Family Pages for 2025

Earlier this month I attended the Twilight Crafts Weekend Crop for the second time and used the Saturday to (almost) catch up with my 2025 album. I made up page kits before I went and then created the bulk of the pages there, with bits of journalling and embellishments added once I got home again. Some were DT pages and have their own posts (one on 20 May and another coming up on 5 June) but I'm sharing these two together here.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

47. Twins!

I used a Scrap Squad challenge from National Scrapbooking Day for this page, a scraplift of one by Kirei Baldwin for Bramble Fox. My husband's cousin had twins in March and I used a few of her Facebook photos for my page.

Supplies: Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Happy Heart, Pinkfresh Studio Tourist Mode, Pebbles New Addition; Letters - American Crafts, Heidi Swapp; Die-Cut - Pinkfresh Studio; Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio, Heidi Swapp; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella

48. 50 Today

It was my brother's 50th birthday recently and I scrapped a couple of photos with a mix of baby-themed paper and Disney-themed paper. An odd combo, but I think it worked. That 'today' sticker is the last-but-one from a sheet that I'm trying to finish off. Just 'Smile' left to go now.

Supplies: Paper - Echo Park Little Dreamer Boy, Echo Park Magical Adventure 2;  Numbers - Simple Stories; Stickers - Make & Create, Elle's Studio, Jillibean Soup, Jen Hadfield; Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Violet Studio

I have one page missing from April now as I printed photos for the Brighton Marathon but discovered that they were too big on the page for the idea in my head; I'll have to either reprint them smaller or redesign the page before I can do that one. And, of course, I now have new photos from the crop weekend.

Pages from Cartagena

Cartagena was the second place we visited on our Mediterranean cruise last year, but I'm not working in order and it's the last but one to be scrapped. I'm running low on full 12x12 papers now and have pulled in a few new ones but the fact that I  do scrap out of order means they won't suddenly appear towards the end of the album. Having used them here for port two, I can repeat them for Palma (Majorca) which was port seven and I may also be able to tuck a few scraps into other pages when I review the whole album.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

41. Cartagena

My normal sub-title page, which divides the album into 'chapters' for each port. Just one 4x6 photo for this one, which gave me the space to show plenty of this background paper. I've tried to use it a few times but you can't 'read' the three rays if you cover up too much of the page.

42 &43. Teatro Romano de Cartagena

Our main aim in Cartagena was to visit the Roman amphitheatre which, like the one in Cádiz, was buried for centuries and recently rediscovered. This one was originally smaller than Cádiz but much more has been excavated and it's far more impressive. I chose to go large with the photo here, printing it at A4, but then cropping rather than reprinting when one side didn't print properly. 

I used four smaller photos on the facing page, which I didn't intend to be a double, and it doesn't quite flow as one, but I didn't give this half a separate title and it has all the journalling for both.

I added a couple of strips of the blue paper to the sides of the first page after I took these photos so that now runs across the full 24" width.

44. Villa Garden / Augustus

A page of two halves, with two sub-titles. The top is for a small garden near the amphitheatre which is intended to resemble those of Roman villas, with typical planting and trompe l'oeil painted scenery. The bottom has a trio of statues of Augustus: the original from the museum, a copy from a plaza and a painted version from the garden above.

45. Parque Arqueológico del Molinete

The Cerro del Molinete was once the boundary of the city with fortifications that have been excavated in what is now an archeological park. We also saw two old windmills (molinete), bits of ruined city walls  and the bases of a Roman temple and a Punic shrine, all perched on a hill surrounded by the modern city.

46. Parque Torres

This is an area of gardens that surround the Castillo de la Concepción, a 13th century castle on a hill. I put a 4x6 photo of the castle taken from Cerro del Molinete in the top half of the page and a row of garden photos below it. I took these on my phone which was on full screen mode so they are all tall and thin, and I decided to leave them that way rather than cropping them down. I also printed a smaller peacock photo which I cut to a circle and layered over some of the empty space.

 

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Photoplay Travelogue, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, OneCanoeTwo Creekside, Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser, Cocoa Vanilla Studio These Days, Craft Sensations Dreamy Pastels, Cocoa Vanilla Studio These Days, Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm; Letters - American Crafts, Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Doodlebug, Tim Holtz, Martha Stewart, Creative Memories; Die-Cuts - Heidi Swapp; Washi Tape - Little B; Enamel Shapes - Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Altenew, Simple Stories, Hey Little Magpie, My Mind's Eye, 49 & Market, Carta Bella

Tea for Three

A quick post today to share my latest DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files.

My photo is from an afternoon tea with my mum and my sister last month where we ate in a perspex pod. You can't see the pod in the picture, but I decided to echo its shape with the Pentagon Wreath cut-file. I cut the file from white cardstock and backed it with patterned papers, arching it over the photo. I also cut an extra pentagon to frame a smaller photo of flowers in a teapot.

Supplies: Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studio Storyteller, P13 Sugar & Spice, Carta Bella Flower Garden; Letters - Doodlebug; Wood Veneer - P13; Word Stickers - P13; Washi Tape - Unknown; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, My Mind's Eye, Doodlebug

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

(Page 40 for the year)

The Big Egg Hunt

The Big Egg Hunt was the most recent charity sculpture trail to hit London, with over 120 decorated eggs spread across 10 locations. A friend and I went to Canary Wharf and found 15 of them, 14 of which made it on to this page.

I dug out some ancient Spring/Easter-themed papers and used the 3 Easter Eggs Cluster cut-file from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files for my first DT page of the month.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Dovecraft - Spring Chic; Washi Tape - Unknown; Puffy Dot - Jen Hadfield; Enamel Dots - Violet Studio

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

(Page 39 for the year)