Moving Layouts...

I don't know about you, but even though I took some photos when we last moved, it never entered my head to have moving photos printed. I guess it's because of all the bags and boxes. Very cluttered photos which both wouldn't look so nice in your album and would be hard to get to stand out on your layout (because of the "busy" photos").

Anyway, one of the prompt from the "home" class that I'm taking was about scrapping the "Last time..." of something. Last time when you had visitors, last time you moved etc. I decided to go with the "moving" theme. I printed my photos smaller than normal (to make them less "busy" and hard to scrap with")...two from the old place and two from the new. This is the result:

Supplies: Scenic Route and Making Memories papers, American Crafts Thickers alphabets, Jenny Bowling journaling label and digital Chipboard Buttons by Kate Hadfield.

Thanks so much for all the sweet comments that were left for me yesterday. They really made me smile and cheered me up a bit. *thank you* :)

A Better Day Tomorrow...

...that's what I'm hoping it will be. Sometimes things just get to you. People say things which make you upset. You shouldn't let it get to you - but it does. It's one of those days. So I'm sad. And upset. But I'll be ok. Hopefully it's a better a day tomorrow.

Supplies: Making Memories papers, clip and 3D flowers, American Crafts Thickers alphabets, Jenny Bowlin ticket stub and journaling block plus some Love Elsie stamps.

Rhonda - Sorry to hear about your mum. Thank you for your sweet comment. I can't believe that I have inspired someone to start scrapbooking and being creative again. That sounds so special and thank you for writing that. It made me smile :) .

"Walk In The Park" - Layout Class

Please feel free to use these instructions to make your own layout. You are free to link to this page from any forum etc if you wish. Please do NOT copy this information and/or photos to use for your own classes/forums/webpages without permission.

Supplies needed:
Love Elsie – Toby – “Culture”
Love Elsie – Toby – “Thoughts”
Love Elsie – Toby – “Carry On”
Love Elsie – Toby – Big ribbon pack
Love Elsie – Toby – Tiny ribbon pack
Love Elsie – Toby – alphabet cardstock stickers
October Afternoon – Candid Camera stampset
American Crafts – Thickers – Latte, Foam, Black
American Crafts – Thickers – Daiquiri, Foam, Black
American Crafts – Playhouse Chipboard Stars

Also needed:
Glue (I use Herma removable)
Black Slick Writer
Charcoal Chalk Inkpad (optional)
Stapler
Scalloped scissors (optional)
Scrap piece of white cardstock

Start by cutting your patterned paper (“Culture”) to size. I scrap in true A4 size, so I cut mine to 29,7x21 centimetres (cm). Please feel free to adapt to another layout size if you prefer. We will be using the striped side of the paper for the base of the layout.

Also pick your photo. I’m using a standard 15x10 cm (6x4) photo in a landscape format. If you’re working on a bigger sized layout (say 12x12) then a larger photo would also work great.

Get your patterned papers and cut the following:
• 18x7,5 cm piece from “Culture”
• 11x9,5 cm piece from “Thoughts”
• 12x3 cm piece from “Carry On”

Use the scalloped scissors on one of the long sides of your “carry On” piece. Then use the chalk inkpad on the edges of all pieces. Attach onto layout as shown in photo below (the long strip of “Culture” starts 1,5 cm in from the left side of my layout). Attach your photo in place.

Pick two ribbons that you like. I picked the “go, see, explore” from the big ribbon set and a brown ribbon from the tiny ribbon set. My green ribbon is 27 cm long and the brown 25 cm. I have cut them at an angle on the right edge. Attach along the bottom of your layout and staple in place. Use the Thickers and Toby chipboard stickers to make up a title of your choice. I like to outline my stickers with a black Slick Writer so they stand out better.

Finally add some chipboard stars. I picked three lime green ones. Pick a suitable stamp from the set, stamp onto your piece of scrap white cardstock, fill in with details, edge with chalk ink and attach along the left side of the photo.

I hope you enjoyed my class! Wishing you lots of fun creating your own version!

Lilypad Goodies...

I have been using some Lilypad goodies this morning while waiting for my next class prompt to turn up. First a very quick tractor card:

I used the Vehicle Doodles pack by Kate Hadfield. The tractor is originally green in the download pack, but I needed a red one so I had to re-colour it. Worked great :)

Then I played with some of the new April Collab kit. I had this idea the other day to make matchboxes a bit more pretty, so I grabbed some this morning and had a go. This is the result:

The super cute owls are from Natalie Braxton's "Hoo Do You Love?" and the backgrounds are papers from Amy Wolff's "Barely There". Borders are hand doodled.

Another Scraproom Layout...

Yay another reason to use the funky "Zoe" collection by Elsie. And another layout from the on-line class that I'm taking. The title was a suggestion in today's prompt, to start "In My Home There Is A Room..." and then to fill in the rest in your journaling. I really liked this idea (and it gave me a reason to use lots of Thickers!) so I went for it:

Supplies: Love Elsie "Zoe" papers, cardstock stickers and epoxy stickers, American Crafts Thickers of different fonts, doodlebug jewels plus black & white pens.

Jennifer - you asked about the dimensions of the "My Home Town" minibook. I have just measured and it's 8,5 cm by 9,5 cm. :)

Can't wait to see what tomorrow's prompt has in store for us. So far I'm totally loving this class :)

Layout Time...

So it was time for a layout. Shimelle's prompt for the class was about how you should pick a room and then take close-ups of three spots in there that meant something to you. So out came the camera and I went for a hunt...

I ended up picking my little scraproom and took a few close-ups there. I also really enjoyed getting the perfect reason to use my Love Elsie "Zoe" collection. I have been wanting to have a play with it for ages but never had the right photos. Today was perfect.

Sarah - you asked about the "Home Sweet Home" minibook and what size it is. The book is 8 cm wide (just over 3 inches) and 15 cm tall (6 inches) at the "tallest" point of the roof. The inside pages are just a tiny fraction smaller to make it fit neatly. I just drew a template myself and cut the covers from chipboard and the pages from cardstock. Hope that answered your questions :)

Some cool, cool DT news...

I've been dying to write about it and now I finally can... I have got the bestest DT news!! I have been picked for the site Design Team for the Lilypad - how cool is that? Yep it's a Creative Team which does work for *all* the designers at the Lilypad. :) *jumping up and down with joy* I still feel like I need to pinch my arm to check that I'm not dreaming LOL!

While I'm sharing those great news, I want to say a big THANK YOU to Natalie Braxton for suggesting me for the Lilypad CT in the first place. And doesn't she make just the coolest digital stuff?! I just quickly printed out this owl and branch (it's from her "Hoo Do You Love?" kit and I just edited the colours a bit) on a piece of photo paper - it's sitting next to my monitor at the moment and makes me smile so much :)

Staying with the Lilypad theme, I'm also on Kate Hadfield's personal DT and she's released some cool stuff for the April Collab at the Lilypad. I made these cards using Kate's "Home Sweet Home" doodle pack:

Goes off to do another little *happy dance* for being on the Lilypad CT (can you tell I'm really excited about this?! LOL!)

House-Shaped Minibook...

Phew - finally finished! *makes mental note to think twice about making SHAPED minibooks in the future* This one took a looooong time. Making it house-shaped is a cute idea in principle, but it does take a lot longer to make the covers and the pages. Still, it's done and I'm quite happy with how it turned out.

This book is based on one of the prompts from the "Home" class by Shimelle which I'm taking at the moment. I have made the book (again!) completely from scraps, a few letter stickers, stamps and some rub-ons. I'm really getting into this using-up-your-scraps-thing. It makes you feel *so* good when you see what you can create using up off-cuts :)

Didn't have time to take photos of all pages inside (12) - but at least you can see a few sample pages. They all use the same concept, just a different photo and different papers.

And some questions I had:

Malaryush - the stamp I used for the back of my "My Home Town" minibook is from Catslife Press.

Taly and Anonymous (sorry I don't kow your name) - both of you wanted to know where I got the two Love Elsie collections from. Both collections are exclusive to Hobby Craft in the US. There's both good and bad news. The good news is that you can buy them from their on-line shop called Crafts Etc. The bad news is that the postage is pretty expensive. I was charged $22-something in shipping. Hope that helps :)

*Love* Elsie...

I'm having a good day today :) I'm still working on my minibook from yesterday. It's taking far, far longer than I thought. I'm sure it's got something to do with the fact that I thought it would be fun to make it into a house shape, rather than a normal square/rectangular shape. Big mistake! At least when it comes to the time it takes to make the pages and covers. It's soooo much quicker to make a standard shaped one. *must remember for the future*

So what's good? Something that really made me smile was that my new "Love Elsie" stash from the US turned up. I really didn't expect it quite so soon - so that was a nice surprise. First the "Josie" collection:

...and then the "Emma" collection. Think I definitely like the Emma on best. Though Josie has some yummy colours too!

...back to doing more work on my minibook.

Coasters...

Just wanted to show you these happy coasters that I made using Kate Hadfield's Spring Tweets kit. Super quick to make and something to make you smile when you're lifting your glass :)

Hope you're all having a great creative day :)

*Off to work on another minibook*