Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt

It's that time of year again - December is almost here, and that means the start of the annual Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt.

It officially starts on Friday, but Eileen  published this year's list a few days early over on her blog, A Bracelet of Days. There are 25 items to be found between 1st December and the spring equinox on 21st March next year.

I spent last weekend in Lincoln, checking out the university with my daughter and unknowing took a couple of photos that would have been perfect for the hunt, if only I'd taken them a few weeks later. 

This is the University Library (no. 11 on the list), converted from an old warehouse:

and there was this display of luggage (for no. 2) in the window of a shop selling Harry Potter merchandise:

Sadly neither of these will count, but I'm looking forward to finding alternatives to them, plus the other 23 items. Here's the full list:

1. Men at work
2. Luggage
3. Domestic trivia
4. A Winter's Tale (or tail)
5. Passengers
6. Wrapping paper
7. On the water
8. Silver
9. In the making
10. Having fun
11. Library/Book shop
12. Stationery
13. A line of ...
14. Stones
15. Bow
16. A sense of history
17. Many
18. Signpost
19. A pair of ...
20. Detail
21. Handle
22. Symmetry
23. A heart
24. Steam/smoke/mist
25. A peek inside

All the prompts are open to interpretation, so it'll be interesting to see what the other participants come up with, especially when they live in countries other than the UK. Please do join us this winter.

Splendid Isolation

I'm staying in Greenland today for a page from Tasiilaq where this signpost was positioned outside the small souvenir shop cum tourist information centre. I've not journalled about the sign specifically, but used it as a chance to write about the large size of Greenland and the isolation of its small communities.

I always keep an eye out for map papers when I'm shopping, and made use of one from Pebbles here, marking the location of Tasiilaq with an enamel star.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Pebbles/Jen Hadfield, Echo Park Note to Self, Photo Play Boarding Pass, Basic Grey Serenade
Letters - Fancy Pants, Basic Grey
Sticker - Photo Play Boarding Pass
Mistable Clouds & Star - Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - American Crafts/Shimelle
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts
Paint - Plaid

Ammassalik Fjord

More icebergs today, as we reached Greenland and cruised Ammassalik Fjord en route to Tasiilaq. I had so many photos that, even with ruthless editing, this had to be a double page. I printed my photos in two sizes and matted them in three blocks. Careful cutting and stretching meant that I only needed to use one piece of each of the striped and light kraft papers for this layout.

Journalling in the space on the right, and two embellishment clusters in opposite corners to finish. These clusters are larger than my norm as I took advantage of the space available to use a couple of the stickers from the Boarding Pass collection. I'd intended to use the ship on the right hand side where it would have been sailing towards the photos, but they fitted much better this way.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Pink Paislee Memorandum, Jillibean Soup, Amy Tangerine
Letters - Hobbycraft
Stickers - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Icebergs

Sketch-n-Scrap are part way through another Cybercrop on Facebook, and this page comes from their first challenge sketch.

I decided to use two landscape 4x6 photos which led to me running out of space above and below them compared to the sketch, and moving the title on to the side of the page.

As it says, my iceberg photos were taken in the Denmark Strait, between Iceland and Greenland. There's a world map paper in the Boarding Pass 6x6 pad so I chose that paper to go at the top of the page and marked the Strait with a geotag.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass
Letters - American Crafts, We R Memory Keepers
Sticker - Photo Play Boarding Pass
Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Shimelle
Enamel Shapes - Pink Paislee Atlas, American Crafts/Shimelle
Washi Tape - Tesco
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Quickutz Tabs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Seriously?

I'm crossing back over to Iceland for this page of the Phallological Museum in Reykjavik. Yes, seriously, that does mean exactly what you think it means; it's one of the strangest museums we've ever visited, beating the Leprosy Museum in Bergen for subject matter, but not for the quality of the exhibits.

I picked two photos for this page - a 4x6 of the outside and a 4x3 showing some of the exhibits. My layout started out from the Scrappy Friends Sketch Challenge at Grand Diva's Creative Corner, but morphed as I went. I'd intended to follow it, reduced in size to still show a border of the kraft cardstock I'm working with for this album. However, it soon became clear that I'd be happier if I layered my photos across the camera paper strip rather than having them below it. 

With larger photos and less writing  than that indicated in the sketch, I moved my journalling below the photos and ran it down to the line of embellishments towards the foot of the page; I also decided to move the title up to the top as I felt it needed to be above the museum name in the photo.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Echo Park Winter Park, Photo Play Boarding Pass, We R Memory Keepers, Pink Paislee Memorandum
Washi Tape - Little B
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Pearls - The Hobby House
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Little B Arrows Die
Quickutz Tabs Die
Scrapberry's 'Around the World' Compass Stamp
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Lego Town

Greenland again today, with a couple of photos of Tasiilaq as we arrived. My first impressions were of a town built from lego, with simple buildings in bright colours scattered across the hillside. My layout came from A Most Magical Scrapbook once again; Shimelle's designs are so useful for pairs of 4x6 photos in the same orientation.

I've mostly been working with Photo Play's Boarding Pass collection for this album, but I did pull out other papers too and this floral just seemed right for this page; it's the first time I've used it and I will ensure that it repeats on other pages. The stamped globe is a motif that has already appeared on a number of pages and I'll be continuing to use that too.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Papermania
Paper - Teresa Collins Christmas Cottage, Photo Play Boarding Pass
Vellum - American Crafts
Letters - Hobbycraft
Journalling Card - Project Life
Washi Tape - Tesco, Little B
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Enamel Dots - Studio Calico, Echo Park
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Spellbinders Circle Dies
American Crafts/Shimelle Starshine Stamps

Traditional Turf House

I'm switching over to Greenland for the next couple of pages in my cruise album. This one is from Ammasalik Museum, where they have reconstructed a traditional turf house of the type used as a winter home by the Inuit.

The page design comes from Shimelle's A Most Magical Scrapbook class once again, but this time I'm combining it with a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge from Scrap Our Stash. 

I picked the top row - plaid print, tab(s) and the colour brown. I'm making all the pages for this album on kraft cardstock (brown), the paper collection that I'm using has a plaid print and I have a tabs die that's a recurring item.

I filled my tab with a tiny wood veneer tree, and made a similar cluster across the page. With only two of this tree in my stash, I placed a slightly different one next to the title, and eventually decided that I needed a third 'proper' cluster at the foot of the journalling. With no more trees to hand I picked out an arrow instead.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Photo Play Paper, We R Memory Keepers, Three Bugs in a Rug
Vellum - Crate Paper
Washi Tape - Various Unknown
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico, Creative Embellishments
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, American Crafts/Shimelle, Doodlebug
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot & Quickutz Tabs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

In Retreat

One of the ports of call on our cruise was Olden in Norway, and from there we travelled to the Briksdal Glacier. We'd visited it before and I've already made a page showing the change in the glacier front in the intervening time (Now & Then). This one is about the changes over a longer period of time - 250 years. There are signs along the path to the glacier that show where the front was in years gone by and I took an un-zoomed photo from each one.

Once again my page layout came from Shimelle's class A Most Magical Scrapbook, and I took the colours and some of the papers from my previous page as they cover a similar subject and will sit next to each other in the album.

I wanted to put the year on each photo, but didn't have enough small number stickers so just wrote them on tiny tickets. This ties in with two recent challenges to use numbers on a page - the November House Challenge at UKScrappers is to feature numbers; and one of the alphabet challenges in the For the Love of Pretty Paper group was N is for Numbers.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Pink Paislee Memorandum, Basic Grey Serenade, Echo Park Winter Park
Vellum - My Mind's Eye
Letters - American Crafts
Mistable Clouds - Studio Calico
Geotag Sticker - Photo Play Paper
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Pearls - Hobby House
Washi Tape - Tesco
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Little B Arrows Die
American Crafts/Shimelle Starshine Stamp Set

Musical Legends

I made this page last weekend, just after the first round of November challenges and sketches had been posted by the blogs I follow. I'd recently printed another batch of cruise photos and the first sketch to catch my attention was a three-photo design from Stuck?! Sketches.

I'd printed three 4x3 photos from one of the shows onboard and it was an easy job to adapt the sketch to the larger size. I'm doing all the pages for this album on Kraft cardstock but I decided to soften the brown with a liberal spritzing of white mist for this page, then added a layer of gold vellum.

I needed to move the title below the photos, and with my journalling nearing the foot of the page I decided to move some of my embellishments down too. I had the navy blue frame from the sketch in place all along, but as I was working I felt that (1) the page was unbalanced and (2) I needed to repeat the frame elsewhere. I cut extra pieces to go round the other embellishment clusters and I'm so happy with the way they look now. I do have another page where I'm not happy with my clusters and I'm actually going to go back to it and see whether similar frames will work on that one.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, American Crafts/Shimelle Go Now Go, Echo Park, Heidi Swapp
Vellum - American Crafts
Letters - American Crafts, My Mind's Eye
Washi Tape - Tesco
Enamel Dots/Stars - Marianne Designs
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mr Huey's, Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Tag Punch
X-Cut Circle Punch
Big Shot
X-Cut Nesting Stars Die
Little B Arrows Die

Akureyrarkirkja

I'm staying in Iceland for this page, but crossing back to Akureyri. We only had a short time in the town one evening after a day time trip and I set out to visit the church, imaginatively named Akureyrarkirkja which means Akureyri's Church. 

The church stands on a hill, at the top of a flight of steps and was lit up at night which made it easy to find. I ended up with two photos in different orientations which I scrapped with the aid of another of Shimelle's prompts from her A Most Magical Scrapbook class.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Echo Park This & That, Echo Park Winter Park, Basic Grey Serenade
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Little B
Enamel Dots - American Crafts/Shimelle, Marianne Designs
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot
Quickutz Tabs Die
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Spellbinders Circle Die

Reflections in Tjörnin

I appear to be concentrating on the Icelandic portion of our cruise at the moment. It's not a conscious decision; I'm just picking off the easy pages, the ones where I only took a few photos so choosing which ones to print and scrap is fairly straightforward. 

Tjörnin is a small lake in Reykjavik. We sat here for a rest, my husband did some painting and we walked part way round it. We also took photos of the waterfront buildings and their reflections. I picked out three for this page, from different parts of the lake, and stacked them up in a page design lifted from Shimelle's class A Most Magical Scrapbook. Stacking three photos in a column is nothing new, but I do like the look of the extra paper at the bottom and the camera strip across the join for something just a bit different from my usual designs.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft Sensations

Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Echo Park Winter Park, Pink Paislee Memorandum

Letters - American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, My Mind's Eye

Vellum - American Crafts

Washi Tape - Tesco

Mistable Stars - Studio Calico

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories

Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Spellbinders Circle Die
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Farið

Back to my cruise album now, and another page from Shimelle's A Most Magical Scrapbook class. She put her photo, title and lots of embellishments on a paper 'shelf', but I ended up with a more paper layers and less embellishments. I also moved my title down the page as adding a journalling card opened up a good space for it alongside. I cut that title on my Silhouette as I wanted to be able to use the correct Icelandic letters.

Farið is a sculpture that I saw on the waterfront in Akureyri; I thought that it looked like a whale's tail but it means Flight and it actually commemorates 50 years of passenger flights in Iceland.

I also entered this page in last week's Weekly Challenge at UKScrappers; I've not done one of these for some time as sometimes the criteria are too specific for my tastes. However Scrapdolly set a good one last week - at least four patterned papers, one photo, cameras, butterflies and some form of stamping (although I didn't manage the butterflies). I stamped and fussy-cut the globe, a motif that's repeating through the album although it doesn't appear on every page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill
Paper - Photo Play Boarding Pass, Pink Paislee Memorandum, Crate Paper The Pier, Basic Grey Serenade
Journalling Card - Project Life Summer
Mistable Clouds - Studio Calico
Stickers - Photo Play Boarding Pass
Die-Cuts - atd
Puffy Stickers - Bella Boulevard
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot, Spellbinders Circle Dies, X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die & Little B Arrows Die
X-Cut Corner Punch
American Crafts/Shimelle Starshine Globe Stamp

Card-Making with Sketch-n-Scrap

Last month Sketch-n-Scrap celebrated World Card-Making Day with four extra sketches on their Facebook page. I spent Sunday putting them to good use making a few cards for the coming months.

I picked out a Studio Calico stamp set for the first card, and decided that it worked best rotated:

I rotated the next one too, making a Good Luck card featuring a die-cut from One Canoe Two's Hazelwood collection:

Sketch 3 was based around a journalling card, and I picked out a 4x4 card, but then hit a hitch in that it was too big for my normal 4x6 card blanks, and I couldn't fit the banners on a 5x5 card blank. I compromised with paper strips above and below the journalling card, which I rather like:

On to sketch 4, and I copied the floral theme of the sketch, pulling out an ancient My Mind's Eye die-cut flower for another birthday card: