Piper

Sandy Adventures: Beach Mini Album

on December 2, 2012

I know this is a little out of season, but who cares, right?

After our first trip to the beach with Piper I was looking through my photos and realised there were loads that i really wanted to treasure forever, so i decided to make a mini book about our sandy adventure.

I had a fun time making this album, and kinda threw caution to the wind a little bit, not really worrying too much about the design on each page, just having fun! Some pages are minimal, others are a little more embellished, but I’m super pleased with the way it turned out.

The pages themselves I cut from scrapbook paper, some 6×6 pads and other remnants of larger 12×12 sheets that were lurking around my craft table at the time. I also mixed in some yellowy textured cardstock which really pops next to the patterned paper.

I wanted bright colours – of course i did, this project is about the happy, vibrant, fun times of summer! I didn’t care too much on what colours i used, but enjoyed mixing different patterns together to achieve a playful look.

I even decided to be a little bit brave and stamp directly onto some of my photos! I used a stamp set from Ali Edwards for the ‘you make me smile’ message, and the ‘you + me = together’ is from a Unity Stamps kit. So much fun. I also was delighted to FINALLY use a pre-printed ribbon that has been lurking in the craft room for ages, waiting for the perfect project to come along!

I printed my photos in a variety of different sizes – i didn’t want the book too look overly organised or restraint, rather i wanted it to be free flowing and quirky. I also mixed it up by giving some white borders and some i cut down without borders- thats just the way i roll! I have to say though that my fav photo in the whole book would have to be this wide photo of Pi and Daddy which I have made to span across the two pages. I love that they pop out of the right hand page, but i equally love the left page because of all those cute little beach huts all in a row! aww!

I bought some Any Tangerine Day Book embellishments a little while ago and i love that they are so perfect for projects like this. In fact i think i have used about three quarters of the whole pack on this project alone. What a great investment! Having those shapes and images on hand really made the process a lot quicker.

I used washi tape and stickers to add more layers to the page, but all in all the pages are not overly embellished or bulky – which is good because i wanted the book to stay relatively flat.

I stamped a few images using label stamps and i also printed a few of my “Thankful for this memory” journaling cards to use in the mini book too. There are great for layering and for adding little phrases and quotes.

To put it all together i used my Bind It All. I forgot how amazing it is. Every so often I am reminded at how easily i can make professional wire bound books that i adore. i {heart} BIA!

I think the thing i am most proud of is the cover. I had an idea to add layers in order to build a scene on the front cover, but almost dismissed this idea due to practical reasons. I thought that Piper would try to pull things off the cover and it would end up being messy and grubby. Then, Eureka!!!

..I built my layers, using a little of my ‘other lover’ aka distress ink to add definition and depth to the edges. I then hand cut a sand castle and spade, added alpha stickers and clouds, and to wrap everything up safely I covered everything with a piece of acetate and sewed around the outside edges. This was a great way to protect the front cover, prevent little prying fingers from ripping off any tiny pieces and it also means that I have hopefully extended the life of this little guy!

Thanks for stopping by even though you are all thinking about snowmen and elves and fairy lights. 🙂

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ThreeFour : Scrapbook Layout

on October 24, 2012

Oh look, another scrapbook layout to share! yippee. This layout was one that i made up north when we were visiting the In-Laws. I only brought a limited amount of supplies which in a weird way was very liberating.
For once I was actually scrapping in the present tense. Usually i am a retrospective scrapper, but this page is a story about what was currently happening. We noticed that Piper had picked up a habit of saying ‘three-four’. Every time we asked her a numerical question this would be her answer. She would look you straight in the eye and say with certainty “threefour”. How many raisons do you what? How many flowers can you see? How many cars are over there? THREE FOUR! It made us laugh every time, so i simply had to scrap it!

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A Growing Bear: Scrapbook Layout

on October 19, 2012

Look how teeny tiny she looks! Geez, I can’t believe how quickly time has flown!

At the start of September Piper was moving up into a bigger class at nursery and I it coincided almost perfectly with her one year anniversary of starting nursery school. I was looking through my photos one day and I found these few snapshots which I had taken during one of Piper’s settling in days at nursery.

The school is really cool, and each of the class rooms is named after a bear, starting with koala bears (for non movers), grizzlies (for crawlers) and then teddies for adept walkers, and I wanted to make a scrapbook page to remember those first few days when she joined for the first time. A whole year had passed already, and i simply couldn’t believe it! It was the perfect time to put a page together.

I decided that clean and simple was the way to go. I used a mix of bright papers and patterned papers to create a nice mix and staggered two photos as the main focal points of the page. To support a school theme i used a ruler stamp and also that pencil printed unto paper which was actually part of some junk mail that came through the door a few weeks before. heheee (waste not want not)!

My journaling started small but grew large, and to be honest i kinda love it when that happens because i don’t want to feel like i am restricting the story in any way, but it did mean that i was cutting it a bit fine when i was trying to make it fit on the page! lol.

I am still loving this notebook edge die from MFT, particularly mixed with bakers twine. yummy!

In other news, I was delighted to receive issue 67 of Scrapbook Magazine in the post today, and was even more chuffed to find a two page spread featuring two of my layouts! {yeay! smiling from ear to ear! } Both pages were inspired by children’s stories, one 12×12 and one 8.5 x 11. Here’s a sneaky peeky to share….

scrapbook mag 67 sneak peek HHC

Thanks for stopping by!

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