Hand Crafted Memories

Over on the Scrap Addicts Blog I am the last guest designer for this month. There has been a series of layouts posted this month based on the theme of large photos. My 'go to' photo size is the standard 6x4"but I also favour 3x4" for layouts with multiple photos.  When I do use larger photos I like them to be at a stage in my scrapbook that shows a change in topic or location, almost like a new chapter. I chose a very large photo 8 x 10 for this layout, with a large image like this all of the decorating can be lined up on one side but to make everything link up I like to overlap onto the photo. I had the layout all planned in my mind but by the time I finished it I had taken it apart and then put together again three times! It was almost finished and i dropped glue onto the photo, so I had another photo printed and when I stuck it down the torch and arm had been cropped off the image. So third time lucky getting the photo right. Playing the America theme I pai

I cant believe how long it is since I posted. Ive had so many busy weekends helping friends celebrate big birthdays, along with that I had a brief unplanned stay in hospital. With all this going on time has just flown by. I went to a workshop in March of this year and while there I spied a piece of the most gorgeous acetate and somehow it jumped into my bag. When I got it home I had no idea how to use it, so it sat around for a while. Then over the National Scrapbooking weekend there was a sketch challenge that made me think of the acetate again. Once I decided the keep the acetate as the main background and then back it with some yellow cardstock it came together quite quickly.

Over the last few years sources one of my favourite sources of inspiration and a 'go to' for getting your creativity going again has become Pinterest. I think I use it almost as much as google. I recently saw this layout and knew I wanted to lift it. Here is the result     I loved its simplicity and I was able to use a photo that is almost 30 years old. See those scrabble type tiles, Ive had them years and was happy I could use some on here.

I cant believe its almost a month since the Scrap Stars retreat. Time is flying by so quickly and I haven't posted to layouts. My first class was to focus on a technique. We took 5 photos and cut progressively smaller squares that rotated form each of five duplicate photos. It reminded me of the Iris folding that I used to do years ago. It seems like an old fashioned technique now but this gave it an update

I have had quite a productive few weeks on the scrapbooking front, there is nothing like a retreat followed closely by national Scrapbooking Day and a few challenges that get your creativity going. I mentioned previously that I was going to Scrapstars and as usual it didn't fail to deliver, it was great to meet up and catch up with everybody. Tracee Provis was one of the teachers, she is such fun and this was one of the layouts she taught.  I loved the fun colours and it was a great opportunity for me to scrap a photo from 37 years ago and my first girls holiday to Jersey. It was also my best friends birthday this week and a milestone birthday deserves a special card. She loves cakes, her garden and bling, luckily I got all of them onto her card.  

Yesterday was National Scrapbooking Day and I actually scrapbooked all day. I had a olvey day with my friends chatting, eating cake and drinking coffee and all of produced a multitude of layouts.I have spent today finishing them off and tidying them up. The one of the challenges over on UK Scrap Addicts was to scraplift a layout. The design team had taken part in a scrap whispers challenge and it is always interesting to see a layout change and then change back as it progresses. This was the layout I created for this challenge which was made from the leftovers of my friend Adeles layout that she made when I visited her last week. She passed me her bag and challenged em to make a layout from the left overs. I then passed it on to my friend Caroline and challenged her to make a layout from my leftovers.

Well I cant believe that two weeks ago it was the Scrapstars retreat again, a great deal of fun was had by all and some lovely layouts were produced by everybody. As usual Caroline set us a pre-retreat layout challenge. This year it was 'irrational fear' we had to scrap about something that we are frightenend of. It didnt take me a second to come up with the theme, my fear is heights. They dont just make me nervous they actually scare me rigid! This was my layout for the challlenge, in 1992 we went to Toronto as I have always wanted to see Niagara falls. While in Toronto we went up the CN tower and had breakfast in the 360 degree restaurant. I coped with this really well and loved the views over the city as the clouds cleared. We then went up to the viewing deck and as the lift doors opened I spied the glass floor, well that was it game over. I flew to the back of the lift and spread myself along the back wall, there was no way I was coming out. I was so scared I couldnt mov