May All Your Wishes Come True

Earlier this year, I made a series of pages that finished off my 2005 album. I flipped through it several times in the process and, although there were a few dated pages in there and a few that I would have made differently now, I decided to leave them all alone. Starting to re-do older pages is a slippery slope that I don't want to start down. However, weeks later my mind was still being drawn back to one particular page which has so many elements that I really don't like any more (right) and I decided to pull it apart.

I cut the photo away with some of the pink paper as a mat, and I preserved as much of the pink woodgrain background (which I do still like) as possible. My new page is a scraplift of one that Shimelle made from her 'Delicate Explosion' sketch in her recent class Start with a Sketch.

The pink woodgrain reappears on the new page which I made mostly from Amy Tangerine papers which share the same pink. I've used this collection a few times recently and I'm pleased with how versatile it is and the different looks you can get by pulling out different sub-groups of colours and patterns. 

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Shine On, Pebbles Fresh Goods
Letters - Heidi Swapp
Chipboard - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine
Puffy Hearts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine
Glitter Tape - Unknown
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Spellbinders Circle Die
Dovecraft Label Die

Christmas Play

This is the last page for my 2005 album, and comes from my daughter's school play in December that year. I based my page on the 'Round and Round' sketch from Shimelle Laine's class Start with a Sketch and used a Christmas wreath cut-file from Paige Evans.

I didn't leave myself with enough space for journalling, so it's on a separate card which I've clipped to the top of the page. 

So, 2005 is done now and I'll be moving on to concentrate on a new year. I kept on top of 2019 as we went along, and I've managed to do the same for 2020 so far. Before those, my last completed annual albums are from 2015, so I've decided to look at finishing off 2016 next. 

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Shimelle Go Now Go
Die-Cuts - Advent Calendar Swap
Sticker - Teresa Collins
Washi Tape - from Stash
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Simple Stories
Pearls - Doodlebug
Gems - Love to Craft
Mist - Mister Huey's, Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Paige Evans Christmas Wreath Cutfile

Preparation

Back in 2005, my husband and some of his colleagues took on the Three Peaks Challenge (climbing the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in less than 24 hours). He did his training on the North Downs in Kent, hence the title for this page with poppy photos from the fields near Luddesdown.

I used 6x6 papers from a couple of pads layered up and running diagonally across the page. The green pieces are from the branding strip of the background paper.

Supplies
Paper - OneCanoeTwo Creekside, Pinkfresh Studio Escape the Ordinary
Letters - We R Memory Keepers
Die-Cut - Pinkfresh Studio Escape the Ordinary
Phrase Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Carta Bella
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Five Go Adventuring Again

Back in May I started working through my 2005 photos with the aid of various National Scrapbooking Day challenges, and then I wandered off through the archives to complete some more. Now it's time to return to that album with a double page from a trip to Adventure Island (a local theme park) for my son's birthday.

I'd planned this page out before NSD, using an old sketch from Sketch Support which I tweaked to suit my photos. 

With wider photos on the right hand side of the page I knew that my journalling would have to move, and earmarked a space below the title. It took a while to come up with that title though - we visited this theme park a lot when my children were small and I've used up all the obvious titles (and repeated some of them). I eventually locked on to the fact that there were five children this time and pinched the title of a Famous Five story which plays on the word Adventure. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania, DCWV, Bazzill
Paper - Studio Calico Snippets, Studio Calico Heyday
Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon
Chipboard Number - Unknown
Puffy Stars - Pinkfresh Studio, MRI
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die

Stracey Arms Windpump

This was actually the first page that I made for our Norfolk holiday, but I've been blogging them in chronological order for the week and this one comes from our last full day. We'd moored by the Stracey Arms windpump overnight and climbed it in the morning. The Broads are dotted with windpumps like this one which were built to pump water from the surrounding marshland.

The page is dotted with pieces from two tic-tac-toe challenges from National Scrapbooking Day. I chose gold, stitching and enamel dots for Hey Little Magpie, and repeated the stitching with blue letter stickers and a border punch for Lottie Loves Paper. I also knocked off a challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper by using washi tape. I then repeated several of these elements (along with the various dies used) across all my Norfolk pages to help tie them together.

Supplies
Paper - Make & Create Moments, Simple Stories Sn@p Basics
Letters - October Afternoon, Jillibean Soup
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, My Mind's Eye, Echo Park
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Sewing Machine
Big Shot
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
X-Cut Explore Die
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Funny Faces

Mellow Yellow

I'm no fan of moodboards, but For the Love of Pretty Paper set several for National Scrapbooking Day that were easier to tackle than most. The first was 'Mellow Yellow' and we could take as much or as little as we wanted from the moodboard so long as we included some yellow on the page. 

There's yellow in the pad that I'm using for our Norfolk holiday so that part was easy. The yellow brick road in the moodboard inspired me to use a neutral brick print as my photo mat, and I added word stickers in a little column to echo the block of colour names.

Supplies
Paper - Make & Create Moments, Pebbles/Jen Hadfield
Letters - American Crafts
Placemat - Jillibean Soup
Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Puffy Stars - MRI
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, 
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Sewing Machine
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die

Life on Board

As soon as Shimelle posted the first page from her 'Some Here, Some There' sketch in her class Start with a Sketch, I knew that it was perfect for this trio of photos, and I made the page the same day (although that's a few weeks ago now as I'm posting these in the order of the photographs rather than the order of the pages being made).

This was just after National Scrapbooking Day and I ticked off a couple of challenges with the page. Hey Little Magpie set us a colour palette of light pink, dark pink, sky blue, dark green, mustard yellow and gold. As luck would have it, this floral paper from the pad I am using for this holiday contained all of the colours except gold, and that was easy to add via my lettering, glitter tape and a spattering of mist.

The second challenge was from For the Love of Pretty Paper, and was to fussy-cut some elements for the page. I cut my labels from a free printable and cut a few flowers from the top paper to include at the bottom of the page.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - Make & Create Moments, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Turn the Page
Phrase Stickers - Pretty Little Studio
Puffy Camera - American Crafts/Shimelle
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Pretty My Page, Echo Park, Stampin' Up!

Tools
Sewing Machine
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch
Big Shot
Dovecraft Tag Dies
Spellbinders Circle Die

An Afternoon at the Beach

This is another page from our Norfolk boating holiday, but we'd left the boat and caught the train to Great Yarmouth. I had an assortment of photos of our children on the beach, and I printed them in a variety of sizes so that the children themselves remain at a similar size from one to the next.

I combined my row of photos with a challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper to use a large title on a page. I cut mine on the Silhouette, adding a shell to the letters, and backed each shape with a different paper from the pad that I'm using for this holiday.

Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - Make & Create Moments
Letters - October Afternoon
Journalling Cards - Project Life Sweet
Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes Sunny Days
Washi Tape - Unknown
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Puffy Hearts - Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Doodlebug, Eyelet Outlet
Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Sewing Machine
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tag Punch
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Braving Breydon Water

I'm sticking with our Norfolk Broads holiday for now, and we're actually on the water for this page. Breydon Water links the north and south parts of the Broads and can be tricky to navigate. We went through at low tide, keeping to the marked channel and it wasn't as bad as we'd feared.

My three-photo page uses a tried and trusted formula with the pictures in a column alongside a mosaic of punched squares for the 'Punch It' NSD challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. I also punched the scalloped border strip and the column of tags by the journalling card.

My page fits the criteria for three of the Hey Little Magpie challenges and I decided to enter it for their Tic Tac Toe, using the top row of gold, stitching and enamel dots.





Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - Make & Create Moments, American Crafts/Dear Lizzy, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Turn the Page, Simple Stories Posh
Letters - October Afternoon
Journalling Card - Project Life?
Puffy Camera - Freckled Fawn
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Pretty My Page
Enamel Dots - Doodelbug, My Mind's Eye, Marianne Designs, Echo Park
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Sewing Machine
Woodware 1" Square Punch
Woodware Tag Punch
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Follow the Tracks

I have another page from our Norfolk Broads holiday to share today. I am blogging them in the order they will come in the album rather than the order that I made them and this page comes from our second day. We moored our boat in Coltishall and took a trip from there to Wroxham on the Bure Valley Railway. 

I used a sketch from Shimelle's recent class Start with a Sketch for my page as its scattering of embellishments matched up with an NSD challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper to do just that. I tried to combine it with a recipe challenge from Hey Little Magpie but couldn't manage to incorporate all the elements. However I did redirect it to their stitching challenge with a line of machine-stitching along the scalloped border strip.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - Make & Create Moments, American Crafts/Dear Lizzy
Letters - Studio Calico
Journalling Card - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Unknown
Dew Drops - Papermania
Gems - Love to Craft
Enamel Sots - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Craft Creatives Flower Punch

Life on Mars

The majority of the photos in my 'to scrap' pile for 2005 come from a boating holiday we took on the Norfolk Broads. I was planning to make the pages via as many NSD challenges as possible while using the same paper pad throughout, and hoping that they would be compatible.

I got off to a good start with the 'Griddled' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper, which was just to create a page based on a grid. I had an assortment of photos from settling into our temporary home (the Broadland Mars) which I felt would work well with a quadrants design.

I was playing with a few ideas for titles until I hit on this one, and it was perfect for a challenge from Hey Little Magpie to use a quote, since they included song lyrics as one of their suggestions for possible quotes to be used.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft UK, Papermania
Paper - Make & Create Moments, American Crafts/Dear Lizzy
Journalling Card - Studio Calico
Letters - October Afternoon
Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Die Cut - Jillibean Soup
Flair - Unknown
Washi Tape - Pink Paislee, Hobbycraft
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, My Mind's Eye, Eyelet Outlet, Stampin' Up!
Puffy Sticker - Fancy Pants
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Dovecraft Label Die
X-Cut Anchor Die
Scrapberry's Compass Stamp

Spin Me Right Round

I'm really pleased to have used another of the page kits that I prepared for National Scrapbooking Day; sometimes what I get ready just doesn't fit to any of the challenges that come up. 

I'm staying in 2005 for a trio of photos of my daughter in the park. I even stuck with the title and page design that I planned in advance. That page design comes from a very old class, & Now For Something Completely Different, which ran throughout 2012 at UK Scrappers, and it's at least the fourth time that I have used the May prompts. 

My page is a feast of My Mind's Eye, with pieces from at least five of their lines, and it suits three more National Scrapbooking Day challenges. Hey Little Magpie asked us to use a quote or song lyric, and For the Love of Pretty Paper gave us a pink moodboard. I don't often use pink on my pages, so I took this opportunity to use up all my pink puffy stars in one go for a challenge from Lottie Loves Paper to feature either stars or hexagons.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Collectable, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist
Letters - American Crafts, American Crafts/Shimelle
Doily - Dovecraft
Phrase Stickers - My Mind's Eye The Sweetest Thing
Puffy Stars - Pinkfresh Studio
Brads - My Mind's Eye Now and Then, My Mind's Eye Necessities
Gems, Twine & Glitter Tape - Advent Calendar Swap
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
American Crafts Scallop Border Punch

Junk Models

Having finally finished my Far East album, I've picked random old year to finish off next, and that year is 2005. I sorted through my photos before National Scrapbooking Day and assembled a few supplies, and this is the first one that I tackled. Lottie Loves Paper gave us a step-by-step set of instructions for a page, which was a different sort of challenge from the norm and one that I happily took on.

The mixed media and the circles on this page came directly from the instructions but we could embellish in any way we chose and I went with a scattering of stars, both stamped stars and puffy stickers. This was originally on an all-white background, but after a week or so I trimmed the page down and matted it on bright pink.

There are so many challenges around National Scrapbook Day that pages have to do double, triple or even quadruple duty. This one also matched up with a challenge from Hey Little Magpie to leave some white space on the page, one from For the Love of Pretty Paper to use circles AND a challenge from Shimelle to repeat a stamp (and it makes me happy that two of the three stamps that I used were designed by Shimelle herself).

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft UK, Craft Sensations
Paper - The Paper Loft, Reminisce
Letters - American Crafts
Stars - Bella Boulevard
Ink - Ranger, Hobbycraft
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Shimelle Circle Stamp
Banana Frog/Shimelle Star Stamp
Studio Calico Stars Stamp

Bring out the Big Gun

I made this page a few weeks ago as part of the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers, but I couldn't share it at the time. Three teams played the game; each team started from the same page and scraplifted the previous person's page in turn ending up with three very different pages at the end. 

I used two photos of a coastal defence gun at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford for my page, the third in a trio of pages from the day. The first two pages were Duxford and See the Spitfire Fly, and I used the remainders of the same papers. In particular the large piece of spotty paper was a section gutted from the Spitfire page. 

I was scraplifting Sherri's page (right). I kept the two landscape photos and the vertical title, but matted them together. I straightened the edges of the horizontal paper and added borders to the vertical paper to bring in a bit more of the yellow colour.

The full chains of pages have now been published and can be seen on the Scrap Whispers blog:
Team 1
Team 2
Team 3

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Stonehenge & Yukon Gold, Baxxill Bling Black Tie
Paper - Basic Grey Aged & Confused, Teresa Collins Vintage Finds, Basic Grey Periphery
Letters - October Afternoon
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Duxford

Well, 37 consecutive days of posting here was something of an achievement, but then it all fell apart. I've been overcome by a bout of lethargy recently; I've only made two pages in the last week, and one of them can't actually be shared with you yet. It's half term next week so it will be a while before I get back to regular posts, but so be it.

This is the page that I can share now, it will lie opposite this one in my album, and relates to the same visit to the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford, so I used mostly the same papers. I took some of my inspiration from a recent sketch at shimelle.com, especially the idea of turning my title sideways, which I don't do very often. I wanted that title to be in chunky letters like Thickers, but I didn't have enough of the right letters so I cut them with my Big Shot and layered up three of each to get the chunkiness that I wanted. The middle layer is yellow, and I offset them very slightly to show a sliver of that colour. I really like the effect, and I want to try this again with different colours.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Bling Black Tie, Bazzill Yukon Gold
Paper - Teresa Collins Vintage Finds, Basic Grey Aged & Confused, Basic Grey Periphery
Die Cuts - atd
Gems - Making Memories Paper Reverie
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

2005 School Photo

The sketches in the Sketch-A-Thon are coming thick and fast over at My Sketch World. This page is inspired by Sketch 5 (sketches 3 and 4 were card sketches). Sketches 7 and 8 have both been scrapbook pages too, so I have some catching up to do.

The photo I picked is larger than the one in the sketch, so I adapted the other elements, but I think the original sketch can still be seen in my page.

I'm pleased to have used up some really old paper here, two pieces marked 2006. Though I haven't had them quite that long, it's still nice to use them up.

Supplies
Paper - Sandylion Green Spice, KI Memories It's a Girl, Echo Park This & That Charming
Letters/Numbers - Making Memories
Eyelet - Vaessen Creative
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Bracket Shaped Square Template (Manufacturer Unknown)

Adventure

The February House Challenge at UKScrappers is to take our inspiration from one of three quotes that we were given. I chose "One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure" from William Feather, which I interpreted as seizing any chance that comes your way to do something a bit different.

I combined this challenge with the February Scrap Map from Creative Craft World, which was a straightforward one-photo sketch, and I didn't mess about with it.

I scrapped a photo of my husband and his team-mates as they embarked on the UK Three Peaks Challenge in July 2005. They were aiming to climb the highest peaks of England, Scotland and Wales in 24 hours, competing against other teams from the IT industry. He wasn't a regular hillwalker at that time (though he is now), and when the chance came along to take part he did indeed look upon it as an adventure.

We didn't have to use the quote on our page, but I chose to use it to lead into my title:

I was one letter short for my title in this black alphabet. Luckily I have the same font in brown, so I inked one letter to match. Can you tell which one?

Supplies
Paper - s.e.i Winter Song, My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart (6x6), Kit n' Craft, Unknown Map Paper
Letters - American Crafts Foam Thickers
Ink - docrafts, Ink It Up!
Buttons - from Stash

Pub Grub

This page was conceived a few months ago, but it's taken some time to be born. Last summer I took a class from True Scrap 3 called The Perfect Collection. It was taught by Shimelle Laine and she demonstrated a method for quickly producing pages by randomly cutting up ALL your patterned papers and layering up the pieces to make pages. I started with a small collection of five papers from Basic Grey, and I made two pages at the time. I returned to my bag of paper pieces in November and made two more pages. You can see these four by hitting the 'Perfect Collection' label below.

I finished off by piling up my remaining pieces to make one final 'starting point' page and put it aside until I paired it with a suitable photo. That day has finally arrived and I have my fifth and final page from five patterned papers and five pieces of cardstock.

It was an interesting process and one I will repeat in the future (when I find another collection that I can bear to cut up into random pieces). 

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper - Basic Grey Granola
Letters - Paper Cellar
Ink - Dovecraft

See the Spitfire Fly

Shimelle's second 'Sketch to Scrapbook Page' video last weekend featured two large photos in opposite corners of the page, but I decided to adopt her suggestion of scrapping four smaller photos.

I have a huge pile of photos from our visit to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford a few years ago, so I picked three of the Spitfire that was flying that day and added one of my daughter pointing at it.

I chose a clocks paper for the corner pieces as I thought that the clock dials could look like the dials on the aircraft instrument panel. I've gutted the spotty paper so that I can use it on other pages from the same day.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Yukon Gold
Paper - Basic Grey Aged & Confused, Teresa Collins Vintage Finds, plus scraps
Letters - Mustard Moon, Doodlebug
Word Stickers - Crate Paper Restoration
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Up Above

This is the tenth and final page from the CHA Challenges at Two Peas in a Bucket. I started Challenge 9: Grab 9 Items on Your Workspace Right Now a couple of times before, but diverted those pages to other challenges.

This time, I started by picking my photos and deciding on their placement. I thought that they needed a light coloured mat so I picked aqua and white pages from the DCWV Mat Stack that I keep on my desk in an attempt to use it up. I took the aqua colour from these mats and pulled out the brown and aqua patterned paper from my stash. Then I picked the background - a paper I rejected from another challenge - and just added anything and everything that I had handy and that matched these colours.

The photos were taken from the Heights of Abraham, a park above Matlock Bath in Derbyshire, which is reached by cable car.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pant Wave Searcher, K&Co Life's Journey,  DCWV Garden Party Mat Stack
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type
Washi Tape - Trimcraft, We R Memory Keepers
Gems - Making Memories Paper Reverie
Butterflies - Prima
Ink - docrafts

Ribbon - from Stash