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.

Je t'aime Paris

A few snaps from le weekend

Paris! 
Do I need to say more? I freaking loved it. We drank wine in cafés and ate steak frites. We went on a boat down the Seine and I saw the Eiffel Tower in real life and we went up the Arc de Triomphe and looked down the champs élysées. 
And the flea market! Not the giant one. Just a fantastic street lined with stalls full of all things French. 
Macarons. Obviously. 

C'est incroyable! 
As I mentioned before this was also my first time using AirBnB. I'm pleased to report that it was a tremendous success. We got to stay in a real Paris apartment with a teeny tiny kitchen like Rachel Khoo has in her cooking programme. The location was spot on, in a nice part of town, close to several metro stops and walking distance to the River. 

Now I'm looking forward to printing some of my photos and getting my travel album together.

In other words - I enjoyed it. 

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:

Paris sketching

I'm so excited about my trip, I've been working on a bit of a Paris related project. 

Drawing buildings in is one of those things I always think would be great, I love to see architectural drawing from other people- there are loads on Flickr. They are so inspiring.

Mine never turn out anything like these, but it's only because I never practice enough to make a good job. 

Here is my sketch of a Paris street. It's all a bit blah, I drew most of it on train - hence the tray table. It's not even a real street! It's fun to dream though. I like to imagine what is inside each building, who lives there and what they do. Maybe one day I'll practice some more and do a real version. 

Adventure planning: Paris

"Once a year, go somewhere you've never been before."

Dalai Lama 

I am a firm believer in visiting places you've never been before and although they don't have to be far away, I do like those kinds best. Last year I was very fortunate to visit two countries I'd not been to before. They were fabulous trips but it did mean that I didn't think I'd be going anywhere outside these shores this year!

However, I started getting the wanderlust and happened across a cheap flight to Paris, so I booked it. I have been to France before but Ive only really passed through Paris, which seems like a bit of an oversight.

I've heard conflicting views on Paris as a city, some folk say it's beautiful and romantic others that it's dirty and full of rude people. But it is definitely home of the Macaron so I'm excited to see what it's like for myself.

This is going to be the first time I've used Air BnB too, which is an adventure in itself!    

Make you own: Nexus 7 or Kindle case

Once upon a time I was looking for a cover for my Nexus 7 tablet. I came across the 'Alano' made by Portenzo. I like that it looks like a notebook (rather than something expensive) yet would still protect the device from scratches and bumps. What I didn't like was the price. I'm not about to pay £70 to protect a tablet worth £150. Even if it is pretty.

So I made my own using some easy book-binding techniques. It's held up rather well so I thought I'd share the process with you. 

It's not a replica - it's just a basic cover made mostly from things you probably have around the house if you're into crafting. You could use it to make a case for almost any tablet or e-reader. 

How it works

It's basically like a hardback book. The covers are held closed by a piece of elastic which is attached to the back. The device is held inside with sticky pads like the HARDcover DODOCase (I thought this was the easiest way to go since the the Portenzo case has a carved wooden surround!). Another option would be to make elastic corners to hold it in place.

What you'll need:

- Book board or the back of a good sketch book (A4)

- Fabric (a fat quarter is plenty) or book cloth (This fabric is curtain material from a sample book but you can use whatever you like. I used patchwork fabric for the first one I made.)

- Scrapbook paper (12x12)

- Wide flat elastic, about 25cm (I've used ribbon in these photos so you can see it more clearly)

- Restickable tabs (I got these at WH Smiths)

- PVA glue

- Ruler

- Pen

- Scissors

- Craft knife & cutting mat

Directions

First off, take you piece of board and measure out the front and back covers. Make sure there is a bit of a border to protect the edges of your device. (For my Nexus 7 I found that the width of the A4 board was about right for the height.) 

Using the same height measurement, also cut a 'spine' for your case.  Make sure it's thicker than the fattest part of your tablet - probably around 1 to 1.5 cm. (According to the specs - the Nexus is 10.45mm thick.) 

Remember: measure twice cut once!

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Happy Mother's Day

Hello.

This year for Mother's Day I was going to make a card for my mama but I am still a bit low on energy so I elected to alter one instead. Altering cards is a great way to make them a bit more personal but with all the hard work already done for you. You can also pick cards that are not quite the sentiment you wanted and bend it to your will.

I took this card from M&S:

And made it into this one:

I used a few scrapbooking supplies and cut out the lettering with the Silhouette. What do you think? 

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

New gadgets

My husband very kindly bought me a Selphy printer for Christmas so that I can print pictures direct from my iphone. I am very pleased with it. It's small and if you buy the 108 paper pack - the price-per-print is the same as 1hour photos at the 'lab' (Boots generally). It's very close to what I described in a post ages ago.

I borrowed this image from amazon.

Well look-y what we have here. You can now get an Instax printer! This is a genius idea. You can get the right shot on your phone and then print it out instantly. I love the randomness of my instant photos, but damn its pricey if they don't come out.

And finally - a stamp 'printer'. This little beauty the 'Pomrie' can make custom rubber stamps. That is so clever. I probably don't use enough stamps to warrant it, but I covet it anyway. It even comes as a wi-fi version.

I love this kind of stuff! Which would you choose?

A new book list 2014

How often do you get those quizzes popping up on Facebook? If you're anything like me you're seeing gadzillions of them at the moment. 'How 80's are you?', 'Which character in Game of Thrones would you be?', 'What flavour ice cream would you be?' You get the picture. They remind me of those quizzes you used to get in magazines, where you'd follow the lines with yes/no next to them or get 'mostly a'.

I'll not tell you how many I've filled in as I may go down rather in your estimations.

I mainly get dragged into the book and film ones. 'How many of these classic sci-fi films have you seen? Our survey says most people have only seen 8%!' Well, I think, well well well, I must have seen loads. But my being conned into giving this exciting data away for free is not the point of this post.

The point is the book ones. I've been a bit short on things to read. I do have a few things I want to get round to, but I hate heading out for the train with no book. (I'm including electronic and paper in that.) So last time I did a 'How many ...' quiz I made a list of all the 'classic' books from the list I had in fact not read (minus a few 'modern classics' which looked rubbish). Then I did it again with the big list of science fiction books and now I have a healthy reading list which I can go to when I complete a volume and not have to flounder any for my next selection.

It's not set in stone. I can pick something else, but all these books are rated by quite a few folks, so at least some of them should be super, right?

Here is the full list.