December album supplies

Christmas things!

Let's get straight to it.

Here is my 'kit'. I've chosen a (slightly excessive) mixture of bits and pieces rather than one whole line. I never like everything and there is always glitter on something. I bought it all online at Craftie Charlie, except  a few pieces from Paper Issues (they stock individual sheets and since they are in the US, get things in stock faster).

- December Daily 6x4 Album by Jasmine Jones for Ali Edwards
- 'Christmas Magic' wooden buttons by Shimelle for American Crafts
- 'Christmas Magic' stamp and stickers
- 'Christmas Wishes' 6x6 papers by Pink Fresh Studio
- 'Claus & co' wood veneers by Simple Stories
- 'Joyful' journaling tags by Elle's Studio
- 'Yuletide' stickers by Pink Paislee
- 'Snow Day' flair badges by Lawn Fawn
- 'Imprint Tile' Printed Thickers for Pebbles
- Postcard from Paperchase

I'm excited to get started enjoying and documenting the most wonderful time of the year :)

Belgium travel album

I have returned from another trip to the continent.

Brussels is a lovely city, it feels like a low-pressure Paris. By 'low-pressure' I mean it doesn't have to be AMAZING all the time. You don't have to feel like someone is going to propose all the time. You don't have to pretend you are Audrey Hepburn or anything. It's just a really nice European city. And they speak French. Sometimes.

This is one time that I felt like we didn't see half of what was on offer. I suppose because we were there for an event rather than to run around seeing the sights.

This was my first trip with the Traveler's Notebook format journal. The one I took is a DIY version rather than a real Midori. I have the Passport size one from Midori but it seemed a bit small for this adventure. Perhaps because we were five of us. Why would that matter I wonder? It's not going to make the photos bigger...

Onwards.

This is the book. The cover is a kraft card from the My Mind's Eye collection 'Kraft Funday'
I usually like to choose a photo that kind of represents the whole trip on the front, but this beer mat seems to tell the story on it's own. I added the gold frame die cut.

Continue reading →

Thoughts on Project Life 2014 and plans going forward

Last year I completed a full year of Project Life in the 12x12 format. Well, just about. All the photos are in, there are still some words to type up.

Anyway, after this mega achievement, I asked myself if I wanted to do the same again, and as with the 10k race I ran, the answer was no, not straight away.
Both were very satisfying to complete but also hard work. Enjoyable hard work. Maybe commitment is a better word.
And my Project Life binder is giant. I kept it to one since I did on average one side a week. There is a very boring month where four weeks are on one page. And a couple of extra inserts from trips.

As I asked myself about it, I realised I do still want to document my life and some of the everyday things, but not everything. More of an over view and if I am going to be into this hobby for any length of time (not something that is normally a problem for me) it will need to not take up as much space. I've currently got four 12x12 albums (not all full).

Another thing happened, someone I follow on Instagram has the Heidi Swapp Planner (the new black and white stripe one that goes with the Big Picture class). It's gorgeous.
I know from past experience that a 'planner' is not going to work for me as an alternative to a whole PL but in googling that little beauty I came across some pictures of Heidi's Memory Planner (from last year I think) and some beautiful work people had done with it.

My brain started working on how I really wanted to document things and came up with something based on the memory planner/planners in general but mixed with PL. I think it will be a bit more monthly based - so I can be more selective about what I put in.

I'm making plans - it's got to be ring bound so that I can add/change pages and its got to fit some project life pockets - I like the tallways 3x4, but I probably need more than 4 a week (like in a 6x8)
maybe 6 like the memory planner and tabs like a filofax.

To the drawing board!

Extending my December Daily 2014

I've decided to extend my December album to the full month. You must be mad I hear you cry.
Stick with me for a moment on this one - do you do project life as well as a December album? Generally? And what about in December?

This is the second year I've done a full 12x12 project life album. Last year I had some trouble sorting out December as I'd put eveything in the Daily and I didn't want to print it out again. Then it finished. I had to put Boxing day - New years eve in the Project life. It was weird.

I've pretty much ended my Project life this year at the end of November, I've realised that if I put all of Decmeber in its own album, I don't have to worry about completeing both.

Plus I did some Christmas-y things after the 25th I wanted to include and another major reason - its snowed on the 26th! yay! Christmas snow pictures. They belong in the December Daily.

I've learned some things this year doing this project.

Firstly you don't need a lot of 'stuff'. I didn't buy anything because I decided to use things I already had. I used a few scraps and a nice little paper pad to do my journalling on, but not loads of bits and pieces.

I don't like working with the small horizontal pockets and large vertical. It's all wrong. 3x4 is awesome for me and I like to add Instagrams and write under them not at the side. It's been a bit uncomfortable with this layout, but worth the challenge and I do love the end product.

When it gets near the end of the season just get it finished. Do the minimum that will finish off a page if you know you won't look at it again for another year!

10 Ways to keep up with your December album

Isn't December just flying by? Every year I forget how fast it goes once you're into the month. Case in point -  the other day I watched
Polar Express as I didn't want to watch one of my real favourite Christmas films as it's not near enough to Christmas. This is silly. I'll never have time to watch them all. I should start in November. (I always watch the full set of Harry Potter in November). Or just get on with it.

This is how I now deal with my December Daily. Just get on with it. I try not to worry too much if something better is going to happen or if there will be a better place for a certain card or embellishment.

'Keeping up' with it seems to be the main reason for people not completing their albums, not enjoying it or not doing it again. How do you 'keep up' during the madness? Here are some ideas.


Continue reading →

December Daily 2014 - Starting points

I made my binder and I've cut up some more page protectors. I've also gathered together a box of supplies that I have already. My decision to not buy anything new seems like a good one: I've got plenty. I've even got some nice festive papers left from last year as I ordered Shimelle's Christmas selection and it was huge.

I did get some fabric for the cover. I know, I know, that wasn't the deal, but at John Lewis you can buy fabric by the 10cm. I normally only need 20 - 30cm to cover something like this so it cost about £2. I'm glad I did, it inspires me to actually want to work on it. I'll finish the cover at some point. I might paint the reindeer, I wonder if gold would be too much with the title holder do-dad being brassy?

The paper on the inside is from the My Mind's Eye collection called 'Collectable'. Its a bit vintage-y for me, but I got a bunch of things from the set at TK Maxx really cheap a little while ago. (I love finding scrapbook stuff there.)

I've put a couple of cards in from last year's SNAP collection (Simple Stories). Unfortunately most of these are 3x4 shaped and most of my pockets are 4x3. The 4x6 ones work well though.

I think it's going to be fun.

December Daily 2014 - Plans

It's December Daily season again! Otherwise known as November, for many scrapbookers it's time to start thinking about documenting December, obviously depending on what festivals you celebrate, this could mean different things. I'm in the UK and once Halloween, Bonfire night and Remembrance Sunday are gone for me it's a slippery slope to Christmas. (Which I love).

This will be my third year making a December album. I call it December Daily as I was inspired by Ali Edwards' concept and I like to give her a shout out every time. Especially since my first album really got me into scrapbooking. 

I was ahead of the trend a bit - using a 6x8 folder. You can see some of it here: December Daily 2012. Last year I did something a little different and was accidentally ahead of the curve again with a little 4x4 album! It was before the WRMK ones came out so I made it myself. You can see some of that one here: December Daily 2013.

This year, as a challenge to myself I've decided to make the whole project with things I already have. I'm also going to use page protectors this time, which will hopefully make it a little faster to put together. 
Did you ever get the giant project life variety pack? Mine has lasted a year and a half so far and there are plenty left. Unfortunately they are layouts I don't really care for. Mainly the ones based on portrait 6x4 photographs. Like B and D and I'm not a big fan of the one with four 6x6 pockets either. Cue scissors. I've cut them up. Now I have a bunch of 8x6 layouts and a few 6x6s. 

For the actual book, I'm creating a ring binder using the Tim Holtz mechanisms and some thick boards. These are from the back of sketch pads. (I always keep them.) Joining it together will be similar to how I made my kindle cover (see my tutorial here). 

Fabric is going to be a bit more tricky for this one though. Hopefully there is something good in my sewing box. There is definitely white cotton. Plan B will be to make it plain and decorate it.
Wish me luck! Check back soon to see how it goes.

Paris scrapbook - in progress

More about Paris today I'm afraid. I've been craving pain au chocolat like mad, but I know they can never live up to the awesomeness of Pierre Herme's! 

I've been working on a Paris mini album. It's not so mini actually. Considering that I made a tiny notebook when we went to Berlin for a similar time period... 

A funny thing happened. I got the colour scheme way wrong. I always put most of my travel journals together before I go (here is a post about the Paris one) and I choose colours and textures to go with what I feel the trip will be like. I chose some really modern colours and styles this time, but it just doesn't work. 
Everything was more beige and brown. I was trying to avoid all the papers and stickers that have the vintage letter/postcard look: turns out they had it right. Ack. 
I had to change it up a bit. 

I ended up using the 6x4 kraft cards as the base for about half the pages and some of the 3x4 cards for interactive sections. But I've not used the other colours. I decided to make this a bound book rather than use book rings so each page is attached to the spine using an accordion fold method like this one from the Graphic 45 blog (scroll down to the bottom of the post).

I've done most of the pages, however I can't finish it completely until I have the perfect fabric for the covers. Where will you find the perfect fabric? I hear you cry! Well, I'm going to work on my Paris street illustration and get it printed up specially for the job. 
When I finally get round to it.
It will be ace.
Watch this space for the finished book. In the mean time here are some more of the spreads from inside:


These pages are about the area we stayed in. I made a pull out section with photos of our lovely apartment.

This one is about the flea market we visited - I used a kind of bunting/washing line effect to hang lots of little bits of photos of things we saw. It's all jumbled up like the stalls.

Paris travel journal preparation

I love planning for trips.

I enjoy doing all the research and finding little places to visit that are tucked away behind the main tourist attractions. Not that I don't like tourist attractions - seeing the sights is ace, but if there is a little stationery shop around the corner, I don't want to miss it in the rush!

One of my favourite parts though is putting a travel album together. I usually take a few bits and pieces with me, but I'll admit that I rarely have time to make the pages whilst I'm actually away. Recently I've been trying to do a bit of writing each day, it's surprising what you forget once you've been out all the next day.

I don't use a set book for my journals either - in fact I've done lots of different shapes and styles, my Japan album was 5x7 and bound with book rings, the Germany one was a little notebook, Italy was 12x6!

This time I've gone for 6x4. I'm thinking kraft with red/blue/yellow/green as accents. Since I'm only going away for a weekend I don't need loads of pages so I'm not picking many papers. I'm hoping the kraft cards below (DIY shop by American Crafts) will work as base pages.

Here are few if the things I've picked out ready to go:

Introduction to scrapbooking with Hallam Roses WI

On an extremely windy and grim evening in February I went to talk to the ladies at the Hallam Roses WI about scrapbooking. Hallam Roses is a new wave WI, which means the members are generally younger, but there isn't an age limit.

I talked a little bit about how easy it is to use Project Life and showed a few of my travel journals. I really wanted to get across that you can do as much or as little as you like with the hobby. I think that it encompasses a wide range of possibilities with a photo album at one end and a diary at the other. In between are every cross over of photo/art/design/journalling you can think of.

Here are some links if anyone is interesting in getting started in scrapbooking:


Audio/video:

Paperclipping - they have a great weekly podcast called the Paperclipping Round Table which is approaching it's 200th episode! They also have a paid membership with video tutorials.

Glitter Girl - a weekly video produced by Shimelle with super hero 'Glitter Girl' who solves people's scrapbooking problems. There are over 100 videos covering lots of topics.
*Unfortunately Two Peas in a Bucket where this was hosted has closed - you can still visit Shimelle's site.*

Mercy Tiara - videos on youtube

Inspiration:

My Pinterest board of scrapbook pages

Two Peas in a Bucket gallery
*Unfortunately Two Peas in a Bucket where this was hosted has closed*

My favourite shops:

Crafty Charlie - are based locally to me and so deliver quickly. They also have a points system which often covers my postage costs.
Paperissues - are in America but have regular 20% deals and good shipping rates based on how much you buy.

Project life:
Find out more about the ethos behind this system at Becky Higgins' site.
You can now buy it from Hobbycraft - but you might want to try Scrapbooker's Inner Circle, they have great customer service and (gave the WI a fabulous raffle prize).

Here are links to some of my projects:
Starting project life
Italy Album
Japan Journal
Berlin Jambook

December Daily 2013

After the success that was 'December Daily 2012' I wasn't sure if I wanted to do the project again.

Let's rewind to 2012, for several reasons that December was super festive. A couple of my favourite Christmas films were re-released at the cinema, I was feeling really well and we had lots planned for the whole month. I had things to put in the book that were Christmas-y nearly everyday. Not that I did it everyday. I did it three or four days at a time. (Mainly because I like to use real photos - I mean ones processed by a shop, not inkjet printed.)

This year was not quite as festive. Apart from I was not feeling so well, we didn't have that much planned. I decided to give it a go since it was fun, but do a much smaller book. Oddly the shape was inspired by something I saw in the medical history museum in Berlin. A small square shape with a thick spine.

I spent a bit more on supplies this time. I didn't really choose them all though, I ordered a Christmas box from Shimelle. I always enjoy her videos and her taste is somewhat similar to mine, I trusted her to pick some good stuff (and get it shipped from America). I was pleased with most of it - there was a great selection of papers which I used for the pages of my book.

Here are some pages from the inside:

I really enjoyed making the book. It has a very simple construction - the outside is three pieces of book board covered in fabric on the outside and paper on the inside. I made the book's 'signatures' by folding the pages over and stapling in the middle. Each section is held into the spine with red elastic. I could have sewn the sections in but I wanted to be able to rearrange them and give them space to expand as I added to the pages.

I wonder how I shall look back on this Christmas. Looking back at my 2012 book was great fun and brought back a lot of memories.

Berlin + travel scrapbook/journal

Fresh Jam Book.

I've been talking about Japan a lot recently, but a couple of weeks before that adventure, we visited Berlin.

Actually we had this weekend in Berlin planned for quite a while and thought it would be our only trip this year. We had a lot of fun there but it has been eclipsed some what by the awesomeness of JAPAN!

Anyway back to Berlin. We took a cheap budget flight and stayed a great hotel. I decided this would be a good occasion to try out one of my new notebooks 'in the field' so to speak, so I made a little travel journal, a bit as we went, but mainly when we got home.

Check out one of the first Jam Books in action:

Japan travel journal/scrapbook

The last couple of times I've been away I've taken a few scrapbooking supplies along with the idea that I'll scrapbook things whilst I'm still there. This hasn't really worked if I'm honest. There's never any time to do it and I can only use photos that I take with my Instax camera.

What I have found is that I like having the book there. For one, it means that it has actually been to that country/place with me. It also provides a place for me to keep all the bits of ephemera I pick up and helps me be a bit more discerning about what to hold on to (I would keep everything ever: hoarder tendencies).

The other thing I've found useful is to do the writing whilst you are there. It's a lot more difficult to write about how you felt about something before you did it, when you've done it. Obviously there is room for reflection too, you can write about what you've learned etc when you are back home.

So lets get onto my Japan scrapbook. I wanted to make it ring bound so that I could add/move pages and a size that I could put 6x4 photos in. I made most of the pages from papers in the My Mind's Eye 'Spread your wings and fly' collection. The covers are sturdy book board and I had to use a crop-o-dile hole punch to get through it!  The overall size is about 5x7 inches.

This is what it looked like before we left:                    

Empty pages.

This is how it travelled:

I keep my books in these pouches from Muji.
I stick washi tape on the outside so I don't
have to take the whole roll with me :)

Here are some of the inside pages:

I like to have a title of some kind, but I tend to leave the front cover until I get home. Choosing a photo which symbolises the trip makes it more personal and although it won't tell the whole story it generally sets the tone for the rest of the book. I love this picture. It's not really of anything, but the colours and the light take me back there in an instant.

It's not finished of course. I rarely 100% finish a project. But I've enjoyed putting it together and it made me actually print some of my favourite photos. Plus I can continue to work on it when I want to look at Japanese things, so that's a win in my book.

Project Life

Way back in the spring I ordered some Project Life supplies. When I ordered it was quite difficult to get in the UK and only one place was importing them. Since then Becky Higgins has partnered with American Crafts so the distribution is way better and you can buy it all over.

I pre-ordered the Midnight edition 'core kit' and a huge 12x12in binder. I won't lie, I was a little disappointed when it arrived. The cards are more like paper, some of the pockets were too small to fit cards in and there were even typos in the printed materials! The company I ordered with did send me replacement pocket pages which was good, but so many people were talking about, I thought it would be top quality. 

I decided to start using it anyway. I don't think there is anything wrong with it, I was just expecting something a bit different. It's odd when you don't see things before you order them. You get an idea in your head of what it will be like. Especially when they seem really expensive.

It's actually a good system. I like how it looks and the flexibility. I get that the cards have to be thin or you wouldn't be able to lift the album. 

And I love the yellow.

Here are a some of my recent 'spreads'. I just fill as many pockets as I like rather than filling two pages per week. Sometimes I do lots and sometimes not so much, but there is always food.

Now I am concerned that if I keep going I'll fill this album, and then what? If I fill one every six months, where would I put them?

Italy travel mini-album scrapbook

I put together some pages about our trip to Italy. It seems a very long time ago now, but I wanted to show you some of the pages since I talked about what supplies I was going to use here.

I've been trying out different page shapes for scrapbooking. I've only actually put together one 12x12 page which is the main page size nowadays. For this book I choose 12x6 inches. It's very wide!

I've not finished the covers for it yet, but here are some of the pages:

Making a tiny 'project life' style album

I have seen a lot about the Project Life scrapbooking system and wanted to try the idea out for myself without investing in a lot of expensive stuff. So I made this smaller version.

I used this folder which is available from Paperchase. It's the same one I used for my December Daily which you can see here. You can also get a range of pages and some plastic pockets from Paperchase too. They have a full page pocket and one for two 6x4 photos. It's a three ring binder, which we don't use a lot here, but I just use a single hole punch to get the holes in the right places where I used paper pages.

I enjoyed having a go at this so I think I will go ahead and pre-order one of the new editions which are coming out this year.

New project: Italy scrapbook

If you've been reading a while you may know that I got married a couple of years ago. My new Husband and I went on a trip to Italy for our honeymoon and had a fab time. We travelled by train a lot and saved lots of tickets, maps and other bits and pieces. Unsurprisingly we also took hundreds of photos! We've never printed out any of the pictures. I'd like to get a nice photo book done but in the mean time, I'm going to choose a few and make a scrapbook.

Since January is generally a bit of a ... frugal month, I've spent a lot of time picking the right supplies for this new project. I want to use some things I've already got but also add a few bits to bring it all together. In the end I chose some papers and tabs from Pink Paislee's Portfolio collection and a great stamp made by Kaisercraft. I really like yellow at the moment so I've gone for a yellow, grey and turquoise colour scheme. Hopefully it will work well with the pictures and stories I want to tell.

December Daily

Have you ever made a rule for yourself that was totally arbitrary?

I decided that the next thing I would put up here on my blog would be my December Daily album. Turns out that was not such a great idea. It's taken a little longer than expected and I've missed posting lots of other Christmas stuff in the mean time using my stupid rule as an excuse. Maybe I'll add some of those things in later (my blog, my rules, right?).

Anyway, let's back up a bit. Last year I started getting interested in Scrapbooking. Ali Edwards (who I've talked about before) does a project every Christmas called December Daily. It records a story a day from the 1st to the 25th or the 31st of December. You can choose what ever format you like, so there's nothing to buy, which is handy and I love Christmas so I thought I'd have a go myself.

I used a 6x8 inch folder from Paperchase and started making some pages to fit inside in November. It's still not quite finished. I knew I wouldn't have time to do each page on the day, there's lots going on in December, which I suppose is part of the point?

Here are a few pages from my album. It was really fun putting it together, just playing with paper without any pressure for it to be perfect. I tried not to buy lots of extra stuff either, I bought one 6x6 paper pad and some wooden embellishments. The rest is things I already had or picked up along the way. I got all the photos printed at Boots every four or five days, they are mostly 4x3 inches. I arranged two pictures per 6x4 'photo' and just got them printed normally.

December Daily cover

Title page - I'm going to put my name on that tag and finish the
inside cover at some point

December 1st was pretty busy

December 2nd

December 4th - not so exciting

December 16th - THe Muppet Christmas Carol at the cinema

December 20th - the bottom right bit is not finished, but I love the rest,
so I thought I'd include it :)