Project Life Mini Album Part 4

 

Hello folks and welcome to the penultimate instalment of my mini album project for my in-laws, which I gave them on Father's Day. 

 

 

 

These first couple of pages continue with the "Up Up and Away" paper stack from First Edition, which I bought when the boys were born, and used in their showcase albums.  Above is Page 25, and I have covered 18 months up till this point!

 

The embellishments continue to be paper scraps, the flowers and the hearts are from the freebie stamp set of Tara's as per previous pages, and I added a couple of old stickers and some stamping and Dymo labelling. 

 

 

Page 26 above uses up an old Doodlebug Christmas tree sticker from yonks ago, a dimensional holly button embellishment, a sequin, and some buttons, amongst other things.  The dimensional elements were a mistake - the album is not unduly distorted, but it still does slightly buckle, which doesn't please me.  This is why I don't use large 3d flowers or things like pinwheels on my pages - I love the look of them, but not in an album! I loved the photos of the boys in their Christmas hats. 

 

 

Page 27 above is of photos taken this year.  Henry and Lewis loved their ball pool, but they were already probably too old for it when I bought it for them!  The best bit for them was when I tipped all the balls from the bag and rained them on their heads.  They loved all the colours cascading down, and got so excited! "Baby Joy" sticker from the Poundland set. 

 

 

Page 28 above is them experiencing their first snow! That was a fun day, even though Lewis really wasn't sure.  "Fun" sticker from a very, very old set - probably nearly 10 years old. 

 

 

Page 29 above utilises more Poundland stickers from different sets and marks the end of the use of the First Edition pad.  I just adore the bottle photo above - the boys sometimes really demonstrate the closeness of twins when they have moments of pure fun and connectedness as when they were having great fun with their bottles - both boys grabbed a cushion each and lay down together and had their bottles.  They were laughing and giggling with each other and times like this make me so happy and feel truly blessed. 

 

 

Page 30 above is the commencement of the photos from the day we took a walk through the bluebell woods with Grandma.  I am desperately trying to use up stash that I no longer love, and I am really pleased that I grabbed my K and Co "Verbena" Scrap Pad for this batch of photos. 

 

 

Something like this Scrap Pad is actually perfect for mini albums - the tags and stickers etc all look dimensional, but are perfectly flat.  I had to coordinate double sided paper with the colours of the photos, but this part of the project was a lot quicker to complete than the pages up til now. 

 

 

Back to share the last part of the project soon! 

 

 



Project Life Mini Album Part Three

Here I am, back again to share Part Three of the mini album I made for my in-laws of the first two years of my twin boys. 

 

I particularly like the tree! From a freebie set of Tara's, which has formed the basis of a lot of these pages.  Very quick to colour in with the Promarkers. 

 

 

I suppose I was inspired by the gold in the giraffes, so I chose to use that lion sticker.  The drawback to that was I had to get gold into the other pages!  I found that a bit difficult and quite time consuming.  A quicker method to doing an album like this is to just use the same paper pad or colour scheme throughout, irrespective of the colour in the photos. 



 

I got out my Dymo tape to coordinate with the Poundshop stickers. 

 

 

For Page 18 above, I cut out some of the elements in the Amy Tangerine 6 x 6 pages to bring out the gold.  Some of the smallest Prima "Got Flowers" in the gold were the easiest way to bring in the colour for the fourth page.  Lots more stamping on here, too.  I stamped the date on the pages pertaining to the photos so that people who saw the album could work out the boys' ages if they wanted to.  They were four months old in the above photos. 

 

Time to change the paper for the theme, so I cut up a Christmas 12 x 12 that I wanted to use up as it had snowflakes on it.  One of my favourite photos of the three of us here on Page 19.  The boys were just so squidgeable!  :D

 

 

The boys with their paternal Grandparents below right.  The boys particularly loved Grandma's shiny earrings!

 

 

 

Washi tape thanks to Tara, stamping and very simple embellishment to tie it altogether. 

 



 

Page 21 and 22 above are my favourites!  Simple stamping and images and very coordinated.  Amazing how one set of stamps has proved so perfect here I think! I still find my PSX alpha stamps very useful from time to time - something that I don't think I will ever get rid of. 

 



 

What a pair of imps in that last photo!

 

 

As I worked from back to front, and then front to back, this set of pages was the last one I completed when time was so short!  So the decoration consisted of a series of stickers that was thrown quickly onto the page. 

 

 

The last block contained the baby monkey from the Cuttlebug baby animals set.  these dies have proved so handy and quite versatile!  All other stickers courtesy of Tara and Poundland, I think. 

 

So Page 24 of 40 - we're more than half way through.  I'll be back soon with the next instalment! :D

 

 



 





Project Life Mini Album Part 2

I am back to share the second instalment of my mini album gift for my parents-in-law. 



 

These were some of my favourite photos of the boys - their faces were less squishy and better formed.  It was however, some of the last pages to do in the album - not my favourites, but there you go.  The Studio Calico kraft butterflies definitely didn't go, but I was rushing and down to the wire to get completed in time for their visit on Father's Day. 

 

 

Tara and I do stash swaps and she gave me quite a few 6 x 6 Amy Tangerine papers.  The speech bubble was from that.  The stars were Studio Calico rub-ons and the black stickers were Tara's, again from the Pound shop.  She does love a bargain!  My stash collection will sadly miss her input!  :lol:

 

 

My Mum came over 4 days after the boys were born and then we had a celebration for her birthday on 30th July 2011.  We went to Scotchbridge Mill for lunch, so the boys were just over three weeks old.  The party included Paul's parents below.

 

 

The photo above is of Paul's Mum and mine.  All of the above products were from First Edition "Up Up and Away" with some Studio Calico stickers and stamping.  There were quite a few pages of tags in the pad so this project was an ideal way of using some of them up.  From here on, I will display both sides of the embellishments so that the colour coordination can be seen ... I photographed the album like this on purpose, so I could present the pages back in order ... but it definitely makes more sense to display them like below. 

 

On these pages, I introduced some of the other First Edition pad I have which is Animal Antics.  I found coordinating some of the elements quite difficult.  I used some Studio Calico wooden hearts as seen above - they are not very thick, but they were still thick enough to distort the album.  I would try to go completely flat on any future project. 

 

My boys looked absolutely adorable in their Pooh suits.  It was the one day of that summer that was pretty hot, and warm enough for them to wear those suits!  You can see the difference in size between the photos above and below - we had a week of intense heat in October that year, so the boys got to weat these suits one more time - of course, they had almost grown out of them by that stage (3 months). 

 

 

Being a thrifty individual, I had painted on a previous project and had paper left over - I decided to use it here.  Lots more Pound shop stickers (the "Dymo" looking ones, "baby" and the cradle.  I also used stamping, some paper strips and other letter stickers. 

 

Well - that's the second instalment done!  Back to share more in a couple of days.  :)



Project Life Mini Album Part 1

Hello folks -

Life is so madly busy at the moment, that it is hard to catch-up with anything, let alone technical difficulties of the maddening computer nature!

Last week, my computer did some kind of update and the Camera Launcher I received with the Canon 350D package decided to become incompatible with Vista!  I have only had both for many years, so I have no idea why they suddenly decided they no longer wanted to play together!

I have spent many many hours last week trying to find a software solution, but to no avail.  I am not the most technical person in the world, so thank goodness someone suggested getting a card reader.  I have now purchased a Compact Flash reader from Amazon and am hoping that it will arrive tomorrow, and that specific difficulty is then resolved!

In the meantime, I have been planning the boys' second birthday party and our combined farewell bash.  I made the bunting at the Bellaboo crop last night and have designed the birthday invitation this lunchtime.  Not as handcrafted or arty as I would have liked, but time is definitely not on my side!  So I resorted to knocking up one in Word instead. 

On the crafty side, I made Paul's Mum and Dad an album covering the boys' first two years.  I bought the PL mini album from a seller on UK Scrappers - it was a beautiful lime green with a faux leather cover.  I loved the quality of the album - for me, the only downside of this was the design - the pages are all landscape, and none in portrait.

I purchased it to use as an interim scrapping medium whilst we are on the move, but the landscape format only would bug me - so I decided to use it as the basis for a present.  Whew!  A much larger project than I thought. 

I am going to be sharing my pages, but I will break it down into a series of blog posts to make it more digestible, and for me to edit the photos gradually!

 

Page 1 - Welcome to the World.  I used First Edition "Up Up and Away" stack, some old K & Co letters which I outlined in blue chalk ink and added the boys' names as a banner using old rub-on circles and letters.  I ensured that they wouldn't "rub off" by covering with Glossy Accents. 

 

Even I had to look closely at some of these pictures to know which boy was which! I added some Artemio felt teddies and some October Afternoon rub-ons which otherwise won't get used. 

 

Tara once again shared her stash with me - the "2 Peas in a Pod" was an old rub-on from Poundland, I think.  I've actually used washi tape here as it was intended and some scraps of paper from the pad serve as decoration.  I have cut out quite a few of the letters from the pad; otherwise they won't get used either.  The sticker letters were actually a new purchase - Studio Calico.  I should have realised before how versatile grey is as a colour - coordinates with so many things!

 

My husband's mother and our niece meeting the boys for the first time.  The cupcakes were a celebratory gift from my lovely friend Tara and could be cut down easily.  I have also used a lot of the roller stamps - the newer American Crafts ones from Tara, and my own from Inkadinkado which I have had for a couple of years.  Very versatile!

 

Now onto my Father-in-law.  Decoration was a freebie stamp set coloured with Promarkers.  I stamped out a sheet sometime ago and had no idea what I would use them for.  They have come in very handy for this project. 

 

I think the album slots (4 x 6 inches) fit 80 photos so whilst you can easily flip through, it does take some time to "decorate!" My supplies have been a real mish-mash of things, but once again I advocate that this divided Page Protector system (albeit in a mini format) really does get the stash used up, which is great.

 

I'll be back soon with the next instalment.  :)



Scrapology February layout - texture paste

Hi every one and welcome to the February Scrapology challenge - to use texture paste.  This month, we are scraplifting Heather Jacobs and her particular layout on the Scrapology layout here:

Below is my interpretation.  The photo is of Henry, and is one of the series that were taken on 21st July 2011, when the boys were 15 days old. 


 

Seeing that this month's particular challenge was texture paste, I used it in the diamonds below the photo (as Heather did in her layout) and also in the leaf fronds underneath the flowers. 

 

I recently purchased both the Donna Downey Poppies and Peonies 12 x 12 mask, and the Mini Deco Doily mask by Julie Fei Fan Balzer.  I had resisted buying any doilies as I don't particularly like them, but by buying a mask, I can make one whenever I want.  I wanted a very light, monochromatic feel to this layout with the focus being on this beautiful photo - hopefully I achieved that.  I stitched this piece of Daisy D's patterned paper on the left side as I thought it matched in well with the peach of my mother-in-law's top. I then thought I had made a massive mistake by adding this in as I felt it was too distracting from the photo - I still don't know if I like it or not. 

 

The Jo Sonja texture paste is applied in a tube, so it is quite easy to control.  I didn't have a diamond stencil, so I made my own - I used my small diamond punch and punched out one diamond in some scrap paper, and then drew the grid lines from that pattern.  I then cut out every second diamond with my craft knife and then weighted the piece of paper down, using it as a mask. 

 

I did struggle a lot with this layout - I seem to say that every time. I think it is probably because of the amount of time it takes me to produce an "arty" or very technique based layout like this these days! 



Evening 1 - mist the doily (I mixed silver and teal Cosmic Shimmer mists, as either colour on their own was too dark and I wanted a very subtle finish)
Evening 2 - cut out the doily.  Texture paste the fronds
Evening 3 - make the harlequin mask and texture paste the cardstock
Evening 4 - punch the hearts down the side and cut out the fronds
Evening 5 - stitch the paper to the cardstock and distress the edges
Evening 6 - stamp the title and layer it up with foam pads; paint the edges of the plaque
Evening 7 - customise the flowers, using Rich Gold and Angel Mist cosmics shimmers.  I then chalk and distress inked them until they were the colour I wanted.  I then added more Angel Mist to the cardstock, predominantly to the right hand side over the hearts. 
Day 8 - I had the day off on this day, so had a bit more time.  I adhered every second heart on to the background with foam pads, but reversed the patterned paper so the hearts were more prominent.  I then added the other stamping elements, making the heart more dimensional by adding foam pads underneath.  Then assemble!  That probably took two more hours.  The ribbon doesn't show up very well, but you can see it more clearly on the actual layout.

So this layout has probably taken at least 12 hours.  Definitely a labour of love then - both for the subject and for the hobby and the art.  No wonder I feel that each of these particular layouts is quite a journey these days. 

 

Supplies:

Paper - First Edition "Up, Up and Away" patterned paper pad
Daisy D's Lullaby patterned paper

Bazzill cardstock

Mists - Cosmic Shimmer Silver, Teal, Angel Mist, Rich Gold

Stamps - Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz collection "Odds and Ends"

Autumn Leaves "Romance of Spring" clear stamps by Sande Krieger

Distress Stains - Spun Sugar, Tattered Rose

Colorbox fluid chalk inks - Baby Blue and Prussian Blue

Jo Sonja's white texture paste

It's a Boy adhesive ribbons

Bo Bunny Snowflake Jewels

The Crafter's Workshop Balzer Designs "Mini Deco Doilies" 6 x 6 template

Prima Donna Downey Studios "Poppies & Peonies" 12 x 12 mask

Jo Sonja's Titanium White acrylic paint and Flow Medium

My Mind's Eye "Wild Asparagus" Embroidered Brad

Small heart punch
Dies - Sizzix Framelits "Frames with Sprigs"

Funny how you can have something sitting in your stash for so many years, and then it jumps back into the foreground of your usage!  I always loved that set of Autumn Leaves stamps - just only used them once or twice.  I used them more on this layout than at any other time previously.  Guess it just happens that way.

I hope yours doesn't take 12 hours - still, it makes no odds.  A layout in the album, another memory added and preserved and my eyes saved from watching TV! Thanks for stopping by.  :)

 



February Scrapology Layout

Over at Scrapology, we are scraplifting SJ this month with this patchwork layout below.  SJ used a lot of inking, and some stitching to add texture.



I am really appreciating simple, clean layouts for the baby album, so decided not to add these techniques to this page. 

I did intend to duplicate the size of the squares as per SJ's version, but then I made a mistake in cutting my squares, and decided to keep it that way, as I liked the texture of the Bazzill cardstock showing on the background. 



Papers are all First Editions "Up Up and Away" with the exception of the khaki green lightly checked patterned paper - it is Kaisercraft.  The only downside of this patterned paper collection is that the green is too vibrant - normally, I would love that, but for the baby photos, I want to let them shine, and take precedence, rather than a really bright colour overwhelm some of the detail.  I also used an off-white grey sheet of Bazzill cardstock, with some white Basic Grey chocolate chip alphas for the title. 

My journalling reads "Daddy and I are very aware that your future is in our hands.  We will strive to be the best parents we can be - in order that you both grow up to be happy, healthy men who live fulfilled lives, with happy families of your own.  Until then though, it's all up to us - it's in our hands."
Photo 21.07.11
Journalling 24.01.12

December Scrapology Layout

I didn't think I would make it this month, but managed to carve out a bit of time close to the deadline to make the December Scrapology challenge.  This month, we scraplifted Pamela Young's layout below. 



This is how I interpreted the scraplift. 



I went with the three photos (albeit of different shapes) and the scalloped circle, so stuck to the main elements on Pamela's layout. 

The background is a very light green Bazzill cardstock, so it doesn't show up too well.  I haven't indulged in too many new scrapbooking products lately, but one thing I couldn't resist was a couple of collections by First Edition, bought to scrapbook the boys as babies.  The papers are so cute, and perfect for baby boys.  The alphabet, journalling block and patterned paper are all from the same range, called "Up Up and Away!"

You can see looking between Pamela's layout and mine that I also interpreted using the mist differently.  Rather than use tissue paper, I misted a border around the edge of the patterned paper.  I used a piece of Crate Paper as a template for the patterned paper, and then drew a border freehand using some white scrap paper to form the border.  The mist is Cosmic Shimmer "Teal Wash" and this mist really does shimmer in real life. 

The journalling spot and motif does glitter too - shame the effect does not show up on the screen.  My journalling reads:

"6 days old - 12th July.  When you were first home from hospital, we were still trying to breastfeed.  However, we were also worried that you weren't getting enough, so we were also feeding you with syringes so you weren't getting confused between breast and bottle.  Looking back almost 5 months, it is hard to believe you were both so small and we were worried about your weights!

Grandma Brierley and Lewis, Grandma Jones and Henry.  Scrapbooked November 2011."

Even though it is a very busy time of year, why not grab some time for yourself and take part in this challenge!  Thanks for stopping by.  :)