Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all those celebrating today (I know it's in May in many other countries). I'm sharing the card that I made for my mum, and it's quite a simple one this year. I bought Simple Stories' Mom's Day collection a few months ago, and the cut-apart sheet contains a 4x6 sentiment piece that makes the perfect basis for a card. I layered it on a larger patterned paper and just added a couple of old pearl swirls to finish off.

Parkrun Tourism 2025

Having finally finished my Norwegian cruise album, I'm turning to my 2025 annual album, aiming to complete it before 2026 draws my attention instead.

This is a round-up of our parkrun tourism for last year, when we ran seven courses other than our home event. I went with a grid of photos for this month's challenge from Hey Little Magpie, and an orange and blue colour scheme taken from the name signs.

I'm really glad to have cleared some older stash here too; that background is from 2017 and the stars 2018. There's no year on the letter stickers but I'm pretty sure they are even older. Much better to have them in my album than in my stash.

Supplies: Cardstock - Payper Box; Paper - Dear Lizzy Star Gazer, Vicki Boutin Sweet Rush; Letters - Stickopotamus; Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard

Finishing my Norwegian Cruise Album

Last post for my cruise album, and it's finally time for the title page. Sometimes I make these first if I have a clear idea, but often I leave them until last which gives me time to think them over, and an opportunity to include pieces that I want to be in the album but haven't used elsewhere.

This time, I knew I wanted to use the Norway cut-file from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files as my title but I had no other ideas so I left it until inspiration struck (or I finished the rest of the pages). 

I started with the cut-file, making it the width of the page, and cutting an offset to back and frame it. I then printed photos of our six ports of call and cut them into hexagons as that has been a repeating shape in the album. However, getting the large title and the hexagons to fit nicely together was tricky. I arranged and rearranged them on the page until I hit on the positions below, filling the gaps in the middle with larger paper hexagons rather than trying to  stick with one size. I then tucked a few smaller ones in around the edges to break up the uniformity.

As I've previously mentioned, I've ended up with an odd number of pages in my album, so I've been through my photos and decided to make an extra one for the silent disco that was held onboard one evening. My page design was driven by the papers I have left, which included two papers from my 6x8 pad and a few tags. I didn't think I would use the cassette sticker from this collection, but it found a home here.

There's been one page that's been bugging me since I made it, one that I'm not happy with, and that was the page I made for Badness, a Madness tribute band which was one of our guest acts on board. I liked the background ink and the central design, but not the line of hexagons so I removed them. They came off cleanly on the right but left some sticky marks on the left of the page which I covered up, and then added some extra pieces at the bottom right to try to balance them. It's not how I would have made it otherwise but I'm happier now.

One final task was the title card for the window in front cover. I don't have the album yet (it's in the post) so I've based the title on a 4x6 card which I will trim down to a square when the album arrives.

I've also been through all the pages to see if any of them felt like they were unfinished, a bit bare or had something missing. This included adding the dates to each port's subtitle page as I didn't manage to include a full itinerary on either my title page or my ship page. I've also squeezed in a few of my leftover stickers where I could.

So, it's all done, and time for a moment's reflection. I've only used a subset of the supplies that I originally gathered. My decision to use white cardstock backgrounds for all my pages rendered most of the 12x12 sheets surplus to requirements and I've only used three of them I think. Never mind, they came from my stash and will go back to my stash. I barely touched the remnants of Simple Stories Hello Today and Pink Paislee Atlas, which I have already repurposed for another project. I've also used far fewer of the embellishments than I intended, though I used almost all the enamel dots (and pulled out some more). My biggest 'mistake' was to buy the Alchemy Hearts Out and About 2025 collection, as I found the style and colours just didn't work with Simple Stories Happy Travels. However, I like the patterns and it is good, sturdy cardstock so I am sure I will put them to good use elsewhere.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels; Letters - Simple Stories, Tim Holtz; Numbers - Doodlebug; Stickers - Simple Stories, Pretty Little Studio, 7Gypsies; Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, 49 and Market, My Mind's Eye

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

Pages from Åndalsnes

Åndalsnes was the third port of call on our Norwegian cruise last summer, but it's the last to be scrapped as I don't work in order. This means I'm coming to the end of the project, but I still need a title page and I'll be reviewing everything else to see what's missing or where I can add more pieces to use up my kit. In particular, after I've made the title page, I will have an odd number of pages so I will need to make one more to even them up.

8. Åndalsnes

My usual sub-title page, which should be familiar to you by now: a strip of stamp-print paper, a vertical title cut on my Silhouette and a big block of photos with journalling. 

9 & 10. To Nebba & Back

We'd planned to get the cable car to the top of Nesaksla (the mountain on the page above) and walk back down but poor weather meant we cancelled that and instead walked up the mountain as far as the first viewpoint, called Nebba.

Shimelle's Page

11. Byparken

I've already made a page with this title for Ålesund, but Norwegians seem to take a very straightforward approach to naming their parks: by=town, park=park and en=the - so The Town Park. My page is a loose scraplift of one of Shimelle's December YouTube pages rotated, with two photos of the park and a journalling box below them.

 

Amy's Page

12. The Train Chapel

This is one of the pages I made for Week 2 of the Winter Challenges at Scrapbook Challenges - UK, where I scored points for using yellow with two or more photos plus bonus points for scraplifting a previous challenge page from Amy Kattenbelt. 

My photos are from the Train Chapel at Åndalsnes station which is a converted train carriage with an altar made from railway sleepers.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, My Mind's Eye Market Street, Photoplay Anchors Aweigh; Letters - Hobbycraft, Creative Devotion, Maggie Holmes, KaiserCraft; Stickers - Simple Stories; Die-Cut - Vicki Boutin; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories, 49 and Market, Paige Evans, My Mind's Eye, Papermania

Oh Christmas Tree

It's time for another DT page for  Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, and I'm scrapping six  photos of Christmas trees from around London.

I used Oh Christmas Tree 2 as the title for my page, and took inspiration for my photo placement from another cut-file, Christmas Tree, with its tree made up of small frames.

I used a 49 and Market paper with a subtle pattern as my background and added stencilling and stamping in a rough triangle. I arranged my photos in a tree shape with a woodgrain paper as a 'trunk' and a star at the top, then nestled in my cut-file against it.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - 49 and Market Tranquillity, Basic Grey Mon Ami, Simple Stories, Stickers - Studio Calico

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

(Page 7 for 2026)

At the Hurn and Spoon

Another page for my 2025 album, and I'm combining challenges. First up was this month's sketch from For the Love of Pretty Paper, then the second week of challenges from Scrapbook Challenges UK had us scoring points for using a three word title or longer, sequins or gems, ribbon or lace, triangles, and balloons.

I started from the balloon requirement and picked a Christmas party photo, but I then struggled to actually include them. I managed the title, gems and triangles, but my ribbons are printed cardstock laser-cut pieces so I'm not sure they count.

Supplies: Paper - Elle's Studio Live Laugh Love, Pebbles Welcome Christmas; Letters - Tim Holtz; Baubles - Unknown; Laser-Cut Ribbons - 49 and Market; Stickers - Studio Calico, American Crafts; Gems - Hobbycraft, Love to Craft

(Page 6 for 2026)

Parkrun Pages with Jenny Wren Cut-Files

I'm sharing a couple of 8x8 pages for my parkrun album today, both made with Jenny Wren Cut-Files as my DT projects for Twilight Crafts this month.

I used Numbers Background on the first page to celebrate my husband's 200th parkrun in October. It's not an official milestone so a guy called Gary Davies made a t-shirt for his own 200th run and now he lends it out every week with everyone signing it after they've worn it. I cut the numbers from dull brown cardstock and backed all the openings with the same blue patterned paper.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Kanban Industriana, Shimelle Glitter Girl; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Studio Calico, Jillibean Soup; Pearls - Scrapberry's

Secondly, I used Triangle and Squares Background to mark me running new PBs three times in September, after setting my previous best time way back in 2019. 

I flipped the cut-file over, filled three squares with photos and added my title to a fourth. I originally imagined journalling in the last box but I had too much to write so it ended up on strips on the right of the page.

Supplies: Cardstock - Unknown; Paper - Scrapbook Magazine Freebie; Letters - American Crafts, Violet Studio; Washi Tape - Shimelle; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

(I count 8x8 pages as half-pages in my count for the year, which is now on five.)