mini scrappin' retreat - going solo

How cute is this picture! Love this little boy. Well, tomorrow is the last day of term and I am taking myself off for a mini break in the city, Friday and Saturday nights. I'm choosing the city because well, why not? It's not too expensive and it's time to have a break. Hubby is feeling confident he can manage for a couple of days, so now's the time. Of course, I'm taking some scrapping with me, for a challenge I set myself. I can take only white cardstock, a pile of photos from my drawer that have been waiting for some attention, my pile of scraps (it's almost too big now), and a few tools (ink, stamps, pens, staples and Glimmer Mist). Should be fun! I'm going to create a "master board" with the leftover scraps - glue them to white paper and cut out embellisments like birds and trees. Promise to post new LO's when I return.

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.

Off the page projects

T-shirt fun. A simple koala image, with a circle around it and the baby's name and imprinted on the fabric with an iron-on transfer. Easy! I even added some french knots. My sister's husband needed a gift for a new baby so I was only too happy to help out.

It's only taken me three years to figure out what to do with Tassie's birth cards. There were so many, they were all lovely and of course there was no way I was throwing them out. I did consider punching a square out of each one as I do with Christmas cards. But then the little comments would be lost. So I laid them all out on a blanket and took a photo. Then I got out my Zutter bind-it-all and made them into a book. Easy! And Tassie really likes it.

For Mum's birthday back in June I got all my favourite photos together for the first half of the year - many of which she is in too - and punched holes in them with my bind-it-all. Each month is preceded with a title so you know it's April, May etc. I covered the front and back covers with fabric and used rings to make a book (didn't have Zutter rings quite big enough for such a hefty book). I used rub-ns for the title (Treasures 2010). Mum loves the result and naturally wants another for Christmas. Another easy gift.

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.

5 happy things

I haven't really had a chance to get on this computer all week for various reasons but have many new layouts to upload. Also behind over at Scrap Happy Valley. Coming soon.

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.

butterfly card

I had a bit of fun playing with my paints and inks on Friday, as you do, and made a couple of cards I was very happy with. This one was created by going swoosh over the white card with my stenciling ink pad. Love the effect of that. I embossed the white flowers with my heat gun - yes, it's addictive I know - and wrote the message with watercolours. Fun fun.

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!

I had a good excuse to get out the heat tool and embossing powder again - to make a birthday card for my friend Kate. I've always wanted to do this as a gift, give a handmade card with earrings on the front.

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!!

digital layout with scanned pics

Today I convinced Ian to let me have some project time. As usual he had to zip off to take care of some business (his charity work commitments) but by 11am I was free and got started on some scanning. The scanning project's been on hold, mainly due to our long weekend holiday at Port Elliot and just because, well, I choose to sleep in the evenings these days!

But I digress... I took the time to name some new files from scans I've had made of our old Darwin childhood slides. Of course I got a little distracted when I started looking closely at the photos (which I haven't seen for 20+ Years). Then I went looking for other photos...

and I decided to try a digital scrapbook page To Save Time. It didn't but I'm so excited about the result!

Digital scrapbooking elements: Katie Pertiet, Fonts: 321 Impact, Clementine Sketch, Kamera Dings, Cardstock: Bazzill

I then printed the layout on to some kraft cardstock I have and voila...

Can't wait to try this again :-)