Altered chocolate box

One of my favourite UK scrapping stores - A Trip Down Memory Lane - had a lovely virtual scrap a couple of weeks ago.  It was lovely - lots of pretty classes and some interesting challenges.  I bought a few of the class kits so I would have no excuse not to take part - though as it turned out it was very hot that weekend and my scrappy spot in the loft warms up quite quickly.  Still, we had a week to submit challenges so I did get them (almost) all done.  I have always enjoyed altering but don't do a lot - there are so many un-dustable things I can have cluttering the house!  However, for the challenge, I had a little box which originally contained half a dozen or so Thorntons chocolates.  It had an elastic fastening and was rather like a shadow box with a fold-over cover.  I turned it into this, cutting down the acetate which had covered the chocolates to provide a surface on which to support the bits and pieces I had lying on my desk - a wooden birdcage, some paper flowers, some pearls and a butterfly. I used some scraps of paper to finish it off - I am so pleased about the way it turned out.

Salzburg

We visited Salzburg last summer.  Very pretty, especially the view along the river to the castle with the town below.  I scrapped it using Prima papers, creating a frame for the photo by carefully cutting into the pattern at the sides with a craft knife and gutting the sheet, which meant that I could size it appropriately by layering up.  I added some pearls and some Prima embellies, and even dug out my Dymo machine, which I loaded with a strip of Tim Holtz glassine paper.  At the top right corner there is a hidden pocket which records what I thought about Salzburg.

Annual Update

Or might as well be, given how long it is since I last posted.  Reasons for this?  Life, which has managed to get in the way of a lot of crafty activities over the last year.  Doubt - why blog?  Who's interested?  I could just as easily write up a physical journal, so it's not as if blogger is the only way to record what I am up to.  The whole scrapbooking phenomenon appears to be rather muted at the moment - a contraction in the industry, less publications, most scrappy shops replacing forums (probably should be fora?) with facebook (I really dislike facebook), and bloggers/designers I used to follow stopping and moving on to new interests.

At times I have wondered why I keep scrapping anyway - I have an increasing pile of albums and I wonder what will happen to them when I'm not around.  Will anyone really want them?  My husband has already looked at the pile and suggested we start to photograph them and keep them as a slideshow.  Of course, this misses the point as to the texture and the stories recorded on the layout, but I can see the day may well come.  I suppose it comes down to the fact that I like scrapping - it's creativity for a not-very-artistic person, it's accessible and fun.  I do need to cut down on the materials I buy, though - maybe I'll save my money for a while, use up old stash making cards etc that I can sell - maybe using my Cricut Expression - and just streamline a little.

As this is the last day of September, Shimelle's "Learn Something New Every Day" starts again tomorrow, so after I've done a bit of house cleaning maybe I will sit and create a little album for that (a smaller and more manageable one than last year, I think, which I still haven't figured a good way to bind properly), one that I can pop in my bag and update when inspiration strikes!

And then I have photos from a couple of holidays and the big snow earlier in the year - with everything changing in my house I just need to get into a new routine.  After, all, doesn't this picture just scream "scrap me!"

October Afternoon

I really like October Afternoon papers - well, I am predisposed to like double-sided papers anyway, but October Afternoon do such cute die cut sticker sheets to go with them.  This card was for a Scrapbook Express WCD challenge, based on a sketch.  I rotated it and moved the element which was on the edge of the sentiment block over a bit.  The label I stuck on some white cardstock to give it some substance, and to make it easy to mount on foam pads over the lace.  I put little adhesive pearls from Bo Bunny on the bunting to add a little bit of extra interest. 

This was a pretty simple and easy card to make, and when I know who it is for I will add a sentiment with some little alphas, and that will be that.  I like the sketch, and will probably use it again - maybe with some more older October Afternoon papers!

England's World Cup ends

Oh the frustration!  The England players are better than that!  How sad.  I didn't expect us to win the Rugby World Cup, though you never know with rugby, but I did expect us to perform with a bit of flair.  The only good thing is that the Northampton Saints players were among the better ones, and at least they will be back at Franklin's Gardens a bit sooner, so I can watch them play in the flesh, so to speak.

On a happier note, butterflies seem still to be going strong in the scrappy world.  Butterflies and bunting, I wonder how long that will last?  For World Card Making Day I made some cards for a challenge to make cards of non-standard shape.  So, I tried my hand at a rocker card - well, a circle cut with my Cricut and folded in half.  I used some lovely My Minds Eye papers, and used the Cricut again to cut a pretty butterfly.  I am quite pleased with the way it turned out - the sentiment is done with Glitz alpha stickers and I dug out some old Basic Grey rub ons and Papermania adhesive stones.  I was quite pleased with the result - and looking at it I feel a bit more cheerful!

World Card Making Day

Most of my weekend was devoted to finishing an assignment and a bit of family time.  I still found a couple of hours to do the challenges for Scrapbook Express's WCD competition.  I won't win - I made so many less than some of the other ladies - but it was nice to be creative.

For one of the challenges, I used a Gorjuss girls stamp which I coloured with Letraset Pro Markers.  The picture isn't that good, and I really shouldn't colour in detailed pictures unless wearing my glasses - but I think it turned out OK.  And I managed to use a little bit of my twine too.

Inspiration from Herculaneum

When we were in Sorrento this summer we hired a car to take us first to Vesuvius so the boys could climb it early in the day before the heat built up too much, and then on to Herculaneum.  Herculaneum was lost in the erruption that also destroyed Pompeii, but rather than pyroclastic blast it was subsumed by mud, etc.  This meant that, rather than being rained down upon, Herculaneum was filled from the bottom up.  So, while there is an awful lot less uncovered than at Pompeii, what there is is of great quality.  Some of the villas look better than some of the modern "fixer-up"s I've seen, and there are beautiful mosaics and paintings.  Some of it is just so delicate.

There are a lot of scrappy challenges out there, and one I've seen quite often is to produce layouts based on advertisements, taking the design, or colours as a starting point.  I think when I have more time, I would like to do a series of layouts inspired by different works of art;  the light bright colours of some of the early impressionists, the richness of colour and depth of Holbein, and the colours and design elements of some of the mosaics I saw at Herculaneum.  Here are a couple of tasters - makes me want to start scrapping now!