Bethinking

Delight to Despair

I've been doing lots of scrapbooking lately. I really enjoy seeing layouts come together and recalling the stories that the photos tell. I'm also loving using circles on my layouts, courtesy of the Circle Scissor Plus!

This layout doesn't have much journalling, because I'm hoping that the photos and the title really tell most of the story. The caption reads, "the story of a balloon that floated away". Do you think it needs more?

I added a little bit of bling by punching out some photo corners and covering them with pink Chunky Sprinkles glitter. Other than that, it's really a very simple page. There's not even any stamping {gasp!}

Supplies Used

Paper: Kaleidoscope DSP, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise

Ink: Tempting Turquoise, White.

Punches: Eyelet border, photo corners

Other: Buttons, Chunky Sprinkles glitter, Circle Scissor Plus.

Mini Album

My daughters really love little Mini Albums - especially when they're made just for them! Here's a glimpse of one that I made for Emily for Christmas. It uses the Pink Flamingo paper, which is included in the Inventory Clearance Sale that Stampin' Up! is currently running.

You can have a look at the album in more detail over at the Stampamemory website. It's based on a "Meander Book" tutorial from Splitcoast Stampers, and I used the book to show some photos of all the treasure Emily collected on our recent holiday.  

Stampamemory

Firstly, sorry for the very long gap in between posts! We've been trying to take things easy here to relax a bit after a hectic 2009. We've also had a 3 year old birthday and party to plan and execute, so that's been occupying the creative part of our brains. I'll show you some things I made for that soon...

But first, I was very pleased to be asked to be the Stampamemory Guest designer for January. Stampamemory is a great website set up to showcase how you can use Stampin' Up! products in your scrapbooking. There's some great ideas over there. The photo on the left is a preview of a layout of mine that you can view in full at the site. You can hop over there by following this link , so be sure to head over and check it out!

my Brown Eyed Girl

Things I learnt about myself while making this Scrapbook page:

• I'm so much better working with paper than with a needle and thread.
• Hand stitching looks great, but takes a long time.
• Colouring in with watercolour crayons is very fun
• The flourish from "Baroque Motifs" is fairly fiddly to cut out.
• I love these ribbon flowers (shame they require some sewing!)
• This photo of Annabelle reminds me so much of my Dad that's it's uncanny
• I love this craft: creating layouts of memories that I can share with my children is wonderful.

 

Supplies Used

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Jumbo Outline alpha, Schoolbook serif alpha

Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Candy Lane DSP, Au Chocolat DSP (retired)

Accessories: Prettis Kit pearls, Scallop edge punch and Eyelet border punch, Corner rounder punch, Ribbon, Buttons, Chipboard, Cystal Effects, Watercolour crayons, needle and thread

Gum Tree Family

I've been really loving Scrapbooking recently, so I've got a few layouts to show you! This one uses the beautiful "BloomAway" stamp set, which I love because of the gorgeous images of Australian native flora. If you have little kids, then you might recognise the title as being taken from the Justine Clarke song - I don't know about you, but we always seem to link kids' songs to events in our life, so our visit to the Koala park was definitely like visiting the "Gum Tree Family".

The page is actually pretty simple in terms of layout, as I wanted to get a few photos on there but still have a clean looking page with some white space (or Sage Shadow space, as it is here!). My favourite part was watercolouring the gum blossom images, and of course enjoying the memory of how much fun Felicity and Emily had patting the Koalas and Kangaroos!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Bloom Away, Short Order alphabet

Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Sage Shadow, Kraft, Rose Red, Watercolour Paper

Accessories: Chipboard letters, clear buttons, eyelet border punch, sanding block, corner rounder punch, aqua painter.

Explore

I think that because I've always loved photography and stationery, Scrapbooking is my ideal hobby. Getting to combine yummy papers with photos, embellishments and, even better, stamps, is fantastic!

I made this layout about Annabelle at our recent Inklings Demonstrator team weekend away. We all shared stamps on the weekend, so I got to try out the "Inspired by Nature", "Lovely Letters" and "From the Kitchen Of" sets. The stamp that I've used for the journalling block is supposed to be for a recipe card, but stamps can be very versatile!

Supplies Used

Stamps: Dreams du Jour, Inspired by Nature, Lovely Letters and From the Kitchen Of

Cardstock: Tea Party DSP, Whisper White, Mellow Moss, Elegant Eggplant

Accessories: Scallop edge punch, Button Latte

Scrapping with Ski Slope

I'm going to go out on a limb and state that the "Ski Slope" Designer Series Paper is my favourite paper that Stampin' Up! has produced. Not just my favourite at the moment, but favourite ever. Really! It's got Baja Breeze in it, which is my current favourite colour, with Chocolate Chip, Real Red and Old Olive. It's got a few stripey designs, and I love stripes. It's got some pages which are all blue with beautiful white swirls or snowflakes. What's not to love?

As a result, this Scrapbook page was a pleasure to create, and looking at it makes me happy!

Supplies Used

Stamps: Winter Post, Gallery

Cardstock: Whisper White Textured, Baja Breeze, Kraft, Ski Slope DSP (Spring Mini Catalogue)

Accessories: Buttons. Lots of buttons. 1" circle punch, paper piercer and gel pen.

What's in the tin?

A few days ago I posted about a card which was heading overseas as part of a gift. The card was one of the things packed inside this tin, which is a Stampin' Up! Pretties Kit tin. I loved the way the card size fitted perfectly into the window of the tin, because it meant that I could just do some simple rub-ons and Sticky Cuts on the front of the tin as decoration rather than needing to decorate or cover the whole thing.

There were some treats packed inside the tin, but it was also the perfect size to hold some 6 x 6 scrapbook pages. 6 x 6 is a fun size to work with, because you can complete a page fairly quickly,which is great for a procrastinating scrapbooker like me, who normally takes forever to get anything finished!

So here's one of the pages that was inside... my 2 year old demonstrating her "cranky face"!

Blue Denim

I've been meaning to scrapbook these photos of my girls for ages, but I'm glad I waited because I love how they look with this colour combination. I've used Chocolate Chip, Baja Breezeand Pink Pirouette cardstock, with some Pacific Point for the chipboard title and some of the stamping. I'm loving the new In-Colours!

This was a layout that I did last Saturday when I got to spend the whole day scrapbooking with some friends - thanks girls for a fabulous day... let's hope there's many more of them!

Supplies Used

Stamps: Jumbo Outline Alpha, Think Happy Thoughts, Sprinkles.

Card: Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, Good Morning Sunshine DSP.

Inks: Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze.

Accessories: Scallop edge punch, Circle punches, Chipboard Lots of Letters, Styled Silver Hodgepodge, Designer Brads Flowers. 

Free as a Bird

Sometimes I'd love to be a child again. As an adult, if you go down to the beach, pick up some seaweed and start twirling, people tend to give you strange looks. But when you're almost-3, people think it's perfectly natural!

I had fun scrapping these photos of my daughter. I used the "Good Friend" stamp set, from the upcoming 2009/10 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue. I love the images of the bird, so I've included a couple of close up pictures. And I also really love Baja Breeze, one of the new In-Colours. You're going to be seeing a lot of it around here!

   

 The New Catalogues are available from April 1st - that's this Wednesday! If you'd like to get one, then you are welcome to come and pick one up from me anytime from Wednesday, for $10, or I can post one to you for $15. Or, if you book a workshop you can have one for free! Only 2 days to go now before I can place new catalogue orders... let me know if you'd like anything!