Kim Archer | Mindful Living

Mood Board Challenge April | Jot Magazine

I do so love our Mood Board challenges over on the Jot blog.

It's a chance for me to actually pull out scrapping supplies and make something!! Our latest mood board was pulled together by one of my Jot Girls - Lauren who chose a combo of grey, silver, white and pinks.

I made this layout of the girls while I was at the Escape 2 Create retreat in March. It was a good excuse to go shopping - all those lovely little stores were there at the retreat beckoning me with new product!

I especially loved the little fabric letters from Prima and Mardi and Amanda, my table buddies, will tell you, I fluffed around finishing this layout off for far too long. The layout was going to actually be title-less! But then it looked so bare. And I couldn't decide on a title. And I didn't have anything for my title.. and so I dithered around for a very annoyingly long time..

Until I spotted these Prima letters! And just like that, my layout came together.

This layout looks rather rosy pink instead of the bright pink in Lauren's mood board but I was inspired by the rosy pinks in the felt flowers in the mood board and seemed to lean toward those pink tones when choosing products.

And I must say, I really like how this has turned out because I woulnd't have ever thought to pull these colours together. Without Lauren's mood board, I would have been tempted to drag in other colours. But then that's what our Mood Board challenges are all about - trying something new!

Have you entered yet? There's still a few days to show us your masterpieces! Find out more here.

Kim

March Mood Board - Jot Magazine

I do love how the Mood Boards have taken off over at Jot.

Lots of people are playing along each month and we ahve had incredile support from a whole heap of online businesses who have donated prizes for out monthly winners. Plus it gives the Jot Girls a chance to share their work each month too. I love seeing what they get up to.

This month it's Kim Jeffress' turn to pull together an inspiring Mood Board and it's a beauty!

Loaded with colour, I decided to have a go this month too.

Now this layout looks SO SIMPLE but it took me FOR-EVERRRR to pull together. I just couldn't get the right balance of white space and simplicity! And I kept wanting to add "bits"..

Anyway, eventually, after much deliberation and shuffling everything around, I am happy with the outcome! I'm loving all the script writing popping up all over the place too - inspired by Kal Barteski. And thought I would give it a whirl - no fancy brushes or ink.. just plain old Jo Sonja acrylic paint, diluted with water and a round brush.. onto white cardstock.

Check out all of Jot Girls' Mood Board layotus this month here on the Jot Blog.. I love how we all have a different interpretation of the colour palette and have created totally different layouts. Check them out here>>

In the mood.

Grab a chair in case you fall over..

I made a layout.

I don't do that all that often these days.

Oh I still love to be surrounded by paper and product and photos and stories but these days I'm doing more Project Life based memory keeping then making traditional layouts.

I pulled together this month's Jot Mood Board challenge and thought at the time how pretty the colour palette was but it wasn't until I started seeing all the delicious layouts from the Jot Team that I felt the urge to grab some supplies and pull something together.

Suprisingly it fell together easily.

It's not earth shattering and unlikely to set the scrapbooking world on fire but I got to play with my Silhouette to create the title and I enjoyed the whole process. Plus, bonus, it will slip into my 12x12 Project Life album with my Christmas pages.

I love that. I love that both Project Life spreads and traditional layouts can all be displayed together within the one album.

Check out all the Jot Girls layouts plus join us and all those who enter our challenges each month and share your own creation.

All the details here>>

Snow Globes Anyone?

I love snow globes and this Christmas I was determined to make a few as gifts for my mum and sister.

You may have spotted in the latest issue of Etzcetera Magazine, the big one I made using a bell jar for my mum? Well I decided to make a smaller version for my sister using a jar and a few bits and pieces.

I bought the glass jar from Freedom Furniture, but shop around the discount stores and you may pick some up less expensive compared to what I ended up paying.

The little scene is made from somebottle brush trees I bought from Etsy here at Moon and Tree. I bought white and green trees and still hope to make a few little globes for next year (my 18 year old nephew even put in an order that he would love one for next year!)

I used the Silhouette and a cut file - theres a heap of 3D village house cut files to choose from - and ater assembling it, I painted the house with Mod Podge, sprinkling on some glitter, trying to keep most of it on the roof.

I then sprayed some Heidi Swapp ColorShine to add a little colour.

The little animal came from a $1 packet of farm animals I picked up from Big W in the toy section. He also got some "sbow" treatment with some mod podge and a dusting of white embossing powder plus a dash of glitter.

To build up the scene and give it some height (it got lost in the bottom of the jar when I first started to put it all together), I used a metal watch tin to raise it all up. A hot glue gun keeps everything in place. I let some of the elements hang over the edge of the little tin so that I could fit everything in.

Once ready, it was just a case of filling the jar with Epson salts "snow" and carefully adding the lidded scene to the jar, screwing the lid firmly into place.

Tip the jar and let it snow!

 

Merry Little Christmas

Well hello there.

A post from me.

After all this time.

I have streamlined things, made some big changes and here I am back to blogging on my old Typepd blog. And pretty excited about it too, just quietly.

I'll share what's been going on in another post, but for today, I wanted to share a little bit of Christmas.

I've been sewing.

  

I made everyone a fabric stocking this Christmas(and felt very clever doing so!)I have a new sewing machine (yay) - more about that in another post...

I used this pattern from Positively Splendid.

However, I ditched the cuff part and then followed the instructions here on the During Quiet Time blog here. However, I aded in a loop of fabric when I stitched the insides to the outsides..and I quilted (not very well!!) onto the front of the stocking. I used iron on pellon/wading for the fronts to give the stockings some stability..

and tonight...the stockings are lined up and waiting to be filled!

Merry Christmas everyone.

KIM

 

a little bit of a catch up

It's been a bit of a hectic time around here.

Issue 2 of Etzcetera is looming. We've had Brandt's 21st party. Visitors. School holidays. Parent/Teacher interviews. Ken's golfing trip to the Gold Coast (sore point. I was incredibly envious. Not the golfing bit. Just the holiday part!)

AND I have been redecorating over on the Etzcetera website.

I am loving the new look! It's much fresher, more vibrant, easy to navigate and it is much more workable for me in regard to my plans for Etzcetera down the track.

Blogging.

After much dithering and deliberation which is very typical of me - I do like to think everything through, process and then make a decision - I have decided to have a separate blog just for Etzcetera.

Initially I was going to keep everything here on Typepad BUT I do think it's important to build Etzcetera as a separate enterprise so I will be blogging on the Etzcetera blog linked to the Etzcetera website.

You can visit the Etzcetera blog here.

There's not all that much there yet as I didn't want to add too many posts while I was still working on the site and getting everything to function ok but now that the site is more or less revamped, its time to start blogging!!

I want to add lots of things. Crafty stories. Pinterest finds. Sneak peeks at the magazine. People. Craft. Product and project ideas. I have lots of plans.

OH I will still be blogging here though - family stuff, crafty things, @Home updates etc..I do still want to add in what's happening in our home!

I would love for you to pop on over to Etzcetera and say hello.

today I am knitting

This big ball of colourful texture and my knitting needles are calling my name this weekend. I have had a little idea brewing away in my mind for a week or so and I hope to grab some time today to get started!

I hope you have a crafty kinda weekend too...

yesterday my very first Etzcetera newsletter went out

..and that made me so very happy.

The Etzcetera newsletter will come out every second Friday and will have a few crafty tidbits, a tutorial here and there, some behind the scenes Etzcetera news and the all important news of when each issue is ready for viewing. It's just a little way for me to stay in touch with all our lovely readers in between magazine issues.

I know we had a flurry of newsletter signups AFTER the first newsletter went out yesterday. And you guys will start getting the newsletter from Friday 17 June UNLESS you would like me to forward yesterday's little newsletter to you. Email me if you do want a forwarded copy.

Well it's now JUNE which means that the 1 July is looming fast which means theres SO MUCH going on behind the scenes to get Etzcetera ready to go. I'm so happy with how it's all shaping up. To see an idea go from this little seed of "can I actually do this?" to becoming a reality is well, pretty cool really.

Over this coming week I will introduce you to a couple of lovely people who have come on board regularly to write or curate lovely collections to share or create projects for Etzcetera. They're all wonderfully creative, enthusiastic people and it's been a pleasure to work with them on this first issue and to know they're sticking around for subsequent issues too.

Have a crafty weekend everyone.

a little Friday morning shop, shop, shopping

Just wanted to share with you a lovely little Etsy store called The Greatest View, run by Gail Lindner. It's a store filled with the cutest embellishments...like this

these

and the loveliest little paper banners like these...

and for a splash of colour..how about these

or these..

Find Gail's shop here or learn more about Gail and her craftiness here on her blog..

Happy shopping.

The first Eztcetera newsletter hits inboxes tomorrow (Friday!)

Thanks again for signing up to the Etzcetera Magazine mailing list. I had a little goal in my head to reach a certain number of sign ups in the first day and I doubled my expectations so that was pretty cool. And each morning I dive onto the computer and check how many more subscribers have joined us. I love seeing the numbers climb!

What is the mailing list for?

Well firstly it's for me to be able to let you know when the magazine is ready for viewing. Newsletter subscribers will be the FIRST to know before I announce it on my blog or facebook etc.

But it's also a chance for me to share a mini newsletter every fortnight that is filled with some creative and crafty things. I am planning on releasing a little Etzcetera eNews every second Friday - starting tomorrow. I aim to have some mini tutorials, crafty tidbits and behind the scenes news and photos here at Etzcetera Magazine.

Sooooo, if you haven't signed up..please come and join us...you're all most welcome. And of course you can opt out (and we would understand but be sad to see you go) any time you choose.

Our first newsletter features a quick and easy little button project!!

You can sign up for our newsletter here..