Life in paper and glue

Catching my breath...

2012-01-15T17:08:00.000Z

The last part of 2011 went by in a complete blur, mainly due to starting my first teaching job (completely crazy busy ALL the time) and having some personal stuff to work through (yucky, complicated heartbreak). This all unfortunately added up to one very unloved blog.

Trying to put that right in 2012. Although life is still crazy, so posts might be lacking in words often! But everyone likes photos, right, so that's all good!

So, things to catch up on...

Very excited and honoured to be a part of this:

So happy and excited to see my article go up over at Ella Publishing:

Here's a little share of one of my layouts that I made for the article, all about my One Little Word for 2012 (light):

I started subscribing to Studio Calico in December, and have fallen in love with scrapbooking again. Having fun making lots of 8.5x11 pages:

Also very excited to be doing Project Life this year. I've decided to do just one page per week, rather than a double-page spread as I think it would just be too overwhelming with my busy work schedule. And not sure I'd even have enough to fill two pages a week anyway! You can see my title page in the article I wrote for Ella Publishing. And am aiming to share weekly pages here. So stay tuned :)

I think that's all for now! I hope you are having a happy start to 2012!

xxx

More scrappy shares (news + layouts)

2011-08-15T21:18:00.000+01:00

First of all, I am SO thrilled and excited to have been asked to be part of this for another year:

I swear Pebbles just gets better and better with each new release...I'm so looking forward to seeing the new goodies in person and getting creative with them! Huge congrats to the rest of the girls...I can't wait to get to know you all!

I don't know what happened to me this weekend, but I was feeling super creative and made two more layouts...

The supplies: patterned paper - American Crafts, Crate Paper, October Afternoon; cardstock, chipboard letters, tags, Flair!, brad, buttons, journalling ticket, fabric paper, chipboard button, adhesive - American Crafts; punch - Martha Stewart Crafts; other - twine; font - Cocktail Shaker

The journalling: "A cat's life is a hard one...nap, eat, repeat!"

The story: Sometimes I look at my cat and wish I was one...I swear all he does is eat and sleep. And maybe sometimes ventures outside to go and find another nap spot. HAHA.

The supplies: patterned paper, cardstock, chipboard letters, adhesive - American Crafts; stickers - American Crafts, October Afternoon; mist - Maya Road; punch - EK Success; font - Little Days

The journalling: "So proud...of the young woman you're becoming. You're really growing up little sis!"

The story: My sister turned 18 this summer and got a job in the city in a law firm who are going to pay for her course fees to train to be a legal executive...it's all so grown up! I'm a super proud big sister!

The details: Made this layout for the 7th August Studio Calico Sunday Sketch. Awesome layout my Sasha Farina as a starting point...just love the cirles. I always forget how much I love that EK Success Bumpy Road border punch until I use it again...I love love love it so much! I'd use it on every layout if I didn't think it would make me look really boring! Definitely want to use it more than I currently do though. Also haven't misted in SO LONG...I kind of got a bit scared of it to be honest...the spraying thing wasn't really working for me...never really liked how it turned out when I did it so stopped using them. And then felt so guilty seeing my 6 or so bottles just sat there. So I decided to get them out for this layout and unscrewing the lids and try sprinkling them instead, and I LOVE how it turned out! Definitely will be doing this more!! And it now REALLY makes me want to buy a load of Studio Calico Mister Huey's and October Afternoon Sprinklers...so many beautiful colours!!

Happy Monday!

A layout to share (aka how I spent my Friday evening)

2011-08-12T23:15:00.000+01:00

Loving making scrapbook layouts just for fun right now, digging out older items from my stash to use on my pages. So seeing as I had nothing to do this evening, I thought I'd scrap these Instagram pictures my dad took of me at my graduation a couple of weeks ago.

The supplies: cardstock, foam letter stickers—American Crafts; patterned paper—Studio Calico, Pebbles Inc., American Crafts; journaling cards—Studio Calico, October Afternoon; camera sticker, apple die-cut, bracket die-cut—October Afternoon; border sticker, apple sticker, chipboard flowers—Sassafras; wooden letters—Making Memories; punch—Fiskars; font—Little Days

The journalling: "It wasn't as fancy or even as special, but I did get to wear a mortarboard this time!"

The story: My graduation this year was my second one so far. I say so far because I will be having another one in March. It's a very long story but basically when you do your degree at Cambridge, you automatically get an MA a few years later...I think it's to do with the amount of work that you have to do when you're there compared to at other unis. (E.g. one or two essays a week vs one or two essays a term.) Anyway, my graduation this year was for my PGCE (teacher training) and while it was still a very proud moment for me, it was nowhere near as grand, fancy or special as the day I graduated from Cambridge. BUT...I did get to wear a motarboard this time, which I was VERY excited about and wanted to document this little piece of information!! And I didn't have to wear a fur hood either, just a cloth one. I almost melted last time in my fur hood!!

I'm all for using what you've got when it comes to scrapbooking...on this layout, I wanted to use up those fab wooden Making Memories letters but didn't have the whole alphabet so I just substituted the missing letters for Thickers. I'm a little annoyed there wasn't enough room for the whole alphabet on the page, but I guess that's just the slight OCD in me. I'll get over it. HAHA.

Have a lovely weekend!

CHA product picks (part 2)

2011-08-03T16:00:00.000+01:00

I loved seeing photos of CHA and all the new goodies and I guess now that CHA is over, a lot of the new stuff will start shipping soon...exciting much?!

Here's part two of my product picks...

Crate Paper

Random Collection

Peppermint Collection

Cosmo Cricket

Clementine

October Afternoon

Hambly Screenprints

Definitely lots of goodies there...I think I should start saving the pennies now!!

What are you loving from CHA? Have you pre-ordered anything in particular?

I've been creating...

2011-08-02T19:26:00.004+01:00

Just hopping on here quickly to share some projects that I've made lately. I moved house last week, which has somewhat halted the new blog schedule that I've been planning in my mind. I've stolen the odd half hour here and there in between all the hideous packing and unpacking to scrapbook...it's what's kept me sane during the move! I had no idea how much stuff I had...I've tried to be good and throw out/give away all the stuff I don't need/use but it's been a tricky task to sort through everything.

These first two projects were assignments for the Pebbles blog...

And these next two were just for fun...

Lots of lovely papers from American Crafts as well as the fun sewing pattern one from October Afternoon, along with a bunch of older embellishments from my stash (Sassafras, October Afternoon, Studio Calico, Jenni Bowlin)...really challenging myself to use up some of my old stuff :)

Pretty much everything here is from American Crafts Hello Sunshine...such a happy, summery line...I love it! And I found some doilies in the pound shop!! 72 doilies for £1?!?! Can you say bargain?!

Well that's it for now...will try to resume normal blogging ASAP. Now, back to the boxes... :(

Sneaky peeky

2011-07-15T12:11:00.000+01:00

Just checking in very very quickly to give you a sneak peek of a layout that will be going up on the Pebbles blog next week...

Not sure why, but the colours suddenly looked really muted when I changed the size of the photo from 'medium' to 'original size' in blogger. Here's what the colours should look like...

How weird is that?! I sometimes think Blogger has a complete mind of its own!!

Happy weekend!!

CHA product picks (part 1)

2011-07-11T07:53:00.000+01:00

With CHA looming, new product sneaks are starting to come through thick and fast now and it has to be said that I am SO excited by what I have seen so far! Here's a little look at what I'm loving the look of...

American Crafts

Amy Tangerine & American Crafts

Garden Cafe

Hollyday

Pebbles Inc

Fresh Goods

My Mind's Eye

12 Days of Christmas

Studio Calico

All the Studio Calico stuff looks SO pretty together, I thought I'd put it all in one collage :)

I'm still excitedly waiting to see what the likes of Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon and Crate Paper are bringing out so I'll be back at some point with a CHA product picks (part 2) post!!

Excited much? I think so!

2011-07-09T10:06:00.000+01:00

I'm SO SO excited to finally share with you that I was the guest designer for American Crafts this week! You could have knocked me over with a feather when the lovely Paige over at AC emailed me asking me if I'd be interested in guest designing for them...ABSOLUTELY NO QUESTION. I have been in love with AC ever since I can remember...this is like a dream come true for me!!

Here's a little sneak of some of the stuff you can find over on my guest post on the AC blog...

And just to let you know, I'll be choosing the winner of my eBook this weekend...sorry for the delay!!

Also stay tuned for some of my CHA product picks that I'm getting very excited about!!

(Not quite) Wordless Wednesday

2011-06-29T14:50:00.000+01:00

Jumping on the Wordless Wednesday here on the blog. Hopefully next week it actually will be wordless!!

I should be here today but a friend pulled out at the last minute and I didn't much fancy going on my own...did that last year and it was pretty miserable. Watching it on the TV instead.

I'm literally bursting with excitement...

2011-06-28T12:34:00.000+01:00

...about this:

It's been on sale for a little while now, but I wanted to wait until the new blog was up and running until I shared this with you!

Towards the end of last year I submitted an idea for a book to the lovely people over at Ella Publishing all about being single and scrapbooking about it. If I'm honest, I forgot all about it until one day back in March I got the loveliest email from Angie Lucas, owner of Ella Publishing saying that she loved my idea and that she'd love for me to write an eBook adapted from my original idea.

And there began the most incredible journey of me writing my own scrapbooking eBook...I still have to pinch myself sometimes to check I'm not dreaming!! It was such a fun experience and Angie was just wonderful to work with. I been so so lucky.

So, here it is...'Scrapbooking Your Single Years'...here's what the lovely people at Ella have to say about it...

Scrapbooking Your Single Years

88 spectacular page ideas for current & former singles

by Stephanie Baxter

Alternate title: An eBook about loving your life while looking for love.

CAUTION: This eBook is only suitable for those who are either currently or formerly single. (Luckily, that means everyone!)Newcomer author Stephanie Baxter brings you a 30-page guide to capturing all aspects of your single years—whether you're in the midst of them or they're long in the past.See great ideas for scrapbooking whom you spend time with, where you live, the things you love, your hopes and fears, your greatest achievements, and more. Enjoy beautiful layout examples from crafty singles in their teens, 20s, 30s, and 40s! You'll also love seeing layouts from a few former singles who are scrapbooking about their past lives as singletons.The ideas in this eBook can be adapted to any stage of life, helping you scrapbook about yourself right now, or back then, and capture memories that matter.

Here's a little sneak peek of what you'll find inside...

I promise you that you won't regret it if you buy it...the list of contributors I got to work with in this book is astounding: Geralyn Sy, Allison Landy, Amy Tan, Sarah Champion, Sara Benzkofer, Megan Powell, Caroline Ikeji, Cheryl Manz-Ametwee and Angie Lucas...there is such serious talent in there! I'm so lucky these girls all agreed to contribute!

The other good news is that I have a copy of the book to give away to one lucky blog reader. Please leave a comment and I'll draw a winner next week.

Welcome to my new-look blog...

2011-06-28T11:54:00.000+01:00

I am SO thrilled to be able to share my new-look blog with you. It was definitely time for a change...I was feeling rather uninspired about blogging, so I decided it was time to mix it up a bit and get a new design for it. Many many thanks to the very talented Danielle Moss for doing this for me...I love it!

You may have noticed that I've deleted all previous posts. I thought long and hard about this and came to the conclusion that it was time for a completely new start here on the blog. I need to start as I mean to go on and I felt that this should include starting with a completely blank canvas. I've got so many ideas for cool features that I want to make a regular thing here and am hoping to start them this week. I'm also hoping to start sharing a bit more about me on a personal level...looking back at previous posts, I felt that was a major thing lacking here.

If there's anything that you'd like to see here, do let me know!

I'll be back a bit later today to share some very exciting news with you!