Monday 26 August 2013

Scrapping the Everyday

Another page documenting my everyday.  This time I chose to scrap a page about my laptop as I would be lost without it.  I spend way too much time on it looking at Facebook, Pinterest and Instagram and therefore I feel it should get the recognition it deserves!

For my journaling I wrote a letter documenting how without it my work and crafting life would be sadly lacking and far more difficult. I drew around a Graphic 45 pocket to make one out of the Fancy Pants paper I was using and tucked my letter in there.

Dear Laptop
We have been together for a number of years now and I just wanted to let you know how much you mean to me!  We share all my secrets, you know my passwords and just how much time I spend on Pinterest or Google.  The times when you get ill and have to go away I am lost without you and count the hours until your return.  You are always so helpful when I am doing the paperwork for David.  I cannot imagine life without you now as we spend way too much time together.  We watch films and surf the net looking for things that make us smile or even cry.  You hold so many of my precious  memories in the form of photographs and without you it wouldn’t be as much fun keeping in touch with Gracia when she is away in Newcastle.  Our little skyping sessions are a life saver, if not for  you I wouldn’t have met any on-line friends and then turned that friendship into a real life friendship.  You help me to keep up to date with what is going on in their lives through blogs, facebook and Instagram and I just don’t know how I would cope without being able to email all the time.

I know our time together is limited as you are getting older and slower and we both get frustrated by your inability to keep an internet connection going but I hope that we will make the most of our remaining days together and that we will be just as happy as we’ve always been.

Much love

Karen xxx

I used both the full size papers and 6 x 6 papers from the Fancy Pants Park Bench range for this page.

Would you be lost without your connection to the cyberworld?

Friday 23 August 2013

Another Project Life Spread

This layout spread will go opposite my Vernazza layout which I posted on Sunday. The photos on this page and those from Vernazza were taken on our 11th Wedding Anniversary. I used this side to tell the story of our day before we got to Vernazza and hint at the train trouble we had (the train we should have got was delayed then cancelled but with no signs we, along with a lot of other people, got on the next train assuming it was our delayed train - it wasn't it was a high speed train back to La Spezia!) but I left the full details out, instead focusing on the fact that we didn't let it spoil our day!
 
 
Because this was going opposite the Vernazza layout I did try to pick out a few similar tones so selected the peachy orangey spotty card and also used an offcut of the red I used in the Vernazza layout to make the punched heart on the top left card - this matches the punched heart on the Vernazza layout.
 
I just realised I photographed this before I rounded my photo corners to match the Project Life cards but you get the idea!

Wednesday 21 August 2013

Say Cheese!

The new Simple Stories collections arrived yesterday and I couldn't wait to get scrapping with these new products.

I think you can see from this that you could definitely use these products for non Disney layouts, none of the products I have used work only on a Disney theme. Of course we are just back from a Disney cruise so I have a fair few photos from that to scrap!

 
I am already playing with a few more bits from the Say Cheese collection for some character layouts :)


Monday 19 August 2013

June Blog Participation Prize

Apologies, in my "Getting Ready For Holiday" haze I didn't post this at the beginning of July so I am doing it now.

I put the comment numbers into Random dot Org and it picked...



...Number 1 which was this comment from Jackie Pocock

Beautiful card Mel.
ReplyDelete

Jackie we have your email address so I am emailing you over your £10 shopping voucher, thanks for taking time to comment on the blog :)

I will do the random draw for Julys winner in the next week or so and remember there will be a draw for a prize for August comments too, we love to hear your feedback and interaction on the blog.

Sunday 18 August 2013

Using Up Vintage Stash!

By "vintage stash" I actually mean some of the products that have been sitting in my storage for far too long! Spurred on by my use of the 7 Gypsies gaffer tape which had been languishing in my tapes draw for several years I decided that I needed to use up some more older stash on this album as well as using my new Project Life stash and the Simple Stories "Say Cheese" which I have ear marked to use once it arrives!

This layout uses some very old My Minds Eye papers from their 29th Street Market range circa 2007 ish I think (so older than my youngest child!) along with a slightly newer script background paper also from My Minds Eye.


I also used some of my trim collection add to the layout. I am dreadful for acquiring ribbons and trims and never using it! I don't like faffing about sticking it down but I do find that I am better now I use the red terrifically tape to adhere it so it actually stays where I put it!

I'm not sure if it was the pleasure of creating just because I wanted to, because the photos reminded me of one of my favourite moments on our holiday or even because my scrap desk is clear for the first time in forever but I really enjoyed myself scrapping this last night.

Friday 16 August 2013

Recording The Conversations That Make Me Smile!

The first regular layout I have made with my holiday photos really has very little to do with the holiday itself but more about a funny snippet from Isabelle which I wanted to record.

In Villefranche we spent a little time browsing in the market and strolled around the town but it was our first day, we were tired and really hot so we only stayed ashore for a while before making our way back to the port building to wait for a tender boat back to the ship.

In the port building in Villefranche there is a large illustrated map of the area. Isabelle spotted Monte Carlo on the map and it made me laugh that she thought it was a really famous place because it was in the film Madagascar 3!

So here is the layout I made to record this:


I managed to use some old 7 Gypsies Gaffer Tapes which in spite of their age I still love! Added to that there is some Crate Farmhouse, Stamps from Pink Paislee and letter stickers from Simple Stories Sn@p .

Wednesday 14 August 2013

Playing With Project Life

Well I am back and finally unpacked. I started editing photos the day we got back and I am still working on it. I have approximately 2500 photos (obviously they won't all get edited, uploaded & printed)

Something that has occurred to me after many holidays is that I only scrap a small percentage of the photos from any given holiday. In the past I have put the remaining photos in a separate regular photo album. The problem with this is that they are not seen together. I did think of using the divided page protectors to add photos to the album but that just seems a bit out of character to go from a carefully put together and embellished page to a sheet of 6 photos on their own.

So this time I am planning to make an album with a mix of layouts and project life style divided protectors with photos and journaling that would otherwise not make it onto a layout.

I have been loving the look of the Project Life kits we have in the store and decided to take the plunge and buy a Core Kit (I ended up going with Honey) some 6x4 cardstock to match and a pack of the 3x4 grid cards for extra journaling.

Honey Core Kit
Honey Cardstock 6x4 pack
Grid 3x4 Cards
 I have actually been tidying and reorganising my scrap space so I haven't scrapped a layout using my holiday photos yet, however I did decide to put a couple of Project Life style pages together to start my album off. The first page uses the cards in the kit which are marked on the back as being for the front page. However I added the title, cameras, red circle with a star in it and the date.

One unexpected bonus I discovered was that the colours in honey go really well with the sn@p products from Simple Stories, the lettering is done with the Sn@p alphabet stickers.

 
So on the reverse of the front page I used photos we took at the airport. These are typically photos which would not get a layout to themselves. It was so quick and simple to select two cards which I would use for journaling, a title type card and some patterned cards. I wanted to pick out the orange tones from the Easyjet plane and my t shirt in the photo so used cards and stickers with some orange in them. 
 

It was really quick and simple to make but has enough embellishment that it won't look out of place in an album full of layouts.

I intend to get the rest of my photos printed and make a few layouts to get an idea of what I will have in terms of 12x12 pages and then identify where I can use the divided page protectors to add in photos and journaling in this quick and easy style.

Tuesday 6 August 2013

Another Place in Time layout

I'm back again with May's page this time.
There seem to luckily be nice things happening each month for me this year and one of them was that we had a new addition to our family in May.

He is a gorgeous Sable Sheltie, we already have one and when I heard his owner was looking for a new home for him I was there ! He is settling really well and has fast become part of the family.

My page is in some of my favourite colours - lilacs and purples.
I love the little postage stamp squares that are on the sheets for each month - I always try to use them somewhere on the page. I need to get on and finish June's now as it's August already!
I hope you like the page and I'll be back with June soon
 

Friday 2 August 2013

It's a Stick Up!

I have to say that I really am a sticker girl!  I love ranges that have lots of sticker options and then buy the stickers to compliment the papers.  In fact I have a whole RUB box with just sheets of stickers in and it is always the first thing I pack when I go to a crop.  I love the letters, shapes, icons and just the shear variety and endless possibilities that a sticker sheet can offer.  I like to layer them on top of each other, cut them in half and use one half on one side of my layout and the other half elsewhere.  I could go on endlessly about the virtue of having a full sticker box!


I will leave you with a layout I made for the July Gallery using Bo Bunny Prairie Chic and for this page I wanted to use the stickers as frames for my photos.  See the possibilities are endless - as I said!