Twisted Sketches at the Crop

I used this week's Twisted Sketch as an inspiration for a couple of my LOs at the North Cheam Crop last Saturday. In line with my mission to use up old stash, I brought the remains of some kits or collections, and some old photos - some 20 years old - help!! I managed 4 altogether, including a double LO and made a sizeable hole in the stash pile I had taken - mission accomplished :) - terrible photos though!!

A new summer Smash Book

Having been inspired by the ladies on UKS to create a smash book that will reflect life for a period, rather than be used as an ongoing inspiration book, I couldn't decide how to do it. It needs to be small, so I can carry it around, so I dug around in my stash supplies and came across a blank 7 gypsies mini book that was perfect except for the number of pages on offer.

Having committed on another UKS thread to use up my stash, and another to actually finish my projects, I decided to be focused :) Using up a Crate paper kit from Gottacraft from ages ago, another one of Glitz Design, which I'd used for 1 LO and then put aside and some odd sheets of Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday which I'd been tempted by but never got around to using, I made some extra pages, covered the outside and then came the challenge of pamphlet stitching the pages into the book.

Not hard in the diagram, but then I realised that as I had double the number of sheets I needed to make the holes big enough to hold double the number of stitches - cue hammer and eyelet punch as my Cropadile won't reach the middle!! Do I need a Big Bite?

Finally managed to get all the stitches tight enough and the book looked great. Inspired by Mary Anne's pictures of a hairband loop closure, I had a go.

Tips for doing this:

1. If you want to hold a pen, then make the cover big enough compared with inside sheets -(did not apply for my project)

2. Check that your hairband will thread through a small hole, if not make it bigger, but still use a small hole linking with the big hole that the eyelet is set in.

Finally, I opted for a button closure, and punched holes in the front cover and sewed it on tightly so my loop can go over it.

et voila! I'm pleased with my efforts. I'll see how it goes and how it could be improved as I use it.

Thank goodness for Broadway Bargains!

My DD had a project to do on the 1920s for the holidays, and got well engrossed in the fashion and music of the era, and opted to do a poster board to show off her work. Of course, we needed fringes and beads and pearl strings to m

ake it look authentic, and not far away is the perfect venue for such things - Broadway Bargains - a very old fashioned treasure trove of all things needlework. Run by some vague old ladies with a loathing of mobile phones - you should hear the tut if your phone goes off! - it sells ribbons, braid, buttons and a host of other must have items for crafters. We duly invested and she finished her project - without any nagging from me - amazing!

Without much time as it's half term in the house, and revision time for my eldest DS, I had a quick play yesterday, motivated by the online class I've signed up for:

Crafty Templates Take 10 Embellishments It all looks rather good, although much more sewing than I ever normally do, so I made do with sorting out my flower box and creating the following embellishment, intended to go into an embellishment group once I've looked better at the class. I signed up with the idea that I could use up some of my stash in a more creative way - here's hoping :)

My Smash Book

I had a load of fun making my own Smash book, based on the K&Co idea but using up old stash which I probably wouldn't have used otherwise. Also used up rubons and stickers, and borrowed a BIA to get it looking professional. Used a Gottacraft crop kit for the cover papers, added some chipboard butterflies and it's now in use.

I'm not going to scrapbook in it. I'm going to use it as a gathering point for ideas, quotes, inspirations, ephemera and so on - and when it gets full, I can make another one.

An Awesome Bank Holiday Weekend

We had a staycation at the weekend - really because we wimped out of camping, but what a good decision that was!

Saturday was spent in London, at the Natural History Museum, wandering around and dodging Barcelona fans heading for Wembley, which pleased DS2 immensely. We then went to a local gastro pub for dinner - yum!

Sunday was spent discovering a new corner of the Kent coast and despite a strong wind we had a brilliant time in brilliant sunshine. Birchington is a good beach to visit - sand, shallow water, some windsurfers and kite surfers to look at, beach huts and a shop that does tea, ice cream and chips. We headed home for fajitas and a rest.

Monday dawned beautiful but with the threat of poor weather heading in from the west, so we went to Chartwell, enjoyed the house and grounds, some tree climbing and a picnic, and only got hit by raindrops when we were nearly home. It didn't do much for the bbq, but we still had it - only indoors except for the hardy cooks.

Finally a Layout

I did get to the crop last night, and it was loads of fun. I broke my stash diet to buy a page kit, LilyBee in my beloved turquoise and red combination, so it will definitely get used up soon.

Packing at the last minute meant that I threw a few bits into my bag with these older photos that DD took at her Brownie camp several years ago. I fell in love with the MME paper, and used it to cut my bunting (liberally used I know!), then added some embellishments and a brownie brown title. Stickers by Scenic Route and 7 Gypsies, a couple of charms from Ally Pally and some gorgeous little butterfly brads, also from 7 Gypsies. Finished off with a couple of MM butterflies and a Maya Road velvet bloom.

The look is a lot busier than a lot of things I do, but I enjoyed myself a lot, doing it, and even started another - rather plainer LO - which I have yet to finish.

More cards, but there's a crop tonight so....

I might get to do some scrapbooking for a change.

At least I get to use up more scraps. This time it's teacher cards - very disorientating as it's not the end of term, but DS1 gets to leave officially tomorrow, halfway through his exams they have this leavers service and he says goodbye to the teachers. In his opinion, 3 of them deserve my handiwork, the others get bought cards!!