Living Life in an Organised Mess: June 2013

Sunday, 2 June 2013

~ Spring Clean ~

It started before my best pal came over to stay. My current craft room is in the living room which also acts as the guest room too as we have a sofa bed there. In case you're wondering, we don't hang out in the living room, never have and probably never will! We hang out in the kitchen and after dinner, we go straight upstairs. It's probably the format of the house as the living room is located in a very awkward part of the house which we hardly venture there! Hence, perfect for guests!

I cleared craft area. I threw out tons of stuff I don't need and re-arrange the individual drawers to suit my crafting needs. So now, all my punches are in one drawer, stamping stuff in another, embellishments in another etc! I used to used the 3rd bedroom as my craft room before but my wee one wanted his own bedroom so hubby took my stuff out, re-configured the living room so that I could have a dedicated corner instead. Didn't bother me as I don't physically scrap anymore although I still need a little space for cards (I still do cards as I loathe to buy them. Besides, it more fun doing it). I've still have not gotten rid of my physical stash and I think it's time as I've not touched them for 2 years now. If I didn't need them in the last two years, I probably don't need them in the future!

After coming back from the holidays, I cleared my bedroom. Found storage spaces for my handbags and cleared a bunch of rubbish under the bed. The weekend saw me extending it to the cupboard in the landing upstairs. I had no space for extra duvet and pillows so I sent hubby to Argos to get vacuum bags. Cleared out clothes that I've not touched for years & threw out more rubbish! Funny how 13 years ago, hubby and I moved into the house with hardly any belongings and now we have literally filled the house up!

I even tackled one of the boys' room. Found out what the dog has been doing there... chewing up books!!! Even chewed up the wire to a broken lighting on the wall. Sigh! Cleared the mess and vacuumed up.

My next job is to tackle the enormous amount of clothes we have in this house. The problem of being a hoarder is the inability to let go but I need to be firm. I'm fast running out of wardrobe space and I just need to chuck out clothes that is no longer needed.

Looks like this month will be dedicated to spring clean. There's so much to do!!! TTFN!

Saturday, 1 June 2013

~ Get It Scrapped CT Blog Hop ~

A warm welcome to the Get It Scrapped (GIS) Creative Team Blog Hop.

This is my second year with the CT. I was chosen last year and I had such a blast with this team. I thoroughly enjoyed scrapping based on the themes given and it certainly stretched my imagination. In fact, some of my best pages came from scrapping these themes!

Some original members are leaving us and they will be sorely missed. However, it's lovely to welcome new faces...

In today's hop, the creative team members will be sharing their layouts inspired by their favourite articles at Get It Scrapped. Not only that, there are awesome discounts on the Master Scrapbook Design issues so do hop along to get them!

Inspiration from Vincent van Gogh

Apart from digitally scrapping my pages, I'm into art journaling big time, digitally of course. It's so different from doing pages and I love the freedom it gives me to play. So while searching for an article in the GIS library, I came across this particular article on 'How to apply inspiration from Vincent van Gogh to your art journaling page' by Dina Wakley. While she showed how to use brush strokes on paper, well, I decided to apply mine on a digital page.

The Starry Night

Looking at this painting closely, one notices the brush stroke van Gogh is well known for. As I'm not a painter, my aim is not to imitate that kind of brush stroke but achieve similar kind digitally.The advantage of playing digitally is the vast array of brushes one can download free from the net. I use Photoshop CS and there are loads of different brushes available on the net (This is a site which I took from). I tend to think of brushes as stamps. I used to be an avid stamper (my enormous amount of stamps testify to that). The advantage of playing with brushes is that you can adjust according once you have 'stamped' it onto a new layer. After a bit of play, here's my background:

This background was achieved by applying different brushes on various layers. Then I use various blending modes to achieve the desire effect that I want.

Of course I couldn't leave it like this so here's the finished art journal.

Rebecca Mcmeen: Painterly, Anna Aspnes: 12x12 Polka Dot Edges No1

Now for the icing on the cake, save 60% off on the Masterful Scrapbook Design Issue - Texture & Dimension.

Join Jana Morton, May Flaum, Cindy Liebel, Michelle Clement, Peppermint Granberg to look atadding texture and dimension to both digital and paper pages in this issue. Texture is a powerful art element because it can quickly evoke memories and emotions. Artists use both visual and physical textures to trigger your memories of previous texture experiences. Texture is tactile: it appeals to our sense of touch. It is an essential design element for visual artists, because it engages another sense in addition to sight. When you can incorporate texture on your pages, you draw your viewer in on another level.