Dinner...

This paper was already a collage-style layout so I just added the photos with white mats to make them stand out a bit and cut around certain elements, tucking the photos underneath.

She is Small and Very Funny.

I just love these pictures of my two babies making each other laugh.

There's not an embellishment in sight on this simple page. Just the use of a border punch and that's about it.

Art of Crochet Square 85

Hmm... it still looks like a kid did it.. but I think I'm just getting the hang of chain stitch.

Angel Sketch Card

There were two scrapbook sketch challenges at the retreat and two card ones. This is the second card sketch. I used an angel stamp that I had bought that day, my ocean depth chalk ink, two flower punches, bling, some squares of scrap and that's just about it!

Birdie Sketch Card

Aww, isn't it sweet? I think it is anyway. It's a card that I made for a sketch challenge that was provided in our welcome packs from the retreat. It has on it some swirly stamps in Jumbo Java chalk ink, some Basic Grey birds stamped in Ocean Depth chalk ink, and some scraps of Basic Grey cardstock I had lying around. I punched a pair of flowers too, curling the top one up a bit, and putting some bling in the middle. Add three more giant bits of bling in the top and there you go. My sketch entry!

My class with Zoe

This was the Artistic Etchings class from Zoe Pierson at the Cardinal Colours retreat. I really enjoyed this one too. Zoe's cards are clean-looking but usually show a new and different technique. This one was great. We layered punched border strips, made stripey butterflies, even ruffled ribbon-- and feathers!!! The feather-ruffling came when the ribbon-ruffling wasn't going too well. Some of us (no names!) were swearing like troopers! Fun!!! Zoe Rocks!

Botanical Cards

This was one marathon of a class-- quite fast-paced. I needed to get the extra couple of cards done in my spare time during the retreat!

I rarely use kits, but this paper set from Craftwork Cards really is gorgeous, and adding a splash of colour with Promarkers was a breeze too. So much fun!

Here, Kitty Kitty...

This little kitty blanket was featured in Art of Crochet magazine, the partwork I've been getting for well over a year now. I really enjoyed this blanket. It was done in the round, and started with a chain. All I had to do was keep going round in an oval and then add ears and go round again and again and again... six times. A few embroidered features and that's it!

I made the blankie for Miss Murtle (yes, spelled like that), my friend's kitty. Last time I saw her, she was eyeing it with uncertainty. Perhaps she will make friends with it one day.

Art of Crochet Square 84

Another granny square. :) There seem to be a lot of these. It's really nice though-- they are laid out on the throw in a diagonal line. It gives form to the throw. Cool.

Two Title Pages

Here's two title pages I made for my scrapbooks. My title pages have evolved over the years, but they always have the same words on them: Our name, the year, and the months of the year covered in the scrapbook. I don't like my books to get too huge and unwieldy, so I used to divide my years into 4 albums, but now I can fit them into two. I haven't got babies anymore, and sadly I'm not as snap-happy as I once was. Hopefully, this is just a phase and I will start taking more photos.

Title pages are a great opportunity to keep it simple and just add a minimum of decorations just to punch it up a little. On both of these, I used border stickers, my Robo cut font and not much else. I left room on the 2011 one to put months in if I need to. I'm not sure yet how many albums this year's pages will be in.

Touch of Class

This was a great class by S-J. It was meant to be a class on White Space, but S-J said it kinda got away from her. I know exactly what she means! That happens to me all the time. I love the result of this class and I will be doing this type of LO more often for sure.

Delicious!

This page was made in Anita's Fun in the Sun class at the Cardinal Colours retreat. I took this picture on purpose because I had seen in the sneak peek that there were ice cream motifs in the page kit and we had found a Baskin Robbins locally. I was thrilled that the wallpaper in there matched the paper too, so this was actually a photo taken on purpose to make a layout. I loved this class, and I love the paper and stickers. I have loads left over too. I mght make some cards with the rest, for summer birthdays.

Scrub-a-Dub

This was made using another sketch given out at the Cardinal Colours retreat. This was a great way to use those diddy little scraps that I wanted to make the most of. The title was written free-hand with white Enamel Accents and a circle of pearls was put around it. The journaling was hand-written.

Cake

This was Cameron's birthday cake-- a bought Tesco one with a plastic train full of candles. I used Basic Grey Sugar Rush scraps to make this LO and I followed a sketch that was given out at the Cardinal Colours Seaside Retreat. The title was stamped using a Papermania outline alphabet stamp set and filled in with black Enamel Accents by Ranger. It makes them look a bit like Thickers without actually buying a set and having leftover letters... my pet peeve. Other times, if I want a Thickers look, I will cut several identical titles out on the Robo and layer them up to give them the thickness. This method's good for on the go, as long as you have a place to let the page dry. I took this page up to my room to dry to keep my scrapping space clear.

Tandoori Nights

The paper and card for this had been lingering at the bottom of my scrap box for ages. I was deliberating over the perfect font, then I forgot about it.

The light wasn't great when I photographed this layout, sorry about that. :(

Art of Crochet Square 83

I still need some help on doing cross-stitch on crochet fabric. I think it's a great way to decorate the fabric, but if you look at the top, the design is angular, and at the bottom it's straight. This design should be angular. I don't know what happened there... Hmm. And no matter how hard I try, I can't get the design centred on the square either!

And by my calculations, I have precious little time to improve my skills before my throw is done!

Buddies

These pictures were quite dark, so I needed to use some dark paper so as not to make the photos look even darker than they were!

I drew around the photos and added a little bit of contrast with a white photo marking pencil. It looks a bit like chalk! The title is cut on the Robo and then outlined. I broke up the vast background by adding a border sticker. Simple again!

Lego Aircraft Carrier

Continuing on with the simple theme, this double layout is made with two sheets of patterned paper stuck together by the strips that identify them when you buy them. This gives a continuity across the layout. I simply stamped the title (a bit unevenly now that I look at it) and laid the photos out and that's it.

Sometimes I tend to try and blow through layouts with pictures of things I'm not particularly interested in. I've got nothing to write about them in the journaling and I just don't find the photos that inspiring, but I know that the photos were taken because they do interest some people in the family. So I really do need to pay them some attention and get them into the album. So I soldier on.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.. or is it?

This is one of my first ever font stamp sets. It's quirky, but I wasn't expecting it to change my title just by being the way it is... it looks like Chippy Chippy Bang Bang! Ah well...

Mouse Mask

I only had one not-very-good photo of this, and I thought it was so cute, so I had to use it! The patterned paper under the photo says in several places, "I love you for who you are." I wanted to show this part of the paper off and use it as journaling. The title was stamped in an outline font to let the striped pattern show through. Simple as.

Bathtime Bears

When I was looking through the photos I got off of Matt's phone, this one was a must-print. Someone bothered to go to the trouble of setting up all the "monsters" (that's what we call the stuffed animals) around the bathtub! I thought I'd use the seahorse paper that Karen gave me and keep it fairly simple. I stamped around the photo with a swirl border. I tore the edge of the bottom piece of paper but I've done that to death lately so I decided to roll bits of it to different lengths like I've seen on other people's pages. I like it. :) Simple stamped title, a line of journaling along the page width and that's really it. Another simple one.

Go Baby Go Baby Go!

Here's my daughter riding her bike. She got so confident that Nanny had to run after her!

I used Two Scoops paper and a sheet of Bazzill, keeping it quite simple. For the title, I cut a rectangle into triangles and wrote the title out banner-style. Two tiny journal spots from my papermania set and that's it. I think it's ok not to make your pages elaborate. It's the memories that matter and I'd rather get the pages in the album and done, ready for the next ones. The kids love looking at their scrapbooks and it's nice if they can talk about things that happened quite recently whilst looking at the photos in the album.

Art of Crochet Square 82

I love this pattern-- it's an eyelet square. It's basically got holes in it, and you do a blanket stitch around the holes, so that the "top" of the blanket stitch goes round the hole. I loved making it. I might do a scarf in this, it looks like it'll be fun in a chunky yarn!

Plant

This one was a plain and simple, yet effective layout. It uses a solid coloured Basic Grey sheet as a background, some monograms for the title, hand-outlined with a Sharpie, and I stamped the corners with a swirl stamp. The design didn't pick up fully on the bottom right corner but I think it looks distressed (much like I did when I saw it didn't print) and I think it's fitting.

The pictures are of my two babies planting cherry tomatoes. Stay tuned for the result photos.

Little Miss Attitude

I took a look at this photo that Daddy took of my daughter at a railway exhibition and thought, "Look at Little Miss Attitude!" So the title was born.

I used some paper that was given to me by Karen. Go show her some love by visiting her blog. She makes gorgeous things.

I used my large Martha Stewart daisy punch to make two borders, added some flowers and bling, and for once in a long time, I decided the title would look best in a font I had on my computer, so I dusted off the Craft Robo. I did miss my robo terribly, but usually I like to finish what I start where scrapbooking is concerned, and that means stamping out a title or using my QuicKutz. I held on for a bit and waited until I got home and cut the word "Attitude" out using Marketing Script, one of my new favourite fonts. It welds well. If you use the Robo, you'll know what I mean.

Mission Control

This lovely paper is from the Basic Grey "Oliver" range. I love it! I am now making my way through this paper, so watch out for the rest of it shortly.

I took advantage of the double-sided nature of the paper by cutting out a polygon and folding the triangles outward. Basically you mark out a circle and make pizza-style slicees in it. Then you fold it out. You can stick the triangles down however you wish, in the end I don't think it matters if it comes unstuck because by the time it does, it will be in a page protector and that will hold them down.

The photos are of Victoria's multi-screen bedroom. Her computer and telly are arranged so that she can see them both, like working in Mission control. Hence the title.

Maxine and Me

I've carried on using my leftover BasicGrey scraps in this one. I doodled the flower and stem on the reverse of the patterned paper, cut it out and re-drew the line on the other side. Why? Because I don't trust myself to get the shape right the first time. :) I used a Papermania stamp set to make the tiny journaling spot in the corner of the photo. The bird is in the set too, along with a cage and a bird that faces the other direction. Useful.