Oh dear, where did July go?

I'll tell you where it went. It went on holiday with us to .... lets see if anyone can guess by my holiday photos! Don't worry! I've limited the holibobs snaps to 2 - nothing worse than other peoples holiday pics - zzzzzzzz... Just thought I'd post them to let the world know that unlike our usual weather in Dundee, the sun does actually shine, sometimes, in the UK. It's just that you quite literally have to go to the other end of the country to see it! Oh I almost gave our destination away there...

A very busy seafront!!!!

A view from on high...

Do you know where it is yet?

So, holiday aside I've been busy organising a scrapbook of The Girlz Official Nursery and School Photos. I'm not really one for lots of family photos out on display but I do always put their latest school photos in a frame and update them every year. Consequently, there was a little pile of old ones accumulating and I didn't want them gathering dust so I decided I'd get them in an album with the bare minimum of scrapping involved.  The photos are quite large and didn't leave much room for creativity so that made me decide to just stick them on a pretty tame background and let the photos speak for themselves. I'm not uploading them here as there really isn't much to see apart from lots of huge photos and really not much to inspire anyone with.
   However on a more creative front, I have started upcycling some tatty, old, boring, dining room chairs. I'm actually swithering over to add something decorative or just plump for some snazzy new cushion pads. What do you think? I think I want to try out a bit of floral folk art on the backrest...

First coat in!

So, then I got a chance to squeeze in a 12x12 layout and here's where we get back to business as usual! I have only one photo of this event, I don't know why, and this is it. It's a group photo of Sadie's 3rd birthday party taken over 6 years ago now and to be honest, I haven't a clue who half the children are on it now! The moral in this story is to scrap your photos sooner rather than later or you'll forget the whole story which is kind of the point of doing it!

Tiny partiers ahoy!

You know,  I always seem to start with a pretty neutral background these days, be it kraft, black or in this case white. I think it just gives more scope for using patterned papers and embellishments in a round about way. What I mean is, if you start with a patterned paper as your background paper, then it limits what else you can layer on top. It can work if it's a really small, not too colourful design but even that can really confuse your brain about what it's meant to be looking at. Or is that just me?

Close up you can see the 3d of it.

    This LO was put together using American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan patterned papers and some printed digital elements from the same digital version of the kit. I think these digital kits are great because as I've mentioned before, all the elements can be scaled to your own requirements and used time after time which can't be a bad thing now can it? My only annoyance is my printer really dislikes any cardstock above 160gsm (thick paper basically)! I can sometimes coax through some heavier card if I add a bit of washii tape to the edge of the card that the feeder for the printer grabs onto but it is a bit trial and error. That's my fault tho for having a cheap, crappy printer, ha! The cone at the bottom right corner has been printed out three times so I could layer it decoupage style for dimension. And yep, those are gromlets there on the left also. I remember when I bought my Cropadile Big Bite about 5 years ago, I got really worried - what would happen if I ran out of gromlets and eyelets???? Well all these years on and there doesn't seem to be much danger of that happening even in the next 5 years such is my extensive use of them,  lol!! Has anyone run out of theirs yet I wonder???

Thanks for popping by for a wee look. Please leave a comment if you stop by. That way I'll keep on keeping on with the scrapping stories!

Love to all you crafty peeps,

Jak xxx