Tulip Medley

Back in November I posted about planting my tulip bulbs. I have two small beds surrounded by box hedges and with potted holly trees in the centre of each outside the back of the barn. These are my attempt at "formal" beds and the idea originally was to have a show of single colour tulips in Spring followed by a different type of bedding plant each summer. As you can see, such plans have gone awry - I do plant a different species of tulip each Autumn and try to dig up all the bulbs of the previous one, but obviously I have missed quite a few, and after 5 years we now have quite a mix. Not what I intended, but at least it's colourful, I suppose!

This year's Summer bedding is Sweet Williams bought from a very green-fingered and creative acquaintance in the village, which , since they are biennial , have been happily growing in the bed since last summer and should put on a good show this year.

Also, I just wanted to show the layout from the final class I did during the UK Scrappers Cyber Crop at the weekend. The class was by Sarah Youde and involved distressing, sewing and using raffia - good fun. Now the Cyber Crop has finished I feel at a loose end creatively -  not that I haven't got lots of things I could be finishing off - knitting and sewing projects especially, and I need to make a card for my Sister-in-Law's 50th birthday...I think I need to have a play with some of my supplies and try to get inspired.

Up to my ears in paper and card...

Yes it's the Cybercrop weekend on UK Scrappers! For those of you who are not UKS devotees, a cybercrop is a weekend of online classes, challenges and general fun with points and even prizes to be won.
Each CC has a theme - this one is Monopoly with all the classes and the teams monopoly-themed. So far I have managed to do 2 of the classes as well as the pre-crop challenge ( which I did a little sneak preview of in my last post) and the Mystery Kit challenge where you buy a scrapbooking kit from an online shop without knowing what it consists of and then have to make something with just the items in the kit. I love doing this - it is such fun to do and then later see what everyone else has done with the same kit. I'm always inspired by other people's ideas and talents. This time, two of the LOs made involve wonderful 3-d elements - a fruit basket and a 3-d house.

Here's my ( definitely 2-d!) Mystery Kit LO :

And here is the LO I used the Tim Holtz compass mask on:

The first class I did was by the very talented Angie Woolfall, and involved intricate hand-cutting and doodling to make a frame. I normally avoid using a craft knife in favour of scissors or my trimmer so this was a real challenge for me. I persevered, though, and ( some hours later) had made this:

I'm actually really pleased with how this turned out, and may even have a go at this type of hand-cutting again. ( You might recognise the photo from a recent post!)

Then, this afternoon, I spent a very rushed couple of hours making a LO following a class by Gertie. I didn't leave myself enough time for the paint over the masked letters to dry as I had to upload the LO by 4pm to claim my points, so the title doesn't look as good as I'd hoped and I think I could have made a better choice of fonts for the letters. I may have a go at redoing the title some time.

Looking at these LOs now, it would appear that I'm very fond of the colour blue!

I'm hoping to do a couple more classes this evening or tomorrow, if I can take the pace...

Scrapbooking Kit swap

One of the many things I love about being involved in UK Scrappers is the opportunity to join in swaps of all kinds - various types of stash, made items such as bookmarks (see my post below), altered objects etc.

The current one I'm in, organised by my UKS teamie, Claire, is a scrapbooking kit swap - the idea being to send your swappee a co-ordinated kit including cardstock, patterned paper and various embellisments, enough to make several LOs. As we were all to send items from our excisting stash, this didn't cost us a penny, and just look at what a wonderful kit arrived for me this morning:






Thanks so much to the very generous Ann who sent it!



And this is what I sent to Claire:





She later posted a pic of a LO she had made with some of the stash I had sent her and it was really interesting and inspiring to see what someone else had done with "your" stash.
I think swaps are a brilliant idea - even if I don't always like everything I receive (although I did in this case), it is great to get some free and different items to experiment with and stimulate my creativity.

Lark Ascending

Yesterday late afternoon I had one of those magical experiences with nature that sometimes happen here.
It had been horrible weather all day, cold, windy and raining, and then towards 6pm it suddenly brightened up. We had been in the house all day so I rounded up R. and I. and we went out for a walk to the wood. As we headed home R. decided to take I. for a quick lemonade at the pub and I headed home across the fields alone.
One of the fields I walked past often has skylarks and as I approached I could hear their song. I stopped to listen and look up to see if I could see any when suddenly one took off from the ground right in front of me and hovered in the sky overhead singing loudly - it was a wonderful moment - so unexpected and with the sun out and the sky now bright blue after such a day.
As I walked back along the "Concrete Path" I saw that the wild primroses are out along the verges and I also spotted some tiny wild violets. It reminded me how much I love the changing seasons here...


On the crafting front, I managed this month for the first time to do all the weekly challenges on UK Scrappers and the monthly House Challenge too.
Here is my week 5 challenge LO, which I'm really quite pleased with as it is the second set of photos I attempted to use for this challenge and after a strugle with the sketch provided I like how this has turned out.

Papercrafting

Whew! It feels a little strange to be back blogging after such a long break. I'm not sure quite why I stopped at Christmas time - we were away at New Year and then life seemed to be extra busy after that. My knitting projects have also been sadly neglected although I did use my sewing machine intensively for a while to make DD2 two flapper girl dresses for a production of Bugsy Malone she was in at school

I have been back making things this month and last, though - cards and scrapbook layouts!

I have got back into scrapbooking recentlyalmost to the point of obsession. I 've made 7 LOs in the last 3 weeks and have also made quite a few cards. (I've also spent lots of money on scrapbooking stash, but sshh - don't tell anyone!

Here are a few of the LOs I've made recently:


My DD2:






This is about our silver wedding anniversary:





Another nostalgic one about me and DH:






My three:





And this one I just finished this morning, for the monthly challenge over on Sarah's Cards blog:
(the challenge was to use old stash)

A closer look...

Having posted about my "Budget Challenge" layouts in the last post, I thought it would be a good idea to show the LOs more closely, so here they are...

Yes, it's me!

Not a brilliant photo but you can probably make out my photo on this spread from the current Scrapbook Magazine. I'm so excited as, although I've had LOs published before, this is my first "article" and what's even better is that I got paid for it( well, I will when payment arrives!).
End of self-promotion, I promise!

Coffee Love

My addiction to coffee is well-known amongst my family - I usually only have 1 or 2 cups a day, but it is one of my favourite treats and if I go for a day without a coffee (preferably cappucino) I not only feel deprived but get a headache - yes, a true chemical addiction!
I made this layout in response to this week's challenge onUK Scrappers which include making a LO about something you're addicted to - for me, apart from scrapbooking itself, there could be only one contender!
I can knowledgeably discuss the merits of the Cappucino on offer at all the major coffee chains - Costa, Cafe Nero, Starbucks, as well as my favourite small individual coffee shops in Norwich and Wymondham. Funnily enough, it is only actual coffee I love - I can't stand anything coffee-flavoured, and as for instant coffee ... yeuch! Definitely a coffee snob, me!


I have already made other layouts celebrating my love of coffee, most recently for a Circle Journal group I'm doing through UKS - I really enjoyed using yummy Doodlebug flock and boutique trims in wonderful coffee colours in this double LO below:

Inchies

I have just finished making 30 "Inchies" which is the first time I have tried any artwork on such a small scale. Inchies are, as they sound, tiny artworks just 1x1 in square. They are often mixed media, but can be any design, theme or media. I made these for a swap I am doing on

UK Scrappers and I enjoyed using a number of different techniques and materials, searching through my stash to find suitably small images, stamps, and text. My common theme was to use an image and some text and I made 10 sets of 3 different but related ones.

In the swap, I will recieve 3 inchies from each participant, meaning I will also get 3 back of my own, and 3 from my talented DD, who is also taking part. I can't wait to see the inchies created by the other swappers.

Cybercrop!

This weekend I 've just taken part in my first-ever Cybercrop over on UKScrappers. The idea is that you follow on-line classes and challenges, some of which you can buy kits for and your work has to be uploaded to the gallery by certain deadlines to gain points for your "team". Some people manage to do most of the classes over the sweekend - I don't know how they do it. I did just 4 - 2 classes and 2 challenges plus 2 challenges which had been set in the run-up to the crop.

One of the classes was to make a house-shaped LO with opening doors and roof. I have adapted this to look like our barn and haven't finished it yet, but will post it on here when I have. The other LOs etc are here:

This minibook was made with a "Mystery" kit from Scrapshed - I loved using these papers and embellishments and love the book I made. Also I have loads left to make something else:

This LO was for a class called "Black and Blue":

The "FBI" challenge to use a file-folder, ink and buttons on your LO was the perfect oppprtunity to scrap these pics of DD1 and her favourite hat:

The Urge to Create

All children have the urge to create - as soon as they can hold a crayon they love making marks on paper and any other surface they can find! Later, their expressive drawings are an indication of where they are in their development. Many of us adults, however, have become too busy to give time to creating anything or think that doing anything creative is somehow something "childish" that they have, or should have, grown out of. The creative urge is repressed, buried deep down, but never, I believe, gone entirely.

As a child and a teenager, I loved to make things - I used to draw, paint, sew, knit, write and illustrate stories. I took Art at A-level and even thought of going on to study it in some form but I never felt I was "good enough". My father was an artist and I knew that I did not have his skills with drawing, so I went on to study an academic subject and get a series of jobs, finally settling on teaching. Through my twenties I kept going with my interest in art, took up pottery and kept knitting - I even made my husband a fair isle sleeveless sweater. With the arrival of my children, however, the time to do creative things was squeezed out and my creative urge was pushed still further down.

It did rise to the surface from time to time - in my enjoyment of decorating my childrens' birthday cakes and modelling little figures for them out of icing - and in my dreams. I had a recurrent dream where I would discover that there was one or more rooms in my house that I never knew about or used. My dream dictionary confirmed my feeling that this meant I was not "inhabiting" or using all the parts of myself. Yes, it was my creativity that was nudging me through my dreams, wanting to be used.

Then, about a year ago, I discovered Scrapbooking, by happy chance. Immediately I loved it and felt inspired. I also felt I could do it and didn't even have to draw! This has led to an awakened interest in other forms of art and crafts. As you have read in previous posts, I have got back into knitting and I am also experimenting with various mixed media techniques. And guess what ? Now that I am honouring my creativity, I haven't had a single dream about the unused rooms...

This layout, which I did at the end of last year is about my re-awakened urge to create:





And here is one I did about those birthday cakes...





Thanks for reading this long post

Scrapbooking vs Knitting

I love them both! But I have found that I can't scrapbook and knit at the same time (well obviously not at exactly the same time...) When I am in scrapbooking mode, which I am at the moment, I don't seem to want to knit, and vice-versa. I think they must use different parts of the brain that I can't engage in the same time period.

Currently I am working on some layouts for a magazine challenge, an art journal challenge, and a layout for the Cybercrop on UK Scrappers, and my mind is in overdrive thinking of ideas for these. But I also have a pile of unfinished and unstarted knitting projects which are having to wait their turn. One knitty thing I have to do, though, is sew up the legwarmers my DD1 has just finished, her first project since learning to knit over Christmas. In fact I must go and get on with this job now, as she wants to wear them for an audition she's going to tomorrow!