December Daily 2016: The Learning Curve

Hey guys

Welcome back, today I thought I would talk a little about my December Daily preparation and rationale. I have a video that explains all of this too if you'd like to listen to my dulcet tones! I have linked that below.

I started by analysing how December Daily 2015 went for me and the problems I faced:

1.  I lose interest in scrapbooking when I don't have variety

The album I selected to use was a 5x7 album with exactly 30 pockets, this lead to very little room for variety in the album and I got bored way to quickly which meant I didn't finish the album.

2. No ring binder makes for a boring album

The fact that the pages were all sewn in to the album meant I struggled to add anything interactive that added interest to the process.

3. Red and Green = not my colour scheme

I love traditional Christmas colours in my house, but it turns out I just cannot fall in love with a scrapbook page using red and green - so the colour scheme has to be more versatile

4. Christmas doesn't start on December 1st for me

I ADORE Christmas, don't get me wrong but, when I'm taking a picture on the second of December about the weather outside I don't know how to use Christmas themed products to embellish the page, I need something more winter themed to use on days that are not directly linked to Christmas!

5. When I'm uninspired the project will never get finished

Worst of all despite my best intentions I lost interest in the album, I hadn't fallen in love with it so I lost interest and couldn't find my mojo to complete it!

So the plan for this year....

• A 4x4 Album from Becky Higgins - it is a ring binder album so perfect for adding extra ephemera, paper bags and envelopes

• A mixture of bright colours - the Snow and Cocoa range was my inspiration, I love the pinks, green, teal, red, black and gold. The colours have got me so excited I've started some page prep already!

• A homemade kit - I used new products and products from my stash that are winter / Christmas themed and having a pretty kit has made me feel a lot more inspired and excited for December Daily.

• A selection of pocket pages - I have used 4x4 and 2x2 pockets for this album, I also have my fuse tool ready for some shaker pockets or making odd sized photo pockets!

I'm really excited to get started on my December Daily album this year and I'm ready to be successful.

Thanks for reading :)

Check out the video:

DIY Embellishments: Cute Photo Frames

Hey Guys,

I decided to find some ways to use up my stash, in particular my scraps of paper and after browsing Pinterest and YouTube I got excited to make these cute little photo frames.

What you need:
Some card of some sort or sturdy scrapbooking paper
Paper trimmer
Small knife
Ruler
Cutting board
Glue and embellishments (I used some scraps and cut out hearts and circles with my punches)

Start out with your backing paper I used a 4x5 piece of craft card, then using my knife and a ruler I cut out a 3x3 square from the centre ensuring that around 3 sides the boarder is about 1/2 and inch with a 1 1/2 inch boarder at the bottom.

Then embellish, I went with some layers of frills, I cut in to a strip of vellum to make almost a tassel effect and layered some of my favourite paper scraps on top, these are again cut in to with scissors to create a frilled effect, then a small strip of my favourite arrow washi tape from Hobby Craft. I stuck some hearts and (as littleHotTamale calls them) some 'halfsies' where using my punch I cut out some small circles in both scraps and glitter paper and then cut the glitter paper in half and layered on top. I used two Tim Holtz tiny words to stick on too.

There are loads of great and inspirational YouTube videos that show how to make some of these frames - a great place to have a look if your planning on making some cute embellishments.

Happy Crafting :)

Merry Christmas

Hello! 

A quick post to wish you a very Merry Christmas, have a relaxing, fun and festive day celebrating with those you love. Spare a thought for those worse off than ourselves and wish that 2016 holds hope for all. 

Have a lovely day

Sam X 

Mini Album: Using Sequins and Confetti

These pictures are of a mini album that I made as a present for my best friends 30th Birthday. We have been friends since primary school, I entitled the mini album '30 Years of Friendship (well, almost....)' She was absolutely thrilled with it and it gave me an opportunity to trial a load of different techniques. I had recently invested in the Fuse Tool so I knew I wanted to get some use out of that!

 

With the page above I added some red star confetti to the picture of the two of us dressed up as witches, I really liked this effect of just chucking the confetti straight in with the picture, it looked cute and added some fun interest to the page. and you'll see I also did in on the picture below but there I used some sequins from a Dovecraft sequin pack. I used quite a lot of sequins in the following pages.

 

 

 

The layout below is from my friends Hen Do, I got over excited with my circle punch and I loved the look of it, the pictures kept moving around in the pockets though which was driving me crazy so I used my Fuse tool around the outside to keep them in place. After I'd done it I decided to add a few sequins around the outside, I picked out the colours that worked with the spread and I had a lot of fun with it if I did it again I'd add some sequins under the picture before I fused it because often the sequins didn't fit past the picture so I was only able to stick a couple in to it.

 

 

I have seen lots of people on blogs and YouTube add the cool corner pockets on 2x2 layouts and I really wanted to have a go. I much preferred the 1/2 pockets with the paper in the bottom than full 2x2 squares with confetti or sequins in.

I had a lot of fun with this album, I highly recommend completing a mini album just for the fun and the opportunity to trial some new techniques for your scrapbooking. I have a couple more posts related to specific pages of the album followed by a walk-though video in a couple of days time.

 

Project Life 2015: Works Party

Hey everyone, these are some snapshots from my most recent process video, this documents a works party that I had with some collegues. All the pictures from the night were taken on my mini instax camera. It was great fun to use with all my friends and I gave loads of the film away. Before I gave them out to various people I used my phone to take some pictures of the instax prints so that I could include them in my project life album!

 

 

There were 3 cards that I had already done and finished before I even started the spread! The bottom three cards were already complete where I had tried to start the spread on a different day but just hadn't been feeling it! (sometimes that happens to me, hate those days when I lack inspiration!)

This spread has lots of little details on it like the addition of strips of washi tape and the die cut tag stamped with 'today' I had lots of fun creating this layout.

 

 

I did a full PL cards worth of journaling, I could count the number of times I've done that on my hand! So I'm pretty chuffed that I'll have more to help me remember the day in a few years time. :)

I included some of the original instax photos in this album too. I don't like to put too many in to one spread as I feel I have to use journaling cards to mount the pictures and it ends up way too busy for me!!

If you want to see my process watch the video on my YouTube channel link below:

Project Life 2015: Hadleigh Castle

This post is of a spread i did using pictures from a walk up to Hadleigh Castle. I love a good wander to clear my head on a Sunday, and as the wind was very brisk this weekend a walk definitely had the desired effect!

This is a fairly simple layout so I've kept my chit chat to a minimum! :) 

I used a printable sticker set I found on the Internet, bought some sticker paper off amazon and then cut some of the stickers apart for this spread. I'd really recommend doing this as it was cheaper and there are some nice sets available. I plan on doing a detailed post on this in a few weeks once I've found some more printable sticker sets! 

I managed to use up some stickers from some of my simple stories sets including this black and clear washi strip which I think looks really cool on this picture as it works with my zebra scarf! 

I matted the 2x2 pics on some paper from a 'falling leaves' paper pad I picked a russet coloured paper that drew from the table cloth in the picture above. 

I decided to outline the simple stories stickers from the I Am collection that said 'on my way' to really make them stand out from the backing paper. I was fairly pleased with the look that gave. 

See my YouTube video below for more details: 

 

12x12 Layout: Meeting Thea

 

Hello! Today's layout is a pretty 12x12 page for my project life album. This is the only picture that was taken the day I met my best friends baby Thea. I always use 12x12 spreads to document either my favourite pictures or the occasions when I was at some kind of event or important day where only one photo was taken. 

 

 

I used this pretty 12x12 paper from the kaleidoscope pad. It had flashes of pink, purple and teal on it. I absolutely adore the paper in this particular pad. I was also given the cute faun paper from a friend and the teal in that banner really brought out the teal in the background. I felt that all those colours together really pulled on the tones in the picture so I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I used a Becky Higgins project life card from the Fine and Dandy collection to write my journaling on, this is the kind of life event that I thought was worth a few words. The little butterfly is from the Kaiser Craft all that glitters set.

 

 

I used some off cuts of paper to die cut a selection of flowers from a sizzix set of die cutters. I decided not to layer them as such but to use them in a row along the base of the picture to add interest. Getting them out of the cutters was such a pain! I was pleased with the finished look (thank goodness, as it took about 35 mins just to get them out!!) I used some sequins to embellish the flowers and also above the photo to add interest, the 'delightful' is from my Amy Tangerine roller phrase stamp, I have now ordered another roller phrase stamp, as I tend to use this one in EVERY spread. The little arrow paperclip is from The Range it came in a set of paperclips for 50p I'd recommend checking out their stationary section as they actually had loads of different shaped paper clips that could be useful for scrapbooking.

 

 

Check out my process video below: