Meet Opal - Shimelle Challenge

I've been meaning to scrap this photo for years, literally.  It was from our Round The World trip, no prizes for guessing where!  It was actually at Steve Irwin's Zoo in Brisbane and we were really sad to have missed him by a couple of days (well that's what they said but he might not have actually been there for months!)

It was one of those magical experiences that you never forget,so soft and fluffy!  We had to hold Opal under her bottom because koalas have no rib cage so holding them under the arms like a baby to pick them up would crush their internal organs.  To pick them up from the floor you have to hold their hands and dangle them!

I was able to use some new supplies (Glitz Finnley from the S J Crafts sale) and some very old ones.  I've had those lime green Doodlebug letters since I started scrapping and the little koala button from even before that!  I threw in some new Project Life cards and some felt leaves and back gems - it feels great to use some really old stuff!

My travel album has kraft card stock on every page so as well as the background I used a couple of Tim Holtz die cuts from my ancient stash too.  

The page was inspired by this challenge from Shimelle using half page photos.  It's certainly larger than I normally scrap but not quite half a page.  

I've still got a few more to share but they will have to wait until later after I've travelled back from sunny Wales.  Yes it is sunny - it was supposed to rain hard all day here but it has been beautiful!

Bye for now
xx

Divided loyalties

Good grief the Spring is marching on isn't it?! One minute we were drowning in rain filled fields and overflowing rivers and the next minute the garden centres are sunny and crowded and we are awash with hayfever and the smell of cut grass.  It is nearly time for the children to go back to school after the Easter break and we've been away to Wales and I've been on a craft retreat too.  Of course now the house looks like a bombsite and there is a pile of laundry bigger than my mother so the house looks a far cry from the tidy pictures on the estate agent's website!  

The good news is that we have found a house but the bad news is that they can't find anything yet. So in the meantime I will cherish the space in my current craft room and try not to buy anything else to go in it!  It is very hard though when you come across wonderful collections like Homespun by Simple Stories.  I was immediately drawn to the variety of primary colours and sweet designs however, like many companies and collections these days, Homespun is designed with pocket pages in mind.  Now, I love using pocket pages for big events like holidays and Christmas but I don't want to use them for the every day stuff really.  Does that mean that we have to miss out on such collections or can we be a bit creative and use them for our standard pages too?  Let's see shall we?  

The Simple Stories divided pages come in a variety of styles so the collections are not just 3x4 and 4x6 journalling style cards.  I wanted to see exactly what I had to work with so I trimmed all the cut apart sheets in to their various pieces.  I went through and selected the ones I wanted to use as they were and kept these in a separate pile.  Any others were fair game for being used in other ways and this meant that I could fussy cut them, use them for layering, punch shapes from them, etc.  

Family

One of the first pieces that really grabbed my attention was this 6x12 woodgrain section.  The wording and design on the bottom make a great title and so another option would have been to use just that portion.  I love the whole piece though and I think it makes a natural home for the striking photograph.  I did a little photo shoot of my niece and her little boy so most of the layouts from that day probably won't have much in the way of journalling other than perhaps the first few.  

I really liked the eclectic bunting near the title so I used the matching design from the sticker sheet on pop dots for texture and interest.

My next use of one of the pieces was to make a photo mat.  I cut down the photo slightly to make it fit onto the standard 4x6 card but I wanted a second mat too.  Here's where you need to get a bit creative! I really liked the pattern on the card but I knew I wouldn't use the sentiment so I could cut an L shape to expand the parameters a bit.

I'm no good at sewing so this is the nearest I get to patchwork!  I added a punched shape, a sticker from the sheet and a heart from the chipboard sheet on one corner

To cover the other corner I used the same punched shape, some banners cut from the branding strips and one of the beautiful brads from the same range.

Elliot

There are going to be quite a few layouts from this little photo shoot so I like to mix things up a bit by using some A4 pages too - they fit just as well as any other page protector in my American Crafts D Ring albums.  For this layout I decided to use the 3x4 cards to make a grid of the photo, a journalling block and then 2 for decoration.

 I used a piece of red A4 card and cut out the middle to use as a mat for the whole grid to lift it from the beautiful floral paper.  The designs on some of the cards are so pretty that you really don't need to add much to them.  Here I've just extended the design a bit with a chipboard heart and a button tied with baker's twine.

I drew the design together by using another button diagonally opposite and used the stickers from the alpha sheet for the little title and mini tag.  Branding strips and thin off-cuts ground the design and then I finished off with some fun bobble trim.

So far then we've used a 6x12 piece as it is, used branding strips and off cuts and punched shapes from a "spare" card for embellishments, made a grid from 3x4 cards, used one as a journalling card, used one piece for a title, used another "spare" card as a photo mat.

But if you are still undecided about using divided collections on standard page then I still have 2 more posts to show you lots of other ideas too!

Bye for now

xx

WOYWW 253

Rushing in briefly to join in with WOYWW.  As you may have read last week we were putting our house on the market that day.  It sold in the first viewing!  We've since been rushing around to find a house for us and I can tell you that there is a real shortage!  People are fighting over viewing appointments - its a crazy time.  Add to that the school holidays, Miss Bella's 5th birthday and associated party, a trip to Wales, a craft retreat in the Cotswolds and now a poorly husband and you can see why my desk is not in use again this week.  I even rushed to take the picture and didn't check it hence the dodgy angle.

Because I haven't had much chance to prepare for the retreat and I can't spread loads of stuff out because our buyers are coming several times in the next couple of days, I am just grabbing large collections and a big bundle of photos and hoping for the best!  I can't train with the children off school either but I did reward myself with my previous hard work by purchasing the Project Life Jade kit to use with some of the camping photos from last year.  It doesn't go exactly with the Echo Park Happy Camper collection you can see just above it but it goes well enough that I think I can make it work.  Check back next week to see if it worked!  I've also got loads of DT stuff outstanding too but luckily the team is a bit bigger now so our projects can be spread out a bit and Sarah is wonderful at appreciating that life sometimes doesn't allow for crafting, no matter how much we would like it too!

Right, another play date beckons but at least the weather is dry enough for them to get out in the garden (at the moment!!)

This post is brought to you by the wonders of What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday.

Bye for now
xx

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

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

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

A Perfect Summer - Part 2

A couple of weeks back I gave you a few sneaks of some layouts I had made for S J Crafts using the colourful Echo Park Perfect Summer collection.  Here are those layouts in full.

I loved this fishy paper but it was still subtle enough not to detract from the photos.

I added some pop dotted stickers from the collection and some gems to look like bubbles.

I also fell in love with this pink woodgrain paper and I knew I wanted to use it as a whole piece.  It was perfect to go with the cherry print paper which led me to the photos of the Easter bonnet parade at Louis's school.

A few rub ons (really really old ones...) and a charm and that was about it!  I love how different it looks to the first layout even though it all came from the same collection

The following layout is going to go next to the one above in my album but its not strictly a double page.  I just wanted somewhere to keep the rest of the photos for that day which were not very good but held a lot of memories.

I was inspired by a Shimelle layout from her 4x6 photo love series and its a great one to bear in mind when you just can't face pages of dodgy photos ;-)

This last one (for today!) is one of my favourites from this collection.  Again I knew I wanted to use the sunburst paper as a whole page and just focus the design in the bottom corner.  The colourful papers in this collection are a great match for Bella's wet suit and collection of beach toys.

Again I used the stickers to full effect here and layered some of them up on pop dots.

I wanted to highlight the sun rays a bit more so I added some stitching which gives the layout more interest and texture.

This made a total of 6 layouts and I still had a good few bits left over.  Check back in a few days to see what else I made.

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 221

Its a wonderful Wednesday!  Time to hook up with lots of crafters from around the world and share your creative spaces.  Check out Julia's Stamping Ground for the blog hop list.  Don't by shy!

Thankfully there is a lot more creativity going on this week for me.  I've been working on a DT assignment using the lovely Echo Park "Perfect Summer" range which is quite apt for this lovely weather we have had this year.

I'm coming to the end of the pack but so far I have created 4 singles and a double and I haven't scrimped at all.  You can see I have more left to go too.

At the top of the pic you can see some bark that Louis insisted we bring back from Wales and he wants me to use it on a layout.  I'm thinking it might be good in place of a wood veneer if I can cut it nicely.  The little blue thingy under my scissors is my needle holder because I have been stitching on one of the layouts to outline the sun.  Here's a sneak peak.

Last week I mentioned my log of layouts which caused some consternation!  I have to keep a record of what I have made, photographed and blogged so that I don't blog the same thing or forget to photograph something.  Also when I've had times where I've not made anything, I can look at the log and find something to share.  I don't do them in order because sometimes I get backed up with DT layouts that might need to come before a group of layouts from a crop or be more suitable to a more current subject.

In the pile I found this one, don't laugh.  It was my very very first ever layout and I had no internet, no galleries, no patterned paper, no Pinterest, no sketches, nothing.

Yes folks, there are peel offs galore.

I also mentioned last week about how I needed to get sorted and several of you commented about your own desires to sort your craft rooms etc.  Thank you all so much for your support but I wish it was that simple!  My "sorting" is diet, depression, fitness, work, housework, etc.  I am hoping that I can really get a handle on things (which are all linked obviously) over the next few weeks with the help of Shimelle's Learn Something New Everyday.  If you are taking this class, please do say hi!

Bye for now
xx

Surf's Up!

Coming home from holidays is always very mixed for me.  I love Wales so much and it refreshes me like nothing else but it is lovely to be back in our own beds and in particular for me, back to my creative space.  I can write when I'm in Wales but I can't seem to create any art other than playing with my Promarkers when the children are colouring!

We had a lovely time and managed some horse riding, dolphin surveys, seal spotting, lots of walks and time on the beach and lots and lots of eating.  I even went fully into the sea which is unheard of!  Louis got a new body board for his birthday and both of the children loved splashing about in the waves in their wet suits.  Maybe next year I will be slim enough for a wet suit myself?!

Bella was able to wear Louis's suit from last year.  She's changed so much since her first little wetsuit at a year old.

I loved her in this pink wet suit so much!  I went a bit mad with the photos that year... maybe...

The gorgeous papers are from a 6x6 My Mind's Eye pad called Lime Twist I think.  I'd been dying to use this mermaid button for ages and this seemed like the perfect time.

And speaking of which, I think this is the perfect time for a cup of tea and a catch up with all my blogging friends.  I have well over 200 posts to read so I maybe some time but I will be there.  See you soon.

Bye for now
xx

Welcome Theo!

Happy birthday Theo!  My first Great Nephew is a year old today!  He is such a cheeky chappy, always on the go and loves to be centre of attention.  He flirts with people in shops and knows his smile can melt even the coldest heart and he uses it to his fullest advantage.  We don't get to spend as much time together as we would like because they live a couple of hours away but they are all very very precious to me.  This layout shows him at 4 days old when they finally escaped from hospital near their old home.  They stayed over at our place for a night before heading across to their new place but we were like ships that passed in the night because we were heading to Wales the same day.  It seems so fitting to be sharing this now because we are off to Wales again this very morning.

  

I was inspired by a layout on my Pinterest board but in my haste to get things sorted for the holiday I can't find the link!  I'm so sorry to whoever the original layout belonged to and I will find it and update as soon as I can.

I used the wonderful Studio Calico Snippets collection with some older Papermania letter stickers for a fresh and modern feel that seemed fitting to the new family.  Some funky turquoise washi tape completed the look.

I hope they have a wonderful day together and we will be thinking of them as we wend our way west to Pembrokeshire.  We're back in a couple of weeks so enjoy the peace :-)

Bye for now
xx

WOYWW 217

I try and take my Wednesday desk shot around midday on the Tuesday and this was what greeted me.  It was rather apt because after a very busy and interesting weekend, my head was as empty as my desk looks.

Sarah and I had a crafty sleepover on the Friday night and we had such a laugh when we found ourselves stroking papers with glazed eyes!  We followed this up with a crop with Artful Angels on the Saturday.  I went straight from there to a hotel for a night out with some old school friends and I was reminded that I am nearly 40 and not 18 any more.  I love to get dressed up and and go dancing but I can do without sticky dance floors overcrowded with lecherous drunks and all the other problems associated with drinking, such as a nasty fog for about 2 days afterwards!  The fog was such that I had forgotten about all my goodies from the shop at the crop!

Once I had had a cup of tea I decided to unpack my bag and coo over my new papers... stash diet?  What stash diet?  I received my current DT assignment which is the lovely Perfect Summer by Echo Park that you can see along the front there along with a pile of suitable ribbons and washi tapes.  The beautiful floral at the back is a full...ahem... pile... of Crate Paper's The Pier and just to the left of that is a few of the Hipster papers and stickers from Basic Grey.

I also treated myself to a new stamp set by Hero Arts.  Its a bit of an investment but you get loads of stamps in the one set and it will be great for divided pages and also some art journalling, which I am supposed to do regularly anyway!  I've now put them in my pile of things to take down to Wales and see if I can get some rhythm going there for journalling.  I get more inspired there to write and create than anywhere else.  I feel such peace and clarity there.  Heck, maybe I might even get some work done on my book!  (For those who remember my Open University Creative Writing course, I passed with a Grade 2!!!)

Not much peace and clarity here at the moment as we have a four legged house guest who is causing much excitement but is doing a great job of getting us out walking every day.  We are less than a week into the summer holidays and we are pooped already!

So I've shown you mine, now you can show us yours - whether it is a room, a desk, a chair, the floor, a trolley or your lap or whatever, we've seen it all, messy or not, well equipped or not, but its good to share.  Link up with Julia over at Stamping Ground for the regular desk hop around the world.

I think I might need another cuppa...

Bye for now
xx