Challenge 5: Use A Found Object. Istanbul Travel Journal

So on my Istanbul trip I kept a travel journal. So did my friend. So each night around nine found us in the same cafe, reclining on sofas, drink Turkish tea by the glassload and writing furiously. We packed a lot in.

But, being a scrapbooker, I didn't jsut want words, I wanted pictures and stuff. Tricky on holiday with the pictures still very much inside the camera. And no pretty paper to be fitted in the backpack. Sad face!

So I took a roll of washi tape, a pen and an exercise book and taped anything I could find into my exercise book: business cards, postcards, receipts, maps, tickets...even little packets that used to contain wet wipes (don't ask) and sugar (to go in the tea).

And so I bring you: My Travels in Istanbul: A Travel Journal by Kirsty M. Smith. Interspersed with some of the pictures that I I now intend to get scrapbooking :D

Book pinched without kind permission from maths department.

Which is what it says on the back of my travel journal. Technically, another found object.

P.S. I think this qualifies as using a found object! So that's Challenge 5 sorted! The tenth of November is not far away at all now, and I've completed all but a couple of them now. Look out for more posts soon, and details of a roundup to link them all together on the tenth!

P.P.S. I'm really enjoying it actually :D

Challenge 7: Paint

First, let me tell you a little about camp cupcake. We had an indoor weekend with the Guides in October to do our cupcake challenge bag. We made cupcakes (so far, so obvious), cupcake pincushions, cupcake fridage magnets... Then there was the cupcake relay: grab a cupcake, run, slap on icing, run, write your initials in writing icing, run, sprinkles, run, tag teammate. Then you cheer your teammate while wondering if we guiders will believe that you always write your initials "splodge, squiggle, smear". Fortunately, there was also proper cupcake decorating too.

So, how did Challenge 7 work out for me? The paint here is minimal because I've figured out that's how I like it. Fewer page crinkles :D After some backfires and some now rather sad-looking Bazzill that I practised on - on the plus side I used the colours I wasn't keen on. Just a bit of paint means I don't get the wrinkles but I do get a suggestion of the paint effect I like. Lesson learned! So I've got a bit of a border in white paint around the patterned paper, and some splatters.

Inspiration for the paint border came from this page of Shimelle's which I love! Inspiration for little paint drips? Everywhere!

Spent the most fabulous day in pyjamas, crafting, sorting my new Istanbul pics and generally lazing about which I haven't done in soooooo long. Feels good! I've caught up with episodes of Smallville, Ugly Betty (Thanks LoveFilm!), and Merlin and I shall be catching up with the gossip and scandal over at Downton during the week. So no spoilers, do you hear?

I'm making a stern face and pointing at you all.

And now I'm grinning and yawning so it had better be goodnight.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Going to snuggle in bed with the iPod and watch Shimelle's latest 4x6 photo love. What is it about watching scrapbooking videos in bed that's so relaxing?

Long Time No Update Because...

I've spent the week here, exploring and having adventures!

But don't worry. As a scrapbooker, I wrote it all down in here.

And I have a whole free day tomorrow (marking done - HA!) and I intend to start scrapbooking it and working on the challenges.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Thanks for being patient with me blog-wise. Have massive blog backlog but I'm really looking forward to seeing the challenges you've joined in with!

P.P.S. It was Istanbul by the way. I've just got back after spending a week there with a friend and I have LOADS to tell :D

Challenge 1: Photo on a theme of autumn...

So this challenge was designed to make me get out and find some pictures that said Autumn to me. I take my camera almost everywhere but it's been a manic few weeks lately and I was starting to think that I was going to miss this beautiful season.

I've got a variety of shots. The cliched leaves of a tree, the vibrant shades of autumn, season of mists and whatnot...

But this is my favourite. Season of putting on wellies and running around outside in damp, dew-coated grass, kicking up leaves, wearing a scarf and mittens for warmth, breath coming in clouds and really crisp clear air that makes you inhale deeply. This is my autumn.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Working on other challenges too - quite enjoying myself :D

P.P.S. I'd appreciate it if you ignored the yuck that is clearly on the end of my lens and shows up on the pictures. Needs a clean!

Challenge 2: Colour

Being a mathematician, I find it important to approach things logically, so I've started my month long scrappy quest with challenge 2: the colour challenge. Normally, yellow and blue is not a colour combo that works for me. It's a bit primary colours, a bit bold, a bit too... not sure what, but I've never been keen.

But then came Pinterest. And so I fell in love with the colour combo below. The colours were muted and sophisticated and delicate and cheerful. Not brash and bold and brassy, but subtle and lovely. So here's my page: I went with an almost grey-blue and soft yellows, and stuck in some general grey to tone the whole thing down. And I can't deny I was hankering to use this background paper. It's ledger...that goes in CIRCLES!!!

Everybody say HECK YES. Add some layers, inky splatters and a quick camera stamp, find my journalling about the Tower of London in this post, and I was good to go.

Thanks Pinterest :D

Kisses xxx

P.S. Lovely to hear that some of you are jumping in with me :D Anyone got a favourite colour palette? Or a loathed concatenation of colour?

P.P.S. Guide Camp (indoors) approaches. Better start packing. And preparing to cater for umpteen hungry Guides. Frantically sewing badges to the camp blanket. But the to-sew-on pile doesn't seem to be going down.

Ten Challenges for the Month

This post is brought to you from Shimelle's ten on the tenth: click on the clicky to see what other folks are thinking.

You can interpret a challenge as Stuff-To-Have-A-Little-Tinker-With-When-I've-Got-Five-Minutes or as a less relaxed, more military, I-Want-To-See-Your-Pain type thing. Although quite why you'd choose the latter I'm not sure. But last month, I found I didn't do nearly as much crafty as I wanted to because I didn't make the time. And hobbies are important. My Grandad says so. They keep you busy and stop you from getting arthritis.*

So, I want to set myself ten little scrappy goals for the month. Then I have an excuse to break out with the stash, and something to work towards. During the month they can also work as prompts for blog posts and then I intend to round up my progress at the end. Ding! If you play along with any, some or all of the challenges, let me know and I can share linkages.

Oh, and there are no rules :D

*1*

It's got to be a photo challenge. The weather has turned chilly lately and the trees have all burst into a fanfare of colour and the air smells good - not sure why, it just does - and everything is autumnal. So, the photo challenge is: Autumn. Interpret as you will :D

*2*

A colour challenge. Just clicking on 'everything' on Pinterest produced a wealth of lush pictures in a wonderful variety of tones. I highly recommend trying it. So I thought I'd have a colour challenge to make the most of such loveliness. There are lots of options on the aforementioned procrastination capital of the internet, lots of inspiration on Design Seeds and so many different faces of colour that it's hard to choose. But I pick this one :D Feel free to pick your own.

*3*

Bit of a technique challenge this one. As I've just started getting savvy with the sewing machine (even managing to whip up a last minute drawstring bag to take to camp - oh yes!) I set the challenge thus: Include some stitching. I interpret this to mean hand stitching and machine stitching. It's meant to be a challenge after all. Feel free to eschew one or t'other.

*4*

Scrap from a sketch. Self-explanatory, so I'll leave it there. All you need to do is find your sketch!

*5*

I think this one will be tricky: use a found object on a page. I'm rubbish at including bits and bobs on the page that aren't stash items. I think they're not as pretty. So I am going to confound my own short-sightedness and find some pretty labels or tickets or leaflets or something to use on a page.

*6*

Scraplift a page. I love scraplifting, because you can steal, appropriate and generally thief as much as you like. So I shall find a page I adore (like this one by Kelly Purkey) and borrow the best bits for my own design. Then I shall call it inspiration and credit the original page because the internet is nice like that.

*7*

Time for another techniquey one. And this time it's paint. I love paint and lots of people use it beautifully. Witness Shimelle's page above. So I like the paint look, but I hate the crinkles. My challenge is a way to incorporate paint in such a way that I get the look without the wiggles.

*8*

Tell a story. A long one. And find a new way to include the words on the page. I'm all about the journalling and I love finding new ways to share it. So this challenge will (hopefully) make me think up something new!

*9*

Scrap about myself. Not something I did, but about me. So whether I go for the contents of my purse, my google search history or a timetable of a typical day remains to be seen. What would you choose to scrap about to show a new side of yourself?

*10*

Take up a challenge from the internet. Studio Calico, October Afternoon and Shimelle all have blogs bursting with ideas and challenges whether it's a sketch, a starting point, a product or a technique. I follow lots of scrapbooking blogs but somehow I never seem to get round to participating. This month, that's about to change.

And that's all folks! It's going to be a scrapbooky month. With any luck :D

[Images from Pinterest or linked blogs]

Kisses xxx

P.S. Actually have about fifteen more potential self-challenges in my head so if this works for me, I can try it periodically. Are there any other kinds of challenges that you love? Are you planing to join me on any of these this month?

P.P.S. Please so. I get lonely.

P.P.P.S. In case you were wondering, I'm making a cliched yet strangely heartbreaking sad face,

P.P.P.P.S. However, it was immediately ruined by excessive smirking.

*True story. My Grandad totally says this is true. He makes things too, but things like radios and model railways.

Marzipan the Page and Challenges

Following Marzipan the One Act Drama, I finally got around to scrapping it! I feel like I haven't blogged for ages. And when I thought about it, I realised it was because I hadn't blogged for ages. Additional thought led me to consider ways to remedy this and even more thought after that landed me with the idea of doing a blog post.

I'm an ideas person, clearly. It's amazing how intellectual I can be when I try.

As I've already blogged this page story, there's not much else to tell. Except that I love doillys. And I wish I knew how to spell doillys. I also love graph paper. It's like ledger paper for mathematicians. It makes me happy inside.

Anyway, to ensure that the whole no-blogging-and-minimal-crafting thing doesn't happen again for a while, I had another think. I'm really getting the hang of it. And I've come up with this: I am going to set myself some challenges. Ten of them. To have a go at during the month.

So check back soon for ten crafty challenges on the tenth. I've never tried setting myself challenges before and now LSNED has finished, I'm looking forward to grabbing some inspiration whether from colour, photos, sketches, products or journalling. Would be brilliant if you want to play along!

That's all for now, gotta go!

Kisses xxx

P.S. Why have I been absent? A weekend in Newcastle for an awesome housewarming, a crazy weekend on Guide Camp where the first rule of Guide camp is that I can't talk about Guide Camp, tutoring, meetings, Guides, cinema, marking, running (can now do 30 minutes) and figuring how to dry out a soaking wet grass covered inside because it's raining.

P.P.S. It's dry now. Nailed it!

P.P.P.S. I have also discovered the joys of the Big Bang Theory.