Drooling CHA 2013

I’m dying like Jack from Will&Grace died. I’m in a creative slump and when all the sneak peeks from various scrapbooking companies started appearing all over blogosphere, my brain went into overdrive. I want them ALL! This is madness. (If I ever won lottery, I wouldn’t roll naked in money, I’d be rolling in scrapbook paper sheets, throwing embellishment in the air.)

I’m sorry if I just made your eyes bleed.

Anyhoo, CHA is my dream holiday destination but until that day comes, I’m to be satisfied with reading other people’s blogposts about how fabulous time they are having. Ah, to be amongst those who get to touch all the new papers and stamps and whatnots…But here I am. In Finland. As far as you can get from CHA on this planet.

It’s not all despair over here. Thanks to interwebs I can shop from anywhere in the world that I want to and I’ve decided to list the collections I’m most likely to buy should my funds allow.

I Lowe Scrap: Why Not? I have two sheets from ILW and I’m holding on to them like they are my dear children. Modern with a hint of Soviet nostalgia. What’s not to love? Their other collection Divine This Line isn’t bad either.

Unchartered Waters By Glitz. I don’t think I have anything by Glitz in my stash but this one will be. My god-daughter is having her Confirmation this summer and with the theme of faith, hope and love, I could make one “bitching” mini-album of the celebrations. I don’t know why I love this set so much. Oh, I do. It’s the teal and yellow with a hint of pink that did it for me.

Collectable by My Mind’s Eye. At first I thought Collectable was just a single set but it actually contains 4 different mini-collections. Notable, Memorable, Remarkable and Unforgettable are all very, very fine but my favourite is the Unforgettable. Mainly because of that adorable hexagon pattern. Since MME’s 6×6 pads are reasonably priced AND are available at my local craft store, I might get them all.

 Here+There by Studio Calico. This one is on my maybe list. My godson’s Confirmation pictures from last summer are still on my hard drive, waiting to be made into an album but I just haven’t found a paper set that would appeal to a teenage boy. I know, I know. He is a teenage boy, thus doesn’t give a tiny rat’s ass what kind of paper I use or even if there ever will be an album or not but I CARE! And that’s what counts. My other choice is:

All About a Boy by Echo Paper. I like the colour scheme very much and the patterns are exciting too. They don’t exactly scream Confirmation but would match my godson’s personality. Or the personality I’m hoping him to have when he grows past the surly teenage years. When ever that is…Next up is something solely for me:

Travel Girl By October Afternoon. I love OA. Their papers are always so fantastic and have just the right amount of vintage vibe. I haven’t forayed into a world of scrapbooking apart from making mini albums but I’d like to make something to remember MY travels. Having reach the ripe age of krhm, khrm, khrm, a tangible keepsake of my trips would be kind of fun. I bet even my godson would find that album interesting enough

Oo! I got an idea! How about making an inspiration album for my god-daughter about places I’d like her to see and then some money to start a travel savings account as a Confirmation gift? I’m a genious genius. I truly am.

Summer Love, Sweet Disposition, Honky Tonk and TV Dinner by Cosmo Cricket. Together with MME and OA, Cosmo Cricket is my favourite paper manufacturer. I think I’ve bought most papers that I have from them. These four new sets are so pretty and most importantly I have an end-use for all of them. As you know, I make a mini-album for my god-daughter every year for her birthday and this year won’t be an exception. The first three are all optional for that, especially Honky Tonk as she has a horse and I have a sneaky feeling that she’ll be requesting another horse themed album. The TV Dinner-set I’d use to record my fave recipes and if I’d feel generous enough, I might even make nice recipe cards to share with my friends. (To be honest, I don’t have that many good recipes and the one’s I do have, I don’t want to share. Because they are that good.) Then last but not least:

 DIY Shop by Crate Paper. Crate Paper, how I love thee? Last summer I spent hours on the computer in order to find their Random- collection kit. Which, BTW, totally changed my view on how to craft. Meaning: Get a kit and crafting gets easy. (I’m soon going to share a mini album I made using the kit). What would use this set for? I have plenty of crafts (from pre-blogging era) I’m very, very proud of and I’d like to document them more permanently. Browsing one’s hard drive isn’t that fun and you cannot take it with you to show people. Anyhoo, there are so many elements I love about this set. The mix of patterns: Map? Vintage typewriters? Chevron? Polka dots? They all make me swoon.

If you want a quick access to CHA Winter 2013 sneak peeks, Scrappy Jedi has a complete (and constantly updating) list HERE. Go and drool at your hearts content and try to pick your favourites. I’m here calculating the cost of getting all these sets and thinking if food really is necessary. Have you already done your fantasy OR real shopping for this spring?

Over and out and dizzy with all the crafting possibilities.

Related articles

• CHA-W 2013 // Here + There (studiocalico.typepad.com)
• Glitz Designs CHA Winter CHA 2013 Sneak Peek Color Me Happy (yourscrapbooksupply.typepad.com)
• CHA-W 2013 // Snippets (studiocalico.typepad.com)
• CHA Winter 2013 – SNEAK PEEK #4 (simplestories.typepad.com)
• CHA-Winter 2013 – SNEAK PEEK #1 (simplestories.typepad.com)
• CHA-W 2013 // Sundrifter (studiocalico.typepad.com)
• Clever Endeavors Joins CHA and Debuts SliderWriter™, a New Laser Scrapbooking Tool That Lets You Get it Straight Every Time (prweb.com)
• CHA Sneak #8: Mixed Media Bonanza! (prima.typepad.com)
• Urban Traveler: Just Go (simplestories.typepad.com)

I’m a Craft Your Passion Challenges DT!

If you were wondering where the heck I disappeared, the answer is Lapland. My god-son had his communion this year and in our neck of woods, it’s a big deal. He was so cute in his suit and Justin Bieber- hair. Of which I didn’t tease him AT ALL! It seems as I’m developing as a grown up.

 

Now to the actual news: I’ve been selected as a DT on Craft Your Passion Challenges!!! I sent my application thinking there’s no way I’m going to make it but to my surprise, I got a congrats e-mail in July telling me I got in! This week was my first time creating card for them AND also my first time doing rounds commenting on people’s cards. Now that’s hard work but I did manage to say something special about everyone’s card.

Hey! Another sign that I’m maturing! Hah! Some people said that this day would never come! I totally showed them.

This week the challenge theme is Anything Goes and I used a sponsor image by Sassy Studio Design, Nurse Heather:

 Luckily I have plenty of nurses in my family and friends so I will get plenty of use out of this image. The card I created for the challenge looks like this:

 I used mix of Papermania and Crate Paper and the sentiment is something I typed myself and then printed. For colouring I used ProMarkers except for the skin, which is coloured with a Copic. Phew! Now that I’ve gotten my first DT- card done. I can focus on creating next few. I also have to write a blurb about myself (little bit late but it’s not easy to write a winner introduction to oneself. Proof can be found on my About- page) and find a decent picture of myself. Okay, there’s already one picture of me on the show but I don’t like it at all. Luckily I went out in Lapland so there’s some nice GoingOutAndHavingNiceDoAndMakeUp- photos available.

Over and out. Thrifty Finn

 

 

A Gift For My God-daughter

Couple of weeks ago my god-daughter turned 14. Eep! She is so cute and sweet and adorable and smart and every possible nice thing one can say about a person. Few months ago she asked if I could do another mini album for her, only this time about horses. How could I say no to her? For few months I stalked her Facebook- page, downloading every photo I could possibly use in the album. (In May I had enough photos but then she finally got her OWN horse, so of course I trashed the old photos, the album HAD to be about the new horse. Naturally.)

I used mix of Crate Paper and October Afternoon. Again I printed most of the pictures half size so I could fit two per standard photo sheet. The album base was a Papermania Bare Chipboard Album.

This is the cover. I made a stencil for letter E after the horse Elli, spread some glue and then covered the shape with glitter. I used transparent glitter but considering the background pattern, I would have been better off with coloured glitter.

The first spread. I also used those Jillibean Soup journaling stickers I got as an extra when I ordered the Crate Paper- kit. I love that yellow paper.

I had to include pictures of her sisters too! They have a brother too but I didn’t have a picture of him. I tried to stalk their mother’s Facebook too but there wasn’t a single one I could use. His loss.

 That’s their cat, Topi. The not-so-lean, killing machine.

 Hugsies! I’m so looking forward to meeting this horse the next time I go visit home. I won’t ride it of course. I’ll be just looking at it. From a safe distance. Say 50 meters and use my mighty zoom to photograph it.

These pictures were taken with iPhone. Had I spent more time setting the layout of my print  outs, I could have fitted three of these per sheet.

More iPhone photos. The bottom one is very artistic.

This is my favourite page. I love how Elli is all perky and set for a photo shoot when Sonja is still doing her hair.

 Elli in her stable. The text says it’s wonderful!

 The last page was the first one I did. I left the frame empty so Sonja could add her own comments there.

 Sonja was very concerned that would I remember to put the year on the back. No worries. I did remember.

Probably for the first time in her life, Sonja got a present from me on her actual birthday! I sent this on the day I got stuck in Helsinki. My original plan was to take it with me to Tampere where I would buy something extra to go with it but since I had spare time for no fault of my own…I ended up buying a make-up set from Accessorize where I pestered the sales girl about the quality of it. Can a teenage girl use it? Is it safe? Is it, is it, is it? When I was satisfied that the make-up wouldn’t blind my precious god-daughter I bought it together with some nicely packaged lip balm. I wouldn’t have but it was on sale. And right by the cash register. When I finally made it to the post office and was packaging the present, I remembered I hadn’t photographed the pages. What to do? I hawked an entire packing station to myself and fired away. All the while hoping the security wouldn’t show up. It didn’t but when I went to pay, I got very judgmental looks from the clerk.

Again, is everyone’s life this much hassle or is it just me?

Happy Scrapbooking Times!

By Thrifty Finn

Challenge: CAS-ual Fridays CFC58

When I got my new paper kit last week, I thought of making some cards to get my creative juices flowing. I selected a challenge from my list and decided to participate in CAS-Fridays “Pretty In Pink”- challenge.

You can totally see that I haven’t crafted anything for ages. The card is filled with ink smudges. So professional. I could have cleaned the image in Photoshop but decided it would be cheating (thus had nothing to do with me being lazy). Anyway here’s my entry:

Seriously, those stains are killing me.

Etsy Shopping

I didn’t know I could get my scrapbook paper fix on Etsy until few weeks back when I found a kit I have been looking for ages. Etsy- seller Paper Issue came to my rescue and I finally received my purchase today!!! I heartily recommend her as her pricing and postage are reasonable AND she wraps things very nicely. And no, I haven’t been paid to say those things. Anyway, now that I have the kit, I can do a couple of mini albums I’ve been planning for quite some time.

This is the first time I’ve bought a kit and I think it won’t be the last. I’ve been fondling (the correct word in this context really IS correct) the papers and extras today a lot.

The bike! The bike is killing me with its cuteness! I used to live in Holland after all, so maybe I’m feeling just slightly nostalgic.

The picture doesn’t show it but the shade of blue is fantastic. Very deep, yet vintage-y. I’m in colour heaven right now…

As an icing on the cake, the seller added these extras because she had a delay with the posting and let me tell you, I take the delay for extras anytime! Since I don’t have that many embellishments or journaling thingies to begin with, these go a long way in starting a stash. If you’re interested in buying from Paper Issues, she is offering now a discount of 20% with a code LOVE20.

Greetings from Thrifty “in a paper induced frenzy” Finn.

P.S. I just did the spell check and this text is filled with tons of grammar alerts! I just can’t figure out the correct way of saying the things. Aaaargh! Maybe I should go to England for few weeks just to re-learn some proper English.