The Sketchbook Project 2012

I can't remember where I discovered the Sketchbook Project 2012, I just know I stumbled upon it at random a couple of days ago. Since then I have read the website from start to finish and back again several times. I've ummed and ahhed about whether to do it or not, whether I could justify the cost let alone the time and effort and then finally tonight (or should I say this morning) I finally made up my mind. JUST DO IT - So I am.
So I have signed up, committed myself and my creativity to the project. WHY... because when I asked myself whether I would regret doing the project more or would I regret not doing the project more... and there was only one answer.
So what is the Sketchbook Project? To quote the website...

It's like a concert tour, but with sketchbooks.

Thousands of sketch books will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the world.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

The project is open to anyone from anywhere in the world. Sign ups close on 31st October 2011 and sketchbooks need to be submitted (post marked) by 31st January 2012.

The tour makes it to Australia but unfortunately not to New Zealand, though I have paid for my completed sketchbook to be digitized so that it will be available online for anyone around the world to view even if you can't make it to The Brooklyn Art Library.

If you want to know more then click here to find out about the project. I will be updating you with progress here on my blog, on twitter and on Facebook.

• To follow along here - click follow in the right hand column of the blog
• To follow on twitter - search my twitter name ScrapFX
• To follow on Facebook - click on the Facebook batch in the right hand column of the blog

I can't wait for my sketchbook to arrive!!

MOJO Update

Blog Post Time...


I think I may finally have found some of my MOJO. I'm not saying I don't still have a long way to go to get that fully inspired, pumping out the layouts, don't stop me I'm creating vibe but I'm definitely feeling closer to it than I was around the time of my last post.
What has brought this on I hear you ask (but tough if you didn't ask as you are about to hear)... a number of people and things... some good, some not so good but all worth sharing.

1. The Six Week Beginner Scrapbooking Course I am running that starts this coming weekend. It still needs a really cool name, so any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Sharing my passion for scrapping always inspires me.
2. My wonderful, thoughtful and always inspirational friend Gypsy (who's own blog can be found here) who so generously sent me a huge packet of MOJO and inspiration after having read my last post. Lots of amazing ideas to make my own, especially for my upcoming Christmas Craft Challenge.
3. I've discovered a very cool group of inspirational scrapbookers and crafters who I have joined the ranks of at Scraps of Darkness. This group won't be everyone's cup of tea or vial of poison but if you are interested in exploring the dark side of your scrapping and crafting then head along and join in. Let them know that I sent you (ScrapFX) and that way we both get a little something extra by way of referral rewards.
4. The warm weather, bright sunshine, extra vitamin D and the knowledge that Summer is just around the corner. Even though I'm not a fan of the extra heat... I'd rather be colder than hotter... there is still something invigorating about Summer.
5. The New Zealand national rugby team, the All Blacks, winning the Rugby World Cup for 2011 and being the world champs for the next four years. Being in the company of greatness will always inspire and encourage you to go the extra mile yourself.
6. Having a heart to heart, no holds barred, tears and tantrums (okay no tantrums but lots of tears) with someone who understands, appreciates, sympathises and encourages you. Who offers an ear to listen, a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold and a foot to boot you up the butt when you have wallowed in self-pity for long enough. Thank you, you know who you are.
7. Discovering a new addiction... Pinterest. This is like a world-wide pin board of really cool people sharing all the really cool things that inspire them with lots of really cool people looking to be inspired. You have to be invited to join Pinterest, but if this takes your fancy, then let me know and I can send you an invite.
8. Having a deep and meaningful conversation with myself during which I started to acknowledge some truths, dispelled some myths, created some new beliefs and admitted to myself that I am not now, nor do I ever have to be perfect, nor always right, nor always wrong and I definitely don't have to deal with day to day (insert whatever descriptive words you like) "stuff" alone - that's what I have a darling husband, a supportive family and encouraging and at times painfully honest friends for.

I didn't get as much creating done as I wanted over the long weekend, but this is what I did come up with. This collection of creations is very much like the person that I am. A myriad of extremes and contradictions from the bright and simple to the dark and mysterious. It's no wonder I still can't define my scrapping style... maybe my style is just beyond definition!

Sorry quality isn't the best as the lighting here is shocking. 

Not sure if I need to add something else other than the title to the Butterfly layout. Just thought it was too cute not to add. I really love the way the feathers turned out as a frame for the main photo.

This is the third picture in a series for my mother's surprise 60th birthday party. This time the photos of the cake are both intentionally blurred and softened, though again the photo quality doesn't do them justice but I have a solution... I just need to try it so watch this space. I love the effect of the layered stamping on this layout though of course it looks better in real life. Maybe I need to ask Santa for a new camera for Christmas!!!

Missing MOJO

I've lost my MOJO. I've lost my inspiration. And I've lost my interest in crafting full stop. 
That was my mantra until a few days ago.
I haven't got my MOJO or my inspiration or my interest in crafting completely back but at least I found a smidgen of it over the weekend. Admittedly it was more a result of time constraints than good management. 
We went to dinner at Dennys over the weekend to celebrate both my step daughter and my niece's birthdays. Although I've known for a few weeks about the dinner, Friday night came around and I still hadn't even thought about cards for them. So I decided I needed to sort my act out.
Below are the results of this self imposed sorting my act out. They're simple but I love the final effect of both of them. I'm not sure if its their simplicity or the bright colours of them, but something about them just gave me some hope that my MOJO was not gone forever. (Okay maybe that sounds a little over melodramatic, but when you've not felt like crafting for what seems like forever, even the smallest glimmer mist of hope feels good.)

Christmas Craft Challenge - We Want You

Many fellow scrapbookers and crafters not only create their hands on crafting but they also create some digi-crafting by way of writing and posting to a blog.
For some it is a means of showing off their creations to the world, even if their world is only viewed by the 10 or 11 people who follow their blog... (read me). For others their blog is followed religiously by hundreds if not thousands of crafters who dote on every word, marvel at every creations and aspire to be just as talented and creative (ok even 1/10 as creative) as their inspiration... (read Tim Holtz, Ali Edwards, Laura Denison, Becky Fleck... we all have our favourites...). And of course there are the amazingly creative people who fit some where between these two extremes.
No matter which end of the spectrum you fit, or even if you admire all these bloggers but don't actually have your own blog, we all love to see each others creations. 
We love to see new tools and products and drool about having them in our own stash. We love to learn new techniques and be reminded of old techniques refreshed with a new twist. We love to see what our fellow crafters can create so that we can soak up some of their inspiration and scraplift from them and create our own versions or something completely new and different.
There is something about Christmas time that really seems to inspire crafters. I'm not sure if it is the impending cold Winter season in the Northern Hemisphere or the promised refreshing and energising effects of Summer for the Southern Hemisphere or maybe its just the spirit of the season and the joy of giving and receiving gifts. To be honest - who cares why - we all just love that it happens. Christmas just inspires creativity.
This year will be my third annual Christmas Craft Challenge. This is a challenge I issue myself to inspire and encourage my mojo and creativity; and this year I am putting it out into the world in the hopes of some kind of a  response (other than the echo of my own voice).
I challenge all the crafters of the world to join in sharing your creativity this Christmas.
So what are the guidelines... (rules sounds so formal and stuffy)

1. Your creations/crafting must somehow be Christmas related (though that is intentionally broad in its scope - for instance in the past I have included the next year's altered diary and calendar);
2. Your creations/crafting must be something you have created yourself, though they don't necessarily have to be new creations. If you want to share previous creations by all means, please do. It also doesn't matter if your creation is re-purposed, from a kit or created from scratch as long as you did it and you are not trying to take credit for someone else's creation. If you receive an item as a gift, that's OK, but please share the gift giver with us as well.
3. Your creations/crafting can include craft related presents/gifts you give or receive as Secret Santa Swaps or other presents - as long as there is a craft element to it (I will be posting my Secret Santa Swap)
4. You can post as many times and as often as you like during the Challenge Period (1st - 24th December) or as little/few times.
5. Your creation must be posted in a blog... otherwise how can you share it with everyone else?
6. If you are joining in the challenge whether you post once or 100 times, I would really love to know about it, so I can post a link in my blog.

That's it!

You have until 30th November to let me know you are joining in the challenge (or even just following along). Just send me your name and a link to your blog and I will add your details to the list to be posted on 1st December this year.

If you would like ideas about craft items to create, you can check out some of my previous creations in my archive or just google for millions of ideas.

There are no restrictions as to type of craft but here are some ideas...

• Papercraft
• Scrapbooking
• Card Making
• Off the Page
• Altered Items
• Mixed-Media Creations
• Hybrid Scrapbooking/Crafting
• Digital Scrapbooking/Crafting
• Baking
• Sewing
• Advent Calendars
• Gifts
• Gift Wrapping
• Gift Tags
• Swaps
• ATC's
• Ornaments
• Decorations
• Banners
• Table Displays
• Wreaths
• Floral Arrangements
• Christmas Organisation Tools
• and I'm sure you can think of many, many more.

Christmas Planning

Last Wednesday I attended a short two-part seminar on Suicide Awareness and Art Therapy. Though I found both presentations incredibly interesting, to be honest being an Accountant/Scrapbooking Teacher in a room full of counselors and therapists, I did feel somewhat out of my depth when they started talking about CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavioural Therapy) and a whole lot of other abbreviations I couldn't understand.
Anyway... the point of the story... before the presentations started I was talking to one of the presenters and she expressed an interest in participating in some scrapbooking classes.
She asked what types of classes I ran so I recalled some of the classes I had run and was looking to run including a class on hand made Christmas Cards.
This got me thinking about Christmas Card designs to teach in the class.
I've come up with a long list of ideas from stamping, paper piecing, templates through to digital stamps. The list needs refining and samples created, but one thing really stuck out as an idea... decorating with small hand stitched designs.
As anyone who has met me knows I love my templates... I have five or six binder rings of templates from 12 x 12 sized shaped page templates through to creative shaped templates for embellishments. I also have templates for stenciling, stitching (refer to my previous blog post) and of course misting. Though I have a large number of purchased templates I also have a large selection of home-made (hand-cut) stencils I have made myself (and another blog post on how to create them here). Last night I added to my collective with some DIY designed stitching templates of Christmas designs. 

1. Find a small picture that you want to create a template out of. I used simple outlines that would be easy to stitch especially for non-sewers.
2. Trace your design onto clear plastic. I use clear, slightly textured, very thin chopping boards which I buy from the $2 shop (budget emporium/cheap Chinese imported goods) though you could also use Heavy-Weight Acetate Sheets - which you can buy from my online shop here.
3. Using a piercing tool pierce through the plastic around your design ensuring that your pierced holes are evenly spaced. 
The trick to this is to first pierce at the extremes - the ends of each line, convergence of two lines, then find the middle between the two ends and finally add any additional holes in-between if you so desire.
If you look closely, you will see that the holes are further spaced on the straight edged designs, such as the Christmas trees and star, compared to the bell and bauble. Straight lines can be made with longer stitches and still look good where as you need to have holes that a closer together to get a smooth looking curve.
It's probably easier to see on the stitched samples below.
4. Having pierced the design, you may want to go back through each hole and make them slightly larger so its easier to push your threaded needle through the hole.
5. Finally, and this is optional, draw over the design of your template with a permanent marker so you can follow the line when you actually do the stitching (kind of like your pattern). I used a black vivid marker then just rubbed off any excess ink so I didn't end up with black marks all over my paper and fingers.
Your templates are now already for you to use.
For a tutorial on how to stitch using these templates you can find an excellent Technique Class here. (Even if I say so myself LOL).
Here are the samples for the templates I created above.

Note the differences between the two stars. The left one is sewn with two stitches per side of the star point whereas the one on the right is sewn with a single stitch along the side of each point. You can also see the difference in stitch length between the straight edged star and the curved bauble and bell.

The original single tree is down below bottom, but I also tried a triple layered version above as well as a single tree with sequins added to each stitch below top. (Sorry the order is a bit wrong).

The class for these Christmas Cards and others will be held in October/November at my studio. If you are interested in attending, please contact me either through my website contact page or directly by email on paula@scrapfx.co.nz. I will also add more information about the contents of the class (and other upcoming classes) onto the website so be sure to check back on a regular basis.
The finished results will also appear in my Christmas Challenge Blog Posts for 2011. You can check out my creations for 2009 & 2010 here or by searching through my blog archives and searching by "Christmas Craft Challenge".
If you are interested in participating in this year's Christmas Craft Challenge (and no you don't have to post every single day leading up to Christmas) then leave me a comment, email me, send me a link to your blog and I will send you some more information in the next week or two so you have plenty of time to plan in advance... a lesson I learnt the hard way the first year I did the challenge. I would love to have a list of other Christmas Challengees that I can link to on my blog.

New Products - Die Cuts from The Dusty Attic

Not long before SENZ, I signed with a new supplier who design and create a range of absolutely amazing laser die-cut chipboard embellishments and projects. I ordered some stock and it arrived the day before I was due to set up everything at SENZ so I didn't get a chance to have a play and experiment with the new products. I didn't even get a chance to take photos as it was straight out of the courier box onto the display wall with barely a moment to spare.


I think these products are pretty amazing and so do a lot of other people around the world - you just need to read some of the rave reviews and look at some of the amazing creations using these products. So it wasn't really a surprise when I sold out of quite a few products over the weekend of SENZ. I just didn't expect them to go SO FAST - some items sold out the FIRST DAY!


After recovering and finally unpacking (interrupted by a family funeral and the flu), I placed another order to restock as well as get some new products which took my fancy and these all arrived this week. This time I have taken photos (so I can add the new products to the website) but I'm going to share them with you here first.


I've grouped them together, just to make it a little easier, but please bear in mind that the sizing in these photos is in reality very different. I've fitted the photos into a block and re-sized them all to fit inside these blocks, so you will need to check out the website for actual dimensions.

 Skeleton Clock Face & Hinges

 Cogs Frames Set; Jumbo Cogs 10pk; Cogs 1 & Cogs 2

Dress Forms & Wire Dress Forms 

 Mini Sparrows; Flutterbies; Birds on a Branch

 Botanic Accents; Foliage; Leafy Stems

 Flower Layers 1,2 & 3

 Mini Vine, Branches and Dress Forms

 Scroll Borders

 Scrolls

 Vine Flourish; Fancy Labels, Christmas Baubles and Holly Flourish

Chandelier Small; Vintage Clock; Vintage Chandelier; Vintage Hat Stand; Vintage Keys

Music Border (2 pk)

Bird House Project - comes as a flat pack of die cut pieces.

This is only a mere hint of the range that is available at The Dusty Attic. I will be placing regular orders with them, so if you spot something on their website that takes your fancy, let me know and I can order it. Remember our policy all pre-paid orders receive a discount off the listed website price.

I will come back and edit this post with links to all the products in my online shop but I couldn't wait I just had to share these with all my scrapping friends and family.

Fingers and toes crossed that I get a chance to experiment over the weekend, so I can post what the finished product looks like... watch this space!

Mixed Media Altered Tin

This was the Mixed Media Altered Tin I made for a swap on the Crafting Passionz Forum. The theme was "Underwater World" so I created a "Mini Mermaid Makeup" Kit.
The tin was a "Wild Bean Cafe" mint tin from BP.

 TOP

 BOTTOM

Inside the tin - showing the mirror and the makeup and hair accessories inside the decorated tin.

2 x blushers with swivel lids; 3 x eye shadow palettes, lipstick, 3 x hair clips and makeup brushes.