the midnight scrapper

new month, new gallery...

                                   

Totally dropped the ball last month and forgot to post about the February Gallery. The theme was mini books and this was my contribution:

Now it's still the 1st of March as I type (just) and I can tell you that the March Gallery just went up. This month we had to scrap something we had been putting off.

We all know we have layouts brewing in our brain that we never quite get around to starting, let alone completing and Gary's 50th birthday was one such occasion.

I loaded the 2 tragic photos we ended up with (the full story is posted along with my layout) so you can see what I had to work with. BUT...I did it anyway and it's fine (I'm just not focusing on all the things that are wrong with that photo because it's all I had to work with LOL)

Now go check out the new gallery. Me, I am going to hit "post" so I can say, for once, that I linked on the first day of the month. Ha!

it's here...

Let the fun begin!

There is no "me and my project life" photo as it was delivered when I was in my PJ's, wild hair and puffy, I just woke up eyes. Best not to scare anyone. Ha! 

a quick and easy new year gift...

We were meeting up with friends for New Year's Eve celebrations (dinner and fireworks - yep we are the ultimate party animals LOL) and I decided to make all the girls (my friends have daughters, I have the only boys) a little new year present.

A quick check in blog land led me to this and after downloading and printing the calendar (a cool freebie) I just trimmed, punched a hole in the corner, threaded them onto a ring and put a little ribbon for decoration.

A basic topper was made with clip art and printed onto scraps of card stock. I put the calendar into a cellophane bag, stapled on the topper and...instant present!

The lighting in the following photos is insanely bad, but you can use your imagination!!

Not the sort of thing that would get my boys all excited, but the girlies were happy :)

December Daily 2010*...

* warning, photo heavy post!

This was the year that I was going to play along each day. I had a cunning plan to keep my album SUPER SIMPLE (which I did) and I downloaded Ali's templates and printed away.

I loved the idea of 6" x 8" photos on each layout and had planned to print at home. Then I started thinking about the fact that I would need to get another job to pay for all the ink I churn through!!

Then I saw that Big W had their 6" x 8" enlargements for 68c. Woo hoo. Score. Hi five. So I saved up those photos because it is an hour round trip, and I was busy at work. I headed to Big W after work about day 20.

My thumb drive would not read in their machines, and trust me, I tried every single one. OK, I was bitter and disappointed but thought I would try again. December 23 down I go again with a CD of the photos as I was told that was more reliable. Yes, you guessed it...would not work. Not happy at this point, not happy at all.

And that's when I threw in the towel and accepted the fact that that I would not get those suckers printed before Christmas and I go to my happy place.

I make my final trip on the 28th, thinking I will just print the last few days at home. And guess what...it would not work. Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhh. A young guy took pity on me and checked behind the counter on their computer and told me that "oh, these have been photoshopped (Ali's overlays) and we can't process them. Sorry.

So I went home and I printed out all 31 days of 6 x 8's and the price of ink be damned LOL

So here it is...

 

 

 

 

one of my many projects for this year...

During the last lazy days of 2010 when I was doing nothing more strenuous than blog surfing I came across a challenge that seemed totally do-able over the course of the year. It was a 52 photos in 52 weeks challenge (you can read all about it here). 

Each week, on a Thursday, the theme for the photo is announced and you then interpret that through a photo every Saturday...for the year, or 52 times. Of course I will then have to make an album to house all those photos but for now I will concentrate on taking the photos, and really thinking about the prompt.

Having said that, I was sort of caught off guard with the first prompt as it snuck up on me and I nearly missed it!

Week 1: 20:11

The challenge this week was to take a photo at 8.11pm, and nearly missed it as we had just finished eating dinner so I looked up and this is what I snapped.

OK, so not very exciting but I did follow the prompt!

Week 2: Independence

The ideas had been percolating in my brain for a day but Saturday morning the photo just presented itself...here it was, barely 10am and I had an empty house. Oscar was off to a movie with friends, Byron was away camping with friends, Gary was taking his guitar to the guitar doctors (string problems, nothing it won't recover from LOL) and I was ready to hit the shops myself. That's when it struck me; this is what independence means right now and so I took the photo.

It only seems a few short years ago that a Saturday morning would find us all at home together or madly getting ready to head off to soccer. 

Anyway, that's the photo challenge I will be following along with this year. I will try and be organised and post my photos each week along with the prompt.

just play along and pretend it's the first of the month...

                                  

Yay, it's the beginning of a new year and a new month and we all know what that means...yes there is a new gallery up at w.c.s. Go now to check out the scrappy goodness!

Here's my offering for the theme of "black & white" photos:

And here's my December layout, because I don't think I posted it. Actually pretty sure I didn't post anything in December!!! The theme was "holiday food & drink".

 

christmas crafting; a quick recap...

 
Time was very much in short supply this December but I did manage to squeeze in a little  Christmas crafting. First up were a couple of mini album / brag books for the 2 nanas. 

As you can see, I kept them both the same just different patterned papers (SEI which had some awesome combinations in their Christmas line). The albums were 3" x 3" chipboard so small enough to carry in a handbag.

I also added a pack of gift cards which I packaged up in a cello bag and added a quick topper.

And finally a really simple 6" x 4" christmas album for my mum...all ready to go so she just has to slip the photos right in. The album was $1.00 at Officeworks and I just had to carefully cut the plastic covers (front & back) so I could slide in my own papers.

 

Easy and loved by the recipients...can't ask for more than that!

the santa photo...the end of an era!

During my craft weekend away in November, when I was debating what project I wanted to take with me to work on, I came upon the 13 years of Santa photos that I had of the boys. By some good fortune I had also kept some brief notes about each visit. Decision made.

The time had come where I had to get those photos into an album (one I could drag out every Christmas to embarrass the boys, no just kidding, well maybe a little bit LOL) and get those memories down (I am getting older and the memory is fading!!!).

I decided to keep it simple (really the only way I know) and make the photos the focus. I scanned and resized them all to 5" x 7" - all except the year where the Santa photo was landscape (which really bugged me because now it did not "match").

I fiddled around with a few combinations and finally settled on the red cardstock (thanks Mel) with white and a tiny heart accent. That's it and I love the story the album tells.  

 

It was fun to hand around at Christmas and of course, my mum cried when she read it!

better late than never...

                                                      

Yes, I forgot to tell you that the new gallery is up at write.click.scrapbook and that you should head right over to check it out. Still, there is plenty of time so if you haven't already done so, off you go!

This month we were highlighting the tumblr gallery at w.c.s by finding one of the entries that "speaks" to us and then use it as a jumping off point for a layout.

Here is my inspiration:

And here is my layout:

That's a Hipstamatic photo from my iphone, not a very jaundiced Oscar LOL.

yes, it's that time again...

                                 

That's right, a new month (welcome September) means a brand new gallery over at W.C.S so head on over for a look. Here's my contribution to the 5 items theme this month:

There's still time to enter the giveaway this week!