Tuesday, 25 November 2014

It's getting a bit busy...

So much going on right now it must be the lead up to the end of the year and Christmas.

In the next month (besides Christmas!) we have Junior State Fire Brigade Championships, Cadet wind-up dinner, friends birthday, year 7 graduation as well as working and I have a couple of design jobs on the go so not really much time for anything at all....

But on the up side, Chook Scraps had a CC a week or 2 ago which I actually managed to find some time to scrap...

This one was a scraplift (still one of my favourite photos of Kristofer!)...


Can't remember the criteria for this one but I remember it had lace, birds and a dry medium)... but a nice simple one anyway...

And then a card challenge using a new technique using salt resist. I actually had to google this to find out what it was but did have a lot of fun. The leaves on the card have been cut out from paper I used the technique on. Basically it's wet media (stains don't work well unless you're very quick!) and then sprinkled with salt. Rock salt is the best. The salt absorbs the colour and you get the 'tie-dye' look.
The leaves came up really well....





And I even managed one of the 12 weeks of Christmas challenges.
This weeks challenge included using 7 ribbon... OMG!!!! I actually had to use some of my stash of ribbon... I'm still hyperventilating... lol




So besides working, there's not much been happening. I have managed to work out a new way to hang layouts for display though and will share that next time.

Otherwise if you find a housework fairy, please send them my way... I'm in desperate need of help!

Friday, 14 November 2014

lalalalalalalala....

Yeh my reasoning is it has been a very hectic couple of months!!!
And of course, because I mentioned it, the mojo ran away again... *sigh*

But we've had the Esperance Show, Mum and Dad were here for a visit and work has been flat out! Who would have thought people would want so many coffees????
And I've had a declutter, clean and reorganising of my studio....
Not a lot of reorganising, more just sorting out the paper into collections as it had all been mixed up, and getting rid of things I know I will never use.
But I decided to pick up some new baskets rather than the plastic tubs I did have and groups things together properly.
Another thing I have done, is sort out my 'colour centre' with all my stamps, inks, stains, paints and tools so they're all in 1 spot and easy to access.
I was going to make up a new stamp index, but I saw a suggestion for digitising them into Evernote, loved the idea and a couple of days later all of my stamps are now digitised, as well as my masks and stencils, stains, distress markers, colour washes and my new purchases - dies to go with my new BigShot... oops one happen to fall into my studio from somewhere... :)
I'm also slowly adding in sketches from PageMaps, and with everything labelled with any word I can think of to search for it should be easy to search through for something that will fit in with what I'm looking for!

And pictures... of course I have pictures...

My new Colour Centre...
Paints are still in the diamond in the middle, Stains on the left, Sprays on the right...
On the top of the bookcases I've run a piece of wood for a sehlf to hold my masks and stencils (in a letter holder), the holder for my distress markers, and my Big Shot.
In the bookcase on the left I have my dies on the top shelf, Stamps are all on the shelf in the middle (in numbered folders), and cloths in the basket at the bottom.
In the other set of shelves I have all my tools and inks, all within easy reach.


I still have my large shelves...nope they're not going anywhere! And my chipboard are still sorted into my drawers on the top. I haven't done anything with them as I like they way they are sorted, the same as my ribbon and flowers.
I've replaced the plastic tubs with the baskets as it does look better. All my BTP projects are still stacked at the bottom waiting to be sorted, though I'm finding it hard to consider getting rid of any of them.... Maybe I'll just do them and give them away...
The biggest declutter was all of my pattern paper and I now have a pile to give away. I have to say I was fairly ruthless, but still have plenty to play with.

One thing I did come across is an inspiration jar.... it's a jar with numbered sticks. The idea was to use them to complete unfinished projects but as I don't normally have them, I've instead set it up to use my stash more... stamps from a particular set, a sketch, a collection, or to do an BTP project.
I can update and change it as I use I've set the challenges up in Evernote. It's pretty my my personal challenge jar which I hope will help kickstart the creativity!