Christmas in July

Well it may have been August by the time I posted this, I have been thinking all things Christmas in July over the last couple of weeks which for me means starting to soak my fruit for this years Christmas puddings and cake! It is somewhat of a tradition that I have been doing for quite some time now and it actually reminded me that I took photos a  few years ago that I have been meaning to scrap of the Christmas pudding making in action. I dug out the photos and went fossicking through my Christmas themed stash and put together this LO

About a decade after everyone else...

I have bought myself a Big Shot to play with!! Yet to get myself any dies yet but I suspect there will be a Christmas list of them soon enough!!

About to scrap a whole lot more

So I resigned from work this week with no plans other than to take some time out for me for the near future so there is going to be a whole lot more scrapping going on soon enough! I have completed another 2 LO's lately for my wedding album.

This is 1 of my favourite photos that the photographer took at the wedding of Mum & I hugging. I wanted to make it quite a soft, girly LO and pretty much based the whole page on the mother & daughter circle embellishment that I had.

The next was a fun pic of my shoes which I created myself by hand sewing the bling onto the ankle strap for a 1 of a kind pair of red velvet shoes. My original plan was to have a simple look with just the red flock balls ribbon but as I was searching for it in my ribbon stash I found loads of beautiful ribbons so I decided to make the page a real feature of different textured and patterned ribbons, ric rac and lace! I love the end result

Same challenge, different take on it

I enjoyed the last challenge set so much that I gave it a 2nd go. 

This time however I chose to make everything on the LO old stuff and thought what better than old scraps of favourite papers in times gone by where I have held onto small bits that were left over for use again as well as old buttons and flowers. Even the photos I chose to use were old! The result is a LO about my 30th birthday when I went to Pettavel vineyard for a degustation lunch with my parents and David. 

I completed a challenge!

Lorraine set a challenge to use something that you have had for a year but haven't used because it is "too nice" and I certainly have many items of stash that fall into that category so I decided to accept the challenge!

Here is what I started with:

There's lovely raised glitter flourishes and a big glitter heart and I thought it would forever be destined for the "too nice to use" pile but I threw all caution to the wind and created a page that contains the notes from David's wedding speech!

I would have to say that I am really happy with the result but I am not sure if it has given me the bug to go and use more of my special reserve stash just yet!

Mid year progress report

So on NYE I said I was going to spend more time scrapping. My last post hinted at the fact that I was not being very successful and I am sorry to say that I haven't really got to the point of spending some time each week however, I have been spending more time than I had been and better yet, I am really enjoying it when I do so I guess that is something right?! I do have a handful of LO's to share.

The first is a simple, clean (well for me anyway) LO of a weekend getaway David & I took over a year ago to Nobby's Point on Phillip Island. It was a sunny day but it was freezing and blowing a gale! Made for some great photos but 1 of my favourites is a picture we took of ourselves with the waves crashing in behind us. 

The next is a fun LO of a pic I took of David posing next to a giant bull on the Bund in Shanghai which is a copy of the bull that is on Wall St in New York

Just a couple of weeks ago, Mum & I went to a performance of Imperial Suite by the Australian Ballet and it was spectacular! I started this page the very next day with a flyer I had picked up after the show. I really love the page and is quite different for me as I have used lots of stickles and glimmer mist which I buy but never seem to use (and when I do I tend to hate the result...but not this time!) 

Now onto a few for my wedding album. The first is a photo that still makes me laugh. Hidden journaling under the "giggle" card reads: "Whilst we were getting ready, Michelle picked up my perfume to smell it but couldn't work out how to open it. She spent at least a minute trying to figure it out before I came over and simply lifted the lid off! We giggled for so long about it." Even though the rest of my wedding album focuses heavily on red (the wedding colour scheme) I chose to do this page in soft pastel colours as Michelle is such a girly girl and loves pink and purple.

The next page I have only just finished this morning and I am really pleased with it despite not being anything like I thought it would be when I first started! It was meant to be a simple page...that was until I stamped onto the background and hated it so then needed to cover it! Happy I did though as I love the new direction that the LO took. It is a photo of my bridesmaids helping me get dressed and although it was a posed photo I still like it for the memories that it gives me.

Final photo to share is yet another for the wedding album. It is posed pics of my giving my bridesmaids their gifts which was l very rushed and staged but an important moment to capture all the same. So as not to overwhelm my wedding album, I have kept this page quite basic. 

No-one is perfect...right??

OK - so this was meant to be the year of taking more time for myself and making sure I do things that I love more (including scrapbooking). It was a nice thought that lasted until mid February, maybe even early March but here I am in mid April, over Easter, yet again stressed out and working too many hours in the day to take time out for myself. I have actually managed to landscape my backyard in my limited spare hours which is at least some "me time" but there has been very little scrapbooking. I do have some pages to show you that were done back in February / March but I just hadn't got around to uploading here.

The first is just a quick and simple LO of my first ever ballet. Not as a performer! As a spectator. I really enjoyed it and will certainly keep a look out for any other ballets coming to town.

The rest are for my wedding album. The first is my favourite photo take at our engagement party.

The next is a very different LO to the rest of the album. It is of Mum & I taking some time out at a wedding expo to muck about in a photo booth which was really good fun and a chance to escape the stress of the organisation and vendors.

The next 3 will end up being a set of 5 when they are finished

My something old is a locket that was owned by my Great Grandmother and has pictures of my nan & pop's wedding day inside it that was attached to my bouquet.

My something new is my wedding dress (so many new things to choose from)

My something blue was made by my maid of honour and is our wedding date embroided in blue thread to 1 of the underskirts of my dress