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.

Scrapbook layout using mobile phone photos

This is a layout I started on my solo retreat but I wasn't happy with it. My rule was to use only white cardstock and I've realised that white may not work with some photos. These are mobile phone photos so the quality isn't great and they really need brighter bolder colours to work. I still believe you can make ANY photo look great in a scrap layout. It's a bit like love: everyone has the right partner out there somewhere, you just have to find them!

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.

Ten new scrap layouts from Solo Retreat

Here are some of the layouts I managed to complete on my solo retreat last weekend.I haven't done a scrap of scrappin since then... eight days later. Life's been hectic with Little Miss 3 - I went to the bookshop on Friday and bought Supernanny's book in the hope of some insight. Still looking for a solution. At least I am proud to say I read a whole book this long weekend! There were lots of pictures... Ever hopeful of more inspiration, I've ordered the DVD from the library.

But I digress. This is a great challenge for you. All you need is to scrape together a chunk of time, a stack of white-only cardstock, doesn't have to be the fancy stuff, and a big pile of photos you've been waiting to scrap for ages. You're only allowed to use paper scraps and as much inking and painting and doodling and writing as you like. Go!

I haven't had a chance to upload any of my 12 layouts from the solo retreat or finish the other five because of one certain little miss. She's is thankfully at daycare today so now it's 12.30, little man has finally gone down for his sleep and I have two weeks worth of photos to upload and print for Project 365, which is my normal Friday thing. So layouts are coming soon.

Meantime, read more about my week here. Next year I'm going to combine the blogs, I've decided. Much easier! Happy Friday to you.

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.