Be inspired by your crockery

This week’s inspiration challenge over at Crafty Tart is to use crockery for inspiration. I love crockery and fine china. I have more than I need but I am usually tempted by catalogues from Millys, Living & Giving or Stevens. One of my favourites is a serving platter I bought for Christmas nibbles.

I love the swirling red patterns and curvy bowl shapes. I had quite a few ideas but when I looked in my newly revamped scrapping cupboard and saw some red vinyl I decided to use that and some canvas to make a wall hanging.

To start I sketched out a pinwheel shape on a piece of paper and used it as a pattern to cut the shape from the vinyl. I then stuck it temporarily to the canvas background and sewed it together. This was definitely a bit hit and miss as my sewing skills are fairly mediocre and the vinyl and canvas together were quite thick. I did use offcuts of the vinyl to test out different stitch lengths and tension first and I think it turned out ok. I then used magic tape to adhere ribbon to the edges of the canvas. I have used a Prima Paintable which I painted with Perfect Pearls but it is quite subtle so only visble in the right light. I also cut branches from a MM love notes paper and the title is a jelly label.

I hope you are inspired to take a second look at your crockery for inspiration. If you are I hope you’ll join in the challenge over at Crafty Tart.

M

PS If you want to win some blog candy pop over to Paper Symphony and leave a comment here.

The Pataks Stand

I haven’t posted for a while – slack I know – but life just seems to happen but not much happens if you know what I mean. This Friday I am posting the challenge for the Inspiration Innovation Competition so check back or pop in to the Crafty Tart Forum. The current challenge is to sort your stuff and show us your storage solution. When I found out this was going to be a challenge I was worried. I have a storage system that involves the floor a lot….. Anyway, I did want to change and my husband definitely wanted change, so I embraced the challenge and am almost finished a complete overhaul of my office. I will take some pics in the next couple of days and post them so you can see and be impressed

This weekend we went to the mall as we do most weekends. For the past couple of weeks there has been a Pataks stand where they are cooking and dishing out curry. As we walked past Libby said, “I wouldn’t want to go the the Pataks stand because you have to Pataks”. “Oh?” I said. “Yeah, you know, pay tax!”

Isn’t that hilarious? Quite a clever pun I thought for a nearly 8 year old and now I’m thinking about it, maybe a little indication that she is an accountant’s daughter.I  don’t know how long the Pataks stand is going to be at the mall but if you’re there they will probably give you some curry and not tax you on it.

Thanks for stopping by.

M

A Long Weekend

Well okay, it was just the usual two days but I worked on the Crafty Tart stand at SENZ so I had to get up at the usual work-day time so it seemed long. The days flew by though and I met lots of wonderful crafters and hopefully gave them some inspiration with my inking and pearling demos. Kate and Mike had such a great set-up with all their amazing product and stand and computer system so I think the win for new-comer to SENZ was thoroughly deserved.

Anyway, at the end of a long day a good way to unwind is to go shopping so after looking around the stalls I bought a pack of stamps from Stampzone and a pile of goodies from Crafty Tart. After demo-ing distress inks all weekend I had to add some more to my collection, plus some Tim Holtz stamps (sorry Kate), perfect pearls, beautiful thick chipboard in kraft and black, Cosmo Cricket chipboard elements and paper, the new Fiskars effervescence punch, a huge acrylic block for all those big stamps and some nice thick transparency.  A pretty nice haul really.

I talked to lots of people about the Paper Symphony Spring Break over the weekend too so I hope you’ll join me. There are a limited number of day passes available for those that can’t make both days so pop over to Paper Symphony to find out more and register. Quite a few card-makers asked about the weekend too so I hope there will be a few of them that will come along as well.

Now I need to catch up on all the washing that didn’t get done this weekend so bye for now.

What I’ve been up to …

At the moment I am getting ready for SENZ. I am going to be helping out on the Crafty Tart stand so I’ve been playing with lots of Tim Holtz inks and perfect pearls. I love it. So much so that I have already ordered a bunch of different colours from Crafty Tart and am about to experiment with it tonight. Wahoo! I also noticed she has the new Fiskars Apron Lace border punch so I popped that in my cart too

I am also getting things organised for the Paper Symphony Spring Break. Pop on over to see the great prize you could win just for registering this week.

Just a short post for now. If you’re coming to SENZ pop by Crafty Tart and say hello

New challenges

Every day we face challenges, some good and some bad but they all help us to grow. If you’re looking for some fun challenges head on over to the Crafty Tart forum tonight for a new scrapping challenge. This will be the first of our new regular challenges so I hope you’ll join us.

While we’re on the subject, I thought I’d drop a little hint about the Paper Symphony Spring Break challenge. It is something a bit different and the prize will be sparkly. I hope that has aroused your curiosity Online registration is all up so head on over to Paper Symphony to check it out.

Spring Break

Daffodils, new-born lambs and scrapbooking. What do they have in common? Well, for me they are things to look forward to in spring as I am in the process of organising the Paper Symphony Spring Break. Put it in your diary 4th – 6th September. It will be at the Shakespear Lodge, right in the heart of Shakespear Regional park at Whangaparaoa Peninsula. The views are fantastic, the surroundings tranquil, the lodge is basic but comfortable, there will be minimal cleaning required (that means you don’t have to clean the loo) and it will be great.

There will be a couple of classes, but they will be a little different than you’re used to. There will be flexibility in the kit you use so you can make the layout work for you and your photos rather than forcing yourself to fit in with an inflexible scheme. More on that soon.

So, spread the word. e-mail me for a registration pack. All those that refer someone who comes along will get a little gift. It is going to be a wonderful weekend of scrapbooking.

Queen of Today and Paper Symphony

I have started my new business called Paper Symphony. To find out more head on over to the website. www.papersymphony.co.nz

The first event is a kids class during the school holidays – a minibook using the delicious Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers. I showed a preview in an earlier post. Here is another sneak

If you have kids that are keen to crop these holidays (or know someone who has) please email me and I will send you an enrolment form.

Eye’ve been shopping

Aren’t I hilarious. We bought these googly eyes today and proceeded to try them on various things at the supermarket. Lots of fun had by Olivia and me, not so much for Shaun who got sick of us asking to take him to take photos with his remodeled ‘eye’-phone.

This week is #4 over at the CraftyTart Challenge. The challenge is to create a page that isn’t square. I really enjoyed this one and finally used the KI Memories lace paper I have had in my stash for over a year. I painted it to get it the colour I wanted and then adhered it inside my frame that I have cut using my Pazzles Inspiration. You could cut a frame by hand using a diecut paper as a template or cut the middle out of diecut paper. The paper is October Afternoon – both sides of the same paper (apples and flowers). I have also used a transparency to give the thickers title something to stick on to.

Also this week I have started working on a project that I am going to teach for a school holiday programme. It is a mini book using the Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday papers. If there are any boys interested I will probably get some of the Snorkel range. I am really looking forward to this and will update with more details soon. Please email me wizardwife@gmail.com or leave a comment if you are interested. At this stage I would say it is suitable for 8 – 14 year olds, but experienced 7 year olds would be ok too. Parents would be welcome to take the class too or stay to help with their child. I have to confirm the venue but it will be in the Albany area. Here is a little sneak peek.

Thanks for stopping by

Challenge #2

The gallery for the first challenge is up and there are a lot of great layouts there. It is going to be difficult to pick favourites and winners.

Challenge #2 is now on and my tip would be – don’t throw anything out! The challenge is to use packaging on your page. For my example I have used the protective film (it’s kind of like a transparency) from when I got a new computer for the base of my page. I also made a little tag from the love notes letter stickers packaging and cut the logo from a pack of violin strings for embellishment.

Head on over to Crafty Tart to join in.

Challenge #1

The first challenge is up at Crafty Tart and it is … to use pages from old books. This is definitely a trend I am seeing around lately. I got a book from my mum a while ago that she was throwing out after it had put up with years of abuse in her class library. I knew I wanted to use it somehow in my scrapbooking and flicking through the pages I had an epiphany when I came across these animals. I remembered a photo I had of Mum at Sheep World talking to a Llama or Alpaca (not sure which). Anyway, it all came together in the end and has gone up at Craft Tart for inspiration for the comp.

I would say the only trick to using pages from old books is how you stick them on your layouts. Because the paper is thinner or newsprint like you can’t use anything too wet. Also, double sided tape or similar means it isn’t fully stuck down. I ended up using gel medium which if I was finicky about using only acid-free I could have painted over the top of the paper to protect the photo etc. I figure it will be in a page protector and I can reprint the photo if I want to so I didn’t worry about it.

Hope you’ll join us in the challenges!