Messing About on the River!

As per the last post... it was my hubby's birthday yesterday and he came home from work mid morning for us to spend the day together.

We took a boat trip up the local river to a pub, had lunch (eventually, service was dreadful!) and then returned on the boat.

The River was the Waveney, part of the Norfolk Broads (although technically this bit is Suffolk!!) It was lovely and warm and sunny, and if darling daughter Honey, had have actually been at nursery it would have been lovely and relaxing! LOL

Hybrid scrapping birthday card

Here is a hybrid card I have made very quickly for my hubby's birthday, which is tomorrow (sshhh, don't tell him!!).

On the digital side...

I have made it by using a quick page, by Cinzia Loosemoore ("Beauty" Collection) , cropping it down to 4x6" size (originally for 12x12), adding a photo (changed into sepia tone) and putting the Happy Birthday message on.

On the physical side...

I printed it out, trimmed the cardstock, stapled 3 ribbons on one corner and glued 3 buttons onto 3 squares already on the quickpage. Ta Da!

Tag your It! Fairy tag

About a week ago I posted a little item about a site called "Tag Your It" (see this post).

Well the theme for that particular tag was "fairies".

Well my take on the theme is a bit off the wall! Twee colours (with the pink and green) but not your usual fairy picture!

So I have gone for a "journaling tag" and the journaling reads...

“What are those Mummy?”
Honey asked pointing to dust particles sparkling as they floated in a beam of sunlight through the lounge window…
“Dust Fairies!” I replied!
Now she’s eager to spot “Dust Fairies”… there are millions in my house… you just need a ray of sunshine to see them!!

Now then.... where's that duster??!! LOL

Funky French Colours - Mini Albums

Blog surfing again!

I'm away again! yes, so not done much of my own work recently!

So... stumbled across this blog which was highlighted by Scrapbook Inspirations Magazine, which was waiting for me when I got home on Monday afternoon.

I haven't had much of a chance to read it, but I will!!

Anyway the picture here is of a project which includes some really bright colours! There are lots of pictures to take a look at, so great for inspiration for vibrant, "freestyle" albums.

The blog is in French, but the pictures do speak for themselves.

Multi Photo Scrapbooking Layouts Blog

I found a blog that is just about "multi photo layouts"!

It's called http://scrapbooklayouts.blogspot.com/ and is full of lots of lovely layouts to inspire pages using 3 or more photos on single and double page layouts.

The layout pictured here is by Renata Moni Bidin and is on the site under the post dated 28th June.

Definitely worth a look, and possibly worth scraplifting a few, just make sure if you publish your layout anywhere you give a suitable reference to the original layout.

Photo fun! You on the BIG Screen

I have subscribed to FotoJojo.com... a fun website I have mentioned before. They have some great, sometimes weird ideas for your photos!


Well today's newsletter was all about a website where you choose a scene and then upload a photo (of yourself or anything else) and voila...!


You on a 50ft bill board!!! Fantastic fun... here are a couple I did really quickly!!! Great fun... go on have a go!



My first Vogue cover!!!!!!







Even Posh endorses this blog!!! Allegedly!

This should prove the phrase...

"Never believe all that you see!"

Finished Double Page Layout - "Yo Ho"

Well, here it is... or should I say, there they are at last.

The double page layout of my daughter's 4th Birthday Party... Pirate themed as you can see!

The inspiration for the design of these pages was from a layout by Jodie Armitage... see this post from Monday for a picture.

It did take me more than one hour, but I didn't use many materials.

The background paper is "Treasure Map" by Sandylion Sticker Designs.

So far I have made a Double page scrapbooking layout for 2 of my daughter's 4 birthdays... strangely year two and this one which is year 4.

I am making one double layout for each event and eventually they will all be housed in one "Birthdays" Album together.

And as for multi-photo pages... there are 22 pictures used across these two pages!

Tag Your It!

There's a blog called "Tag Your It" and itis just for challenges for making tags!

The tag you see here is by Anne and you can see her blog here. I can't seem to find any more information about her on her blog, maybe I can't see for looking.

This is what they say on the "Tag Your It" blog...

"Hello everyone and welcome to the wonderful world of Tag Art! This is a challenge blog dedicated to tags and the people that create them. Each Friday a brand new challenge will be set ... simply create something wonderful, upload it to your blog and leave a comment! If you don't have a blog, please leave us a comment and we'll upload the photos to Photobucket for you :)"

Anyway, I post this information because sometimes, tags, cards and other one-off small items are a good way to free any "mojo blocks" you may have... you know, when you just can't get motivated or...

on those occasions when you're really missing being able to do some decent scrapping because life is getting in the way...

it's good to "do a quickie"! ooh er!

Right now where did I put my tags!

Double Page Layout started and Great New Website announcement

Well I did start the double page scrapbooking layout of Honey's 4th birthday! Here are the bits I had collected into a folder which has been hanging on my "To do" hook, or should I say hooks (plural!) for some time.

I have actually almost finished the pages, the right hand side is finished, but I have to adhere everything to the left page and add a few alphas and then I will post the finished pages here... as soon as I can. I will say however that these are definitely multi-photo pages with 22 photos over the two pages!!

However, I have got a lot on at the moment!

And, you may be interested to know that the main thing I am occupied with at the moment is launching a new website (possibly taking my blog over to the new site), making my scrapbooking ebooks available for you all and posting lots of great information.

I teach a lot of beginners and they almost always tell me how overwhelmed they are at all the information on the internet.

Well I want to cater for those of you who would like a simple, easy to use website that gives you nuts and bolts details of scrapbooking know-how, tips and tricks... and I would love to have any input from you all.

For the moment you are welcome to leave comments here as to what you would find useful, what things you would like to know more about, etc.

I will also be setting up a newsletter to which you can subscribe.

So all in all fairly busy time for me and a steep learning curve. But you will be the first to know what's happening as I will post all the latest news here first!

Inspiration from others

I have a set of photos printed out, ready for a double page layout!

Hmmm... scratches head... that's as far as I have got!

I have collated a few other things like papers into a folder, but that folder has been around for nigh on 6 months!!! Waiting, patiently for the time.

So, after a week away on holiday and then a 2 day course in London less than a week later, you can imagine I have had little time to do any scrapping at all!

So tomorrow I plan to do these 'ere pages. They will be a 1 hour challenge to myself.

Having said that, I plan to take my inspiration from the scrapbooking layout you see here which is a page by Jodie Armitage in Australia.

My theme is Pirates, because Honey's 4th birthday party was at a pirate themed play centre, so I thought the wavey line on Jodie's layout was a good start!

So watch this space!

Scrapbooking Sketches

Well I have finished my course now and I am a little "mind numb"!! LOL

I have lots of work to do on that now before I forget it all!

Anyway, revisited a sketch site recently - The Little Book of Sketches site and there are some new sketches up.

I particularly like this one because of the swirls intertwining the the journaling blocks and going over the small photo at the bottom.

There are also some card sketches.

Cute quick page

I'm still on a course in London today!!

No, I'm not a slow learner... it's a 2 day course!! LOL

So here is another quicky post.

For those of you into digi scrapping, you already know what a "quick page" is. This is a lovely download for you from Creative Escapade Nathy's blog.

For traditional scrappers, you can still download it, print it and add your picture.

Although frustratingly I can see whether it is jpeg file or not, cos it's in a zip file that I can't test download because I am not using my computer! How frustrating!

So, if it's not a jpeg (it may be a .psd file which is for use with photoshop or PSE) then you can just use it as a page to scraplift.

I just liked the lovely softness of the page.

A "sketchy" scrapbooking sketch and template

I'm on a course in London today!! So this is a very short post!

I found this template on the scrapmatters.com site... it's from last Tuesday's post.

It is actually a downloadable template for those of you into digital scrapbooking, but I thought it made a jolly good sketch for traditional layout too.

It would be great to layout the photos (and or journaling blocks/page accents) as per the sketch and then doodle around each to make the sketchy frames!

Card Sketches

More from across the web waves... this time card sketches.

We scrapbookers use sketches frequently, but I have to admit to not really thinking about using them for cards!

Often see ladies making cards who aren't sure where to start too, and often just place a few "bits" onto a plain white card!

Well here is a blog post by Di Hickman which has the card sketch above and quite a few finished cards to show you how to use it... great inspiration, for great cards!

This is one I particularly like, by Raechelle Bellus, an incredibly simple design, but so effective... and I our next door neighbour (but one) is due to give birth next week... thanks for that!

Freebies, we love 'em

Ok, I thought I would scout around and check out any scrapbooking freebies online today! There are loads all over the place if you care to take a ganders, but here are a few.

So here is an alphabet from Vicki's Blog

This is a set of paper textures on the digital artist toolbox.com site

Here is a little add-on kit from Kim B's Designs... scroll down a little to find the download link.

Feet Scrapbooking Album !!!

I mentioned a short while ago about a website/newsletter call Photojojo.com (see this post)

Well on the sale site/newsletter there was an article about a different kind of holiday photo album... "Photos of my feet"!!!

So in the true spirit of joining in the fun... and because we were visiting the same hotel, etc as the previous 3 years (it's just easier with a youngster) I decided to snap a few shots myself for a mini album!

Have to say I forgot to take a lot of them (not a usual thing to take photos of your feet ya know! lol)!

Ah one by the pool! Felt a bit of twit taking a pic of my feet, I just pretended I was reviewing the pictures on the back of my camera!!!!

Holiday snaps - badge album

A quick post here tonight! Why... well mostly because my internet connection seems rather intermittent this evening!

Anyway, I have been on hols... went to Majorca for a week.

I have recently downloaded a freebie from Digital Freebies... their "Friday Freebie" in fact, from last week. It is a little set of six 2.5" x 3" approximately simple layouts (business card size - referred to as "China Tea Badge Album - Digital Couture").

Had a quick fiddle with these and a couple of "snaps" fresh from holidays!

Hard to think that less than two days ago I was enjoying an evening drink poolside!

Second picture has two other digi items -

flower = lriordan_funkyfloral_flower

Quote = SimplySarah_WA_GreatMen

When I get my act in gear and organise my digi stuff properly I will be able to tell you the designers!!! tut

But thank you to those designers, as I think both items were freebies.

Oh and by the way, the 6 "badge layouts" are different clours, I just happen to post 2 of similar colour here!

Simple Layouts and different photographs

I was looking through my "Blog feeds" recently and noticed a post from the Paper Pesto blog.

Unfortunately I clicked on the link for more information, in other words to take me to the post on the Paper Pesto blog, but for some reason it couldn't manage it.

So I copied the small amount I had on my blog feed (it takes a copy) and I post it here. The reason I do this is for two reasons. One is for the layouts, I thought they were a good example of some very simple, but effective scrapbooking layouts.

Ideal for scraplifting!

The "green" page entitled "She seeks" I thought was a particularly clever title. Says enough about the photograph. Is it part of the "She seeks sea shells on the sea shore" do you think?

The other reason I wanted to share these with you was because of the photographs themselves .

Both photographs are not your "standard" portraits, and yet portray enough to make a lovely scrapbooking page... don't you think? Nicely understated I think, and great inspiration to attempt the less rigid and predictable portrait shots.

This link will take you to the Paper Pesto blog - to a post with a number of lovely layouts to admire!

Anyway the text with these two pages is below...

Love these layouts from Fi using the May kit. She’s brought a little of the outdoors inside using that lovely cherry blossom twig on her ’seek’ page. She’s also wrapped her felt butterfly in thin wire to create the antennae and body shape.For ‘cheeky’, she has used the bright blues and yellows from the kit( Sassafrass lass and double-mates cardstock) to reflect the feel of the photo. She has also placed a piece of basic grey elephant paper from her stash down the side and stitched everything together to help tie everything in.

Those expressions

I was in the front garden recently taking photographs of roses for my recent Circle Journal pages and my four year old daughter came out to join me.

She was admiring the different flowers.

"Look Mummy," she said, "Red Bluebells!!"

I frowned for a moment as I didn't understand what she meant, till I looked up and she was admiring the Cape Fuchsias, or Phylegius, although I can't remember the correct spelling right now! (anyway, they are pictured here).

"Oh yes," I said, "They are a bit bluebell shaped aren't they?!"

I love the little expressions children come out with... I realise it's only because they don't have the wide knowledge base to draw from in their vocabulary, but all the same, the simple thought process are delightful!

Scraplift Inspiration

Here is a link to a blogpost by Marni Telford, an Australian Scrapper.

This particular post is about this page (Pictured right) ... it has a mini album on it!

Check out the link to see how the main picture on the page layout is actually the cover of a couple of flaps showing different pictures and journaling.

I like Marni's work a lot because it is 'free and fresh'. She has a lovely way of designing her pages so that they look "Freestyle"... do you know what I mean?

Well take a look at her blog, it's fascinating and well worth book marking for the purposes of scraplifting one or two of her designs.

A quick way to darken text on a scrapbook layout

This is a close up of the hybrid page I made recently - see Monday's post.

It's to show the word "Deep". As you will notice, it is shiny!

I thought that in the printed copy of the digital page the black words did not have enough contrast so I used some 3-D Gloss over the top to just lift the letters and give more definition.

I used a thick needle to "paint" the gloss onto the thin image.

It's a quick and easy way to Darken any printed graphic or text.

What is "gutting" in Scrapbooking terms?

When the term "gutting" is used by us scrapbookers, you know we are not referring to fish... right?!!!

Of course not! What it refers to is the fact that you are "gutting" a piece of card or paper by taking the middle out of it.

Why would you want to do this...?

Well it's a means of economics really. If you "gut" the mat of a photograph or, in the case of the one in the photos here, a whole layout... you get to use the bit in the middle for something else. It makes your stash "go" further.

It would be a waste to leave almost a whole sheet of card which isn't going to be seen.

The reason I wanted to mat the layout here, was because it is a digital A4 layout that I printed out and, of course, my A4 printer can't quite print up to the edge of a whole piece of A4, so there were margins.

I wanted to make the layout up to a proper A4 size and so matted it.

However, before adhering it to the page I used my steel rule and scalpel to gut the card first and now have almost a whole sheet of A4 to use for something else too!

P.S. If you are wondering why I haven't shown you the front of this scrapbooking page, it's because I am submitting it to a magazine for possible publication and so can't publish it here until I know whether it will be published or not! But will as soon as possible.

Keeping your ribbons in place

I, like a lot of people, like to put ribbons and fibres on the book rings of my projects.

Pictured is a paper bag book album.

Some ribbons, such as rikrak and some of the cheaper ribbons are happy to be tied once and stay put on the rings. Others, however, (the better quality, double sided ones) quite often untie themselves.

I had to re-tie a number of ribbons which had fallen off on a recent Circle Journal!

So, some tips for keeping the ribbons, etc, where you put them...

1. Try knotting the ribbon twice, sometimes this is all that's needed.

2. Once you have tied the ribbon, you can use a bit of pvc glue "inside" the knot, using a clip of some sort to hold it place whilst it dries. The thin precision nozzles on a number of crafters pvc glue bottles makes this easy.

3. Tie the ribbon once and then use a brad to hold it. Can make for nice decoration if you use a contrasting colour.

Happy tying!! again