We've been in back to school mode the last week so in keeping with that theme here's another school inspired project.  I've been wanting to make some sort of school years scrapbook album for Hannah and to start one for Jack, but hadn't quite come up with a plan.  I got started this month using a Becky Higgins Project Life Kit and some of my Stampin' Up supplies.   When I dug out the school photos I noticed I'd done Hannah's hair in 2 plaits (a la Heidi!) each year.  Really highlighted how she's grown up.

It is a 12" x 12" album but I've got an 8 1/2" x 11" pocket in to start each section (one for each school year.)  I've used the bigger school photo matted with Night of Navy or Early Espresso (or both) and popped onto a piece of DSP.  I've used the lovely Mocha Morning Specialty paper for most, and the Grade 3 page uses one of the designs from Spice Cake DSP (Summer Mini.)   The titles are cut using the Timeless Type alphabet sizzlits for the Big Shot.   Such a handy addition to the stash for scrapbooking titles and I use it a lot for cards as well.  (Hmmm and you get a free SaleABration item if you purchase this before the end of March.) 

A couple of products I love to use with my alphabet are the Two Way Glue Pen and a pair of tweezers. 

The tweezers make it easier to position the letters for the title I find .....

On the reverse of these pages I've put the class photo.  Then I've got some divided pocket pages to slip in photos of school events.  I saw a lovely idea on a blog (and can't find it now to link - will keep hunting!) where they included their favourite photo relating to their child for each month.  Liked that idea too.  I'm doing a big sort through various mountains of photos around the house now to get them into some sort of order and to find some school pics to add to the album.

While we're talking school, here's a pic of my newest school kid! 

He is LOVING school.  He told me yesterday, "The best thing in my whole entire life is being a school boy." Thought I'd share some snippets of 'school according to Jack'.

Highlight so far seems to be playing footy at recess.  "The teachers keep taking the ball off us because they say we're playing too rough, but we're not mum, we're not."  Ha ha.

Making friends:  "I've made - counts on fingers - 8 friends and it is only the second day mum!" 

The rules:  "The rule is you sit on the floor with your legs crossed and you put your hands in your lap and if the teacher is talking you don't talk, NOT EVEN whispering or moving your lips." 

If you're in back to school mode - hope the new term is off to a great start.

Cheers, Sue

I'm having the most lovely craft weekend here.  Yesterday my mum, sisters, Hannah and I all gathered for a craft day.  We did a spot of shopping, had lunch then set to work on our projects.  Here's a peek ...

My sister got some lovely bright card, photos of her boys and her laminator and made them a little book they could read about some of their recent adventures.  My other sister gathered up a bunch of card kits she had in her stash and made a stack of cards, Hannah did some scrapbooking of photos off her Ipod then made us all little cards with lots of embellishments and purple glitter glue, I did my first scrapbooking layout of many this year (details below) and mum worked on her gorgeous altered manuscript project.  She's got an old old book and she opens it to a page and uses all different craft techniques to create.  Combined with some lovely quotes and poems it is such a beautiful project.  What a companionable, fun, creative day. 

I'm doing Stacy Julian's 'Twelve' class this year and am all inspired to rev up my scrapbooking again.  I spotted a fun, colourful layout from a lady called Rhonda in the class gallery and decided to give it a try.  Stacy's passion for colour has gotten me in the mood for using some nice bright happy colours.  Grabbed out my Brights Pattern Stack DSP to make this me page.

It did rather challenge me in the maths and measuring department but I was pretty impressed to get it fairly straight and even! 

I used the matching cardstock and my Big Shot Timeless Type (and much loved) Alphabet die to make the letters of my name.  They were getting a bit lost on the coloured background so I punched white squares with my new Postage Stamp punch and that did the trick. 

Then I just added embellishments from my stash that coordinated with the colours.  (You'll spot some of our lovely glimmer brads, flower brads and a few others there if you look closely.)

I'd been jotting ideas for the letters during the week.  Got stuck on a few and had to get the dictionary out for some inspiration.

Once I was done I had some offcuts of the Brights DSP strips so I grabbed out a sheet of my new favourite Shimmery White cardstock to make this quick and simple card.

My Modern Label punch is getting a great workout lately along with Short and Sweet greeting set.  A glimmer brad and some paper piercing finished it off.

This afternoon some of the girls from my team are coming over and we're all looking forward to chatting and creating with some of the SaleABration items.  Should be a lovely afternoon of card making. 

What a fun way to spend some weekend time.  (And we've still managed to squeeze in some golf and cycling time for John so we're all happy here!)

Happy Stamping!  Back soon with some SaleABration cards to share.

Cheers, Sue

The scrapbooking bug has hit here over January.  One evening instead of our usual books from the book basket, the kids and I spent half an hour reading back over some of the scrapbooks I'd made.  They laughed like mad at the one with a bunch of funny things Hannah used to say when she was 3 or 4.  So I decided to find all the little quotes I'd jotted down about Jack and make one for him too.

I've been using these divided page pockets.  (I forget the brand - will edit to add it in later.)  I've got some with six 4 x 6 spaces, and some with a 6 x 12 space and three 4 x 6 pockets.  Plus more variations.  Quite handy for quick and easy scrapbooking I'm finding. 

For these pages I've used some supplies from the back of my cupboard - Basic Grey, I think it is called School Room or Recess or something like that. 

These Stampin' Up products were very handy putting these layouts together.

I used this stamp set "Notes and Details" from the Summer Mini - a great set for scrapbookers.

Specifically I used this stamp for my journalling lines ...

 
Stamped in Crumb Cake ink on Crumb Cake cardstock (which tied in nicely with the patterned paper I was using.  Thank you thank you Stampin' Up for including Kraft (Crumb Cake) ink in the range - love it!

My circle and corner rounding punches were most useful too.  (Shown here in the older style.)

 

I also used my spritzer and an Early Espresso Marker.  A bit of a spritz of ink just seemed to soften the stark cardstock and tie it in with the grungier looking patterned paper.  If you'd like to try a spritzer check out my February classes:  Class Page. 

 
 So Saffron cardstock here for this journaling card.

I love this style of scrapbooking.  I can intersperse with regular 12 x 12 layouts as well, such as this double page with a bunch of pics of the kids being creative.  Hoping to work my way through a big box of 2009 2010 photos with this method!

If your scrapbooking energies have been depleted, getting out some older albums is a great way to recharge the batteries.  It certainly reminded my why I love this hobby. 

Hope you're having a great weekend.  For many, the weather would not be making this possible - I recognise the names of towns of quite a few friends and customers in the inundated lists. Wishing all affected by the rain, storms and cyclone all the best.  Thinking of you.

Cheers, Sue

A scrapbooking bug always seems to hit me in January too along with a spring cleaning bug.   I recently found an 8 1/2 x 11" album so have kicked off the year with a layout in those dimensions.  Actually I think mine is a bit narrower at 8" wide so I could use an A4 sheet for my base - chopping a little off the top first.   This one is a double page spread on facepainting.

I used the Notes and Details stamp set from the Summer Mini for this one.  The 'details' stamp is from that set plus some handy lines which I stamped in Versamark on Night Of Navy for my journaling.

 
Base cardstock is Sahara Sand plus I've used Night of Navy and Tempting Turquoise.  Some narrow white taffeta ribbon is about the only other addition.  Nice and simple.

I wanted to make the lavender Hannah pic the focal one so matted that in white. 

I do love the photo of our arms when we came back from the facepainting workshop.  Not a spare inch of 'canvas' left to practise on!   It was lots of fun and the paints are fabulous.  You can find them here if you're wanting some great face painting gear.  Moz Theatre Face Paints

I'm in a bit of a waffling on mood and rather than do that here or bore the socks off John, I thought I'd make myself a new blog just to waffle on to myself mainly, plus any friends, family or fellow blogworld inhabitants that might want to stop by.  I called it 'Just Me.'  Perhaps I should have called it 'Just Waffling On.'  Anyway if you'd like to have a look you can find it here:  Just Me.

I'll be back here though with plenty of cards and scrapbooking layouts and a few other crafty projects floating about in my head and keen to get out. 

Happy Stamping!    Cheers, Sue

A scrapbooking bug hit me yesterday so last night I grabbed out a bunch of photos I'd taken last year of the kids getting stuck into some cooking and put this simple layout together.  Just cardstock, photos, and a touch of ribbon.

 
Here's a closer look at the left side.  I had a tiny gap at the bottom where one lot of photos was a touch shorter than the ones on the right of the page so I used our new very narrow taffeta to square the bottom up, and popped some more here and there to coordinate ...

 
... and here's a closer look at the right side ...

 
I love the look of concentration on Jack's face in that shot where he's brushing the pie with egg. 

This layout was a bit like doing a jigsaw.  I trimmed down the photos to feature certain portions, then arranged and rearranged until it worked on the 12" Kraft (oops Crumb Cake) base.  I popped some scraps of cardstock into the gaps, picking out some colours from the photos - Poppy Parade, Real Red and Melon Mambo. 

My Big Shot and Timeless Type alphabet die came in handy for making a coordinating title.  Love this alphabet.  Was a bit of an investment but I've used it a lot so quite worth it I think.  Decided the photos spoke for themselves really so no written journalling on this one apart from the title "We love to COOK." 

I popped the date on the right hand subtitle - just the year since the photos were a mix taken over last year.  Can you see the '2009' jotted in there on the 'o'?

 
We've been watching Junior Masterchef quite avidly in our house, so quite a timely layout!

Off to Harvey Norman in a tic to pick up another great batch of photos from the last 6 months, so hopefully a bit more scrapbooking for me in the next few months.  I've missed it with all the busy busy of the last few months.  Time to get back into it.  I always feel happy when I've recorded some of those funny little everyday snippets of life.  Such a satisfying hobby.

Cheers, Sue

Here's a sneak peek at my StampAMemory post.

Head on over to the StampAMemory website if you'd like to see the whole layout.  You can find it here  Riding Hood Red Boys Layout.

This layout is my final one as a member of the StampAMemory team.  I have so enjoyed being part of the crew and the inspiration and ideas I've gotten from those talented ladies has been fabulous.  

Our To Do Lists can get a bit full some days and I regretfully came to realise I was going to have to let this role go.  I look forward to continuing to be a regular visitor to StampAMemory and highly highly recommend it to anyone after some ideas for ways to use Stampin' Up products in their scrapbooking, or to anyone just wanting to recharge those scrapping batteries. 

Remember - the girls feature guest designers regularly.  There's information on the site if you've got some layouts to share and would like to apply.

Cheers, Sue

It is challenge time again over at our scrapbooking website StampAMemory.

For Creative Challenge #12, Di is challenging us to scrapbook a layout about a pet.  Do you have some pet photos waiting to be scrapped?  Or perhaps a tale to tell about a childhood pet?  There's a terrific prize up for grabs for taking part.  Find all the details at StampAMemory.

Here is my pet layout.   I was rapt when I saw this challenge as I'd started an 8" x 8" album about my tropical fish quite some time ago and it was gathering dust half finished on the shelf.  This was the perfect prompt to get it out and add some layouts.   I decided to make a front page for the album.

Here's a few more details about the page.  I wanted to soften my white layout base so I sponged a mix of blue inks on for a speckledy effect.

Then I used my 1 1/4 inch square punch to punch a bunch of squares in greens and blues.  I crimped some pieces before punching for added texture. 

Colours:  Night of Navy, Brilliant Blue, Bordering Blue, Kiwi Kiss, Not Quite Navy and Garden Green.

I punched some squares from a photo I had of my tropical aquarium too.  Then arranged, and rearranged and rearranged and rearranged them until I was happy, then stuck them down. 

I had some leftover chunks of photo so decided to use my Alphabet Die to cut the letters for my title from these pieces.  I trimmed some Stampin' Dimensionals to attach these so they'd stand out a teeny bit more.  (I tried putting a lighter circle behind each letter but I liked the simpler look of the layout and it made it look a bit busy.) 

A Night Of Navy 'Little Leaves' die cut shape just seemed to finish it off. 

Now that the album is out on my craft desk, time to get cracking on a few more pages to tell the story of how I got into fishkeeping and about setting up our aquarium. 

Any scrapbookers out there??   Hope to see some of your pet layouts over at StampAMemory.

Cheers, Sue  

Hello, hope your week is starting well and a happy Mothers' Day to all the mums out there.  Hope you had a lovely day yesterday.  I got very spoilt with a sleep in, breakfast in bed and a gorgeous collection of treasures made at kinder and school, mothers' day stall gifts (I love seeing what the kids pick - chocolate featured heavily in Hannah's selections!) and some comfy slippers.  Plus a nice relaxing day spent having fun with John and the kids.  Aaaahh, bliss. 

Stampin Up Scrapbooking

I've got a simple double scrapbook layout to share with you today over at StampAMemory - our scrapbooking website.  It features a bunch of photos I took last year of the back of Hannah's head as she headed out the door to school. 

Here's a sneak peek:

The Sizzlits Lots of Tags die is so handy for making little matching  journalling tags.  It is very handy for using up little scraps of cardstock too.  Click here to see the full post:   StampAMemory:  Hairstyles layout

Madex Creations May Newsletter

If you are part of my newsletter crew, your Madex Creations May Newsletter should have arrived in your inbox last week.  This edition has some step by step pics and instructions for making this baby card.

Here's 3 entries from my 'What to say while you press your cling stamp onto the clear block for 3 seconds' Competition from my April newsletter.  (That's quite a mouthful isn't it!)

Michelle:  Inspire, Create, Share!

Fiona:  Stampin' Up sticks!

Mary: Oh wow I can't wait to stamp this one up!

And the winner drawn from the hat .......

.... is the other entry from Fiona:   "Stick,  stick,  stuck."   

Thanks for taking part ladies.  I'll be in touch Fiona to see which pack of DSP (Designer Series Patterned Papers) you've selected as your prize. 

If you'd like to receive my email newsletter each month, just take a look up in the top right column here on my blog and you'll find the sign up box.  Type in your email address, hit go and follow the directions.  I'd love to welcome you to the crew and keep you up to date with specials, the latest product news, upcoming classes and lots of stamping and card ideas.

More Scallop Envelope Boxes

Thought I'd share the boxes the girls made at Thursday's class.  We've got one more group to go this coming Thursday.  There are one or two spots left.  Details here.

Here's Tracy and Sue's creations.

And here are the boxes from Selena and Anne-Marie ...

They look great in such a range of colours/DSP designs.  I'll be back at the end of the week with our final group of boxes from this last May class.  Thanks ladies for letting me share the pics with the blogland crew.

Happy stamping and have a great week,

Cheers,  Sue

It is challenge time again over at our scrapbooking site StampAMemory. 

This time Ros Davidson has set the challenge for us and it is to scrap a not so perfect photo.   We can use our photo editing skills to turn that not so perfect photo into something 'scrappable' and show the unedited version too.  The fabulous prize up for grabs for this challenge is a pack of your favourite Designer Series Patterned Paper and a pack of mixed A4 cardstock.  Mmmmmm. 

I love fiddling about with photo files so this one was right up my alley.  We had a big Madex reunion a few months ago, celebrating my great aunt's 80th birthday.  I had my camera with me and snapped this photo of two of my great aunts sharing a laugh and a hug. 

Bit of a busy background, bit dark, generally a bit of a rushed photo, but I love the expressions on their faces and I love that I captured a tender, happy, sisterly moment.  So I got to work with Photoshop Elements photo editing program.  Now I'm no expert at photo editing - I just fluff about experimenting until I get something I'm happy with.  Here's what I came up with this time.

And here are my lovely warm happy great aunts nicely featured in an 8" x 8"  scrapbook layout.

I've used Kraft cardstock as my base, with the Very Vintage wheel rolled across the top and bottom using Soft Suede ink.  The sponging around the page suits this wheel I think.   

Some Kraft taffeta ribbon and a couple of half pearls from the Pretties Kit frame the photo.  (And covers the bottom of the photo too where I went a bit awry with the photo editing magic lasso!)

I've used my Big Shot, Little Leaves Sizzlits and some scraps of Brilliant Blue to make the leaves.  You can find the butterfly tucked away on the last page of the autumn mini.  It is called All A Flutter and at $12.95 I just couldn't resist him.  I've stamped him onto watercolour paper then scribbled some colour onto a  lid with some markers (So Saffron, Bordering Blue and a touch of Brilliant Blue) then used an aquapainter to colour him in.

If you are doing some scrapbooking this fortnight, perhaps you'd like to enter the StampAMemory challenge.   If you don't have a blog, email one of us your pic and we'll link it up for you.

Happy Scrapping!
Cheers,

Sue

A 'sorting out' urge hit on the weekend and I grabbed a big BIG box of photos from 2009 and spread them all over the lounge room floor.  I sorted them into categories - Hannah, Jack, family and friends, birthdays, day trips, odds and ends, holidays and so on, then popped them into a photo box with some dividers.  My plan is to very quickly scrapbook a bunch of my favourites from the different piles, then I have other plans for storing the rest. 

If you'd like to see the album cover I came up with for my 'Snippets of 2009' scrapbook, head on over to StampAMemory - our scrapbooking website where we share lots of scrapping tips and layout ideas.

You'll also find the story behind this photo!  Made me chuckle.

If you are just teetering on the edge of taking up the hobby of scrapbooking, I'll have lots of simple, easy layouts to share with you over the coming months.  Just photos, stories, some cardstock and the odd extra.  That's all you need to get started on a very satisfying hobby.  Hope I can tempt you! 

I don't care that I have a gazillion photos I'll never get scrapped.  I just grab whatever has captured my attention when the scrapping bug hits.  Don't feel like you have to scrapbook everything - it gets too overwhelming.  A snippet here and a snippet there - that's fun!

I do love my cardmaking and find it relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable.  Would it sound too daggy if I said, there's something about scrapbooking I find that just feeds the soul.  I love capturing just a little of the day to day moments of our lives, knowing they'll be such fun to look at later.  And I love that it also captures a bit of me, my thoughts and my loves.  

Bit like this blog!    Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by in my patch of blogland.

Cheers, Sue