Love for my Mamma

Paper, Stickers, Brown Alpha Stickers: Sassafras Lass, Blue Alpha: Cosmo Cricket, Stamp: Studio Calico, Butterflies: Jenni Bowlin

It's my mamma's birthday today. She's the most amazing mum of all time. i'm sure most people think that, but mine really is. She is so generous and caring and selfless. She has done so much for my sister and i and we love her forever and always.

Halloween is my favourite

i've mentioned before how much i LOVE Halloween. You know how in the The Nightmare Before Christmas the town Mayor starts planning the next Halloween on the 1st of November, and freaks out when they realise Jack has gone missing and is all like 'We've got to find Jack! There's only 365 days left until next Halloween! (364)' well, that's me. At least that's what one of my friends suggested this last December when we were watching it.Yep, i'm a total Halloween nut.

Papers, Stickers: Girls Paperie, Stamp, Mist: Studio Calico, Buttons & thread: own stash

i usually start planning my costume months in advance, sometimes i'll make it myself but last year i found a costume on-line that i loved and had to have. One of the advantages to forward planning is that the costume is much cheaper to buy in August then it is in October! So i don't feel too bad about buying an outfit that i'm probably only going to wear once. What with Halloween not being such a big deal here on our little isle it can be hard to find themed scrapbook supplies. i'm not too into theme scrapping anyhow, and i HATE purple, which most Halloween themed lines incorporate. i generally just try and make do with what i've got in my stash but last year i did manage to get some cuuute SC pumpkin stamps that Laura kindly picked up for me and the yummy papers from Girls Paperie which i've used on the layout above. The other day i was working with some Mix & Mend from Sassafras, designed by the fabulously talented Michelle Clement (who by the way has collaborated on another collection, which i'm soooo excited about!) and i noticed that the colour scheme would probably work for a Halloween page, so i got to work.

Papers, Stickers, Orange Alpha: Sassafras Lass, Green Alpha: Basic Grey, Mist, Stamp: Studio Calico
Photo Credit: AveryFineDesign

The banner stickers that Sassafras started releasing as part of their collections last year are one of my go-to embellishments these days. i love to cut them up and layer them, it's so simple! My favourite part of them are the leftovers though, the bits that weren't necessarily intended for use. And this line with all the stitched details and walnut ink splotches means all the hard work is already done for you, love it!

In other news: Remember that 8 is enough post i did last week? Well i failed to mention that each month you can enter to win a kit from Studio Calico and a gift certificate for Ella Publishing. And on Tuesday i had an e-mail from Angie Lucas to say that i was the January winner!! i am beyond excited!! Check out the lovely things they said about my layouts in this post! If you'd like to enter email entries to submissions@ellapublishing.com, with “Eight is Enough” in the subject line. e-mail pictures of all four of your layouts (each sized to 800 pixels tall maximum), plus a picture of your eight original supplies, and an explanation of how you stretched each layout. What are you waiting for? Good luck! 

Have you seen this layout?

Papers: Sassafras Lass, Cosmo Cricket, Stickers: Sassafras Lass, Tape: American Crafts, Buttons: MME

 A few months ago, i was hugely inspired by a layout in this post on the Sassafras blog by Elizabeth Kartchner and decided to scraplift it. The layout didn't feel complete without a few splotches of mist on it though and i was still awaiting the delivery of my Mr Huey's, so i decided to put it aside until i had them. Well the layout seems to have gone walkabouts because i have looked through all my albums and turned my studio space upside down looking for it, to no avail. Annoyment! My studio isn't even {that} messy! Luckily i'd used the layout when i was testing my scanner so i still have a copy of it, but i'd really rather have the original, so i can finish it off. i have no idea where it's gone! i suppose you've got to laugh about it...someone please tell me i'm not the only one this has happened to!

8 is enough!

Surprisingly, it is actually more than enough!

If you haven't heard about Ella Publishing then you really must hop over there now, or after you're read this anyway. i totally love their ebooks, they are super stylish, affordable and packed with lovely things by awesome designers. One of my favourite purchases from them was the Eight is Enough ebook, which some of the Studio Calico Designers worked on, and i would highly recommend it. The idea of the book is to choose 8 products and make 4 pages from just those 8 products (but basics like cardstock, pens and trimmers are allowed extras). i decided to take up the challenge. 

These are the products i chose:

Papers: October Afternoon & Studio Calico (kit exclusive), Stickers: Studio Calico, Ribbon: My Minds Eye, Brads: American Crafts, Buttons: Making Memories, Mist: Tattered Angels.

and the B-sides of the papers look like this:

My approach was to pick my supplies and then chose photos to go with them from the hundreds that i already have printed out. i tried to pick colours that i knew would go with my travel photos as i have an endless supply of them, and i figured i'd find this easier if my photos had a common theme, so i went with the blue/cream papers. i then picked out the red to change things up a bit. i liked that the Dear Lizzy brads also had a pop of yellow in them too. Got to love how most manufacturers produce double sided patterned paper these days. Have you been scrapping long enough to remember the days when patterned paper was just that - paper? The thickness of paper and only single sided, say WHAT?! How times have changed. My favourite paper, which i could easily have used on every page was the graph paper from Studio Calico. It came in the Granny's Cupboard, but luckily for me it also appears in their Documentary collection on the B-side of Window Seat. i've already bought quite a few extra sheets of that, it's so usable. Originally i had picked out some cream alphabet stickers and i was planning to change the colour of them with the mist if i wanted to, but i went for the Studio Calico Anthology stickers instead, two different font options and plenty of stickers. i did a title on each page and i never ran out of any of the letters, although i did have to improvise a little bit towards the end :)

In all honesty i didn't think i would find this challenge all that hard because i am not much of an embellishment girl, i love my buttons, brads and ribbons but i can leave all the other pretty things if i need to. And i did find it easy to work with just those 8 products, in fact i didn't even end up using the mist at all on my first 4 pages, so really this post should be title 7 is enough! But i was really surprised at just how far i could stretch my patterned paper and how few embellishments i ended up using. i always knew i had a simple style but i don't think i realised just how simple. So i had a little look through my albums and my favourite pages design wise, the ones i was instantly drawn to, are definitely the uncluttered ones with lots of white space. And don't get me wrong, if you are a scrapper that uses lots of embellies & layers then power to you, i just can't seem to pull it off. The pretty paper and bits are fun to play with, and i DO love the creative process, but when i look over my pages it's the photos + journalling = memories which mean the most to me. So from now on i'm going to try and focus on a more simple approach (although this won't help in my never ending quest to dwindle my supplies!). 

Here's the first page i did:

i kind of scraplifited myself for this one based on the page i did here, but flipped it. i sometimes like to play with angles when i'm shooting photos but it can make scrapping them a bit tricky, so i just opt to scrap at an angle too. 

Page 2. 

The 'freebies' like cardstock came in handy, because it meant i could introduce a whole other colour without using any of my eight supplies. Sneaky! i cut out the patterned paper behind the photo to stretch the paper that bit further. i really like the ribbon on ribbon here. This picture was taken at Lake McKenzie on Fraser Island in Australia. 

Page number 3. 

This is where things started to go a bit pear shaped. i actually redid this page. Not entirely, but where the map paper is now on either side of the photo, i originally had crammed in loads of buttons in an attempt to try and use them all up.

It was just too much, so i cut the layout to pieces, re-jigged and reassembled with the patterned paper in place of the buttons. i also moved the journalling because i wasn't happy with where it was. i am not usually one for re-doing layouts, i'm normally a 'it's done, move on and stop fretting' kind of girl. i can't think of a time where i've done it before, but i was not happy with the way it looked, it was bugging me so i had to change it. i'm happy with how it turned out in the end and i'm glad i re-did it.


Page 4.

i knew some of my Tokyo pictures would go well with the red October Afternoon paper,  and i used the quote paper on the reverse to mat the photo and i also cut it so that i'd preserve the 'sweet memories' quote. 

At the point where i'd done 4 pages i still had lots of paper scraps left + a whole load of buttons, brads and a few bits of ribbon. i didn't want to put the scraps back into my stash so i just carried on making more pages.These pages actually came together the quickest, i think i am more productive when i have less product to work with!

Page 5.

i was annoyed at myself for not using the mist so far. There's so much you can do with mist, i love to spray it on my background card, have fun masking with it, but it's also great for changing the colour of stuff too. i ended up using a few splotches of it on this page, but not much. It's funny because it seems every page i do at the moment has a load of mist on it, but i obviously wan't feeling it for these pages. i tend to have 2 styles of pages, the simple linear/graphic style and the artsy/messy style with little bits and pieces here and there. i like to flit between the two. That's what i love about scrapbooking, that there are no rules! If i chose to have mist as one of my 8 products again, i'd really challenge myself to use it lots of different ways, i was very lazy with the mist this time around!


Page 6.

Photo Credit: Miss

This page came together easily as it was just a case of messing around with the scraps that i had left. i also used some of the packaging from the MME ribbon in the top right hand corner.

And last, but not least: page 7.

Photo Credit: Miss

i really didn't have much patterned paper left at this point. i originally had this picture on my desk intending to do a page about the gig we were at when it was taken. But the October Afternoon map paper i had left over made me think of our life living in our town within a city, so i decided to scrap about that instead. i used some Co'ordinations Cardstock the wrong side up to add a bit of texture. There is minimal product on this one and it was so quick to make, but it turned out to be one of my favourite layouts of the bunch.


i really loved this challenge, it forced me to look at the supplies in a whole different light. i didn't work on these layouts consecutively, i just worked with this 'kit' when i felt like it. My pages came together quite quickly as i didn't waste time faffing over which products to use, and i am all for that. This would definitely be a great way to go if you are someone who goes to crops. The double sided paper meant i had 6 different patterns to choose from so the layouts didn't all end up looking the same. i'm pleased also that i didn't just end up doing travel layouts so it means these will be spread throughout a few different albums. Anyway, i'm sure no one is ever going to look through them and say 'hey, didn't you already use those papers and stickers on another layout?!'. Heeee! All in all, it was a great exercise to use up some stash, so i think i'll try and do it every month or so. Next time i think i'll pick some embellishments that i'm not so comfortable with and see how i go!

Anyone else given this a go? Link me up if you have, i'd love to see!

ETA: i am thrilled to announce that i'm the January winner for the 8 is enough contest!! Check out the lovely things they said about my layouts in this post! If you'd like to enter email entries to submissions@ellapublishing.com, with “Eight is Enough” in the subject line. e-mail pictures of all four of your layouts (each sized to 800 pixels tall maximum), plus a picture of your eight original supplies, and an explanation of how you stretched each layout. Good luck! 

My Friend Across the Pond

i loved last week's SC Sunday Sketch based on one of Stephanie Howell's layouts.

Sketches are a great starting off point for me. i love the creative process but sometimes it's fun to let go of the pressure of designing and just follow a sketch, it certainly takes me less time to put a page together!

i've had this photo sat on my desk since December (although it was taken in 2007 and yes it's not a particularly flattering one of either of us!), waiting for me to tell the story of Dianne & i's friendship. Then as i was sorting through supplies i came across the Jet Set paper from the SC Documentary line & knew it would be perfect for this page. 

We met on the first day of my round the world trip, in Tokyo. i'd already been out on my own to visit a temple and met a (hot) Aussie guy, who had been very friendly to me. The chap had told me where he was staying and said if i wanted to get something to eat later then to ask for him. However, one of the last things my mum had said to me at the airport before i left was DON'T TRUST ANYONE (i think by this she meant men), and this was still ringing in my ears. So i decided not to go, and headed back to my hostel. Then i sorely regretted not going to meet him because i didn't have anyone to eat dinner with and frankly Japanese blew my mind at that time, i didn't know what any of it was! It was very quiet back at the hostel but Dianne was in my dorm and i got chatting to her so we went out for dinner and that was that. i couldn't have struck it any luckier because Dianne's grandparents live in Tokyo and she can speak Japanese, so she was somewhat of a tour guide for the next few days. i'm sure that i would not have had such a fantastic time there if it wasn't for her, the underground system is terribly confusing, she took me to some pretty cool places i would never have found on my own and steered me away from the oddest foods. So for that i will be eternally grateful for. Not only that, but Dianne has become a wonderful friend. It turned out we had lots in common, we both love photography and have similar taste in books, she is always recommending things to me (i usually have to wait a few months for them to be released here though!) and i in turn tell her about the latest British indie music she needs to check out. She visited me back in 2008, coming in August hoping to catch the British summer, but typically it rained the entire 3 weeks!  Unfortunately i haven't had the pennies to go and visit her in Washington yet, but it's on my 'to-do' list, i would be there tomorrow if i could! We keep in touch over e-mail, facebook and skype (but not as often as we'd like) and we instantly fall back into our friendship, i really feel that i can tell her anything & she always gives me wonderful advice. Plus she sends me the most amazing happy mail, full of scrapbooking stash and  Reeces pieces! My heart is full of love for this girl! It's about time she was scrapbooked. 

In other news i went to see The King's Speech last week. i go to the cinema a fair bit, but rarely mention it here. i urge you to go see this movie! It is hugely entertaining, sad and funny. Colin Firth's performance is outstanding and he deserves all the awards he's been nominated for! i LOVE awards season!

My camera broke (insert big sad face)! It needs a new circuit and will cost about £150 to fix!! i think it will be cheaper to try and get a second hand body instead, so i'm keeping my eye out. i'm feeling very lost without it! Luckily, my flatmate has a camera that she never uses so i'm borrowing that for now. Don't think i'm going to have many pictures for my Document 2011 project for January though!

Also, i am very confused about all this Zodiac nonsense, apparently i'm an Ophiuchus now, what?!? i have a phobia of snakes, so this can't be true!

i love to hear your stories

Another page made with the SC Metropolitan kit, the colours in it are amazing, i think this is my favourite kit since Granny's Cupboard and i am kicking myself for not picking up extra SC paper, i am in love with the Sassafras exclusives, and i've nearly used up all the entwined blooms too!

i was inspired to make this before Christmas after spending the afternoon with my Nan, but the only photo i could find of us together is from 2008 (check out the blonde hair!). i really enjoy spending time with her, she makes me laugh so much! She entertains me with stories about my mum & her siblings when they were growing up, about the early days when her & granddad started going out, and about growing up in the war as the oldest of 10 kids! She has lived a rich life & i love to hear about it & i know she will not be around forever to tell me stories, so the time i do get to spend with her is cherished.

Projects for 2011 + My OLW

First off, Happy New Year! (yeah, i know i'm a week late). i hope you and yours are healthy and happy in 2011, that's certainly what i'm hoping for myself this year.

i am not one to make New Years resolutions. My philosophy is, if you want to change something, start now. But i am a lover of making goals, for instance i have my 30 things before 30 to work on. i have also put together a list of things i'd like to do locally this year and there are a few projects i want to work on in 2011.

Last year i did so many fun things but i hardly documented any of them! This was mostly because i didn't print any photos in the latter half of the year. i'm kind of mad at myself about this. i also wasn't the best at taking pictures in oh-ten, i was trying to live more 'in the moment' but honestly i missed taking photos and having them to scrapbook. Also, my printer/scanner hasn't been working for the last 6 months which was problematic and meant that i couldn't scan in my pages.

This week i did a huge order at photobox (they had free delivery and a half price offer on 5x5 & 5x7 prints). i loathe uploading and ordering photos, it's so time consuming (which is why i put it off for 7 months) but nothing inspires me more then a new stack of photos. And i ordered an all in one wireless printer. i'm so excited about this! i'm really hoping it's going to motivate me to scrapbook more because i'll be able to print the occasional photos at home, which i think will make a huge difference. i'll be able to scrap memories nearer to the time when i've made them or as the inspiration strikes for a page, go take a picture and be able to scrap it straight away!

It should also help me with Ali's One Little Word class that i'm taking at Big Picture. You can read all about Ali's One Little Word project here if you're not already aware of it. The last time i chose a word was in 2007. That word was Adventure. It helped me keep focus and i really did do a lot of adventuring that year! It encouraged me be more open to new experiences and people and it was a fantastic year.

Note to self: Make more space for word stickers in your life.

This year my chosen word in Magic. i recently asked a friend if he believed in magic. 'Magic is a gimmick' he replied, he believed in the concept of magic but realised the practicality behind it. 'i believe in magic' i said, 'it's otherwise know as love'. 'Love is a feeling or emotion, whereas magic isn't' he said. My response to this was: 'Love is much more than just a feeling or emotion. And magic is greater then trickery.' This i truly believe.

To me, magic and love go hand in hand. Love is the whole purpose of life, love IS pure magic. The connections we make with other people, that's magic. Magic is the feeling that anything could happen. Magic is excitement, possibilities, fun, adventures, happiness, the feeling of being alive, you can find magic in most things if you look hard enough. That's what i want more of in my life, i want to sparkle again. i have some fun things planned for 2011 but i really want to open my eyes to the magic of the every day. i did not love 2010 and i really want to love 2011 with all my heart, so i'm going to have to focus on making it a magical year.

The ticket/washi tape/button embellie combo in the top right hand corner of the photo was lifted from this layout of Kimberly Neddo's.

i believe in the power of words. i have certain words tattooed on my body which have great meaning to me. i have them posted around my bedroom. i constantly write quotes down and lists and goals. i read and absorb. Words have an effect on me, they inspire. i'm looking forward to inviting more Magic into my life in 2011 and the OLW class is one way of being more aware of it and documenting my journey along the way.

i'm also planning on doing a Document 2011 project, summarising each month of the year. Which will hopefully make me take more pictures and actually print them. i wasn't aware of Shimelle's Document 2010 project until a few months into the year, so i didn't partake but it's something i want to embrace in 2011. i'm super inspired by Laura's post here showing all her Document 2010 pages.

Another challenge i've set myself is to aim to read at least 26 books this year, because i haven't been making enough time to read and it's something i really enjoy. At first i thought about trying to read 52 books in a year, but there's no way i'd be able to read a book a week, so i decided to set my goal a bit lower and try for half as many, a book a fortnight is much more achievable for me. And i took the time to sign up for goodreads last night too as i've been meaning to do that for about a year (procrastinator, much!).

So, what are your plans for the new year, any projects under way? i'd love to hear about them!