Photo Scavenger Hunt - July Finds

We're at the end of July now, time to check in with Rinda for her Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt. There are 21 things to find and photograph before the end of summer (22 September).

I had a good June, finding 10 of items and one alternative on a day out at Runnymede. Then I shared eight more pictures at the end of the month, but most of them were duplicates of previous finds so I had 12 of the 21 in total at that point. 

I've added a few more to my tally this month, but most of them are more repeat finds.

Here's the full list:

Credit: Julie Kirk

and my latest finds:

1. A Bouquet of Flowers

27 June - Two bouquets (plus bride, groom and cake) at a cousin's wedding

4. People playing a Board Game

28 July - Family members playing Ludo earlier this week

5. Architectural Columns

18 July - Lyme Park, Cheshire

9. A Tent

18 July - Camping in the Peak District.

11. A Cellular Tower or TV Satellite Dish

30 July - Purfleet, Essex

20. A Natural Body of Water

28 June - The English Channel at Folkestone

Only two of these are completely new finds so I'm now on 14 out of 21. I do also have a photo of three flags on a flagpole, but it's on my daughter's phone and she's not here for me to retrieve it.

I've reprinted the list this week, having put my original list through the washing machine, so I'll be keeping it (and my camera) close by during the next month.

Zzz...

This is the second page in a two page challenge from Laura in the 'For the Love of Pretty Paper' Facebook group that I belong to. We have had a series of 'Use Your Stash Up' challenges and Laura asked us to make a kit from our scraps, and then use it for two pages. I shared the first one (The Shooting Lodge) on Sunday, and this is the second.

The photo is my son when he was nine weeks old, asleep on a visit to my grandparents. I started from the largest pieces, layering them up in turn, then tucking the smaller pieces in around the edges. My title is another bit of stash-busting; I didn't have the right letters left for most of the titles I tried, so I settled on using up those Zs.

Supplies
Paper - Three Bugs in a Rug, Pink Paislee, American Crafts, Crate Paper, Kaisercraft, Bo Bunny
Letters - American Crafts
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories
Washi Tape - Unknown
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

The Shooting Lodge

One of the Facebook groups that I'm a member of has been running a series of 'Use Your Stash Up' challenges, and this weekend Laura asked us to make a kit from our scraps and to use that kit for at least two pages.

As I've said before, I keep all my paper scraps in one 12x12 box, and when it's full I sort them into co-ordinating mini-kits and then try to use some of them up. As luck would have it, I did this just last week so I already have several scraps kits made up and ready to go. 

One set that had me itching to scrap was an assortment of aqua and grey papers. I used some of the larger pieces with a photo of the holiday cottage we stayed in with a group of friends back in 2001. I just added some stickers and enamel dots to the kit of papers.

Supplies
Paper - Echo Park Happy Camper, October Afternoon Travel Girl, Basic Grey True Love, Pink Paislee Prairie Hills
Letters - October Afternoon
Stickers - Elle's Studio, Ebay
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Doodlebug
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Look!

I'm combining two challenges in one page today, with an old photo of my son in Padstow harbour. I have no idea what he was pointing at, but it was probably just a seagull. He's nearly four here, but 18 now; how time flies.

I used the latest sketch from Stuck?! Sketches, but I flipped it horizontally due to the way that my son is facing in the photo.

I'm also entering this month's stash challenge at Scrap Our Stash, where we have to use items that start with each of the letters of the word PHOTOS. I have chosen Punched circles, Hearts, Orange, Thickers, October Afternoon (washi tape) and Stitching. 

Supplies
Paper - Docrafts, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline, MME Find Your Wings and Fly, MME Cut & Paste
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Hearts - Pretty Little Studio
Washi Tape - October Afternoon
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Sewing Machine
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Fun with Thomas

I'm a member of several scrapbooking groups on Facebook, and one of the ladies in the UK group For the Love of Pretty Paper recently shared a new Spelling Bee challenge that she'd found at Scrapbook Challenges.

The challenge is to create a page incorporating elements for each letter of your home town, so everyone's challenge will be slightly different. The place where I live has 15 letters, but although you can limit this to any 10  I decided to use my postal town which is Grays, so my challenge is to use glitter, rub-ons, arrows, yellow and sequins.

I've been going through a mini clearout of my stash, and I've had a piece of Thomas the Tank Engine paper lurking there for years. I bought it for a specific set of photos, but I just hadn't got round to making the page. In the spirit of 'Use It or Lose It' I decided to just get it done.

I used glitter thickers for the title, a yellow mat for one of the photos and all the elements appear in the two embellishment clusters.

Supplies
White Cardstock
Paper - Sandylion Thomas Badge, Crate Paper Boys Rule, Fancy Pants Childish Things plus scraps
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - Anita's Glitterations, Teresa Collins, My Mind's Eye
Rub-Ons - American Crafts Shimelle
Enamel Dots - Teresa Collins, Studio Calico
Brads - Doodlebug
Washi Tape - Unknown
Ink - Docrafts
Sequins

Tools
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Zoe

Finally my 2002 album is finished, although it morphed into two albums along the way. I'm going to scrap a few random photos before getting stuck into a new project. The first one is an older school picture of my niece that was lying around loose, and needed to be scrapped for its own safety. I'm not sure exactly how old it is but I guess she is seven or eight in the photo and she's 13 now. 

I picked Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #84 from 1 July for my page, but I moved some of the elements around. The two photos on the right became one, and I dropped the singe photo. I also moved the strip across the top down to the bottom, and layered it over the triangle of patterned paper in the corner.

I try to use letter or number paper for school pages, and chose numbers this time. Most of the other papers came out of my scraps box and the apple die-cut is ancient stash that has finally found a home.

Supplies
Paper - Studio Calico Classic Calico, Crate Paper Random, American Crafts Dear Lizzy Serendipity, 
     Lily Bee Design Double Dutch
Letters - American Crafts
Die-Cut - Basic Grey Recess
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Teresa Collins
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tag Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Thoughts on Pages and Albums

Yesterday I shared the final page from my 2002 album (in the sense of the last one I made, I don't usually scrap chronologically, so there are existing pages from later events). While putting them all in the album I was struck with just how bulky my pages have got over the years. 

I started scrapping in 2008 and my early pages are totally flat. My titles were sometimes computer printed, sometimes stickers or rub-ons, but they were all flat. I had very few embellishments either, mostly paper or stickers or a bit of stitching, so still quite flat. I use postbound albums and putting 20 (or more) page protectors in one album was normal; they measure just less than one inch and don't strain the spine at all.

These are my 2009 albums - one for our cruise to Norway, and one for everything else. There are 22 and 20 page protectors in them, a total of 42 in two albums.

Fast forward seven years and I'm using a lot of Thickers for my titles, my pages have more embellishments and they're generally bulkier. Admittedly I have 27 page protectors for my 2002 album, but the stack of pages measures a whopping 1.75 inches. I tried to cram them all into one album, but the posts were unstable, and I had to split them across two. These 27 page protectors occupy a similar space to the previous 42.

The need for an additional album for 2002 doesn't worry me that much, and I bulk bought these in TKMaxx a few years ago so I had a spare. However it does make me wonder how many I'm going to need in the future. But,

• I'm not going to take less photos
• I'm not going back to flat pages, and
• I'm not switching to three-ring albums

so I'll just have live with putting fewer pages in each album, and using more albums if necessary. They just might need a new home though, as they are outgrowing their current space.

Room for Another!

It seems like ages since I last did a page for a sketch challenge; the multiple 4x6 photo pages that I've been making recently to finish my 2002 album just haven't suited them. Never mind, I've finished them now and I have one last page from that year to share with you today where I've combined TWO challenges.

It's a single photo (hurray) of my son, daughter, niece and nephew in the bath. I scrapped another bath photo a few weeks ago (Sharing), and I caught myself starting to make a very similar page. I really didn't want that twice in the same album, so I went looking for a sketch to use.

I hit on the Scrappy Friends challenges, and combined two of them here. The first one is Brenda's sketch at Grand Diva's Creative Corner. Ironically, it's a multi-photo sketch, which I've adapted for my one photo. I made the horizontal strips of paper a little narrower, and the tag and paper at the top of the sketch morphed into two smaller tags, which I then repeated at the left side of the photo.

The paper strips were a bit too 'clean' in comparison with the background paper so I stamped them with a random dots pattern, and then spattered the whole page with mist once I'd stuck them down.

The second challenge is Rochelle's Tic-Tac-Toe grid at Through the Eyes of Rochelle Spears. I kept my options open at first, with five of these items on the page, plus some chipboard pieces which I pulled out and didn't use. I eventually settled on the middle column - brads, stars and striped paper. The little eyelets on my tags are actually brads from Pebbles. I have them in three colours, and they are much easier to use than real eyelets, but I think they've been discontinued now. The stars are wood veneers from Studio Calico and the striped paper for my tags is ancient and unlabelled.

Supplies
Paper - We R Memory Keeper Love Notes, American Crafts Dear Lizzy Serendipity, 
      Heidi Swapp September Skies, My Mind's Eye Record It
Letters - Basic Grey
Washi Tape - Papermania
Eyelets - Pebbles
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Docrafts, Ranger

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tag (Used as a Template)

In the Royal Mews

I've got two pages left from 2002; the end is in sight. We spent a day in London in September, saw the Changing of the Guard and visited the Royal Mews to see the carriage collection, including the Gold State Coach that we had seen all too briefly at the Queen's Golden Jubilee celebrations.

My photos had all been 4x6 when printed, but I cropped them slightly years ago when I put them in the photo album. I took my photo placement from Kerry's page Hello Lake Annecy which also had a mix of photo sizes, but I added more papers. The finished page ended up a lot like my last one, but I think they will be sufficiently far enough apart in the album for that not to be too noticeable.

Supplies
Paper - First Edition J'Adore, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline, MME Vintage Charm, MME Cut & Paste, Pink Paislee Prairie Hill
Letters - October Afternoon
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories
Ink - Docrafts
Chalk - Readicut Crafts
Washi Tape - Unknown

Tools
Big Shot & Sizzix Wallflower Alphabet Dies
X-Cut Hexagon Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Caernarfon Castle

Last page from our Welsh holiday now. It's another castle, and another three photo page. I was out of layout ideas, so I turned to the 4x6 Photo Sketch Blog and searched for a three photo sketch. There weren't many with all the photos having the same orientation, but I turned up this sketch from 2010.

While I was making the page, I decided that I didn't like the way the right hand photo runs right up to the edge of the page, so I cropped mine down to a square and matted it on coordinating cardstock.

Supplies

Paper - Three Bugs in a Rug Deck the Halls, Authentique Natural, My Mind's Eye Now & Then

Letters - DCWV

Epoxy Stickers - Ebay

Washi Tape & Peel-Off Stickers - from Stash

Tools

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Conwy Castle

I'm still working through my 2002 photos, and the end is relatively near, but it seems like I had already scrapbooked most of the single and double photos from that year. This has left me with lots of three and four photo pages to make, all with 4x6 photos because that's the size that they were printed at the time.

I have three photos from Conwy Castle, which I would normally stack in a column, but I've done that too many times recently. I've seen a few pages recently where everything has been slanted on the page, and I decided to try it as something a bit different. I had to trim each photo a little to make it work, but I didn't lose anything important.

I cut a journalling/title card from a scrap and used butterfly washi tape as the only embellishment.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Vintage Charm
Letters - Basic Grey
Washi Tape - Teresa Collins
Ink - Ranger

Tools
American Crafts Notebook Border Punch

Plas Mawr

I rarely re-scrap a page; once it's done and in the album, it generally stays there. Trends and tastes change but I generally still like my older pages. However, if there's a page that makes me cringe every time I see it, then I have to have another go at it.

I've been working through my 2002 photos recently, and I scrapped a photo of our children at Plas Mawr (an Elizabethan townhouse in Conwy, Wales) as one of the CHA challenges at Two Peas in January 2013. (The original post is here.)

I suppose that this was at the start of the trend in mixed media, as I have a square of paint on a plain cardstock background behind my papers and photo. I really don't like that paint; it's too thick, you can see the brushstrokes and it's too great a contrast with the cardstock.

I still like the papers, so I decided to see what I could rescue for a new page. The answer was pretty much everything. I use double-sided tape for most of my pages and this pulls apart fairly well with a bit of care. 

My new page has a softer background, and I moved the paper squares closer together this time. I added strips of washi tape to the top and bottom of the page and stuck smaller pieces by the title. I spread out the embellishment clusters and added a word sticker to each one. I also spattered some mist along the diagonal.

Simple changes in the end, but I'm much happier with the new version and can carry on with the album without cringing every time I flip through and see that page.

Supplies
Paper - Glitz Designs Uncharted Waters, Basic Grey Plumeria, K&Co Hannah
Letters - Basic Grey
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Washi Tape - Papermania (Gold) & Unknown Teal
Mist - Mister Huey's
Ink - Docrafts
Pearls - Dovecraft

Tools
EK Success Corner Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Flower Punch

Snowdon

I'm still scrapping my way through old photos, filling in the gaps in my 2002 album. I've reached August, when we spent a week in North Wales. I've already made all of the one-photo and two-photo pages, so stand by for a run of three-photo and four-photo pages over the next week or so.

It's four photos today from Mount Snowdon; we caught the train to the top and then walked down the Llanberis path which runs fairly close to the railway.

Four 4x6 photos take a lot of space, so I didn't feel I had many design options, especially as they all have the same orientation. One block in the middle of the page, with patterned paper above and below.

Supplies
Paper - Cardstock - DCWV
Washi Tape - Efco
Labels - 7Gypsies
Brads - Laura Ashley

Tools
Big Shot & Sizzix Alphabet Dies
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Stick It Down - Sharing

This month I'm entering my second term on the Design Team at Stick It Down. Their three sketches for July - single page, double page and card sketch - were published on Wednesday and today it's the turn of the single page team to share our pages.

It's a single photo sketch again this month, so I picked the next single photo from 2002 (as I'm working through that year chronologically). It's one of my son, daughter and nephew in the bath, and I picked the background paper first as it has a water colour type pattern which I thought went well with the photo. Then I picked a scrap of woodgrain paper which has similar colours in it and tore off a strip for the right hand side of the page. I layered that with washi tape and machine-stitched it for interest. I layered up my photo with more of the woodgrain paper and some 6x6 papers; the layers aren't the same as the sketch but the general principles are the same.

Things were getting very box-y at that point so I added circle stickers to opposite corners in order to break up all the straight lines, and ran a series of embellishments around the circles to finish off the page.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Porcelain, Studio Calico Wanderlust, My Mind's Eye Just Splendid (6x6)
Letters - American Crafts
Washi Tape - Queen & Co
Stickers - Anita's Glitterations, Ebay
Gems - Dovecraft Pearls, Papermania Dew Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Sewing Machine

X-Cut Small Circle Punch

At the Palace

I posted my July Scraplift Challenge a couple of days ago and, as always, I'm sharing my own new page with you today. I was printer-less when I chose the challenge page so I wanted something that would suit my older 4x6 photos. 

My Bad Boys? page used two 4x4 photos, which was slightly more interesting as a challenge page, but I knew it would be stretch-able. Using 4x6 photos instead means that I used the full width of the page this time. The other main change is that the Project Life cards have been replaced by patterned paper on the new page.

My photos are from the Queen's Golden Jubilee in 2002 when we joined the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace. The Royal Family are on the balcony in the top photo, but it's out of focus so you'll have to take my word for that.

I'm making four pages from this day and using the Union Flag paper on them all. This is the third that I've shared (the others are On Parade and And After) but the fourth is a month away as it will be my page for the August scraplift challenge!

But first we have four weeks of July to go, I can't wait to see what you make of this challenge.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Papermania Portobello Road, Glitz Design Hello December, Bo Bunny Ambrosia, Crate Paper The Pier
Letters - American Crafts
Epoxy Stickers - Ebay
Washi Tape - Papermania
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch

June Scraplift Challenge Winner

Thank you so much to Pol, Julie and Donna for playing along with my scraplift challenge last month. With only three entries, I'm not awarding the prize yet, but I will combine last month's entries with this month's and pick a winner at the start of August. If you join in again this month, you will have two chances to win.

However I would like to invite Pol to be my Guest Designer for my August challenge. I love her circle with the word 'room'; she hand-cut that and stitched it to her page, such skill and patience are to be admired.

Pol, please email me if you wish to accept this offer, and I'll let you have the August challenge page to scraplift.

I posted a new challenge yesterday - a page with 4x4 photos and Project Life cards - and I'll post my own version tomorrow.

I hope that you join in too, and look forward to seeing your creations.

July Scraplift Challenge

Happy July! Welcome back for another Scraplift Challenge. I was printer-less when I chose the page for this month's challenge, so I chose something that I would be able to adapt to my existing 4x6 photos.

I picked Bad Boys?, a page that I made last year with two 4x4 photos and two Project Life cards. It's easily adaptable to different numbers and sizes of photos, and you can use patterned paper if you don't have PL cards.

This month, my Guest Designer is Julie from Letting the Days Roll By... who has kept close to my paper layers but with larger photos on her page. The main differences lie with her smaller title and greater quantity of journalling. I love how much writing she has done on her cards, and her apple wood veneer is the perfect embellishment.

Now I challenge YOU to make your own version of my page, taking as much or as little from it as you like, so long as I can see a likeness between the two. Post it somewhere online and link up to the gadget in my sidebar. Paper pages only please; entries close at 10pm (BST) on 31 July.

Happy scrapping, and I look forward to seeing your pages.

Full rules for my Scraplift Challenge are here.