Altered vintage shadow box

I've not blogged for over 5 months as I have not been well and done little crafting, but I have finally found a project that inspires me to craft.

35 years ago, when I was 14 my dad went to night classes to do woodworking, this was his very first project, its based on a Scandinavian 'shadow box' , about 2 foot wide and 18 inches high. I had previously just used it to display small ornaments such as Whimsies (remember them from the 70s/80s?), then I painted it in classic cream matt paint.

I decided to alter it with vintage papers and embellishments to follow the theme of my craftroom, have previously altered my large craft desk and have been collecting potential items to use, and finally started on this project as I have no mojo for cardmaking right now.

I used mainly Graphic45. Papermania 'MadamePayraud and Recollections 'Always Remember 12" x 12" papers, I added 2 inspirational ATCs sent tome years ago, and lots of metal charms - owls, bird silhouettes, clocks and keys, along with vintage lace and vintage botanical ribbons, featuring keys and butterflies. then I started to embellish the shadow box with Papermania Midnight Blush capsule collection pin wheels, various die-cuts and vintage buttons, also used glossy accents to highlight certain embellishments, now I need to find small objet d'art to accessorise it before it goes onto my craftroom wall

 a spider for Incy!

thanks for any comments, Fi x

Three 12" x 12" scrapbook layouts for my sisters album, its her Christmas present

I have made 40th birthday albums for both my brothers and had aimed to make them for my twin little sisters for last October, but poor health put paid to that plan so instead I am finishing them for this years Christmas presents and am enjoying scrapping for the first time in a long time, I got so worried bout them being perfect that it put me off doing them, now I am just going with the flow, I know they will enjoy them as they have both loved previous albums I have made for them.

My sister Anita loves chocolate brown and cream colours the best so I am using that as the basis for my album for her, the 3 layouts I am uploading today are using photographs taken decades ago, 2 of our mum with our late dad, and 2 of us with our Scottish relatives, dad's side. One photograph is quite orange, as it was over-exposed, in the good old days you had to be so careful taking films out of cameras and you had no idea how the photographs would turn out til they came back from being developed, but I chose to use it as its the only one I own showing us with our great aunt Ella, so it has sentimental value despite being not very good quality, digital photography makes scrapbooking so much easier these days.

this page features a 7 Gypsies double sided paper, and Brenda Pinnick 'Posies' letters, a photo of my sisters with our granny and a photo of the 5 of us with our great aunt, I wrote a lot of journaling about where our grandparents lived, on the same road as granddads brother and sister, and also included their real names and what they were known as, information my sisters may not know, I am keeping the scrapbook pages fairly simple to focus on the photos rather than lots of embellishments.

this layout features Recollection Signature 'Memories Documented' backing papers and co-ordinating journaling features cut out from the same paper pad, I bought this specifically for this album at Michael's in Canada this year as I love the colour palette, the vintage style and the fact that the paper pad included so many journaling features I can cut out and use in my scrapbooking . The photo is of our parents, the matt behind the photo, the J for Journey, the large sentiment and the tall thin Happiness sentiment were from other pages in the same pad.

The 2nd page of this double layout used the same papers, and linked to this page by using  L for Love sentiment, and another matt behind the photo of our mum and dad, it is already glittered. Making these 3 pages brought back happy family memories. They were so in love and had 40 wonderful married years together before my dad died so young at just 69 years old, we miss him so much but scrapbooking photos of him and mum is easier now, its almost 9 years since we lost him and I was only able to scrapbook using a photo of him just this year. Crafting is a true therapy and so enjoyable too, thanks for any comments you may leave. I have many more pages to make in the next 2 weeks, my kitchen table is full of photographs which took ages to sort into categories.

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

3 swap tags I've made & my new hair style

I've finally made both the March swap tags for Docrafts scrapbook forum monthly swap, the theme was mothers. This first tag is titled . 'Flowers for Mother' .

Websters Pages 'Petite Papers'

Papemania floral sprig stamp, stamped with

Tim Holtz Fired Brick distress ink

all other elements from stash

this 2nd tag is titled 'Mother knows Best!'

Vintage paper designed by Jenny Ellory.

K & Co Mom To Go sentiments, edged with

Tim holtz 'Tatered rose' & 'Fired Brick' distress inks.

Tiny Papermania brads.

all other elements from my stash.

the theme for the tag swap for april is Easter/Spring, this is my first of two tags

title 'Happy Easter'

Papermania Creative Tones 'Olivine Essence' paper

Papermania pearl brads

donated floral die-cuts.

all other elements from my stash.

New hair style 30th March 2012.