I had been trying to concentrate on pages from 2014, but when I saw this sketch from My Scraps and More, I wanted to use it straight away. I didn't have a suitable pair of current pictures around so I went all the way back to 2001 for a couple of 4x6 photos (one landscape and one portrait) that I was able to crop to squares. They're still larger then the ones in the sketch, but they worked fine.
Simple photos of my my son and a steam engine while on holiday in Cornwall.
Supplies
Paper - Bo Bunny Camp-a-Lot, Simple Stories Awesome
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type
Buttons - The Works
Ink - docrafts
Tools
Sewing Machine
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
I'm trying to continue with pages from this year and bring my 2014 album up to date. We went to M&M World in London during February half term. It should be just a shop but somehow it's more than that with its plethora of character merchandise and a huge wall of pic 'n' mix in every colour of the rainbow.
I cropped my photo of the columns of sweets and printed it on white card to run across the page behind my main photo of the M&M characters in Abbey Road mode. I toyed with a plain white background to contrast with the colourful sweets, but I decided that this was a page that could take some colour, finally opting for this orange background and using a smear of modelling paste and some white mist to match my white lettering. It's a fairly simple layout, but I'm happy with it.
Supplies
Paper - K&Co Mira, Fancy Pants Wavesearcher, MME Bright 6x6 Pad
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Lily Bee (plus old unlabelled ones)
Border - Bazzill Half the Edge
Mist - Mr Huey's
Modelling Paste - Farrel & Gold
Ink - docrafts
Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
This page has been milling around my head for a few weeks now. When I saw Sketch #75 from My Scraps and More at the beginning of the month I thought that it would be useful for scrapping our day at Colchester Zoo, but it's taken me until now to stick photos to paper. I decided to concentrate on the red pandas, which were just the sweetest animals; my daughter and I could have watched them for ages.
I printed three of the photos that we took and used the fourth quadrant for my title and journalling:
Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV, Papermania
Paper - Echo Park Paradise Beach, Basic Grey Eva, Unknown Leaves
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Ink - docrafts
Tools
Sewing Machine
I'm jumping all over the place with my pages at the moment, just picking the photos that work for the various sketch challenges that catch my eye. This time I'm using photos from Disneyland Paris just last week and the mid-month sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap.
I played around with the dimensions of the sketch to fit four photos across the page. These were some of the characters that we saw around the park, though we didn't queue for their autographs.
Most Disney paper collections are yellow, red and black, but the park itself was mostly spring/pastel colours so that's what I've chosen for my page. I will be making more pages from the day, and I will try to repeat some of the papers especially the mason jars full of magic.
I am also linking up to the new weekly challenge at shimelle.com where Relly is looking back at the archives and making new pages based on Shimelle's older posts. This week she's looking at subtle patterns for backgrounds. I have this paper in several pastel colours and may well use it again on another Disneyland page.
Supplies
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Cherry Arte Princess, Scrappy Cat Butterfly Dreams, Jillibean Soup Blossom Soup,
American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Echo Park This & That
Rub-Ons - Basic Grey
Gems - Forever in Time
Ink - Ink It Up!
Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobycraft Star Punch
My scrapping break means that I have a whole stack of challenges lined up to do. The first one I picked was the April sketch from Susan at Me & Mine. The obvious thing to use for all her stripes is washi tape so I pulled out a selection. The variety of colours and patterns had a playful, child-like feel so I picked a photo of my son as a toddler to go with them.
This is actually my second draft of the page. I picked a blue patterned background and a limited colour palette for the first attempt, but they just looked wrong together. I switched to a plain white background to have another go with more colours and I am much happier with this version.
Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Studio Calico Snippets
Washi Tape - Trimcraft, Efco, We R Memory Keepers, The Range, Waterstones
Letters - American Crafts
Buttons - Fancy Pants Wavesearcher
Tools
American Crafts Notebook Border Punch
The blog's been a bit quiet recently as it's the Easter holidays from school, so we've been out and about, day trips last week and a few days in Paris this week. All the new Parisian photos had my fingers twitching and so I've scrapped the first page from our trip.
I used the April Week 1 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy for my page, but rotated it to suit my landscape photos. Those photos are of Porte Saint-Denis and Porte Saint-Martin, two triumphal arches built for Louis XIV. Everyone knows the Arc de Triomphe but these seem to be less well-known.
I have a piece of Paris map paper from October Afternoon's Travel Girl collection which I've been saving for this trip, and I've used the appropriate part for this page, marking the gates' locations with gems.
I'm also linking up to the new weekly challenge at shimelle.com. Shimelle herself is on maternity leave, but she has a series of guest posts lined up and the first one came from Relly, who asked us to make a project about a place we have visited. Perfect timing.
Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Lost & Found 3, V&A Paper Pack, October Afternoon Travel Girl
Letters - October Afternoon
Doily Sticker - MME The Sweetest Thing
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Ink - Ink It Up!
Tools
Sewing Machine
Big Shot & Alphabet Dies
American Crafts Simple Scallop Border Punch
I don't 'do' Project Life as such, but I can see the value in including the smaller stories and everyday events in my scrapbooks. In previous years, I've done this on 12x12 pages even if some members of my family wonder why I made a page for something so minor, like the sunrise, a haircut or a bit of DIY.
This year I've decided to combine pocket scrapbooking with my 12x12 pages. I have a variety of divided page protectors, but I decided to use the ones with 6 4x6 landscape pockets. I think that most of my photos will be landscape, and the portrait ones will just have to be printed at a maximum of 4" high. There will mostly be one photo in each pocket; if anything needs more than one photo then it will have a 12x12 page as normal.
April might seem a little late in the year to start a project like this, but it's something I've intended to do since the start of the year, and my version means each month only takes a short while. For example, January has 8 4x6 cards including a title:
I chose to use one colour background for each month; January is blue and all the papers are either scraps or cut down from 6x6 pads. The 'Scout Hike' pocket is just a photo with Word Art over it as the hike had enough story to get a full 12x12 page too (Boys v Girls).
My format means that each month will have as many or as few cards as I have photos and stories for, and if I find that I have missed something out I will be able to just move all the cards along one space and add it in later.
It's been a few weeks since I did a weekly challenge at UKScrappers as there have been some that I just didn't like the criteria. This week was different and Niki set a lovely challenge where all the elements fitted together - use the sketch, square photos, stars and chevrons.
I flipped the sketch, and used star and chevron paper with square photos from the Scouts' challenge hike earlier this year. Our troop entered two teams and the leader introduced a little sexist rivalry by splitting them into girls and boys.
Supplies
Paper - Pixie Press Fall Stripes, Simple Stories Awesome, Simple Stories Take a Hike, plus Scraps including Basic Grey
Letters - Basic Grey Nordic Holiday
Stickers - Simple Stories Take a Hike
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Gems - Dovecraft
Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Label Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch
This is my fourteenth and final page for the Birthday Stash-a-Thon at Scrap Our Stash. It's been a great month and I thank all the girls there for their hard work in organising it. I've got lots of pages finished, done things I don't normally do, and used up some seriously old stash.
Since we are celebrating their 1st Birthday, the final challenge was to use a number 1 on a page. I bought a couple of large chipboard '1's a while ago for using on my children's first birthday layouts so I decided to tackle my son's 1st birthday.
I only had four photos from the day, but this was a special day and I'd always intended this to be a double page layout. It's quite a simple design, with all the photos in a row, but often simple is best when it comes to double pages.
I covered my chipboard 1 with white glittery paper and used it as part of my title. I also covered a star and the surrounding disc with the same paper and added them on diagonal corners, embellishing all the chipboard pieces with tiny gems.
Supplies
Paper - Sandylion Birthday Boy Stars, American Crafts Bookshelf, docrafts Spring Chic, HOTP In the Kitchen
Letters - American Crafts
Chipboard Number/Stars - Unknown
Washi Tape - docrafts
Gems - Papermania
Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
This is my penultimate page for the Birthday Stash-a-Thon at Scrap Our Stash. I didn't originally think that I would manage to do all their challenges, but now it seems that I might. It's for Challenge #11 - to use triangles on a page.
I had a vague recollection of a sketch from Shimelle Laine's Sketch to Scrapbook page series last year that featured triangles, and went hunting for it; it was her Sketch 10 from last March and had three lines of triangles pointing in at the photo. I started off following the layout, but all those triangles were taking over my page, so I cut back to one row and a single triangle on the opposite side of the photo.
I'd have liked a subtle patterned background, but I couldn't find a suitable paper, so I spritzed kraft cardstock with white mist (again). I have a scrapbook paper order on its way to me, and I made sure that I chose lots of 'background' papers this time as I never seem to have enough.
Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - Basic Grey Sultry, Basic Grey Mint Julep, MME Wild Asparagus, Crate Paper Random, Sandylion
Letters - American Crafts Remarks
Gems - Doodlebug
Sequins - from Stash
Mist - Mister Huey's
Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Daisy Punches
No, not a beautiful fountain, but our toddler son watering our newly-laid lawn many years ago. I worked with the March Week 1 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy and replaced the smaller photo with a butterfly in a frame for Stash-a-Thon Challenge #10 from Scrap Our Stash - add balloons or something else that flies in the air.
My son is quite small in the photo so I used a fabric frame to focus on him. The aperture in my smaller frame was originally circular, but I made it a square and larger, and stamped on the frame with an old ink pad for a pale impression, just to tone down the stark white colour. I covered a chipboard butterfly with gingham paper and added gems for a body and wire for antennae.
Supplies
Paper - MME Wild Asparagus, Crate Paper Random, Unknown Gingham
Letters - October Afternoon, Echo Park
Large Frame - Maggie Holmes
Small Frame - from Stash
Butterfly - Maya Road
Stickers - Crate Paper Season, Pebbles Fresh Goods
Tag (Cut Up & Punched) - American Crafts
Gems - Crystal Stickers
Ink - docrafts
Tools
Wavy Scissors
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Craft Creations Butterfly Punch
Imaginisce Tree Stamp
