Saturday, 14 December 2024
Pages from Olbia
Monday, 9 December 2024
A New Project - Mediterranean Cruise 2024
Our cruise was 'Islands of the Mediterranean' from Newcastle-on-Tyne, and saw us visit five islands (Corsica, Sardinia, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza), plus Gibraltar Cartagena and Cadiz.
I first saw and liked Heidi Swapp's Sail Away collection when it was released in 2022, but I had no need for it then. However, when I saw it half-price at the beginning of the year I decided to make it the basis of this new album. I have the 12x12 pad, a few individual sheets with different patterns, the 6x8 pad, an ephemera pack, the Thickers and three packs of stickers (motifs, words and labels). Both paper pads are single-sided so I've cut up all the cut-apart pages already to give me a pile of tags, journalling cards and layering pieces, some of which are in both sizes.
However, much as I like this collection, most of the papers are monochrome; I felt that it was really a set of backgrounds and I wanted to add in a some multi-coloured patterns. I ordered Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Heart & Home collection kit (also half-price) at the same time with no thought of using the two together, but once they arrived I was struck by the close match in the colours, although the Set Sail papers are more distressed than those from CVS. I also ordered the matching mini puffy alphabet stickers and the puffy hearts and dots.
Later on in the year, I added in a third collection, Travelogue from Photoplay, which shares the same colour palette as the first two and is more travel-themed. I'm a bit uncertain about using three collections with different styles together, but we'll see how it goes.
On to embellishments now, and I have a few packs from 49 & Market; I've rolled the washi tape stickers from Everywhere that I used for the last holiday album on to this album, I bought the filmstrips and wishing bubbles from Moonlit Garden for this album and I received the tickets from Mariner in a mystery box. I bought the puffy alphabet stickers and enamel dots from American Crafts' Cedar House collection, and I've pulled in some stickers and enamel dots from two Maggie Holmes collections plus a sheet of travel-themed paper snips from Bramble Fox. Lastly, I'll date my pages using stickers from Studio Calico; I used some of them previously for my 2018 Iberian album but luckily the remaining dates cover our port days this time.
For titles, I have a mixture of old and new alphabet stickers, I have alphabet stamps and dies which are endlessly repeatable, and I have my trusty Silhouette Portrait for either cut-files or individual letters.
Tuesday, 3 December 2024
Art of the Brick
Just one page today, but it's a mammoth one - a double with an insert - for our visit to Art of the Brick in March. This was a touring exhibition of artworks created from Lego bricks, and there were plenty of them. I had trouble whittling the photos down to just these twenty. I'd originally thought that I would use lots of primary colours to match the bricks, but it turned out that yellow was the best match for the photos and I just added a bit of green. Embellishment is sparse because I really wanted to focus on the photos for this one.
I'm down to three gaps in my 2024 album now: a page from the recording of a QI episode (and I'm waiting for it to be broadcast so I can perhaps take some screenshots); a double for my husband's TGO Challenge walk across Scotland in May; and a few pages from a weekend camping in the Peak District in August.
Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon; Stickers - Tim Holtz, Studio Calico
(These are pages 91-93 of my page count for the year.)
Thursday, 28 November 2024
Pages from Starting Points
I sometimes make 'starting point' pages, a term I have taken from Shimelle, pages that I start without photos and finish at a later date. I do this either in order slim down my scraps box or to kill off a collection pack. And, eventually, they do generally get used even if that's years later, like these two pages.
I started this one back in 2016, one of two pages that I started with the remnants of Basic Grey's What's Up collection. I planned it for a single 4x6 vertical photo and it's taken eight years to get one that suits the colour scheme. I finished it using the Girls Night Out cut-file from Twilight Crafts which I backed with some of the scraps that I had kept, before fussy-cutting some leaves and a flower as embellishment.
Supplies: Paper - Basic Grey What's Up, My Mind's Eye Cut and Paste; Letters - My Mind's Eye; Stars - Rosie's Studio; Nuvo Drops
Supplies: Paper - Cherry Arte, Jillibean Soup, Sandylion, My Mind's Eye; Letters - American Crafts; Stars - Pinkfresh Studio, MRI; Enamel Dots - Altenew, 49 & Market, Ebay
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Pages with Jenny Wren Cut-Files
I've been trying to keep on top of my 2024 album as we go along. There are a few gaps, but I'm not doing too badly. These are a couple of pages where I have used Jenny Wren Cut-Files from Twilight Crafts.
88. Trick or Treat
Supplies: Cardstock - Papermania, Bazzill, American Crafts, DCWV; Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage October 31st, Pink Paislee Memorandum, 7gypsies Avignon; Puffy Stars & Gems - Paperchase
Saturday, 2 November 2024
Parkrun Pages with Scrap Squad - Part 2
Tuesday, 29 October 2024
Parkrun Pages with Scrap Squad - Part 1
I started bringing my parkrun album up to date when I came back from my holiday, and this coincided with the 12 Days of Autumn event in the Scrap Squad Facebook group, so I aimed to do as many of their scraplifts as possible with my parkrun photos.
These are the first four and they are all 8"x8" so I count them as half-pages in my count for the year as they are roughly half the area of a 12"x12" page.
Friday, 25 October 2024
Nomads on Tour
Things have been quiet around here as we've been away on a cruise round the Mediterranean, and then I had to create something to share with you. I'm itching to make a start on my cruise scrapbook but it will have to wait as I have a few things I want to do first, such as finishing my 2023 album and bringing both my parkrun album and my 2024 album up to date.
I'm starting with 2024 and a double page for a weekend in Wales last month. This was organised by a member of Thurrock Nomads, our local running group, with the aim of doing a parkrun on Saturday morning followed by a walk up Pen y Fan in the afternoon. I made both halves of the page using Jenny Wren cut-files from Twilight Crafts as my DT projects this month, with Picture Wheel on the left and Road Sign 2 on the right.
(These are pages 81 & 82 for my page count this year.)
Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Pages from Stockholm - Part 2
Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Pages from Stockholm - Part 1
Monday, 12 August 2024
Mug Makeover
Just a quick post today, with a share of a coffee mug makeover.
We picked up a couple of these mugs at the end of a conference when the exhibitor just wanted to get rid of them all. They are a decent size with a well-fitting lid, but had an advert on them which I decided to cover up.
I acquired some adhesive vinyl then used my Silhouette to cut both a circle large enough to cover the original advert, and the initial A in a stencil font sized to fit the circle. Quick and simple, but I now have a personalised mug rather than carrying an advert around with me.
Before and After |
I've never used vinyl before, and don't know how well it will stand up to being washed. Hopefully it will last at least a few months and won't all peel off straight away.
Tuesday, 30 July 2024
Summer Scraplifts with Scrap Squad - Part 2
The Scrap Squad group on Facebook generally post a scraplifting challenge once a week, but sometimes they do longer seasonal events and earlier this month they ran '12 Days of Summer Scraplifts'. I shared four pages in my last post, and now I'm back with another
Please click on the links to see the original pages.
Saturday, 20 July 2024
Summer Scraplifts with Scrap Squad - Part 1
The Scrap Squad group on Facebook generally post a scraplifting challenge once a week, but sometimes they do longer seasonal events and this month they ran '12 Days of Summer Scraplifts'. These series are great for getting me out of a scrapbooking rut and making some 'different' pages.
I won't be doing them all, and I'm just sharing the first four today. Please follow the links over to the group if you want to see the original inspiration pages.
Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV; Paper - DCWV Linen Closet; Filmstrip - 49 & Market; Washi Tape - Stampin' Up!; Ticket & Puffy Sticker - Unknown; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye
Monday, 15 July 2024
Pages from Copenhagen
I've switched from monthly round-ups to subject round-ups now, so today I'm sharing all the pages from Copenhagen on our Scandinavian cruise last summer. I've shown you the first one before, but I'm posting it again now for completeness.
Each port of call has a 12x12 sub-title page in the album, all based around a 6x8 initial letter backed with a photo. The rest of the album is a mix of 12x12 and pocket pages.