A lasercut, a layout and a sketch challenge

This week is a bit of this and a bit of that. My printer is not working properly and I still haven't managed to find time to have photos printed. So I have a painted lasercut to share, a layout that was inspired by a Cathy Zielske layout in her book Clean and Simple Scrapbooking and for the long weekend - a sketch challenge. None of these things are related, but all things I wanted to share with you this week.

So please read on and then let me know you stopped by to visit. Leaving a comment (even just to say hi) is simple, look for the comment button at the end of the blog entry and if you do not have a Google account, just leave your comment as anonymous. I would also love to know who stops by on a regular basis so make sure you add yourself as a follower. Thanks in advance this week :)

Firstly a laser cut I painted recently. I used Making Memories paints and of course Glossy Accents to finish it off. I painted it without a layout in mind, but this week I took a photo of my daughter that I think will go nicely with it, so I will definately need to find time to print some photos this week and share the lasercut next week on a layout.

The layout below was one I scrapped at the getaway. I was looking for some inspiration and for me the best place to start is always Cathy Zielske. I found an 8.5 x 11" layout in her first book Clean & Simple Scrapbooking which inspired me. I adjusted the dimensions to fit a 12 x 12 layout, moved the title and used my own colours. I was pleased with how it turned out and I am always grateful to Cathy for her inspiration.

Lastly this week, another long weekend is here so I thought everyone may have a little free time to scrap :) Below is a sketch challenge for you. It was always my intention with the blog to hopefully offer a little inspiration for you, but also to start to create a bit of community between the regular Remember When shoppers and blog readers. I know that lots of people are often hesitant to share their layouts or comment, but please as a scrapper who scraps mostly on my own, I love seeing what other people are scrapping and am sure that others do to. Since I have blog readers and newsletter readers all over Australia feel free to join in discussions and challenges. If you feel more comfortable doing this anonymously you are more than welcome to do this also.

So... this sketch challenge came from .. my head, sorry, but sometimes I just have images pop into my head - usually when I lie down to go to sleep at night :) I have not tried it out yet, so I am keen to see how other people can make it work as well. Email your layout to me by next Thursday and I will share them in the next blog. I will also randomly choose 1 layout to send a small goodie package to, just to say thank you for your efforts and sharing. Feel free to use the sketch as is or as a starting point and feel free to scrap in 12 x 12 or 8.5 x 11.
Happy creating, have a wonderful long weekend, and I am going to cross my fingers and wait to see what people come up with this week. Thanks for stopping by - Oh and please, don't forget to take 2 seconds to vote before closing the blog this week - Ta :)

Mini Album

Before I start my blog this week, I have had a bit of feedback about the painted lasercuts I posted last week. Some people have shared they think these look great, but they wouldn't have the time or patience. So I thought I would pop a poll onto the blog this week to see if people would like to see some painted lasercuts available for purchase (saving you the work, if you wanted this look, but didn't feel like painting). Please let me know your thoughts. Thanks

While we were away on the getaway a few weeks ago, one of the workshops was creating a mini album. I thought I would share this with you today. The idea behind it was to scrap a little more about ourselves. If you are anything like most of the scrappers I know, we all scrap about other people and not ourselves. In scrapbooking magazines and blogs there is always lots of ideas to scrap about ourselves, but I still rarely do. So, as the weekend was a no children weekend I thought it would be a good time to make a mini album focusing on 'Me'

I titled it 'a week as me' and as I like simple, kept the album very basic. You will probably notice that the photo on the cover is not me and I have yet to replace Jaime with me. I ran out of time prior to the getaway to find a photo of me to put on the front (something else that is very lacking in my scrap booking), so I used Jaime's for an example - lol

The album is 6" x 6" and has a chipboard cover which I covered in Bazzill cardstock.

Inside the front cover I wrote a small page on "I am ..." and filled this in with thoughts about what I do now and what I like to do etc. The page to the right of this was the first day of the week. I took some random photos throughout the day, printed them small and then cut them down with a 1 1/4" circle punch. How many photos you use does not matter. I used a minimum of three on each page and then filled in the other spaces with plain bazzill and patterned papers.

Behind each day of the week I made a pocket, so that I could slip a journalling card in. On this card I jotted quick notes about what I had done each day. Very simple things, but things that show what my week had been like. I did one for each day of the week and then stuck Sunday onto the back chipboard cover to finish off the mini album.

Hopefully it will be something fun to look back on in years to come, or for the children to flip through when they are a bit older :) It was quick and easy and since every page followed the same format very little thinking was required.

As we put these together on the getaway it was great to see how everyone adapted my basic layout to suit their own scrapping style.

Have a great week

Getaway, layout and lasercuts

This week has been an odd week and therefore lots and bits and pieces going on. Hence my blog this week. Beware before you keep reading there are a few pictures this week. To start with I thought I would share a couple more photos from the getaway (now that the girls have consented to me sharing them - lol). So.. a bit of scrapping, some relaxing and of course back to scrapping :)

As I shared last week, after returning from the getaway I have a new love for glossy accents (dimensional magic) and I have included a layout this week using a lasercut that I inked and then coated with glossy accents. I love the way it adds shine and a finishing touch to the lasercut.

Due to my excitement with 'glossy accents' (dimensional magic) I felt inspired this week to grab a few lasercuts and have a play. I went to the local craft store and found the finest paint brush they had. At the time I thought I was going a little overboard, but when I started painting I was glad I had made the decision to stick with the smallest I could find. So paintbrush in hand and a few colours of Making Memories paint I sat down to see what I could come up with. Below are some of the lasercuts I finished. I actually found this a very calming time and looked forward to a few spare moments each day to paint. Definately something I will be doing more of :) Of course I coated them to finish and I am really pleased with how they came up.

This week I need to head to the photo store to print some photos and hopefully next week some of them will be on layouts to share with you. Underneath each lasercut I have written the name of the set it comes from. Oh and I decided to get the glitter out too and see how it would come up, so the butterfly has some glitter added as well (before I glossed it)

Mushroom Set 2
mini filigree butterflies
Patchwork of Birds
Funky Xmas Tree Set

So not much scrapping this week, but lots of fun with the lasercuts. Next week I will share some more layouts and have a sketch challenge for you too.

Have a great weekend

Getaway

The getaway was last weekend and it was great. It started Friday afternoon and ran through until Sunday afternoon. It was located at a fabulous conference centre on the Central Coast of NSW - Noonaweena. While they have 2 houses on the property to cater for different groups you would never know there were people in the other house. We do not share the house we are in with any one over the weekend which is great. There are plenty of places to escape to if you need time to yourself or some peace and quiet (the spa included). All rooms have their own ensuite so plenty of privacy as well :).

I loved meeting new people and seeing all the different ideas everyone had to share over the weekend. This time I found the weekend particularly inspiring as people scrapped layout pages and off the page projects. With permission, next week I will share some with you. Everyone joined in the workshops and aside from scrapping enjoyed the spa and generally relaxing in the gorgeous surroundings and peaceful atmosphere that Noonaweena has to offer.

There was certainly a lot of laughing over the weekend I look forward to sharing future getaways with the new friends I made this weekend and also others who would like to join us. Below are just 4 photos from the weekend. I have left out any of people just yet until I make sure everyone in them is happy for me to share them with all of you.

During one of the workshops on the weekend we talked about using magazines to find inspiration and layouts and how one layout can be used over and over again. Below are 3 pages I scrapped from the original layout. The first one directly uses the layout with all the spaces being the same as the original. In the second and third I combined some of the spaces to make larger areas for photos, paper or journalling. The first two pages started out as 8.5 x 11" pages and I mounted them on black cardstock to make it a 12 x 12" layout for my children's albums. The third I changed the dimensions of the original layout to make it a 12 x 12" page.

On the second two layouts I have used lasercuts for the titles. Over the weekend being with others and scrapping you inevitably learn new things. Sometimes, being the mother of 2 young children I can live with my head in the sand and this was one of those times. The girls shared 'Dimensional Magic' with me and I just love it. It has been around for some time now, but somehow I missed it. So... the lasercuts have been inked and then had Dimensional Magic put over the top to make them glossy and add an extra dimension. I am sure that I will be back next week with more layouts using it :) (Now that I have my own!!) and no - for the girls away with me I didn't make my husband stop on the way home (trailer and all) to get it, I went out on Monday.

Please stop by next week and I will share the mini album we made over the weekend.

Have a great week and if you would like to join me for the next getaway in July - email me or reserve your place through the website by ordering the getaway.

Happy Easter and I hope you all enjoy the Easter weekend.

Mini Albums

Hi everyone...Lee has asked me to write something for the blog this week as she is busy preparing for the Getaway (I'm so jealous!). I have to say, it is a little daunting but I will give it a shot. Just so you know, I do not at all proclaim to be an expert at scrapbooking. I'm just like everyone else...I love scrapbooking, love telling our family stories and I love photos. I struggle to fit it in to my busy life but I do the best I can!

I have started to get into "Mini Albums" in the last 6-9 months and I love what they offer me. I haven't done a whole heap of mini albums, but I've enjoyed the ones I have done and I thought I'd share them with you. These would never replace actual albums for me, just sometimes it is a better way of sharing an event or thing.

The first one I will share with you is still a bit of a work in progress. Its my "Story of Pandora" Album. I started this one because I (like so many others) have been hit with the craze of the Pandora Charm Bracelet (pic below).

All my charms have been given to me by family and friends and I wanted to keep a record of who gave me what and also the reason behind the gift. If my bracelet becomes a family heirloom one day in the distant future, I'd like there to be a story behind it! So I went super simple for this as it is something that will be added to over the years as I collect more charms. I picked up one of those cute little suitcase like tins with the handle and I have basically created cards to fit inside the tin. I will probably decorate the tin a little at some stage. I haven't decided yet as to whether I will attach the cards with a ring or if I will just leave them loose. On one side of the card is an individual picture of the charm and then the name of it underneath. On the reverse side of the card, is my info section which I created in word. It just has the relevant information... Bead, Date and Why. I then handwrite the info into it and add a cute flower and I'm done. Its as simple as that. I even have a few of the info cards printed off and left blank in the tin so it is easy for me to add a new bead. I also have a pile of the flowers in the tin and a stash of the dotted swiss paper I have used for the photo side of the card.

The next album is one I did about my eldest son's first year of soccer. I take heaps of photos at most of the games and it posed the problem of what do I do with all the soccer photos. The team manager wrote these amazing and very funny match reports each week, so I ended up copying and pasting them into a word document and putting each weeks report with a photo. I didn't care too much about whether the photo was from the game that the manager had written about, I just picked my favourite photos for the season and used them. This was super simple and didn't take long to put together at all once I had the Word format done. I didn't even have to do much journalling as the match report covered it all. I used paterned papers from a co-ordinating range so that I didn't have to think about colour matching etc either. I didn't do much in the way of embellishing - I let the fonts I chose and the patterned paper do the embellishing. I kept the design the same for all the pages, only altering it slightly on the intro page and the end page. All in all a very simple format that is a great keepsake for my son and everyone loves looking at it.

The last album I want to share with you is one that came about after a family holiday. I took several hundred photos on this holiday and I wanted to do something with my favourites - but that totalled around 80 photos. So I decided to combine Scrapbooking with a traditional slip in photo album. I just printed my photos and slipped them in and every now and then I would leave a page blank so that I could do something with embellishments etc to break it up a little. I decorated each page with a strip of scalloped cardstock, a patterned paper strip and an embellishment. On some pages I journalled, but only where necessary. Again, I used a co-ordinating range of patterned paper and this also had co-ordinating epoxy stickers (I think thats what they are called!!). This was quite simple, not overly time consuming and a great way to scrapbook a large amount of photos. I will definitely do this again when the need arises.

Thanks for reading...hope you enjoyed it! And to all those going on the Getaway, have an awesome time! I am looking forward to the July Getaway.

Emma

Determination

It has been an exciting week here for us that started the weekend before last when we went to visit some friends in Port Macquarie. They have 2 boys aged 6 and 4 years and we have our 2 aged 4 1/2 and 18months. The only thing they asked us to make sure we packed was bikes. As we have no bike rack on the car we chose to pack the scooter instead. The first morning we were there we headed to the local cafe (which is also connected to the local cycling shop) and our friends decided to purchase a new bike for their 4 year old. As you can imagine this was very exciting and he wanted to try it out asap. So that afternoon we headed down to the local basketball courts where there was plenty of room for riding bikes, scooters and skateboards. He had no problem transferring from his smaller bike to the new one and no need for training wheels (which he had previously managed without also).

After watching this and taking it all in and hooting around on his scooter Jake silently processed the 4 year old and no training wheels.

When we arrived home he headed straight for his bike and asked for the training wheels to be removed. He spent the next few days determined to ride without them. This is not an easy feat at our house. We have no driveway, no garage, and the street is on a hill. So there is no adequate flat space to practise. Nevertheless determination set in and out on our back deck Jake persisted. At first with help, and then when I had to cook dinner he chose not to wait, instead he used the railing and the wall, mastered getting started and wobbled his way down the deck on his own.

Watching him master something he was so determined to achieve and seeing the smile and pride he had in himself made me grin from ear to ear. Below are some of the photos I took and we then headed down to the park (where we have pretty much lived ever since) to keep practising in a much bigger space :)

It is amazing what children achieve when they watch other children. I could have explained the no training wheels over and over, but watching another child makes all the difference.

As I was thinking about my post for this week. I thought back to a layout I did when Jake was 8 months old, also about determination. The motivation for him was different, but the effort and persistence was the same. Nothing has changed and I hope it never does. I love this quality in Jake and hope I scrap a lot more pages titled the same over the years. I will turn the pictures above into a page about determination.

Thanks for stopping by. Have a great week.

simple lasercuts

Well, another week has flown by and if you dropped in last night to read the blog, my apologies for being a day late. I was simply too tired last night to do anything but sleep :). I hope you have all had a great week and maybe you could take this moment to grab a coffee and then admire the two layouts I have to share with you. I can speak so highly of them, because I did not scrap them :) I was so excited when Emma emailed me 2 layouts she created during the week using the February Patterned paper subscription and a couple of lasercuts. They are very simple layouts but beautiful, I think she has done a wonderful job of telling her stories to go with the photos, embellishing slightly and keeping the pictures as the focal point.

The second of these two layouts Emma created for Kathy Zeilske's design your life class.

I frequently leave my lasercuts raw and so when Emma sent her layouts through to me and she had also left them raw it made me smile. I know that Annie who blogged for Remember When under the previous owner used to paint hers beautifully and one day I plan to try this. If you have any lasercuts that you have decorated or painted and love how they have turned out on your layouts please email me a photo - lee@rememberwhen.com.au I pack so many orders of paper and lasercuts I often wonder how people use them on their layouts. I would also love to share some with the people who read the blog each week.

On a different note, the getaway is sneaking up very quickly and I am so excited. Excited to have some time to scrap with no distractions and excited to meet some new people. Last year was such a great time for relaxing, sharing ideas and generally just having a great time. I plan to have lots to share with you after the weekend.

Lastly for this week I am excited to say that it's birthday month. The 1st March was the 1st anniversary for me as the new owner of Remember When. It has been a great 12 months and I have loved taking over the business and starting shape it to my own. My fingers are crossed that by the end of the month (or very shortly after) the new website will be up and running and there will be no more ordering problems. I have been busy uploading all the products on to the new site and can't wait to share this with you shortly. Also included in the new site will be the full range of Bazzill colours that we have in 8.5 x 11 inch and A4 - too exciting! :)

Have a great week and please remember to email me any layouts using lasercuts that you just love. See you next week.