Finally.....arrived!!

Hey guys,

So I ordered lots of photos in readiness for receiving my project life kit from Stampin Up so I could get going straight away. However, when I started sorting through the photos I decided I really wanted to start from the very beginning. So I then had to upload all of my pregnancy photos on to truprint and order them. This is a longer process than I thought it would be, but finally, they have now arrived. 

So I thought I would take this opportunity to talk you through my process of organising photos for project life as I think this can sometimes be the bit that puts people off!! 

The first thing I do is look through all of the photos for my subject, so for me at the moment it's Molly, but it could be your wedding, a holiday, your daily life. You then need to categorise your photos, so I put them in a rough order order of date if I have a lot of photos. 

Now dependant on your subject, you could choose to put them in order of dates, outings/events or the running of the day with a wedding for example. 

Once I have done this, I go through all of the photos and pick out my absolute favourites. When I have my favs I go through them again and date them. You could miss this step, but for me I have so many pics of Molly as a tiny baby it's hard to keep up with what age she is in them. 

Remember, if you are going to write on the back of your photos, use your project life marker from Stampin Up as they are specifically designed for photo work and will not ruin your photos over time. They are acid free, fade resistant, waterproof and bleed resistant!! They come in a pack of 2 for just £4.50 and you get a thin nib and medium nib! 

Now is the time for your final edit!! Go through your photos and whittle it down to the amount of space you need to fill depending on what pocket pages you have and how many sides you want to design. To cut down my photos i make sure I have only 1 of the same subject generally unless you decide to make that a page in itself. It really is up to you!!! 

So I hope that's given you some hints and tips and will help you to make a start with your photos. 

Remember, if you order your project life goodies before the end of March you will receive a free product for every £45 you spend with sale-a-bration and there are some gorgeous project life products up for grabs. 

I would love to hear about your project life and if you have any hints or tips on how you organise yours. Or if there is anything you are struggling with that you want some advice on let me know.

Speak soon

Shiv x

Excited!!!!

Hey everyone, 

So in my last post I mentioned that I had signed up again as an Independant Stampin Up Demonstrator. I am so excited for this new venture and cannot wait to get started with my projects. I was very excited to see this delivery pull up outside and probably frightened the delivery man with how quickly I ran to the door 😜. 

It was the best time to sign up as a demo  as it is currently sale-a-bration until the end of March, so instead of getting £130 worth of goods for £99 when you sign up, you get a massive £160 worth of goodies for £99. This enabled me to get a huge amount of project life kits and album etc including pens, punches, ink pads and more!! 

So what I now need to do is sit down and sort through all of my millions of photos!! My first project will be Molly as I have so many photos on my phone that I want to print off and have something tangible to look at rather than digital. 

I always panic slightly just having photos on my phone as on my honeymoon my phone fell into the sea so I lost all my photos of my hen weekend, wedding and honeymoon. Not to mention photos of my nephew and special people in my life that you just can't get back! So I vowed to always print off my photos so I have at least one copy if anything like that happened again. 

Anyway off to bury myself in a mountain of photos...wish me luck!!! 

Siobhan xxx

How life has changed....

Well my last post was in 2014 which seems like a lifetime ago now. Oh how things have changed since then. The first thing that has changed is I am now a married woman :) We got married on 2nd August 2014 and had the most perfect day we could wish for. As most crafters I made most of the things for my wedding myself which caused quite a bit of stress and sleepless nights prior to the big day but was so worth the hard work as I was immensely proud of how everything looked and it was just as we had dreamed it would be.

So then after the wedding came the most amazing luxury honeymoon in Bali which was just what we both needed.

We then came back down to earth with a bang when life resumed to normal :( I definitely had the wedding blues. After being so involved with the planning of our wedding I felt a bit at a loss! So I threw myself into planning for a new addition and just a short 3 months after our wedding, we fell pregnant with our beautiful Molly who was born on 18th July 2015 and who is even if I say so myself, the most perfect little baby.

So as you can see, since my last post my life has been a slight whirlwind of amazing changes. And time for crafting has been pretty scarce. But now that Molly and I are getting into more of a routine, I have decided to give crafting a go. I have signed myself up as a Stampin Up Demonstrator again purely to concentrate on Project Life as I think you will agree, we have a lot of memory making to do. Anyway, I am going to blog on a regular basis to keep you all updated with my progress and hopefully give you all some ideas on what Project Life is all about. 

Wish me luck!! 

xxx

Baby blanket - the right choice!!!

So, I was a very lucky girl for christmas as my mum bought be lots of knitting and crochet goodies!! It included beautiful crochet and knitting craft storage with lots of needles, beautiful wool, patterns, books and a gorgeous bag!! 

So for this year I decided I would start making projects throughout the year that I hadn't done before, build up a stock for craft fairs after my wedding this summer when I can start concentrating on craft!!! 

So project number 1 is a crochet baby blanket. I made this as a practice run with my gorgeous new wool from my mum. 

This is a blanket for a good friend of mine who has just given birth 3 weeks early to a beautiful baby boy Benjamin! Cannot wait to meet him. 

Enjoy the rest of your Monday x

S x

Fabric fever!!!

Well, as I stated in my last blog post, I am now addicted to sewing!!! I have recently attended some great courses with the lovely Lynne at The Make it Room and learnt so much. I felt confident enough to make so me chrimbo pressies for the family!!! 

My mum admired the bag I made on my course so made her her own using beautiful fabric from Fabric 8 in Colchester...

Then for my fairy godmother who loves butterflies, I made her a new cushion again with beautiful fabric from Fabric 8 in Colchester...

Now, as i am now addicted to fabric and the fab Plush Fabrics were having a January sale, I just had to treat myself to something!!

 

I will keep you updated with what I make using these beauties. I have my eye on a gorgeous bag design by Debbie Shore!! 

Happy crafting!!

S x

New Years resolution.......get back to blogging!!!

Well happy new year to everyone!!

I have started this year by making lots of resolutions. 1st is to get fit and lose 1 stone by May which is when I will be trying on my wedding dress for our wedding in August!!!!!!! Ahhhhh so excited!

2nd is to learn loads more crafty stuff and actually spend more time crafting instead of just looking on  blogs, watching you tube and never actually craft!!

3rd is to blog about it! I used to love keeping my blog updated but with the pressures of a stressful job, lots of family issues, I just ran out of time and energy!

So to start this year off I thought I would show you some of the things I have been working on.

The main thing keeping me busy for the last year is cakes, all sorts of cakes but mostly children's cakes! Here are just some of the cakes I have made...

Well that's the cakes. The other addiction for this year is sewing. I signed up to a fantastic 6 week sewing course with the fabulous Lynne at The Make it Room in Howe Green. It was a fun filled 6 weeks and I learnt so much from Lynne, she really is a wonderful teacher. It was lovely to be able to make my own christmas pressies and they were much appreciated! Below are the beautiful things we made on our course and I'll keep updating you with recent makes...

So that's my first blog since 2012!! Hope you enjoyed. Am now going to spend the rest of the day having a mooch through all of your wonderful blogs. 

Enjoy the rest of your Sunday xxx

S x

Kiddies cakes

Hey everyone,

Hope you are all having a fab weekend, cannot believe its almost Monday again!!

Anyway, I have been very busy over the last few months making cakes for friends and family and thought I would upload some of the kiddies cakes I have made recently!!

Thanks
S x

Cupcake crazy!!!

Hi everyone,

Wanted to share with you all my new passion... Cupcakes!!

I got some money given to me at Christmas do decided to go to a cupcake class which was amazing. I was in my element and got totally lost in it all. I have been making cakes every night since the class on Friday and taking them into work for them to be my guinea pigs! I already have some orders and will be making them for a charity cake sale on valentines week!

Vanilla

 

 Chocolate & Peanut Butter

  

Chocolate & Raspberry

 

 Well thats me for now, I am off to make more tonight!!! lol

Take care x

I will be back soon....

I have not been in my craft room for well over a year now, due to various reasons. I am moving over the next couple of weeks and got into my craft room to clear it out and realised how much I miss it all!! I have been looking at all of your blogs and getting updated with what has been going on in the crafting world. So watch this space!!!

A card for a friend...

Happy Saturday everyone!

A good friend of mine in work had some bad news during the week. I really felt for her as she is usually a very strong, happy, bubbly girl and the news she got knocked her for six!

This is a card I made for her using my SU stash...

This is the verse I put inside:

It will be the little things

that you will remember,

the quiet moments,

the smiles, the laughter.

And although it may seem

hard right now,

it will be the memories

of these little things

that help to push

away the pain

and bring the smiles

back again.

She loved the card!!!

Have a great weekend xxx

Friday Sketchers Challenge

Well I am in a bit of pain at the mo, recently cancelled gym membership so bought myself Davina's dvd!! Ouch!!!!

Here is the card I have made for this weeks Friday Sketchers challenge, just in time!!!

Well I am off now, going to make a cuppa and blog hop for a while!

xxx

Anyone for Anya?

Lots of Layers....

....Is this weeks challenge over on Anyone for Anya. I never thought I could enter these challenges as I don't have any Anya stamps much to my dissapointment!! But I saw on the wonderful Dawnys blog that you can now enter with CC Designs stamps which I bought very recently!

I also saw on Dawnys blog her sketchs which she has to help anyone with inspiration! I used one of these for my card....

I hope you like, I am still practising with my copics and throw away many images everyday because they don't 'look right' I think I am getting better with practise though. I also tried to colour with coloursoft pencils and sansador yesterday as I see it on peoples blogs and it looks lovely, but I just can't seem to get on with it. Just need more practise I think!

Hope you are all enjoying your bank holiday Monday, the weather here is sunny one minute and raining the next!!! Not good but still enjoying my day!

xxx

Sketch & Stash Challenge

Hello all,

Hope you are having a wonderful bank holiday weekend, I am really enjoying this weekend even though the weather is not good. Its lovely to have a lazy 3 days with my gorgeous boyfriend. We have been having a big spring clean, and I have had a lovely afternoon of crafting, while Chris has been watching footie!!

Well here is the first card I made today for the Sketch & Stash challenge....

Here is my card...

Well I will be back tomorrow with another card xxx

Whiff of Joy Challenge

Good evening folks!

Hope your Monday wasn't too stressful!

Here is my entry for this weeks Whiff of Joy Challenge, this is using one of my lovely new stamps from Ally Pally!





Well thats it from me!

xxx

Papertake Weekly Challenge

Really got my mojo back at the moment with my new copics! I love them but they I still don't have enough colours!!! :o)

Here is a card I have made for a very special person whose birthday is next week! He is a gorgeous little boy who is growing up very quickly! I hope he likes it and enjoys his birthday.

I am entering this in to the Papertake weekly challenge here......

Enjoy your weekend xxx

Another Card!!!

Well again here is another card I made last week on holiday!

I love my new copics and am still practising!!!

Have a great day!

xxx

Saturday Sketch Challenge ...... too late!!!!

Well this was my entry for last weeks Saturday Sketch Challenge but I didn't upload it in time!! D'oh!!!

This was another card I made with my sister on our crafting couple of days, check out her blog here for the cards she has made...

See you soon xxx

Engagement Card

Here is a card I made for an order a couple of weeks ago. Very plain and simple but I hope effective!

xxx

CPS Card Sketch

Here is another challenge of the week...

CPS Card Sketch, I love these sketches, they really give you the inspiration when it is not coming too freely!!! :o)

Check out the wonderful DT designs here....

Thanks guys have a great Sunday xxx

Whiff of Joy Challenge

Evening folks,

Well this week I have had my wonderful sister and gorgeous nephew staying with me for half term. So me and my sis got in and crafted as much as we could!!!

Here is my entry for this weeks whiff of joy challenge.....Green and Yellow and another colour of our choice (mine is Orange!!)

There are some gorgeous designs by the DT to check out here....

See you soon with some other creations!

xxx