More holiday scrapping...

Warning Long Post - cup of coffee advisable!!

Oh my goodness the way things are going I might actually complete a whole album, which is totally unheard of for me!  Does anybody else have the habit of buying a beautiful scrapbook doing a couple of pages and then moving on.  Oh dear I have some terrible habits, but not for much longer because now I've gone digital scrapbooking is a breeze.

Actually I'm not completely digital and never will be as I love to add bits and I really don't think you can beat real texture on pages.  I'm using the new Craft Art Platinum by Serif and even with all the blips the programme has at the moment I still love it.

This is my very first 8" by 8" page created from scatch.  So proud of myself.  I matted it on to brown card after printing and trimming so that whatever I did on the facing page could be matched with the first page.  I also added a few real gems to highlight the starfish.

For the other page of the double page spread I wanted to use one of the photos of the hotel that I had already had printed, but I still wanted the pages to match so I printed an 8 by 8 page of the background paper to work on and added my own bits.

 

I matted the background on to the same brown card as my digi page and also used the same brown to mat the photo and as a base for the die cut text mat.  I printed the hotel name and text on to inkjet acetate and then attached this using a brad to a die cut piece of the backing paper.  I stamped the shell border on to a natural piece of coloured paper using Versefine sepia ink.

My next two pages are where I started to get really adventurous - well for a newbie anyway!  Again photos from the same holiday, but this time pool pics.

 

I don't know about anyone else, but we always seem to take loads of pics round the pool and they are all so similar really.  Anyway, I decided to just pull one favourite out of the masses and a few fun ones too. 

Both of my pages were started from scratch and as I love working with sketches so much in my card making I decided to give it a try in the digi scrapbook world.  

 

I used the fab sketch at Sketch Saturday.  I did loose some of the design elements, but the sketch gave me a good base starting point for my page.  Again I matted the piece on to blue card and added real chip board letters for my title.

The facing page was a real fun one to do.  I planned it out on one page printing the background including the fish, bubbles and seaweed.  Then I printed the circular photos on another page so that I could mat them on white (edges tinted with Distress ink) circular die cuts to add depth.  After a massive craft stash flying everywhere search I found the little 'bubbles' which I believe were in my Graphicus goodie box and added them to picture.

Fingers crossed that my scrapbook pages will be acceptable for the challenges at ...

• Stamptacular - Whatever (the shells are stamped on the border on the hotel page and while not a big part of the project I think it's fun to be able to bring stamping and scrapping together).
• CD Sunday - Love is in the Air (not sure whether I'll get away with this, but they do say your interpretation of the theme and as I love my new Craft Artist CD I reckon it counts.)

Have a fantastic evening everyone and do pop back on Friday when it will be Bah! Humbug! day again.  

Love and hugs

Ann xxx

On the beach part 2...

Okay it's official I'm totally addicted to my new Craft Artist Platinum programme.  It's just so easy and so much fun.  This is another 'cheats' page although I did alter it slightly both moving things around and making the photos larger.  They looked blurred in this photo but are fine in real life - honest!

When printing the 8 x 8 page I'm making sure that there is space around the page to cut it down so that I can mat it on to card.  On this photo I used the corrugated card that I used on the last page I did as a mat with slit corners to hold the photo.  Using the corrugated card again makes the two pages work as a double page spread.  My other page is here.  The sentiment was a predone one and I do like it, but would have preferred to end it 'on the Coast of Boa Vista'.  I really should have slowed down and found out how to change the text.  Note to self 'don't be so hasty'.

I've even going to be brave and enter this in to some challenges - eeek!

• CD Sunday - 'Where waters meet' - mine is where waters meet the beach.
• Crafty Creations - Heat it up - thinking about warmer weather

Right I'm off to do pages 3 and 4 and I'm not cheating this time.  I'm doing the whole page myself.  Have a fabulous weekend everyone.

Love and hugs

Ann xxx

Bah! Humbug! Day...

Can't believe it's Friday again and time for another challenge at Bah! Humbug!  This week is a super easy challenge called 'An Oldie but a Goldie' and we are encouraging everyone to take a look at their old stash.  We want everyone to pull out something they love and want to use again or maybe even for the first time if you're like me and buy things, but don't always use them.

My snowman card was made using a stamp I've had for ages.  I love it to pieces, but I just never got round to inking it up.  Maybe I should buy less and use more - eeeeeeeeeeek no!

To create my card I stamped the image on to acetate and then attached the acetate to blue and white sky effect glitter card using glitter brads.  Then I stamped the image twice on to white card.  I coloured and glittered the snowman and then cut him out before attaching him to the front of the acetate.  I also cut out an extra layer of the snow at his feet to give a little more dimension.

The bottom half of the white card is embossed using a herringbone patterned embossing folder (yeah that's twice this week I used something other than Swiss Dots).  The tags were cut using a Cuttlebug tag die.

My second set of cards for this week's challenge make use of my Cuttlebug snowflake die and embossing folder.  I've had this for ages and I just love it.  I think the photo is pretty self explanatory and does anyone read the writing on blogs anyway.  I for one am terrible for just looking at the pretty pictures.

Additional challenges...

• Cutie Sunday - anything goes
• CPS Card Sketches - used the sketch for my snowflake cards.
• My time to Craft - Emboss, Emboss Emboss

Have a fantastic weekend everyone.  Hope you can find time to dig out the gems in your stash that you haven't used for ages and play with us at Bah! Humbug!
Love and Hugs
Ann xxx