My Travel Journal

Hi all,

As part of my Docrafts PDT Kit this time I was sent an A5 scrapbook kit. In it you get a scrapbook with printed pages, some stickers, memory pockets and paperclips. With my pages I'm also using other products from the Geometric Neon collection.

Two challenges presented themselves when I got around to doing something with this little book.
1) What am I going to use it for? My usual scrapbooks are 12x12 and are chronological, I make the layouts a few days after I take the pictures. I didn't want to disrupt that routine. But also I didn't want it full of just random things. I wanted a theme.

2) Small layout. When I only really do 12x12", downscaling proves rather tricky!

So, to Pinterest I went. Art journals, smashbooks.
I came up with the idea of a travel journal. Now I can drive, Nathan and I came up with a list of possible places we can go, with ideas for an afternoon out, a whole day, or a few nights somewhere a little further afield. I take so many pictures when we go out that they can't all be used in my main scrapbook. So this book can be filled with instagram shots of the places we go, what we do, just little things like that.

So here's my cover. I was lucky enough to win a set of Alphabet dies from the Papermania Wedding Ever After collection and they are the perfect size for titles in this little book.

Here's the first page inside, with our list of ideas and a picture of us, and of course my beloved Nancy. I normally don't like cutting around things in pictures but for this scale it really works as then it can fit around the text a bit more. 

I think with small scrapbooks you have to not over think it. All you really need is a couple of embellishments. But that's difficult to get your head around when you're used to the larger stuff.
I think these smaller books might be great for card makers who want to dabble in scrapbooking, or just new crafters in general.

The last page I have to share today is an instagram shot of some CDs Nathan and I bought from HMV to play in the car.

I kinda wish I had a Polaroid camera so I could scrap when we go away to places so I could just take the book and some embellishments and stick the pictures in there and then...

But the paper that goes in Polaroid cameras is so expensive... so maybe not! 

Anyway, stay tuned for me sharing updates from my book!

Emily xx

A Soft Craft Make

Hi all,
Something a bit different today -
I'm sure we've all got a box full of fat quarters/fabric that we don't use. With me it's because I'm never sure what to make, and it has to be something of practical use.
So I'm happy when I open Creativity magazine and there's a soft craft project in there that'll make something useful.
This time, issue 59, it's a fabric journal case.
I wanted to make it because I like my things to be organized. This is somewhere I can keep a magazine and a notebook and everything be all together.
I will admit that I received Help from my mother.
She can sew. I can botch and cover it up with something.
She can understand instructions. I just get confused.
Alas, we deciphered the instructions (though I sympathize that write ups are incredibly difficult!) and here's the finished product.

It's also going to be useful when I go away, I can put a wildlife mag and sketching supplies in there, plus my camera filters.

FYI, I bought that magazine for the Red Panda on the cover. It was between that and BBC Focus and the Panda won. Both had dinosaurs inside.

Which brings me to my final, non soft craft related, point. 

I am going to have a go at making art with mixed media. I enjoy scientific illustration and I'm thinking of combining that with mixed media. 

Until next time...