January Project Life: Home and Away

So it's been a month and I am still going strong with Project Life. To the degree that The Belgian claims I am now more addicted to Project Life than instagram. Well folks, that is serious! 
I have completed most of January, but am now waiting to do a big Snapfish order to finish the last couple of weeks. I am finding  it useful to make notes each week and state which pictures I plan to use on the spread. I was going to take a monthly approach but have decided that a weekly approach may help me to be more selective with my photos - as January is sprawling on for spread after spread. It has been a busy month with a break in Belgium and a weekend in London with the Baby and sister. 
So my thoughts on creative a Project Life layout with holiday pictures? Just take the same approach as you would to any week otherwise you'll procrastinate producing it. I chose an orange and green colour scheme and just went for it.
It is also important to point out that at this point I had not yet raided my piggy bank and spent far too much at Hobby Craft so Project Life cards were in short supply. Instead I just cut up 12 by 12 papers and noticed that most American Crafts pads have cut apart pages with ready made journalling cards ready to use. I used mainly Crate Paper and Amy Tangerine on this layout.

I dug out my stamps and made good use of some sets I brought at Two Peas last year. The first is a Simple Stories set which includes the camera and 'Oh Snap' phrase. I think I will be using this stamp set a lot as cameras are my favourite and it works well with all of the little photos. The second set I was using are a Maggie Holmes set and they contain phrases like 'happy day' and 'oh so sweet' and I can see them being used lots on my Project Life pages too. 
My main embellishments here are Freckled Fawn enamel dots and washi tape that I purchased from ebay. I used my favourite free editing website - picmonkey to add text to the photo and I love this font too. 

My second layout is the 'home' part of January. I wanted to capture some of the more everyday moments of our lives - since its not all waffles and Belgian chocolate! So I got a sling selfie as we often go for a wander in the sling in the afternoon. I know there are more sophisticated means like a self timer app - but this does the job. I also documented our current obsession with Grey's Anatomy and captured the shot with our favourite snack - popcorn. I also included a photo montage that I created using an app on my phone - photogrid for the android. I printed these instagram pics with pologram which prints them in a poloroid picture style - which is super cute but I had to trim them to include them in this size pocket. I have also used origrami and was really pleased with the quality and effect and loved that you could get your caption printed onto the back of it too. 
I used lots of Dear Lizzie and Amy Tangerine and some of the Maggie Holmes Flea Market Project Life cards. The pastel colours fitted with the photos and the mood of the page. The bottom middle card I cut the word strips from a 12 by 12 sheet and then stapled them onto the card.

So I am still learning but felt pleased with how I used my existing stash to create these two layouts.

Have you found any ways to stretch your stash in a layout or Project Life spread?

 

One Photo Twenty Words: Baby Led Weaning

is the way to go,

they eat what you eat,

they say, 

so the menu today?

Chocolate!

__________________________________

Linking up with the lovely Abi over at Creating Paper Dreams

Food inspired scrapping with American Crafts...yum!

So now I have discovered photo collages I shall be making them all the time. I have a backlog of pages to share at the moment, but I don't want to rush it and I was them all to have their turn to shine so I thought today's post could follow the theme of food.
We're big eaters in my family. More specifically big eaters of desserts and anything sweet.
Hence why three out of the four sisters are into baking.
We always joke that on holidays all our pictures are of food and so it looks like that's all we do.
To be fair holidays are often focused upon food.
Aren't they?

My first layout (pictured below) focuses on our love of American junk food.
On a trip to London last half term my sister and I found an abundantly stocked little corner shop full of all things American - like marshmallow fluff, pop tarts in all sorts of crazy varieties and all things Hershey.
I brought a super sized tub of marshmallow fluff for making whoopee pies and then thought that this picture was worth scrapping about.
I had this sheet of AC knocking around for a while and couldn't find the perfect use but really was drawn to it. I find with overly busy pages it's best to include a matt to break up the pattern and ensure that the pattern doesn't swamp your pics.

My second layout features our buy one get one free frappes from Starbucks.
I used embossing and rule of three to embellish this layout and wanted to make these pictures the forefront of my layout.
A big title and some washi to embellish and et voila - layout complete!

The third layout is from Christmas Day when I went for dinner with the in-laws. It's my brother-in-law tucking into his oysters. I found it amusing as he picked the most expensive starter on the menu and his dad enquired if he was paying and I wanted the title to reflect this.
The journalling was written on a some Christmas labels that were 50p in a pre-Christmas sale at Ikea and we all used them for our pressies - but the leftovers made great journalling spots.

Do you often find yourselves taking pictures of food or scrapping about food - especially on holidays? Or is it just me?

Three year Anniversary: PicMonkey photo collages

Although I am predominately a crafty blogger my guilty pleasure is checking out fashion blogs and so I thought I might indulge you with an outfit post - especially since I've just learnt how to make photo collages. I was pleased that the weather in England was actually nice enough to give my new zebra print dress an outing!

 Outfit details: dress - current range at H&M, cardigan - Primark, shoes - Zara, sunglasses - free with a magazine

Here is how we spent our day:

We took a steam train from Keighley to Howarth and back. We got the adult day rover ticket so that we could roam around for the day between all the stops and so that we could take the open air bus tour across the moors. It was a fab idea and a really fun experience.

In Howarth we went to our fav cafe Cobbles and Clay (which I will review soon on my other blog) and we decided to paint some gingerbread men as we like to collect Christmas tree decorations when we travel and of big events so that when we decorate our tree it is like a great trip down memory lane. So as you can see I was concentrating hard and even painted a 3 on his pocket so that we could remember that it was our third wedding anniversary. The Belgian, of course, painted his in the Club Bruges Kit. He is nothing if not dedicated!

If you are visiting Yorkshire anytime soon I would definitely recommend it for a day out - with kids or otherwise!

Check out the giveaway in my previous post - ending Sunday and open to international bloggers too!

Top ten things about Budapest...

So went on on an Easter weekend mini break to Budapest and thought I would share my top ten things about The Pest (as it is affectionately known.) I spent hours last night editing them all!

1) The trams - it was so easy to get around this city due to all the different forms of transport.

2) The Langos (a local speciality) used fried dough, sour dough and grated cheese topped by spicy pickled cucumber.

3) I liked the grimy elements with all the graffitti.

4) The Children's Railway was one of our favourite activities. A railway run by teenagers (although the driver is an adult luckily) this girl was trying to sell us a whole variety of different soveneirs.

5) Szechenyi Spa - we spend two days here. It was bliss. The biggest spa in Europe with over 30 pools, rapids, saunas, steam rooms and an icy plunge pool!

6) A Hungarian style pretzel coated in cinammon.

7) The swing bridge leading across to Buda.

8) The hop on / hop off tour bus. It was the tour from hell as they were so disorganised!

9) The funicular leading to the Children's Railway. I loved all the different forms of old skool transport.

10) The architecture was amazing - especially St.Stephen's Basillica.

Linking up with Shimelle's Ten on the Tenth

Strawberry picking, retro tint and a sneak peek...

So firstly proof that I DO scrapbook. My scraproom is very neglected with all this lush weather and gym going, but I have been working on this layout for Scrap it with a Song. I can't reveal the whole thing now though. See if you can guess the song?

 Our family used to love going strawberry picking every summer and so I thought I'd educate the Belgian in this British tradition. I have played around with the colours and filters on photoshop to try to make the pics look retro.

 We picked raspberries too and they were juicy, juicy and we enjoyed them with fluffy pancakes and natural yogurt.

 The strawbs were so big and juicy. They had a sign telling you not to try before you buy and I heard this mum telling her kids exactly what to say when the owners asked if they had tried some!! How funny! Surely part of the fun is sneaking a few before they make the punnet??

What have YOU all been up to in this sunny weather??

Adventures with photoshop...

Went to the West Yorkshire Sculpture Park today and was so glad the rain stayed away and the sun came out!
Here are some pics I played with in photoshop...
This shot was taken using self timer and was edited using the quick fix and then I applied the water blot mask (I think it was called this!)

 This shot has a charcoal mask...

 Colour boosted and shadow enhanced...

 Nothing done to this, but my fav piece in the park - the Haha bridge. Can't help but smile!

 Sky lightened and the blue colour boosted. I like the composition in this one.

 A sneaky shot through the sculpture - often the only pic I will get!

 The view from below.

So have a go yourselves and share any new tricks with me. I really want to know how to round the corners on the pics, I have looked at an online tutorial but still not too sure how to do it!

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside...

A little half term trip to the seaside in the gorgeous sunshine gave us the chance to finally try some of the fancy settings on my camera. I finally got round to reading the digital camera mag my husband lovingly purchased for me quite some time ago. First we experiemented with other settings (I usually use it on auto which defeats the object of an SLR!) and depth of field and blurring the background.

 Then composition. I am planning to scrap this tonight with the lyrics from Lazy Bruno Mars new song. I usually take pics face on, but decided to try with some backdrop in there.

The Saltburn-by-the-sea speciality of a lemon top. I played around with the colours and settings of this photo on photoshop - also a first for me. I didn't even know I had it on the computer!

Not really an arty shot but I was pleased with my two-tone nails and so wanted a pic to show them off!

Now picture this - husband is lying flat out on the peir to get this shot. I was very worried about double chin but it working out fine. I also played with this in photoshop and put a charcoal sketch mask on it.

A rare photo of the two of us. Wasn't the sunset stunning? He hates asking people to take pics of us so we used the self timer and I think it worked quite well, although I was concerned as this was up a big hill and it was a bit precariously balanced! I tweaked the colours of the sunset and am looking forward to scrapping this shot.

Lastly - just for fun! I had to lighten this pic as he was in the shadow. I think his t.shirt is fitting for the pose.

All in all a fab little getaway - would totally recommend it for a day trip. We stayed overnight but moved on to Whitby on the Friday as it is quite a small place and there isn't that much to do. I am trying to really think about pictures now before I take them and will defo be using photoshop a whole lot more!
Any tips or tricks from you experienced photographers out there?