Wednesday 30 September 2020

Bring on the Next Chapter

That's the caption that my daughter used when she added this photo to Instagram a few weeks before she started at the University of Sussex, and it seemed appropriate for this page, the first in her University Years album.

Of course, it made me think of books and I hunted around for a suitable cut-file but didn't find one immediately. However, a few days later Confessions of a Paper Addict published the perfect file, called Stacked Books, a freebie at the time.

I backed the open book with an old 6x6 book-print paper (what else?) and used a similar colour from the same pad on all the paper edges. I think that books are quite old-fashioned now so I picked distressed papers to back the three in the stack and chose a background with a vintage feel. 

My aim with the embellishments was to use something pretty but subtle, nothing that would distract from the photo or the cut-file. I think these kraft floral die-cuts fit the bill, and I added a few dusty green leafy sprigs and a scattering of pearls to finish off.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanicals, Pink Paislee Indigo Bleu, Simply Made Crafts, Dream Street Papers
Die-Cuts - Studio Calico
Pearls - Artoz
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & COAPA Stacked Books Cut-File
Big Shot & Poppystamps Small Sprig Die


Monday 28 September 2020

Late Afternoon : Paper Pad Flip-Through

I've received my next set of supplies from The Mad Scrapper. Next month I'll be creating with Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection; I have the paper pad, the die-cut shapes and three individual papers. I also added the Darcelle Sugar Dots from Prima as the autumnal colours looked to be a good match to Late Afternoon.

The reason that I added some individual papers to the pad was that I found it incredibly hard to find out exactly which patterns were in the paper pad. There are 12 pictured on the front cover, but actually 24 inside. These include both sides of Weather the Storm and All This and More, but neither print from Winding Down and Make a Wish. (These are the four papers available in store.)

I filmed a brief flip-through video to show the 24 patterns in the pad (all single-sided).


I aim to be scrapping photos from a weekend break in Dorset with these papers, so come back soon to see what we got up to there.

*Disclosure - I received all these supplies free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role. 


Saturday 26 September 2020

SK8R Girlz

I'm back on The Mad Scrapper blog today with another page using papers from Cocoa Vanilla Studios' Legendary collection in conjunction with some mixed media in coordinating colours.

You can read all about it over at The Mad Scrapper.


The photo is of my daughter and her friend on roller-skates at sunset and will go in her University Years album. No journalling yet as she will do that next time she's home (whenever that might be).

Supplies
Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studios Legendary*
Letters - American Crafts*
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mister Huey's, Docrafts

Tools

Silhouette Portrait
Hexagon Mask
Creative Embellishments Stars Mask
Hobbycraft Star Circle Stamp
Heidi Swapp Arrow Stamp
Studio Calico Stars Stamp

Disclosure - I received the papers and letter stickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role. 

Thursday 24 September 2020

Mirror, Mirror

Our daughter has been at the University of Sussex for a year now. Before she went, I offered to make her an album for her experiences if she supplied me with the photos. It took her almost a year to organise, but she presented me with a memory stick just before she went back this term so I'm finally able to make a start for her.

I'll be tackling them in random order as inspiration strikes or suitable challenges arise, and I'm starting with the first September challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper which is to scrap a selfie.

I recently rediscovered a set of Freckled Fawn stickers which I'd forgotten about. I received them as part of a prize a couple of years ago but they're not really my thing so they've sat around ever since. I decided that these fell into my 'use it or lose it' category and that if I didn't use them soon then I should either sell them or give them away.

I was so happy to find the perfect paper to go with my stickers, a stripe from Heidi Swapp that not only matched all the colours but the stripes were at the right angle for the diamond shapes to sit neatly between the lines.


I cut my title on my Silhouette because few alpha sets have six Rs, and this also meant that I could reflect the second word.

I have plenty of colours and patterns on the diamonds and I didn't want to clutter the page with too many other embellishments so I just added a trio of black puffy stickers, magenta enamel diamonds overlapping a few of the cardstock diamonds and a smattering of jade enamel dots.

Supplies
Paper - Heidi Swapp Hello Today, HOTP Garnet Sarabook
Stickers - Freckled Fawn Chit Chat
Puffy Stickers - Heidi Swapp Journal Studio
Enamel Shapes - Heidi Swapp, Ebay
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Maya Road, Mister Huey's 

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Tuesday 22 September 2020

Plan B

This page documents our day in Olden on our 2013 cruise to Norway. We'd planned to use the local bus to visit a nearby glacier, but it was already full when it reached us so we had to rapidly find a Plan B.

We collected a map from tourist information and spotted a waterfall and a lake up the valley, so decided to explore. I lined up three landscape photos (river, waterfall and lake) in a column on my page and added a smaller one of the church.


This was our last port of call and it's the last page I'm making so I put all my scraps to good use in a column next to the photos, repeating papers from the previous seven pages I've made.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Basics
Paper - K&Company Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome, Bo Bunny, My Mind's Eye, 
Letters - Hobbycraft, Doodlebug
Enamel Stars - Freckled Fawn
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die
Little B Arrow Die
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Sunday 20 September 2020

Island Hopping

The penultimate port of our 2013 cruise to Norway was Kristiansund, a town spread across several islands linked by a harbour ferry (as well as by road these days). I downloaded a walking trail through the area which we followed round; the best parts were the old watch tower and the views from one of the smaller islands. These are the two larger photos on my page, with smaller ones of the ferry we used and out children in one of the parks.

I used the same papers and techniques on this page as I have on the last few. These pages are all going in my main 2013 album so I want it to be clear that they belong together and form a distinct subsection.


Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - K&Co Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome, My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus, Pebbles Warm & Cozy
Letters - Fancy Pants, Jillibean Soup, KaiserCraft
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
Little B Arrows Dies
Spellbinders Circle Die
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Date Stamp








Friday 18 September 2020

A Day of Two Halves

We're in Longyearbyen today, the largest settlement on the island of Spitzbergen, one where the danger from polar bears is real so we could only tour the island on an organised excursion with armed guards!

It was a day of two halves as we split up for our excursions. In the morning my son and husband went for a hike on the Longyear glacier and in the afternoon my daughter and I visited the Advent Valley. Both pairs also toured the town in the other half of their day. 

I used Shimelle Laine's 'Kicked Up Quadrants' sketch from her Start with a Sketch class for my page with photos from the town, glacier and valley in three quadrants plus title and journalling in the fourth.


Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Basics
Paper - K&Company Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome, My Mind's Eye
Stickers - Simple Stories Take a Hike
Letters - American Crafts, KaiserCraft
Enamel Stars - Freckled Fawn
Washi Tape - Unknown
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die
Dovecraft Star Die
Spellbinders Circle Die
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Small Star Punch
American Crafts/Shimelle Stamps

Wednesday 16 September 2020

The Great Escape

I'm up on the blog at The Mad Scrapper today with my first DT project. I chose to work with papers from the Legendary collection by Cocoa Vanilla Studio and combined them with camping photos from Dartmoor. 

You can read all about it over at The Mad Scrapper.




Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studio Legendary*
Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle*
Label - Pretty Little Studio
Enamel Dots - Echo Park*
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot
Dovecraft Star Die
Little B Arrow Die

*Disclosure - I received the papers, enamel dots and letter stickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role. 

Monday 14 September 2020

Modern Architecture

I'm continuing with an octet of pages from our 2013 cruise to Norway today, composed of one for an introduction/overview and one for each of our seven ports of call. I'd previously made a page for our first stop which was Ã…lesund, so I'm going on to the next one, Tromsø. We visited two major attractions there, both of which are housed in striking modern buildings which feature on my page.

The top photo is Polaria, a museum of the arctic, which is supposed to look like ice floes being pressed up against the land; the bottom photo is Tromsdalen Church (aka the Arctic Cathedral) which is reminiscent of icebergs.



These pages will go in my main 2013 album, so I'm making them all from a limited selection of supplies; my intention is that they will clearly belong together in the album and create a distinctive subsection.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts, Bazzill
Paper - K&Company Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome, Bo Buuny Camp-a-Lot
Letters - Jilliben Soup, October Afternoon, Fancy Pants
Washi Tape - Unknown
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger


Tools
Sewing Machine
Big Shot & Little B Arrows Die
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

Saturday 12 September 2020

Cruise Norway 2013

We cruised to Norway back in 2013 and although I've made the holiday album for that trip I will also include some pages in my main annual album. The plan was for one for each port of call; I made two of them in 2014, then another the following year and the leftover paper scraps have sat on my shelf ever since.


My Existing Three Pages


Rather than tidying round the papers any more, I've decided to get the pages done. We visited seven ports and I'm adding a introductory page to make eight for the trip. For more recent cruises, I've just made a single or double summary page for the annual album, but with three already done here I will stick with the original plan. I didn't assemble a kit for these in advance, and certainly don't have enough paper in my scraps for five new pages, but there are certain elements that I can and will repeat:
  • Kraft backgrounds
  • Map print paper (as on two pages above; I may add some to the third)
  • A specific red K&Co patterned paper (on all pages above)
  • Multi-coloured stripes from Simple Stories (all pages above)
  • Machine-stitching (as on two pages; I can add some to the third)
  • Port names as sub-titles in small letter stickers
  • Repeated date stamps
  • Punched shapes (scalloped circles and postage stamps in particular)
I started at the beginning, with my introductory page, and used the June sketch from Scrap-Circle on Facebook. 

The larger photo is a copy of one that we bought on board, with the cruise name, itinerary and ship; the smaller ones are scenery photos that won't make it into the pages in this album, though they do appear in the trip album.

I repeated many of the elements listed above, and pulled in a plaid paper for the main circle. There's plenty left so I can repeat it too on some of the remaining pages.



Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - My Mind's Eye, K&Company Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome
Letters - Basic Grey, Lily Bee Design
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts, Mister Huey's

Tools
Sewing Machine
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Big Shot
Little B Arrows Die
Dovecraft Star Die
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Thursday 10 September 2020

Black Watch Mini Book

Last month was mini-book madness month over at For the Love of Pretty Paper, and I certainly went mad as I have another to share with you today. That's two this week, which is as many as I'd previously made in the past 10 years!

My book is another version of the wallet brag book that I made last year, but this time I challenged myself to make a moving waterfall section rather than the flip-over pages. Both the brag book and the waterfall section were made using free tutorials from Cal Summers

I started the book as an exercise in paper construction, for the satisfaction of mastering the waterfall, without any clear intention for which photos would go in it. As I worked, I decided to use travel-themed papers (since I scrap more travel photos than any other type), and then I hit on making it a book about the Black Watch cruise ship. We've sailed on her three times so I have loads of photos of her but it's recently been announced that she is being retired so this is the end of an era.



I mixed Pinkfresh Studio's Out and About papers with stickers from PhotoPlay's Boarding Pass collection; I've used both lines for cruise albums in the past. I made the book with gussets at the sides so that it would stay closed on its own, but it was bulging by the time I filled it with photos so I added an elastic tie with a couple of anchor charms. I bought a set of these for my first album 12 years ago and only used one. They're a bit lumpy for scrapbook pages, but a good weight for this project.


The book opens up to three sections, journalling on the left, my waterfall of photos in the middle and a pocket on the right which hold my cruise cards from the three holidays we had on Black Watch.


We visited 21 ports in 12 countries on her, and saw her in two more when we were on sister ship Balmoral in 2018. I try to take photos of our ship in every port but some are better than others; I picked out nine of the prettier or more interesting ones for the book, including photos taken from different angles, making sure to get a good spread of dates and places.

The best way to see a waterfall is a video, so I filmed it, but it's sideways:


Alternatively, here are a couple of stills.


I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and the waterfall was easier than it might seem. Thank you Cal!

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About
Letters - Anita's Glitterations
Puffy Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio
Flat Stickers - PhotoPlay Boarding Pass, Pinkfresh Studio
Label Stickers - 7Gypsies
Anchors - Ebay
Enamel Shapes - Studio Calico
Ink - Memento

Tools
X-Cut Corner Punch
X-Cut Circle Punches
 

Tuesday 8 September 2020

Butterflies Mini Book

I wrote recently about how I became Slightly Obsessed with photographing and identifying butterflies over the summer. Well, that obsession has spilled over into my paper-crafting world, with a mini-album as well as the scrapbook page I shared on Sunday.

It's a very simple album, made from one 12x12 sheet of concertina-folded cardstock and based on Cal Summers' one page mini-album, though I adapted her instructions to make my book at 4" square rather then her original 3" square (plus covers). 

I decorated the covers with butterfly paper and two die-cut butterflies arranged on and around a chipboard frame which I popped up on foam adhesive so that I could thread my ribbon tie behind it.


Inside, I wrote a brief introduction and then gave each butterfly its own page, with names cut on my Silhouette.



Flipping the book over, the butterflies continue 


and I end with a mention of the ones that I saw but couldn't photograph and a repeat of the front cover motif.


I used a limited selection of supplies throughout - three patterned papers, three colours of cardstock, three washi tapes - and repeated them with motifs such as the cameras and the pairs of hearts.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Studio Calico Heyday
Kraft Heart Stickers - Studio Calico
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio, Pinkfresh Studio
Washi Tape - Docrafts, We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot
X-Cut Tag Die
X-Cut Camera Die
Dovecraft Label Die
Little B Arrow Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Monday 7 September 2020

I'm a Mad Scrapper - Design Team News

I'm really pleased, and slightly gobsmacked, to have been selected as one of the new Design Team members for The Mad Scrapper, a real bricks and mortar scrapbooking shop in East Lothian, with a website for shopping if you're not local.


Janine, the owner, is a lovely lady who has helped me out by ordering in products for me before, specifically the PhotoPlay Boarding Pass collection for one of my cruise albums.

I've started work on my first project, using papers from Cocoa Vanilla Studio; look out for that here and on The Mad Scrapper blog soon.



Sunday 6 September 2020

Slightly Obssessed

I'm still working my way through the summer sketch series at Lottie Loves Paper, with a four photo page for sketch 7 today.

Over the summer, I became 'slightly obsessed' with photographing and identifying the butterflies that I saw on my local walks, even discovering a variety that I had never heard of before - the gatekeeper butterfly.

The sketch didn't need a lot of paper or any larger pieces so I raided my scraps box, spotting this old stripey piece from My Mind's Eye and finding a few matching pieces from the same company.



Supplies
Paper - KaiserCraft Full Bloom, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline. My Mind's Eye Lime Twist, Simple Stories Awesome
Letters - My Mind's Eye
Puffy Stickers - MAMBI, Elle's Studio
Pearls - Doodlebug
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die


Friday 4 September 2020

Dino-Mite

I'm celebrating a birthday with this page today. The photos are of my husband's cousin's son, who is three years old and mad about dinosaurs.

I pinched the photos from Facebook; I wouldn't normally scrap something like this if I wan't there, but the combination of these two photos, a new sketch from Lottie Loves Paper and an old dinosaur print paper that I was about to discard was just too much temptation.



Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - DCWV Linen Closet Stack, Karen Foster Dinosaur Collage
Letters - American Crafts
Word Stickers - Pretty Little Studio
Enamel Stars/Dots - Marianne Design
Ink - Ranger, Memento

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die
Hobbycraft Star Punch


Wednesday 2 September 2020

Back Together

I have a trio of 2020 pages coming up over the next week, all made for the summer sketch series at Lottie Loves Paper. First up is a two-photo page of my friends and me getting back together in person after four months of chatting online. We used to meet weekly for coffee in a shopping centre, but we've replaced that with the outdoor area of an independent cafe instead. There's nothing to do afterwards but none of us wants to go shopping at present so that's fine.

I used three papers from the Whimsical collection for the triangles on the sketch, and double matted the photos as indicated. I didn't have a coordinating paper for the background and didn't want plain white cardstock so got brave with inks and mists. The clusters to the right of the photos gave me some trouble. I stamped the circles as they are on the sketch, but then tried a variety of different hearts and stars to finish them without success, until I spotted these floral puffy stickers and then it all fell into place.


 
Supplies
Cardstock - Craft UK
Paper - Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Whimsical, Studio Calico Snippets, Scrapberry's Summer Joy
Letters - Pebbles
Title Die-Cut - Unknown
Puffy Stickers - OneCanoeTwo Hazelwood
Stickers - Paige Evans #Stickerbook
Enamel Dots/Stars - My Mind's Eye, Doodlebug, Studio Calico
Ink - Versamagic, Ranger, Ink It Up!
Mist - Heidi Swapp, Maya Road, Docrafts

Tools
Hobbycraft 'Star Circle' Stamp
Studio Calico Stars Stamp