Scrapbooking: Angry Birds Birthday

I started off trying to figure out how to put all the photos I wanted of Kai's birthday onto one sheet of 12x12. While doing it I came upon the theme of angry birds to match Kai's cake, and with that theme came the idea of stacking the photos like the wood/glass etc on the game.

The photos are mounted into wood patterned paper. After this I began to put together the background, matching it to one off the game.

I have to admit it was rather frustrating and annoying that after making this fiddly background, with plenty of layers and snipping, that the majority ended up being covered up.

I printed off the title onto white card using "Feast of Flesh" font, cut out and stuck on. I made pigs and birds with scrap card before adding the finishing touches of white flight dots and the journalling.

Do you play angry birds? & if so which is your favourite?

Scrapbooking: Loves young dream - a christmas play

Kai's school did a modern day take on the Christmas nativity, something that I think would make it more accessible for the younger children.

I wanted my scrapbook page to be just as modern so took the colours from what the kids wore, card flight attendant hats & bibs - well how else would Maz & Jo (aka Mary & Joseph ) get to Bethlehem in 2012 other than Donkey airlines?

I wrote the Christmas Story as they had acted it out on the left, and about Kai's part in the play in the yellow box on the right.

With such vivid colours I didnt want to much in the way of patterns & embellishments so stamped pale swirls at the top & bottom, a piece of holy in an annoying blank patch, and 3 red circles which mainly went behind the photos to add some correlation. I think the red made it feel a bit more christmassy, along with the red rub on words & swirls.

Scrapbooking: Pyjama School Day

PJ days are always nice & lazy .... that is unless you have a pyjama day at school when it becomes even more fun & not in the least bit lazy.

"Kai's reception year had a pyjama day, just for fun & as part of of learning about their day.

Kai;s short PJs were perfect for the sunny day it was"

I tried to match up the greens with the pyjamas but didnt want to put too much to drown out the page.
While looking for PJ themed papers I came across some lovely green and yellow ones so added yellow to the colour scheme.
The alphas I used on the title were too pale, against the background, and I didnt have any ones in the right shade of green so ended up drawing around them in the same green pen as I used on the journalling.

Scrapbooking: Science

You can tell my eldest is so used to me getting photos for Scrapbooking that when he goes to shake hands & collect his certificate at an awards evening he turns to the camera ... just a shame that my camera skills arent quite upto getting a non-fuzzy photo.

(All information that could identify the school has been removed)

I hadnt any Sciencey papers or embellishments, but my lost & found halloween stamps worked perfectly- the skeleton for biology, and the bottles (cobwebs masked off) for chemistry.

Scrapbooking: 2011, in the beginning, the end.

With 15 minutes left of 2012 I only had one more page left to do, the first page of my 2011 2nd album. I was confident that I could get it done in time, I had edited the final photo, just needing to get it printed, mounted twice and stuck on the final layer .... I was sure I could do it before midnight (oooo, I have an exciting new years eve dont I!)
Of course I turned out to be over confident, the printer had other ideas & ran out of ink half way through printing the photo. The photo was rather big, detailed and being printed in "best photo" it printed rather slowly so even once I'd changed the ink it still took ages.

At 15 minutes past midnight I was finished, my 2011 albums were complete.

Last year I had nearly made it, I had nearly reached my target of completing them within the year. Being so close just gives me even more incentive to complete this years task on time, to complete my 2012 & 2009 albums.

Do you have any craft resolutions, aims or tasks you want complete this year?

Scrapbooking: 2011, the end... almost

At the start of 2012 I set myself the task of completing my 2010 album, and the 2011 one as well. On the last day of 2012 I was almost at that point, 2010 had been complete for a while & there was only a few siple pages left for 2011 - this included the back pages. A book has a beginning, a middle and an end, & so I think should a scrapbook page.

For my end pages, I know theres not much to be put on them so I like to use those pretty papers that are too beautiful to cover up or cut .... I have now started to look for just such papers to use.

Please excuse the appalling photos, it was dark almost all the time that week.
Dont you love that blue glitter, contrasting beautifully with the brown?

The tag was made & given to me by my friend Ruth in a handmade christmas swap .... sorry Ruth, I had to move the bell & cord to put 2012 on, though I did add it to the top :)

Scrapbooking: Hedgehog in Heels

I've said it before & I'll say it again, what is it with my kids nicking my heels when they were/are younger?
Note to Zack - you dont get away so easily, I have photos of you in heels & I'm not afraid to scrap them :)

Some of you may remember the hedgehog costume from THIS blog post, there are more photos of the outfit there. I played around with instagram on the photos a little bit before making this layout for a UKS challenge.
The challenge was to use the sketch given, a colour combination of brown & pink (hence why there's a lot of pink), a brad, and blossoms.

Scrapbooking: Year Two

A couple of photos of Zack at the age of 6, on his way to school. A simple layout using mainly blue to reflect the blue in the school jumper.

I had a light bulb moment with the journalling paper. I've been wanting a notepad type punch, the ones that make it look like its a page ripped out of a pad, and I thought that kind of thing would be perfect on this page.
I looked through my other punches to see if there was another nice pattern that might go, when the idea came to me, I have a comb binding machine!!!! I took it out, punched the holes, placed it where you're meant to add the comb on & pulled so it ripped the holes open, TA DAH! just want I wanted :D

(No need to hide school name & logo as usual due to it having been knocked down & no longer exists.)

Scrapbooking: Summer Holidays 2011

I like to mark the Summer Holidays in my scrapbook album with a collection of photos, just generally showing what the kids got upto. If I think anything was extra special (such as a day trip out) or more is needed to be said about it then I'll do separate layouts for them as well.

I played around a bit with the photo effects on different apps on my phone & found one that gave a faint camera film effect onto the photos, mainly the square holed lines that go down the edges that are used to wind the camera film on. I reflected this onto the page as well by using Tim holtz film strip frames die in cream & the dotty yellow patterned paper on the two sides.

Scrapbooking: Paper Mache Pig

There are times when I sit & guiltily think of fun things I did as a child that I havent organised to do with my children, this normally leads to a holiday or weekend activity. One of these thoughts (in 2009) involved putting paper mache over a balloon to make heads, hot air balloons or piggy banks ... as usual this became a summer holiday activity.

I used a sketch in a UKS challenge for the basis of my page. I wanted to use pink to bring out the colour of the pigs, but also used a lot of grey to make it more masculine, and because it goes soooooo well with pink.

Is there anything you did as a child that you look back & wished you'd done with your children, or would like to?

Scrapbooking: Down by the sea

Lets warm things up a bit. The weather has been rather unpredictable over the past few years, last year October was a rather cold, dull month, whereas in 2011 the first day of October was glorious! It could easily have been mistaken for summer, and we spent it on the beach.

I had been saving these fancy pants papers, and embellishments just for these photos, along with the alpha stickers, oh I love these alphas. Fancy pants is fast becoming one of my favourite brands for the quality & depth of design.

Scrapbooking: A Winters Walk

Any sign of snow settling yet? I have my thick mittens out, as well as my normal gloves, I have my scarf and an array of hats to choose from,but wrapping up warm just isn't the same without snow to struggle through.
Did I say struggle? I meant glide through upon sledges.

Scrapbooking: Snownanny

We awoke to snow falling this morning, quite thick snow, coming down heavily. So it was rather disappointing when it thinned off and turned to water. They say we have 3 weeks of potentially freezing, awful,snowy weather to come, I do hope so. As a family we have so much fun in the snow.

Scrapbooking: Christmas Fun in the Jungle

I know, I know, Christmas is all over, but hows about you let me get away with a christmas layout with zebra print and a lion on?

I layered up papers, borders and photos, along with a vellum journalling box. The journalling reads...

"For their Christmas School trip, Kai;s year went to Jungleland. There were a few parents who were asked to be helpers including myself & Kate (Bens Mom). We soon got stuck in & were running around, climbing & going down the long slide, just like the kids."

Scrapbooking: Xmas Cheer

A 2 page layout to scrap Christmas 2011

 Pages full of pretty papers, twine, baubles, stamping, ribbon & multiple photos, what more could you want!

Scrapbooking: Advent Swap

A challenge on uks to use/about something New, No pink or blue, Small embellishments & 2 words in the title. I had just got back some photos I'd ordered to be developed so decided to use the ones from an advent swap I did a few years ago

A simple layout, mainly created by little instagrammed photos with a tag and some brads to complete it.
The brads were originally gold, but as I had no red ones, which it was red I wanted, I heated them up with my heat gun, dipped into embossing powder and reheated, voila, lovely red brads :)

Scrapbooking: ...from Zack & Kai

Happy New Year Everyone, and thank you for the lovely welcome back I was given yesterday. December was a busy month, as it is for most of us, so going awol from blogging was an enforced necessity. I am back and ready to share with you more scrapbook pages that I created, and I'm sure a few other makes will creep in along the way as well.

While we're still within the 12 days of Christmas I shall share with you a few more Christmassy layouts.

As you can see this page is dominated by red an green, this time to show Kai & Zack writing their Christmas cards in 2011.

The journalling reads...
"Zack and Kai take time out to write their Christmas Cards, Kai for the first time by himself"
Theres something so Christmassy about the Tim Holtz rosette dies once done in Christmas papers, especially with christmas themed circles popped on top.

Scrapbooking: Happy Holidays

Sometimes I come across papers that are just too beautiful to cover parts up, this was one of those times.

I did trim a lot of stripey border off the top and bottom, and used a sheet of paper in the centre to turn it bac into a 12x12 sheet. I used scraps of card to create pendants of varying sizes, some I mounted onto creams & whites, others I distressed the edges. I added snowflakes and a couple of strips of border stickers. I mounted the photos onto cream & then red to make them stand out more, and added a journalling circle.
There was no need to add a title as there were already two on the background sheet.

The journalling reads ..

"Zack and Kai enjoy a McDonalds for a treat after a hard afternoon bauble shopping"