The last post

This is just a quick posting to say that I'm no longer going to update this ol' blog anymore, but will continue to post all my scrapbooking and crafting pics with my regular photo-a-day posts over at Scrap Happy Valley. Please update your link if you have it saved somewhere, I'd love to see you over there! Happy scrapping :-)

more on the pregnancy theme

I realised that I'd kept the pregnancy test from when my pregnancy with Angus was confirmed. Weird, I know, but I'm definitely not the only scrapper who's done this. What's not to keep? So, since I had some of those pregnancy-question-journalling strips left, I flipped them over to the blank side and wrote the story of discovering the pregnancy on my birthday. This is back in 2008 but luckily I'd written this story down in the journal otherwise I definitely would have forgotten.

P.S. I've worked out my "Word" for next year, which has partly to do with telling stories when they happen, not two years later! coming soon...

Project 365

The now-enormous album that holds my Project 365 photos (a-photo-a-day-for-a-year) is looking amazing. It's almost finished! I can hardly believe it's been almost a year since I started. Here are some of the photos I've been playing with since the 1st December:

I'm adding a number to each photo that represents another day in December:

Digital scrapbook template (Katie Pertiet) cropped to fit a 6x4 photo:

breakfast party

We had our little work Christmas party at the Hilton Hotel - a breakfast! Such a novel idea. I found an image on the internet since I didn't have my camera with me.

This is Art

Adding a bit of digital colour before printing for Project365 album.

mini book peek

Here is the mini book I've been working on since Sunday. I'm going to finish the insides with some coloured stitching, especially on the edges of the punched holes to avoid the paper ripping. It's an altered student exercise book so the pages are very thin, and I've stuck two pages together to make it stronger. I made it a year ago as a notebook/journal but as it was still sitting on my shelf, unused, I decided to use it for this mini book about our trip to Melbourne exactly a year ago to farewell Dad. The papers, word and letter stickers are from K&C Company, and my new dymo labeller has been used on the front cover. The only other embellishments used are paper doilies and lots of ribbon. Overall I'm very pleased with it. The trim on the front is Webster's bloomer trim - so lovely! I think I will have to get more. I LOVE it.

I journalled with my sister's old fountain pen - I finally tracked down some ink refill at Office Works. Each day is marked with a cut-down page about 5cm wide. All the pages are binded with my bind-it-all. At 36 pages it is so thick I had to use rings to hold it together.

Everything has gone into the book - travel brochures, food shopping receipts, journalling from notes I kept at the time, even a copy of my eulogy.

mini book

Coming soon... pics of the massive mini-book I've been working on since Sunday. It's got everything, including of course, journalling from the new Dymo labeller. Woo hoo!

Second pregnancy layout

I decided to use up the rest of the pregnancy journalling strips and make a second double-page-layout this time about my pregnancy with Angie. So it looks very similar, but they're all different questions, so it will be interesting for him to read when he's older.

Hybrid scrapbook layout

I really love this page. I think it sums up my favourite scrapbooking techniques at the moment. I loved playing with the photo of Angus and making a mini digital scrapbook layout of him, with the original photo alongside it, on lightly patterned paper, with misting, paint splatters, ribbon, stitching, masking and little flying butterflies. The main thing here is the COLOUR. For me, colour is the most important part of the page. Even if it's all black and white, or a single colour.

Scrapbooking double layout of my first pregnancy

A friend gave me these little pregnancy journalling strips three years ago when I was about to give birth to Tasmin but at that stage while I loved the concept of scrapbooking, I was too terrified to commit anything to paper. These strips have been moved from box to box, shelf to shelf, taking up a bit of space. I realised recently that it's no good stashing potential layouts for a "rainy day" - it'll never come. Carpe diem! So I made this layout about being pregnant with Tas, which I never could have done without the prompts. And it's one of the most enjoyable layouts I've ever made. So, so fun.

two little kids early on Sunday morning

I love this photos of the kids, at 6.30am Sunday, watching some cartoons and drinking their milk. So cute. But I had actually considered deleting it because it's totally blurry. I think it's best NEVER to delete a photo on the basis that it's below average quality. This was a really happy day, where I managed to get some paper scrapbooking done even though DH was away until 4pm when we collected him from the airport. Would love more peaceful days like this.

Digital scrapbooking layouts

I was sitting here thinking about all the scapbook pages I haven't been doing. Would like to do and wish I could do (insert excuses here). But what I'm doing everyday, I suddenly realised, is a type of digital scrapbooking. I am digi scrapping some photos onto layouts that will fit onto a 6"x4" photo as that's the size I get developed every week for the Project 365 album. And oila! Here's a selection from the last month (elements from Katie Pertiet):

Breaking through scrappers block

This is another one of those layouts I started a while ago and couldn't get it to work. The solution is always to go back to my inspirational sources - my favourite scrappers and their gorgeous layouts and that's how I always find an answer. So at last, another page finished.



I am suffering from scrappers block at the moment - I feel so overwhelmed with the number of projects on my list that weren't finished - or started in some cases - this year that I don't know how to go forward. So I think I'm going to do the massive cleanup of my desk that is required and go from there. Usually works for me!

new baby scrap layout - Color Room inspired

Have you been over to see the Color Room? I always admire Kathie Link's layouts and this week the colour scheme perfectly fit the teale colour I planned to use for this layout. I have added other colours in the end, which I thought was necessary, so it doesn't really qualify! Luckily I only scrap for myself so it doesn't matter :-)

I love using scraps on my layouts wherever poosible. The green grass is cut from Tassie's daycare newsletter.

I used my punch with orange tissue paper for the big flower, and finally got to use my little yo yo flowers made ages ago. I wonder if I can still remember how to make them? Note to self, do this in front of tellie watching Spooks tonight!

Materials: Bazzill cardstock, index cards, ribbon, fabric, tissue paper, Sharpie pen, Fiskars scallop punch, date stamp, Staz On ink, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Fiskars border punch, scraps.

The month of October

So this is the month that was. I didn't get many scrap layouts done, but I have kept up to date with Project 365, my photo-a-day album, and am slowly progressing my way through the photos for 2009's album. I'm really getting into digi scrapping too, but only where it will be published on the blog or printed on to a 6x4 (normal sized) photo. it wil never replace paper albums for me of course. Each month is represented in a double-page layout. I can't to upload some images once the album is done by the end of this month. There were many more images I could have shown here, so hard to choose! I'll do a collage for Scrap Happy Valley for October too, I think. Click here for each day's uploads of photos.

New scrapbook layouts - baby Tasmin

I started this layout about six weeks ago. I think it can be difficult to scrap photos when there's a strong emotional attachment. I can't believe it's three years ago she was so tiny.



I used crackle medium on the title. So fun!


Materials - Bazzill cardstock, Grace Taylor papers, manila folder tag, Kaisercraft paint, ribbon, paper doily, Jo Sonya's crackle medium, Versacolor ink, Fiskars punch, Presstik sticker, Five Kids and a Dog chipboard title.

Cafe lunch - New scrap layout of baby

For my baby niece Delilah's album, I wanted to show our tradition of going to a local church cafe for lunch. It's interesting when I see my other photos of that day, which feature my son Angus. I'll scrap his photos of the day to show a different perspective, of course.



This is one of those layouts when my first attempt of the LO just wasn't working. The main photo mat was white, which looked awful. So I ended up inking it a bit and adding some embellishments, which isn't my usual style - I like to keep things simple - but I had fun on this one.

At last - photos of Delilah and I - scrapped!

This little niece of mine was almost three months old before I had my photo taken with her. The problem is that I'm always behind the camera, of course. I am so delighted with the photos my sister took, and made this layout on Sunday.

materials: Bazzill cardstock, Grace Taylor and Graphic 45 paper, Fancy Pants Designs stamp, Kaisercraft acrylic paint, Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist, Sharpie pen, date stamp, StazOn ink.

I loved it so much, that I decided to duplicate it and make another for myself, since the first leaves our house and goes into Delilah's scrap album that I am gradually building. Mine has more photos and journalling, but they are virtually identical. Nothing wrong with that! This is a very simple layout and you can tell I made it... that's what I like about it.