Fifty-Five Bags - Week 8

Another week of minimal de-cluttering for me ... and a photo fail with what little I did manage!

As part of the preparations for last weekend's Bloggers' Retreat (organised by Lizzie) I have been setting aside patterned papers, embellishments, mini-albums and stamps that I have no intention of using.  I stuffed a deep pizza box full with assorted papers as well as filling a bag with extras to give away or sell ... including two Clippy-Kit bags.  I had bought three at once to save on postage and have yet to finish decorating one!!!

The front pockets of the bag were completed late in 2006 I think, but the back of the bag still has nine empty pockets!  There's a matching 12x12 layout about my shopping addiction for my new (at that time) hobby.

Spiral, stamp, Corner, chipboard, Rub-on
Alcohol ink, Punch, patterned paper
Photo {Pete (Duel)}, Eyelet, embossing, Ribbon

That's a real working mini-pizza box in the centre ... and it opens up to reveal journalling and some miniature bills from my early purchases (sadly quite a few of those shops have now closed)!

I was not the only person to arrive at the Bloggers' Weekend with unwanted stash and, on the basis of one scrapper's tat being another scrapper's must-have, we enjoyed a good root through each other's cast-offs.

My thanks to Julie for these photos

There was still a fair bit of stash left afterwards (see the bottom right photo), but Sandie has connections with Brownies and took all the papers and stickers that nobody wanted ... so everyone managed a great deal of de-cluttering despite picking up the odd sheet or two of paper to bring back home again!

Random Number Loveliness

I'm away scrapping with some lovely blog friends this weekend, so, in the absence of something scrappy to share, here is a little something related to my other love:

Too Much For March

Soda Shoppe from Noel Mignon

Oh my!
What an enormous kit-to-copy we have this month at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog: it's Noel Mignon's "Soda Shoppe" Kit and is simply HUGE!!  Five sheets of cardstock, 20 patterned papers and a gazillion stickers and embellishments!

Today, we Master Forgers are blogging how we took inspiration from it to make our Counterfeit Kits for March, starting with our March Guest Designer Dawn and, if you're following in order, then you will have reached me from Angela at Toucanscraps.

That's a serious amount of stash for your $65 ... but far too much for me to use in a month, so I did some serious paring down.  There are a lot of stickers in this kit which I don't normally buy many of, but, thanks to a recent win on the Echo Park Blog Hop, I have just received their All About A Boy collection which contains two whole 12x12 sheets.  I added a couple of sheets of paper from the collection and then browsed the rest of my stash to see what else would go.  Here's what I came up with:

Supplies:
My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart Be Amazing (blue stars reverse)
Victoria Park Princess Avenue by Lily Bee Design (blue dot ogee frames reverse)
Fancy Pants Childish Things Toy Box (green stripe reverse)
Echo Park's All About A Boy Curious (wood-grain chevron reverse)
MME Dolled Up Favourite Madras (multi-coloured diagonal check reverse)
⅓ sheet So Happy Together Diagonal Dot from Echo Park (multi-coloured dotted diagonal reverse!)
EP's All About A Boy Chevron Stripe (flow chart reverse)
½ sheet LBD Buttercup Blossom (yellow floral reverse)
EP's All About A Boy Rough & Tough (orange diagonal chevron reverse)
½ sheet white patterned vellum for more pockets/envelopes

Cardstock will be added as required from my stash

Element & Alpha Sticker Sheets from EP's All About A Boy collection
 Hemptique Crafters Cord (not the pink I think, just the teal, yellow and cream)
American Crafts Peacock Mini Marks alpha rub-ons (still trying to use these up)
Toning brads
Yellow & orange blooms
Various buttons
Counterfeited pennants
Counterfeited vellum pockets
Counterfeited epoxy buttons (how-to here)
Dear Lizzy date stamp

I'll be back in a couple of days to share my first page ...in the meantime, please join me over at Jennifer's Jumbles and see what she has put together for this month.

Master Forgers' Journalling Hop

Along with several fellow Master Forgers from the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, I was aksed to fill in one of two journalling sheets from Christie Zimmer's funny and inspirational site Grace Is Overrated and see where the answers & quotes led me in a crafty endeavour.

I chose sheet #24:

Click for a closer view

And this led me on to making a Mother's Day card for "my lovely Mum".  She's away in Australia visiting my brother and it won't be Mother's Day in Australia as they celebrate in May rather than March, but I wouldn't want her to miss out!

If you are hopping around, getting to know the Master Forgers today, you will have arrived from Angela and now need to visit Jennifer ... the full list is here on the CKCB.  Have fun!

Reasons Why I Love ...

Hello and welcome to February's version of the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Blog Hop. Hopefully you've been all around the other counterfeiters' blogs already and reached me via Leslie.  We've  been playing along with the first challenge of the month - to not include a photo on our project, just journalling!  I did a photo-less page earlier in the month, so I have cheated slightly with today's offering ... and made a Valentine's card!

I had fun with some more home made hexagon spots, a tag and a few of my office transfer letters from my February Counterfeit Kit.  I grabbed a swiss dot embossing folder for some texture, a date stamp and added a heart shaped brad from my stash.

That's not a lot of journalling, but I don't want Hubby to get too big for his boots LOL!  Inside I have stamped:

I
♥
U
X

Thanks for hopping around with the counterfeiters ... if you missed any, the full list is available on the CKCB today.

Fifty-five Bags - Week 7

Welcome back to a little more de-cluttering.  Alas, prompted not by renewed enthusiasm for my Fifty-Five Bags project, but by my inability to put the week's shopping away in the kitchen cupboards in a sensible manner - and, if I'm totally honest, by my inability to *delegate* the chore to No.2 Son and Child No.3 who are being encouraged to help out more while I earn more.
No matter - I knuckled down and cleared out several of the cupboards on my list of 55 locations and discovered all sorts of out-of-date horrors for the (bin) bags!

Eeek - coffee in an open bag from 2007 out of one cupboard and brown rice, lentils and quinoa from 2010 found in another!
  

I tried to emulate Sandra's thoroughness with recipes, but that will have to be a work in progress; meanwhile I was ruthless with cookie-cutters and lolly-makers!  The hall coat cupboard also got a thorough sort-out and we no longer own 5 plastic ponchos for theme-park water rides, a couple of out-grown coats, a bulb bought in a shop that closed 15 years ago and ten, yes TEN baseball caps!!!

Thank you for last week's support and encouragement while I had an "off" week - it is really good to hear about your efforts and it is keeping me accountable.  Ladykis reckons she is still not de-cluttering but we know better, poor Stacey is doing her best but as fast as she boxes up the rubbish, her hubby brings more home!  Lesley, however, wins the prize for the biggest single item of de-cluttering and maximum help from hubby: 

"... I'm decluttering! I've sorted the camper van which was being used as a garage so we can now use it and I've also persuaded DH to get rid of his much beloved motorbike which means I'll have half a garage with nothing in it :)"

I know from chatting with Lesley that the motorbike is already gone and that garage space has been freed up!  Well done you!!

Fifty-five Bags - Week 6

*sigh*
It had to happen :o(
A whole week with no de-cluttering.  Last week, I complained of a reduction in enthusiasm and wondered what the effect of a surge in work might have.  Hmmmmm working every day including 24 hours out of the last 53 really took its toll.  By the time I got home and did my normal chores I just needed to slump in front of the TV before hitting the sack!

Never mind, I am actually still on track to make my target of 55 bags by Easter as several locations have yielded multiple bags ... 30 filled so far, from 21 of my 55 locations. Week 7 will be better *honest*

In the meantime, Ladykis is still having to keep an eye on Mr M to make sure that he doesn't bring more clutter into the house, Missus Wookie's working week has far exceeded mine, de-railing her efforts somewhat, but Chipper has outdone us all on the shredding front:

I just shredded almost 8 years of paperwork the other week. Boy did it feel good! The local tax laws only require that we keep 7 years worth so I finally disposed of the rest (15 years old!) :-) Amazing how much space that stuff took up!

Fifteen year-old papers - well done!!  Sandra also popped by last week and got ruthless with her recipe book/cuttings hoard - also a job I need to tackle as I use the same 2-3 books all the time, yet own about 20!