Ferrol

Back to my cruise scrapbook now, where I've finished with Cádiz so I'm moving on to Ferrol. I've been trying to concentrate on one port at a time but I'm not scrapping the ports themselves in order. Ferrol was the last place we visited, just for half a day before we headed home.

I'm making title pages/dividers for each port with either a 6x8 photo or two 4x6 photos. For Ferrol it's a 6x8 with the view of the town from our ship. 

I picked this month's sketch from Let's Get Sketchy for my page, though my photo is considerably larger than the one in the sketch.

I also ticked off another of the Winter Olympics Games challenges from For the Love of Pretty Paper; this one was for Half-Pipe Skiing, which was to use chevrons.

I moved the embellishment clusters slightly from the sketch so that they would fit better around my photo, title and journalling, and added an extra one at the top to balance out the page.

Supplies
Paper - Jillibean Soup, Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes Open Book, Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Heart of Home
Vellum - My Mind's Eye
Letters - American Crafts
Labels - Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Home Made
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo
Mistable Shapes - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Doodlebug
Ink - Memento
Mist - Heidi Swapp

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt - Lake District Finds

At the beginning of the month we spent a weekend in the Lake District, an annual trip for a Christmas party with friends and as much hill-walking as the weather allows. This was my first opportunity to get some photos for the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt run by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days.

Saturday was a rainy day, but we managed a short walk beside the River Brathay 

and out to Loughrigg Tarn between the showers, ticking off a couple of Natural Features (no. 18) for the hunt. 

Our black tie dinner and party in the evening was a Group Activity (no. 5) which we kicked off with a group photo:

Sunday was cold but dry so three of us set off for a longer walk on Loughrigg Fell. I could fill this post with photos of Natural Features, but I'll limit myself to one of each type. We've had river and tarn, so here are some mountains:

The winter sun reflecting in one of the lakes (Rydal Water??) gave me a Pool of Light (no. 2):

Arriving at the summit, it was cold and windy, but we were Dressed for the Season (no. 11):

We descended towards Grasmere and then followed Loughrigg Terrace round to Rydal Cave for yet another Natural Feature (no. 18)

and returning to the car park, we passed by An Instruction (no. 13):

The sun was beginning to set as we finished our walk, and we paused by Windermere to capture The End of the Day (no. 1):

So, six finds here, though I have a few more in the camera that weren't from this weekend. You can see the full Scavenger Hunt list over on Eileen's blog, and just comment there if you want to join in with the hunt; it runs until the end of March and we'll have a link-up each month.

Christmas Gift Cards

Just a short post today, wishing you all a happy and peaceful Christmas.

I've not done a lot of Christmas crafting this year, but I did find time for a couple of small cards for vouchers. Each one was made with a tri-fold card, a scrap of paper, a Christmas-themed wood veneer and some peel-off stickers. Dead simple, but a little more interesting than the shops' gift cards. 

Show Time

Earlier this month, I blogged about trying out for the Let's Get Sketchy Design Team for 2019, which involved making a page from this sketch. Obviously I couldn't share it here then but it would appear that I wasn't picked so I think I can now.

I combined the sketch with another Winter Olympics challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper; this one was based on Ice Hockey which is a team game, so we were asked to scrap about a team. Sticking with my cruise album, I chose the Balmoral Show Company, a team of singers and dancers on the ship. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Studio Calico, Bo Bunny Early Bird, OneCanoeTwo Creekside, American Crafts/Shimelle
Vellum - American Crafts/Dear Lizzy
Letters - Simply Creative
Mistable Stars - Studio Calico
Tag - Quirky Kits
Washi Tape - The Works, Primark
Ink - Memento, Hobbycraft
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Big Shot & Spellbinders Circle Dies
X-Cut Circle Punch
Studio Calico Stars Stamp
Dovecraft Filmstrip Stamp

Follow the Leader

I'm tackling another of the Winter Olympics challenges from For the Love of Pretty Paper today; this one's based on Figure Skating and was to create a layout with a figure of eight design. I couldn't find a literal use for the number 8 in my scrapbooks, so took a figurative approach to create a border cut file on my Silhouette composed from a long line of 8s welded together. 

I'm using it alongside a trio of pictures of the Fred. Olsen fleet as we left Cádiz back in September. I printed the photos at 4x6 and stacked them in a column against a branding strip, some washi tape and my cut file with title and jounalling on the opposite side.

This is the last page that I have for you from Cádiz, though there is one from later that day (Sailing into the Sunset) that I published for a sketch challenge last month. 

Supplies
Paper - Pebbles Spring Fling, My Mind's Eye Just Splendid, Papermania
Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Globes - Teresa Collins, OneCanoeTwo?
Puffy Cameras - Freckled Fawn
Word Stickers - Pretty Little Studio
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Pretty My Page, My Mind's Eye
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Little B, OneCanoeTwo
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

"Captains in Cádiz"

"Captains in Cádiz" was a celebration of 170 years of Fred. Olsen's involvement in shipping, with all four cruise ships meeting up in the same city. I have a whole assortment of photos from different parts of the day so it seemed best to put them into a divided page. I've used both sides, and run the photos in rough chronological order through the day.

I didn't think I'd be tackling any challenges with a divided page, but the Alpine Skiing event of the Winter Olympics Games series over at For the Love of Pretty Paper was to use wood. I have white woodgrain paper in a couple of the pockets and all the brown stars are punched from woodgrain paper too.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Now & Then, My Mind's Eye Just Splendid, My Mind's Eye Necessities
Geotags - Studio Calico
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo, Pretty Little Studio
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Pretty My Page

Tools
Big Shot
X-Cut Labels Die
Dovecraft Star Die
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Meet the Fleet

Time for another page from Cádiz where, as I've said previously, the whole Fred.Olsen fleet was in the same port on the same day. I couldn't take any photos of all four together because of the way they were docked, so this page has four separate photos, one of each ship.

When making the page, I wanted to get away from a rectangular block of photos as I know I will have lots of pages with two 4x6 prints and I need some variety. I hit on placing them in a sort of diamond shape, then realised that this arrangement would work on a background with a large circle. I started by inking one circle with a mask and then stitching another larger one touching the first, but I didn't have a clear plan beyond that. This lead to a plain-ish page, with stamping and stencilling but no patterned paper.

Supplies
Cardstock - The Range
Letters - American Crafts
Embroidery thread - DMC
Ink - VersaMagic, Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's, Heidi Swapp
Star Gems - Simply Creative
Enamel Shapes - Marianne Designs

Tools
Heidi Swapp Circle Mask
Heidi Swapp Dots Stencil
Dovecraft Beautiful Borders Stamps
American Crafts/Shimelle Word Stamps
Studio Calico Stars Stamp

Amazing

We've been enjoying a series of Winter Olympics themed challenges over at For the Love of Pretty Paper with 12 of the 15 challenges posted so far. They're being set at a nice steady rate with plenty of time before the January deadline, but every so often the team throw in an extra challenge with a short deadline. The latest surprise challenge was another combination - to use any four of the first six prompts on one page.

To recap, the first six challenges were: the Luge - a horizontal element that spans the page; Biathlon - five circles in a row; Cross Country Skiing - no tools; Snowboarding - mixed media; Bobsleigh - transport theme; Skeleton - minimalist.

As with the last combination challenge, I didn't feel that I could fit this to a cruise page so I'm scrapping a different recent photo, one of my son being awarded Employee of the Month. The change of subject meant that I was free to pursue the challenge elements without needing this page to fit in with the rest of the album.

Having only a single photo, and no major design considerations in the challenge, I looked for a sketch to get me started and hit on this one from Hey Little Magpie which already has a horizontal element and a simple, minimalist feel to it.

My final challenge choices were the horizontal element (stripy paper strips); five circles in a row (on the star paper); transport (an Amazon van); minimalist (page made with minimal supplies - one paper pad and one sheet of cardstock).

Supplies
Cardstock - My Mind's Eye Kraft Funday
Paper - Recollections Awesome Boy
Letters - Prima
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
X-Cut Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Small Star Punch

Worth the Wait

I had been working through the Winter Olympics themed challenges in order of publication over at For the Love of Pretty Paper, but then Natalie threw in a curve-ball, an extra challenge with a shorter deadline. I pondered missing it out as it didn't fit with my cruise pages, but then the completist in me decided to switch subjects and tackle it anyway.

Freestyle skiing has different disciplines and our 'normal' challenge was our choice of four different elements: using only the top half of the page (for aerial skiing); using scallops (for mogul skiing); using lots of Xs (for ski cross); using zig-zags or chevrons (for half-pipe skiing). The surprise bonus challenge was to include all four elements on one page.

We saw the comedian Dave Gorman perform live recently but I only have a few photos as I forgot to put a memory card in my camera (doh!) and it only has enough internal memory for five pictures. However five was enough and I chose two of them for my page, together with Sketch 26 from Shimelle's Sketch to Scrapbook Page series.

I decided to use my Xs in a column on each side of my paper layers, picked out four sets of alphas in the same font from Jillibean Soup, and used these to set the colour palette for my page, though I added a few touches of red in order to tie in with the red in my photos.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Basic Grey Picadilly, The Robin's Nest, Lasting Impressions, Echo Park Note to Self, My Mind's Eye
Letters - Basic Grey, Jillibean Soup
Washi Tape - Tesco
Stickers - Bella Boulevard, OneCanoeTwo
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Parkrun - November

I've almost completed my first year of parkrun, and it's become the habit that I wanted it to be. I'm also nearing the end of my 2018 parkrun album/journal with this page for November.

There were four Saturdays so four runs, all at my local course, and I have four photos again this month. I am so grateful for the volunteer photographers who turn out every week in all weathers as without them this album just wouldn't be the same.

I've kept the pages in this album as flat as possible, with no photo mats or paper layers and minimal embellishment, just washi tape and a few flat stickers.

This fits with the sixth Winter Olympic Games challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper which was based on the Skeleton event, and we were asked to make a minimalist page with just the "bare bones" basics. 

Let's Get Sketchy!

It's been a few years since I was last on a Design Team for a sketch blog, but it was an interesting challenge at the time and one that I'd like to take on again if I can. Let's Get Sketchy have recently posted a DT Call for 2019 and I'm going to give it a go.

The main task is to make a page from this sketch. Obviously I've done that but equally obviously I can't share it here yet. Whether my application is successful or not, I'll be sharing it here with you as soon as I can.

Click over to Let's Get Sketchy for all the details if you fancy applying too.

Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt

December is here, and with it comes the latest instalment of the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt, hosted by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days. There's no formal sign-up but do hop over to her blog and leave a comment if you're interested in joining in this year.

Here's the list:

1. At the end of the day

2. Pool of light

3. Fastener

4. Nail

5. A group activity

6. Water dispenser

7. Horse

8. Chocolate

9. Peel/peeling

10. Holly

11. Dressed for the season

12. Glitter

13. An instruction

14. A crossing place

15. Flight

16. A measurement

17. Orange

18. A natural feature

19. A carved object

20. A method of communication

And a couple of substitutes:

Alt A. A keyring  

Alt B. Show and tell - something you made 

I've written the list out neatly and tucked it into my handbag ready for frequent perusal while out and about this winter. We have a few weekends away planned, so I hope to have some interesting photos to share with you by the end of the month.