Paaaarty - No Sleep 'til Bedtime!

Okay, for those of you who are too young to recognise the reference... Beastie Boys!

Meanwhile, I have managed to snatch a couple of hours in a busy weekend, to join in with Shimelle's great Scrapping Party.

So far, I've managed to do a few of the photo challenges, make one layout and do the "Scrapping with whatever you have left" challenge too.  I'll post that one first...

Scrapping With Whatever You Have Left

I had some bits of burgundy cardstock and some little shreds of paper lying about, after the scrap page I made. There was also an assortment of ribbons and lace, in a couple of little boxes, at the back of my table, plus a small scratch-pad that I had been using to make notes about the challenges etc. So....

 

I made a mini note-book!

The book measures just over 3" square. I took a few pages from my scratch-pad and cut them to fit inside the folded cardstock. 

I used a piece of burgundy ribbon, threaded through some broderie-anglaise tape, as the fastening.

The cover is decorated with a strip of B.G. floral paper. I then added a bright pink organdie ribbon, under a strip of white paper, from which I had cut some butterflies and flowers for the scrap page. I added a couple more punched flowers, to balance it and trimmed it to fit. The ribbon shows through the cut-outs as a shimmery layer and looks very pretty.

back view

The binding - stitched onto the back cover, with waxed pink crochet cotton.

I'm so pleased with this little project. And it only took me 20 minutes!

Then I managed a couple of pictures for the photo challenges:

Photo Challenge: At Home

a quick snap of those ribbons and lace, perched on my laptop keyboard!

Photo Challenge: Craft in Progress

Scary shot of my desk, while I was busy with the scrap page. The bit of green space is where I tidied up a few messy bits, ready for the next stage. I hadn't tidied up all the clippings yet - see that tin can in the background? That is my dustbin! All my tiny trimmings, clippings, shreds etc get put in there, then I can empty it later.

Last Wednesday and Thursday, I bought and fitted up my new shelves.  I've put some of my stuff on the shelves now, but the room is still quite a mess. Tomorrow's job is definitely, really definitely, to tidy up my workspace!

Lastly, my Scrapbook Page.  The only one I have had time for this weekend - even though I love some of the challenges set, I just haven't had time yet!

Scrapping Challenge : Scrapbooking with at Least a Little Pink

Perfectly Pink - all about my new clothes!

I read Shimelle's challenge and immediately thought of the small heap of pink papers that were sitting on my desk. 

I had a custom order for my shop, which was to make a dozen little notebooks for a lady's wedding (for use as mini-guest books).  She wanted them to be in shades of pinks and browns, so I dug out various papers that were lurking in my stash.  In the end I used six different Basic Grey papers, along with pink and brown ribbons. 

The whole set looked lovely and I was very pleased with it.  However, there were still lots of bits and pieces of pink (and brown) papers littering the top of my crafting desk (my book-binding table, on the other hand, was clean and shiny!).

Then, as I was going to bed last night, I looked at my new blouse and jeans... the blouse was found in a little shop in Wells, when I was on holiday.  The jeans were bought yesterday, during a shopping trip in Milton Keynes (while I waited for the Boys, who were very busy in the Games Workshop, playing battles with J's Warhammer set!). I hadn't bought any new clothes for months and months, so I'm very pleased with this new outfit. I didn't wear pink for a long time - until J. persuaded me to buy an amazing little cardi, in shell-pink lambswool, embellished with beads. It has been a favourite for about 4 years now (though it's starting to show its age!). Since then, I've been braver and bought a few carefully chosen pink items.  This blouse is perfect, as the pinks are rosy and warm, but the pattern is bright and summery. It goes so well with the soft blue of the jeans.

Which is what the journalling is all about:

journalling...

So, this layout was born. It's an absolute plethora of pink really. Veeeery Pink for me! I did have the paper with blue and pink leaves on a brown background, which softens the blow a bit. And I kept the background paper darker, to make an impact. The blue note-paper that I used for journalling just happened to be in my notes-tray (with notes on the back of it!). So I cut it up, as it matches almost exactly with those blue leaves and brings out the blue jeans too.

A bit of messing about was needed, to get the photos to stand out from the hugely busy background. I've never done such a very busy layout before - it was really quite a challenge. I cut the photo corners from dark cardstock, then used a fine pen to draw round the edges of the photos. It's not quite perfect, but it looks good. 

I'm actually pretty pleased with the result! I think it met the challenge alright - there is definitely "at least a little pink" on that page!

I might get time to try another challenge tomorrow evening; but Monday is always a busy day and J. wants to go to another Warhammer event in the afternoon - that'll keep me occupied (sigh...).

I hope you all had fun, if you tried any of Shimelle's challenges this weekend. I've really enjoyed myself, even if I haven't had much spare time. 

And now it really is Bedtime and I am off to get some of that sleep!