Paper Obsession

Signs of spring

Spring is here!
The garden has sprung to life with tiny narcissi, crocuses, snowdrops and irises.
I've been trying to take photos of the flowers using the macro setting on my camera.
Finding it really tricky to get the bits I want in focus, but I've managed to take a few pictures I like.
Here are some of the crocuses and irises in our garden.

 
I have been thinking about having a go at digital scrapbooking..
Was inspired by Shimelle's digital layouts in the March issue Scrapbook Inspirations -
She has done some amazing things with her photos which I really fancy trying.
Also, this sort of thing could fit into my current City & Guilds Photography assignment which is actually my main motivation for trying digi-scrapping techniques.

But I will never stop paper scrapping.
I agree with Shimelle that there's not much point doing exactly the same sort of thing digitally that you can just as well do with paper and glue - especially when my shelves are bursting at the seams with paper and embellishments.
So digi-scrapping will be mainly for doing special effect type stuff that you can't achieve with traditional methods..
At least that's the idea.. I don't know if I will love or loathe digital - it's a whole new world - but at the moment I can't stop thinking about it.

My Bundle of Fun

OK I just wanted to share a layout I did yesterday afternoon while the little ones were napping. I was inspired by a LO in the book The Busy Scrapper and used papers from the BasicGrey Offbeat collection pack which is gorgeous! The layout features Charlie on a Sunday morning walk round High Elms country park last October. There is further journalling on the tag tucked behind the photo.

Harry stirred from his nap before I had started sticking all the pieces down so I grabbed the stapler and just stapled everything down - done in record time! SO much easier than glue and I rather like the effect..

Talking of Harry, this morning he uttered his first (very short) sentence. I was changing his nappy and putting the old one in a bag when he said 'Bye-bye poo-poo' and waved at the nappy bag. What he actually said was 'Ba-ba bboo-bboo' but I knew what he meant! 

A new baby card

I made this a couple of weeks ago for a friend who has just had her third baby.. and a third girl! I wanted to give it a shabby, home-spun look so I started by cutting three bird shapes out of brown felt.

I made wings and beaks out of pink felt and added lilac brads for the eyes. The flowers were made by cutting circles of brown kraft paper, scrunching them up and adding pink buttons to the centres. The stems are made from thin pink ribbon. I used a tiny rubber stamp set by Studio G for the word 'congratulations' which I stamped on another scrap of brown kraft paper stuck along the bottom. I fancy using these ideas on a scrapbook page as this was a fun card to make.

A simple Valentine Card

I really enjoyed making my DH's Valentine card this year. I am going through a phase of 'using up the scraps' at the moment, so I started with the intention of doing just that. I found some deep pink cardstock, a scrap of purple Bazzill card, a piece of corrugated card from a paper cup that Charlie pilfered from the coffee machine in the Co-op, and a tiny bit of pale pink pearlised card. I just liked the colour combination and wanted to keep it pretty simple.

I used my Cuttlebug to make the embossed heart stamp (the die + embossing folder came free with the Cuttlebug). I layered this on the corrugated card, then on to the purple card, then on to the hot pink folded card. I added a small piece of pink grosgrain ribbon, onto which I applied a rub-on 'you'. In hindsight, it would have been better to have rubbed on the 'you' before sticking the ribbon to the corrugated card to avoid flattening it.. oh well, I live and learn.

One other thing I did was to use my Fiskars Threading Water punch on the purple card to add a nice scallop detail. And that was that! I don't know what my DH was more delighted with, this card or the box of Guylian seashells I gave him.. ; )

Scrappy stuff to share

As promised, I've taken some pictures of recent projects so here goes!

First, a layout of Harry in London. I've been meaning to scrap this photo for ages as it's one of my favourites. In the end I was inspired to get on and do it by a gorgeous layout on this blog - I adore Stephanie's work, and her blog is always a great read.

 
I have been loving those tiny alpha stickers by Making Memories for ages but decided to have a go at making my own. So I chose 'Teen' font, typed the words I needed, highlighted it in black and turned the text white. I printed them out, cut them into strips then stuck double-sided tape on the back, THEN cut each letter out, complete with sticky tape. Voila - no fiddling with glue or tiny bits of tape!

One other thing I'd like to share now is this little mini-book I made to record Harry's milestones during 2008. I'll just put the cover photo here and the rest will go in an album later. Here it is:

Phew, that's enough for now! These pics take so darned long to upload.. I'll add some more later.

Been a busy bee

I've been doing lots of crafty scrappy stuff in the last couple of weeks which I'm dying to share - just need to take some pictures! Tomorrow this is my no. 1 task. Meanwhile, I have uploaded some pictures of Harry's little book for 2009 - they are all in the Photo Album.

Also, I've completed a double-page for Dec '07 for Harry's baby scrapbook - that's in the 'Harry's Scrapbook' album. Hurrah, now just a year behind on that one..

The other day I printed twelve tiny pics of Harry taken each month in 2008 to go on a 12x12" layout. But I found I couldn't fit them nicely on to the page (just not enough room for pretty papers and journalling!) so I ended up making another mini-book. It took just two evenings - SUPER quick for me! I have used the Bind-it-All to bind it and have made my own cover out of felt to go round the whole lot. I'll post pics tomorrow!

My DH very cleverly gave me a book 'The Busy Scrapper' for Valentines Day (OK he received a fairly hefty hint) - and it's great! Lots of inspirational ideas which I shall certainly be putting to use. I spend FAR too much time agonising over paper choices etc and too little time just getting on and creating stuff. But I think I'm getting a little better! Now I just need to photograph and publish the evidence... will be back soon!