A4 Scrapping - Some Old Layouts

Good evening to you all,

I've been talking with a new buddy over on Docrafts - hi Jane - about scrapping, and in particular the different layout sizes there are, including A4. This does not appear to be a popular size page now but, as we get into the digital way of things, especially as there are many more CDs Roms becoming readily available, it could well become so. And, with the printers most of us own, the largest size of paper we can print is A4.

Oddly, when I first started making scrap pages, a few years ago now, I bought an A4 sized ring bound album just to practice with - I have absolutely no idea why!  I bought a magazine or two and they contained free papers, some cardstock, some ready-made scrapping embellishments and die-cuts, glue and scissors. That was about it, my total scrapping arsenal : ) Needless to say, most of my pages are simply not print worthy - well, I really hadn't a clue!!

The Cool Summer Time page above uses just one photo - a favourite taken of my daughter's two youngest having fun at the seaside. The backing paper was free, the yellow corrugated paper I used to represent sand is from a cheap pack bought at The Works and the die cuts came in a pack from my local craft shop.

This two photo layout uses yet more free paper and records the EM on his first trip to America. As you can see, he was really taken with this Boston police car. To fit the two photos in I went for portrait instead of landscape orientation. And, I made full use of some travel stickers bought from the local craft shop. I hadn't discovered the joys of Internet shopping, TV shopping channels and YouTube yet!!

This last layout is one lifted from one of the magazines. I thought it was a fun topic, very current at the time of making because it was in the national newspapers that a supermarket manager had actually banned a woman shopper from wearing them! I can see that I had purchased my first punch to make the flower, discovered buttons and discovered that my PC wasn't just for business - I could use it to print out the title letters : )

So there we are. A few of my first attempts at scrapping - well, we all have to start somewhere. I was still working full time then so had little time to craft. It was a stuttering start and it wasn't until I retired, had more time, converted my office to the craft space, had read a great deal more books and magazines, and became an avid watcher of demos on YouTube, that I moved on the 12" x 12" pages. And the rest, as they say, is history : )

Hope you enjoyed this wee trawl through my personal crafting history. If it has encouraged some of you to think that you might also like to have a bash at producing A4 layouts then I'm sure you will enjoy the challenge.

Happy crafting,

A Bunch of Magnetic Bookmarks

Good evening to you all,

I hope you have all had a better day than we have had here. It's poured down most of the day but the sun did sneak a look in later this afternoon which cheered us up no end.

A quick post, this one. The EM put in a request for a bookmark recently and whilst hunting round for ideas
when I spotted the lovely Di's at Pixie's Crafty Workshop magnetic bookmarks - you can see them here .

When I was thinking of how I could decorate the bookmarks and was sifting through my box of tiny stamps I decided I would take the opportunity to play with some of the many tiny stamps, the new ink pads and even some of the embossing powders that I had stashed away. So here they are, most sponged with Tim Holtz's distress ink pads or Big & Juicy pads and stamped up with stamps that were small enough to fit, many of them freebies from Craft Stamper but there are stamps from Crafty Individuals, Lavinia, Claritystamps, Stampin' Up, Tim Holtz, Nellie Snellen and even a couple of wood-mounted from Hobby Art - the 'Alan' and the aeroplane. The lovley pink embossing powder was a find at the SECC Glasgow  show (sorry no name on the jar and I can't remember on which stand I found it ) and the green one is a Sheena Douglass WOW powder. I won't list all the materials used for this - the list would be far too long - but I'd be happy to answer any queries.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will see that there are eleven bookmarks - I did make a dozen but the EM has already laid claim to the twelfth  - he's quality testing the product, of course :) Many thanks to Di for the gift of some of the magnets to try out - they are very easy to apply and work perfectly - hugs to you, you're a star!

That's it folks, happy crafting,

Week 13 Christmas Card - Robins + an April Rainbow

Good Evening to everybody,

 

 

I hope all you mothers, grandmothers, great grandmothers, foster mothers, and step-mothers have all had a wonderful day. It's been a great day for me, spent exactly how I wished and the sun has been shining here all day so it couldn't have been better.

 

This week's card was completed on Friday but I'm posting a bit later than usual just because it took me longer to sort out the photographs. And why is this you might ask? Well, it's because I've been practicing with my new camera - yes, a new camera. Perhaps because I was borrowing his new camera too often, the EM took pity on me and treated me to one of my own. Same make/model as his, a Samsung, but it's PINK! No question which camera is mine then : ) I'm chuffed to bits because it really is a step up from my old one.

 

Back to the card then. The starting point of this card was the Lili of the Valley cute square which I added flower soft too and edged with the Tim Holtz Fired Brick ink pad.

 

 

I've been playing with shrink plastic and for this card made a couple of robin charms. Until you try it out for yourself you don't realise just how much shrink plastic shrinks!! The first robin stamp I used was really too small but I've used it anyway.

The second worked out better but I had a bit of a disaster with it and somehow managed to break of the holed top while trying to attach it to the link for the charm. So I filed it smooth and used it as an embellishment anyway.

As is my usual I've decorated the inside

and the back.

Materials used:

• Cardstock: White card to make a 6” x 6” base card; dark green card for matting the topper
• Design Paper: Paper taken from Papermania, Henbury Lane, Poinsettia A4 Pack
• Robin charms: Bird stamps taken from Papermania Tweet stamp set & Sheena Douglass, A Little Bit Sketchy 2, Faith; Inkssentials clear shrink plastic; Archival ink pad, jet black; markers, red & brown; jewellery findings to make chain.
• Other Items: Lili of the Valley, Cute Squares, Christmas Animals; Flower Soft, polar white; Funky Farm Scrapbook Barn, green double stitched ribbon;  red die cut bow & sentiment from the Poinsettia A4 Pack, as DP; Wild Orchid Crafts, red mulberry paper poinsettias (CX-00032)

I wasn't too sure how this card would turn out as it kind of developed as I went along, especially with the disaster with the shrink plastic - a lesson learned!

To finish today here is a photograph of an April rainbow that appeared just in front of our house, taken just yesterday evening.

 Love rainbows.

Happy crafting,