Welsh Memories

I'm continuing with my plan to bring my 2016 album up-to-date, though last week's canal holiday added quite a few more photos to that task.

We also spent a week in South Wales at Easter, and I've pulled together an assortment of 'minor' photos for a divided page. I used a page protector with nine 4x4 pockets on each side, but I cut it down to give me just six. I used papers and coordinating cards from We R Memory Keepers, picking three double-sided papers and positioning them so that the six patterns appeared on both sides of the page protector.

The front has a couple of photos from The Big Pit (which we didn't actually enter since all the day's tours were already booked up) and a couple from Rhymney Brewery which we visited instead.

All of the photos on the front were from one day, but those on the back are a mish-mash from the week. I only had one journalling card, which I used on the front, so I put together something similar for the back using a stamp from Elle's Studio.  

Supplies
Paper - We R memory Keepers, My Mind's Eye, Crate Paper
Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon, KaiserCraft
Paper Clips - Basic Grey
Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Brads - My Mind's Eye
Dots/Shapes - Doodlebug, Papermania
Ink - Docrafts, Ink It Up!

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
X-Cut Circle Punches
Crayola Butterfly Punch
Big Shot, Little B Arrows Dies & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Elle's Studio Note Tab Stamp

Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt - On the Canals

We spent last week on a narrowboat in the Midlands, travelling the Oxford and Ashby Canals, and this was my first opportunity to get stuck into Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt.

All these photos were taken between 16th July and 23rd July. I was on just one find at the end of June, and I've duplicated that one here. 

1. A "wild heart" 

4. A book or magazine read during 2016
Our guide to the waterways.

5. A porch or deck
The deck of our boat.

7. A family gathering
Just three of us on this trip.

9. Someone playing with, in, or around water

10. A bicycle

11. Fresh produce

12. A window
All Saints' Church, Braunston

13. The moon

15. A team logo

16. A map showing a trip taken during the time period
My husband tracked our 'voyage'; there's a zoom-able version of this map here. 

18. A supermarket cart, basket or trolley full of groceries 

19. A seasonal cocktail or beverage

Alt 2. A baby (human or animal)

So that's 13 finds plus one of the alternatives, although some of these photos may not make the final cut come September. I have a different photo in mind for the family gathering, and I'd like a better photo for fresh produce.

We're off to Austria next month so I will be wiping the list clear and starting again there, trying to find as many items as possible that week.

The hunt runs until the end of summer on 22nd September, so there's plenty of time for you to join in too. Check out the list on Rinda's blog, or join the Facebook group, and get snapping!

Grandma's Helper

While sorting out my pages to put them in albums, I've come across one that I haven't shared here. I made it for one of the National Scrapbooking Day challenges in the For the Love of Pretty Paper Facebook group; Lisa-Jane asked us to use our 6x6 papers, and I used papers from two pads for this page.

I started with a cut file, Stay Focused from The Cut Shoppe, which I cut from grey cardstock at 8" wide. I backed the openings with 6x6 papers and used two more to run across the page and ground my circle. 

The photo is my nephew when he was much younger; I matted it on scraps from the two pads and fussy-cut a house for my embellishment cluster.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - Basic Grey Basics, Crate Paper Neighborhood, My Mind's Eye Now and Then
Letters - Fancy Pants
Word Sticker - Prima
Washi Tape & Heart Sticker - Unknown
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Other
'Stay Focused' Cut File - The Cut Shoppe

Gung-Ho!

Having finally finished all the pages for my Cruise Album, I feel free to pursue other projects. I have a few albums on the go from previous years, but I'm going to (hopefully) bring 2016 up-to-date first before the avalanche of new photos from our summer holidays.

This page has photos of my brother and his family, having completed a 5k inflatable obstacle course organised by Gung-Ho! last month. I based my page on the 1 July sketch from Stuck?! Sketches, flipped horizontally to suit the orientation of the smaller photo.

I used a complete mix of papers, but most of them came in my Quirky Kits in the last two years, as did the frame and the die-cut.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Happy Place, October Afternoon Summertime, Simple Stories So Fancy, Studio Calico South of the Market
Letters - American Crafts
Project Life Cards
Frame - Pink Paislee
Die-Cut - Simple Stories Carpe Diem
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

The Queen's Battery

At last, after 10 months, I've finished the last page of my scrapbook for our cruise to Ireland and Canada last summer. It's another one from St John's in Newfoundland, with photos of the Queen's Battery, a row of 19th century cannons on Signal Hill, overlooking the Narrows, the harbour entrance.

None of the challenge blogs that I follow have a current sketch that I felt I could make work for these photos, so I went back to last month and Sketch #107 from Sketch-n-Scrap.

I don't have a lot of papers left from my album kit, but I put together three 12" strips for the basis of the page, and matted my photos on three smaller pieces in co-ordinating colours. 

Now all I have to do is wrestle 56 pages into one postbound album, easier said than done, even with extension posts (but I still don't like three ring albums so I will persevere).

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits, Colorbok Travel, Pink Paislee Memorandum
Letters - Anita's Glitterations
Stickers - Studio Calico, Anita's Glitterations, Tim Holtz, Ebay
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink & Mist - Docrafts

Tools
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

St John's (Page Re-Do)

I made a title/divider page for each port of call on our cruise to Ireland and Canada last summer, including this page for St John's that I made last November. 

Fast forward eight months and, as I come to the end of my scrapbook, there is one more photo that I'd like to include in the album. It's a picture of a plaque in Harbourside Park that commemorates the foundation of the British Empire when Sir Humphrey Gilbert claimed Newfoundland for Britain in 1583; it hasn't fitted with any of the pages that I've made, and it doesn't merit a page of its own, so I decided to add it to my title page. I printed it at 3" square, which is large enough to read the inscription, and squeezed it in above the map paper on my original page. Of course, it wasn't quite that easy as I also lifted the map section up and replaced the background layers with new taller pieces so that my new photo would share the blue mat with the map. Here's the new version (with newly extended journalling too):

The eagle-eyed will notice that the page has also acquired a yellow strip down the right-hand side. That's because the page protectors in my album are only 30cm wide (12" is 30.5cm) so I've had to cut the edges off all my pages to make them fit the page protectors, and I mis-measured this one. The easiest cure was a strip of cardstock stuck behind the original page to bring it back to the 30cm width.

Just one more page to go now!

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset, Bazzill
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits, Glitz Designs Uncharted Waters, Pink Paislee Memorandum
Letters - American Crafts
Tag - Graines Creatives
Wood Veneer - Creative Embellishments
Gems - ZVA Creative
Ink & Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Stampendous 'Travel Words' Stamp

The Narrows

This is the penultimate page from my album for our cruise to Canada and Ireland last summer. It's another from St John's and has three photos of The Narrows, the entrance to the harbour.

I based my page on Sketch #108 from Sketch-n-Scrap, which I rotated and adapted to my three photos - the channel from Signal Hill, the lighthouse and fort on one side, and the colourful houses on the other side.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits, My Mind's Eye Chalk Studio II, Glitz Designs Uncharted Waters, Basic Grey Little Black Dress
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - Anita's Glitterations, 7Gypsies
Wood Veneer - Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Amy Tangerine Camera Stamp
Make & Create Label Stamp

Enjoy the View

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I last shared a scrapbook page. That one was from Belfast, the final port of call of our cruise to Ireland and Canada last summer; now I'm going back in time, back to our second stop which was St John's in Newfoundland.

St John's was our favourite port of the seven that we visited, and I've made more pages for it than for any of the others, so many that I decided to move on to the rest and come back later. Now that the album is almost finished, I need an odd number of pages and I've planned three more, plus I want to re-do a page to add one more photo.

The first one is from when we climbed Signal Hill, which rises above St John's and guards the entrance to the harbour; this page has a single large photo of the view from the top.

It's a really simple page, and I feel that it needs more embellishment, but everything else that I tried to add just looked wrong. Hopefully, sometimes less is more.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits
Letters - Fancy Pants
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Monochrome Birthday Card

My daughter turned 16 last month. Gone are the days of pink and purple, of butterflies and flowers. Her favourite colour is black, and that's hard to incorporate in a birthday card.

I was browsing the Silhouette file one day when I saw a file with a column of interlinked offset circles. Nothing too difficult there, so I designed my own similar file, welded it to a frame and cut it from black cardstock. I backed it with 'Happy Birthday' paper, spattered some mist and added the number 16. It's a really simple card but I love it, and so did my daughter.

Retro Gadgets Birthday Card

Stick It Down posted their July sketches a few days early, and they popped into my blog reader just as I was thinking about a birthday card for my friend's son.

The card sketch was a good one for a boy, and I paired it with papers from Papermania's Mr Mister collection. I covered the card with a retro gadgets print, cut the star with my Big Shot (mounting it with foam squares) and stamped the sentiment on a chipboard square.