graduation phot, 2 pages for Mo's album and 2 pages for Anita's album

We have finally received the official graduation photograph of us with our son Dan who graduated this June.

 

My twin little sisters albums which I am making for their Christmas presents are coming on well, I have til 27th December to finish them before we take them when we go and stay in a rented cottage in Pagham, Sussex. Yesterday I made 2 double layouts. Anita's favourite colours are chocolate and cream so that's the colour scheme for her album with a little blue added, her identical twin Mo loves bright pinks as well as blues and greens, so the albums have very different feels.

This is a 12" x 12" 7Gypsies double sided paper, and I cut out the journal tag and sentiment from the Recollections signature 'Memories Documented' paper pad, and finished the page with 2 Papermania Capsule Collection blooms and an adhesive pearl, the photo is of Fraser, who is 17 months older than the twins, then Anita in the middle and Mo.  I am journaling about where we lived and our relatives for not only my sisters but also for them to pass down to their children to show them our childhoods.

this page is another 12" x 12" double sided 7Gypsies paper, and I cut out and added the 'don't forget', bunting and journal tag from the same Recollections paper pad as before. From left to right its Mo, Ian, Fraser, Anita then me.

Above, how the pages are laid out in a double layout in Anita's album. I think the muted tones work well with the black and white photographs.

these are 2 of my favourite photos of Mo, the paper is 12" x 12" K & Co Addison Stitched Strips Flat Paper, I embellished the page with blue textured paper behind the photos, Papermania star brads,
Kraft card for journal tag, pink adhesive gems. Her name was made using a Brenda Pinnick 'Posies' pink adhesive letter and a pink button.

This page has 2 photos of our parents along with the details of when they renewed their wedding vows, all the more poignant as dad collapsed with a massive stroke 2 weeks later and was unable to speak until his death 7 months later, I miss his smile and humour. the page is 12" x 12" K & Co Classic K Margo Multicolored Plaid Flat Paper, I also used blue textured card, blue glitter card, hearts and swirls paper and a diecut journal tag which I was sent in a swap on docrafts forum. you can't see the acetate sentiment (bottom right) well, its adhered to the page with 2 Papermania khaki brads and reads "We were two and had but ONE heart", so true of them who were devoted to each other for over 40 years of marriage, I finished the page with cream adhesive pearls.

how they appear in the album as a double layout.

I am really enjoying going down memory lane and making these albums, thanks for any comments you may leave, fi xx

My first scrapalbum, made from scratch

Last December I was browsing in The Range, and came across a pack of 8" x 8" Kraft card and decided to use it to make my first scrap album from scratch. I am part of the monthly scrapbook layout challenge on the scrapbooking forum on the DoCrafts website and we are making an album of one layout per month, with different members choosing the theme.

Firstly I wanted to find a theme for the cover and I found it in some beautiful paper, sorry can't remember who made it, but it inspired me. I covered the front and back cover in the same lilac papers, and on the front finished it with corner and numeral peel-offs, before punching the holes for the D-rings with my Bigbite.

                                 "Create, Dream, Imagine, Believe" album cover for 2013

 

January's theme was either celebrations or hopes for 2013. As there were lots of difficulties in our lives in January I didn't feel up to doing the celebrations theme but the hopes for 2013 was right up my street. I covered the page with pink and lilac Papermania starry paper, and embellished the page with donated die-cut corners, which I coloured with a metallic pen, a die-cut medallion which I coloured with Tim Holtz 'Fired Brick' distress ink and finished with lilac pearls and a doily.

 

JANUARY - HOPES FOR 2013 layout

February's challenge theme was love and I went very retro and romantic for this layout. I chose a photo of me and Andy taken in 1984, check out the fashions! My daughter thinks they are awful but they were bang on trend for the early 80s if any of you remember that great era. I covered the page in pink cloud paper, then matted and layered pearl and patterned card and embellished the page with metallic hearts, tags and a mini envelope, which had a hidden tag of journaling, shown on 2nd photo.

                                                        FEBRUARY - LOVE layout

March's challenge theme was vintage, and I decided to finally do a scrapbook layout of my beloved dad, something I'd not felt able to do in the 7 years since he died. I hunted for this favourite photo of the 2 of us, me aged 2, in India where I was born, its a a lovely black and white photo. I went for a muted colour scheme, for the vintage newspaper backing paper, the 3D tags  and chipboard alphas, the green backing papers and journal tags came from the Papermania Chronology goodybag ( a mothers day gift from my daughter), the large 'thankful for you' journaling tag is taken from the 6" x 6" Webster's Pages "Petite Papers" paper pack.

                                                      MARCH - VINTAGE layout

the April challenge theme was either Easter or Spring, I chose spring as I had a gorgeous photo of my grand-daughter on the first day at her new school, taken on my front doorstep, next to a bed of daffodils. I covered the page with a pearlised butterfly paper (12" x 12" Michelle Ackerman 'Green Buterflies'), and embellished the page with chipboard die-cut flourish corner and 'sweet', the 6" x 6" journaling paper is taken from a vintage floral paper pack.

                                                         APRIL - SPRING layout

the May challenge theme was black and white photographs, i decided to think outside the box slightly for this challenge as I didn't use a B & W photo, but I did use black and white buttons, but my photo is almost all black, a silhouette photo of my brothers, taken by my mum, I love this stunning photo and had wanted to scrap it for ages and this seemed the perfect opportunity. I covered the page in cogs paper taken from the 8" x 8" Papermania Chrononolgy paper pack, along with co-ordinating tag and journaling tag from the same chronology goodybag. Also on the DO Crafts forum Emma (Trenouth) set us a challenge on the cardmaking forum to use stash we hadn't used to its full potential and just looked at in our craftrooms, my underused item was buttons. I have a large eclectic button collection, my mum started it for me when she gave me my granny's button box as part of my bottom drawer when I got engaged in 1983. I've added to my collection over the years by buying vintage buttons in charity shops and boutiques as well as removing buttons from worn out clothes and some of them have come to me via craft stash swaps on DO Crafts cardmaking forum. Its so easy to love our stash so much that it doesn't get used and I just enjoy looking at it, but I decided to use buttons not as an embellishment but as the main feature of the scrap page, so I emptied out my white and black button jars onto my craft desk and the design grew organically. I used them to show light and shade to reflect the photo and am very pleased with the result, I used Pritt power gel as its clear and strong and doesn't make as much mess as silicone glue. In all I used 50 of my vintage buttons.

                                   MAY - BLACK & WHITE PHOTO layout

I am really enjoying this monthly challenge along with scrapping in a style that's new to me, I will add the later months pages to my blog as I make them, thanks for any comments you may leave, happy crafting, Fi xx

 

 

1st page of Mo's 40th birthday album

I made 1st page of Anita's 40th birthday album (previous post) this week, so decided I should also start her twin Mo's album as well. To begin with I will use the same photos, for their shared childhood, but in their preferred colourways. Anita loves, chocalte, browns, creams, greys and blues. Mo prefers pinks, blues and soft greens.

Details:

vintage blue/cream spotted 12 x 12 paper (maker unknown)

satin spotted ribbon bought from Susie D (on DC)

silver glittered chipboard alphas from Poundland

Boofle 'Big Bloomer' flower

handmade rose,die-cut flowers & circles from swaps on DoCrafts

blue pearls from The London Line (bought at The Range)

vintage buttons from my granny's button jar

1st page of my little twin sisters 40th scrap albums

In October, my little sisters Mo and Anita, identical twins, will be 40 and  its customary for me to make my siblings an album for their 40th birthdays. I've not scrapped since last November, so its well overdue that I got back into it, also having just 2 1/2 months to finish two 12" x 12" albums, theres nothing like a bit of time presure to get me crafting!

                     This first LO is the first page of Anita's album:

materials used:

12" x 12" vintage newspaper paper (maker unknown)

Dovecraft 'chocolate' floral paper

Vintage lace paper (maker unknown)

Boofle Big Bloomers paper flower

Papermania 'chocolate' brad

diecut flowers 

(journalling will be added later to protect my sisters privacy as it will give their full names date and place of birth)

details:

Poundland bronze glittered chipboard letters

K & Co Vintage Button vellum

metallic pearl paper (maker unknown)

vintage ribbon (maker unknown)

photograph of the day the twins and mum came home from hospital(mum had been in for 6 weeks and in those days children were banned from maternity wards, so we had bnot seen her in that time.

 (from left to right)

Me aged 7 1/2 holding my 2 week old baby sister (we can't remember who was holding who!);

Mum holding Fraser, aged 17 months old

Ian, aged 6 holding our other baby sister

Dad.

Posies Scrapbook kit adhesive journalling stickers (bought from QVC)
                   Hot Off The Press Soft Nostalgia backing paper

die-cut bird on branch, die-cut border & antiqued brad ( all from swaps on Do Crafts forum, details unknown)

I couldn't possibly start Anita's story without Mo (short for Morag) her identical twin. Anita was born just a few minutes after Mo and they are still inseperable.

Dovecraft chocolate paper
Posies kit die-cut letters
Vintage buttons from my granny's button jar (given to me by my mum when I got engaged, as part of my 'bottom drawer' 29 years ago!)

One down, 39 to go!!

'FRIENDS FOREVER' 12" x 12" Scrapbook Layout (entered for my first blog challenge)

I wanted to start making a scrapbook of happy memories of Deb, my dearest friend who died in October, it would have been her 56th birthday yesterday (18th November). this is my first entry for a blog    chalenge,inspired by Linda's sketch on Just Tracys Crafts Challenge blog (finally sussed how to link my challenge to the blog thanks to instructions from Kathleen Mc on craftbloggers.blogspot.com)

For this layout I used:

K & Co 12" x 12" LJ Button Printed Embossed Vellum

BasicGrey SweetPea Alyssa Collection Journal Tags

Anita's gold peel-off letters

Papermania pink brads

Vintage buttons from my granny

12" x 12" backing paper (no makers mark)

lace, die-cut, sentiment, fabric flowers from my stash (makers unknown)

I would like to enter this layout into the following blog challenge:

November sketch on Just Tracys Craft Challenge Blog