yummy ice-cream

I love finding a paper I forgot I had and then knowing exactly what I want to do with it, and with this cute ice-cream paper from the American Crafts backyard collection I just knew it was calling out to make some really cute summery cards.

I think the colours are so summery and have cheered me up during this grey scottish summer.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: American Crafts Backyard collection

Other: button (American Crafts), rub-on (Pebbles)

I'm gonna be (500 miles)

It’s a little over 530 miles (to drive) between where I’m living and A. is living. I’m so grateful for modern communications for bridging daily the distance between us. But it would be remiss of me to chalk this layout up to the distance between us, no matter how well it fits the Proclaimers song, for there is another reason why this song makes me think of A.

The tv show ‘How I Met Your Mother’ has long been a favourite of ours, and of course ‘I’m Gonna Be’ was the song that was stuck in the tape player of the fiero. In one particularly road trip episode A. was laughing so hard and the ‘it’ll come round again’ that we had to rewind two or three minutes of the show because he missed it with the laughter.

I’ve never seen him laugh so hard at anything, it was totally unexpected (and really the joke wasn’t that funny but it just fitted in with pieces of his life right then), and I had to document the moment where A. normally so stoic and proper was lost to sheer elation.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: thickers (American Crafts Foam White Latte), round brads (American Crafts), heart brad (unbranded but I wish I could get some more), uniball signo white broad gel pen, glossy accents (Ranger).

so very much

My recent card class cards had me cutting out cute hearts from My Minds Eye and Cosmo Cricket papers on my much loved silhouette, and I intentionally cut a few too many to make a couple of scrapbook pages whilst I was at it.

Cardstock: white (American Crafts), kraft (Bazzill)

Patterned Papers: My Minds Eye, Cosmo Cricket

Other: Thickers (American Crafts), glitter brads (Amierican Crafts), brown pen (stabilo)

life is too important

I love making a page just featuring my favourite quotes, this one from Oscar Wilde is so true; if you can’t laugh at life is life worth living.

I’m also loving the combination of grey and yellow that I’ve seen about quite a lot in the last few months. I used it on my ‘not all those who wander’ layout, where I also used the same thickers.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: thickers (American Crafts), white uniball signo pen.

one more hello

Summer card camp is nearly over :(, and I have to confess one thing I am disappointed in is that I had hoped that I would learn a little more about combining colours and the whys of why they work. I’m fairly colour safe usually, I wouldn’t choose to use 5 different colours on a card, so I have had to stretch myself as part of the class.

I’ve picked up loads of 6 x 6 pads of late and I don’t think I could have completed this class without them. Cosmo Cricket and My Minds Eye to the rescue. This card is a bit of an odd size, 7 x 3” or there about, I wanted tall and thin but had the limit on my paper pad only being 6” so I had to cut the card down to keep the proportions.

Cardstock: generic, American Crafts

Patterned paper: Cosmo Cricket, My Minds Eye

Other: rub on (Pebbles), glitter brad (American Crafts), white uniball signo broad pen

Silhouette shapes: cute heart and stars labels

thinking of hearts

Another card for the summer card camp I’m doing.

I really was quite productive last night, but it was a side effect of making a scrapbooking page, which I’ll no doubt share later. Again I printed the background myself.

Cardstock: generic

Patterned papers: cosmo cricket, my minds eye

Other: glossy accents (Ranger), embroidery thread (unbranded)

Silhouette shapes: nested hearts.

june 2011

Finally I’ve managed to get up to date with the month by months, I’m not going to fall so far behind again (she says). I’ve gone super minimalist on this, June should be nice summery things but the weather really hasn’t justified it.

Highlights in June included getting promoted, being told I had a month of summer school teaching to do and rain.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: Thickers (American Crafts), glitter brads (American Crafts)

sweet hearts

Another card for the card class.

I’m pleased to say last night I was headache free after making a concerted effort with my posture all day and rearranging the position of my computer in work. I’m doing my best impression of a pianist sat with straight back and straight wrists typing away.

In an interesting twist on just how unsunny it is here in the beautiful summer of Aberdeen, I’ll tell you about the photography conditions here. I live in a first floor flat, so no outside to get nice shots, I do however have a large picture window (5 square meters), it is so dull and grey here even in the brightest part of the day that my camera is shooting with shutter speeds of around 1/12th of a second. That means blur, or flash. So I can only apologise for my complete lack of finesse with the photography right now.

The frame and message I printed myself, and when I get myself organised I’ll try and upload the file somewhere.

Cardstock: generic

Patterned papers: cosmo cricket, my minds eye

Other: glossy accents (Ranger)

Silhouette shapes: nested hearts

if I wish hard enough...

I’ve really not been feeling great of late, I’m frequently getting headaches just where my skull meets my neck on the right hand side. I don’t want to sit and create when I have them, and I’m getting them most evenings. It’s probably due to really bad posture when I’m working at the computer all day, I’m trying to make a conscious decision to fix it, but bad habits are hard to break.

As a result I didn’t make any cards for last weeks colour challenge class, when I sat down to play I didn’t want to have to sort through stuff to find the correct colours. This week I’ve made a bit more of an effort.

I wanted the white to really stand out so I used the black.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: rubon (Pebbles), brads (American Crafts)

(achieve)

Back to a photoless layout once again... I started doing my photoless month by months a little more than two years ago, and I’ve got ‘quote’ pages going back even longer than that, but it’s only in the last six months I’ve been really happy not having a photo on a layout.

I’m still in my American Crafts mode, and I love how it is suiting my simple pages right now, I’m also less precious about embellishments than I used to be, so I’m quite happy to use things on a page that might not be ‘super special’.

The story of this page is how much I’ve managed to achieve on manual DIY type chores, I never thought I was one to tile a floor or to plumb a sink, but these are all things I’ve done in the last few years.

Just below the title in my super small handwriting I’ve written a dictionary definition of the word achieve. Of late I’ve noticed how unusual it is that I am a clean and simple scrapper but I’m quite happy to use my own handwriting.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: American Crafts Abode

Other: thickers, chipboard, flair, ribbons and brads all American Crafts

cheeky

I was looking for my cute house paper from the American Crafts Abode line and I came across this paper with little hearts on which was so adorable and not too girly to use on a page about A.

Now I’m a girl who scraps with no plan, no sketch, and generally no idea what I’m going to make. I lay down a few things, attempt to make a title out of my remaining thickers and work from there. With this page I started thinking it would be super cool to sew a red boarder around the edge of the page. I had no idea why, but that is what I set out to do, I then though weaving some yellow thread through it might be nice...

Making plans are for people who have an idea about what they are doing, I must mess around until it feels right... maybe I should take Cathy Zielske’s class at Big Picture.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: American Crafts Abode Collection

Other: Thickers (American Crafts Latte), Flair (American Crafts), ribbon (American Crafts), brads (American Crafts), embroidery thread, uniball signo broad white pen.

sand of time

This was loosely based on a layout I saw on Cathy Zielske’s blog, I loved the grid of 6 photos down the centre of an 8.5 x 11” page. It’s only in the last three of four months that I’ve really mastered printing from Aperture, a huge revelation came when I discovered the ability to print ‘contact sheets’, these 6 images are all in fact one contact sheet of the square cropped photos, super lazy but I think very effective.

These pictures are from my pre-birthday trip to the beach, so the reference is relevant not only for general beachyness but also for the ageing process. It was a really lovely day, but not quite windy enough to fly the kite.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Other: thickers (American Crafts), glitter brads (American Crafts), brown pen (Pilot).

april 2011

I’ve nearly caught up with my month by months, and this paper from Dear Lizzy was just so cute I couldn’t bare to cover it up too much. Here in the north of Scotland April was surprisingly nice, beautiful blue skies, warm weather and trips to the beach were real highlights of the month.

April 2011 will be remembered in part due to the national holiday that was the gift to the country on the marriage of William  & Kate, now Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Her dress was really love, and the weather stayed nice. Other highlights included my birthday, the arrival of my now much used Silhouette, a trip to St Andrews and A. moving south to start his new life and new job in London.

Papers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy, (Echo Park and Basic Grey used for scallops and butterflies)

Other: thickers (American Crafts), adhesive gems (Papermania, non branded)

Tools: Stampin’ Up scalloped punch, silhouette, broad white uniball signo pen.

Silhouette Shapes: nested butterflies, echo park butterfly

bracelet

I’m thinking of trying out for a design team... they want examples of work that aren’t scrapbook pages or cards. This got me thinking about things that I can make with my stash and I thought about a cute little summer bracelet. I made it with American Crafts buttons running in a rainbow around it.

American Crafts glitter buttons, anchor embroidery thread.

summer rain

I love layouts without photos, especially when you have a story to tell that you just simply don’t have a photo for. The summer rain is one of these things to me, especially as I have rarely experienced it in the same way I think about. I imagine it to be cooling and refreshing on the skin, a welcome break from hot summer days, warm enough to be comfortable to be out in. I picture a rainbow and invariably lots of kissing. I imagine the summer rain to be one of the most romantic things in the world.

Invariably the summer rain is actually cold and really wet, and no one wants to linger out in it long enough to kiss romantically - and that is why there is no photo, and never likely to be one. This is my little movie moment.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: American Crafts Dear Lizzy

Other: thickers (American Crafts), felt embellishement (American Crafts Dear Lizzy)

march 2011

Continuing my catch up of my month by months with March. I love this Dear Lizzy paper and whilst adamant that it shouldn’t be cut up into little bits I was afraid it was a little too patterned for fit my style. I love how this has ended up though, the beauty of the paper, and all of its 50’s influences and stylings.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned papers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy

Other: Letter stickers (Pebbles), Sticker (Pebbles)

february 2011

Every month for a couple of years now I’ve been making photo free recap page, and although I am very good at making the notes on what happened and what I want to say I’ve been less good of late at completing the pages promptly.

Hence today’s page is february 2011 (at least I’m in the right year), I’m loving this Pebbles twitterpated collection still (and I still have loads left after the amount I bought), one of the best things is the paper flowers, but as my pages are usually so simple I don’t use a lot of embellishments.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: Pebbles Twitterpated

Other: letter stickers (Pebbles), flowers and leaves (Pebbles), glitter centres (Papermania), buttons (Papermania), dragonfly (Prima)

planet andrew

I love this Pebbles twitterpated collection, I picked them up as collection packs and loved it so much I must have bought 5 or more sets when they were on sale for just a few pounds.

I’ve really not got into cardmaking this week, so my colour combination has gone by the wayside and I’m just casually pottering on with other stuff.

A. is a lot taller than me, and I love this ‘birds eye view’ of just how tiny I look to him, there is also something incredibly funny about how I’ve put on the sweetness and light face.

I’m not very happy with my camera and how washed out I always find things looking, I’ll take any recommendations - I want something with a good macro and good saturation of colour.

Patterned paper: Pebbles

Other: letter stickers (Pebbles), thickers (American Crafts), paper flowers (Pebbles), brad (Pebbles), journalling sticker (Pebbles), buttons (American Crafts)

Tools: stampin’ up scalloped border punch

days

I’m back in a scrappy place right now... and my layouts are getting ever simpler... I love the hit of pink here.  I’m so frugal with this dear lizzy ribbon because it’s so beautiful and I don’t want to waste it, but I’m trying to have the attitude that I don’t buy this stuff to hoard I buy this stuff to use and use it I shall.

I love this picture of A. and I. He’s laughing so much because I’m trying to catch a picture of me with only a single chin (and failing). I love little digital cameras for the turn it around and point it at yourself possibilities, we have a DSLR (which we both know how to use) but some of my favourite shots are just quick spur of the moment snapshots of our silliness. As they say, the best camera is the one you have with you.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Paper: Pebbles

Other: Thickers (American Crafts Dear Lizzy - font and embellishment), ribbon (American Crafts Dear Lizzy), pen (zig), vellum (Stampin’ Up)

date night

Another scrapbook page, I’m loving this dear lizzy collection still, it’s really useable, and I bought loads of it so I’ll be merrily using it for a while yet.

I also love how easy it is to mix and match American Crafts collections, it mean my leftovers never get thrown away. 

Anyhue... date night doesn’t happen that often, in part because A. and I live 500 miles apart and in part because our definition of a date has to be planned ahead.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned papers: American Crafts Dear Lizzy

Other: button (American Crafts), thickers (American Crafts Dear Lizzy), felt embellishement (American Crafts Dear Lizzy), flair (American Crafts I do), ribbon (American Crafts everyday), journalling sticker (American Crafts Dear Lizzy), embroidery thread.

old movies

I’ve been making a lot of cards lately, and I just wanted to step it up a little and so I sat down with no idea what I wanted to make, no idea of what colours to use and I just let the inspiration take me.

My trip to London last weekend was on the Scotrail sleeper service, I’d never been on the sleeper before and as I traveled I felt that in travelling on the sleeper I was entering another world. Like an old Hitchcock movie, or perhaps the world of Harry Potter. In my excitement I took a couple of snapshots, nothing of any renowned photographically, but something to just quickly document my adventure, my cabin, and me on my tiny bed reading my kindle.

I’m really into white as a colour again right now, it’s always been my favourite colour, as it has such promise, a blank sheet of paper, new bed linen, a fresh clean school shirt, as well as the purity and simplicity.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Paptterned papers: 3 papers from Dear Lizzy Spring Collection for American Crafts

Other: letter thickers (lullaby, American Crafts), ribbon (letterbox greeting, American Crafts)

hello city

Last week I really didn’t have much of a chance to look at the alternative colour schemes because of my trip to the big smoke of London. On a big smoke note, may I recommend the Kensington Creperie for a super nice treat.

Anyway I’ve been looking at the alternate colour swatches this last week, putting together ideas, especially as I wasn’t super happy with working with this weeks colour scheme.

So I took one of the alternate colour sets from last week:

and thought that the colour matched really well the contents of the Social Club papers from Cosmo Cricket without me having to search any further afield. So taking everything I’ve learned about composition, contrast and balance I started on a new colour scheme.

Originally I was going to use the vinyl butterfly out of the American Crafts Dear Lizzy Hyacinth details, but it just didn’t match perfectly so I used the same idea and cut a butterfly out of the collection papers with my silhouette.

Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket Social Club

Other: Ribbon (American Crafts), rubon (Pebbles), pearl (paper cellar)

Silhouette Shapes: Butterflies

thanks guys

I’m not used to people actually reading this blog, so comments have been a real novelty - thank you all so much.

I’m still not excited about the cards I’ve made this week. I don’t know what my problem is with this particular colour combination. I’m still having a bit of an accordion flower moment, the orange flower is there because I made the cards and realised that there was no orange in the mix :o.

Anyway, I’m hoping for a colour combination next week that I am more able to work with.

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Papers: My Minds Eye

Other: thickers (American Crafts - Dear Lizzy), buttons (Autumn Leaves), ribbon (American Crafts) and pearls (unbranded)

Tools: Martha Stewart scoreboard, WRMK corner rounder

I must learn another word

 I really can’t get used to this weeks colours.

I don’t know why but I’ve not been excited by any of this weeks cards, even though I usually love the MME and Cosmo Cricket papers I’ve been using.

I think I like this card more than the rest of this weeks collections, but I’m still not loving it.

Cardstock: American Crafts

Patterned Papers: My Minds Eye, Echo Park and Prima

Other: American Crafts (Ribbon), Pebbles (rubon), Kanban (bling) and Prima (flowers)

Silhouette Shapes: cute heart and stars labels, echo park butterfly