Cheating?

I got EIGHT pages done yesterday, in a very short time. It sorta felt like cheating, but felt OH so good to get them done and looking mighty fine too, even if I do say so myself.

The reason for this abundance?  I finally got some of my digital/hybrid pages printed. Yep.  They came in the mail – and although I am not all that happy with the WAY some of them were printed (borders cropped when the page was created the right size and the like) for the most part I am happy. I am yet to find an online photo printer that does things perfectly.

Anyhow, you’ve seen these all before in their original digital form. This is what they look like stuck down on a bit of card and prettied up to go in an album.

Seeing as I had so much white space (bit of a waste photo printing wise!) I was able to crop off the digital matting that I had done and was printed strangely (missing the sides) and then I just stuck it down on a bit of card.  I like. I matted this one narrowly – again with white space – and then just stuck down on a bit of card…this was from a challenge that Nicole issued earlier in the year. Feels forever ago.Another challenge layout…that printed not-quite-right (borders removed!)  but waste not want not, I made do. Not my favourite, but I do love the story!

I LOVE how these three questionnaire layouts turned out!  And so so simply. My embellishments are languishing sadly in a draw! 

I don’t know how I forgot about that yummy striped paper,love its colours.

Not as happy with the way I treated this one (was the first of the three that I stuck down) I wish I had done it the same as the other two.  But its still nice.

And last but not least, another one with borders cropped (grr) so had to be creative.

I forgot one- that was only seven!  This one below was about christmas, and I think it will go into a mini album about Christmas that I have sort of started (as in gathered materials and very little else).  Instead of a December Daily – too much of a commitment – i thought I would   gather snippets of Christmas photos each year, along with the letter I send out to family and friends, and special letters received  (placed in an envelope). I am not overly happy with the title, but as it was 8x8 I had trouble fitting other letter stickers in the space and was feeling too lazy to print out a title on white card. I think this page was orginally 8.5x11 in in digital format but I printed it 6x8, and it printed Ok, just lost some of the kraft coloured border along the top and bottom. Lesson learnt – plan ahead and make your page the SPECIFIC size that you wish to print.  6x8 is quite a nice size, and cheaper than a 8x10 ! ;-)

So there you go, an overload of pages.  I could have spread them out and shared over a period time, but I am just too impatient  (and forgetful I have to say!)

Third and final call

You may have seen these collage pages on occasion before. One of them is done and dusted, never to be scrapped again, and the other will have to come out again and be done for the youngest child. 

And lest you think that cropped scallop is an integral design element, let me set you straight.  It is covering an unfortunate accident involving something sticky that didn’t want to come off.  Lets pretend its there to break the eye from that patterned paper!

So there you have it, my time wasting efforts for the first day of the school holidays, after hearing “I have nothing to dooooo” from the oldest child in the first 2 hours after getting out of bed. Funnily enough, she found something to do when I suggested that she wipe clean the kick board on the kitchen cupboards!

Outside my comfort zone

I was in a funny old mood this afternoon and was also feeling quite lazy scrapping wise.  I printed out this collage that you’ve seen many times before, this time it is for Georgie’s album.  I love that each kid will have a page to remember this time with a minimum of effort on my behalf!

Like I said, in a funny mood. The paper doilies were on my desk, unused from another project I was going to do, but didn’t get time (and they didn’t arrive in the mail in time in any case)

That’s how lazy I was feeling – i even used my own handwriting – and just printed out the journaling thing I made after seeing one that Nicole had used (see a couple of posts back).

I think this page took all of 10 minutes, not counting the wasted time on the computer looking for a free printable journaling label that looked like four brackets joined together (do you understand what I mean?) but was plain at the same time. But had lines for writing.  I dont ask for much, do I?  I am sure there is something like that out there, so point me in the right direction, please!  I still have a hankering to use some on my NEXT page!

Anyhow, best go and get tea started – the days are getting longer – and we love our afternoons outside in the cool evenings – but it means that we are later getting in and getting bathed and fed.  Time to get started on a summer routine so at least the kids get to bed at the same time (holidays being a little more flexible of course).

And another plug for Windows Live Writer – it even allows me to crop my photos from within it – and other limited editing abilities.  This makes the blogging process so quick – the longest part now is downloading the images and the time I take to drivel on here!

Coming up next post:  Meet Pig Pig.

Just one more

A bit of a before and after, if you will.  I did this page last the other day when putting my other collage pages together. Finished it, feeling very lazy, and promptly hated it. 

Messy handwriting, and that line around it in an attempt to bring it together. Just awful.  So I fixed it.

Better, yes?  Still not BRILLIANT, but at least I can bear to look at it now!

OK, so I have run out of printed collages to bombard you with, and my desk is temporarily pile free of photos.  Not that I have caught up (ha ha!), more that I haven't gone to the good old ordinary albums to find more photos that I want to scrap. :-)

Stay tuned, I'll have a non-scrapping, but still sorta crafty post for you soon...!

Collage Pages

The other day I found some enlarged collage photos tucked away that I had forgotten about (shock horror) and set to getting them scrapped straight away.

These first two were done in my early days of creating collages, and were done at 8 x 12. When I initially got them out, I wondered just what I was going to do with them, but now I am quite pleased with the result.  I resolve to do some deliberate 8x12's again some day.

I also love how the collage page tells the story so simply. Love it. Again, need to do more, more, more!

I assure you, that title seems straight in real life. What I love about the 8x12 is that you can cut the cardstock to A4 size and run through the printer, and then stick it back together and the photo page hides the join. Love it.  And I decided that I didn't need any patterned paper on this page...it just seemed done without it. This page is about our schools first big bike ride - wait for it - back in 2008.  This page has been waiting awhile to be done!

Yes, another '08 one. Better late than never, hey. Again, I felt no need for patterned paper. I even had some nice blue stuff out, ready to cut, but decided against.  And again, I chopped the card and ran through the printer.

This was a 5x7 print, on an 8x8 page. Getting lazy, and using my own handwriting, which I don't like despite Amy and Di telling me otherwise.  And those thickers?  Came from my local discount/$2 store, for $2.79 per packet.  They are great.

And lastly, my favourite, and most recent (from JUST last year! Imagine that!)

I started off just with the left hand page...and when it was all stuck down I thought it was missing something - the rest of the photos from the day!  Now I could have just slipped some 4x6 photos into a divided page protector (I have a lovely collection of them) but as I haven't actually printed ANY photos from last year - just this one enlargement with the little thank you photo thingys that I'd done - I made this collage using a CZ template. I printed it at home using some rather inferior photo paper, so its not the best quality (I may reprint at a proper photo place!) but it does the job.  If I hadn't added the second page after the fact, I would have moved my journalling down a bit. Actually I should have in the first place,. but too bad now! I really do like how this page turned out.  And using the white el cheapo thickers this time!

That's it for today, I really must go and keep a date with my man, Dyson (the vacuum cleaner). sigh. Where is my cleaning fairy when I need it?!

Plans

Hopefully we might do some of this again tomorrow - pack an esky with some poppas and biccies, and throw in some camp chairs and mossie spray.

The kids and I went down to the creek crossing on the way to my parents place a few weeks ago and paddled up the creek (along my my mum, brother and his girlfriend);  it goes down quickly so we didn't get to go back. However after the recent rain up here its running across the causeway again, so we need to take the opportunity for another swim! Nice and sandy and shallow for the kids to run and jump off the causeway.  And a nice shady gum tree on the bank for the not so energetic to rest under.

Summer for some is the beach - THIS is summer in the bush!

Catch Up

Just a quick catch up pictorial style post on a few things I've been wanting to share with you...and I've yet to select my photos-for-the-month for January, but there's a few front runners. Hopefully I'll do that tonight, if I can get rid of this headache that's been plaguing me all day!

Anyhow:  here it is - more or less finished.  Have to get a couple of more narrower brackets to finish off (we ended with more shelving than we thought - bonus!) but its workable, just need to find a spot or dump a few more things. Here's some before *yikes* during and nearly done shots.

HE needs to finish his part of the job and put some support under the ends of each shelf....I can't load them up properly until that happens....

And our big girls' recent 7th birthday - which ended up being a drawn out affair, with a little friend sleeping over and another little friend joining us for cake (photo 1) and then a cake at school ON her actual birthday, and then some sparklers on the left over cake that night.  And yes, if you thought the cakes looked alike, you;d be right!  I made a huge double chocolate cake and made two round cakes for the first layered montrosity, and a ring cake from what was left.  And iced them all with the same icing....popped the ring cake in the freezer and brought it out when needed!

I have another super quick collage to share, but will later after I have sorted out some tired, cranky, fighting children!

Collage Layouts

You'll remember Nicole got me hooked on creating photo collages, of which I did quite a few, and had printed ages ago.  What I had't done of course, was stuck on them down and put them in my albums.

But guess what? Now they are.  Here's what the finished articles are like - some nowhere like the digital version I had planned, mostly becuase I decided to lift my own words off the blog and add to the images, so more space was needed. I should talk/write less, I suppose!

I apologise in advance for the flood of {poorly edited!} scrapbook pages....

I like the effect of printing on the patterned paper here - collage printed 6x8.  I think I will use 6x8 more often, as it is easier to deal with, unless I have a LOT of photos I want to show.

The journalling and the photos were all printed as one 8x10 on this one, it seems to work. Like how this one turned out, even if that startled owl is covering a slight measuring error?!

Finished size 12x12 double pages. Ended up being a bit different to the digital version I did....

A 8.5 x 11 double page, using a 6x8 collaged photo.  And the journalling straight from my blog, about my truck driving adventures....

I don't think these two pages look like they belong together, but oh well, its done. Love that paper, which came as a pack from DCWV from Big W of all places.

I've also done some other "normal pages" but I'll save them for later...