Friday Coffee

The latest Glitter Girl adventure at Two Peas in a Bucket is all about scrapping yourself, whether this is your childhood memories or your life today. Shimelle made two pages and I have scraplifted her 'Right Now' layout.

I used a photo from my birthday (which also appears in my Scrap Your Day mini-album) featuring me and my friends. Although it is a birthday photo, we meet every Friday for coffee and a chat so my journalling and title reflect this.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill Basics Kraft
Paper - Pink Paislee Snow Day,  Teresa Collins Timeless, Pebbles New Addition
Letters - Trimcraft Smirk 'For Her'
Sticker - K&Co Hannah Scrap Pad
Chipboard Mugs - Maya Road
Ink - Papermania, Dovecraft
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Ffestiniog Railway

And my page for the March class in the '& now for something completely different' series at UKScrappers. I didn't follow the class entirely, but I did use the stamping and the trio of punched shapes. I dropped the idea of writing the title on a series of stickers (which I don't have) and I've swapped over the positions of the title and the journalling. I started with a large piece of flowery paper at the side of the photos, as in Shimelle's example, but I found that it dominated the page and so I swapped it for two smaller pieces, one each side. I am really liking the Basic Grey Plumeria papers that I also used on the last page. I only bought them a fortnight ago and I am fast running out.

I do want to do all the classes in this series, but April needs a large (A4) photo, I don't have one printed and I don't want to print one that large just for the sake of it. I think I will wait and do that page later in the year when I have a suitable picture.

Supplies
Card - White Scrapbook Insert
Paper - Basic Grey Plumeria (Velvet Bloom, Grandma Jane, Floweret)
Rub-On Letters - Making Memories
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink Pad - Ink It Up!

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Butterfly Punch
Dovecraft Beautiful Borders Clear Stamps

Now We Are Five

I said last post that I wanted to go back to the previous '& now for something completely different' classes at UKScrappers, and I've gone straight for the February class. Shimelle made a 4" x 6" mini-book attached to her page with brads, but I adapted her instructions to do a single photo layout.

The black and white strips were done with a bracket punch and I really like the lozenge shapes formed by offsetting the strips.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV, Papermania
Paper - Basic Grey Plumeria (Grandma Jane, Floweret)
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Pink Paislee Itty Bitty Blocks
Scrapbook Tacks - Chatterbox Antique Silver Stars
Mesh & Twill - from Stash

Tools
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch

Stealth

UK Scrappers hosts a monthly class called '& Now For Something Completely Different' with Shimelle Laine. I did make a page from January's class but then I let it slip until now. Shimelle posts a supplies list on the 10th followed by a set of instructions on the 20th. This month I actually managed to pull my supplies in advance and with the 20th being a Sunday, I completed my page on the first day:

The photos are some that I took on continuous shooting mode. I wasn't sure how (or whether) to scrap them, but the photo strip was a great solution.

Now to go back and do February, March and April...

Supplies

Card - DCWV Natural Stack

Paper - Echo Park Sweet Summertime, Pebbles Season's Greetings, K & Co Hannah Scrap Pad

Letters - MME Lush

Border Sticker - Crate Paper Random Collection

Brads - Papermania

Thread - Anchor

Ink - Dovecraft

Doily - From Stash

Tools

Fiskars Bracket Border Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

X-Cut Small Circle Punch

90

Anyone remember Shimelle's online scrapbooking weekend last month? There were 16 challenges and I said I would do them all, even if some would be late. I've finally done my last one  - Challenge 15: Scrap some Rubbish Photos.

My nan turned ninety earlier this year, and we gathered 14 family members together for a meal to celebrate. Due to a combination of poor restaurant lighting and people who kept moving I had a camera full of rubbish photos. Even the two that I took of just my nan were blurry. I picked the better one of the two and paired it with a smaller table shot, where everyone is actually in focus, but just not looking at the camera.

Supplies
Card - Papermania
Paper - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill (Country Meadow & Spool), Masterpiece Studios Bottoms Up
Rosette - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill Accolade Stickers
Numbers - American Crafts Thickers
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Tempate
EK Success Corner Punch
Peel-Off Numbers - from Stash

How to Build a Snowman

This will be the first page of my 2012 album, with photos from February. As soon as my son announced that he wanted to build a snowman taller than he is, I knew that I wanted to scrap it; it's normally my daughter building snowmen while my son shelters inside. I decided on the layout there and then and took the photos that I needed. Surprisingly there has been little change in my plans between then and now.

Supplies
Card - White Scrapbook Insert
Paper - Basic Grey Plumeria, Design Objectives Winters Tale
Ink - Papermania

Tools
Pebbles ABC Stamps
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
EK Success Corner Punch

Baltic Cruise

The second page I've made today is based on one of Shimelle Laine's favourite page designs, as seen in her Hitchhikers Guide to Scrapbooking class.

I wanted a summary page for our cruise last summer, featuring us and the ship, but this gave me an awkward clash of colours from the two photos. I think I got round it using the stripy paper which combines the brown and the blue. I hand-wrote the journalling so the panel is rather large. I am in two minds as to whether I should leave it as it is or re-do it on the computer to be a bit smaller. 

Supplies
Card - DCWV Natural Stack
Paper - Basic Grey Max & Whispers (Clarence), Cloud 9 Design Ocean Blue Quad
Embellishments - atd
Letters - Stickopotamus
Pens - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pens

Tools
EK Success Corner Punch
  

...And Sand

Things have been quiet in blogland recently, as I was scrapping with friends today so I have just been making page kits this week instead of completing pages.

The first page I made was actually made from a page kit I put together last October and didn't use then. It was the right hand side of a pair of layouts, hence the strange half-title. The pair together read 'Sun Sea and Sand'. The left page is here but I changed the title letters to use a pretty shell alphabet which I downloaded from Two Peas in a Bucket.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants True, Sandylion Sand, Travel Expressions Seashells, DCWV Beach Words, Buzzcraft (Squares)
Letters - Shell Alphabet by Betsy Tuma downloaded from Two Peas in a Bucket

Sealion Bay

I am trying (again!) to actually finish off my 2011 albums. This double page has been sitting in my head for quite a long time and it's good to get it done. It's a scraplift of a single page that I made in January (but didn't blog) and I thought that a similar approach would work here. The photos are from the sea lion shows at Chessington Zoo; they wouldn't normally merit a double page, but I needed to even up the pages in my album (or have a blank one at the end).

Just checking through my albums (I have two for the year), I have 4 pages left to do: a double for my husband's South West Coast Path walk (May), a single for the start of our Baltic Cruise (July) and another single from a day on the beach (September). Then on to 2012. 

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Snips and Snails, Fancy Pants Sweet Spring, EK Success Cream Linen, Kit 'n' Kraft
Letters - Stickopotamus

Tools
X-Cut Running Stitch Border Punch

It's Traditional

Another page for NSD at Two Peas - Challenge 7: Create with Polaroids. This could be a mock-up from a modern photo or you could use paper or stamps with the polaroid shape. I decided to use the real thing - the only polaroid photos that I actually have, two photos of our car covered in balloons and shaving foam after our wedding in 1993.

I used the latest Scrapbook Starting Point from Shimelle, but flipped it around as I found that I wanted my photos to the left of my journalling. I have several sheets of this Rosebud paper that I bought specifically for scrapping our wedding but this is the first page that I've made. 

The title is something that we now say to our children when we can't explain why we do certain things. Just why is it that we decorate the bride & groom's car?

Supplies

Paper - Sandylion Rosebud, MME Wild Asparagus, KaiserCraft Seaside, Pebbles Fresh Goods, Paper Adventures Love Hearts

Vellum - Paper Adventures Cream Ribbon

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Heart Brad - Kit 'n' Kraft

Never Too Cold for Ice Cream

I started this page with the intention of using bright colours for another challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket. I picked a bright floral from Fancy Pants' 'It's the Little Things' and a picture of my daughter, but once I got going, it looked better with a calmer pattern and just a tiny strip of the brighter paper. I started the journalling on the left, and it continues into the title on the right.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill Basics Kraft
Paper - Fancy Pants It's the Little Things (Gerbera Daisy)
Border Strips - Scrapbook  Magazine's Fancy Pants free papers
Letters - Papermania

In the Maze

As part of NSD, Two Peas in a Bucket have a Morph Project Hop which is a scraplift chain of pages. There are five pages from Shannon, Wilna, Lynn, Wendy and Amy and Challenge 4 was Continue the Morph - to scraplift any of these pages.

I took inspiration from all the pages but concentrated on Lynn's (right). I placed my photos on the left and copied the large title over horizontal stripes, but my stripes are paper not washi tape and they span the whole width of the page. I have a tag but in a completely different position.

Supplies
Card - Chartwell Studios
Paper - MME Bloom & Grow (2" x 12" paper strip pack)
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Ink - Dovecraft
Tag & Eyelet - from Stash
Gems - Dovecraft

Zoe & Jon

After the frenzy of the crop at My Scrapbook Nook, I am moving on to ten more challenges for National Scrapbooking Day at Two Peas in a Bucket. There's a wide variety and I started with an easy one - Challenge 9: Go Geometric - create a page using chevrons. As luck would have it, the Prairie Hills collection that I have used a few times recently contains a chevron. I decided to cut out a full 12" strip of the chevrons and place it behind a single photo:

I used a luggage tag from the same collection and decided to add a butterfly to the top left to mirror the one on the tag. This was a plain chipboard butterfly that I coloured with black ink and backed onto yellow card, which qualifies the page for Challenge 2: Make It Yours - Create Your Own Custom Embellishment as well. I can't find any ruling about combining challenges, so I am assuming this is OK.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill 
Paper - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill (Flight Pattern)
Tag - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill Shipping Tags
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Butterfly & Cord - from Stash
Ink - Ink It Up!

Borders Card

The previous post was my last scrapbook page for the crop, but not my last project. Challenge 8 from Danni was named 'Short Film' and this was a card sketch. It reminded me of a Pebbles border sheet that I have, so it was a very quick job to cut it to size and add a sentiment to a co-ordinating sticker. 



Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Paper - Pebbles Floral Lane (Just Because)
Sticker - Pebbles Floral Lane Dimensional Stickers
Rub-On - from Stash

A Hole in a Wall

This is the last page that I have time to make before the deadline on the May Movie Madness crop at My Scrapbook Nook. It's for Challenge 9 - the Red Carpet - use red as the dominant colour on a page.

I don't use red much, but I had an old sheet from Basic Grey and a green piece from the same collection. The butterfly paper is mostly orange and green, but by choosing the greener bits it matches surprisingly well. 

Supplies
Card - Chartwell Studios
Paper - Basic Grey Stella Ruby (Lady Kate's Roses & Springtime Soiree), Glitz Design Laced with Grace (Butterflies)
Border Strip & Journalling Spot - Crate Paper Cottage Collection
Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Rebecca

Time to go back to a few of the May Movie Madness challenges that I skipped before. Challenge 15 from Alex was to use a film title on a layout. I racked my brains for a while trying to think of a title to match my photos or find photos to match various titles, but I fell back on the film "Rebecca" from 1940. I hope it's not considered 'cheating'.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill Basic White
Paper - Imaginisce Sole Sisters (Girl Stuff & Shop Till you Drop)
Journalling Spot & Die Cut - Imaginisce Sole Sisters
Letters - MME Lush
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Imaginisce 'Thanks a Bunch' Stamp

Wedding Day

I've skipped again and moved to the 17th (and last!) challenge of May Movie Madness. This was Jessy's and she asked us to scrap a black & white photo in honour of the early black & white films.

I have never converted my colour photos to black & white, and I didn't want to do so just to meet the terms of a challenge. However I do have a few (scans of) photos from the 1940s. I picked this one of my grandparents on their wedding day, and teamed it with soft yellow, grey and green.

Supplies
Paper - Kit 'n' Kraft, Laura Ashley Love Song
Letters - American Crafts Foam Thickers
Brad - Kit 'n' Kraft

Time for Ice Cream

I've skipped a few more challenges at My Scrapbook Nook and moved on to Challenge 12, Playing Homage. Carol asked us to play homage to a fellow scrapbooker by lifting her work. I've liked a lot of Kali's pages recently and I chose one of hers from the Nook gallery.

I started from her doily, and chose a piece of doily paper which was in a card kit I received from a giveaway on Hilde's blog. I was struck with how well the paper matched my new Prairie Hill papers so I layered up a few pieces. My page wandered away from Kali's at this point; I dropped the label as I couldn't make it work, and I moved my title to the top.

Supplies
Card - Bazill Basics Sugar Cream
Paper - Basic Grey (from Hilde), Pink Paislee Prairie Hill (Country Meadow, Spool)
Letters - Pebbles Mini Stickers
Ink - Dovecraft
Paint - Folk Art

Growing

On to Challenge Seven from My Scrapbook Nook. This was the 'Director's Cut'; Anna gave us a sketch and challenged us to make our vision of it come to life in the same way that a director takes the basic outline of a film and moulds it to his vision.

I didn't stray too far from the sketch in the end. I picked a couple of landscape photos where the sofa reminded me of an Authentique paper that I have. It's double-sided so that gave me a second pattern to work with. I just added cream and green paper plus co-ordinating letters.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill
Paper - Authentique Loyal (Honest), K&Co Hannah, Cream from Stash
Letters - Authentique Classic Type

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Summer in the Garden

May Movie Madness Challenge Six at My Scrapbook Nook was all about costume design - or more specifically using fabric on a page. I've been hoarding fabric for a while intending to use it on my pages, but I've never quite got round to it.

I pulled out a couple of pink pieces and a photo of my daughter wearing pink (not as easy to find as you might think). I used a gingham piece in place of patterned paper and pleated a darker pink strip into a ruffle. I wish my sewing machine still worked as I would have loved to stitch the length of the ruffle. I kept with the costume theme by adding three buttons to the right of the page. I also layered two flowers, one fabric and one paper, with a fabric covered button.

Supplies
Paper - Echo Park Sweet Summertime Journal Cards (reverse)
Fabric & Buttons - from Stash 
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Pebbles Mini Stickers
Flowers - Paper Island (& 1 from stash)

Helvellyn by the Edges

The challenges at My Scrapbook Nook are coming thick and fast now. I won't be able to do them all so I'm skipping to number five which was linked to the idea of set decoration. Pam challenged us to create the set for our page, i.e. to create the background from plain cardstock plus mist, ink, stamps etc.

I put my new harlequin mask to work for the second time in three pages, using green ink on kraft cardstock this time.

There's something missing from this page, but I'm too tired to think straight and there will be more challenges by morning.

Supplies
Card - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Kit 'n Kraft
Letters - Amita's Glitterations, Jenni Bowlin Studio
Ink - Papermania
Square Embellishments - atd

Tools
Tando Creative Harlequin Mask

Whodunnit?

The second challenge from My Scrapbbok Nook's May Movie Madness crop was to use an envelope on a layout. This should have been relatively easy, but I wanted the envelope to have some meaning or hold some memorabilia rather than just be a random embellishment added to the page. 

I went back to 1995 for this photo from a Murder Mystery dinner party that we hosted. The envelope symbolises both the invitations that we sent out and the fact that the murderer's identity was sealed in an envelope until the end of the game.

Supplies
Paper - EK Success Inspirables (Life Stripes & Life Berries), s.e.i Be Bop (brown)
Letters - Pebbles

Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Big Shot & Sissix Envelope Die

Stockholm

My Scrapbook Nook are holding another cyber crop in honour of National Scrapbook Day in the US. This time the theme is Movie Madness and the first challenge was to scrap a page influenced by a movie genre. I chose a documentary to scrap the highlights of our day in Stockholm last summer. This is just a summary page to go in the 2011 album. I will be doing a full album for our cruise as well.

I love the colours in the new Pink Paislee papers and I was going to use these flowers in the middle of the page, until I realised just how much I would be covering up with the photos. I changed to just a couple of strips and used a stencil and ink to add some colour to the central panel. My printer chewed up my original journalling tag so this is just white card coloured with chalks.

Supplies

Card - DCWV? plus white scrapbook insert for tag

Paper - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill (Country Meadow)

Ribbon & Thread - from Stash

Ink - Papermania, Versacolor
Chalks - Studio G

Letters - Cut from free paper from Scrapbook Magazine Issue 36

Tools

Tando Creative Harlequin Mask