Lynda's Wedding Album

This was a project which spread MANY years. It started with some idle chatter over the lunch table back in 2012 or 2013, when I was talking about my scrapbooking and Lynda mentioned she had never received a wedding album, only a collection of all her photos in a binder. Somehow I volunteered to create a scrapbook album for her of her wedding. The problem was then she went on maternity leave (for over a year), then I got pregnant and went on maternity leave (for over a year) and somehow the project still hadn't been completed.

For some unknown reason, I decided to make all her pages as double spreads. This is despite the fact that the only other time I create doubles is for the Gold Coast Show, so getting sketches and layout designs was a challenge.

I then found it really hard to work out which photos to use as I didn't have a connection to any of the people or know their backstories.

I picked Kaisercraft's After 5 collection of papers for the whole album to lend a cohesive feel to the album. The monochrome design worked well with Lynda's wedding colour scheme but I'm not sure if it ended up feeling a bit monotonous overall. Originally I had planned to have different pops of colour on each page, but that didn't eventuate.

I was also a little bit limited in the embellishments I could use, as I wanted to keep the pages fairly flat to avoid warping over bulking flowers or such.

By the time I got around to photographing the finished album I was bit over the whole project, so the photos really aren't the best quality. Now that I'm looking back at the work I put in, I should have spent that bit extra time at the end to show off the work I'd created.

There was a lot of preparation work involved in this album, much more than when I do individual pages. I had to find a whole bunch of double page sketches (you can check out my Pinterest board if you're interested).

I then worked out which sketch would work for each page based on how many photos I wanted to use. 

I then laid down all the large background layers of paper, making sure they were all edged in charcoal coloured ink, before attaching the photos.

Second time through the album was to add any paper embellishments (die cuts, border strips etc) and ribbons.

Third sweep through was to add the dimensional embellishments: chipboard, rhinestones etc.

Like I said, by the time I got around to photographing the album, I was a bit sick of looking at it, so I didn't even take the pages out of the protectors.

It was only after I'd already delivered the album to Lynda that I looked at the photos I'd taken and realised they all had a blue tint to them. I've tried to fix them up a bit with post-editing, but there's only so much you can do.

Anyway, the important thing is that Lynda was happy with the end result and I finally got it finished!

Retreat Challenge LOs

The retreat had two challenges set at the start to give us a bit of inspiration. The first one contained a custom-made piece of chipboard and two patterned papers. We had to combine these elements with the group photo taken on Saturday morning. I was really suprised at how many different interpretations there were, even in the way people used the chipboard. I combined my papers with a Kaisercraft page and a Scrapmatts chipboard piece.

 

The second challenge came with a piece of chipboard, one piece of patterned paper, a length of fibra, the 'All About Me' chipboard piece and a PageMaps sketch. I went with a lot of fussy cutting with this one. The cream was a bit of a weird colour so I brought in some brown and orange as well.

 



 

Timeless LO

Here is yet another wedding LO. :) I have so many wonderful photos to scrap I just can't help myself. Anyway, I've tried to do something a bit out of my normal style for this time one, since I was starting to feel all my LO's were looking a bit samey. This one has lots of fabric and texture. I've used two different kinds of lace, flowers from Prima (I don't normally splurge on these but figured since it was for my wedding I was allowed!), Kaisercraft, Pretty Paper Petals and some unnamed ones. Chipboard is by Kaisercraft, Scrapmatts and House of Scrapbooking. Doily is handmade by my mum. :)

(Removed for publication)

On a more personal note, the Gold Coast Show is coming up again soon and I'm thinking of entering again. Those who have been reading my blog for a while will know that I entered back in 2009 and did quite well. The only reason I didn't enter last year was because we were going to be down in Melbourne that weekend and I wasn't able to collect my entries. Anyway, I've just seen the categories for this year and about half of them require the submissions to be double pages. :( I've only created about 4 doubles in the five years I've been scrapping and two of those were done as classes! Any tips or advice would be most appreciated. 

Greatest Gift LO

Another 'just because' LO. I created this one during my first home-crop with two girls from work. They hadn't done much scrapbooking before and asked me to give them some pointers. It was good to have people I could share my hobby with and they have decided we should get together another day to do it all again. :) It did make me realise I have purchased a LOT of supplies over the last 5 years so I might need to go without any new purchases for a while.

Anyway, the LO just came together pretty easily and is of my and my dad on the day of my wedding.

What a Memory! LO

This is a 'just because' LO, meaning I made it just because I could rather than for any particular challenge. It's the first time in a LONG time I've done that, but I just loved this photo so much and remembered I had the tiger paper and chipboard already sitting in my stash. The netting I picked up yesterday at Reverse Garbage along with some wonderful fabric samples which I'm hoping will come in handy in other projects.

I've also started working on creating a mini-album of our honeymoon, so I'm not sure how many LO's I'll have to share in the coming weeks until that is done.

The Life I Imagined LO

I recently stumbled across a new challenge blog, which unfortunately has just announced it's closing, and it had this fantastic tutorial for a paint-covered LO. I've kept my LO pretty close to the example as I just loved it so much. Photo is me in around Grade 10, stumbled across it on my last trip home and it just cried out for me to scrap.

Christmas with Grandma T LO

It's been a while but this LO is actually a 'just because' LO, it wasn't created for any challenge or competition. We had a family photoshoot at the Christmas dinner with Ben's gradma and I decided I wanted to scrap it. Since I'm staying with fmaily in Melbourne at the moment this could have been a bit of a problem, but I have already purchased a huge new stash and also raided some of my mum's supplies. Pretty happy with the end result and I enjoyed getting to use Mum's Cuttlebug for the photo mat.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and if you get to spend it with family enjoy it for the blessing it is.

All Dressed Up LO

So Bridgette's blog whispers is finally complete and I can upload my LO. I've just seen what the original LO looked like over at Bridge's site and OMG it changed by the time it go to me. Anyway, if you want to see the original and the list of who participated, check out Scrappin' Bridge. If you're following on a blog-hop and want to go to the next website, check out Leanne's blog.

While I wasn't expecting the whole process to take so long it was certainly a lot of fun and I ended up with a LO I really like. I created those two bushy purple flowers myself using a scalloped punch and purple glimmer mist. Photos are from my friend's wedding where I was a bridesmaid.

Blog Whispers Sneak Peak

I'm taking part in Bridge's blog whisper game, which is like chinese whispers except with scrapbooking LO's. I was sent Belinda's version of the LO and have created mine which I will be sending on to Leanne. Once everyone has completed a LO Bridge will post them on her website and we can see how it changed as it was passed along. I have to say, I really like the end result of this LO so I can't wait to show it to you.

Byron Bay Layout

I finally finished the scrapbook LO of my recent holiday in Byron Bay. It was a bit of an effort to get the painting and digital photos to come together cohesively, but I think I finally pulled it off. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out and there are things I learned from it too. I'm tossing up whether to add some hidden journalling behind the photos or not. Probably just an itinery on the left side and a description of the photos on the right. What do you think?