Holidays in a Pocket - Part 3 - The Big Pages

Focusing on the big pages.....and my first single page (that follows on from all those rafting pocket photos) is based on the Scrap365 sketch this month.  I drew the circles in pencil and then had a go at a bubbly inky effect on my paper and pulled out some of the Kaisercraft journalling cards (here) which have beautiful aqua colours that went well with the picture.  I also added in a prima wood veneer which was in French :) perfect for this album and there blue ribbon by Websters and in the colour co-ordinated ribbon that Jill puts in our parcels.  There is some more journalling behind the photo in a glassine envelope - but you don't actually have to do so much on the single page as you have had loads of opportunity on the double page

so one more rafting shot using the co-ordinating papers in the Simple Stories range Good Day Sunshine- I love all the colours and wood in this collection - and it ties your larger pages in with your pockets too.  Another watery background - just with a water colour brush and some distress ink for the colour - the page doesn't get too wet when you use a water brush (honest - have a go :)).  I love the triangle designs that have been around and I layered up my papers with some lace and just distressed the edges.  A little more wood veneer and journal card for the main photo mat - there was so much lovely writing and beautiful geo-tag stuff that I cut some bits out with a craft knife so they could be on top of my pictures.

Holidays in a Pocket - Part 2 - Pocket Ideas....

So following on from my part one getting ready for pockets - here are some more pocket pages.  I like to use handwritten journalling, though you can type too.  In this page I have used a whole rectangle for journalling, but then I have also used little squares of white paper to add journalling directly to the pictures - I drew a little square around the edge to decorate them.  Stamps are also a lovely way to decorate your photos and pockets - I've used a little heart stamp on the bottom pocket, but there are arrows and speech bubbles and lots of stamps suitable for pockets especially in the Simple Stories range (here).

Even though it is a pocket in an album I like to make a title card for each page...these can be messy and splatty too...for this one I used gelatos and water and then some paint.  

Punching and the little geo-tags (which come in the embellishment pack from Simple Stories)....wood veneers come in useful too

Raid your supplies for those little embellishments that go perfectly with your journalling subject (cakes in this case)

Those little journal stickers that Simple Stories make are great as a little photo embellishment.

and the next pocket page - which forms part of a double with a single page I'll show you tomorrow.

Buttons and stickers that follow through with the colours on the page and in the title - don't be afraid to add them to your photos especially when you know you have a copy on your computer :)

Left over stickers from a retreat (bella boulevard) - I loved using the photo corners not for a photo but to emphasise the title

Holidays in a Pocket - Part 1 - Getting Ready and Making a Start

Hello over the next 3 days I wanted to do some post about using pockets, I focus on holidays - but any event - or just life in general can get documented in pocket pages and I think it is a great way of keeping photos out of boxes - as even the ones that aren't perfect for a single page can always be slotted into a pocket.  They are also a great way of documenting and journalling all the details too.

  There are quite a few systems for your pocket pages - American Crafts, Simple Stories and WRMK being some of the bigger ones - and their pockets all fit into the 3 ring hole albums - I like the big D-ring albums and have all 3 of those pocket insert makes in mine.

So...154 photos printed off 6 by 4 - I also got some big 12 by 8s too, Simple Stories Summer papers, and embellishment packs and die cut cards and I'm ready to go.

• I started by jotting in my notebook what happened each day (I did use the dates on the photos for this)
• Then arranged the photos in chronological order, I started to tuck the photos (even if they don't fit as cropping is an option) into my pockets.  I also used the large 12" pages and put photos that I wanted for single pages (generally favourites) in there.
• I bought Simple Stories papers that you can cut into cards, but they also do little booklets as well - so I cut these all out - when I bought the papers I made sure I got some portrait and landscape 6 by 4s as they are on separate papers.

• Dig out your scraps - as they are great for the little cards, stickers and any embellishments.

(I only ordered about the 1st 5 days of the holiday as by then I wanted to scrap - I will sort out the rest when I run out of photos)

little sticker/embellishment clusters (and this is cropped portrait photo so it fits in a landscape pocket)

You can cut a photo to fit across 2 pockets

Paperclips and sequins just to add a little bit more to the cards

....and the Good Day Sunshine Papers are here and Pocket Pages are here

Books about Town

Many of you who know me will know my boys and I like a good treasure hunt! We have followed many a map to find hidden places within our home City of London or further afield on days out. We have pursued Elephant statues, eggs, gorilla's and last year Gromit statues in Bristol. This summer we have filled a day or two following the Books about Town benches trail where a number of benches have been decorated to represent popular books including Paddington Bear, That's not my..., Terry Pratchett, Shakespeare and many more. Today we are off to Greenwich to complete that trail, but with many photos already taken on these days out I find myself looking for multiple photo sketches to inspire me to scrap them at a faster rate!

This page I created using October Afternoon Public Library papers (perfect for scrapping books!!) and I picked up a pin badge in Waterstones bookshop to use as well. I used my Canon Selphy to print four images to a 6" x 4" print so each of my photos measure around 2" x 3". I printed them with a white border and mounted a couple on foam pads. Adding a same sized double mounted journaling block completed the grid of 9 and the rest of the page I worked around these.

Many more layouts to follow of our Book benches trail, hopefully featuring less raincoats!!

Sticker Girl!

I love stickers, I love to layer them up, cut them up and use them in abundance.  If I were a scrapbooking super hero I think I would have to be Sticker Girl (although my husband calls me Gadget Girl but that's another story and possibly another page) and my superpower would be stickiness!

In July, Jill sent the DT some October Afternoon to work with and in my kit I had an assortment from the Public Library and Woodland Park ranges.  I was delighted to receive a beautiful Woodland Park sticker sheet and Woodland Park labels.

 

I knew I wanted to use as many as possible on one layout because they were so cute and was guided in my photo choice by the banner that said 'This is Happiness'.  I thought when are a couple of students more happy than out with their friends with a drink in their hands.

I wanted to show the stickers off to their best advantage and chose a piece of Kraft cardstock for my background and then adhered a piece of patterned paper onto my page, stuck my photo onto the middle of this and then 'stickered' to my hearts content.

 

If you were a Super Scrapbook Hero what would your name be?

Where do you get your inspiration?

A fairly un-crumpled and neat page from me today!  I love October Afternoons Midway collection - it is one of those collection packs where I love all the papers at least one side and on quite a few both sides!  I took the inspiration for the design for this page from the little polaroid camera that comes in the set:

I matched the colours to the rainbow stripes and cut then out of some card stock.  I then just layered up a few papers and lots of the stickers from the pack, the journalling is in a glassine bag behind the photo...and the photo is using another of those instagram filters - I love some of the effects!

Back to School

You may well recognise this page from our recent Cybercrop - it is one of my favourite ones of late and as many children will be getting ready for school and it uses a mist technique that I really like too I thought I'd share it again!

I started with my white card stock and then I tore an A4 sheet  into a wide V shape (I used 2 bits of A4 and mirrored the V with the other one) - as my A4 was a little shorter than 12" I just used scraps and then some light masking tape in a few places to stick the A4 paper in position in my pizza box (otherwise known as my mist protection unit!). I then used a 6" circle mask and placed it at the top part of my page and misted from the middle up, then mover the mask down to the bottom part of the page and did the same (any overlap is covered by the patterned papers).  I then layered up strips of the new October Afternoon Public Library papers, using some of the lovely stickers that come with it too like the pile of books and little tabs and stars. 

Another page I have used this sort of technique on is this one with some of Crate Paper's DIY Shop range

As Time Goes By

We have a favourite place where we like to walk with our dogs and it seems that we always go there when it is my birthday, in February, or David's birthday, in August.  We first went there when Gracia was only 4 and at that time we had two dogs.  David took a photograph of the both of us sitting on a log and 17 years later the log is still there and each year we try to replicate the photo as best we can. 

 I used October Afternoon - Woodland Park for my layout as the colours and flowery patterns were perfect for my subject.

I added a doily and some fabric tape from my own stash a beautiful hand made resin flower that was given to me by Tina at the last retreat.

 As everyone knows I am a 'sticker girl' so of course I used the co-ordinating sets of stickers from the range to add some depth to my layout.

I am now looking forward to 2018 when I can put together a layout featuring us when Gracia was 4, 14 and 24!

A Change Is As Good As A Rest

With all the fun of the Cyber Crop I enjoyed making my classes and having a go at some of the other classes. What I noticed is that everyone has their own style and that is reflected in the classes from each designer. This caused me to think a little more about my scrapping and also to challenge myself to inject a bit of novelty into my layout to make them interesting for me to make and a little different in my albums.

Today I am going to share three layouts, something they all have in common is that they all use non standard sized photos. I get almost all of my photos printed in 6x4 size from photobox, they store nicely, it is a standard size which works with Project Life or other divided page protectors and also lends itself to lots of design options when you are working on a 12x12 page. However, occasionally I want my photos in different sizes although they are often the ones that get printed and sit, unused, in my storage drawers!

At the end of the post I have added a bit of info on how to have these sizes printed if you are not printing at home.

This was the first one I worked on, it is very similar to my usual style but the photos are 5" square. This works nicely if you like Instagram which produces square images.

 

Next up a very unusual size, this photo is 1"x6" - these were phone pictures using the Incredibooth app which allows you to take photo booth style photos on your phone.

This layout also uses some die cut shapes (the heart and the "all my heart" words) which I cut on the Silhouette Cameo. To add shine to the heart I heat embossed it with clear embossing powder, I actually had a lot of fun with the embossing and carried it on in my next layout - as well as changing what I was doing in terms of photo sizes it was good to use a technique which I hadn't been using for a while.

 

For the last layout I used some of the lovely October Afternoon Public Library paper as a background but I wanted to make sure it didn't overpower the photo so I mixed a little white paint with some gloss gel medium and brushed it over the paper. This gave it a misty look so you can still see the pattern but it is muted down.

I added stamped images in black and painted layers of the paint and gel medium over them to blend them into the paper design. This allowed me to incorporate the swirly design where my journaling is and the signpost without the stamped images taking over the page.

Yes there is a standard 6x4" photo on there but it is paired with a 3"x12" landscape photo across the page (from a panoramic image I took with my camera although many photo cameras have a panorama option) I really like this long thin size, it sits well on the page and is great for scenery shots.

I was surprised and really pleased with the frame on this layout. I cut the frame out of regular kraft cardstock. To add texture I stamped various background texture stamps including a woodgrain, a grid, diagonal lines, and a grungy harlequin and splodgy pattern in black ink. I then covered the whole thing in versamark and heat embossed it with clear embossing powder. The embossing turned the cardstock into a lovely shiny deep wood colour which was far more effective than I had planned but I will definitely be making some "wooden" embellishnents this way using kraft, woodgrain stamp and punches!

 

On the photo above you can see the effect of the white paint and gel medium over the smaller photo. The gel medium retains the brush strokes which produces a lovely effect.

 

Above you can see a strip of 'birds on a wire' washi tape which I added to the page. I added a thin layer of the gel medium and paint mix. What is really interesting with this technique is you can build up layers to vary the opacity. The grey design under the birds was much darker but I applied two or three coats of the paint and gel medium before adding the washi tape so that the birds stand out a little more than what is behind.

 

For a more opaque white effect I dry brushed a little gesso over the top of the 6x4 photo before adding the camera washi tape. The white underneath helps to make the cameras stand out a little more.

 

 

 Getting Unusual Photo Sizes Printed...

If you print at home you are likely to have full control (within your printers capability) to print at whatever size you like. I personally get all my photos printed online at photobox, I know others use snapfish etc... These places tend to offer set sizes so to print your unusual size photos you need to find a work around.

I am not sure about other printing services but the simplest way (but not necessarily the most economical or artistic way) is to upload your photos as they are, choose a print size and click the "Shrink to fit" option. This will make your photo fit into the canvas size with a little left over on either top and bottom or left and right which you will trim off.

However this doesn't give you the ability to further crop the image in any way and limits you to one image per print which in the case of the more expensive 12"x5" panorama prints is a downside. If you have photo editing software though you can use a work around. It sound complicated to type out but is really very simple...

This is where the image resize and canvas resize functions will help you on your photo editing software.

For my 6"x1" photo:

• I used the resize function to make the longest size 6" to retain the correct proportions most photo editing programmes have a scale or keep proportions option, make sure this is selected.
• Use the Canvas Size function and choose 6"x4" and select ok
• This will give you your 6"x1" photo surrounded by blank canvas on a 6"x4" sized file. When you upload this to your photo printing service it will treat it as a regular 6"x4"
• You can extend this further and copy and paste multiple images onto the canvas so you can print 3 strips on one photo if you want to be more economical with your printing costs.

For my 12"x3" photo:

• Photobox offer a panoramic photo option which is 12"x5" this may suit your photo but if it is longer and thinner you may want a slightly thinner crop.
• Crop the photo how you want it to appear.
• Now resize the long edge to 12" remembering to ensure that the scale or keep proportions option is checked.
• Use the canvas size to change the canvas to 12"x5"
• Save and upload
• NOTE these sizes are more costly to have printed so if you are doing several it makes sense to try to fit two onto one canvas.
• I had a 12"x2" printed with a 12"x3" for example.
• To do this follow the steps above but when you get to the canvas resize you need to tell it to place the image at the bottom of the canvas (by default it puts it in the middle) in Photoshop you do this by clicking a position on a grid diagram in the canvas resize window.
• When you have your 12"x5" canvas with your first image showing along the bottom you open your second image in a new file.
• Crop it to the size that will fit on your first canvas.
• Now select all and copy (in photoshop the short cut 'ctrl a' selects all and the shortcut 'ctrl c' copies)
• Go back to your first file and paste (ctrl v in Photoshop)
• You may need to use the move tool to position the second photo along the top of the canvas.
• Save this as a jpeg and you can upload it to your photo printing service and hey presto!

For my 5" Square photos:

• Crop to square shape in your photo editing software and upload.
• At Photobox there are 5" square prints and 8" square prints.

It is important to check what sizes are offered by the provider you are using but you can adjust the instructions above to suit any sizes. Remember that the standard 6"x4" or 6"x4.5" sizes are always the cheapest so if you are doing lots then try to make your canvas size one of those sizes to avoid very high printing costs.

New Year New You - June & July

Well, we are over half way through the year and the effects of my efforts to make a new me this year are starting to show - less weight, fitter and a calmer new me!

In June, when the weather started to heat up, I realised that I didn't drink nearly enough water during the day and this resulted in me feeling sluggish during the afternoon.  So my resolve for June was to make sure I drank much more water and less caffine based drinks.

I swapped my 'first cup of the day and last drink before bed' for a glass of water and made sure I always had a bottle of water on my desk at work.

 

July saw the biggest change so far this year - the offer of a new Job.

I am swapping a 60 minute drive to work for a 7  minute one and as I start earlier will subsequently get to leave earlier and could potentially be walking back into my house two hours earlier than I do at the moment.

 It is a dream job, one I never thought I would be offered and it comes with the challenge of learning lots of new skills over the next year - can't wait to start in September.

This year seems to be shaping up quite nicely - wonder what August will bring?