Good Reads in July

i started off reading The Game of Thrones in July. A few of my friends had recommended it to me, had also watched the show and were all kind of obsessed with it, and i wanted to get on the bandwagon. So i was really disappointed when i couldn't get into it. i didn't really dig the language, there were too many characters and i couldn't keep up with the plot or figure out where the book was going! It got to the point when i was about 7 or 8 chapters in but didn't want to pick the book up and avoided it for a few days before deciding to give up on it altogether. i can't remember the last time i did this with a book, i'm not sure i ever have. Had i not been doing my challenge to read 25 books this year i might have persisted with it, but the book is huge and i had the feeling it would take me a while to get through it, especially as i had no enthusiasm for it. Who knows, maybe i'll give it another try at some point. Or maybe i'll just watch the tv series.

Then i started The Help and fell in love with the characters. i missed them when i'd finished the book which is a sign that it is a most excellent read. They were just so well written. And it's set in the 60's, which is a decade i'm obsessed with. i don't want to tell you any more about the book, just go and read it, please.

eBook winner

The winner of the Sassy Lil' Sketches eBook is...

Congrat's Olivia! Please e-mail me at alexa_gill (@) yahoo.co.uk so i can get the eBook sent over.

Elle's Studio Sketches

In order to make way for some of the fabulous new Elle's Studio releases i've been trying to use up some the stash of journalling tags i've got from previous releases. i didn't need to look far for inspiration because there's lots of fun stuff over at Elle's blog including weekly sketches!

i stayed true to the first sketch i used, i just flipped it. It's based on a layout by Lisa Dickinson, love her graphic style.

Tags: Elle's Studio, Mist: Studio Calico, Maya Road, Paper: Girls Paperie, Stamp: Studio Clalico, Ink: JBS, Tape: Martha Stewart, Other: Twine, Tiny Attacher.

i mostly used tags from Elle's Project kit here to document my favourite thing about summer: picnics on the common! Although there haven't been many this year because we are having a typically British summer ie. no sunshine. i'm rather enamoured with that Martha Stewart tape that i found in my local Hobby Craft, it's very Cath Kidston and therefore, very me.

Here's the second sketch i used based on a layout by Melissa Mann, i've yet to see a page of Melissa's that i didn't love! Her designs are so original and her pages are always so colourful and fun.

Supplies: Stamp: Studio Calico, Tags: Elle's Studio, Paper: Crate Paper, Echo Park, Stickers: Crate Paper, Alpha Stickers: Sassafrass, Mists: Studio Calico & Maya Road, Large Rik Rak: MME, Ink: Jenni Bowlin, Kit: February Add-On from Studio Calico, Other: Tab

i ended up going a little crazy with the mist here (i think i used 6 different colours!) but i ended up really liking it and the night was fun so it fits the page. 

And i loved this week's sketch based on a layout by Waleska Neris, whose pages i always adore!

Tags: Elle's Studio, Paper, Alpha Stickers:  American Crafts, Sticker: Crate Paper, Mist, Stamp: Studio Calico, Ink: JBS, Other: Buttons, Twine, Eyelets, Tab.

Oh Canada, how i miss you! Glad to have use for that lovely AC paper and i'll never get bored of this SC stamp, i think it's my all time favourite. i love that Elle's tags work well together even when they're not from the same collection. And they are so easy to mix with products from other lines. i've been challenging myself to use eyelets lately. i don't think i've touched them since 2005 but i've managed to get them on 2 layouts in the last week and managed a grand total of 4 on this layout!! Have you been using any of your old stash lately?

Don't forget, there is still time to enter the Ebook giveaway!! i'll be drawing a winner tomorrow. 

Shimelle's Blog Party

If you're part of the scrapbooking community you'll probably already be aware of the Blog Party Shimelle hosted last weekend & what an awesome girl she is for organising such an event. Last year's was a lot of fun so i tried to complete as many challenges as i could this week. i think 6 pages in a week is some kind of record for me!

Chop Your Paper Challenge

Paper: October Afternoon. Transparency: Hambly, Alphabet Stickers: Sasafrass, Stamp & Mist: Studio Calico, Ink: JBS, Punch: Martha Stewart, Other: Embroidery Floss, Tiny Attacher

Oh my, how that OA paper scared me! But i was determined to use it. Given that i am not much of an embellisher anyway you'd think this challenge wasn't too hard for me, yet i still couldn't resist adding some hand stitching, stamping and misting. Photos taken with a disposable camera. 

Add to the Story Challenge

Paper: Studio Calico Advert, Stickers: Jillibean Soup, Chipboard Button; Maya Road, Frame: K&Co. 

Above is a layout that i did last year. To add to the story i used an American Crafts divided page protector to include additional photos and journalling. This is something i do a lot in my travel albums. 

Half A Page Challenge

Paper: Crate Paper, Basic Grey, Brads: Basic Grey, Stamp: Studio Calico, Mistable Trim: Pink Paislee, Mist; Studio Calico, Tag: Elles Studio, Alphabet Stickers: Sasafrass, Other: Twine, Eyelet, Tiny Attacher, Kit: Studio Calico, Boardwalk

This is also something i do naturally on my pages from time to time, but i struggled to fit in my journalling on this one so i ended up hiding it away on the Elle's Studio Tag. 

Grid It Up Challange

Paper: Pink Paislee, Other: Twine

Does this count as a grid? i'm not sure. i felt that the paper i conveyed the theme on this page well enough to manage without any photos. 

Bingo Cards & Butterflies

Paper, Button, Sticker, Bingo Card, Journalling Card: Jenni Bowlin Studios,Tape: Pink Paislee, Stamp, Veneer Stars & Rub-Ons: Studio Calico, Ink: Staz-On, Other: Twine. 

This challenge was to draw inspiration from the page that Shimelle posted. i also used a Bingo Card as my base and framed it with tape, like Shimelle did with paint. To carry on the old photo theme, i used a polaroid stamp. As for the butterflies, i'm afraid it's quite tricky to work those into a Halloween theme.

Hot Pink Hoopla

Paper, Chipboard Aphabet, Doilies: Cosmo Cricket, Alphabet stickers: Sasafrass, Stamp: Studio Calico, Ink: JBS, Stickers: Do Crafts Tape: American Crafts Other: Embroidery Floss

i figured hot pink would be fitting for these pictures of a girls night we had recently. And p.s. Kool-Aid works well as a mixer ;)

Sassy Lil' Sketches Ebook

i'm excited to let you know that i recently contributed to my first ever Ebook! It's no secret that i LOVE working from sketches, so this was a fun assignment for me! And Cherie's sketches are very versatile.  To purchase the Ebook just click on the image above. Here's the official low-down:

At Sassy Lil' Sketches, we are happy to announce the first Sassy Lil' Sketches Ebook has been released!

The Sassy Lil' Sketches Ebook features about 70 brand new sketches designed by Cherie Averill.

You'll find sketches for layouts with one, two, three & multiple photos, you'll even find double page sketches Plus, sample layouts from talented designers that will spark your creativity!

Most of the sketches use standard photo sizes (4x6, 5x7, 8x10). To get extra mileage out of the sketches, switch it up! Use the sketches to create cards, double pagers, etc. If you need ideas for "switching it up", check out the cards in the Sample Layouts section or stop by the Sassy Lil' Sketch blog on Saturdays.

The Sassy Lil' Sketches Ebook is available for online viewing or you can easily download and print it.

Visit www.sassylilsketches.com to get the Sassy Lil' Sketches Ebook & get scrapping!

And the extra fun part is that i get to give away a copy of the Ebook to one of you guys! yay! Just comment on this post letting me know what sparks your creativity.  You have until next Thursday to enter. Good luck!

Getting creative with twine

You may have noticed that this year i've had a slight obsession with twine and it's made it's way on to most of my pages. Last week's challenge over at the SC blog was to use twine on a page and tried come up with a few new ways to use it.

My standard favourite thing to do is just to add twine as a border and use my tiny attacher to adhere it to my page. With this layout i did just that but tied on a few extra bits of twine to change things up a bit.

Paper:  MME & Hambly, Twine: MME, Alpha Stickers: Studio Calico & Sassafras, Mistable Trims: Pink Paislee, Brads; Basic Grey, Mist: Studio Calico, Other: Tiny Attacher, Kit: Studio Calico Boardwalk

For this page i made hoops of twine. It's really easy. Just wind your twine around a circular object. i used an egg cup, but you can use something smaller or larger depending what size you want your hoops to be. i wound mine around the egg cup about 5 or 6 times and then secured it by tying it with more twine. i used a liquid adhesive to attach to my page, but you could also sew them on. 

Paper: Basic Grey, MME, Crate Paper, Twine: MME, Stamp, Mist: Studio Calico, Alpha Stickers: Studio Calico, Sassafras, Border Sticker: Sassafras, Other: tiny Attacher, Kit: Studio Calico Boardwalk

They're messy and imperfect, but that's ok with me!

i really really love this kit! When i first saw the colour combination i knew it would go well with my New Zealand pictures so i'm trying to scrap with some of the 4x6 photos i already have printed. i am so used to scrapping with smaller pictures these days, i'm struggling a bit with the size, but i'm determined to use them!

Going Postal

The fabulous Julie has been running a series lately called Going Postal. You can check out all the details in this post, but here's the gist:

Over the last month there have been giveaways, free printables and wonderful projects shared, based on the postal theme and you should definitely hop over there and check them all out. Julie also set up a Pinterest board to house all the projects. Lot's of people have got involved with this one and there are many inspiring projects from scrapbook pages to jewellery!

i've got lots of postal themed stash in my supplies so could easily have knocked up something new but i wanted to share with you one of my more unconventional scrapbooks. Most of you will know that i embarked on a round the world trip back in 07/08. Living out of a backpack i couldn't really haul scrapbook supplies around with me so i had to come up with other ways to record my memories. i had a travel journal (actually i ended up with two because the first one got full) which had pockets in for saving tickets and other memorabilia. i've referred to that a lot over the years when it's come to journalling on my scrapbook pages, but that's quite personal so it'd never been shared with anyone.

Something i can share with people though is my book of postcards. i picked up a postcard in every town or city i stayed in and wrote my thoughts about the place on the back. The good, the bad,  what i did, who i met.  There's not a whole lot of room for journalling so i just wrote down a summary, what stood out to me the most about a place and it's nice to have that snapshot to look back on.

i carried each of these postcards around with me on my trip with no idea of how i would display them. And then on my second to last stop, in Chiang Mai, i came across the perfect house for them. It even had the exact number of pages for the postcards i had collected. It was serendipity.

Each page is clear so you can see the front and back of the postcard.

What i like about it is some of the postcards are of things i might not have taken pictures of myself. And i've included some random details in my journalling that i might have otherwise forgotten. Like how in Tokyo everyone dresses their small dogs in designer clothes or how i had to dodge a dingo when going to the toilet in the bush on Fraser Island or how stinky Wai-O-Tapu in New Zealand is, or how Koh Tao Island in Thailand is full of people covered in bandages because the roads and hills are so dangerous for mopeds.

It may not have lot's of pretty papers or embellishments, but it is full of memories and so in my eyes it is a scrapbook. i hope this will maybe inspire you to include postcards in your future projects,  maybe the next time you're on a trip you'll send yourself a postcard?

August Scrap Rat JBS Mini

So i already mentioned how much i loved the JBS Haven papers in this months Scrap Rat kit. What spoke most to me about them was the theme of home. i've been meaning to document our apartment since we moved in over a year ago so this seemed like the opportunity to pull that together.

The mini is a real mish mash of the JBS papers and some of the vintage papers that came in the kit as well as some 7gypsies paper and even the packaging that came with the 7gypsies labels! i printed my photos really small so i could fit a couple on each page if i wanted to. Not many words here, mostly pictures & that's ok.

The New Girl

i started a new job at the beginning of May. A new path for me... it was a scary decision to leave my previous job but it just wasn't a good fit for me any more. i had thought i would stay there for many years, for a long time i was happy but my last 6 months with them were incredibly stressful and took a terrible toll on me. So it was time to move forward.

Paper: Girls Paperie, Tags, Girls Paperie, Elle's Studio, Mist: Maya Road, Chipboard Alpha: Girls Paperie, Rose Button and sequins: Girls Paperie, Velvet Flower: Maya Road, Other: Tiny Attacher.

So far things are going really well. i am working with a great team, everyone was really friendly and supportive from the get go. It's a relaxed environment, which is ideal for me. The company genuinely care about their staff & i have witnessed this in many ways. i think that's a rare thing to come by in these hard times. i also work on flexi-time which makes things a lot easier for me. i've just had my 3 month probation review last week and it went well so i thought i'd let you all know about this new journey ( i made this page a few months ago). In all honestly it's not exactly where i'd like to be in life, working in an office makes me feel suffocated. i think that's the creative, free spirit in me. But for now this is my everyday 5 days a week.

You can't see too much of it, but in case you're wondering, this outfit is typical work wear for me. We're not under any pressure to dress super smart, we even have 'casual Fridays' every week. But i feel more in the mindset for work if my outfit is a bit fancy and professional. And if i can work in a vintage piece like the blouse above then all the better. 

My Bavarian Aventure

Confession: by the time i had written this post i had no enthusiasm to edit my photos. Second confession: i never had any real desire to go to Germany. Which is saying something, cause pretty much everywhere is on my 'must go to' list. i suppose i often overlook Europe as the weather if often too variable (as we experienced) and it's SO expensive these days. As it happens though my dad is based out there this year for a work project and so the opportunity arose to visit.

On my previous travels i've often encountered a lot of prejudice towards the Germans, which is a real shame. i had the good fortune to work with some German people on a contract i was working on this spring & my experience is that they are friendly and helpful, and this is also what we encountered travelling in Germany. i think their bluntness can be mistaken for rudeness. They just don't have the time for small talk which is ok with me because i can't stand it either! Somehow it doesn't seem to matter what they are saying to each other, it seems like they are angry, which can be quite amusing. But as i say, i've never experienced anything but niceness from Germans.

We stayed just outside Munich, it was about a 20 minute tube ride into the city centre. Their tube system is really efficient. Marienplatz is the old town and the architecture is beautiful there. i'm surprised that so much of it has survived.

There are cool buildings pretty much all over Munich.

Near to where we were staying was the Bavarian Film Studios, the biggest studio in Europe. Being the film geek that i am, i couldn't miss out on the opportunity to do a tour. It's a working studio, and Germany's major tv channel film a lot there, so the only way to see the place is on a tour and they do an English one once a day. Our guide was hilarious. We ended up doing the tour with around 40 American Exchange High School students who totally didn't get his sense of humour, which just made him all the more funny. There's a 4D cinema experience and the tour lasts about 1 1/2 hours. Quite a few major German films have been made there including Das Boot, and The Baader Meinhof Complex. Probably the most well know English Speaking film to have been made there is The Never Ending Story. And i got to ride Falkor the luckdragon! heeee!

The convenient thing about having a British passport is that you can travel through Europe without any hassle. And so we took a day trip to Austria for the day. Much to my despair the main point of the trip was to do a Sound Of Music tour. Urgh! i may love films but i do not like musicals! Take me to a theatre to see one, when they're on the big screen they are just too cheesy for my taste. She Who Must Not Be Named was desperate to do the tour and Dad expressed an interest to so i was dragged along. i'd never even seen the film so watched it a week or so before our departure and it was as hideous as i had expected. Knowing this you think i would have remembered to take my iPod on the tour with me, but i didn't. Massive fail. They played all the songs and the tour guide tried to make us sing along. As much as i despised being on the coach, it was rather lovely to see the Austrian countryside. And we did get to spend some time in Salzberg too which is also very beautiful. Although they are a little crazy about Mozart there and totally pimp him to sell anything from chocolate to umbrellas!

One of my favourite things we did on the whole trip was go to Neuschwanstein. It's the castle that Disney based Sleeping Beauty's castle on and it is magnificent. It's in such a beautiful area and there's an entire resort built for it, which is quite quaint if you ignore the tourist shops. There are actually two castles there, the first King Ludwig lived in until he was 17 and the second he had built but only lived in it for 172 days before his mysterious death. 


It's a total tourist trap, but it's bearable. The only way to see the interior of the castles is to do a guided tour, which they are very strict about the timings of. If you ever end up going there, pre-book or you tickets. i am so thankful that we did because we avoided an hour + long queue. They are both over the top ridiculous inside, the interior of Neuschwanstein is entirely based on the music of Wagner. But the tours are interesting. You can't travel in Bavaria without noticing how crazy the people are about King Ludwig. It's surprising that over 100 years later he is still so dear to people's hearts. 

Being a vegetarian i found it quite difficult to find food that didn't involve meat in the land of the sausage. i basically lived on pretzels, cheesy pasta and potatoes for a week. They also like their food really salty! But i did become obsessed with Spezi, a mix of coke & oranegade which strangely tastes like neither. 

Yes this is a chocolate covered pretzel! And no i couldnt' eat it all!

So that just about sums up my Bavarian adventure. Germany was nice but i think i would have liked it better if there had been some more sunshine. Austria on the other hand, i adored and would love to go back! i now have dreams of living in an Austrian house in the countryside and prancing around in traditional dress all day :)

August Scrap Rat Kit Layouts

It's the first of the month which means kit reveal over at Scrap Rat! When i first received this month's kit i tweeted about how in love i was with it. i do feel like this kit was made just for me! There's lots of navy in there and some JBS plus the vintage items this month were lovely and there's also some lovely crochet flowers from The Craft Garden! i love the Mini Pattern & Accessory papers from the JBS Haven line, and had lots of ideas for them. i think i'm going to need more sheets of those and i never buy more then one sheet of any paper!

Kit's are available now can be bought here.

i adore this picture of my mum in her twenties. i loved the pattern on the back of this playing card but wanted to use the 'B' too (my mum's name is Beverly) , so i just decided to cut the card in half so i could use both sides! i decided to use the 7gypsies stickers as a border here so cut them in half and lined them up the edge and added some hand stitching.

This dot paper from Echo Park was a bit intimidating to me, i'd usually just use strips of a bold pattern like this but i wanted to challenge myself with it. i decided to use it as a backing paper and added 3 of the 7gypsies stickers to create a visual triangle and then cut out the silhouette ladies from the JBS Accessories paper. i also added a few red dots by stamping the end of a pencil with distress ink.

i'll be back with some of my other projects during the month but you can check out my gallery here and also see what the other ladies did. i've also got a tutorial coming up on the Scrap Rat Blog later in the month so keep an eye out for that!