So, I picked up this thing from Ikea...

...It's a plastic wall display thingy for want of a better description that comes in 3 interlinking pieces each of which has six 6 x 4 inch pockets for photos/LO's. I found it in the picture frame section in Ikea and thought it would be a cheap n cheerful way of displaying some stuff. This is the first section completed. It's like having a little minibook out on display but you could easily fill it up in a Project Life stylee - you know, alternating between photos and journalling cards etc which I might do when I fill up the next 2 pieces...

Here's an idea of the products used...

Here's what it looks like once finished. Apologies for the grainy photography. The pics were taken on my iPhone because my camera was needing charged.

It looks good all put together...

Can't wait to crack on with the rest of it - I'm looking forward to seeing all 3 parts put together, only thing is I'm not sure whether to give the whole thing a schooldays theme or to have a completely different style for each part... What would you do? I think my next stop is some design work on some journalling cards to fill a whole pocket... Yep. Sounds like a plan...
Take care and thanks for looking in here!
Jak xxx

If MIllie was chocolate...

...she would definitely eat herself - such is her love of the stuff. The photo just captures that moment of "Oh yeah!!!" when something just hits the spot! Lol! The size of the dessert is no optical illusion either! It was a monster - one of those ones for sharing, full of brownies and bits of chocolate, yum!!!

I put my Silhouette to good use on this layout. I made a journaling file to cut out and the bow was cut out on it too. The flowers are traditional die cuts and the border is a Martha Stewart border punch. The patterned papers in the background are from leftover offcuts that we all stash - see they do come in handy. I like using them because I like the way they spontaneously just work together even when they shouldn't. I find the trick is to make sure they either pick out the colours in your photo or work in a kind of colourful harmony.

That face says it all!

Sizzix die cut flowers and matching stamps

Inside journaling card

 This page was a quick one to put together. Another bonus of utilising those leftover scraps of paper - you throw cation to the wind and its just all decided for you. Just the thing to keep all that swithering and dithering at bay!

However your mojo works, thanks for coming by...

Keep crafting,

Jak xxx

New 12x12!

...I really enjoyed putting this one together. It came together really easily and quickly. I saw a LO in an old Scrap 365 and decided that it would help get me started. It was the bright colours that initially caught my eye then the use of old book pages on the flower and the scallop borders along with the doodling.
   Here's the pic from Scrap 365 - the layout is by a lady called Lisa Saunders

loved the use of old book pages - especially on the flower!

And here's how mine evolved into this...

As usual I went off down my own road!!!!

Now I see them alongside each other, they don't really look anything like each other but i think you can tell the top one definitely influenced at least a couple of elements on mine. I actually intended to go with a white background too but had these 12x12 background papers hanging about on my table and before I knew it they'd introduced themselves to each other and were getting on so well that I just felt it would be rude not to let them stay together lol!!! Then I stumbled upon some acetate flowers and leaves from an old Brenda Pinnick kit, which acquainted themselves with my daughter's ProMarkers and so then they joined the party too!!! I love the magic that sometimes happens when putting a layout together. Just playing with stuff can be such fun that before you know it your layout is finished!!

Big flouncy flower - loads of die cut layers of old book pages!

Sweet acetate flower coloured up with ProMarker pen!

If only all layouts came together so quickly!!! Maybe I just faff too much - you know I think I do - I even faff at work, and some days it feels like I endlessley twirl things round and round on the page before I settle for something... don't tell my boss that tho - that's a trade secret!! Lol!!
What inspires your scrapbooking???

Thanks for coming by for a lookee!!!
Jak xxx

Two for the price of one...

Layouts that is! Hello everyone, are you busy making lots of beautiful things? I have not one but two 12x12s to share with you today - I know, I know, I'm spoiling you, but I think you're worth it! It's funny but I've really noticed this year how my crafting seems to tail off during the summer months... I bet I'm not the only one that finds this though - there are so many other things that need done during those long hot sunny days, what with kids being on holiday and the garden growing like a jungle, but I think I just seem to gravitate towards the craft table as the days shorten and the heating goes on. My craft table is cunningly situated beside one of the biggest radiators in the house - (heehee) however I haven't put the central heating on yet as it has been a lovely, mainly mild and sunny September here in beautiful Dundee. My aim every year is to hold off 'til October if possible cos I'm a stingy tightwad!!! Anyway, that's not what we're here for...
    My first LO tonight is of a funny picture I took of a 4 year old Sadie in a park taking a massive huff with me! Goodness knows what was actually wrong with her. She was probably just hacked off with me pointing a camera at her for the hundredth time that day! What a wee face though - such a classic "cream-puff" pose lol!

Just go away with the camera Mum, please!!!!

And I couldn't resist adding this little illustration I found in an old children's dictionary!

Next up is one I just put the finishing touches to at teatime there and it features a photo of the girls getting stuck in to some Cake Pops that I bought from a fundraising cake sale at work! They look amazing but not for me - I know how they are made and they are way too sweet - even for me. The girls enjoyed them though and I'm pretty sure they didn't touch the sides on the way down as they were scoffed in a flash! You can tell by Sadie's horizontal hair that it was a bit windy in the garden that day!!

This pic looks like it has an arty filter on it!!! It doesn't though - think it's just the beautiful low sunshine!

Bunting and pleated paper up close.

Paper flowers and adhesive pearls.

As usual, the supplies are varied and eclectic and I still seem to be using up odd bits of paper trimmings instead of cutting into the many paper pads I have acquired over the years. Even after all these years of scrapbooking I must admit to still being a bit overawed by a blank bit of 12x12 cardstock or paper. I think it's the blank canvas syndrome - no-one likes one of those (or do they?)!
Ok, that's my little catch up for today. Leave a comment if you can - that way I won't feel I'm talking to myself! Thankyou as always for coming for a visit!!!
Stay crafty,
Jak xxx

From drab to fab in 10 mins!

    Well howdy crafters! Hope you are all being more productive than I of late. Thankyou for coming by to see what I'm up to...
     I have a poorly little 'un at home today so while she's malingering on the sofa – I mean re-cooperating, I quickly put a personal touch to a photo frame that was picked up in good old Dunelm Mill.
    So...
    A quick face lift for a basic photo frame...nothing wrong with it in it's original state but as a gift for a new baby (hello Elliot!) it just needed something a bit well, cuter about it! Buttons! – the ideal embellishment for conveying the cute factor!!! Hot glue gun at the ready and those cuties were fixed on and doing their job in a flash. I stamped baby's name on the dangly heart and finished off with a couple of twine bows! Tadaaa!!!
   You know, this frame would look great painted up with some distress or crackle paint – might be worth a tryout next time round. Or maybe Decopatched.
   12x12s to feature in the next post so look in again soon!
Take care,
Jak xxx

Nice but unremarkable!

Ahhh! – that's better!

PS! Bonus cute picture of my cat Rocky having a snooze on his Tower of Power cat scratcher!!! Awww, comfy!!!

I am up high therefore i am more superior than you!!!

As Promised...

Last week I promised a few pics of the little album I have been making... It's only now I'm looking through my photos and I've just realised that I didn't take any shots of it being constructed, which is a shame cos I made it from scratch and should have at least taken a pic of it in its raw form - like a visual list of ingredients to let you see how I actually put it together. Oh well - I can tell you it was the easiest thing in the world to do. Just old packaging and corrie cardboard, covered in kraft papers, held together with a Tim Holtz ringbinder that fits in to the spine with 2 brads. Not that I'm a usually cynic but, I wasn't convinced it would be as sturdy a fixing as I would have liked so I was amazed/surprised when I put it all together and it held firmly!!!! Yay! From there it was a case of making folders/pages to fill it with and decoration. I lucked out here as my local TK Maxx had some 6x6 pads of Sn@p cardstock which was more perfect than perfect as it was what inspired me in the first place (having seen a Simple Stories feature on Create & Craft). I supplemented with some homemade journalling cards and chucked some photos in et voila!!! Job done! Nearly! Just need to add a bit of texture with ribbons or twine and she's sorted as they say!!!! Hope you enjoy the pics....

Title cut out with my Silhouette

This one has an acetate page/pocket

Hey! Hello!

Hi everyone,
Can't believe its been so long since I checked up on my little blog - sorry, but it's that time of year again when the kids are off school either soaking up all the glorious sunshine or hogging the craft table when they can't get outside for the rain. Thankfully there hasn't been too much of that this year... however there hasn't been much crafting (from me) either! I have been doing bits and bobs with the girls and I have also put together a ringbinder book full of random-ish photos that has been inspired by some Simple Stories craft supplies that I was drooling over one day on the Selly Telly! I couldn't justify a big spend as goodness knows I probably will never use up the stash I already have so I thought I'd do my own version. It's been a good way to get some photos in order along with a bit of journaling, although I would like to make another one this time big enough to take the plastic photo wallets that are sold by Simple Stories. I like their goodies - a less expensive alternative to Project Life... I'm literally putting the finishing pieces to it so pop back soon and I will have some visuals to share with you!

Meanwhile here's a cute picture of cats to look at. It's what the internet was made for wasn't it?

Come back and craft with us mummy - we want to steal your papers and leave pawprints all over your projects!!!!

Come back soon

xxx Jak xxx

The sweetest thing...

...is my little Sadie all wrapped up and ready to go out for a stroll on a Sunday affternoon! Ok, I would need a cattle prod to make them walk anywhere with the grown-ups these days - apparently it's just not cool to be seen hangin' with the olds!!! Oooooh, where did my babies go? Lol! Well, actually they grew up into little girls, then bigger girls. My eldest hits high school after the summer hols - how did that happen? Eeek!! Sadie is still very sweet but if we are walking somewhere now, there has to be a park or some other carrot dangling to get us to our destination. Sadly, gone are the days when we just went out for a stroll to get out and enjoy the fresh air. In fact just getting anywhere these days without world war three breaking out amongst the ranks is pretty impossible. I'm as impatient as they are hopelessly unconcerned with arriving anywhere on time!!! I suppose that's why the elders of the family tell you to enjoy them while they're little, meaning because once they have developed a mind of their own, you've had it!!!. Lol!!
    So, hot off the scrapbooking table this morning comes this:-

   And it originated from this PageMap here -

And as usual, didn't really turn out much like the original at all! Haha! But well, we all need a starting point and sometimes looking through magazines etc. doesn't help me much as a lot of LO's have everything but the kitchen sink stuck to them and it's hard to get a handle on where to start but that's probably just me. Don't get me wrong, I do love those gorgeously layered pages they are a feast to behold but I bet they take forever to put together and goodness knows sometimes it takes me long enough to get this simpler style done!

    With this one I had intended to go all monochromatic with just the background as the main colour but it just wasn't coming together easily and I thought it might look a bit rubbish anyway once it was finished. Who wants to waste their time and stash making a dog's dinner? So I started introducing a bit of colour here and there and ended up where I always do, i.e. in my comfort zone but maybe a bit more muted than usual.

    I've used Anna Griffin lace stamps round the edge of the 12x12 cardstock and round the photo itself. I think that took the longest to do as you have to cut the corners accurately at a 45 degree angle so they make a frame with mitred edges. Mine haven't matched exactly at the corners but that's ok - it would take too long to figure that bit out. Back in the old days when graphic designers did everything at a tilted board with a parallel motion I'm sure that could have been achieved a bit more easily but y'know, that's not what scrapbooking's about. Not for me anyway. It's about the spontaneity of watching a page evolve as you are going - I never know what a page is going to turn out like when I set out. I start off with a pic or two, knowing I want to use certain products and that generally leads the way. The more time I want to give to the layout then the more intricate and layered it becomes. The thing that's most important for me is that the photo doesn't get lost under heaps of other visuals that make you wonder what the main focus of the page is.

    The huge chipboard flower at the top left is from a kit I bought a long time ago. It's from Prima and came in a set that had a 12x12 sheet of stamps and matching diecut shapes in chipboard and corrugated cardboard. It's great to rediscover old stash! Who knows what else might be lurking at the back of my craft shelves...

    Have a happy Sunday all, get rocking those PageMaps!!!

Love,  Jak

xxx

Page Maps part 2...

Hello again,
So, here's my second Page Maps inspired LO. This time I've used a different one and I chose it because it was a 3 photo layout. I love multi photo layouts, but they can get a bit busy on the eyes if the photos wander all over the page - but with this style of LO the photo's are all contained within one panel which is a bit easier to take in visually. I've kept to a strict colour palette which was kind of selected for me when I decided to use the cat themed patterned paper as the main layer behind the photo mat. You know, sometimes I like to be quite tight and strict about these things and then sometimes I feel like I really need to go crazy and "pig-out" with patterns/colours/kitchen sink etc. Don't know what that says about me and my style of scrapping but I think I just like to see what happens as I go I suppose...
    When I started this one I knew I didn't have any flowers that would go with it and that's where my little friend the Silhouette Portrait came in so handy, because I could match the cardstock to the colours in the patterned papers. I drew the flowers and main title in Adobe Illustrator and saved them as a dfx file which the Portrait could cut.  The border along the top and bottom of the page was purchased at the Silhouette store for 54p - bargain! Sometimes I wonder how I ever managed without my Portrait ...
    The flowers were looking a bit ordinary when I was arranging them on the page so I tarted them up with white dots and a 3d pearly centre. Done! I'm wondering if I could use the leftover cardstock from the diecut flowers as a stencil for something as it looks like it could probably come in handy for something... hmmmm...

Heres the pagemap I used from pagemaps.com

A close up of the yummy little flowers I cut out with the Silhouette.

Thankyou for looking. I hope I've inspired you to try some pagemaps to help you out with your scrapbooking pages. Happy Crafting everyone!

Love Jacqui

xxx

Page Maps revisited...

Well hello!
I can't believe it's been so long since I uploaded anything new - things have been more than a bit busy of late - the girls have had their Easter holidays, Sadie's had her 8th birthday and all the rest of the stuff that life throws at us from time to time. Sadly, I missed an opportunity for a get together with my Scrapping buddy Elaine due to unforeseen circumstances but I haven't been idle - oh no!
    So, I was having a mooch around online as you do and I thought I would check out the old PageMaps website as I literally hadn't been near it in donkey's years and I just thought it might be a good idea to try out a layout or two to get the old Mojo in gear and so here's one I liked and have used for my Happy Birthday LO.

http://pagemaps.com/ - this one's from Jan 2014

This is my version!

A close up of a wee pinwheel embellishment!

I cut part of this title with my Silhouette. 

The mini bunting is made with K & Company Smash Washi tape

I really enjoyed using the pagemap layout and it meant I didn't do too much faffing as it was designed (sort of) already... I'm defo gonna use some more of them. In fact I have another page ready to put up once it's all dried and journaled. If I get up before the kids tomorrow I'll upload it while I get the chance to get on the computer. It's constantly being hogged lately to watch episodes of Adventuretime which seems to be the new fad round here at the moment!! Anyone out there know who the Lumpy Space Princess is????

See you back here for more tomoz - hopefully!

Love,  Jak

xxx

Sadie's Little Blund Bear...

Good Sunday morning Happy Crafters!
    So, first off I'll apologise for the not too great photo. I'll admit I didn't try very hard with it as I wanted to get the page into an album pronto - Pabs the Paper Muncher was hanging about licking his kitty lips - he had his beady eyes on the paper rosettes and if it didn't disappear from his line of vision it was gonna be chomped! This is a LO dedicated to Chewing Bear! He's Sadie's little Blund Bear from Ikea and he was given to her as a baby from a friend or relly I cant exactly recall who... He's always been her favourite and was a constant companion while she was teething. She used to crawl around, carrying this bear in her gummy mouth which was really cute and why he got the name of Chewing Bear! Two weeks away from being 8, he still goes to bed with her! Apparently these little bears have a bit of a cult status online whereby Blund Bear fans take pics of him in far off places on various travels and upload them on to the t'internet! Daft but entertaining! Anyhoo, I thought the pic (although a bit dark on this photo) was sweet and wanted to try out a LO with it. The background paper is K & Company Bloomscape and some of the other papers are from a Colorbok kit I bought ohhh -  a good 4 years ago probably. It was on sale at QVC and although I liked it a lot at the time, I outgrew it quite soon afterwards. However, I really like it for adding a good splash of colour here and there as it had lots of diecut elements that keep coming in handy. I wanted to try out a folded paper strips technique for the photo frame and apart from the corners not really matching up (ah well!) I liked the end result. I'll maybe try it again with papers that have a less bold design...

Pablo thought the paper rosettes looked especially tasty!

I hope the bright colours bring some cheer to a drab Sunday!
Thanks for swinging by,
Jak
xxx

New bits & bobs...

First off we have a real as in not digital LO. Nothing too groundbreaking but a memory made by my own loving hands and added to the scrapbook... Poor Sadie always seemed to be poorly as a baby - nothing serious just lots of viruses and everything that goes with that! This is a memory of one such incidence - her poor little face was just so sore with all the noseblowing and constant wiping! She was always happy though even when she felt rotten! Poor babe!

Next up is a digital LO that I did for the DoCrafts March Scrapbook challenge. Here's the sketch and brief -

 

 

Theme Pets or Animals in general and if you don't fancy those you can choose Spring.

Colours to suit your choice of theme.

I decided to go with pets and used a pic of my Pablo Naughty Boy. As I was getting on with it I really wasn't enjoying the landscape A4 format so I ended up doing it 12x12... here's how it turned out.

 

 

 

They're not that much different I know but I'm just conditioned to prefer 12x12 - probably because it's the format I started out with. I've brainwashed myself lol!

Next up - a Mothers Day card. I actually made two of these - one for my mummy one for Leon's!

 

Happy Mother's Day!

The main paper (the floral one) is Papermania Happy Days again and although I bought this maybe nearly a year ago now, it's still one of my favourite card stacks ever! I think the glue was still drying on it as I was handing it over. Nothing like a bit of pressure to get things done on time eh?

Happy crafting everyone!

Thanks for coming to see me here,

Jak

xxx