Project ten

Hey peeps!

Today is project ten out of the craft project book. The original is called Gala Event and is by Sue Wilson. Here is her original one:

And here is mine

There were quite a few tecnhinques here that were new to me. The first was the half embossing. I've never thought about half embossing before but it does really work. I used a snowflake folder as I have a lot of embossing folders but not many that are good for just a background. The second technique was the inking a framelit piece whilst it is still in the frame. Obviously the frame was a bit too thin but you can just see the edging. The third and the one that makes me facepalm in the "why didn't I think of this before" sense, is the stamping part. I chose a kitten as the stamp and stamped it twice on white card and once on the patterned paper. Then I cut out the present in the patterned paper, glued it onto one of the cards, then cut out the ribbon from the second piece of white card, coloured it purple, and layered it onto the patterned piece. Why didn't I think of this?! As someone who hates colouring this is a perfect solution for me, and one I ill definitely be using in the future. The one technique I didn't like was making a flower out of circles. I prefer my flowers more defined, so this will not be used unless I change my mind.

I've also been working on a couple of the birthday presents, but will not be posting until I've finished them. Thankfully most of the people who are recipients don't read my blog (should I really be thankful for that? I'm in two minds; it's a nice way of being able to put up my work but it would also be nice for them to show their support) so I can post the stuff up when done. One thing I will say about them;I love versa mark ink and mica powder!

I've also been working on the starry night cross stitch. It feels like it's taking forever! Here is the update.

Progress seems slow but is being made. I'm getting a little impatient with it to be honest, but that's cos I want to start the next one, not cos I want to earn a treat!

That brings me to the financial side of things. Since the last post I spent the last of my christmas money watching the Hobbit again (how I'm going to last until I can buy the extended version on DVD in November I don't know). I've also paid my rent, which is currently £397.36 per month. I bought food for work £9.27, paid the Sky bill £21.50, the phone and broadband bill £24.16 and took ten pounds out of my account (the £10 allocated for a week of work I'm not actually working) to get fish and chips. A large fish and chips cost £5.90 and is easily enough for two to share, so I put the remaining £4.10 in my piggy bank.

Task wise I have been busy. What I'm going to do at the end of each post from now on is rewrite the ten tasks, with the updates in brackets. So here goes:

1. Starry night cross stitch (still on page two out of four)

2. Complete project book (completed 10/21)

3. Complete book plan for books 2 and 3 (made a start on these)

4. Read and review 100 books on Goodreads (read and reviewed 10/100)

5. Make 15 christmas presents (not made a start)

6. Make 12 birthday presents (started making 2/12)

7. Make calendar and G45 box and tags (put calendar together)

8. Hit minimum savings target £4325.31 (none so far)

9. Kili cross stitch (on hold till starry night is finished)

10. Write 50,000 words (not started)

So some progress has been made on some of them, and no progress on some. The problem at the moment is deciding how to approach them; whether to concentrate on one at a time or share my time between as many of them as I can. 

Anyway that is how the first week of 2015 has gone for me. I've not really been tempted to spend but I am slightly worried that in a couple of months time if my book doesn't hit it's minimum target (and I'll be honest, sales are not going as well as I hoped) that it'll affect me and I will go out and spend. So, to that end, I'm hoping for the best but preparing for the worst, so that I don't use it as an excuse to waste money. 

Happy crafting everyone

Emma