Good Morning Sunday!

Hey everyone,
I've been itching to try another digital LO so I got up nice and early this morning to try one out... I started with a 12x12 chevron pattern I made in Adobe Illustrator - the blue colour was picked to contrast with the sweet sugary colours of the American Crafts kit I bought. Sometimes a subtle contrast of colour really helps your elements stand out rather than just coordinate!

Lovely digital elements By ACDigitals Dear Lizzy Neapolitan!

Going digital definitely has it's advantages round these parts, by which I mean - no sharing a table with a naughty kitty who tries to steal every scrap of paper left unattended! He is a very naughty cat and there have been times when I have left a LO overnight only to return to it the next day to find it completely "rearranged" "edited" or just plain eaten! Pablo is obsessed with everything that goes on at that table, bless! I have tried lots of ways to amuse/distract him while I'm there which has only gone on to make him worse because I think he associates me being there with Pablo playtime! I even tried a nice comfy cushion so he could cosy down and watch me do my thing there but no - as soon as my back is turned something gets swiped!!! Last year he completely sabotaged a minibook I was making for my sister by eating 2 paper greyhound shapes I'd cut out for it!

Gorgeous but BAD!

- Here he is in his usual stance - sitting on whatever project I'm working on trying to chomp the corners off. He is lovely but v. bad  and would challenge even Jackson Galaxy's cat whispering ways! Just the other day I was trying to do a messy background with gesso and shimmer sprays and he walked right through the wet gesso and left his catty pawprints both on my project and beyond! Honestly!!!
Anyway, I hope you like my digital endeavor and I hope it makes you want to try it too - don't feel too guilty about deserting your real life stash temporarily! I don't, I see it as just another way of getting those pages done quickly and without falling out with my cat!LOL!
Happy Sunday Crafting everyone!
Jak
xxx

Here's one I prepared earlier...

Hi everyone,
So, this is a layout I started last Friday when I was over at my crafting buddy, Elaine's house. She has recently revitalised her craft room and invested in lots of lovely storage from Ikea. If you were planning a trip there for storage/shelving - don't bother - Elaine already bought it all! LOL! But seriously, it's looking great Elaine, well done! So while I was there we got stuck in to a bit of scrapping (along with a bit of Prosecco swigging) and I got this layout semi-finished. I knew I wanted to do a bit more with it but wasn't sure what so it's been on my table since the weekend waiting to be completed. I wanted to make sure it was colourful and summery so went for some flowers and a cheeky wee bee stamp plus two wee birdies. I stamped the birds onto patterned papers and cut them out, but the bee stamp is coloured with pencils. The papers used were mainly from the Papermania Happy Days 12x12 pad which I'm still loving and there's still loads left so you'll be seeing it again no doubt!

Thanks for taking a look!

Have a lovely crafty weekend everyone,

Jak

xxx

Well, lookie here - I've gone digital!!!

    So, I was just telling my friend Elaine that I was tempted to try a bit of digital scrapping for a change as I felt it would be quick to do seeing as I do this kind of thing all day, everyday at work... she kind of wrinkled her nose at me and said "Yeah but it's not the same as cutting up and gluing down bits of paper..." and yep, I agreed, it's not, but it is a wee change and sometimes a change is as good as a rest (and I think I've had plenty of those of late). So, without too much financial outlay -about 5 or 6 quid - I bought 2 American Crafts digital downloads of their Dear Lizzie Neapolitan embellishments and journalling cards. I picked these as I have a 12x12 paper pad which I really like and thought I could hybrid and mix and match the different mediums by supplementing the paper stack with the printed digital files so that way I get good "value for money" use from my downloads... Anyways, this is my first go at a digital LO and I've not gone too crazy as the temptation is to throw everything at it seeing as you can use the files time and time again unlike real life embellies which once they're gone, they're gone. I quite like the result and it did literally take half an hour to put together.  My verdict: Yes, I will do more digital LO's but it won't stop me from real crafting either as I just love truffling through lovely tactile papers and other bits of crafty treasure. I'm sure there's room for both types of scrapbooking in my life as digital is naturally a solitary thing to enjoy and real scrapping a bit more sociable especially when you're cropping with others or out shopping for stash together with friends... What do you think?

I would recommend trying it out if you like pottering about on you computer...
Thanks for stopping by!
Jak,
xxx

A 12x12 layout...

   Well this one came together quite quickly - it was done in about 2 hours which isn't too bad at all - and after the saga that was my Xmas Mini I find that quite encouraging!!! I think I might do a few 12x12s as I was looking through some photos and came across a few that really do need a page to themselves. Single photo layouts are so much easier to do than pages with multiple piccies as you really get a chance to play about with your scraps of patterned papers and you can have fun mixing and matching different styles of patterns! Cool! The main blue floral paper in this one is from a K & Company paper stack called Bloomscape, which I've hardly touched. Other papers are from Papermania Happy Days and American Crafts Neapolitan - but these are just little scraps from my stash. I must stop buying 12x12 pads as I never use them as whole page backgrounds. Instead I should go for the cheaper 6x6 alternative and that way I could get double the choice for the same price! Hmm! Sounds like a plan/excuse to hit the shops wouldn't you say?

Thanks for taking the time to pop by!
Jak
xxx

Christmas mini on hold!

Hi everyone, I hope you are having a great start to your year. I find January is always a chore but, thankfully we only have a few more days left to endure!  Talking of endurance my Xmas Mini is turning into a task of epic proportions! Lots of things are not working out but specifically the cover is a disaster and I'm struggling to get big enough o-wires for my bind-it-all to well, bind it together. The ones I've put on for the moment are way too small and now it won't shut! But that's only one of many annoying inconveniences that have conspired against me and the production of this meant-to-be charming keepsake! (Grrr!). So, I'm not gonna bore you with a grim blow by blow account of all the hellish detail but right from the get-go nothing has gone right!! In fact it's gone so badly that right now this stupid monstrosity is being put in a baggy and banished to the back of the craft cupboard where it can stay until I get my head round how to make a bad thing come good/work a miracle... It's not often I fall out with a project but we really need a bit of distance between us. Jeez, crafting's meant to be fun not a frustrating grind! Meh!
    Anyways, I'm sure you are all doing much better with your own lovely craft projects so don't let me rain on your parade! I'm gonna upload some terrible photos of this black hole and if anyone has any constructive advice as to how I can remedy this tragic attempt at a Mini Memory Keeper just leave a comment.  Don't tell me to bin it tho'! Ha, you gotta laugh - must put an extra page in it about how I struggled to bring it all together!!!

Yours, useless and frustrated, boohoo
Jak
xxx

Stupid draughty doors that won't shut!

This bit wasn't going too badly!

But it needs much bigger o-wires!

Introducing...

...A new(ish) member of the family! Drum roll please... put your paws up for my sister's amazingly beautiful, couthie and totally huggable Rosie The Greyhound! Yay!


 

     Rosie is a two year old rescued greyhound from the Scottish Greyhound Sanctuary and was adopted by Kags in October there. Being a rescued dog it's not been all plain sailing as she has settled in. For a start she struggled with the stairs up to the flat my sister lives in. Also she has a sneaky streak which sees her helping herself to all sorts of things that are not good for her - namely a massive box of Heroes (part of Millie's birthday present!) and a whole bag of cinnamon nuts and raisins from Kags handbag. Both of these thieving episodes have ended in a hasty trip to the vet as chocolate and raisins are very toxic to dogs. I knew chocolate was but had no idea eating raisins can be fatal! Eeek! So, it's been a big learning curve for both sister and dog and Kags now has to store things not for Rosie away really high up or in a closed room/cupboard that she can't get to.  Amusingly, she can open parcels delivered by the postie and has opened one that was a new coat for her which she cleverly placed beside her other coats... yes, I say other coats plural as she is the best dressed pooch this side of town! Greyhounds need to keep warm but she honestly has more coats than me! Rosie's history is unknown, so who knows what kind of life she had before she was rescued. I for one certainly would not begrudge her a few coats... Kags has even started knitting jumpers for her and this Christmas she went for walkies round the streets of Dundee in a beautiful Santa red and white one! Bless! So my crafting duties for next year might entail (see what I did there!) some doggy craftyness. I have already made Rosie a swanky collar tassle  - a traditional decoration from when greyhounds were favoured by Royalty and other posh folks. I think these would sell well at a Greyhound fundraiser as well as cards and other papery goodies.
   So, now that's everyone formally introduced! I hope you've enjoyed meeting Rosie and wish her all the best for a lifelong bond and amazing friendship with Kaggy!

Here they are - Little and Large. How did Gypsy get so old and short?

Lots of love for a Magnificent Happy New Year to all of you catching up with me here at my blog!
Jak
xxx

Dough Tags! Twice!

As previously mentioned...
So, yep, I had a crack at making some cornflour dough to make some tags/decorations and as usual in my life anything to do with following a recipe almost always ends up in either a large scale disaster or a smaller scale catastrophe... this trial was no exception! Haha! To start off with, this extremely simple one step, one pot recipe turned into a a major panic-driven two pot escapade when I inadvertently managed to confuse baking soda with baking powder and ended up with a seething, bubbling, mass on a scale with Vesuvius erupting - the overspill of which had to be poured into another large pot which meant I had to look after/cook two at the same time. Eeek!  The recipe didn't give any warning to expect this! I'd followed the very simple, in fact I would say foolproof instructions to add baking soda to cornflour and water only to discover at my peril that baking soda and baking powder are NOT THE SAME THING! Now can I say in my defence I am Scottish and here we have Baking Powder or Bicarbonate of Soda to choose from when baking and so I just assumed that the Baking Soda referred to in the American recipe would be known as Baking Powder here. WRONG! Lol! Fortunately after quite a bit of boiling and stirring two pots at once, I ended up with a very similar sparkly dough that rolled out well that achieved the same results - it just didn't look quite as snowy white and dried a bit coarser looking. Oh, and for goodness sake it made squillions of tags in fact way too many which is why Millie ended up with a load of them to sell at the School Fair.  Not one to be put off by such experiences - hey I take mini disasters in my stride - I decided to give the whole thing another whirl and try making them properly using THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS and a bit less of them. Result! This turned out exactly the way it was intended to! Yippee! Lovely and sparkly, snowy white, smooth dough albeit a bit harder to roll out and softer to work. This time I got a more manageable amount to work with and so in future will stick with my own proportions of ingredients.
Here's my recipe...
1 cup of bicarbonate of soda
1/2 cup of cornflour
1/2 cold water
Heat together on cooker, stirring till it boils.
The mixture will thicken so keep stirring and it will turn into a dough (hopefully, hahaha!)
Let this cool and then you can roll it out. I used some festive cookie cutters to cut out the shapes. You can also use stamps to add a bit of texture - fabric doilies rolled over the dough add a lovely texture and glitter can be added in there too, but I wanted mine mainly plain so I could stamp names on them once dry.  Mine dried in a couple of days as the room they were in was nice and warm - we had the coal fire on and I positioned them nearby to dry slowly but gently. I'm sure they would be fine by a radiator or something similar, just make sure they don't dry too quickly or they might crack.
Here's a couple of piccies of the results and how they look stamped both as a texture and stamped with ink. I've used mine as little tags on my wrapped up parcels but they would look lovely as pretty, rustic decorations hung on a Christmas tree too...
Why not have a try at making them - after all, I make all the mistakes so you don't have to...heehee! That should be my mission statement in life!!!

The top samples are the wrong ones made with baking soda and the bottom row samples are the bicarb soda ones!

You can see that these ones don't take the stamping quite so well as they have a courser texture. They definitely have a pretty sparkle but have an off white colour to them!

This is a sample made with the right ingredients and as you can see it embosses really well with a stamp. As the tags dry the embossing deepens and sharpens up. These ones are beautifully snowy white but aren't quite as sparkly the baking powder ones.

Here they embellishing some parcels.

Here they are stamped...

...and they can be written on too as they are nice and smooth!

I hope the recipients like 'em!
Have a lovely Merry Christmas everyone - I know you will all be very busy in these last days leading up to the big day so thankyou very much for taking the time to visit me here! I appreciate it so much!
Best wishes,
Jak
xxx