Here's Week 4's layout and this week I mostly used Amy Tangerine's Ready, Set, Go Digital Collection available here. For the second week I printed everything at home with my Epson Picturemate and I am still stunned at the quality of the prints from this little printer. I had actually finished my layout during Master 2's nap on Sunday, photographed it and was getting ready to post it, when we decided to take a little impromptu outing which of course resulted in more photos being taken. I toyed with the idea of including those pics in Week 5, but my OCD tendencies got the better of me, and I pulled out a flyer from a performance we saw at the zoo, and a quote card to make room for two photos from our little outing. It was a pretty routine week with some short outings to let the boys get out and burn off some energy.
In addition to Amy Tangerine's collection there is an Ali Edwards "Circle of Life" Digi Stamp, a Cathy Zielske "For Reals" Journalling Card, a Marcy Penner "Right Now" card, a "Quoted card" from Kimberley Ranieri and a printable I found online to reference Australia Day. I also included a screen-shot from a Skype conversation between my hubs and Master 6 where they discussed posting some of Daddy's birthday cake from China to Australia. I love being able to include these little details.
I must also give a shout-out to the Project Life Australia Group on Facebook who celebrated their First Birthday this week with lots of fun and giveaways. The girls in that group rock my world and they are collectively responsible for me not only being behind on housework, but also for chronic "enabling". Love ya!
Time for another scrapbook layout share. I have been keen to use my Cameo to create a background for a layout and since herringbone/chevron is popular right now, that's the look I went for. I was inspired by a layout by the very talented Kinsey Wilson, and the cut file was a freebie from her blog. I also created my title with the Cameo- I can see myself doing this A LOT in future. All papers and die-cuts are from Studio Calico, the arrow stamp from Avery Elle and some machine stitching added just the right amount of texture.
Thanks for stopping by!
The team at Avery Elle have set another challenge. Here is the inspiration photo.....
I love the raspberry red of the umbrella combined with black and grey so it was a comfortable colour palette for me to work with. I also love the striped boots so I decided to incorporate some stripes in my background panel. Here's what I came up with using Avery Elle's Picture It stamp set and inks/cardstocks from Stampin' Up.......
Hope all my fellow Aussies out there are having a great Australia Day!
Just a quick share of another scrapbooking layout- this one is a little "messier" than my usual C & S style. My youngest son is an eating machine and it's always a messy affair so that inspired me to create a layout that reflects his enthusiasm for food and eating.
I used Studio Calico papers/stickers/wood veneers, Mister Hueys spray inks, Avery Elle stamps, Claudine Hellmuth stamps, American Crafts Thickers, some random buttons, brads, staples and machine stitching.
Thanks for stopping by!
I've mentioned before that I'm nearly a year behind in my "regular" scrapping and now I have my new Picturemate, I'm hoping to remedy that by just scrapping when time allows and/or the mood strikes. I can also choose my papers before I choose/edit my pics which is really helpful when deciding which Photoshop actions to apply. I'm also trying to clear some clutter from my craft room and that means using up leftover bits and pieces from old collections before I cut into or purchase newer ones. Today I want to share a couple of scrapbooking layouts I've done in the past couple of days.
This is a really old 3 Bugs in a Rug Collection- possibly 5 years old?- but I still had some good size pieces of patterned paper left as well as some die-cuts and a sheet of alphas. The Bazzill cardstock was in the sleeve with the collection so I think I probably bought it to match at the same time. I don't really match cardstocks anymore, preferring to either go with a neutral- white, black or kraft- or use a fairly plain patterned paper as the base for my layouts.
This is a collection from Cosmo Cricket called Circa 1934. Again, I had some good size sheets and some stickers left and although at first glance the collection is quite feminine, I made it work with these photos of my youngest boy. Some black distress ink and splatters of Mister Hueys grunged it up a little bit.
I'm going to make a concerted effort to use up some more of these older collections clogging up my space. I hate clutter, but I also know I won't be able to resist some of the new lines just released at CHA in the US recently ;-)
It was a pretty dull week as a result of my dodgy back giving me grief. I spent almost the entire first three days flat on my back (as much as I could given that I have two little boys to look after), and we didn't head out of the house until Thursday.
This week I used the Clementine Digital Core Kit available from acdigitals.com, and an Ali Edwards overlay and circle element. Just like I did with Seafoam last week, I opened my photos, edited them and added the digital elements. I opened my journalling cards, cropped the rounded corners off, typed on them and dropped two cards onto a 6x4 canvas ready for printing. I added a few little bits and pieces but for the most part, this layout is comprised of digital product.
The only big difference this week is that I bought one of these.......
........and printed everything at home! It's an Epson Picturemate PM235. I have always been sceptical about at-home printing, preferring to make the trip every Monday morning to Big W or Harvey Norman to get my photos and journalling cards printed. After seeing how much other Project Lifers, particularly the ladies on the PLA Facebook Group Page, rave about these little guys, I decided that I would get one. After an awful experience at the store (that's a story for another time) I eventually got it home, plugged it in to the power and started printing- yup, you don't need to hook it up to your computer- just insert your memory card and print away. However, since I edit everything in Photoshop, it is easier for me to hook the Picturemate up to my computer and get the photos to the machine that way. The software was easy to install and is very easy to use. I had to fiddle around with my borderless/bleed settings a little to avoid the cropping that occurs, but the printer remembers these settings now, and I don't have to re-do them every time I turn it on. It only prints 6 x 4, but that is perfect for PL and most of my scrapbooking. The other thing I really love about it, is it's small footprint on my desk. It's a little over 8 x 6, so you don't need much extra space next to your computer. Now, the prints themselves- I was pleasantly surprised by how fast the photos printed and dried and even more surprised by the quality. It's fantastic. The cost per print is more than doing it in-store, so I'm sure I won't abandon store trips completely, but considering how much time and effort is saved by printing at home, and the fact that the quality is terrific, I say it's money well-spent.
I'll be sure to share more about the Picturemate once I've used it more, but for now I give it a huge thumbs-up!
This week at CAS-ual Fridays, the challenge is to create a CAS card that has one long side and one short side. So no standard A2 size cards are allowed. I thought I'd get into the Valentine's Day mood and create a card measuring 7.5" x 4".
I started with a crumb cake card base measuring 7.5" x 8", and scored and folded it to form a 7.5" x 4" card. I added a red panel after embossing it with a Sizzix woodgrain folder. Next, I took a white panel, stamped and white heat embossed my sentiment with alphabet stamps before then adding a few spritzes of Mr Hueys in Schoolhouse. Once dry, I cleaned up the embossed letters to really make them pop and then added a strip of washi tape to the bottom of the panel which I then adhered to the card with foam adhesive. I took a Memory Box die to cut some hearts from red cardstock and adhered those with Glossy Accents.
