paper to play with

I’m back in my flat after four weeks away.  First I was working in Bangladesh and when I returned the plumber was working on my flat – the bath was out but the new shower not in.  So I’ve been visiting with my parents and sister.  Yesterday the shower was completed so I am back in my flat and the renovation enters the last big push.

All of this means that I have had time to properly explore a package that arrived while I was away.  A fabulous collection of paper ephemera that I won from Gallo Organico.   I know that I am going to have a lot of fun playing with these pieces. I love the art journal pages that Rinda often shares and the way that she uses a wide range of interesting found items on these pages.

As well as the creative potential, several pieces sparked memories.  One of the items was library catalogue cards with a hole at the bottom that would have fitted onto a rod that run the length of the catalogue drawer – they brought back many memories of searching through the card catalogues when I was a student. 

Thanks Rinda for the trip down memory lane and the fun I will have using them on various creations.

booklet from a sheet of paper

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I love these booklets which are made from one sheet of paper.  The white one started as a sheet of A4.  The small one was a 6 inch square and the large one is a piece of brown parcel paper.  The booklet has 8 sides/pages, including the covers.  I  enjoy the magic of turning one piece of paper into a booklet by just folding and making one cut.

I have made these booklets from 12x12 patterned paper as a group activity.  People then decorate their covers and make pockets inside. 

Here are the instructions – they are easiest to follow if you have a piece of paper in your hands to follow along.

 

when is it too small to keep?

this is a small part of my collection of small bits of card.  I use my scraps a lot on pages and on cards.  Funnily enough a bag of scrap is one thing I find missing from digi scrapping  because having endless use of whole pages just does not feel the same.

The best tip that I picked up along the way was to take the time to trim off odd edges and angles before putting the scrap away.

 

But the burning question is when is a scrap too small to be worth keeping?  

I read somewhere about throwing away anything smaller than your thumbnail.  Not sure what the logic of that rule is.

 

 

But I find it hard to throw out even pieces that small if they are a nice colour or still have some design showing.  So to clear them out from my bag I decided to stick them all onto a piece of card to make a patchwork that I could use on something – perhaps.  In any case the gluing and placing of the bits made me smile.  Light is bad in photo – but  you get the general idea.

do you keep small scraps and what rules do you have for which to keep?

 

 

 

 

using my new alpha stamps

I was given this lovely set of alpha stamps and collection of stamps for Christmas.  One of the things I have used them for is to make some cards to send to Cindy to pass on to good causes. I used bits from my bag of scraps of coloured card to go with the stamped phrases.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One of may favourite ways to use scraps of card is to make a striped strip.  Collect several pieces of card that share the same colour or tone – it works best with a mix of plain and pattern.  Trim them to the same width and cut any wide pieces into several strips. 

Then take a piece of backing card, cover it in glue and stick on the strips in any order.  This technique never fails to produce a pleasing strip of colour.

 

 

recipe for success

 

On Thursday Rinda at Gallo Organico posted a recipe for making a card using those papers that have a picture like an old card.  I have some of these sheets in a book of papers I was given and a card challenge felt doable so I collected the ingredients and off I went.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was very pleased with these two cards I made and it was easy.  The sticker words on the right are ‘thank you’ with 3 stars and the ribbon really is red and does lie flat now.

Rinda is running a competition for people who follow the recipe by Sunday – head over to her blog and check it out – it really was fun and easy to follow her recipe.  I haven’t really used these kinds of images before so really appreciated this recipe.

Russian doll cards

The Russian doll foldout pattern turned out well and was easy to use.  I asked my Mum to draw the faces because she is good at that sort of thing and is on hand.  I will attach each to a birthday card to donate to charity.

I made these

 

Inspired by some posts on Write, Click, Scrapbook some months ago (sorry didn’t note down who)  I made a set of cards for my nephews (17 and 20) for christmas.

Each card has a quote from one of the Star Wars movies which I found by googling and then selecting some that I thought appropriate for each person. 

The really exciting find is the forced reentry font which is dingbats of Star Wars characters – for instance the Yoda in the photo is the letter I.  The font that I used for the test is rub this!. 

I made them using text boxes in word to control placement.

2010 year long album

I have admired the December daily mixed album process for the last 2 years but I don’t ‘do’ Christmas all December and don’t feel the urge to record each day of the month so the project would not work for me. 

But I really wanted the challenge and fun of putting together a mix of page starters and later having to make them work.  I’ve done a themed year long album every year since 2006 and I like each to be different.

So I decided to put together 12 folders, each with 7 things inside which I will then use as the basis for that month.  The photo above is the January set: a business card holder page; a set of circle stickers; a frame with an oval hole; two printed out journaling blocks, a foldout album behind the picture card and a velum sheet with New Year on it.

My only rule is that I have to use all 7 things that month.  I will post  on how I approach this project as I do it.

Really enjoyed collecting an eclectic mix and putting the 12 packs together.  Photos of the other 11 are below if you want to see them all.

Are you planning a year long album project for 2010?

 

cards for a good cause

I saw Cindy’s post about cards for charity a while ago and have been meaning to post on it because it seems such a good idea.

One of the frustrating things with making cards is having more inspiration and stash than people and occasions needing a card. 

Cindy is organising distribution of cards to charity and she is giving prizes each month.  For more details visit cindy.  The next deadline is end of January 2010. 

I hope to get some cards made this week.  One of my Christmas gifts was a set of alpha stamps so this seems a great excuse to play with them.

 

Sketch at Ella

Ella had a competition to make a page based on a basic sketch.  I love to use sketches as the starting point for my pages so as soon as I saw the sketch I was excited with ideas to give it my twist.  I reduced the sketch so that I could give it a border all round - something that is on the CZ stuff a lot. I'm please with the result - 9 photos but it still looked balanced and not crowded.

What inspired me today?

In this wee notebook every evening I record one think that gave me a creative buzz and one happy moment. Each evening’s note takes no more than two lines.

I am not imposing any rules on myself about what I can write or what kind of creativity I mean. So far creative buzzes have referred to projects I am working on and those I’m planning; food combinations; quotes and ideas I’ve read and heard.

There are 31 doublespreads so one for each day of the month and I stenciled the date in the corner for each. Once I’ve done a month of entries I will get the added boost each evening of being reminded of what inspired me and made me happy the month before. I think there is space for eight months.


Inspiration
My sister told me that one of the successful approaches to being positive about life was an on-going daily note of one thing that made you happy that day. The idea is to use the same notebook for several years so that you read earlier entries from that day as an added boost. I was too impatient to wait a year for the boost so decided to try a monthly notebook. I added the creative inspiration because creativity is such an important part of what makes me happy.

Supplies
· The notebook was a birthday gift from my folks this year – waiting in my ‘small books box’ for a good use.
· I love this stencil sheet for providing a consistent look. I thought about using stickers but it would use too many ‘1s’ and ‘2s’.
· The pen is STAEDLER triples fineliner. I use them a lot because they come in lots of great colours and the fine tip doesn’t splurge with use.