Paperclipping Round Table

Hi all,

I have been inspired recently to scrap and papercraft more, and to blog more often ... let me explain....

In June as I was faffing about on the internet, reading blogs and looking at crafty goodness, I followed a link to The Paperclipping Roundtable. Now, as an old fuddy-duddy of 43 I hadn't really heard about Podcasts, but I thought I'd give it a listen. I was intrigued by a lot of what they said.

Then I realised that they had been doing these "Roundtable" Podcasts since 2010 and felt even older and even less tach savvy than I thought I was! (and now I wish I had taken note of who directed me to it).

Obviously a lot of people have already found and listened to the Roundtable, so I'm just sharing my late-to-the-party experience.

Determined to hear all of the episodes, I subscribed on iTunes and downloaded all the episodes to my iPod so I could listen on our European trip ... I did get to listen to a few episodes here and there, but most of the time I tried to listen once I crashed into bed - and as you can imagine when you are travelling - I heard the same 90 seconds of one episode four or five times before I stayed awake long enough one night to hear the whole thing. 

I has taken me four months, but I've now listened to 171 episodes (only 7 to go) ..... and my brain is spinning .... and my family think I'm crackers laughing out loud with my earphones on! 

So many things I have started doing and thinking about. Here are just a few:

1. I am now a "non-shmo" - I've subscribed to their website paperclipping.com
2. I talk about "ephemera" 
3. I have heaps of "ephemera" that I have collected over the years - I've now been vindicated and I'm not a hoarder :-) ... and I'll be able to tell my earlier stories better because of all the stuff I collected
4. I think about the importance of journalling my story, and I'm actually writing more things down before I forget
5. I've become a bit of a broken record around my friends because I talk about interesting things I learned or was prompted to think about while listening to the show 
6. I have been inspired (or enabled, you decide) to buy various iPhone and iPad apps and Lightroom 
7. I have signed up to various on-line classes
8. I have written down stacks of scrapbooking ideas and stories I can tell 
9. I've de-cluttered my scraproom some more (Miss J's teacher is thrilled!) 
10. I have sorted everything I have from my three big overseas trips into boxes for scrapping later on
11. I backed up all my photos
12. I've started scanning all my old photos and negatives
13. I've learned about heaps of scrapbooking people and products I'd never heard of before!
14. I've learned that it doesn't have to be perfect - it's better to tell my story in some way than spend too much time stressing about getting it perfect and not getting anything done
15. I'm not quite ready for mixed-media yet, but I've watched a few youtube videos that inspired me to maybe give it a go one day!

So, have you "discovered" podcasts? Which are your favourites? Are there other things out there on the internet I've not discovered yet?

I'm sure I will blog more about all this soon!

Take care,

Lisa

Europe Title Page

Hi all,

Woo hoo! Two posts in two days.

Hubby, daughter and I went to Europe in July for a family wedding in Slovakia (the groom is Australian and the bride Slovakian and they met in Scotland).

I have not yet scrapped any other holiday/trip, so this will be a first. I have decided to give the trip it's own album and do a combination of 12 x 12 layouts and pocket pages. I actually took some notebooks with me on this trip and I have pretty much written something in about every day. I have also written a list of layout ideas and themes of pages -- I did this after I had returned home and looked through the photos and saw various photos that tell stories over a number of days. 

I am very keen not to do an album where I say "On day one we did this" and then the next page is "On day two we did this".  I am really interested in the history of many of the places we visited, so for my own satisfaction I'd like to put a bit of history in there too.

When I started out as a scrapbooker I was very into the photos and not interested in the story at all. I couldn't see the need for it, these were my photos, I knew what was going on in the pictures, blah, blah, blah.. But over time I can now see how very important it is to get my story down on paper.   

So I've put page protectors in an album, I've collected my ephemera, photos and journals in one place and I have been mulling it all over in my head now for a number of weeks. I'm a little stuck on starting because I want it to be "perfect", so I forced myself to do something, anything. So here is my title page for the Europe Album ... hmmm a title page - I've never done one before as mostly l my scrapbooking has been random pages as the mood and inspiration struck me.

Hmmm, it's a little yellower than in real life,
the following photos are a better colour representation

I've become the queen of pop dots/dimensionals!

Doing all this has inspired me to get the photos and "stuff" from other trips I have taken and put them into groups to eventually scrap them too ... Including my "trip of a lifetime" to Canada and the USA in 1993 when I was 23. I would have to scan all the negatives or photos first, so that will take a while to get to.

Take care,

Lisa

Brads

Hi all,

Well here I am, back again. So much for posting everyday/week/month this year.... :-(

I have so much I want to write about, but I've been procrastinating, trying to figure out what to say first. So, I've just decided to dive in and say SOMETHING. 

I'm such an old fuddy duddy! I discovered Podcasts in June this year, specifically the Paperclipping Round Table ... Man I am so slow - they have been doing these podcasts since 2010, so I've been ploughing through 3 years of podcasts since I discovered it in June. Much more on that later... but I am sooooo inspired. I have so many ideas bouncing around in my brain right now. Some I have actioned, but a lot is "on the list".

One thing I have been inspired to do via a de-stash suggestion made on the podcast is to sort through all my brads. Egads I've bought a lot of the blighters over the years, but I do not use them. Love the idea of them but something has always stopped me. Then I realised that I hate the tangs, or whatever you like to call them.... So, I pulled the tangs/legs off all the brads I could and then donated the ones I couldn't to my daughter's school.

Oh.My.Goodness ... since I took the tangs off these things I've started using them!! I use either a glue dot or a dimensional and it makes me so much happier to use them this way rather than stabbing through the paper.

Christmas brad un-tang'ed

So, if anyone is still out there I'd love to know if you have ever re-purposed something and loved it more/used it more after re-purposing?

I have so much to show you of things I have been doing, but I thought I'd best start off small... I'm glad to be back! I owe you one Maureen Canning!

Talk soon,

Lisa

July? Already?

Hi all,

I have abandoned my blog for a while, but not papercraft.

During my absence from here I have made wedding invitations, baby shower invitations, cards, wedding menus, order of the day and place cards... And I've been heavily learning and exploring the world of Project Life scrapbooking... And I went to a 25 year Navy Reunion (fun, fun).

Lots of other thing to talk about too ... But right now hubby has arrived back in the apartment we are staying in ... In Bratislava, Slovakia ... We are off to a wedding in a castle today!!! Best go and get on with it!

I'll check in soon

Keep safe,

Lisa

Craft Room Photos

*** Warning photo heavy post***


Hi all,

I have finally got my act together and taken a bunch of photos of my craft room.

Back story ... we bought this house in June last year. The house is 20 years old and the previous owners did a reno in 2005. A part of the reno was to close the carport in to make it a games room and build an enclosed garage adjoining. So this room was a games room and they had a pool table in here. We are not really pool players so I convinced my hubby it would be an awesome craft/storage room. I used to have one of the bedrooms in my old house filled with IKEA furniture as a craft room. You can see it here. Yes, I've got a lot of craft "stuff" .... don't we all ... but it has taken me 12 years to collect it all, so I don't feel (completely) guilty.

I had seen quite a few craft rooms on the internet made from kitchen cupboards, so that was what I had my heart set on. I got a few quotes and designs from kitchen places, Bunnings, IKEA and Masters. The kitchen places were out of my price range since we ended up having to get the concrete floor in the room levelled. So, we decided on Masters.

We ripped up the carpet and put down wood-look lino strips. Put the cupboards together ourselves and then the stone guys came in and put on the bench top. I have spent the past few months finding storage options and rearranging everything at least twice.



So here are the photos....

Storage for some craft stuff, plus Christmas, DVDs, Cds, games etc.

Paper

Cupboard with all my scrap books, Cricut booklets and assorted crap stuff 

Cupboards under bench

On the right are my Cricut, Cricut Imagine and Silhouette Cameo
with their "Kathie's Cozies" covers

Work space

Double bin

Cricut and Silhouette mat storage

Corner cupboard - found these containers in The reject shop $4 each ... and you can see from the following pictures I bought a few! :)

Drawer dividers from Masters

Ooops, too many cutting implements and scor-pals

The other corner

Drawer dividers again from Masters

Paper punch addiction

Stamp addiction

Big Shot and Cuttlebug 

Overhead cupboards ... I did have them filled with my Cricut cartridges,
but I decided to  put all my carts in a couple of boxes and free up some
space ... hmmm, now what to fill the shelves with?

From this....

Then thanks to ScrapCessories containers ...

To this ....

 Still with me?

Well, that's the tour. Hope you enjoyed it. 

Have a great weekend,

Lisa

Scrapbooking in 2013

Hi all,

So, on to 2013! I bought a Project Life set last January, but oops never started it. So today I went to a get together at a friends place where we all started on our PL for this year. Since I actually have (nearly) finished a whole scrapbook on last year I have faith that I can give this a good go. 

I also wanted to try a new type of scrapbooking. I like to try all different ways of doing things to see what suits me best. With this one I set the book up with 52 "weeks" and populated it with some of the journalling and other cards. I feel that if I have each week already started I might actually be more inclined to get it done ... we shall see!

Have any of you tried Project Life? If so, how did you find it? I'd love to know any hints or tricks if you've got 'em.

Actually, I'd better go and print of my photos like a good little girl and complete week one before week two begins. 

See you,

Lisa

Christmas packed away

Hi all,

After it took me nearly three weeks to get around to finishing off putting the baubles on the tree all it took was one day to pack Christmas away. It had to be done, but it's always sad to say goodbye to the Christmas season. I normally try and put all my decorations up on or just before 01 December, but this year I was so busy doing other things it took me ages because I was doing it one or two things at a time.

I am so impressed with the decoration boxes I bought from Spotlight at the end of last year. All the baubles and doodads fit in one of my craft room cupboards... obviously the tree and other big stuff has to go elsewhere (under the stairs).

When so you normally put your tree up and pull it down?

Lisa

Masculine Birthday card

Hi all,

It was lovely and cool here today. Apparently the heatwave from Christmas to New Years was the "fiercest heatwave in nearly 80 years" ... thank goodness for refrigerated air-conditioning! I only mention it because every time they say it has been the hottest/coldest/wettest/driest since whenever I laugh since the "whenever" part is usually "since 2007". To me "since 2007" really kind of loses the drama impact they were going for  ... "in nearly 80 years" however, now that statement has some meat on it!

It was such nice weather today I drove to town with Miss Six and went Christmas decoration shopping. Myers, where I normally buy my decos had 75% off. Yay! Not a lot of stock left, but enough baubles in the right colours to add a little more depth to the tree next year. I ended up with this huge bag full of stuff (not heavy, just huge) then had to lug it around for the next couple of hours. We also bought school shoes for Miss Six, so that's out of the way for the new year of school. First grade! My baby is growing up. We had lunch in a food hall and I ordered something I'd never seen before -- Chicken Goz -- Yummo. I had to google it after. Turkish food. I'll definitely be having it again.

Anyway, I recently made a card for my brother-in-law. So, so hard to make guy cards, I just never know what to put on them if the guy is not obsessed with sport or cars or some such.

Alan's favourite sporting team's colours are blue and yellow, so that was my colour inspiration, and I've been looking to use this stamp set for ages. All items used are from Stampin' Up! Very, very simple. Looking at it now I wish I'd used some patterned paper. Oh well, live and learn.

One thing I am very excited about is the scrapbooking class I have attended throughout 2012. We went once a month and were given a two page layout to do for the previous month. The hope being that we would have a whole album of 2012 by the time we finished. The final class is next week and I am very pleased to say that Jan to Nov is (nearly) done. Layouts are finished, photos have been stuck in, I just have to do the journalling for Mar to Nov. I am sooo bad at journalling. Well, probably not completely horrid, but it is one of my big procrastination points. But still, this is a huge accomplishment for me. It has been a couple of years since I've done any real scrapbooking so I am quite chuffed with myself.

Have a lovely weekend,

Lisa

2012 Personal Challenges recycled

Hi all,

I decided last year not to call them resolutions, so I called them my personal challenges (like a change of name would make it more likely that I would achieve them!)

So here we are in 2013 and since I failed to achieve 9 out of my 10 "personal challenges" I have decided to recycle them.

1. Attend another Wedding Expo as a stall holder
2. Be a stall holder at the Up-Market in Perth (higher quality market)
3. Use all my Cricut cartridges at least once this year
4. Get healthy
5. Complete 2012 scrapbook
6. Get back in touch with the world (friends, family)
7. Be a better parent (play, listen more, spend time)
8. Get more energetic
9. Start living outside my comfort zone
10. Stop Faffing! (Procrastinating) Get on with it.

So we shall see how I go this year.

What would you like to achieve? Especially with your craft.

Take care,

Lisa

Children's Door Signs Dec 2012

Hi all,

Here are the door signs I made for some friends. I decided to do something different this time ... the last few times I made door signs I used ribbon to trim the frame. This time I placed the completed signs in cheap picture frames I got from The Reject Shop. This obviously dictated the size of my signs (16" x 20"), but I think the finish turned out better.

Bianca and Dominic are shown with their frames, Heidi and Kyra without.

I used cuts from the following cricut cartridges:
Disney: Happily Ever After
Tinker Bell and Friends
Pooh and Friends
Everyday Paper Dolls

Fonts:
Heidi - Gypsy Font
Kyra - Pooh Font Set
Bianca - Winter Woodland
Dominic - Robotz

Woo hoo .. two days, two posts. I shall not promise this all the time, but I will try this year!

Lisa

Happy New Year!

Hi all,

Happy New Year to everyone! Hope you all had a lovely night. I decided to stay home last night since it is still revoltingly hot here (I am sooo NOT a fan of the heat and a week of 38C-40C is testing my patience). I spent NYE watching TV shows I had taped over this last month ... I had a few gin and tonics too, I'm not completely anti-celebration. Of course I got silly and stayed up until 1am, then my morning loving six year old came and bounced on me at 6:30am -- luckily some Panadol and lots of water has made me feel more human now.

I have so much to catch up on, and things to post that I have made. I did really well this Christmas season, getting out all my Christmas cards and I made four kid's door signs for some friends. 

As for my New Year's resolutions ... I am ashamed to say I will have to recycle my list of "things I want to achieve" from last year. Moving house seemed to distract me for most of the year -- and the evil Kindle took up another chunk of my year. I need to fight my inner procrastinator every day just to get things done.

One thing I did achieve last year was to go to a scrapbooking class once a month and scrap the previous month. I have nearly finished the whole year... one more class and some journalling to finish and I will be done. It is the first/most scrapping I've done in ages, so I'm pleased I stuck with it and it's nearly done.

Now I'm setting myself a bigger challenge for 2013. I've had the Project Life stuff for 12 months or more now -- time to crack on and get it done!

Craziness! ... it just "dropped" to 30C and there is a bit of a breeze so I have turned off the aircon and opened all the doors to get some fresh air in the house. Looking forward to Thursday as it is supposed to be 27C here - yay!

Anyway, best get on and entertain Miss Six. Will download photos to computer and put up all my projects ASAP.

Take care,

Lisa

Witch's Broom

Hi all,

I do have to say Halloween was fun. Miss J dressed up and we went to a friend's place. There were five girls all dressed up and four houses in the street answered the door to the trick-or-treaters. We then went back to Mandy's house and she'd done a great job of making some Halloween treats. 

The home made broom was a hit.

Mandy's food ... and great haunted house (made by her friend)

Eyeballs - love it!

Miss J goes to a private Christian school so the teacher was not a fan of Halloween, but I've decided it's just a bit of fun ... and if we have something here next year it will give me the opportunity to trawl through Pinterest looking for crafty things I can make for it!

Have fun,

Lisa

Halloween in Australia

Hi all,

Happy Halloween! 

Halloween is actually quite a divisive issue here in Australia. You are either quite into Halloween and celebrate it or you are very against it. The shops here have really gotten into selling the paraphernalia in the last few years, and many of the younger people are very "into" it, but if you go through the suburbs knocking on doors trick-or-treating you will find many homes that have a sign saying "no halloween here" or simply do not answer their doors.

Halloween really has not been a thing we do here. I remember only one party I went to in my youth. I don't remember if we even dressed up, but apple bobbing was involved - bloody difficult thing to do that apple bobbing. My parents and friend's parents were never interested in celebrating it, so I have to admit that before our daughter got to the age of five we were the "no halloween" people ... It just seemed like another American holiday that we did not want to participate in (and various other bah-humbug excuses my hubby would sprout). But of course, now we have a child in our midst it seems like a bit of fun, and another excuse for her to dress up. 

We are off to a friend's house after school as she lives in an area where a few of the families all participate in the trick-or-treating so you don't go to houses where you would be rejected as such.

Miss J has a witch outfit and requested a broom. Hubby and I went to the "Reject Shop" this morning and found bunches of decorator stick things... some bits of string to tie it all together and we have a broom. I will post a photo of her in costume later. We grown-ups don't generally get dressed up as well to walk the kids around .... unless we are going to a specific party.

I am thinking that I may prepare earlier next year and ask the neighbours how they feel about it -- maybe give them some lollies to hand out if they are willing, and maybe decorate our place a bit if Miss J is still really keen on Halloween. I am not sure of the response as we are mainly in a retiree area and many of them do not see the point of it.

What about you .... really into it? Or a bit against? Not looking for major drama and lecturing here... just interested in what people enjoy celebrating.

Have a good one,

Lisa

Nappy Ship

Hi all,

Well, I have completed my first project in my new craft room. I was invited to a baby shower on the weekend and I've been trawling the internet for ideas for nappy cakes. I was going to make a motorbike (they are sooo cute!), but as both the mother and father-to-be are in the Navy I thought I'd give a ship a go.

I used 5mm presentation board to make the ship and covered it in pink wrapping paper. Filled it with nappies, muslin wraps, bibs, spoons, and baby socks. The "flight deck" was made from a wet wipes box covered in pink wrapping paper. Anchor was cut out on my cricut from the Going Places cartridge. The base was also 5mm presentation board and I covered it in material from my stash - looking for that ocean waves look!

Warship with a pink twist!

Prop looks a bit odd, spoons a bit too bendy.

Both parents-to-be have served on ANZAC ships so I tried to
copy the ship's design (as much as you can with nappies!)

I also made an explosion card -- cannot seem to stay away from them at the moment.

Paper and ribbon from the stash

Cot cut on the cricut from the Everyday Paper Dolls cartridge

You cannot see it clearly but I used the patterned paper
to make a pillow and quilt for the cot.

Butterflies from the stash. One is stuck to the cot and the
other two are on long pieces of acetate to make
them look like they are hanging in the air.

Now I am all in the mood for craft! I went to Spotlight this morning and they had Christmas stuff out. Since I am sick of leaving Christmas to the last minute I bought a couple of things to make and some decoration storage I've been looking at for ages. I am determined to get my act together this year ... homemade cards ARE going to be made and sent, unlike last year!

I hope all is well with everyone,

Lisa