All-White Challenge

I rarely take part in challenges for two reasons: firstly I don't often have the time to complete a layout with a deadline attached, and secondly, I cannot come up with any ideas that fit the rules!

Anne has placed a link on her 'Pretty' Blog to Dreamgirls and  has made a stunning  layout for their current challenge, so I followed the link. For once the challenge looks to be what I need as I still have loads of white cardstock in my stash. I played around this afternoon keeping to the all-white theme and here is the result.

I have to say that, all-one-colour layouts need to be very clever to keep my interest and not look bland or flat. Mine is rather 'blah' but when I've sent it off to the challenge website, I intend to add just a little touch of another colour to lift the layout before it goes into an album. Maybe a bit of pink? Or black to go with the graveyard theme?!

Seriously though, how much white ribbon do you have? And how many white embellishments? It's not at all easy sometimes to complete a challenge layout with what you have available in your stash!

Anyway, the photo is one of Jenni, taken with a black and white film camera and hand-developed by Karen for a college project. It is actually a test strip to determine the best exposure time for her group of photos! It has been on my notice board for at least eighteen months, waiting for me to get an idea for scrapping it. As it's another single photo which I don't find easy to deal with on a layout, and it's a strange size, 2 x 11.5 inches, it's waited longer than most!

I used cuttlebug embossing folders and a sizzix alphabet for the central page, rounded the corners with my Corner Chomper and mounted it onto a second sheet of cardstock. Then I added the ribbon and ribbon slide, and finished by covering the diecut letters with clear glitter from a Sakura pen.

Sometimes a challenge can really, really challenge a scrapper like me!

Short Post

'There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings'

by Hodding Carter

I saw the title - Grandparents Give The Gift Of Time - somewhere ages ago, but I cannot remember where. I have kept it in mind to use on a page someday and Sunday afternoon I finally used it!

I have very few photos left of the girls when they were young. They weren't taken with a digital camera so I cannot reproduce them, but most are safely scrapped and in albums now. These are a few I had left. They are all from different years, but there are enough to show how often my Mum and Dad have given their time and love to their grandchildren.

The gift of time is precious and the memories created can never be taken away.

Give her a camera....

I recently showed you a favourite layout featuring my daughter, Jenni, so I thought I'd better do the same for Karen. Have to treat them the same or there's trouble!!

This is one of my favourites because it shows what Karen 'does' - she plays around with her photography.

We bought her a Canon SLR for her seventeenth birthday when she was thinking of taking up photography as a career, and she is always taking photos. She uses Photoshop to manipulate the images to different colours (something I wouldn't even know where to begin!) and often does magazine-style cropping of her photos. This means cutting off the top of people's heads apparently. Also, she won't let me scrap her selfportraits until she's airbrushed them to her satisfaction. Can't have a bad skin day on a layout now can we? 

It's a big day for her tomorrow...... the dreaded 'A' Level results!

And, of course, a night out to celebrate or commiserate!

I Do Doodle Sometimes

My older daughter, Jenni, moved home on Monday. She now lives further away from us, in a bedsit in Worthing with her boyfriend. I have yet to see their new place but look forward to going there soon.

I was at work and couldn't help her move so I sent her this New Home card to make her smile.

A bedsit is hardly a palace! But the card is a bit of fun.

The background had to be purple as that's Jenni's favourite colour. I stamped the Hero Arts palace stamp and enlarged it on the computer as I wanted an A5 size card, and traced over the outline with a Sakura glitter pen to make it sparkle. I doodled the cloud (see, I do doodle sometimes!) and placed it behind the palace. Then I added the border and flowers. The New Home message was done on the computer using Word Art in Windows Office (I can't get my head around Paint Shop Pro) then cut out with a circle punch. There are a couple of scalloped circles beneath it to make the message 3D.

As I was now getting into this doodling lark, I decided to decorate the inside the same way!

So now I've doodled on a scrapbook page and doodled on a handmade card.

Lookout! It could be catching!

Sizzix Birthday Cards

Yes, that is a Yankee Candle in the photo! I often have candles burning when I'm crafting and I have lots of them around the house. I've even done a scrapbook page on Yankee Candles.....but back to the cards.....

I have a Cuttlebug machine which can take dies from other manufacturers, like this flower die from Sizzix. I thought I would try something with white flowers on white card. The corners of the cards have been rounded using my newest 'toy', the We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper and the ribbons are from some rolls I bought in Brighton just the other day.

My husband says these cards are too modern and look like I 'just stuck a piece of flowery paper on a card.' Oh well, I can't please everyone all of the time! (and some people none of the time it seems!).

At least I'm happy with the results of my crafting afternoon - and I managed to use up five sheets of white card in the process! I think I might try this technique again but with a butterfly punch instead of the die this time.

Don't forget I have a Sizzix Giveaway to help me use up the excess of white card I find myself with! Take a look at  http://cupboardcrafter.blogspot.com/2009/08/sissix-giveaway.html

Neat or Not?

I was reading Julia Dunnit's blog post the other day and it had me laughing out loud http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/2009/08/image-from-shimelle-part-of-everyone.html  She compares real life to the perfect lives we talk about or show photos of on our blogs.  Most of you are honest and show photos of the crafty mess you get into. There are some very candid shots for 'What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday'.  This photo of mine is less than perfect- it was taken in my computer room at 9.30pm with no natural light.

Julia's post got me thinking about the photos I show - and those I choose not to.

So, I'm going to ask you a question. How neat is the back of your scrapbook page?

I must admit that many of mine are not pretty. Some have holes cut into the paper (gusseting is the polite term or being frugal is the excuse I use), stamps tested out in different colours until I find the one I like, sticky tape holding ribbons in place or those unsightly brad legs sticking through! I've even gussetted pages before now, forgotten about it and got sticky tape showing through which then sticks to everything in sight! My remedy for that faux pas is to put strips of waste paper over the glue  - thus making the back even more unsightly!

My reasoning for accepting pages like this is that I put one page back-to-back with another in my albums, so it doesn't matter what the rear of each individual layout looks like. But.... there's always a but... find the odd page in its' clear plastic holder that hasn't yet got a partner behind it ... and anyone can see what you've done!

Also, I've just bought an acryllic 12x12 page holder to hang on my wall. The layouts can easily be slid in and out and changed whenever I like. This one purchase has made me look hard at the finish quality of my work which is now displayed for visitors to see.

As a salutary exercise, and in the interests of Truthful Blogging, I've looked through all my layouts and here is the worst backside example I could find. Sadly, it's the back of the layout shown at the top of the blog.

The less said the better!

Unashamed Scraplift

This layout is a scraplift. I am not ashamed of scraplifting. I'm pretty sure that everyone does it at some point. It's the thing I do when I'm stuck for ideas.

Looking through my old photos I found this one of me at school. I was probably about 16 years old. It's from a science class where we had to hand-develop photographs in the darkroom. I can't remember what we were supposed to be learning - probably something to do with Chemistry. 

As you know, I rarely use one photo on a page. Also I find it difficult to do 'Me' pages, so I had to get out my idea books and magazines, to find some inspiration. I found it in a Stacy Julian layout displaying her list of what she considers to be 'unlucky' and the photo she uses is of burned toast. Yes, toast! Beneath the photo is her 'unlucky list' in the random style I have so blatantly copied. 

I had to think hard about what concerned me at age sixteen, what might I have scribbled on a whiteboard if  they had been around then? Back came memories of being kicked out of Latin because I was useless at it and having to do Classical Studies instead, of struggling with Maths homework after 9.00pm, of my parents wanting me to train to be a teacher (like my sister). I enjoyed doing this layout and  hopefully it gives a wry glimpse of a younger me for my daughters to enjoy.