Cathy's Crafting

I really love scrapbooking but one of my aims this year was to try some other crafts and to branch out a bit. At this year's stitch and craft show my Mum and I had a go at making jewellery for the first time, so tonight I put my scrapbooking stash away and got out this:


All the beads and the wire came from the workshop and the tools are recent acquistions! (and very good value too!). We had made a bracelet in the workshop so tonight I had a go at recreating it and making the matching earrings. These were the finished pieces and I was extremely pleased with them:


The instructions for them are here and I will definitely be having a go at a few more jewellery projects in the near future.

So this started off from the April 1st stuck sketch but has ended up being completely different to the original! I have seen lots of LOs recently with horizontal stripes of PP across the page and was inspired to try something similiar. The PPs are all Bella Boulevard Plasticino and the alphas are thickers. I'm not wild about this LO, it makes the photo look really dark when it was taken on a really sunny day and i think I should have cropped some of the sand off from the bottom of the photo, but we live and learn!

This challenge was to use a sketch and outside photos - easy except my printer decided to run out of ink :( so I had to abandon the photo I was going to use and find something that I already had in my waiting to be scrapped pile. I think this will probably be my last effort towards the UKS cybercrop as it my Grandma's 80th birthday today and that really has to take precedence! Am going to have a go at The Strand class at some point as I really like the sketch that it uses.

What a fab class! Have hand cut the frame and am v happy with this LO - the only annoying thing was my white pen deciding to dry up :( so will go back later and finish the frames. The PPs are from October Afternoon and Scenic Route, alphas are BG and ribbon from stash. Doesn't Owen look fab in this photo? - he LOVES ice cream!

Loved this class and will definitely be painting over alphas again - a great way to use up spares!


The bow just didn't work with the ribbons I've got so I left it off. The PPs are scenic route and BG, and the stickers are from Scenic Route Sonama. Rub on is daisy bucket. Very happy with this LO!

Someone has asked me about my last post and how I have got more organised, so here are some details:

1. I have used google reader to organise my blogs so now new posts automatically appear and I only have one site to check - this has probably been my biggest time saver of all and though it takes a bit of time to set up, it's definitely worth it.

2. I am using principles from flylady.com to organise my housework. I have a different set up to lots of people in that I work full time and my husband stays at home with the kids - he's FABULOUS at looking after the children but doesn't seem to have time to do much house work?? We now have a morning list of jobs (washing up, hanging washing out, checking calendar, getting food out the freezer); an evening list of jobs (tidying washing away, putting a load on, feeding hamster, washing up, emptying bin) and a weekly cleaning plan (i.e. one day to change bed linens, give bathroom/kitchen a proper clean, hoovering twice a week). Having this written down has been really helpful and freed up a lot of weekend time.

3. I buy cards and presents monthly for all birthdays that month on the day I am paid. This means we don't have last minute crisis and satisfies my urge to spend money!

4. We are keeping a much closer eye on our budget and where we spend money - there is definitely more work to do in this area though.

5. I have done some archiving and filing and now have the room to put paperwork away as soon as it arrives :)

All this means despite 2 meals out this weekend I will hopefully have some time to join in the UKS cybercrop, I am a thimble :)

So another challenge for Shimelle's scrapbook party is to share your 5 favourite LOs - I have about 20, as much because I like the photos for sentimental reasons, as well as liking the LO for anything in particular.... but have chosen my top 5 (for today at least!). Am cheating a bit with my first one as it's double sided acetate... but that counts as one LO doesn't it? ;)



My next is a generally cutie one of DS2 - love the colour combos in this LO:


And this one is of DS1 - this was from a sketch (maybe Pagemaps?):


The next one is partially sentimental, but I also like it as it's the first LO where I used my MM slice:


And my final one I have chosen as I love the photo, but I think the design and colours of the LO also capture DS2's character really really well:


Let me know if you like them too!

Sorry been rubbish at blogging recently - however life is starting to get a bit more organised and the bathroom is very nearly finished, so am going to try and aim to blog once a week - I have been doing plenty of crafting so there's lots to post - it's just finding the time to do it...

Anyway this weekend Shimelle is having a scrapbook party on her blog and I felt inspired to turn the google box off last night and do some scrapping instead.

This is for the 'use your own handwriting' challenge:


And this LO (which I love) is for a sketch challenge - I have had this photo in my 'needs to be scrapped' pile for ages and was very pleased with how it turned out:


Hopefully there will be a bit more later!!