hamilton show layout

On the occasions I actually sit down and do some scrapbooking, I've been going back to some old photos and making some fairly simple layouts just to get the pictures out of the box and into the album.

Here's one I finished recently. It's a double layout from the 2007 Hamilton Show. 

I used some old Kaisercraft papers for this layout. I had some papers from this collection ("Party Animals") in my stash, but not the one I wanted, so I had to dig through a rather huge pile of papers that no one wants any more at the scrapbooking shop to find it. The alphas are also by Kaisercraft, coloured with a combination of paints that I mixed for ages and still didn't quite get to match the paper.

FFS Friday - cuttlebug edition

Yesterday morning I was thinking that nothing had happened that had even remotely made me want to think ‘FFS’. I thought I wouldn’t have a post for FFS Friday. 

I needn’t have worried.

I thought I’d have a nice relaxing evening doing some scrapbooking.

I got out one of the pages from my Work-in-Progress album that I’d started last week in scrapbooking class and had intended to finish when I got home, because I was sure there would be some alphabet stickers I could use for the title at home. There weren’t any that suited the page.

Never mind. This happens a lot. ... slight FFS.

So I got out my Cuttlebug to cut out the letters. (If you’re not familiar with a Cuttlebug, it’s a bright green machine that you can cut (and emboss) by jamming the dies between two plates and winding them through the machine. Very high tech.)

I started to wind the first set through, when there was an enormous snapping sound and nothing happened. The plates were stuck and the rollers weren't moving.  …. FFS.

Unsure of whether this was a terminal condition, or whether it could be easily fixed, I googled “broken Cuttlebug”. Nothing matched my problem, but a few people mentioned they had taken the end panels off to fix various problems.

OK, well that shouldn't be too hard should it?  So I started to unscrew a few parts to try and get into the ends to see what was going on. Nothing I unscrewed seemed to help me get to where I needed to be. 

 I realised I didn’t have to unscrew anything. No. I could just slide a screwdriver in and clip the end panels off. … FFS.

 

This is what the inside of one end of a Cuttlebug looks like.

End panel #1

The small gear at the top fell off as I was opening the panel. Easy enough to put back on, but there was still rattling from somewhere else in the machine. So that wasn’t the problem.

Attempt to take the other end off. A screw and a washer fall out. This must be the problem. So all I have to do is remove the end panel, screw the screw back in and put the panel back on. Yay.

This is the end where the handle is, which had originally been attached with an Allen key. The end panel won’t come off without removing the handle. None of the Allen keys I have in my drawer will fit the handle. …. FFS.

You know how you always keep the Allen keys that come with things in case you ever need to deconstruct them? The one for the Cuttlebug was nowhere to be found. … FFS.

I had to go out to the shed in the cold and rummage through my disorganised tool box to find my set of Allen keys. None of them fit. … FFS.

Did I mention there is a lot of grease inside a Cutttlebug, which is now all over my hands and my desk. …. FFS.

Ok, so if I can manoeuvre the end panel out of the way, I can just get the circular screwdriver into the centre of the screw and screw it back in. Fiddly, but it can be done. But the screw doesn’t want to actually go in. It sits there, and if I turn the handle the rollers work, but how do I make it stay there? … FFS.

One little screw. One big problem.

Nothing seems to want to stay in place. I email the manufacturer for advice. I put the machine back together and turn the handle just to see what happens. The machine works. After I have sent the I-am-ever-so-slightly-annoyed email to the manufacturer. … FFS.

I cut out the letters I need and then realise I don’t feel like scrapbooking any more. I need a wine or two to relax and something to get the grease off my hands.  Not the relaxing evening I’d hoped for. …FFS.

Then, as I was putting the machine back into the box after I'd finished, what did I find but the original Allen key I used to attach the handle. ...FFS.

Click to link up to FFS Friday

 

organising my albums

I've been working on my Project Life a lot lately and haven't been doing much ordinary scrapbooking.

Today I decided to do something that I've been meaning to do for quite some time - start to put all my layouts into three-ring binders.

Until now I've been using the "snap load" albums, which are expandable but you have to take them apart every time you want to put in a page. That starts to get painful after a while, unless you work out all the layouts you're going to do for that album put in exactly the right number of page protectors and then stick exactly to the plan, or things start to get messy.

This, for the uninitiated, is a snap load binding. It's a lot easier to use than a post screw binding.

Basically you just lift up those little tabs, pull the cover off the album, take out as many pages as you need to put the new page protector into the right place, and put it all back together again. One of these albums can hold a lot of pages. My largest is about 2.5 inches thick (and I just noticed tonight, the expandable spine has come loose from the rest of the album. I wonder how long it will stay together for.)

The only thing that was holding me back was the fact that I really like the look of double layouts in these albums, as opposed to the ring binder albums, because they have that uninterrupted look.

Exhibit A - snap load album

Exhibit B - ring binder album

See what I mean?

Of course I could keep all the double layouts in the snap load albums and put the singles into the ring binder, but that would upset my chronological sequence, and we can't have that!

So today I started to attack this shelf.

I transferred all of my 2009 layouts into two of these albums from Pioneer Photo Albums.

(Photo from a retail site that I now can't find again  . . .)

So this reduced the number of albums for 2009 from three to two, with a lot of room for more layouts.

The reason I started at 2009 is that it's the final year I used these albums. From 2010 I've been putting my layouts into my Project Life album so that the whole year is in one place.

I'm not sure what I'll use the 12 or so empty albums for. Probably some smaller projects where I do several layouts on one theme, like a holiday, or else random pages that don't really fit anywhere else.

I expect this will take a while, as I'll probably need about eight of these albums. And they might also become my Project Life binders for future years. If I haven't got them all by the end of the year, they might end up on my Xmas wish list.

And that was about the extent of any productive activity I did today. How was your Saturday?

february catch up

 Item number 19 on my 100 things to do in 2013: Blog at least three times a week.

Number of posts in February: five.

That doesn’t quite add up, does it?

I’ve started writing several posts and either never finished them, or decided I didn’t want to publish them after all. Or I’ve thought, why would anyone want to read that, and given up.

Not really what I had in mind when I wrote the list and decided I wanted to blog more often.

Now it’s the start of a new month.  It’s time to review the past month and (possibly) get inspired to blog again.

So what’s happened?

Project Life

I’m pretty much up to date with this and just have a few more photos to print for February, and then I should have a few layouts to share. I also managed to finish not one, but two layouts in the “in progress” album. Progress indeed.

Food

These are the posts I’ve been struggling with. I really don’t know what to write without looking like I’m trying to justify myself or defend what I’m doing. 

That looks so stupid now that I've written it down. I don’t have to justify making healthy changes to my life. Quitting sugar is the way I decided to start. There are a lot of opinions about whether sugar is really so bad. I don’t know the answer to this one. 

Anyway, the quit sugar thing has really turned into quitting a lot of the processed food with added sugar, which is what I’ve been trying to do (see Item 1 on the list). So I haven’t followed the Quit Sugar program completely. I’m still eating small amounts of fruit (which the program says to cut out, and reintroduce later on when you’ve broken the sugar addiction if you want to).

Apart from that I’ve been sugar-free, other than a couple of meals that other people have cooked that have had an ingredient that contains sugar, for six weeks now. I’ve politely refused desserts, have been into coffee shops and ignored the cakes and haven’t so much as even looked at the 85% chocolate in my fridge. (It’s there for me to test whether having not eaten sugar for an extended time changes the taste of that type of chocolate – whether it actually will taste sweet to me.) And I haven’t really felt like I’m missing out or depriving myself.

One thing I’ve noticed is that my coffee has started to taste quite sweet now from the lactose in the milk. I’ve never had sugar in coffee, so this is quite a strange sensation. 

I’m happy with how things are going at the moment, and I’m continuing to read about food and trying (most of the time) to make the best choices for me. 

Exercise

As soon as I read that exercise can make you fat I gave up exercise.

Well not really, since to give up something, you actually have to be doing it first.

Ha.

But seriously, I have been doing some form of exercise most days, even if it’s just walking to work. At the start of the year my goal was to be walking 15,000 steps a day and to get back into yoga. It’s still my intention to do both of those things.

I bought a yoga DVD a couple of weeks ago and have been getting up earlier most mornings to do one of the routines. Juniordwarf has been joining me, which is fun. 

Next Month

I do want to blog more often. At least, more than five times in the month.

Related: does anyone have any regular link-ups that they participate in that are fun? I did Wordless Wednesday once and then promptly forgot about it . . . 

scrapbooking

It feels like forever since I've completed a scrapbooking layout. 

Last night was our first night back at our scrapping sessions at the local store. I went with the intention of sorting out some Project Life photos and looking at the layouts in my "Work In Progress" album, getting them out, fussing over them a bit and then putting them back.

I forgot the photos didn't I?

After flicking through the unfinished layouts, I realised I had one 2012 photo with me that I was going to create a layout for, so I decided to work on that. What "Work In Progress" allbum? Why finish off stuff in progress when you can start something else and add it to the unfinished pile?

I saw this sketch challenge on the A2Z Scraplets Blog earlier in the day and I knew the photo would work well with the sketch.

Here's the layout:

I can't say I'd normally do a layout about beer, but in this case, it was a photo I wanted to include in last year's Project Life album but couldn't make room for in the divide page protectors. I already had one layout to include in that month, so I needed another one for the other side of the page to even things up.

So it all worked out rather well.

In case you're wondering, the paper, which you can't see very well, is actually beer paper. Yes, they make beer-themed scrapbooking paper. I thought I'd taken a photo of it before i started to cut it up, but somehow it disappeared from my phone. Anyway it's by Paper House, who also make the stickers that feature up the top (the hops).

The chipboard letters are by Fancy Pants designs. 

Soured Ale is by the Two Metre Tall Company, which featured in several of my blog posts in 2011 because we go there rather often.

Bottle cap is by Bottle Cap Inc., and the label inside the bottle cap is taken from a label from one of Two Metre Tall's ales.

sorting photos

After an epic photo editing weekend, I had over 150 photos to print on Monday morning for my August and September Project Life layouts. (I might add here that September was a huge photo month, with Juniordwarf's birthday, his party and our holiday to the East Coast, so there were a lot of photos to go through. I think I did well to cut them back as much as I did!)

I'm really not good at culling photos or picking one or two to capture an event. So where other people might be doing weekly layouts and choosing the best photo (or two) to put in their album, I end up with an entire page.

Case in point:

I love these Design C page protectors because I can just slot in six 6x4 pictures (or in this case, five and a title card), no cutting or resizing required. Not even any journalling, although I could have replaced one of the pictures with a 6x4 journal card. What I might do is tack a card to the back of one of the pictures, do the journalling and put a tab on the top so that it can easily be pulled out.

(I hear some of my scrapbooking friends laughing hysterically as I mention journalling.)

I also find it very difficult to reduce the number of photos I take (thereby increasing the sorting task) because, even though I already have heaps of photos of a particular thing (Juniordwarf asleep comes to mind), there is always a slightly different angle, a new expression, something that catches my eye that I just have to have a photo of . . . and so I do.

I'm trying to cut back, but I've always been a prolific taker of photos, and once I got a digital camera, there really were no limits. The challenge for me is to try and take fewer photos, but better photos, and to let go of the ones that don't contribute to the story.

I suspect this will take a while to achieve.

the boy and the flower

I finished off a couple more layouts this weekend. Both of them, I can quite proudly say, involved using all products I already had at home, other than one sheet of cardboard.

The first one is a photo of Juniordwarf when he was at the height of his "don't take any more photos of me, Mum" period. He actually asked me to take a photo of him. I was happy to oblige.

Kaisercraft "Rewind" Collection

I really love these papers for boy layouts. This is a good thing, because I have a lot of them.

The second one relates back to a blog post I did last year.

Basic Grey "Infuse Collection"

One of the die cuts from "Infuse"

K & Co mini folder to hold the journalling

After I'd finished the layout I realised I needed to tell the story of why this flower gets its own layout. I was lucky enough to find a small folder that matched the colours of the layout that I could hide the story in - the story is the same as last year's blog post (you need to scroll past the Hipstamatic stuff to read the story there).

And I think this might be the first layout I've done that hasn't included any photos.

finishing some layouts

To prove that I do actually finish things, here are some of my recent layouts.

The first two have been sitting around half finished in the good old "in progress" file for longer than I care to admit.

Autumn Leaves at the Botanical Gardens June 2010

Upside Down May 2010

This is a direct scraplift of a layout I saw in a book I borrowed from the library a couple of years ago. I can't remember the name of the book, but the designer of the layout is Tracey Odachowski. Take a look at the fancy cutting out there.

The third layout has also been sitting in the "in progress" file for a while, but only because I found the toilet training scrapbooking paper (yes, there is such a thing!) in my local shop and wanted to make sure I remembered to use it. I wasn't going to use any photos, just the chart. Then I saw a Becky Fleck sketch that had a large photo with some small round photos/embellishments and thought it would look good to use some small photos as well to tell the story of our toilet training experience. The journalling is hidden behind the chart - the blue tab at the top is where you can pull it out.

Toilet Training April 2010

And two more just because I finished them:

Santa 2011

Using some very old s.e.i papers.

I can read May 2012

I saw the pre-cut title for this page and knew it would be perfect for these photos, which were taken on Mothers Day this year. It's based on a sketch from Creating Keepsakes magazine.

Sultanas Layout - a sketch challenge

I haven't been doing much scrapbooking lately. It seems every time I go into my craft space I spend more time organising my stuff than actually doing anything.

Apparently this means I have too much stuff. Who'd have thought?!

Every second Friday is scrapbooking night at our local scrapbooking shop, and this is where I pull out a half-finished layout from my "work in progress" album, try a few things out, shuffle a few things around on the page, realise the thing I need to add is at home, sigh, and put the page back into the album . . . where it stays for the next six months. Then I pull out the next unfinished project and repeat the process. 

It's a process very much like the one where I shuffle stuff around in my craft space. 

Last fortnight one of my scrapping buddies published a layout on her blog for the A2Z Scraplets May challenge. I had a look at the sketch and realised I had the perfect photos for it, if only I could find them.

When I finally located them (which was very easy to do because my craft space is so well organised . . .), I was amused to find that they were already in the "in progress" album along with the same sketch.  I'd seen it a couple of years ago, and had decided to use those photos for that layout. I hadn't picked out any paper or card, so they were just sitting there, neglected.

During the week I selected some card, papers and other bits and pieces, and last night I finished the layout. It's very rare that I get a project completed the same night I start it, so this is cause for celebration :)

A note on the products: part of the challenge was to use chipboard, so the letters are Basic Grey micro-chip (milk chocolate). Card is Bazzill (lemonade and one of the Swiss dot range) and Coredinations (cappucino). The paper is from a pirate range, left over from Juniordwarf's birthday card. The dies are by mpress via my Cuttlebug and the pen is a Zig Writer (chocolate). Eyelet and ribbon from my stash (aka the stockpile of "too much stuff").

Project Life - January - Part 1

My 2012 Project Life album is coming together quite well. This year I've stuck with my approach of working month by month, rather than using the "Photo a Day" approach, or doing a spread for each week. These are popular ways to use Project Life, but they don't really work for me.

What I do is make several pages of random things that I've taken photos of throughout the month - so usually some pages of Juniordwarf doing his stuff, one or two 'random' pages and then layouts that cover an event or a place that we went to - either a double spread or singe page, depending on how many photos I took.

At the end of last year I started adding in different sized page protectors so I could include things that are bigger than photos in the album as well. Mostly these are A4 and A5 sheet protectors.

For the first page each month I'm using the new Design F page protectors to include some small photos of random things, places and events that I might not otherwise have included. Most of these are from my Instagram photos that I have resized to 2" x 2".

January title page (R)

Instead of using the physical journal cards, I purchased the digital collection from Jessica Sprague. I simply add the photo to the card in Photoshop Elements, include any of the extra elements that I want (usually just the day sticker), and type in my journalling. I wanted to use the same fonts that are used in the Cobalt collection, but couldn't find out what they are. The closest I found for plain text was American Typewriter, which I really like.

Once I'm happy with the psd files I open up a new 6x4 blank file, paste in two of the 3x4 journal cards and then print them as a normal 6x4 photo.

For each month's title card, I'm using one of the digital 6x4 cards and typing in the title and again printing it as a 6x4 photo.

The reverse of the title is one of the digital bi-fold journal cards that I've resized to 6x4 (the bifold cards are slightly narrower than 6" so they can fit into the 3x4 slots). I've then typed in the "month in review", included the digital numbers to represent the dates of the most significant things we did during the month and then hand-written some journalling about those events directly onto the photo.

Reverse of January title page (L)

Then for the rest of the month, I continue the same approach I used last year.

January page 3 (R)

Pages 3 and 4 are a combination of digital and paper. Page 3 includes a lot more journalling than photos. I wanted to include the baked beans recipe and the story behind cooking them. This was another one where I used one of the resized bifold journal cards and added pictures and journalling.

January page 4 (L)

I love the new page protector designs, as they provide a lot more flexibility in terms of the photo sizes and orientations that I can include. Design D, with four portrait 6x4 photos and four horizontal 3x4 journal spots is one I think I'll use a lot.

January page 5 (R)

January page 6 (L)

For the journalling in pages 5 and 6 I used the 3x4 cards and turned them sideways. There are a few designs that have the grid pattern rather than ruled lines, so can be used either way.

A4 and A5 page protectors between pages 6 and 7

January page 7 (R)

I'm also mixing up whether the photos have white borders or no borders because I think it breaks the pages up nicely.

Where I include more than one photo on a 6x4 picture, as in page 7 (above) sometimes I will break the photos up (bottom left) and sometimes I'll keep them all together (top right).

January page 8 (L)

January page 9 (R)

Page 9 is an example of Design B, which I like because I can use one 6x4 portrait and one 3x4 landscape photo plus a journalling card to tell the story. I used it quite a bit last year and I'm glad it's included again this year.

So that's it for Part 1 of January, and my new approach to Project Life. Part 2 will show some layouts that cover specific events, rather than random photos over the course of the month.

Do you use Project Life? What approach are you using? 

the xmas 2011 scrapbooking challenge

Before Xmas last year, I knew Slabs and Juniordwarf had bought me something from the local scrapbooking shop, because Juniordwarf told me they’d been in there. He was supposed to keep it a secret . . . but as there was a 12” square parcel for me under the tree, I think I might have worked it out for myself anyway.

What they got me was a pack of cardstock, some embellishments, a title and some alphabet stickers, together with a note that said:

“When deciding to give you scrapbooking supplies as an Xmas gift we decided we needed to separate ourselves from the rest of the herd/pack. Giving scrapbooking supplies alone, although we were certain they would be used, was not the most exciting or original of ideas. Hence, the challenge concept was born! Juniordwarf and I chose our favourite colours [the cardstock] and Juniordwarf chose yours as well and we went from there. But it wouldn’t be a challenge without rules now would it? 

1.    A page must be created using only the items supplied for the challenge (ink, paint, cutting and adhesive products excepted). 

2.    The page must depict all three members of your immediate family (including yourself). 

3.    There is a time limit of 37 days to complete the challenge i.e. by 1 February 2012.”

Two things about this freaked me out: first, that a picture of me had to be on the page and second, that I had a time limit.

Those people who know me and scrapbooking know that I can take hours fussing about with a layout and then put it away in the too hard basket work in progress file, sometimes for months (possibly years) at a time, occasionally pulling it out, moving things around, not being happy and putting it back in the file.

It took me several weeks to decide which photos I wanted to use, and then I had to convince Lil Sis to alter one of them to match the other one as her Photoshop skills are far superior to mine.

I printed the photos last week, then on Monday decided not to use them and went to the photo lab to print a different one. The photo lab machine had a hissy fit and refused to read my USB drive, so I had no photos and two days to complete the challenge.

I finally got the new photo printed yesterday. I said to Slabs that since there was no time specified in the rules, that meant I had until midnight on 1 February. He agreed, and so I set to work last night to start (and finish) the challenge.

In the end I decided to go with the photos I’d originally planned to use, because I didn't like the new ones after all, and the whole layout came together quite quickly and easily, which surprised me. I ended up having an hour and a half to spare.

I didn’t use all of the products, which Slabs said was the intention – the idea was to give me a choice – but I used all three pieces of cardstock, as well as one packet of pearls, one packet of rhinestones, one of the title words and some of the alphabet stickers. I think being restricted to those products helped in a way, because I wasn’t able to agonise over which letters to use, or where to find the perfect matching paper or stickers, and all I had to do was put the stuff on the page.

I’m really pleased with it, and I think Slabs and Junoriordwarf were too.

Thanks Slabs and Juniordwarf, it was fun. Maybe next time I want to do a layout quickly, you guys can pick out the stuff for me to use and make me stick to it!

Another week in January

I feel a lot less structured now I'm not doing a post a day, so this is just another random 'what we did over the last week or so' post.

It feels weird to be doing it this way.

On Saturday we went out with my family for Slabs' birthday. On the way in to town, Slabs wanted to go and check out the Tassie rugby league. There are four teams in the competition and they play on Saturday afternoons at the Hobart Showgrounds, one game after the other. The game we saw part of was the Southern Rabbitohs vs the Hobart Tigers.

We went out for dinner at a sushi restaurant. Juniordwarf ate a little bit of sushi, some of the beef tataki and some of Nanna’s pork dish. He wouldn’t go near the sashimi, even though we told him it was salmon, which he absolutely loves - at least the smoked variety. Raw salmon was clearly a step too far for him.

He told Slabs he wanted a tie when they went shopping earlier in the week, and he picked one out and was very excited to wear it on Saturday night.

On Sunday we met our friend's Dad, who was in town for the day, and went up Mt Wellington.

Monday was Slabs' birthday. We had our version of an antipasto spread for dinner. Juniordwarf  loved it because we got to have dinner on his car mat on the lounge room floor, which he’d do every day if we’d let him.

Tuesday was unbelievably hot, and I spent most of the evening waiting for the storm to hit. It finally did, and it didn't disappoint.

Can you see the koala in the clouds?

On Thursday I was home with Juniordwarf. It was hot and we just wanted to stay inside. Juniordwarf played his Reading Eggs game (and I've now set up the clunky old eMac so he has his own account and can go straight into it). I got the chance to catch up on some scrapbooking.

And that's about it for our week. Tonight we went to the Two Metre Tall Farm Bar with some friends and I managed not to take a photo for the entire evening. Yes, some things can change!

Project Life Pages December 2011

I've been trying to finish off my 2011 Project Life album, and have finally caught up to the end of the year. There are just a few little bits of journalling left to do, and about 12 actual scrapbook layouts that will slot in at the relevant months.

They're going to take a bit longer.

I'm not going to post all of the pages from December as there are a lot of them, but here are just a few.

These are my standard month title pages (using nine of my favourite pictures of the day - or photos that didn't need to be journalled about in any great detail - and Juniordwarf's Xmas photo because I forgot to leave a slot for it).

I started using the clear number stickers on some of the photos, so am going to go back over the previous months and do that with them too. Before this, I really hadn't used those stickers at all, so at least this way they get used up. Because they only go up to 10, I need to use two stickers for any date past the 10th, so the 1s and 2s are going to be used up a lot more quickly than the other numbers. That's why I'm not numbering all of the pictures.

The next layout is a double spread of Juniordwarf being arty - pictures of him making his wool picture, and then the picture itself (strategically done on a 12x12 piece of cardstock). Also some journalling and examples of how his drawing has improved this year.

And then a layout about our weekend at ours friends' place. I printed a title onto one of the photos and then printed it a bit smaller than normal, with a white border, and stuck it onto a 4x6 card I had cut from the cardstock that came with the kit (top left).

For the journalling, I used one of the bi-fold journal cards but didn't fold it (top right). I stuck a 4x3 photos on the card and journalled on the front and the back.

Next is a Farm Bar page, and this is an example of where I've printed several photos onto 4x6 canvasses.

Two Xmas layouts: First, lots of photos and then an A4 sheet protector with the letter that Santa left for Juniordwarf. On the other side of that is the wrapping paper Juniordwarf made to wrap his present to me that he made at school.

The final set is Juniodwarf and I spending an afternoon together. I put all the photos in the page protector and printed the journalling out onto an A5 sheet, which I included in an A5 sheet protector (both sides). In the other A5 sheet protector I included the brochure from the model railway and a postcard. On the other side of that, I put a brochure relating to the photos on the next page.

So that's it for December, and the 2011 album is almost complete. I just have to do the monthly overview photos (as explained midway through this post) and a couple more journalling spots I missed during the year, and then it's all done.

I'm pinning blog posts and photos that are inspiring me for my 2012 Project Life, so if you want to check out some wonderful albums, have a look on my Pinterest Project Life board.