"Believe"

A layout inspired both by a late night conversation with Char and the latest Scottie Crafts challenge.

It makes me sad when she is having a struggle with her self-confidence, which was the gist of our heart-to-heart. I wanted to create something that would remind her to stay strong. And believe in herself. And with the latest challenge at Scottie Crafts to 'create a project using your favourite scrapping manufacturer' in mind, I made this using (mainly) Fancy Pants - in particular the 'Roadshow' collection which I find myself using frequently (lucky I stocked up on the range!) as I love it so much. And Basic Grey alpha which is also a fav.

 Usually I struggle a bit with journalling on a LO - which is odd as I have no problem rambling inanely the rest of the time - but given the givens, this time the journalling was the first to be put together (albeit hastily scribbled and unedited). A page from a worn and weathered copy of Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil was one of the last details to be added, but then I struggled to find that right finishing touch. The top left area above the journalling needed something, and the leafy flourish from my pack of FP Roadshow Rub Ons screamed to be selected. Finally I realised if I cut the flourish and placed the majority of it above the journalling to give a bit of balance to that side of the page, and allowed the rest to trail out from the corner of the photo for continuity and to balance out that area, it would probably be as right as I'd ever get it.

End Note: Stay tuned next time for two off-the-page projects using papers from Graphic 45's 'Steampunk Debutante' and Bo Bunny's 'Et Cetera' collections!

End Note 2:  Thanks Scottie Crafts for the RAK sent out for my entry to last month's challenge. I already have a project in mind for it... ;)

"Believe" created with:

Fancy Pants 'Roadshow' papers, stickers and rub ons. AC cardstock. Basic Grey alpha. Prima flowers.

"Even Angels Will Fall" (or a section of...)

I'm loving Basic Grey's 'Out of Print' collection at the moment, having used one of the paper's in in two LO already. Here's a wee preview of the latest...


















                                     I cut out some of the feathery paisley leaf-like (what IS it?) shapes from  this paper and decided they'd be suitable as whimsy kind of wings to add on to Char's back. She was actually wearing black wings, but they didn't show up in the photo. I'm also loving the My Minds Eye papers that are behind the photo - they just seemed to go so nicely with the colours in the 'wings'.

Char came up with the title for me. 'Even Angels Will Fall'. These photos were for a Bebo competition, where she was portraying a lost/fallen angel, or something to that effect...



Although the layout is 95%  finished, there's still something not quite right that I can't quite put my finger on. Maybe it's the lack of journalling, or the title placement. Meh, it's in the 'things to get back to figuring out' pile, where it may likely sit for a really really long time.

Okay, time to go. Visitors have arrived, and past history has taught me that if you remained zoned out on the computer when you have guests over, they soon wordlessly leave again... *shamefaced*

Getting back into the (scrapbooking) closet.

Picture this: You're having an 'Eureka moment' where you have a clear-as-bell inspiration for a new layout, and all day you've been itching - positively itching - to get started on it. You have to wait until the kids are asleep (because attempts through the day to pull your scrapbooking gear out while they're awake have crashed and burned) but finally, the moment comes where the last wee munchkin has tottled off to sleep, and you have the whole night stretched out before you with nothing on the agenda but putting that layout together...

But the key to your scrapbooking closet has vanished into thin air.

*facepalm*

I have spent the entire night searching the house. I've searched locations where the key couldn't possibly be (the washing machine, the jeans I haven't even worn in the past week, beneath the back steps, behind the toilet...) and I've returned to the same locations over and over just in case the key suddenly materialises in the most obvious place. It is nowhere. I'm beginning to wonder if it was in the kangaroo pocket of my hoodie when we went to the park today, and fell out on the rugby field when I was having a race with Jarrod to determine who would make coffees for the rest of the night.

I'm having withdrawals. I'm drowning. I'm slowly but surely losing my mind.

And this is precisely why we need a bigger house.

If we had a bigger house, I'd be able to dedicate an entire room to my scrapbooking supplies, rather than a wooden closet. And then I wouldn't need to worry about a stupid ornate little key with a bright blue keyring that you just can't miss!! Arrrrrghhhh!!

// end rant.

EDITED TO ADD: The key was found in the morning, when Bree revealed she had put it in Indie's back pocket. And yes, there it was, in the washing machine, in the bum pocket of his pants!

"Clucky"

This week I've churned out more layouts than I have in several weeks, and for two of those three layouts I can thank Challenges!

This was the Scottie Craft challenge:
Step 1:  Choose a colour palette from Design Seeds to base the layout on.
Step 2: Pick a designer who inspires you.

For the colour palette, I went with 'Feathered Hues' as I love the warm mix of chocolate brown and teal, and I had just the range of papers in mind to go with it. (Well, colour match isn't quite right, but it was the closest I could find!)

Chosing a designer was difficult, as I'm not well read on scrapping designers, so I flicked through a few of my scrapbook magazines until I decided on Rachael Scholy who I found on page 16 of Scrapbooking With the Experts. She describes her style as 'funky shabby chic' and I was inspired by her suggestion of using bling to frame or highlight objects on the page. I used this idea by framing my pregnant belly with self-adhesive pearls with a swirly shape that cupped the belly quite nicely (I cut the design in half). The way the pearl flourish curls around back into the photo could sort of resemble a baby in fetal position, don't you think?

I had the general concept in place but was quite frankly stumped as to how it was all going to go together on the page. Too much over thinking, not enough sleeping. In the end I borrowed from the layout style on page 39 of Scrapbooking Memories Vol 13 No 5.

End Note: There are five birds on the page. One to symbolise each member of the family.

End Note 2: The submission date for the challenge was Sep 15, midnight. It was 11.20pm when I began writing this in order to put up the link, and then Indie decided to wake - arggh! The link was put up with ten minutes to go. Nothing quite like working under pressure...

Products used: 

Fancy Pants 'Happy Together' papers and rub ons, Zva Creative Pearls, Basic Grey (I think?) chipboard alpha

"Little Dryad"

This layout was put together a couple of days ago for September's challenge on the NZ Paper Chase blog. 

The challenge is to create a layout based on a sketch, and to add something altered, or a frame to the photo.

I've been wanting to make a page with this photo of Bree along with the striped Kaisercraft paper for some time, and the 'frame' element of this challenge gave me the push to get a move on, with an inspiration to make a swing out of twine and willow branch to form a kind of frame. A sheet from Basic Grey's 'Out of Print' collection was used to resemble a strange assortment of leaves/branches for a whimsical twist.

I tried to leave the edges of the striped paper clean and tear-free, but it just looked too flat, so I had to scrunch, sand and tear them. Probably should have stopped there. The black ink I went on to add makes the page look a bit like it's been plucked from the smouldering remains of a burnt out building.
Probably should work on improving my range of ink colours.

The size of the alpha was annoyingly big, so 'Little Dryad' had to become 'Dryad', but it was all I had to go with, and then I was one 'd' short so a 'p' had to suffice. Would've been a good idea to have used the scissors on those two letters to make them match up better...  Probably should work on building up my stash of alphas.

In fact, it probably would have been a good idea to go to bed at 1am instead of trying to get it all finished in one burst.  Meh.  Too many layouts are collecting dust in the 'incomplete projects' drawer of my scrapbooking closet because I have decided to come back to it the next day. You know how that day never comes...

Anyway, I will be making another post shortly with another layout of made for  the challenge at Scottie Crafts. It's due by midnight tonight, and I am currently stuck on my title and where to place it. Titles. They kill me.

The Genealogy Project

For several months I've been collecting papers and embellishments with a vintage/retro theme, in order to one day find the right kind of time, inspiration and confidence to create a scrap album of my family history.

Today I felt inspired to do what I sometimes do from time to time - scatter the papers across the floor, layer photos on top, and see if I'm brave enough yet to put a layout together.

Not today.

I've rehashed over my own childhood history, mulled over my one childhood photo album, filled mainly with photos of my first two and a half years, and most of which feature me splashing about at Whangamata, sitting astride a horse (or my beloved elephant stuffed toy) and riding my trike around the garden of my first childhood home.

I've scanned my mother's photos from her own childhood, and those of my siblings who were busy living out their lives long before I was born (being the youngest of five on my mother's side, I was an unexpected late-comer to the party, and as I'm also the product of my mother's second marriage, my sisters and brothers are all older half-siblings.)

 Along the way I've learnt snippets of family history I would never have known, had I not the occasion to discuss the photos with mum, thus stirring her to share tales of the past.

The man in the top left photo is my grandfather. Mum remembers him doubling her on that bike. She was far closer to her dad than to her mum (who was ill-tempered and emotionally detached), and was devastated when he passed away - she was only 17.
Left center: My grandmother and my little uncle Wayne. He died when he was just two and a half years old. This is the only photo of him.
Bottom left: The wedding of my brother Tony and his wife Anne. They're still together today. The little girl kissing Anne is my sister Tracey. The bridesmaid looking in the door way is my sister Karen.
Top right: My mother's first husband, Fred Butler. They both remarried after divorcing, but a part of her never really stopped loving him. Next to him is my brother Tony (who, for the record, I've only ever met twice. The second time was at his fathers funeral.) The super-stylie lady to the right is my mum.
Middle right: My uncle Peter and Prince Charles. Uncle Peter died several years ago in - I think - a motorbike accident.
Bottom right: My sister Tracey who is 9 years my senior and closest to me in age.
The gorgeous child in the middle is my mother.

I hope I'll start a new scrapbook with these photos sooner rather than later. I just want to make sure I get it right. So, I'll wait just a little longer yet...

"Remember This Moment"

I've been dying to use this paper from Simple Stories '100 Days of Summer' collection bought from Scrapbook Outlet NZ, but in the past few weeks I've been too busy blogging at my other blog to do much in the way of scrapbooking. Fortunately mum came to stay for a couple of days last week, and she always inspires me to create another layout. And so, at last, I did.

It's incredibly simple but the paper itself was so pretty, I didn't want to clutter it. Though in hindsight I wish I'd made an actual effort to keep my title straight!

Originally I wanted to use a beach photo for this particular page, but despite having taken 3.5 millions photos at the beach last summer, not a single one seemed to quite fit. And then I came across this photo Char took of herself and Bree, and I realised there was no other photo in my collection that would work so well. I mulled on it for a few days, then remembered my box of Fancy Pants 'Happy Holidays' chipboard stickers and knew there'd be something amid it that would suit. I wanted a flourish and was willing to cut one out myself if need be, but this one from the collection went nicely.

A trip to NZ Scrapbook on the Shore (where they were having a 50% off EVERYTHING sale!!!) is where I sourced the flowers and one of the papers used to mat the photo.

I distressed the papers used to mat the photo and as it's pretty much impossible for me to cut a straight line, it's just become part of my style to NOT have straight lines, even if they look like they should be... And laying down lettering in a straight line? Seems impossible for me, even when the paper has ruled lines printed on to it! Meh, I give up. The oddity and unevenness is just a part of who I am I suppose, and this is certainly reflected in my scrapbooking...

The journalling and title is inspired by Char's on-and-off struggle with depression/ teen angst. And my own, I suppose, when I really think about it. (Seems to be a recurring theme far as my journalling is concerned....)

Only now that I'm posting an update on this latest layout do I realise there's an important detail missing from it - a centerpeice for the flower. And here I was thinking that for once I've managed to finish a project in one sitting without needing to come back and fix something up!