I'm back and I didn't even go yet...

Long story, we're supposed to travel last Thursday went to the airport but had to return home due to the weather. We're  hoping to travel on the 28th. In the meantime I am recovering from a flu and my son from an infection.

So we'll probably just vegetate and recover for these two days. And maybe scrapbook a little.

I got a nice "Christmas" pack  from Scrapbook Trends a few days ago. I had a couple of layouts published back in July and got then back along with some beautiful papers. It was a nice surprised as I hadn't seen the magazine yet.

This is one of the layouts that got published.

My son watched the Grufallo film again on Christmas eve. The film is as delightful as the book. Must get more Julia Donaldson books for him.

Playing with punches and July 2010

Sometime ago, I saw in a magazine a wall hanging resembling a giant chrysanthemum and got this idea of making a giant flower in a scrapbook page. So I got my circle punches to work. I folded all the circles in half, and printed concentric circles in a paper scrap to help me place the circles the way I wanted.
 

* Patterned paper: Studio Calico

* Letter stickers: Basic Grey

I am pretty behind in my Project 12 project - this is July. All the photos and journaling were printed in a single A4 page. The template is a freebie from Paislee Press. Templates are the digital equivalent of a sketch, a quick and easy way to put a layout together.

A Personalised Book

 This is an old project which I think I never shared.

When my daughter was in Junior Infants, her teacher gave to all the children in her class personalised books for Christmas. In each story, the main character had the child's name and somewhere in the story there were bits about them like their ages, best friends, etc.

The booklet was made of A4 pages folder in 4 and stapled together and had the name of a website on it, northpole.com. My daughter loved the book, and a year later, at Christmas time, we found the book and reread it. I got curious and went to the website. It has lots of Christmas related stuff, including personalised stories. To my delight, there were two more stories, and I decided to print one story for my daughter and another for my son.

There were two options on how to print the story too, one for a quick fold&staple A6 book and another option to print the story in A5 size in both sides of the paper. Which gave me the idea to try to make a properly bound book. I found a great tutorial and quickly made the two books. The one I am displaying is my daughter's - it is a bit worn out (being 3 years in a child's bookshelf), but not damaged otherwise.

Sadly the tutorial has been removed, there are other ones for single section bookbinding, but not as detailed  as the one I followed. Here's one.

For the cover I used corrugated cardboard covered in patterned paper. It is a Basic Grey pattern, given free with a scrapbook magazine and printed on a thinner, shinier paper then the usual one. That's the part that got worn out. The tutorial said to use fabric for the spine, but since I hadn't any in hand I used handmade paper instead. Handmade paper is both more maleable and stronger than ordinary paper so I figured out it would do. And it did, the spine is still in good condition.

The title page and the first chaper.

Have a go, it would made a great (and unexpensive) present for any child aged 6 or under.

Tons of beautiful drawings & sketches

Yes, I have been scrapbooking, but haven't taken any photos. Winter is like that, it is not 5:30pm yet, and it is pitch dark.

Never heard about it before, but there is something called sketchbook project, going for years. I read about in Geninne's Art Blog,  check the posted entries, so many amazing artist around the world are taking part/have taken part. Like mashaa, emilayusof, Haifa Malhas, Alinac.

Run!

I am pleased with this one, a bit time consuming, but it came out as I envisaged.  Another "inspired by" is LO, this time by a layout by Piradee Talvanna in Creating Keepsakes. She had punched out endless rows scalloped borders in craft paper in both ends of a double page layout. The result that was both understated and elegant. Not to mention stunning. I had done something like that before but she just put the whole concept in a new level.

I went with graduating the colours from blue to white.

* Punch: Xcut
* Stamps: Studio Calico
* Ink: Colorbox
* Embossing Powder: Stampendous
* Font: Underwood Champion

Inspiration doesn't mean results

Lately I have been feeling like this - I felt  inspired, but when I sat down to make something, the results were pretty disappointing. To try to get out of this hole, I decided to change my usual way of doing things:

- I hardly ever scraplift, my inspiration comes either from the photos or what I around me, a dres, ads, interior design magazines, cd covers, etc. So now I'd try to see a layout that spoke to me and scraplift or use as a base for my own. (*)
- Limit my choices. Since I had just purchase a scrapbooking kit (November's Studio Calico kit), I'd try to use it to the max.

I am not so good with rules - I quickly go of on a tangent, but it did help me to have some guidelines, even if it was to break them.

This layout is a scraplift from one by Lisa Truesdell, as seen in the October issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  I want to start submitting for publication and CK has a running call for layouts inspired by ones featured in their mag.

*patterned paper: Scenic Router (grid), My Mind's Eye
*small tag: Fontwerks
*Circle (behind photo): My Mind's Eye
*Letter Stickers: Making Memories (green), October Afternoon
*Punches: Martha Stewart (lace), Woodware (scalop circle and small circle),
*Flowers: Prima
*Stamp: Studio Calico
*Also:  Stickles, sequins, string and thread

It is a close scraplift, besides changing the design from 12x12 to 8.5x11, I didn't stray much from her design. But while hers is stunning, mine is average. Not horrible, but you would'nt pick this one up from a crowd, would you?

Analyzing it, I think I didn't nail the colours right, there's not enough contrast, there's not enough punch. I tried to use lilacs and purples and that never works for me. I wear these colours but have difficulty using them in scrapbook pages and would never thing of using them in the home.

A step in the right direction I think.