Cafe au Lait: Vintage Layout "Times Gone By"

Hey Crafters, 

I am really loving working with this new collection Cafe au Lait.

Today I have a lovely vintage layout using some of the 12x12 papers which I had printed at a local print shop on A3 paper. This time I went with simple 80gsm paper, which surprisingly still held up well to what I threw at it.

The photo is of, I think, my maternal grandmother's extended family. I am not too sure as there were no names on the photo that I found in my family pictures. I really just like how the photo looked. 

I have used old music sheets stacked behind the photo with a couple old book pages as well. The Donna Downey Studio Damask Stencil in the background was done using Prima's Finnibair Art Extra Vagance Texture Paste - Copper Crackle with a bit of misting over the top. I had a few scraps of the Cafe au lait cardmakers set on my desk which I turned in to tags and tuck them in behind the photo.

The wood flourishes are Kaisercraft Wood flourish Ornate Corner which were painted with Tim Holtz Distress Paint- Antiqued Bronze which came up really well.

 

Product list.

Kerry-Jean Watson Papers-Cafe au Lait

Kaisercraft Weave cards stock- Coffee Bean

Kaisercraft Weave cards stock- Cream

Kaisercraft Wood flourish Ornate Corner

Prima's Finnibair Art Extra Vagance Texture Paste - Copper Crackle

Heidi Swapp Color Shine - Bronze

Donna Downey Studio Damask Stencil

Old music book pages

Vintage Accents-Vintage brads

Tim Holtz Distress ink- Vintage photo

Tim Holtz Distress Paint- Antiqued Bronze

Remember to leave question or comment and Happy Crafting!

Down the Rabbit hole Layout

I released my first independent collection in May titled Down the Rabbit Hole which is my take on the immortal Alice in Wonderland.

Today I want to show you a layout I have done with the collection.

To see the reveal of the collection head over to my youtube channel.

To print the digital paper out to a layout size I went to my local copy shop which is officeworks here in Australia and chose the paper weight I wanted which was 200 gsm. A nice heavy weight that can handle having texture paste and glue being thrown at it.

I really do love how the colors in this collection came out and I look forward to using it for future projects

The Family Record Conclusion...for now.

Hi there, great to have you here again. 

A few weeks ago I published the introduction to a year long project I have been working on. The Family Record. I combined my love and interest of genealogy and scrapbooking and created a massive project. Here are all the videos of the project including the final 2.

Going back to 35mm Film

I was exposed to photography from a very early age, with my paternal grandad being an amature photographer and having a darkroom in his house for as long as I could remember.

I started taking my own photos when I was around 15 years old when I left South Africa. I was using my parents camera which was a Canon FT, it even had a telephoto lens. When I started high school here in Australia back in 1996 I was so lucky to be able to do photography as one of my classes, which was sooooo different to what I was used to. South African schools didn't offer some thing like that in their education system.

It wasn't until about 2006 that I decided to go digital and bought my first digital camera. Although the camera was not that cheap the use and process was as no further cost. I made the mistake though of selling my film camera, which has always been a regret of mine.

So recently I was looking at film cameras on eBay and come across a build-it-yourself Twin Lens Reflex and bought one. Then not a week later the photographic society in Adelaide had a Photography Market where I was able to find some cheap expired film which I almost didn't buy.

Three weeks later the camera arrived and I set out to put it all together, which was a little nerve wracking. 

Last week the 36 exposure film FINALLY came to an end and I could get it developed. As I have a negative scanner I didn't get prints done. I had to wait until I could scan the negs in to see what the final result was. 

Here are a few of the photos.

Head over to my flickr and check out the rest of the photos. 

My Big Brother

Hey Crafters, 

After my move 4 weeks ago, I found some layouts I had been working on during December.

During December, while in my second stint of recovery from my surgery, I pulled out some photos of my brother and did some quick layouts. I had some recent photos from his visit to Adelaide in 2014 and a few I pinched off his Facebook gallery. 

  

I didn't spend too much time of planning these layouts and just grabbed papers and embellishments and put it all together in under an hour. I rather enjoyed the process, sometimes it is just good to do things a little differently. Stops activities from becoming predictable. 

The idea was to use methods and techniques I hadn't for a while. Stamping and sprays and things along that line. Also pulled out embellishments that I haven't used for a while. Overall it was a load of fun and now that my craft corner is set up I might do this regularly. 

File Folder Mini: Berri, SA Nov 2014

Greeting creative peoples.

AS some of you may know I have not been the best for the last 6 months. Back in June while up in Berri, SA I became mysteriously sick which plagued me for the better part of 5 months. Early November the doctors I was seeing decided after 5 months to finally do some thing and remove my gall bladder. Then came another 2 months recovery.

To help with the healing process a friend and I decided to head back up to Berri for the end stages of my recovery from the surgery. Before leaving I had already started developing a project to do once we return commemorating the closure of the 6 month journey. This is what I came up with.

The entire project proved to be a little tricky to photograph so I did a video instead so you could see how it all worked. The video is at the bottom of the post.

There is further information in the video description when viewed through youtube. 

You are most welcome to leave any comments or questions.

Mixed media Adventures

Hi crafters

Now that I am getting back into crafting mode after my recovery from surgery, I thought I would have a play with some mixed media journaling. 

As a first attempt goes I am rather happy with this. The one downside to doing work with sprays and wet media is waiting for it to dry (and you can't always use a heat tool), so I have worked out a method of working on two projects at the same time. 

Let me know what you think.

Grandparents wedding day

Hello readers and creative types.

I have been unwell for a few months now and I had some good days recently. As a result I hauled out a couple photos of my grandmother on her wedding day. This one is a lovely photo with the wedding cake, remembering this was taken in 1932.

I wanted too to use Marion Smith's Nirvana Collections from Meg's Garden because I loved the colors which would also match many of flower paper and fabric flowers in my stash which I had added some lovely paper leaves.

Also added to the lay was some dusty attic chippies that I won in a draw a few months back.

I hope you like and please leave a comment or any questions you may have.

My Grandparents Wedding day

Hello Craters and Readers 

Here is another layout done with Marion Smith's Nirvana Collection available at Meg's Garden.

The photo is an informal family picture on my grandparents wedding day in 1932.

Included are some Dusty Attic chippies I won a few months ago.

Paper flowers and leaves

No 36 layout

Last weekend was my birthday and due to being ill for the last 5 and some months and surgery 2 weeks ago, nothing big was planned as we really had no idea how I would be feeling.

In the end I got a free breakfast at Paleo Cafe, walked around Tea Tree Plaza, got some Pixar toys and bought the obligatory cake and went home. This for me was a huge day and I enjoyed every minute of it. Yesterday I did my usual birthday layout to add to my scrapbook collection.

Photo Journal #2

Hi Crafters

Back in March I showed you my first coptic stitch bound photo journal which I was very proud of and really enjoyed the entire project from making the book to filling it and completing it. I had to do it all over again only this time I wanted to make it bigger. Little did I know HOW MUCH BIGGER it would be.

Here is a video of me talking about the project and going through the second photo journal.

I hope you have enjoyed this and are inspired to maybe give it a try your self.

Leave a comment or any questions.

Correspondence The traveling mans brother

Greetings to all the bloggers out there.

This dashing young man is my maternal grandfather, Adriaan 

Back 2006 mother and I arranged for a large suitcase of family photos to be sent to us in Perth, Australia.

I was amazed at many of the picture mostly because they showed my mother parents younger than what I knew them as. It was like being introduced to total strangers. My grandparents were well in to their late 70's early 80's by the time I was born, so I never saw them as children or young adults. My grandfather would be in his mid thirties in the portrait.

So for this layout I wanted to combine the new Correspondence Collection with some of the previous Meg's Garden collections and some French Writing Ephemera. The Hot Air Balloons were a nice add to the photo and the feel of the layout. 

Family Album Speed freak and The one of all of us

HI there crafters!

I have been adding to my massive family album that I created and finished not to long ago. I will be doing a video of all the files soon so that you can all see what I have been doing. 

I found some wonderful pics of my older brother when he was a littl'in, They were standard prints but I love using those Kaisercraft polaroid frames, which I had a few left. I didn't want to make the layout too complicated, so I kept it simple with a few embellishments. 

This was a family shot taken back in 2001. My dad decided before he left to go live in the UK he would head down to Walpole, Western Australia to surprise my brother for his birthday, who was living down there with my mother at the time. Well the Lada 4x4 broke down halfway and the surprise was a bust as we had to get my mother and brother to come rescue us at Manjimup. For various reasons it wasn't the best of trips and the photo kind of captured that. By the time this photo was taken we were all very independent individuals and the idea of family unity was a very much over with.

That may seem like a sad story, but it is at least an honest one. I feel as a scrapbooker, it is unrealistic to expect there to always be happy moments to memorialise on the page.