SWCP 8

SWCP is the South West Coast Path and this was the eighth year that my husband and father-in-law walked a section. They started out from Poole in 2008 and hope to arrive in Minehead in 2018 or 2019 depending how the last few sections go.

These pages are for my 2015 album, which I am close to completing now. They were always going to be photo-heavy and I thought that this would be a double page. However, since I have almost completed the album, I know exactly how the pages are fitting together and I don't have the right space for a double. A single page just wouldn't be big enough so I pondered making three pages, and remembered Shimelle's 4x6 Photo Love class for eight photos which consisted of a shorter page sitting in front of a standard 12x12 page so that it opens up to reveal extra pictures 'inside'.

I have sixteen smaller photos on my triple page, which fits with the first of Shimelle's challenges in an impromptu scrapbooking weekend which started on Friday evening.

This is the initial view of the page:

which then opens up:

I bought loads of the blue paper a few years ago so that the coast path pages in each annual album are on the same backgrounds. I printed all my photos at the same height for a simple design, and filled in the gaps at the ends of the lines with patterned paper, journalling and embellishments. I also wrote photo captions between the two rows of pictures.

Supplies
Paper - Craft Creations, Carta Bella Ahoy There, My Mind's Eye Chalk Studio
Letters - October Afternoon
Stickers - Jillibean Soup, Cosmo Cricket
Enamel Dots/Shapes - Doodlebug
Pearls - Craft for Occasions
Washi Tape - Papermania (Yellow Unknown)
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Christmas Presents

I've almost finished my 2015 album now. The final few pages are planned out in my head at least, and will be down on paper soon. It's a lovely feeling, and this will be the first annual album that I've finished in ages; 2010 and 2011 just need a few pages and 2012 to 2014 are all still works in progress. (Of course, an album is never completely finished, I can always add more stories and photos, but I mean finished in the sense that I have made all the pages that I currently want to make for that album.)

This page will sit opposite the last one I made and, since they cover Christmas Day and Boxing Day, I've used the same background and the leftover paper pieces, as well as many of the same embellishments.

I chose to work with Sketch #299 from Creative Scrappers, though with one less photo. Half way through making the page, I flipped the paper layers from left to right, not for some clever design reason, but because I gutted the silver baubles paper and I cut away a piece from the wrong side! 

I've managed to use some older stash on this page - the red paper is from 2006 (though I haven't had it quite that long) and, since I don't scrap with silver very often, I decided to use up the remainder of a pack of eyelet brads here (9 from the original 20).

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Knee Highs, Echo Park Reflections Christmas, Echo Park This and That Christmas, 
      American Crafts HollyDay, My Mind's Eye Bohemia
Letters - Freckled Fawn, DCWV
Doily - Papermania
Washi Tape - Tesco
Stickers - Echo Park, Ebay
Stars - Paperchase
Eyelet Brads - Pebbles
Gems - Doodlebug, The Range 
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp
Shimelle Christmas 2015 Stamps

"Who Am I?"

Back to my 2015 album today, and another page from December of that year. This one's from Boxing Day with photos of my dad and my children during an after-dinner game of Who Am I?

I'm playing along with the October 'Stash+Three' challenge at Scrap Our Stash, which is a sketch plus three stash elements from the lists; I used both die-cuts and Doodlebug gems for D, with the colours English Green and French Wine.

I'm also linking to Rochelle Spears' 'This or That' challenge where she has asked us to use Tags OR Tickets, not both; I chose tags

I had real trouble embellishing this page. I have a few remnants of Christmas collections plus individual sheets of paper, but hardly any Christmas embellishments. I had a dig through my colour drawers and pulled a few pieces together, but I can feel the need to shop before tackling Christmas 2016.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Knee Highs, Echo Park Reflections Christmas, Echo Park This & That Christmas
Letters - American Crafts
Doily - Papermania
Die-Cuts - My Mind's Eye, K & Company
Sticker - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Labels - Pretty Little Studio
Stars - Paperchase
Gems - Doodlebug
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

"Starting Point" Pages

A few weeks ago I collected a stash kit together to scrap our narrowboat holiday. It was based around Basic Grey's What's Up collection and I made four single pages and one double from it. I actually didn't use many of the other papers, so those have gone back into my stash, as have the unused embellishments.

I was loathe to consign the Basic Grey pieces to my scraps box, so I've made a couple of Starting Point pages. These are pages that I start without a specific photo in mind, and finish later on. It may seem to be a dangerous approach to scrapbooking, but I've done it before and I do use these pages sooner or later. I certainly won't pair them with any 2016 photos, so it may be next year before I use them, but that's OK.

I started with the largest pieces and made a page with uneven quadrants on the background. I've been rather specific with the photo size, and designed the page for a 4x6 vertical photo next to a block for journalling.

Now I was really down to just scraps, with all the remaining pieces being smaller than 4x6. I arranged and rearranged them on my background until I had a configuration that I liked. There will be more flexibility with the photos here, though I feel that it will work best with a larger landscape or two smaller portrait photos.

Now I only have these few tiny pieces left, but I am keeping them until I finish the pages. They are big enough to punch a few shapes from, and I haven't embellished either of my new pages yet.


EDIT:

Links to finished pages:

Looking Good

Girls' Night Out

Supplies
Basic Grey What's Up
Crate Paper Crush
My Mind's Eye Now & Then

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I'm still on my 2015 album, and specifically December when I have four pages on my 'to do' list. This one comes from a weekend we spent in the Lake District when we saw the only real snow of last winter (we live in the south of England and had none at home). It came down thick and fast on Saturday morning but we stuck with our plan for lunch and a walk in Skelwith Bridge. 

I picked three photos of the snow, river and mountains and paired them with Susan's October sketch at Me & Mine, which I rotated for landscape photos and moved the pictures to one side.

I chose papers from an older winter collection, and spent ages looking for the co-ordinating sticker sheet before realising that I'd cut it up and added the pieces to my colour-themed drawers. Having dredged up all the pieces, only one of them actually made it on to the layout.

I used one of the horizontal papers for my title, a mixture of letter stickers, die-cut letters and a word cut on my Silhouette, and journalled on the other one.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Fancy Pants Winterland, Authentique Nestled
Letters - Basic Grey
Snowflakes - Quirky Kits
Frame - Unknown
Sticker - Fancy Pants Winterland
Gems - ZVA Creative

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & X-Cut Headliner Alphabet Die
X-Cut Corner Punch

Runnymede

I'm filling in another gap in my 2015 album today with a double page from Runnymede (the home of Magna Carta) which I visited in June that year. I made two other pages from the day earlier this year (J.F.K. Memorial and We Will Remember Them) but, although I printed my photos and sketched out my page at that time, I didn't get around to making this one until now.

I chose the same cream cardstock and the same paper collection for these pages as the earlier ones to tie them together as belonging to the same day. I also used more of the same paper flowers and fussy-cut some leaves from one of the papers to go with them.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - My Mind's Eye Vintage Charm
Letters - American Crafts
Flowers - Papermania
Gems - TPC Studio
Ink - Ranger, Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

On Kinder Scout

I'm waiting for a delivery of scrapbooking supplies to arrive before I scrap our Austrian holiday, so I'm going back to my 2015 albums for now. We spent a weekend camping in the Peak District in July that year, and I've scrapped most of it, but I had one page missing from the album - the walk that my husband did with some friends on Kinder Scout.

I picked three photos and scraplifted myself (The Queen's Battery), though the two pages are far from identical, and will be in different albums.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye 29th Street Market, Basic Grey Hipster, Authentique Nestled
Vellum - Doodlebug
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Tag - Quirky Kits
Stickers - Crate Paper
Washi - Unknown
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Teresa Collins
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mr Huey's, Docrafts

Autumnal Thank You Card

This is my third post and fourth card from the World Card-Making Day event run by Sketch-n-Scrap on Facebook last weekend. Their third (and final) challenge was to use this sketch and an autumnal colour palette for a Thank You, Gratitude or Friendship themed card.

I used a 6x6 pad from Amy Tangerine for my paper strips and swapped the star on the sketch for a flower with copper sequin leaves.

"Stars" Birthday Card

Last Saturday was World Card-Making Day and I did three sketch challenges with Sketch-n-Scrap on Facebook. I blogged the first one yesterday, and the second was to used this sketch, at least one circle, at least three of the same embellishment and a banner.

I used a piece of 'Happy Birthday' printed paper for my circle and stuck closely to the sketch, with six wood veneer stars in different sizes as my embellishment, and washi tape banners to finish.

Seasonal Cards

Saturday was World Card-Making Day and I joined in with some of the sketch challenges posted by Sketch-n-Scrap on Facebook. The first challenge was to create two cards using the same sketch and a seasonal theme, with each card representing a different season.

I'd had a sort through my box of 'bits that might be useful for cards' a couple of days earlier, reminding myself what was in there and binning some things that I won't use. This meant that I could quickly pull out a Christmas tree die cut for my first card, which I paired with some KaiserCraft papers.

The second one took a bit longer; I wanted some flowers for spring or summer (depending what I found) but I shuffled various options for a while. Eventually I hit on some Jen Hadfield stickers, and used foam squares to layer one over a stamped background for a spring-themed birthday card.

I used gold peel-off stickers at all the paper joins and for the sentiments. I also spattered the background of the Christmas card with gold mist.