Passing The Page With JSquared #2

My lovely friend Julie (aka JSquared) is celebrating her 2nd Blogiversary today and is marking it with a Pass the Page. She collected a baker's dozen of us together to each scraplift a page in turn. The person before me in the chain was my very good friend Ruth (if she sent you here then you're on track, if not, you might like to start at the beginning with Julie here). Ruth is currently scrapping photos from her visit to the Harry Potter Studios so it seemed extra appropriate for me to use her page as inspiration for a photo of another magical place (as well a gears & cogs cut from her dies at our Bloggers' Retreat).

Journalling on the "this is life" tag tells the story of how our early morning plans to ride the Tower of Terror resulted in Child No.3 feeling violently "unwell" at MGM Studios.  Luckily, Disney have a great health centre and she was able to recover there for a couple of hours in a darkened room with me while the men-folk carried on enjoying the rides.  By mid-day she had recovered and was adamant that the Ice Cream Social at Epcot was next on the agenda!! The back of the tag has photo-proof that a couple of hours sick bay sleep worked their magic and Child No.3 was back to "normal"!

Can you see the resemblance to Ruths's page? I kept the large single photo, corner embellishments and the horizontal strip.  I replaced the subtle checked paper with vellum and switched the journalling for my title.  All supplies are from my March Counterfeit Kit.

I wonder what elements were kept or discarded when Kirsty scraplifted my page? Before you pop over to see, you should know that there is a prize available on this Pass the Page hop, all you have to do is comment (here, there and everywhere)!

A Super-Quick Page

Welcome to the penultimate leg of the April Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog Members' Blog Hop (or CKCBMBH for short)!  Today we are sharing our takes on the photo inspiration challenge.  I had a go at this earlier in the month ... but it wasn't hard to do another page with my April Counterfeit Kit as the colours of the kit match the inspiration photo pretty well!

I made 95% of this page at my last crop ... in about 30 minutes!  Because I had taken about 5 hours to make a single page (too much chatting and faffing around), my neighbour challenged me to get another page done in the remaining time!  A quick bit of machine sewing once I was home and it was done!

That is seriously fast for me.  But then I find the (space for the) title is often a stumbling block, and I haven't bothered to use one with this page, so perhaps that's the secret to speed scrapping?!

Most of my pages have titles of some sort. Do you think layouts have to have a title?

The final stop on the hop is Glinda, but if you didn't reach me while hopping around the CKCBMBH from Jennifer you might like to nip over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog and see what everyone else has done for this challenge. 

Lean Mean MAXI-Books - The Instructions (The Cover)

Welcome back!
Yesterday I shared the instructions for making the inner pages of my Lean Mean MAXI-Book - which was quite enough photos and text for one day!  I'm rested, you're rested and so today I have the instructions for the cover.

The Cover

Cut two 5¼"x12" strips of cardstock.  Punch a decorative border along one short edge of each rectangle and trim the strips so that they measure 5¼"x9¾" and 5¼"x6" respectively.  Keep these trimmings for finishing the inside of the cover (see below).
Score three times across the width of the longer strip (¾", 6¼" and 7") and once across the width of the shorter strip (¾").  Crease all score lines as shown in the photo. 

Apply adhesive to the inner side of the ¾" flap on shorter piece (the front cover) and join it to the outer side of the ¾" flap on larger piece (the back cover and closing flap) to form a 5¼"x14½" cover.

Make two slits for the ribbon closure about 2" up from the bottom edge on either side of the central section.  Slot your ribbon pieces into place and secure with tape.  You need 9-12" for the left-hand piece and 6-9" for the right-hand piece (if you have 20-26" you don't have to cut it in two).  The shorter measurements are enough to tie a knot, the longer ones are enough for a bow.

Apply adhesive to the back of the inner pages and secure in place on the left of the central section of the cover, leaving room for tag-pulls on the right hand side.  (Be careful to ensure the pages are the correct way up before you stick them down)

In order to stop the ribbon tie from squashing the inner pages I added a cardstock "stop" inside the front cover.  It's two thin strips from the 5¼" offcuts, layered on top of each other 2¾" in from the punched edge of the front flap (see photo above).



Cover with a 3"x5¼" rectangle of cardstock to form a slot (as shown above).  When closing the cover, slip the right-hand flap inside the slot and the cover will remain in shape once the ribbon is tied.

Add 4"x4" cardstock photo mats, photos, tag-ties, embellishments and journalling and you're done!  I'm still working on mine, so here's a view inside one I completed earlier!

Thanks for sticking with me ... do please let me know if you have a go at my Lean Mean MAXI-Book (or even my original Lean Mean Mini-Book) as I'd love to see your version!

Lean Mean MAXI-Books - The Instructions (The Inner Pages)

Welcome!

If you are hopping along with UKScrappers you should have reached me from Ifa, but the hop started here if you have no idea what I'm talking about (there are prizes available for commenting along the way by midnight BST tonight)!

Last year I decided to make a MAXI version of my Lean Mean Mini-Book with the Mystery Kit from UKScrappers Now We Are Ten Cybercrop.

Using just 2½ sheets of decent quality double-side paper and 3 sheets of cardstock, it's an eleven page, 5" square mini-book with room for 21 3"x4" photos!  I blogged the pages of the book here and today I am sharing the instructions for the inner pages.  It's a photo heavy post, but hopefully all will be clearer that way!

The Inner Pages

Trim 2" from one edge of two of the patterned papers and cut the remaining sheet into a 6"x12" rectangle (I used Fancy Pants About A Boy Peace, Vivid and Wild Child).

Score the two sheets of 10"x12" paper along the long centre line (5") and score three times across the width  (½", 5½" and 10½"). These two sheets form the front and rear sections of the mini-book and are cut as mirror images of each other.

Remove a ½"x5" rectangle from one end of each sheet by cutting along the first width-ways score line to the central score line.  Cut a semi-circle from the edge which is still intact to provide a pull-out space for a tag.  Cut 5" along the middle width-ways score line on the opposite side to the semi-circle.  Cut 1½" along the central score line to the third score line and fold back the corners as shown in the photo.  Crease all score lines as shown in the photo.

Apply adhesive (I've used double-sided tape) along the small flap at the top of the sheet.  Apply adhesive to the outer edges of the bottom flaps and fold upwards to create pockets.  Turn the sheet over and apply tape to the same side of the central score line as the top flap & punched semi-circle.  Fold the sheet in half (from top to bottom) to form a concealed pocket with a semi-circular cut-out.

This completes one set of pages for the mini-book (the back pages of mine): containing a plain page, a pocket page with semi-circular cut-out and a double page with facing pockets.
Repeat with the other scored & cut sheet (remembering that you are working on the mirror image) to form another set of pages: a double page with facing pockets, a pocket page with a semi-circular cut-out and a plain page.
Each of the six pockets have room for tags measuring 4"x4½".

The half sheet of patterned paper is used to join these sets of pages together.
Punch a decorative border along one short edge.  Trim the sheet so that it measures 6"x9¾".  Score along both long edges of the sheet (½").  Score three times across the short width (½", 5½" and 9").

Trim away excess paper as shown on the photo.  Cut in ½" from the bottom edge along the "central" (valley!) score line. Score a diagonal line across from the top centre to a point 3" down the un-punched edge.  Crease all score lines as shown in the photo.

Apply adhesive to the ½" flaps as shown in the photo.  Turn the sheet over and apply some adhesive either side of the central fold line to seal the rear of the pockets which will be formed in the next step.

Fold back the punched border and adhere the right hand section to the back of the plain page of the rear set of pages.  NB: You will need a little extra adhesive on the flaps where the border folds back (see photo below)!
Adhere the left-hand section to the back of the plain page of the front set of pages.
The two central pockets have room for tags measuring 4"x4".  The inner pages are now complete:

Phew!  Well done for sticking with me this far!  Tomorrow I'll share the instructions for the cover.
ETA - the cover post is here!

In the meantime, please hop on over to Kathy to see what she has to share with you today (but remember to leave a comment, including your UKS name, before midnight tonight in order to be eligible for a prize from UKScrappers).

Who me?!

The Norwegian section in Disney's Epcot is full of trolls, one of whom was used by  No.2 Son and Child No.3 as a backdrop.  Typically on this holiday, these two were pulling funny faces and giving the photo with the cave troll an extra imaginary story!
I thought it was all about smells and bottom burps ...
but having finished the page at last weekend's crop, Child No.3 informed me that she thinks she was sniggering because her brother had been "caught" by the troll!  No.2 Son says it was too long ago to remember!  I reckon our different versions need recording somewhere on there, so I'll be adding some extra journalling!

I've used the April sketch from Purple Pumpkin to do the second challenge from the CKCB: use nothing but stickers to embellish your page.  Supplies are from my April Counterfeit Kit along with some extra alpha stickers (the tiny alphas from my kit were too vibrant) and my Mum's new American Crafts Knock-out border punch.  Those punched out hearts were too cute to throw away, but were soooo time-consuming to stick onto the page!

Time To Remember

Whenever somebody asks me why I scrapbook rather than just pop the holiday snaps into a photo album I explain that it's about recording the story, having some creative fun and making sure the details, which are currently as fresh as the photo, remain that way.
My memory was once a thing of wonder for all the right reasons, but sadly advancing age, reducing brain cells and increased stress have started to give my memory a completely different reputation!  By taking the time with a scrapbook page I get to relive happy escapades and preserve special memories for my and my children's futures.
In fact last year I made a scrapbook page about ten of the reasons why I ♥ 2 scrapbook!

Today's page, for the photo inspiration challenge at the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog, is a prime example of a holiday snap with an important family story behind it.  My children will recall that we had a brilliant day swimming with dolphins, feeding tropical birds and snorkelling over reefs packed with fish.  What they may have forgotten is that the day at Discovery Cove was paid for with a legacy from their grandfather who had died the year before.  The last couple of years of his life were tainted by very ill health and he wasn't able to play with them as much as we'd have liked, but at least this way he was remembered for all the best reasons.

My April Counterfeit Kit had plenty of bright blue & green with splashes of yellow, just like the CKCB's  inspiration photo and I've based the design on a (flipped) Pagemaps sketch as part of the Weekly Challenge at UKScrappers.  If you fancy having a go at the CKCB April Challenge 1 you can share the results on a blog hop later in the month - check out the details & deadlines here.

For The Record

This is my 21st Counterfeit Kit.
The downside of buying a bargain bag-FULL of teal flower buttons is that they take ages to use up!
This month's guest Forger at the CKCB is the lovely Kate Blue.
I've run out of photos to print and scrap.
My craft room is a terrible mess after sorting my kit.
3 weeks ago my 55 bags project stalled - oops!

In the spirit of All Fool's Day, one of these statements isn't quite true ... :-)

Welcome to April's CKCB Master Forger Blog Hop, which started with Queen Kat and brought you to me via Angela.  Our kit to copy this month was Gossamer Blue's March Kit.

As is often the case I didn't have any of the exact supplies and this month I decided I would start my counterfeiting by copying the cardstock colours and see what happened.

There's lots of new stash from a recent win from Echo Park's Blog Hop as well as older supplies and scraps; plus this month I have included some stamps as I really must use them more often.

Supplies:
Blue, yellow, cream and green Bazzill cardstock
EP's For the Record 2 Fancy (blue trellis reverse)
½ sheet MME's On The Bright Side Branches (orange & white stems reverse)
Near & Dear Cameron by Dream Street Papers
EP's For The Record 2 Diamonds (blue arches reverse)
½ sheet teal Kraft-core cardstock
EP's For the Record 2 Chevrons (blue chevrons reverse)
½ sheet Flutter Butter Burst by Bo Bunny (brown circle reverse)
EP's For The Record 2 Element & Alpha sticker sheets

Various journalling spots from my stash
Elle's Studio Number It stamps
Artemio circle stamps
Old book pages
MME Follow Your Heart Be Amazing Rhinestones
Chipboard circles and buttons from my stash


Now it's time to hop over to Jennifer who launched her new blog yesterday - and while you're there, take a look at the launch post here where she's got an awesome give-away!  If you get lost on the hop today, the full list is available on the CKCB here.