Thinking outside the box.

Last weekend I started working on a project that is a pretty big one for me.

I tend to be a single 12x12 page scrapbooker using materials from all over the place, different manufactures, collections and even different decades.... yikes, however this project in particular has been different in a few ways. I have stuck really closely to using just the one collection and creating multiple pages from the one trip. 

 In the almost two decades that I have been scrapbooking I don't think I have done either before. I had in my stash the Endless Summer collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio which had a number of the embellishment packs so I decided to start from there and work my way through the kit. One of the interesting things that I found was that by being limited to what products I had to work with I used things that I would normally pass over, that has been challenging but I am also loving the outcomes that are starting to take form in my layouts.

 I think that we get stuck in our ways especially when we have been doing something for so long but it is nice to shake things up and try new and different things. I have always had a tendancy to buy single sheets of paper rather than a collection but I think from now on especially when I have an album or a project that I am working on I might stick to the kit format, its been an enlightening time.

Blast From The Past....

I never thought that I would EVER be using these guys again. Somtimes though the simplest of tools that get the job done. Let me take you back to the year 2002. I was new to scrapbooking, in fact most of us were new to scrapbooking. You could not just go into any big craft or variety store and buy supplies and if they did happen to have them the selection was small and very basic, no you either had to know a lady (cough, cough creative memories) or go to a scrapbooking and stamping store. But then Lincraft opened up A new store near where I lived and they bought with them MAMBI softly spoken stickers, Making Memories everything and Fiskars crafting tools. This was where I got the Fiskars shapeboss and I scored it on a great opening sale for just $80 (MY GOD, what was I thinking) and a couple of the basic shape templates. Those shape templates were a life saver, no more trying to find a jar lid or cup that was the right size of circle to trace or wonky freestyle hearts nope, I had templates that I could trace and then cut wonky with my old school scissors.....far out we have come a LOOOOONG way.

 
I would buy one of those templates every visit until I was satisfied that I had all of the basic and important shapes like circles, squares, triangles, weird flat top and bottom diamonds.....cause yes who doesnt want to cut your photos into triangles and diamonds? Putting my sarcasm away though, we have seen huge changes in the industry in those almost 20 years since my days of fluro plastic stencils and that is not a bad thing.
I am so glad that we all have many different options available for us to use in our crafting but sometimes I forget that those simple tools can do the job too.

Not so sure that I will need to use them again any time soon if at all but it was a nice moment to reflect on this hobby that I love so much and all of the changes that I have seen and gone through along the way.

These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things....

Some of my favourite things in life are the colour pink and a black and white stripe. Fun Fact: I have an especially deep love for horizontial black and white striped shirts, I really can't resit them and have then in all the styles from singlets to jumpers and in all kinds of stripe variants....obsessed.

 So this is a card that is made up of a few of my favourite things, actually a lot of things becuase I do love black, white and pink as a colour story and like a magpie anything shiny and glittered will always have my heart. When I saw this Creative8 stencil at my LSS, I knew that it had to come home with me. I have never stencilled with black ink before but I love the finished look, I wil have to play again with using black with stencils.

 Speaking of favourite things, that striped paper.
Not only do I love a stripe but that particular stripe comes from a piece of really old pattern paper that I have been hoarding for a long while.
For those who are old timers in this hobby you might remember a little company called KI Memories and some collections they bought out under the Love, Elise brand. I LOVED these lines and I loved Elsie, her scrapbooking style was a bit different to mine but she wasd a breath of fresh air for me. She loved bold colours and patterns and in terms of age and lifestyle was more my lane. I still have a few sheets stashed away from her collections and I love being able to pull them out from time to time. Getting the maximum use out of your supplies makes me super happy and I love when I can pull out something that I have had for 15+ years and incorporate it with new supplies, that makes my heart happy.

A little big project called project life....

I haven't been posting much lately on here or any of my socials to be fair but I have been actively working on a 2021 Project Life album this year.
I have always wanted to tackle project life even if it was just once but I always found it too overwhelming or I was too disorganised to keep it going past January....yep 4 weeks was just too much for me 😂😂
This year I seem to have found a system that works and I have been keeping on top of it all.

The secret for me at least is a portable photo printer, who would have thought that all that photo editing and uploading to online or a machine in store and having to make the time to go into a store and then realising you have sized your photos all wrong and you have to start all over again could be an inspiration and creativity killer.

I bought a Canon Selphy at the start of Australias covid lockdowns starting last year because I figured that if I was at home a lot I would need some photos to scrapbook so I was going to use that time to craft my little heart out. I ended up not needing the Selphy because our lockdowns were so minimal where I am and I was able to work the whole time but I did start printing the odd photos here and there, that was when the realisation crept in that maybe this is exactly what I have been looking for to help me get started on that Project Life album that I tried to start 7 years ago and that never made it past January.

The pink to end all pinks....

A looooong time ago I used to work at a wedding invitation and party store and was surrounded by pretty paper all day long 😍. One of the perks of this job was a discount on all of those delicious A4 sized sheets of paper and cardstock and I made pretty good use of that perk however years later I still have a fair amount of all that card making stuff that I never get into. On my journey to try and use up all those long forgotten treasures I dug out all my pearl card and was inspired to make something using this pink to end all pinks 😂.

I absoloutley love this pattern paper. My kids are teenagers now and this kind of pattern does not really appeal to them anymore but it's the kind of pink and fun pattern that I love.

I pulled out another stamp that I have not managed to use yet and found the perfect stamp in a Close To My Heart set that I got A little while back. It was also really fun to pull out some embossing powder and have a play with that is a product that I not only love using but also love the finished look of, I simply do not get it out enough.

Sometimes a project that we have planned out in our head does not end up working out the way that we want, happens to the best of us from time to time. I recently made a card using some mystery foil that I now know is clearly of dubious origins but at the time just saw as reguar foil, anyways this foil just would just not do what I wanted it to do and i ended up getting less than stellar results from it.... never mind I still put it to good use for this fun and bright card. It is good to remember that sometimes mistakes or unexpected results can actually turn into wonderful projects or spark your creativity.

I actually really love how this card turned out and am glad that I got to have a play with this My Favourite Things stamp set that I have had for a while but as usual have not had a chance to play around with it. Next time I use this set I would love to make some fun and bright gift tags.

Last post I spoke about digging out some of my long neglected stamps.

Well recently I dug really deep and pulled out one of the very first stamp sets that I ever owned.
I really can't remember which was first but I do know that I had quite a few Fiskars stamp sets that fall into that category and this was one of them.

It was a Heidi Grace for Fiskars set.

WOW, do you remember that far back?

That is really showing how old I am and how long I have been at this crafting thing. I loved Heidi Grace Designs stuff, in fact I still have a whole heap of her valentines stuff in my stash.

How cute is this stamp set though? I have to admit it has been a hot minute since I used this one but this set has one of my favourite stamps on it, that seahorse and over the years I have used it on a number of different projects here and there.

I got to use a few different techniques that I haven't done in a while on this card which is nice because being time poor I usually stick to one techinque only such as just heat embossing as a feature but this card I had a nice play with.

It does make me realise that I love using distress colours as my preferred watercolour medium and that I need to get them out more often and also how nice the finished look of a no line water colour is, more of that too.

Easter is upon us....

 Another Easter throwback for you.

I made a couple of variants of this cards when I was away on our family holiday last September.  I did not take much with me but I did know that I wanted to use some new paper I had and a Close To My Heart stamp set that I bought at a craft de stash.

I have no idea how old this stamp is but I could no resist those cute bunnies. 
One of the things that I love about stamps is that generally speaking they have no "expiration" date.  Sure some styles go out of fashion or are no longer considered trendy but you can use stamps over and over again and change the look or feel of them by using different colours, papers and styling them in a different way.

It got me thinking about all those older stamps that I have not been showing any love to over the past few years so I am going to try and use some of those neglected older sets and breathe some new life into them again.

Everything old is new again.

   

An Easter Throwback....

An little Easter throwback for you in more ways than one.

For a start Miss T here is so much bigger and filled with a ton more attitude and eye rolls these days and secondly this was a layout started quite some time ago but that dreaded self doubt and indecisiveness came to visit and this layout sat in a pile of incomplete layouts for a really long time.

If I am being honest it was the two things that I struggle with the most that got to me....

Titles and Journaling, urrgh.

I am currently on a journey to work out to rectify this problem and find some solutions, one of the biggest hurdles I have and that I hate my handwriting on my layouts and I hate sitting at the computer and creating digital journaling so I am going to invest in fixing up a typewriter that I have and hopefully that helps me with that problem.

Titles, well that is a problem for future Erin to work out.

Aside from that how cute is this layout?

So different from what I would normally create but I love all the different pastel papers and tags all over the place.  Again as with most of my creations this is a great mix of old and new, brands and generic.  Some of the paper is from big box store stacks, some of the stickers are from a sticker book from Aldi and some of the paper and tags are from brands found at the scrapbook shop, I am quite partial to that carrot patterned paper if I am being honest.

Step outside that comfort zone....

I am a creature of habit.

I tend to use, wear, eat, listen and buy the same kind of things and where longevity is concerned it gets harder to step outside of that box.

I have been paper crafting for what feels like forever and you absolutely can fall into that routine of choosing the same colours, styles and products....1000% guilty as charged.

But what happens when you step outside that box?

Good things can happen.

Case in point, this lemon and lime beauty.

Is it pink?  No.
Is it purple?  No. 
Have a splash of teal?  No.
Is it glittery?  No.

Well there you go, something outside of the norm but it works, and it works really well.

That Damask Love pattern paper is glorious!  Bonus point for being able to use my most favourite cupcake stamp set from Papermania.....many years old and still going strong.

I am really trying to push myself to create more, to use up product that I already own and to show some love to my tools and supplies that have not been used in a long time.  I am a big fan of combining the old and the new in my creations and I feel that this is a great example of how you can take something new and exciting (that damask love paper) and make it shine even brighter with things you already own.  Pretty much everything else on this card is years and years old and who would know, they compliment each other perfectly.

So advise for the day,  step outside that box and try something different, you never know, you might just like it.

Cards and more cards

So I have a small confession to make.....


I used to really struggle with making cards, i sometimes still do.

For many years I was a traditional scrabooker and paper crafted using a 12x12 square base and when I tried to make a card I was stumped by the sheer lack of space that I had to work with.

These days however I have been embracing card making and tags, it has taken a bit of practice, trial and error but I finally got to a happy creative place with that small space.

One of the things that I love about the smaller scale of cards is that they are less overwhelming to try new techniques with, generally are less time consuming than a scrapbook page as alas I am a slow scrapbooker and exceptionally time poor these days and they are a great way to use up small amounts of left over products. 
If you know me at all in person I LOVE to be able to use as much of a product up as I can, I love frugal DIY's and I am a huge advocate of using all the old product and cards are perfect for this.

This was a fun experiment with gelatos, stencils and modelling paste, I also got to use my favourite cupcake stamp from docrafts. 

These tags are an example of a great way to use up older products in your stash.  These tags came from a craft kit and had sweater type prints on the bottom of them that I would never use. I managed to salvage them by covering up most of the pattern with washi tape.

How I love this card.  This was a lengthy make as I just could not get this card "looking" right.
I think it looks perfectly adorable now though.

Sometimes ideas don't pan out the way that you envision them in your head and sometimes you just need to play around with different ideas.  This is another card that has a few DIY and saved items on it.  The glitter hearts are from a homemade glitter paste, The card base is years and years old from when I worked in a wedding and invitation store and the gorgeous vintage girl image was cut from a pocket page card that I would never use for it's intended use as a pocket page card but I just loved her so much that I needed to find a way to incorporate her into my crafting somehow.

So what have I been doing....

I have been pretty bad at this blog thing as I established last week but I have been doing a few things here and there in the last few years.  A lot of the cards that I make I forget to photograph and I know I have a few layouts that I have not taken photos of...I do need to stop doing that and start uploading them.
Here are a few things that I have made and remembered to photograph and uploaded to my instagram account in the last few years.

Friday Faves, and hello there long neglected blog....

Wowsers, well has it not been quite some time?

I have been a baaaaaad blogger.

Life has been an interesting journey over the last couple of years, some highs, a whole lot of lows. 

The kids are getting older and I have devoted a lot of time to them and the school they attend.

Full time work became an absolute priority for me two years ago and my Husband also started a new job that took him interstate during the week.  Our work life, jobs and finances all changed, life changed.....massively for all of us.

House renovations and the packing up of my craft room definitely changed my desire and interest in craft.  Although my stuff was packed away I did a lot, an immensely large amount of crafting for the kids school and I just got burnt out.  There is nothing quite like turning a pile of random junk, a whole lot of creative juice and hot glue magic into thousands of items you can sell for the cheap.....NEVER AGAIN, LOL.

Even though time is precious and I seem to have less and less of it as time goes on I miss my hobbies.  I miss making, crafting, creating, blogging.
So let's go softly, softly to get back into this blogging thing again with some Friday favourites.

Let's start with a crafty one shall we.

1. Faber Castell Gelatos.
I hated these when I first bought them, I tried so hard to love them and the sad fact is that no matter how hard i tried I just could not get the hang of them and would always switch back to my cheap water colour pencils.  I had a love affair with distress ink for a while and used them as watercolours but a little bit of time, practice and trying every type of paper I could get my hands on I have come to a happy place where we both like and respect each other and get along just perfectly.

2. Uniquely Creative Stamps
I managed to pick up the You...Calyptus stamp at a craft de-stash event over the weekend.  I have noticed this brand for a while now at my LSS but I never took the plunge, I LOVE all the Australian images that they have.
Fun Fact #1 I collect vintage Australiana especially tea towels, table clothes and fabric.   Flora and fauna are my favourites, still searching for an elusive Sunshine Coast vintage tea towel to frame on my wall though.
Basically these stamps are right up my ally.  I also added the Dot Fade stencil and the Indigenous Journey stencil to my cart when I did a run around the store, I feel a love affair starting.

3. Mind Hunter, season 2
Ohhhh how I love this show.
Fun Fact #2 I have a lifelong obsession starting from childhood with true crime and have read more books and watched more shows, movies and documentaries than I care to admit.
This show is bonkers good, I loved the first season and waited what felt like forever for the second season to come out.  I am ashamed to say that I watched the entire 2nd season in 2 nights once everyone else was in bed.

4. Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge
I wear makeup pretty much everyday during the week, I don't have to but I choose too for various reasons.  For years I used a flat top Kabuki brush from Everyday Minerals which was my ride or die brush for both powder and liquid foundation but when I switched over to the sponge there was just no going back.  My foundation looks better, I feel like I use less product and it is so much quicker for me to use. 

Update....

Honesty.
My online presence and creative life has been non existent in the last few months, just simply nothing.
Life has gotten in the way and we have been incredibly busy, stressful and sad but on the flip side also happy and full of life changing events.



In the biggest news we finally took the plunge and bought our first house. 

This is something that we have been talking about, dreaming of and working towards for years and years.  It was 100% the most stressful experience in our lives, not a thing went our way except the fact that at the last second we ended up getting a house.  That is the silver lining in all that we went through, we now our own house.


Moving, dramas with real estate both buying from and renting through, sellers, banks, bond cleaners, removalists, end of school year, Christmas, family coming to stay, the loss of my beloved grandmother......Just a small offering of what the last few weeks of 2015 were like for us in the Joffe household.



2016......Onwards and upwards.
New beginnings, new start, new year.
Lots of new things on the horizon and making time for myself in my craft space is most important.  I have missed playing with my toys and feeling inspired to make things.

Everyday Obsession....

I have been spending a bit of time in my craft room lately while I have become a netflix widow (thank you weeds), and I managed to make a quick layout one evening, quite a feat for me seeing how long it has been since I have been in that room.

Both my husband and I work within the coffee industry and these little paper cups of caffeinated goodness are a daily must, they are a huge part of our everyday life

I have been enjoying making layouts without the traditional 12x12 sized sheets of pattern paper and using paper from smaller sized stacks and project life cards, also how great is that thickers font?  I was not sure how I would ever use it but it was perfect for this layout, I love when things like that come together.

First Moment....

This is the second in a serious of UFO layouts that I have been getting through and finally able to get into an album.
I have had some issues with a couple of the layouts that I made last and this was one of them.  I am still not sure if it has been a heat or cold thing or a combination of the hot days and cold nights but there has been issues of glue lifting and curling paper, very frustrating but I haven't had an issue for a little bit so we will keep an eye on that one.

About a year ago now we went over to Moreton Island for nine days and this is the first layout that I have made from that trip, I have so many ideas for the photos from Moreton, I guess the problem now is actually getting started on them.

I knew that I wanted to use light blues and yellows for this page I mean just look at those beautiful soft colours of that sunset, you couldn't through in brights on those photos.  Another thing that I just knew I had to use was the charcoal Addy alphas from Studio Calico, a beautiful font in a soft neutral, perfect.

The hardest part of this layout was the embellishments, I am a hoarder of hearts and brads but nothing beach or sea related.  The vellum shell that you see in the bottom right corner was the source of many a curse word, I knew that I wanted to have a shell on this layout but I have a Cricut and no cartridge with shells and I could not find a single image anywhere of the right shell for this layout so I free handed a shell and fussy cut just like the good old days.  I will tell you what, boy am I glad that we have die cutting machines these days, I just don't have the patience for that kind of carry on anymore, ha.

Add in some misting drops, a watercolour starfish and a couple of complementary sequins and you have embellishments perfect for a soft pastel coloured beach themed layout.

Beach babes....

Well, well, well, guess who finally got around to finishing off a layout.  Yep that's right I finally have finished off a UFO project. 

A few months back when these photos were taken I knew that I had to get them scrapped right away.  This is my daughter and the daughter of one of my best friends, we both knew each other as kids and our mums were friends in high school so these girls are third generation friends, very special really.




The layout....I am really loving the look of framing or matting the whole layout and one of the best ways to use up pattern paper that you no longer have a use for or isn't quite your style is to use it as a frame.  Pretty sure I would have trouble using a red watercolour with floral print but as a mat, perfect.

Another great trick to stretch your stash is to use those project life cards up by using them for layering.  I only used two sheets of pattern paper in behind the photo one was that gorgeous feather Sassafraslass and some very vintage KI Memories, the others however were MAMBI pocket pages.  I am not a project lifer but I still have quite a few packs of them around so this is a great way to use them up.

I am in love with these small Prima alphas and those Pink Paislee Luxe Arrows.  I have used the arrows a few times lately and find the colour combination though rather neutral works really well with a variety of different colour combinations.

Finally those extra photos that you don't have room for on your scrap pages or maybe don't want to include on your layout........put them into a pocket page or project life style album insert.

I don't do double page spreads but sometimes I would like to add in a few more photos.  This is a great compromise to that as you don't have to scrapbook them but they are included with the whole story that you are telling. 

CHA Summer loves....

So it is that time again when the end of year scrappy releases start hitting the shelves, yay.

I knew that it must be getting close as Spotlight have been having some pretty decent sales on scrapbooking goods and recently started putting clearance prices on a lot of lines.

Now for the releases.....

Honestly I don't need anything much these days as I have not been scrapbooking but I can still have a look and lust after some of the new lines making there way onto the shelves, here is my favorite picks.

Authentique Infused

Ohhhh how I love this line.  It is pink and girly and filled with all the things that I love in life like cakes and doileys and cutlery and tea cups and pots.  I will be buying this line.

Bella Blvd Family Frenzy

I am not too keen on the rest of this line but there is no way I am going to get away with not buying a sheet of this double sided paper....Hello Doughnut pattern, get in my paper stash.

Authentique Trick or Treat
Ohhh man, this is the line that has finally made me sad that we don't celebrate Halloween in Australia.  Probably wont be buying any of this line but it is a beautiful collection and I would love to be able to use it.

Echo Park Dots and Stripes, Valentines Collection.

Another line that I will be buying.  I am a huge fan of polka dot paper and I use pink polka dots the most, nothing too fancy but an essential in my scrapbooking.

Echo Park, The Story of Christmas.

I LOVE this paper so much.  What I love about it is that it is quite obviously Rudolph from my childhood favorite Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.  I will be buying a sheet or two of this but seeing as I didn't use the Christmas lines that I bought last year this will be the only sheet  from this line that I buy.

Lawn Fawn Winter Scripty Sayings 
Ohhhhh I love this stamp set.  As far as stamps go I have fallen into the "practical" only category, how many times can I use this stamp, is this something that I can use multiple times, will this show it's age.......you get the idea and well this stamp is one that I could use every year.

Well that is that for the 2015 mid year picks.  Nothing really blew my mind with these releases but there is still quite enough things that I would love to spend my cash on.  What have you liked from these new releases?

Ohh Long neglected blogger..... Laying the honesty card down right now, I have been a very bad scrapbooker and have become a collector of paper craft supplies rather than an avid user of said products. Part of the problem that I have is with the house that we are currently living in and the space that my scrapbooking area is housed, I will make a post on that a bit later but at the moment I am in between behaving as a sane normal person who has serious reservations about the storage of her precious hobby goods and the flactuating weather and insect colonies and of being a princess about the whole situation and downing tools. Anyways just a little post of some of the goodies that I have picked up in the last few months to get me back in the hang of this blogger thing.

Pretty little card for a special little ones first birthday, used ctmh and maya road stamps #ctmh #closetomyheart #mayaroad #tsukineko #papercraft #cardmaking #birthdaycard #watercolourpencil #stamps #clearstamps #acrylicstamps #stamping

A photo posted by @erinjoffe1 on Mar 21, 2015 at 12:45am PDT

$8 craft haul for the win, thank you Big W. #fiskars #fiskarsaustralia #washi #washitape #brads #cardkit #ladedah #ladedahcraft #merci #bigw #grantstudios #grantaustralia #gracetaylor #scrapbooking #papercrafts #haul #scrapbookhaul #craft

A photo posted by @erinjoffe1 on May 6, 2015 at 8:04pm PDT

Thank you spotlight with your 40% off deals and I finally got the gold Heidi Swapp color shine. #scrapbooking #spotlight #spotlightstores #spotlightaustralia #americancrafts #amytangerine #heidiswapp #colorshine #kaisercraft #bella #patternpaper #scrapsupplies #scrapbookhaul #crafthaul #papercraft

A photo posted by @erinjoffe1 on Jun 5, 2015 at 2:48am PDT

Finally took the plunge and got some Gelatos, looking forward to some messy experiments #gelatos #fabercastell #fabercastellgelatos #fabercastellaustralia

A photo posted by @erinjoffe1 on Jun 10, 2015 at 9:30pm PDT

Bargain basement scrapbooking goodies. I have been finding amazing bargains at riot art and craft lately...all these goodies, only $9 😄 #scrapbooking #scrapbook #scrapbookbargain #scrapbookhaul #makingmemories #mambi #americancrafts #glitzdesign #glittertape #riotartandcraft #riotartandcraftaustralia

A photo posted by @erinjoffe1 on Jun 27, 2015 at 2:33pm PDT

It has been a while.....

To be honest I have not done anything in the way of crafty endeavors in the last few months really, I did attempt to make some Christmas cards in which I did manage a few but I never got around to finishing them all off and then......I lost them and ended up not sending any Christmas cards (face palm).

At least I am super organised for this Christmas, lol.

I even scoured all my LSS and the internet for this yummy paper line....  Gosh it is pretty though.


Things have been super busy and stressful over the last few months at casa de Joffe.  The house we had lived in for many years got put up for sale and then we had dramas with open houses and changes in real estates. 
Miss Teela is going in for her fourth foot operation and has been in and out of casts in the lead up to that with a postponement from the hospital thrown in for good measure and then there was the move and all the cleaning, packing, unpacking, purging, fighting, extra costs and then school breakup, Christmas and a 6th birthday thrown in for extra measure, oh and I lost my job so that was helpful.

The only bonus of all that rubbish happening is that this is now my view from my little craft space instead of an absoloute nightmare inducing electric blue wall, I seriously hated that colour with every inch of my being.

And we did get to see a couple of days like this spent with friends over the holiday period, this is certainly one perk of living on the east coast of Australia, another is having a huge amount of friends back home who all live within a ten minute drive to beaches or an hour to something far more secluded and empty like this glorious spot.

Just a little sneak of something that I have been playing around with, I only need to get oneself to Officeworks to purchase a toner cartridge for the printer as I don't care for my writing on layouts and those things are more expensive than filling my car with petrol...and that's saying something on the rort that is printer ink prices.