Scrapbooking: Colourful Fun

 You may remember the activity we did last year with dying rice multiple colours & using them to fill in printed out images. Whether you do or don't here is the scrapbook page I did about it....

I based it on the sketch from this months challenge on Sarahs Cards Limited blog. I used the rainbow colours of the rice as my inspiration. I really liked the rainbows on the KandCo paper so cut these out to embellish the page. The writing is on tissue tape I made my sticking tissue paper to double sided tape. It was perfect to write on & I used thin strips of card underneath that shows through to keep in with the rainbow theme.

Apologies for the quality of the photo, I really need to play with the settings on my camera as sometimes the images are amazingly clear, other times they are complete tripe & I'm not sure yet what I'm doing wrong.

Scrapbooking: Nap Time

Week 5 of 52 layouts step-by-step

A lovely layout that worked well with a photo of Kai, absolutely exhausted after a morning in pre-school.

Scrapbooking: Last years Christmas Card

I followed week 6's 52 layouts step by step to get this page

I didnt think the page needed a title as such as I felt the writing on the front of the card did this for me.
The bulb is a quickutz die cut, the red ribbon is the same sort I used for taping over their mouths.
I liked it so much I made another one using the same materials, with a few things in reverse, all ready for when I get the photos from the "photo shoot" ready, which will also contain the journalling.

Scrapbooking: Blackberry Picking

Week 7 for Niki's 52 layouts step by step. This week it was a layout full of circles & as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to use it for a blackberry layout.

I inked over a sheet from papermania secret garden with a green ink to make it less vibrant and used this for the main circle. The other papers I chose were to give chosen for their blackcurrant / hedgerow type colours.  The leaves were die cut out of a sheet of green card. I chose black buttons & tied with red ribbon to give an even more blackberry type feel to them.

I finished off with adding some journalling under the title.

I've already got plans to use this layout again for a different occassion.

Summer Holiday Activities

Honestly it is!!! Or at least its the start of the Summer Holidays.Yet again I've been compiling a list of activities for the kids to do when they're bored. Every weekend I'll give you a breakdown of what I've been upto with them over the previous week. Some weeks will be busier than others as I believe some of the time kids need to do their own thing & think up their own activities, to strengthen their independence and imagination (and lets face it, to give me a break ;)

Kai is 5 and Zack is 13 so there will be some activities they'll do together, some with Zack helping Kai to do, and other times they'll have different activities to suit their age and personalities. We'll also have the odd day out.

To get you started HERE's my list from last year, HERE's my pinterest kids activities board and HERE is any other post involving summer & my kiddies winkles.

A few of you have joined in & know the routine but for those of you who havent ... If you have any blog posts on kids activities, or pinterest board, or just know of any, I would really love it if you could link them up in the comments so that together we can keep our children amused this summer holiday.

End of the School Year

Kai and I worked together to make cards for his teacher and teaching assistant who have been lovely to both of us this year.

The idea was from addINKtive designs, the tutorial is HERE.

I made the card base with Kai choosing the colours of card etc.

I then cut out the butterfly to go on top & let Kai loose with paint, sequins & glitter

Once all was dry he went over the top with a clear(ish) mica glitter to make it all sparkle while letting the colours shine through.

Both cards look significantly different...

and very shiney.

Much to my surprise I also received not one....

....but 2 cards and a special olympic tin of biccies, yum yum! They were as a thank you for helping out each week at the school (most of the time its great fun, we had to check jigsaws for missing pieces on one occasion, so we sat & played with jigsaws. On other occasions we've painted props for plays.) & for helping out on school trips. A total surprise and its nice to be appreciated.

Cardmaking: Playing with Inks

On the last lesson of the Cardmaking course I learnt a new technique that I now LOVE.

We stamped 3 distress ink pads onto a place-mat (literally, the ones you have at the dinner table, plastic front, wipe clean, with a foam backing), then sprayed with a small amount of water. Onto this I placed little squares of paper to take up a bit of the ink & then dried with an iron (we were using the encaustic iron). Once dry I stamped little images onto each square & mounted onto stamp style punched black squares before affixing to the card.

I then thought BIGGER & did the same technique but used a sheet of A4 card. It gave me plenty of room for larger stamps & to pick & choose where the pattern was most suitable.

 Same stamp used twice.

I loved the stamp on the left & by careful positioning I managed to get reddish flowers whereas the watches & writing were on a vintagey brown.

I ended up with a few toppers for making cards

 

& some bits of card to use with my own stamps. Can you see the lines? These were created by the ridges on the mat collecting the ink a bit more, I think it gave a great effect.

Jubilee Buffet

With all that Scrapbooking going on I clean forgot to show you guys my Jubilee table!!

Basically it was an excuse for some decorating fun & trying some new recipes.

Its also quite shocking that my old cat actually stayed under the table, I'd been keeping the door shut but opened it for a moment to get a bit more light in the room. My cats aren't allowed in the kitchen while foods out as they are total menaces usually ... including opening sealed bags of bread before its even defrosted!

My cake stand, do you recognise the pattern on the stand? Its the Papermania Portobello road range. I covered the cake stand in it & then used sticky back plastic over it so its wipe clean & re-useable.

The top layer is Red velvet cakes with blue cream cheese butter icing.
2nd layer are mini victorian sponge cakes
Bottom layer are Scones, with cream & jam on the table to be added as people wanted it (stops the scones going soggy & made it easier to store any are left over, & for longer)

On either side you will see Trifle Jars, mmmmmmm, trifle jars. Instead of sponge fingers I used a slice of sponge roll in each, then traditional strawberry jelly, custard & cream whip. Being in the jars meant they kept in the fridge for a week without any problems (they were freshly made on the day of the photo)

Bottom left of the photo are Oreo cake pops, coated in white chocolate

Bottom right are bought mini pork pies (yes I cheated a lil, lol)

A battenburg, that looked very patriotic, maybe I should have used strawberry jam, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing.

Coronation Chicken.

Triple Cucumber & Herb Sarnies.

A modern version of a traditionally british sarnie. 3 layers of white bread with cream cheese mixed with mint spread inbetween and cucumber. Of course the crusts had to be trimmed off as well.

Savoury Scones

Oh my word these were moreish! Basically a savoury scone with cheeses, bacon & spring onions in the mix. I expected them to be quite dry but they werent, they could be eaten as they were but the serving suggestion was a slice of cheese & a bit of sweet pickle.

Ry made some ham, lettuce & tomatoe rolls for me, & I bought a few simple finger foods as well.

Being a rainy day, what did we end up doing?

playing video games of course! **head palm** Some things just don't change in this house.

I recreated the spread again the next day & added salad as well as a few other changes for my Mom to come over for Jubilee Celebrations.

2010.... the end!!!

Do you get that? I HAVE FINISHED MY 2010 ALBUMS!!!!!!!!!!
2 albums
80 pages
60 single page layouts
10 double page layouts
9lbs 3.5oz (4181.5g), the weight of both albums together.
228 Photos
5 layouts not including photos of people.
48 Different people included (not including randoms in the background)
1 guest appearance from Father Christmas / Santa
1 very happy K.

& how do my albums end? With a "To be continued of course"

A great way to use those pages that I haven't wanted to cover up.

Scrapbooking: Front pages

As some of you know, I have had multiple conversations on what should be at the front of an album (my initial post & thoughts can be read HERE). In my opinion a book (or an album) should have a front, a middle and an end. Most of us talk about what we've included in the middle, a few do entire albums with a set theme, but what I discovered was that when it comes to annual chronological albums not many have completed them to think about a front page.

I did get some brilliant suggestions though....
Julie from  Letting The Days Roll By suggested
"You could have a 3X4 grid with a photo from each month, or try 2010 by numbers (a la Julie Kirk's month by numbers), or 'That was the year that was...' with the highlights. Have you got some random photos you haven't included? Or who says you have to have a page with photos anyway?"


Carmen from Whoopidooings suggested
"What about one of those mosaic programs? You could input all your 2010 photos, print out the mosaic and then cut the 2010 out of the mosaic. Mat and layer it. Voila page done. The one I've used before is - http://www.andreaplanet.com/andreamosaic/ and I used it to make the Goblin King/David Bowie piccie here. OR you could create the mosaic and have the main image as all of you as a family made up of all the piccies from 2010... Dead easy."


I also had suggestions to use...
Short summary of your year: goals,trips,major events... 
Or maybe a picture of you/your family saying what the year has meant to you. 10 best things of 2010Family Photo. A photo from each month of the year on the title page

Taking everything into account I came up with the final pages of my 2010 albums, the ones at the very front.

I LOVE the mosaic program Carmen suggested. Originally I had planned on sticking them down as above & then writing down significant events that happened in 2010, world events in black & then family events in purple, slightly larger so they stand out more. However, when I did mount the photos of the mosaics I stood back & thought "thats it, complete". It just seemed to me that no more was needed, & if I had of done more it may have become too busy & ruined it. I chose a the purpley colour to match the colour of the albums.

I plan on using this technique for all my albums now, but shall probably alter the initial image for each.

Scrapbooking: CMH Sketch Challenge

Marie gave a sketch for the Challenge Me Happy Anniversary Hoopla which I turned so it looked like this...

This way the photo I'd chosen fitted in better..

This took me quite a while to do due to stamping & masking areas. I started off with stamping in the corners with a journalling stamp, masking off most of it so I just got the lovely swirly corner design (how technical is that, lol). With the top right corner I rotated it a few times to make a larger triangle.
I then started on the roses (to reflect the pattern on the bag) they are only a small bunch with leaves so I stamped it multiple times in red & then green, masking off the areas I didnt want stamping over. I then added other leaves.

The tags were misted & stamped before sticking down & adding the journalling.
I finished off with the title & then washed my hands because it looked like I'd committed a masquer, I get into such a mess when inking!!!! 

Scrapbooking: CMH Recipe

Hannahs recipe challenge for Challenge Me Happys Anniversary was...
1 stamped image
2 staples
3 cardstock
4 words in title
5 patterned papers
6 stickers

You may remember the title from THIS blog post (sharing on blogs comes in so handy like this, I barely had to think of the journalling & title as it was all there written for me (by me))

So we have...
1 stamped image (leaf in the top left corner)
2 staples (holding the punched card on in the top right corner)
3 cardstock (background sheet, & 2 pieces in top right corner)
4 words in title (squirrels, robins, ponies, dinosaurs)
5 patterned papers (behind the photos, with journalling on, behind the "4", strip under the journalling, robin on cage & leaves cut from patterned paper)
6 stickers (squirrel, dinosaur, pony, 3 leaves)

Later on Kai added his own mark (grrrrr) under the 1, I'm sure in the future I wont mind in the slightest but after the hardwork I put in I was not impressed & had a quiet word with him about "graffitti" & how he would be upset if someone drew on his work.

Scrapbooking: Hats

A simple page but one I think works quite well. I kept pretty much to the colour scheme of turquoise & brown. 4 photos of Kai wearing different hats taken at different times, raised by foam pads.  The names of the hats added below, and a title above. Hat stickers for embellishments & finally the journalling written on in brown pen.

Scrapbooking: Climbing the Wrekin

These papers from Papermanias Secret Garden were perfect for the background. With those & the photos it needed very little more so I mounted the photos onto white card and wrote the journalling around them. I added a white title and date & stood back. It was missing something, the Wrekin giant! A spot of googling (for a decent picture) and paper piecing later & I had a paper giant based on the one that we grew up seeing in the Town Park (its now within Wonderland, Telford). The bright colour of his top just lifts the entire page.

Scrapbooking: Havin' a ball

Have I told you yet that I would love a hexagonal nestie set? I love the pages currently coming out with hexagons on & it would certainly have helped with this one. As I dont have one I sat drawing circles at my craft club, then turning them into flower patterns so I'd have an exact hexagon before cutting them out

I then stuck them onto a black sheet of card in a football pattern.
I mounted photos onto blue card, except for one of them which was stuck onto red shiney paper and cut into a ... erm, what do you call that shape? Any way I cut 2 more of those shapes with coloured paper to llayer it up. I used the same paper to cut starts out of that were then mounted onto white card.

A circular piece of card was simple enough to use as for journalling & a brad held it onto 2 other stars.
Everything was stuck down & a chipboard title added.

Scrapbooking: Primary School Prom

Definitely a BOYS prom page, no delicateness here. I started with the blue background to match the backdrop in the photos but felt that this also washed the photos out so added a contrasting colour, a bright orangey red with green & black splatters on it. Now the green looked out of place so I added green "tabs" for the journalling and names which was done with little stickers. The word PROM is also in green, though it looks yellow here, blame it on my camera skills ;)

To bring the bring it all together I added a disco ball, and the tickets in the corners, finishing off with a black swirly stamp and then white with the same stamp on the bottom left corner to soften it slightly.

Scrapbooking: Painting in the Rain.

I let the photos dominate this page, just flicking some ink onto the background & inking the edges before sticking the photos down. I added the title & journalling but felt something was missing. There was a nasty plain patch at the bottom that kept drawing the eye to it, so I added a hand print sticker, and a paintbrush which I think balanced it up a lot better.

Scrapbooking: Birthday Chef

On this page I tried to combine toe 2 main themes, cooking & trains. I found out a sheet of lined paper with trains on "perfect for journalling" I thought. I then picked out colours from this page, red & a dark turquoisey colour. I used a nestie to make a gap in the dotty paper to nestle the photo in as well as a sticker of words. I then cut a bit more out to mirror the red card I was adding onto the other side of the strip of paper. I could add a sticker into this gap as well.

To bring it all together I used the dotty paper to mount the photo of Kai & his cake on, after cutting both with nesties .... these border effects are why I like nesties so much.

When all stuck down the journalling fitted in nicely on the lined paper.. All that was left to add was the title, oh no! I'd run out of E's!!! so I turned an M round and trimmed the corner off, I think I got away with it nicely :-D

Scrapbooking: An Autumnal Walk.

This is my mint choc chip piece for The Summer of Colour (I know, I know I'm miles behind but I'm enjoying it & taking it easy :)
I chose the background paper first from a K&Co pad I have, then noticed the journalling tag (used in the top left corner) from CCWs November 2011 kit matched the pattern so very very well. As it was all in a kit I then knew the doillies paper would go very well as with the other journalling tags. I added thickers letters to create the title, and a couple of stags I found among my scrapbooking supplies.

Scrapbooking: A Paper Pieced Iphone

I wanted to record some of the pictures Kai had done on my first iphone on a page. I pondered for ages how I might do it, and came up with the idea of "on an iphone!"

Apart from the background sheet & the photos, all of this page is made out of scraps.

I have a big, overflowing wallet of scraps.

I started off with the 2 larger pictures and decided they could be Apps on a giant iphone. I cut the square, rounded the corners & stuck them onto a black piece of card before adding rub-on "app" names below. From here I made the corner of a giant iphone, including the battery icon & silver edge.

I then decided to have the other picture showing in an iphone as it would actual show up in the photos app. Being a pain in the backside to myself I measured the picture & decided the phone would have to be 1.5 times a normal iphone. Sometimes my brain drives me crazy because I then had to measure everything & work it all out so it would be in proportion. It really was a pain in the bum but well worth it.

For the journalling I wrote it in Notes on my current iphone & took a screen shot before uploading to my computer & printing it out. This is a technique I can see myself using in the future for journalling.

I also printed out an apple logo onto the backing card but this is almost unnoticeable with the iphone over it.
Once everything was stuck down I used a combination of white & black letters for the title so that not only does it read "Kai Learns" but also has"iLearn" in it.

Scrapbooking: Four legged friends.

The challenge over at UKScrappers was to use the palette of colours above, use a nature theme, and 3 or 4 photos.
I combined it with Niki's 52 layouts step by step and came up with......

I love flicking through this photos fast on the computer as they work like a flick book ... Kai runs towards the horses as the horses run towards him.
The horse in the circle is using a die cutter on foam and removing bits if black to replace with brown foam.

Scrapbooking: Wet Play aka Paper Piecing Crazy!

I loved making this page and I love how its turned out.
The background is off cuts of paper, the rainbow is as well but these ones had to be cut into shape unlike the ones for the background.
I drew the clouds onto white bazzil (its probably got some fancy name for that shade of white bazzil, but to me its WHITE). and cut out leaving a small border. Some of these are stuck flat onto the background, some are raised on foam pads. I made sure one was large enough for my journalling  & still in proportion with the rainbow.

Part of boots were first drawn onto the blue dotty paper, cut out, stuck onto white card, & then the rest drawn in before cutting out. One is raised above the other with foam pads to give a natural shadow.
Similar as the boots, I started with the blue part of the umbrella but this time I drew just the stick onto the card before adding the blue part above it on foam pads and cutting around the whole thing.

The finishing touch was the sticking the title to the rainbow once everything was positioned & stuck down.