Autumn Vibes

Final page for 2020 now, and that means that I managed to keep on top of my annual albums as we went along for the second year running. It looks like being possible for 2021 too as I can't see us going far this year.

I certainly didn't go far for this page, with photos of the autumn colours in our local area, all taken during the November lockdown. I printed three as squares in two sizes and lined them up above a free 'autumn' cut-file from Scrapbook and Cards Today.

All my papers here are scraps, and I'm happy to have the last of that tree print paper on show in an album now rather than languishing in my scraps box. 

I backed the cut-file with cream cardstock which I'd stamped with the swirly branches of a tree stamp from Imaginesce, and layered puffy letter stickers over it to finish my title.  

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania

Paper - Glitz Design Sunshine in my Soul, Carta Bella Fall Blessings, Serif

Letters - Crate Paper

Sticker - Glitz Design

Washi Tape - Dovecraft

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Imaginesce Tree Stamp

Big Shot 

Little B Arrow Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Hello Mr Benn

We live near the River Thames, where one particular stretch of the flood defences is covered in an ever-changing array of either graffiti or street art (depending on the quality). I often take photos of the art but they rarely make it further than this blog or Facebook. However one day last summer I saw a few paintings of Mr Benn and the Shopkeeper, a throwback to a TV programme from my childhood, and they were too good not to scrapbook (mostly for the nostalgia).

I went for a distressed chalkboard background and cut a brick wall outline on my Silhouette to start off. I placed that vertically and ran my photos horizontally across the page, layered over papers from my scraps box.

Supplies

Cardstock - DCWV

Paper - Craft Sensations Chalkboard, American Crafts/Shimelle Head in the Clouds, Cherry Arte

Letters - American Crafts

Stickers - American Crafts/Shimelle, Simple Stories, Pretty Little Studio

Washi Tape - American Crafts/Shimelle, Ebay

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Explore Close to Home

I have another pandemic-related page to share today. This one's from last spring and celebrates our local area which we explored during our permitted daily walks, visiting places that we hadn't been to for years and exploring footpaths that we hadn't followed before.

I've had the page in my head for a while, but I didn't have the right supplies until I ordered the Vintage Artistry in Color Collectors Edition by 49 and Market from The Mad Scrapper. This beautiful collection pack contains a mix of old and new papers, three sheets of washi strips and two sheets of laser-cut pieces all in a mix of greens, blues and pinks.

And once I had the papers, Lottie Loves Paper published a sketch that was very similar to the page in my head so I ran with that version. I designed a simple climbing plant cut-file and cut it twice to go the left of my page with some die-cut butterflies and epoxy dots. 

On the right, I switched the circles of the sketch for stamped butterflies and added epoxy stickers instead of stars. 

Supplies

Paper - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry*, My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus

Letters - American Crafts*

Die-Cuts - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry*

Word Stickers - Pretty Little Studio

Washi Tape - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry*

Epoxy Dots - 49 and Market Wishing Bubbles*

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Butterfly Stamp

*Disclosure - I received the 49 and Market products and the letter stickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Christmas at Home

I'm back on the blog at The Mad Scrapper today with my Christmas 2020 page which I made with Carta Bella's Hello Christmas collection. I picked that one as I do like traditional red and green collections for Christmas photos. 

Please do hop over there for a more detailed description and more photos.

Supplies
Paper - Carta Bella Hello Christmas*

Letters/Numbers - Echo Park?

Puffy Stickers - Crate Paper*

Washi - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Carta Bella, Eyelet Outlet*

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

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

Lockdown 2

I made a page for the March lockdown last year, little realising at the time that we would be plunged into a second and then a third in the months to come. I'm documenting the second (November) lockdown today, using a similar photo of our house, the same supplies and the same title cut-file in order to emphasise the repetition of restrictions.

My Original Page

I made my original page with two pockets, one for a printed timeline of events and one for handwritten notes about our personal experiences, and I repeated that here; the coronavirus paper and the photo mat both form pockets on the new page.

There will of course be a third page for the current lockdown in due course, and I intend to use the same supplies and cut-file once again.

Supplies 

Cardstock - Bazzill, Stampin' Up!

Paper - PhotoPlay Living the Quarantine Life

Letters - October Afternoon

Label - Quirky Kits

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz

Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Simple Stories

Washi Tape - Hobbycraft

Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

New Beginnings

I mostly kept on top of my 2020 album as we went along last year; it's taken me a while to scrap our October break in Dorset, but I'm about five pages away from finishing the album now. 

I'm going back to August for this page, when my daughter and her friends moved into a student house in Brighton ready for the new term. I've already scrapped two of these photos for her university album, but they're going in our family album too.

Adam's Page

My page design was inspired by Scrappy Adam; scraplifting his Epic Epcot Topiaries page was the January challenge from Dotty About Flair.

Mine's not a perfect scraplift as my three photos take up a wide band in the middle of the page, but I've certainly copied his mix of gridlines and punched squares, some of which I topped with puffy stickers. I added my journalling around the edge of the page after taking the photo for security reasons as it includes their address.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go, Kit 'n' Craft

Letters - American Crafts

Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Journal Studio

Phrase Stickers - Tim Holtz

Gold Pen - Faber Castell

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Woodware Square Punch

Sculpture by the Lakes

One of the reasons for our trip to Dorset was that I wanted to visit Sculpture by the Lakes, 26 acres of gardens populated with sculptures mostly by Simon Gudgeon.

Obviously, I took loads of photos and this has lead to a quadruple page in my album, a double plus a divided page that will sit between the two halves. I actually made the divided pages quite early on, using a page protector with a mix of vertical and horizontal 4x6 pockets. I filled all 10 with photos and used the 2x10 pocket at the side of the front for a title.

This page protector then sat on my shelf for three months, waiting for the double that would complete the quartet. I toyed with a few ideas over that time and pulled out the photos more than once but I couldn't really work out what I wanted to do with them.

Eventually I had scrapped everything else from this trip and there was no putting this page off any longer. Firstly I tried to emulate the divided page look with a mosaic of photos and patterned paper panels on plain cardstock, but the contrast between the mostly green photos and the bright colours of the patterned paper was too jarring. I switched to another project and came back again a few days later, to try a similar mosaic but with each photo matted on one of the patterned papers, which made me much happier. The 'double' will never be viewed together as the divided page will sit between the two halves in my album so I ended up working on them separately.

The left side has five photos arranged around a 'Create' die-cut that I had been saving all along,

and the right side has eight mostly smaller photos.

I journalled on both pages, using the lines between the pattern on the orange scallops paper as I have done so many times before. I embellished two of the paper panels on the left page but by the time I got to the right side I just wanted it to be done. I tried embellishments in a few spots but nothing looked right so this side stayed plainer.

Supplies

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Flower - Kaisercraft

Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico

Butterflies - Prima*

Washi Tape - Little B

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Echo Park, Eyelet Outlet

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

Dovecraft Label Die

X-Cut Pennant Die

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, die-cut and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Worbarrow Bay

I'm back in Dorset today, and this page follows on from the last one; we walked from Tyneham Farm down to the coast at Worbarrow Bay and I used two photos, one taken from each end.

When I make a series of pages from an event or holiday, I normally work on repeating design elements as well as using the same papers. However, my Stonehenge page was the only one to feature a large part-circle so far and I've put that right now.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Carta Bella

Dots - Nuvo Crystal Drops

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

*Disclosure - I received these products free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Forever 1943

My Original Page

Back before Christmas, I shared a double page from Tyneham, the ghost village in Dorset that was evacuated during WW2 as part of the war effort and has fallen into ruin. This one follows on, and features the nearby farm, which is slowly being restored to its 1940s state.

I printed three photos, one large and two small, which is a combination I've used a few times on my Dorset pages, normally with the smaller ones side by side, so I looked for a different layout and scraplifted a page from my 2019 album. 

I moved the title compared with the original, and journalled on the lines between the scallops as I have done a few times before. I fussy-cut the top floral from one of the 12x12 papers and used the lower parts further down the page with my one remaining flower from the die-cut pack.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill, American Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Washi Tape - Little B

Enamel Dots - Prima*, Echo Park, Eyelet Outlet

Ink - Ranger

*Disclosure - I received these products free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

The Giant

I've come to the last of the 'Be Colourful' challenges from For the Love of Pretty Paper, and this was a mammoth one, to use all nine of the colours from previous weeks - sapphire, fuchsia, yellow, white, tangerine, purple, green, teal and scarlet.

Luckily, the Late Afternoon collection that I am using for my Dorset photos has most of the colours I needed, and I just had to add teal via another paper. I decided that the best way to use so many colours and patterns was via an orderly series of 1" paper strips. 

I split my page in two, with the strips in the bottom half and my photo in the top half with just one pattern behind it. I tried my title in a few places before settling on running it vertically on one of the plainer patterns. 

Supplies

Cardstock - UK Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Letters - American Crafts*, Studio Calico

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico

Enamel Shapes - Carta Bella, Prima*

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

Spellbinders Circle Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Little B Arrow Die

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers and Prima sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT Role.

Pages from Dorset

I can't believe that I forgot to share my latest blog post for The Mad Scrapper with you, one which features some of the pages I made for our long weekend in Dorset. You've seen the pages here already but that post focusses on my process for creating a series of pages from a holiday or event and shares a few hints and tips in case you are considering a similar project.

Please do hop over and take a look.

Lost in Time

One of the reasons that we chose Dorset for our autumn mini-break was my long-held desire to visit the abandoned village of Tyneham. The village and the surrounding area were requisitioned by the War Office in 1943 to provide an area for military training; they were supposed to be given back after the war but that never happened, the buildings fell into ruin and the area is now part of Lulworth Ranges. However the village is open to the public when the ranges are not in use. 

I took loads of photos so this had to be a double page (with a single to follow for the adjacent farm). I printed a map to go with the photos and used a couple of journalling cards, one on each side.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon

Numbers - October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Washi Tape - Efco, Little B

Enamel Dots - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Big Shot & X-Cut 'Explore' Die

*Disclosure - I received the papers, Thickers, die-cuts and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Ghost Ships

Last weekend Dotty About Flair held their first Sketch Saturday, and I used Sketch 5 for this page. I had three photos of the cruise ships in Weymouth Bay and they were slightly different sizes from those in the sketch, but I was able to adapt it with an extra strip of paper and a change in the position of my title.

The large yellow rectangle of paper comes directly from the sketch, but I added extra layers both under and over it, all from the Late Afternoon paper pad by Amy Tangerine, which I am using for my Dorset pages.

Supplies

Cardstock - Stampin' Up!

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Crate Paper

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Stars - Studio Calico

Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Simple Stories

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tag Punch

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad and die-cuts dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

The Ancestor

This is my second page from our journey down to Dorset last month, when we stopped near Amesbury to visit The Ancestor, a sculpture which was mentioned on a documentary I watched about the A303.

I took a few photos in both landscape and portrait but cropping them to square seemed best and I ordered one at 4x4. When it arrived, the sculpture was only a couple of inches tall within the picture and you couldn't see his features so I re-printed at 8x8 which also matched a challenge from UK Scrap Addicts to use a larger photo than normal. 

I matted the photo on a purple paper which picked up some of the tones in the metalwork. It was one I hadn't used on any of my Dorset pages yet, but it opened up the use of one of the florals from the cut-apart sheet which was printed on the same colour background.

Supplies

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Little B

Enamel Shapes - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Chesil Beach

A Bit of a Do

I have a lot of Dorset pages to make with two 4x6 photos apiece, and it can get difficult to come up with new ways to arrange two photos on a 12x12 page.

When I was looking through some old Christmas pages recently, I was drawn to the angles on 'A Bit of a Do' so I decided to scraplift it for a page from Chesil Beach. I kept the basis of the page the same with a strongly patterned background layered with white cardstock to provide a 'breathing space' around the photos.

I'm working with Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection for these pages and chose orange scallops for my background to satisfy a 'Be Colourful' challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper.

There's no green in my papers this time, but I still used the green letters from the collection as I feel there's enough green in the photos for them to work. 

I moved my main embellishment cluster up compared to the original page, filling the empty space below the title and basing it around the yellow flower and green leaf from the die-cut pack with a punched orange flower. The other two clusters kept the same positions as before, but the journalling moved from the bottom to the top, where I wrote in the spaces between the scallops as I have done on a couple of previous pages.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Washi Tape - Little B, Efco

Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Carta Bella, Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template

Big Shot & Spellbinder Circle Dies

Woodware Flower Punch

Poppystamps Leafy Sprig Die

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers, die-cuts and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Shine a Light

Laura's Sketch

I'm still on the Isle of Portland for this page, but now at the southern end, known as Portland Bill, with photos of the lighthouses there. 

I used an old sketch from Laura Whitaker which I rotated to suit my portrait photos. I worked from the top down, layering the different patterned papers without committing to a background; I had a few choices in mind from the Late Afternoon paper pad, but ultimately none of them quite worked, I felt that I needed a blue to pick up on the sky in the photos and I found something suitable from Elle's Studio.

Supplies

Paper - Elle's Studio Thankful, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*

Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz

Butterflies - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Big Shot

Dovecraft Label Die

Dovecraft Tag Die

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Portland

I'm not scrapping our Dorset break in order, and I'm jumping to the end of Saturday now and a brief excursion to the Isle of Portland. I'm starting at the north end of the island with a trio of photos from the viewpoint area there.

I'm using Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon paper pad for my holiday pages; I love the range of colours in the stripy paper but so far I've only used small strips in among the other patterns. This time, I decided to make it my background but it's really bold so I layered a rectangle of the black and white diagonal stripe over it to give a more neutral area behind the photos. (I gutted the middle part though as it's too good to hide.)

I've also been hoarding the floral die-cuts but I'm in danger of holding on to them for so long that I don't use them at all, so I used two on this page along with two halves of a ticket die-cut which I chose in order to spread the green colour from my letter stickers around the page.

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Flair - Dotty About Flair
Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Washi Tape - Little B
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Carta Bella
Ink - Ranger

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers and die-cuts free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Abbotsbury

We stayed in the village of Abbotsbury for our short break last month, and I took plenty of photos of the buildings there, including the remains of the Abbey. 

I had planned to make another version of my Talk to the Animals page from a few years ago, but I didn't check my previous photo sizes before I sent these for printing and that backfired.

This time I had six 3x4 photos which were going to take up about half of a 12x12 page so I had to adjust my original design. I cut one photo down to a square and arranged them in a rough overlapping grid. My strips of patterned paper are in similar places to those on the original page but with larger photos everything got pushed down the page, including my title. I considered squeezing my journalling in at the bottom, but then I was inspired to add it to the top paper instead, writing on the lines between the scallops as I did on my castles page a couple of days ago.

I based my embellishments around yellow circles for a 'Be Colourful' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper, stamped with a leaf pattern.

Supplies

Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon

Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico

Word Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Washi Tape - Little B

Enamel Dots - Trimcraft, Stampin' Up!

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

Spellbinders Circle Die

Dovecraft Label Die

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad and Thickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

I Do Love a Castle

Back to my Dorset pages now, and a couple of semi-random photos from Sunday afternoon. We saw both Lulworth Castle and Corfe Castle from a distance, but didn't properly visit either of them. However, as the title says, I do love a castle so I wanted them in the scrapbook, and decided to include them both on the same page.

I went with a quadrants design in order to show off the papers from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection, and distressed the outer edges of each square. I matted the photos together and tucked a few paper strips into their left edge along with a label, a die-cut leaf and an enamel heart. To the right of the photos, I punched a strip of woodgrain paper and layered it over the join between my papers to anchor a larger cluster of embellishments which includes a large floral motif cut from a 12x12 sheet. 

I nestled my title in close against the line of embellishments, and it leads directly into my journalling on the lines between the scallops of the paper below. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Stampin' Up!

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Stickers - American Crafts/Paige Evans, Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Enamel Hearts - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

American Crafts Scallop Border Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers, die-cuts and enamel hearts free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my design team role.

St Catherine's Chapel

I'm combining challenges again today, using a sketch from Scrap Academy with the colour yellow for 'Be Colourful' at For the Love of Pretty Paper. 

The photos on the sketch looked more like 3x4 to me than the 3x2 indicated and I thought that I has a set printed at that size. It turned out that mine are even larger but I managed to make them work.

I overlapped my photos, popping the middle one up on a piece of foam. They are three views of the same place, St Catherine's Chapel in Dorset, an outpost of Abbotsbury Abbey.

I used a flair badge for the camera on the sketch, with a patterned paper circle behind it to add some weight. My title gave me some difficulty - it was too long to run horizontally and the uneven photo stack wasn't suited to running it vertically. I was rather pleased with myself when it occurred to me to run it round the camera circle. This left a spot at the end of the words where the blue flower die-cut slotted perfectly, as if made for the space.

Supplies

Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Butterflies - Prima Sugar Dots*

Washi Tape - LittLe B

Dots - Nuvo Grops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, die-cut pack and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.