Monday 21 October 2013

project life: october 7 - 13

i kind of love this spread.
with regards to colour, it's pretty simple, and i haven't embellished it too much, but i painted all the leaf details with watercolour, and i'm really pleased with how they turned out.


i also love the two photos of arty and his oma that feature on he right page. they capture the love between the two of them so well, and they make me happy every time i look at them.

Tuesday 15 October 2013

tiny matryoshka

whipped this little sweetie up on the weekend. she only took an hour or two, and i think she's very cute:


the pattern is from sewn studio, though their version is made with washi 'X'es on a wall - brilliant idea!

Friday 11 October 2013

little washi notebooks

i know there's nothing new about this idea, but that doesn't mean it's not a nice thing to do :)



little washi notebooks


what you'll need:



what to do:

  • you're literally just sticking the washi on your notebooks in any way that looks nice to you.
  • i cut a little V into the end of some of the pieces of washi, just to add interest, but otherwise i kept them quite simple - the washi i used was quite detailed, so i didn't think it needed much elaboration.



here are some other creative takes on this idea:
- hello hue
- refinery 29
- alice and lois
- two purple couches 


i think these make lovely gifts for people who like to write and draw, so i'll be making some more for my creative friends in the future.





Thursday 10 October 2013

like a hole in the head

if you know me, you'll know that i spend all my spare time crafting. and with a toddler in the house, the concept of spare time is pretty laughable most days. i have about three different quilting projects on the go at the moment (okay, four... FINE! seven! i have seven! are you happy now?), and my embroidery needle is never idle for long. i also draw and paint.

so i think it's safe to say that i need a new craft like a hole in the head.

but...

i really like paper. and i really like recording stories.
whenever we go travelling, i make travel journals with descriptions of our adventures, and stick in everything from postcards to bus tickets, to receipts from places that we shop. when i read over them, years after the fact, i get to revisit little details of the places we went that i would never have remembered otherwise.

a page from my travel journal, paris 2008

and here's the thing: i know that there are going to be hundreds of little details of arty's babyhood and childhood that i am going to want to revisit in future. the funny things he says, the clever ideas he has, and all the day-to-day stuff we do together are what make this time so precious.

arty's first potato print, ready for the album

so i have caved. and i have started project life.

my friends talia and ren have both been doing beautiful things with their own project life albums, and seeing their work was what finally tipped the balance for me. they showed me that scrapbooking doesn't have to be fussy or twee. it can be a colourful little love letter from the present to the future. with washi tape.

as a completionist, the idea of starting at a random point in the year was a little bit distressing, but i made myself let that go, and just got started.
to compensate, i have decided to do a single page for every month of arty's life up until the proper weekly scrapbooking begins. luckily, i had letters to arthur, facebook updates, and a well stocked instagram feed to help me fill in all the details. the process of going back over just those 19 months of his life confirmed that this is definitely something i need to do.

here are the weekly double page spreads i've done so far:

september 9 to15, 2013
featuring: some of arty's pinting, a reipe that sj baked for the royal show, a photo of the 5 leaf clover i found in the backyard, a hand-embroidered sunshine card, and a partially successful attempt at including fabric hexagons.

september 16 to 22, 2013
featuring: some silly little drawings by me, a repurposed greeting card, three kinds of washi tape, and a story about arty wearing a flower in his hair.

september 23 to 29, 2013
featuring: sj's grand final ticket, hand painted title and filler cards, a bumper sticker from sj's choir concert, and a story about arty being unwell.

30 september to 6 october, 2013
featuring: tickets from our trip to the royal show, arty's first potato print, a drawing of my d&d character, and a story about arty's developing language skills.


so expect to see some ramblings about this project here, along with talk of embroidery, quilting, and other sewing projects. if you're doing project life too, set me up with a link to your stuff - i'd love to see!