A beginner scrapper

Well hello! A bit of delayed post today - I've been helping with some-one else's writing, all in the name of bettering our life here! Anyways! Today I was going to show you my latest knitted project.... but life has got in the way of the knitting needles (more about that tomorrow), and so instead I have a little bit of scrapbooking to show you. I'm not actually a scrapper. I admire those who do it, the results are lovely. But I just can't bring myself to buy paper only to cut it up again! I actually thought of just framing some of the paper above. That is, after I'd purchased it... so I'd better tell the whole story hey?!

My lovely sister came to stay with us. For a whole week! Quite exciting for us all. And because she was here for a whole week I got to actually spend some time with her, just the two of us. Oh, and the littlest one. We had the daytime to ourselves with all school-age children and working men out of the house. This doesn't happen very often, just her and I. So we made the most of it! We went out every day. We had coffee. We talked, and talked. We bought shoes (that's what girls do isn't it?!). And we went to a shop I'd never been in before... the local scrapbooking shop. I went with an ambivalent attitude. I went in because she wanted to. But as soon as I walked through the door I knew I was a goner! I love stationary too much not to get even a tiniest bit excited by all of that paper, such gorgeous paper, in every colour of the rainbow and every texture imaginable. So, what was a sensible girl to do? Not sure actually, I'm not very sensible. But I did set myself a limit, I thought I should buy a maximum of five sheets of paper. I think I stuck to that quite well, I bought six sheets didn't I? And some split pins to match. And that was it. This time.

So, when we were at the counter I made a silly comment to my sister and the shopkeeper about not being into scrapbooking but still not being able to resist buying paper. And my wise sister said "Just make sure you go home and actually do something with it." Wise words huh? Given the amount of stationary (amongst other collected things) that I have stored in my home, they were wise words. Really wise. From one chick to another hey!

Well, one of the sheets of paper had some great quotes on it. I might have to use some of them for future Tuesday posts; A Quote from Life. I thought they were a great start to some scrapbooking. Being the big scrapper that I am - not! Anyway, I had to start somewhere. So I started with six sheets of paper, some black split pins, a paper cutter and some chicks to keep me company. Oh, and some cool pens that actually belong to the gorgeous girl, shhhh. I only used the boring colours!

Then I sliced, snipped and layered with the best of them! Good fun ;-) I practised my 'script' over and over. See the discard pile... After finding a frame that could do with an update I popped the finished work in that.

And eventually I finished it! Even the birds liked it! At least, I think that's what they said.

So there you go, a bit of fun with some lovely papers. I'm keen now to have a go at creating something re-using pieces of magazines and the collected stationary that I have about the place! Maybe some labels for baskets so I look more organised, like this, a cheap but organised option. I like the concept of using or recycling paper/cardboard/ribbons/string and making something useful and/or lovely! And if it means I occasionally have to purchase some new and fancy paper to coordinate it all, then I'll just have to visit THAT shop again ;-)

Here's to creating something lovely out of pieces of paper! And to taking some fun photos along the way!!

Ciao!