Houston we have a problem

I decided this weekend that to start my re-organisation [needed because I have got into a real mess in the last two years] I would bring down all my magazines and gut them, removing articles and projects I wanted to try [or might want to in the future] and filing them and putting the rest of the magazine in the re-cycling.

The results of about 30 trips to the attic later I had these piles of magazines [dating back to 2003 in some cases]

and I've still only brought down about a third of my collection, I can't even reach my cross stitching magazines yet. There are huge numbers of scrapbooking magazines - and I have never made a scrapbook page yet, I did mean to start and have lots of stash of course].

Also stamping, card making, general crafts, stitching, dolls house, beading and spirit and destiny type magazines - plus, not pictured, a three foot high pile of ordinary magazines in the study collected for art journalling purposes [and I prefer use stamped or octopode images on my art journal pages!].

I have also spent time this week working on my home tag book which I did at a workshop at Art from the Heart on the 16th. Dyan packs so much into her projects that although you get the basics done in class

you can spend hours adding little tweaks, doodles and embellishments when you get your project home - mine still isn't finished and I think I've spent a further 10 hours adding the pictures, corners and brackets, faux stitching and shading in addition to the 5 hours in class.

Sara x

Catching up

As I said I did lots of projects last year - but as my computer is not well [and has gone to visit my step-brother to see if she can be fixed] I haven't got lots of my photos available. These therefore are a random sample of what I can find.

This was made at one of Dyans weekends where we painted a canvas with a character we had created - I really enjoyed myself [but I always do at Dyan's workshops]and now hangs at the bottom of the attic steps.

This clock was one of the first non cardmaking classes I did [again at Art from the Heart] and I love it, it hangs on the landing [as for a change I chose a colour scheme with a spot in mind, instead of choosing colours and then having nowhere it would look good].

This mirror was one of the projects at the Graphicus Paradise Retreat last year, I was so pleased with myself when I finished it - until I walked round and saw what other people had done - but I still love it.

This hanging was another workshop at the same retreat, run by Jean of Crafty Individuals. I love the colours of her papers and the freshness of white german scrap. I did buy enough foam board to replicate this for half my family as xmas presents - but as usual I haven't made anymore yet.

This shadow frame is my favourite ever project [to date] done at Art from the Heart again. I wasn't even going to book the class but got talked into it by Claire. I wasn't really into Alice in Wonderland before, but the Graphic 45 images are beautifull.

Anyway I think that's enough for now - I'll try and photograph some of the mini books I've made at classes next [if I can find them].

Sara x

I'm back

Well I'm not sure what happened - I intended to start learning to blog [and was told the easiest way to learn was to do it] but I fell at the first hurdle [being unable to install a background or header properly - hopefully this is now sorted, as once I saw this beatiful itkupilli background I was inspired to try again]

I have done lots of workshops since I last [initially!!!] posted so I will try and catch up with photos gradually. Today I went to the art journalling class at Art from the Heart and got very inky [I love Dyans spray inks].

Our theme was intentions [instead of New Years resolutions] and one of mine is to create order from chaos - this actually applies to all aspects of my life at the moment but I'm going to concentrate on how well I manage to sort my craft stash on the blog.

As you can see I have quite a task on my hands.

I did make a start by buying some inkylicious racks at the northern papercrafts extravaganza last year.

however it is hard to get at anything I have 'organised' onto them as I have managed to pile stash in front of them - oops. That means when I have struggled to extract ink pads or whateverit is, they don't get put back - also I try and create whatever it is I'm working on with ink pads I've already retrieved so everything at the moment is brown & blue.

I will try to blog more often this year - that is another intention.

Sara x