fun, fun, fun

I've been playing! I think I am finally back in my groove after my vacation. And there's more where this came from. I am digging into my huge stack of papers from ScrapMode so stay tuned for those soon!

Wearing my Fancy Pants

The great people over at Pub Calls organised a challenge to show off creations using Fancy Pants products. In my head the deadline was the 31st, and then yesterday at 6:00 p.m. my friend Sarah mentioned it was at midnight! (Note to self: stop keeping deadlines in your head!). I cleared the sun, food and wine stupor from my brain and came up with these three projects.


I'm not sure just how well I did clearing the clouds from my head! As I dug frantically through my stash I realised I had just a scrap of patterned paper left, and so I had to figure out another way to scrap a layout with no patterned paper (a rare occurrence these days). I did however have tons of their chipboard previously purchased in a moment of weakness, and I do love me some chipboard!

chunky necklace

chunky necklace
Originally uploaded by scraphappyfran

I got these beads from Club Stamp eons ago, and never used them for their intended purpose of making a handle for a cigar box purse. Some days I want to create but don't feel like scrapbooking (the horror!), and so I am trying to diversify my crafting as it were. I threaded the sheer ribbon through the beads, knotting the ribbon between them as I went. Simple and sweet.

Herbie the Hedgehog

Aug 20
Originally uploaded by scraphappyfran

While reorganising my sewing supplies yesterday, I decided I wanted to make a cute pincushion for these pearl headed pins (which I will more likely use as scrapbook embellishments than pins). I went online, did a search and found the pattern for a hedgehog pincushion here. It came together really quickly, less than 30 minutes.

I also put all my spools of thread into this jar, much more aesthetic and better organised than the jumble they were in in the drawer.

Week 1

I finally got around to scanning the first batch of pages from my Month in the Life mini-album. I tried to keep it simple. I used notebook pages from the stationery aisle as the main background (all the notebook paper in France is like graph paper, super cool) . A looong time ago my sister sent me some time cards (she bought them at Walmart), and I thought they'd be perfect for this project. I tried to carry the colour scheme from the cover over onto the pages. Methinks I will need to stock up on more red stickers and lime green accents soon!

Altered frame

I made this altered frame a few days ago to display one of my favourite photos from our recent trip to Paris. The frame started off like this:


I painted it with two coats of white gesso, then two coats of the green acrylic paint. Then I layered the cardstock, photo and cut out patterned paper to the background patterned paper which I'd cut to the size of the frame. Once I assembled the frame again, I added the felt and chipboard embellishments on top the glass. I did this because with their bulk they wouldn't fit inside the frame. A pretty simple project with a nice wow factor.

All papers and embellishments are by American Crafts

Connect 4

I posted this challenge on ScrapGal yesterday (this month's theme is "connect") :

4 photos
4 word title
list of 4 for journaling
1 embellishment used 4 times

here's my take
Supplies used:
Patterned papers: BasicGrey
Photo corners: American Crafts
Letter stickers: BasicGrey and Scenic Route Paper Company
Rub-on: Hambly Studios
Label stickers ans scroll stamp: 7 Gypsies

A month in the life

I'm leading a photo a day challenge on the forum at Scrapbook Takeout this month, and I've decided to use the photos to make a mini album for August. My plan is to do pretty simple pages, using the photos in 4x6 format straight out of the printer. I'll share the pages in two 2-week batches, but for now here is the cover.

I made the book from two pieces of chipboard that came with a photo order (love when that happens - crafting materials for "free"). I painted it first with the light green paint, then used the Heidi Swapp flower mask with the darker green. I embossed the calendar stamp from Purple Onion onto the 7 Gypsies tag using Ranger Distress Embossing Powder in Walnut Ink. The transparency is by Hambly, the letter stickers by 3 Bugs and Chatterbox and the stamps by Aladine Atelier (a French company). I'll upload the first batch of pages later this week. In the meantime you can see all my daily photos on my photo blog or on Flickr.

Travel Journal

I planned to do a travel journal while my Mum was here, a scrapbooking on the road kind of thing to record the trip, and save ephemera so that once I was ready to scrap the photos I'd have all the information available. It worked really well while we were in Paris and doing lots of sightseeing and eating out, but once we hit the provinces and things slowed way down it just wasn't happening anymore. There are only so many ways you can record "Lazed around the house reading today"! So instead of a "summer in France" journal I ended up with a "4 Days in Paris" journal.

I used a chipboard album from 7 Gypsies. It consisted originally of 2 covers and 4 chipboard pages. I took the pages out (to use as covers for future minibooks) and made my own using cardstock. While working on the book on the road I used the spiral punch from Stampin Up! to add additional pages and ephemera. You can see additional views of the journal here

Inspiration corner

Everywhere I go I tend to pick up images that catch my eye. These days in most bars and restaurants you can find a variety of fliers, brochures and postcards for the taking. But I've also spied fun stuff at the library and museum in Lyon. A couple months back I found these large sticky bulletin "boards" by 3M and decided they would be perfect to use to display all my schtuff.
It's off to the side of my scrapping desk, within sight, so I can easily glance over and see it. I have yet to draw specific inspiration from any one image, but the entire display makes me smile and keeps me creating.

Catching Up

I'm back home after a hectic vacation and am getting back into my creative groove. I have well over 1000 new photos, so those should keep me busy for a while! But in the meantime here are some projects I've completed over the last 6 weeks. Some are DT work for Self-Addressed and ScrapGal, but most are pages done for fun or for challenges.