Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit

Last year I started an album for my daughter using the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kit from years ago. (I am not sure if you can still buy them. They are not from her current range but from when she used to work for one of the scrapbooking mags.) I purchased numerous kits at the time so I was able to make a first year album for each of my kids. Kevin is now 10 weeks old and I have already create 2 pages for him and have done the third but I have to cut out the title on my robo (Silhouette for those of you outside of Oz). I am pretty impressed with that because Lisa, who turns 2 in December has only a handful of pages completed in her baby album. I uploaded a video here showing how I'd put together the album and what is included in the album.

What I like about this kit is all the journaling prompts which come with it. With some of the prompts I didn't write much, for example where it said, " Books read..." I wrote, "You are the 5th baby. I think we know what we're doing."

The only items not from the kit are the twin and the 2 photos over the stickers.  I am making an effort to use my stash.

I quite like how the notch in the journaling holder fits nicely around my belly. I didn't take many photos this time which in hindsight wasn't a good idea considering it will be my last baby. 

The scalloped edge is a sticker from the kit and I added ink to the edge of the journaling pocket which comes pre-made with the kit.

This sketch is from Shimelle's Hitch Hiker's Guide to Scrapbooking and is one of her go to sketches. So in this layout I've combined two of my favs; Becky and Shimelle.  

The cream letters come with the kit. I added the stamped 'baby' which is an old Heidi Swapp stamp which I've hardly used. Need to start using all these supplies in my room. 

The love diecut is a class cut from Cut It Out from Studio Calico. I'm still working my way through that class but I have thoroughly enjoyed it and got so much out of it so far.

I am using a different system this time as I found the system I had last time was a little to restrictive. It was meant to make it easier and quicker by having all the pages following the same design but I ended up printing too many photos and couldn't work out which ones to cull so I just gave up. This time I'm going to be doing a cross between a project life album with divided page protectors and a baby month by month album. I'll let you know how it goes. I have to buy some albums for Kevin so I can start to assemble everything. I don't really want to get behind. He'll be the much loved and spoilt son who has a completed baby album. Him and the first born. Sorry the rest of you girls. I'll get around to you soon.

Shimelle's starting points

I'm sure by now everyone knows I'm in love with Shimelle's style, her cute voice, her nails, her dedication to scrapbooking and most importantly to me, her dedication to writing down the stories and like me writing a lot. Shimelle has taught me a lot. I am no longer scared of writing on my layouts. My writing isn't as neat or as arty as her BUT I've written down the stories and the memories will live on.

When Shimelle has her starting points on her blog I usually participate but very rarely do I add my linky to her page. If the truth be told I'm just slack. I find her starting points an inspiration. A jumping off point. I'm quickly able to get a page done whereas if I sat down and started to scrap I'd often not be able to start quickly. What's a starting point? It's just the starting layers of a layout, without the photos or any other items. you use the starting points to build your layout and add your embellishments. I love them.

This page was make using the scraps from a Scenic Route kit I have had for years. Most of these pieces I didn't even trim but just added them according to the design of the starting point. 

Here I stamped the June using Technique Tuesday stamp set Twenty Eleven. I like the subtle effect of tone on tone here. Each layer was inked in distress ink. I have only started using the coloured distress inks for edges. Usually it's just brown.

This layout, Nanny, is very special to me. I'm not very happy with the end result but I am happy with the story. I miss my Nanny and am so glad I had the opportunity in her later life to spend so much time with her when she didn't have many family members around her. 

I find these papers, ones with large designs/scenes, very difficult to work with. I just don't know what to do with them. How do you incorporate these designs into your pages? I find I buy them and then don't know how to use them. On this one I added extra strips around the sun using the same paper line.

 This is another special layout to me. It is about my sister and I growing up and how we have maintained our wonderful friendship even though we have had rough times in the relationship and even though we live on opposite sides of the world. It also mentions that I wish this kind of relationship for my daughters. 

This layout only uses 4 different patterned papers. All of the embellishments came in the same Scenic Route collection. 

I have had this layout completed for a very long time. The journaling hasn't been done though. It was such an important story. The story of how I snagged my husband. I didn't want to get it wrong.

Essentially this is only 2 pieces of patterned paper and a few stamps, stickers, chipboard sign and a tag. Very simple but also it is a masculine page so I didn't want to over do it. My darling husband still says there is too much on the layout.

I'm quite happy with this layout. Often I'm not good at mixing collections but I did manage ok here. This is a layout about my Mum starting this street performance group. 

It is another very simple design with the twine, string and washi tape adding most of the embellishment. I think it turned out well. 

Thanks Shimelle for the starting points. It really got me going. I appreciate it. What gets your mojo going? Do you use youtube videos, starting points, sketches, classes to get your mojo going?

Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapbooking

I've been eyeing off this course on Two Peas for some time now. I had promised myself that if I FINALLY got my scraproom clean I would purchase the class as a reward to myself. Well after 8 months in the room I still hadn't got the room clean. I decided to purchase the class using my scrapbooking budget because I realised I might be waiting 20 years for the room to be clean.

I have to say I'm most impressed with the class. Of course I love Shimelle so that helps but I've already created 4 pages using only the first lesson. Imagine how many I'll complete once I've been through all the lessons. Every night this week I have completed a page. This class is really helping me get my mojo back. 

This layout is about my daughter's godfather who she calls "my Josh". We chose really well. He is such a wonderful young man and Hannah just adores him. I think it is hard to tell who loves who more. 

The stamped flower I have had in my pink embellishment box for years. I don't know why I kept it but it works well on this layout. This layout came together really easily. Thanks Shimelle.

I found this photo a little difficult to know how to match paper colours to because there is so much colour in the background and her school uniform doesn't match with the bright colours of her hat. I decided not to match the colour to the paper, obviously. I went with some themed paper and bright colours. I like how it turned out in the end.

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I used the Stampin' Up lace punch and layered over the border strip. I like the subtle texture this gives. I've also used a lot of washi tape on my 4 layouts. This is a new technique to me. I didn't understand what all the hype was about until I got some. Now I'm in love.

 Tonight I'm creating another layout using the class. My darling husband has informed me this layout needs to be about him or our latest addition. The layout will be about my darling husband because as the 5th child I have yet to print any photos of our darling little boy. I guess that's a job for next week.

What online classes have you done? What would recommend to those who want to complete a specific project or need inspiration to get started again? Please share your links in the comments or name the class.

Shimelle's 10 on the 10th

I haven't posted in a very long time. I have had every intention to do the 10 on the 10th for the last few months but life has seemed to stop me. I have stopped me. I haven't made this blog or my scrapbooking a priority. In fact since moving back to Brisbane I have barely scrapped at all. I have lost my mojo. I don't know how to get back into the groove I once had. Here is my latest work. My work of the last 5 months. At the end are my three favourites.

1. I completed this layout last year and was waiting for my daughter to complete the journaling. That's not exactly true, considering she's not yet 6, I was actually waiting to feel inspired enough to get back into my scrapbooking. 

 2. This layout was completed mainly during a crop night with my friend. I am so glad to be able to catch up with with my friend and get some scrapbooking done. It forces me to get out of my rut but I don't manage to do anything else during the week. Oh how times have changed.

3. This layout was completed at another crop night. All but the journaling. The journaling is about how hard it is to give a baby their first foods, well for me anyway. Most of the supplies for the last 2 layouts were from the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kits. I'll post some more details on these layouts and the Becky Higgins Sweet Baby kits soon. I promise, especially for those of you who have requested I do as much.

4. This is a Kaisercraft range which I have had since last year. I have finally made some layouts using it. It is quite a cute range and suited our visit to a large property just before we left Longreach. What an amazing place it was. The property stretched from horizon to horizon. AND the land is flat so you can imagine how far that is. Well actually I don't think you can imagine it. Until I saw it with my own eyes I wouldn't have been able to believe it either.

5. This is one of my favourites in a while too. I completed this last year at a friends surprise 40th birthday party crop. I hope someone does something like that for me. We were all given a kit and 30 mins to complete a layout. This is what I came up with. I'm pretty impressed with my efforts for 30 mins. 

6. I had these papers sitting around for ages. I didn't know what to do with them. I really liked the Basic Grey flower paper but it was too detailed and I just didn't know how to use them. After I'd had them for a while I fussy cut some of the flowers out but I still didn't know what to do with them. I think they work quite well here. I like the border punched edge too. I think it works well and you can't really tell it's been joined. I am happy with how this turned out. At least the memory is recorded.

7. Here is another one using the Kaisercraft papers. What I am actually most proud of in this layout is the way I manipulated the Technique Tuesday stamps to align with the curve of the hill on the papers. I really like how that works. 

8. Now starts my favourites. These were all completed by my daughters. Hannah aged 3 completed the following 2 pages. She selected the photos and the embellishments and told me what to write in the journaling. I'm so proud of her. 

9. These are made from the Project Life kits and bits and pieces she has found around my scrapbooking room. I'm so happy is into scrapbooking and so so happy she bugs me for the chance to complete a page. Again the words are hers. In this one I also added a note from Mum just to add a bit more detail about the significance of the photos.

10. I still love Project Life even though I haven't kept up to date with it. I am so disappointed with myself but  unfortunately LIFE has interfered with me getting anything done.

Here are my 10. What are yours? How do you go about getting your mojo back? I need as much help as I can get. 10 layouts in 5 months is not very good. Help me get my mojo back.