Really?....

Ok, so this is a quickie I put together this avo inbetween doing a hundred other things - Sundays are always my busiest days! I used a pre-scored card from a cardmaking pad I got from TK Maxx which seems to be where I get the majority of my cardstock and papers these days as it's always much cheaper than everywhere else. Also I like that they stock random brands that are not seen in my local stores! With TK's too, once it's gone, it's gone! I raided the offcuts box for coordinating patterns. You know, I seem to spend so much time in this box that it got me wondering whether I should just chop up all my 12x12 papers and dump them in the box just so I can get round to using them!!! Even after all these years of crafting, there's still a kind of "blank canvas syndrome " that comes over me when confronted with an untouched 12x12!!!! I found a cute little illustration in an old Bedtime Story book that I like to filch from - it just totally went with the sentiment and just added that little bit of interest !!! Done!!! Job's a good 'un!!!

Cute little illustration from Richard Scarry's Bedtime Book Of 365 Stories, circa the late 1960's I think!

Enjoy what's left of your weekend
everyone!

Love, Jak

xxx

Loving these papers...

So, yeah these papers - lovely! From My Mind's Eye, the texture is yummy, kinda like Bazzil cardstock with that linen-y texture but a bit more so, and the colours are happy and vibrant. Perfect for scrapbooking pics of my girls!!! Lots of diecutting happening here again - heart trellis, star journaling card, deer and hand-written part of title all cut on the Silhouette. There's a bit of paint on the cardstock base along with a bit of stamping, gromlets and washii tape!!! Quite an eclectic mix of pattern and colour too and that's why I chose mainly black and white for the title wording - it really stands apart from the colours and jumps off the page. I'm always saying this but, I think a bit of black really works well when there's a lot of colour happening - it just sharpens everything up and brings it all into focus! Having been a bit of a Goth, back in the day, I'm certainly not afraid of black, haha!

Just look at that cute little deer/dear!!!!

This part of the title came from a song that I've had going round and round in my brain for weeks now!

Normally, each year, my blog usually starts off with the Christmas past's minibook - only thing is, I really don't have that many photos this year. My camera has broken so it's been a bit of a hassle trying to scrape together pics taken by others to supplement what I took on my phone!!! A new camera is not that high up on my list of priorities, but luckily cameras on phones are brilliant these days. In fact probably as good as my manky old camera anyway!!! I've made a little christmas mini (it's teeny - only 2x2inches) for my mum so she can take it out with her and show off her gorgeous grandchildren and that's about all I've done regarding Christmas. Meh! Maybe I'll feel compelled to do something about that later. Or not!
Anyhoo, that's 2 posts uploaded for January already and I intend to stay in touch a bit more frequently this year, camera or not! So remember and pop by again soon for more crafty eyecandy!!!!
Love to all who keep coming back for a peek,
Jak xxx

First 12x12 of the year!

Welcome back to my little blog where I try to share nice crafty things that I've made, hopefully to inspire anyone who happens by...
   Well here we are at the start of another year and I thought you might like to see my first scrapbook layout of the year! I've used a mixture of stuff including elements from a beautiful kit I got as a pressie from my scrapbooking buddy Elaine. Hello Elaine!! It's a kit called Collectable by My Mind's Eye and the colours are gorgeous - all fresh and a bit citrusy. Not just papers either - a set of stamps in there too along with some brads and other embellishments and diecuts. I supplemented what I used with some diecutting from my Silhouette. All the calligraphy for want of a better word is my handwriting which has been drawn in Adobe Illustrator then converted into a dfx file compatible with the Silhouette software. I like doing these kinds of titles as it makes the LO unique in as much as no-one else has the same handwriting now do they!!

That's my handwriting!!!! Amazing!!!

Splashy paint!!

Honeycomb diecut designed by me!!! Lol!!!

    I love these papers - they have a lot of texture going on which all adds to the tactility we all love in our scrapbooking pages. Yum! The LO itself came together quickly the longest time spent deciding what I wanted to do as a diecut. The honeycomb came about because I've seen it featured frequently as a stencil in a lot of crafting endeavours lately and wanted to try it out as it's quite a simple pattern to get to grips with. I'm really pleased with how that honeycomb turned out!!! - I might have to use it again (lots) somewhere else...
   Pop by again soon - I'm going to put up some cards I made for Christmas just there.


Happy crafting everyone!
Jak xxx

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

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