WONDERFUL WEDNESDAY

If you want to have inspiration or challenge yourself each week I will post the palette from The Color Room for you to try. It is a wonderful way to inspire you to start scrapbooking on a regular basis. I may not make every palette layout but I will post the ones I do. You can even adapt the sketch to make cards but use the colour palettes. Remember that the sketches can be rotated around to give different looks for your cards & layouts.








HAPPY SCRAPPING

Australia Day

Even with a lot of the Australia Day activities being cancelled I hope that everyone still had a good day & managed to take a few good photographs. We had a bbq for dinner but forgot the lamingtons. We have a new addition to the family with our grandson being born a day before Australia Day. I have been putting together a baby kit of papers & embellishments to scrapbook & make an album fo his first few days. Making up kits is a good way to be organised with your scrapbooking and it makes it easier if you have a few layout ideas jotted down. I do this if I am travelling and can't take my whole craft room with me!! I use a "work in progress" folder that holds the papers, embellishments, photos, journalling notes & sketches Then when I want to scrap I just go to the folder & I am ready to start without having to think up ideas from scratch. I'll post my Australia Day layout once it's finished.

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2012

Wishing everyone all the best in 2012..may it be a year of love, laughter and cheer. I am looking forward to starting scrapbooking, card and craft classes again after the new year break. With new products and ideas it will be a wonderful time. Look forward to seeing and hearing from you soon. Happy Scrapping....

I hope that you enjoyed the Christmas break and had a wonderful time with friends & family. The camera was quite busy this season and I took lots of photos of the grandkids. Now I have to find the time to download them and print a few out to scrapboook! I try to put my photos into labelled folders when I downlaod them so I at least have some chance of finding the ones I want later on!
With the end of the year fast approaching my wish is that everyone will have a safe, happy & happy new year in 2012.

Only 12 Sleeps to Go!

I can't believe Christmas is just around the corner! Here are a couple of quick & easy layouts for those Christmas photos-ones you already have & those you are yet to take. Layouts can be made without photos at hand. I cut out a piece of paper the size of the photo I will use. This helps me to see how the photo will look on the layout and it helps with the placement of embellishments.
On this layout there is ready made journal blocks, stickers and flowers. The photo is not matted but adhered to the shaped background page. The embellishments were adhered around the photo. Ta Da! Done in no time! It took longer to decide what to put on the layout then what it did to make it.

 This "framed" layout is easier than it looks. The patterned paper has a patchwork strip look to it. I cut it to the width I wanted the frame to be. Cut the ends of the strips on an angle (like a mitred corner) and adhere to the background paper. I also cut strips of paper & used a border punch to decorate the edge then attached this to the frame strips. Once again I used ready made embellishments to save time.

Christmas Photo Shoots

Summer is only a few days away & so are lots of photo oppotunities with Christmas, holidays & celebrations. Try a few different sorts of shots this year as well as the usual posed ones. If you like to take a family shot for your Christmas cards & letters give the kids a pile of Christmas decorations & dress up bits & pieces & see what they come up with. Sometimes the spontaneous photos are the best ones-not always perfectly posed but lots of fun! I took the Christmas tree outside one year when my boys were teenagers & then the the camera up on the tripod with the automatic setting on. It took us about 20 shots before we took one with us all looking at the camera. All of the other shots had us tallking, laughing & being silly. It turned out to be a fun afternoon & we eneded up with some great photos & good memories. I don't worry too much if I don't get the "perfect" photo... if that is all I have I scrapbook it anyway & tell the story behind it.
This layout has photos of my son & grandson at the beach. I was sitting a little way up the shore & zoomed in on them . My grandson wasn't too sure about going in the water & as soon as he had a splash & a play, he was out of there. The photos were nice natural shots & I really like the photo of them walking down to the water, hand in hand. It is a different angle where you can't see there faces but it still shows emotion. The layout is quite simple with a plain backing & the patterned sheet is distressed & inked. A few readymade embellishments finishes it off nicely.

 These flowers are off a layout I made but their colours weren't quite right. I used mist sprays to change the colour of the paper flowers to help them match in better with the colours of the layout. The smaller ones were a light lilac colour & I gave them a light spray with a silvery black colour to darken them slightly. Just because some embelllishments don't suit what you want still take a second look at them & see if they can be altered to fit in. Flat flowers can be inked, stamped & rubons used on them. Other flowers can be scrunched, layered, pulled apart or flattened. Flowers aren't the only embellishments that you can alter. Take a look at some of your older embellishments that have been sitting around for awhile & see what you can do to revamp them..just have a play.

Christmas Bits

Here is a  Christmas cluster as an embellishment on a Christmas layout. The rosette is made from a strip of paper with one edge punched. It was then folded back & forward concentina style  & then had the ends taped together to form a circle. It was then "squshed"(squuezed & pushed!) into a flat circle. Cut out a circle of scrap card a bit smaller than the rosette & glue the rosette onto it. I used a hot glue gun because it is instant but you can use a good strong glue & put something on the top to hold it down until it dries. The other pieces in the cluster are from old Christmas decoration picks that I pulled apart. A good hint is to wait until the after Christmas sales & pick up little bits & pieces really cheap.

 I am looking forward to making more tags for this Christmas. There is a bit of work in them but they are lots of fun & they make good embellisments for cards & scrapbooking as well as being a little gift all on their own! I am taking orders from the ones I have already done & the colours can be altered to suit what you want. (look at the "KIT" page for what I have) You can contact me by email or leave a comment.

 This is an old Christmas graphic that I found and is wonderful for scrapbooking with all the older photos of Christmas' gone by. There are many graphic sites that have free downloads-just Google them & a list comes up.

 Getting ready for all those Christmas photos. This is a ready made layout but I can also make it up as a kit so you can add your own touch to it.