Curiouser and Curiouser - A Scrapbook Page

I think this page is why I scrapbook. The photos taken of my son and granddaughter at Landmark, Aviemore are from 2014! Now that my granddaughter is an adult it is lovely to remember her when she was just fourteen. 

I put the layout, loosely based on a sketch from Scrap-A-Sketch, together from one of the kits I made up back in 2022 whilst preparing to move house. The plan was to use the kits in my spare time on a temporary table until my new craft room was set up. But to quote John Lennon, "Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans". Now I have a new plan to work through the kits, alternating with the pages I'm making for my 2024 album.

Materials are all old - from 2017 to 2021 - but I think the finished result doesn't look dated. Papers used are from Echo Park's 'Farmer's Market' & Simple Stories 'Simple Vintage Cottage Fields' collections. The flowers were fussy cut from one of the patterned papers. Embellishments from my inconsiderable stash!

The spatters, which can just about be seen on the background in the photo, were created with Heidi Swapp's Color Shine 'Citron'.

That's it for today. It's late and I need my beauty sleep, so I'll bid you all a good night. 

Elizabeth

Sunday Chat

Hello Everyone,

Happy Sunday to you all. I thought I'd start a regular post for Sundays to chat about what I've been up to recently. This week it just happens to be about scrapping from a sketch. 

I like using a sketch. They make a great starting point.  In particular, I'm a great fan of Lisa Sikorski's sketches - they can be found on her Scrap A Sketch Facebook group  This one is sketch is No.2. I've used it not just once, but twice. 

Our Sweet Kind Boy

Fresh Air

Seen together like this it's obvious I used the sketch both times. But different backgrounds, colours, patterned papers, embellishments and, of course, photos and each page looks completely different. 

I created the tags by cutting a variety of papers to size, rounding of the corners with a corner punch, and punching a star centre top ... the hole punch is still packed away goodness knows where! It's a trick that I often use when there's no suitable labels in my stash. 

Eventually each page will be filed in different albums so the similarity of the layouts probably won't be noticed. Not that it matters to me if they were - I'm just pleased to be able to use a sketch more than once. 

If you are a scrapper do you use sketches and, if so, do you use the same one more than once ... your favourites, perhaps? 

I have an evening of scrapping on my temporary workdesk lined up, after dinner, of course. And I'll be catching up with Strictly Come Dancing in Blackpool too ... hoping my favourites get through to dance another week. Can you tell I'm addicted? 

I wish you all a lovely week ahead and 'keep scrapping'! 

Elizabeth 

Scrappy Sunday - December Stag

Hello Everyone,

Hope you've had a good week. It's been an eventful one for us. Wednesday morning brought an unexpected call from the hospital asking if the EM could make it in that afternoon. He was being admitted to have his pacemaker fitted the following day, Thursday. He's been on the waiting list for some time now so he was there on time as requested. All went fine and he came home Friday morning. Although he is a bit bruised and sore and he has to behave himself for a few weeks I can see a difference already ... three days and he's zipping around like Speedy Gonzales - soon there will be no stopping him now!

Given the above, I've not been crafting but, in true Blue Peter fashion, I do have this card I made earlier.

Apart from the 5" square white card base everything else used was from these leftovers from making scrap pages.

One of the pieces of striped patterned paper was trimmed to create the banner and the two squares were cut from the red and brown papers.

The scalloped circle, the antler's head and the month were cut out using these dies. The circle is from a set from The Works and the stag's head is a Tattered Lace die.

The design was inspired by this sketch from Julee Tilman on Mojo Monday Card Sketch Challenge. Sadly, Julee is no longer running the challenge but the blog is still accessible ... it's so worth checking out for the many sketches and inspiration there.

I'm submitting the card to Di's challenge over at Pixie's Snippet Playground where we can now follow the adventures of the playground's newest playmate, Dudley. Seems he is giving Parsnip a run for his money! 

Have a wonderful week everyone,

You're Special and Love You ...

... Scrap Page and the Card Made from the Leftovers

This is the page that was lying in bits on my desk in yesterday's WOYWW post.

It's made using some of the materials I included in yet another kit made by shopping from my stash ... still trying to use up as much of what I've already got squirreled away in the craft room! A Laura Whittaker, Scrappin Around The Clock, sketch ... there's also a matching card sketch ... provided a great basis for the layout. The pink base cardstock is from American Crafts and the heart patterned paper is Ka-Zoo Small Hearts. The photos of my smiling husband were taken in 1995, in Barmouth in Wales not many months after we met. They are matted on to a scrap of paper found in the snippet drawer - maker unknown but I think it came with a crafting magazine.

I used a My Paper World stencil, 'Memories and Vintage', and Hot Magenta Gentle Blends to add this word at the top of the page. That's Bella Boulevard Washi tape covering the edge of the patterned paper and the dotty paper that is just visible on either side of the photos came from the snippet drawer ... I traced the scalloped edge using a Kiwi Lane template (Paisley Place Mini).

I found the title in a set of Wedding Words, Kanban, that has been in my stash for at least a couple of years ... I'm such a hoarder!

The heart embellishments were die cut (X-Cut Nesting Hearts) from a Becky Higgins Project Life Jade Edition card. I don't mind cutting the cards up as there are so many provided in the set. Two more cards were used for the cluster bottom left. The clusters are embellished with Card Candi from Craftworks, Sherbet Pips, and Fun Fair enamel dots.

And this is the card created with the help of the matching sketch and made entirely from leftover scraps and snippets.

I'm pleased how these turned out ... having the sketches to work from helped. Also being inspired by Use Your Stash with the Scrap Stash Kit Club March colour theme to make a kit up from stash I already have.

Here's a few photos of the kit I made up.

As it is made almost entirely from snippets,I'm submitting the card to Pixie's Snippets Playground - Week 170.

Thanks for looking.

Happy Crafting,

Wedding Anniversary Card

Afternoon Everyone

It's our wedding anniversary today - our 18th to be exact - and this is the card I made for my husband.

I used the topper because it would remind him of our dancing days together. Apart from being the EM, head handyman, under gardener, and general all round good guy, my dear husband is an accomplished dancer with certificates and medals for modern ballroom and Latin American dancing. Time and tide, or more accurately, arthritis has taken it's toll so, sadly, we no longer trip the light fantastic but it's nice to remember our nimbler days with this card :)

I've used this Sketch #72 from Sketch N Stash for the design and I rooted around in my stash for all the materials. The glittery background was created by covering blue paper with self-adhesive glitter film - a NBUS (see abbreviations on right) bought last year after spotting it on a card made by our snippet queen, Di ... that lady sure is responsible for an awful lot of my stash mountain :)

I've edged the topper with glitter glue and it's been dotted over the dancer's dress - honestly, there's more spangles on this card than you'll see on Strictly Come Dancing :)

I'm submitting this card to Challenge #143 at Sketch 'n' Stash - Choose a Past Sketch - I chose sketch #72

No big celebration today ... we had a fabulous day out on Thursday instead - but we did pop out at lunchtime for a Costa coffee and toastie. Never let it be said that we don't know how to live the high life!

Hope you have had a good day too.

Happy Crafting,

Materials used: one 8x8 square white card base; patterned papers - stripe and embellishments from Polka Doodles Wonderland (free with Scrapbooking Magazine), the dark pink one is from BoBunny's Ambrosia collection, the dark blue one had no details on it; self-adhesive clear glitter film; Hunkydory Decoupage Book for topper; Stickles Crystal glitter glue; Ranger's Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink; navy blue printed ribbon; peel-off greeting

Romantic Sweetheart Abbey - a scrap page layout

Hello Everyone,

It's another typical April day here in Ayrshire, sunny spells intermingled with showers - not bad at all. I hope you are enjoying equally good weather wherever you are and altogether having a good day :)

I've got a scrap page to share with you featuring a couple of photos of the beautiful Sweetheart Abbey ruins located in our neighbouring county of Dumfries and Galloway.

This Cistercian abbey was founded in 1273 by Lady Dervorgilla of Galloway in memory of her husband, Lord John de Balliol - founder of Balliol College, Oxford. When he died in 1268 the grieving widow had his heart embalmed and placed in an ivory casket which she then carried everywhere with her. On her death, she was laid to rest next to her husband’s embalmed heart and the monks named their abbey Dulce Cor (Latin for Sweet Heart)  in her memory.

This layout is based on this sketch for a recent challenge from Jill on the Docrafts site.

I intended submitting the scrap page for Jill's challenge but became ill and missed the date :( However, all was not lost ... I was able to follow it for the UKPC scrap page challenge instead. As you can see, I flipped the sketch completely.

I chose a green and yellow colour mix with just a touch of pinky red here and there to reflect the red sandstone of the buildings. Heart embellishments were a must and these were punched out of a scrap of yellow patterned paper. The co-ordinating paper strips were found in the scrap box too - giving me reason to visit Di at Pixie's Crafty Snippets Playground for the second time this week :)

And the reason for all the pretty layered butterflies! They are there to remind me that the day we visited the abbey the sun was shining brightly and lots of gorgeous butterflies were fluttering about, attracted by the many Buddleias blooming in a nearby garden. The effect was stunning. Sadly, none of my attempts to photograph them were successful.

Materials used: two photographs measuring 5.25" x 3.75"; Papers - Basic Grey Origins collection, Pebbles Sunnyside, American Crafts Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic, 7th & Sunshine, Pebbles Sunnyside 6x6 paper pad, various strips from scrapbox; Alphas - Papermania Alpha Minis Cardstock Stickers Fun Green, Jillibean Soup Alphabeans Blended Black; Tools - Heart shaped punch, Stampin' Up label punch; Embellishments - Pebbles layered butterflies, Papermania Happy Days Big Bloomers, Papermania Vintage Notes crochet flower, Teresa Collins Fabrications 'canvas' die-cuts, Teresa Collins Fabrications 'canvas' stickers, Riverbank Revels washi tape, Rubon Washi 10mm yellow dot, yellow pearls

Time for a lunch break ... I could do with a nice cuppa before getting back to the real task in hand ... there's a duster with my name on it giving me grief :))

Take care everyone and happy crafting,

Marriage in the Movies - a double page layout

Hello Everyone,

Well, it took me long enough but I finally managed to get some semi-decent photos of this double layout to show you. I could blame the poor winter light but I'd only be kidding myself - it's me, I'm just lousy at taking pics of scrap pages! Anyway here they are:

This is the page on the right side of the layout. The design is based on this sketch ...

... another one from Shimmelle's scrapbooking sketches series.  Because I added a second page, I changed the layout slightly by omitting the embellishment cluster under the two photos on the right side and added two to the second page instead.

It's only taken me just over two years, but I finally got around to scrapping the photos taken on our trip to the Museum of Costume in September 2010. As I did a blog post on the trip way back in January 2011, I won't repeat myself - suffice to say the bridal dresses in the exhibit were breathtaking :)

Here's what the two pages will look like side-by-side in the album.

The base is a smooth cream cardstock and most of the other materials, papers, stickers and the crocheted flowers, are from  Docrafts Papermania pretty Vintage Notes collection. I've used alphas from Pebbles ABC white stickers - coloured a toning pink with ProMarker, Blossom - Papermania Alphamania Stickers Curly Font Pink - a real lipstick pink - and  BoBunny Stickers Country Garden Tiny Type. Where I've inked the edges and stamped the word 'love' (from the American Crafts Dear Lizzy stamp set) I've used  Memento London Fog. The scalloped edged border was created with an X-cut edge punch and the wee heart in the top right cluster was punched with the Woodware small heart punch.

The cream trim and lace, buttons and flat-back pearls came from stash.

To my utter dismay, I have only just discovered that a decision has been made to close the museum ... such a tragedy.

On that sad note I think I will call it a day and get to bed. My bedtime reading, Bloodline by Fiona Mountain, is so good I'm finding it hard to put down :)

So, I'll bid you all a good night - take care everyone.

Cool Canopy Layout - the Hard Rock Cafe, Boston

Hi Everyone,

Hope you are all having a lovely Sunday wherever you are.

I've just been doing a bit of bird watching ... from the cosy comfort of my room because it's raining, again!!!

Right now there's a coal tit and a blue tit at the feeding station, and the little robin is strutting around protecting his patch from unwanted intruders :)

Before I was so completely distracted, I did manage to work on and complete this scrap page.

The layout is based on this sketch from Katy's Challenge this week, over on the Docrafts site.

The papers and the two gears used are all from the Papermania Chronicles collection and everything else was found after a search through stash ... in fact, some of the bits and pieces were pretty ancient!

I began by flicking two shades of shimmer mist, one blue/black and the other golden brown, diagonally across the page. Once that had dried the paper pieces were added. The photo is matted on to the same blue paper as the base.  Next, came the title. Oh, how I agonise over titles ... I wish there was an easy way of choosing them ... this one took me an overnight sleep to decide upon :)  The journaling came next and, because some of you like to know, it reads as follows:

"May, 1996. A long held ambition was to stand under this Chevrolet canopy - quite spectacular! The bonus that day was that there was a special convention taking place in the cafe and parked up, out of shot, were hundreds of Harley Davidsons."

Unfortunately, I cannot find the photo of the Harley's - they were an impressive sight. Sadly, too, that particular Hard Rock Cafe has now been relocated - probably to a better location - but the canopy no longer exists ... such a shame.

Anyway, back to the layout and the embellishment clusters ... the real fun part of putting a layout together. By a stroke of luck 'hard rock' can be found in the dictionary so I was able to include it with the word 'cafe' in the clusters.

All the other items were chosen for colour and shape.

Those music note stickers are ancient ... I think I bought that particular sheet of stickers four years ago. However, the sequin stars are even older - maybe thirteen years older!!!

Materials used: Docrafts Papermania Chronicles paper and gears; Alphas - Jillibean Soup, Alphabeans Newberg Navy & Chipboard Burlap; Shimmers  Cosmic Shimmer Mist Twilight Black & Luminarte Radiant Rain Autumn Leaf; Tim Holtz Black Soot distress ink pad; Embellishments - black/white music not washi tape, chipboard flourish and circle die-cuts, old dictionary pages, stickers by BoBunny (Happy Winter), Nikki Sivils  & Karen Foster (The Fifties).

Another photo scrapped and another page to go in an album - just a few thousand or so photos yet to sort through :)

There's a new version of The Lady Vanishes on the box this evening so the plan is to settle down on the sofa and catch up on a bit of crocheting whilst enjoying the show :)

Wishing you all a great evening and happy crafting,

February Flowers - Wednesday's layout finished

Hi Everyone

Hope you are well and gearing up to enjoying the weekend.

I thought I'd let you see the layout I was working on yesterday, now that it's done.

Apologies for the glare coming off one of the sequins - it didn't matter how I tried to photograph this page, there was always a glare coming from somewhere!

The layout is based on another of Shimelle's sketches.

With one or two little differences. For example, I've added two small embellishment clusters, top left and bottom right. Otherwise, the page is as suggested in the sketch. I've only recently discovered how helpful it is to work from a sketch ... can't think why I resisted it for so long :)

Materials used:

Paper - Docrafts Papermania Vintage Notes for the base and photo matting, Crate Paper Neighbourhood Collection, Echo Park This & That Border Strips 

Stamps - American Crafts Dear Lizzy set 

Inks - Momento London Fog, ProMarker Ice Grey 5 

Alphas - BoBunny Weekend Market, Adornit Carolee's Creations Tiny Sunshine 

Embellishments - Studio 490 Wendy Vecchi pink flowers, We R Memory Keepers Aqua washi tape, Turquoise sequins from stash

The photos were taken as we strolled through the garden at Culzean Castle last Sunday. It was a bright, sunny, day - perfect for flower spotting. First, we stopped on the bridge above to look down at the garden and the most heavenly scent of honey drifted up towards us - it was from the viburnum that you see in the top shot. Then down in the garden there was clumps of snowdrops everywhere, always a sign that winter's on its way out. But the biggest surprise was the single African daisy (osteospernum)! As the name suggests this is a flower suited to warmer climes and here it is flowering through out winter - this one has to be as tough as old boots to survive a Scottish winter :)

Time I called it a day ... got a date with the dentist tomorrow. It's just for a check-up but I still have to steel myself for the experience :(

Take care folks and happy crafting,