OK I missed a day - I was at my favourite crop with my favourite crafters yesterday - I love my virtual friends - who are 'with' me most of the time, but I do enjoy social scrapping and catching up with friends I see much less often in real life than I would like to! I can look at their work, check out their stash and always feel better for meeting up with them so, to Jo, Jennie, Dawn, Ann, Rachel, Joyce, Amanda, Our Jean, Our Carol, Donna, Maxine, Liz, Wendy Chris and the rest of the girls - thank you for a brilliant day - you really are the very best, and to the absent friends including Alison, Alison (two more of us!), Donna, Mandie and Sonia I hope to see you soonest!
Today Im thinking about my crafting 'style' - I make a few cards but my passion is scrapbooking (and collecting beautiful stash), when I actually get round to creating, I dont like my pages too fussy - I love it when other people do the ecclectic heavily layered look - but when I do it, it just looks like I had a glue spill on my desk and a large amount of stash got trapped in it! I cant do those arty clusters that look random without it looking like a 'gappy smile', and Im really scared by white space - although I love it in other people's work.
I do try to scrap outside my comfort zone - in fact this year I have dragged myself outside my comfort zone kicking and screaming at times to revert to my tried and tested rule of three, love of diagonally placed embellishments and hand written journalling - often tucked away on a tag because although I have learned to live with it but still dont love it!
Joining the docrafts and Scrap Happy communities,True Scraps 2 and 3, LOAD 512, and a whole host of scrapbooking challenges has tested my nerve and made me make some inroads into my substantial stash mountain, to be honest I have created more than ever and had a lot of fun - although I'll not be running out of stash anytime soon!
Ive discovered my inner scrapgoddess can use, stretch and alter sketches, http://design-seeds.com/ is my go to place when I need some colour inspiration and the galleries and blogs of some of my favourite crafters cure my sometimes frequent cases of scrappers block! www.shimelle.com, http://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/ , http://dollysdreamings.typepad.com/ are blogs I often enjoy browsing along with a gazillion others that are on the favourites bar of my recently replaced laptop - that I now realise I need to find a way to transfer to my 'new and shiny' laptop that I only had last week!
For more inspiration I try http://pinterest.com/search/?q=scrapbooking, the galleries of docrafts, scrap happy and ukscrappers! For the vintage look I often go for images from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.co.uk/ or http://thevintagemoth.blogspot.co.uk/ I also find that sometimes Flickr is my friend too! If I need a digital stamp I always visit http://littlemusings.net/ for SJ's fab creations!
I love my die cutting machines, most of my layouts contain welded words on die cut mats. I do get irritated with letter stickers, because I run out of vowels and when I mix and match them it doesnt look stylish like other people's work does - to me - it looks like I ran out of vowels! Other people pull it off and it looks planned and perfect - I dont know how they do it, but I know that I cant - or at least havent mastered it - YET!
I also do a lot of die cut shapes and swirls - I love 'em! I also have a bit of a thing about crystals and Chinese Beads - and I always journal and always try to write the story behind the picture more than simply describing what's in the picture - Unlike a lot of people journalling isnt a trial to me now, and I have grown to love the storytelling aspect of scrapbooking. I used to type all of my journalling and adjust the font size and justify the text to fill the text box perfectlly - but I forced myself to write in my own hand and its less perfect (and that's why its often hidden on a tag or in a pocket)! Now Ive got over my quest for perfection, Im cool with my handwriting - my life isnt perfect either but Im telling my story as it happens - so if I loose my marbles later in life and I forget who I was and what I did I'll be able to read about what a fab time Ive been having - and know I lived life to the full - If I can remember where all the tags and pockets are hidden!
I'm making friends with my camera and learning to take better photos, though I say it myself, Im enjoying some improvement in this area too - Id like to do fab LO's with fab photos - its a journey Im still on - but enjoying and telling the story of the journey is what my scrapbooking is all about!
Today Im thinking about my crafting 'style' - I make a few cards but my passion is scrapbooking (and collecting beautiful stash), when I actually get round to creating, I dont like my pages too fussy - I love it when other people do the ecclectic heavily layered look - but when I do it, it just looks like I had a glue spill on my desk and a large amount of stash got trapped in it! I cant do those arty clusters that look random without it looking like a 'gappy smile', and Im really scared by white space - although I love it in other people's work.
I do try to scrap outside my comfort zone - in fact this year I have dragged myself outside my comfort zone kicking and screaming at times to revert to my tried and tested rule of three, love of diagonally placed embellishments and hand written journalling - often tucked away on a tag because although I have learned to live with it but still dont love it!
Joining the docrafts and Scrap Happy communities,True Scraps 2 and 3, LOAD 512, and a whole host of scrapbooking challenges has tested my nerve and made me make some inroads into my substantial stash mountain, to be honest I have created more than ever and had a lot of fun - although I'll not be running out of stash anytime soon!
Ive discovered my inner scrapgoddess can use, stretch and alter sketches, http://design-seeds.com/ is my go to place when I need some colour inspiration and the galleries and blogs of some of my favourite crafters cure my sometimes frequent cases of scrappers block! www.shimelle.com, http://scrappystickyinkymess.wordpress.com/ , http://dollysdreamings.typepad.com/ are blogs I often enjoy browsing along with a gazillion others that are on the favourites bar of my recently replaced laptop - that I now realise I need to find a way to transfer to my 'new and shiny' laptop that I only had last week!
For more inspiration I try http://pinterest.com/search/?q=scrapbooking, the galleries of docrafts, scrap happy and ukscrappers! For the vintage look I often go for images from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.co.uk/ or http://thevintagemoth.blogspot.co.uk/ I also find that sometimes Flickr is my friend too! If I need a digital stamp I always visit http://littlemusings.net/ for SJ's fab creations!
I love my die cutting machines, most of my layouts contain welded words on die cut mats. I do get irritated with letter stickers, because I run out of vowels and when I mix and match them it doesnt look stylish like other people's work does - to me - it looks like I ran out of vowels! Other people pull it off and it looks planned and perfect - I dont know how they do it, but I know that I cant - or at least havent mastered it - YET!
I also do a lot of die cut shapes and swirls - I love 'em! I also have a bit of a thing about crystals and Chinese Beads - and I always journal and always try to write the story behind the picture more than simply describing what's in the picture - Unlike a lot of people journalling isnt a trial to me now, and I have grown to love the storytelling aspect of scrapbooking. I used to type all of my journalling and adjust the font size and justify the text to fill the text box perfectlly - but I forced myself to write in my own hand and its less perfect (and that's why its often hidden on a tag or in a pocket)! Now Ive got over my quest for perfection, Im cool with my handwriting - my life isnt perfect either but Im telling my story as it happens - so if I loose my marbles later in life and I forget who I was and what I did I'll be able to read about what a fab time Ive been having - and know I lived life to the full - If I can remember where all the tags and pockets are hidden!
I'm making friends with my camera and learning to take better photos, though I say it myself, Im enjoying some improvement in this area too - Id like to do fab LO's with fab photos - its a journey Im still on - but enjoying and telling the story of the journey is what my scrapbooking is all about!
Awesome!! I love your blog - subscribed to my reader!! I tried to blog, but it just never "stuck".... Glad you are a part of ScrapHappy and look forward to getting to know you better! Your space is incredible - your stash is pretty incredible!! I totally understand why you love it so! (I love mine so too!)
ReplyDeleteMary
Mary Thankyou so much for subscribing - I have spent ages trying to get into blogging and with a bit of perseverance - I think I might be getting there - your encouragement has made all that effort worthwhile!!!! Shimelle's blogging for scrapbookers class really helped!
DeleteThanks for your kind words about my craft space - its my little oasis of creativity - and Im so pleased to know you love your little oasis very much too! Im loving being part of Scrap Happy - and look forward to getting to know you better too!
Happy Scrapping
Alison