Just one pattern paper

Have you ever had that issue when putting together a layout where the patterns you want are on the same piece of paper?
I had that last week when creating a layout for my Disneyland adventures.  I decided some creative cutting was needed as I really wanted these two patterns.

So I cut carefully a 10" square from my paper, but I did it is such a way that I only needed to do three cuts

Then I carefully flipped over the 10" square and placed it in the hole.

I adhered the two pattern pieces to a Kraft cardstock so that if there were any gaps they would not show.

I was very pleased with the end result of my layout.

I cropped and adhered my photos and added a journaling card and a small piece of washi tape that will be a recurring theme on my Disney layouts.

Whales and Ducks

I have been so busy this past week with Group Fitness things and many other things that I just needed time to scrapbook.  So the other afternoon I went into my craft room and put together a layout.  It was great because it was one of those pages that almost put itself together.  I knew almost exactly what I wanted it to be like.  I wanted a white layout (very strange for me, I like lots of colour) with some white on white elements.  The reason I wanted white was because the whales in my photos were white and I wanted the layout to depict more about the whales.  I had never seen Beluga Whales before.  Grace had mentioned seeing them on her last visit to San Diego.  So it was very special for me to see these normally shy creatures.

I cropped two of my photos to be 4"x 4" and placed my photos as you see.  I wanted them on white so I cut a piece of cardstock to measure 10"x 11".  I then wanted to use one of my border punches (which I had recently been reunited with after them being in storage for nearly 6 months) I also wanted another border punched out and layered above the first large border.

I adhered my photos in place then added the second small border which I punched from a scrap piece of cardstock leftover from trimming down the white cardstock.

I put this white base on some light blue cardstock.  I punched 5 circles measuring 3/4" each and adhered them in the bottom right corner being sure to have the first one hanging off the page for some interest.  Once I liked there placement I cut the excess off the circle hanging over the edge and added it to the top left corner.  I didn't want to throw away that little piece, silly, but I like the result.

I found some little light blue bling and added them to the circles.  I was going to put them in the center so that they would all look the same, but then changed my mind.  I like how they look all different and so added a couple (3) extra round the circles.

Lastly I added my title which I cut from using my Silhouette Cameo.

Well, that is my tale about my 'whale' layout.  Now to fill you in on my 'duck', or in this case duckling.

I currently have a wee little duckling living in my bath tub.  Oh, it is so cute.  It has been nicknamed "Peepers".  We have some very early duck and duckling families in my backyard.  One is a mother of 4 (now 3 but at the time of this incident she had 4).  She has been round the house for a few days with her babies so I have been feeding them some rolled oats.  Anyway, the other afternoon I could hear some distressing peeping.  I went out my front door and there was mother of 4 attacking this stray little duckling.  She was really pecking at this wee thing.  I could not stand by and see this so I intervened.  Then, mother of 4 was thinking I was going to go after her four babies so she was getting ready to attack me.  Stray duckling joined her 4 so I thought OK she is defending it, it should be OK
now.  I walked away but saw she started to attack it again.  This time I caught the little duckling, but mamma was not going to let me pass.  It didn't help that duckling was peeping so mamma defended and flew at me.  I told mamma to be nice to it and let it go, just for her to start attacking again.  This time I rescued the duckling and made it into the house.

I have a cat box set up in my bathtub with a warm heat pack for it (I warm it regularly).  There is also an ice-cream container of water for drinking and swimming.  I also have food all over the floor of the bath tub.  It seems happy enough.  I take it out of the tub now and then to let it run around (when I can make an area secure).

I am not sure how my cats are going to take to this little one.  So will need to be careful for a little while.  The cats don't care about ducklings in our backyard, but could be different with one in the house.

Card for Check-out and the Flower Box

Yesterday I made this card.  it is nice being able to make something with a person in mind to give it to once completed.

I don't know about you, but when I do my grocery shopping I have my favorite check-out people.  Well, one of my check-out people is leaving, so I wanted to wish them all the best so, hence my card. It is amazing how by just striking up a short conversation each week you can build a bit of a friendship with people.

I coloured this image using Copic markers.  Around the image I used Distress Oxide Broken China.  Then double matted it before adding it to the the stripey background pattern paper.

A couple of weekends ago my husband and I decided it was time to finish cleaning out our garage after our summer of changing the garage around.  It was a big job, but I was reunited with my favorite punches and my flowers (collection).  Yippee! So to celebrate I played with some pattern paper, a box and some flowers and this is what I created.  It did take a couple of days but it was well worth the patience.  I even managed to did out some charms I had in my stash.  I feel it is time to stop collecting things like flowers and charms and to start using them.  What do you like creating with flowers and charms?  I am still wondering if the flowers need a few leaves tucked here and there.  What do you think?

It has been fun arranging the flowers and then adhering them.  So I do hope you get time to be creative too.

Walrus Kisses

I have never seen a Walrus up close and personal before.  This was amazing.  This guy was determined to either clean the glass of his enclosure or to be giving everyone kisses.  I can't get over what an amazing place Sea World is, there just seem to be so much to look at everywhere.  The animals we fabulous.  I guess since we don't have anything as big as this here in NZ that it just blew me away.

It is very rare for me to do a layout on white cardstock.  I guess since that was where I started until I was introduced to pull sized pattern papers that was what I was force to use.  So it was quite refreshing to just grab a plain piece of white cardstock and see where it took me.

I grabbed a piece of pattern paper which had a shimmer like the water that had green circles and cut it into a large circle.  I cropped my photos down so they could fit across the page.  I cut a piece of light green/blue cardstock to sit under the photos so there were anchored in place.  I added some little green fish (in case my walrus got hungry).  I tore a small piece of cream cardstock to go under my other cardstock border that is anchoring the photos.  The tore edge gives some texture to the layout.  lastly I cut out a title from grey cardstock and adhered it above my landscape photo to balance out the photos.

I am very happy with how the layout came together.  I think I should try more white layouts in future.  It makes a nice change.

Mesmerized

As you can tell we really enjoyed our time at Sea World, San Diego.

Here is a layout I created showing how mesmerized my daughter was with the Orcas.  They were such incredible creatures..  The female in this tank was quite old and un-interested in things until this young male Orca came to the park.  She came alive and wanted to play. they are like soulmate as one of the Sea World volunteers was telling me.  They stick together whenever they can.  My daughter just stood so close to the viewing glass she was almost part of the glass.  She could have stood there for hours just watching these two swim, and play.  They had a toy in the water that they took turns playing with.  It seems the 'string' part of the toy was made from old fire hoses (to be strong enough to last with Orcas playing with it).

With this layout I used a Hero Arts stencil and some Lawn Fawn coloured inks (a blue and a grey) and added this mesmerizing pattern over half of my background card stock.

I added my photos, a title (cut using my Silhouette Cameo), some twine and some journaling on a piece of vellum.

The results with this finished layout share the feeling my daughter had with the whales.

Workshop Layouts

I have two layouts to share with you.  Both I started at my last workshop.  The first I want to share with you is the last layout I did at my workshop.  To be honest all I did with this one at my workshop was to adhere a 5"x 7" photo to a scene pattern paper (I covered the yellow submarine with the photos LOL).
Yesterday using my Silhouette Cameo I cut out the title and the Orca.  I started with just 'Amazing' but then added the 'Creatures'.  Then using a date stamp I added the date we went to Sea World.

The second layout was my first layout I did at my workshop.  I wanted a red gingham paper for my background as we had gone to a traditional Italian pizza place for lunch that day.  But it needed breaking. I cut a narrow frame from black cardstock and a narrow circle frame from kraft cardstock, I adhered these to my layout then added my photos.
Today I cut out the title and stamped two tickets stamps for a bit of fun.  Lastly I added a journaling block (which now has journaling in it)

Can you believe, at this pizza place I had a huge tasty ... salad.  The food and company was amazing.  We had some good laughs.  It was great to stop briefly after shopping in Coronado - a beautiful sea side town with amazing houses (one of my next layouts)

It is so much fun to work on my holiday album.  I love remembering all the fun we had as I look at the photos before and after I scrapbook them.

I'm Back!!!!

It has been quite some time since I last posted.  I have been encouraged by some amazing and supportive people to start up again.

This year I have had some amazing changes in my life.  I am currently training to become a Group Fitness Instructor.  I am loving the new challenges, I love meeting new people, and I love the gym (I know sounds crazy).  I also have been loving seeing the new challenges in myself.  But, I do still love all my crafting.

So here I am, keeping my creative passion alive and maybe, together we can inspire one another.

My Christmas Gift Tags

OK, I admit it. I am kind of getting excited about the arrival of summer and of Christmas.  I always struggle at this time of year because both my daughters have birthdays about now.  I like to concentrate on them first before I starting doing Christmas stuff.
This year I am feeling prepared for the second birthday this weekend and so last week I made our Christmas gift tags.  I am really pleased with how they have turned out.

I cut the ornament shape using my Silhouette Cameo, then stamped the 'To and From' on the back.  Using Copic friendly cardstock I stamped lots of little  Christmas robins.  I coloured these using my Copics and Spectrum Noir pens.  I added a touch of Clear Wink of Stella to all the areas coloured red.
I punched each Christmas Robin out using a 1 1/4" circle punch.  Then inked the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Oxide ink.  I adhered these circles to the front of my ornaments and lastly added some glittered thread to each ornament.

Now all I need are sine gifts and a tree to put them under.  Roll on Christmas Season.  But, first lets enjoy thanksgiving.

Journaling Strips

I had such a great week.  Two days this week I have been able to sit in my craft-room and scrapbook.  I am not saying this to brag (OK maybe a little).  On Monday, seeing as it is school holidays, my daughter was able to arrange with her friends for them to come round. This meant, I was banished from the house (honestly, it was what I wanted, six 18 yrs olds was just a little bit much for me)  So I was able to enjoy my craft room and finish of a few layouts that I did at the workshop last weekend.  Don't you love that feeling when a layout is complete - title, journaling, the lot.  Very satisfying.

Well, yesterday I was able to have another day of scrapbooking. It was amazing, I managed to complete three layouts.  I am trying as I go to be sure each layout is complete including journaling as these are layouts from my trip to the US and I don't want to forget anything.

One of the layouts I decided to try something new for me.  To add journaling in strips.  I have seen layouts with this over this years and thought they looked good, but was never confident enough to give it a go.  Or they were done using computer journaling and I wanted hand written journaling.  So this is what I did.

I cut a piece of cardstock about the width of the space I had available on my layout.
Then I cut it a bit shorter than I wanted it to be when finished - knowing that when I cut the cardstock into strips I would want to spread them out a bit down the space.

I wrote my journaling in pencil first to be sure to get the spacing right.  I was strange to write with huge gaps between each line.  But this was so I could cut each line apart easily when the time came.

I wrote over my journaling in brown pen to match the feel of my layout (sometime black is too harsh)
Once the ink was dry I erased the penciled journaling.

Then it was time to bite the bullet and cut them apart. I used my trimmer and carefully cut them apart.
I would cut one strip at a time then place that strip on my layout so I would not mess up the order.

Once my journaling was cut apart and laid out I lined up my layout on the grid of my cutting mat, then lined up my long ruler down the edge where I wanted my journaling to go and adhered each strip in place.  Having the ruler as a guide so all the strips lined up down the left hand edge was a great help.

I was really pleased with the end result.

Steal Like an Artist

Steal like an Artist - 10 things nobody told you about being creative by Austin Kleon

Oh my goodness, this is a good book to read if you have any creativity - be it writing, painting, drawing, photography, scrapbooking, or card-making.  If you like being creative this is a great and easy read.  Grace found this book in a cool little book shop at the San Francisco Wharf.  She read it for her writing and told me that I would enjoy it - she was right.  Grace managed to read it in a couple of days.  I read it in just over a week - that is really good for me.

I came to realize that ideas for creativity are everywhere.  We just need to open our eyes and sometime look at things differently.  I also came to understand that everything has already been done, but that doesn't need to stop me from creating something I want to see.  Copy something and make it my own.

Many of us like to 'scrap-lift' ideas.  Well, know you can join me and understanding that 'stealing' artist ideas is just how creativity works and flows.

One thing I did really like in the book was being told to step away from the screen (computer, phone, tablet or whatever) and do something with your hands.  Make something, anything.  It can be so true, sometime when I get scrappers block, what helps is to get into my craft supplies and play, create and make.  Love it!