Scrapping weekend

I've just come back from a fantastic scrapping weekend in Selborne with my 365 buddies. Can't believe this is the 4th year we have met up for a retreat, time flies!

As well as lots of chat and laughter, I was very productive in the scrapping front. It was so windy today I had to take photos of my LOs indoors this afternoon so they're not the best colours and some look a bit crooked but they are all straight honest!

I did my September pages for Project 12

and a couple of my Total Papercraft kits

I did the UKS weekly challenge from last week which was set by my teamie Suze, and combined it with our team sketch for this month too. The criteria was 3 lots of 3 things (3 people in the photos, 3 patterned papers, 3 brads), use blue not pink and include an everyday item (book page)

This LO was the blind/speed scrap challenge that Barbara kindly set for us on Sunday - was a bit scary cutting papers etc not knowing where the bits would go or how the finished LO would look!

and this is a LO for one of the sketch challenges

I've also done most of the LO for the UKS house challenge but need to add a title. It will need to wait though, as all those late nights chatting have caught up with me and I'm too tired to do it tonight!

I also had a go at making these sock snowmen.... they are so cute aren't they? Mine are the 2 blue ones - I need to get more white socks so I can make one for each of us to have on the fireplace over Christmas etc because they look cute as a family I think....

and this is the fab altered matchbox that Shirley taught us on Saturday - thanks so much Shirley, it's something I would never had done normally but I love it! Mine's the red one

Thanks to Paula for organising the retreat and for everyone making it such a great weekend. Can't wait til the next one!

Red Ribbons CyberCrop

Over on UKS, Sandra and Jo kindly put together a cybercrop for the Red Ribbons House. Loads of great challenges over the weekend, and you get this week to upload which is a big bonus as I didn't have time to do much over the weekend.

Here's the LOs I have done so far:

Challenge 2 - Shimelle's starting point (combined with the weekly challenge too)

I'd seen these starting point challenges on Shimelle's blog but hadn't really paid much attention. Will need to go back and have another look though, as it's a great way to get inspiration for a LO.... I combined this with the weekly challenge too - anticipation theme (our honeymoon), use clock or clock hands (sticker by flower), include something from the event (Disney entry ticket), use horrible stash (patterned chipboard letters that don't match anything, painted pink). Thanks for a great challenge Nerlly :)

Challenge 6 - speed scrap

LOL anyone who knows me will think this was impossible for me as I am such a faffer!! But I took the scraps left over from a kit and just added 2 matching flowers and 3 buttons to it. The result is this - a very simple LO but I like it that way as I love the photo and wanted the focus on that. And the LO was done in 30 mins - unbelievable and unlikely to be repeated!.

Mandy's challenge

I went with the Indian takeaway, so used rich colours and added some stickles to the branch for a bit of bling.

I've printed a few more of the challenges out and hope to have a go at some this week. Need to get time to look at everyone else's LO too, as lots of fab work being uploaded from my fellow ribbons.

Crop LOs

We had an all day crop last weekend and for once I was actually quite productive! We all had a kit with gorgeous papers from MME, and here's the LO I did with that:

I took inspiration from a LO I found on an American lady's blog, but I can't find it again now :( Her LO was a bit more girly, but I like the way she had cut the glittered swirls from the paper and so I went with that.

I also managed to do my Project 12 August pages so up to date with that now - yay!

(shame the background has come out looking blue, it's actually white....)

and to do a LO based on one of my UKS team's sketches. Many thanks to zaraandmax for sharing the tractor template in the Robo section on UKS.... I cut it from different colours and layered it up - I think it looks pretty cute!

Project 12 so far

I've been playing along with the Project 12 challenge and although I got a bit behind over the summer, I have done a LO for each month documenting this year and the album is coming together quite nicely I think. Here's my pages so far (some of the photos are a bit naff, sorry about that!)....







I'm hoping to get the August LO done before it's time to do September's!

AMAM - envelope book

For those doing the AMAM challenge over on UKS, I've volunteered to post a mini book for this month too.

I made one of these books from instructions shared by Karen at Total Papercrafts - please pop over to her shop and/or blog to see her monthly kits and other goodies she sells :)

It's a great mini if you want to add loads of photos or even receipts/journalling etc. To make one, you will need:

8 x DL size envelopes (you can have less pages - I only had 7 as I wanted a page a day for our holiday)

2 x pieces of chipboard 5.5" x 4.5" (I've used pages from an old board book that we no longer need)

15 x patterned paper pieces 4.75" wide x 4" high (7 envelopes need 13 pieces, so 6 envelopes would need 11 etc)

10 x patterned paper pieces 3.25" wide x 4" high (7 envelopes need 9 pieces, so 6 envelopes would need 8 etc)

Note: I've used cardstock weight double sided paper. I would recommend this as it makes the 'flaps' much easier. If you're using normal weight single sided paper, you will need twice as many smaller pieces of paper as you will need to cover the inside of your flap pieces as well. I just cut my 12" x 12" sheets into 4" strips and then trimmed to the above sizes but it works equally well using up lots of smaller scraps.

2 x covers for the book, either 2 pieces of patterned paper 6.5" x 5.5", or 6-8 extra smaller pieces of patterned paper as above to create a patchwork effect as on the example.

2 x 13" lengths of ribbon

Tools/extras:

co-ordinating inkpad
strong double side tape - and normal DST if you don't want to use all up your good stuff ;-)
corner rounder
1" circle punch
scorer and bone folder
ribbon/flowers/rub-ons etc to decorate pages
lettering for title

To get started, seal all your envelopes down and trim a sliver from each of the narrow ends - the envelopes should now measure 8.5" long. With the envelope laying horizontally and the seal flap across the top edge, score and fold 3.5" from the left hand edge. This creates a large and small page as below. Do the same for all envelopes.

Next use a circle punch to cut a small semi-circle from the centre of each open end of the envelope. Then lightly ink all the edges, front and back, of each envelope included both sides of the fold.

Now it's time to put the pages together. Take one envelope with the smaller page on the top, and the fold to the left. Apply strong double side tape about 0.25" in from the left edge - leaving this gap allows the book to 'flex' a bit like an accordion, so it won't sit in a v-shape if you pad out the pages a bit. I'm a bit tight, so I use normal double sided tape down the right edge of the smaller page.

(note: you'll see I forgot to punch the semi circle before applying the tape and sticking together - I thought it was a bit of a faff considering you then have to punch the paper you cover them with - but it's definitely better to punch before sticking together, or you can't punch both out sides of the smaller pages. It's also easier to get the punch central when it's not all stuck together.)

Now stick another envelope on the top of this one, again with the fold to the left and the smaller page on the top. Repeat until all envelopes stuck together..... it will look like this:

It's now time to cover the pages..... round off the corners from the pieces of patterned paper, ink the edges and attach small and large pieces to the respective pages in the book, like so:

(I'd kind of caught up with the semi circle punching by this point lol)

Then you have to punch through the paper to match the envelopes:

Once you have covered all pages, ink round all the semi circles.

Next you need to make the flaps. Take a large piece of the patterned paper, round the left hand edge corners, then score along and fold 2.5" from the left edge:

Apply double sided tape to the reverse of the straight edged piece of the flap....

turn to the next page in the mini book, then slip the straight edge of the flap (the smaller side) into the envelope opening of the smaller page on the back of the larger page, like so:

It will then look like this when in place... this is the front of the page you are working on:

and this is the flap open to reveal a pocket for more photos/journalling etc

and this is the next page in the book, ie the back of the larger page:

Repeat this for all pages except the last large one, as this will be stuck to the cover.

To make the covers, take your chipboard pieces and either cover in one large piece of patterned paper, or use smaller pieces to make a kind of patchwork look:

I mitred the corners, scored along the folds then used a bone folder to give a neat finish to the edges. You need about 0.25" to be folded over and stuck on the reverse of the chipboard pieces.

I then added ribbon across the horizontal join in the papers, so I could tie the book shut. You could use a magnetic closure if you wanted to, but I don't have any in my stash....

Stick the front and back pages to the covers. You will need to slip the remaining small pieces of patterned paper inside the envelopes and onto the reverse of the covers to complete the book:

ta-da! All done :)


and here's some piccies of mine after the photos etc have been added:

and even though it is quite full and pads out a fair bit, it still sits nice and 'square':

I hope you enjoy making this mini book. Many thanks again to Karen at Total Papercrafts for showing me this one, I love how easy it is to make yet so effective at holding tons of photos.

AMAM - star book

I've volunteered to set the A Mini A Month challenge for this month over on UKScrappers, so here's how to make a star book like this one.....

You will need:

3 sheets of patterned paper (A)

3 sheets of colour 1 cardstock (B) - I used pink

2½ sheets of colour 2 cardstock (C) - I used white

2 lengths of ribbon approx 20cm long

Double sided tape

A trimmer, or ruler and craft knife - the key is to cut the pieces accurately and square ;-)

The patterned papers can be the same, or 2 different to repeat the pattern(s) across the book, or double sided which will give you a different look to each page - I've used 3 different ones for this one.

Now cut the pieces to the right size:

cut ONE (B) card to 14.5cm x 30cm - this is the cover
cut FIVE (C) card to 14.5cm x 29cm
cut FIVE (B) card to 14.5cm x 27cm
cut FIVE (A) patterned paper to 14.5cm x 25cm (be sure to check any patterns are going horizontally as this is the way the page will sit within the mini book)

Next take the cover, and score at 14.5cm and 15.5cm. Fold along these lines to make a spine. I used a lollipop stick to make a nice crisp fold.

Now fold all other pieces in half....


You are now ready to attach together. Take the pieces of the (C) cardstock - the longest ones - and add DST along the non folded edge like so:

stick to another piece of the cardstock ensuring the folds and edges are lined up. You will end up with this:

Now take the (B) pieces, use DST along the non folded edges and stick to the insides of the (C) pieces - like this:

Add the ribbon to the inside of the front and back of the covers. I used extra strong DST under the ribbon to make sure it stayed in place, and then a strip of normal DST over the top:

then stick to the outside of the pages.

You may find it easier to decorate the patterned paper pages before adding them to the star book, but I've just stuck mine in as the photos I will add to my book contain other people's children and so I cannot share them online. You just stick them to the inside of the (B) pieces like this:

After you have your cover on, the book will look like this. I used a piece of the left over patterned paper and a scrap of cardstock to mat it onto the front cover.




Here's the one I made a while ago which is decorated inside:


you just use the ribbon to tie it open in a star so all pages are on view:


The mini star book:

I've adjusted the sizes so this book can be made from 2 sheets of co-ordinating cardstock, a scrap of patterned paper 15cm x 8cm and 2 lengths of ribbon about 15cm long.

First cut 6 'inner' star pages (I used pink cardstock) to be 15cm x 8cm. Fold these in half.

Then cut 6 'outer' (ie the pages you decorate - I used brown cardstock) to be 12cm x 8cm. Again fold in half.

The only difference with this mini star book is that I find it is better to 'support' the folded spines by using a bit of extra strong DST at each end along the folded edge:

Then stick the larger pieces together as before:


and add the smaller pieces, just using DST along the non folded edge as for the larger book:


There isn't a spined cover for this one. Just cut 2 pieces of patterned paper to 8cm x 7.5cm, add ribbon to the inside of both pieces then stick to the front and back of the pages.

My son and I made this one into a thank you card for his teacher, it has a little poem inside and I'm hoping to get a photo of them together to add to the back page before giving it to her.


I hope you enjoy making star books this month :-)