More Orange

Ok, so this week was a bit easier for me. Whilst Orange is certainly not a "go to" colour for me (bring on Blue week!), I do use it a fair bit...probably more than I would have thought! It seems to work with a lot of photos. Funnily enough it is not even a colour I necessarily like!! Yet it works well sometimes, so I still use it.

Anyway, this is a layout I did recently. I must apologise for the photos, I had to take them at night time, so the light was bad! Love this sketch, I use it often.

This next one is really old layout, but I wanted to show it to mention that I LOVE teal and orange together!!!

Thanks for reading! Have a great day.
Emma

Week Four | Green

I can't believe it is the start of the fourth week in our colour series, the weeks are whizzing by at the moment!
This week I am going to share some old and new pages, one is so old it might even equate to 'real' scrapping. I used cardstock and even cut out parts of my son's birthday cards to make a grid on the page, and, hold your breath .... are those embellishments on the page I spy?!

The next two are digital.

The last one was a tricky page for me to make, not because of the story, but because I didn't have the photo I wanted to illustrate the story. I am not sure how clear and easy the journaling is to read, but, in the last holidays the kids had a great experience with a local artist who let them fill in a canvas for him and then he started painting creatures from the blobs and drips of paint on the actual canvas. At the time, I did have my camera, but I felt that it was not the correct etiquette to photograph him at work, even though it was all a bit of fun, but, he had several pieces there for sale and I didn't want him to think I was trying to copy his work in any way. What do you think, was I too conservative, or was this the right thing to do? Nicole, what would you say?

Anyway, there are my green layouts for this week, I use green a lot so it was easier than last week!

Pink - An Easy One for Me!

So last week I definitely struggled with Yellow, so I'm very happy to have Pink this week as that is much easier for me! I have a daughter, so automatically that means some layouts are Pink! My daughter is 9 and is totally not into Pink anymore (she is all about Aqua & Black!), she once was into Pink, so I have many a layout containing pink. I didn't have time to make one especially for this week, so I pulled one from the archives (hopefully I haven't shown it here before!). This layout is about my daughter and her new baby cousin at the time.

Have a good day,
Emma

Yellow...or lack of!

Hi everyone,

I'm back after a bit of a holiday with my family. And I've come back to a week of Yellow...hmmm I have to admit its a colour I rarely use on layouts. Its not that I don't like yellow, its a very happy colour. Its more that I find it hard to use on layouts.

Which means I have no layouts to show you! I flicked through my albums and couldn't find anything with yellow! Then I sat down to create something and realised I didn't even have anything yellow to use! However, I did find a little set I made last mothers day. Its a matchbook album, card and little paper bag. So I thought I'd show you this as its better than nothing!

This is the set...its pretty bright and I'm not sure I'd use this colour combo on a scrapbook layout, but its definitely fun and makes me happy looking at it! The matchbook album is in the middle. Below are a couple of inside shots of the album. My mum loved this and still carries it in her handbag to show off her grandkids to her friends! Its very easy to make!

So I apologise for not having a yellow layout to show you, but hope you have enjoyed looking at these instead! Hopefully I'll have something better for next week's colour!

Emma

where I use some more of those darned stickers

Not much to say. Easter school holidays. No making school lunches for two weeks.

A hybrid page using a CZ template. Now I think about it she has used this block and column style a few different times in different templates, but I don't mind. I like it. Plunked the printed down bit on some card, and then scratching my head wondering what I could do to give it a little something else, spied the everlasting, never ending page of stickers that came with an Echo Park pack of paper.

Am really pleased with how this one turned out. And yes, its from nearly 3 years ago, but I found some gaps in the kids albums and am filling them.

Happy Easter all!

A quick layout

Hi Everyone,

I have a layout that is actually based around the Saturday Sketch even though I did it before the sketch was out! This is a go to design I use often, its easy to use, simple and effective. Makes a quick page, but still has room for interest with patterned paper etc.

Have a good day!
Emma

Saturday Sketch #6

Happy Saturday to everyone. It's been a hectic Saturday for me with Winter Sports for the kids started up again...I love it and hate it all at the same time!

Anyway, onto the sketch this week. This is one that can be interpreted in so many different ways. I'm really keen to see what everyone does with it.

Here is the sketch.

And here is what I did with it.

Sorry the colours are a bit dull...I tried scanning this layout instead of taking a photo, but it hasn't really given me the right colours and it chopped the edge off. Oh well, you get the idea!

I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone comes up with.

Have a good rest of the weekend.

Emma

he wanted a cow cake

its a lovely drizzly rainy day up here in the north. I love rain. And finally a NEW page for you. A quick digi one that I plan to print, add a number 4 thicker to that empty space, stick the whole lot on some cardstock and call it done. Love it.

hoping to whip up a few more of these quick digital pages soon, to fill some gaps (of course thanks to CZ for her great templates!)

That's it for today folks....

An Oldie

I have lots of pages in progress at the moment, but none actually finished, so I pulled out an oldie to share with you. Its about me and my hubby...I don't do pages about us very often, its always about the kids! So its nice to have a different subject for a change!!

Sorry the photo is average on this one! Like I said its an old one!

Have a good day everyone.

Personality

One of the topics in my Stacey Julian class, Twelve, is Personality. Such an important topic to remember to scrap about. I think we can all too easily get carried away with just the who, what, why and when in our journalling. But it's much more important and interesting to delve deeper into personality traits.

This page is absolutely random thoughts about my daughter Ella. It was literally as things popped into my head, I put them into the journalling. It really didn't take too long at all and I think its really interesting info to look back on in a few years and see how much Ella has changed and how much she has stayed the same!

By the way, love this colour combination of the dark pink and the baby blue colour!

Places

As you all know, I've been doing the Twelve class by Stacy Julian over at Big Picture Classes.

It is really inspiring me to think more and delve deeper for my journalling. One of the things Stacy got us to think about is places we have lived throughout our lives. Personally, I haven't lived in that many different homes, but all the homes I have been in have been special in different ways. When I started thinking about all the different places, some wonderful memories came flooding back.

In particular was the first home my hubby and I lived in after we got married. We had a few really happy years there in particular because it was the excitement of being married and having our own home. I realised I'd never really talked to the kids about this house. I went rumaging through old photos and found exactly what I was after. A couple of photos of John and I outside the house. The kids thought it was wonderful and wanted to know all about that house. So this is the layout I did based on all these thoughts. I plan on doing other layouts for the other places I have lived.

So I challenge you to think about all the places you have lived and create a layout on it. It could be one layout listing all the different places or it could be an individual layout for one of the places you have lived like mine is.

I found this topic really fun to do and I loved the memories it brought back!

Hello Wednesday...and a giveaway!

hello readers! yay that we are back after our summer holiday! so good to see what the other girls have been up to over the holidays, and excited about what they have in store for us in the coming weeks.

Recently, I caved in ;-) and bought a pack of Project Life Page Protectors.  Now I am not undertaking Project Life, but I DO like the style of the divided page protectors. And when I found a little pile of sorted photos the other day, complete with notes, that I had forgotten about (yegads) I thought what a perfect way to try out the new divided page protectors (and fill that gap in my boys album, I was wondering why it was looking a little sparse!)

I LOVE how easily and quickly this came together! At first I was worried that the smaller pockets might be problematic for me, but no, I love them.  And if you don't mind, I'll be sharing a few more simple pages using these divided page protectors in the coming weeks. Don't get me wrong, I still love doing a "normal" page, but what I love even more is how quickly I can get a page done using these page protectors, when I have limited time in which to do a page. (no measuring or re-arranging ! slip in the photos, cut my patterned paper to size (which I have written down for easy future reference, print the journaling on a pre-cut 4x6 card, on a 4x6 word document template I have already set up, add any extras like a thickers title etc that I feel like and wah-laa!....its that easy!)

ANYHOW! onto the exciting bit for the day...

A GIVEAWAY!!!

Kim at Bite Sized Scrapbooking, a fan of the quick and simple, and who offers great ideas and plans for the time and inspiration starved scrapbooker on her site Bite Sized Scrapbooking, has generously offered one of bundles of simple scrapbooking plans that is the perfect way to get TWENTY SIX pages done in a simple, fuss free way.

The winner will get BSS Bundle #2 which is chock full of great layout plans in three simple steps. Please do follow the links and check it out!

Leave a comment on this post and you will go in the draw to win this great little prize!  I will announce the winner next Wednesday, so you have until then to post your comment - tell me about your quick and simple tips for getting a page done?!

See you next week!

Sharon

what to do with all of those photos

I asked the question last week about what you did with all of your photos. In these digital days I would hazard a guess that a good deal of them are languishing on hard drives, some of them scrapped, and maybe some of them printed.

I decided to tackle my own photo issues and came up with my own solution. Not unique, not anything new, and not the cheapest option, but its working for me. The biggest hurdle or delay for me in this process is the selecting of photos to be printed.

So, this is what I am doing.

Found these 12x12 ring binder albums at my local "discount" store for around $16 each. Slip in a stack of divided page protectors (I have used WRMK and American Crafts in a variety of layouts), slip in my printed photos (more on this part below) leaving a pocket per double spread empty. Print some 4x6 Ali Edwards journaling blocks on cardstock, write on my notes, and done.

  In more depth, lets talk about PRINTING.  Because of digital, I tend to take LOTS and LOTS of photos of the one occasion (don't we all) I do delete the outright awful ones when uploading, but am still left with heaps of shots. So I very quickly select one or two, or more if it was a big day, of the set, without too much thought, and send to my print folder. No double guessing, I just want an overview. If its something I know I will scrap about, I will select some extras, or particularly good picture of the kids as well. I try to summarise and keep it simple. I set myself a task of sorting through a month at a time, and the more I do it the more streamlined the selection process.  Sure, I am still left with lots of photos on my hard drive, but the essence of our family life is printed and easily accessible for all to enjoy.

PAGE PROTECTORS:  After using WRMK and American Crafts, I will be purchasing the standard 6 per page in portrait style (and some landscape too) for maximum ease in putting the photos away (AC allow for sliding in photos from BOTH sides of the page, WRMK does not) and as you can see I take a LOT of my photos in portrait orientation.  I did dabble with some of these other AC page protectors, which I love, but the loss of storage capacity is  drawback.

I don't really care if some of the photos will be sideways in the pocket, at least they are IN a pocket to be seen! 

I do store the photos in chronological order (is there any other way that makes sense?!) and so far have fit 12 months of photos in this album, and slightly more in the next one. I anticipate fitting more as I get better and more ruthless in sending my selection to the print file (and let me share a secret....um...I've not printed any from 2010 OR 2011....two years behind seems to be standard for me! I've plans on uploading 3 monthly batches over the summer holidays!)

I chose to print out the cards and handwrite on them, as lets face it, I spend enough time in front of this screen as it is, and by handwriting I could sit myself down in front of the TV in the evenings and put photos away and write on the cards as I went. And the handwriting adds a personal touch to it too of course!

No long stories, just a few pertinent notes about the photos as one looks at a double page spread.

Sometimes the photos pretty much speak for themselves and not a lot of words are needed, just a general feel and importantly for me, DATE.

I was using this system beforehand, in cheap slip in albums which are slowly being wrecked by the kids looking at the photos. Now I am not going to go and swap them out, but from this point on will be using this system. I still have my "regular" scrapbooks which are apart from these, but should I ever not scrap properly again, the photos and the essence of our lives is still captured. 

So, I've got some sorting and selecting to do on hot summer afternoons, but don't plan on putting too much thought into it, just a quick drag and dump and be ruthless about it. No matter what I print, its better than being lost on the hard drive!

So, what are your thoughts? do you do something similar, or employ a Project Life approach?

Remembering their toys

Meet Jesse and Woody from Toy Story.

Chances are you've already met them if you have kids! These two have been played with in our house for close to eight years now, and they have definitely seen better days. They get put in pot plants, endure makeovers, and have regular excursions to the back yard. They are still played with constantly and much loved. And it is for this reason I have wanted to record them down on paper for my girls. I did a double page layout for each of my younger daughters.

 

Both girls got the same first page (which is a Cathy Z template found here and then printed as an 8x10 photo), and the second page is an 8x10 enlargement of each girl.

Here's the other daughters second page photo.

If you want to see how I scrapped this toy cow for my eldest girl head over here.

 

I think it's a great thing to do, to scrap the play things that mean a lot to your kids. Won't they love to look back on it when they are all big and grown!

What favourite toys could you document for your kids? Or maybe you still have a special toy, from your childhood that you should record? Please share!

Nicole xx

a quick lift-a-page challenge for you

Well, its my day again and I have to say it snuck up on me, and caught me somewhat unprepared. With a quick bit of thought, I decided to lift one of my favourite pages, done quite some time ago. As I challenge you to do as well.

Here is my original page (which I suspect was probably inspired at some stage by Nicole, however was done so long ago I cannot remember for sure!). This same chubby bubby is now 7 and not so chubby. Still has a penchant for mud, and covering her little brother in it as well. A traditional paper and cardstock page.

Amy, ever the gold star student of challenges ;-) was quick to take up the challenge and produced this little number in no time at all (and hey, that looks like digi bazzill cardstock there Amy!) Amy flipped the design over, I love it.

And here is my refreshed take on my own layout. Digi this time, as I can't actually use or get to my scrap desk at the moment. Long story. Well, not so much, but its boring and you don't really want to know.

Now I realise that this doesn't have a title, and I sort of like it like that...perhaps when I print it I might add in some thickers or something. I seem to be doing a lot of pages on the boy lately, but I guess he is a pretty rich source of content at the moment, being home by himself with me, before he goes to school next year.

Now you know the drill, you are welcome to play along, just linky up down below (when one of the other SAG girls who knows how to put the linky thing in) and leave a comment so we know to come visit your blog! Or of course, there is the Flickr pool too, again leave a comment, if there is no email to let us know we won't ever get to see your contribution!

Might even do a show and tell if enough join in. Hope you like this super simple page, which is really open to interpretation.

Thanks for popping by

Sharon

Another Mini

Hi all, sorry a bit late in the day for my post again, but I made it. So I thought seen as the SAG girls have shared a few minis lately that I'd add one of mine. This is several years old, but I've always loved it. Its the story of my sons first year of soccer. The Manager of the soccer team wrote these amazing match reports that were funny and informative. So I just got a whole bunch of the reports and combined them with photos and I added my own thoughts in the introduction and conclusion. Its a very simple layout.

The cover...remember those circular metal rimmed tabs that were really in a few years back, I still love them!

First page of the album with an introduction.

Inside pages.

The back conclusion page.

The patterned papers are an old Stampin' Up! set which comes in handy for things like this as they all co-ordinate.

Thanks for stopping by our blog. Don't forget we will be doing a little giveaway when we reach 100 followers, so make sure you follow us, not too many more and we will reach the 100.

Emma

Friends

I love documenting the friendships my kids (and I) have. Friendships often change and I think its really nice to remember their different friends at different stages of their lives.

This is kind of a lift of one of Nicole's layouts from a long time ago. Its one I've always remembered and whilst I didn't have the actual picture of her layout to lift from, I went from memory. I can't remember the exact details of her layout, but its something similar to this. It took a bit for me to come up with the colours to use in this layout. All the different colours in the photo made it tricky. But in the end I think it turned out ok.

Summer Collage

Sorry its a bit late in the day for my post, but at least I didn't forget altogether like I did a week or two ago!

This is a very quick collage layout that I created myself in photoshop...nothing more simple than a bunch of the same size squares! These were just random photos from last summer that I liked, none really had much of a story to them other than we were at the beach or swimming which we do almost every weekend, so there are only so many layouts you can do each season! But these pictures missed the cut for a full layout, but were too good to miss out on being shown at all! So I dumped them all into this easy collage layout and did a fancy font for the heading and there you have it, one very simple and easy layout. It is very rare for me to do no journalling at all on a layout and it feels a bit weird looking at this one without journalling, but I'm ok with it I think, although wouldn't do it often!

its not that far away

Christmas...a page I did recently, about obviously, Christmas. A quick collage of photos summarising Christmas that year, printed, some thickers, a brad and some handwriting with a white pen that wouldn't really work that well.Which begs the question: please tell me of a good, reliable, easy to get, WHITE PEN? what sort do you use? where did you get it? I would love a pen that just writes well and evenly!

Thanks for stopping by! Please do tell me about your white pens....

Sharon

Things are back to normal

I have to apologise, I have been missing in action. So much has been happening, the main thing being I have a new job which I am loving, but its 4 days a week and I have struggled to get into a routine. We are slowly getting there and I am feeling like I'm getting a bit more normality back in life.

Anyway, I have a layout to share with you that I did a little while ago. This is about my daughter and one of my friends sons and the bond they have. Brodie absolutely adores Ella and follows her everyone, Ella absolutely adores Brodie too and is quite happy to hang out with him! It is really very cute and something that I had to document.

Stop back tomorrow as I will be doing a sketch challenge for you all to participate in!

Emma