Double Trouble

I love printing out pictures. I get excited and imagine all the layouts I'm going to do. But of course I print out too many. So I always have a squillion waiting to be done. Recently though, I've been doing a bit better. Below are five layouts, all of pictures actually taken this year! And printed out in the last month! In fact a number of photos were taken in the last couple of weeks. I've never managed such a short turn around time :)

That said, I shouldn't get too excited, there is still about a decades worth of photo's to catch up with!

So, to the layouts - a couple of double page layouts and a lonely singleton.

Art Journaling... I think...

I've been seeing a lot of pictures of Art Journals around lately. Mostly on Pinterest. I'm always attracted to them, I think they can be quite beautiful. But I haven't quite drilled down to see what they're really all about. Are they meant to just look pretty, or is the idea that you actually record your thoughts and feelings? Of course I could quite easily find the answers to these questions if I could be bothered to do a bit of googling. But me being me, I decided to dive right in without having much of a bogs notion what it's all about....

Here are my first attempts -

A big mess or artistic genius? I'm veering toward the big mess side of the argument, and really, there isn't an original idea there either, but hopefully I'll gradually find my way. I'll keep you posted. (Sorry! :)

I Came, I Saw, I Scrapped

I mentioned in my last post that I've been doing some non-scrapping crafty projects lately. The children may be neglected and hungry but I'm getting a lot of my own stuff done...

One of the lovely members of the Donnycarney Crop Tarts taught me a great distressing technique that I hadn't come across before. Thanks Jackie!

I popped along to the nearest pound shop (euro shop?) and picked up a three pack of small canvases. I painted them green. I impatiently waited for them to dry. Then, I spread a layer of pva glue on them. Before the glue has a chance to dry, I painted on a layer of white paint. The thinner the layer of glue, the subtler the cracks will be. Me being me, slathered it on!

The picture quality isn't great - I just couldn't get the camera to take a good photo. For the record the words say 'Veni, Vidi, Scrappi' (I Came, I Saw, I Scrapped!... I did make up the Latin for 'Scrapped' but I suspect I'll get away with it :)

Some close ups...

I die cut the letters and butterflies with my ailing CraftRobo and coated them with crackle glaze. The letters were edged in white paint. I used a grey washi tape I have for the background behind the letters.

I'm completely delighted with it and it is now hanging on the door of my scrap room.

Keep your hats on - next post, 'Tríona Tries Art Journaling'. It'll be worth the wait. (Maybe.)

Die Cut Envy and Other Fun

I am most definitely going through quite a busy scrapping patch at the moment. Which is great. I only have about ten years worth of family life waiting to be documented! Well, maybe they'll get me through the lean years when the kids are too big to be cute, but there are no grandchildren yet...

And if only the girls could stop being so darned cute at the moment, then I might make more progress. Of course, that isn't to say the lads aren't 'cute'. But they reckon they're teenagers already, so not quite so photogenic. 

Of course it's school holiday time at the moment, so crafting time is a little more precious - not the I craft that much while they're at school, but with them all being home, all the time, the house is just a disaster area. I feel like it'll never be tidy :(

The only reason I'm getting to update my blog now is because the lads are off at computer camp. Oh, the blessed relief.

So, without much further ado...


Here is a layout I did after getting to play with a Big Shot. (Thanks Svjetlana!) So, much fun! I really want one now. I have my Craftrobo - which is great and very versatile - but in the time it took me to cut all the hexagons and other die cuts in the layout below, I'd still be waiting for my laptop to boot. I have a birthday coming up...

This layout took about five minutes... Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Well, it certainly helps with the backlog...
 

A rare double page layout next... I'm pleased with them, and doubly pleased that it used up so much of the paper packs I bought in TK Maxx ages ago. They were amazing value, and lovely paper, but I bought too much. (How was I meant to resist?) I even gave lots of it away. Slowly but surely I'm using it all up. Slowly!

And finally, a nice messy scrappy layout. The photo isn't great, the light is all off, but it was the third time I'd gotten the photo printed so I've just given up. It's a sweet image, even if it's not a great photograph.

So, there you go. I have also been busy making a sign for my craftroom and also doing a bit of Art journaling (really not sure about that, but more on the topic later).

But I will save all that for another post.

See you soon.

Which Scrapper Am I?

It's been scrapping crazy around here lately. I finally, amazingly, finally, finished organizing all my layouts. Every single page has been dated, journaled and filed. It's taken me months and months. Hours on the pc to find the dates of the pictures. Writing all those memories down. Completely redoing some rubbish pages. It took bloody ages, but I'm delighted to have everything finally in it's place. (And I've definitely learned to be a more diligent scrapper when it comes to the little things like dates etc..)

One thing I did notice though was I don't have a signature style. Some pages are very old school ie simple layering of pretty paper. Sometimes I go for the cluttered embellishment look. Sometimes something a little more arty. And I am influenced too much by my latest scrapping crush! (Latest is soaphousemama, she's brill!!)

So, what to do? Search for that special individual touch that makes my pages different, special to me? Or live with a mad mishmash of styles? I worry I'd get bored of doing 'the same thing' if I had a particular way of doing things (though all the designers I love, Shimelle, ScrappyJedi, soapHousemama, are very distinctive) but I don't really want to open my albums and see an incoherent riot of ideas.

Help!

Anyway, here are a few of my recent layouts, you'll see what I'm talking about...

 

 A plain and simple layout. Not too taxing, but pleasing enough :)

 A fussier effort

 Going for something a bit different with the repeated photos.

 It's all gesso and mists and heat embossing here

 Is that a hint of kraft I see?

 

KRAFT! And loads of journaling. Yet another look.

And this layout is a complete copy of soaphousemama's style. I do like it though :)

Layouts Galore

Isn't that awful, a whole month since I last posted!

But I have wonderful excuses.

1) I've been too busy crafting to have time to put anything up on the blog

and

2) I've been away on my holidays.

I have about ten layouts to upload and two mini-books. (I told you I'd been busy.) But don't panic, I won't burn your retinas with a vast array of patterned papers - I'll just upload a few pages today and leave the mini-books for separate posts on their own.

And as for the holiday? Well, you can start thinking up your excuses now for why you don't want to look at 700 layouts from Tuscany...

So, to the layouts. First up are two completed layouts from The Scrapbook Store monthly workshop. This months class was taught by the phenomenally talented Maria Jordan-Lloyd (even her name sounds like she should have a scrapbooking range named after her :) I had to wait until I got home from Italy to finish them, the only downer about the holiday, but I am absolutely thrilled with them. The paper is Websters Pages - I really should know more of the details, but they escape me now.)

And the second two layouts are two I did today, at the CropTarts crop. As usual a brilliant day with brilliant ladies - and some sinful brownies and other assorted cake - scrapping fuel I calls it...

 Am trying to get to grips with mists with this layout, amn't sure I've totally got the hang of it, but getting there!

And this page. I've had that picture for years and never known quite how to scrap it. I was inspired to do the paint effect on the page from an article in Scrap365 magazine. A designer had gotten out her paints and let loose. I thought, why not!

So, that's all for today, I'm hoping for some good light to photograph those mini books, and if I finally get my grubby little hands on the My Mind's Eye Be Amazing paper, well, brace yourself for a whole lot of Tuscany.

Boys!

So last week, amazingly baby was in bed during the day, and I said to myself, 'Feck the house work! I'm going to sit down and finish some layouts'.

It does rather undermine my 'oh, I've had such a tiring day' when hubby gets home from work when he sees three finished layouts on display - but hey, I'm willing to loose the high moral ground once in a while... especially if it means I get some scrapping done :)

So, below are the product of my illicit afternoon crafting. I started all three layouts at the last Crop Tarts meeting, but I just wasn't happy with any of them. But, by the time the little menace woke up and ruined all my fun, I was a much happier scrapper.

With this layout I got out the felt I had bought recently, and gave making a few of my own embellishments a go - Don't you love my font and candles ;) I am an artiste!

So, I reckon this layout isn't quite finished, I'd love to add some journaling. (Journaling along the lines of 'this was the only good photo I got of this christening, even though I was godmother, because my darling daughter had managed to have a wee wee accident at the back of the church' and other jolly japes!) And I reckon the place for the journaling is in white ink down the left side. But I worry I will ruin the whole thing. And once you do it, you can't go back. That the worse thing about scrapbooking, I have so many layouts that were great, then I added one more thing, and bah, destroyed the whole bloody page :(

So, if anyone thinks I should just go for it, let me know!



And speaking of pages that were ruined, here is one of the rare few that I was able to rescue. Like the others, this was started at the crop, but when I took it out to finished it, I just didn't like it. It just didn't work. So, I took a  radical step and I ripped the picture and a teensy bit of paper off the page I'd done and pretty much started again. And I love the page now. I was home-made embellishment crazy, and made the little camp fire for the layout. I was deeply impressed with myself :) So, this page also needs a bit of journaling to be totally finished, but I'm not quite as worried about it here. I'll probably either add it next to the picture or underneath it. Whichever maintains my visual triangle better.

And finally, a page I have no complaints about - it's practically perfect (in my eyes!) in every way. I don't use too much orange for some reason in my scrapping - nothing against it, I'm quite partial to orange in normal life - so this layout made a nice change. I 've got my hidden journaling, so no angst there, and I think this one will go straight into the album without too much extra thought.

An unusual collection of pages in so far as they're all boy pages. Seeing as I have two girls as well as the boys, it can get quite tempting to just do pretty pink flowery butterfly-y ribbony pages all the time. It's good to redress the balance.

I did come home with some cupcake and bunting ribbon last week though.

Prepare for pink.