Playing with Fabric

Question: So what's a girl to do when she can't sew?

Answer: Play with fabric!

As I've been working on recent projects, I've decided that my fabric storage needs a serious overhaul.  I mean, serious.  Truth be told, I have fabric in piles throughout various areas of the flat but the majority of it is stashed away in my under-bed storage unit, which is a pain to haul out and things get lost and forgotten in there.  And I know from having re-organised my scrapbooking supplies, if I can see it, I'm more likely to use it.

So, I got to work and look at the prettiness now: MINI BOLTS!

Aren't they gorgeous?!  I just want to sit there and stroke them, they're so pretty like this.

For the bolts, I cut up a stash of old cereal boxes I'd been saving for templates.  The front and back panels measure 7.5" by 11", which is a perfect size for wrapping your typical single metre or so of fabric.

Then there's the question of how to anchor the ends.  Pins, rubber bands, masking tape, paper clips?  I started out with some spare pins but when I ran out of them, I came up with an even better solution, which I think I will ultimately switch to using instead: foldable bulldog clips!  I really like this option because they're sturdy and won't easily slip off the bolted fabric, plus they won't mark the fabric, damage the bolt inside or be harmful to Greta (cat) if she finds one laying around.  Oh, and let's not forget, I won't accidentally stab myself with them, either - always a bonus.

Now I can't wait to finish another box of cereal so I can continue to add to my mini bolt collection.  :)

WIP Wednesday & Grab Bag Goodness

So as you know, I've been working on re-organising my scrapbooking supplies and arrangements.  I've been mulling over how to potentially better store my papers and I finally took the plunge and decided to try out a new system and see how it goes.  Here's what I've set up:

I buy cardstock by the 10-pack and I've been saving the left-over sleeves to recycle and thought they could make good paper holders.  I cut 4" off the front tops and made some little tabs with scrap card and washi tape to label them, then started putting in paper by manufacturer.  I didn't have enough sleeves for all of the manufacturers but I have a lot of singles and two pages from random companies so there's a fair bit of 'miscellaneous', which is fine for now.  Behind the patterned paper is my cardstock, arranged by colour; then specialty papers and letter sticker sheets, notepaper pad and scoring board.  I'm going to try this out for a while and see how well it works for me, then decide if it needs adjustment or if I want to purchase proper Cropper Hoppers, etc.

I also did a big de-stash the other week - my first ever de-stash, actually - it was so liberating!  Being a teacher, I could of course take it into work to use with my class but I actually thought it might be more fun to make grab bags for interested readers such as yourselves.  Sounds fun, yes?  So here's the deal...

Grab Bags!
I've made 9 themed bags (see the list below) and you're very welcome to take as many as you wish, I'm just asking for $10 USD to help with the cost of international shipping.  I'm very happy to combine multiple grab bags into one shipment, although depending on weight, I may ask for an additional $5 USD.

This is older product from a number of sources, such as scrapbooking manufacturers, Papercraft Inspirations magazine free gifts, generic craft stores and dollar stores.  Each grab bag is comprised of different items but may include: patterned paper (either 12x12, 8x8 or 6x6 sizes), clear stamps, stickers, tags, dimensional embellishments, rhinestones, sequins, letter stickers, brads, tapes & adhesives, photo corners, buttons & beads, ribbons, artist's colouring pencils and ephemera.

Available themes (list will be updated as needed) - $10 USD shipping cost unless otherwise stated:

• Autumn (small - $5 USD shipping cost)
• Winter (small - $5 USD shipping cost)
• Summer/Spring
• Christmas
• Wedding
• Baby
• Kids & Critters
• Card-Maker's Pack
• Misc./Trave/Food

UPDATE: All grab bags have been claimed and shipped!

If you're interested, please email me at cenglanddesigns [at] gmail [dot] com and indicate which grab bag(s) you'd like.  Please also include your shipping address.  If combining bags, we can discuss any necessary adjustments to shipping costs, which will be payable through the above email address via PayPal.

Belated WIP Wednesday

Okay, I know it's officially not Wednesday anymore but I was having a completely slovenly day yesterday and didn't do much of anything (it was wonderful, btw).  Anyway, I'm playing catch-up today and have actually managed to be quite productive so I guess it all evens out in the long run.

So, first up - I have finished my donation slab blocks for the Quilts Recover Southern Alberta project - yeah!  I sat down today and sewed a new orange block, since I had fallen in love with the first one I made and then made a second red block, since I had a lot of leftover red scraps I'm unlikely to use for anything else.

That brings the total up to eight blocks altogether and I'm quite happy about it.  I'm eagerly awaiting Cheryl's address so that I can pop these into the post in the next week.  Here's a look at the collection altogether:

I've also been working a bit more on re-organising my scrapbooking stash.  It all started when I found some wooden clothes pegs at a good price; brought them home and decorated them with narrow washi tape, then sat down and went through my ziplock bag of ribbons, creating a donation pile and winding the rest I wanted to keep onto my new, prettied-up pegs.

How lovely, eh?  I've since found an old glass container I no longer use for baking supplies and have stored them in there.  Well, then I seemed to have gotten the de-stashing bug because I quickly moved on to my stash baskets, which are now pretty bare.  I'm very happy about that, though, because a lot of it was stuff left over from my extremely early scrapping days that doesn't match my current style or things that I've received from elsewhere (ie. magazine gifts, etc.) that again don't match my style.  And of course, clearing out the old means plenty of room for new shopping - squee!

So at the moment this is the current state of things.  Not really organised, as you can see.  Those two woven baskets in the bottom shelf are actually my 'stash' and with the exception of cardstock and patterned paper, everything fits in here.  Small, right?  What can I say, I own a small flat and I need to balance living space with hobbies.  The majority of my scrapbooking supplies are currently in a similarly large basket in the kitchen, though - that's my current stash that I'm working through so this certainly isn't all of it.

The box on the second shelf in the first cubby on the left is my box of de-stashed items.  The other two cubbies on this shelf have things that would normally fit into the stash baskets but it's all awaiting further organisation at the moment.  I'm trying to decide what to do about paper storage right now.  I have paper sleeves that my 12x12 cardstock comes in that I'm considering recycling to hold my patterned paper in one of these cubby squares.  Or I might invest in a cropper hopper - one for cardstock and one for patterned paper would be plenty for me.  Or perhaps the black three-partitioned cropper hopper.  I'm going to chat it over with a fellow scrapper friend who's coming to visit for a crop this weekend and then try to decide on a course of action.  Suggestions are whole-heartedly accepted.

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.