Trek the Deck

Trek the Deck was a charity event on our cruise, with passengers walking round the promenade deck one morning to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

This is my second October DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, using the Hexagon Border cut-file cut from black cardstock. I cut my photos into hexagons too, matting them as one piece to layer over the cut-file.

I inked my white cardstock background direct from the ink pad and added a couple of strips of paper down the left of the page before positioning the cut-file and photo block. 

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK, Bazzill; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Maggie Holmes Sunny Days; Letters - Hobbycraft, Creative Devotion; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, 49 and Market; Enamel Shapes - Shimelle, Simple Stories

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 97 in my count for the year.)

Badness

Another cruise page, but we're back on board now. Badness, a Madness tribute band, was one of the best guest acts we've seen on a ship. I followed the First Idea from Shimelle Laine's recent One Two Punch class, which was based around repeating lines of punched shapes.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Alchemy Hearts Out & About 2025, Shimelle Never Grow Up; JOurnalling Card - Project Life; Puffy Stickers - Bella Boulevard; Washi Tape - Unknown; Enamel Shapes - Latech

(Page 96 in my count for the year.)

All Dressed Up

Another cruise page today; this one is from a Celebration Evening (with a formal dress code) and I used the All Dressed Up cut-file from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, making this my first DT project for October.

We tried a few places around the ship to get a photo; none of them was perfect so I used four, printed them in a smaller size and added a sort of sub-title rather than conventional journalling. 

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK, Bazzill, Carta Bella; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels; Stickers - Simple Stories, Pretty Little Studio, Jillibean Soup; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories, Latech

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 92 for the year.)

(not) parkrun

I have another page from my Norwegian cruise today. This one will come mid-album and records the (not) parkrun we did on the ship on the middle Saturday of our cruise. I'm going to use hexagons as a design feature in this album so I cut one as large as I could from an A4 paper and arranged my photos on it with a 6x8 paper cut and stretched behind it. After I'd made a few more pages, I returned to this one and added the extra green and yellow hexagons.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK, Bazzill; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Alchemy Hearts Out & About 2025; Die-Cuts - October Afternoon; Stickers - 49 & Market, Jillibean Soup; Cameras - Project Life Card; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin, Hobbycraft; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories

(Page 91 for the year.)

Aurora

I'm starting my cruise album with a page for the ship we sailed on, P&O's Aurora, which is the smallest and oldest shop in the fleet.

This is also my second DT project of September for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, using the Aurora Borealis 2 cut-file which I trimmed down to leave just the name of the ship. I backed it with six colours from the Simple Stories Happy Travels collection which was my starting point for gathering supplies for this album.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK, Bazzill; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Photoplay Anchors Aweigh; Die-Cut - October Afternoon; Stickers - Heidi Swapp; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft; Enamel Shapes - 49 and Market

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 90 for the year.)

Other Cruise Pages

A couple of pages now that are from events on board the ship rather than any of the ports we visited.

104. Battle of the Bartenders

This was one of my December DT pages for Twilight Crafts using the Cocktail Glass cut-file, with photos from a cocktail-making competition. I cut the whole shape in white cardstock, then cut the straw in black and the lemon in yellow at a slightly smaller size to layer over the top. I backed the lemon with a lighter yellow and the drink and the glass with layers of vellum.

105. You & Me

I used a Scrap Squad scraplift for this photo of us on Formal Night. The title and people stickers come from Jillibean Soup, an ancient sheet that I am aiming to use up; I have 'smile' and 'today' left.

Supplies: Paper - Heidi Swapp Set Sail, Cocoa Vanilla Studio Heart & Home, Photoplay Travelogue, Pinkfresh Studio Simply the Best; Stickers - Maggie Holmes, Jillibean Soup, Heidi Swapp; Glitter Tape - The Works; Puffy Hearts - Rosie's Studio; Enamel Dots - Twilight Crafts

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

February Pages

Time for my round-up of this month's pages. I started February with the intention of completing my 2023 annual album, but I had to edit and order another batch of photos first. That lead to me tackling the backlog in my 'Parkrun Continued' album while I waited for the prints to arrive. This album is 8x8 which gave me a quandary for page numbering this year. Should they count as whole pages when they are less work than their 12x12 brethren? I decided to count them as half-pages as their total surface area is 64 square inches while a 12x12 page is 144 square inches; less than half the surface area but they still need all the elements to be a finished page. Six parkrun pages later, and half-way through the month, I picked up the 2023 pages again (but still haven't quite finished the album).

12. Walking with The Snowman
Technically this was from the first weekend of 2024, but it's probably going in the 2023 album as it feels like it belongs with Christmas 2023.

Supplies: Cardstock - Papermania; Paper - Vicki Boutin Color Study, Pebbles Merry Merry; Letters - Doodlebug, EK Success; Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico; Paper Tape & Enamel Dots - Unknown

12.5 V25

My first February DT page for Twilight Crafts, using their Triangle Arrows Background cut-file to mark the 25th time we volunteered at our home parkrun.

Supplies: Cardstock - DCWV; Paper - 7 Dots Studio Illumination; Letters - American Crafts; Enamel Shapes - My Mind's Eye; Cut-File - Twilight Crafts

13. North Yorkshire Water Park

A spot of parkrun tourism, made using scraps.

Supplies: Cardstock - DCWV; Paper - My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus; Letters - EK Success; Enamel Heart - Marianne Designs

13.5 Parke

Following a challenge in the Snap Scrap Repeat Facebook page to use a black background, mixed media, yellow, patterned paper and a heart.

Supplies: Paper - Craft Sensations Chalkboard, Make & Create Moments; Label Sticker - Tim Holtz; Journal Card & Washi Tape - Unknown; Enamel Heart - Marianne Designs

14. Killerton

More parkrun tourism and more scraps, using the February sketch from For the Love of Pretty Paper.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania; Paper - K & Co Studio K; Letters - October Afternoon; Gems - TPC Studio; Puffy Stickers - Unknown

14.5 We're Back!

Going back to 2021 and the first parkrun after Covid restrictions were lifted, with a tic-tac-toe challenge from Snap Scrap Repeat where I chose arrows, rainbow and green.

Supplies: Paper - Unknown Stripe; Numbers - Fancy Pants; Letters - Simple Stories; Border Sticker - Ruby Rock-It; Rainbow Die-Cut - Heidi Swapp

15. Milestones and Tourism

This is the opening page of my 'Parkrun Continued' album and uses the Bike and Tree cut-file (without the bike) from Twilight Crafts as the tree is a lot like the one in the parkrun logo.

Supplies: White Cardstock; Paper - Simple Stories, Unknown Green; Cut-File - Twilight Crafts

16. Slices of the Southern Upland Way

Documenting my husband's 6 day walk on one of Scotland's Great Trails.

Supplies: Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Good Times, Pinkfresh Studio Happy Holidays, Jen Hadfield Warm & Cozy, Maggie Holmes Chasing Dreams; Letters - October Afternoon; Word Sticker - Studio Calico; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella, My Mind's Eye 

17. Cruise Scandinavia

A summary page for our summer holiday (which has its own album too). This was my second DT page of the month for Twilight Crafts, using their Covid Memes Polaroid cut-file with the wording removed.

Supplies: White Cardstock; Paper - Studio Calico Heyday, Amy Tangerine Stay Sweet; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Tim Holtz, Studio Calico; Unknown Washi Tape; Pearls - Mark Richards; Cut-File - Twilight Crafts

18. & 19. South West Coast Path 11

A double page for the final instalment of my husband and father-in-law walking the 630 miles of the SWCP (which they started in 2008). 

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV; Paper - Craft Creations, Flair Design; Letters - American Crafts, Glitz Design; Phrase Stickers - Tim Holtz; Pearls - Artoz; Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, My Mind's Eye, Carta Bella

I've also made a couple of cards, both based on this month's card sketch from Stick It Down,

and finally, a cute little box which I made following a video by Helen Ding for Hey Little Magpie.

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

After Dark

I've had a new batch of cruise photos printed recently, and that's enabled me to return to the start of the album and make a page for our departure from Southampton. This was a winter cruise so we set sail after dark, hence the title. I printed two photos - a 4x6 of the cruise terminal and a 3x4 of another ship - and arranged them in a block across the page with a filmstrip die-cut to fill in the remaining space.

I added torn paper strips above and below my photo panel and placed an extra paper at the top to hold my title and a few embellishments. I then added more embellishments over the filmstrip and tucked in half a journalling card (the other half is on another page) at the bottom next to a subtitle.

Supplies

Paper - Simply Made Crafts Travel Keepsakes, Heidi Swapp Carefree, OneCanoe Two Willow, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart

Letters - American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin

Filmstrip - 49 & Market

Stickers - Simple Stories, Shimelle, Studio Calico, Teresa Collins

Washi Tape - Unknown

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Paint - Golden

Tools

Big Shot

Dovecraft Label Die

Dovecraft Tag Die

Studio Calico 'You Are Here' Stamp Set

Luxe Craft 'Bon Voyage' Die Set

Pink Paislee Horizon Stamp Set

"Ship Ahoy!" Mini-Book

My first project of the year for Twilight Crafts is a mini-book. It's something I've planned to do for a while, a record of all the cruise ships we've sailed on (before I forget where and when we went). 

My book is 3.5" x 4.5", because that was the size of some scraps of chipboard I had, and I ran washi tape around the edges before covering the middles with papers from 49 & Market. I chose the JWCF709 Compass cut-file as being the perfect motif for a travel mini-book, cut it in navy blue cardstock at just over 2" wide and backed the openings with lighter blue cardstock.

Internally, I made the pages from 6x6 papers which I cut down to 4.25" wide, scored at 2.5" to make a flap and cut away the top corners, alternating left and right.

I could then stick a photo on the outside of each flap, add the ship's name below and journal on the inside of each page.

Finally I glued each pair of pages back-to-back, poked holes through them all and threaded them with soft twine. I added a cord lock (pinched from my husband's camping supplies) to the twine so that I can take the back cover off when necessary and add more pages for future ships.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill, Stampin' Up!

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere, M&C World Map 6x6 Pad

Letters - Tim Holtz, Creative Devotion, My Mind's Eye, Pebbles, Basic Grey, October Afternoon, Crate Paper, 

Stickers - Tim Holtz, 49 & Market

Washi Tape - Unknown, Little B

Gems - Unknown

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

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

Canary Island Escape

An eight day Scrap into Spring Cyber-Crop starts today in the Twilight Crop and Craft Facebook group, eight days of challenges, games and live scrapping sessions.

As you can see, I'm setting the first challenge and I decided to go with a number-based recipe.

My sample page for the challenge is the title page for my new cruise album. I took the Where Shall We Go? cut-file from Jenny Wren, removed the lettering and backed it with three photos of our ship, layering the cut-file over the map. I then used a a 6x12 washi map sticker to create the half-and-half background, with a strip of washi tape along the join.

For embellishment I needed to use the four ephemera, five stickers and six small things from the challenge. I used a couple of cork chevron stickers to point to the Canary Islands on the map and created three embellishment clusters which easily exceed the minimum quantities that I set. Those cork chevrons are something that I've pulled and not used in previous albums so I'm glad I've got them on the page now and hope I will repeat them (and the hearts) across the album.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Heidi Swapp Carefree

Letters - Pinkfresh Studio

Washi Sheet - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere

Ephemera - Heidi Swapp, Rosie's Studio

Stickers - Studio Calico, Heidi Swapp, Freckled Fawn, Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Unknown

Gems - Love to Craft

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

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

Au Revoir Bolette

I'm four pages away from finishing my album for our cruise around Scotland last summer, an album which is taking much longer than it should. I'm actually jumping to the last page now with a quartet of photos of the ship and some views which I wanted to include but they didn't fit anywhere else.

I matted the photos individually and then placed them on a large panel of map print paper which I turned into a pocket to hold our cruise log and ship guide. Two of the photos are a bit dark so I'll reprint those and swap them over later.

I added the bunting for a birthday-themed challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. My title is in the same mix of fonts that I've used throughout the album,  cut using both my Silhouette and my Big Shot. The small alpha dies were one of my best buys of the last year.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere, Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Die-Cuts - 49 & Market

Gems - Simply Creative, Love to Craft

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

The Works Alphabet Dies

X-Cut Bunting Die

Show Time

I'm hopping back and forth between my cruise album and my DT work at the moment, and today it's the turn of a page from the cruise. I have three photos from the evening entertainment, one from the resident show team and one each from our two guest entertainers (a magician and a comedian).

The layout's quite simple, with the photos in a block alongside a column of journalling with title above and a few tickets below to embellish. I repeated a ticket with some tags at the top left.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Sky, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere

Ephemera - 49 & Market

Stars - Papermania

Glitter Tape - The Works

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

The Works Alphabet Dies

Dovecraft Tag Die

Welcome Aboard

Next page for my cruise album and the photo's from the evening of our first full day, which was a formal dinner. There would normally have been a 'Welcome Aboard' cocktail party first; covid cancelled that but I still used the phrase for my title.

I used a sketch by Lisa Sikorski from her new Scrap a Sketch group on Facebook, but played with the size and positioning of the paper layers to suit my shorter tags, cut with my favourite tag die. 

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Collectors Edition, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere

Ephemera - 49 & Narket

Glitter Tape - The Works

Stars - Unknown

Gems - Love to Craft

Ink - Memento

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot & Dovecraft Tag Die

Getaway

I've ticked off two more NSD challenges today; I'm glad that both groups I'm following have a two-week deadline as it's a less pressured approach.

The first is a simple one from Hey Little Magpie to be inspired by a grid, and the second is the 'Land Art' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. All their challenges are based on different art forms and for this one I chose two map papers and a travel theme from the options available.

My photos are from a cruise to Iceland, Greenland and Norway back in 2017 (one per port of call) which I placed in a grid with a map paper to hold embellishments in the sixth square. This is just a summary page for my annual album; the holiday has one of its own as well. I based that album around Photoplay Paper's Boarding Pass collection, which made it the obvious choice for this page.

Supplies
Paper - Photoplay Boarding Pass, Heidi Swapp No Limits
Title - American Crafts

Die-Cut Leaves - 49 and Market

Phrase Stickers - Tim Holtz

Globe Sticker - Photoplay Boarding Pass

Washi Tape - Unknown

Enamel Shapes - American Crafts/Shimelle

Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Cultural Cities Cruise

I'm heading back into my 2018 photos now with this page, the last one for my term on the Design Team at The Mad Scrapper. I've picked my favourite collection from the last six months, Vicki Boutin's Storyteller, for a double page summary of that year's cruise.

I used a globe cutfile from Paige Evans, and a page design from Shimelle Laine, with eight 3x4 photos. Please pop over to The Mad Scrapper Blog for more information and close-up photos.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller*

Letters - American Crafts/Paige Evans

Stickers - American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller*

Washi Tape - Unknown

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Paige Evans Floral Globe Cut-File

*Disclosure - I received the Storyteller papers and stickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team 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.

Cruise Norway 2013

We cruised to Norway back in 2013 and although I've made the holiday album for that trip I will also include some pages in my main annual album. The plan was for one for each port of call; I made two of them in 2014, then another the following year and the leftover paper scraps have sat on my shelf ever since.

My Existing Three Pages

Rather than tidying round the papers any more, I've decided to get the pages done. We visited seven ports and I'm adding a introductory page to make eight for the trip. For more recent cruises, I've just made a single or double summary page for the annual album, but with three already done here I will stick with the original plan. I didn't assemble a kit for these in advance, and certainly don't have enough paper in my scraps for five new pages, but there are certain elements that I can and will repeat:

• Kraft backgrounds
• Map print paper (as on two pages above; I may add some to the third)
• A specific red K&Co patterned paper (on all pages above)
• Multi-coloured stripes from Simple Stories (all pages above)
• Machine-stitching (as on two pages; I can add some to the third)
• Port names as sub-titles in small letter stickers
• Repeated date stamps
• Punched shapes (scalloped circles and postage stamps in particular)

I started at the beginning, with my introductory page, and used the June sketch from Scrap-Circle on Facebook. 

The larger photo is a copy of one that we bought on board, with the cruise name, itinerary and ship; the smaller ones are scenery photos that won't make it into the pages in this album, though they do appear in the trip album.

I repeated many of the elements listed above, and pulled in a plaid paper for the main circle. There's plenty left so I can repeat it too on some of the remaining pages.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - My Mind's Eye, K&Company Hannah, Simple Stories Awesome
Letters - Basic Grey, Lily Bee Design
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts, Mister Huey's

Tools
Sewing Machine
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Big Shot
Little B Arrows Die
Dovecraft Star Die
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Black Watch Mini Book

Last month was mini-book madness month over at For the Love of Pretty Paper, and I certainly went mad as I have another to share with you today. That's two this week, which is as many as I'd previously made in the past 10 years!

My book is another version of the wallet brag book that I made last year, but this time I challenged myself to make a moving waterfall section rather than the flip-over pages. Both the brag book and the waterfall section were made using free tutorials from Cal Summers. 

I started the book as an exercise in paper construction, for the satisfaction of mastering the waterfall, without any clear intention for which photos would go in it. As I worked, I decided to use travel-themed papers (since I scrap more travel photos than any other type), and then I hit on making it a book about the Black Watch cruise ship. We've sailed on her three times so I have loads of photos of her but it's recently been announced that she is being retired so this is the end of an era.

I mixed Pinkfresh Studio's Out and About papers with stickers from PhotoPlay's Boarding Pass collection; I've used both lines for cruise albums in the past. I made the book with gussets at the sides so that it would stay closed on its own, but it was bulging by the time I filled it with photos so I added an elastic tie with a couple of anchor charms. I bought a set of these for my first album 12 years ago and only used one. They're a bit lumpy for scrapbook pages, but a good weight for this project.

The book opens up to three sections, journalling on the left, my waterfall of photos in the middle and a pocket on the right which hold my cruise cards from the three holidays we had on Black Watch.

We visited 21 ports in 12 countries on her, and saw her in two more when we were on sister ship Balmoral in 2018. I try to take photos of our ship in every port but some are better than others; I picked out nine of the prettier or more interesting ones for the book, including photos taken from different angles, making sure to get a good spread of dates and places.

The best way to see a waterfall is a video, so I filmed it, but it's sideways:

Alternatively, here are a couple of stills.

I'm really pleased with how this turned out, and the waterfall was easier than it might seem. Thank you Cal!

Supplies

Cardstock - Papermania

Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Puffy Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio

Flat Stickers - PhotoPlay Boarding Pass, Pinkfresh Studio

Label Stickers - 7Gypsies

Anchors - Ebay

Enamel Shapes - Studio Calico

Ink - Memento

Tools

X-Cut Corner Punch

X-Cut Circle Punches

 

Cocktail Night

This is the last page for this cruise album, and it feels quite strange to have finished it so quickly (just over three months) when my last one took almost a year (albeit for a longer holiday). 

I used the Christmas Day Scraplift from the Scrap Squad group on Facebook, a page originally made by Damaris Velazquez for Paper Issues.

Being the last page to be made, I knew exactly where this page will go in the album and, by chance, I could work on the back of an earlier page so I didn't need to find a 12x12 background paper. I've taken the diagonal paper much wider on my page, using an offcut from another page (Home Again), and layered my photos on an assortment of paper scraps rather than the ephemera of the original. 

I have some stickers and die-cuts left so I'll go through all my pages again in the next few days to see if there is anywhere that I can add a few of them. I also have a roll of heart washi that I've used on quite a few pages, but I'll be trying to add that to some more and use it all up.

I now need to catch up with the pages in my 2019 album (and hopefully finish that one too), and then I'll be turning my attention to a very old unfinished project - an album for a trip to Singapore and Malaysia that we took back in 2009.

Supplies
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About, Pinkfresh Studio Everyday Musings, Echo Park Summer Dreams, Pink Paislee Atlas
Letters - Tim Holtz
Stickers & Die-Cuts - Pinkfresh Studio
Washi Tape - Unknown
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Marianne Designs, My Mind's Eye
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Circle Punch