Little Miss Scrapper

Project 2012 - Week two...

2012-01-23T10:36:00.001Z

So here's week two of my 2012 album. Definitely settled on using a page of 6x4 mini-layouts per week and adding in extra bits in smaller/larger page protectors. I feel like this is an achievable amount for me each week.

A couple of close ups of some of the sections:

So far, I've been focusing on the highlights of the week but would like to include some more of our routines and the 'normal' things we do.

Thanks for reading.

Siblings...

2012-01-19T21:08:00.000Z

Before Christmas, I started this layout but it sat unfinished until yesterday. A photo of the three kids just being themselves, playing in the lounge, last summer. It made me think about how close they are and my journaling reflects on this.

You love being together, playing together, cuddling up together. You're all really happy in each other's company and look out for one another. George adores his big brother and sister; Oliver makes him laugh, whilst Evie is his calming influence: he always settles when she's near and will let her do things for him that he won't let Mummy and Daddy do.

Project 2012 - Week one...

2012-01-16T13:29:00.000Z

So here's my first entry into my 2012 album.  I think I've settled on using pages with 6x4 pockets.  It means less resizing/cutting of pictures and as I'm not aiming for something for every day, this gives me enough space to fill.

A couple of close ups:

I loved putting this together: mixing up colours and finding a use for things I've collected over the years.

Week 2 is already work in progress as I printed two week's worth of pictures at once which I think I'll continue doing. I've also started to cut papers down to 6x4 size ready to be used as backgrounds in the pockets.

Our Christmas 2011

2012-01-13T09:54:00.000Z

Something that I've always wanted to do but never got round to doing is recording how we celebrate Christmas as a family.  I've found that I just never have time leading up to Christmas itself and then the moment has passed afterwards.  This year though, I decided that I would make an effort to make some pages after Christmas, loooking back at what we did etc.

This is my finished album:

The process of how I put it together can be seen here on Sarah's Cards blog.

Project 2012 - Title Page

2012-01-11T16:08:00.000Z

Finally made a start on my album for my Project 2012.

Here's my title page:

As I scrap in A4 size, I started off working on this size page but as I'm going to be using a 12x12 album to house my pages, I decided to mount the layout onto a piece of 12x12 kraft card:

I may get everyone to 'sign' the white space on the left or the reverse: it'd certainly be interesting to see how the kid's writing changes over the year.

Project 2012 - Our Family Album and how it will work for me...

2012-01-04T19:43:00.005Z

I've toyed with the idea of starting a year long project along the lines of Project Life for a while now.  A couple of years ago I started to follow 'Project 12' and managed a couple of month's worth of recording.  The need to document our family life more has become more important to me in the last year: having three children to scrapbook about has been a challenge and I have found that I make individual pages less and less and more about relationships bewtween us or things we do.

To have a better balance between scrapbooking for each child and more general family life, I have decided to start an ongoing family album which is a simple mix of photos and journaling cards.

My Approach

On a daily basis where appropriate: 

*take pictures

*record things that happened/were said.  I'm doing this in a variety of ways.  I've signed up to OhLife: I get sent an email each evening which I reply to with notes on the day.  These are all saved and accessed via their website.  I have a journal that I write in too and I will also jot things down straight onto journaling cards.
*save 'stuff' to include: receipts, labels, leaflets, things that the kids make. 

On a weekly basis (I hope!)

*print photos out

* make journaling cards

* assemble weekly pages

I'm going to be pretty laid back about how often I do this.  I'm not making myself take a photo a day or forcing myself to religiously record something for every day.  I'm just going to think about the things that I want to remember, so some days there may be nothing, whilst on others there may be lots of details. 

I've also found some printable calendar pages which I plan to print out onto kraft card, punch and put into album ready to add information onto.

My Resources

I thought long and hard about how I was going to do this.  As I normally scrap A4 sized layouts, I did think about using a lever arch file and baseball card wallet insert pages.  I decided though to go with a 12x12 album.  There's so many different options available for divided page protectors that I thought this would make it the most practical choice.  So, I'm using an American Crafts album with a selection of page protectors from American Crafts and WRMK.  

I've collected together all of the many journaling cards that I've bought over the years and put them into a basket, ready to be used.  Any other bits of paper and embellishments will come from my stash.

I've also invested in some digital files: a set of the Clementine Project Life cards to print out as I need them along with some Elle's Studio cards and journaling spots.

I've also created a Pinterest board to bookmark any free printables and other useful ideas that I've seen around the internet.

I'm really excited about this project.  Scrapbooking to me is all about recording the little details about our everyday life.  The things that the kids say, what they can do, our routines and how we live our lives.  

My favourite eleven from 2011...

2011-12-31T11:02:00.003Z

As the New Year is fast approaching, I thought that I'd share my favourite layouts from 2011.  It's been a productive year for me.  When filing my layouts a couple of months ago, I realised that I don't do as many individual layouts for the kids anymore but create more for our family album.  I'm about to embark on a Project Life album for 2012 which will keep a weekly record of our family lives so maybe I'll have scrapping time to do more pages for each child then.

So, in no particular order, my favourite pages from the past year:

Happy New Year to you all!

Sarah's Cards November Kit Layouts...

2011-11-29T20:31:00.002Z

The November kit from Sarah's Cards is now with subscribers so I can share my work.  The kit featured papers from Crate Paper's Random collection along with some Studio Calico rub on butterflies, phrase stickers, a pink frame transparency, Authentique die cuts, resin flowers and some Pink Paislee spools.

I was really looking forward to this kit as I just loved the look of the papers.

This layout heavily features butterflies. I used a Martha Stewart punch to punch out loads of butterflies from the papers and then sewed them onto some pink thread to make a banner to drape across my page.

On this second layout, I tried to create my own confetti look as well as making my own tags from some pf the papers.

Strips are a main feature on this third page and I used some of the stickers to create a sub-title.  The font is a dymo style one which I've used a lot recently.

Thanks for looking :)

Adorable...

2011-11-28T20:55:00.000Z

Sometimes, a layout just falls into place. That's how I felt about this one.  I pulled out a few sheets of paper, cut some strips, and then started to embellish it.  I think it's possibly my favourite layout from recent months.  It also happens to use one of my favourite photos of George too.

I invested in some digital elements last week (thanks Cath for the link!) after seeing one of these journaling cards being used.  So the photo was printed as part of the 'adorable' element.  

I'm still playing catch up with photos of George and reflecting back in my journaling: this time about his big blue eyes and how they now smile as he smiles, which is most of the time as he is a very smiley baby and pretty adorable too (in my opinion!).

Evie is 6...

2011-11-25T21:46:00.000Z

The story of Evie's Hello Kitty Birthday...

When Evie turned six, back in September, nearly everything was Hello Kitty related: the presents, cards, clothes, cakes... I wanted to record all the details and in true Evie-style, I went for pink and more pink for the layout.

The papers and stickers are from the October Afternoon 'Sidewalks' collection. There's also some washi tape and a Martha Stewart Doily. The pink heart was created by cutting out a handdrawn heart and using the negative as a template, colouring the space in with a Versamark pen before embossing with pink Zing powder. I had planned to add some Hello Kitty stickers as embellishments but Evie seems to have used them all up so I decided to have a go at making my own little Hello Kitty face, drawing it freehand with my Versamark pen again and embossing with black powder and then some butter powder for the nose. The end effect is a bit like a glossy sticker: not quite as good as the real thing but good enough for me.

Thanks for looking :)

Sarah's Cards November Challenge...

2011-11-21T16:08:00.000Z

This month the challenge is to interpret the word 'negative' in your layout.  

My take on this was to use masks and mists to create a negative image, in this case an ampersand.  I also punched some tiny hearts out of one of the strips of paper, leaving behind the holes/negative shapes.

The deadline is 30th November.  Leave a link to your entry layout on the blog for a chance to win £20 to spend in the shop.

Snuggly nap time...

2011-11-17T19:40:00.000Z

For the first time in the last few months, I sat down last night to scrap for myself.  I've had a really difficult week with one thing and another and needed to do something creative.  I pulled out a load of Studio Calico supplies , some new and some that I'd been saving up for a while.  The journaling card for instance, is from a Christmas kit two years ago so I decided that it really is time to start using things up!  The ruler stamp is by Jenni Bowlin which I embossed with some baby blue Zing powder.  The arrow post it note 'scrap pad' points to 2 and a half, his age in weeks at the time.

As George is fast approaching his first birthday, I'm playing catch up with some pictures and thoughts from this year.  I love this photo.  He loved falling asleep on me after a feed and I loved him doing it.  Knowing that he was going to be my last baby, I really indulged in baby cuddles and snuggles.  The journaling documents my feelings about our snuggly nap times together.

Click on the image for a closer look.

Halloween and Beyond...

2011-11-09T22:02:00.000Z

My monthly work over on Sarah's Cards blog went live today.  This month I've focused on using a small amount of Halloween supplies to create a variety of layouts:

You can read all about them here.

Sarah's Cards October Challenge...

2011-10-24T20:54:00.000+01:00

It's my turn to host the monthly challenge on the Sarah's Cards blog.

I decided to make it a 'Pinterest' challenge and the DT contributed some ideas to a board which we used to create our layouts.

These were my pins:

and the layout that I made using them as inspiration:

There's still a week to get your entry in for a chance to win £20 to spend in the shop.  All the details are here.  

Using photostrips and travel themed layouts...

2011-10-05T19:07:00.002+01:00

For my work on Sarah's Cards blog this month, I have written a tutorial for how to make your own photostrips using Picasa.  It's a two-parter and you can read it in full here:

Part one

Part two

I've really enjoyed digging out and using some really old photos!

Sarah's Cards September Kit...

2011-10-04T20:09:00.001+01:00

My first kit work for Sarah's Cards was for the September kit which featured paper from the Fancy Pants 'It's the little things' line.

I wouldn't normally have picked out those papers but I loved working with them.  The ticket page and quotes paper were perfect for cutting out 'bits'.   I loved the Studio Calico rub ons which were included and also the chipboard shapes.

So here's the layouts that I made for the Design Team booklet:

I think that there's still some single kits available to buy if you like what you see :)

Another year...

2011-09-23T09:43:00.003+01:00

...older!

When I was thinking about my layouts for my Sarah's Cards blog work, my impending birthday came to mind and I thought that it would be a good time to do some documenting about myself as I hit the halfway-through-my-thirties mark.

So this layout is all about my 'Facts and favourites right now'.  I make lots of similar pages for the kids but hardly ever scrap about myself but I really enjoyed doing this one.  Need to feature myself a bit more often!

I also made this layout for Evie, using the same supplies:

It's challenge time on the blog using a sketch by Jen.  This was my take on it:

A badly lit shot of scruffy haired children but also one of a precious moment.  I cherish the imperfect pictures; they capture our family life and moments that we'll never get back.  It's also pretty impossible to get all three children to behave for the camera!

There's still time to have a go and enter for a very generous prize :)

Babycino time...

2011-09-13T20:17:00.002+01:00

Evie and I love going out for coffee together.  During the holidays, the boys went to nursery on Wednesdays, so it was a perfect time for girly coffee dates together.

Looking across the table at her eating a pink Cakepop and sipping her Babycino, I had a moment of reflection about how much times have changed and snapped a picture of her on my phone as an idea for a layout formed.

I dipped into a really old Studio Calico kit and chose papers with a slightly retro feel and some brown tones (Marketplace - Nov '09)

I used a border punch on the brown woodgrain strip and then with a piece of the waste, I drew the pattern on the other three sides of the page with a brown pen. 

Journaling reads: It struck me, when I sat opposite you in Starbucks, watching you enjoy your Babycino and Cakepop, just how much times have changed.  When I was your age, I was lucky to share a toasted teacake with my Mum and maybe even get to choose a milkshake whilst crammed onto a plastic leather-covered bench in a booth in a local cafe.  No comfy sofas and cappuccinos in those days!

Thanks for reading :)

First blog post for Sarah's Card's...

2011-09-09T10:00:00.002+01:00

It's my turn today (and tomorrow too) to post on Sarah's Card's blog.  Some ideas with twine and embossing powders: my favourite things to use right now. 

Hope you'll pop over and have a read.

Hx

8 months and on the move...

2011-09-05T20:18:00.003+01:00

George was 8 months last week. He's changed so much recently and is everywhere and into everything! What I wasn't prepared for was baby gymnastic moves. On Friday afternoon, I caught him doing a headstand, trying to push up into a standing position! I'm not ready for that yet: he's still my baby! I grabbed the camera, mainly so I could show Graeme what he'd been trying to do, but then thought that it would make a good layout. So, '8 months old and on the move'...

The supplies are mainly from the last Studio Calico kit along with a couple of their stamps. I added a bit of texture to the background sheet with a grid stamp. I love using twine and finding different things to do with it. This time I took three strands of twine and twisted them together (thanks Jen for the idea!).

Thanks for visiting :)

Some more old forgotten layouts...

2011-08-29T13:27:00.000+01:00

I'm normally quite a 'neutral' scrapper in that I mostly use kraft or white card as a base and occasionally I might use a pale/simply patterned piece of paper too.  I don't tend to go for bright, primary colours, so this next layout and to some extent, the following one too, feel a bit different to my usual stuff.

Both feature Evie on holiday in France last year.  This first layout documents the relationship between Evie and Toby, a family friend who comes on holiday with us.  They may not see each other for a long time but when they get together it's as though they've never been apart and spend their time giggling and getting into mischief.

'Mischief & Giggles' 

'At your happiest on the beach' 

The petal shapes are a Sassafras flower embellishments that I cut into sections and used as a border.  My trusty Dymo provided the title and date.

Thanks for reading :)

Some old forgotten layouts...

2011-08-25T11:25:00.001+01:00

I was having a look back through some folders on my computer the other night and found a few layouts that I haven't shared on here that I made back in Autumn 2010.

This one is a layout about Evie's first day at  'big school':

I went a bit misting-mad on this layout to create the background.  I stuck down some letter stickers to use as a mask for the 'abc' and '123' bits and carefully peeled them away afterwards before outlining with a brown pen.  

I also used up a lot of old stash on this page.  The 'report card' tag has been waiting to be used for about 4 years!

The journaling reads: 'You'd been looking forward to this for so long and were up and dressed early, raring to go!' which was a good thing as it meant that I got to take some pictures before I had to go to work.  I remember feeling sad at the time that I wouldn't be there to drop her off but it was probably for the best as I wouldn't have been able to hold back my tears of pride and also sadness that my baby was definitely not a baby anymore.

I can't believe that this was almost a year ago. The last year has gone far too quickly.

Crepes...

2011-08-22T22:02:00.001+01:00

On our last full day in France, back in June, we found the most amazing creperie.  The food was gorgeous but what really made it, was the surroundings: the view across the bay looking out to sea and listening to the waves whilst the sun shone.  We had a very long, relaxing lunch and definitely want to go back to that restaurant next year.

The supplies are a mix of Studio Calico, Elle's Studio and MME.  I used one of the tags to write our 'order' and used a lot of circles to echo the shape of crepes.  The Sassafras letter stickers are one of my current loves as they're a perfect size for my A4 layouts.

Thanks for reading :)

Mummy and Me...

2011-08-19T22:02:00.000+01:00

A while back, a questionnaire was doing the rounds on Facebook, with questions to ask your kids about you.  I thought that it would make a good basis for a layout.  So I copied the questions into MS Word, changed the font into a typewriter style one and then printed it out.  I asked Evie the questions and made a note of her answers.  I particularly like that she thinks I spend my spare time, when she's not around, tidying up!

The supplies are mostly a recent Crate Paper Collection.  The little girl at the bottom was on a journaling card page which I cut out.  To add some detail and to make her look a little like Evie, I embossed her hair, dress and shoes with some Zing powders.  The pink heart post-it note was something that I've kept for a while to include on a page which Evie had written my name on (I have one for the rest of the family too, saved up for future use).  I also got her to sign the page so we have a record of what her writing was like right now.

I plan to do a similar page about Evie and Daddy and think it may be something I repeat each year to see how the answers change.

So Tiny...

2011-08-17T20:57:00.001+01:00

Jen and I had another mini-crop this week: scrapping whilst the kids played together.  I'd just received the latest Studio Calico kit and I love the colours and wanted to get stuck in.  The whole thing is just very 'me'.  I particularly like the black chalkboard label stickers by American Crafts which I used as a background for my title.

I must have been a bit distracted though as I originally thought that this was a photo of mine and George's hands and my journaling was all about that.  It was only when I got home and checked the date of the picture that I realised that it was actually Evie that was holding him.  Some cutting and re-mounting of the middle section later, I re-composed the journaling and voila, 'So Tiny', all about my teeny tiny baby and his big sister.  Special moments where she cradles his small hands, whilst knowing that it won't be very long before he's the 'bigger' one. 

Oh and Lou, I gutted the paper!  First time ever!  That pale blue/green paper was too nice to hide behind the kraft, covering my mistakes!

Also, I want to say a big thank you for all of the lovely messages about the DT xxx

News...

2011-08-16T09:02:00.002+01:00

I found out last week that I'd been chosen to join Sarah's Cards Ltd Design Team.  Very excited to be working with their team and kits/products.

You can find out about the other new DT members here.

Oliver's 3rd Birthday...

2011-08-14T22:10:00.003+01:00

I wanted to record the different presents that Oliver received for his birthday along with some pictures of him too.  Doing A4 sized layouts means that there isn't a lot of room for lots of 6x4 photos so I printed some smaller ones of him to include from a collage I made using 'Picasa'.  

You may remember me writing about my discovery of Pinterest and how I'd used a photo I found there as inspiration for a layout.  Well, I realised that I could also easily create a pinboard of pictures to add to a layout and so created a new board specifically for 'Oliver's 3rd Birthday Presents' and added pins of his different presents as well as text to describe the item and who bought it for him.  I then printed the webpage out onto photo paper, scaling it down in the Print Preview screen until it fit the page.  

Based on this week's sketch at Studio Calico. 

There's loads of '3s' on the page: the large title '3' was created by drawing around a metal number and then colouring in the space using a Versamark pen. I then added a few layers of embossing powder and heated each time until I was happy with the coverage. I hadn't intended to add mist to the page but I had a slight 'inky finger' accident at the bottom of the page and ended up using the mist to cover this up.

I love those pictures of my cheeky boy and may well end up using them again.

Beach Baby...

2011-08-04T11:36:00.000+01:00

I'm working my way through a bunch of photographs from our holiday in June.  This was a favourite one of George, chilling out on the beach, enjoying playing with the sand (and thankfully, not eating it!).

The papers are a big mix from different Studio Calico kits and a piece of AC yellow woodgrain which Jen kindly gave me.

I made the journaling tags using a MME label stamp which I then embossed with cream and aqua powders before handcutting and threading onto the twine. They each have a note of something that George enjoyed doing at the beach. I added a few splashes of yellow mist and then used my new Smash Date Stamp in the bottom right, adding the date in a couple of different matching colours.

The last thing that I added was the handstitched frame. To do this, I marked out the holes using the grid on the paper to help with even spacing. To achieve the curved corners, I punched out a circle and placed this onto the grid to give me a curved guide to use. To add a little extra colour, I tied on some little strands of pink/yellow twine to the tag and the frame.

Click on the layout if you would like to see more detail :)

New Glasses...

2011-08-01T20:44:00.001+01:00

Back in May, we found out that Evie needed to wear glasses.  It was quite a shock as there were no clues that she was struggling, let alone have hardly any vision in her left eye.  In typical Evie-fashion, she's never complained and taken everything in her stride.  I was worried that she wouldn't want to wear glasses but she was very excited (an episode of Peppa Pig at the Opticians helped, I think!) and was very keen to pick some out; in pink of course!  I'm so proud of the way she's adapted and she's very proud of her pink glasses!

Supplies: Studio Calico papers, Elle's Studio tags, Sassafras and BG for Studio Calico letter stickers, Crate stickers, Fancy Pants filter paper.

Cropping Space courtesy of Jen :)

Thanks for stopping by.

Pinterest inspiration...

2011-07-29T16:51:00.001+01:00

Yesterday, I finally succumbed and signed up to Pinterest.  I'd managed to avoid it for fear of being sucked in to another online addiction but having a few minutes to myself, I decided to see what it's all about.  So far, I can see how it can be a good way to keep ideas in one place, as well as somewhere to visually bookmark things I see on the internet.

I came across an image that I immediately knew would be a great inspiration for a colour palette for a layout: 

Source: marthastewart.com via Helen on Pinterest

I'm home alone today (and supposed to be tidying and cleaning!) but I fancied a play with my stash and so, using the colours from the photo, I came up with this:

Supplies from 'Metropolitan' and 'Mind the Gap' Studio Calico kits. Stamp is Studio Calico, embossed with 'Zing!' powder. Sassafras letter stickers and Martha Stewart and Smash tags.

Photo courtesy of Evie x

The photo is of Graeme and me on holiday in Benodet, Brittany. We're creatures of habit and have been going away to the same town in Brittany for the last 6 years but this time we tried somewhere new and really loved it. Can't wait to go back.

The story of us...

2011-07-24T10:12:00.001+01:00

I'm not very good at scrapping the past. I'm much more of a 'right here, right now' type of scrapper. I'd printed out a copy of this photo a while back and put it into the box where I keep all my 'to be scrapped' pictures. This is the first photo that we have of Graeme and me together from way back when we first met. This was one of those awkward, hold the camera out in front of you type of photos (pre-digital!). It's overexposed and our faces are crammed into the shot, but the photo means so much to us. It was Valentine's Day 2003, 6 weeks after we'd met and the night we ended up living together. It may have seemed hasty to some, but we've never looked back.

The journaling tells 'our story'.  How we met and ended up together.  For the more inquisitive of you, I'm sure that clicking on the photo will bring up a large enough version for you to have a better read :)

Five go to the beach...

2011-07-16T09:36:00.000+01:00

Long term readers may have realised that we absolutely love being on the beach/near the sea.  I'm very pleased to report that George seems to share this love too.

So this layout records one of our many trips to different beaches during our holiday to Brittany in June.  The self-timer was well used during this holiday; some large rocks ,in this case, became a good resting place for the camera and I have vastly improved on the knack of legging it into place before the 10 second countdown finishes!

So Grown Up...

2011-07-11T22:13:00.000+01:00

Everynow and then, when I'm in need of a kickstart, I have a play with a sketch.  I saw this one posted on Facebook the other day and thought I'd join in: http://sarahscardsltd.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-challenge.html.  

I took this photo of Evie on the beach on Brittany a month ago.  I couldn't believe how grown up she looked and that started me thinking about how much she has changed during her first year at school.

Technique wise, I had a bit of a play with some mists which I'd love to say was meant to represent the colours and shininess of the beach but was actually just a happy accident whilst I was trying to create enough background to make the masked stars stand out.  The turquoise doilies were stamped and embossed with 'Zing' powder and the vertical lines on the right hand side were balanced on the other edges with a machine stitched frame.

Thanks for looking.

Bit of a catch up post...

2011-07-09T09:13:00.000+01:00

It's been a while...mainly because I went back to full-time work at the beginning of May which has meant that not much scrapping has been going on.  I'm either too tired in the week or trying to spend time with the kids at the weekend.  

We're on wind down now to the summer holidays so scrappy-Helen has returned.  Here's a few layouts from the past couple of months:

4 and 5 month layouts for George (he's now 6 months old which I can hardly believe!)

 And a couple of me with the kids. 

 I love the mother's day photos as it really shows the kid's different personalities!

Hopefully be back soon with more layouts to share...

Happy Easter...

2011-04-24T09:07:00.001+01:00

Just a quickie post today...Happy Easter!

What Easter looks like round here: 

...our Easter bunting made using lots of scraps of October Afternoon paper, a Studio Calico stamp and some K&Co letter stickers.

Off now to hunt for the Easter Bunny!

So tiny and precious...

2011-04-14T21:16:00.000+01:00

George was tiny when he was born.  All skin and bones.  For weeks he fitted inside just the body part of his newborn sized snowsuit.  These photos were when we were leaving hospital and he was swamped by his clothes and lost in the car seat.  He's grown so much since then and it's already difficult to remember just how small he was.

This was a fairly quickly put together layout (by my standards anyway!).  I used more of the MME Stella and Rose papers along with some Elle's Studio tags.  I also experimented with some more heat embossing.  I'd ordered some butter and white AC 'Zing' powders which arrived with my Studio Calico kit the other day.  It's not the neatest work but I like the effect I created on the kraft tag  using some MME stamps and can see me getting quite into this technique.

My kiss George?

2011-04-11T13:36:00.001+01:00

...was Oliver's favourite thing to ask once George had been born. He's so gentle and loving with his little brother and I love watching him stroke and cuddle George with such tenderness.

Supplies from Studio Calico 'Countryside' and 'State Fair' collections. Tags from Elle's Studio.

George has now got to the stage where he tries to attract attention from his brother.  It's hard to resist his cheeky little smile!

Thanks for looking :)

Your first smile...

2011-04-06T18:30:00.000+01:00

The first smile is one of the major milestones for a newborn.  We'd seen smiles before: you know, the ones they do when they're actually full of air, but there's nothing quite like the first proper smile when their whole face just beams.

Supplies from Studio Calico 'Into the Woods' kit.

And so, at exactly 6 weeks old, George gave me a little grin that I managed to capture on my camera. It's the feeling that was evoked by moments like this that I don't ever want to forget.

3 months old...

2011-04-04T10:11:00.000+01:00

In the blink of an eye, George hit the 3 month mark last Monday. As there's so much I've already forgotten, I thought I'd better do this layout immediately so I record everything I want to remember about him right now.

(All supplies from recent Studio Calico kits)

You love making eye contact.

You're really smiley and have found your voice: you love to coo and ahh at us.

You go to bed at 7pm and have a dreamfeed at 11pm-ish followed by another feed at 5am and sleep until we take Evie to school.

You have a couple of naps in the daytime, particularly if we go out in the car or for a walk.

You’ve started batting at your toys, especially the hanging ones on your playmat and on your pram.

You love cuddles and sitting on our knees.

You go to sleep without any help from us.

You seem to enjoy watching Peppa Pig with Evie and Oliver.

You like holding things and clenching your fists.
You’ve started to notice your feet.

You’re such an easy baby to look after. You eat, you play, you sleep.

You are so calm and content.

You are very loved.

2 becomes 3...

2011-03-25T09:50:00.000Z

I love these photos  from when Evie and Oliver came to the hospital to meet their new baby brother.  They were so excited!

'My heart melted and eyes filled with tears when two became three. I will never forget the look on your faces when you met George. Pure joy and excitement and instant love. So much love.'

1st family outing...

2011-03-22T16:45:00.005Z

This is the last of my layouts from the retreat. This class was by Natalie and involved making a felt embellishment for the page. As you can see, I didn't actually do this but I did make the little owl afterwards to add to a hanging name plaque for Evie's room.

I absolutely love these papers - very 'me' and enjoyed putting this together. Especially as I could 'zone out' whilst adding the handstitched swirls: I find this really relaxing!

The photos are from the first time we had a trip out as a family of five which was surprisingly easy after the initial stress of fitting the three kids in the back of the car.

The challenge on the Saturday night was to use a canvas that we were given. I decided to use up some of the papers from this kit and create a collaged background using pva glue to stick them down and as a final layer to seal them. I added some glossy accents to the little paper owls and the letters and a length of ribbon to finish. Oliver wants one now!

If you're interested in having a look at the original class designs, they're now showing on the Sarah's Cards blog :)

Going out for a coffee...

2011-03-20T09:19:00.003Z

Evie and I have a bit of a tradition of, as she puts it, 'going out for a coffee' and I've been meaning to do a layout about it for ages.

I don't often have a plan for a design and this was no different. I pushed paper around for ages to create the mat area for the photos. I then played with some paint and mists on the kraft areas using some brown acrylic paint and a jam jar lid to create a cup stain mark. I think I went a bit overboard though and the whole effect was messy. All was not lost though and I was able to cut the patterned paper part off the cardstock and mount onto a new piece. I then cut out some of the painted rings and stuck these down onto the new layout base and used one as a mat for the photo of my coffee cup. I actually preferred this effect as the rings are now more raised up on the page.

I have Evie to thank for the brown hearts in the pink paper effect. She was playing with some of my punches making cards for her friends and I noticed that instead of using the hearts that she had punched, she was using the negative part and placing paper behing the 'open' heart part. That gave me the idea to create a row of hearts in the pink paper and mount it onto a piece of brown card to use as a border on my page.

The paper's are all MME Stella and Rose (my current favourite line) and I've used a couple of tags from Elle's Studio too. The stamped title was created using two different brown distress inks and some clear embossing powder and the journaling strips were some spare kraft card which I misted with 'coffee' colours before using a corner rounder to create the pointed ends.

I love how it came together in the end but it was definitely a case of a layout 'evolving' to a finished product.

Class Retreats Part three...

2011-03-17T18:03:00.003Z

'Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...so much that we braved the wind and rain and had great fun at the beach'

This is the layout which I'm most pleased with from the weekend. It looks nothing like Lou's original layout but takes some inspiration/ideas from it. The 'white' area in the middle is actually a transparency which I added 'waves' to using acrylic paint and a glue lid.

The polaroids were made using a stamp from Studio Calico. The photos didn't quite fit the space so I backed them with some patterned paper from the October Afternoon range which we were using.

We were given the twine to tie some tags on/make a minibook but I decided to add a row of stitches which I finished off with a nautical knot. I was going to tie a bow but Jen (Lou's amazing TA) had seen another delegate tie a knot and suggested the idea to me.

The donkey is another first for me: embossing. Lou should me how to use the heat tool (and has kindly lent it to me so I can experiment further). The stamp is from a set by American Crafts and knew I had to use it on this layout as soon as I saw it. Not that you get many donkeys on the beach in France but you get the idea.

Thanks for looking :)

Class Retreats Part two...

2011-03-15T14:40:00.004Z

This is my version of Vanessa's class which I actually skipped at the Retreat to have some time to myself so instead had a bash at it this past weekend. The colours in the kit are brighter/bolder than my usual palette but I absolutely love how it turned out and might have another play with them. There were plenty of stickers in the kit too to keep me happy. Stickers and tags are my current embellishment of choice :)

The photo was from an autumnal walk and I used it to illustrate how close these two are. Despite the arguments and regularly tormenting each other, they love being together and cling to each other in strange/new situations. I hope this bond stays with them for life.

Class Layouts part one...

2011-03-13T13:10:00.007Z

Here are the first three class layouts that I did at the Sarah's Cards Retreat last weekend. I'm not one for following instructions or doing as I'm told so, being a rebel, I put my own spin on each of the designs and made them all A4 to fit my albums.

The first class on Friday evening was by Claire and involved lots of handcutting and some misting. I held back on the handcutting as it's not really me and also kept my journaling on the outside as I prefer to be able to see the story. The layout's about how Evie absolutely loves watching 'Strictly Come Dancing' and how we went to see the live show in January 2010.

The first class on Saturday was by Lianne. We took a piece of American Crafts die-cut paper and cut out sections of the individual flowers and leaves before backing them onto other papers and creating a collage on the page behind the photograph. This is the last photo of us still being a family of four taken on a weekend away in Scarborough back in November, a few weeks before George arrived. I also now know how to make my own kraft luggage tags to add to my layouts (apparently everyone knows how to do this and I'm coming to it late!)

The last class of the morning was by Rachael and was all about distressing and layering. Not my usual style at all but I took bits from the original layout and left some off. Again, I kept my journaling visible and I also added stitching and staples.

I love this photo of Evie, Oliver and George. The big two look so happy and George completely content in his older siblings company. If only they were always like this!

George...

2011-03-10T22:03:00.003Z

I treated myself to some new papers and stamps while I was away.  Well, Lou persuaded me that I 'needed' the stamps and as she's such a scary lady, I couldn't argue with her ;) I did resist the set with the donkey in though, although I'm still wondering whether I need that in my life too!

This layout is a bit of a continuation of the first one I did for George and documents things which I want to remember from the first few hours with him (see this post).

The papers are 'Stella and Rose' by 'My Minds Eye' and may well be my new favourite papers: the colours and pattens are really 'me'.

I'd pre-typed and printed the journaling which I misted with cream and blue 'Mr Huey' before cutting and sticking into place onto the bed of punched squares of the different papers.

Back soon with another instalment of layouts from last weekend :)

Being Pregnant...

2011-03-09T10:15:00.004Z

Bump pictures are few and far between from my pregnancies with Evie and Oliver. This was most probably (definitely according to my other half!) my last pregnancy so I wanted to make sure that I took some shots and recorded how it felt to be pregnant.

I started this layout with the journaling which I typed in MS Word and then printed out onto an A4 piece of white cardstock. I then designed the rest of the layout around this.

The bullet points were made by punching the papers I'd used on the page using my cropodile. I also used my cropodile to punch right through the page for the inside of the circles on the little tags on the photo and bottom of the page.

I'm really pleased with how this layout came together. I love the colours and how the journaling came out. A bit of light misting over the journaling with cream 'Mr Huey' and some doodling for a border finished it all off.

The photo was the last photo of me being pregnant taken on Boxing Day, two days before George was born.

Click the picture for a larger image if you're interested in a closer look :)

3 of a kind...

2011-03-07T20:54:00.003Z

I'm back from the most fantastic weekend away at Sarah's Cards Retreat.  Scrapping wise, I managed 10 layouts: 5 from classes and 5 of my own. 

This first layout I'm sharing was based on a sketch that we were given as a challenge on the Friday night.

No I don't have triplets, just 3 children, who at 5 weeks old, all bore an extremely close resemblance to each other!

Lots of layering of paper and stickers.  The '3' was created using a metal number as a mask and spraying the cardstock with cream 'Mr Huey' mist and then roughly drawing around the outline that was left.  My poor old Dymo machine gave up the ghost on Sunday but not before I got plenty of use out of it, dating my layouts.  Definitely need to get that replaced.

More layouts to come this week as I get the finishing touches done and scan them in.

Thanks for looking xxx

At the beach...

2011-02-26T21:16:00.004Z

I grew up by the sea but it's only since I moved away that I've really appreciated spending time on the beach, be it walking, playing or just sitting there. The kids seem to share our love of being by the sea and whenever we go back to see Grandma and Grandad, the first thing they want to do is go to the beach (although I suspect the thought of ice cream has something to do with it too!).

Here's a couple of layouts with photos from our holiday last summer. Both feature some embellished squares in a grid (I think I'd just discovered my square punch!)

George had his first visit to the coast last week and have plenty of photos of the trip to scrap.

Thanks for looking :)

Play nicely...

2011-02-18T08:44:00.002Z

I love this picture. They look so happy to be playing together. What the photo doesn't tell you though is that a few seconds later, the hug turned into a squeeze which got tighter and tighter. The giggle became a shriek then a scream which got louder and louder. This pretty much sums up their relationship at this point in time. Most of the time they get on brilliantly and love being together but this often turns into fighting and falling out. Typical sibling behaviour: I know I was the same with my brother. The title has two meanings: most of the time they do play nicely together but sometimes I end up being the one who needs to remind them to 'Play nicely!'

The mat for the photo was made using a Studio Calico frame stamp which I filled with some patterned papers.

One thing that I've always liked to do to my pages is to finish them off with some kind if border. I might ink the edge of the page or machine or hand sew around the edge. Looking at my more recent layouts, I've realised that I've used this doodled border a few times now. I think I'd better find a new pattern to draw!

Zzzzzzzzz

2011-02-12T08:16:00.003Z

Evie and Oliver share a room when we stay at my parent's house. Last time we were there, Evie slept in the bed there and Oliver was in his new blow-up 'Peppa Pig' ready bed on the floor next to her. Now, given the choice, I think that I would choose the proper bed over one of the blown-up variety any day but for some reason, when I went to check that all was quiet, I found Evie squashed into Oliver's bed with her face up against the radiator! I couldn't resist taking some pictures...

Muddy puddles...

2011-02-07T11:53:00.006Z

Two of Olivers favourite things in life are getting messy and Peppa Pig. So it seemed fitting to use a quote from Peppa Pig as a title on this layout: 'Oliver loves jumping up and down in muddy puddles!'

I made the muddy splashes on the background by flicking mists at the page (a much used technique of mine!). I also used a grid background stamp, stamped in a couple of colours to add some more interest to the background.

When I was younger I used to love using my spirograph. My brother had something similar called a cyclograph. When I found out that Lou had not one but two of them, I had to have a play. So I added a couple of patterns to the paper circles to embellish them. I'm sure that you could create some great backgrounds with this too.

As ever, thanks for looking :)

First 'George' layout...

2011-02-02T20:02:00.003Z

This layout has been in progress for the last week and I finally put the finishing touches to it this morning.

I thought it was fitting that my first layout for George was one using photos of his first moments and documented some of my thoughts/emotions on first seeing him:

tiny, cute, content
you look just like your siblings
a surge of instant love

There are so many more things that I want to remember about his first few hours like the way he just knew how to feed straight away.   How everyone commented on how big his hands and feet were and his mop of dark hair.  How he slept all night but I couldn't sleep because of the noise on the ward so just lay watching him instead.  How he didn't have a name and was just 'Baby' until the next morning when we finally agreed on 'George'.  How he wore the same vest that Evie and Oliver both wore when they were born.  How I felt an instant bond and so incredibly lucky and grateful to have him in our lives.

Tractor!

2011-02-01T09:33:00.004Z

Oliver loves tractors and diggers and trains. In fact, any kind of transportation. So when we were staying on a farm in Wales last August, he was in his element. He was so excited when he saw this tractor and ran as fast as he could towards it!

The supplies are mainly from Studio Calico, including that cute cow card which originally had a discount code on the back. I created the muddy tyre track pattern effect using a bubblewrap background stamp and layering with a couple of different coloured distress inks.

Thanks for looking :)

26 weeks...

2011-01-28T20:24:00.004Z

Being 26 weeks pregnant seems like a lifetime ago now. As I grew bigger I did take some bump shots, something that I didn't do when previously pregnant and regretted. I did plan to make regular layouts to document how I was feeling but that never happened before he arrived. I did manage this one though:

George is 4 and a half weeks old now and changing all the time. I've yet to find time to scrap any of his pictures but hoping as he settles into more of a routine, that I'll find some. It's the same old story for me though: loads of memories and ideas but no time or energy!

In the blink of an eye..

2011-01-22T21:46:00.002Z

After Evie turned five, I thought it might be nice to document how she changed from her birth day through her birthdays to date.

'In the blink of an eye you grew into a beautiful and confident 5 year old.'

At Five...

2011-01-19T10:35:00.003Z

Evie turned five back in September and I wanted to record some of my thoughts/observations about her at that point in time.

The journaling reads:

Happy
Excited about learning new things
Enthusiastic: you get stuck into things
Reluctant to keep your room tidy!
Never stops talking!
Loves dollies and crafts
Knows your own mind
Fills us with pride

Supplies mainly from the 'On The Easel' kit from Studio Calico. Plus lots of stamping, sewing, punching and mist 'flicking'.

Mr Chatterbox...

2011-01-15T10:39:00.002Z

To start off the catch up of my recent layouts, here's an 'Oliver' one:

Back in October, Oliver finally started putting words together to form sentences. This page records a few of the things that he first communicated to us.

By the way, only after scanning it, did I notice that the 'o' and 't' letter stickers from 'Oct' have fallen off - oooopppps!

About time for an update...

2011-01-13T19:59:00.005Z

So, a whole term at school has been and gone. It's now a new year and we have a new baby to introduce!

Meet George William, who was born on the 28th December 2010 at 22.18, weighing 6 lbs 6 oz (he's tiny!):

He's two weeks old now and it feels like he's always been here. Big brother and sister adore him. Oliver's favourite thing is to 'kiss George'. Evie has been really helpful and loves holding him.

As for scrapbooking, I've actually been quite productive in the last few months. A lack of scanning facilities and the right conditions for photographing layouts (which I seem to be rubbish at anyway) has meant that I haven't shared anything for a long time. I hope that will change now though as I've just taken receipt of a new scanner, so I just need to get out my albums and scan away (in between feeds and nappy changes!).

The Graduate...

2010-09-19T17:39:00.003+01:00

Back at the end of July, Evie's nursery held a graduation ceremony for the pre-school children who would be leaving to start school in September. I just about managed to hold back the tears!

at two...

2010-09-05T08:23:00.002+01:00

I love doing this kind of layout; recording what the kids can do at points in their lives.

I did this one a couple of weeks ago and loved how it all came together. After watching Lou use a tag the other week at out mini-crop, I felt inspired to pinch her style!

The journalling reads:

You are obsessed with Fireman Sam and have a special dance for the song.

You love role play: you set up accidents with your toys so Fireman Sam can come and help!

You sleep in a proper bed and no longer have a dummy.

You sing along to your favourite theme tunes: Postman Pat, Bob the Builder, Peppa Pig, Thomas the Tank Engine etc…

You like playing cricket, football and rugby in the garden.

You and Evie love playing (and fighting!) together.

My recent spell of creativity may well come to an end this week though. After just over two years away from the classroom, I start a new teaching post tomorrow. I'm excited about the new challenge but also know that a lot of my time will be taken up with work. One of my favourite parts of my job though is making displays and I already have grand plans for a huge volcano erupting all over the back of my classroom and a desert island role play area complete with sand pit for the beach. I have to get my crafty fix somehow!

Gonee?

2010-08-25T20:41:00.002+01:00

I absolutely love the mix of papers that was in the August Studio Calico kit and set to work with them pretty soon after opening the box.

One of the things on my list to document was Oliver's current favourite phrase: 'where's _____ gone?' 'Gonee' is his way of saying that something has gone.

The journaling reads:

If we ask you where something or someone is, you often answer with gonee which has now become firmly rooted in our family vocabulary. When you first started putting words together to make sentences, one of your first phrases was ‘Where’s Daddy gone?’ Right now, you have a whole repertoire and will happily go through the list to check where everyone is. Even if the person is stood right next to you you still ask the question, which makes us think that it also means ‘what are they doing?’ too.

I've a feeling that most of that kit will be 'gonee' soon!

Big Boy Bed...

2010-08-18T20:24:00.002+01:00

My latest layout documents Oliver's move into a proper bed. He's really not a baby anymore.

Quite a short list of supplies for this one: some Elle's Studio tags, hand stitching, mists and date and letter stamps. The lines were created by running a ruler across an ink pad and stamping onto the page.

The journaling reads: After one of your climbing adventures saw you escaping over the top of your cot and landing in a heap on the floor, we decided that it was probably time for you to move into a bed.

Your bedroom had never really been yours either, housing the bookcase and desk amongst other things and so we set about creating you your very own big boy bedroom with vehicles galore to decorate it (your favourite things!)

Apart from night 3, when you made a bed on the floor and fell asleep there, you've taken to it really well and love going to sleep in your 'car bed'.

Always...

2010-08-13T15:42:00.002+01:00

Our 6th wedding anniversary was spent travelling to France so we promised ourselves a night out whilst we were there. Evie took this photo of us before we went for dinner: I'm really impressed with her photo taking skills and had to use it on a layout.

I used a really old Studio Calico kit which I have just rediscovered (http://www.studiocalico.com/kits/add_ons/105) along with some other stash and I also had a play with mists and created this effect by chance whilst trying to mask out the parts that I had already made on the page.

2...

2010-08-08T08:49:00.002+01:00

Oliver turned two a couple of weeks ago (how did that happen?!!). I'm not normally one for 'event' scrapping but I loved this photo and had to scrap it.

I used the 'Continental' July kit from Studio Calico along with some OA stickers and and an Elle's Studio date tag.

The area in the top right was created using a Prima criss-cross background stamp in a couple of places. I then placed lots of '2' shaped chipboard pieces and stickers on top before misting with a few different colours. After removing the twos, I drew around the outlines which had been left to highlight them.

The journalling reads: I can't believe how big you've become. You were so happy to open cards and presents, particularly the 'Fireman Sam' ones!

Thanks for looking and for the lovely messages from my previous post :)

Surprise...

2010-08-04T19:35:00.002+01:00

Not much explanation needed for this one...

I raided lots of my old Studio Calico kits to get the pink and blue paper strips.

Other than that it's pretty low on supplies: some machine stitching, Elle's Studio and Studio Calico stamps and some Maya Mists.

We're really looking forward to 4 becoming 5!

Fun...

2010-07-31T09:14:00.002+01:00

This is a rather busy layout that I did at the (last) Warrington crop the other week. Lots and lots of the recent October Afternoon papers with a selection of other bits and bobs from my stash. The photo of Evie and I on the carousel is pretty busy too so I decided to just go with it and let it all clash! To make the chipboard banner title I added some letter stickers on to them and then sprayed with a couple of layers of brown and silver mist before removing the stickers to leave the letter outlines. I then used a piece of string to thread them together, which I knotted at both ends. I also added a Lily Bee rub on to the top left of the layout across the papers, stickers and photograph. I love those big sheets of rub ons that they make and recently came across a link to some digital files by the same designer which you could use to make your own rub ons or overlays: http://www.oscraps.com/shop/product.php?productid=20493&cat=0&page=1.

I've wanted to take Evie on a carousel for years but she's always said no until May this year when we had a day trip to North Wales and she finally agreed. If the laughter was anything to go by, it won't be the last time that we share this experience!

Thanks for stopping by :)

A couple of new layouts...

2010-07-29T08:43:00.002+01:00

Okay, so it's been a few weeks now since I updated. I've had a bit of a scrapping lull recently but in the last few weeks I've felt the need to get creative so I finally have a few things to share.

She's Off...

Evie really struggles to learn to turn the pedals on a bike so I was so proud to see her finally riding on her own.

Supplies: OA papers, Sassafras paper (hand cut girl on bike), baker's twine and embroidery thread (handstitched frame), Jenni Bowlin letter and star stickers, Studio Calico tricycle stamp, Martha Stewart doily, dymo tape, green lace ribbon. (I know that the month is missing from the date: I meant to add it but forgot to look it up!)

Just Us 4...

We don't often get the chance to have a photo taken of all of us so when we were on holiday with friends in June, I grabbed the opportunity. This is us in our favourite place in Brittany.

Supplies: lots of stickers (OA and Studio Calico), wood veneer sunburst (Studio Calico), letter stamps (Studio Calico), date stamp (Elle's Studio), Tape measure cut from a piece of paper and scrunched up to create some texture (My Little Yellow Bicycle), brads (Basic Grey), letter stickers, Maya Mists, the lid from a paint dabber to make the stamped circles.

Hopefully I'll make some more regular updates now!

Thanks for looking :)

Beachcomber...

2010-06-15T20:00:00.001+01:00

A couple of months ago I spotted some butterfly leggings in H&M. I immediately thought that Evie would love them and also (and I hate to admit this!) how I'd be able to embellishment a layout with a photo of them on it using my butterfly punch!

When I got the new October Afternoon papers I couldn't resist getting stuck into them to create this layout. It's all about how Evie has always loved collecting things on the beach: this time it was some super sparkly stones.

All the papers and stickers are October Afternoon, the letter stickers are Jenni Bowlin, the ribbon from American Crafts (which I pleated to be wave-like) and an Elle's Studio journaling spot and a Martha Stewart doily were used to make the embellishment in the top left. I also used some jute for the hand stitching as I felt the colour and texture fitted the beach theme quite nicely. There's actually a blue machine stitched frame around the top half of the layout too but it seems to have been cropped off the picture.

As ever, thanks for looking and for your comments :)

I scream...

2010-06-08T20:00:00.003+01:00

...for ice cream!!!

Evie and Oliver are both obsessed with eating ice cream (I wonder where they get that from?!) and I wanted to record a few of the pictures of them eating ice cream. This is Evie's layout.

I used some of the new October Afternoon papers along with some Pink Paislee tapes and some random embellishments (I think the ice lolly was from a set by Sassafras). The black photo frame was from a recent Studio Calico kit.

I had a play with some of my new mist colours too. I took the lid off and flicked the tube to make the splashes on the paper. I was trying to get an effect like drips of melted vanilla and chocolate ice cream on the page.

Now I need to do a version for Oliver :)

My Family...

2010-06-02T20:47:00.002+01:00

A few weeks ago, I spotted Evie drawing a picture of our family.  I couldn't resist giving her a piece of card so that she could do me another version that I could use on a layout. 

This started off being one of those layouts where I shuffled papers for a while, not being overly happy with what I was doing.  I don't think it came together until I got the idea to stamp some frame images as a background to the picture.  Thank you to Lou for suggesting and lending me her 'original artwork' stamp which I stamped onto an Elle's Studio journaling spot.  The papers are a mix of the new October Afternoon and Lily Bee ranges.

Check out Daddy's hairy beard! Oh and thankfully, she left out my 'big bottom' (her words!) from this version!

Nee Naw...

2010-05-20T08:44:00.003+01:00

Oliver is currently obsessed with 'Nee Naws'. That's any type of emergency vehicle to you and me. If he hears a siren he gets so excited he looks like he may combust! His new favourite toys are the fire engine and ambulance that he got as Easter presents. He spends hours putting the men in and out of them and pressing the buttons to make the sirens come on.

I decided to use some Cosmo Cricket papers to go with the vehicle theme. I cut out the cars and covered them in glossy accents to make little embellishments. I used some tickets as bases for these cars and also one of my new favourite products: Pink Paislee Artisan Tapes, which I pleated across sections of the layout.

To create the title I used a chipboard 'n' as a mask and sprayed onto the kraft card with brown and cream mists. I went around the outline of the letter with a pen to make it stand out more. Some white acrylic paint was applied and I used a set of lego wheels to make some marks in it to add texture. (I also repeated this in other parts of the layout to break up the colours). I then stamped the rest of the letters over the top. I used the lego wheels again, this time dipped in some black acrylic paint, to make the wheel pattern across the page. The wheels took quite a bit of cleaning up afterwards but I'm sure Evie won't notice that I borrowed them!

Thanks for looking :)

My Mother's Day layout..

2010-05-06T20:04:00.002+01:00

...was featured on the 'Scrapbook & Cards Today' blog today :D

http://scrapbookandcardstodaymag.typepad.com/scrapbook_cards_today_blo/2010/05/mothers-day-readers-submissions.html

It put a little smile on my face, especially to be featured alongside Lisa Truesdell who is one of my scrapbooking idols.

His favourite toy...

2010-05-05T19:35:00.003+01:00

The April sketch on the Sarah's Cards blog inspired me to create this:

I have used loads of old bits and bobs, including some 'Love Elsie' Christmas stickers which I used to embellish the swirly pattern on the paper. The paper felt quite 'flat' so I also added some white doodled circles to add a bit of interest. I also used a white pen to add tiny dots to the blue paper behind the photo to tone it down slightly. I added some horizontal machine stitching across the paper strips to help draw the eye around the page.

Evie chose this Postman Pat van for Oliver last summer and ever since, it has been his favourite toy. When I added the date, I was trying to show the years '09 and '10 but it looks more like Sept 10 so I think I'll have a play with that bit of the layout to make it clearer. There's a distinct lack of journalling on this page for me but I think the picture and title say it all and I went for the less is more approach this time.

Thanks for looking :)

February 2010

2010-04-27T19:35:00.005+01:00

February was a funny month for us.  It started off with the birth of our nephew.  What should have been a happy time was marred by us being told that my own pregnancy was no longer viable and having to face up to the ordeal of surgery.  So the rest of February was pretty much written off for me. 

The kids had a busy month though, including lots of birthday parties (so there were some opportunities for photos).

The papers are from a kit from February 2009.  I can't believe that I've not used the woodgrain paper before and wished I'd spotted it sooner so I could restock!  I've stuck with a similar format to my January layout using the same stamps and journalling cards.

I used a Studio Calico stamp to make the lines for my jounalling.  I've had the Maya Road envelopes for a while now and it seemed a perfect place to pop a little letter about my feelings about what had happened to us.

It's time I sorted out my March layout now!

One for her and one for him...

2010-04-23T16:30:00.004+01:00

I'm doing okay so far with recording our week.  I'm taking a relaxed approach: not getting too stressed and not feeling the need to photograph and write everything down.  I've been saving receipts and labels to include in my pages too.

In the meantime, these are a couple of layouts that I found on my computer and I haven't shared.

The first one is all about how Evie was so looking forward to being four.  I don't normally do birthday, Christmas, event-type layouts but I wanted to record how excited she was about having a party and being a big girl.  She was so proud of her birthday badges!

This one is pretty self explanatory: some observations about Oliver when he was 14 months old.  Including how one of the first things he could say was 'Peppa Pig': Evie's viewing habits have a lot to answer for!

Thanks for looking :)

A week in our lives...

2010-04-18T21:23:00.005+01:00

Back in October 2008, I joined in with Ali Edwards' project to record days in our lives.  At the time, I couldn't commit to seeing it through a whole week, so I did a day a week instead for a few weeks.  Some of my layouts are here: http://littlemissscrapper.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-in-our-lives.html and http://littlemissscrapper.blogspot.com/2008/10/day-in-our-livespart-2.html.  I love looking back and seeing how much our lives have changed.

Tomorrow marks the start of Week in the Life 2010.  I've spent a bit of time thinking about how I'd like to record what happens this next week and I think I'm going for a thematic approach rather than just recording chronologically as before.

So, these are some of my headings for the week (which may evolve!):

timings/routines
meals
places
people
things we say
tv programmes
books
music
activities
clothes
products
our home
weather
news
shopping

I think doing it this way will mean that I don't feel the need to constantly take photos of every little thing but instead, focus my pictures more.  I'm going to include the diary pages from my Logbook to write down my notes about the week too.

I also saw a link to this the other day and thought it would be a great thing to do next week too: What's in your bag?.  I'm also plan to do a 'What's in my wardrobe, cupboards and fridge' pictures too.

Anyone else playing along?

Learning & Growing

2010-04-15T08:30:00.001+01:00

This started out as a single page layout whilst I was at a crop at the beginning of the month.  I knew that I wanted to document some of the things that Evie has said and done  so far this year which have really impressed me, so I left the journaling off as I wanted to use some of my notes from my Logbook and also print out my journaling.

Once I started looking back in my Logbook though, I realised that there were loads of things that I wanted to include and knew that I wouldn't be able to make it all fit on the page, so I set about making another page where I could add the journaling strips.  I based the design on a mirror image of the original and tried to make some the the elements flow across both pages.

I've never been a double-page girl but I've recently enjoyed the design aspect of making the two pages work together and having lots of room to work with.  So here is kind of what it looks together (but without the weird shaded area!)

Some highlights from the journalling:

We never fail to be amazed at the things you say and can do right now.  We think you are really clever!
On the way to nursery you counted all the way to 99 on your own
You were using my laptop to play on the Disney Princess website but the sound was turned off.  You didn't need me to help you though as you knew exactly which icon to click on to turn it off mute
You used a ruler to draw a really straight line when we were playing school together
Evie: we have to blink everyday, don't we? Mummy: yes we do.  Do you know why we blink? (not expecting you  to know the answer)  Evie: to get the dirt out of our eyes!

Thanks for looking :D

The ones with the long titles...

2010-04-09T10:25:00.003+01:00

When I was putting layouts away recently, I noticed that Oliver's files aren't quite as full as Evie's and so I've been making an effort to fill in some gaps and complete some more layouts about him.

These 3 layouts have a couple of things in common; they're all about Oliver and all have long title work. I've just noticed that they all have three photos too that tell a story in sequence.

This one tells the story of when I first spotted Oliver playing properly with Evie's dollies. It was one of the cutest things I think I've ever seen him do. Preparing the food in the kitchen, then feeding her and finally dragging her 'caveman' style to bed. I did this layout at the Sarah's Cards Retreat using up things from the class kits including that large acrylic heart which I stapled into place.

'The amazing climbing Oliver' explains how he learnt to climb before he could even walk. He's so fearless too and would stand up on all manner of things around the house such as the ride on train in the pictures, which he'd often drag into position in order to climb onto an even higher surface!

Oliver is also known as the 'boinger' or 'boingy'. It's a daft name that he aquired when he was about 5 months old and has stuck. We think it describes him quite well. 'Boing' happened to be a favourite word of Evie's at the time and then he was bought a 'Rainforest Jumperoo' for Christmas and his love of boinging around in that earnt him his name. This is the sort of thing that I want to record and remember and had to do a layout about it.

Thanks for looking :)

Using up old stash part three...

2010-04-06T18:20:00.000+01:00

Having really liked the effect made from using the scraps of circles to make a border around a page, I had another go, but this time using roughly cut rectangles from old bits of papers which I then machine stitched into place.  

The photo mat is a page from a MM notepad and the journaling card is by Jenni Bowlin.  I finished the page off with some ricrac which I stapled onto the page, some Hambly rub ons, thickers and MM tiny alphas along with some hand stitched cross stitches.

The journalling reads: 'he said 'Nunny'!  Finally, Oliver has a word for Mummy at 19 months old.  You don't know how happy that makes me.'   Everyone else in the family is called by their name apart from me until recently.  He's even been able to call the dog 'Charlie' since he was about a year old so it was a special moment when he came back from a visit to Grandma and Grandad's house and called out 'Nunny!' when he saw me.

Everything on the page are things that I have had for years and it feels good to be using it up.

Using up old stash part two...

2010-04-01T22:15:00.004+01:00

Here's another layout using up some old things. The photo's an old one too from last July when Oliver first experienced playing on a beach.

I played around with using a sunburst chipboard shape as a mask and sprayed with some different colour mists, which I then put through my 'ribbler' to create a corrugated card effect which is under the photograph.

There's lots of machine stitching again and staples, pretty standard for a layout from me right now. The frame over the photo is a die cut which I added some different coloured gems to to match the colours in the papers. I tried to choose papers and ribbons which remind me of the beach: warm yellows and a hint of red and cool blues.

We're at the seaside right now for the Easter weekend. We all went on the beach yesterday afternoon and Oliver loved it again and wasn't at all phased by the waves splashing towards him. It's far too cold for paddling but I just know that he is going to have loads of fun when we're on holiday later in the year and love being on the beach, just like his sister does.

Hope you all have a lovely Easter!

Using up old stash part one...

2010-03-30T21:11:00.002+01:00

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...

2010-03-28T20:10:00.003+01:00

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.