It's been a while

Hope you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend. 
I can not believe that it has been a while again since my last blog.  Well I have been playing hard the last three month in my little corner.  I have joined two online sites, Mini Album Scraps and Your Paper Pantry.  And I have been participating in some swaps.  For those who are not familiar with the above mentioned sites and swaps, here is a brief description.  You sign up for a swap, in my case I have done the following:  Stick pin, Charm, Embellishment, Rolodex, and ATC (Artist Trading Card) swaps.  You send in the number of requested swap, and follow guidelines of the swap, like theme for the month etc.  Once the hostess has received the swaps (yes there is a deadline) she will mail you back the same number of items that you had send in.  For example, for the stick pin swap I send in 3 sets of 3 pins.  If 5 people participate you will receive 3 different once back, so you will not have one from everyone.   But those swaps have been so much fun.  And it is nice to get something that you may not have come up with. 

I got to upload my pictures the next couple of days, and hopefully I will be back to blogging at least once a week.  I have now a big list of things to do before Christmas.  So no swapping till after the New Year. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

Missing in action

Wow, it has been over a month that I have posted.   All is well in my little corner.  I have been busy and participated in my first swaps on two different sites, Your Paper Pantry and Mini Album Scraps.  What fun I had.  All swaps where mailed in on time, and now I am eagerly awaiting the return of swaps.  I have watched recently some more swap videos on Youtube, and all in the sudden I feel so inadequate.  I just hope that my creations are up to par. 
But I had a good time and I am trying again.  I have already signed up for a few small swaps.  
I will show  my creations in the next week or so.  Right now I am rearranging  my craft corner, and I will have to clean my desk from my creative mess.  As I was working on my swaps, I just left everything I pulled out on my desk.  So now I got this hot little mess on my hands. 

I have gone to some yard sales this last month and was lucky enough to find a few things, that I now need to find a home for.  So for the next day or two I am organizing and cleaning my little corner (my vacuum cleaner was out of commission for about 3 weeks, and sweeping just did not pick it all up).

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

LOVE IT

I am so excited.  I got my first copic markers.  I have been eyeing them for a long time.  I have a few Prismacolor markers.  But the first few strokes with my sketch markers and I am in love.  They feel so nice going over the paper and they seem to blend so much nicer.  I still have to get the right paper. 
The reason I got the skin color once first, is so that I can practice coloring nice faces.  If I like the results I can start working on getting more. 
They are an investment, and of course I would just love to get them all, who would not.  But, like so many of us, I have to budget my purchases.  And in general I am waiting for things to go on sale, or I have to have a good coupon (40% or more) before I buy a bigger (more expensive) item.  I waited over a year to get a good deal on my Big Shot, so I have a bit of self control.  So getting my collection of copics growing will probably take me a while.  But it is all good.  It's worth waiting for something like that.

Hope you all have a fantastic scrappy week.

Oh and I also joined Your Paper Pantry recently.  I have signed up for 2 swaps and am so excited about that.  I am done with sketching out my ideas, and I pretty much have all I need already.  I may have to get a few small things.  Will probably show glimpses during the month of my creations, but will not reveal the completed projects till after it has been delivered to the recipient, so that the surprise will not be spoiled. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies

Mini Album

I have been paper crafting for a while, but hardly ever do any layouts.  I think I only do them when I am at a workshop etc.   I am still organizing my pictures (it's been years in progress, I am the worlds biggest procrastinator).  A few years back however I tried my luck on a mini album.  I love the format and the way it is more decoration, even without pictures.  So far I have only made them as gifts.  But I am hoping to do some for myself this year.  But I still have ideas on a few that I am trying to do as gifts as well.

Here are a few pictures of an early mini I made for a friend of mine.

Well, can you guess what her name is.  The cover had her name on, I covered chipboard letters with paper.  I paper was from my stash.  It is an older paper pack.  But I love the natural earth tones.

She is such a sweet lady, and just adores her hubby.  When I saw that paper I just had to include it in the mini, and added the "my husband" stamp (from CTMH).

The cake stamp is also from CTMH, and I used prisma pencils to color it it.  I made my own tags and tried to distress them.  I think I used the distress inks.  But it is to long ago to remember it for sure.  I even added a few ribbons, something I still have a hard time remembering to add to my cards, minis etc.  I am not very frilly so adding ribbons and flowers I have to try to make sure I add them.

Here I added a few more tags for family pictures and journals about her family.

I did make my own pages by cutting up some recycled packaging I think.  Now I have this nice stash of purchased chipboard album, I however still like to add extra pages in between by making my own.  One can never have to many pages in a mini.  They really should be called "chunky mini's"

There where more pages in this mini, but these where the nicest once.  Well more soon.

Thank you for visiting me in my little corner.
Marlies

Card

I have been having some technical problems these last few days.  But I am able to get on today.  Yeah.

So I looked at my photo archive to see what I can find to post today, and I came across some cards I made 2 and 3 years ago.
I never would have dreamed of ever having a blog at that time, so I did not keep good records of technique  and what I used etc.  Not that I am so much better at keeping track at this time.  Still learning in the progress, but I am having fun with it at least.

Above is made with a CTMH stamp set, so much I remember.  It do like the little bird, and I think I will do that one again, just will try to layer more paper etc.   But I always like the image.  It is made using the egg as the body.

Also a CTMH set,I fussy cut the images and colored with pencil.  I do not think that I even knew about the odorless mineral spirit at that time.  Paper is from my stash, and I do not remember what it was.  I just loved the leaves.  It was a birthday card for a kids birthday.

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies

Card

Here is a card I made for someone special to me. 
The paper is from CTMH, paper pack You Rock, and the stamp set is also from CTMH, A Little Buzz.  I colored the dragonfly in with Prismacolor pencil and blended with Odorless Mineral Spirit. 
I cut the circle and the scalloped circle using my spellbinder dies.  I inked the white circle with distress ink.

I still got to work on taking better pictures so.  The quality is not the best here, I know. 

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,

Marlies

My Little Corner

I love having a little corner where I can create.  Yes, sometimes I dream of having a big room on my own, just for crafting.  But I am just happy and grateful to have a space I can call my own.  And actually having a space in the middle of the house keeps us all connected.   

There are some struggles in keeping a small space that is exposed tidy, and usually it looks like a battle zone, in which I have so lost that battle.  I do have a pretty nice size desk (6' wide), but somehow I just manage to get it cluttered up in no time.  I do like to have things handy, and I have to store things on, around and under my desk, so I am constantly prioritising what I really need to have close by. 

One thing I love is functioning containers, if they are pretty as well - that's a bonus.
I will share with you today, and in the next few weeks some pictures of things I have in my corner.

This is how I store my small acrylic paint bottles.  I got so lucky and found the rack in a local thrift store. 

It does have room for bottle on both sides, and it spins.  Since space is limited I can not spin it around freely.  On the back side I have also bottles stored, but they are for painting on tiles.  And since I do not need them as often they are on the side against my large shelf.

Thanks for visiting me in my little corner,
Marlies