A Great Love Story - 1st Valentine

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog update for a special post-Valentine layout!

Perhaps this sounds shocking but I've never made a Valentine's LO before; I've never really had reason to.  Until now.  You see, over the Christmas holidays while I was visiting my parents and the ice storms hit, we spent part of an evening without hydro.  We lit candles and huddled down under blankets in the living room and just talked; and my Mum shared with me the most touching story about my grandfather buying me my first Valentine card just weeks after I was born.  In fact, that whole first year of my life, he bought me a card for every celebration.  Cue sappy nostalgia and I knew I had to record this precious story.

1st Valentine

My original inspiration for this LO actually came from some Dear Lizzy patterned paper of colourful little envelopes sealed with hearts.  I had every intention of using it on this LO but it was just too busy and detracting from the other elements but it sparked the inspiration to use the mini envelopes with hearts in lieu of a photo or the card itself.

I'm totally in love with this collage of elements; there are so many little bits and bobs I've been holding onto for just the 'right' LO - the Maggie Holmes fabric frames (especially this polka dot one with 'loved' stitched onto it), the Amy Tan ticket, the resin cameo from Marianne's lovely Stash Busters prize parcel, the little yellow bow - the list goes on.

I loved the vintage watercolour slide frame of the original Crate Paper patterned paper I used for the background.  Then I did some mixed media work on it; creating a gold sunburst coming out of the envelopes with some Heidi Swapp gold lame mist, some texture paste hearts between the rays and then an explosion of some truly awesome puffy stickers I found at my local grocery store of all places!  Some fairly generous Heidi Swapp primrose spatters, too.

Incidentally, I've since asked my Mum about that old Valentine card and if there's any chance she may still have it.  It may be buried in a baby album or an old photo album; I'll have to see when I return for Christmas again this year but either way, the story is now recorded and when I've finally found the right words, they'll find a home in that little pink envelope.  Love you, Grandpa.

Pinspiration Sunday

Well it's that time again - Sunday!  I can't quite fathom where all the time goes and yet it still doesn't feel like Christmas is right around the corner - but it is (and to be honest, I'm starting to panic a wee bit).  Anyway, let's not get into that discussion and instead go grab your hot beverage of choice and come see what's been inspiring me this week.

Currently:
* making - class photo scrapbooking series
* eating - cinnamon crisp bread and peanut butter
* drinking - water
* wearing - new jeans, shirt & cardie
* weather - clear, 8C
* feeling - hungry
* wanting - to play with my new box of 2Peas goodies
* needing - more days in the week
* planning - this year's Christmas cards
* thinking - very little these days (or so it seems)
* loving - my new bicycle
* enjoying - possibly the last beautiful, sunny day before winter sets in

And now on to the pins...

Maple Leaf Throw Quilt

Another lovely maple leaf quilt.  I really like the use of negative space and the diagonal design.

Tutorial: Hiding Journaling in Plain Sight

This is a clever idea for journaling on your background paper and then applying your embellishments with acetate, which can be lifted or removed to read the full story (or not).

Crafty by ScrapNatya

I love scrapbooking supplies but there is also something very fun in re-purposing other items to use in one's craft.  I really love how these dress pattern tissues have been worked into the background of the LO.

Washi Tape Tree Card

Are you looking for a quick and easy Christmas card idea?  Perhaps this is an idea for you - a washi tape tree, some zigzag stitching garland and a few buttons and accents to decorate.  Done!

DIY Floss Feathers

Several of the 2Peas Garden Girls have challenges relating to feathers right now.  Well, how about these fab embroidery floss feathers for a great textural addition to your LOs and cards?

Elle's Studio Christmas Wood Veneer

How gorgeous are these?!  I wish I'd known about these before putting in my recent 2Peas order (although I'm not sure they're currently being carried there).

My Month in Numbers: #5

If you liked the My Month in Numbers idea, here is the latest addition for Nov. 2013.  I must admit, I haven't started this yet but it could be on my New Years scrapping resolution list.

Potpourri Palette

And how about this colour palette?  The colours are such unusual combinations but they work so well together.  I think these could make a really lovely project come to life.

Keukenhof Snapshots

So last week I was following CHA-S quite closely through manufacturer blogs and 2Peas but I didn't have much inspiration for anything new to scrap, even though I wanting to get in on some of the 2Peas CHA challenge action.  Thankfully, my friend Anya came down to visit for the weekend and we enjoyed some crop time together and that really helped to inspire me into working on a new page, with the bonus of being able to catch up with a good friend I've not seen much in the last year - thanks, Anya!

So I decided to finally start scrapping some of my Amsterdam holiday photos from 2011.  I spent an entire day at Keukenhof gardens and have probably close to 100 flower/garden photos and let's face it, it's pretty darn difficult to not find beautiful flowers inspiring (or at least, for me).  So here's my finished page:

Keukenhof Snapshots

I started by pulling out my absolute favourite flower photos, looking for a selection of different types, shapes and colours.  That narrowed things down to 24 photos, which I thought was fairly impressive on its own.  Later I paired this down further to 12 photos.

I decided that using Polaroid-style frames would be the best way of featuring so many photos on a page so I got to work hand-cutting scraps of white cardstock.  Since I wanted the photos to remain the focus point, I chose to use a tone-on-tone design.  I used a black fine-liner pen to doodle around the frames and then found a distressed patterned paper sheet that also had a doodled frame around it for the background - perfect!

My original thought was to use a grid layout, perhaps titled and with the photos staggered to give it some movement and energy on the page.  Then I decided it would be cute to have the photos hanging from little washing lines instead and found some natural fibre twine that would fit well with the nature-theme and tone-on-tone design.  I also used some natural wooden mini clothes pegs to highlight my favourite photo of the bunch and I also clipped one onto my journaling card.  The rest of the photos I attached to the line using washi tapes.

I'm always very good when I go on holiday about keeping memorabilia but I'm less good about organising and storing it once I get home.  I had all of my Amsterdam bits and bobs in a plastic bag (and knew where to find it - bonus!) but I often get so into making a travel layout that I forget to check the bag and pull out material to plan into the page until too far into the design process.  But not this time - I got into that bag and pulled out my e-ticket, Keukenhof business card and train ticket to the gardens and decided I would work them and the journaling card into the design using a glassine bag, which would also help to cover up a motif on the background paper that didn't fit the page and I layered all of that under the last photo.

Again, because I wanted to keep the photos as the focus, I used basic black Thickers and letter stickers for my title and I stamped in a grey that wouldn't be over-powering on the page.  I also kept my embellishments minimal (although Anya teased me that she would have stopped *ages* ago - ha!).  I was also quite pleased with myself that I managed to work in the magenta coloured vellum stickers from the Yes, Please sticker sheet - I love how virtually any colour will work with most flowers.

I cleaned up quite well on the challenge prompts with just this one layout (totally impressed myself):

• Stash Busters - use scraps (white cardstock for frames)
• 2Peas - Glitter Girl (focus on photos)
• 2Peas - Scrap Your Stash (use frames)
• CHA 3 Pieces of Memorabilia (tickets x2, business card)
• CHA 4 Elements of Nature (flowers, birds, butterflies, ladybird)
• CHA 5 Senses (journaled about sight and scent)
• CHA 10 photos (used 12)

Weekend crop results - Anya with her finished page and my nearly-finished page:

Such fun!  I'm very much looking forward to when she moves back closer, hopefully in the next few months, and we can do these things more often.