Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 2016. Show all posts

Friday, 15 July 2016

16 loves {June 2016}

Welcome to the next in the series {16 loves} for 2016.

For the last few years, I've been sharing my loves each month - a little bit of everything that has caught my eye or been enjoyed over the last month. So, a new year and new inspiration. I hope you will come back each month to see if there is anything in my list to inspire you. 

To see what's inspired me in the past, click to find all my {13 loves}, my {14 loves}, my {15 loves} and my {16 loves}.

I hope there's something in here to inspire you or maybe just make you smile.

This is late but I was under the weather last month and just never seemed to catch up on myself. Just in time for the new one tomorrow...


one

This is my baby, baby brother at his end of degree art show at Central Saint Martins in London. I was unable to attend, but I was a proud big sister all the same and was happy to receive a few photos from him. 


two

Back in April, we had a Queen Elizabeth II birthday tea party to celebrate her 90th. And so in June, we decided to do it again on the weekend of her official celebrations. These amazing biscuits were given to me by my mum in April and so they came out again this time around. Too gorgeous to eat although they are delicious!


three

And once again, we decorated the table in full British style. Not quite as much as the first tea party in April but fancy all the same.


four

I was inspired by using up dozens of tiny scraps from my May Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, Sprinkle, for this layout which I particularly love.


five

It's not often that I notice the number on my odometer so imagine my delight when I saw this round number. Now to manage to notice 100,000!


six

FaceTime with family. Got to love how modern technology keeps us connected.


seven

The Scrapabilly June kit featured the much loved Paige Evans Fancy Free collection for Pink Paislee. I was totally inspired by Paige's style and this one in particular came out just as it was in my mind. I'm totally loving the white on white effect of Cameo cut die-cuts.


eight

For my June Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit, Pot Pourri, I finally plucked up the courage to try out the "print & cut" function on my Cameo and realised just how easy it is! I printed off a bunch of designs for my kit (most too big to be honest but it's a learning curve) and hope to incorporate some in future scrapping as well as print and cut more in the future. My use of the Cameo goes in spurts and I need to be more consistent. I am always amazed at the results and how much I love using die-cuts on my pages.


nine

LOAD516 came to an end and while I didn't quite manage a page every single day in the month, I did complete 31 pages in the 31 days overall. I made my usual pile photos and put together this layout which was just what I wanted. It was a great LOAD month - as always :-) 


ten

Sometimes, I decide to take a specifically staged photo for a layout I have in mind. And sometimes, the result is even better than I hoped for. I must remember to use the bokeh effect more often.


eleven

I adore Carpool Karaoke but this has to be my favourite. One to watch and smile.




twelve

We spruced up the balcony with boxes and flowers and all sorts of plants. For this girl with decidedly ungreen fingers, it's quite the challenge. Love the results.


thirteen

And this rose was such a thoughtful gift. Pretty in pink and beautifully scented. Perfect.


fourteen

The Simple Stories Sunshine & Happiness collection (from Scrapabilly here) is great. I treated myself to a few items from it and these enamels were a must-have. Such great summer colours.



fifteen

This piece of paper from the Carta Bella Beach Day collection was featured in the Scrapabilly June kit (available here) and it was so gorgeous, I had to buy a second sheet to hoard keep.


sixteen

Adore this. Do I need to say more? 






Ilove you to share your own {16 loves} lists with me. Why not link up in the comments below?


{16 loves} is a series that will feature on my blog each 16th of the month

Saturday, 30 January 2016

10 years!

14th January 2006 was a very significant in the history of Lisa. This was the day (although it might have been a day or two either side of this!) when I stepped inside my first scrapbook shop on a visit home to the UK and caught a glimpse of my very first piece of BasicGrey paper. And I was lost. Forever.

It was at that moment that I knew I had discovered something that I would love and that I had been looking for for a long time without even knowing it!

I'd been reading about this thing called "scrapbooking" online for some time. I think first through Flylady and then just generally as I looked into it and tried to work out what it really "was". It took me about 6 months before I felt confident that I understood the concept enough to talk to my sister about it and her interest was piqued. So when I found a shop that stocked scrapbooking product - whatever that might be - near to Birmingham, I persuaded her to come along with me to check it out. We both nearly gasped when we saw the papers and embellishments. And I'm talking about a shop which had a teeny tiny selection of product! But we were in awe! Such pretty bits and pieces to cut up and use to decorate our photos. Sounded like fun. So I bought a few a lot of items and took them home with me. I had been in England that weekend for my nephew's third birthday and knew that these photos would be ideal for my very first scrapbook page.

I suspect that it took me some time to pluck up the courage and convince myself that I had everything I needed to jump right in and looking at the page, I think that these products are not the items I bought at that first shop. I probably convinced myself that I "needed" an eyelet setter and eyelets - remember how popular they were, back in the time?!? - and the papers and stickers were from a DCWV paper pack - no BasicGrey to be seen here for sure! And I remember ordering some books to tell me how to do it right! But sometime in January would have been that first paper cut...

So, do you want to see that first page?


A double page spread featuring various random, unconnected elements and a bit of a sticker sneeze. Badly printed photos and even themed Barney elements from the party invitation and bits I picked up while I was there - the journalling tucked away was probably something I'd seen in one of the books as was the matting and double matting! I remember being short of title elements/letters and being proud of my computer title work. It all looks so amateur to me now but I'm still so proud of it!

Later on, in the first six months or so of scrapping, there would be layouts made which have not stood the test of time as much as this one due to really awful design and execution - most likely in the bin by now. But even though there's a lot of amateur mistakes on this one, it's really not sooooo awful!




Just for fun, here is that awesome little boy right now! He's 13 and all grown up. And I still love making pages about him and he must get a lot of credit for putting up with his old Aunty Lisa needing hugs and photos.


And this is my most recent layout about him - the ten years have brought a lot to my scrapping, the design style I have, the relationship I have with my family and life in general. Mostly for the good I hope!


Now that I have my layouts in albums, I was easily able to identify and pull out two further layouts from those early weeks - how I love that! I'm not sure exactly when they were made but I'm guessing that they really were right at the very beginning. Maybe even the first handful of layouts.

I still adore Blitzen by BasicGrey and was so happy to make up this page using a sketch (new for me!) I found on the BG website. I remember spending so long on this getting the papers exactly as the sketch suggested and the overlap of the photos just so. And there's story there too. I recall my husband looking at this when I first made it and asking why I had made it - what about the big story stuff. And I told him that these were the memories that were precious to me. Soon after this, I discovered the world of scrap celebs such as Stacey J, Shimelle and Ali E and I knew that this was my home. Capturing the details of life that I wanted to remember as well as some of the more important events...





...such as my sister's wedding. We used to challenge each other back then and this was in response to me saying we should make a page about the other one. Look! There's a sheet of the very first scrap stuff I picked up back in that very first shop we went to, and fibres and rub-ons! And hidden journalling, and the metal charms that were so "in" back then. This page is so dated but I really really love it. Still!






The intervening 10 years and probably way more than 1,000 layouts have brought about a lot of changes to me, my life and of course, my scrap style. Scrapbooking has improved my life in so many ways including the wonderful friendships I've made with creative peeps around the world - both online and in real life. Real, deep, meaningful relationships that make my life happier. I can't imagine not scrapbooking even if I don't make as many pages as I did in the past.

And I'm still scrapping the little memories as well as the big events. And I'm still using and loving BasicGrey papers - even though I'm sad that their time in the paper crafting business appears to be over :-(

Long long long story short, I also wanted to share my most recent page with you today which uses my Counterfeit Kit Challenge January kit, Rekindle and features elements of BasicGrey Infuse papers in what I like to think is a perfectly up-to-date, stylish way.

A big event recorded - a new baby in the family - which calls for an über-pretty page which mixes up old and new. Both papers and embellishments. Infuse papers were from 2007 and the DIY shop collection was new to me in November. 2015. There's brand new gold glitter washi alongside the vintage price tag which was included in a Bellboo kit way back in 2008. This is one of my creative goals for this year - loving and using the stash I have and bringing it together on pages which make me happy!






What are your creative goals this year? With January almost over, it's time to make sure our goals really do match what we can achieve. This layout has proved to me that I'm on the right way.

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