#THROWBACK THURSDAY

THURSDAY, 5 MARCH, 2015

Today I am sharing a themed kit layout from 2005 in carrying on with my #Throwback Thursday series. This layout documents the time my dad spent in the U.S. Air Force. I had received copies of some old black & white photos of my Dad from my Mom at the time and wanted to create a layout to commemorate them.

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I was not one to use themed kits in my scrapbooking back then although I know they were quite popular. (Not the case nowadays, now I love a good kit!) I guess I always felt like I wanted to create my own design or theme for the layout of my pages. Plus I also felt like a kit could be restrictive or even in some ways, intimidating.  

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In addition, I felt that anything that wasn't used in the initial project would be wasted. I know that it could potentially be used in other projects but if it was a theme that you didn't use very often, then what was left over would just go to waste. With being a budget scrapper it wasn't something that I easily reconciled with. 

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As mentioned in the start of my post this two page layout documents the time that my father spent in the United States Air Force in the early 50's. I wanted to find something that had a military theme to it. 

This kit was by Karen Foster and contained mostly stickers or sticker embellishments plus a couple sheets of themed paper. It pushed me a bit to work outside of my creative comfort zone.   

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As you can see here, in this close up, there is one of my favorite techniques at the time - paper tearing and also chalking!  I also used paper tearing on the title but no distressing. I used some patterned paper that would suit that time - Western Union telegram paper and sepia paper with pictures of military vehicles. Along with another patterned paper that looked like a snippet from a handwritten love letter. 

I love the Egyptian style borders on the old black and white photographs! It gave the photos such a different feel than modern day photos.

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The left page

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The right page

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The full layout 

Thanks for taking the time out of your busy day to drop by my blog!

#THROWBACK THURSDAY

THURSDAY, 19 FEBRUARY, 2015

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Today I am carrying on from the series I started last week using the popular social media hashtag, #Throwback Thursday and showcasing some of my older layouts here. 

This layout is going back to January 2005 and is called "All Torn Up".

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It documents a habit that my old Jack Russell Terrier named Flash used to have, which was tearing paper, any kind of paper - toilet paper, paper towels, newspaper or receipts off the coffee table to shreds, virtually teeny tiny shreds.  Sometimes I wonder if he had OCD. He never used to chew things up, with the exception of when he was a puppy, but give him a bit of paper and he would go to town on it! He would stand on it with one paw and then begin tearing off small pieces, until there was nothing left of it. 

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This goes back to the time when paint chip cards were quite popular in scrapbooking. Who would have ever thought that something that you could pick up at your local hardware store or building supply store to determine what color scheme you wanted to paint your living room and bedroom would be become popular in scrapbooking?! 

I'm sure there were plenty of Home Depot sales associates at the time who were quite confused when trying to help various female customers who may have been perusing or lurking in the paint aisles to have them politely decline their assistance but then pause to see them grab handfuls of paint chip cards, and not just one or two colours but virtually every colour of the rainbow!  The cards were obviously free but yet I expect I wasn't the only who felt a slight bit "wrong" (for lack of a better word) when trying to casually slip more than 5 or 6 cards into my bag. As if I was doing something illegal. Quite comical if you think about it now.

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We were in the process of getting things together for an estate sale so we had lots of boxes out in the hallway. We were trying to keep them for packing when we moved. For a few days Flash had his eye on this particular Black and Decker box that the leaf blower had come in. He had already stolen it a couple times before this but we always managed to get it away from him before he had done any real damage.  However, on this day, we just thought, let him have his fun and let him keep it once he managed to run down the hall with it. We laughed ourselves silly just watching him tear it to shreds. 

As you can see I used a paint chip card here in my layout. I wanted this layout to mimic the colours of the Black and Decker box that Flash tore up that day, I also wanted the page to look torn but then thought how would I keep it together if I actually tore the paper apart. So I mounted the orange paper on black cardstock to give it a torn effect.

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This was also a time when industrial style supplies - metal mesh, cardboard, washers, things of that nature were a bit popular or on trend with scrapbooking. As it was a box that Flash had torn up I thought it would be a great effect to use cardboard or something like it for the title as well as the journalling. So what I did was find a large piece of cardboard, tear off the top layer of paper so the corrugated bits showed and then made a colour copy of it onto thin white scrapbook paper, like the kind that used to come in the page protectors in post bound albums. I then ran it through my printer for the title and journalling, scrunched it up before mounting it on heavier cardstock to give it weight, then adhered it to the page and placed different sized foam dots underneath it to give it varying height. I think it gave the effect of real cardboard quite well. 

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Here's a photo of the entire layout. I thought the large Black and White photo at the top of the page, of him standing on the cardboard, tearing it up would be a nice contrast with the background paper and as well with the color photo strip at the bottom of the page. 

Thanks for dropping by my blog to check out my "#Throwback Thursday" series. 

I hope you enjoyed the old school layout!

And P.S. - I know paint chip cards aren't really still trendy in scrapbooking, but I do enjoy using them on occasion, even with my current scrapping!

FEBRUARY PL PART 1

WEDNESDAY, 18 FEBRUARY, 2015

Today I am only sharing one page in my Project Life for February. I know this may seem odd but for those of you that may not have visited my blog before I document my PL in a monthly fashion, or as things happen rather than in a weekly fashion. 

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For my title card I have taken inspiration from Michelle Wooderson, who is phenomenal with her Project Life and basically anything she crafts and creates! If you would like to check out her blog, you can find it here. To see the title card I took inspiration from you can find that here. 

I have fallen behind a bit, not necessarily in the documenting but more so in the "getting the pictures taken and up on the blog" process. Mainly because as anyone in the UK knows there is not a lot of natural light here at this time of year to take photos, good photos that is of your layouts unless it is in the middle of the day, when the sun is out for about an hour or so.  So if you are otherwise preoccupied midday, then it can be difficult to get your photos taken. 

I thought it best to get this layout up on the blog and then if I can manage to get the other page up by the end of the week it will be a bonus. If I didn't put up either, than I would just be even further behind in blogging. Plus, one of my goals this year is to be more consistent with my blog posting, in all honestly it should have been up yesterday. So better to have one page up than nothing at all!

Here is the page that I am sharing today:

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This page documents one event, Afternoon Tea with a friend of mine. It is quite a traditional British thing to do here in the UK and I have to say I enjoy it very much! 

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Here is my title card for this page. This colour scheme, pastels, is not something that I would normally use in my layouts, I typically go a bit brighter so it was enjoyable to try something new and step outside of the creative box, so to speak. I took inspiration from the colour palette used on the "tape" on the scone card. The background card is by Echo Park with the alphas being a mixture of Lilybee, Simple Stories and Kaisercraft. The banner tag is from an SC kit, the pink star Freckled Fawn and the pink February tag an old PL card I cut up. 

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I did have a lot of fun with this layout as one, I am trying to use up a lot of my bits and scraps and two, I am also trying to do a stash buster this year as I have accumulated so many supplies over the years that I just need to use up already. It was fun trying to find all the tiny pieces I could use. The background paper is K&CO and the pink sticker with Heart This is Simple Stories DIY.

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All of the food was simply heavenly! Everything fresh and handmade. It was definitely a yummy treat. Handmade scones! I used an old PL card for this pocket. I cut along the pseudo washi tape on the top of the card and inserted the picture just underneath it. I then printed out the scrummy scones banner on Bazzill cardstock, added a "can you believe it" sticker from the DIY line by Simple Stories and added a yellow enamel dot also by Simple Stories. 

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These meringues with the fresh fruit were simply to die for! Let me tell you I was absolutely stuffed by the time I walked out of the hotel reception. The card is an old PL card scrap and the pink chipboard star is by SC which I thought nicely mimicked the strawberry on the meringue quite well. 

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This is a picture of the Grand Reception Room where we had our tea at the hotel.  I adhered the photo to a bit of gold vellum and then added a gold label by SC, after running it through my printer.  

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And finally the last pocket, a picture of me all dressed up for afternoon tea!  The round gray sticker is from the DIY line by Simple Stories as is the enamel dot and the purple Love tag is a random tag I've had for a while, it may be American Crafts. 

Thanks as always for taking the time to stop by my blog!

Hope you're all progressing along nicely with your 2015 Project Life!

Any comments are Welcome!

THROWBACK THURSDAY

THURSDAY, 12 FEBRUARY, 2015

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Things like MCM (Man Crush Monday), WCW (Woman Crush Wednesday) and TBT (Throwback Thursday) are extremely popular on places like Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. 

So I thought I would start what I'm hoping is a fun series here on my blog and use Throwback Thursday in another way, to showcase some of my old layouts. For a good giggle and also to see the difference in my scrapbooking style and hopefully see how far I have come. Possibly see how trends have changed or maybe how some have stayed the same. 

So for my first "Throwback Thursday" layout I am going back to 2003 - gosh, 12 years ago! Also to the days of post bound albums! These layouts document when I moved from L.A. to Arizona. 

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This was back when paper tearing and chalking were all the rage. As I didn't keep track of what supplies I used back then I would fathom a guess about the supplies used here. For the page above I do believe the map travel paper would have have been by K&Co, which came in a kit.  As for the embellishments, these would have been vintage ephemera by Paper Pizazz which I purchased at a large craft store in Arizona which I cannot recall the name of - Craftworld or something like that. As for the road signs, these would have been pictures we took along our route from L.A. to Arizona. Yes, even then I was pulling over on the side of the road to take photographs for my albums. Once a die hard always a die hard! 

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Remember when Mrs.Goodman's stickers were popular (I'm sure I'm dating myself here!) and in great abundance, before a lot of current day brands probably even existed. These were those realistic photograph style landscape stickers. I have to admit I used my fair share of these back in the day. This page was simple - Bazzill cardstock, landscape sticker and then an AAA roadmap torn up to provide a backing for the journalling which I have blurred out for privacy.   

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A close up of some of the hand stitching I did on the map to make it look like it had been sewn together after I tore it apart for the layout. You can see some good old tearing on the cardstock there with heavily chalked edges. I sort of wanted this page to have a bit of the old west feel to it. 

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This was also around the time that the industrial or sort of grunge look, distressing your pages was popular.  Using things like keys, metal or clock parts, or the like on your layouts. As well, another popular trend at the time was distressing or aging your pictures, which I have to say is an application I still enjoy doing to this day. If you look closely you can see I took a bit of sandpaper to distress around the edges of the picture above.  

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Close up of the details on the page

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Ahh, "die cuts", done the old fashioned way. Painstakingly with alpha templates and a tiny pair of scissors! I love how I wanted to emphasize the numbers in the address by creating this die cut. 

I hope you enjoy this series as much as I am enjoying looking through my old albums and as always, thanks for taking the time to drop by my blog. 

SNOW DAY LAYOUT

THURSDAY, 5 FEBRUARY, 2015

I haven't had a chance to sit down and document my recent pictures for my Project Life properly so today I am sharing a layout about the recent snowfall we had here in the UK. They have been predicting snow now for over a month but we had yet to receive any until the start of this week. Although I suppose in all fairness, I should clarify to say that we haven't received any down south, in Berkshire but there has been a fair amount up north and in Scotland as well. 

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You could really feel the temperature drop at the start of the week and then before it snowed it almost seemed to warm up a tiny bit on the day and then went eerily quiet just before it fell. 

Having grown up in California snow is not something I experienced on a yearly basis, so I actually find it quite serene and peaceful. That is, when it's falling. But then having to go out in it and drive around as well as be mindful not to fall down in icy areas can become very bothersome. 

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I hadn't originally intended to scrap this photo in a layout but then I was on Studio Calico and came across a beautiful winter layout by Sherry C. which you can find here. I was so inspired by her beautiful layout that I wanted to create my own wintry layout. If you like, you can also visit her blog here to see what other lovely things she is currently working on! 

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I wanted the photo to be the focus of the layout and had imagined using white wintry colours like Sherry had.  However, I did not have enough supplies to create a look such as this plus I wanted to use an acetate overlay so went with other wintry colours, such as the blue and silver. 

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I knew that I had some silvery gray cardstock and as I mentioned, I wanted to use this acetate winter overlay that I've had for ages by Creative Imaginations so I thought this would be a good start, to help the white script pop off the background. 

I also wanted to use up a few blue paper scraps from my December Daily album along with some snowflake wood veneers so these were incorporated into the layout. 

I wanted to get a bit of sparkle in there so used some glittery silver tape by Paperchase that I had picked up at Christmas. I used a scalloped border from Bella Blvd from their Thankful alphabits sticker sheet by Stephanie Hunt. 

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I added some metal snowflake brads by Papermania and used Glossy Accents on them to give them a bit more depth and sparkle. 

I finished the page off by adding the title with Dymo type words called Label Lingo stickers by EK Success onto a bit of scrap paper also from my December Daily album. 

I also added a further Dymo style label at the top of the page, near the snowflake brad. This is Marcella by Kay. 

And finally, the completed layout.

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Thank you for taking the time to stop by my blog. 

Hope your Project Life and scrapping for the new year is coming along nicely. 

WATER BABY

WEDNESDAY, 17 DECEMBER, 2014

For this layout I did sort of what I'm calling "freestyling".  I don't know if that's a real thing or not in scrapbooking but that is what I am calling it!

Typically when I start a page or layout, there is some planning involved.  I use the term planning loosely as I am not one who goes so far as to draw a sketch or anything like that, nothing that organised.  

However, once I do decide which picture or pictures I am going to scrap I lay that photo down on the page where I think that I want it to go, usually on the paper that I think I am going to use. 

I then pull out all my stock, well not all of it, but the products or items that I think that I will want to use with this photo and/or paper, if I have made that choice yet, in regards to paper.  I will then place the items I like around the page, adjacent to the photo, not sticking anything down yet or adding adhesive until I am certain where everything goes and that I like the look of it.  

Sometimes I may switch or move everything around more than a few times. 

Once I am certain that I like what I see and will be happy with the "final" layout I start sticking everything down where I have chosen.

With this layout I decided not to do that and to take a different approach.  The only pre-planning was deciding what picture to scrap and that I wanted to go with a blue coloured scheme to go along with the water photo and title.  

So I just randomly started pulling things out and sticking them down as I selected them, rather than going with the approach of being certain first and shifting or shuffling everything around  more than a few times.

I also wanted to try a bit of mixed media with this layout.  I started with the polka dot template in the upper left hand corner and a bit of water colour paints.  I decided to keep the template on the page and shifted it to the right slightly, then glued it down. I also did a bit of painting behind the photo and mixed some blues and greens together.

Below is the finished page.

 

 SUPPLIES | Background paper is simple white cardstock by Bazzill. The blue word stickers "Super Cool" and "Water" are by Simple Stories.  The polka dot template at the top left is by Simple Stories. The blue stickers on the photo are Simples Stories as is the blue camera flair button and the love hearts stuck on the Elle's Studio scalloped circular tag. The cutie pie bingo card is by Simple Stories. The blue scalloped trim, at the bottom of the photo, just above the title is by Bella Blvd as is the blue polka dot photo corner. The blue chipboard stars and blue paperclip are Studio Calico. Finally the snapshop sticker is by Echo Park. 

Now I have to say that I don't know how I feel about the page.  It does have some, shall we say, "artistic" ability to it.  I don't hate it but I don't know that I love it either.  Although,in saying that, I did enjoy the process of just putting stuff down on the page as I picked it up. 

It was freer. Like when you were a kid in first or second grade and it was the session of class where you got to work on art projects. You never gave great thought, typically, to what you were doing.  You just grabbed a pot of paint or two, a giant pad of paper for your easel and went to town!

DECEMBER ALBUM

DAYS 8, 9 & 10

WEDNESDAY, 10 DECEMBER, 2014

Today I am sharing Days 8, 9 & 10.

DAY 8

"ORNAMENT"

Today's photo-a-day prompt was "Ornament". I played around with this page for ages, trying different things - scraps of patterned paper, embellishments, different layouts on the page.  

Then I just decided to keep it simple. 

A single photo. A close up of a gold ornament. 

The number for the day. 

The title. 

And a sticker embellishment.

SUPPLIES:  The Christmas themed background paper is from my stash so quite old, it's by Daisy D's called Christmas Memories-Garnet. The metal tag is by Making Memories. The glittery red number 8 are Thickers by American Crafts called Pantry. The green stickers spelling out Ornament are by Simple Stories. The "tinsel" sticker is Cozy Christmas by Simple Stories.  

DAY 9

"WHAT YOU'RE READING"

I expect with this prompt it was imagined that I would be capturing a typical Christmas story, if I had children and was reading a bedtime storybook to them for the holiday season.

At the moment I am reading 'The Ocean at the End of the Lane'. Not exactly a Christmas themed story. 

I had originally started this book a while ago but struggled getting into it. I decided to persevere and give it another go as I have had a few books that I've struggled with to start in the past which have then turned out to be great books.  The Hunger Games being one example. 

I know this layout is not exactly Christmas themed nor in the usual Christmas colours but as I am including everything, my regular happenings plus Christmas related events I wanted to use papers that would echo an ocean like feel.  I'm also glad that I persevered as the book is turning out to be really good! Can't put it down. 

SUPPLIES: I have used a multitude of supplies on this layout, some of them scraps so brands are unnameable. I do know the background paper for the top layout is Sonnets by Sharon Soneff through Creative Imaginations called Maps Paper. The dark blue paper with the words "The End" on it is by Chatterbox. The chipboard letters are Thickers called Kitten by American Crafts. The rest of the alphas are Simple Stories. The water bubbles on both pages are super old by Creative Imaginations called Bits & Baubles. The silver card stock is Bazzill.

Disclaimer: Now I did just say I was going to keep things simple but bear in mind I did create the page for Day 9 after Day 8 & 10. As well, as there isn't enough natural light to use during the day to take photos, I am having to use artificial light to take them, which is washing out the colours in the photos unfortunately.

DAY 10

"WRAPPING PAPER"

The photo-a-day prompt for Day 10 is "Wrapping Paper".  Again, I tried to keep this page simple as well, as I had spent a fair bit of time on the previous pages from Day 6 & 7.

Didn't want to spend too much time or fall behind. 

I originally had this layout on the previous page, the one below, as I thought the wrapping paper design would go well with the pattern on the paper, but it seemed too busy so I put it on the back side of the insert. 

This background paper is by Simple Stories from the Cozy Christmas line, which I am just loving at the moment, as is the 3 x 4 "Don't get your Tinsel in a Tangle" card. The washi tape is bits of paper by Fancy Pants cut up to look like washi tape.

That's me for now with my December album!

Surprising myself even that I am staying on top of it! 

Although in saying that I don't really have much time for anything else but this!

Onwards and upwards!

See you next time!

Seaside - Budleigh Salterton

As mentioned in my previous post from a week or so ago,  I am without a laptop so I've had to find other ways to occupy my creative mind until said laptop is repaired and returned to me. 

So for now I have pulled out some old unfinished projects and have been working on them.  Come on, we all know you're not a true crafter unless you have a couple of unfinished projects kicking about in your craft cupboard! 

This project already had all the pictures for it printed out so my laptop was not needed, thankfully.  To be honest it was about 70% complete already, I just needed to add a few more pages along with the pictures, punch holes in the pages for the eyelets, then add the binder rings, a few small embellishments and some ribbon.

This album is proper old school.  I started with 8 x 8 plain chipboard that I then took the arduous task of covering with patterned paper.  

In hindsight I probably should have punched the holes for the eyelets at this point rather than after I had completed the pages but hey, lesson learned! Not too much of the design of the page was lost in the process.

This album documents a long weekend trip we took to the British seaside one summer. We chose a small seaside village near Exeter called Budleigh Salterton. Although Simon had had many typical British seaside holidays whilst growing up, I had yet to experience the joy of a British simple seaside holiday.

I absolutely loved these little colourful sheds on the beach, they were so typically British.  I thought the bright striped paper would work well with these pictures.  Seemingly makes the seaside very fun looking and not to mention oh so colourful! 

We rented a cottage by the beach and then drove down on the Friday morning, taking Rupert with us, staying through till Monday.  It was his first trip to the beach and luckily the place we picked had a dog friendly beach only a short distance away. 

This is the view of the bay at Budleigh Salterton.  It was absolutely breathtaking! We enjoyed an afternoon walk by the seaside and then along the cliffs, stopping for an ice cream to share together.  

Rupert's first view of the sun, sea and sand. He was mesmerized!

One afternoon we stopped at The Cosy Teapot on the high street for a cream tea!  It was scrump-dilly-umptious!

The boardwalk adjacent to the dog friendly beach.  There was also a small fun faire along the seafront. It  made for a lovely afternoon.  

Time for lots of walks along the beach, afternoon naps and warm fires!

Would love to go back again! 

Thanks for having a look. 

Now as this was an old project I am not certain as to all the supplies that were used.  However I do know that I used Graphic 45 Boardwalk Collection, as well as Bazzill cardstock, along with journaling cards by October Afternoon. As well as a lot of the paper was from my old stash I expect there was definitely some K&Co. paper in there.  For the front cover I do know that the chipboard button is by Webster's Pages from the Chipboard Sticker Buttons & Twine line called Color Yacht Club. The letters spelling out Seaside are vintage wood alphabets by Lil' Davis Designs and most of the seaside related stickers, like the individual words, are by October Afternoon from the Seaside collection.