Layout To Share: Posers

Today's layout is based on Shimelle's Sketch Of The Week for 26/1/2011. These American Crafts papers have been sat in my stash for such a long time, which was such a shame because I actually really like them, especially the pink woodgrain and the blue flower-like things. I've already used up most of my American Crafts paper and these were just odd sheets, I didn't really have anything else from any other manufacturers that I though would work, but it finally hit me that they would actually work well together.

Supplies: Cardstock: Bazill, The Paper Company, Papermania. Patterned Paper: American Crafts. Alpha's: Pink Paislee. Die-cutting: Slice: Noteworthy Design Card. Brads: American Crafts. Ink Pads: VersaColor, Impress. Ribbon. Buttons. Staples.

These photos are old-ish ones taken at arms length in the back of a car, they didn't really have a story behind them but I still wanted to scrapbook them, luckily the zebra print in my top matched the black and white zebra paper perfectly! The white and blue ribbons are actually hanging tags from my clothes, I almost always cut them off unless the clothing won't stay on a hanger without them of course.

I've amassed a nice little collection of these awesome brads because Hobbycraft was selling them off a while ago for about £1 a pack, which I was so excited about that I bought a pack in every colour and style I could find. These should definitely keep me going for a while.



Shimelle's Hot Pink Hoopla

Shimelle's next challenge is to make a layout inspired by this one. I took inspiration from the colour, I used a 7"x7" square and I took inspiration from the sketch, but flipped it.

This layout's about my mother-in-law, the photo was taken new year's eve 2009.

Shimelle's Bingo Cards And Butterflies

Shimelle's next challenge was to "create something inspired by the video. It can be very similar to the page if you like, or you can take inspiration from any element you like – the colours, the photo placement, any technique – whatever takes your fancy."

I took inspiration from the Bingo card and the butterflies, and worked in a similar warm colour scheme for my layout.

As you've probably gathered by now I'm sticking to a limited selection from my supplies and then trying to use up the scraps on the next layout. 

Shimelle's Go Retro Challenge

The next challenge I completed was Shimelle's Go Retro Challenge:  "For this challenge you have to scrapbook a photo from before 2011. No current pictures allowed. If you can, embrace the idea and scrap something a bit retro or something from your childhood, but I totally understand not everyone has pictures like that at the ready. So anything that is not 2011 will be acceptable!"

By the way, the hearts over the faces of my mum and Grandma are for their privacy, well my mum's. My Grandma passed away a few years ago now, but still.

This photo was taken in Bath while I was at uni, over 7 years ago now, so I think this qualifies as before 2011! I love the colours in these My Mind's Eye papers (Andrea Victoria), gorgeous.

Shimelle's A Stickery Challenge

The next challenge from Shimelle is sticker related: "Create a project using stickers from more than one collection. (The stickers can be the same manufacturer or different manufacturers, but not the same paper collection – make sense?)"

Believe it or not, that's me on the left, yes I had Sid Viscious hair when I was in college.

The stickers I used are American Crafts, some from the Teen range and some from the Buddy range.

Shimelle's Half The Page Challenge

The next challenge that has been set by Shimelle is to:

"Create a layout that only uses half the page. It can be whatever half you would like, but somewhere around half the page space needs to be breathing room!"



Shimelle's 3 Is A Magic Number Challenge

This challenge from Shimelle is all about 3's:

"Create a project (layout, card, etc) that includes a group of three in the embellishment. It can be three kinds of flowers like I used, but that’s not a requirement – you could use three squares, three butterflies, three things that are red, three apples, three hedgehogs… whatever group of three takes your fancy!"

I've used two groups of three, the patterned paper and the Cork embellishments.



Shimelle's From The Heart Challenge

Shimelle's next challenge From The Heart, is to "create a layout with I love… or I heart… as your title." This photo was from my wedding, Ive had it for ages, and I love it but wasn't sure what to do with it, now it is ready to go in my wedding album.

Shimelle's Colour Challenge

Shimelle's Colour Challenge is to create a project in red, white and aqua. This one was fun, although the cardstock I have used is more orange-red than I would have liked, at least the thickers are very red.

Shimelle's Grid It Up Challenge

Shimelle's Grid It Up challenge was to create a project with a grid as a design element.

I'd had these hideous passport photos from last year and being a scrapbooker I couldn't bear not scrapbooking them and this was the perfect challenge for them.

Shimelle's Chop Your Paper Up Challenge

The next challenge from Shimelle (here) is to embellish a layout with patterned paper only, well i couldn't resist a bit of texture on this layout, but I did die-cut the title and use a patterned paper pinwheel that i'd won ages ago, so I think that makes up for it.

Shimelle's Starting Point Challenge

Last weekend Shimelle hosted a scrapbooking weekend full of challenges and giveaways, this was just what I needed to get my scrapbook mojo going, and I'm going to enter a few of the challenges. The first challenge I'm entering here is the Starting Point challenge.

This layout is from my niece's  birthday.



Shimelle Scrapbooking Day Entries

Last saturday was (Inter) National Scrapbooking Day and Shimelle hosted a day of fun and challenges on her blog for what she refers to as 'Scrapbooking Day' with giveaways for joining in, here are my entries:

Challenge 1: Patterned paper background:

Challenge 2: Create a triangle of 3 similar colour/size/shape thins, preferably with the photo inside:

Challenge 3: Add a border between the photos:

(This was also made from Shimelle's 4 x 6 Photo Love sketch for February)



Challenge 4: The story behind the photo:

Challenge 5: Try a new photo edit:

Picnik Neon effect. Just awesome!

Did you enter the competitions too?

4 x 6 Photo Love: Week 3

Here's another layout inspired by Shimelle's 4 x 6 Photo Love series, this one is March's prompt with three photos. I love these photos even though they're obviously over-exposed and I wanted to use them, so this sketch was perfect for the three of them. Although it took me a bit longer to think of a title to work with them! The papers are BasicGrey Euphoria, which I LOVE too, i'm trying to work my way through my old stash/stuff i've kept and just not used.

Scraplift Saturday

Hello and welcome to Scraplift Saturday, this is where I find an amazing layout and I take elements of it or use it as a sketch to create my own layout.

This is another one based on Mandi from Here's Looking At Me Kid's layouts, I really wish Mandi would share more layouts on her blog because I LOVE her style, the way she sets her layouts up, is so unusual and you just wouldn't think to leave such gaps. I've followed this layout very closely because I was trying to work out how it works so well, if you know what I mean. I think it just sticks to the triangle form of composition, this would be a great one to use up your scraps.



4 x 6 Photo Love: Week 4

A couple of days ago it was time for Shimelle's monthly 4 x 6 Photo Love post which was just what I needed to jump start my creativity this week. I'm really loving sketches at the moment, and I just can't seem to scrapbook without them. Hopefully I'll get around to doing the other three months soon.

This layout was inspired by that post and the sketch, here is the layout with the flap down:

Here is the layout with the flap up:

I'm not sure why the tone of these photos is different as I took them one after the other with my camera, and both without a flash, weird! The papers I've used are all Heather Bailey from Autumn Leaves which are just gorgeous.

I love taking photos of flowers but I never know what to do with them, so this sketch was perfect for these photos as I could hide a couple of extra photos underneath the flap and there wasn't really any need for journaling on this one.

Are you taking part in Shimelle's 4 x 6 Photo Love too? I wonder how she'll manage to fit 12 photos on?

The Royal Wedding

Hi everyone, thank you for all your comments on wednesday's post, I've not been very well (stinking cold) so I'm running a little bit behind with responding. Stay tuned for the mysterious photos in the last blog post to be explained later on today!


Watching the Royal wedding, makes me think of my own wedding, Paul and I got married Valentines Day 2009, it was a beautiful day, one we will always remember. So perhaps you'll forgive me for sharing a few of my layouts from my wedding album. Any of you who have been following my blog for a while will probably have seen these layouts before, but I don't see any harm in re-posting them today, as it's a special occasion, and there are so many new readers who probably haven't seen them.

(This layout was made using the paper I used to make the wedding stationary)

As I sit here and write this millions of people from all over the world are gathered in London to witness what is, whether you like it or not, a historical event. Me personally, I'm sat in the comfort of my living room with my family watching the ceremony and the parade. Until yesterday, I wasn't really that bothered about the whole Royal wedding, but having followed a bit of the coverage it sparked my interest.

(This 1st layout shows the transformation of my hair)

I know a lot of people don't think we need a Royal family any more. As a Brit myself, I have to disagree. Us Brits are notoriously a bit different, a bit quirky, and I think that having a Royal family is a small part of what makes us the way we are, it makes us a bit different from everywhere else I guess. We (normally) can't compete for the weather, there are better beaches in other countries, unless you like them a bit more rustic of course, but it's our history and quirkiness that attracts visitors the most, and the Royal family are living history.

(This layout shows me getting my make-up done)

Until now I think I've sat on the fence about this subject, but this fairytale wedding has made me feel proud to be British, I'm enjoying the ceremony so far, even if it's a little religious for my tastes, but they can't have a Royal wedding without it.

(Trying to get into my corset dress with help from my mum)

The only thing that makes me laugh about this wedding is how the press are refering to Kate Middleton as a "commoner." I'm sorry, but have they heard the girl talk? There is no way she is common! However, she comes across as a really nice girl, and she must be brave as hell to go through all this, so I say good luck to her.

(Here's a layout about my amazing dress) 

For those of you who are married like myself, think about how nervous you were on the morning of your wedding day, I simply can't imagine how nervous Kate must have been this morning. Before I got married, I didn't think I'd be nervous at all, but come the morning of the wedding I was a nervous wreck. Not because I thought Paul wouldn't turn up, after all, he was my fiance and my best friend. It was the thought of having to walk into that massive room of people. The fact that they're family and friends was irrelevant. So times that by a couple of million and I guess that's how Kate is feeling.

(This is one of my favourite photos of  myself from the day)

Most little girl's dream of marrying a Prince, and Kate is doing just that. Her dress is stunning, I think she looks amazing, so demure and actually very regal, and Will, although he's not actually my cup of tea, looks very handsome in his uniform. What an amazing ceremony, definitely worth watching. Thankfully it's not raining.

(This one is one of my favourites of Paul and I)

I'll leave you with a couple of questions:

What are you thoughts about the Royal family?

What did you think about the Royal wedding?

Scrapbook Sunday

Hi everyone, and welcome to Scrapbook Sunday. This week's first layout is with a photo I took last summer (pre-diet, I should add) when myself and my mother-in-law used to go to Costa once a week for a coffee and a cake, or in my case, hot chocolate I don't like coffee.

The papers are a mix of old Sassafras Lass, a Hambly overlay and American Crafts Teen and Love ranges. I'm really happy with these photos, I took them on my phone and they came out rather well I think. The hearts and the cupcake were cut out of the American Crafts papers. The layout was all made from scraps.

The second layout is for my Book Of Me, I spent an afternoon last year with a bunch of t-shirts, scarves and hair accessories taking self-portraits to scrapbook. Not having kids, I have to admit to scrapbooking about myself rather a lot.



Most of the papers are BasicGrey Urban Prairie range, but the ones behind are old Papermania, it's pretty rare for me to mix manufacturers because I'm not very confident at it but I think these wrok well.

M.I.A

Hi everyone, I know, I know, I've been M.I.A for way too long. I've got no excuses, I've just lost the blogging love I guess. Plus, husband is very difficult to remove from our only computer.
I've had an interesting couple of months, I celebrated my birthday in september (28 now, eek), I've made some new friends, and spent time with family friends. I've also developed joint pains in my knees, feet, hands and occasionally other limbs/neck, I've had this for about a month now. It started in my left knee, apparently my knee cap is moving around, I can't lift my leg without a lot of pain and slowly it seems to be getting worse so i'm going back to the doctor this afternoon.

I have been scrapbooking too, these have been up on my Flickr page for a while but I hadn't got round too posting them until now:

The first one is an update of the Cross Stitch layout that I was waiting on the photo for.


This one is made using a Crafty Templates Quirky kit, called What's The Story?

NYC


The background for this is an advert from a magazine.
Betty Blue



You Are Everything



Trust



Day Trip 2 Bristol


This is also made from a Crafty Templates Quirky kit called She's Creative.
Me @ 22


I've had this photo sat with this Sassafras paper for ages and been stuck with how to use it, finally I managed to get it done!


Dinner & A Movie



I promise I wont leave it so long between posts now.

This Week's Layouts....

All three of this weeks layouts are made using Crafty Templates Quirky kit 'What's The Story?' I love Crafty Templates kits, they're a little bit different.

Have you ever made a layout you don't actually have a photo for? Well I've taken the photo now of my embroidery floss, so once I print the photo i'll add it on.

I love this M&S hat, i've never loved a hat on me before this one. The photo was taken in Ilfracombe (Devon) during a long, hot weekend in June where I got badly burnt on my legs. Apparently my skin wont absorb suncream, then all the sand sticks to it, and I can't put any more on because trying to rub it in to my sensitive skin kills. I tried to cover up but apparently I was too late, I've still got a patch on my hip that hasn't faded which is a bit worrying. So no more beach holidays for me then! My skin is so sensitive that if my hubby doesn't have a full beard I can't kiss him because it hurts, if I did i'd end up with a very red, sore chin. Nightmare!

Here's another one from my honeymoon album from 2009, I've done loads from photos in Central Park, 3 general ones, one about the children's zoo and one about the main zoo. Central Park was definitely my favourite thing about New York (other than the scrapbooking shop I found obviously).

I think my favourite of the three is the first one, even if it hasn't got a photo. What do you think?