Mixing Collections

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch recently about my previous posts etc - it has really been heartwarming for me.  I've got a long way to go but I think I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, but more on that another time ;-)

It seems like months ago now that I was on a retreat with Artful Angels but it's only a few weeks really!  I had a lot of fun while I was there mixing up different Crate Paper collections with some surprising results.  Lots of manufacturers use similar colours across collections so picking out a colour to use from a variety of kits can really expand the life of your papers.  This is why I love it when Sarah brings the S J Crafts shop to our crop because I can see all the beautiful papers together and not think of their collections in isolation.  Plus I get to stroke and go starry eyed over all the lovely products.... ahem.

Busy Girl

Here I've used a watercolour floral from The Pier with the red triangle print from Bundled Up - who says you can't use a beach theme and a Christmas theme together?!  I also used the reverse of the triangle print because the aqua sort-of-snowflake print went so well with the floral print too.  It gives it all a very different look than when I've mixed that same floral with other papers from The Pier so its great if you are looking to change things up a bit. Incidentally, both of these collections are currently on offer in the S J Crafts sale!)



I used some of the cut apart sheet too because there really wasn't much to add in the way of journaling when you have several albums of your little people playing on the beach!  "And here she is, digging away again." "Here's Miss Bella looking cute in a swim suit!" "Now here's Louis having fun in the sand!" - You get the picture... ;-)

I finally got to use some of my precious rose trim by American Crafts too!  I can't tell you how old this is and I do love it but it isn't the easiest thing to incorporate because of its size and impact!  I cheekily sneaked in some alphas from another kit I was using at the time which you'll see in another post, Homespun from Simple Stories.

I liked using these collections together so much that I created several more layouts mixing and matching from different Crate ranges. 

Will It Still Be There?

While we were in Wales over Christmas, Management carved our names onto 4 stones and we hid them in a crevice in the rocks with the intention of looking for them again when we go back in April together.  I wanted to concentrate on the natural colours and feel of the photo so I mixed some of the kraft based papers from The Pier with some 12x12 from Maggie Holmes Flea Market and some of the same collection in the 6x6 pad format.

I distressed the edges here to give a more rustic feel and used the branding strip and stickers from The Pier too.  I used some of the alphas from Homespun again because they were there and they fitted the colours.  Sometimes having a set of alphas at hand prevents you having to go rifling through your whole collection for something even more perfect when it could be there in front of you all along.

Remember that picnic?

Sometimes you have a photo left over from the many you take but you've said all there is to say about the event that goes with it.  In this case I used one of the left over photos from a windy walk at Christmas to record a memory of the same beach many years ago.  We were staying in the Brecon Beacons on our way to the cottage in Newport when we heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers and everything changed.  We left for Pembrokeshire a day later and the next day we packed a picnic to take down to this beach at Moylgrove.  It was there that we finalised our plans to go travelling and ended up in New York a year and one week later.  I was going to take a career break from my job as an analyst with the police.

We sat there leaning back on a washed up tree trunk with our french bread and soft cheese pretending that the world was a peaceful and happy place and trying to escape from news about terrorists and dealing with armed robbers and peadophiles.

Here I've mixed The Pier again with some more Maggie Holmes AND some more Bundled Up!  Three collections that came together beautifully to create a soft but fresh layout.  I used some of the 6x6 Maggie Holmes to create some bunting and also to die cut the title.  The size reduction in the patterns work really well for embellishments and fussy-cutting etc because of the smaller scale making the patterns denser.

In the past I've used various My Minds Eye collections together and my Devon album is composed of a variety of collections by October Afternoon.  So, I'd really like to know what you think - do you like mixing brands or collections and which ones work well for you?

Bye for now
xx

Always the shadow



Sometimes a photo perfectly captures a moment or someone's personality.  Now and then a photo can capture a feeling too and sometimes it can help you to put things into words.

 

This photo was taken at Christmas on a rare sunny day.  Everyone seems to have had lovely weather again today except for parts of Wales which has been cloudy and misty - typical!  I still managed to get out for a gentle stroll on the beach here in Newport though (the one in the photo is the next bay round in Moylgrove) except that this time I was on my own.  I'm waiting to have the aerial fixed after the storms earlier in the year and having some much needed head space. 

After many attempts to find the right medication for my depression, we've come to the end of the road with it really.  I'm in the process of writing a blog post about what it feels like (boy won't that be a jolly read!) but right now I can't even scrap - that's how bad it is.  I'm going to try something a little outside of the box when I get back in a sort of last ditch attempt to make some progress.  I don't want to be the shadow blighting the lives of my family and friends.  I want to be there with them, enjoying the sun.

Supplies List
Patterned papers from Crate Paper "The Pier"
Letter stickers from Simple Stories "Homespun"
Enamel dots inside the flowers from My Mind's Eye
Wood veneers from Studio Calico "Hearts & Arrows"
Cardstock from Bazzil Basics in Kraft
Other items from my stash

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 249

What have we here then?  Not much in the way of crafting I can tell you.  We are considering putting our house on the market and the potential move may involve me losing my precious studio.  What will I do?!  I want to scratch myself at the mere thought of not having my own place to craft.  I guess I need to start getting rid of stuff...

Here is this week's offering if you've come for a browse around the desks with WOYWW courtesy of Julia at the Stamping Ground.  

Evidence of some sorting out is pretty much all that's available this week.  We got rid of a load of videos but I had an inkling in the back of my addled mind that someone somewhere had a brilliant use for the empty cases.  I think it might have been something to do with cling stamps.  A brief peruse of Pinterest and Youtube yielded nothing so maybe I imagined it.

In the middle there is very very old evidence of a former crafting life.  I used to like drawing as a teen.  Nothing out of my own head, all copied and all cartoon style, but I obviously liked them enough to cut them out and keep them.  I also found some early poetry that I had penned - phew lots of teen angst there!

I almost didn't join in this week as I didn't manage to get around anyone last week and I sincerely apologise for that.  My littlest great nephew was a poorly boy and in hospital for a few days and it threw things out a bit and then my puter decided to have a funny five minutes which seemed to effect it from then on.  It is mostly sorted now apart from the screen looks a bit different in Chrome but I can live with that... *twitch*

So, regular WOYWW-ers - any idea who or where I might have seen someone doing something clever with storage using video cases?  Do let me know if you can think of anyone!

Bye for now
xx

Between Storms

Can I claim the blame for this recent gorgeous weather we've been having please?  It is because I wrote this post about the recent storms quite a few days ago when there rain was still pouring and since then we have had some really sunny days!  Southern England, you are welcome ;-)  

I was using the Pier Collection from Crate Paper for the March challenge at S J Crafts and it was such a perfect fit for rugged beach photos that I thought I would carry on using it for a few more.  The water colour backgrounds and doily cloud prints can be just as easily used for pages about wet weather as the sunny holidays that it was intended for.  Even some of the cut apart word labels fitted my theme!

I like to record and good and the bad in my albums, because, well that's life right?!  The recent weather patterns have been so awful and so many people have suffered floods and lost property and worse.  I wanted to document the general events so I used this photo to lead into the bigger picture. We'd been out on a walk the day after Boxing Day so there had been a storm a couple of days before and several for a few days after.  We managed to actually stay dry on this walk because it rained about 2 minutes after I took this and we dashed under the beach shelter.  It stopped long enough for us to get home again.

This particular walk was significant because when I went back a month later after what we thought was the worst of the weather, the dunes and the sea walls had been badly damaged.  I wonder how things will look when I go back again next week?  It was also a significant walk because it featured my father in law who we don't see much and certainly not for going for a walk with but I have other photos that will tell that story.

As well as the muted colour washed feel of the papers, I used hessian for texture and an umbrella charm and enamel dot "splashes" to signify the weather.

I wonder if anyone else has recording the awful storms in any way?  Here's hoping for some more dry weather so that the flood can really recede and people can get back home again. For now I'll enjoy this wonderful sun!

Bye for now

It will be fine...

Its been a little while since I shared any of the layouts from Shimelle's Return to the Collection class and I still have a couple more to go.  Here I used a Papermania kraft sheet for the background and more of the Echo Park For The Record collection.  I also misted a little in the corners and did some painting and stamping to add detail and layering. 

 

I promised that I would explain the background to this unexpected holiday and this layout really does that so this will be the first page in the Kos section of the album.   I can't remember where this photo was taken so I used it as a reason to scrap the backstory a little. 

On the journaling block, in case you can't read it, I've written what we were thinking at the time.  We hadn't expected to be on holiday at all because I should have been about 6-7 months pregnant at the time.  We had lost our first baby at 5 months a few weeks before this and I had been in and out of hospital and we'd been through tests and the funeral and were still waiting on the results of the tests while we were away that would determine if we could go ahead with trying for another baby. 

We decided to take a last minute booking and have some much needed R&R time together but we couldn't really forget for more than a few minutes.  I drank water at a fertility fountain, we tried to get healing vibes from the Esclipion, anything and everything to try and get us back on the road to being parents as quickly as we could.  We ate lots, chilled out watching England win the Ashes and relaxed as much as we could but I ended up getting tonsillitis and laryngitis! 

We had a lovely time though and when we got back we received the news that we were clear to try for another baby and thankfully we got pregnant again straight away.  I wish I could have told myself that the results would be good and we would have our family before long.  I wish I could have told myself that it would all be fine.

 

Bye for now

xx

WOYWW 248

Do you know that I laughed so much at my scrapbooking retreat over the weekend that my tummy still hurts?! We had a wonderful time and I'll be sharing some pictures very soon.  

I've not been able to get into my craft room for any actual crafting since then so my desk is basically a half unpacked crop bag!  Sarah brought my order for 4 new American Crafts albums so I can file that stack of layouts that I completed even though I nearly forgot to pack any photos!  I keep a not of the layouts before I file them so I know which ones need putting on the blog so that's what I'd been doing here having just photographed them in the garden... in the dry... in the sun!!!

The layout on the right there was finished a few seconds before I left on Friday morning and so that one needed photographing too.  This one was for the S J Papercrafts challenge for March which involved us all using a set of photographs as inspiration.  If you fancy a challenge thn pop over and see what inspires you from the pictures too.  There is also another prize on offer this month from another WOYWW-er, the lovely Annie.  Personally I was inspired to use the colours and textures from the pictures to create this windy beach layout using Crate Paper's Pier collection. Louis was just over a year old in this picture from his first beach trip in Newport, Pembrokeshire. Even then we knew he'd love it more and more as he got older and he certainly has! 

It was great fun to rifle through my stash and find old bits and bobs like the sandy coloured flowers, veneer birds and green ric rac to accentuate my theme along with the woody tones of the papers.

When I saw the inspiration photos I immediately thought of this collection and once I had got the papers out I realised they were perfect for scrapping about this rainy weather we've been having here since Christmas.  I ended up using this collection a lot over the weekend for various photos of drizzly walks and windswept beaches.

I guess I really need to finish putting all the rest of the stuff away *sigh*... But first I'll grab a cuppa and have a peruse around all the other desks that link up on a Wednesday for the biggest creative gathering of the week.  Please do join in - its easy, free and very enjoyable and you're sure to receive a warm welcome from our host Julia.

Bye for now
xx