Crafting Resolutions

I'm not one for a long list of New Year's resolutions. January is such a gloomy time of year, who needs to give themselves a hard time with trying to lose weight, join a gym, etc.......

But I do have a few resolutions and I've documented them in this layout. Paper by Urban Lily; scroll is ClipArt printed onto a transparency. Chipboard letters Amy Butler for K&Co.

The non-crafting resolutions are: go to the cinema / theatre more often (at least once a month). I'm starting that one tomorrow with the Tutankhamun exhibiton at the Dome, followed by the Strictly Come Dancing tour. The other non-craft resolution is to look after my nails. They break very easily so I need to be more diligent about cuticle conditioner. I blame the acrylic nails I used to wear. Since then, my nails have been ruined.

My crafting resolutions are:
1) Thou shalt not spend money on stash - except when using proceeds from Amazon. I've listed 26 items and sold one already. But my stash spending was a little out of control, so I don't intend to buy anything for three months.
2) Thou shalt improve thy journalling and titles. Somehow I always struggle with titles. I have numerous sets of chipboard letters but inevitably I've always run out of the letters I need. I've tried digital titling - Lettering Delights, for example -but somehow I can never get the right size or colours. And journalling always seems an afterthought. This is crazy for someone who used to make a living out of writing. So I need to get better!
3) I intend to send everyone a handmade birthday card again this year, but I will be less proud about using magazine freebies such as die cuts. I don't have to make every card a labour of love with stamping, decoupage, iris folding or whatever.
4) I will try to be a bit more tidy with my crafting, at the very least tidying up after a crafting session. My "den" is the lean to, and sometimes it looks like a pigsty with all my crafting materials and boxes lying around. I received "The Organised Scrapbooker" for Christmas and it made me quite depressed looking at the photos of the authors' craft rooms. I don't think they can do much crafting! Clear desks indeed.
5) I will improve my photography. I'm enrolled on a class next Saturday specifically on how to use my Canon SLR camera. I'm also finding some great tips and techniques in PhotoPlus magazine which is for Canon users. The Photoshop tutorial DVDs are excellent. All I need now is to get better at retouching! Goodbye double chin, sallow complexion.....

Christmas Scrapping

Here are two of the layouts I created on Christmas 2007:


I fully intended to use my blue Doodlebug Christmas papers to record Christmas Day (and even co-ordinated the Christmas tree to match!) but because I wore a gold top, it seemed more appropriate to use the brown / red / gold tones I chose. The paper is by 7Gypsies with gold mirri card; assorted jewels and embellishments from my stash; epoxy Christmas greeting and gold scroll by K&Co; lettering from a HOTP vintage kit, with gold eyelets added.

This next one is, loosely, a scrap lift from the latest Scrapbook Inspirations. I loved the Anne Parry layout "decorating the tree" and stole her idea of creating a branch from chipboard and painting it. I sprinkled glitter onto the paint as it dried. It was such a great picture of Molly (the cat) that I didn't use too many embellishments, just some K&Co pearls. I also liked the way Anne used tags for lettering so I used my tag stamp.