Ali Edwards "A Week in the life"

I posted over on our Facebook #ATDML group about this project.
Ali Edwards has been doing this since 2005 (I seem to have missed it each year despite the fact I have been scrapping since 2003!)

So take a look at her thread here about it and see what it is all about and more can be found here.

If you fancy joining in just take a bunch of photos for 7 days and then more will follow on the creative process she promises.

Here is a glimpse at my day 1 yesterday.

Ali Edwards sums up her Monday here. Have fun if you are joining in!

Scrapping a Keepsake

Another project I did using the Teresa Collins Papers for the September gallery was designed, not around a photo, but round a tiny heart locket. In October 1987, Jonathan and I got together for the first time and his first present to me was a tiny silver locket and matching earrings. I might wear the earrings every now and again but the locket is not really my style any more. However the locket is still very precious to me so I wanted to create a project to look after it and display it. In my stash I had a small printer's tray kit which I decided to use for this. I painted it with black acrylic paint and used the Teresa Collins papers and some white card to decorate the box before adding the locket, some photos of us when we were 17&18(!) and some other small embellishments...

 

Details including prima roses on the front...

 

Inside the box...

 

My locket...

 

The back of the box...

 

Why not have a look for a precious object that you can create a project around?

 

Oh - and happy 27th anniversary Jonathan!

Star

This is a page with a mix of Daily Stories (the mint green days of the week paper) and Teresa Collins new range Something Wonderful which is where most of the embellishments and the triangle paper come from.

I would have split my pages in 1/3s but I didn't have enough of the triangle paper left, so I just went with what I had as it looked ok.  I used one of the Teresa Collins File Folders for the photo mat, so you can lift it up and journal underneath.  I then set about embellishing the photo with some cotton, brads and stickers from the same range and then I noticed that the Joy wood veneer from Prima's optimist collection went really well with the greys in the photo and papers.  

It's Raining

In my heart ? On my parade ? No - Cats and Dogs
As soon as I saw that Graphic45 were bringing a range out with dogs on I was there with my laptop waiting for it to pop up on the website..
There's a range of stamps too..
My first layout is one with my son and our oldest dog having a cuddle on the sofa and our other sheltie laying on the bed after flying up the stairs at 100 miles an hour in the morning to come and say hello

 

Now not being one who has cats I don't get the opportunity to scrap pictures of them.

But on holiday recently there were some cactus gardens at the bottom of our villa and a certain little Siamese ( I think ) used to come and take shade under the cactus every morning. He was very cosy under there and although a bit wary of me he still stayed. 

So this was a perfect photo to use for a 'cat ' page !

These as always are gorgeous papers and I can't wait for their new range 'Time to Flourish' to come out which is like A Place in Time with calendar pages !

How Low Can You Go?

Least month, the ATDML DT were sent some Teresa Collins to design with - 'oh poor you' I hear you cry!

It is no secret that I love all her paper ranges as they are so versatile.  In amongst my pile of goodies was this sheet of die cuts  from the Memorabilia range and

 

this sheet of paper from her Something Wonderful range

I loved how these went together so well even thought they were from completely different ranges.

I raided my stash and added a doily, a black tag, 5 pearls and some washie tape and was able to make this layout.  So taking into account that the paper (which is weighty enough not to need cardstock behind it) is £0.85 and the die cuts are £1.85 the cost of this layout come in at well under £3.00 -  Teresa Collins is not only beautiful but you can use her to do a little budget scrapping too.

 Plus I still had some die cuts from the sheet to use on a card

and on another layout!

Get out of your comfort zone!

Anybody who knows my scrapping style might know that I normally use lots of product with all  the edges inked, layered up on tons of foam pads and my layouts are usually so lumpy and jam packed that they don't always go in an album. I rarely embrace white space and find it hard to be a 'clean' scrapper. At the retreats, I often hear people in my class saying that they don't want to ink and distress everything and I sometimes try to encourage them to step out of their comfort zone and give it a try. So, I thought - time to step out of mine for a while.
So for September's design team work with Teresa Collins papers I decided to use white cardstock backgrounds and try to do clean and (almost) flat layouts.

In this first Layout, I wanted to put a border round the page, so, to keep the layout clean I did this by scoring from the back of the paper to give an embossed effect... (and look at all that white space!!)

In this Layout I used a patterned paper border and highlighted it by ruling a line around it. In this one I kept everything flat and simple and tucked a journaling card behind the photo ...

 

In the last example, instead of my usual haphazard way of packing elements onto a layout I decided to make my page very straight and ordered. This way even though there are a lot of elements on the page I still end up with quite a clean look.

 

 

So- off you go, stock up on some white 12"x12" and have a go at some clean scrapping...unless this is your normal style, in which case get your ink out and I'll see you at the retreat!

 

Travelling Goods Mini album

This is incredibly photo heavy...but here is the mini book that I made with the new travel collection by Graphic 45 - Come Away with Me.  I love mini-albums but I wouldn't say they were my strength - which is also why I love to have a go at a few in classes when I go on retreat...and this album is based on one of Jane's classes last Christmas time - she taught us how to make a pop-up album...mine isn't pop up, but the construction is the same, and I used pink and green card stock.

I love the cards with travel quotes that come with these papers, and as they were pretty and pink and blue I added doilies and some prima wood veneer flowers...as well as plenty of the co-ordinating Graphic 45 chipboard pack.

A little bit of punching and some banners also on this page.

I had a middle page where I tried a few pockets - the right hand side just has a slip in pocket that I popped a photo in, and then the left hand side is a pocket page with tickets sticking out the top for my journalling.

Here is the other side of the pocket page, and some more 'view' photos from our holiday.

I used a twine circle and then on the other page layered up some Websters pages lace in with punched paper and washi tape.

The final pages with more journalling and a little pocket for a journal card, and more doilies and lace.

New Year New You - August and September

Well here I am again with another couple of pages from my mini album - cant believe that it is October and almost a year since I first thought of doing this project.

August saw one of those serendipitous moments!   I was driving to the Shrewsbury Show with Gracia and lamenting about my lack of eyebrows - due to taking Thyroxin on a daily basis and having an underactive Throid. I  said I had noticed the length had really reduced over the last couple of years and I felt I only had really short eyebrows.  I didn't want to go down the road of drawing them on and looking like Groucho Marks.  We hadn't been at the show for more than 10 minutes when I was approached by a lady offering to 'do my eyebrows' for me.  She had stencils and powder and once done they looked a normal length and colour - of course I would have paid any price for her little kit and although it was quite expensive it has changed how I look and I am now very happy with my new eyebrows.

As I mentioned previously I changed my job, starting my new one in September.  This has changed my weekly drive to and from work from 370 miles to 35.  Also as I work an 8 to 4 day I now get home two hours earlier that before.  This means that I can resume Zumba classes that I loved but was unable to muster the resolve to go to after a 10 hour day (once you include the driving).  I found a new class more local than the previous one, a new teacher and as one of my new work colleagues lives a couple of minutes walk from the class a new Zumba buddy.

Hope your August and September have been eventful ones - in a good way of course.