And the award...

...  for not blogging in 2015 goes to me. Not a single post in 2015? Poor.

We moved house. We decorated our old house, we put it on the market, we kept it tidy (with two kids - this was the hardest thing we did last year), we sold it, we packed, we looked for a rental, we found one, we moved in, we looked for a new house, we found one, we put down a deposit, we picked all of our extras (after visiting EVERY SINGLE Taylor Wimpey show house within a 20 mile radius) and then we waited, waited, waited until we gave notice, we did viewings at our rental place, we packed (again) and we MOVED! Finally 11 long months after we put our house on the market we moved into our new home.You can see it all in squares at https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/youngsyearlongflit2015/.

Between houses I managed a little bit of scrapbooking. Not much. Seeing all my crafty stuff boxed up and sat in piles in my Mum's house and in our rental house made me realise (and feel a little bit sick) just how much stuff I have accumulated over the last 10 years. I had a massive clear-out and another just last week so I'm feeling much better about all of the things although there is still way to much but I'm aiming to use it all up (snort snort) rather than purge anymore (at the moment).

I just wanted to say hi and I'll leave you with the page. Supplies are: Simple Stories The Story of Us, gold Thickers, a gold doily and lots of Prima flowers.

Santa Claus is Coming to Town {day 3}

The 3rd story in my December Daily is seeing Santa! We went to visit Santa in his grotto at Dobbie's Garden Centre on 30th November but I'm not sticking hard and fast to documenting only what happens on any given day. In reality sometimes nothing happens, sometimes a lot happens. Some days I will document the everyday. Some days I'll document Christmas stories that happened outside of December and some days I'll document out of sync because I might have two stories from one day that I want to tell. In a nutshell I'm winging it. And for me, that's the only way to go. If I get too bogged down looking for things or trying to fit things in, I'll fall by the wayside straightaway. December Daily, for me, is about documenting 25 Christmas stories and they might not all be completely festive either but I'm OK with that too.

I love this 4x6 journalling card from Simple Stories The Story of Us but it needed a little tweaking to work with my festive page. 
















I added some stickers from the Teresa Collins Tinsel and Company collection. The tiny little 'together' sticker is from The Story of Us collection (it's not just for weddings!), a strip of American Crafts Glitter tape and a Flair badge from Hey Little Magpie. The journalling reads: Noah cried the entire time, Lily covered her eyes (which is an improvement on last year), Jack and Nia were super stars.

 

The 3x4 cards are from the stash of foundation cards that I created using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 gold kit. I just added the title 'meeting Santa'. 

As always I've added plain Project Life cards to remind me what photos go where. I'm going to do an online order today and I'm looking forward to sharing by finished pages with you.

Thanks for stopping by.

All I Want for Christmas is You {day 1}

I get to start December Daily with a celebration as the first of December is our wedding anniversary. To celebrate this year we went to see the Musical Wicked at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. If you haven't seen it you should, it's fantastic. I booked the tickets in advance (November 2013 in advance) and it was well worth the wait.

I pulled out some The Story of Us by Simple Stories. I mentioned recently in my The Story of 'The Story of Us by Simple Stories' post that I don't think this collection was solely for weddings, I think it works pretty well for wedding anniversaries and Christmas albums with a gold theme too.

I created a double spread. I go with what I have. If I have loads of photos I'll have a double page (more if needed) if not then I'll use one side of a 12x12 page protector or I'll use a smaller Project Life page protector like the 6x12 you see here. I don't stick to a hard and fast rule (I make it up as I go along). 

You might notice I have some plain cards with 'photo' written on them. This is because I don't print at home and while you might think that would be a bit of a show stopper for a project like December Daily it's not. I plan my pages with my iPhone in my hand (I take all my photos on my i Phone) and work out which photos and cards I am going to use for my pages from there. I order my photos online from Truprint and I'll probably do this two or three times during 1-25 December.

The number one card, the All I want for Christmas card and the Meet me under the mistletoe card are all from my pile of foundation cards that I made using The Stamp Spot's Documenting December 2014 gold kit. I used the Story of Us Sn@p Cards (there are loads of cards in this pack that could be used for non wedding projects) and the Sn@p Cuts (none of these cut cards are wedding themed) and this gorgeous card from my brother and sister-in-law. 

  

We received so many lovely cards this year but this one matched my colour scheme perfectly and was easy to cut down to fit into a 4x6 pocket. I'm a sucker for bit and pieces and find it hard to throw anything away so it's great when I can include something in a scrapbook.

Thanks for stopping by.

The Story of 'The Story of Us' by Simple Stories

I loved The Story of Us collection when it was released by Simple Stories in the Summer but I thought it was way too themed for me, I had no wedding invites and no intention of digging out my old wedding snaps so as much as I loved it I didn't buy it. Until... Autumn 2014 and my gold phase. There. Is. Not. Enough. Gold. In. The. World. Who's with me?

I made it my mission to buy all the gold in the {scrappy} land. And there is a tonne of it in this collection and lots that you could easily use for projects that aren't even wedding related. I'm intending to do another blog post on using this collection in a non wedding-y way soon. But it didn't hurt when my uncle sneaked off, got married and gave me with the prefect opportunity to break out this sparkly collection.

I bought the following items from Craft Island, they are all still in stock but the stock is low so buy now if you have your eye on anything. You can view the whole collection here.

12x12 Collection Kit (you NEED this, if only to get your hands on the exclusive overlays)
12x12 Simple Basic Kit (this is a no brainer if you are a gold junkie like me it's not themed in the slightest and would be perfect for documenting December or Project Life or any layouts!)
Sn@p Bits and Pieces (there are so many bits in here that aren't wedding related; hearts, birds, butterflies)
Sn@p Chipboard Stickers (why ever not!)
Sn@p Cards (again there are plenty of cards that could be used for non wedding projects)
Sn@p Cuts (none of these are wedding themed!)
Sn@p Insta Squares (because I have a WRMK Instagram 4x4 Album Made Easy in gold and I'm not afraid to use it (and again loads of cards that can be used for non weddings themed projects)).

How can you not Love that Love chipboard..? Love. Love. Love.

This is all from The Story of Us collection along with a gold doily (where have I been, I've only just discovered doilies!) and some Prima Marketing flowers.

I popped it in a frame to give to my Uncle and his wife as a wedding gift. The frame is a Ribba frame in black from Ikea. These frames are seriously inexpensive and are perfect for 12x12 pages. I stick photo holders to the backing sheet that comes with the frame to hold the layout in place.

Anyone else going through a gold phase?

Cutest Igglepiggle I EVER saw

Oh. That. Face.

I've been playing with Bella Blvd. All American. It doesn't need to be the 4th of July.

I started off with a 12x12 of Bazzill Swiss Dot cardstock (you know the stuff - no matter how clean you think your fingers are you STILL manage to transfer grease on to the card???). There are so many lovely patterned papers in All American collection that I wanted to use them all. I settled for eight, cut into strips and inked with Color Box Cat's Eyes Sky Grey. I added a whole load of clouds, some I punched using my Fiskars cloud punches, one KI Memories Puffies, one from the Bella Blvd. Sophisticates Clouds clipboard stickers, and one wood veneer cloud from Freckled Fawn.

I added a couple of the cut out cards from the collection, washi tape and a lot of stickers (mainly Simple Stories Sn@p and Bella Blvd (All American, Baby Boy and Everyday Bookplates)), a wood veneer globe and flair badge from Two Peas in a Bucket (Etsy shop) and some red rik rac.

Thanks for stopping by Kx

Grandma's Round-Up

***don't forget to enter my 100th blog post giveaway here***

My 10 Things in May brought you ten pages/photos/projects on my scrappy to-do list. Today I made a start on number five on my list; to look through my Mum's 'Jack' album and take a note of what is missing. I started by taking photos of the pages that I have done and here they are...

I made this page today using Bo Bunny's Blast Off! The photo was taken at Edinburgh Zoo in September 2009. It is a photo that my Mum loves (not that she doesn't love EVERY photo of 'Grandma's little star', hence the title), so I really wanted to include it in the album. I like the page so much I am in the middle of creating another one of my album.

Jack's second Halloween and the first time he did his 'funny smile' face. Supplies for this page include MME Boo to You, Bazzill, Thickers and K&Co.

Jack's first Halloween at only a little over two weeks old, using Bo Bunny's Whoo-ligans collection. I think most of the embellies are by K&Co.

This is Jack at the Almond Valley Heritage Centre in Livingston. I used WRMK's 72 & Sunny.

Jack's first Christmas and first Santa costume. I think the embellies are by Reminisce but I'm not too sure.

Jack in the snow December 2009 not too sure whether he should laugh or cry. I used Echo Park's Wintertime.

Jack only 6 weeks old doing the funny 'hands up' thing that babies do. Suppies are LYB Babysaurus.

Jack's first ever photo! I used Simple Stories Baby Steps for this page.

This is as far as I got but it's a good start. I now know what I've done and can think about what else I would like to include.

I would love to hear about any projects you are working on for other people? Thanks for stopping by, Kirsteen x

Where's your smiles for Mummy

Where's your smiles for Mummy is a phrase that Jack has heard a lot. Much to my enjoyment he is currently going through a happy to be photographed stage. I can't lie; never looking at the camera and the inability to stay still for one nano second was not my bag. I'm so pleased we've moved on to this new poser stage. I'm fully prepared that it won't last and I am making the most of it armed and dangerous with my point and shoot. But there was the captive audience stage where he couldn't move (much), didn't comment on his outfits and happily posed all the time (although it's safe to say he didn't have many other options).

Ages ago I made use of a special offer at Truprint for a collage print. I had no idea what I was going to do with my print but I think it was always my intention to chop it up. As a scrapper who relies on online photo printing I am always looking for ways to print in a size other than 4x6 (although I love my 4x6 dont' get me wrong) and this seemed like a great idea. It's really simple to create, just pick your photos and Truprint (or I'm sure any online photo printer) does the rest. 

In the spirit of using existing supplies, and I include my pre-printed photos in this, I thought it was about time I put this collage to good use. Three years sitting in my craft room was not part of my grand master scrapping plan (I just checked my Truprint order history which goes back to early 2010 - this order isn't even there). Time to get scrapping!

Keeping the layout Truprint had already given me all I had to do was cut the photos and stick them down in the same order (losing a column and a little from one of the photos on the left hand side to make this it fit onto a 12x12 sheet but I am sure you can order collages in A4 to get around this. 

I added a couple of strips of papers, a title, embellies and some journalling - a super quick layout with lots and lots of photos to look back on.

Supplies include; kraft cardstock, Bella Blvd. Baby Boy paper, stickers and chipboard, Simple Stories Baby Steps alphas, gems, brads and Thickers.

My secret's out!

Why not pop on over to the Craft Island blog to read my first ever blog post as a member of the Craft Island design team. You'll find a layout using one of my favourite collections - Baby Steps by Simple Stories AND some exciting news and the reason why I am going to be sans craft room come the Summer...

Welcome to the World

My little neice arrived safe and sound last week; a little bundle of loveliness. In preparation for her arrival I created a couple of pages for her very first scrapbook. I decided on the Amanda Blu Woodland Animals album for her. I have the Robots version of this album as well (in fact I have three but that's a whole other story). The albums have a lovely touchy feely fabric embellished cover which you can't help but stroke. You really need to see them in the flesh. They are gorgeous. My little man loves his 'robots book'. He is always 'just looking' at the cover :)

I used Simple Stories Baby Steps, Prima flowers (Whisper Collection - Celebrate and Classic Lace - Aria), a Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, some Kaisercraft gems and pearls and Lullaby Thickers. I inked the cardstock and papers with Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

 

A little slow on the up-take, I am fast becoming a kraft cardstock convert. I just can't see past it at the moment. It's so easy to work with no faffing around trying the match papers to cardstock. No pulling out oddles of one colour of cardstock to find that really you have nothing out of the masses that actually matches. Urgh. 

In other news, I am throwing a  Gruffalo themed birthday party for my little man's 3rd birthday. Amazing! Said the Gruffalo.