Scrappy Kea

We had a bit of an impromptu photo shoot last weekend.  While my husband was getting some work stuff done Alicia and I took photos of Katya.  While I was away being a leader at a CYC camp my Close To My Heart order arrived.  I signed up as an Independent Consultant after liking what I saw in one of their Idea Books. Signing up this month meant I also got the choice of some of the new paper and Complements packs. I chose the 'Adventure and Good Life' pack.  There's still time if you are interested in signing up and taking advantage of this opportunity too - Early Bird Sign-Up Special . I like the bright colours and gold transparency pieces and used these on my 'Be Happy' layout (list of materials at the end of this post). In creating this layout I made use of my new toy... Canon Selphy 1200 It has become very costly buying inks for the family printer so I'm hoping this will be less expensive to use.  It's nice and fast...portable too! ...

The Cricut.  Used for the last couple of years to cut out lettering for my classroom. Today I have been finding out about updates and changes and how to use 'Cricut Craftroom' to link my cartridges and arrange cuts.  It works s bit like Design Studio did...but it's free.   Our internet connection drops out regularly making the new 'Cricut Explore' out of the question though I would like a larger cutting platform (12 inch width rather than 6 inch)...might need to look out for Cricut expressions. Linking the cartridges to my Cricut account is taking ages, hopefully it will be worth it when it's all set up...

Had a great time making stuff, talking, meeting new people and exploring new creative stuff last weekend.  I didn't do any 12x12 layouts.  I am a 'prolific scrapper' and would usually churn out heaps of pages.  This time was different...and I liked it. I started the weekend doing some stuff in my art journal, played with layers and paints before opening up a smash book that had been waiting in my cupboard for some time (3-4 years?).  I had printed a few photos before leaving home and made a start with these.  No order to how they went in (same event photos together) but I treated each spread as either a double layout or single pages.  The size of this book will make storage and the collecting of photos and memories into pages simpler.   While I enjoyed this relaxed process, it's not to say I will never do more 12x12 pages, in fact, I will be more selective about the photos and memories that become 12x12 pages. The smash books were great as they already...