It's finally finished - Dad's childhood album

Incredible... I can't believe Mick's childhood album is finally finished. Completely. I've scanned the 20 pages in and ordered little 8" by 8" softcover photobooks of the final results to give as gifts to family members.

It's the first album I started and the third I've actually finished. It includes an eclectic range of techniques as I've been learning along the way. I've tried to stick to a colour theme of vintage brown, green and blue and kept patterened paper to a minimum. But I think it showcases how great stamping is in scrapbook albums.

I read a great tip in Scrapbooking Memories magazine which is - when you finish a scrapbook project, keep the leftovers for cards. A great idea as everything sort of matches and you could make several while it's still all fresh in your mind.

Layered ink technique on recycled card

My favourite thing is to use recycled cardboard for cards which I use from boxes and packaging around the house. The paper trimmer cuts a nice line and I do the rest with a craft knife. The kraft colour is great - it dominates everything I make at the moment.

I wanted to try out a new technique of layering colours using only inks. I stamped with my handwriting stamp first in a light colour, then used a stamped image of leaves (which I'd cut out of paper but had leftover from another project) so I used it as a mask to ink over with the red. I'll need to go easy next time - it's pretty heavy when you're using coloured card. Then I stamped with my angel image.

I had already stamped the flourish (Fancy Pants designs) on top of some acetate leftover from the last project so I cut it out and stuck it on top of the card using mounted foam squares (coloured in black with a pen). The fun of this is you can run the design off the page but I decided to be more conservative this time and keep it within the edges.

See-through acetate CD gift card

I made this card to hold the CD I compiled as a gift for my sister. As the CD pen seems to have run out of ink, I experimented with other kinds. In the end I used the pens that are designed to write on non-porous services (white boards and overhead transparencies). These items are virtually obselete by now I guess.

I used the Staz On black ink to stamp the flourish on the card itself and it seems to have dried ok. I folded the card three times using a wooden ruler, so as not to scratch the transparency. The top is tied together with string, through a little hole made with a hole punch.

Looking forward to experimenting more with transparencies.

Tim Holtz distress inks

Tim Holtz demonstrates using the distress ink around the edges and note the way he sprays the ink with water for a watermarked effect. Haven't tried that yet.

How to make your own rub-ons with 'Ask Erin

This is an exciting new discovery... making your own rubs ons. Who can afford a thousand rubber stamps? Great for others like me, who like 'hybrid' scrapbooking and use the computer for lots of journalling and imagery. Haven't tried it yet but have some transparency that I can use.

Happy Birthday Dave

This unusual looking piece of card I found at the 'SA Stamping and Scrapbooking Fair' yesterday contains textured stripe on one side and black on the other. I thought it would be fun to have black on the inside of the folded card instead of the usual white. I used my white Signo gel pen to write the inscription and used white chalky ink on my foam stamps for the "h" and 'b". I gently sponged Tim Holtz distress ink on the front cover to bring out the stripes and rubber stamped the main image onto recyled cardboard packaging. It was attached with foam mounting squares to give the 3-D effect. The other images, the text and flower, were stamped last with the same white chalky ink used earlier. I like the result but need to practise the new technique. I learnt it from the teachers at "Seriously Scrapbooking" yesterday. This is going to revolutionise scrapbooking for me as I'm interested in making my own papers and papers for layouts and cards.

Josh's magnificent photobook

This was an incredible labour of love. First Ian collected all his favourite photos of his son Josh, soon to turn 18. We were very fortunate that Ian's mother offered us a shoebox of photos or it would have been a very small collection. There were 200 odd photos, some in albums, that had to be scanned, photoshopped and reprinted. Mostly the photoshopping was to reduce some of the pictures (to 80% or 50% depending on the room available). Very quick in Adobe Photoshop Elements. Then the photos had to be cropped and scrapped into a 60 page album. I mainly used coloured cardstock with some pattered papers and rubber/acrylic stamping here and there. The journalling was all done on the computer. Wish I'd thought to use the Xyron sticker maker at the start - would have saved a lot of time! Used at least 75 metres of double sided tape sticking it all down. I experimented with doodled borders using coordinating coloured textas, ink pens and my new Signo gel pen in white. One page went overboard and had to be redone (better to stick to the paler of the white pens) but overall it was successful.

I'm a very slow scrapper but it sped up towards the end. There were four or five nights of staying up and not going to bed til 6am or so. Lucky my wonderful husband minded the babies those mornings I slept it.

The key to doing an album, I think, is to try 'grid' pages where you have nine photos or 16 photos on one page, but you substitute patterned papers or embellishments or titles and journalling in some of the spaces to break it up. Also to stick to a colour theme and just a few rubber stamps which you can reuse in different ways, using different colours. I found recyled or chocolate brown papers were the best to use on pages where the colours clashed a bit. You can then jazz it up a bit with coloured ink embellishments / titling / patterend papers. I also found a 'storyboard' plan was very useful with rough sketches and notes for each page.

The printer scanned in the pages and had it bound in beautiful blue leather binding by a retired book binder with gold lettering and a box case. It was expensive but worth it. A cheaper way would have been to do an A4 sized album that I could have scanned myself as there are hundreds of companies who do photobooks now. Maybe for his daughter's album.

First Mothers Day 2008

This is last year's Mothers Day but probably the first time I scrapped a proper 12" X 12" page. I experimented with my own writing plus rubber stamps and included a tiny stencil of a pregnant lady - me. Angus was not quite born yet. I also tried distressing the circle photos and love the frame effect of that. The green paper with the pink flower petals I loved so much I bought several sheets of it. I remember I used to feel terrified when starting out that the page would be a disaster and the paper wasted. Now I don't worry - this comes with confidence and lovely repositionable double sided tape. It's a challenge fitting in multiple photos. I've learned to do it even better so the page doesn't look too busy. I really must do this year's soon. Mum's waiting for it.

Baby journal gift

I made this little journal for one of the expecting mothers in my mothers group. I had a pile of little exercise books I'd bought for about two cents each and just covered the outside with a combination of some pretty paper, recyled paper dividers, ribbon and printed a little image on the front of a vintage pram - love anything vintage and sneak it in wherever I can. I really love the pastel bluey-green ice colour for baby boys at the moment. I'll be using lots of that in Angus' album when I get around to starting it. Soon... On the inside back page I stuck a vellum envelope and stamped the words 'Baby' and 'notes and tags' in coordinating colours. I even had some little tags I popped in to prompt some her to write in some thoughts when the baby is born. Things like how she felt, first impressions and so on. I hope she thinks it's pretty too but not too pretty to write in!

Mick Risk photobook

This is my favourite image of the photobook I created for Dad's childhood photos. I'm almost finished the 8" by 8" album - it will have taken almost a year, yet contains only 10 sheets, or 20 pages! Though I did have a second baby in October so maybe it's pretty good considering. I can't wait to post the finished album. Now that's gonna be a big celebration!

In memory of Billy Risk

This is my favourite image of my Uncle Billy, from the 8" by 8" softcover photobook I created

Marian's 70th birthday album

This is the first album, a 7" by 7" size, that I managed to finish in three weeks - following a similar style and colour theme throughout of Marian's favourite colours, pink and aqua - the party balloon colours as well. I used a Creative Memories coverset as that's her preferred brand, and found it's easier to insert the pages after they're finished, otherwise the inked stamps don't work too well! I also scanned the pages into the computer and made several photobook copies for other family members through a photo supplier.

http://www.wordle.net/

Giving card sets as gifts

This is a collection of cards I made to fit some little square envelopes I needed to use up. I printed some greetings and images onto vellum and cropped them into squares... they can then be mixed and matched on to any of the cards. Everyone uses cards so it's a great idea for a gift. I'll definitely use this one again. The cards were so small they fit into a clean baby formula tin which I decorated. More on this in another post.

Tasmin's brag book

Tasmin was barely one when I made this little brag book in September, 2008. It's simply a blank card with some pages stapled inside with other photos of her. I needed to make five identical ones to send her aunties in Melbourne who aren't on the net and don't use email. It was fun to make and one of my first scrapbooking projects.