Old Timers

I don't necessarily blog my pages in the order I made them, preferring to group projects or albums together. Now that I've shared all my 2005 pages, I have a few oddments coming up.

Lottie Loves Paper are running a Summer Sketch Challenge until the end of next month, and this page came from the first one posted. 

I couldn't match the two portrait photos here, so went for landscape instead, with old photos from the National Tramway Museum in Crich. I considered rotating the whole sketch but the L shape of papers looked best left as it is. Those papers are old too, a collection called Vintage Charm which matched the tones in the photos perfectly.

I've stopped buying Thickers as the price keeps creeping up and I don't get very many titles per pack before I run out of critical letters. This means I am cutting more and more titles on my Silhouette - all the letters I need, in any colour and font I like. This time I layered patterned paper with an offset cut from kraft cardstock.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts, Bazzill
Paper - My Mind's Eye Vintage Charm
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Ocelot

I have one more page to make from Austria, but it's a double and I'm not in the mood to tackle another double so soon, so I'm moving on to the next 'missing' page from my 2014 album.

We had visited Chatham Historic Dockyard back in 2013, and our tickets were valid for a year so we made a return trip in the summer of 2014. I made a page for the Victorian sloop HMS Gannet shortly afterwards, and needed to do one for the submarine HMS Ocelot too. I referred back to the old page in order to choose a similar colour scheme, starting with the background. I store my loose papers by colour so went to the yellow ones and found the perfect print, one with engineering drawings. It had come from a pad that I used for my Canadian cruise album so I pulled out the scraps from that pad for the rest of the page. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits
Washi Tape - The Works
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs, Papermania, My Mind's Eye
Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools
Big Shot & Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

The Old Church

I have another page from Greenland to share with you today. This is the Old Church in Tasiilaq which was reopened as a museum of East Greenlandic life once the congregation grew and built a new larger church in the 1980s.

I printed a couple of photos - the church itself and one of the displays inside - for this page, though I've already made another page for the reconstruction of a traditional turf house which is a part of the new museum. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Crafts Sensations
Paper - American Crafts/Shimelle Go Now Go, Echo Park, Pebbles, My Mind's Eye
Vellum - Crate Paper
Letters - American Crafts, Basic Grey
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz
Brads - 7Gypsies
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug
Washi - Unknown
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot & Quickutz Tabs Die
X-Cut Circle Punch

Seriously?

I'm crossing back over to Iceland for this page of the Phallological Museum in Reykjavik. Yes, seriously, that does mean exactly what you think it means; it's one of the strangest museums we've ever visited, beating the Leprosy Museum in Bergen for subject matter, but not for the quality of the exhibits.

I picked two photos for this page - a 4x6 of the outside and a 4x3 showing some of the exhibits. My layout started out from the Scrappy Friends Sketch Challenge at Grand Diva's Creative Corner, but morphed as I went. I'd intended to follow it, reduced in size to still show a border of the kraft cardstock I'm working with for this album. However, it soon became clear that I'd be happier if I layered my photos across the camera paper strip rather than having them below it. 

With larger photos and less writing  than that indicated in the sketch, I moved my journalling below the photos and ran it down to the line of embellishments towards the foot of the page; I also decided to move the title up to the top as I felt it needed to be above the museum name in the photo.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Echo Park Winter Park, Photo Play Boarding Pass, We R Memory Keepers, Pink Paislee Memorandum
Washi Tape - Little B
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Pearls - The Hobby House
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Little B Arrows Die
Quickutz Tabs Die
Scrapberry's 'Around the World' Compass Stamp
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Traditional Turf House

I'm switching over to Greenland for the next couple of pages in my cruise album. This one is from Ammasalik Museum, where they have reconstructed a traditional turf house of the type used as a winter home by the Inuit.

The page design comes from Shimelle's A Most Magical Scrapbook class once again, but this time I'm combining it with a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge from Scrap Our Stash. 

I picked the top row - plaid print, tab(s) and the colour brown. I'm making all the pages for this album on kraft cardstock (brown), the paper collection that I'm using has a plaid print and I have a tabs die that's a recurring item.

I filled my tab with a tiny wood veneer tree, and made a similar cluster across the page. With only two of this tree in my stash, I placed a slightly different one next to the title, and eventually decided that I needed a third 'proper' cluster at the foot of the journalling. With no more trees to hand I picked out an arrow instead.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations
Paper - Photo Play Paper, We R Memory Keepers, Three Bugs in a Rug
Vellum - Crate Paper
Washi Tape - Various Unknown
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico, Creative Embellishments
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, American Crafts/Shimelle, Doodlebug
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot & Quickutz Tabs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

At the Apothecary

Three of the four buildings on my last page are now museums, and one of the houses has a small apothecary display. I love looking at old medicines and their labels, so this had to have a page in my album.

The layout is another scraplift, this time of one of my Paralympic pages - Table Tennis - though I flipped it horizontally for this version.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits, Graphic 45 Artisan Style
Letters - Anita's Glitterations
Washi Tape - Unknown
Enamel Dots - Trimcraft
Ink & Mist - Docrafts

Tools
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Goodbye Dippy

In January, the Natural History Museum announced that they were planning to replace Dippy the Diplodocus as the main exhibit in the Hinze Hall. It feels like he has always been there, but in fact he was only moved there in 1979. I remember seeing him as a child, and making a huge papier mache diplodocus that covered the back wall of our classroom when I was in junior school.

I've also visited Dippy many times as an adult; my son was dinosaur mad as a small boy, and once the museum was made free entry we became frequent visitors, though our visits tailed off as he got older.

The route of the Jubilee Greenway passes through nearby Hyde Park so, while I was walking that stretch, I detoured to see Dippy, possibly for the last time here (though they intend to move him to another part of the museum after he's been on tour).

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Fancy Pants Childish Things, Crate Paper DIY Shop, My Mind's Eye Bloom & Grow, Basic Grey, Amy Tangerine

Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon

Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico

Word Sticker - Authentique

Epoxy Sticker - Ebay

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Big Shot & Ticket Stubs Die

X-Cut Small Circle Punch

X-Cut Corner Punch

In the Dockyard

The dockyard in question here is Chatham Historic Dockyard in Kent. It lies on the River Medway and was a Royal Dockyard from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I to 1984. When the working dockyard closed, part of it was turned into a visitor attraction, with its many Georgian buildings including the Ropewalk and three historic warships - HMS Gannet, HMS Cavalier and HMS Ocelot.

Our tickets were valid for a year and we visited twice in order to see everything; I've previously made pages from HMS Gannet and the Ropewalk.

I used the June Week 1 sketch from Let's Get Sketchy for my page; the sketch has two photos but it was easy to squeeze in a couple more. I decided on a red, white and blue colour scheme, using an ancient stripey paper and lots of nautical embellishments in two clusters.

I started from plain white cardstock, stamping a blue pattern randomly across the page and brown postmarks where my embellishments would go. I machine-stitched around the page, using straight stitches for most of it, and zig-zag stitches adjacent to the brown stamping. Then the two embellishment areas - trying to match pieces in the large one to the small one. The anchor wood veneer is a dark wood so I inked a star to match it on the left. I had planned to use small red letter stickers for my title, but I'm out of Ds so I cut this one on my Big Shot; the letters are a bit bigger than the stickers so I'm happy that it does just fit as I wasn't sure that it was going to.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Coconut Swirl
Paper - Reminisce Bon Voyage, My Mind's Eye
Stickers - Anita's Glitterations, Reminisce
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug
Pearls - Craft for Occasions
Brad - Dovecraft
Buttons, Sequins & Ship's Wheel - from Stash
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Sewing Machine
Big Shot, Sizzix Wallflower Alphabet Dies & Circle Die
Woodward Scalloped Circle Punch
Papermania Postmark Stamp
Lakeland Background Stamp
Amy Tangerine Roller Date Stamp

Stick It Down - Escape in a Book

This month's sketches were revealed last Friday at Stick It Down, with stunning samples from Rachel, Stephanie and Jodie. Today it's the turn of the rest of the single page DT to reveal our versions.

The obvious features of the sketch are those hexagons and the large doily; I die-cut the hexagons for my page and placed them on a doily print background. 

My photo is from the V&A Museum of Childhood which I visited in January; specifically it's from an art installation called Dream House, where 20 designers were asked to create their ideal rooms. I really liked this one (Offline Hideaway by Dominic Wilcox) with the girl reading a book atop a pile of furniture. I could just imagine myself in her place.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline, MME Vintage Chic, Crate Paper The Pier
Letters - Pretty Little Studio, October Afternoon
Gems - ZVA Creative
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
X-Cut Hexagon Die
Little B Arrow Die
Woodware Tag Punch

On the Ropes

I'm still plodding through photos from last summer, determined to actually complete my 2014 albums. (2012 and 2013 are still works in progress).

We spent a day at Chatham Historic Dockyard in August, and as well as exploring the various ships, we watched a demonstration of rope-making, which was more interesting than it sounds.

I used the March sketch from Susan at Me & Mine for my page, but with two photos instead of three.

The birds have nothing to do with ropes, but the paper is too pretty to leave in my scraps box, so I used it anyway, and picked a neutral background so it doesn't overwhelm the photos. I dropped Sue's scattering of flowers and just used three brads for embellishment. It's a very simple page, but sometimes simple works.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - KaiserCraft Honey Chai, K&Company
Letters - Hobbycraft
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Brads - Papermania
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

HMS Gannet

Another page from this summer, when we visited Chatham Historic Dockyard. HMS Gannet is a Victorian sloop, one of the museum ships on display.

I adapted the 1 September sketch from Paper Secrets for my page, making the circle bigger and adding another photo. There is an additional requirement of using items or techniques beginning with each letter of a given word, and this time the word is LABOR. Mine are: Letter Stickers, Aqua, Border Sticker, Outlining and Rub-Ons.

I chose nautical/travel papers for my page, digging into some seriously old stash for compasses and map prints.

Supplies
Paper - MME On the Bright Side, Colorbok Travel, HOTP Blue Compass & Sun, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Journalling Card - Project Life Summer
Letter Stickers - Papermania, American Crafts
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Farmhouse
Rub-Ons - Basic Grey
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker

I started this double page for a challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket to scrap 6 or more photos on a page, but it took me a while to finish it and I missed the deadline. Nevertheless, the challenge gave me the push I needed to tackle my photos from the 'Secret' Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch and fill in one of the gaps in my 2013 scrapbook.

Obviously it's no secret now, as evidenced by the multitude of brown tourist road signs, but this was one of a series of bunkers that were built during the Cold War to shelter government and military officials from a nuclear strike. The bunker was decommissioned in 1992, sold back to the family who had previously owned the land, and opened to the public.

It's a sombre subject, so I picked subdued colours for my page, starting from the khaki print from Basic Grey. I normally hand-write my journalling, but this time I printed it because there was a lot that I wanted to include. I didn't embellish, as nothing seemed suitable for the subject matter.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Basic Grey Hang 10, Crate Paper DIY Shop, Sandylion Sand, some unknown
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Big Shot & Alphabet Dies
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp