A Pride of Lions

Continuing with 2026 pages, and a statue trail that I did in June. The statues were lions and lionesses, and the theme a curious mix of pride and the world cup. There were 17 lions; I printed 13 photos (the ones with less street clutter) and then dropped two of them as the page evolved into two areas.  

Supplies: Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Everyday Musings, Paige Evans Whimsical, Paige Evans Wonders; Letters - American Crafts, Simple Stories; Journalling Card - Project Life; Stickers - Maggie Holmes, OneCanoeTwo; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Echo Park

Snoopy in the City

Time to share another DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-files. This one is from a sculpture trail I did in London last December which celebrated 75 years of the Peanuts comic strip.

I've used the Covid Memes cut-file; cutting the wording away left me 11 frames which I rotated and filled with photos of 11 of the 12 statues.

I didn't initially have a colour scheme in mind, so looked at my pad of pre-made mixed media backgrounds, picking one which was a yellow/green. I then picked an orange paper that had touches of that yellow/green in the pattern for my cut-file. With eleven photos framed by the cut-file, I added the twelfth in a column on the left with my title and journalling.

Supplies: Paper - Vicki Boutin Let's Wander, K&Company Mira, My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline; Letters - Hip Kit Club, Shimelle; Journal Cards - Studio Calico; Stickers - My Mind's Eye, Studio Calico, Jen Hadfield, 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 16 for 2026.)

Along the Regent's Canal

Wendy's Page

Still catching up my 2025 album, and this page is from May when I walked the length of the Regent's Canal from Limehouse to Paddington. It was inspired by one from Wendy Meffan for Hey Little Magpie, and I also entered it in a Hey Little Magpie challenge to use both stamps and stencils on a page.

I printed 10 landscape photos and ran them in four rows on my page, which is mostly made with supplies from 49 and Market. I've had those leaves for a long time and they were getting a bit battered so it's good to have them on a page at last. I used a cross-hatch stencil and stamped tickets, leaves, random dots and boot-prints among the die-cut leaves for the challenge.

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Nature Study; Letters - Doodlebug; Laser-Cuts - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry; Puffy Stickers - Vicki Boutin Fernwood

(Page 81 for the year.)

Sky Garden

It's time to share my first DT project of the month for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files. I've used the Large Scalloped Square cut-file to frame my photos from the Sky Garden in London. This is a free entry public space on the top of the 'Walkie Talkie' or 20 Fenchurch Street. I've been there before in the daytime but this was an evening visit with dinner in the Darwin Brasserie on a work night out.

I took my white cut-file and daubed it with Bundled Sage Distress Oxide ink, then stamped all over it in Mowed Lawn Distress Ink using an assortment of different-sized leafy stamps. I then arranged my photos inside the frame, using one of the Sky Garden name in the middle as my title.

Supplies: Paper - Photoplay Hush Little Baby, My Mind's Eye 29th Street Market; Gems - Unknown

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 78 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)

London Pages

Next up are two pages for this year's annual album. I'm doing a reasonable job of keeping on top of this as I go along, and these pages mean everything has been scrapped up to mid-March with no gaps. 

We live just outside London and had made two social trips into the city this year at the time that I started this post:

(The numbers are my page count for the year. I count doubles as two pages.)

36. London Meet-Up

This is a page from February, dinner with friends and then a walk along the Thames by night. I didn't feel the need for it to be two pages but I did want to separate the two parts, which I did with Sketch 9 from Shimelle's Start with a Sketch Class.

Supplies: Cardstock - American Crafts; Paper - Echo Park It's a Boy, Glitz Design Sunshine in My Soul; Letters - Rosie's Studio, Basic Grey; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin; Glitter Tape - The Works; Stickers - Maggie Holmes, 49 & Market; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella

37 & 38. Nomads in the City

Our running club, Thurrock Nomads, turns 40 this year and we kicked off our celebrations with a run through London. I'm trying to cut back on double pages, but there were too many photos that I wanted to include and I couldn't go much smaller as then you wouldn't be able to see people's faces clearly in the group shots.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Simple Stories Safe Travels; Letters - Rosie's Studio; Puffy Stickers - Vicki Boutin

Pages for 2024

Pausing the cruise pages now, to catch up with the end of 2024. I have a few gaps to go back and fill in, but these pages cover most of November and December. Facebook group For the Love of Pretty Paper recently celebrated their tenth birthday with 10 challenges and I've covered a few here.

(The numbers are my page count for this year; I'm aiming to beat the 105 that I managed in 2024.)

1. Delicious Moments

My first DT page of the year for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, which satisfied the 'Circle' challenge from FTLOPP. I cut two of Leaf Wreath and layered them up over a stamped circle of leaves. The photo is from our Christmas lunch in a local pub.

Supplies: Paper - 49 & Market, Kit 'n' Craft; Rub-Ons - 49 & Market; Gems - Papermania, Unknown Stars

2. Penguin Parade

Twelve photos from a penguin statue trail in London, perfect for the 'Repeat' challenge from FTLOPP as they are all basically the same shape. Having chosen a suitable background, I picked out an assortment of ancient stash to go with it.

Supplies: Paper - Echo Park Reflections Christmas, Fancy Pants Winterland, Heidi Swapp No Limits; Washi Tape - Dovecraft, Unknown; Puffy Stickers - MAMBI; Stars - Sheenanigans; Pearls - Mark Richards, The Hobby House; Paint - Golden

3. Christmas Lights
My second January DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files uses an older cut-file, the word Christmas, as part of my title and I included machine-stitching for the 'Stitched' challenge from FTLOPP. The photos are from a Christmas Lights Run that one of the members of our running club organised.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV; Paper - Simple Stories Jingle all the Way, Carta Bella Hello Christmas; Letters - Studio Calico, We R Memory Keepers; Laser-Cut Baubles - 49 & Market; Sticker - Shimelle; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella

4. Parkrun Tourism 2024

I used to make a 12x12 pages in my annual albums for each parkrun we visited, but they were getting too numerous and duplicating the 8x8 pages in my parkrun album, so I've just done a single roundup page for 2024, using another Jenny Wren Cut-File - 2024 Stacked. Eleven photos for the '3 or More Photos' challenge from FTLOPP.

Supplies: Cardstock - Stampin' Up!; Paper - Sokai SO'BB, My Mind's Eye Jubilee, Simple Stories; Puffy Stars - Rosie's 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.

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.

January Pages

Well, I was stopping blogging, but I've decided on a monthly round-up post to record what I've made, all in one place and I'll be numbering the pages through the year to keep track of the total (counting doubles as two pages). Starting from the beginning of January, these all belong in my annual album for 2023:

1. Chartwell

Churchill's home in Kent

Supplies: Cardstock - The Craft Place; Paper Heidi Swapp Hello Today; Letters - Crate Paper; Enamel Dots - AC/Obed Marshall

2. A Flying Visit

A visit from my cousin who lives in the US, using a sketch from Stick It Down. 

Supplies: Glitter Cardstock - DCWV; Paper - Basic Grey, Craft ID Travel the World AC/Vicki Boutin Fernwood; Letters - American Crafts; Journal Card - Heidi Swapp; Stickers - Fancy Pants, American Crafts; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Ebay

3. Christmas Parkrun

DT page for Twilight Crafts using the Large Star in Sections Cut-File

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft Sensations; Paper - Simple Stories Very Merry, Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas; Letters - Simple Stories; Stickers - American Crafts, Simple Stories; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories; Thread - DMC; Washi Tape - Little B; Cut-file - Twilight Crafts

4. & 5. Explore Antwerp

A weekend cruise to Antwerp for the Christmas markets, using another sketch from Stick It Down.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, American Crafts, DCWV, The Craft Place; Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Butter, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere; Letters - October Afternoon; Die-Cuts - 49 & Market; Stickers - Fancy Pants, Freckled Fawn; Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Hey Little Magpie

6. Beatrix's Christening

I finally used up a 'starting point' page that I made back in 2018.

Supplies: Cardstock - American Crafts; Paper - Pebbles New Addition, AC Dear Lizzy Neapolitan; Letters - MAMBI; Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes; Enamel Heart - Freckled Fawn

7. Ladies Who Lunch

I used the back of my Antwerp page because the pattern was too pretty to lose, and 49 & Market papers are thick enough for it to work.

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry Butter; Letters - Tim Holtz; Ephemera - 49 and Market; Word Stickers - Tim Holtz; Washi - 49 and Market; Enamel Dots - 49 and Market

8. Summer Fun

Completing another 'starting point' page with photos from a summer barbecue.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV; Paper - AC Shimelle Sparkle City; Letters - American Crafts; Washi Tapes - AC Shimelle Sparkle City; Stickers - AC Shimelle Sparkle City

9. & 10. Morph in the City

Thirty-one photos on a double page for Morph's Epic Art Adventure, a sculpture trail in London.

Supplies: Paper - DCWV Romantic Life; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - AC Paige Evans #Stickerbook; Die-Cut - 49 and Market 

11. Endurance

Recording my husband's epic 50km walking challenge using a sketch from Scrap a Sketch.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Photoplay Paper Boarding Pass; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Photoplay Paper; Enamel Shapes - My Mind's Eye

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

Capture the Moments

I've sat on this page for a little while as I wanted to finish sharing all my Oslo pages first. This one is for my 2023 album and is a DT page that I made for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files.

I used their Circle of Circles cut in kraft cardstock with two photos of my daughter and papers from both Simple Stories and Vicki Boutin. The photos were taken on a walk we took together at the end of August, probably the last time we will do something like this for some time as she left home in September. The ephemera piece that says 'Capture the moments' made a good title.

Supplies
Cardstock - The Craft Place

Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Lakeside, Vicki Boutin Fernwood

Ephemera - Vicki Boutin

Puffy Stickers - Vicki Boutin

Enamel Dots - Pretty My Page, Simple Stories

Ink - Ranger

Paint - Golden

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Circle of Circles Cut-File

Hobbycraft Small Star Punch

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

Look Up to the Skies

Shimelle's Page

2018 again, but I've jumped to later in the year and a page for the light installation in Carnaby Street that coincided with the release of the film Bohemian Rhapsody. 

I've scraplifted a page from Shimelle from one of her Facebook lives for my page. All those strips of word paper on her page were perfect to copy for my photos of the different lyrics, and one main photo instead of four was an easy swap.

I've used Shimelle paper, washi and letter stickers too, all from Sparkle City which had the purple I needed.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - DCWV Romantic Life, American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Washi Tape - American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Gems - Hobbycraft, ZVA Creative

Ink - Memento, Dr Ph. Martin

Mist - Mister Huey's

Beyond the Deepening Shadow

I'm not working through 2018 photos in order at all, and now I'm jumping from January to November. That month the Tower of London commemorated the centenary of the end of the First World War with a light and sound show called Beyond the Deepening Shadow; the lights were 10,000 torches which were lit each evening in the dry moat, and the sound was a specially composed four hour soundtrack. 

I printed three 4x6 photos and stacked them up for one of my default three-photo page designs. 

I had terrible trouble with reflections on my photo of the page, so apologies that the pictures aren't as clear as they might be. My background is cream and gold, which I chose because the gold catches the light and twinkles in the same way as the torches did in my memory.

Supplies
Paper - Simple Stories Cozy Christmas, Echo Park, Stampin' Up!

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Journal Card - Project Life

Washi Tape - Hobbycraft

Label Die-Cuts - Unknown

Enamel Shapes - Freckled Fawn, Doodlebug, Echo Park

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Tag Die

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tag Punch

Barbican Conservatory

I didn't know that there was a Conservatory at the Barbican Centre in London until I read about it reopening after Lockdown. I had a meeting nearby a few weeks later and so booked a visit for earlier the same day.

I originally printed nine photos for a double page, but when I came to make it I decided that they were too similar, dropped three and went for quite a photo-heavy single page instead. My photos are mostly green so I picked the complementary colour of pink for my papers, splitting the background one-third/two-thirds with a branding strip between the two patterns. 

One I had arranged my photos (popping the two smallest up on foam dots) there seemed to be four places for embellishment clusters; I repeated a small piece of the floral paper over to the right and tucked in four die-cut labels and strips of pink glitter tape to start my clusters off. I came across a butterfly in rose gold which fitted neatly on the right and then I added pieces of clear floral stickers also in rose gold to each place. The one on the left got a flair badge and the one at the bottom a flower sticker. All four got a twist of thread and a trio of enamel dots to finish off.

Supplies

Paper - OneCanoeTwo Saturday Afternoon, Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanical

Letters - Kaisercraft

Butterfly - Studio Calico

Stickers - Paige Evans, Pretty Little Studio

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs

Glitter Tape - The Works

Thread - DMC

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Anyone Home?

Anna's Page

I've sat on this page for a while so as not to interrupt the flow of Far East album posts. It's one that I made at the beginning of February when For the Love of Pretty Paper and Scrap Squad teamed up for a scraplifting challenge. We were asked to lift a page made by Anna Uhras for Paper Issues  back in May 2017 with the additional requirement of using turquoise.

I organise an Advent Calendar Swap each autumn, and received a page kit in 2018 which I hadn't used yet, but the 6x6 papers were a good size for the layers on this page. I arranged them as shown and then topped them with a photo of a ring-necked parakeet, a bird which is getting to be quite a common (alien) species in London.

Supplies
Cardstock - My Mind's Eye, Bazzill
Paper - My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste
Letters - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - American Crafts
Gems - Simply Creative
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer, Docrafts, Heidi Swapp

Twelve Days of Snowmen

Just before Christmas, I found out about a new sculpture trail in London which combined the Twelve Days of Christmas song with Raymond Briggs' The Snowman. There were twelve Snowman sculptures laid out on a trail between London Bridge and Tower Bridge, each one decorated with design from one of the Twelve Days. Something like this always draws my attention and so my daughter and I headed out to complete the trail on one of the quiet days between Christmas and New Year.

Even before we went, I know I would have 12 photos to scrapbook, all the same size and all portrait in orientation, so I was mentally planning this page even before I had the photos. I decided to try and cut The Snowman on my Silhouette and back him in the original colours from the story, to stand tall beside all the photos of him in different incarnations. I found a colouring book image online and was able to convert this to a cut-file which I backed with white mulberry paper to mimic the texture of the snow, and I'm so pleased with the way he turned out.

Twelve photos and my snowman needed a double page; I normally use two papers the same for the backgrounds of my doubles but my snowman looked so good against the spotted paper that I had to use it and find an alternative for the other side.

I'm trying to use my scraps rather than new sheets so my colour scheme came from one of those; the squared paper on the two sides was a good match for the grey of my spotty background and it also contains soft orange and purply-pink which guided the rest of my choices. Finding the stripe was serendipitous as it includes both of those colours and the green of the snowman's hat and scarf.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania, Craft Sensations
Paper - Pink Paislee Citrus Bliss, Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Warm & Cozy, Lawn Fawn Sweater Weather, Paper Adventures
Die-Cuts - Advent Calendar Swap
Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Shimelle
Washi Tape - Ebay
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Stampin' Up!
Ink - Memento

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot
Sizzix Film Strip Die
Sizzix Star Die
Woodware Tag Die
Hoobycraft Tiny Star Punch

Just Potter*ing

I have another 2019 page for you today, one that was loosely inspired by the June sketch at Stick It Down.

I slanted the diagonal stripes on my page much more gently, with them covering the full 24" width of my double page, and used many more photos, eleven of them, but placed them in columns to match the portrait photos of the sketch.

Those photos were from a day out in London, where my daughter and I explored a few places linked to Harry Potter. The highlight was the House of MinaLima, the studio which belongs to the graphic artists who designed all the paper props for the films, and have some of them on display here.

My diagonal stripes were just black, cream and gold, so I brought in some colour via my photo mats and some stamping in the open spaces.

Supplies
Cardstock - The Range
Paper - October Afternoon, Graphic 45 Artisan Style
Letters - October Afternoon, Hobbycraft
Washi Tape - Tesco
Enamel Stars - Freckled Fawn
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Studio Calico Stamp Sets
Banana Frog Stamp Set
The Works Clear Stamp Set
Heidi Swapp Arrow Stamp

Through the Keyhole

Earlier this week I blogged my walk of Section 5 of the Capital Ring, and today I'm scrapping three photos of the view from Richmond Park to St Paul's Cathedral. When I printed them, I'd imagined lining them up across the page with borders above and below, but then Scrap Our Stash published a sketch challenge that had me rethinking that.

I've rotated the sketch and moved the row of photos nearer to the middle, which frees up space for two papers to make up the square in the background which as per the Snoopy cartoon. I've also used green embellishments with a star sticker, a label die-cut and some enamel dots.

Since I had three photos, I decided to combine this with a GoGoGetaway cybercrop challenge to use the 'Power of 3'. I have three photos, a three word title, three patterned papers, three arrow circles, three groups of three enamel dots, three pops of green in my clusters and I used a stamp with three smiley faces.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Winterland 
Letters - KaiserCraft
Sticker - Studio Calico
Die-Cut - October Afternoon
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Simple Stories
Gems - Papermania
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & SCT Circles Cut File
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die