Nutcracker Pillow boxes

My entire house looks like an elf exploded at the moment.  Here are some holiday treats that I will be giving away tomorrow at the Crafty Cafe.  They were made with Graphic45 paper from ages ago that I only just now managed to use... I used 6x6 squares and just followed the instructions on the WRMK pillow box punch board, filled with chocolates, added a ribbon and done!  I hope the Crafty ladies like them.

Mummy and Vixie Crafting

This year,  I thought we would progress from simpler cards to more assembly type ones, so I've taught Victoria 3D decoupage.  I got her a pack of Frozen decoupage from The Range.  It's die-cut so there's no fussy cutting and she is learning how to cut down the foam tape to the right sizes for the sometimes fiddly shapes involved.

Today she did these two characters and then chose dies to place them onto and background paper.

She's not quite strong enough to crank the dies through on the Cuttlebug all by herself yet, but she's nearly there.

The decoupage is pretty slow going... I hope she gets enough done to give to all her friends!

Harry's!

Harry's... Not Just Another Restaurant!  I had so many stories and memories of Harry's that I couldn't even fit them all on the page.  I didn't have room for embellishments or anything, I just had to write, write, write!  I was even removing pieces of photos that I didn't desperately need, just so I could fit another paragraph in!

This page has value, even if it's not really all that visually pleasing.  For me, the part of scrapbooking that made me start doing it was the ability to put the stories next to the photos.  I wasn't particularly interested in the artsy stuff at first.  I like it now, when there's room in the design to have it there, but for me, the priority is photos, stories, safe materials, embellishment.  If I didn't have room or time for that last one, it just has to go.

I love all aspects of scrapbooking now but the stories and photos together are what makes it satisfying for me.  So that's another story told.  What's next?

Red Barn Coffee

I found myself at a crop with a brand-new collection pack of Papermania (not sure what it's called) and it had a bunch of things that I thought I'd try using.  I like big flowers, but usually I only use one on a layout, surrounded by smaller ones.  This time, I lined up some coffee-coloured ones along the bottom of the page, and used baker's twine in a spiral glued to the middle of each flower.  I didn't have anything else with me that would make nice flower centres, but I'm pleased with the effect that this twisted string gave when I laid it in a spiral in a puddle of glue.  It's a little bit trippy, especially under flourescent bulbs, but I'm sure it'll be ok when it is at home in the album.  The title is stamped with a Papermania alphabet set and the star in the circles is a Banana Frog stamp.  I think the brackets and journaling stamp (laid top-and-tail fashion to make a box) is Bo Bunny.  The ink is Memento.  The patterned paper is from the same set as the flowers and string, and you can find me using this set in a previous entry called Minnie Me.

Repetitive Scrapbook Pages?

What do you do when you went to, say, a parade for example, and you got a whole bunch of shots of loads and loads of groups?  It's kind of nice to have, but I look at the stack of photos and think, "I don't know how long I can look at these... let's just get through this, get it in the album, and then we can flip through it as often as we want!

My solution is to keep it simple, and create a feeling of continuity in the pages.  As such, I am not going to show you all of my parade photos here, but this one page is an example of how I made all the others.  Blue scalloped border on the top, red scalloped border on the bottom, white background, and titles all cut in the same font alternating colours per page.  Now I can keep them but I didn't spend ages making separate designs for the same subject.  It's what I like to call a "chapter" in a scrapbook.  Ideally, you start it with a right hand side title page, then do doubles and end with a right hand side page.  I'm not sure what I ended up with!  But parity is everything when putting the album together.  I'll find out sooner or later!!!

As I write this, the pages are still in boxes until I can confirm their planned order looking at my detailed notes on the subject... which are in a pile somewhere...

Pizzeria Uno

Quick one, just keeping it simple as always... using Basic Grey monograms and my handy black pen, stamps and very little else...