Three wedding pages and a . . . (actually just the wedding pages)

Back in 2004, when my sister got married, our boys were in the party as ring bearers.  At some point after the event, I did  mini-album, but not so long ago I started thinking, this is a story that is missing from the boy's albums, so I had some photos printed, and here is the results, starting with the page for Rohan's album . . .

We've all seen those pages in the Scrapbooking magazines where they go, "see, you can use flowers on a male page".  Well this is my version! I figure it's pretty safe seeing he was only 5 at the time, and it is, after all, a page about a wedding . . . they're pretty masculine colours, too.
I had two different stories I wanted to tell for Angus.  Here's the first one I made . . .

How gorgeous is this photos?  It's one of my all-time favourites! (I can't take the credit, my brother was the official photographer at the event).  It looks like Angus (not even 3 at the time) is the last guest at the wedding, absorbed in his cake!  I used sketch 268 from Scrapbook Challenges as my starting point (which, I just realized, is last month's challenge, not this one, but anyhow, it still looks good).  The background paper that I used was a really old Basic Grey that I have had forever, have never found a page for, but no way was I throwing it out!  It works perfectly for this page!  If you double click for a closer look, you might be able to see how well it matches the upholstery on the chairs!
For the next page, I had originally pulled out some totally different papers, but then, (just after I had put everything away) decided that I wanted it to relate a bit more closely, so got everything out again!

This is one of those family stories which take on legend status and will never be forgotten.  For that reason, I didn't want to journal it in too much detail, just enough of a hint that a non-family member who came across this page will get a bit of a hint, and might ask for more details . . . and if you are that non-family member, here's what happened:
When we arrived at my sister's the day before the wedding, I suggested that a rehearsal for my very young, never-been-ringbearers-before sons would have an idea of what to expect.  But she was a busy, distracted bride-to-be and she'd already had her rehearsal, so that was that.
But on the day, poor, not-quite-three year-old Angus was quite upset when the minister took the ring off his little pillow.  The whole congregation heard the now famous line:

"why did that man take my ring?"

two pet pages

 On top of my list of things to try this week were a few sketches and ideas involving one 4x6 portrait photo on a page.  So it was back to the archives, and I found photos of Angus and Maddy with their guinea pigs when they first got them .  no problems there, except that both of these pets have now passed on.  A bit weird to be scrapbooking them now, but once they are chronologically in the album, they will have an appropriate place in my kid's memories of their childhood.
First up, I did this page with Angus and Kayla based on the January 4x6 photo love tutorial.  When I was choosing colours, I noticed that this week's awesome Colour Q challenge would work really well.  Love that!

In fact, there's lots I love about both these pages, the primary embellishments were scrap papers, buttons and machine stitching.  Great for the budget, and great for kids pages.

 The page with Maddy and Hannah is inspired by week 2 POTW from Scrapbook Challenges.  It was a weird moment when Maddy wandered in as I was finishing this page.  First because, as previously mentioned, Hannah is no longer with us, which makes her a bit sad, second because it's a very pink page, and she's not a pink girl anymore, and third, because she is wearing a shirt with cats on it, and she is very much a dog girl now.  but like I said, chronologically, it makes sense!

Does anyone remember these Making Memories dot letter stickers?  When I was first starting out in scrapbooking, they were on my "must have" list, I think because so many projects in magazines used them.  By the time I bought them though, I didn't actually use them that much.  Being me, I still haven't thrown them away, but I tend to cut off the lumpiest bits of the dots before I use them!

Taking inspiration to the next level.

Did I tell you that I bought 7 sheets of patterned paper last week?  well I did.  Rohan had a soccer game in the same suburb as my fave local shop, so I whipped over during the warmup and headed straight for the 99c rack.  I've been going back for more of the "Fine and Dandy" range by My Mind's Eye.  So when I saw this "inspired by" challenge at Scrapbook Challenges, I immediately thought of the new papers I had bought.  This is another level of challenge for me, it's not just putting things in the right spot, like a sketch, or purely a colour combination - it's the feel and the theme you are trying to use.

 I really wanted to use this small scrap of blue floral paper but it wasn't big enough to use as a photo mat. I ended up cutting three motifs out to use as embellishments! Awesome!

I got about half way through the construction of this page, which was going to be about my scrapbook room, when I finally realized, I love the colours of the page and I love the story that goes with this photo . . . they just don't go together!  I then dived into my photo albums to see if I had another photo which would work on this page . . . NOT the way I usually work as you probably know!  I had to go right back to 2007 but I found it, a photo of the first truly collectible Christmas decoration I ever bought.  The first of a (so far very small) collection.  Funnily enough I never in a million years would have put that photo in a blue and orange colour scheme, but I think it is perfect!  Who would have thought? 

Anyway, my next dilemma was the title.  My first attempt of stamping the title was in grey, but it didn't stand out enough on the orange.  Next I stamped over the top in black, but didn't think black was right on the page, which was why I went with grey in the first place.  Finally I white-embossed on another scrap of orange (yes of course everything is scrap except the backing sheet).  After much agonizing, I then outlined the while letters in brown and called it done!  Finally, how to do the journalling.  Again, I didn't want to use black and nothing else was going to show up on the orange.  I ended up scattering it around on the blue strips around the page, using the same brown pen.  And here it is, the finished page:

Right now.

Having recently printed out a few hundred photos, I decided it's probably a good idea to focus on scrapbooking recent history for a while, before I forget the details I wanted to record.  It was back in May that I took a photo of the uniforms that represent all my kid's activiites at the moment.  Here is the page I ended up making this week  based on SS14 from Scrapbook Challenges.

The Layout

 The photo shows uniforms from Tae Kwon Do, ballet, and soccer, the three activities that keep me and the kids running around each week.  In terms of the page layout, the papers are all off-cuts.  I loved using papers, flowers and brads that are unrelated except that their colours match those of the uniforms.  The border stitching was done by first running through the machine on the biggest straight stitch without any thread in it.  I then stitched through every second hole by hand, using embroidery floss (which I have in pretty much every colour of the rainbow thanks to a few cross-stitch projects in a former life).
a description of our shedule is written on a tag which is tucked behind the photo.  I am embarrassed to say that it is the first time I have used the "day of the week" stamps I used on the tag.  I don't know how long I've had them, except that I obviously bought them for projects just like this one, at a Crafty Kids Party I went to with my neighbour - and she moved to Canberra at  the beginning of last year!!
Here's to rediscovering underused supplies! 

The journaling tag, tucked behind the photo.

Three fun challenges

Here is the first page I want to share with you: it came together really quickly the other night after Masterchef.  I already had the photo and the journalling ready to go, and decided that the Pick of the Week (July, week 2) was the look I was after.  And I decided that the Aunt Gertie's Garden papers strewn across my desk would work really well!  This page is almost 100%Aunt Gertie - papers, rub-ons and ribbon.  And yes, they are off-cuts this time.  In fact the brown circle you can see is actually the outside of the circle from the "Hannah" layout on my last post! (Reverse side)




And now, a question for you: how do you take decent photos of a 12 year old boy who has braces and is very sensitive about his looks?
Answer: I have no idea, but in the meantime, download his photos from his Facebook page!  As a basis for this page I used a fun sketch idea, also from Scrapbook Challenges (SS11 by Natalie Jane)  And I do mean fun! Note to self: must use stamps on layouts more often!

The stamps are all really different, but they work together simply by being all stamped in the same ink. The order I constructed this page was: paper circles and title stuck down first, photos roughly positioned.  Then large collage stamp.  Arrow stamp next, to link journalling to photos.  After that, it was just a matter of stamping largest image to smallest, then adhering journalling dots and strips over the top.
I was quite apprehensive showing this page to Rohan - he didn't even know I had printed the photos out!  His response? "Put that on the internet!"
wow! You don't get much higher praise than that!

And finally, my version of the Scrap our Stash pagerize challenge, where we were challenged to use memorabilia on a page.  I have been saving clothing labels for a while, so I used a whole bunch of them peeking out from under this photo of me.  I think I was originally planning some indepth reflective journalling on this page about "facing 40", but in the end I quickly jotted down some things that came to me quickly, and fit them around the page.  For example, "I'd rather do craft than housework".  Sound familiar, anyone?
On a construction note, some of the labels are quite thick.

I ended up attaching the photo using a couple of generous strips of foam mounting tape in the middle, enabling me to put it down first, then tuck the labels behind, one by one.

A budget tip or two.

It's hard to imagine here, but in the Northern Hemisphere it's summer time, and Scrapbook Challenges are having a "Sizzling Summer of Sketches".  When I saw sketch  SSO3 , I instantly thought of an enlargement I had made of a polaroid of my husband and I when we were not long married.  It's not in fabulous condition, what with having been hung in our kitchen for who knows how long, but it is special to me as we have so few photos of us together at that time.  Using this sketch allowed me to place embellishments over the worst of the dirty marks!
Have I mentioned how much I love my Basic Grey Marjolaine papers? Well I do, I really love them.  For this page I used one complete sheet, offcuts from 3 other (double sided) sheets as well as stickers from the same range.  All I added was a bit of ric rac and a few rhinestones! Awesome.
I don't know about you but when I mat a photo this size, I often cut the centre out of the paper to use later.  In this case, the second, dark brown sheet wasn't big enough to make a full mat.  I didn't let that stop me as I wanted some distinction between the light mat and the hand-cut journalling block from the same paper. So that's budget tip #1. save the inside of your mat for another day.

Here's the first mat

And here's the second one.

After I finished this page, I moved straight on to another page, this time about my oldest son turning 12 (a recent page for a change!) on which I planned to use the same range of papers.Can you see those two smaller blocks of paper on the right hand side?  Where do you think they came from?  Pretty cool, hey?

work in progress.

Oh, and here come budget tip #2:  I've started to feel a bit guilty about all the paper and ink I am using printing out sketches and "scraplift" type challenges which I might or might not do.  so now I:

• print on the back of an unwanted sheet of paper
• resize if necessary to get 2 sketches on the same page (by turning sheet around and sending back through the printer
• print in "grayscale" if it is coloured
• print using "superfast draft" mode.

Less paper, less ink, less eco-guilt! Yay!
PS. and have I told you how much I love my Basic Grey Marjolaine papers?

scrapbook challenges Blog Hop On

Well, I have never done one of these before, but when I saw the sketch for the scrapbooking challenges "season of change hop on I decided to give it a go!  To start the hop on from the beginning, you will need to go to Brynn's blog,  here.
When I saw the sketch, I thought it needed to be about something fun, or perhaps to do with imagination. Then I came across this photo of my kids when they were little on the lounge together reading and I instantly thought of the Dr Seuss book, "Oh the Places you'll Go" and I thought, that's my page!
As usual for me at the moment, all the papers and cardstock used on this page are offcuts, except for the backing sheet.

The smallest star is a sizzix die, but I decided on it's own it wasn' big enough.  I laid it down on a second scrap of paper, and drew a slightly larger  star around it. I then cut that one out and repeated the process to make the largest star.  Voila! 3 stars of different sizes!

I used rub-ons for the word "places" and stamped the other title words.  I wasn't sure whether burgundy or raspberry would be a better match, so decided I would stamp a sample on a scrap of paper.  And the winner is . . . scarlet!  Lucky I tested them first!

the other thing I am enjoying doing these days is trying to add a tiny hint of extra meaning into my pages without necessarily journalling it.  In this case, the heart represents (of course) my love for my children as well as our shared love of reading.  The three stars represents my three "reading superstar" children!
Making the page was the easy part, wish me luck as I attempt to follow all the  blog hop-on instructions!

Something old, something new . . .

Here's a page I finished earlier this week based on Sketch 256 at Scrapbooking Challenges
I think I'll file this one under "older patterned papers go with older photos".  Oh, the sweet memories of when my children used to play together so nicely in the backyard . . .
The decadent thing about this page?  See that piece of purple check paper?  I cut into a brand new sheet of patterned paper for a rectangle about 10x3cm.  But then, it was a sheet destined for the bin if it didn't get used soon, so maybe it wasn't that decadent!


Next page I did was based on the monthly sketch at "Ideal Paper Craft".  This one I'll file under "it's fun to use new patterned papers before they turn into old papers too".  I used my Basic Grey Marjolaine papers which I have really loved since buying the whole set at the end of last year.  This page uses one full sheet and off-cuts from other projects of three other double sided sheets of paper, as well as the coordinating stickers. 

A hint: I find it hard to visualize how stickers will look on the page when they are on those big sheets, so I cut them out, backing and all, so I can play around with placing them on the page.
Bonus hint:  after I was happy with the placement of my elements, I took this digital photo, so that after I had added tape to the back of everything, I would still remember where it all went!

the finished page!

The stashometer

I was browsing some blogs the other day and came across this lady who gives all her scrapbook pages a "stashometer" reading.  How cool is that!  Of course, pretty much all of my pages are 100% from the stash, but it got me thinking, how would I rate my pages for their stash-eating goodness?  How would you?
Here's what would get brownie points on this page I did for Scrapbook challenges "Scraplift the POTW" - (you should hopefully see the original if you click here)

• using only off-cuts of patterned papers (5 no less!)
• using a product I have heaps of but don't use often enough (buttons)
• using a product long forgotten in the bottom of a drawer (the scrabble tiles)
• clever use of a supply I'm running low on, in this case the negative of the "O" sticker (clever because it's a "hole", get it? Well I thought it was clever, anyway).

And here's the journalling.

This post comes with a warning!!

Warning: this post contains content which may upset some readers.
I've been thinking about what is it about other people's pages that is so great, and why I wish mine were more like theirs, until it occurred to me, it's not that I don't like my pages, but that their papers are different.  That is to say, they are different from the ones I scroll through in my stash every time I go to start a new page.
So when I dropped in to my local Scrapbooking Store the other day (they had finally gotten page protectors back in stock), I knew I was going to want to buy a sheet or two of new papers.  The deal I made with myself was, if I was going to buy anything new, I had to cull some of the old!
True to my word, I pulled out the paper stash as soon as I got home.  About ten or so papers have gone into a box.  I am allowed to use them, let my daughter use them, give them away or swap them, but they are not going back in the stash!!!!  Some of them are even Basic Grey!!! (You have to understand that it like a Masterchef contestant culling their Nigella cookbooks).  Any left in the box by the end of the year will be binned!  Four sheets of paper (and this is the shocking bit) went straight into the BIN!!! 
Here's to a year of spending less and crafting more and a reasonable sized stash that can have small amounts of new supplies added regularly!

It has been a miserable, cold rainy June long weekend here.  Perfect, as it turned out, for scrapbooking a record number of pages. The secret to my speed, I think, is a couple of things, firstly feeling more comfortable in my scrapbooking skin and feeling that sometimes simple little stories really do just need simple pages. And secondly, (this will be no surprise to many people) letter stickers are really fast to use! I've gotten over the fear of using up all of some letters because, quite frankly, better to have a half-used sheet of stickers than a pristine unused sheet waiting for the perfect combination of titles that means no letters go unwasted!! This was no mean feat on my part, I mean, the word "between" used all 3 "e"s on the page for heavens sake!

I'm not saying that I'm a letter sticker convert, my sizzix fonts and letter stamps will always be a much more budget conscious-way of making titles, but it has been a very liberating weekend.

P.S. The Climb Tomaree layout was done for the Scrapbooking Challenges sketch 257

3 pages, 5 challenges.

I was having a bit of a rough time last week.  I was trying to start my first TAFE essay and everytime I tried it felt like I was hitting a bit of a brick wall.  I was getting increasingly stressed as I was aware of all the other things I was needing (and wanting) to get done, and yet I kept on turning to life-avoidance mode. So I took a step back from the laptop for a couple of days, got the gardening done I wanted to do, did some cleaning, and turned to Scrapbook Challenges website to feed my creative muse.  I pulled 3 challenges I thought I might like to try, and went into the vaults for some photos that might work with them.  Over the next week and a half I managed to work around other commitments and get them all done!!! (and yes I have even almost finished that first essay!)

These challenges were heading out of my comfort zone (a good thing) as they all relied on using multiple pieces of patterned paper in the one page.  For many scrappers this is a staple, but for me, I always think, oh, the expense!!!  To get around this hurdle, I headed straight for the large scraps folder and started from there.

challenge 1: "By the numbers".
The brief here was to use 4 patterned papers, rhinestones, 2 stamps and a butterfly.  All my patterned papers were offcuts from the stash, (2 are actually Christmas-themed, can you guess which ones?) I used the colours from the lined paper to determine what other colours to use.  I felt that the rhinestones should really have a 3 somewhere, and I ended up using 3 groups of 3.  I used 2 flourish stamps, and lastly my butterfly, which is actually challenge 2: make a butterfly by white-embossing onto vellum.  This was one I have had on my "to-do" list since seeing a project in "Australian Cardmaking, Stamping and Papercraft (vol 16 no 12) by Jennifer Sweatman.

Challenge 3: Product Challenge  The brief here was to use (again) a minimum of 4 patterned papers, and using a punch to make a repeated embellishment.  Computer journalling was also required.


This pages also ended up fulfilling another of my personal challenges: Challenge 4: make a page using nothing but offcuts!  That's right, this page was actually made by sewing strips of patterned paper together!  (see photo at right) The elephants used as embellishments were punched from paper that is now behind the photos, and the blue circles and Sizzixed heading were from a scrap of blue cardstock.

And finally, Challenge 5, Sketch 254
As with the other pages, the 2 patterned papers I used came from my offcuts.  The title circle was cut out of the middle of the backing cardstock.
And did you notice, a few of those vellum butterflies fluttered onto this page too!

Nature in all her splendour challenge

I had a peek at the earth day challenges on the scrapbook challenges webs. At first glance of the "nature in all her splendour" challenge, I thought you've got to be kidding! there were 18 elements to try and include on the one page!  but then I thought, no, I can do this.  So that was how I spent a rainy Anzac Day afternoon.

 

The other fun page I've done this weekend was this one:  Friends looked after our dog while we were away at Christmas and gave us this super cute photo.  I am totally loving making my own labels for titles and journalling.  Made totally from my stash, of course.

One hot week

We're having a heat wave in Newcastle this week, which also happens to be the first week of school.  My oldest son has started high school this year, so it's been a big, exhausting week, all round.  There's something about a bit of stress that brings the scrapbooker out in me.  When I get time (and this week, once I've got the hottest jobs out of the way and then a shower) I retreat my craft room, and to those photos which make me feel like I do really love my children and they do actually get on with each other!

On Wednesday night my daughter fell and hurt her arm.  I was concerned enough the next morning to take her to the emergency room to get it x-rayed.  Luckily her arm is fine, just a bit twisted and swollen, but it brought back very strong memories of the time 2 and a half years ago that she did break her arm, bending it quite freakishly. So what did I do that afternoon? Go home and scrapbook the memory!  The photos I took are a bit confronting if they jump out at you unexpectedly, but I wanted to include them - especially the one where she is smiling for the camera in spite of the pain and her emu-shaped arm.  I solved the problem by tucking them into a pocket behind the patterned paper, making the hero photo of the cast, covered in signatures.  Here it is, finished bar the journalling, which will also be tucked in behind.

 I also did a this page, based on on sketch 239 from scrapbook challenges .  I often seem to end up lining a bunch of portrait-oriented photos across the page, so this was just the twist I needed to do this page on the cheeky side of my daughter's personality.


P.S. cropping the heart-shaped photos meant that I could include my favourite expression without the distraction of her brother in the background!

How much does your cardstock weigh?

I decided it was time to define my goals a little.  How would I know, beyond keeping track of my spending, whether I had managed to "spend less, craft more"?  I broke the goals down by deciding I would aim to:

• update this blog regularly
• do something creative every week
• complete at least 2 challenges a month
• complete a scrapbook page a week (single or double)
• work through my "projects" box with the aim of completing each item or considering getting rid of it.
• knit my way through my wool stash 
• make a list of my scrapbooking supplies (by group) and mark each time I use each item
• be prepared to cull unused items, and 
• weigh my cardstock, and compare in 12 months.

That's right, you read it correctly, there was no way I was going to count every single piece of cardstock I own, let alone all the scraps I have accumulated, so I decided to weigh all my cardstock, patterned paper and scraps!

weighing the small scraps box

I was quite stunned to discover a that it came to a whopping 21.58kg!  Now admittedly that included some boxes and folders that I keep them in (which I will obviously weigh them in again at the end) but even so, that's something in the vicinity of 20 kilos.  What more evidence do I need that it is time to speed up the creating and slow the spending down.



 

Today I finished a page based on scrapbooking challenges sketch 234  I continued my vellum theme by creating stars out of vellum and edging them with kindy glitz. quite a nice Christmassy finish. (but beware, if you'd like to try the idea yourself, the kindy glitz made the vellum curl A LOT).  I flattened them under some books once they were dry, then sewed them to the page