Scrappy project and Ella book!

Hi Friday scrapbookers and looker-on-ers and those who would scrap but never get around to it.
Today I'm going to share a little scrappy type of project, that I've been working on over the past week or so. I do apologize the hasn't been too many new layouts shown on here - they will come, and very soon - I pinky promise!!!

So this project was a gift for my Mother's birthday a couple of days ago. My Mum is one of those Mums who are extremely tricky to buy for and every year my sisters and Dad and I are all completely stumped at what gift to get her. She is a garage sale queen and her hobby is doing the rounds of the local second hand/st vinnies/salvos/good will type stores, scouring for bargains. So you can't exactly by her a new vase, for example, cause she just picked up 3 perfectly good ones (2 possibly antique) this week while doing the rounds of her favourite pre-loved stores. So you see our dilemma.

We decided (when I say we, I mean 'I') to think outside the box and make something fun that would show her that she is appreciated. My sister was going to a local park about 3 weeks ago, and asked my other sister and I to join her, with all the children. I took this as the perfect opportunity to bring along with me a notebook, and I made them sit on the park bench and recount lessons they learned from our mother.

I planned on assembling all the lessons learned in a mini album and try to find some photos of our mother from our childhood to go with the journaling. We ended up bringing up lots of funny memories too, and sat there laughing hysterically on the park bench, so the book ended up including lots of memories about Mum from our childhood, as well as the lessons we learned.

As I started compiling the journaling into related areas (eg domestic lessons, random life lessons, lessons about laundry/ cooking etc) I had my sisters search through their old photos for anything relevant. I also headed to the local scrap shop and searched for some 70's looking paper, or paper that reminded me of when we were kids.

I started out with an empty 5 x 7" chipboard mini album from Maya Road. I've had it stashed away for a couple of years, and was pleased to put it to use.

The album had 9 chipboard pages (9 double pages) and had planned to do one page with a photo and the facing page with the journaling. I ended up with too many fun 70's photos, so I complied then into a collage in Photoshop Elements and printed them out as nine 5 x 7 enlargements. I tried keep the photos relating to the journaling on the facing page as much as possible. I stuck the 5 x 7 enlargements on to the nine chipboard pages. The album, I discovered wasn't exactly 5 x 7 - it was more like 5.5 x 7" so I had to add a strip of patterned paper across the bottom edge, and ran it right across onto the facing page for continuity.

Then it was onto the journaling. I printed it out at a LOVELY friend's house, who let me take over her printer cause mine still wasn't (isn't) fixed - thank you, friend - and printed each piece as a 5 x 7 journaling block. Then I inked the edges cause I figured they would get dirty with fingerprints otherwise, so I might as well dirty them up ahead of time. The inking actually looked quite good and rustic.


Then I stuck the cardstock journaling pages down, and this is how the inside pages looked.

Then it was onto the cover. I ended up covering back and front with strips of the paper used at the bottom of each page. All nice and vintage/retro and old looking. Stuck everything on with double sided tape. Here's the progress shot.

Here's the front and back covers finished. (AC vinyl thickers for the title)

The spine was giving me grief, so I ended up 'binding' it with a strip of wide black tape and putting an extra strip of pp down the spine to hide the majority of the tape. Looked okay in the end, though.

So there you have it. Got any ideas for your Mother's Christmas present this year?

Now in other exciting news, I have a giveaway for you.

I was invited by Angie Lucas from Ella Publishing to join in with four other women (all from USA) to create an ebook about scrapbooking girls. We each had to do 4 new layouts, so that's 20 layouts altogether.

All five of us contributors, only have girls (!) The book is now ready and available for purchase here through Ella and I have seen it, and it is very cool. I got some heavy inspiration from what I saw in it, and it is much better than buying a magazine, cause each and every page is really good, and there's no ads! With an ebook, you buy it (it's $US5.99) then you can download it, and if you want to, you can then print it out. You can print it out on some cardstock or heavy paper, or if you want to be really swish, print it out on matte photo paper and put it in a nice binder and you'll have a quality book. Ella has a free sampler book on it's site (a mix of all the ebooks) and there are many other ebooks for sale there, so if you were to buy and print several out, you would have an awesome collection of great reference material.

Here's the blurb for this current 'girls ebook' ...

"Got girls? This handy-dandy guidebook is here to help you make sure you capture all the essentials of who they are—the facets of their lives and personalities that matter most—in between all the holiday and event photos that describe what they do. We invited five moms of girls (and only girls) to brainstorm a list of 20 essential “girly” topics and create stunning layout examples for each. They offered up their best ideas for making their girls’ layouts meaningful, authentic, and unique. And with 13 daughters, ranging in age from 3 to 16, these women know a thing or two about buttons and butterflies, princess costumes and prom dresses. Let's get girly!" p.s. Ella has an Essential Guide for Scrapbooking Boys, too! Watch for it in September 2010.

Ella Publishing has given me as a contributor, TWO FREE ebooks to give away to two of my blog readers! It is a 30 page book, with 20 brand new layouts for girls and LOTS more tips and ideas and variations. And I've seen it, and it's good!!!

All you need to do to win this ebook is leave me a comment, and tell me something like, do you scrapbook? When do you scrapbook? Do you wish you actually did do some scrapbooking? what do you love/hate about scrapbooking? tell me whatever you want, just leave me a comment and I will pick two people to receive an ebook (through email, I will send you a special code to download).

You have up until and including Sept 1st to leave a comment. Click on the 'comments' tag at the end of the post. You don't have to have an 'account' or whatever to leave a comment, just sign in as an anonymous person, but leave your name in your comment.

See you soon!

SO many photos! (grab a cuppa)

Still no scrapping on the home front, but lots of photos and a little project that I've been working on this week - scrap related!

So this has been what's been going on over the last week or so.

We went to my parents house for my Dad's birthday. They have a VERY excellent lane at the back of their house where my sisters and I grew up climbing trees and riding bikes. Only four house back on to the lane, so it's a great place for bike riding. I took these photos of the cousins hanging in the lane that we used to.

I already have that top photo printed, and am just waiting for my stupid printer so I can scrap it. Love the memories the photo will hold for the kids.

I've been painting away, and went on a still life fruit tangent which was very fun, in between the usual landscapes.

We've had an awesome lion suit for years in the cupboard, but it now has to be returned to it's rightful owner (my Aunty) who just lent it to us til her own grandchildren were big enough to wear it. I've been wanting to take photos of someone in it for a couple of years now but no one would ever put it on and perform for me on command, and when they did have it on, it was usually in the middle of us entertaining or something, and it wasn't the right time to break out the camera. So last week, Lucy suddenly and out of the blue, said "okay Mum, I'll put on that lion suit, you can take photos and you can even put it on your blog". So I went with it, and snapped my little lion in the front yard. Her complexion and brown eyes actually makes her the perfect lion cub.

We also played our last soccer game of the season, much to Amelia's devastation. Yes, yes, so she played with a slightly fractured wrist. Yes, yes, we are awful parents, but she MADE us let her play. She was in full negotiations with the doctor, about whether she could play - "how about just one half? and what about training, can I train??" She was SO mad that she needed a cast. Not happy Jan. (Cultural saying for non-aussies). She was in tears that this was the last game of the season - she loves it so much, and look at that grin - she literally plays the whole game with a grin on her face! I hope that other gorgeous boy's parents don't mind him being here. I have no idea who he is, and I'm not normally into putting strangers kids on the internet but I just loved the shot taken for the other end of the field and cropped/zoomed in, with both of them having such fun.

Last weekend, Marc was working away (speaking at a conference) and the rule is if you go away you take a child (except the rule doesn't apply to me, and it's actually fine for him to take a child, so don't worry, I'm not a completely nutty and demanding psycho wife!). Anyway, in the past he has taken one or both of the older girls, but this time it was Lucy's turn, and she was SO excited, to be Daddy's only special girl for the weekend. She had a ball, declaring it 'best, ever!'

We also had the public speaking this week, with both oldest girls placing in the finals - a first time for Amelia who was so nervous she was shaking, poor thing. Eldest was just loving the chance to show off to the crowd. No nerves there..

Here was Amelia before she went on, sitting next to the teacher.

I also this week decided I want to take more photos of families around here as a little fun thing to do on the side. Recently I took these of some lovely friends (Hi Carly, hope you don't mind me posting these!!!) and had so much fun I'd like to do more! There's nothing like capturing these moments for someone, who otherwise might not get that moment captured! So if you live south Sydney region, and have been thinking about getting some pics taken of you and your kids, email me (link under 'about me' section at the top of blog) and I'll send you some info. Don't worry, it's not at all scary!

And I did mention I have been working on a scrap related project this week, but I'll have to show you in full next week, cause it is for a birthday present for an extended family member and I don't want them to see it here, or hear about it here from nice friends who say, "oh I saw your present on...yada yada". So I will give you a sneak peek right now, and come back next week if you want to see more.

See you soon xxx

P.S. Just reminiscing about my Lucy, below. It is so fleeting, is it not?

no printer scrapping and some pics

Hey, I made my Friday post actually arrive on Friday this time - not 18 hours late on the following day like last week.

I still haven't got my printer back from the shop - that reminds me I MUST call AGAIN today (only for the 20th time since the fiasco started) and see what's going on - so scrapbooking has been minimal.

I did do a layout for a scrapbooking memories assignment, but had to hand write the journaling, so if you get that magazine in a few months and see a strange handwritten layout and matching card by yours truly, you'll know why it's handwritten!!

So a few weeks ago, we were at a regional gallery thing, with a restaurant and park-like surrounds with my sisters and their children. All the kids were peering over a wall into a creek below and luckily the camera was on hand for this shot of all the cousins.

As I watched my girls running around the gardens of this gallery that day, I pondered 'where have my girly girls gone?' Over the last twelve months, the younger girls have taken their big sisters lead and slowly morphed into grungy, black, navy and grey clothing. No one will wear pink, or a dress of any sort - not even a denim skirt. One daughter came home from school recently and said in a horrified voice 'so and so bought a doll to school today - can you believe that!!'. Long gone are even the dolls. Yet strangely, they don't want to look like boys. We were at the shoe store just yesterday trying, in vain, to find some shoes. We went to the girl section and found fair amounts of pink, purple, bling and glitter, which cause fake vomit-acting all around, but then the boy section was too boyish and off limits too. I tell them there are only two sections available, in shoes and clothes - boys or girls - there are no in between sections called 'for those who are girls but don't want to dress like girls'. Needless to say, left the shoe shop empty handed.
So as I tried to recall just how and when this phenomenon took place, I decided take a photo of them as they were dressed that day. (What am I to do with all that pink cardstock I have??)

There's not much I can do about the grunge skater look going on here - I have to pick my battles, and it's a bit of a battle everyday as it is with the clothes and hair dramas of three daughters. I just need to accept and move on!

THEN, as weirdness would have it, with in days Elizabeth Dillow and Angie Lucas emailed me to ask if I could do a layout on girls not being stereotypically girls? So I did the following layout, and while I am less that thrilled with the handwritten journaling, I'll share it with you anyway - as I have nothing else! If you want to read the article in which this layout was featured it is over here at Ella Publishing.

To up date you on the book character dress up requirement at school this week, we ended up with a Hermione from Harry Potter, Minnie mouse - she refused to be a fairy, ballerina or princess like all the other little kindergarten girls, but when anyone suggested she was Mickey Mouse she firmly corrected them: "I'm Minnie" (see, not too girly, but definitely not boy) and Pippi longstocking. All were happy with their looks, even though two were only wearing skirts for the 'dressing-up' required!

And one more funny photo in case you need a giggle today. My sisters and I were looking through some old photos and found this one which sparked very strong memories of our childhood. In our house in the seventies, much of the furniture (ie our high chair, the dining room chairs etc) was painted bright orange! That's me, the pudgy baby in front of my now- vintage-and-surely-not-up-to-current-safety-standards high chair. You can't really tell here thanks to the large amount of um..fat.. but I am wearing orange bloomers over my nappy. Gotta love being a seventies baby!!

See you next week.

PS. Don't forget to leave a comment so that I know that someone, (anyone?) was here! Your comments always keep me wonderfully entertained! Thanks.

Friday scrapping on Saturday...

ummm....so I didn't quite get to the ol' blog yesterday, and as I speak I have rushed home between game 1 and 2 of 3 soccer games, a ballet lesson and two birthday parties. You know how it is....
So here I am about 18 hours late. My big frustration this week is that my printer is in the shop being repaired (has been there for TWO weeks) and they are waiting on a part. Just because the printer is a million years old and the part isn't readily in stock...sigh....I love my little printer and I'm not quite ready to part with it for a new one. And my credit card balance isn't ready for that either. So I haven't scrapped much. It's frustrating cause I WANT to and am totally in the mood, and yes I know I can scrap without a computer, and I have done... but wasn't too thrilled with the page, so I am scared to try it again. My handwriting just doesn't work as well when there is a lot to say.
So I'll show you how I scrapped those house-y pictures that I took a month or so ago - I use a CZ template cause I couldn't think of another easy fast way of scrapping lots of pics - but this is it for now - I am officially all templated out.

And I also did this page about Amaris and how ballet is for us at the moment - the last page before my printer died.

Gotta rush back to game 2 of the soccers.

PS. Sorry to those who have emailed me with questions....I will back to you soon! I hope!