Pages from Lofoten

Moving on to the Lofoten Islands now, which was the fourth stop on our Norwegian cruise this summer. Out itinerary gave Leknes as the port of call, but we moored in the bay between Leknes and Gravdal and went ashore in the ship's tenders. There was a shuttle bus to Leknes but we'd been there before so we decided to explore the countryside on a circular walk which took in Gravdal instead.

(Numbers are a mixture of my page counts for 2025 and 2026.)

115. Lofoten

The usual sub-title page, with two strips on the left and then a block of photos and journalling.

1 & 2. Let's Go Exploring

I'd reserved all the postage-stamp paper strips that I needed for sub-title pages and that gave me two left which have found their homes on the opposite sides of this double page with 11 photos from our walk. The title is a sticker that I otherwise probably wouldn't have used, and I've added 'Haugheia' (the hill we climbed) as a sort of subtitle running vertically on the left. It blends in to the background, but I don't mind that and I'm happy to repeat these alpha stickers which have only appeared on one other page so far.

116. Buksnes Kirke

Finally a page for Gravdal's main church which was built in the 'dragon style'. It's on a slight hill and visible for miles around.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Simple Stories Summer Snapshots, My Mind's Eye Market Street; Letters - Basic Grey, Tim Holtz; Die-Cut - Paige Evans; Journalling Cards - Project Life; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin, Stampin' Up!; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories, 49 and Market, Papermania, Studio Calico, Altenew

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.)

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.)

Pages from Haugesund

Back to the cruise album now - Haugesund was the first port of call of our Norwegian cruise this summer, a small town on the North Sea coast. 

While making these pages, I was also reviewing what I've made so far; I'm sticking with white cardstock backgrounds and plenty of ink to colour them but I felt the need to make sure that the different styles of inking and the uninked all balance, no method dominates and nothing is so rare that it jars. Of the 14 pages before these, for two ports and some onboard activities, I have:

• Six stencilled pages 
• Five uninked pages
• Two with ink smooshed on the pages via the 'packaging technique'
• One where I swiped ink onto the page directly from the ink pad

While I may need to do a bit more smooshing, this is a technique that I feel should be used sparingly and only when it suits the subject matter. However, it should be easy to make more pages where I colour the cardstock by swiping the ink pad directly over it, so that the only one I've done so far fits in better. 

I've used a 50/50 mixture of letter stickers and cut-files for my titles, and I'm happy with that mixture. Using the same font whenever I cut them on the Silhouette adds to the cohesion of the album as a whole. 

I chose to use hexagons as a repeating shape in this album, a decision which was inspired by a PhotoPlay paper, and I haven't used that paper at all yet. I must rectify that soon. I've also only cut my photos into hexagons once and I'd like to repeat that at least once, if not a couple of times, before I finish.

(The numbers are my page count for the year.) 

107. Haugesund

My sub-title page is similar to the ones I made for Nordfjordeid and Trondheim, but this time I have more photos in a mix of orientations. Using some portrait photos gave me a bit more space on the right, so I got my hexagon stencil out again. The star is a stray one that I found and decided to use immediately.

108. Haraldshaugen

This monument was built in 1872 to mark 1000 years since King Harald Fairhair united Norway. I used my trellis stencil on the background and chose a classic two-photo layout, with my title running vertically. Now I see it on the screen, I'm going to try to move that title down a bit so that it sits  directly opposite the journalling.

109. Kyststien

A couple of photos of views from the coastal path that we followed from Haraldshaugen as part of a circular walk, and one of Kvala Fyr, a tiny lighthouse. I chose to make this one as a 'no ink' page but the edges look too plain now so I might add some ink later.

110. The Rising Tide

I went inky here, picking up the colours from the sea. The four horses of this sculpture are loosely based on the four horsemen of the Apocolypse and are a warning against climate change. More info on this link. 

111. Kvala Batteri

A simple layout and one I've used before, with a stack of three photos and a 6x8 paper cut in two to fill the rest of the width of the page. This battery was built by the Germans during WW2 to protect the town.

112. Our Saviour and the Fishermen

A classic three-photos-across-the-page layout, but I 'bounced' the photos up and down and filled the gaps with a stamp-print paper. This is one where I felt it to be right to repeat the ink-swiping rather than using either stencil again.

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft UK; Paper - Simple Stories Happy Travels, Simple Stories Safe Travels, Simple Stories Summer Snapshots, Alchemy Hearts Out & About 2025, Maggie Holmes Sunny Days; Letters - Basic Grey, KaiserCraft, Tim Holtz; Stickers - Simple Stories, Heidi Swapp; Filmstrip - 49 and Market; Washi Tape - Hobbycraft, Vicki Boutin; Chipboard Star - Studio Calico; Enamel Shapes - Simple Stories, Pink Paislee, 49 and Market, Cocoa Vanilla Studio, Twilight Crafts

Parkrun Pages

Now a couple of pages for my Parkrun Continued album, which is 8x8 in size. I try to use up my scraps on these pages so these both have two part backgrounds. I count them as half-pages so always share them in pairs to keep the page count even.

(The numbers are my page count for the year and I have now exceeded the 105 that I made last year.) 

105.5 Queen Elizabeth

We ran at Queen Elizabeth Country Park in July en route to Southampton for our Norwegian cruise. I had a 12" tall chevron shaped paper scrap which I cut down for the left side and paired with green spots.

Supplies: Paper - My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus, Bo Bunny Little Wonders; Stickers - Crate Paper, October Afternoon; Enamel Shapes - Carta Bella, Cocoa Vanilla Studio

106. Happy Birthday Thurrock

Our home parkrun celebrated its 10th birthday in October, so I picked a photo of us all at the start line. I had a scrap of birthday paper which I decided to use, leading to a pink and navy colour scheme.

Supplies: Paper - Bo Bunny Little Wonders, DCWV?; Letters - American Crafts; Enamel Dots - Carta Bella; Cake - Unknown

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.)

Grays 10k

I'm taking a short break from Norway to make a few pages for my 2025 album instead, aiming not to fall too far behind. 

First up is the Grays 10k which my husband ran in September. I printed four photos which fell into two pairs - during and after the race - so I kept them that way on the page.

My colour scheme started from the blue of my husband's vest and led to a mixture of three of Vicki Boutin's collections.

Supplies: Paper - Vicki Boutin Color Study, Vicki Boutin Fernwood, Vicki Boutin Sweet Rush; Letters - Fancy Pants; Journalling Cards - Project Life; Die-Cuts - Vicki Boutin; Washi Tape - Vicki Boutin; Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio, Jen Hadfield

(Page 104 in my count for the year.)