First two layouts SO FAR

1. Love is.... this was kinda easy as I already had the enlarged photo stuck on a piece of 12" white cardstock but it had been sitting around a few months. I do like it and it's OK for a home print job too (but note to self, only print high resolution pics!)

2. When I have extra favourite photos that don't fit in the 365 project, I set them aside for scrapping. Sometimes I print two copies, knowing one will be scrapped. So I have a pretty good supply of photos ready. This one was just fun. I know the butterfly makes the page a bit too busy but it so suits the photo, don't you think!

There are two more layouts, one missing a tiny detail that I will upload tomorrow and one that er, I haven't done yet. I have the photo and concept ready, but can't quite decide on background paper. Here's the plan: five minutes, choose a paper from the shortlist pile, then go to bed and do it tomorrow! I didn't quite get to it tonight as I've been getting photos ready for developing tomorrow. There's always a reason!

CHALLENGE: A layout a day in May

It's on! The inspiring and talented Karenika came up with this idea in her blog and I immediately knew I had to do it. I often spend too long researching the perfect layout with each photo or group of photos I want to scrap and I need to challenge myself to make some quick decisions - then STICK and GO!

I think it will be really fun to have 31 finished layouts at the end of the month.

There are some things I simply have to do this month for others - scanning precious heritage photos and letters I have on loan from relatives and starting and completing a mini heritage album for my Mum for her birthday in June. And there's the 365 Project but I have Tuesdays set aside specifically for that. So.... here we go!

And yes, I did my first layout today. And finished it. I will upload it tomorrow.

more pages

It's always a challenge getting multiple photos on to one layout but I like to slice and chop to make them fit. The first one is such a great reminder of my Auntie Shirl's house and garden in Melbourne where I visited last month for my cousin's wedding. So glad I have these photos since she plans to move soon.

Materials: Bazzill cardstock (kraft), Kaisercraft paper, Versa Colour ink, American Crafts ribbon, Staz On ink, date stamp, Zig Writer

journalling: Manda and I flew into Melbourne on Virgin took a dodgy cab to Auntie Shirl's and accompanied her to an auction (house went for $500k). We were shocked to hear she and Ken may sell the house - the house she and her first husband Barry built more than 50 years ago! She has the most beautiful garden and I will miss it. It inspired me to have my own beautiful garden.

Below: I punched many photos with my 2" square punch to fit these on one layout. It's a great reminder of that night.Journalling reads: Almost all Shirl's family came that evening to see us and celebrate Phil's 50th. The boys caused a small fire playing with candles during Earth Hour and entertained each other with ghost stories. 5.30 til midnight. Auntie Shirl can sure make a feast.

Double scrapbook layout share

Click on photo for a larger view.

For a pretty simple layout this one was weeks in the making. Not really, it's just that I was too chicken to get the sewing machine out and finish off with some stitching. Since I'd had to take the machine back to the repairer, I really lost my confidence. Anyway, it was all the worth the wait as the machine is working just fine. I really had fun with the stitching.

Supplies: Bazzill Cardstock (kraft), Bella paper, Versa Colour ink (sky blue), gingham material, ric rac, felt, stitching, used carpark ticket, American Crafts ribbon, date stamp, Staz On ink, foam cut title, crinkle machine, Fiskars punch, Copic black multiliner.

Journalling reads: 1. Pa cuts the cake (made by Nan) after the speeches, 2. Daddy c hats to Sid; 3. Tasmin discovers nan's clever folding mirror dressing table; 4. and has a cuddle with Nan; 5. Tas loves dressing up with Nan's beads (a tradition started by cousin Daniel); 6. Angus, Daddy, Barbara and Tasmin near Pa's birthday card collection; 7. Pa's game of Boules (circa 1950's?); played outside by children; 8. Angus was getting tired for his nap by the late afternoon; 9. time for one quick photo with Pa. It was a lovely celebration and Mummy enjoyed being the "official" photographer.

Wedding mini book

Making mini albums like this is a great example of how doable it is to make something cute when there isn't much time. I used my Bind it all to make the book - that took about 20 minutes, after cutting 12" paper into 6" squares and then binding them with recycled cardboard from packaging around the house. The cover is just some patterned paper adhered on with a little ribbon and hand written title. I scanned in the card I made and stuck it on the first page. I decided to use only two or three stamps throughout the album to keep it simple, in the same colour (Tim Holtz antique linen and Staz On black). The rest is doodled with my pen.

A bit of the boarding pass...

The tag from my bolero jacket...

My sister's baby bump...

The lovely couple and my horded confetti...

The place card...

There are many more pages but you get the idea. I'll post a link to the finished album later. Just need to print a couple more photos and finish with a little more stamping. Oila!

Favourite photo of the week

Favourite photo of the week

The children are so mesmerised with bubbles.

With a visitor in the house this week, the whole routine went out the window and that coupled with a disappointment from someone who should know better meant I felt very unmotivated and down with a migraine by Friday. I stayed in bed til late in the morning as Ian kindly stayed home for me. What I am really grateful for is two things: my camera (Canon 500D) and my project 365. Whatever happens, no matter how little scrapping or art I manage in the week, at least I can take my photo a day and make a double page every week with the photos. It's so DOABLE. By the afternoon, when I felt more motivated, Ian tackled some filing and I played the game: shuffle-our-money-around-using-internet-banking til everything was restored to normality again. I even managed to put away the clean clothes collection that had been starting to grow and multiply.

So after swimming this morning what shall I do? I think I'll finish the projects sitting on my desk for a week: a double layout from Pa's 80th and the mini book from Melbourne which I wish I'd never started. Don't think I want to do mini books anymore. I'd rather tell my stories in layouts I think. I've decided to cheat and use only the wedding photos to make it a wedding mini book adn the other photos I'll scrap in a layout.

weekend stuff and The New Schedule

Ho ho, I was allowed out all day yesterday - well from 11am til 5pm. What to do? Scrapbook shopping. I spent my birthday voucher on mainly papers and pretty ribbon, at my fave shop Seriously Scrapbooking then went to Spotlight to spend another discount voucher on a new American crafts album for the 365 project. Yes, it was necessary. The albums I have, the Grant Archival snap lock type, really only happily hold about 25 page protectors before they unsnap. So, we'll see how it goes. Not sure if I'll find the D-rings too instrusive yet. I also bought lots of little stuff including some coloured felt to decorate Angie's hat. The dark blue hat is so dull. Why do they make little boys' clothing in such dull colours?

So far I'm sticking to my new scrapping schedule. I bought a few papers for my sister's baby album. How about that - the baby isn't due til July and I am being unusually organised. I would typically wait til June then it would be a last minute panic. I'm finding the schedule is a great idea. If you allow months for a project, then it doesn't matter so much when you miss days and nights here and there. I've even completed two pages so far. Still working on a 'current' layout which I'll try and finish tomorrow.

Uploading my 365 photos then sneaking off for an earlyish night. xoxoxoxo

beautiful girl

One current layout:: finished! The original looks better than the scan but you get the idea. I couldn't resist twilling some little flowers. It doesn't take long. The title is just masked under the inks and the flowers and buttons added to the swirly stamp. I'm reasonably happy with it. I think!

Photo of the week

From "day 103" of my 365 project - the babies playing together with a new stockpile from the toy library.

Rain scrapbook page layout

Managed another layout from the September project - i love this one about the rainy day. These pictures bring that day right back as if it was yesterday. It just proves that it doesn't matter if the photos are perfect or not, it's the story that matters. And remembering is bliss!

Yesterday while Tassie was at "Little School" I caught up on the 365 project. I still need to stick a few bits in here and there but that can wait til next week. In the evening I worked on a CURRENT LAYOUT woohoo! It took 5 minutes to choose the cardstock and stick the photos in place, and another three hours messing around with the title and embellishments, which I might add, are all in the corner of the page! The devil is in the detail.

I will post the new layout when it is finished, hopefully sometime today.

A layout from 'photo freedom my way'

I'm calling this the 'Photo Freedom My Way' project. I have some photos from September all ready to scrap. Some layouts will be for the general family album 2009, the rest will go into the babies' albums.

The tricky thing with this particular layout was working with images from the mobile phone camera. I went through a phase last year of using it to take photos at unexpected times. This year I have the better sense to take the camera with me! But I am grateful to have low quality photos rather than none at all.

Photo freedom my way

I was reading a bit about Julian Stacy's Photo Freedom system on Monica's blog Life Without Filters while I was web surfing rather late last night and felt inspired to have another go at last year's photos. I still feel as compelled as ever to record those stories but needed the simplest way of doing it. So I've printed thumbnail versions of all the photos month by month, then filled a calender with notes of what happened on each day (I've done three months so far). From this I plan to make a single or double layout of each month in an Ali-style grid layout. There was a happy unexpected bonus in all of this. I could see clearly the one or two layouts I was inspired to make for the babies' albums for the month I've started with (September). Ha! There is method in the madness.

I'm currently enjoying the simple layout styles over at Write Click Scrapbook. Telling and recording stories is so important for me. I like the idea of having separate albums: an arty one for me, a scrapbook layout album for the babies, and a straight photo/story 12" album for the everyday stuff. (Thank you 365 project for telling my stories every day. so quick. so easy!) There are loads of other projects which I'm deliberately not mentioning so my head doesn't spin right off.

Tomorrow Mum is coming over and she is going to select some of her favourite childhood photos (I've scanned them all in) which I'll use as the basis of a small heritage 6"x6" mini album for her birthday. No pressure...June!

So grateful that Tas loves painting, drawing, scribbling and sticking. Just like her scrapbooking mother. She spent happy hours today doing all of the above.

I took it easy again today, still struggling with a cough and cold, but did manage to update the 365 project, albeit without the journalling. I've relegated that project to Wednesdays (Tuesdays after next week) when Tas is at "Play School". I plan to upload pictures of the pages next week when the next batch is finished. Sounds like a production line!

more art pages

Art journal

It was a short solo break over Easter (less than 48 hours) but in just one day - starting at 9am and finishing up at around 2am the next morning - I managed 13 page layouts which I was all pretty happy with. Here are most of them, the others I need to add some words to. What a learning experience!

Weekend update

I returned from the Melbourne wedding trip on Tuesday but have had a yucky old cold this week. So I've been sleeping every spare moment I get. Happy to report that I did get the first few pages started on the mini book album from the trip - shouldn't take too long to finish another time. Tomorrow I'm off for my 48 hour parent retreat - solo - as is our little tradition. I'll take the babies to have lunch with Daddy tomorrow then we'll swap.

So here's the plan: I'm going to take lots of paints, inks, white 12" paper, stencils, and others bits n pieces to encourage me to have a bit of a play in my art journal - which is delightfully blank so far. I'm also planning to do some pages for my "it's all about me" album of which there is only one sad lonely little page so far.

The other thing I'm looking forward to doing is filling up my toolbox journal with ideas from the dozens of scrap mags I've dogeared. I never did get around to finishing that from the last solo retreat in December! So looking forward to having lots to upload when I return on Monday.

Have a great Easter :-)

wedding card

How's this for a bit of weekend fun - flying off to Melbourne at 0-dark-hundred hour in the morning (read: early!) for a WEDDING. Where's the downside? Where there's always one, and in this case I can't take my beloved as he has to stay home and mind the ankle-biters. However I've decided to be a bit adventurous (read: crazy!) and take a mini book with me to journal in and leave spaces for photos while I'm gone. My sister, who is accompanying me, is apparently taking student assessments and uni assignments with her so there may be time. We get back Tuesday. Oh how I'm going to miss my little family.

Another scrap page about Tasmin - and it's CURRENT!

You may remember I've been procrastinating for quite some time about doing scrapbooking layouts for Tasmin's and Angus's baby albums. I fell into that trap of thinking the pages would have to be perfect works of art, so of course I never felt ready to start! But it occurred to me the best thing was to start somewhere - anywhere - with current photos. And as it turns out, it's really more fun when you approach a page playfully and just go with your instincts, committing to your first impulse. So I completed a WHOLE page last night, after I got back from my job. Not bad, eh?


Materials: Cardstock: American Crafts, girl paper: Kaisercraft, smiley paper unknown source, date stamp, Bic CD labelling pen.

Journalling: Oh Tasmin - you say such funny things, you have an incredible memory, you are a fast learner and so full of joy! You are also quite the little tinker, like your Daddy :-) And you do have your moments. But always you say "I love you Mummy, I love you Daddy" and "Angus, I love him a lot." And you always have a kiss for us before bed - for Angus too! xxxxxxxx

At last a scrapbook page completed for Angus's baby album

Materials: Cardstock: creative memories
Paper: Grant Archival
Pen: Signo gel pen
Punch: Fiskars scallop border
Title: handcut from foam
Date stamp, hand drawn swirl from stencil

Journalling: today you: 1. drank half a bottle of water and liked it; 2. sipped banana milkshake from a straw, like Tasmin; 3. sat STILL through a whole story this afternoon, then toddled off to the table, reached up high for a second book, and brought it over for me to read! 4. stood up on the bathroom bench for Daddy to dry you after your bath, 5. Tussled on a pillow with your sister on the floor, giggling.

Summer '09 scrapbook layout

I had such fun doing this summer layout. Lately I've been printing the photos I know I want to scrap, placing them where I want on the page and then coming back to it a few days later to create the page.

Cardstock: Bazzil

Paper: Graphic 45 Playtimes Past Collection, Kaisercraft

Embellishments: handmade from paper scraps, ScrapFX Flutterby

Title: hand cut from foam

Ink: VersaMagic cloud white, Staz On black, Splendor, Signo gel pen

Punch: Fiskars 2" seal of approval

Adhesive: Bella double-sided tape

Date stamp

It's so fun playing with colours. My latest purchase is the Fiskars punch which I'd had my eye on for a while. I bought it on a whim on Friday, being right near Spotlight, then got home and stressed when I realised it was slighter different to the Marvy scallop circle punch I see on many layouts. So I did a bit of Googling and was amazed to discover all its applications. So I went ahead and ripped open the packet and used two scallop circles on this layout: one for the sun, and the other I cut into three. Purely by accident, the middle strip looks just like a file tab. Ohh, I love serendipity. But that's one of the best parts about scrapbooking isn't it? Love this craft.

Journalling:

These are the sights of sumer at our place: Angus enjoying his swing - 1st birthday present from Manda, Mike and Ga - and Daddy giving Angus his bedtime bottle.

Yellow paper

It's so inviting!

Scrapbook layouts with yellow paper

We're leaving the summer months - reluctantly - and approaching autumn. What better way to embrace a change of season than with colour?

Cardstock: Bazzill Kraft
Embellishment: Chinese New Year (source unknown)
Pens: Marvy Uchida

Stamps: making Memories

Stencil: Kaisercraft

Ink: Splendor

Christmas tag: Karenika

How fun is this - yellow paper! It was actually a free digital paper from Kevin and Amanda which I simply printed and have this week used on everything. Crazy! I have even made a little pile of all the yellow papers I have, which turns out to be quite a bit. It injects so much warmth and excitement and happiness into pages I think, and two layouts above are so basic and simple. What I want to do is start being a bit more creative with making my own paper with paints and inks, which you could EASILY do to recreate this paper. I am inspired by this layout made by Ali Edwards:

Ali Edwards' "Celebrating Mom with a layout"

What's your absolute must-have colour at the moment?

Scrapbooking layouts

Here it is... the first page for Tasmin's baby album! I spent ages trying to figure it out but of course the finished product is very simple. I loved using a Heidi Grace rub-on for the title, as I don't use those very often, and some pretty ribbons from my Mum's old craft stash. I included the ankle tag from the hospital...

And more finished pages from the long weekend...The 365-project album

A card collage... I wanted to keep the cards people had sent after Dad's passing last year, and I love using the EK Success 2" square punch for this to create a little grid - another Ali Edwards idea!

Christmas 2009:: photos collaged on 12" by 12" cardstock. I will scrapbook a 12" page for the Christmas album - soon I hope! This will include the Christmas letter we send each year.

Five pages to share soon

Well yesterday I had the chance to do some scrapbooking. Hooray for that! Five pages in all, three finished. Pictures soon. And hooray for long weekends!

Tassie's album begins

It's great to have least started the baby album for Tasmin, who is now 32 months old! Better late than never. Yesterday was one of those days where I was busy all day with the babies and housework, but looked forward to the evening for my chance to scrapbook. Only when the time came, I was too tired, having a frozen dinner and falling asleep on the couch! Those days are the most frustrating. But I am grateful to be able to catch up on sleep though.

new years eve 09 double layout

At last another double layout completed. I'm trying different styles at the moment. This is Cheryl Ametewee style, sort of, but on a distressed and inked paper background, which is more me. I think?

I used recycled bread packaging clips as little heart arrows

And a bit of string on the tag. Fun!