Sunday 20 September 2009

What you missed out on...and what I've been working on of late.


I finally took some photos of my RAK on Thursday night before I packed everything up into that infamous pizza box & got it all taped up for Cathy. Presently it is making it's way across country to her in Johannesburg.

Poor Cathy actually had to work darn hard for it but all her internet investigations paid off as she hunted down the right answers week after week for 3 weeks running...

Over the years I have collected an obscene amount of paper & in this last year I have become a lot more directional about what I like to use. I love Basic Grey but am giving Cathy 20 sheets from their older ranges.

Also included are 4 sheets of alpha rub-ons (2 are behind the two on show). I am no longer a great fan of rub-ons to be honest. They are too temperamental for my liking but I do get the occassional sheet these days, especially the pretty coloured ones, the smaller the sheet the better for me because once I have cut into them it's hard to keep them against the backing sheet without parts rubbing off inadvertantly.

I like to buy stamps but don't really get enough use out of them to see that trend continuing! Cathy gets 3 rubber stamps & 3 acrylic ones, 4 inks (love inking but hardly ever do purples or navy blue) & a tub of blue paint & some silver micro-beads - that craze was fun while it lasted ;-D 2 packs of beads that I used to love threading onto pins & pushing into foamcore behind photographs, and pouring into shaker boxes. Perhaps I'll do that again one day but believe me there are more beads where those came from - I have a box full of them!

10 packs of glitter & flocking...for all those Christmas decorations that I never get to make...and a little container full of chipboard pieces...and a bonus sheet of school-themed paper. Don't do themed paper any more.

Some sweet antiqued heart paper-clips & some Anna Griffin monotone photo corners. Too demure for me ;-D

And 2 large & 2 small packs of Petaloo flowers with glitter centres. Never been too spotty a person so this impulse buy just didn't feel at home in my stash. I now have a whole heap of Prima goodies on order & arriving in 2 weeks, courtesy of a friend currently visiting Australia. I loved doing the whole quiz thing & may do it again next year. I know how great it is to win something. I won my Shimelle Laine Journal Your Christmas class last year & it was so enjoyable that I'm doing a December Daily every year! Hope you enjoy the goodies Cathy. It's a great feeling rehoming things - I hate things languishing unused so may well keep up the raks in future.

Right now I have another interesting way to use up my old papers. I have been saving packaging for the last few months & passing it on to Chelsea, my teenage daughter. Ever desiring to earn her own money I have had her cutting up the cardboard into a few different "standard" measurements I gave her then covering these with printed paper, punching holes in one side, corner rounding the other & using circular rings to hold them together. Voila! Mini albums. For Free! Okay I have to pay her a little ;-D But she is pretty fast & she works on an hourly rate! I did buy the paper originally of course but no outlay has been necessary right now & I am getting together a little collection of mini-albums I intend filling & decorating relatively simply as Christmas gifts for extended family members.

Photographs of said mini-albums are to follow shortly...

As for the major project I have been working on last weekend & last week...it is all finished & you are going to get to see it this week! Tomorrow you will see the photos of it as a WIP (Work in Progress) then on Tuesday you will see the big reveal ;-D Hope you enjoyed your weekend! Mine was a comedy of errors & pretty awful...roll on the school holidays here...starting on Thursday!


8 comments:

topkatnz said...

Well, that is a great stash you are sending Cathy - I'm sure she will get good use out of those bits. I actually quite like my Petaloo flowers - but, prob haven't used the dotty ones too much.lol

tania said...

Cathy for sure is going to keep herself busy for a while;) Can't wait for your project. . . love the mini album idea with the boxes, can actually make some nice albums for Christmas presents:)SO, are you busy packing??

Sandra said...

Wow, if I was Cathy receiving all of the above I would feel totally spoilt. Very cool!

Desire Fourie said...

Enjoy Cathy.
Hugs
Desire

Michelle Ramsay said...

What a super stash. I didn't go deep enough in the Jenni Bowlin website!! Maybe next time.

Love the mini album idea. Look forward to your big reveal.

CathQuillScrap said...

Oh that whole lot is coming my way... hehehe... I'm going to have fun aren't I!!! Some of it will definitely be put to good scrapping use and some will be used to make my lot of Christmas goodies (the glitter and stuff)... Thanks again Helen for the fun competition.

Lynette Jacobs said...

Enjoy Cathy!

Ella Swan said...

Yes the mini-albums are coming along nicely - we have made 3 so far & have another 2 in the pipeline. They are really easy! Yes Heidi - nothing wrong with the flowers, just that I find I don't really use blue anything these days so it's more of a colour thing ;-D