UK Scrappers Mystery Kit Mini Album and Layouts!

I love doing online challenges and classes -  I recently did True Scrap 4 hosted by Lain Ehmann, one of the classes was a Laura Dennison mini album class - and I couldnt wait to have a go at making my own! - You can find more of Laura's fab work here http://followingthepapertrail.blogspot.co.uk/. She has just launched her new blog here http://www.lauradenisondesigns.com/  - There are a ton of amazing tutorials on there and you can easily loose a few weeks looking at her amazing work!

BUT back to the UKS cybercrop and the Mystery Kit challenge, as a member of the Detectives team, my kit came from A Trip Down Memory Lane, and I had a ball putting together my homage to Laura - so here it is - there are a lot of photos here - so please enjoy!

This is the main project I did with the kit - its a mini album of our recent trip to Vietnam

The front of the album!

The album has a flap on the far right of every page, with lots of places for photos and journalling - Page 1

This is page 2

 

Page 3

Page 4

Page 5

Page 6

Last page!

Back Cover

Over view of the book!

I also made three LO's a DLO and a SLO of a trip to Pompeii a few  years ago!

Im so looking forward to the Cybercrop and really enjoyed putting together this selection of projects from one lovely mystery kit!!!!!



Shimelle's New Class!

Just a quick post to say Im really excited about the new class from shimelle - her classses are always full of inspiration and great content, and Im sure this one will be too!!  This class is about mixing up paper collections and using up your stash - I knew as soon as I saw it advertised, that this was a class I needed to do!!!! Its not too late to sign up - and I  guarantee any Shimelle class is not going to disappoint!!!!   What are you waiting for?


Shimelle asked us to bear our stash, and show how much patterned paper they have - so here is my Singaporean and English stash - there is quite a lot, but Im reassured as others have more than me, does that mean I dont have enough I wonder?

So this is Singapore - If you look at the middle row in the photo, the far left two cubby holes have my PP in them, and the next one is my cardstock - this is all 12 x 12. above on the top left cubby hole are my bit bags, sorted by colour, I sort my scraps this way, and go here first when I am looking for PP to add to my page! It works for me well,  and it means I can find stuff and use more of my scaps this way than I ever did using any other scraps storage method. I also have a bag for Christmas themed scraps!

The second shelf of this unit has 8 x 8 and 6 x 6 paper packs
and this is all the PP I have in Singapore!!!!

This is my English Craft room, and on the right hand side, is my A4 cardstock, I do  have a lot of it as I started out my crafting as a cardmaker!

You will see bags of colour coded bits and embellishments on the shelf below the cardstock! In the expedit below the shelves, there are four cubby holes with paper in them, one that has kits in it, one that has cardstock in it, and two that have PP in it! There is also a futher cubby hole, with colour coded scraps in there! None of these are full, but Im not going to run short in either location, anytime soon!!!! 



UKS Cybercrop - Pre Crop Challenges!

 

 

 

 

 

 

This class was called a Patchwork of poison and I loved playing with these fab hexagons!!!! This LO is about a salad I had recently in Texas, it was so big I had it for lunch in the restaurant, and for the next two days for lunch at the apartment we were staying in!!!

 

 

 

 

Another challenge was to make a red white and blue birthday card, as these are the colours of the UKS site! I still have a few challenges to do - not sure if I will get them all done, but Im having fun!!!

Thanks so much for looking!!!

 

 

Another tidy craft room!

Im not posting photos of the before - Im too ashamed - it was seriously bad and did look like an episode from hoarders! Id been throwing stuff in there for ages - everything that didnt have a home went in my craft room until I had time to sort it out! Talk about creating a job for yourself!  You can now see that it is very tidy - and its organised and Im very pleased its done - I was seriously fed up of sorting stuff out - anyway  - now I know what I have, how much of it I have and where it is! Pure Bliss!!!

 

 

 

WHATEVER POSSESSED ME?????

The next time I get a big idea about tidying up and reorganising my craft room please stop me! I love how organised my Singapore craft room is - it works beautifully and although it is a tiny space - it seems to work perfectly - hold onto that thought for a moment!

We also have a home in England - and I also have a craft room there too! Which is not tidy and not organised - in fact it is a total tip! Having got myself so organised in Singapore, I decided it was time to give the English craft room the same treatment - the germ of the idea started last week when I was doing LOAD up there, and couldnt find anything - and yesterday I started to make plans......... and this morning I started trying to bring order to the chaos!!  Stupid, Stupid Stupid idea!!!!!

It is only when I started (and oh how I wish I hadnt) that I realised how much my scrapping habits have changed over the last 3 1/2 years since we moved abroad, and now know the reason why I struggle to scrapbook tidily here - is that my stash isnt organised my room isnt organised and my storage system has no system, in fact to be honest its more of a storage problem!

Now I have started there is truly no going back - I see stretching ahead of me a good week of cleaning and sorting and the inevtiable trip to IKEA - shelf and storage unit building and hopefully a huge sigh of relief when the monster stash mountain is tamed and ordered an neatly organised - but there is much to do before that happens! I have taken before photographs - Im too ashamed to post them at the moment - but I do have evidence and when it is tidy I might be tempted to share them later when its all beautiful again, but in the meantime I best get myself back amongst the mayhem - before even the mere idea of it totally overwhelms me! I might be some time!!!!!!

LOAD DAY 9

Well Im back on a roll and yesterday completed my day 9 LO so Im feeling quite pleased with myself! This LO is about my DSD who always falls asleep when travelling - Im pretty similar myself, but dont think even I could have managed to sleep on a third class train with no air conditioning! These photos taken in Thailand in the summer make me smile because my DSS is wide awake (and can never sleep when travelling) - it shows them as they really are and for that reason it makes me smile!

LOAD DAY 8

Well today was stretch a sketch and I really streeeeeeeetchedd this one! It was a one pager and I turned it into a two pager with the same number of photos because the photo sizes didnt work with my photos and I wanted to scrap these all together!

Ho Chi Minh is a crazy place - from the 3 million mopeds to the hustle and bustle of the local markets and shops! We came across this coconut seller - and Im not sure how it happened, but my boys all ended having a go at carrying his basket of coconuts and as I looked at the photos the words of the song 'Ive got a lovely bunch of coconuts' came to mind! Unfortunately none of us actually care for coconut - although his were truly beautiful - but it was a great photo opportunity and a lot of fun as you can see! You may also notice more Simple Stories paper and Prima washi tape - because Im a bit obsessed with it at the moment!!!!

LOAD DAY 7

OMG thats a week gone - how did that happen? Another LO done at the retreat - this one involved a lot of layering and playing with ribbon! I thoroughly enjoyed adding the faux stitching as Sewing on your LO was the theme of today's prompt!!!

Another Vietnam photo from August, when we took all the family to Ho Chi Minh - This photo is taken outside the water puppet theatre! The colours went so well with the kit which was full of beautiful papers from Theresa Collins!

LOAD DAY 6

Im not big on stickers and Alphas these days, but it wasnt always that way! When I first started scrapbooking I bought about a million Creative Memories Alphas and Stickers, I am trying to use them all up - but its going to take me quite a while I think!!!!

 

This prompt was designed to get you to use up some of those things that had been hanging around in your stash and pre - make titles by vetting letters you hadnt found a way to use, to turn them into letters you could use!

 

I am truly in awe of people who can mix Alphas - and make them look effortlessly artistic - me well I tended to run out of vowels, when I routinely used letter stickers before I got my electronic cutters,  and whenever I attempt to compose an ecclectic title using different alphas - it looks like I have run out of vowels and Ive never got past this! So I used the waste from the letter sheet of some of those Creative Memories Alphas - I could have started a new sheet - Goodness knows I have enough of them, but in the spirit of the prompt and in the interest of showing I can use everything I used the waste and I also used some very old Christmas stickers to scrap these photos from 2007 - and I made a DLO! When I was doing this LO, I thought how I couldnt believe how much the kids have grown since then - feels like yesterday - how scary is that?

 

 

LOAD DAY 5

Today's prompt was to use wood or woodgrain, or a LO about trees etc. You get the picture? I used some wooden butterflies on this LO - they are the blue ones, finished off with some stickles! I also used shrink plastic for the first time ever - they are the ones on the luggage tag, at the bottom of the page and the one half way up the right hand side! There are so many techniques on this page that we did at the retreat - embossing, folding, inking, distressing, die cutting, cutting out the butterflies cutting the title! - It took ages but I really like it - thanks to Jo for doing a great job on this class and a fab retreat!

LOAD DAY 4

Our prompt today was about a journey! Today I scrapbooked about visiting Wat Arun - The Temple of the Dawn in Bangkok, Thailand. I have wanted to go for ages and got the chance this August with my son and his girlfriend! From the moment we walked past these scary looking temple guards we were wowed by the beauty of the place!

 

LOAD DAY 3

Well today we were challenged to use the colour inspiration from  http://theplaydatecafe.blogspot.com/ I love using colour inspiration sites and this one produced some beautiful autumnal LO's - I think I might use it again when I have had a chance to get out with my camera to take some photos of the beautiful autumn colours I am seeing in England at the moment! For this LO - I used a photo of Peugeot Park in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam that we found completely by accident on our first visit there, when we were lost - looking for somewhere else!!!

Another place you can find beautiful colour inspiration is designseeds.com - so here's an idea from that site to use similar autumnal colours - Im going to have to have a play with this one too!

LOAD DAY 2

Day 2 gave me a chance to do a companion page to the day one page - AND use what was left of my simple stories kit!!!! Alison Day challenged us today to use a pocket page, using a great starting point she had designed! My page is below and you can see how Alison put her page together on her blog here http://adayinthelifeor5.blogspot.ca/ - she is a really talented lady who is currently on two Design Teams - Practical scrappers (http://www.practicalscrappers.com/)  - you'll find lots of great ideas and inspiration in there! And also, she's on the design team for Lets get sketchy - where you can find even more great inspiration  (http://letsgetsketchy.blogspot.ca/)

LOAD-ING UP! DAY ONE

Its been quiet round here - but thats not because I havent been scrapping - on the contrary! Ive been doing LOAD and Ive been to a retreat - so I have been scrapping like a mad woman!! This prompt was about using a song title - I had been listening to Katy Perry in the car, and had TGIF on the brain which fitted the photo for this page perfectly - I love it when we spend long weekends away and this photo - was taken on a Friday with a rather declicious Happy Saigon Cocktail!! I absolutely love the simple stories line and this page gave me a chance to use it!!!!

LSNED - 100% complete!!!!

How amazing is that? I am done - the fact that I have jetlag and have had to catch up with a couple of days scrapping has filled in those endless nights when you have to go to bed at the same time as an active three year old and this morning - I finished my album all done by 2 October - that is a personal best - and entirely due to keeping it simple!!!! So without further ado here are the pages from 26th to the end of the album!!!!

So this is page 26 which deals with my creative process and my attempt to move my scrapping mojo to work with the concept of done being better than perfect, using up scraps and generally just getting stuff actually stuck on the page - and for the most part its worked this September - which was one of my goals for the class - YAY!!!!



At the moment I have a trip to the UK to spend time with my family to look forward to and later in October I will be joined by my DH - My most favourite time is time spent with our closest family and I am really excited about being with them - I dont enjoy time spent apart from my DH - but that's one of the down sides of living abroad - I always seem to be missing somebody - Skype and Facetime are my friends!!!!

We are sooooo tired and jetlagged which is why its taken me a week to get these posted - we laugh often - we've just been doing it in the middle of the night for what seems to have been forever - and feel like we are living in the twilight zone at the moment! Dont believe people who would have you believe global travel is all glamor - there is nothing glamorous about a 32 hour flight - honest! Throw in a +13 time difference and its like having flu and insomnia together!

Day 29 had me being asked to do some card making and scrapbooking classes - so watch this space - that might be fun right - and its something new!!!!

I wonder where we will be for LSNED 2013? I dont know where September 2012 went - but its gone and Im now gearing up for LOAD 1012!!!!

I always do a summary page and this was about things changing - maybe a new home in a new country, and about things that are a constant - like my love of all things family, the times we share and things we do together, and my love of telling our story through my scrapbooks!

I usually have a pretty cheerful disposition and see the world through rose coloured glasses probably more than most - to be fair there is little in my life that I would change, or that Im not really happy with - it hasnt always been that way - so Im grateful that when I count my blessings these days I run out of fingers and toes!!! That felt like the right note on which to end my September 2012 LSNED album!!!

I had an odd page so this page just finished things of nicely - dont you think?

See you next year for LSNED and later I'll be posting my first LOAD page - so please come back and visit often!!!!



A Sad Day Indeed - But Not An Entirely Bad One

My favourite scrapbooking store is in a big shopping mall, on Orchard Road (which is at the shopping heart of Singapore). This photo from hotels.online.com.sg shows how green this place is, however its the shopping not the views that it is famous for! From Chanel to Dior, Fendi to Gucci, Tory Burch and all the other fancy International designer shops, you can shop until you drop (or go bankrupt - which I promise wont take long there)! However its not these luxury shopping havens that tempt me most - oh no! For me shopping paradise is  tucked away near to Dhoby Ghaut interchange,  where Made with Love (Great name don't you think?) my favourite Singapore scrapbooking store had made its home!

Since I moved here I have regularly bought, admired, desired a serious amount of their inventory - In fact I have bought a significant amount of their inventory if Im being totally honest - and amongst my fellow scrapping types I know I can be! You understand how the feel of beautiful paper, the smell of it - especially when combined with  the whole line of  additional product - chipboard elements, washi tape, ribbon, buttons, brads, flowers, journalling mats and charms can make a girls heart flutter!

They have all the good stuff - and they have tons of it! Sadly the shopping mall is being extended and they are having to move out of their home, and the place I think of locally, as my second home! On Friday I made my last trip there and felt sad that for the foreseeable future, there will be no Made With Love here in Singapore!

BUT every cloud has a silver lining, and last Friday was no exception! BECAUSE for their most loyal customers (like me) they were giving 50% off in their moving on sale - OMG how fab!!! And that just hit my 'I need more stash' button - as you would expect! Well Im sure they want their stash to go to places where it will be loved and admired - so me and their stock had a 'come to mama' moment more specifically - I had a Prima Washi Tape moment (or three) - some for me and some for my English friends! Oh, and I had to get my paws on some Maya Road Chipboard that I had been kinda convincing myself I needed after watching an episode of Glitter Girl recently - the one that used the Maya Road Tiny Banners Chipboard bits - and as if by magic - there they were looking at me saying ME! ME! ME! - like puppies in a petshop!

Of course being a bit of a Shimelle groupie - I also had to have the Maya Road Chipboard Butterflies - because I dont think my life could be complete without them....................... Did I mention I bought washi tape ................................

 

I even succumbed to some Heidi Swapp Tattered Angels Fastenation Add Ons - with 70% off - because I was on a roll by then and I had been stood next to them for ages whilst I was waiting to pay! Im sure I heard them crying and felt those Angels needed a good home ......... well you would have too surely?????