Journey Around Britain

This is the fourth of four pages for our main summer holiday. We took two back-to-back cruises with a relocation in between. Thus the four pages are one for our cruise to Iceland, one for a day walking the Fife Coastal Trail from Rosyth, one for a day walking/running the Tyne Trail from Port of Tyne, and this one for our cruise around Britain.

I decided to use another cut-file, and chose Nine Messy Circles from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren cut-files, making this my second DT page this month. However, I wanted some space at the side of the page so I chopped the cut-file down to use just six messy circles and tucked them under a strip of map print paper which holds my journalling and embellishment.

I cut five photos to 3" circles, which nestle just inside the cut-file. I have one of each of our four ports and one of my husband and me on a golfcart we hired to explore St Mary's in the Isles of Scilly. I used the sixth circle for my title, running letter stickers around the word Journey.

Supplies: Paper - Simple Stories Sub Zero, Photoplay Travelogue; Letters - Rosie's Studio; Stickers - Photoplay, Heidi Swapp; Filmstrip & Ticket - 49 and Market; Label Die-Cut - Unknown; Puffy Words - Rosie's Studio; Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Craftelier, 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.

Tyne Trail

I'm sharing my latest page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, which makes use of the Anchors Border cut-file, either side of my title.

The whole Tyne Trail is 135 miles long, but I just walked the last section, from the Port of Tyne to Tynemouth, on the changeover day between two cruises last month. My husband ran from Wallsend to Tynemouth the same day, using the same path for this part.

I printed seven photos from my walk, and arranged them in a 3x3 grid with journalling in the first and last boxes, then split the grid with my title across it.

Supplies: Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Photoplay Anchors Aweigh, Craft ID Travel the World; Letters - Hip Kit Cub; Stickers - Heidi Swapp

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

Scotland 2026

Scotland 2023

Moving through the year, I've reached May, when we took a three week road trip round Scotland. This will eventually have its own album, but also needs a double in the 2026 album.

This was our second road trip, following one in 2023, and I took the double page from that trip as the basis for this new one.

I looked through the leftovers from previous travel albums, and went with Simple Stories Safe Travels as I had enough long pieces for the horizontal strips which span the double page. I tried to use up as many stickers and die-cuts as possible, including a few from other collections.

The biggest change is that I dropped the large red-and-white circle from the original page, replacing it with a cut-file, which makes this my second DT project of the month for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files.

I used Circle of Circles and cut it from kraft cardstock at about 11.5" across, using the same cardstock for my photo mats.

Supplies: Cardstock - Make & Create; Paper - Design & Create, Simple Stories Safe Travels; Letters - Hip Kit Club; Stickers - Simple Stories; Die-Cuts - Simple Stories; Enamel Dots - 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.

Mandala Birthday Cards

There are four newish mandala patterned cut-files in the Twilight Crafts shop, and I've used two of them for birthday cards for my first DT make this month. 

I dropped the size down to about 11cm across and cut them from black card. There were lots of areas to back, so I stuck with plain cardstock as being easier to 'read' than lots of patterns. 

I chose a rainbow of colours for both cards, going from purple in the middle to red/pink on the outside for Mandala 4, and then from red in the middle to purple on the edge for Mandala 8. 

Both mandalas looked isolated/disconnected when I originally placed them on the white card-fronts, so I smooshed some ink onto the cards in pink/purple to match the colours on the outer edges of the cut-files.

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

From Ledgers to Leisure

Today I'm sharing my second DT page of the month for Twilight Crafts and, for once, I haven't used a cut-file. Instead I've used a couple of papers from 49 and Market's Spectrum Gardenia collection; it's a slightly older one now (2023) but collection packs are still available in the shop (at the time of writing).

My page has photos from my leaving do when I retired earlier this year. The title is something that one of my colleagues wrote in my leaving card, which I earmarked for re-use here. I double-matted my photos using both sides of the Menagerie Medley paper and positioned them on the Pinwheel paper. I embellished by colour-matching some puffy stickers to the different areas of the background, and added a couple of black ones to balance the black title.

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Spectrum Gardenia; Letters - Anita's Glitterations; Puffy Stickers - MAMBI, Bella Boulevard, Rosie's Studio

Finishing my Fly-Cruise Mini-Book

I've made the title page for my fly-cruise mini-album, and I've made four double pages for the four ports we visited, so now it's time to share the final single page, as there have to be an even number.

I've used a photo of the four of us, all dressed up on formal night, and placed it on a pocket which holds our cruise log. I'd initially planned to make a pocket on the back cover for the cruise log instead, but there was space here so I decided to move it and keep the inside covers clear.

My original plan was to make a version of the Jubilee Book by the late Cal Summers, which she made for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee in 2022. In the end, I don't think I've made any of her pages in exactly the same way, as I made mine in pairs to fit the photos and stories that I wanted to include. However, my basic book size is down to her and I returned to her videos to make the hinges and cover for mine. I had to pull in extra papers for this, but I'm quite happy that they are different ones from those that I used inside the album.

My outside cover is almost a polka-dot, but the dots are actually tiny planes. Unfortunately, the patterned paper started to split on the folds, so I had to go over the top and bottom of the covers with washi tape, but it's not too obvious.  I decorated the front using Twilight Crafts' Overlapping Triangles cut-file, which I cut from the same cardstock as the book pages, and backed with leftover papers that are in the book. I cut the 'Fly Cruise' words from the same dies that I'd used on the title page, and added the four ports in tile stickers below the cut-file.

I covered the insides with a cream and brown travel icons print.

Supplies: Cardstock - Art Studio; Papers - Craft ID Travel the World, Simply Made Crafts Travel Keepsakes, Photoplay Anchors Aweigh, Simple Stories Hello Today, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart, American Crafts Shimelle, Simple Stories I Am; Letters - Teresa Collins, Creative Devotion; Stickers - Simple Stories, Photoplay; Washi Tape - 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.

Review Points

1. Format

I was trying a mini-book as an alternative to a 12x12 album for a shorter-than-usual cruise to see how they compare, whether a mini-book would hold enough photos and whether it would be quicker to complete.

My last 12x12 cruise album was for Norway last year; it lasted twelve nights with six ports of call and the resulting album took me about six months to make (in between other projects) with 36 pages holding 148 photos. By contrast, the mini-book was for seven nights with four ports of call; it took about three months to make (among other pages) and holds 92 photos. This is an average of 23/24 photos per port so the smaller format hasn't affected the number of photos I included. The main difference was that for the 12x12 I made pages until I had covered everything I wanted to include, whereas for the mini-book I limited myself to one basic double page per port and then added as many flaps and inserts as necessary to hold everything. This meant I had to plan carefully when designing the pages and had to scrap each port as a whole rather than just going page-by-page. I did find that there is much less 'white space' in the mini-book than the 12x12 album as almost all the surface area is covered in either photos or journalling. 

The new format certainly worked, but the resulting mini-book has a 1.75" spine and I wouldn't want to go much thicker, so I think I will have to limit it to shorter cruises. I don't think it would sensibly hold more than five ports, especially if there are a lot of shipboard photos to include too (there weren't this time but there were five pages in the Norwegian album). However, I didn't use either inside cover so I have extra space there if required another time.

We currently have three more cruises booked (for 2026 and 2027). One to Iceland has six ports, one around Britain has four ports and a return to Norway has seven ports. The middle one looks like a good candidate for another mini-book. I also have a few older cruises that don't have albums yet, at least one of which should suit the mini-book format.

2. Supplies

I blogged my starting supplies here, but I didn't use them all. I found that I filled almost all my page space with photos and journalling cards, with little room for much else. I only used bits of two of the Pink Paislee Atlas papers and none of the My Mind's Eye Hello World. My pack of Simple Stories Hello Today papers was already the leftovers from another project and was still sufficient for this album when bulked out by just four additional 12x12 sheets with quiet patterns like polka dots and stripes for the inside pages and then four more for the covers. When I make my next mini-book, I should be able to do so using existing supplies again rather than buying new ones. I may make the pages just a little smaller so that I can use 6x8 papers, but I'll need to think about that and plan it out.

Club Night with AI

I have another page for my 2026 album today, and it's also a DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files. My pictures come from a social night for our running club, where afterwards a member turned the group photo into a drawing using ChatGPT, and then my husband turned us all into Lego people.

I stuck with the Lego theme by using the girl from the Lego Pirate, Girl and Spaceman cut-file as a large embellishment, cutting her from dull brown cardstock and backing her with paper scraps, including making her shirt match our club colour. I didn't trust myself to draw her face, so I used some punctuation stickers instead.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania; Paper - Heidi Swapp Sun Chaser, Heidi Swapp Hello Today; Letters - Shimelle, American Crafts, Papermania; Journalling Cards - Maggie Holmes; Word Stickers - Tim Holtz; Stickers - Studio Calico, Hobbycraft, OneCanoeTwo; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Unknown; Enamel Dots - 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.

A Few Birthday Cards

I'm sharing a few cards today, in particular one that I made as a DT project for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files. I used the Chain Circle cut-file shrunk down to about 5.5" across and backed with four papers from a 6x6 pad. I then added another circle in the middle with my sentiment and popped it up on foam squares.

This one was a lift of a previous card, as there's no need to 'reinvent the wheel', a change of papers gives it a different look, and it went to a different recipient.

Finally, this card was based on one of the 'bits and pieces' that I keep in a drawer for making cards. I've had the plaid paper with the sentiment for ages so I tore it in two to stretch it across a wider card and filled in the gap with coordinating pieces. 

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

Quiz-ical

Time to share a new DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny-Wren Cut-Files. I've used Circle in Sections with a photo of our work team after we won the local Chamber of Commerce quiz.

The cut-file was pre-cut in a soft yellow so I looked for a 6x6 pad to match it and found an old one from My Mind's Eye with enough patterns left to make it interesting. I tried to alternate darker and lighter papers but did them randomly rather than in strict rotation as I had varying amounts left.

My embellishment is quite simple as I didn't want to distract from the circular shape of the cut-file by tucking anything in around it. I have a pack of vellum stickers that I would love to finish off, so I placed pairs of black and teal ones in three places and then added trios of enamel dots from the same collection as the papers.

Supplies: Paper - K & Company, My Mind's Eye Now and Then; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Studio Calico; Enamel Dots - 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.

(Page 27 for 2026)

80

Today's DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files was initially inspired by the February sketch for For the Love of Pretty Paper. I knew that I could use the Star Bunting 1 cut-file with that sketch and a photo from my mum's 80th birthday.

I based my colour scheme on the plate that my mum's holding as I knew I had a mixed media style paper from Vicki Boutin in those colours and, since I store my whole papers by manufacturer/designer, I immediately spotted the floral from another of her collections to go with it. 

I cut half the cut-file from a pink patterned paper to go against the yellow stripes on the background, and ended up cutting it into two pieces so that it would show on the left half of the page.

I built a paper stack behind the photos and went through my embellishment drawers (I store those by colour) for anything else that I could tuck in (and used up a pleasing amount of oddments). 

Supplies: Paper - Vicki Boutin Let's Wander, Vicki Boutin Sweet Rush, Pinkfresh Studio Happy Holidays, Basic Grey Urban Prairie, Paige Evans Bungalow Lane; Numbers - American Crafts; Filmstrip - 49 and Market; Word Stickers - Jen Hadfield; Stars - Hobbycraft; Acetate Heart & Tab Die-Cuts - 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 25 for the year.)

Malta Memories

I'm sharing my latest DT page for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files today. It's a summary of our holiday in Malta last year, which will go in my annual album for 2025.

I used the frames from the Covid Memes Polaroid cut-file (cutting away the wording) and backed them with eight photos from our trip. I then made a 'MALTA' cut-file to run across the middle in place of the original wording and layered the chipboard word 'Memories' over it. I outlined both cut-files to give them some definition and added a few word stickers and enamel shapes.

This concludes my 2025 album. I have a few pages to make for my 8x8 parkrun album, and I need to make a start on 2026 (five pages on the list so far). I also have plans for a new holiday album project, so look out for that soon.

Supplies: Cardstock - Rosie's Studio; Paper - Rosie's Studio Golden Afternoon; Chipboard - 49 and Market; Stickers - Tim Holtz; 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 22 for the year.)

Stitched Birthday Card

My first DT project for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files this month is a birthday card that I made with a one of the flowers from a stitching cut-file.

I printed out the PDF version of Card Flowers and Border 1 and pricked the holes in a piece of white cardstock by hand. I added distress oxide inks to the outlines and then stitched over the ink with matching threads.

Finally I matted the flower on pink patterned paper and added another piece of the same paper below with my sentiment.

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.)

Finishing my Norwegian Cruise Album

Last post for my cruise album, and it's finally time for the title page. Sometimes I make these first if I have a clear idea, but often I leave them until last which gives me time to think them over, and an opportunity to include pieces that I want to be in the album but haven't used elsewhere.

This time, I knew I wanted to use the Norway cut-file from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files as my title but I had no other ideas so I left it until inspiration struck (or I finished the rest of the pages). 

I started with the cut-file, making it the width of the page, and cutting an offset to back and frame it. I then printed photos of our six ports of call and cut them into hexagons as that has been a repeating shape in the album. However, getting the large title and the hexagons to fit nicely together was tricky. I arranged and rearranged them on the page until I hit on the positions below, filling the gaps in the middle with larger paper hexagons rather than trying to  stick with one size. I then tucked a few smaller ones in around the edges to break up the uniformity.

As I've previously mentioned, I've ended up with an odd number of pages in my album, so I've been through my photos and decided to make an extra one for the silent disco that was held onboard one evening. My page design was driven by the papers I have left, which included two papers from my 6x8 pad and a few tags. I didn't think I would use the cassette sticker from this collection, but it found a home here.

There's been one page that's been bugging me since I made it, one that I'm not happy with, and that was the page I made for Badness, a Madness tribute band which was one of our guest acts on board. I liked the background ink and the central design, but not the line of hexagons so I removed them. They came off cleanly on the right but left some sticky marks on the left of the page which I covered up, and then added some extra pieces at the bottom right to try to balance them. It's not how I would have made it otherwise but I'm happier now.

One final task was the title card for the window in front cover. I don't have the album yet (it's in the post) so I've based the title on a 4x6 card which I will trim down to a square when the album arrives.

I've also been through all the pages to see if any of them felt like they were unfinished, a bit bare or had something missing. This included adding the dates to each port's subtitle page as I didn't manage to include a full itinerary on either my title page or my ship page. I've also squeezed in a few of my leftover stickers where I could.

So, it's all done, and time for a moment's reflection. I've only used a subset of the supplies that I originally gathered. My decision to use white cardstock backgrounds for all my pages rendered most of the 12x12 sheets surplus to requirements and I've only used three of them I think. Never mind, they came from my stash and will go back to my stash. I barely touched the remnants of Simple Stories Hello Today and Pink Paislee Atlas, which I have already repurposed for another project. I've also used far fewer of the embellishments than I intended, though I used almost all the enamel dots (and pulled out some more). My biggest 'mistake' was to buy the Alchemy Hearts Out and About 2025 collection, as I found the style and colours just didn't work with Simple Stories Happy Travels. However, I like the patterns and it is good, sturdy cardstock so I am sure I will put them to good use elsewhere.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels; Letters - Simple Stories, Tim Holtz; Numbers - Doodlebug; Stickers - Simple Stories, Pretty Little Studio, 7Gypsies; Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, 49 and Market, 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.

(Pages 13 and 14 for 2026.)

Oh Christmas Tree

It's time for another DT page for  Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files, and I'm scrapping six  photos of Christmas trees from around London.

I used Oh Christmas Tree 2 as the title for my page, and took inspiration for my photo placement from another cut-file, Christmas Tree, with its tree made up of small frames.

I used a 49 and Market paper with a subtle pattern as my background and added stencilling and stamping in a rough triangle. I arranged my photos in a tree shape with a woodgrain paper as a 'trunk' and a star at the top, then nestled in my cut-file against it.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - 49 and Market Tranquillity, Basic Grey Mon Ami, Simple Stories, Stickers - Studio Calico

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 7 for 2026)

Parkrun Pages with Jenny Wren Cut-Files

I'm sharing a couple of 8x8 pages for my parkrun album today, both made with Jenny Wren Cut-Files as my DT projects for Twilight Crafts this month.

I used Numbers Background on the first page to celebrate my husband's 200th parkrun in October. It's not an official milestone so a guy called Gary Davies made a t-shirt for his own 200th run and now he lends it out every week with everyone signing it after they've worn it. I cut the numbers from dull brown cardstock and backed all the openings with the same blue patterned paper.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Kanban Industriana, Shimelle Glitter Girl; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Studio Calico, Jillibean Soup; Pearls - Scrapberry's

Secondly, I used Triangle and Squares Background to mark me running new PBs three times in September, after setting my previous best time way back in 2019. 

I flipped the cut-file over, filled three squares with photos and added my title to a fourth. I originally imagined journalling in the last box but I had too much to write so it ended up on strips on the right of the page.

Supplies: Cardstock - Unknown; Paper - Scrapbook Magazine Freebie; Letters - American Crafts, Violet Studio; Washi Tape - Shimelle; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella

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

(I count 8x8 pages as half-pages in my count for the year, which is now on five.)

Christmas is Coming

This is my final DT page of the year for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files and, since it's an open-ended role, you'll be seeing more from them next year.

I picked the JWCF601 Camera Shutter Lens 1 cut-file for my page using it as a decorative circular element rather than needing to see it as a camera shutter. I daubed the background with pink, green and yellow inks behind the cut-file and backed my photo with laser-cut pieces from 49 and Market's Rouge Cluster Kit. Finally I layered leaves from the same set mixed with bells from Christmas Spectacular following the shape of the lens to make two sections of wreath.

Most of the 49 and Market supplies for this page came from last year's Mystery Box; I haven't bought this year's as I still have plenty left, but they are available from Twilight Crafts and if you  are a fan of 49 and Market they are sure not to disappoint.

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Nature Study; Laser Cut Pieces - 49 and Market; Stickers - Shimelle Christmas Magic, American Crafts Very Merry; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin

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 114 for the year.)

Dartmoor Selfies

Another page for the 2025 album today, and another of my husband's exploits. He walked the Dartmoor Perambulation in August, a modern recreation of a ride round the royal hunting ground made by 12 knights in July 1240 on the instructions of Henry III.

The walk goes through 33 checkpoints and he took a selfie at each one. There's an account of the walk on his blog if you are interested.

I picked 18 photos and arranged them in a circle on my page, with title and journalling in the middle. I used the Boot Tread cut-file from Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files to fill the corners, cutting it in white and colouring it with three brown and green Distress Inks. 

I wanted to include a map, but I ran out of space so I cut a slit in the page and made a pocket on the back for it to sit in. The lace-printed strip is at the top of the map card, it pulls out easily and I've referenced it in my journalling. 

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Nature Study, 49 and Market Hike More; Letters - Tim Holtz; Washi Stickers - 49 and Market; 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 105 in my count for the year.)

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.)

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.)