Paige Evans ~ Happy Haven #1

Hi everyone, it’s Anna here. This month I’m working with Paige Evan’s latest and final collection with American Crafts - Happy Haven. You can find most of the collection in the shop here. 

For this layout I knew I wanted to use lots of folded paper windmills to document a trip to a windmill in Holland. I also knew I wanted to keep some of the florals on paper #1 while still using the b side as my base. So I gutted a section out of the middle and then trimmed some white cardstock to go in the centre. 

I made some folded paper windmills using a variety of 5cm and 6cm squares. I used paper #3 and paper #7 to make the windmills and I trimmed some coordinating bazzill cardstock for the ‘stem’. I added an enamel dot in the centre of each to secure and add extra detail. 

I chose a journalling box from paper #12 and adhered it under my photo. Once these were in place, I began to arrange the windmills on the layout. 

I cut out some of the florals from paper #1 and tucked them around the edge of the white cardstock. 

Finally, I selected a few stickers from the cardstock stickers and placed them around my layout. 

Thanks so much for looking! See you later in the month with another layout using this collection. 

Anna 

@acraftylifewithanna

Easy DIY No Sew Journal

 Hello,

I have a new journal to share with you today.

We've decided after 25yrs to move home!!
It's such a big deal isn't it?!

Anyway, we are relocating to a whole new area, so I want to document the whole home search in a new journal. Keep all these new memories together in one place.

I was going to make another 'Little Golden Book' journal, but I fancied trying something new.

So I have a 'No Sew' DIY journal using an old book.

I'm so happy with how this turned out.

If you'd like to see this journal being made, you can watch the video here.

I love the colours and they were all inspired by this collection here.

Look how cute! It's got a lovely warm and vintage feel. Perfect for our search for a new home.

It's from Echo Part and is called 'Dream Big Little Girl'

I started with a book from my husband's book shelf that he was happy to declutter.

It has a lovely linen feel cover, which I covered up the wording with a piece of fabric and a little journal card that I've had for years.

I removed about half the pages inside and used the papers from the Echo park collection to add some added colour.

Here is one page that I added. It's larger than the book pages so I could fold it over which works perfect with the double sided papers.

 
Here is another page I added. This time I cut the paper longer, used a punch along the bottom and folded it up, using double sided sticky both sides to create a little pocket.

This page is quite similar but torn, no punched edge and I didn't create a pocket. This page can be pulled down.

This one is a half sized pocket made from vellum and I've used a sticker and a scrap piece of paper.

This page was cut to 3/4 size of the width.

I loved this paper here.

I cut a couple of pieces out to create small flips.

And I used a large punch to create lots of tabs along the side and the top.

I'm so happy with this new journal and can't wait to document our new home adventures.

Don't forget to check out the process video here.

Thanks so much.

Lisa x

How To Start A Journal - Part 2

 Hello, Lisa here with more journal chat.

Did you see my post earlier this week where we transformed an unwanted cookbook into a journal?

It went from this.

to this

I have the full process video here if you missed it.

Today we are moving on to the next step.

Starting inside the journal.

It's a question I get asked about a lot.

How to start a journal?

So it's something I talk about in this new video here.

I talk about different ways to start a new journal and show lots of examples.

I then also start working on this new one.

I'm using this lovely collection once again from Cocoa Vanilla Studio - Storyteller.

The reason I called this journal my Storyteller journal : )

I wanted to give this journal an introduction so carried on with the Storyteller collection inside using the papers, die cuts and stickers.

The dark background went so well. I added some gesso and some stencilling too.

And then used a white gel pen to tell my first story. 

The story behind the journal and my intentions for it.

I thought this would be a good start.

I'm so excited to get creating in this new Storyteller journal.

If you love telling stories too, I really encourage you to create one too.

I hope this inspires  you today.

Have fun

Lisa x

Let's Start A New Journal Together - Let's Tell Stories - Part 1

 Hello, Fancy starting a new journal with me today?

Lisa here. You know how much I love a journal, especially a DIY journal.

I love the freedom it gives me creating one myself.

Today I'm taking an unwanted cookbook.

My daughter was having a sort out before going back to uni and this was in the charity pile.

I'd recently watched 'Indie Quill' on YouTube and seen that she's used a Jamie Oliver cookbook as a journal and I loved this idea, so decided to do the same with this one.

I do have a video here if you'd like to see how I went about this from start to finish.

And the paper collection that plays such a large roll in this journal is this one here.

Cocoa Vanilla Studio - Storyteller.

I love to tell stories in my journal so I've taken the name of this collection and called this my 'Storyteller Journal'. 

A place to share random stories in any order.

No rules, just fun and stories.

I used the papers from the collection to cover the book. Using Mod Podge worked really well for this. I added paint too and some of the die cuts and stickers and then went over the top with another later of Mod Podge to secure it all in place.

I love the wording 'Melt' on the book so I kept that.

I also used some of the packaging.

The large word 'Storyteller' is actually the packaging of the die cuts.

It works so well : )

I carried on with the decorating on the reverse of the book.

The wording of the papers, die cuts and stickers was such a great fit as you can see.

I added some washi to the spine, also coating in Mod Podge to secure it.

I'm so happy with this new journal and feel very excited for our new storytelling adventures together.

I hope it inspires you to transform a book for your stories.

I'll be sharing Part 2 with you very soon as we'll be moving inside the book.

Lots of love

Lisa x

Journaling For Beginners - How to Feel Free & Scrap with No Rules

 Hiya,

I wanted to share some journaling with you today.

I have a video with a pully out page and I chat and share tips for journaling beginners but also talk about scrapping with no rules.

I'm using the amazing paper collection from Doodlebug Designs called 'Lots of Love' here.

For example, this piece here, ''25 things I love about you'. It fit so well on my page but I wanted it for regular journaling. I could have stuck a different title over the wording but I decided to keep it. I like it. It doesn't matter that I haven't added 25 things, because it's my journal and my rules. Doesn't matter if anyone else things it's odd right?!

Take the 'memories' card next to it. 

That had some flowers in the right corner, I wasn't fussed with those either, so I stuck a photo over them and now that card is so perfect for my page : )

     

I also don't let myself stress over things. 

See that cute white scalloped edge with the dots?

It's only there as I stuck the paper down so badly. It's wonky under there and I needed something to hide it. LOL.

And now it looks so cute!!

  

I love working with contrasting colours and seeing different colours pop up on a page like here.

The stickers on the big 12x12 sheets that coordinate with the papers really help me to do that.

It's a quick and easy way to add extra colour.

You can see more of the stickers here.

I love that green chevron pointing to my son.

The stickers add so much fun.

I love using 12x12 papers on my journal pages as you have so much to play with. 

I was able to stick the pink heart paper in here and fold a couple of times to create this folded pull out page. Such a fun way to add extra photos and stories. 

I hope you like this fun page.

It's a week of my life in my weekly journal.

I love documenting my life in the fun way that I feel so free to do.

Combining scrapbooking & journaling.

No rules!!

If you'd like to see the video, it's here.

Thanks so much.

Lisa xx

Celebrate - Carta Bella - Let's Celebrate Collection

Hello, it's Rebecca with you today and I'm sharing my first layout using Carta Bella's ‘Let’s Celebrate’ collection. This collection is full of bright colours and perfect for documenting birthday photos so I'm using the collection to scrap photos from my son's 4th birthday last month.

I was really drawn to the ‘Bunches of Balloons’ patterned paper - it's definitely my favourite from the collection. I wanted to use it in it's entirety but it was a little too 'busy' for me to use as a background paper so I needed to create some white space to work with. I decided to trim 1 inch from one edge of a sheet of Premium White Cardstock. This would allow me to have the balloon paper showing as a border around the edge of my page. I then tore two sections from the cardstock to place on the top and bottom of my background. This meant I ended up with a section of the patterned paper showing in the centre of my layout, and around the edge. 

I selected three photos for this layout, of my little one stood with his birthday balloons, and decided to display them in a small film strip style on the left of my page. I then used a hand drawn template to cut three balloons from the patterned papers. I've used the B side of ‘Party Palooza’ and both sides of the ‘One Year Older’ Paper. I made sure to centre my balloon over a number '4' on the 'One Year Older' paper so that I had a green number 4 on the balloon.

I doodled around the edge of the balloons with a black pen, and also drew on some strings to ground my balloons so they weren't just randomly floating. I've used foam pads behind the balloons to bring some dimension to the page. I've also doodled a border around the outside edge of the white cardstock to bring the layout all together and to match the black strings in the 'Bunches of Balloons' patterned paper. I've also used the red and green papers to add some layers behind my photos - of course with distressed edges!

I then worked on the opposite corner of my layout to balance out the page. I've used two of the larger stickers from the Element Stickers sheet - the 'celebrate' sticker will act as the title for this layout. 

I've used my star punch to create some embellishments for my layout - I've punched 5 stars in total (3 from the 'One Year Older' patterned paper and one from the ‘Hip Hip Hooray’ paper, to bring some navy blue into the layout). These also have a doodled black border on them for consistency. I also used a tiny star punch to add a sprinkling of smaller stars around the page. 

I further embellished my layout with some of the smaller stickers from the 'Element Stickers' sheet, and added some green ink splatters. 

This left the top right hand corner of my layout free to add my journalling. I wanted to say quite a bit, so I typed my journalling and printed it in small strips. I backed the strips onto the B side of the 'Party Paloozer' paper to help them stand out a bit better, and raised them up with foam.

I finished my layout with a few Matte Sprinkles by Doodlebug. I've never used these before but I love the texture of them so will definitely be featuring them on future layouts!

If you'd like to watch how the layout came together, I have a process video up on my YouTube channel which you can find here.

I'll be back a bit later in the month with my second layout with this collection, but in the meantime you can shop this collection and lots more goodies here.

Take care,

Rebecca x

Simple Stories ~ Hello Today #2

 Hi! It’s Anna back with you today sharing my second layout using the Simple Stories Hello Today collection. 

You can find the collection over in the shop here . 

This layout documents 2020 and is what I would call a ‘review the year’ page. I used a typewriter cut file by Paige Evans, which I backed with a variety of the patterned papers from the collection as well as some coordinating cardstock. I also printed out some type writer font and added each letter/number into each section for the keyboard. This was very time consuming, but worth it. I also did some journaling in a word document and printed it out to go in the cut file too. I just talk about the year in this text and what it meant for us. 

I made some photo collages to incorporate several pictures from throughout the year. I backed these with patterned paper and coordinating cardstock and adhered them to the right of my cut file. 

For my title, I used these  American Crafts Thickers  and also used some enamel dots either side. 

I added several of the stickers from the Combo Stickers and some chipboard stickers  too.

Thanks so much for looking! See you soon! 

Anna 

X 

Documenting A Funny Story - Journal Style

Hi. Lisa here today.

I'd completely forgotten about this silly story that had us in giggles on holiday in Orlando in 2018. 

And that's exactly what I love about scrapbooking. 

Documenting stories that would usually be forgotten. 

.

I found this photo of the kids and it bought the memories straight back.

I had the Cocoa Vanilla - Merry & Bright collection out and I was planning on creating a Christmas page, but the photo colours went so perfectly. So then I thought. 

Who says you can only use Christmas papers with non Christmas photos? I tell people all the time, there are no rules in scrapbooking. 

So here I an using Christmas papers with photos from Orlando taken in July.

Can you tell? I can't! 

  .

I flipped the Christmas tag over and stamped the title on the reverse and the word stickers all have a completely different meaning now and I love that. .

 

I needed more space on my page for journaling so I created a little flip page.

The top piece pulls out. 

 

This works so well and looks so pretty. I loved being able to tell this funny story. 

I secured the flip page by adding a large paper clip at the top. 

  

I'm so pleased with this page. I'm so happy to have this story down on paper and I had so much fun creating. 

I do have a process video if you would like to see here. 

And I share the story and a clip of what actually happened too. 

I hope you enjoy. Thanks so much.

Lisa x