Aint it Great!

Yesterday, I was feeling really bored, so me and my sister decided to play around with the camera, taking stupid photographs of each other. The photos that my sister took of herself didn't come out very well, but these silly ones of me did, so I decided to scrapbook them. I wanted to record how much more confident I have been feeling about my appearence recently, and the fact that I felt able to pose for these photos after all. Only a few months ago, I would have been so worried about the way that I looked that these photos would never have been taken.

I started playing around with a full 12 by 12 piece of cardstock, but I had no inspiration. So I did what I always do to get my mojo back - cut the page in half. I love working on a 6 by 12 piece of cardstock, and it also makes my supplies go a lot further....

I got half way through this layout before realising that, with some tweaking, it would fit the criteria for the march weekly challenge on UKS. So I added some brads here, another colour there, and ended up with a layout that I love!

Inchies

Today a schoolgirl made...... inchies!

I made a set of 30 inchies for a swap on UKS. I've never done any of these before and at first I found them really hard because they are on such a small scale. However they are quite addictive - I soon got into them and ended up making all 30 with ideas to spare!

I made a lot of these backgrounds with a new technique - transferring my photos with gel medium. Basically, I brushed it on thickly on to both the photo and the cardstock I wanted to transfer it onto. I then burnished the back of the photo, which shifted the top layer of paper onto the card. Finally, I rubbed off the paper, leaving the ink remaining on the card.

This photograph is useless on purpose - because it's a swap, I dont think that it is fair on my swapees to publish them properly before they get them. Once I get my end of the swap back, some better photos will be going up!

A Collection of Catkins

Well I said that I would keep pointing out signs of spring, so I went for a walk today to make the most of the lovely weather and what did I spot? Catkins! Literally hundreds of them were dangling off the hedgerows and dancing in the breeze. Seeing as my little point-and-shoot works best with close up subjects, and as these close up subjects dont tend to move, I now have a collection of catkin photographs to share with you :)

Spring Flowers

Well I blogged about how much I loved the snowdrops coming through in our garden, and so today I went out with my camera to try and take a photo of some of them. The snowdrops were particularly difficult, but I ended up with this:

Then I saw that there were some beautiful little aconites coming through as well (the yellow blobs in the background of that picture) so I had to photograph them. I love the look of these little buds - they look like fat little babies!

And finally, I realised that the witch hazel was finally flowering, so of course I had to photograph their shaggy little blossoms:

Spring is springing!

Signs of Spring!

I used to love winter. I loved playing in the snow, I loved those crisp, clear days were the sky is bright blue and there's frost on the ground. I loved coming in on a freezing day to a roaring wood fire and I loved snuggling up at night with a blanket and slippers. But it has gone on for far too long this year, and now I'm fed up.

To cheer me up, I'm going to look for one sign of spring each day. If I can photograph it or make something with it, then I will. But more importantly, I will try to write several times a week about the beautiful signals that tell me that spring has nearly sprung.

So today, it was the sight of some tiny, not fully opened snowdrops that had jumped up by the ash tree in our front garden. Their nodding heads reminded me that the last snow we had melted pretty quickly, and that yesterday I went outside with a jumper but no coat. They were so beautiful, and they have really lifted my spirits. The first sign of spring all year is always the most perfect.

Owl Family

Today a schoolgirl made... An Owl Family!

I got these owls in a buttonbag kit for christmas. It is aimed at kids around 10 years old, but I had seen it in a shop months ago and I didn't care about the age limit - I wanted them. Since unwrapping them at christmas I've been saving them for a rainy day, but yesterday I decided that the time had come to make them.

I'm a complete novice at sewing - I nearly took textiles for GCSE but didn't because I had no control over the sewing machine! These owls were nicely easy but not so easy I got bored, and the fabric was so gorgeous I was never going to leave them half finished!

I sat on the floor in my room for hours and hours cutting all the fabric, sewing on buttons, and stitching seams. I even had to invent my own way to sew my faces on because I didn't know blanket stitch! But now I have a wonderful little owl family to sit on my desk and inspire me.

Legwarmers

Today, a schoolgirl made... legwarmers!

Well, actually I hardly made them today, they've been my project for the last couple of weeks. I'm really pleased with them - they are my first knitting project and they've turned out really well. The pattern is here, there's a matching pattern for armwarmers as well.

A big thank you to my mum who taught me to knit, picked up my stitches and sewed in the ends!

What Do I See?

Today, a schoolgirl made... A Layout!

I've had the idea for a while - ever since one of the challenges on UKS - (use circles, fruity colours and a theme of new beginnings). I bought this lovely scalloped paper a while ago, but never got round to using it. Added to my new lime green flowers, I thought I had an idea coming on...

That was until I got to the photio. I had nothing. Not a bean. But last weekend I was playing with the camera, and one of the things that I took a photo of was my eye. I was really pleased with the photograph, so I thought that this was something I could use.

Now it was all coming together, and with the theme of new beginnings I started wondering "What do I see happening in 2009?"

Well, exams, 6th form, a lovely long summer holiday and hopefully a job. All well and good, but nothing exciting, and certainly not worth making a layout about. Then I realised one thing that I'd missed off that I thought was important - that recently I've been feeling the happiest I've ever been.

Perfect! Now all I had to do was print out the photo on a wonk, rub distress ink all over my page, and write 2008 instead of 2009.

But even with all those mistakes, I'm still pretty proud of this layout.

Art Raffle - Shiny

Today, a schoolgirl made... an entry for an art raffle!

This month's theme was "Shiny", so I thought it would be easy. It's a pretty open topic, right? WRONG. The first thing I realised when I started work was how little shiny stuff I actually had. Could I find the silver gems I wanted? No. How about some little metal charms? No. But finally I worked out what shiny stuff I actually had - Glossy Accents, Glamour Dust, and purple gems. I also had a beautiful old magazine with lots of pictures I could cut up, and some pretty flowers.

So, what did I do?

First - I took a strip of corrugated card and pulled off some of the paper so the corrugation showed through.

Next - I painted the card dusky pink

Then - I stamped swirls on the card in versamark ink, and embossed them with a clear powder

Next - I cut out a womans head and a pair of wings from the magazine, coated the wings with glossy accents and glamour dust and let them dry

And Finally - I stuck everything down, and added a few purple gems as a necklace!

There, one entry done. I really didn't want to part with this one - it's the first entry I've made that I actually wanted to keep. Still, if I win I get this back and lots more...

Keeping my fingers crossed!