A Sister is Forever

Another LO! This time based on the Friday Night sketch over at Scrap Happy Kat. This is the sketch:

Sorry it's not a very good photo, it's a bit overcast here (albeit hot) but here is my LO

Materials used: Hey Birdie collection: papers (wing it, skedaddle, hustle, hightail, scamper), paper pad; kaiser wooden flourish: leaves; kaiser flowers: hot pink, cream, split pea, violet; kaiser rhinestones: silver; kaiser pearls: hot pink, pearl; kaiser mini alpha stickers: chocolate and white; thickers: giggles (brown).

I had so much fun doing more flower clusters, I'm really enjoying using up my flower stash! And the wooden leaves add such a nice touch!

Some close ups:

Thanks for looking!

Everything beautiful...

Hi everyone,

It's Saturday so that means another kaiser sketch is up! Last one for the month and this makes it my third for February! Considering I've only ever entered one kaiser sat sketch challenge before, this is huge!!

You can see the sketch here if you want to enter. Here it is:

I've decided not to rotate it this time and I've used a photo of my oldest friend and I at our year twelve formal. I meet Courtney in year three when I moved to Adelaide and we're still close. She's an amazing girl.

I haven't done my journalling yet but it will go in the journal tag to the left of the photo.

Here's my LO:

Materials used: Kaisercraft After Five collection: papers (black tie, champagne specialty acetate paper); paper pad, die cuts, journal tags; Kaiser Timeless paper (script); Kaiser Lilac Avenue paper pad; kaiser pearl flourish: elegant (pearl).

I absolutely adore the After Five collection. This is the first time I'd used the acetate and I really like how it looks on the background paper. The Timeless papers are exactly that: timeless. They fit in well with every range and add that special touch. I like how the script writing adds a touch of elegance to the LO. I absolutely love the purple glitter paper I found in the Lilac Avenue paper pad and used it to add just a touch of colour to the LO. It matches Courtney's dress beautifully without taking away from the colours in the photo. I was originally going to use the Magic Happens paper pad but I fell in love with the glitter in this piece when I saw it!

A close up of the acetate, script paper and flourish:

Thanks for looking!

More organisation

I bought two more cropper hoppers today! Yay :) 

Now onto the next step of my organising. I'm planning on putting the kaiser embellies in with their coordinating papers because spread over another one or two cropper hoppers they shouldn't be as crammed in. Then if I still have a spare cropper hopper, I'll put my bazill and AC cardstock in it.

Then I'll have three more drawers in my drawer unit free. I think I'll put the 6" paper pads in one as these won't sit nicely in the 12" plastic baggies. Then I'll have more storage space :)

I'll post again later once this is all done :)

Kaiser Saturday Sketch Feb #2 - A day in the hills

Hi again,

I have been productive lately! If only I could say the same about my uni assignment...

Kaiser's Saturday Sketch #2 appealed to me as well this month. I've been trying to do more multi photo LOs lately as I have way too many photos building up!

Here's the sketch:

Once again I rotated it to the left because I wanted horizontal photos. Here's my take on it, using Kaiser's Jungle Bug collection. It's not a very good photo since it's the middle of the night but if I remember tomorrow I'll takee a better shot in the daylight hours.

Materials used: Kaisercraft Jungle Bug collection: papers, paper pad, die cut elements; kaiser pearl strip: chocolate; thickers: giggles (brown).

I highlighted the middle photo as that is the shot of the Whispering Wall which is what the page is about. Here's a close up on my journalling:

This collection was so much fun to use, I love the colours.

Thanks for looking :)

Stansbury - Friday Night Challenge

Hi everyone,

I'm really loving Scrap Happy Kat's Friday night challenges at this week's sketch is no different.

The circles in the sketch as well as the scalloped piece made me think of the beach :) So I have another beachy LO for you using the Seaside collection once again. I figured I may as well before I put it all away. Here's my LO:

Materials used: Kaisiercraft Seaside collection: papers (summer days, umbrella, sea breeze, coast line, rock pools), journal tags, embellishment pack (printed canvas tags); kaiser tiny alpha stickers: chocolate; thickers: giggles (brown); brads.

I love the gloss specialty paper! And those tiny alphas make journaling a breeze! I like to use my own handwriting as much as possible, but sometimes I’d like a nicer finish than my scribble.

Some close ups:

Thanks for looking :)

Kaiser Saturday Sketch Feb #3 - Summer Fun

I got home from work today in a scrapping mood... thank you Saturday sketches over on the kaiser blog!

When I saw it was a three photo LO, I knew exactly what photos to use! My boyfriend and I took our siblings to the beach at the end of January before school went back. The photos are of the boys playing on the body board in the shallows. And of course, the Seaside collection was the perfect choice!

The sketch:

My layout:

Materials used: Kaiser Seaside collection: papers (escape, umbrella, coast line), paper pad, die cuts, colour rub ons, embellishment pack (canvas tags); kaiser mini alphas - black and white; kaiser pearl strips - black; thickers - subway white; grosgrain ribbon.

I rotated the sketch to allow for my landscape photos. I rotated the sketch right and then flipped it vertically to get a design I was happy with. I added a rub on to the bottom right corner instead of a banner. I'm quite happy with it and the pearl strips just finish it off nicely I think. I wasn't going to put them on there but decided to in the end.

Some close ups:

Thanks for looking :)

A sister

Hi everyone,

I printed some photos recently and came across this one of my sister and I from her year seven graduation in 2009 - doesn't seem like it was a year ago! I hope she doesn't grow up too fast!

I used Kaiser's La Di Da collection which is just gorgeous. I once again used up some of my paper flowers, teamed with a wooden flourish - my new loves :)

Materials used: Kaisercraft La di da collection: papers (skip, shimmy), paper pad; kaiser rub ons: friendship; kaiser wooden flourish: vines; kaiser paper flowers: lime, orange, violet, hot pink; kaiser rhinestones: silver; kaiser ink: sandstone, splice; chipboard letters; grosgrain ribbon.

Some close ups:

I'm yet to add my journalling but I will just write our names + date in the journal box under the photo. Just need to double check the date!

For some reason, when I cut the pink piece with my trimmer, it went crooked at the bottom and I didn't realise until I stuck it on my LO. I added the ribbon so now you can't tell :)

Thanks for looking :)

Scrapz.Biz Biggest Loser Mission 11

Well, challenge eleven was a big one for me. So big it needed a seperate blog post! I store my rub ons on my clip it up (except for the rub ons that come with the kaiser collections, they stay with their collections) as well as some other stickers and what not so I decided that my clip it up would be challenge eleven for me.

I knew it was off balanced and I had a lot of things on their that weren't in their categories. I also clipped up random things I couldn't be bothered finding a home for. When I bought my clip it up in 2010, I also bought the upper tier but decided I didn't need it at the time. I changed my mind!

Before photos...

My clip it up as it was... was categorised but also had some random things in there. I was terrible at buying new things and just putting them anywhere, not taking the time to put them in their category.

And this box is all the stuff I found whilst doing the other challenges. It is all meant to belong on my clip it up.

Once I decided I would put the upper tier on, I had the perfect items to go on there. The container of embellies I showed you yesterday that I said would find a new better home eventually...

During photos...

I decided my first step was going to be to take everything off the clip it up. I'm glad I did because once it was empty, I realised that the middle pole was starting to come loose and needed tightening. I obviously didn't tighten it enough originally. And I put the upper tier on, nice and tight.

Then I started categorising everything. I mainly stuck to the catergories I had but I added a few as well. I laid them all out over my bed.

Then the fun part. Putting it all back on the clip it up. I did the upper tier first which was a little silly because then they were in my way when I was doing the bottom tier! Also, when I put the pearl/rhinestone flourishes on the upper tier, I realised they were too long once I put the category dividers on the lower tier. So I just chopped a few cms off the top. I did this for the new kaiser rub ons as well as they are quite snug in height on the bottom tier.

After photos...

And they are nicely catergorised. It's not as snug as it was before and they are spaced out a lot nicer than before. Adding that top teir made all the difference as it allowed me to move some of the little random things I have (journalling cards, bingo cards etc). And now I have my lovely flourishes at my fingertips!

My categories are:

• Animals
• Baby
• Childhood
• Boy
• Girl
• School
• Party and Celebrations
• Friendship
• Family and Heritage
• Love
• Travel and Holidays
• Punctuation, Journalling and Borders
• Alpha and Numbers
• Words and Quotes

This is what works for me. On the upper tier, I have kaiser pearl brads, kaiser pearl and rhinestone flourishes, kaiser word bling and then some other random things like journalling blocks, frames, bingo cards, etc.

Thanks Scrapz.Biz and thanks everyone for looking :)

Scrapz.Biz Biggest Loser Missions 1; 8-10 and 12-14

Hi again everyone,

Firstly - my desk is nice and clean, so challenge one is complete finally. A nice clean desk to work off. Hopefully I can keep it this way! My stash is nice and organised now thanks to the Biggest Loser challenge so it's really only up to me to keep it nice and maintained!!

All my cup containers are nice and organised. I added a few, but that's okay! On this shelf is also my little eyelet setting mat and my pencil case full of my basic tools. I know this shelf won't stay so organised, but it sure is nice for now!

The back row has: highlighters; black markers (don't ask me how I have so many!); coloured pencils and coloured markers. This stuff I don't use in my scrapbooking but because this is my every day uni desk as well, it needs to be somewhere.

The front row has; scissors (patterned and plain); knifes and pencils; pens (look how many I have!!)

The flower shelf still has flowers of course. I pushed them back a few inches so my rulers could sit in front. There is a couple of jars of flowers as well. The ones in the neatly stacked clear containers are kaiser flowers. In the jars are other random flowers. My buttons jar is also there (more on that later).

Because I mainly had various embellies on my desk, I sorted them out whilst I was at it, but I'll mention them a little later, as embellies are challenge twelve. Yay! Desk done! I'm writing this blog with so much elbow room :)

Challenge eight was stamps, inks and embossing powders. Embossing powders was easy. I have one, and I've never even used it. I am going to purchase some opal embossing powders sometime this year (aim high, lol!) and can't wait to try them out.

All my inks (kaiser, tim holtz, stayzon) are in my top drawer as I have been distressing a lot lately so I like having them there to play with. The applicators and whatnot are all there as well.

Also, with my ink pads, I made an colour code inventory of the inks I have. I also have one for my paints.

My stamps are all in a shoe box. I don't stamp all that often as I am generally too lazy to clean them after! The shoe box is under my bed along with a few other scrapping boxes.

So that's challenge eight done :) Now onto challenge nine - alpha! Eek!

Another one of those boxes under my bed has my alpha in it. Most of it anyway. There is also a bit on my clip it up. This is what the box looks like right now.

The box has my chipboard alpha in it mainly as well as fozz fonts and some bigger sticker sheets (creative memories I think) as well as some other random Prima chipboard I have accumulated. I'm leaving this box as it is. I did a bit of organising in there and I put each letter in it's own zip lock baggie (see an older blog post here) and I am happy with that at the moment. It sits under my bed out of the way. My other alpha like my kaiser mini alpha stickers and rub ons etc etc are all on my clip it up, so I'll talk about them when it gets to mission eleven. I think whilst my bedroom is my main area, I can't do much more than I already have with alpha.

Challenge ten is chipboard - which is my latest craze. The same post I mentioned above has my chipboard/wooden flourish drawer in it but here's another photo.

It's just all chucked in there - lots of brands of chipboard pieces and kaiser wooden flourishes as well. I just sift through it. I have a good idea of what's in there though so it suits me fine.

I'm going to give challenge eleven a miss in this blog post because there is a fair bit of organising going into it as they are all on my clip it up. I'm including the other random stuff on my clip it up into one blog post. Might do it tomorrow or over the weekend.

Challenge twelve is embellishments. That is a massive category but I'll show you some of my storage...

For eyelets (which I have a few of, but never seem to use!), they are sorted by colour groups mainly. The bottom left ones are cheapo stars/hearts/flowers I picked up somewhere:

I have another similar container which houses my brads and other random bits and pieces (paperclips, pegs, name plates etc). I'm happy with it.

And then I have some other containers of things that came in the containers (not sure that sentence makes sense!):

My packets of kaiser pearls, rhinestones and droplets are in a box and I just sift through until I find the colour I want.

I'm still working on my storage of the following things but this is what I have so far:

Crochet dollies and some handmade embellies from Becci over at Lime Tree Creations are in a little drawer system in my bookshelf. Out of the way but still easily accessible.

Rhinestone pictures that kaiser have are in a little box categorised (stars, flowers, christmas etc).

And last but not least. This is what I have the most trouble with finding a home for. In this little tub (which at the moment sits in my bookshelf) has my pearl and rhinestone flourishes, pearl brads and word bling. I want to move this into my 12" drawers (where my paper blooms/ribbons and wooden flourishes/chipboard are) but there isn't any room at the moment - hopefully this will change when I get some more cropper hoppers!

I think that's the majority of my embellishments. I have some other random ones lying around that are homeless. They are just in a shoe box under my bed, hidden away! I need to start using them.

Challenge thirteen is buttons which is ridiculously easy for me. This jar did have my ribbons in it, and then it outgrew them and I found a much better solution. So now it has my "buttons". All six of them. I would like to have enough buttons to warrant a more significant storage solution but I don't know if I'd use them. I raid the sewing supplies sometimes. If I ever can't find a spare button for a top or something, it's probably on a LO or in the jar.

I wrote about challenge fourteen - ribbon - in another post earlier which you can find here but here is another photo. I actually found some more ribbon today when I was looking in the little drawers my crochet embellies are now in. I seriously didn't think there was anything in those drawers - turns out I was wrong!

So that's it... My biggest loser missions completed. Just have to do a blog post for #11 tomorrow but I think I've done enough for now!

Thanks for looking :)

Scrapz.Biz Biggest Loser Missions 1-7

Hi again everybody,

Just in case you were wondering why I've been so productive and been posting a lot lately... I've got a major assignment due next Friday night (3,500 words). I tend to scrapbook when I'm procrastinating from something else...

However, since I am going to Clare in a week and a half, the room does need a clean up which is why I am continuing on with the Biggest Loser challenges. I'm a bit all over the place with them...

Challenge 1 was to clean your desk. My desk is always ridiculous. This is what it looks like right now:

See, there the laptop is, open on blogger writing this post. There is scrapbooking stuff all over it, which is not good for this assignment I'm trying to do!

On the left of my laptop is a few boxes and containers that have random scrapbooking things that need a proper home. That's step one!

On the right of my laptop is my xyron machine and a card I've just made. My xyron normally sits in it's box under my desk but my sister wants me to laminate her timetable once she's finished colouring it in so it's sitting there for just a couple of minutes longer.

On the shelf directly above my laptop are 5 cups that house various pens/scissors/coloured pencils etc etc. This needs to be sorted because I'm 100% sure that half the pens don't even work. That shelf also has my rulers, cards I've made in advance, my eyelet setting mat, jar of buttons etc... this is step two tonight.

Next shelf up has my kaiser paper flowers. I love having them there, they don't bother me at all. Especially since I'm using them more lately. But, I tend to try and hide stuff behind them. I need to find a home for the things behind them. Then I'll push the flowers back a little bit and my rulers can sit in front on the top shelf. That's step three.

This is my very top shelf of my desk. I recently had a big clean out of things that were sitting up there (childhood things - figurines and such - that are now in a box in my wardrobe) and now I have just been putting homeless things up there. My foam brushes are all up there. They desperately need a home, but I'm terrible at finding one for them. My spray adhesive and varnish and what not are up there which I don't mind. I don't use them often (or at all really). Ignore the CD cases and the Pez machines - I work in a lolly shop!!

So that's my plan for challenge one. I'll post back in an hour (or five) when I've done that. The challenge also had a basic sketch challenge included but I've decided I'm going to focus on the organising of my stash - the comp is long over anyway!

Challenge 2 is cardstock. I don't have that much cardstock, but since Kathie just had a 5 for $2 sale on AC cardstock, I couldn't resist. Here is my cardstock at the current moment:

I have 4 DCWV cardstock stacks. Then I have my new AC cardstock in the baggie it came in on top of that. In the pizza box is Bazill cardstock I've accumulated (ebay purchases!) and on top of that is a pack of 20 snow white coloured cardstock I recently purchased from a local art store. Sometimes, it can be so hard to find a plain white piece when you need it! The yellow one on top of that is a random piece I found on my desk this morning. That's my cardstock. For the time being, it's staying like that. It suits me fine. If I ever move my scrapbooking stuff into a room of it's own I think I will purchase a cropper hopper or two for cardstock and seperate by colour. But for now, I'm happy with my cardstock. I only use my cardstock for the background piece of LOs so it doesn't get cut up so I don't have any scraps to deal with. Challenge two complete to my satisfaction!

Challenge 3 and Challenge 4 is patterned paper. I've talked about my PP storage before. It's all in 4 cropper hoppers. I only have kaiser PP pretty much. I go through my PP regularly and give to my sister if it's something I won't use anymore. I've been picky lately - if it's not kaiser, I won't use it! If I get another PP from a prize or something like that, I keep it for a bit and try and use it. I usually use them in cards or as an extra thing to go with a kaiser range. But mainly (as you would've noticed) I just use kaiser! The kaiser ranges (the ones with just paper + brads) are split alphabetically over two cropper hoppers. The papers from the collections (the ones with all the matching embellies) are split over another two cropper hoppers. I'm still waiting more cropper hoppers so I can try and keep the embellies with the papers (for now, the embellies are in my drawers). Patterned paper challenges... done!

Challenge five is scraps. This is another easy one for me. When I am making a card or a LO, the scraps from any pages I cut out, go straight back in with the range/collection.

This is my ziplock baggie with my After Five papers in it. As you can see, the scraps are in there right with them. I have a size in mind when I am keeping scraps. The thin one there is a patterned piece from the bottom of the 12" papers, so when I cut it off, I keep it to use on another LO or card. I tend to pick a range for a LO and I don't mix and match much so this works for me. Much more organised than having a drawer full of scraps anyway! Challenge five complete!

I'm making myself feel really good right now but I keep forgetting that my desk itself is messing! We're getting to the tougher challenges now in regards to my stash... keep an eye out for rub ons especially!

Challenge 6 is basic tools. This is definitely a quick mission as Heike put it! As I do most of my scrapping at my desk, everything is kept within arms reach.

I have a set of three drawers under my desk which house most of my things. The top drawer has all my adhesives and my inks (I've been doing a lot of distressing lately!).

I have a little blue pencil case that has the majority of my basic tools - eyelet setters, fingertip knife, craft knife, fine tip scissors, adhesive scissors, stylus, tweezers, kaiser file set, paper piecer, bone scorer, spare blades, pencil... Come to think of it, I don't know why the spare blades are in there. Or the eyelet setters. I don't use them much. When I clear out those pencil cups on my desk, the eyelet setters might be relocated... I don't go anywhere else to scrap often but the pencil case started when I moved in with my boyfriend. It was easier to have a little pencil case than to take all my pencil cups!

These are those annoying pencil cups that hoard a million trillion things. My scissors are in two of those - pattern scissors in one and normal ones in another. However, I can see from my seat that a pair of patterned scissors has relocated itself!

My trimmer goes on the top of my drawers. The purple pencil case underneath it has my tombow and zig markers. My markers were in my top drawer before I moved out over the summer. But then since I wanted to take my markers with me I put them all in a pencil case. Now they're still in there. I don't use them that often - I journal in black mostly, so this suits me fine. My paint brushes are also there, for lack of a better place. When I find a home for my foam brushes, they shall go with!

There we are, challenge six done as well. Except for some pencil cup organising, which I've already said I'll do as part of the "desk" challenge.

Challenge 7 is punches, dies and embossing folders. Well, I don't own any of the latter two, so just punches for me! I've accumulated a few lately and this is where they are at the moment:

My bottom drawer. The pink container on the right used to be in the middle drawer and they all fitted in there. And then I bought more circle punches and two border punches and a corner embossing punch... they take up a whole drawer now! And then are nice and snug so I'm not buying anymore until I discover a new home for them!

Okay... I'm going to stop there because I know I could just blog all night and never get to the first challenge! I'm off to clean up my desk and maybe make a start on my rub ons (before photos first of course! It's atrocious!) and then I'll come back later and blog the rest later tonight or tomorrow maybe.

Thanks for looking. I think I should give out prizes for people who read this entire post! 1500+ words... if only writing my assignment was this easy! :)