My Month in Numbers - April

Hi it's the end of the month (hasn't it come around quick!) so time for My Month In Numbers.

It was fortunate that when I was thinking of how to display this month's numbers the free shape of the week from Silhouette happened to be a pie chart. Dilemma over.

So here's the numbers for April.....

• 7 fabric purses and handbags sewn
• on the 27th worked at TDC for 25 years
• 3 cupboards cleared, sorted and de-stashed
• 58 total squares of expedit shelving. New shelf delivery.....is it enough? It'd better be!
• 9 beers tasted at the beer festival
• 1 man show of Fever Pitch seen at the Theatre Royal. Remember 1989? 0-2. Micky Thomas.
• 60 labels ordered and received for my sewn projects

So that's April, onwards to see what May brings and if you want to see more of April's numbers visit Julie at Notes on Paper

A Monthly Make

Hi. Over the last couple of weeks I've been making fabric purses and zipped pouches galore and as if I didn't have enough to be getting on with I bought a couple of patterns by Keyka Lou. I've seen them before but it was seeing Tabatha's tote bag that convinced me that I needed to try out these patterns.

This is a small envelope style clutch bag big enough to fit a mobile, purse and keys in.

I have a shoulder bag pattern too and once I've made one I promise to show you that too but in the meantime I'm nominating this bag as my Monthly Make. Take a visit to The Felt Fairy if you want to join in or find out all about it and see more monthly makes.

Home Sweet Home

I have a bit of recycling to share today. This oval frame was a rather ugly shade of brown when I spotted it but I thought it had potential. The moulding was pretty and it looks so much better with it's new white look.

I used a couple of paper flowers that I bought last week at Alexandra Palace and added a couple made using my tattered floral die with felt and fabric. Taking the glass out meant I could string the banner across the frame and I love the blue of this Studio Calico paper set against the white.

Keep your eyes peeled for old frames that might not look very nice as they are but look a whole lot better once given a spray painted finish. It's also a good solution if you want to give a unifom look to a collection of mismatched frames and I think white frames give a modern look.

Let me know if you give a new lease of life to an unloved frame.

A Few New Supplies....

Time today to showcase a few of my purchases from The Big Stamp and Scrapbooking Show. Did you go?

I deliberated for ages over this die made by Memory Box called Catalina Wreath. It looked so delicate and I can see that I will get lots of use from it. It looks pretty good just simply cut from plain white cardstock.

I mounted it on some foam pads and added the sentiment with Kaisercraft Tiny Alpha Stickers. Why haven't I seen these before, I'm officially in love. There are always plenty of suppliers of pretty gems and I wasn't disappointed at MeiFlower where I found lovely satin ribbon too.

Whilst doilies aren't a new idea I snapped up a pack of small ones including this heart. At the centre I used just a few of the huge pack of sequins that Glen gave me, I thought they added an interesting bit of texture......and sparkle.

And I seem to have gone a little scissor crazy and bought a scissor stamp and enough scissor charms to keep me going for, well - a long time. If when I make something with them I'll be sure to let you know.

"It's late, my love.....

.............he whispered. That's enough scrapbooking for one night....it's time for bed."

Anyone else own this stamp? I've had it a while and it made me smile the first time I saw it.

Even though I've felt the need to scrapbook recently I haven't neglected sewing. In my January Month In Numbers I mentioned that I was awaiting delivery of Zakka Style and  when it arrived it was hard to choose what to make first as there are so many lovely projects. They aren't complicated advanced projects, as the cover says - 24 projects stitched with ease to give, use and enjoy. 



But I settled on a linen pouch bag with my own addition of using the quote stamp. I used some versacraft ink to stamp with which was then heat set and die cut with a label nestabilities die.

I really like the look of the sewing kit on the front cover so I don't think it will be the last thing I make from the book.
.....and in other sewing news. I've finished the Trapeze Dress in the sleeveless version. In fact I finished it a few weeks ago but I've been working up to posting a photograph of myself wearing it.

I'm not happy but I wanted to prove that I actually finished it so I asked my Mum to take a snap when she invited me to lunch on my birthday last month. I'm going to make a version with sleeves next, not sure I'll be taking a photo though ;-)

The Joy of Doodling

In one of Dina Wakley's recent blog posts she shared her creative jumpstart video did you see it? If you didn't you should. I do think that to be creative you have to create and it doesn't really matter how or why but for me to do it regularly is important. So when I spotted this little journal I thought it would be the perfect place to practice some of Dina's warm up tips....that and it was red......and I loved the cover.

I also ordered 100 really cheap kraft luggage tags as practice fodder and today they arrived.

There was no plan to what I did and they are nothing spectacular but once I'd inked, spritzed, painted and stamped I felt like a bit of doodling. It felt good to spend a happy half hour just creating with whatever was at hand.

There is something quite soothing about repetitive doodling. The background of the journal is all the mopped up bits of ink and paint from when I made the tags.

Watch Dina's video as I'm sure it will make you want to create too.

Have Bucket Will Travel

I know more scrapbooking (I'm suprised too) but after a clearout yesterday I found some photos that I had been meaning to scrap and then today I saw Shimelle's Starting Point 

The photo in question was quite small and had a very purple hue about it like a lot of 70's photos. My scanner and I haven't been seeing eye to eye so to copy my photo I tried using my mobile and a retro app. Funnily enough using the retro app made my photo look a lot less purple.

So using Shimelle's starting point I started with 12x12 cardstock in a shade called Dusk by Bazzill. I then took a book page which I painted and inked and layered up a few paper scraps. I wrote my journaling straight onto the layout all about a day out at the beach with my bucket and spade ready for a day of sandcastle building. I thought the ric-rac added a retro touch. I remember ric-rac on many a dress when I was little don't you?

This Cat

This Cat

.....has got a meow and sure knows how to use it.

Day - Night for whatever reason.......mostly when

she wants something to eat.......sometimes for a

bit of attention.

Purdey snapped in a quiet moment.