Using up old stash part one...

I've been having a major sort through my stash during March. It started when I had to pack for the retreat (and then I hardly used any of what I took!). Last week I went through old kits and pulled out a pile of papers which I had long forgotten about and were calling me to be used. One of them is possibly my favourite paper ever which I've been hoarding for a 'special occasion': Sassafras, 'Piccadilly'. I am actually on a hunt for more of this paper if anyone knows of anywhere I can hold of some.

Anyway, armed with a circle punch, I went about using up my rediscovered papers to make this:


There's a challenge on the Sarah's Cards blog this month to create a layout from your old stash so I thought I'd play along. Everything, bar the photos and the little heart stamps, are things that I have had for ages (years in some cases).

The photos are from a couple of weeks ago when Evie plucked up the courage to have a go on the big swings at the park. Last summer she fell off and hasn't wanted to try again but lifting her in and out of the baby swings is getting quite difficult now so I was really pleased when she decided to have a go. She loved it and I loved watching her enjoy going higher and gaining confidence.

Riding around...

In one of last months' add on kits from Studio Calico there was a cute trike stamp. Unfortunately, it sold out before I got a chance to buy it but thanks to the generosity of Alexa, I am the proud owner of the stamp! I had the perfect pictures to go with it: Evie pushing Oliver around my Mum and Dad's garden on a trike.


The journaling was printed straight onto the cardstock and the trike and date stamps were double stamped with blue and black distress inks. I also used a few scraps of paper, some OA letter stickers, some brads, a phototurn and a sassafras flower.

(Please excuse the dark areas from the scanner not liking bulky bits)

My plan is to do another matching layout for Evie's album telling the story from her perspective.

Thanks for looking.

The annual tradition of the Mother's Day pictures...

Ever since Evie was born, we have had a tradition of taking a picture of me with the kids on Mother's Day. Evie loves having her picture taken so it's never a been a problem to capture us together. Oliver was still a baby last year and happy to sit on my knee and look in the direction of the camera.


This year was a different matter though. It was almost impossible to get Oliver to have his photo taken. So I made a layout with the 'dud' photos to tell the story.


The journalling reads:

We have a tradition of taking a picture of Mummy and you and Evie on Mother's Day. Last year when you were just a baby you happily joined in. This year though, was a different story. Mr Independent decided that he didn't want to sit on Mummy's knee, he didn't want to smile or even look in the vague direction of the camera. So yes, we did get some photos of the two of us together, but certainly nothing worthy of going in a frame! What I do have though, are memories of a lovely day out together, watching you play and laugh. Photo or no photo, we had a great time as a family and that's what really matters.

I used all sorts of things on this layout: old and new. The tags, dymo tape and journaling cards I have had for ages. The papers are newer, as is the jute which is one of my current loves.

I also played along with the '3 stamp challenge' over on the Studio Calico blog, using three of their stamps on this layout (the camera, the pointing hand and the 'Remember This Moment' images).


Evie, however, was more than happy to oblige with the photo taking and this was one of us during our day out at Chatsworth.

The journalling reads:

I love your cuddles and I love your kisses.

I love telling you that I love you.

I love hearing you tell me that you love me.

I love holding your hand.

I love it when you stroke my arm.

I love comforting you when you're sad.

I love giggling and rubbing our noses together.

I love all of these moments and hope that when you're a grown up, you'll still love having a mummy cuddle and still say 'I love you Mummy'.

I just love being your Mummy.

The supplies are mostly leftovers from the Sarah's Cards Retreat: pink Paislee papers, a Lily Bee Die Cut and some Fancy Pants acrylic shapes. The heart stamp which I got good use out of is from Studio Calico.

I have absolutely loved making these two layouts. Dipping into some of my older stash and finding ways to use it has pleased my creative side but actually getting the story down on paper is probably the most important thing to me right now.

I think that during my scrapping hiatus last year, I realised that the real life stories are what I really want to record and since discovering the 'Log My Memory' site and using their 'logbook', I have been recording all sorts of little gems of our daily life which would normally be forgotten in my logbook file. I've never been much of an 'event' scrapper anyway (I think I've only ever made one Christmas layout for example) but I am really making an effort now to put my thoughts and feelings down on layouts. Something that happened to me recently made me realise how grateful I am to have two such gorgeous children and a loving husband and these are the things that I want to get across in my scrapbooking right now too.

Well that ended up being a much longer post than I intended it to be! It's crop day on Sunday so I'm looking forward to more scrapping and maybe just a little chatting (although not too much otherwise I'll be in trouble for distracting Jen!)

H xxx

just stuff...

Not sure if this is worthy of a whole new post but I managed to stitch the two pages together although they don't quite line up properly - the ribbon continues across both pages in a continuous line in real life.

Cath asked about the date spots: they're from Elle's Studio here. I actually ordered some more bits including some stamps from there this week so I have enough to last for this year's layouts and maybe some to use to play catch up with last year. I haven't bought many new things in months (not compared to when I first got into scrapping and I went a bit kit mad!) but I love getting little embellishments like these that go with the (huge) paper collection that I already have.

One of my favourite other recent buys are punches. I've also acquired a Craft Robo in a die-cutter swap with a friend (hH T-L!) and need to learn how to use that now. Any tips will be greatly appreciated.

Finally, a plea! Does anyone know about html and can help me with some coding on my blog? Since I added the new theme, there doesn't seem to be very much spacing between the elements on the right side bar. It's been driving me mad trying to work out how to increase the spacing but I just can't do it so if anyone can help I would really appreciate it :D

Thanks for looking x

Project 12...

One of my Scrapping New Year's Resolutions was to take part in 'Project 12' this year and produce a review layout of each month. I have so many pictures on the computer that never get used and I thought that this would be a good way of making sure that the things that we do get recorded properly.

These are my January pages:




(they look better side by side!)

The supplies are mostly from the January Stucdio Calico kit with a few extras, particularly the journaling cards/spots from Elle's Studios. I tried to keep it simple and let the photos be the real stars of the layout. Each photo was numbered using some mini alpha stickers which relate to the journaling to explain what was going on. I'm trying to include a mix of 'events' and real life stuff too.

Need to play catch up now and complete my pages for February.

I wanted to also say thank you for all of the lovely comments that have been left. It's really spurred me on to keep the blog more up to date :D

Layouts from the Retreat...

Firstly, my versions of the layouts from Sarah's (Gertie) class. I have been in awe of her work for years so it was great to see how she puts layouts together. I absolutely love how these turned out. I've already used the idea of cutting the waste frame from a die cut out again; I would never have thought to do that before.

What has now become a bit of a December tradition: going to the Christmas Markets and eating big sausages!

'The making of the cinderella pumpkin' Two years ago it was Dora, last year Cinderella. I think I'll choose the character next time!

Next we have my interpretation of Lou's class. As I scrap in A4, I had to adapt the 12x12 classes. The 'ribbler' that corrugates paper is fantastic and has been used loads since the retreat weekend.

The photo is me with Evie and my niece at her Christening.

Lastly, a very poor picture of my layout from Rachael Elliott's class. Again, adapted to fit an A4 page. I was a little bit out of my comfort zone with the colours but I took so much away from this class: the swiss cheese effect using a hole punch (oh the jokes we had with Trina about exercising her limp wrists with her cropodile!), using a cotton bud to ink hard to reach areas and looking at patterned paper in a whole different way. I don't normally do cutting out of bits of the page but this class made me realise that there are so many useful bits that can be cut out to make embellishments.

Our first holiday as a family of four, July 2009.

I didn't know what to expect from the retreat but it was so nice to see new ways of using my stash and I've since used lots of the techniques on my layouts. I feel thoroughly inspired and fired up again for being creative and most importantly, scrapbooking.