August Memories...

Some of my latest DT work has gone up over at Scrap Paper Scissors so I thought I'd better share it here with you too - if you want more detailed instructions about how I created the pages, then check out my article over there. They were all created using Making Memories Noteworthy products which I think are really lovely and quite diverse - both these pages turned out really different, despite the fact that they were created using the same range. Big Grins records the photos from our meal in August to celebrate my mum and brother's birthdays. Portugal Paradise showcases a picture of the pool on our holiday last month (it seems like so much longer ago!) and the fact that we all burnt to a crisp playing in it on the first day! Typical Brits abroad - mad dogs and Englishmen and all that! I got really into my doodling with these two pages, especially since I had just received a selection of Sakura pens from Singapore (via ebay) not long before creating them...



I managed to pop into Hobbycraft yesterday and picked up a bunch of Making Memories Tiny Alphas there. Finally, the biggest crafting store in the country is starting to acknowledge us scrapbookers and stock a range of Making Memories and American Crafts products. Not exactly an extensive range, but its better than the poor excuse for a scrapbook section they used to have. I also managed to pick up some uniball fineliners of varying thicknesses for journalling and doodling on a 3 for 2 offer - so if you need to stock up on pens, it might be worth a visit.




I still feel utterly exhausted at the moment - not sure if its because we are heading into Winter and all I want to do is hibernate. However, despite the fact I want to crawl into bed right now, I'm determined I'm going to scrap at least for half an hour this evening. I'm actually starting to feel really inspired again - you always know you haven't scrapped enough when you fall asleep thinking of layout designs!

My Little Brother At Twenty

I've been scrapping again - I know, two posts in a week, could we be getting over the start of term stress finally? I was still playing with my Cocoa Daisy August kit (which is gorgeous by the way) at my crop last night and put together another quite simple page - the photos were taken of my brother at the meal we had to celebrate his and my mum's birthday's in August. I can't quite believe how much he has grown - I left home for university when he was about 12 so for most of his teenage years I would see him after weeks away and he always seemed to change so much every time. He has now left his teenage years behind him and has become a stubborn, opinionated, argumentative but totally loving brother with a heart of gold.



I wanted to record my feelings about him at the moment on a layout which also got across a bit of his personality, so I also decided to put together a page with lots of doodling and sketchy handdrawn journalling. I used several papers layered up, including a piece of notebook paper which I also used to journal on torn strips. I hand drew the 'twenty' and the stars on blue paper and stuck them on with foam pads, and then doodled some swirls to add a bit more interest too. I decorated the notebook paper with little stars, a bit like you might doodle in a lecture (my brother is an architecture student and I can imagine him doodling all over his notes - if he takes any that is!).



I'm really pleased with the finished page - there is nothing too complicated but it suits him really well and is one of my more successful 'boy' pages - I'm so used to scrapping girlie subject matter I don't often get a chance to go more masculine!

Endless peace

I'm guessing the subject matter of this very quick layout I put together last night is evidence of my state of mind at the moment - craving a bit of peace and quiet! I really enjoy my job and working with the kids but sometimes the things they do get me down and I have to remind myself that it is only a job after all. There has been a bit of a spate of violence amongst the kids, one or two in my tutor group included, and what seem like perfectly reasonable young people show a side of themselves that is less than pleasant. Hopefully we can sort out some of the issues and get them back on track, I certainly hope so.



The layout is of a photo Ed took of me in the Isle of Wight a couple of years ago - I had scrapped it before as part of a mini-book but I felt it deserved its own page. The photo instantly takes me back to that quiet graveyard on a sunny hillside, and I can feel the peace and tranquility of the moment again. I wanted to capture that in the layout, which I put together using my August Cocoa Daisy kit. After a while of putting layouts together for design teams and commissions, I wanted to do something simple and easy, and this layout fit the bill - it only took an hour, which is almost unheard of for my layouts!



I really like stapling ribbon to the page at the moment and letting it overhang the edge - while it can be annoying when you are trying to fit them in the page protectors, I hate the idea that I have to fit everything into the straight edges of the cardstock. I am also LOVING those Making Memories tiny alphas - they suit so many layouts, and they are much more readily available now, they even sell them in my local Hobbycraft. A year or so ago they were like gold dust! The paper was one of those sheets that I would probably never have chosen in a shop because the detail is all around the edges, so you can't really cut into them. But I am trying to use the 'less is more' approach with these and letting the patterns on the paper speak for themselves. Not exactly my usual style I know but its always good to try something different and it really makes you think about the design of the page more carefully as every element can make a difference to the look of the layout.

Sneak peeks...

Believe it or not, I have been busy scrapping amidst lesson planning, marking books and getting back into the swing of being a teacher. However, most of the scrapping I have done has been for magazines or the Papermaze blog, and I can't yet share them. But I thought I'd let you see a few sneak peeks, just to prove I haven't been completely lazy! So here are some close ups from layouts which should be appearing over at Scrap Paper Scissors in the next few weeks...

Boo hoo...

...I'm back at school - I am now officially very tired and very busy, but I thought I'd make a quick post just to update my readers and let you know I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet! In a week or two I know I'll be back in the swing of things and back to my old creative self, but at the minute its panic stations over new Year 12 courses, renewing displays and getting off to the best possible start with all my classes.

I have been getting my Scrap Your Day album sorted, so hopefully either tomorrow or the next day I will be able to share my July and August pages - the album is all decorated, I just need to print the photos (which can often be the most tedious part of scrapbooking, especially waiting for them to dry so they don't get smudged and trimming them all to size neatly). So check back for those photos.

In other news, I've been doing a fair bit of knitting (sometimes I just get the bug!) and have been happily knitting squares for my afghan. I was enjoying myself so much, I actually ordered two new knitting books and they arrived on Monday. They are GORGEOUS! Totally inspiring with beautiful modern patterns - I've already ordered some yarn for knitting a bag and I'm definitely going to have a go at knitting my own wall art at some point. So check these out if you fancy some knitty goodness (pictures aren't great but you get the idea)...