Scrappy Stuff!

I haven't been doing much stitching lately, but this week I've gotten bit by the Scrappy bug again. I've done two layouts for my own scrapbook and done a mini album for my friend Bridget who who is taking a trip across the pond to England sometime this month.

Here are some pictures of what I've done this week.

Above is the front cover of Bridget's album and below is a qiuck shot of the pages from the album. I still haven't added any embellishments to them. I plan on adding some ribbon, eyelets and things like that. I've also got a few cute things hiding somewhere that I might dig out, but just haven't gotten around to yet.

Normally I wouldn't post pictures of a gift before it's received but I'm almost positive that Bridget doesn't read my blog. (In fact, the last time I mentioned it to her, she didn't even know I had one! *lol*)

Here's one of Olivia I did up in about half an hour the other day. I've always wanted to try using one of the 10x13 pictures I get from the portrait studio in a layout. I had to trim about 1.5" off the height and I trimmed about an inch off the left side to help center the picture better in the area that was available. I've also always wanted to do a "shabby chic" layout. With all the distressing that goes with it. So I used 3 different colours of ink pad and just rubbed them all over the papers I was using, then put the picture in and put a small piece of vellum over the green border to soften the distressing, attaching them with some terracotta orange conchoes that I had in my stash. I then added a metal heart and a pre made tag that matched pretty well.

I had a large area of empty vellum showing between the heart and tag and didn't quite know what to put in there, so I asked my cousin Janice what she thought. I then realized that I had some red checked ribbon in one of my drawers and "aged" that a bit with some barn red and green inks and tied a bow in the appropriate place. Then today when I was doing the layout below I saw the vellum quote and knew it was perfect to go with the picture in this layout, so I added it to a scrap of paper I had that matched pretty well, and mounted it just above the ribbon. It's not my favourite layout of all time or anything like that, but I like it. And all in all it went together pretty quickly.

The quote says: "Every child is a different kind of flower, and all together, they make this world a beautiful garden."

This one I did today. I've been meaning to do some pages of Rachel and thought I'd start with this page. I had the 5x7 picture stuck to the fridge for the past 10 months and thought it was time to use it. I wanted it to somewhat "match" the title page I did for Olivia's scrapbook all those years ago. The picture was very similar (see Olivia's below) and I wanted a similar feel with the picture tilted etc. Obviously it's not the "same" but similar is all I really wanted, so I'm VERY happy with it.

I used the last of some of my favourite papers I've EVER had. I bought several pieces of these papers at a scrapbooking store in Fredericton a few years ago and I've done a two page layout for Olivia as well as this layout and an altered can I made. The striped paper doesn't go with it, but luckily it matched well enough to finish the layout. I didn't have a big enough piece left out of any of my papers to finish this page without it.

I then hand wrote her information on some vellum and added it and then added two quick embellishments I got at Michaels and a quote (also on vellum) that says "You were made perfectly to be loved- and surely I have loved you, in the idea of you, my whole life long. Elizabeth Barrett Browning " I LOVE that quote.

I'm extremely happy with this layout. It went very quickly and turned out exactly as I was hoping.

Here's the original layout I did for Olivia's scrapbook around 3 years ago. In fact, I think it might be my very first page ever! You can see how much better my layouts have become over the years.

On this one I just used a single sheet of background paper. I didn't really know about paper piecing a background quite yet. Then I added some Mulberry paper I had run through the printer to print some information on it. (including all her birth info) Then I added a few stickers and a stork embellishment I bought especially for this page. (I think I paid around $8 for the stork!! -- shhh... don't tell Jason! grin)

The sticker quote says: "Little girls are prescious gifts wrapped in love serene. Their dresses tied with sashes, futures tied with dreams ~ unknown"