STARTING MY 2015 ALBUM

WEDNESDAY, 14 JANUARY, 2015

As mentioned in my New Year's post I have a lot of catching up to do! I have nearly finished with my December album but have yet to post the completed pages here. 

I have however started on my new album for 2015! It arrived in the post over the weekend and I was just too excited by its arrival and simply got carried away.

I wouldn't say I'm a chronological scrapper but technically I feel like I should have posted my completed December album pages here before my 2015 album. 

Nevertheless, below is a photo of the album I chose for this year.  It's the American Crafts Raspberry 12x12 craft album.  The past two years I have been using the Simple Stories 6x8 albums to document my memory keeping.

I have enjoyed using the 6x8 size and have done so since 2013. The pages are fairly quick to create in the smaller size plus it is different from what I am typically used to. 

I have always been a 12x12 girl but more than a few years ago, due to numerous house moves I had to pack away all my scrap supplies. Then, long story short, as I was living in limited space I didn't have the extra room nor money, to be honest, to pursue my hobby.

It was only in 2013, when I happened across Simple Stories that I took up scrapbooking again in a limited capacity, as I still did not have much space to scrap in.  

However, now that I've been scrapping again for a few years and really have the taste for it, I've genuinely come to miss creating the larger sized layouts. I feel you just can't create the full page layouts with the same impact in the smaller size as you can in a bigger size album. Plus having managed to sequester a small corner of our lounge to scrap in I have decided to go back to a bigger size album now. 

Now I know there has been talk over at Studio Calico about the 9x12 albums coming out this year, but with no specific release date. Being somewhat of an impatient scrapper I didn't want to either fall behind waiting for the release of the albums or scrap pages without an album to put them in. 

So I took inspiration from Marcy Penner and decided to cut down a 12x12 album to 9x12. You can find Marcy's tutorial here. 

Below is my finished album, or should I say at least for now. I wanted something simple but I am not sure that I like what I have created. Bonkers I know!

This is my title page which was fun to create. I used a mixture of PL cards and metallic Charmed cards by My Minds Eye. 

These pictures are from our last walk at Cookham during the Christmas break. However, as it fell at the end of the two weeks it also made it the first walk of the new year at Cookham!  It was so cold and Simon & I were trying to bundle up to keep warm. 

The page below includes some pictures of me with my new haircut for the New Year. I felt I desperately needed a change so booked into the salon on January 2nd and had my super long hair chopped off into a much shorter middy style vintage cut. I was a bit hesitant at first but am very happy with the results. 

A page wouldn't be complete without a few pics of Rupert. Simon was making the bed and Rupert climbed in and managed to tuck himself up. Very cute!

This is a PL Blush journal card with a day of the week bubble and B&W arrow by Simple Stories. The heart is punched from scrap paper.  I then stitched across all of it. 

This is my introduction page leading into my album. 

The polka dot background paper is by My Minds Eye and the pink stars are Studio Calico. I haven't embellished it as I wanted the words to stand on their own but I feel it does need something underneath it. 

As I said I came back to the bigger sized albums as I missed creating full page layouts. And this is my first full sized (nearly) layout which I enjoyed immensely! I went a bit old school with this - some inking and aging of the paper and also some good old fashioned paper tearing!

This was a 12x12 page protector that I cut down to 9x12 and sewed up the open side. You can see my wonky stitching there on the left. 

A close up of my antiqued paper tearing - an old school technique that I still enjoy doing. I think it was the perfect technique for this layout. 

I've had this tag in my stash for ages and thought the creepy old house on it would work well with the theme of this page. I antiqued it, distressed it, crinkled it up and inked it a bit before adhering it to the page with a few wrinkles in it.  

A close up of the actual photo I took that inspired the page as I think the other picture didn't do it justice as you couldn't see the detail in it. 

If you can't make it out it's a picture of the moon through the branches of the trees on the lane next to our house. 

That's the start of my 2015 album which I hope you've enjoyed!

A good start I think.

Thanks for taking time to stop by my blog.

Christine x

DECEMBER DAILY 

DAY 5 TO 7

MONDAY, 8 DECEMBER, 2014

Today I am sharing my December album days 5 through 7.

Now I didn't have anything actively happen on the 5th day that could have been construed as Christmassy and the photo prompt for the day was "Your View".  

Well, I expect they were imagining that I would be able to capture a Winter Wonderland, however that is not the case so I didn't think that a pic of my back garden would be that exciting for a Christmas or December album. 

However, when I woke up on Saturday morning, there was a layer of frost on the ground. And I thought hold on a minute, this would have been perfect for yesterday, so was going to use photos from Day 6 for 5.  Then I thought, why not just use them for Day 6 and skip Day 5. Why make it more complicated and crazy than it needs to be. Simplify.

Besides, in viewing other December albums online I have noticed that there are quite a few people this year that are not doing daily but are simply just adding things as they happen. 

So in that vein, this is what I decided to do with Day 6. I can always swap the prompts around as well if need be down the line to ensure I try to include them all. 

DAY 6

"YOUR VIEW"

This the full two page spread for Day 6. I also included a smaller insert which I made from a Christmas card cut in half. Thought the "Let it Snow" phrase was somewhat appropriate for the theme.

For the photo in the top pocket I thought it was amazing that I could zoom in enough to actually capture the tiny little ice particles on the garden table. Its like a teeny tiny ice forest. 

For the bottom pocket I used some very old metallic frosty white paper (very apt) by Papermania that I was looking to get rid of. Worked perfect for the phrase "Jack Frost nipping at your Nose!" I included a couple snowflake brads by Accent Depot and also a tiny 3-D snowflake sticker by The Paper Company. (Just between me and you I had to put it right over the "O" where I smudged the ink as it wasn't dry when I popped the card into the pocket)

For this page I included a mock playing card with Frosty the Snowman on it along with a snapshot of footprints on the grass (I love the crunchy sound the grass makes when you walk across it after a frost)and a picture of the frost covering the branches of a shrub. For the journal card I created this insert with some leftover snowflake paper, half a Cosmo Cricket tag, a round "super" sticker by Simple Stories, a Dymo style "cold" sticker by EK Success and finally some glittery stars punched from an old Christmas card. 

DAY 7

As I had something of my own to add on this day I did not need to use the prompt as a fallback. However I may use the prompt for this day which was "Bright", further down the line. 

We had planned to attend the Annual Cookham Christmas Fayre this year as we missed it last year. I have to say I was really looking forward to it. 

Cookham is a small well to do village close to where we live, home to a few historical figures and also a couple of modern day t.v. and sports celebrities.  

We frequently walk Rupert along the Cookham Moor at the weekends so thought it would be easy to just go for our walk and then carry on up the high street to the fair. 

The weather was lovely at first, chilly but a bit sunny. There were loads of shopping stalls to peruse along with numerous food and beverage stalls.  

We were happily enjoying ourselves, about half way up the high street when the heavens opened up and rain lashed down upon us. In moments we were soaked to the bone as was Rupert and unfortunately had to call it a day. 

A couple snapshots of us in the car on the way home as we didn't get a chance to take any whilst at the street fair.  Simon is pulling his "Bah Humbug" face and I'm just laughing at him being an angry dork. The Bah Humbug card I created in Word and the Bright card is a compilation of Simple Stories and Pebbles.  

Another Christmas card insert with some AC Thickers called "Eric" spelling out JOY and on the back a picture of the Costa Hot Chocolate we got on the way home as we didn't get a chance to get a hot drink at the fair. 

Something to warm us up!

We do love our Costa Ho Cho's!  And the Snowman cup was so cute! This time we tried the Toffee Fudge Brownie one, which was so delicious!! Creamy & chocolatey! Was tough to share it.

That's my December album for now! 

My first week out of the way.  Only three more to go!

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. 

Summer is Here! (or it WAS here)

(I thought I had already posted this entry but realised today that I still had it sitting in my drafts folder.)

Today I am catching up on some of my pages from June.  As the summers here in the UK are typically short and sometimes non-existent I decided to dedicate a page to the onset of Summer when it arrived, and was it glorious!  As I mentioned sometimes the summers here can be non-existent, like last year when we had a solid month of rain for the month of June.  This year however it has been quite good, not only unusually warm but for more than a week or two!  Pretty much still going strong as I post this now.  

With this layout I wanted it to be representative of the feel of summer so chose to use really bright colours and accents.  The picture was taken at Pinkney's Green and it was a glorious day. Pretty much picture perfect!

The background paper was from a Studio Calico kit and I wanted it to carry through the top and bottom pocket to appear as if one complete page. I also included a screenshot from my phone of the weather for the day. 

The 06 June sticker is from The Daily Grind line by Simple Stories.  I mounted the title "Summer" onto a bingo card by Simple Stories. The colourful chipboard letters are by American Crafts.  The lettering spelling out "is here" is by Simple Stories as is the "breath of fresh air" sticker below that. The green stars are by October Afternoon.  On the bottom pocket the green bliss Dymo style sticker is Marcella by Kay. The "hooray for today" sticker is Simple Stories and the bright yellow "summer" metal tag is an old embellishment I've had for some time by American Crafts. 

Thanks for having a look! 

Poodle Skirt

For those of you that know me or follow me, which would be my two loyal followers (Tessa! and my other follower who remains anonymous), you know that I love polka dots!!  In fashion they remind me of a time gone by and I am also a bit of a fan of retro rockabilly style. Plus I just find them so fun!

So in my polka dot madness I went and bought a really cute Poodle Skirt that I saw on Ebay.  I have taken my polka dot fondness to new heights! 

I thought that this crazy purchase deserved a layout all itself, so here it is!  And yes, of course, there had to be polka dots involved in the layout.

I really had a lot of fun with this layout and actually pulled it together in under 45 minutes, a rarity for me.  I didn't want a plain background so I glued some paper called BeLoved by Fancy Pants onto the Simple Stories red cardstock insert that comes with the red Sn@p  binder.

Then it was just a matter of adding the picture and the title, which is simple and easy - Poodle Skirt, using polka dot letters of course!

Then a few further embellishments and stickers and voila, I'm done! Easy peasy!

I like the polka dot mad result!

The final page!

SUPPLIES |  I started off by mounting paper called BeLoved by Fancy Pants from a Studio Calico kit onto the heavy cardstock inserts that come with the Simple Stories Sn@p albums, this one being from the red album and also on the backside of the layout I did for Five Guys here. I added a strip of black and white washi tape by Queen & Co. down the right hand side of the page.  I added a black decorative border to the photo to make the picture pop a bit more.  The polka dot puffy letters for the title are by Making Memories and oh so appropriate for this layout. All the enamel dots and the enamel love heart are by October Afternoon. The yellow chipboard circle with the (3) love hearts is by Studio Calico. The yellow "Hello" chipboard piece and the grey "like this" sticker are both Simple Stories. The red chipboard star to the left of the P in Poodle is by Simple Stories. The "Seriously" sticker and the circular sticker with the glasses are both Simple Stories DIY Boutique.

Thanks for dropping in to have a look!

Happy Scrapping!

Christine   : )

Cutie Pie

 Today I just wanted or had planned to do a simple page with patterned background paper with only two pictures and a contrasting horizontal border across the middle of the page.  However this page ended up taking me a bit longer than I had imagined.

As I am trying to use up a lot of my old stock I had my paper picked out and my photos laid out on the page, quite quickly, which I thought would be the biggest part of creating the layout.  But I then struggled with the embellishments, what looked good and what belonged where. 

I was just working with the colours within the background paper or variations of them, so mainly the grey and coral, with some accents of black.  But the "final" page just didn't feel right.  I say "final" because it didn't stay like that.  I played around with it a bit more and felt that it needed some more colour, something brighter, a pop of colour so I thought the small teal accents would work well with the other colours.

I added a few enamel dots around the page and as well a blue phrase sticker along the bottom that read "couldn't be better".  I also added some torn paper bits using the patterned paper from the horizontal border.  I think it just helped balance out the page.

I like how it eventually turned out.

So much for a quick simple page!

The actual final page.

SUPPLIES |  Background paper is by called Nook & Pantry by BasicGrey. The border is a dog newspaper themed paper mounted on dark red Bazzill cardstock.  All the stickers, including the ones spelling out "Pie" are by Simple Stories. Chipboard love heart is by Studio Calico. The black button is by My Minds Eye. The yellow designer brad is by Basic Grey. The black arrow designer brad is by My Minds Eye from the Find Your Wings & Fly line. The alphas spelling out "Cutie" are Thickers by American Crafts called Jewelry Box.

And the "before" page (that I wasn't completely happy with).

Thanks for dropping in to have a look!

Christine  : )

Retro Style

Hello Fellow Crafters!

Rare for me to create another post so soon. I wish I could be like some of these people that do blogging and scrapping for a living, having time for it on a regular basis, with no outside work distractions or life in general.  Although I suppose at the moment, with not working full time, I don't really have an excuse for something keeping me busy all day and not allowing me to be creative as I like.

So moving along! 

As well, the Muse has been in residence consistently as of late, which is rare so I thought I would take advantage of her visit.  Work with it while you can!

I have always been mad about polka dots and as well enamoured of the whole retro style "pin-up" girl look but have never really embraced it till now.  I wish I had sooner!  At this age I can now understand those 'write a letter to the 16 year old you' exercise.  I never really got it before, sounds stupid I know and thought what is the point.  It's me, writing to me, what am I going to tell myself?

  Well, I guess what I would now say is embrace who you are.  Don't ever let anyone sway you from being the way you want to be simply because they don't approve of it or think it might be ridiculous.

Be who you are meant to be and be proud of it!

I originally started out the layout with just the pink and black but wanted to add a tertiary colour to give the layout a bit more pop, so thought the green would be a nice accent.  I will probably also add some journaling behind the layout about embracing the retro style and as well about having more of a presence on Instagram . Was never really interested in it when it came out but have now found some great female role models on there that I now follow (Miss Victory Violet, The Cherry Dollface, Curve Creation, Curvy Kate, Redhead Without a Cause, Honor my Curves, Hot Rod Steffie and Hennney) 

SUPPLIES | Background paper is Simple Stories D.I.Y. Boutique, black & white polka dot paper is Bella Blvd "Borders", pink & white polka dot paper is a PL Blush card.  The black profile figurine is cut out from Barbie paper by Creative Keepsakes. The B&W puffy letters spelling out "Retro" are Making Memories. The "style" letters are October Afternoon called "Daily Flash". The black "inspire" sticker is Dymo style by K&Co.  The green "look" sticker and the "remember this" sticker are by Simple Stories.  The polaroid photo frame over the shoes is by La De Dah. The enamel dots are by Simple Stories D.I.Y. Boutique. The flower is from my stash & not in its original package so not sure the brand.  The green chipboard button is by Webster Pages. The B&W heart shaped brads are by BoBunny. The B&W mini button brads are by Making Memories. The green "nifty" sticker is Marcella by Kay and finally the brad in the middle of the flower is by Cart-us.