Pinspiration Sunday

Sunny evening, everyone!  We've been enjoying some truly lovely summery weather the last few days, which means I've been busy juggling crafting with soaking up some R&R.  Although if I'm honest, the crafting has been winning out over the sunshine; something I should rectify soon.  So, you know the routine - go grab your hot beverage of choice and cozy up to some photo love.

Currently:
* watching - Bones, premiere episode
* reading - Papercraft Inspirations, August issue
* making - many pretty paper things :P
* eating - homemade, grilled hamburgers - YUM!
* drinking - water
* wearing - tank top and shorts
* weather - clear and sunny, 22C
* feeling - excited to play with a new toy
* needing - to finish the 2 blocks for Albertan Relief & buy a new bike (urgently)
* planning - to re-organise my scrapbooking supplies
* thinking - I need to be out in the sun more
* loving - my current creations
* enjoying -  looking forward to Haberdashery sewing group

Now, on to the pins:

Bounce (fabric is Coquette by Moda)

How beautiful is this quilt?  I love the soft, sparkly colours on the pure white background and the interest and movement that the uneven border adds.

Sarah's Hand Embroidery Tutorials

This website has tonnes of embroidery stitch photo tutorials with easy-to-follow instructions.  This site will be popping up again soon but I thought I'd share now in the hopes that you find some lovely new stitches to try on your next project, sewing or papercrafting.

Summer 2013 Bucket List by Senoritascrapper

How cute is this idea?  I like the mason jar trend but I've never invested in any of the papers or stamps, etc.  I think Senoritascapper has used her jars wonderfully, though, and it makes me want to scraplift this adorable page.

Annika by SamaraGugler

This page is so whimsical.  I love the background of branding stripes and the flourish of simple, white butterflies, perfectly positioned but it's the glitter ombre letter stickers that really bring this page together.  Stunning.

card by Laura Craigie

There is something I love about stripes and especially diagonal stripes and the combination that Laura has used here with circles is so striking.  I love that single pop of blue.

Decorative Tapes by Ikea

Yes, you read that right - Ikea!  I couldn't believe it myself but it appears that they now have a gift wrap and stationery line (or that's been the case for a while and I've only just noticed now - entirely possible).  Anyway, the tapes come in sets of four in pink, blue, green or black.  I'm not sure if the quality is washi-style or decorative cello tape and my local Ikea doesn't have them in stock currently but I'm looking forward to investigating further.

Twine flower tutorial

If you missed it last week, I used this tutorial to make a neat twine flower for a scrapbooking page.  It's actually ridiculously easy and they make lovely accents for papercrafting or could be sewn onto handbags or the like.

Design Seeds

And because I love orange and I've been getting into greys these days, I had to share this lovely colour palette - it just makes me happy and warm inside.

WIP Wednesday

So I have a few things going on in the craft department lately.  The largest is the age-old issue of organisation and functionality and at the moment, it's my scrapbooking supplies and process that needs the most help.  I have a reasonably small flat - a very comfortable size for just the cat and I but no spare room that can be used for crafting purposes.  This means that my supplies are spread out between the lounge and kitchen - the majority of the stash and stuff I'm not using at the moment is stored in various nesting baskets in the lounge while my current stash is in one big basket on the kitchen table, where I work.  I've also realised recently that I do most of my scrapping standing up these days.

So, I'm toying with the idea of buying a moveable kitchen island that I can use to scrap standing up and can choose whatever room in which I want to work.  I like the look of the Ikea Förhöja - a decent sized table top, drawers and two shelves.  I'm also thinking I could install some rails on either side to hang organisational pails and such.

To test out this theory, I spent Monday scrapbooking on my ironing board, which I set up at the same height as the förhöja island and it's nearly identical in measurements on the top.  It went quite well.  A very comfortable height and while I would love for a little more table top space, I think this will be a flexible solution, especially if I get the rest of my supplies stored better.  My lounge features a large Expedit-like shelving unit so I'll see about getting some baskets and perhaps pretty tins to fit into the bottom squares and possibly the famous ol' Raskog cart for extra storage and portability, which should fit nicely between my old computer desk and wall.

I also have designs for two new scrapbooking layouts rolling around in my head right now.  One uses the rest of my Kate & Co. Oxford Lane papers, which I discovered through chance while sorting through papers on Monday during tidy-up that they match beautifully with an Elle's Studio and Lily Bee Designs paper I bought in my last shopping spree - sweet!  I love when serendipity happens like that.  Here's a quick shot of some of the supplies I've pulled:

And finally, I've been making some more progress on my Albertan Relief quilt blocks.  I got the second green block sewn up last weekend.  Still need to do a second orange block and I definitely have enough red scraps to do one more red one, too.  Hopefully I can get those whipped up before next week so I can ship them off to where they're needed most and not laying around hogging up my ironing board (since it's apparently now doing double-duty...).  Here's the new green block:

Oh!  And I nearly forgot, I'm taking two scrapbooking classes!  I took advantage of the recent 2Peas 20% sale and bought access to Shimelle's Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking and Amy Heller's Through the Kaleidoscope classes.  I've decided I'm going to focus on one at a time and I'm starting with Hitchhiker's, because I always think it's important to review the basics (and I adore Shimelle :P ) but I'm super geeked to check out Amy's colour theory class afterwards.  Right now I'm enjoying a chapter a day and I think one of the sketches from chapter two will be put to good use with the second layout that's mulling in my head at present - fingers crossed!  And Wilna mentioned in yesterday's In the Mood to Scrap video that she'll be releasing an Art Class II this autumn - how exciting!  Her current one is still on my wishlist but you can be sure it will be the next class (or set of classes, now it seems) that I take.