A productive day

There are times when I realise that working part time has huge benefits, and Wednesday was one of them! I managed to get the majority of my album finished although I do need to add journalling to a few pages. I hate my scruffy handwriting so try to avoid journalling but I can see why Shimelle added journalling to some of the pages and I need to be brave and add some here and there!

The Cyprus page involved us turning 4 small black and white pictures into a kind of film strip and I found these photos from our last 'whole family' holiday to Cyprus back in 2007. We had been experimenting with the cocktail menu in the hotel bar after dinner one evening and the photos capture the silliness! I liked this idea of mixing two contrasting colours for a double page layout, something I would not have thought of doing myself.

It was purely by chance that the colours of the paper for my Barbados pages worked absolutely perfectly. The smaller photos show the view of the sunset from our hotel room and also a brightly painted house that was just down the road from us in Hole Town. The orange and the pink with blue highlights pick up every colour in that house and I couldn't have planned it better! This was supposed to be our last 'whole family' holiday in 2004 - which is why we chose a more exotic destination. It certainly was an amazing place and fully deserves inclusion in this album of special family memories.

Still a couple of finishing touches to make to the last few pages. Do I really have to go to work today? :-(

Feeling better

Well, this day off is just what the doctor ordered! Another two pages completed and I have to warn you now that the first one includes the remnants of a dodgy 80s perm. Those of a nervous disposition please look away now!

This is a rare picture of my sister and me with our parents where we are all looking at the camera and all smiling nicely! My dad, in particular, hated having his photo taken but this is a lovely photo of him. There is a restaurant near us that used to do the most delicious Sunday roast lunch. The meat would be brought to your table under huge silver domed platters and the chef would carve it at your table. So for birthdays, we would go there for a family lunch even after Gill and I were married and had left home. My dad died in 1989 and my mum died in 1997 and so pictures like this are really treasured memories and this just HAD to be included in my family album. Even though my hair resembles a freshly made birds nest.

And so onto another happy family event. My daughter's graduation.

I know I've made a page of her shaking hands with Robert Winston before but a family album needs to include momentous events so I make no excuses for duplicating photos! The smaller photos show us as a family - we only had 2 tickets for the ceremony so our son who is at uni in Sheffield at the moment, came to join us afterwards which explains why we look dressed up to the nines and he looks like a scruffy student who's come straight from a lecture. Because, um, that's what happened! The other picture is of our daughter and some of her class throwing their mortar boards up in the air - a classic graduation pose!

Another good idea from Mel

Dear Boss,
I will not be in work tomorrow as I have developed Post Crop Stress Disorder. This is caused by starting to make an album and then being sent home to finish it at a later date.
Dr Mel has referred me to see a consultant specialising in these matters and Dr McSherrif has prescribed rest and hourly sessions of creative therapy to ease the anxiety caused by needing to finish my album.
I might be back on Thursday.
Yours sincerely
Deb

Where to start?

There were so many new ideas that I learnt at the Shimelle class on Saturday and so many ideas I know I want to use again and again. Here's page two of the album we made.
I had wanted to use these photos for a while. My niece got married two years ago and I had this lovely picture of her coming down the staircase before we all left for the church. The smaller pictures are of me with my family and my sister with her branch of the family tree. You will see a few elements creeping into the album which are reflected in practically every page. The butterfly on top of the circle is one, and the use of the little white tag is another. I love those little tags, why did none of you tell me about them before? How lovely are those padded letters? I would never have chosen a font so large yet it works so well.
And here is page three ...
Seven photos on one layout? Who'd have thought? Again the butterfly idea on a circle. The brown paper with 'Spring is Sprung' on it is from Dear Lizzy American Crafts, such a lovely range - go track it down, you won't regret it! The little bit of ribbon at the top is from the same range and I loved it so much that I fear it is one of those things that I never get to use because I won't want it to be used up, so I just used a few inches as I thought it went with the holiday theme! I'm loving the pennant ideas people are doing so this is my way of sneaking a bit in. How lovely is that wood grain effect ribbon along the bottom?
As you can tell, I was so inspired by the collection of stash we were given, and it is going to be very hard for me to go to work today when all I really want to do is work my way through the instructions for finishing off all the pages.

Back to earth

Well, we certainly covered some miles yesterday with our House Party Blog and it was fantastic to see what everyone had done with their kits that Rinda had sent out. Amazing how different people interpret different raw materials - it was certainly fun to see the finished results.

It was certainly an eventful day on Saturday. The crop that was organised by the lovely ladies at Eclectic Keepsakes was such good fun. I had just about got over the stress of having to collate 22 pictures when Shimelle announced that we were going to be making 16 pages. I did wonder if I had inadvertantly booked in for a week long course rather than just the one day but she smiled confidently and I was reminded of the saying 'Keep Calm and Eat a Cupcake' which was quite handy really as she had, indeed, arrived with a tray of cupcakes!

Dear reader, you do know that I will be presenting you with these pages over the coming days and so here is the opening page. I had chosen the theme of family but did not have any previously unscrapped photos of us as a group. They would rather walk over hot coals than pose for a photo so I resorted to cutting and pasting individual pictures onto one print. It kind of reminds me of the opening credits for the old US comedy show The Brady Bunch

So you can see the kind of colours and tones of papers that we got to use and we all just loved them. There was also a theme going on with the patterned butterflies on top of circles and also the little white tags. I loved the paper with the little blue birds in a row with random sparkly pink ones so much that I 'accidentally' bought another sheet to bring home ;-) I loved the way that Shimelle got us all to finish all those pages to a basic level and then sent us home to embellish them more personally. Too often I've made a title for something because I've been put on the spot and it will be good to give some thought to each page. She's going to send through more info on suggestions for additions to the pages and I really am looking forward to completing the album. It was such a good day and I still can't believe I've actually attended a crop being taught by Shimelle, but here's the proof -

House Party Blog Hop!

Oh my goodness, it's 6 o'clock in the morning, who could that be knocking at the door?
Well hello there! I'm guessing you've come to me from Mel's blog. That's quite a journey across the UK so come in and put your feet up. I've been to a crop that was hosted by Shimelle yesterday so I'll just pop in the kitchen to see if there are any cupcakes left while you have a little look at my house that I made from the papers and trimmings that Rinda sent me.


I received some lovely papers and the picture that I had made me think of the old dilapidated houses in Venice with little bridges linking one to another. The lady's face was on the back of a playing card and the number on the card was 7 which is kind of appropriate as that is the number of the house that I live at, so that had to go on too!
Well, I am sure you are anxious to get on your way, there's quite a few blogs to get through today so it's time to move onto my namesake - Deb - at http://paperturtle.blogspot.com/
But before you go, I hope you will join me in saying a big thank you to Rinda at http://gallorganico.blogspot.com/ who is the mastermind behind this blog hop. It was a great idea, and she put so much thought and effort into mailing all the ingredients for these little masterpieces around the world. I hope she likes what we have done with them!

Busy day, and ready for a House Party night!

I am happy to report that I returned from today's mega crop with all bodily parts intact! I did note that I was seated at a table next to another table which had a first aid kit prominently displayed on it but I'm sure that was just coincidence.
We ended up making a whole album - yes A WHOLE ALBUM! I love the page size of 8 x 11 1/2 and will use that again for sure. Shimelle (yes, really, Shimelle was our teacher for the day!) got us to get all pages up to 'stage one' basic layout and will then be emailing us suggestions for adding extras. It was such good fun and I will try not to bore you with pictures of all the finished pages in the days to come. I would never have thought to combine the colours and patterns that we used but I am thrilled with how it all looks, even at 'only' stage one.
So anyway I am back now, and just have time to get myself ready for the house party at Rinda's. Apparently the Margaritas are mixed and the music is ready so put your best party outfit on, slap on some make up and make sure you check back later to join in the fun!