A rediscovering of card making

It's been a while since I've made a few cards. I hadn't really had a purpose before, I'd sort of lost my penpal, and at university I just used bought notecards (because I have a lot of them). So when I acquired a new penpal, almost by accident, I made the effort to start making cards again so I could send them to her. To make a good impression, you see. As it is, I think I may have found my very first papercraft-y friend in real life!

So good things all round.

This card is very simple in it's construction, just three little strips of washi tape in the background, with a bicycle stamped using staz-on ink, and a little work stamp below. Took me a bout 3 minutes. But it's so effective, and I'm already developing the idea in my head for a pack of notecards, or even translating it for Christmas. I'll let you know. 

"I'm an Historian!"

This is a very simple layout, emphasising the dark contrasts in the pictures... Yup, that's a wall of armour on the left, and a medieval torture device on the right. Because I am interested in that sort of thing.

It was also one of those layouts where I had to get down a story of a long-running joke. I am a history student, and I like medieval, which comes wrapped up in it a fairly large amount of death, torture and executions. So when you're walking around school reading a book on execution methods, it does worry some people. Understandably. So we have a running joke that because it's history research, this somehow makes my morbid fascination with death ok.

Maybe.

So, I wanted a lot of the focus to be on the writing and the images. There is actually very little else on this layout, just some paper layering, some stamping (because this is a Tower of London page) and a ribbon that came at the top of some sweets. Oh and some letter stickers. Very quick and easy.

London Landmarks

Another page documenting my Tower of London visit, this time with a little tip of my own.

Wallpaper Samples.

Free.

Widely available.

Vast variety of patterns.

Very good as scrapbook backgrounds.

Yes, this polka dot is a piece of wallpaper. I added the red spots in as a flash of colour, they were just from a stationery sheet I'd had for years. These little sparkle stickers, too, I'd had for years, just without an opportunity to use them,,, So I absolutely had to work a London bus into here somehow...

The signature stamping doesn't show up well in the picture, but it's in the background of the journalling, very pale blue. I'm afraid it didn't work all too well, which is a but of a shame, but it is noticeable in real life.

I made a Kit

For a while now I've been wondering about subscribing to a scrapbook kit club. However, although I'm not a student for now, my funds are still limited, and I just can't afford that much money every month on supplies that I may or may not use. At least for now.

So I started to investigate a project where people make kits from their own stash. This sounded right up my street. While my stash isn't massive, I'm not fond of the amount of clutter it makes in my room because I have no way of storing things. At least this way, I can use items up, making more room in the long run to trial new things.

There are many different sites and youtube videos that can be used to formulate advice for making your own kits, here are a couple I would recommend:

This video from Inkie Quill

The Scrap Stash Kit Club

I started my kit with this piece of paper below, bringing together the colours of navy blue, the pink and a mustard-y yellow.

This is what I came up with:

The paper I chose as a starter piece was in fact a part of a scrapbook collection kit that I bought earlier this year by a lady called Grace Taylor, so I threw all of the co-ordinating papers into the kit, plus some neutrals from a cheap paper pad from the Range, and some Basic Grey papers.

For lettering, I have our types: The Amy Tangerine remarks letters in pink, teal, grey and orange; he Dear Lizzy (I think) gold foil Thickers; some cream tile alphas and a white chipboard alpha, both from hobbycraft. I think this way I can cover a variety of different sizes, and hopefully make a good dent in these supplies.

I also added in some journalling cards, mainly from my Elle's Studio packs, but also a few from the Project Life Spring and Summer themed cards. My other paper choices include a scrap of a polka dot vellum and a few doilies.

I put all of my diecuts in this bag, some are from assorted packs of  Elle's Studio, others are from the die cut pack that co-ordinated with the Grace Taylor scrapbook kit, so there are some lovely florals in there to be used.

Sticker-wise, the collection pack came with two sheets of stickers which I would like to use, and I've added to that three Elle's Studio sticker sheets, and some Heidi Swapp word stickers. I love all f these, yet for some reason I never seem to use them. Part of the beauty of the kit is to make sure that I do use them!

Here I have two washi tapes, from Sainsbury's no less!

And finally to finish things up, I have some baker's twine, two little blue pegs, some resin flowers, a navy button, a pink flair and some gems.

I'm pretty happy with the outcome of my kit, and I'm really looking forward to using it! It will be a new experience, working to a limited amount of supplies, and I'll keep you updated as to how things go!

Tower To Do List

Next in my Tower of London series includes a large photo of a panorama of the inside of the walls, and a postcard with an aerial shot. I love using postcards in my scrapbooking as they give an overview that sometimes just isn't possible to capture in a day's visit,

I kept the focus on the pictures, emphasising the green of the grass, the amount of which surprised me a fair amount, for some reason it wasn't what I'd expected. Everything was kept pretty simple, another overview page. And, of course, the signature stamping I kept in place, this time along the bottom of the journalling card.

The Tower of London

Ah, the first of several layouts, I guarantee you!

We went to the Tower of London during half term, in order to let the historian in me have a little bit of exercise. It was the most spectacular day,. and we had gorgeous weather for it, but I will save all my stories for the individual pages. This one here is only an introductory page, holding the map and our tickets.

The clocks in the background are actually part of a wallpaper sample that I cut up! Wallpaper samples are seriously a fantastic resource when it comes to free paper, you can just tear a piece off of the tester roll and be off with it. They don't need to know that you have no intention of buying the wallpaper!

I decided that to tie all of my Tower of London pictures together that I would use that little diamond border stamp throughout each page,, just to tie the whole event together in a subtle way in my album, so keep an eye out for that!

Inspiration Realisation: 4

Another instalment of my series where I take my hoarded inspiration and actually convert it into projects.

Inspiration for this round:

First of all, if you haven't heard of Adele from Inkie Quill, what are you doing?! Go check her out right now! Her videos are freaking amazing! I love her to bits, but I'm sort of scared of the youtube community, so I watch as a silent observer. But Adele, if you ever read this (which is highly unlikely), I love your videos so much. Thank you for sharing your - wait for it- radness with the world. and thank you for also reintroducing the words 'freaking' and 'rad' to my vocabulary.

So, inspired by Adele, I decided I'd like to scraplift the layout created in the video above, and attempt my own grab 5 (I hope she doesn't mind!)

My five items are:

1) This 6x6 paper pad that has been in my stash since 2007. Yup. That long. I needed to get rid of it.

2) These wood veneer quotes by Studio Calico.

3) The Elle's Studio Cienna stamp.

4) Some lilac washi tape.

5) And something from my sequin/gem tin.

This is what I created!

IT'S AN OCTOPUSH LAYOUT!!!
Because I am weird and play underwater hockey and when I made my protective glove I dyed the silicone lilac and lime green. Because I'm awesome. Everyone knows its me. Which, when you're playing at the bottom of the pool, is always a good thing, as communication isn't really that easy...

Anyway, the scrapbooking.

I managed to use all five of the products I'd chosen in this layout, so that's the grab 5 part checked. It's a really great idea, and I hope to try it again. In terms of the actual layout, I flipped the page 90 degrees so it ran horizontally instead of vertically. I loved layering up all of the little pieces, the purple and green, though outdated in terms of the supplies in the scrapbook world, remain one of my more favourite colour combinations.

Which probably makes me strange, I know. 

First Job

First of all, a note on the blurred photos. It is done intentionally to protect my privacy, please don't say anything about it.

This was a simple layout that I used to commemorate my very first pay cheque. I know, I'm nineteen, this is pretty late for that sort of first. In my defence, I had not been idle, I'd just done five years worth of volunteering instead, with arguably more relevance to my future employment opportunities. But enough of that rant, it's a defence I've had to jump to several times before.

All the pennants on the layout I cut by hand, just making the most of the colour scheme in the photos and trying to bring a bit of lightness to it. I used an Elle's Studio heart stamp in blue and cute them out as a simple embellishment. Really, it's a very simple layout, for a very simple subject. But, for me, it's very important.

Star Wars Day

As promised, I eventually got around to trying to take my pictures with the less glaring lighting of outside...

May 4th, to nerds (like me) is Star Wars day. And for the first time this year, I did in fact dedicate my day to Star Wars. I watched all six films from start to finish - starting with IV, of course - in that very one day. My eyes were so sore after it...

This is a photo I took while I was watching it, I mean I dressed up and everything. And, I decided to combine it with an image from a piece of Star Wars wallpaper. Yes, you did here that correctly. I bought myself a roll of Star Wars wallpaper (Homebase sale, only £5). I'm determined to find plenty of uses for it... and a scrapbook page is a great place to start.

The actual layout of this page is so simple, you can decipher it by yourself. I was just adamant to use Darth Vader in my album. It really is just too cool.

20 before 20: Update

Back in April, I made myself a list of 20 things to do before I turn 20. As we've just passed June, which marks halfway through the yea, I thought I'd give a quick update on how I'm doing.

1) Visit a Museum.

Yes! I visited the Tower of London with my mum and sister during half term.

2) Visit an Art Gallery.

Not yet...

3) Walk York's City Walls.

Yes! I went up to visit The Boy the first weekend of June and we made an outing of it.

4) Visit a city I've never been to.

Not yet...

5) Go to watch a Rugby match.

Not yet...

6) Sew a piece of clothing I'd be proud to wear.

Yes! Two in fact! I made a couple of skirts from some gorgeous fabric in my stash which I keep meaning to share with you.

7) Finish my two travel journals (from Holidays 2014 & 2013)

Not yet...

8) Declutter 100 items.

Yes! This was the first thing I ticked off.

9) Sign up for a class.

Not yet...

10) Volunteer/Get a job.

Yes! I've had a job at Mum's school for about two months now.

11) Knit something to wear.

In Progress! I'm about 2/3 to 1/2 of the way through knitting myself a jumper... it's just taking me a while...

12) Write an article for something.

Not yet...

13) Swim 1Km in one session.

Yes! Although 300m of it was breaststroke, but I'm counting it anyway.

14) Rearrange my room.

Yes! Just have to tidy up and then I can show you some pictures.

15) Sign up and complete the 100 Happy Days Project.

Yes! Just trying to work out what to do with it now...

16) Yarn Bomb.

Not yet...

17) Go for a picnic.

Not yet...

18) Have a Harry Potter Marathon.

Yes! My best friend and I had one the other weekend.

19) Visit a Christmas Market.

Not yet...

20) Go and see a show.

Not yet...

So as you can see, I am about halfway through, so I should be perfectly on track to finish these in this year! I'll keep you updated!

Afternoon Tea

This is a layout also from April (I was very social in April) about an Afternoon where my friend Nikki and I went out to visit a National Trust Property. Unusual for teenagers? Most definitely. But then you remember that I am an historian, and add in that Nikki is an art student, and it begins to make a bit more sense.

In the process of making this layout I realised that I scrapbook a lot of food photos... somehow I find it more acceptable to take pictures of inanimate objects than of the people I'm actually with. It makes for a more difficult scrapbooking process, a lot of the story - the who, what, where, if you will - having to be told through journalling. 

And I struggle with journalling. 

It's not that I don't like it, I've always loved writing, but I feel it's a bit of a hiccup in the creative process. It  breaks everything up. In addition, I've found that in order for me to be happy with what I'm writing on my page, I'll have to write it out into a notebook first so as to avoid any repetition or grammar mistakes. I don't know if anyone else has a similar process, but if anyone has any tips and tricks to share that may make the whole shebang feel a bit more cohesive, I'd be open to suggestions.

Anyway, about this layout.

The materials are primarily Elle's Studio, working with the pieces that I received in my National Scrapbooking day package. The colour's are gorgeous and work so well together. I just used a wood veneer to add a different texture, and then had ab experiment with some ink splatters. I used watercolour, and as you can see, I got a bit carried away. But the colours are gorgeous, and I hope to try the technique again.

April Favourites

April! Just a simple one, as per usual for my monthly favourites. April was a good month, I enjoyed it thoroughly. And the sunshine was glorious! so good to feel the warmth again!

Both of these papers I'd found difficult to use on a normal basis, so I used them here. I think that's probably the best way to go about these favourites, as a challenge to use those difficult pieces on a layout instead of hoarding them forever more...