A Photoless Post...

That doesn't happen very often...maybe a few times a year for me. A photoless post. I usually try to include at least one image in my posts but today I'm just scrapped out and just can't find the enthusiasm to find/take a photo, resize it and upload it. So apologies for having a lazy day LOL!

Not that I'm really having a lazy day at all. It's been very busy scrapping wise. I downloaded a few new Lilypad kits early this morning (available to buy tomorrow), tagged them all in ACDSee and then scrapped two layouts. I feel a bit worn out now because I have a tendency to forget to move when I'm on the computer which results in very achy shoulders. Aaah. Anyway the layouts are uploaded in the relevant secret thread at Lilypad and it's just a case of waiting until tomorrow now before I can put them in any "public" place.

I'm going to play with some ideas for my "Here, There and Everywhere" album this afternoon. I have the photos and the general idea of the journaling I want ono my next few pages...I just need to come up with an idea of the design/how to fit it all where I want now. So time to do some thinking...

See you tomorrow :)

Nearly There...

Getting very, very close to finishing my Christmas album now. These are the pages from the 28th and 29th of January. Actually only photos LOL! The previous page of the 28th had a lot of writing on it so this one only has a single photo.

All the journaling on the back of the photo is featured in the photo of this post and is all about the very short notice wedding that we went to in Sweden between Christmas and New Year.

The photo for the 29th is taken on a very frosty and cold walk out on a pier.

The Cover...

Before I talk about my "Here, There and Everywhere" album I just wanted to answer a question that I got from "pinky" - you wondered about the punches and where I got them from. I ordered them on-line from the US (unfortunately the place I bought them from has sold out completely)...but I would guess you can probably buy them somewhere in the UK too. Good luck :)

And "liberty cottage" - thanks for your comment. I'm very pleased that my albums have inspired you to be "brave", to step away from your "12x12 comfort zone" and order a chipboard album. I'm sure you will have lots of fun with it :) My best tip: don't be afraid - just play :) Remove pages if you feel like it, add others (different sizes, different materials) - the more you play, the more fun and interactive your finished project will be :)

Now, my "Here, There and Everywhere" album... Here's the finished cover:

As I said earlier I decided to go with the red/pink album (rather than the green/blue which would have been a more obvious choice for me)...but I couldn't resist adding just that touch of green to it :)

The cover for these Narratives/Karen Russell albums come with an aperture covered with a transparency on front cover (as you can see in the picture above). So I decided to make use out of this and to create my "front cover image" on the first page inside the album.

(sorry this photo is not 100% straight)

The main image is part of the class materials that Shimelle provided. But I also wanted to add something more to it to actually fill up the space that shows through the window on the front cover and my Ali Edwards stamps came in perfect for this :)

Now I'm off to start printing some photos for my "there" section...

More From My Xmas Journal...

Here comes another few pages from my Christmas journal...

The left side is half a page with a very "frozen" photo. Went on a walk near the sea on the 27th and got some great "cold" photos :)

The 28th again is half a page (though the top half - as we're looking at it). Lots of journaling about a slightly crazy day. We got invited to a very short notice wedding (like about a week LOL!) in Sweden. It goes through the day of getting up very early to drive 3 hours, head for the church, the reception afterwards and then drive 3 hours back home getting back about midnight. A long and crazy but very good day :)

Got My Punches...

I finally got the time to bring out the camera and take some photos of the stash parcel that arrived on...Wednesday, I think it was. I got my punches that I'd been waiting so much for. Martha Stewart has brought out some really great border punches and I couldn't resist a few of them. There are loads but I chose to buy 4. Oh and some paper too :)

These are my 4 new punches (plus a pack of Prima flowers which were a little bigger than I thought when I saw them on-line). After playing with them on some scrap paper and think my two faves are the two on the left side in the photo. Though I'm really pleased I got all 4 and can see myself using these a lot.

Some new Sassafras. Always love Sassafras. Though if I should be honest maybe these collections are not quite as much "me" as some previous ones. So therefore I was also more picky than usual when I chose what to buy and "only" got 2-3 sheets from each collection (while in the past I might have got a few more).

Prima. Now for some reason Prima papers have never really done it for me in the past. In fact I'm even trying to think of if I have ANY Prima paper in my stash and I'm not sure you know... But this collection, "Mommy and Me", is just super, super cute! Totally impossible to resist :)

Some American Crafts. Give me smiley happy colours (who would have thought I was a totally "muted colours" girl only a few years back?!?!) any time. Add in some owls and I'm sold :)

Heidi Grace. What more is there to say? Heidi Grace is one of my all time favourite paper manufacturers (together with October Afternoon, Sassafras, Scenic Route and one or two more).

The Lilypad BYOC...

...is released today. BYOC stands for "Build Your Own Collab" and it's an occasion that happens once a month at the Lilypad. The first Firday of the month. All the designers come together, plus one guest designer, pick a colour combination and create the most amazing co-ordinating kits. You can see the latest collab here.

As I mentioned yesterday, I was busy working with some of these kits yesterday afternoon. I was going to do some hybrid work but my printer is out of ink. I ordered it early and even though it showed as "in stock", I got a mail from the company telling me they had no stock and new stock would take at least 10 days to reach them. Why advertise as "in stock" then? Same for both items. And last time I ordered (3 lots of photo paper) they all showed as "in stock"...then I got an e-mail saying all my order was out of stock. Grrr! Next time I will pick another company. Anyone know of a good (=good price!) supplier of GENUINE Canon ink please? Leave me a comment please :)

So anyway, no hybrid for me this time, instead I went digi and came up with these two layouts...

[Supplies: Paper Trails: Flowers 1 - Anne deJong, The Love Of Space 3 Mini - Amy Martin (released 10th March '09), Pretty Poises - Amy Wolff, Spring Doodles - Jenna Desai
Swirly Goodness - Jenna Desai, Stitch 'Em Up - Jacque Larsen, Sunburst Alpha - Kate Hadfield, All Mixed Up - Kaye Winiecki (all from The Lilypad)]

[Supplies: Paper Trails: Flowers 1 - Anne deJong, Soft N Subtle 2 - Anne deJong, Pretty Poises - Amy Wolff, Pretty Posy Alpha - Amy Wolff, Spring Borders - Jenna Desai, Spring Doodles - Jenna Desai, Swirly Goodness - Jenna Desai, All Mixed Up - Kaye Winiecki (all from The Lilypad)]

Christmas Journal...

Guess what? Literally the same minute I pressed "publish" on my post yesterday, my second parcel turned up with the punches I was waiting for :) Might see if I can remember to take a photo of that for tomorrow...

Today I have been working on some layouts for Lilypad. Well I say "some"... I have done one so far and I hope to get the chance to get another one done by the end of the day if I can. It's for the new BYOC which is released tomorrow.

And before I go for today, here's the next set of pages in my Christmas journal. I decided to do it up to and including the 31st of Dec, so only a few pages left to go now:

The Stash...

I mentioned on Monday that I got some new stash last week. I still haven't got the second part which contains some punches that I'm really excited about. But it's still morning here as I type this so I guess there's plenty of chance for them arriving even today.

Anyway, it was ages since I look some stash photos so here we go... I have numbered a few things which I wanted to comment on. I hope the numbers and arrows will show up okay once I have minimized the photos to a good blog size.

1. If you haven't checked out the new kraft collection by Fancy Pants you must. It's so cute. I just can't get enough of kraft as it really works with anything and everything.

2. So pleased to add these Ali Edwards/Technique Tuesday stamps to my collection. I love her previous stamp sets. :)

3. The Imaginisce "Twitterpated" creatures just make me smile. :)

4. A little hard to see, but these two black little packages at the bottom of the photo are Maya Road sheers - birds and owls.

5. Some more Maya Road. Very, very cute animal rub-ons. So cute I had to get two packages!

6. You know when you buy something on-line and you have never seen it in real life? And sometimes it comes as a bit of a surprise when it arrives? Well these green Thickers were just that. They are HUGE!! And I had no idea LOL! I wouldn't have bought them if I'd known. Oh well... It reminds me of when I bought some mini albums from the US last year. They postage seemed very high but I didn't think anything more of it. They were called "board" and I just assumed they were "chipboard"...when the parcel arrived the postage suddenly made sense as the books were "board" as in "wood"!!!! LOL!

7. ...and talking about Thickers. The ones marked with no 7 I totally *love* and I can see these becoming very, very useful. Just the type of size etc that I always reach for :)

Travel Memories...

We're onto the travel memories (or the "places I have been") part of "Here, There and Everywhere". ie the "there" part. I'm spending today making a list of places...not sure if they will all be included in the album or not yet, but at least if I have a list with some ideas that's a start. Then I hope to start gathering some photos that belong to these trips...though that might have to be a job for tomorrow.

Been playing with some yummy Sassafras stash here. Layout of with photos of my mum when she and dad were on Madeira. Though the layout is titled "Madagascar" - there's a story to it LOL!

I've got some new stash last week which I might take some photos of later. It was coming in two parcels and I'm hoping that the other one might be here any day soon now too :)

Make Your Dreams Come True...

This is "part 2" of the hybrid projects that I had to show you this weekend. Again I have used one of the fantastic templates available at Sweet Shoppe Designs. This time it's the "milk carton" template that I have used.

At first I was going to glue the top shut but then I decided to use my Crop-A-Dile to make some holes in the top and add brads instead (ribbons would be really pretty to use too). That way you can open and re-use the box...maybe to keep little holiday memories or save some holiday funds in...

[Supplies: Supplies: Sand In My Shorts - Julie Billingsley, Sunny With A Chance - Julie Billingsley, DIY Printable Templates: Milk Carton - Heather Roselli (all SSD)]

Once you had done all the designing and printed out your box it was surprisingly fast to put together. There's something so satisfying to start with a flat piece of paper, do a little scoring, cutting & gluing and before you know it you end up with a cute little box :)