Albums using K and co cardstock with a shabby chic theme

Immaculates album ....

Immaculates album is completed, packed and ready to be shipped to Uganda.God bless her and all at Watoto.

Discovering Tilda!

I've become attached to little Tilda! how crazy this stamping is..I have completed my first ever Tilda creation with Immaculate in mind this is the progress with her album...I have made it bright and breezy with room for her own pictures and will show the finished product later as it will be completed and sent to Watoto by the end of the month..I received a letter from her teacher some months ago and am so desperate to reply but wanted to complete her album first..

mums words of wisdom

Read this today....needed a little reminder ..that life is what you make it...as some aspects of life feel pretty rotten at the moment.In my teens mum always sent me some clever and kind prose for birthdays...and you know you always need a reminder of those comforting words some weeks..this is at the back of my first ever scrapbooking album entited 'you can only give to others what you have inside yourself'

Workshops...workshops...

My pal Louise and her stampin buddies and myself and a couple of my buddies ...and a lovely new buddy Joy... met last week at a Stampin up workshop in Leeds.I am starting to get into these products they're gorgeous the colours of paper and ink pads co-ordinate and the stamp sets are lovely! visit Lou's blogspot for more info www.louiseedwards.blogspot.com. Linda and I carried on creating this weekend workshop..with baby in mind ... and the next workshop here is Saturday 2nd August 1p.m 'till 4 or 5 ish..I'm hoping to look at making cards as inspired by Lou. Linz and Stampin up of course!
I'm also a little happy as I sneaked a craft session in with a group at work! it covered all agenda's of course.. but this felt like a real achievement and pleasure ...it was a little bit under the radar though!
The mums loved creating keepsake boxes and some chose books...sometimes its so much easier to talk and support each other when doing something with your hands.. and the items were all so lovely to take home and call your own! More of this please!

Celebrating graduations

I recently created two albums and my friend snapped them up it's lovely to find that something you created was just what someone wanted! Here's a glimpse of these two graduation albums.

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Celebration albums

I've recently made som 6 x 6 albums for a friend to celebrate girls and boys 18 th's and 21st's...thanks for this as I've enjoyed putting them together..I forgot to photograph the first album it was a burst of prima flowers, diamond brads and pages and photo mounts created out of cardstock from Basic grey latest range Two scoops. However, I made this masculine album and am just about to bind it so took a couple of snaps.It has less fancy panneling and simple but roomy pages for photographs to celebrate a young man's coming of age! I have another two on the go so will post piccies of these later.

Watoto tags for the Album

All tags can be finished with complimentary inking and 'tag hole reinforcer' as shown in the second picture.

Celebrating Dad

I rustled up this 4 x 4 album for my Chel for Father's day ...I consider him to be a great dad to our son..Yesterday the boys spent a couple of hours choosing Mel's first shirts..a small thing but something that wouldn't have been the same if I'd been the one to do it!It's not cool to be seen with parents, and especially your mother when your 15!! especially not in town.. Anyway this little album was quick to create using a making memories 4 x 4 ready made inner pages/cover, textured Bazzill cardstock, some photographs through the years of dad and son and some sentiment stamps (alongside a few dad themed embellishments. Colours where greens, mustards deep reds and browns.

Gypsy diary keepsake

I've had some lovely feedback from some lovely people about my keepsaking and some of the items I've passed on.. thankyou I feel encouraged and inspired by there kind and positive comments..love and thanks to you.

I loved creating my 'boundary less gypsy diary'.The template used is so very simple.
I've used some cardstock and embellishments from K and Co's Sola range for the front but a medly of other stamps and embelishment ideas for the inner pages.



1.The cardstock template was copied by hand and cut out by hand a simple square or perhaps round shape could also be used but i chose to use a bracket album by Basic Grey as my template.I love this shape and have collected complimentary shaped journalling blocks and embellishments and used them in other albums for a more co-ordinated look.I slid tags in between the pages because i had diary comments I couldn't fit on the pages. You do not have to purchase dies cut tags it is easy to use high street clothes tags as templates to draw around and cut out or even use them if they are plain.. in the early days I simply made the shapes myself .. my buddy louise introduced my to the glorious world of die cutting later on.

2.The template is approx 6 x6 in size.I think this is a good size it is big enough to get one or two decent sized photographs on.However, I love to tell stories and express myself with my little keepsakes so I went for four of the mini photo's you can print at home (or the small ones that often come if you order triple prints)
Pretty double sided cardstock certainly makes the albums easier to decorate but single sided cardstock enable you to experiment with stamping or pigment ink sprays to build your own backgrounds if you'd like. I experimented with pigment sprays on the white side of my cardstock with this one and built up a gorgeous warm shimmering copper gold finish.Inking around the page edges is a must as it adds that fuzzy vintaged look.

3.Decorating the front of the album isn't difficult, or a precise art.Torn paper, inked die cut flowers, some diamontes and a touch of glitter are good components.I discovered that using contrasting cardstock from a simular range for a torn top and bottom looked nice.One piece covers approx to 3/4 of the front surface and a smaller contrasting piece 1/4 of the surface. A strip of ribbon with words or a printed phrase on placed along the torn edges of the two pieces also seemes to look effective.Then let your imagination free and dabble with the flowers, glitter and diamonte's.You could keep in mind balancing the weight of the embellisments on the page and giving some symmertry tends to be easier on the eye but anything goes and there are no boundaries this is owned by the person making it and can be as elaborate as desired.In the past i have used the sewing machine to stitch a wavy line of stitching across a larger piece of cardstock on which I placed diamonte flowers...


4. The album pages are held together with a jump ring through a single hole in an outer corner.Jump rings are reasonably priced and a large pack of them can be purchased from Staples for under 2.00 (I've my friend Dawn to thank for that discovery.

5. I used what i 'experienced and felt' to generate themes for the pages.For instance we were having some giggles and the pages with a PLAY theme seemed appropriate for some photographs; i remember the moments quite vividly as being 'playful'. With it being a 'nomadic gypsy diary' I used lots of word stamps to do with travel,discovery, routes and journeys were a must. Favourites are my Heidi Swapp range of stamps for this and I am a 7 gypsies range addict but there are many others available.I chose not to mount my photographs and used journalling block stamps alongside writing comments around my photographs. You can creating the same effect without fancy equipment..draw small squares with lines or journaling line dots are just as effective. Also an alternative to using stamps is to express yourself in your own words or use phrases you have seen on stamps but write or word process them onto card and cut them out.




6. The most important thing is to enjoy what your doing.This diary is not perfect..I love looking at it as it tells the story of my holiday, its purpose was to remind me of the fun and experiences and it does that every time i look at it.....enjoy.

Remembering my great Tunis adventure

Its coming to the end of my first week back at work...and I'm wallowing in a glow of remembering and reflecting on my Tunisian experiences..there were many and they were pretty varied!I enjoyed it all and have to say felt it was a cosseted baptism back into the adventuring spirit..thanks to Kelle, Charity and Mose. I used to tumble through two or three travelling adventures a year as a young woman! and now with less of an adrenaline rush,going at a slower pace, taking in the sights, sounds and valuing the people that make the experiences so real, adventures are just as colourful and refreshing! loved it.Here are a selection of snaps and I am creating a small adventure journal out of a very simple template that I'll be posting later to inspire any keepsakers eager to capture the energy in any life adventure!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Our canal run

Just about every weekend K and I have some time out for a bit of a run.It's our sounding off time and a time to take in the sights of the season..we've pottered around a few places and this weekend I think we saw the saw the full bloom of spring and a sprinkle of summer...it was beautful.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

I'm all pre holiday ....

My holiday in Tunis is nearing..I am a very lucky girl. My bags have been sat in the bedroom for the past two or three weeks (not packed I must add..just there as a little reminder)...yes i'm excited!My boys will be here at home whilst I scoot off on an adventure!
This Saturday was National Scrapbooking Day...Linda came over and she created her first ever scrapbooking page...Well done Linda it looks great.Our next scrapbooking get together and workshop day will be 7th June we will be creating personal scrapbooking page/s and as usual there will be a cuppa, some good company and plenty of resources available.

Personalize it...

I created these 8x8 with a harmonious and blissful theme. I started to create the tags and pannels to go into it but have stopped as I so want them to be personlized.I haven't personalized anything for anyone for a long time now so my plan is to auction them both for Watoto over the coming months and give potential purchasers a choice of tags and pannels... we'll see how this goes.I'm looking forward to completing them with that in mind.

Theories on Motherhood revisited

I thought I'd post this little album.I started it a few weeks ago when in a bit of a reflective mood!It isn't quite complete... my favourite page is the final one in which I've hand written one of my favourite little sayings "without change there would be no butterflies" I was thoughtful about the times of difficulty I'd overcome, the hidden emotions and aspects of me I'd accepted and how i'd evolved as a person through being a mum... I found myself perusing over some old photos remembering some of my thoughts and emotions at those times and I started to journal straight onto a template I have on my computer.I kept the journalling positive and from the perspective of what I'd learnt about myself...it was lovely to do.. really self affirming!

Snowy Easter 2008

Make a slideshow - it's easy!

No photo's just a little chat

I've had such fun creating with friends recently and have a Friday evening and a Saturday of scrapbooking and stampin coming up thankyouoooooo my crafting buddies, what ever did I do without youooooo.I've some piccies to post but ther's a little problem with the blogspot photo upload. I've some lovely ideas about creating an album for Emaculate and will share them later and hope to have it finished for summer time and posted off with some little extras.

Creating with love and intention

Before christmas of last year I sponsored Emmaculate a little girl in Uganda being supported by the WATOTO organisation. I hoped to create an 8 x 8 album every other month to generate some more proceeds to donate to Watoto and these two albums are my first with that in mind.I also intend to create an 'All about me' album with love for Emmaculate to use however she wishes..I have a bigger dream of being able to increase my support and improve the opportunities for children in Africa. Having family links in one African country it is such a challenge to know where to start but sponsoring Emmaculate was my small start.

Watoto 'Harmony' album

Watoto album 'follow your heart'

I loved creating this album when I pass it on to a buyer the proceeds will go towards my Watoto contributions.