Paper Doll Chains

Did you ever make paper-doll chains from newspaper? I did when I was a child. Just folding newspaper and drawing figures on it and then cutting them out in a linked chain kept me amused in those days. I had to make certain that the drawing always touched the sides of the folded paper so that the dolls linked arms.

I also loved the dress-up dolls that came in a book format with tabbed clothes that you cut out and dressed the dolls with. Great fun when I was about 7 years old! It didn't cost much to keep a child entertained and happy in those days.

Anyway, this is my entry to The Creative Type Challenge . The challenge is to use newspaper on the layout and I've done this with a chain of newspaper dolls and another with flowers. The background paper is by K&Co and I've used Tim Holtz Spiced Marmalade distress ink and an orange pen. Orange is not a colour I like very much but as the paper included shades of green and orange, I decided to step outside my 'comfort zone'.

My title, 'Crafting Sisters' and the hidden journaling shows how, although my sister is 6 years older than me, we still have something in common.

The journaling reads: 'Maureen was an art teacher and is a gifted artist and sewer (she made my wedding dress) whilst I enjoy scrapbooking, card making, cross-stitch and knitting as my hobbies.'

I'm the one on the right by the way!

WOYWW

Not a very interesting craft table this week maybe, but if you want to see others in this Mad Group who post a photo every Wednesday of their work area, hop over to Julia's Stamping Ground where you'll find them in ever-expanding numbers!

Hello All. What an awful couple of weeks weatherwise. Too much snow, not enough grit, no buses, no way of getting home from work etc. etc. Anyway, I did get to craft a little on Sunday, only to have a phone call from work to say there had been a pipe burst on the roof overnight, the roof had fallen in and the scan room was flooded!!! Argh!

Needless to say, this photo was taken very hastily as I packed up my Stash. I couldn't concentrate on anything after a message like that.

Back to the photo.... there's the front cover and first page of my 12x6 album for '52 in 10' in the making. The 'necessary equipment' on the table includes a corner rounder, American Crafts ribbons and Thickers, hole punch and box of Tim Holtz inkpads. And I've caught myself out again by leaving something on the table for all to see! The TV Remote this time.

OK, I admit it. I often watch TV as I craft. Preferably murder mysteries, sometimes cooking shows (not such a good idea as they make me hungry!) but on Sunday it was the news channel to watch the weather forecasts. I had to be sure I would be able to get into work at 7.00am on Monday to sort out the flood chaos. I just can't seem to escape the effects of the bad weather!

52 in 10....Late Starter

I admit I'm a little late in posting these photos but I do have an excuse. I've had a bad week with no buses running here to get me to and from work, so I've had to sleep over at the hospital twice more this week. I am fed up with the snow and fed up with sleeping on a trolley! But it looks as if the thaw might begin this coming week - fingers crossed. End of whinge!
I'm taking part in 52 in 10 as I have pledged to take part in more Challenges this year. Here is my first week's entry. I decided to make a mini album (although after 52 weeks it won't be all that mini!) and chose a new size of page for me - 12x6. The first week's prompt was to review the past 10 years. My journaling lists the main things that have happened over the past 10 years, that I can remember. I never think of things in terms of decades though and I needed to think hard about events that had happened. And the start of a New Year is nothing special to me either, it's just another year, but I saw this challenge as an opportunity to keep me scrapping throughout 2010!

Above is week 2 where I had to think of the year ahead and what I want to achieve. I have listed my Crafty Goals For 2010 and tucked them behind my photo. The sharp-eyed among you have probably spotted that this is the reverse side of Week 1 as the punched holes are on the right-hand side this time. I was challenged to include stitching on the layout, but with Week 1 already completed, and not wanting to make holes through the paper, I drew faux stitching instead.

For the mini album itself, I was limited by my Crafty Goal number 2 of not spending on Stash this year, so had to use what I already had. I chose papers by Bo Bunny and My Mind's Eye and cut them in half for the 12x6 format, punched the holes and used book rings to keep it all together. It's easy to disassemble every week when I need to make another entry, and I can also swap the pages around at the moment if I prefer to use a different pattern for each weekly prompt.

Finding the time to craft with a full-time job is never easy, especially when I have to get everything out of the cupboards and put it away again the same day, but having made a start on this Challenge, I'm hoping to see it through to the end of 2010.