to produce cards quickly.

A couple of scrapping buddies came to my house last night for our weekly get together. With so many ideas buzzing around my head at teh moment, I thought I would have been on a roll. Instead, I found myself working on another card - Mr 5's friend (the C-man) has his birthday today. I'm trying to work in a Spiderman theme. Hopefully it'll work!

I also signed up for a card swap - I need to make 5 baby cards. Remind me again quickly of my plan NOT to overcommit!

The First in the Aussie Circle Journal

It's been a while since I actually completed a layout - it seems I've been doing a lot of cards lately. All fun so that's all good. I have a couple more to do for upcoming birthdays so look out for them here.

But last night and tonight I worked on the second of my circle journals that I have signed up for. To get this finished, I'm actually very HAPPY {there's that word :)}
Although I picked the topic, when I came to put something on paper, the concept was quite elusive. I never intended for there to be a photo on this page - put somehow by putting one on, a couple of things came together. I think it's come together quite OK.

I actually need to get this posted on teh group site. Hopefully the computer will play nice.

I have a mountain of pics to be thinking about - I got them into be printed this morning. When they arrive there will be some fun! But in the meantime, the gals over at SE have been putting some cool challenges up. The Fortnightly challenge at teh mo is to use a white background. Took some picutres of PEGS for that....... so hoping that's going to come together in time.

On top of that, one of my aims for this year was to scrap more about me. Janine has got some good thinking and challenges going so I hope to be working on one of these too.

Ohhhh how the creative juices are flowing. Well, they ARE doing that around my head. We just need to get time and space to co-operate!

BTW: while I'm dropping names here - and I think I was! - go check out this Belgian dare site. It's new and I think it'll be quite cool. Don't worry - It looks a lot like dutch - and it is! - but there is enough English in there for us all to get the picture!

Ciao for now!

Who'd've thought?!

You Belong in New Zealand

Good on ya, mate You're the best looking one of the bunch Though you're often forgotten... You're quite proud of who you are

What English Speaking Country Are You?

And apparently, Dublin is the European city I should be living in - "Friendly, Down to earth without snobbery - able to enjy a pub crawl as well as biking around the country lanes." Hmmmmmmmmmmmm - 85% there....

As for the food I am......... apparently Itlaian...

Ok - so who else has been wasting a few minutes alongside me??!

Actually, I kinda liked all of the responses so there you go!

364

364. Three Hundred and Sixty Four. Sounds pretty close to a year doesn't it?

It's not. That is the number of photos I've just gone through and put on a disc to get printed. wow! OK so I won't be scrapping EVERY SINGLE photo - but wow! I thought I had a few to catch up on. Have I said it enough yet??!! Wow!

We only have dial up. I'm NOT going to be putting them through to DigitalMax in time to take up their special offer of 15c a pic. Bummer - 'cos that would have saved a wee bit!

These photos are all the ones from last year that have been put neatly into folders on the computer, waiting for me to come back and sort out which ones are the ones I really, really want to scrap. I still ended up with that HUGE number! A lot are still duplicates - I find it too hard from looking at one photo and then another and deciding which of the two I actually want. So, I'm taking heart that the majority of these will be sent to other homes of friends and family that are always demanding to see actual pics.

I thought I was going to get a couple of layouts done tonight - instead it has taken me best part of 2 hours to get this lot sorted. Clearly though, it's been a good 2 hours. In theory, I think it means that I will not have to go back to 2006 for scrapping sources. That is a good thing: I have a LOT to do from well before then! And I'm thinking that it might mean I can keep up to date with 2007. That's a good thing!

Mind you - I now have the photos - I'll need to get creating won't I?!

Super 14

Yay, it's back - and what a way to start the season. A nail biting game between the Blues and Crusaders. Ok, so the Cantabs didn't pick up a win this round.... but you guys know we start slow, right? Just take a look at the last few seasons..... :)

DCM Challenge

I've been taking in the good folks over at DCM for a while now. Some of my cards have seemed to have met their challenge for the week so I've linked them back here. However, this is the FIRST time I have actually produced a card based on their challenge.

This week we're joining forces with the wonderful team of Scrapbookers over
on the Everyone is Speshal blog. We're daring each other and you to make a
Really Romantic Scrapbook Layout - but on a card!

Scrapbookers are challenged to downsize your usual a 12x12 LO onto a teenyweeny one - maximum of 6x6, which can be sent safely through the mail.

Cardmakers - you're used to working on a small
space, and you know all about the ribbons, brads and other bits and bobs - but
can you take on board all the other little touches that are used on a scrapbook
page - the titles, the journalling, the photographs etc?

My card is a 4x4 layout - the first time I've worked on something so small! It was quite fun - only just enough room to do what I wanted! I chose to do a photo-less lo as I felt the title and the journalling explained all.

Anyway, I know someone that was definitely challenged by this one - and she did a great job. Go on over and take a look at all the lovely cards the DCM girls do. Then why don't YOU have a go too?

Lists

Are you a list person?

I'm not really. Ok, I'll make grocery lists and To Do lists - but it seems that the only time I refer to them is at the end of the task / day to see what I missed. Somehow the actual act of writing things down puts those things in my head. The important stuff sticks - mostly. The not so important stuff often doesn't stick. I think this is called "Volcano Management" !

Anyway, a couple of fun lists via Ali Edwards looked interesting so I thought I'd try and make them.

THE ESSENTIALS

These are the items that you reach for time and time again - the things that you absolutely must have in order to create.

• My paper trimmer - it's the only way I know I'll cut a straight line!
• Scissors - I finally got some sharp, pointy ones so I can now cut in nice and close
• Inks - chalk ink is becoming a must have, but I would use ink somewhere in almost every page I think. The absolute minimum colours for me would be black, platinum, and sepia.
• Photos!
• Pens - i'm doing my best to "love my handwriting" - I use a black zig, and white pigment ink pen
• Adhesives - i have a few but the two I use most are double sided tape and Henzo glue
• Cardstock
• Patterned papers - I have to have some

OK, so with that list I could create. Don't know if I would be happy with every page. Probably would like to have a list of things that I'd like access to even if I couldn't bring them myself.... ribbons, brads/eyelets, rub-ons. Yeah, I think they are almost on the Essentials list!

The second list was "THE GOOD STUFF" - those things that you're using lots at the moment and are making your brain zing!

• Flowers - yes really! With two boys I haven't been doing many girly pages so with a few challenges and a determination to get some sort of "pink" in there, I'm getting flowers on many things!
• Rub-ons - ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yes! Titles, swirls, Big swirls, stitches.... yes please gimme!!
• Buttons - I'm a newbie to buttons - and I LIKE
• Chipboard - I'm liking lots. Still a little restrained as I figure out what to do - but I'm wanting to use it quite a lot.
• SERIOUSLY patterned paper. I'm trying not to be scared of mixing it up. The couple of pages I've down wit more than one bit of pp I'm liking LOTS. More experimentation coming up.
• paint - yet another "new" thing for me - but I love the effect I'm getting. i got a bottle of texture paint in a kit last month. Have no idea what to do with it at this point so feedback on some ideas would be welcome!
• Serviettes - I got put on to this by a friend for card making .... and now I see it creeping into a couple of my pages. All to do with the FUN serviettes I've been given!

So these are my lists. What would be on your ESSENTIALS and your GOOD STUFF lists?

[Will post some pics once I've organised (!)]