Thursday 8 October 2009

Spring is here & I'm Creating!


Here is my first Spring photograph! Spring is well & truly here...I can feel the clamminess in the air (eeeeeeeuwwww...hate that...). Reilly & Cami are enjoying the newly filled pool (it has just been resurfaced) & I have been scrap shopping & found some inexpensive goodies {always worth a photograph!}

I can't stand the shop where I bought these {very rude owners - that's quite a clue} so am not going to promote them on my blog but they are selling some cheap "Thickers" imposters for R30. The pink is a touch garish but I have a couple of acrylic mini-albums that need doing &,as the albums are flower shaped I am doing one for each of my daughters so these alphas will be nice & tactile. The chipboard sentiments & flowers are locally die-cut & very impressive. The big flower sheet was just under R30 & the sentiments about R18, very intricately cut & rather lovely. I intend separating the flowers & painting, inking, glittering, dimensional glazing them - fantastic value!

We have a visitor! Mercy's daughter arrived from Johannesburg last week, to keep her company while we were away & is going back on Sunday. She had nothing to do so I asked her if she would like to help me & earn some extra cash at the same time - she was delighted! She has learnt the ropes quickly & is using the trimmer like an old pro & measuring to the millimetre { For me it has to be spot on...} We are making mountains of mini-albums as Christmas gifts & I have not laid out one cent on cardboard. I have saved all our cereal, rusk, cappucino, biscuit boxes, etc for the past couple of months & they sure have piled up.

We are working in "layers" so whilst we have achieved a lot there is not a lot of finished product yet, but here are a few for you to see. I have chosen 6 standard measurements (determined by the boxes) & cut them down a bit in keeping with the size of photos I want to display on them. I have measured & cut the prototype page & Farai has done the rest. We have used the narrowest double-sided tape {only Purple Turtle will do for me}& used it ALL AROUND the edge. Chelsea is responsible for the final stage of covering the pages with the paper I have selected. I get to finish them off with the ribbon around the rings (once Chelsea has punched the holes) so it really is a group effort & everyone gets paid except me ;-D

We are using metal rings on some & plastic curtain rings on others. They work just as well & are a heck of a lot cheaper than the metal ones, in South Africa anyway. I am getting to use up plenty of my older papers & tons of ribbon offcuts too. You can vary the look by corner rounding the edges of some of the albums. Just don't try to use your border punches along the edge {like I did} or you will break them! Luckily I know a great handyman who managed to fix mine - my Fiskars Threading Water punch buckled totally due to the thickness I was trying to punch {Card with paper on either side}.

Inking the edges with one colour {in this case black} does well to pull the whole look together & unify the album. Here I have used an American Crafts Paper Pack & some older Basic Grey papers. I finished a layout yesterday for Journaling Junkie. A bit overdue this month because of being away. The subject we were required to journal about this month was SIBLINGS. The good, the bad & the ugly. Not easy for me as it's all pretty much ugly ;-D However, I was pleased with my layout - which came together far quicker than all the deliberating on it beforehand! There are still six days left if you want to rustle up a layout for the challenge.

I got to play with quite a bit of my new stash. The paper is Webster's Pages "Your Life. Beautiful" {as new as one can get here...} (The reverse side of one of the prints - I love the reverse sides, there is also a yellow & a blue one & the shades are very chalky & nice.) I got these in Joburg over the weekend at a shop called "Gone Scrapping". I also got the K & Co. "Que Sera Sera" doilie I used here there {cut just under half}. The printed twill ribbon is Making Memories Great Escape {inked, frayed & stapled} & the flower cluster on the left is Sassafrass with as Prima antique brad on top.

I printed the journalling onto a piece of tissue paper I salvaged from some shoe packaging which I scrunched up first & tore the edges. You should be able to read the journaling but if not you are welcome to check it out on the Journaling Junkie blog. I used the title lettering (Doodlebug) to help stick down the journaling sheet because I didn't want to put tape all around it & have it totally flush with the page & wasn't going to chance glue showing through on top, aswell as the brads (Sassafrass) to secure the tissue paper. The 2 red jelly flowers are old Making Memories. (BTW my Sassafrass warehouse sale box arrived just before I went away & boy was it worth it!)

I added the two printed chipboard scallops right at the end - cut from the bottom of the Artsylicious Alabaster lettering sheet that I took the "WANTED" letters from below. I just cut the strip off & split it into two pieces, one for under the top part of the title & one for under the bottom. I have no problem using flowers on masculine layouts. I just try not to go for overkill...You can see in the photo below that the tissue is very fine & not totally flat. This is the look I wanted as I wanted something light & semi-transparent but am finding that journaling on transparency is looking a bit dated these days.

Below is a close up of the brad/flower cluster. The main flower in the middle is a combination of Sassafrass flower (inked) & Prima brad through the centre. The other 2 flowers came as is but are simple to make & cover with paper then stitch or bling up.

A close-up of my tissue-paper journaling piece. The ink splattered a bit whilst it was going through the printer but I think that's kinda cool...

I'm trying to take those close-up dimensional shots & not really succeeding...Will keep on trying ;-D Below is a close-up of the inked twill-tape that I frayed & stapled {I taped it on first so it didn't gape} & I got the staples to catch the threads that came about when I frayed it.

All in all everything unified into a pretty textural & tactile layout that can't really be done justice in photographs but hopefully some aspect of it may inspire you nonetheless. Phew! TGIF tomorrow...it's been a busy week...


12 comments:

Vicki said...

No stopping you now - in full production mode! LOL. All looking good.

topkatnz said...

Sounds like Shane and his brother have a fantastic relationship - I really envy that. The pool looks soooo inviting now it is resurfaced! Yay!

Jenny said...

The mini-albums are great and the group effort will make them go very quickly. Graet that your hubby and his brother have a good relationship; as most people know, my SIL and I have a wonderful relationship

tania said...

Great layout Helen, love the albums:)will have to take a few shots of my last shopping, not much, i am glad you got hold of the webster's.

Diana said...

Love the albums! You're so creative--I can't believe those were cereal & biscuit boxes! I have yet to be so inspired, but I do save nice pieces of cardboard for the day it happens.
And I love the layout--I might scraplift it for my JJ layout--I just got the perfect photo of me and one of my sisters for it. It'll be my next layout... I don't know when I'll have time/energy, but it has to be soon to make the JJ deadline!

Diana said...

I didn't see your layout on the JJ blog...

Michelle Ramsay said...

Lovely layout and what a stunning idea for the mini albums. You have certainly got a little production going there. Looking forward to seeing the finished product and the recipients are certainly going to be very impressed and cherish them forever.

Shayne said...

Wow, very impressive. You've been very hard at work since returning home!

CathQuillScrap said...

You sure are busy... well done on getting a head start on Christmas too!

Ella Swan said...

Thanks guys...not feeling too cheery right now (see latest post...) but we are firing on all cylinders with the mini albums & my Cocoa Daisy kit arrived so it's not all bad news. I should be able to scrap with the photos I already have printed (now that my pc has gone belly up!) but will have to hand-journal only for the meantime & have been using my pc a lot more since I did my online printing class. LS you need to keep ALL your cardboard - even if it's not pretty, as long as it's not dented...it's amazing how much less trash we've had since we have been repurposing all the packaging. I have only ever made a handful of mini-albums before & always had to pay through the nose for them locally. Now I will have plenty to give away & probably some to keep too...Forgot that my layout wasn't up yet but it should be up within the next few days. As for Christmas gifts I start thinking in July (once all 6 of our birthdays are out of the way for the year) & try to have them all bought & wrapped by the end of October. It never happens but at least that way there is no last minute panic buying. The shops are totally unbearable here at that time of the year as I live in a tourist destination town!

Sandra said...

The albums look fantastic! You are very clever :)

It's not warm enough for swimming here yet, but reading this has reminded me that we need to get our pool sorted and ready for summer before the kids start to pester us about it.

Desire Fourie said...

Hoora for recyling and reducing your carbon footprint. Well done to come up with a creative idea such as these Xmas albums for Xmas gifts. Hats off to you and your dedicated team.
Hugs
Desire