Portsmouth

Over the next few weeks, I'm taking part in a series of challenges from the Scrapbook Challenges UK group on Facebook where we compete in teams to score points each week. The first week we were asked to use white (excluding white backgrounds), thread or twine, three or more layers, circles and (bizarrely) a warm drink. There were also bonus points available for using this month's Freaky Fast Formula from The Scraproom Blog with the other items.

I started from the Formula and picked a trio of photos  from Portsmouth that I thought would work with the paper sizes. This is a companion page to Great South Run so I used papers from the same collection, including an arrows print, even though I don't have any left of exactly the same papers. I picked white for the title letters, have plenty of layers, used circles with bundles of thread in my embellishment clusters, and even squeezed in a couple of warm drinks.

Supplies: Cardstock - Docrafts, Bazzill; Paper - My Mind's Eye Market Street, Pinkfresh Studio Happy Holidays; Letters - Doodlebug; Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Studio Calico, Elle's Studio, Jen Hadfield, Shimelle; Washi Tape - Unknown

(Page 3 for 2026)

Great South Run

I'm flip-flopping between albums at the moment, here with a new page for my 2025 album. It's a page from October when my husband, sister and brother-in-law all did the Great South Run.

I mostly followed my husband's progress and have photos of him in a few places, only one of an back-view of my sister and nothing of my brother-in-law who I must have missed in the crowd as he passed. Therefore I decided to used the official photos, and left them in their branded frames. My brother-in-law's was poorly framed with him running out of shot but it's all I have.

I based my page on Sketch #188 from Scrap a Sketch, running my photos in a row with a square frame behind them. Taller photos meant less space for the title where indicated so I moved it onto the frame, and I tucked in a journalling card at the bottom. My embellishment is smaller too, with die-cut stars and arrows. The weather was very wet that day, so I cut the stars from a journalling card with a raindrops pattern.

Supplies: Cardstock - Papermania; Paper - My Mind's Eye Market Street; Letters - Doodlebug; Journalling Cards - Studio Calico, Elle's Studio; Phrase Sticker - Tim Holtz; Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio

(Page 113 for the year.)

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

Eastleigh

I've scrapped this photo before, on 12x12 as part of my 2021 annual album, but I'm doing it again on 8x8 to go in my parkrun album. 

I've used the second scraplift from Scrap Squad's recent Share the Love cyber crop, though I simplified it for the smaller size. I used the same paper collection as last time, but concentrated on the blue papers this time so only a couple of patterns actually repeat. There's no separate title as the event name is emblazoned across the photo.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazill

Paper - Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon

Sticker - My Mind's Eye

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & X-Cut Camera Die

Scrapberry's Compass Stamp

Run Eastleigh

For a couple of years I kept on top of my annual albums as I went along, finishing 2019 in February 2020 and 2020 a year later. Here we are in February 2022 though, and my 2021 album is far from finished. I was alright until May, then there is a gap for my birthday, a few more pages done for June and July and then it fizzles out with only one page done for August to December. I really need to get on top of this before we get too far into this year as it looks like being a busy one. 

I'm starting with a page which I made for Twilight Crafts with a Jenny Wren Cut-File. The file is their Hexagon Background which I shrank down and duplicated to give me a patchwork of shapes to back. 

My photos are from Eastleigh parkrun which my husband and I ran in November. Their colours are decidedly autumnal so I chose Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection and pulled out all my orange and yellow scraps.

Whenever we run away from home, I title the page with RUN and the parkrun name and this was no exception. I then took three asterisks from my chipboard letter pack and used them on three plain orange hexagons to start off some simple embellishment clusters.

I added my journalling to the page after I took these photos.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts, Payper Box

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon

Letters - Pink Paislee, Basic Grey

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine?

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Simple Stories, Pretty My Page

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Jenny Wren Hexagon Background Cut-File

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

Snow in April

This is the final page for my 2008 album - I was in two minds about scrapping these pictures, but I had an odd number of pages so I needed one more. This was pre-digital for me so I only have a couple of shots - a view through the open window and a close-up of a snowy tulip. This sketch from Sketchy Thursdays has the right combination of large and small photos, though I changed the orientation of the main photo and extended its mat below the paper strips.

Green may be an unusual colour choice for a snowy page, but the only real colour in the photos is the green of the tulip stalk. Also this was supposed to be Spring, so most of the pages at this point in the album have some green in them.

I used a circular mask with green chalks for the background. I was originally going to stick a silver snowflake to the page, but then I decided to use it as another mask and chalked three snowflakes around the layout. I inked the edges of my title and journalling circles to define them against the cream background.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - Daisy & Dandelion Christmas Collection, Kodomo Inc Winter Trees
Letters - Making Memories, JoAnn Craft Essentials
Chalk - Readicut Crafts
Ink - Papermania