Gosh! Layouts!

I actually managed to make three layouts today. These two are from our trip to the Cotswolds at the beginning of last month. I used the most recent Quirky Kit along with some added extras.


We became very ill after eating dodgy cream teas, but it's very pretty and worth scrapping. I also finally used my new Artemio stamps for the first time.


We also visted Snowshill Manor, home of crazy collector Charles Wade. I love to hoarde stuff, but this place shows you what excessive hoarding looks like!

Learn Something New Everyday - whoops!

I'll get these caught up with one day!

Learn Something New Everyday - 8

"I've not stopped having emotional breakdowns, although I'm getting better."

Learn Something New Everyday - 7

"We're doing the right thing with Adam's bedtime routine and it's OK not to run a noisy hoover round him if it makes him cry."

Learnt that one at Baby Group sleep clinic. Also learnt how to shut up a snoring husband, but until we actually try it out I won't use it as an LSNED entry!

Learn Something New Everyday - 6

"Adam rolled over!"

OK, fair enough, that's really his LSNED not mine, but I'm using it anyway.

Learn Something New Everyday - 5

"Adam can sleep through John snoring like a light aircraft, but can't sleep through me whispering."

Learn Something New Everyday - 4

"Always buy the larger cotton wool baby balls. The smaller ones don't clear up large poos so well and you end up using twice as many."

Sorry about that one, but it's true!

Learn Something New Everyday - 3

"Being a Mother means less Time to feel Sorry for Yourself."

I have food poisoning after eating a cream tea in Bourton-on-the-Water, so does John, but we still need to take care of Adam.

Learn Something New Everyday - 2

"Hoarding is not always a Bad Thing!"

I realised this after visiting Snowshill Manor, which is full of fabulous clutter.

Learn Something New Everyday - 1

I don't have the time to make the layouts for each day straight away, so I'm going to Blog each thing I learn so I have them written down. Might not have time to take photos of the layouts either :( but I will be getting them done over time.

Right, first lesson:

"It's impossible to pack light with a baby in tow!"

Scrap Map for August

Here's my take on the Creative Craft World Scrap Map this month - getting in there at the last minute!

I'm also using this as the UKS wc entry.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - From the Heart

Here's my random love. I love my Red Spotty Mug. It's very special to me.

I didn't know I owned so many red spotty papers!

And that's all the challenges I had time for.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Go Retro

I decided to go back to my childhood. We didn't have a polaroid camera, Daddy used a regular camera and cine film. Anyway, here is my mother, my Teddy and I posing in front of the Cessna that we're about to climb into. On Wednesday it'll be 30 years ago.

Don't know why I hadn't scrapped this picture with this paper before. Just as well I didn't!

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Chop Your Paper

This one didn't go according to plan. Not that I HAD a plan, just that the picture in my head was no way near to what actually ended up on the page.

I'd already bought a piece of Cosmo Cricket's Joy Ride for the express purpose of chopping it up and cutting out all those lovely circles:

So I did that bit first. Then punched out some smaller circles, larger scallops and some assorted butterflies and layered them up. That was fun. I even made buttons from little circles, doodled on them and covered them in glossy accents. Took the best part of the week as I didn't have much Adam-free time to scrap. When I had all the bits ready I looked at them and thought "Meh." No idea what to do next.

Happily, the UKS weekly challenge involved using some black and scrapping a celebration. These circly things feature black, so I chose a pic of Adam, cut that down as well and made this:

{Adam is now 16 weeks old. He grew out of his dinosur top weeks ago. Looking at this photo I find it so hard to believe that he was ever this tiny. He's STILL a tiny baby and has so much growing to do and yet he's now becoming a little boy with a personality. He's no longer the squishy alien in this photo! Today - Aug. 20. Then - May 3.}

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but I'm happy with it and it'll go nicely in his Baby Album.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Half Page

This was a fabulous excuse to not cut into this beautiful piece of Sassafrass!


This is Bob during the Open University 2009 Summer School to Durham. He's demonstrating scale. When taking a photo of a geological feature you should always include a scale so someone else knows the size of the feature they're looking at. Bob is showing that this also works with ice creams and kiosks.

Close up on one of the lovely seagulls that Susi cut for me.

It's going to go into my Geology Album as a 'companion piece' to this one:


For both of these layouts I've used the most recent Quirky Kit - The Milk Bar.

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Stickers

I love stickers. I have lots of them. When I was little I used to collect them, especially fruit stickers, they were fun. Somehow, though, I just don't seem to use them enough on my layouts, so this was the perfect challenge. In fact, I decided to abandon patterned paper altogether and just use stickers - with a bit of background misting that looks much better in real life, it's very shiny and glimmery!

Some of the stickers are backed onto card and then cut out to make them easier to work with and to layer. I've managed to include:

October Afternoon - Thrift Shop
October Afternoon - 5 and Dime
October Afternoon - Ducks in a Row
Cosmo Cricket - Circa 1934
Cosmo Cricket - Early Bird
Cosmo Cricket - Earth Love
Echo Park - For the Record
Jillibean Soup - Monster Stew
Making Memories alphas

The journalling says that Adam is seven days old and we're heading out on our first trip in the pram - to the voting booths!

Shimelle's Cyber Crop - Grid

Well, I'm still busily finishing off the Explore Prompts, but found some time on Sunday to do a couple of Challenge layouts. Much easier now that my Husband is back from the States and can keep an eye on Baby. Both very happy to be back together. :)

I started with the Grid challenge. I've never been very good at multiple photo layouts, but these days I'm trying to get as much scrapped as I can. The photos of Baby just keep multiplying, my time keeps decreasing and I still haven't scrapped huge chunks of my past that keep slipping further into the past

So I decided that the grid would be photos and the papers would be The Thrift Shop by October Afternoon, because they've been calling me for a while now to play with them again. The first thing I saw was this:


It's already in a grid and mine was half used, so I thought I'd pop out the remaining cards and use them on a layout with cut down photos. The backs of the journalling cards are all patterned paper and I figured I'd be more likely to use them as plain shapes than journalling cards. However, when the cards were all removed, I was left with a negative space that looked like a bunch of little photo frames with a small border of pattern around each one.

I abandoned the original plan and did this instead:

The tartan paper is from October Afternoon's Road Map collection, but the rest of it is The Thrift Shop. Very happy that I managed to use the leftover sheet rather than throwing it away. I'll make sure I keep an eye on all other negative spaces produced by popping out diecuts in the future.

Explore : Prompt 18 ~ Creating Stage A layouts

This really didn't suit me. I expect that's because I barely have time to create a full layout in a day, let alone starting four and taking them to a semi-finished point. Besides, having areas stuck down and then wishing that the newly added section could go under that bit or that bit and not being able to was rather hampering.

I chose four pieces of WRMK papers from the White Out Collection.

Also totally forgot to take pictures of three of the four in their A state. Anyway, here are the three layouts that I've finished to Stage B:


This is the one where I'm most happy with the technique. I was able to add scraps of Cosmo Cricket: Garden Variety and I think it's worked out quite well.


All I could add to this was ink, journalling and the date / place tag. I'm not that happy with the layout.


This one barely features the chosen papers at all! That's probably why I like it so much! All I did to take it to Stage B was to add the dangly flocked spiders.

I'd write more, but the baby is yelping!

Project 12 - June 2011

{click to enlarge}

Pictures this month include the hot day where Adam had to sit around in his nappy, Clive the Turkey at the Gog Magog Cafe, Adams first hairwash, Granfer helping with our decorating and the bunch of fathers at Fathers Day.

Explore : Additional

This layout grew out of various techniques, suggestions, concepts etc covered in the Explore class.

Explore : Prompt 8

Well, there might not have been any pressure to finish a project on this day, but this is what I came up with. I never usually use this many photos on one page. Chopping a whole bunch of them up into smaller pieces, however, has made them fit in a lot easier. I used the "group of nine" technique to display them, wrote on them and made sure that all the pictures are of me, just to ensure I am scrapping myself.


Used the "group of nine" here as well.

Explore : Prompt 9 ~ Document One Day

I have chosen to Document Tomorrow. I've made a page in the Playbook to document it as I go along. There's no fun plans for tomorrow, so it's going to be a very normal day.

Explore : Prompt 7 ~ Memory Sparks

With so little time these days I decided to just do one memory spark and put it I to my book. So I chose an innocent looking item and rambled off into the land of very personal and private memories! They're not bad memories. They're fabulous and hilarious and on-going. I just can't share them!!

A few scrappable ideas surfaced during the course of the sparking, so it's definitely a technique that had worked for me and one I'll use again. Hopefully I'll pick an item that's more public in its memories.

Explore : Prompt 5 ~ Friday Project

I chose to make a layout with the map circle embellishments I made. Although I do scrap myself, I tend to do it with other people in the shot, so I made sure that I used a photo of just myself - a self portrait, in fact! Unless you think I'm not alone because "Frankie the Bump" is also in the picture.

Explore : Prompt 4 ~ Perfection

My father took this picture. I've been hanging onto it for ages, trying to find a suitable way to scrap it. Now it's stuck into my Play Book. Perfection of Nature.

Explore : Prompt 3 ~ Maps

Saved my circle embellishments for later, because I came late to the project I know what I'm making and saving them for! I didn't want to cut into maps from past travels, so I only had the one old map of London and a piece of patterned paper by October Afternoon.

Had great fun cutting up the map though, so I bought some from a charity shop this afternoon! I can have some chopping fun later on.

Explore : Prompt 2 ~ Adventure

I chose an old postcard for this and didn't post it, mainly for ease in getting it done. Of course, I've also chosen the Whole World for my Adventure postcard.

Explore : Prompt 1

I signed up on Thursday to Shimelle's Explore Class. I've not done one before, and quite frankly, I'm doing it to see what all the fuss is about! Oh, and to do something a bit different on the creative front. Not sure whether I'll be able to do it AND wrangle the Baby, but we'll see!


My 'Play Book' cover.


My first piece of journalling. I'm using old hotel stationery for the journalling sections. I always save bits like that and they hang around for ages unused. That was one of the suggestions, and a very good one!

I've taken the Self Portrait, but I send my pics to be developed, so I'll pop it in when it comes back.

Smash Book?

I like the idea of Smash Books, but buying all the "proper" bits and pieces? Nah. Seems a little silly when you can use existing stash and a nice book from Paperchase. So here it is. Well, a little sampling of what I've done so far.

I bought some coloured envelopes and some decorative paperclips so I could display my photos. As they're originals, rather than digitals, this way I don't have to risk scrapping them and potentially ending up with layouts I don't like or grow out of.

The only photo I have from my Open University Summer School to Brighton. I still had part of the diary I kept, so I've included that as well.

Bits and pieces from our trip to York last year. I've included some October Afternoon stickers on this page. On the next few pages I've added in some photos that I know I'll find really hard to scrap, but ones that I love. This way they're somewhere I'll be able to look at. I've added journalling around all the photos that I put into the book.

Duxford and Fleet Air Arm tickets and flyers. This page has been embellished with matching Cosmo Cricket papers and stickers.

Bits and Bobs from a lunch at Loch Fyne and the Bits and Bobs from hunting pigs in Bath. Added in some more October Afternoon and KesiArt.

Creative Craft World - Bright & Bold

Another Creative Craft World challenge entry. Will try and add more details later, when Baby is sleeping!! :)

Later: Right, he's not sleeping, he's screaming the house down thanks to his first jabs. :( I bought the Alphabet Soup {boy} papers because Adam has a play gym / bouncer with wild animals on and I thought I'd get plenty of use out of it. Never considered scrapping his socks instead!

Have finally used the last button made by my Teamie Sue.

Creative Craft World - Travel

Quickly uploading a challenge entry for Creative Craft World! Will come back and sort out details later - maybe...

Later: Adam now sleeping off his jab suffering. Poor mite. :(

I used a piece of DCWV as a background, but it's a wussy piece of paper and has curled up all over. Can't stand paper that does that, but it doesn't look too bad in the end.

John and I stayed at The Colonial Inn in 2005, but I've only just opened the hotel soap! So I decided to scrap it.

SLALT!!!

Not sure what I was going for with this. But I got it scrapped, had fun doing it and that's the main thing!

Two minutes later...

This is why I don't have time for "proper" uploads! :)

I end up with a baby on my lap. At least I managed to scrap though, my points are creeping steadily upward for June. I'll be very impressed if I manage our Teams 300 target, but I might get close.

Layout!

No time to fuss with a proper upload, so iPhone pics and emailing will have to do.

Made from the latest Quirky Kit, I couldn't bear to cut up the background pp - House of Three / Pink Paislee : Daily Junque, Tickets - so I left it all intact and just added to it. Actually that makes scrapping easier (although it does seem lazy) at the moment with a demanding baby to deal with!

The Next Generation

I scrapped! WooHoo! I did this at the on Bank Holiday Monday for the latest UKS weekly challenge. 6x4 photos, history (I went for future history) and use a punch - which I have!

Collectormania 2011

Adam is only four weeks old and yet he's already being dragged to conventions! Still, there was a damn good reason for it, David Blue was signing and I couldn't miss that. We even managed to be at the front of his queue, which was good as we were in and out leaving Adam no time to fuss.

Baby

Why is my leg getting warm and damp?!

Granfer & Frankie

Weekly Challenge - April Week 3

No patterned paper, no brads, buttons or blooms, one or three photos and not a 12x12 square. Check on all counts! Must try harder to catch us out, Sue! ;)

This is John's half-eaten plate of haggis and mash. I'd never eaten haggis before and found the concept way too disturbing. John, however, managed to convince me to try some and this is how much he'd eaten by the time I gave in and had a forkful. Well, haggis is bloomin' delicious! So I had to take a photo of the first haggis I'd ever had.

Sadly, I had no camera, just my iPhone and the dish doesn't look all that apetising in this state, but the idea is to record these special moments, and I have.

The Latest Batch

Much easier to do a whole load in one go than do a post for each layout. In each case I've cut into new paper collections.

Outside the Opera Garnier / Our balcony

Melman in Paris. I felt that Melman deserved some Steampunk Debutante! Used an October Afternoon sketch for this one.

In the Park in Edinburgh

I was very impressed when I noticed that the die-cuts in this collection matched up to the Buck Naked chipboard that I already had. Of course, I then read on the bottom of the die-cuts that they're meant to go together!

An old Pencil Lines sketch was used for this.


Outside Dartmouth House waiting for everyone to assemble for photos.

I already had some Material Girl, but with the Crafting Kit you also get the stickers, journalling tags and strips. They were all new to me, so I added some in.

PageMaps Sketch.