Crochet Flowers

I wanted to learn how to make crochet flowers.  I started with YouTube and whilst it got me started, my first two attempts were hilarious.  The first one looks nothing like a flower - in fact, it's square in shape.  The second one had more of a flower shape, but some pretty strange petals.  I thought about my grandmother, who was fantastic at crochet when she was alive and wished I had developed an interest 15-20 years ago when she perhaps could have shown me the art.  I still have some of her pieces in my linen cupboard and one in the studio (that I use to make impressions onto clay).  Anyway, I persevered on my own.  The third one wasn't too bad for a beginner and the 4th one even had a second layer of petals.  After that, I had my lovely friend (and design team member) Glenna show me how she makes hers (after she stopped laughing at my first two flowers).  Although she uses wool and a larger hook, the principle is the same and so after a couple of fairly OK flowers, I got the hang of it.  As you will see below, I'm well into the swing of it now and have made over 40 of them, hoping to have a good little stock of them to sell at Craft Out West in July.

 Once I had been making those for a few days, it was time to try something else.  First was the heart, but I haven't quite got the top middle of the heart right yet, so might have to practice a bit more on that.

 Then came the rose - which is relatively easy.  Just like making a large open flower, then rolling it up. Then onto leaves.  I haven't quite got the shape right yet, so might have to look for some sort of pattern, but loving the possibilities and ability to experiment to create new things.  No doubt one of my upcoming scrapbook layouts will feature some crochet embellishments.

My aunt Pat recently told me she has some of my grandmother's old crochet hooks.  I think I might see if I can borrow one of the hooks and try some real fine work.  How awesome will that be to be crocheting with the same hook my grandmother used to use years ago?  

Finally Done!

Remember these photos from a recent post on post camp blues?  Well this is what started my desire to have a huge clean up and shift around at the same time as I put the new tables in.  So the first two photos are the before photos.

Then the during photo.  I started moving furniture and also started washing the floor with a blue paint wash to help hide the 'already covered in blotches of different colour' look, as well as remove the bare concrete look.   Didn't end up looking as good as I had hoped (or as good as the initial test patch 2-3 years ago), but it's growing on me and soon I wont even really see it anymore.

Then, out with the old high tables and in with the new (to me), lower tables.  These are a much better height for scrapbooking, certainly better for my kids' classes in particular and also provide a more designated and perhaps larger scrapping area per person.

On the front of the tables, the cards I did at Tania's class at last ScrapCamp.  What a fun filled class that was!

 And from a couple of different angles, the rest of the studio.

I'm really liking it!

All I have left to do is put a few more things back into the studio (still in the rumpus) and then clear my own desk/scrapping space - ah well, baby steps eh?

New Old Products

Sounds funny I know, but when I came back from Craft Out West, I made a point of checking off the website to first make sure the stock numbers were accurate after sales from the weekend and then I decided that I would try not to put back on the shelf anything that wasn't on the website (if there was more than just 1 or 2 of them).

So commenced the task of locating product images and entering all these products as 'new' products onto the website, most of which are actually 'old' products, ie have been out now for a while, just never made it to the website or ones I had before I revamped the website and never moved them over etc.  Most of the them have now been moved straight into the 'specials' folder, which is now bursting with over 110 items permanently on special, but at least they're on the web and available for customers to view now and hopefully purchase.  I should have done this ages ago and looking around the studio, I see there are still some products to go on, but so much more of my stock is now online.  Feels great to have accomplished this mammoth task and be able to start on the small balance on the shelves.  yay!

Layouts from ScrapCamp

Here are some of my layouts, along with the whiteboard of layouts from April ScrapCamp.

Blog Catch Up

That's what will be happening over the next few days. The posts probably wont be in order and there may be quite a few new posts to read in one hit, but with my main computer dead, I have felt a bit like I lost my right hand. No email history, no camp files (booking sheet most importantly-urghhh!) and so have been busy utilising the time to do other things whilst the data was retrieved. We are 1/2 way there and just need to now see if my photos (about the last 5 years worth) can be retrieved from the separate hard drive. - I sure hope so, or I know I'll be crying over that one. What about your back up you might say... yes, on a separate drive, but in the same computer and the motherboard died, so we are trying to assess if any damage made it's way to the drives. So, for the important files that my wonderful brother-in-law has recovered, I now have them on my laptop and a totally separate external drive, plus, some even copied a 3rd time onto a flash drive. Overkill probably, but hey - you just never know.

So anyway, due to all the downtime without the computer, the studio is now super clean and tidy and I will get the blog up to date and then may make a start on the office (which is far from tidy). Watch this space.

Miss Tiny's introduction to Scrapbooking

At our weekend workshop last week, Miss Tiny graced us with her presence and hung out with us for a few hours (in between feeds and sleeps). Yeah for all the yummy cuddles us ladies scored!

As you can see in the photo, she was keen to checkout the latest techniques in one of the magazines. She was very well behaved and is most welcome back at future crops and of course ScrapCamp.

A little thanks

A set of 'thank you' cards I recently made for a friend, whose family member had just suffered a serious accident. Another mutual friend suggested a group of us make 10 cards each and forward on for the friend and her family to use, for those who had helped immediately after the accident and through the recovery period. What an awesome idea Paula!

Supplies used are plain brown card stock, Pebbles Inc papers, plain paper with typed word and staples. Cut card stock to A5, fold in half to create card. Print your desired word on white paper, leaving sufficient room to cut out a 9.5x2cm strip. Cut circle (roughly 4cm in diameter) out of same card stock that card is made from. Cut 2 rectangles of co-ordinating papers (roughly 8.5x6cms) and adhere to one side of the card, setting slightly apart. Staple circle to the end of the strip, ensuring that finished length does not exceed width of card. Staple other end of strip to match. Adhere strip of printed paper and circle over the gap between the two papers.

Simple and quick to make and they can be personalised with the initial of the receiver, a stamp, or sticker in the plain circle.

Book Of Me

At ScrapCamp we were discussing the fact that many of us were always behind the camera and so weren't featuring in many of our own scrapbooks. Tania had decided she was going to do a mini album all about herself and her life. Several of us decided to follow. Titles were quite varied and included: Me Me Me Me Me, Pieces Of Me, Book Of Me, It's All About Me and more. Mine was originally going to be Me, Myself and I, but Tania and Wendy thought it reminded them of the movie Me, Myself and Irene, so mine is now called This Is Me. (photo attached). We brainstormed a few layout themes and came up with a theme for each month of the next 10 or so months. It will be great fun to do and we can reveal progress at each weekend workshop or ScrapCamp, so will be neat to see how others are progressing as well.

I created my mini album with my new Bind It All machine. Love it, love it, love it. So easy to use. I used precut covers and pages for my first album, covered them in KaiserCraft paper and bound them together. Couldn't have been easier. I highly recommend this tool and they can be purchased at Spotlight stores for a very reasonable price.

New Clear Stamps

At bargain prices - well for Heidi Grace anyway! Was in at Spotlight and found these stamps (normally $14.99 each) on sale for $6. Grabbed the 4 different designs they had on offer. Look forward to using (and sharing of course) at the mini camp in 2.5 weeks time!

Memorable Moment

Another layout from another circle journal, titled "Memorable Moments" It required a page on yourself and a page on one of your memorable moments. This one was a little harder as there were a few memorable moments I could have used, but didn't have pictures for. I've also realised whilst doing all these circle journals, that I haven't had a decent photo taken of me in goodness knows how long. In fact, not even really 'any' photo. I've had to keep using the same photo, which is getting a bit boring. Have made a note to resolve this soon.

Only 2 more postings and my journal will be on it's way home to me - yeah! Can't wait to open it and dive on in.

Essence Of a Woman

Was the title/theme of one of the journals from my current cicrle journal group. A topic to really make you think. What is at the core of us. What did we dream of as little girls, what do we still dream/yearn for. What makes us who we are. How have we changed, so many questions, way too many answers (and personal feelings) for a 2 page layout, but here is what I created.
I think I may have to do a small format book for myself to expand on this a little. I enjoyed this particular journal because it brought out things I hadn't thought about in ages. It sent me back to a box of old photos which I poured through recalling memories from long ago. It was good! Two more journals in the circle to complete, then mine will be back with me. I can't wait to see it. I have more layouts from other journals to post, but as most of them are from journals of people I know read this blog and whom I know are waiting to see their journals finished (and have resisted temptation to peek when I had them), I'll leave those posts till the circle is completed.

Yummy New Stamps

'Monarch' by Inque Boutique. I could barely resist ordering them on name alone (a little butterfly mad), but once I saw the image and saw the flourishes, dots and words, I really couldn't resist. They arrived yesterday and I used them twice today in one of the Circle Journals I'm currently working on....Yum!

ScrapCamp Challenges

Here are the finished pieces from our recent ScrapCamp challenge. Each camper was given a small artists easel, 2 chipboard flowers and a circle tin tag. The only rules were you had to use the tag and at least one of the flowers, plus 1 piece of bling somewhere on your piece.

Camp - A fun workout..

..for my stomach muscles. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much and for so long. Several of us at ScrapCamp had tears in our eyes, were holding our tummies (from the pain of laughing so much) and begging the story tellers to stop. Sylvia put us right over the edge with the story of the 'Down' family and their sons: Bob, Neil, Stan (& I'm sure there was one more but I can't remember), and then their daughter Eider!
Photos to come.
And a wee confession - I fell off the wagon and bought more ribbons. 4 initially, but then in my last overseas order, I brought some boxed sets in for a customer. 3 different themes with 1 yard each of 6 different co-ordinated ribbons per box. Minimum quantity of each design was 3. She bought 2 of each and left the 3rd. They are sitting on my table looking all glorious and inviting. I'm not sure if they'll make it to the shelves!! That was at the end of April and my goal is to try an make it through May without another ribbon purchase.

Hi, I'm Carrie and I'm a ribbonholic!

It's been 13 days since my last ribbon purchase. My addiction started with fibres, but like many addicts, I soon moved onto something stronger and ribbons became my preference.
I didn't really realize I had a problem until trying to find the best method of storage. Those bought by the metre are hung through book rings, but I also had many prepackaged ribbons on small spools. I found containers for these (the clear ones on the left-hand side of the photo), but still have some odd ones to store (that's them in the box in the top left-hand corner).
So how bad is my addiction, well in my defence, not as bad as some I know (eh Tania?), but I counted them and without repeats (of which I have a few), there are 327 different ribbons. Tania by the way has over 400!! She's real bad huh?
Well ScrapCamp is next week and the plan is to use at least 10 different ribbons while I'm there and then be strong and fight the urge to buy more. Perhaps I'll even get really serious about it and give away some of my duplicate pieces? Well, on second thoughts, perhaps I'm not quite ready for that step yet, but soon maybe!

My latest toy..

I'd heard about them, even seen them in a catalogue, but it wasn't till I saw it demonstrated that I said 'Yip, I want one'. Yeah I know, I'm a gadget junkie (I'm the same with kitchen appliances), but this is really cool! Really!! It punches through CD's effortlessly, no heating or soaking in hot water. One easy squeeze and it's done. Great with chipboard too. Setting eyelets is silent too, and just as easy. It has inter-changable setting fixtures so you can set different sized eyelets and even snaps. The guides mean you can punch a series of holes all at exactly the same distance in on the paper for a perfect line. It's one flaw is that you can't use it to punch holes or set eyelets very far into a page, so no good for say mounting a journal block in the middle of a 12x12 layout, but for that, I can just fake it. (Place eyelets on the journaling box, but adhere the actual box with adhesive). It's not goodbye to my regular tools and hammer yet, but I can certainly see this baby getting some serious use soon.

2008 Scrapping Target

For 2007, I exceeded my scrapping target (of 52 layouts, off the page items or papercraft projects) by just 3. I had thought it would have been easy to achieve, but only just managed it. This year my target is to achieve 60 (5 per month). Although I could push that out some, knowing the plans we have around the house this year, I felt I should keep it realistic.

I at least got off to a good start. I was at camp last week doing a camp clean and managed to squeeze in some scrapping time. 3 12x12 layouts and finally finished the cover to my "This one time at Scrap Camp" book. I then proceeded to create the title and intro pages. So here's to a good, productive year of Scrapbooking.