Scrapbooking Made Simple

Well as you can see here is another layout I did of the annual Christmas Photo with Santa. This is from 2006. Here I used "Merry Christmas" and a Teddy Bear that I cut off a lovely christmas card I received. The papers all came in a bulk pack. The chipboard sticker (SANTA, I love Santa) is from the Kand Co range which I got on special. My journalling block is torn from a notebook. So on this layout I saved by using an embellishment and title off a Christmas card, using papers from a bulk pack and using notepaper for my journalling. The background page (white) came in an album as one of the pages for it. So I saved in alot of ways on this layout. I used the inking around the edges to tie everything together. I have been feeling better lately. The morning or should I say "all day" sickness has gone away at last! So I'm powering through some projects to get ready for when the baby comes and I'm too tired to scrap for a while!

Here is the layout I did of my ultrasound photos obtained during the amnio. I used some bling from a butterfly I had decorating my daughters bedroom that had been squashed. This provided the leaves on the bling flowers. The chipboard letters were covered in the patterned paper but unfortunately the pattern was a little absent in this spot so I had to draw the pattern of flowers and leaves on with my pens.

"Every year we go to the local shopping centre to get our photo done with Santa. This year the photo was very pink so I made this layout use the very untraditional pink and yellow christmas layout. The title was made using the "Ho Ho Ho" from the Brenda Walters K&Co range. I got these in a clear out bin for $3.95 for the entire sheet. I did splash out on two pieces of patterned paper to tie together the theme of christmas and my unusual christmas pink and yellow colour scheme. I used papers from the Skyes the Limit Cherry Christmas range as well as a sheet of yellow star embossed cardstock with a lovely shimmer in it that my Sister-in-law bought at CostCo's. This was topped off by a piece of paper towel I wet and dropped coloured paint onto and then dried. This was the cheapest element on my page.. being practically free. The christmas tree was from a Bella Sheet and cost $2.50 for the sheet. To add extra interest and texture I dry embossed the corner of the card...

This is a layout I just completed about my DD. She posed for this photo when she went to feed the ducks with Pop one day. I'm very lucky. Pop is an excellent photographer so I get some really excellent photos to scrapbook. Here I used papers from my stash and multiple photos (the small ones on the left are all sections of the large photo) to fill the space. The paper flower is from my K and Co Pad of flowers. For the photo corner I used off cuts of the background cardstock. Cut it to shape. Inked the edge lightly and then used kindy glitz (which I also used around each flower on the paper flower) and attached it with pop dots. The title was a large chipboard letter which I inked and an inkadoo stamp on the background cardstock. Which I then cut around and cut off the first letter and then applied to the layout with pop dots. The journalling was done straight on the page with a scrapbook suitable pen. I had lots of background paper available to make my title and p...

Yeah! I have finally heard the preliminary results from my amnio. I got a call last night from a doctor at the hospital who went through the results with me and everything looks good! Also they tell me the baby is a girl. ..... So my DD is happy and DS is coming to terms with it...LOL! And I can finally go shopping for baby girl stuff and more importantly baby girl scrapbook stuff! My best wishes go out to anyone else out there waiting for news it can be a long and nerve racking wait. My best buddy says I should find a way to name this baby 5... This is because the probability of something being wrong was 1 in 6. And my buddy said that's o.k. there are five chances there is nothing wrong so we're going to concentrate on the 5. So that's what I've been trying to do or the last week.. So if you know of a way I could use five as a girl's name let me know!

How cool are these little embellishments? My best scrapbuddy bought these on her shopping trip last week. I thought they are a great idea of how you can use up all the old charms etc that have accumulated.... in my stash anyway... this includes my jewellery making stash! I have some jump rings which I'll use to attach beads and charms onto the end of the paperclips to make my own embellishments. You could drop several decorations off the end of your paperclip rather than just one..... even make wire nick nacks and attach these with a paperclip. I also thought you could thread some little beads onto the paper clips to use up an excess of seed beads I might own! LOL! Seeing as how paperclips are so cheap this is a great way to use old items in a new way!

My best scrapbuddy went shopping without me....... :( And found this fabulous pack! I think Bella are one of the BEST value ranges on the market. This pack which consists of several co-ordinating papers, a sheet of cardstick stickers and a sheet of chipboard letters for only $5. This was a special at the "Reject China Shop". To get these sorts of great specials though you need to regularly browse all the cheaper and chipper shops. They don't tend to buy things regularly so you never know what you'll find... bit of a treasure hunt really. I love these sorts of co-ordinated kits but most of them are way too expensive! Now all I have to do is get out there to see what else they have... this was the last one... :( There was also a range of co-ordinating embellishments for $3.00

This is a quick layout I did to take my mind of the stressing!

Well I did the test...... I didn't like it... not one little bit! Yes they give you a local anesthetic which numbs the skin but I actually felt the needle enter the uterus and then jiggle around a bit while they sucked out some fluid. I then had about 24 hours of pain and I was really shagged! Am bouncing back now though. So thanks everyone for your kind words and emails. Now I just need to do some scrapping to keep myself busy and not stresing waiting for the results!

To keep myself calm this morning waiting to go for my amnio appointment I did a little digital scrapbooking. I found cutting things up a little dangerous with my hands shaking so much. So here is a layout I completed of my DS. I'm not 100% sure of the italian but if anyone can guide me on that......... I like the idea of journal strips like this as it gives you a great way to use up your plain paper stash for your traditional scapbooking. This gorgeous kit is from the Shabby Shoppe. shabbyprincess.com

Here are the photos of the album I made at my first class at my LSS. I was reminded by one of my readers that I'd completely forgotten to show you the finished product. (see previous blog entry: http://cheap-scrapbooking-ideas.blogspot.com/2007/04/attended-my-first-lss-class.html ) Well.... work in progress.... you see I've decided to use it to showcase the yearly photo of the kids so it will take a while to fill all the pages but here are some photos of what I've done so far... This is a very simple project to make... make a little book and then make the covers the shape of a bag. Just remember that if you give the binding a good flat surface the purse will stand up on its own for display purposes. I love the papers we used in this project I think they're fancy pants designs. I haven't done too much to each page as I wanted the photos to be the centre piece here. A few words and poems and the odd embellishment is all that is needed.

Between school holidays and false start Doctor appointments I haven't had much time to myself lately to do much scrapbooking. I have to go back next week for another try at the amnio as the baby wouldn't co-operate this week. If it wasn't so frustrating it'd be funny.... you see everywhere the doctor contemplated sticking the needle.. the baby stuck a body part.. It went something like this Dr and Radiologist talking: What about here? No now there's a hand there.... What about over here ? No that's a foot... O.K. what about this angle? That's not good there's the bottom. Gee this baby is moving around ALOT! So I have to get psyched up for it all again next week. Hopefully we'll have better luck next time. Anyway..... so with no me time to scrapbook I found this old layout I did of DD and her lovely long eyelashes. It's one of the very first ones I did using the scrapbook max program. The papers and elements are all standard with the program...

A little while ago I showed you some finds I found in the kids bedrooms that were due to throw out but I saved them to make mini books. Well here is the finished project of the little fish board book. I have made it into an album of my daughter and the last year. Her journey through "3". I saved money here by using old papers from my stash (I wasn't allowed to buy anything new). My chipboard pieces are all used cardboard (though using my opals embossing powders on them isn't the cheapest way to alter them it is WAY COOL!) Next the flowers.... I did use ones straight from my K & Co Pad but am comforting myself with the knowledge that the cut outs have formed templates I can use to cut more or paint some..... lots of ways to reuse! The rest of the embellishments and rub-ons all came from my stash and were left overs from other projects. I could of saved alot of money on this book by making all the paper flowers from scraps of old papers and using stamps and stencil...

This photo was taken at the beach two blocks from our house: It's school holidays here again. So this week and next week DS and DD need to be kept busy! Yesterday we went down the beach and built sandcastles and had a mini picnic. It was a nice day. Topped off by DH coming home early so I could take time out for a walk. DD decided yesterday that she absolutely must have the training wheels off her bicycle! Needless to say she fell off. But she won't have them back on so it won't be long now before she's zooming all over the yard. (there were areas that her training wheels just didn't allow her access to.) DH took the kids to the park yesterday afternoon for some practice riding in a straight line. There are lots of bike paths along the beach front here and when the kids are learning to ride without their training wheels the long straight paths are a godsend. Once they've mastered the balance thing turning and corners are a breeze! Today is a trip to the park.......