We're at the end of another month, so three-quarters of the way now through the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt organised by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days. She gave us a list of twenty items (and two alternatives) to find and photograph between 1st December and 31st March.
Last time we checked in I was on eleven items, and today's haul all come from a walk I did earlier in the month. I'm slowly walking the Capital Ring, a 78 mile path around London, and this was the section from Hanwell to Sudbury Hill in West London. Unfortunately, although I'd intended to look for the scavenger items, I forgot all about them once I was on the move so I know I missed a few possibilities.
1. In the Bag
The essentials for the day - route guide, camera and Oyster card.
2. Contrast
Bare branches against the sky.
3. The Way to Go
Marking my progress en route to Horsenden Hill.
4. Colours
Narrowboats on the Grand Union Canal
6. Vintage
The old sign on Hanwell railway station, which was called Hanwell and Elthorne between 1896 and 1974 and the older sign has been preserved.
7. I Stood Here
The trig point atop Horsenden Hill.
15. Letters - see 6. Vintage
17. A Line
A line of willow trees beside the River Brent.
20. Monochrome
A bench in Perivale Park dedicated to session musician Nicky Hopkins.
So, eight here, but only two were new, the rest being duplicates of items I'd already ticked off. I also know I missed chances for Chain and Barrier (but I have those already too). Weather permitting, I'll be out again on Tuesday on the next section and I hope to tick off a few more finds then, but I think I also need a photo session closer to home for some of the others.
One month left to go now, and 7/20 to go (plus both alternatives). It's do-able, but I really need to concentrate on finding the less common items now.
P.S. A full account of this walk is coming up soon.
This is another new page for my Far East album; I previously made a page for our hotel in Malaysia, but hadn't done one for Singapore. I've corrected that now with this page based on Sketch #194 from Sketch-n-Scrap.
My bottom photos were originally 3x4 and they dominated the page so I cropped them down until they were a better balance for the top photo without losing anything vital.
Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - K&Co Hannah, Unknown Scraps
Letters - KaiserCraft
Die Cut - atd
Flowers - KaiserCraft
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger
Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Big Shot & Poppy Stamps Small Leafy Sprig Die
It was my mum's birthday yesterday so, of course, I made her a card. This one was based on the February sketch from Stick It Down, though on this occasion I used it as an inspiration piece rather than making a faithful copy.
I chose a tri-fold card with an oval aperture which I backed with a small floral print, and ran a strip of glitter tape down the side. The oval would have been rather plain on its own, so I added a large flower sticker, raised up on foam squares, before finishing the card with my sentiment die-cut.
Supplies
Card - Craft Creations
Paper - Basic Grey Mint Julep
Flower - Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Home+Made
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft?
Sentiment - Craft Creations
I've been pretty lax with my walking of the Capital Ring, a 78 mile walk around London, but even more lax with blogging it, as I walked this section in March last year.
I'd previously reached Richmond, towards the bottom-left of this map, and headed back there with my daughter, the first time that I've had company on one of these walks.
Richmond is officially the start of Section 7 of the Capital Ring, but this was my fifth walk as I'm trying to do it in 10-12 even sections rather than the 15 official sections which vary from 4 miles to 8.5 miles.
It was a short walk from the station down to the River Thames, where we picked up the path just after Richmond Bridge.
The first fingerpost sign was less than helpful, as we would be going further than Osterley Lock at 3.75 miles but nowhere near Highgate Wood at 25 miles.
We followed the path beside the river, with the Old Deer Park to our right. This hexagonal tower is apparently an access shaft for the local water authority (and there's another on the opposite bank).
The Old Deer Park used to be a Royal Hunting Park created in 1604 by James I. Later George III built the King's Observatory in the park, and three obelisks were erected to help align the telescopes. We could see two of them, but only one at a time due to their locations beyond a line of trees.
We crossed the Thames via a grand-looking footbridge
above Richmond Lock.
On the north bank now, we passed by All Saints Church in Isleworth
with an interesting sundial on the end of the Joshua Chapel.
It was erected in 1707 in memory of the wife of the Governor of Jamaica, and shows the time in Isleworth, Jamaica, Jerusalem and Moscow.
Moving on, we entered Syon Park, and passed by Syon House, the London residence of the Duke of Northumberland.
Further into the estate, we passed a brick barn
with a blue plaque commemorating Richard Reynolds, a 16th century chaplain of Syon Abbey who could not accept the supremacy of Henry VIII.
Leaving Syon Park, a bit of street walking rook us to the River Brent, by Brentford Lock.
The Brent shares its course with the Grand Union Canal (formerly the Grand Junction Canal) here, 93 miles from Braunston in Northamptonshire
and we share the Capital Ring path with both the Grand Union Canal Walk and the Brent River Park.
The canal basin remains, packed with narrowboats, but most of the surrounding warehouses have been turned into flats.
Just one of the warehouses is left, and the path goes through it, passing under what was once a canopy which sheltered the cargo being loaded or unloaded.
Passing under the A4, we got a distance-check, which later turned out to be half-way; three miles from Richmond, three more to Hanwell, though I didn't know we were half-way at the time. (I'd intended to walk further than Hanwell.)
We followed the canal north past Clitherow Lock
and then crossed it via Gallows Bridge
going on towards Osterley Lock.
Section Seven of the Ring ends here, and we took a break for lunch in a local pub before making a start on Section Eight in the afternoon.
We crossed the small bridge on the right of the photo above, over the River Brent which deviates from the Grand Union Canal for a short distance, and then past the lock.
The two waterways converged again and we followed them both until they split again by Hanwell Bottom Lock.
There are six locks on the Grand Union Canal here, raising the water by 53', but sadly our route lay along the River Brent instead. However I couldn't resist a small detour up to the second in the flight.
Returning to our route, we followed the river past Ealing Hospital and on to Brent Meadow, with Wharncliffe Viaduct carrying the Great Western Mainline above us.
We were close to Hanwell station now and my daughter really wanted to stop, so we did. I've already walked the next section (alone) so I hope to bring you that soon.
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| The Route |
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| Original Page |
This page sits opposite the last one I shared, has the same colour scheme, and is another one that I have tweaked a little. The original was just too simple, with five photos stuck directly to my background paper.
I was able to remove all the photos with minimal damage to the background, so I've added some layers behind them. I matted the main temple photo on cardstock then patterned paper, and repeated the patterned paper in a 6x6 square behind the four smaller photos, which I moved much closer together. Finally I layered a couple of black peel-off stickers over punched cardstock circles for a bit of embellishment beside my title and journalling.
Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - DCWV Far East Stack, Dovecraft Eastern Promise
Peel-Off Stickers - Unknown
Tools
X-Cut Circle Punch
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| Original Page |
I divided the existing pages of my Far East album into four categories (Done, Tweak, Re-work and Replace) when I started the project to get it finished, and this page has had minor tweaks.
It's not what I would make now, but I don't dislike it so I've no real reason to make major changes. However, I really wish I'd matted the photos originally, and the journalling (printed on vellum) is hard to read with dark print against the dark background paper so that needed to be fixed.
I started by lifting off all the photos and matting them; the paper I chose is another pink and brown print so there's no great contrast but they do look better now. I also removed the brads that hold the journalling in place, tore a piece of grey paper to sit behind the vellum to increase legibility, and put the brads back through both layers.
The page was still very plain so I wanted to add some embellishment but found it difficult to add anything that didn't look out of place. I've used some gold peel-off flower stickers recently on other pages; they wouldn't work here, but they led me to adding both some some decorative border strips around the photos and some punched flowers along the plant sprays printed on the background.
Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - DCWV Far East Stack
Peel-Off Stickers - Starform
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Ranger
Tools
Craft Creative Flower Punch
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| Original Page |
This is a replacement page for one that I made previously for the Fountain of Wealth in Singapore. I used two photos on the original, but they both show the fountain from the same angle and not as I remember it, with a curtain of falling water.
I've re-made the page with the landscape photo and three others this time. One shows the curtain of water that I remember, one of us (which I didn't scrap last time as we look terrible, but it's all we have) and one of my parents-in-law circling the smaller central fountain earlier in the day.
I wasn't able to salvage the background paper (though I aim to re-use the border strips and some of the circles for embellishments) so I've changed colour scheme for my new four-photo page, picking an alternative background paper with Chinese characters and a floral print from the same collection.
My original journalling was almost illegible, having been printed on pearlescent card, so I re-printed it on white to sit below the smaller photos. I cut the title on my Silhouette and assembled three embellishment clusters from simple repeatable shapes topped with peel-off flowers which co-ordinate with the floral paper.
Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Dovecraft Eastern Promise
Washi Tape - Dovecraft
Labels - Unknown/Digital
Peel-Off Stickers - Unlabelled
Rain Dots - Cloud 9 Design
Ink - Ranger
Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
This page is an addition to my Far East album. It has photos from a visit that my husband's parents and aunt made to the Botanic Gardens in Singapore before we arrived on the island. I didn't originally include them as they aren't part of our trip, but there were some nice photos of his family so I've decided to include them.
I printed five square photos and arranged them in a grid, keeping a block for journalling. I would normally run a punched border along the left side, but I used this bracket shape instead as it's something that I used a lot for the original album pages.
Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Far East Stack, Bazzill
Paper - K&Co Hannah, 7Gypsies Avignon
Letters - Jillibean Soup
Die Cuts - atd
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft?
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Ranger
Tools
Big Shot & Little B Arrow Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Circle Punch
Bracket Template
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| Original Page |
This is one of the pages from my Far East album that just needed a tweak. The original (right, from 2012) is OK but the line of circles seems unfinished, they are all the same paper, flat on the page and not overlapping. My initial plan was to pick a contrasting paper, tuck a strip into the layers behind the photos and punch more circles to add them to the original line.
However I couldn't find a good contrasting paper and I did find more of the map print, some arrows from the same ephemera pack as the 'world travel' phrase and a matching pack of old rain dots (an early form of translucent enamel dot). I added the arrows and rain dots to my line of circles instead, and also added the word 'Singapore' in yellow. I positioned this below 'Changi' at first, but it looked better moved to the right a bit to join the diagonal.
Supplies
Paper - Karen Foster World Travel, Crate Paper Static, K&Co Sea Glass
Vellum - from Stash
Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon
Journalling Tag - Making Memories
Ephemera - atd
Rains Dots - Cloud 9 Design
White Acrylic Paint
Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
I've left the title page of my Far East album alone, but I'm re-working the next two. The reason for the trip was the wedding my husband's brother to his Malaysian girlfriend, so I had originally started with photos of the couple and then their wedding invitation.
Reviewing the album now, I wasn't happy with either page. The left one needs more layers and I don't like the way I did the journalling; the right one feels unnecessary, and I had only used photocopies of the invitation meaning that the original still needed to be stored safely.
I re-worked these by cutting the photo block from the left page and adding extra layers behind it, creating a pocket for the original invitation. I removed the journalling and cut away the damaged paper at the bottom of the page, then I pieced it back together again with two punched strips of stripey paper and part of the background from the original invitation page. I journalled by hand on new paper strips, moving them closer to the title and photos, and re-positioned the hearts adding some trios of gems and a single stray flower.
Overall, I'm much happier now. The page is still quite simple, but the photos have been emphasised and the journalling is less dominant.
Supplies
Paper - K&Co Hannah, Basic Grey Archaic
Letters - Scenic Route
Hearts, Gems & Flower - Unknown Stash
Ink - Dovecraft
Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
I finished last year's cruise album in record time (it was only a short cruise), I've finished my 2019 annual album for now, and my 2020 album is up-to-date (all one page so far). So, it's time to start a new project, or rather to finish a very old project.
We went to Singapore and Malaysia in 2009 for the wedding of my husband's brother to his Malaysian girlfriend, and the album for that trip is a UFO when it really shouldn't be. I probably started that album in 2010, 10 years ago, when I was a novice scrapbooker, and my style has inevitably changed since then. I want to finish that album, but I also want the whole thing to be cohesive rather than it being obvious that I took ten years to finish it, which will mean some compromises about the way I would otherwise scrap the photos now.
My first step has been to look through that album several times recently, getting a feel for the pages and the supplies. I've pulled out all my leftovers: I always kept the papers separate from the rest of my stash so they were easy; I had the matching ribbon too, though I never use ribbon any more; my alphas are rather depleted now but I still have some left of most of the packs I used originally. Enamel dots didn't really exist when I started this album so I won't be using them, but I do have plenty of gems and pearls to add instead.
I used the 12 Days of Christmas kit-building prompts from For the Love of Pretty Paper to guide me with other items and assembled a mega-kit for this project. I will need to pull more alphas but I'll do that as I go along and then leave them with the kit until I finish the album.
The existing overall colour scheme is mostly red/pink, green, beige/brown and gold, but there is some teal blue and a few touches of yellow too. I typed most of the existing journalling on the computer and printed it out which is something I rarely do these days. I'd like to change this on some of the existing pages, but not all of them.
My next step has been to look at the individual pages, and to sort them into categories:
- Pages that are 'done', including those which I wouldn't make in that way now, but I still quite like them or at least feel no urge to re-make them.
- Pages that I would like to tweak, adding a few pieces where they look too plain or unfinished.
- Pages that need some re-working, where I will try to use the existing background and photos but add more layers or make other changes.
- Pages that need to be replaced - these are the ones that jar with me every time I turn the pages of the album. Some of these are pages that I still like, but I veered away from the main colour scheme and they just don't look like they belong.
Of course, there is also a list of pages that don't even exist yet, pages that I need to make from scratch bearing in mind the older techniques of the existing pages. There will be no cut-files and hardly any mixed media in this album, though I'm happy to add stamping in places.
