Shimelle challenge: round up

What a manic week I've had. Exhausting isn't the word for it (seriously can't wait to return to work in a couple of weeks- being a full time mum is HARD WORK!) but in amongst it all, I've tried to complete a few more challenges from the scrapbooking weekend that Shimelle had last weekend (a girl's got to chill out somehow, huh?)

Firstly, the RETRO challenge:

Whilst looking through my albums for a previous challenge, I stumbled across a LO that I really didn't like, pulled the photos off carefully and thought I'd have a go at scrapping them again! From that, this LO was born (no pun intended.) That's me as a baby, Oct 1980!

Secondly, I did this weeks SKETCH challenge using pictures of my mum and dad, otherwise known as 'Ma & Pa'. A very typical photo of them two; mum is pulling a face at the camera and dad is doing that thing with his tongue when he knows he has to smile...

Next, I did the AQUA, RED & WHITE challenge using a DLO and a series of photos of Emma eating yoghurt. My girl has to be one of the messiest eaters I know and most of my photos of her involve messy faces!

This was one of those occasions were the title had to fit the alphas I had available, hence the range of types and the fact that the word 'Yoghurt' wasn't mentioned (not enough individual letters in one font for that!)

GRID challenge was up next so I decided on another DLO using some October Afternoon 'Modern Homemaker' paper, some stickers from Cosmo cricket and some more imaginative use of lettering to fit the title. I journalled around the grid to give it a frame.

Finally, EMBELLISHMENTS IN 3. I used 3 journalling boxes and 3 chipboard numbers as areas for journalling on and thought I'd ask my son what his three favourite things are at 3 years old. Clearly, that'll have to wait til morning though!

My shadow friend- the 'Start here' challenge.

I really enjoyed playing along with this challenge. Starting from the following point we had to then continue to build our own layout.

I had an old collection of Crate Paper goodies nearby and a photo of my daughter and I (otherwise known as 'my shadow') and thought this would be a great challenge to scrap that photo. She has to go everywhere that her 'Mama' goes: in the bathroom, to the toilet, in the kitchen and can't possibly be more than a few metres away from me at all times (cute but incredibly frustrating when you just need a few minutes peace!). On this day, I'd just laid on the picnic blanket ready to enjoy the sun with a few friends, when my shadow promptly came and sat on my back- no doubt to make sure I didn't leave without her! A perfect photo opportunity!

Shimelle weekly challenge

Slightly later than planned, but completed all the same, here is my take on the sketch for the week before last:

Add to the story (with words, not beverages!)

Those of you who follow me on Twitter might know about the incident with this layout+cup of tea. Not my finest moment ever and certainly not one to be repeated (you'd have thought I'd have learnt my lesson with the glass of red+December Daily prepartion, wouldn't you?) but here's the damage anyway.

The photo actually makes it look worse than it is in real life and with a misting of glimmer mist and the speckles in the paper, it's not that noticeable IRL so I was surprised about how bad it looks on the photo, but hey ho. Lesson learnt and all that.

Anyway, I liked the element card with 'Do you remember?' written on it and felt like this LO needed something else (non beverage related!) that would fully explain the emotions and background to this photo.

As it was, my son was born 5 weeks premature, and as my first born, this was more of a shock than ever! When I think back to the time surrounding his labour, there are several memories that instantly spring to mind and so for Shimelles, 'Add to the story' challenge, I thought I'd add some of those details using journalling strips.

The journalling says things like 'Do you remember the panic when my waters broke five weeks early?', 'Do you remember the rush to get to the hospital to get help?', 'Do you remember how we sent Nanny out to buy some baby clothes that would fit a tiny you? (pink & blue, just in case!) and then ends with 'No of course you don't, you were oblivious to it all!'

I'm pleased I did this challenge, despite of the 'damaged' layout and feel it tells a much more rounded story for Jacks album.

Explore: a response

How do you scrap?
I'd be pretty happy to guess that when scrapping you have a fairly routinous process that involves selecting photos, then your papers, then embellishments etc until you've got a fairly complete LO. If you're like me, you then wonder where on Earth you can squeeze in a title and possibly, some journalling. You do the same process on most layouts, occasionally choosing papers first over the photos but the rest remains the same.

Having signed up for Shimelles latest class, Explore, she's given me a few ideas about how to change that process and possibly create layouts that are slightly different in style as a result. Watching the class videos has been inspiring; I have serious Shimelle love going on in this house at the moment! lol! I haven't always had time to follow the ideas through to completion but itchy, crafty fingers got the better of me today and whilst the girlchild slept, I made the most of it!

I decided to try and mix together two prompt ideas:
1) scrapping from the inside out i.e. starting with embellishments and finishing with paper
2)choosing colour to suit a mood.

I had these two 6x4 photos in mind. The story I wanted to tell had nothing to do with the photos, except that they both involve Jack. The story is funny and cheerful (as is he!) and it was told to me last week (summer!) so from all that I decided that I'd try scrapping in sunny, cheerful colours aka: yellow! I went through most of my accessible papers/kits and collected anything that I thought would be useful and put them into piles e.g. paper, lettering, stickers, die cuts etc. This was interesting as it brought together a range of different manufacturers and products whereas, because a lot of my stash was bought in kits, I usually scrap in the same manufacturers stash for the whole LO. Already stepping out of my comfort zone!

I then looked through the papers I might possibly use, eliminated ones that didn't 'go' and then from this found some co-ordinating cardstock that I could use to matt my 6x4 photos.

Then, rather than reaching for the pretty papers, I grabbed the pile of stickers and die cut labels and quickly choosing a few different but co-ordinating ones, layered a selection at one side of the photos. I was thinking that this would be either title or journalling space.

Using other embellishments and border stickers, I created a similar section at the bottom corner of the photos, adding an offcut of paper behind the photos to the same height as the embellishments on the other side. Once I could see the whole picture, I decided where my title and journalling etc was going to go- no leaving it til last minute! I think by this point I'd used about 5 or 6 different manufacturers products!

It seemed rather flat to me by this stage so I looked through my flower box for some flowers that might match and added those to the layout along with some black gems.

Once that was done, I was ready to start choosing a background paper which probably took the longest for me! I started with the yellows that I'd pulled out earlier as I hadn't really used those yet:

I decided most of them were too busy against the embellishments although I did rather like the chequered paper.

This stamp effect border was too much:

as was the polka dot (kinda liked it but figured you wouldn't see the journalling):

Too much lemon?

But darker yellow didn't work either:

Light grey?

Dark grey?

White?

Black?

It was really interesting to see the way that the effect the layout had, changed with the different coloured backgrounds from more lighthearted with the brighter colours to serious with the darker ones.

In the end I went with the medium grey, mainly to tie in some of the grey from the embellishments although it was a hard choice between that and the white.

Overall, I'm really pleased with this layout and it took much less time than usual because I'd already made most of the decisions before I started sticking. I might possibly paint a yellow border around it to bring it all together but only because I've seen Miss Shimelle do that quite a bit recently on the videos. See? I told you there was a lot of Shimelle love in this room! xx

Hello Baby!

Busy, manic day here so I thought I'd quickly share a LO that I made at a crop recently before I shoot off to bed.

This was one of the first photos that was taken when Jack was born prematurely. H & I had both been awake all night hence the tired, exhausted look! I'm fairly sure Jack was worth it though! :) I shall add some private journalling about this photo to the back of the photo before it goes in the album.

It can't be that time already?!

No, I'm not crazy or ultra organised but responding to a team challenge on UKS set by a fellow teamie who wanted us to plan/make our Christmas cards. Despite wanting to resist the idea of thinking about Christmas in July, I didn't want to let her down so I teamed the idea with a prompt from Shimelle about making your own embellishments.

I started by choosing a range of co-ordinating papers from my scrap pile and then cutting them into various sized circles before inking the edges. I also choose a range of co-ordinating embellishments from my stash, which were mainly snowflake related in a range of blues and silvers. I also found some rub ons, stickers, chipboard and bling to match. Using glue and foam dot, I layered the paper circles and embellishments til I had about 12 different circle embellishents. Using some more co-ordinated paper including some glitter paper, I created the backgrounds which I finished with some machine stitching. I then added the circle embellishments in various positions, raising some with more foam dots to add interest.