Grown Up?

I've decided to abandon my cruise album for now and concentrate on 2023 instead. I had done half the necessary pages at the end of March, but that's now just one of fourteen following a day out and a week's holiday in Devon.

I'm starting with that day out, a family affair where my Mum requested a photo of her grandchildren. They are all adults now (aged 18-27) but chose to pose on a climbing frame for this one.

I used Sketch #62 from Lisa Sikorski at Scrap a Sketch, which called for lots of smaller papers, so I pulled out the November 2021 'Just Add Cardstock' kit from ScrapMates which consists of A6 papers and smaller pieces. I cut the papers down further to give me twelve 2x2.5" rectangles as per the sketch and double matted my photo. 

I'm on a mission to use some old stash, particularly where I just have a few pieces left in a pack; I've used the last of the rub-ons from an old pack (2006) here, along with the end of a pack of black gems and my last acetate label.

My page also fits with Challenge 7 from Twilight's Easter cybercrop which was to create a page with a grid design and using only four colours including yellow.

Supplies

Paper - Crate Paper Peppermint, Simple Stories Simple Vintage Lemon Twist

Letters - American Crafts

Label - Studio Calico

Rub-Ons - Basic Grey

Butterflies - Prima

Puffy Sticker - Unknown

Gems - Unknown

Ink - Hobbycraft, Ranger

"The Art of Open Doors" Mini Book

We visited Madeira last November and I've been meaning to make this mini-book for a while. The Art of Open Doors is a project in Funchal to 'open up' the old town through art - by local artists painting designs on the doors of the buildings.

My mini-book comes from a tutorial taught by Cal Summers for Twilight Crafts, and was part of their Christmas cybercrop, though the video and resources list are still available in the Facebook group.

The book is 5" square and about 2" thick. The cover is very brown, but that's a deliberate decision. My initial thought was to use bright, colourful papers but the photos got lost against them and a palette of browns gave them the chance to stand out. I used a pad called Grunge Dreams which has a variety of printed 'textures'. The chipboard frame and embossed heart are old stash, as are the letter stickers.

All the book pages were made in the same way, 

with flaps on each side opening out to show extra photos.

I mostly kept the photos in the same order as we saw them, with minor tweaks to keep doors by the same artist together.

The construction of the book pages created pockets between the front and back of each one, holding cards which pull out with extra photos front and back.

Each page (front, back and insert) has space for eight photos, and there are eight of them in the book, making a total of 64 photos, plus an extra one inside the back cover.

I kept my embellishment very simple - washi tape, gems and enamel chevrons - so as not to distract from the photos or bulk out the book any further. The only journalling is inside the front cover, but it would be easy to swap some of my photos for extra decoration or journalling cards if you wanted to.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Make & Create Grunge Dreams
Letters - Carolee's Creations, My Mind's Eye

Chipboard - Unknown

Washi Tape - Dovecraft

Ink - Ranger

Hearts Anniversary Card

A quick share today of my latest DT project for Twilight Crafts. 

It was my sister and brother-in-law's wedding anniversary earlier this month and I used the Hearts Vertical Border cut-file for their card. Their wedding colours were pink and turquoise so I used that combination here, cutting the outline in pink cardstock and the inner hearts from turquoise patterned paper which I then nested inside the outline rather than backing each shape.

The cut-file was considerably narrower than the card front, so I cut the edge off the card and added extra strips at the side. I stuck some turquoise paper to the back of the card and ran narrow strips of pink cardstock both alongside it on the back and also along the new edge of the front (so you only see one at a time).

Finally, I stamped the sentiment on the turquoise paper, matted it with the pink cardstock and layered it on foam squares over the hearts.

Supplies

Card - The Craft Place

Cardstock & Paper - Unknown Scraps

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

All Night Media Sentiment Stamp

Disclosure - I received the digital cut-file free of charge from Twilight Crafts. All other supplies are my own.

Tenerife

I'm back with the last 'easy' page of my Canary Islands album, the sub-title page for our final island - Tenerife. All these have followed the same basic template (see last post) so this was a straightforward scraplift of the ones that went before it.

The main difference is that I am running out of subtle background papers now, so I stencilled a sheet of white cardstock. I've done this before in the album so it's another repeat.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft UK, DCWV

Paper - Heidi Swapp Carefree, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart

Letters - Heidi Swapp

Stickers - Studio Calico, Heidi Swapp, Jen Hadfield

Cork Arrows - Studio Calico

Gems - Love to Craft

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Twilight Crafts Stencil

Gran Canaria

I'm sharing another 'sub-title' page for my Canary Islands cruise album today; I make one of these for each port of call to make a clear divider between one place and the next. All the pages so far have followed the same template with a 5x7 photo matted on a 6x8 paper layered over four vertical strips of paper. 

We left Gran Canaria in the evening so I had two photos of the town of Las Palmas that I wanted to include in my album, views by day and by night. I considered making my normal sub-divider page with the daytime photo and making an extra page for the nighttime one but the way the album has planned out there isn't space for the extra so I decided to use both here. I printed them at 4x6, cropped the top and bottom of each image and matted them in a block. In order to provide continuity, I kept most other things on the page the same, with the 6x8 paper behind the photos, the four vertical strips and the island name in the same font.

The photo block looked best pulled slightly to the left rather than being centred, so I moved my main embellishment cluster to the right this time.

Supplies

Paper - SO'BB, Heidi Swapp Carefree, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart

Letters - Maggie Holmes

Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio, Jen Hadfield

Day Sticker - My Mind's Eye

Ephemera - Heidi Swapp, Rosie's Studio

Cork Geotag - Studio Calico

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Ashes to Ashes

I'm returning to my Canary Island cruise album (again!) today, with a page from Santa Cruz on the island of La Palma. The Cumbre Vieja volcanic ridge was erupting at the time of our visit and, although we were a safe distance away, there was plenty of volcanic ash to be seen on the streets. My page has a couple of photos, one of the main street and a close-up of some of the ash.

I built this page up with scraps from the album so far, taking a 6x9 piece as a base for my photos and title and tucking lots of smaller bits in around the edges. I gutted my background paper and used that piece both as a mat for my main photo and to die-cut my title letters.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Storyline, Heidi Swapp Carefree, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart

Sticker - Maggie Holmes

Washi Tape - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Eyelet Outlet, My Mind's Eye

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & The Works Alphabet Dies