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.

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.

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.

finally - scrappin again! - new layout

Sometimes I talk myself out of scrapbooking because when the evening free time comes around, I feel tired. What I have discovered, is that by going into the study and sitting at my desk, and looking at a photo, I suddenly get re-energised. Then next thing I know it's becoming a late night! But this is how I finished a layout I'd started a couple of weeks ago. And I love it. Glimmer Mist, Sassafrass paper, Collections chipboard, felt, leftover ribbon, hand-drawn rainbox. Handwritten journalling.

New layouts and a digi scrapping project

I realised this week that I would have more success capturing my layouts by photographing them, using the camera's manual settings, instead of relying on automatic which I was doing all the time. The pages weren't in focus and the light was always terrible. It pays to learn about the camera because now I know the depth of field was too shallow and the page simply needed to be bluetacked to a wall - outside! So i won't waste any more time with scanning.

This was one of the layouts I completed on my solo retreat, but I wasn't happy with it so I spent some more time on it at home. Which is silly, when you consider these are only mobile phone prints I couldn't bring myself to throw away. Yet I love it.




...and this another one that was sort of fixed. I added the patterned paper in afterwards which made everything the right colour balance, somehow. It's all about the colour, I've decided. Layout design is important but not everything.

I have to admit I haven't scrapbooked for about a week and a half. I've been catching up on my reading (The Happiness Project) which I will write about when I've finished. Really enjoying it too. What I have been doing is thinking about and catching up on my priorities since the end of the year is looming. This week I've been getting up at 5am - which I totally recommend, but get to bed by 10pm - and making double page layouts of each month of 2009. It's really a digi scrapping project, because I'm playing with some cool masks I bought over at Two Little Pixels. I'm using 6x4" sized canvases so it can all be laid down on plain white 12" paper. Each 6x4 will look different - some will be a single image, others will contain several, and some will have journalling. Here are some examples:








I'll post more about this when I've finished a whole page by the end of October. There will be handwritten journalling a title block - the double layouts will all follow a formula.

new baby scrapbook layouts - fantastic!

It's so weird to be scrapping these pages of Tasmin, three years after her birth. Yet it makes sense to me. It's taken a bit of courage to go back to that time, which was a difficult and slow recovery after the birth. But a big advantage of doing it now is Tasmin knows when there's a new layout - she rushes over to the mantlepiece and asks to see it. And even though I think it's really important to record memories, it's only now that i really feel I've found my style. I'm so enjoying doing these layouts. I'm enjoying the process. Journalling will come later.

And another one of baby Delilah. Father's Day andn visists with cousin Leon coming up soon.

Back to Tas and Angus

This is one of the first layouts I've completed for Tassie's baby album. I'm actually not terribly happy with it and am almost certainly going to change it. I think I'm going to choose the little black and white photo at the bottom, have it englarged, and go from there. They can't all be masterpieces, I know, but it is a special photo and I think it deserves better.



Now this one I really love. It's baby Tassie (bottom) and baby Angus (top) when they were newborns, the photos taken roughly 15 months apart, but in the same outfit, and the same position. Lovin it!

materials: Bazzill cardstock, Sandylion paper, Fiskars punch, lace, Autumn Leaves stamps, Tim Holtz distress ink, Zig writer, manila folder, Presstik rub-ins, old children's book page.

More baby Delilah scrap pages

This first layout was really fun to make. I used lots of different papers from a 100-page pack pack (Grace Taylor) and loved cutting out and adding on layers. I distressed edges and added stitching for extra dimension. It was such a thrill that day when I had my little travel camera with me and baby Delilah decided to smile at me. She was about eight weeks old - I must add the date to it!

materials: paper all from Grace Taylor, stitching, manila folder, staples, foam dots, foam cut letters, Presstik rub-ons, brads.


This page was made with lots of photos of Gandy and Delilah. The photo at the bottom is my favourite, so it's sort of featured on the page, but sometimes it's necessary to add lots of photos in a sequence. The baby used so many different facial expressions I needed to capture them all!

materials: Bazzill cardstock, Kaisercraft paint (dusky pink), Staz on ink, date stamp, bubble wrap, Copic multiliner journalling pen, white Signo gel pen, Making Memories foam stamps.

Keeping it simple - new scrapbook layouts

This is one of my favourite layouts so far. I've always loved the look of white paint on Kraft cardstock - it's perfect for a soft look. My sister loved this layout of her baby daughter Delilah so much she's asked me to make another to frame.

materials: Bazzill cardstock, white card, muslin, fabric, button, embroidery thread, StazOn ink, date stamp, Making Memories foam stamps, white Signo gel pen, Kaisercraft white paint.

I think it's important to keep pages minimal when you really want to highlight the photo. I made this print black and white when I was unhappy with the original bland colours (which can distract from the image) and WOW! The little embellishment is cut from Grant Archival's scrapbook album packaging. I love that little emblem. The foam flowers were pinched from my daughter's craft stash.

Materials: Bazzill cardstick, Grant Archival packaging, foam flowers, StazOn ink, date stamp, stitching.

New baby scrapbooking layouts

This has been a really simple album to make so far, except for one or two pages I spent some more time on! Mainly I'm choosing a shade of Bazzill cardstock that suits the colours in the photo, then using white Kaisercraft paint to soften the look, stamps and ink, some stitching, and lots of handwritten journalling and even titles. I only have two photos left to go, then after that it's just one page per week until she turns one. How simple is that! Next I'm concentrating on Tassie's baby pages. Why am I so nervous? I guess it's just about revisiting that difficult time. Which is exactly why I need to scrap those pages.

When Tas turned 3

I'm not sure I'm all that happy with this layout but it's a simple design I wanted to try for a while. The colours are great though, and I love the journalling.

Baby layouts

It's taken me several days of trying to get a good enough photos of these two latest layouts. I think it's a bit of a hint that I need to learn more about my camera, ahem! It's so hard getting good light in our old, dark house. I love this house, but if you want light, you have to almost stick your head out the window.

Tassie came over to help me take photos.

I used a little vintage stamp here of Bo Beep that I found in an op shop when we were on holidays recently in Port Elliott.

I love the look of hand cut scallops and the pretty pink ribbon.

More ribbon, stapled on.

This is a little hidden journalling card with the story on the back, and the photos underneath.

Materials: Cardstock: Bazzill, index cards, paper: office, album packaging, manila folder, stamps: Imaginisce, date stamp, ribbon, staples, ink: Versacolor, StazOn.

Materials: Cardstock: Bazzill, K&C company, paper: Kaisercraft, scallop punch, mesh, punch: Fiskars, stamples, metallic ribbon, ric-rac, office paper scraps, computer journalling, ink: Staz On, date stamp.

When Delilah was still in the hospital, four days old, her Dad celebrated his birthday, so I had to include this in a layout for her album!

A new Angus scrapbooking layout

Materials: Cardstock: Bazzill, paper: 7 Gypsises, ink: VersaMagic, StazOn, product packaging, stamps: Fancy Pants designs, date stamp, pens: Copic and Signo, paint: Kaisercolour, Journalling prompt: Ali Edwards.

Journalling reads: When I gave you your first lolly, you looked at it suspiciously; tried to chuck it; I caught it; yo put it back in your mouth; waited; then did a shuddering action with your jaw; decided you liked it and chewed! I love you today because: you come straight over to me when I enter the room; you grab the quoit rings on their base and jump like mad, making them bounce; you love being affectionate and sitting on my lap, facing me, sometimes you bend backwards, then up again, holding my hands.

I so enjoyed doing a page about Angus. The photo was taken on Tassie's birthday and it was, at the time, a rare occassion that he looked at me for the photo - a bit reluctantly as you can see! Since then I've taken quite a few more pics, and many with him even smiling, but there was something about the photo that I loved. The layout is a scraplift from an Ali Edwards page I saw (from her book: Life Artist) and wanted to try. I sandpapered the red cardstock to mess it up a bit, and added staples, hearts, the little 'a' and some paint splatters to add some texture. I love trying to keep the design simple without being boring or two dimensional.

I have two more layouts I'm waiting to upload but having a lot of trouble getting a good photo. The winter sun has appeared today, so I'll try again. I have all this afternoon in the study for creating, woo hoo! I have some more photos of my little niece Delilah waiting to be scrapped.


Happy creating!

new scrapbook layout - first cuddle

This started out as a pink page but it just looked too much. So trimming the pink and adding it to the white is perfect. I think! This is the first time I've used Bazzill white swiss dots paper and I luurrrve it! I'll have to get more. I also spotted some Sassafrass Lass paper in my scrap shop when I was there last so I grabbed it. It's the pretty blue paper with the retro lettering on it. Cute! And this is the first layout to use my new Martha Stewart butterfly punch. More more more of that please.

Materials: Bazzill cardstock, alphabet stamps, Autumn Leaves flourish stamp, StazOn ink, Versacolor ink, Cre8tive paper, Sassafrass Lass paper, ribbon, Zig writer, ribbon.

Art journal scrapbook page

This lovely page came about after a very frustrating day yesterday. I've never actually done this before - thought of a page and then just sat down and done it straight away. I was only able to do it because it was Tassie's nap time. It perfectly sums up how I was feeling, particularly with Tassie constantly testing us. She's at play school today so ahhhh.... breathe the fresh air.

New baby scrapbooking page layouts

So... the first seven layouts are finished for baby Delilah's album. The first page is waiting for an ankle tag to be added, so I'll post that one later in the week. So far so good. I'm feeling very ready to start Tassie's baby album from day one after doing this - I think I'm finally settling into a simple style that I like very much. I'm soooo enjoying being creative again, but yes, that does mean having ahem, rather late nights!!