A Year in Crafting - June

Phew made it .......just. It's still June June right, even in Australia? So just in time for the next instalment in my journal of my crafty year. I hope I haven't bored you all too much so far!

First out I just need to say ....where on earth did June go?!

I mean one moment it was May and the next we're suddenly hurtling towards July full pelt....what's all that about?

So as you may have guessed by that, June has, in some ways, been a bit of a struggle for me. 

I'm had several times this month where I've just sat at my desk, staring at pretty papers and stamps and just not had a clue where I was going to start.  What do you do when this happens? Sometimes I look through Pinterest, but I must admit I was just scared to lose the time this month, Pinterest is like some kind of weird time dimensional black hole where I sit down for 20 minutes with a cuppa and then look up and 2-3 hours have passed.....

So what I did was I turned to my own past makes and looked through some older cards I'd made, thinking about how I'd do them differently now...because we all grow and progress and change. Crafting I find is quite fluid and changeable. As we learn new things our style often changes, even if that's subtly. I think that's a good thing as it helps prevent boredom and stagnation.

So what have I been making? 

 I seem to have made a fair amount of wedding and baby orientated stuff this month, even if some of it won't appear on my blog until July. I guess it's that time of year, lots of weddings and new arrivals. As well as cards I've been playing around with some mini albums,(also not on the blog yet),  and ..... I finally bought myself a Cinch. I've wanted one for the longest time, but I don't jump feet first into expensive pieces of kit, so I had to convince myself I would get the use out of one first lol.

Anyways, I treated myself to one  and it's lots of fun to play with so expect to see notebooks and things from me soon.

I've continued making lots of cards with no stamped or coloured images, as well as my usual stamped cards.  I'm still finding these a lot of fun to make and play around with.

I've also been playing with laser cut chipboard, these are so on trend currently. The Ribbon Girl has started stocking these now and oh my they're pretty, and so much fun. You can use them as they are, you can cut them up, you can ink them with ink pads, colour them with distress ink markers, emboss them with frantage or embossing powders, gesso them, paint them etc. and all these things give them a completely different look that makes them really versatile. They are a great alternative to die cuts when you're in a hurry, (or your partner has been on nights and you don't want to wake him with the sound of your die cutting machine!), but you can also mix them with die cuts for another look.

I'm really wanting to do a full on mixed media piece too, I just haven't had the time this month to work on it, but I'm been planning things out in my head.

Although things have been busy in my work and home life this month, I find that crafting wise I'm coasting, for me I find that DT's often give me a purpose to craft. What I mean by that is that I don't have a huge amount of cards to make in my personal life, I do sell them on any that I don't have a need for, but since I have a full time job and it's a hobby for me, much as i want to craft for the love of it, I find myself directionless sometimes without a 'reason' to craft. As much as it's nice to to constrict my creative flow with too many deadlines, sometimes it's easy to get in a rut too. So I've decided that the time is right to look for another DT spot. Just the one, I won't be rocking 6 or 7 again, but I've given it a lot of thought and I have room for one more which will stimulate my creativity without putting me under too much pressure.

So I'm looking for a good one and I just recently spotted something that really excites me, so more on that soon I hope.

That's about it for this month, I hope you've managed to stay awake throughout my meanderings.

Until next time, happy crafting!