10 Things I love about this epic double page...

All the way back in June this sketch by Shimelle caught my eye and I decided that although I sometimes find double layouts a bit intimidating and laborious I had some photos that I have been keen to scrap and so I decided to give it a go.
So the ten things I love about it:
1) The use of strips from this great cupcake 12 by 12 and how easy it was to also cut cute little embellishments with it.

2) The title - it is a favourite quotation of my sister's and I from the film How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. It went so well with these picutres of my husband making his own cupcake in WhoDelicious in Santa Barbara and had to use a 'frostinator' to put the icing on the top.

3) The step-by-step process made by my dymo label maker. It helps to bring the layout together and to tell the story of the visit.

4) That cheesy grin in the first picture. The funniest part is that he usually hates cupcakes and suddenly he turned into a little boy just cos he could decorate it himself.

5) The use of the rule of three with the stamp to guide the eye.
6) The pinkness and girly look of the layout - it matched the vibe of the cupcakerie and the girly topic of cupcakes but then 7) the blue tiny polka dots add a more masculine touch.
8) The border stamp of mini hearts to pull it all together. So cute!

9) The banana frog mini cupcake stamp to create little clusters to guide the eye along the layout.

10) The fact that the lady behind the counter asked him to join her behind the pink curtain - possibly the funniest statement for a cheesy American lady to say to a sarcastic cupcake hating Belgian. My sister and I still laugh about it and it was last summer now!

I also love how different it is to Shimelle's khaki travel layout and that it why I love to use sketches as a starting point and to put my individual stamp on it.

Tuesday trends: Starburst design layout!

So following on from my previous post about keeping up with current scrapbooking trends, I decided (quite a few months ago now) to have a go at the starburst layout. Lisa Truesdell over at two peas made this great layout (top picture) that took all of the guesswork out of it as it included a step-by-step video.
I must admit that it was a very time consumming process and I had to use a ruler and make measurements - something that I NEVER do in my layouts. I've never been a fan of math or being too precise. I used my kraft knife to slice the little sections out - but it doesn't look as though mine are bursting with as many sequins (or punched out circles as I used) as Lisa'a segments.

What I loved about Lisa's layout was:

• all the cute polka dots
• the amazing frosty picture
• the glittery title which pops from the page
• the chevron stamping
• the buttons

Other than obviously copying the whole composition of it I also tried to incorporate a lot of these elements in my layout. It was definititly more of a scraplift than just using a layout for inspiration.
The subject of my layout was my sister's first 'proper' holiday to America. She had been to Chicago on a work trip but had never been on a roadtrip in California and so because I loved this picture of her, I felt that the starburst would reflect her excitment and the shininess of the picture.
It was one of those layouts that I was working on for a few weeks as I had to be really alert and ensure that I got it all right to make it fit together right.

Do you love starbursts, but want to start smaller? Here are some links to other layouts using this fun techniques. Jen at Studio Calico using kraft, Amy Tan rocking a small starburst, Magda went cute with hearts and pastel shades and last but not least October Afternoon ran it as a sketch challenge and you can check out what their design team did with the starburst.

I'd love to see - have any of you used starbursts on your layouts?

Holidays are coming...

As the chill creeps into the air and t.shirts are replaced by jumpers, flip flops by boots (who am I kidding? I only wore my flip flops in Spain!) my birthday is in a week, Halloween looms and then its Christmas. So I thought now might be a good time to share a couple of layouts I created using last years Christmas pics.
We spent Christmas eve and Christmas day in Belgium with his family and so it was a different kind of Christmas. My camera skills failed me greatly and a lot of the pictures were saturated as mostly I took them inside or in the evening and so I had to use photoshop and looking at it now the colour is a bit lurid - the other picture of his sister making her gingerbread house I changed to black and white so that there was a contrast.
I used my fiskars circle to create this border and then backed with a range of Christmas papers and even some wrapping paper - which I think looks like candy canes. Very yule tide! The glittery thickers finish off this festive page and I like the simplicity of it and love that when you get a border on the pictures you don't need to mat them. I rarely make a layout only using cardstock and not layering so this was a bit of a departure. Bunting was all the rage when I made this layout, quite some time ago now, but I believe its still going strong!

 

The above layout is just one explosion of colour and patterns and I really love it. I think I saw the idea of using cupcake cases as a title mat on pinterest and thought I'd give it a try and I love it and think it would work for all kinds of 'themed' layouts. I tried to capture some of the moments of my families delayed Christmas (when we all arrived at Lindisfarne)  like present opening and eating lots of sweet treats - like smurf marshmallows brought over especially for Gems!
The picture with the bows is a family tradition - well more like a Mel tradition- I always tie bows onto my head and see how many I can fit on, then I wear them for the whole day. My mom is really into wrapping pressies up beautifully and so there is always an abundance of pretty ribbons and sparkly bows for me to adorn my hair with. In fact I often wonder if our love of pretty paper and sparkle comes from her love for gift wrapping and stationary too.
Hope you don't feel like I am jumping the gun. A bit like when you see advent calendars in shops in October. Or Christmas tunes are playing in clothes shops from September onwards. I just wanted to share these layouts today. Just because...

Polka dots on the Big Sur

Layers and layers of polka dot cardstock and button tape are the main design features on this page. We enjoyed having a photo shoot hanging on the edge of a sheer drop. We call it extreme photgraphy - anything for a good shot.
I think if you use the same type of pattern of print then it will all work together. Despite the catwalk this autumn being all about clashing prints - I am still one for being matchy matchy.

 I continued the polka dot theme with the thickers and switched it up with green glittery thickers. I used my trusty dymno machine for the journalling.

Have you ever taken a risk to get the perfect pic?

When Fiskars meets October Afternoon...

What car games do you play when you go on a road trip? My sister and I decided on our Californian road trip last summer that we wanted to get pictures of each state's number plate and so it kept us entertained on the long Californian freeways.
Some were incredibly easy - namely Idaho, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona...basically all the state's bordering California. The more elusive states were Maine. Deleware and some of the southern states - but we sort of cheated and found them all in the Miners Diner in Julian and so that is the picture that I used in the layout.
We had to get quick at whipping the camera out to get the shot before the car overtook us! We annoyed the Belgian a lot by asking him to speed up or slow down or change lanes all in the name of a photo - and he claims that we caused an accident, but he does like to exaggerate things.
So I decided this part of our trip needed to be remembered in a layout. What could be more appropriate than Studio Calico's Boarding Pass range?

I used my trusty Fiskars (purchased from none other than Shimelle via that good old auctioning site) to create a page border at the top and bottom, then I could mix up the different designs (that's when double sided cardstock is really versatille - I love the B sides on this range too!) I also layered up a variety of washi tape.

Journalling about the number plate challenge:

Quite a simple design and one that I have used before here and here.
Has anyone else used Boarding pass for holiday snaps?

Layout love linky!

I found Soaphouse mama's blog through Shimelle on twitter and I love her crazy, messy and eclectic style. I also love that at the end of the month she does a linky to share pages you haven't blogged about yet cos this month with all the school holidays time I have scrapped a lot and not blogged a lot of it - as I prefer the scrapping part! Plus I've had a lot of great programmes to catch up on like 2 Broke Girls and New Girl!

So here are some layouts I've created this month:

1. A layout about the Mystery Spot in Santa Cruz. Have any of you ever been there? It's a very random tourist spot and I couldn't tell if it was a con or not. I used the 'free' bumper sticker for the title and also heat embossed the top part.

2) A layout about the huge portions in a restaurant in Orange County. Can you believe the size of this tower of nachos?

3) A layout about the after party at the wedding we attended.

4) A layout about the delicious meal we ate at Zuni in San Francisco. I used my trustee fiskars to create this border along the bottom.

They are all layouts from last summer's road trip around California and are all 12 by 12 which may shock my followers due to my new aversion to a smaller scrapping size.

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Linking up to Soaphouse mama

Messy Mondays: Finger painting on pages

Ready for more techniques with paint?

So in the last month I have shared tips for misting with you, using stamps with paint, creating borders with paint and stamps and lastly creating your own backing paper with paint and stamps.

Today I bring you a technique which you probably learnt when you were about three - finger painting! Although I used different sized pencils to create the spots - the little rubber on the end of the pencil works particularly well for this.

This layout is all about our trip to Universal Studios and uses a few pics which I wouldn't have scrapped on their own. I also stamped the title down the side and used Amy Tangerine's stamps to create the journalling spot and then decided that I preferred to leave it blank as an embellishment.

I also tried a technique that I have seen on pinterest and other crafty blogs recently which is wrapping chipboard circles in washi tape to use as an embellishment.

I used one of the Sunday Sketches over at Studio Calico and instead of the confetti or misting I decided to try out this polka dot technique. It worked best with these acrylic paints as I tried it this week with water based poster paints and it was too watery and diluted to create the same impact.

What trends are you loving at the moment?

P.S Later on this week I will be guest posting on Sumo's Sweet Stuff blog sharing how to create a cute canvas for your wall

Messy Mondays: Masking and misting

So back on the messy Mondays trail...I will probably be squeezed into the stands at the Olympics as you read this post. I'm glad that the Belgian persisted and signed us up for a ridiculous amount of events so that we secured at leats two in the end. I'm not the biggest sports spectator - but I do love an occassion and chance to take pics and scrapbook them afterwards!

Today I want to share a few techniques I have been using with misting.
I have a love / hate relationship with misting.
Sometimes it is the perfect thing to finish off my page.
Sometimes it destroys my page.

Here are some tips that I have learnt the hard way:

• always try to mist FIRST before you lay down your pictures - or if you can't then cover all photos with scrap paper
• if you are using stickers as a mask stick them onto your jeans or a jumper first so that they get wooly and less sticky and then don't pull your page up with them
• you can dilute and mix colours with mists if you use a spare bottle with a spray lid
• always practice first on scrap paper as different mists have different opaqueness and some can crumple your paper so its best to try to use cardstock

My first layout:

I loved this picture of the three of us outside this quaint little B&B in Julian, Calfornia. I had visions of using lots of apples on the layout but then I got my new Maya Road bronze mist and I decided to play around with vintage papers and misting to create a shabby chic layout.
I used the mist ot create a mat for my photo mat and then layered lots of bits of paper and ribbon on the top of it. The mist is quite thick and heavy and I should have diluted it or tried it out first as it was a bit heavy in parts and not as 'fluid' as I would have like - but hey ho! You all benefit from my mistake! I was happy with the overall layout and could have always added more layering at the top to cover it up!

My second layout:

A tribute to the yumminess that is Hummingbird bakery and their special cupcake of the day - Jame Donut. I was very impressed with the technique which I used for this layout and it was a bit of a fluke and a bit of an experiment so I was pleased when it proved successful.
I am a hoarder. Which scrapbooker is not? You always think 'oohh this could look nice on a layout' and so I have boxes and bags of random little tidbits just wating for their moment to shine on a layout! I had these merit stickers that I had used up at school - being the encouraging teacher that I am and all!
So I kept the negatives and I made sure that I got the stickiness out of it by sticking onto my duvet cover (comforter to my friends across the pond) and then stuck it on a plain piece of white card and got busy with the mists. I created a graduation of colour from turquoise to purple to pink and some shimmery silver on top for good measure. I decided that it reminded me of the circular pattern on the Hummingbird bakery walls and so I dug out these photos from last October.
I used lots of cutsey embellishments like my purple heart ribbon and I cut up a layout that was covered in cupcakes and sweet treats - I don't know which make it was.
Overall I was pretty pleased with the effect and now want to get my hands on some other coloured mists to try this out again. The mask was really only good for one use - so my eyes are peeled for a replacement.
I guess next term I'll have to keep being trigger happy with the merit stickers.
Surely it's a win/win situation all round?!

How to have the perfect day in California?

I thought I'd better get blogging since I lost a couple of followers in the last fortnight. What do followers want from you? I think you have to live first and blog second. But I have got quite a few pages and projects I have been working on that I've been meaning to share.
I'm still working through our holiday pics from our California road trip last summer and I love creating every page as it takes me back to some really happy memories - especially in this miserable June weather! This layout captures some of the activities on our first day. We awoke really early in Santa Monica thinking that we had slept in, when it was actually 5 am! So we started early and went for a walk along the pier. Then later we rented bikes and really explored the craziness of Venice Beach and the tranquility of Santa Monica the opposite way. I was struggling to think of a title but then went for 'Perfect Day in California' as at the end of the trip we all agreed that it was our favourite day of the trip.
I used a sketch from Shimelle for this layout (at least I'm sure it was although I have just looked through her blog and cannot find it, it may have been from a magazine then!?) as I have been having scrapper's blog recently. I was glad as I used a few sheets up that I was struggling to know what to do with. I fussy cut the bottom California part from a fussier sheet and felt it was perfect for the title. I like the hidden journalling too.

It is my sister Tamara's birthday today and she was the one who accompanied us on the trip. It was great to have her there as my shopping buddy (especially in the scrapbook shops) and my cupcaking buddy as The Belgian is not the biggest fan of these two activites. I wish I was in London with her today, especially as she had brunch with my other sister, Gem, at Bill Granger's in Westbourne Grove. I just reviewed it recently for my other blog.
Will be back later with some more of my A4 scrapping.
Have a great Saturday!

Photostrip fun with wedding pics...

So you may have noticed from my cheeseburger pie baking (which has gone viral on pinterest!), creating a new restaurant reviewing blog 'Yummy Yorkshire' (which needs some more followers please!) and tales of Jubilee celebrations that I have been in a creative funk.
How do you get out of this funk? I find a sketch I like and I scraplift it - just to remind myself I can still scrap. So i used Shimelle's photostrip layout idea - she even gives step-by-step instructions so it could not have been easier. Really.
I remembered about some mini wedding pics from the wedding last summer in California that I needed to scrap and so I arranged them into a photostrip. I also went fro more muted colours and this gorgeous bird cardstock, which I had been saving for a special occassion, for once the misting didn't go wrong and ruin my layout. I felt that using doilies and punching delicate white borders added to the wedding feel of the layout. I had the usual struggle with thickers of not having an 'e' and so used another scrappers advice and went for the 3 backwards - thanks Louise! I am not entirely convinced and may change it when I invest in some more thickers. 

Shimelle's original and instructions to be found here

So now I am back in the zone I may not leave it so long before sharing some more pages with you all!

Jelly Belly World Layout...

Since our first taste as kids we LOVED Jelly Belly jelly beans. I think we first tried them at the delicious food hall in Selfridges. My favourite flavours have always been lemon, coconut and of course root beer. For authenticity I have always loved the watermelon flavour and how it's green on the outside and redish pink in the middle - yum! We even joined the Jelly Belly club too and used to get sent little bags of samples of new flavours before they were released.
So when we were in California for Lewis' wedding last summer and saw a leaflet for Jelly Belly world in Fairfax, just a few miles north of where we were. So once we got the wedding over and done with we zoomed up there and it was worth the detour.

The tour was FREE and you got plenty of sample - see photo below - our favourite part. It was interesting to see all the different steps that went into it.

I went for lots of polka dots and bright bold colour.

The cafe even had jelly bean shaped food and although it was a cute novelty, it was pretty bland pizza!

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The layout for this page was inspired by a starting point of Shimelle's

What is your favourite flavour Jelly Belly? 

Does anyone actually like the chocolate pudding one?!

Scandinavian Saturday: The one with a scary detour...

Well I've been plugging away at my scrapping resolutions and believe this here layout meets resolution 4 Scandinavian style and number 8 border boost.
I saw the Scandinavian Style in the latest scrapbook magazine (the name eludes me now!) and decided I liked the natural colours mixed with red and black and the 'white space.' I have a fair few Martha Stewart border punches and so I wanted to have some fun with these too.

Now onto the story...
My regular followers will know that we had an epic road trip holiday in California in the summer. We flew into LA and then drove up to a wedding north of San Fran. On the way I had noticed in the guidebook a John Steinbeck museum - now I have been teaching Of Mice and Men for six years and can practically recite the novel off by heart, so I was very keen to see his hometown and also the artifacts about him. I also wanted to create a slide show for my surly Year 11's to try to interest them in the subject - always a battle with teens! But pics do seem to help!
So we stopped off. After the salubrious areas of Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Salinas was a real 'culture shock.' Literally you could imagine the tumble weed - it was eerily quiet and people looked at you funny and everything just looked a little worse for wear.
Our hotel was straight out of a Hitchcock film and had a really scary list of safety notices on the door, featuring some gems like:

• Don't answer the door to anyone claiming to be room service
• Phone reception immediately if you hear any suspicious noises

I wish I had taken a picture but my travel companions were not finding the whole experience amusing. In fact my husband tried to push the chest of drawers in front of the door to barricade us in. The windows and the door were pretty drafty and so we were on red alert all night as any scuffle or noise! But clearly we lived to tell the tale and I felt it was worth it as the museum was informative, well laid out and really helped me to imagine the context of his literature.
I like the simplicity of this layout and am glad I challenged myself to try something a bit different. Has anyone else tried or heard of Scandinavian style scrapping? And no it doesn't involve a flat pack or meatballs...

A glowing report...

Day four of the Christmas holidays and I am holed up in my craft room (where else!) with some hot chocolate and am trawling blogs to look for exciting challenges. I have actually made a Christmas layout (shock horror!) of our first Christmas tree in 2009. The photo is really blurry, which is why I didn't scrap it before but I think its a moment that needs documenting (especially since we didn't bother to get a tree this year! Since we're spending Christmas in Brugges) I will post that last.

For now I am posting this little gem...

I tried a few new techniques like painting and glossy accenting chipboard letters and using a tempera background for a mask and journalling. My journalling is a poem of sorts expressing our feelings at the end of our amazing day at Universal Studios. We loved that place. I am glad I went with Mara and Arne as I was determined to go to Six Flags, but Universal is so much more LA! 

The title came from the fact we seem to be rather dewy - I think its from the water rides like the Jurassic Park, but it was rather warm so it could be...

I am linking up with Scrap our Stash anything goes challenge.

Also totally loving Glee does Adele and James Vincent McMorrow's Higher Love and Someone like you. Check them out on youtube - great scrapping music!

No strings attached?

I hope you're not rolling your eyes at ANOTHER California layout.
In L.A we too an open bus tour and my sister was very excited to spot the scene from the movie No String's Attached. We hadn't seen it, but obliged in recreating the pose from the film. I called this page Movie Magic in an ode to Hollywood being the place where movies come alive.
I dug out an old star stamp and enjoyed using this technique again.
I also like the monochrome title and how the white thickers stand out against the background due to their sparkle.

We saw Friends with Benefits whilst in America and we LOVED it. I have always been interested in whether or not girls and boys can be just good friends and I would conclude that they cannot. I know whenever I had a close guy friend one of us always liked the other at one stage or another.
What do you think bloggers? Can men and women truely be just good friends?

My bargain dress...

I searched high and low for a dress for our summer wedding in California.
Online, in shops and all to no avail.
I wanted it to be bright, summery and cool but with sleeves.
A big ask on the British high street.
I was watching some on ebay and got outbid on one and then it showed other bids ending soon.
This floral number caught my eye and it was on 99p with a minute to go.
So I won it.
I got loads of compliments at the wedding and always felt smug about my little bargain.

Don't you love red and yellow as a colour combo?

The boat that rocks...

So turns out people weren't exaggerating when they said you had to book months in advance for Alcatraz. So my sister and I had a girly day together in San Fran and after shopping and posh lunch at Zuni we went for a boat tour which was advertised as a rocking tour with pumping rock music etc.
It was a good half hour and quite amusing. So even though the before pic isn't very flattering I decided to scrap it as a before and after layout. I used plenty of misting, tags and scraps from previous page.
This layout shows GIRL POWER as we were rocking out on a girly day out.

What does girl power mean to you? Other than platform trainers and THAT union jack mini dress!

Storytelling Sunday: The one with the llamas and the wimpy husband!

Firstly it is important to note that although I am quite adventurous and love a challenge, I am NOT an animal lover.
In fact I am a bit *scared* of most animals, especially dogs.
So when I saw the llamas at this little county fair in Southern California, on our recent trip, I was hesitant.
However it was a good photo op.
So I paid the lady a dollar to take a few shots and my husband took a few shots for me.
Then I thought it would be nice to return the favour and asked him to pose with the lama.
My regular followers will know he is a reluctant model at the best of times...
So he starts freaking out and refusing point blank to go anywhere near this creature.
I wanted reasons - after all a dollar is a dollar.
He was muttering about them biting to which the burly lady says in a brash American accent,
"He has never bitten a tourist, thank-you very much."
She seemed a bit offended at the lurid accusation.
However he topped it off by saying there was no way he was going near a llama as they spit.
By this stage SHE was spitting and very shortly repeated the previous statement about how her llamas so not spit at tourists.
We stood for a while, me brandishing the camera ready to take a shot, but he never went anywhere near it.
I tried to take a picture of him shaking his head and looking very annoyed, but I missed it!
So my sister obliged and posed for me - just so that I had enough shots for the layout.
I wanted to play with some paint and I wanted to capture the story in a layout.
So my title is - "So I married a fraidy cat!"
I feel it is fitting for the occasion.

Linking up to Sian's storytelling Sunday.
Anyone else scared of llamas?