Oops another long time has passed

Another batch of layouts.  I didn't realise that I had so many to put up.  

This layout used shades which I don't normally use and lots of paper pieces as background.  Although it took me ages to get the thrown together look I was after I was really pleased with the end result.

 I had a tag with a picture of a crocodile on it sitting on my desk for ages.  When I came to scrap this picture of a crocodile of children I realised that I had a perfect use for it - although I did have to enlarge it quite a bit.

I made the scales using layers of borders which I had cut out using my new cuttle bug.

 To make this more interesting I sewed seed beads onto some of the circles on the backing card and allowed them to overlap the main section.

I made the clock by putting a rub on onto acetate and then mounting it onto card using a black brad in the centre. 

 This layout was about a lesson where the children made tadpoles from painted finger prints so I made a tadpole border using the same technique.

For this layout celebrating some scrapbooks made by students I made an embellishment from techniques used in lace making.  It was a fun layout to do because the theme loaned itself to me throwing every embellishment I could think of at it.

 I had recieved a pack of paper the edge of which had been damaged in the post.  Although I had recived a repalcement I kept the origininal.  For this layout I tore the edge of the paper and used it as a centre mounted on another piece of card.  I cut away the card under the centre panel and used it to mount the photos on.

Our Last Few Weeks

I have decided to do something which I should probably have done months ago and that is work through my photos in some sort of order.

In the last few weeks I have been working through those that I took during our short stay on the health centre compound after we were burgled.  These photos reflect the last three months of our stay in Tanzania and form a time of reflection not only on our time there but on things we left behind.

In good missionary fashion we sold off many of our belongings before we left.  This was a process which we were dreading but was actually accomplished without too much pain.  We simply spread them out over the floor and left a donation bowl on the side.  With a steady stream of visitors we managed to get rid of quite a lot.  The journalling still needs ot be done on this page. 

I tucked some pleated fabric under one side of the photo not because we were getting rid of any but because it was so much part of our life there.  I was amazed at how many stickers I had of things that we got rid of.  I stuck them onto acetate and then used foam pads to stick them on the page.  I couldn't resist adding this little mouse peeking out the corner.  No there weren't any mice but the mess was such that I am sure one would have loved to hide in it.

 The border of my for sale sign was made by cutting thin strips from a wall paper sample.

 I took this photo on an evening walk.  It just struck me that the bell appeared to be shut out of the fenced in building site and sparked a train of thought which I felt deserved a page to itself.

 I have recently become the proud owner of a cuttle bug and used this for cutting the strip bordering the photo and the orange net strip.  The stiff net was made by gently heating a shower net sponge with my heat gun.  I used  a variety of rich fibres layered over simple string to portray my feelings that under a glossy surface there was poverty in the area.

 We were really blessed with amazing sunsets and sunrises during our stay in this house and this paper was ideal as a background for them.  I used my favourite chalks to draw a border for the photos and used old film and clock rub ons as embellishments.  To give the clocks a translucent background I rubbed them onto an empty matt laminating sheet which I had already run through the laminater.

 The photo on the left is hinged and opens to show a sunrise photo.

 This layout speaks for itself.  For the last few weeks we lived in a luxurious house in wonderful green suroundings, while those outside the gates lived in a barren wilderness.  My jouranlling reflect my mixed emotions of joy at luxury and guilt and anger at divide.  The two green cut outs on the layout were made using my cuttlebug.

 Although this photo was taken during the last few weeks of our stay, it reflected my feelings form the whole of our stay.  It was always expected of us that we would provide local employment by having a house girl.  While I hated having someone else ordering my house around I knew that I would not be able to do all the house hold tasks manually and work.  It was always a pleasure though to leave for work in the morning with a full dirty linen basket and come home at night to this, a pile of pristinely ironed clothes.

 For my title I used water paint to colour a textured fabric and then used pva glue to stick it to letters which I had cut-out from cardboard.  I then cut around the letters again and sealed the edge of the fabric with more pva.  Apart from the dress which was a stamp I drew all the clothes by hand and mounted them on small folds of material to reflect the edges of the ironed clothing.

Back to 12 x 12

These photos were taken at one of our farewell meals in Tanzania.  We were really good friends and both wanted a photo but neither of us took a decent photo.  Despite numerous attempts there wasn't a single good shot of both of us.  I really wanted to scrap this moment and our friendship and so decided to print the best photos up small and make the fact that one of us always had a funny expression part of the journalling.

 For the top of the bunting I used this old blind cord and painted the string between the balls black to tie in with the background.

The next layout was inspired by a child's comment.  The journalling reads:-

Conversation with Marlana on a journey home form CAMS.

'Miss Alison, what happened to your back window?'

'Some naughty boys threw stones and broke it.'

'Oh it's so beautiful, it's all sparkly.'

I saw the damage and destruction, she saw only beauty.  Let me look past the damage and destruction in life and see the beauty.

I spent ages cutting up paper forthe background and then of course I didn't wnat to cover it but the photos needed framing.  I came up with the idea of mounting them, the title and journallling onto acetate.  It gave a subtle framing and didn't cover the background.

 The dots between the paper pieces was done using metallic enamel paint and the lettering was cut out of semitransparent paper, mounted onto a background and sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Mist.

 The mian photo was mounted onto acetate sprayed with Cosmic Shimmer Mist.

 This layout was created for a Wycombe Scrappers Crop where the challenge was to use buttons and celebrates the only birthday cake I bought in Tanzania.  It wasn't until quite late on in our stay there that good western style cakes were available to buy and I just loved this one.  The journalling tells to story of the treat and how I got it home on a hot day while being stopped by the police.

I created the title by cutting the letters out from the same paper I had mounted the main part of the layout on and then embossing with Ultra thick powder.  To add depth I rolled the edges of the centre panel.

All I want to say to you is...

A year ago I recieved two Bo Bunny edgy albums.  They went in my stash for that special occasion. One of them has now been used in this album for my niece.  I wanted it to be more than a record of things she did and so have made it into a book of mine and my families feelings for her. 

I have used a lot of pink as her Mum does not like it and will encourage her to wear any colour other than pink so this might be my only chance.

She was about 3 weeks overdue and I started the book with a photo of her scan a week after her due date.  I wrote all my hopes and dreams for her in the form of a letter.

The next set of photos were taken when we first saw her at 3 days old.

These next two pages I wanted to embellish using lots of soft white to emphasize the babiness of the layout.

The lace circle was in my stash but the pin I made by making  roses from spirals of felt  which were held in place by threading onto the pin.  In-between the roses I threaded a very pale pink ric rac.

I am sure that at some point in her life she will decide that everyone, including her parents is against her, and so I wanted to record the tender love and car that her dad (my brother) showed her and to tell her that he will always love her even when she can't see it.

These two pages just show her that she is a part of the family and a very much longed for little girl.

I cut the number three out of my paint colour charts and then wrapped ribbon round it.  The pink colour just shows through softening the white.

I used a cut out photo of the balloon my mother bought for her as an embellishment.
I still have two pages left which I will use when I have printed some photos of I have with her over Christmas.

Something Finished - at last

At long last I have finished the first of my journey home books. The second one has all the photos in but is waiting for embellishments and a cover.

Here are some pages from the first book.

The front and back covers were made from a box cut up and covered with some material I brought home from Tanzania. It is stitched on around the edge onto the card and the spine is just material as I found that it needed to bend as the book was opened.

The book started with some very simple pages to record our farewells from the village and school.

I had made the book form envelopes which meant that each page had a pocket in which I could place journalling or extra photos. By the time I got to our farewell from the health centre I had started to get a bit more adventurous and instead of just inserting tags into the pockets I made this tag from an envelope which I could then use to house a tag with extra photo and journalling.

I wanted to embellish some pages but because I had used highly patterned papers I felt that would be too much, so this simple paper ring with beads stitched around the edge was ideal to highlight my text.

As this was essentially a book to say goodbye to my old life I made a point of writing each good bye I had to make down.

This page needed very little embellishment after I had put the text on. What statrted out as a simple button eneded up as the perfect finishing touch once I had inked it and then layered it with clear ultra thick embossing powder and mica spray.

I finished it with a peel off and then more clear ultra thick. The final heating was a bit dodgy as the peel off threatened to melt as well as the powder.

I had saved all the paper work and tickets throughout the journey and these boarding tickets worked really well with an aeroplane cut from a child's wallpaper border for this page. Tags from our luggage can be seen peeking out of the pocket.

I had attatched these tickets (below) but wanted to stop them flopping over the page. Peter had thrown some old floppy discs away and had given me the metal sliders from them. I painted inked and stamped one and finished it off with ultra thick embossing powder and a circle from the backing paper. The tickets slotted into it really well.

In my stash I've got loads of shapes which I have made from air drying clay. I painted a simple disc and then wrote in it using permanent marker, to finish this page off.

The embellishment on the tag had been made form stamping into the clay. I painted it in coordinating colours and attached it using lots of glue dots.

This page had many different forms. First off all I stamped the title and got a letter the wrong way round. I managed to make this into a feature by duplicating the mistake. I then managed to stamp unevenly and while trying to correct it I smudged ink everywhere. This was corrected by placing a new strip over the text and extra sticker embellishments around the photo. The final letters were child's foam letters painted with enamel paint. This tool several coats and I have had to attach them firmly so that they cannot bend and so crack the paint.

At the recent Wycombe Scrappers Crop we were asked to create layouts containing a photo of ourselves. These photos were taken by my Mum as I was waking up one morning while staying with her.

The back ground to this one started of with smearing silver acrylic paint over the page with my finger to try and create a dreamy background, I then stamped over it with flowers. The bottom layer is a paper mania paper I have had for ages and covering the bottom of the paper to resemble the bedclothes was the perfect use for it. I finished off with loads of butterflies cut from another paper mania page and gems glued along one of the curves. I stamped a journalling block onto a sheet of plain card on which I had previously stamped with a distressing stamp. I painted a line of silver paint along the bottom and used rub ons for my title.

This layout was very simple, with a layer of torn inked paper, the saved edge of an old cotton petticoat, and two lace edgings one which I had gathered and sewn little pearls into it.

I had these lovely cup cake pictures which needed something adding so I used buttons as the cherries and gems to decorate the slice of cake.

I have taken a break from my journey home over Christmas and an creating a book for my new born niece containing all my hopes and dreams for her.