Decoupage Butterfly

I'm sure I'm not the only one who's struggled with getting out the house with a newborn. By the time you are both washed, dressed and you've done your hair and make up (as best as you can with one hand) and the baby's changed, fed, changed and fed yet again, sometimes there really is little point leaving the house. Usually because it's now dark and the shops are closed.
So when it was my friend's birthday recently I found the card I bought her whilst I was still pregnant/organised/almost getting a decent night's sleep, but alas I had not been to shops to get her a present. She had just moved in with her boyfriend so I thought a girly decoration would be just perfect!

It was my first go at decoupaging and I learned a lot. Not everyone agrees whether you should glue the decoupage paper or the motif. I decided to give the paper a good coating of glue and pushed the motif down onto it after leaving it for a few minutes. Once that was dry and I made sure all the edges were stuck down thoroughly. Then the difficult bit, I used a craft knife to cut out the holes, this took a lot of patience! Then I repeated the whole process again for the other side of the motif, then I finished it off with some pink ribbon to hang it from.

The finished product

To make it a bit more personal I made a gift tag to go with it. I didn't have any white gift tags so I made my own by cutting round a kraft one. I then stamped the tag all over on both sides creating a pattern. I then stamped a motif and used 'To' and 'From' stamps. I cut round the motif and glued it to the gift tag. Finally, I punched a hole at the top.

I got the stamps from a magazine called Creative Stamping. Every issue comes with several free stamps, I've only bought one issue so far, but the stamps appear to be very good quality and stamp better than the ones I bought from Hobbycraft.

Do you buy any crafting magazines? If so, which ones would you recommend? Do you think the content as good as the freebies?

Mimi x
 

Baby Boy Scrapbook

Wow did I underestimate how hard it would be to get posts done and look after a newborn. Felix dropped all his naps and then somehow discovered the fine art of power napping, waking with more energy than ever! There are so many new parent blogs, how do they do it?! It's hard enough finding the time, let alone the energy!

Anyway, now he's a little older he's a bit more predictable so I have managed to fit in a little work on my projects. I have started a scrapbook to document the first year of his life and I've finally finished the front cover:

I got this American Crafts Blue Boy Hands Single Paper Sheet from Hobbycraft for 90p for the background.

I added a little 'washing line' tied to some buttons. I just cut out the shapes from the gorgeous First Edition - It's a Boy papers and added some finishing touches such as the pockets on the trousers and the bow on the vest. I already had the little pegs from my wedding scrapbook.

I cut out what is intended to be used as a tag from the First Edition - It's a Boy papers and ran with the saying 'cute as a button' by adding several buttons around it and adding one on top of the tag too. I got these blue buttons from Hobbycraft for £1. It doesn't say how many are in a pack and I haven't counted. Apparently it's 60g of buttons and it looks like there are at least 70 in a pack. I think it was great value and all the buttons are different designs and sizes.

I was worried about the bow untying and my husband suggested sticking down the ends too. Stupidly I used glue and it's shown through so I now need to cover those bits up!

I just need to get some photos printed and then I can get started on the inside. I got the Snapfish app on my phone which allows me to print 50 photos for free every month (you just pay £1.99 p&p) for a year which I think is brilliant and will definitely come in handy.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome!

Mimi x

Wedding Scrapbook

I've started a scrapbook to document the weekend of our wedding. Like everyone's big day, it was one of the best days of my life and I never want the memories to fade so making a scrapbook is perfect for cherishing the memories of this special time with our family and friends. Even though we got married over a year ago (and it feels like forever ago already) I've barely done anything!

Here's what I have so far:

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 I got this beautiful scrapbook from Paperchase for £30

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 As you can see it has plenty of pages to fill and a ribbon tie is great as it will allow the scrapbook to expand

(Click to enlarge) The first two pages

(Click to enlarge) First page

My Husband had 100 little notes printed out to attach to the favours... with the wrong year on them! It was two days before the wedding so we didn't have time to redo them, but I've used them here as a background. We had a photo guestbook kindly composed for us by a friend. He sent us a photo preview of the polaroids on what looks like a stripey tea towel. I loved the effect and rather than just including the polaroids I kept the photos complete. I then stuck tracing paper over the top, cutting out two squares for the polaroids so they can be seen clearly. I really wanted to include these beautiful patience playing cards that I bought at Snoopers Paradise in Brighton. We were going to use them as place cards, but it just never really happened. Lastly, I added leftover fake rose petals from the wedding and used them for the title. I finished it off with some ribbon round the border folded over at the corners so not to have to cut it. 

I love that instead of just adding standard decorations to the pages I've included bits and bobs that have memories behind them. After all isn't that what a scrapbook is all about?!

 (Click to enlarge) This is the first photo of us together, back in 2006, a selfie before selfies were called selfies!

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 I've used origami paper for colourful backgrounds and I cut a few bits out of wedding magazines. Here I've stuck this 'love bunting' onto the same ribbon I used for the border to make it stand out.

(Click to enlarge) Those pretty patience cards from Snoopers Paradise in Brighton

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The bird and flowers were shapes on the cardboard pack of the origami paper which I cut out. I made the kite out of this cardboard too and added ribbon bows and the seam of the ribbon for the string. I have a box of memorabilia and found a slip of paper in it that we'd got from a mechanical fortune teller at Brighton's White Nights event several years ago. I saw this quote on it and really liked it so I cut it out and included it here. I later found out it's from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet.

(Click to enlarge) Wedding dress shopping!

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I've included a card that Cenk had left us at the bridal shop, he'd also left a bottle of Champagne, 4 glasses and some yummy cupcakes! Scrapbook-cum-photo album: I found it hard choosing photos so I stuck one photo onto an envelope before adding it to the page then I kept all the other photos in the envelope. Again, I've finished the pages off with ribbon borders. The next page was of my hen-do and I added another hidden envelope for the extra photos.

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Here I've included some memories of getting the venue ready. Again, I've added an origami paper background and a ribbon as a border. I'm sensing a theme....

(Click to enlarge) Our pre-wedding photo shoot the day before the big day

(Click to enlarge) Getting ready photos - not finished yet

Something that I have learnt since starting scrapbooking is less is more - more or less! When looking at other scrapbooks, my favourite pages are where there are only 2 or even just 1 photo and the rest of the page is crammed with embellishment. It seems to make the picture sing and I guess that's what sets apart scrapbooks from photo albums.

(Click to enlarge) The last page started already!

I've included a picture from our first scan, the first glimpse of our baby was magical and seemed like the perfect way to end our wedding scrapbook. I cut out the words of Happily Ever After from some origami paper using a craft knife and then laid the paper over another sheet at a jaunty angle. I then added some blue and pink paper as we didn't know what we were having at the time. I made the shapes by Googling 'baby clip art black and white' and then laying tracing paper over my iPad and tracing the shapes with a pencil... not recommended! Just print them and then trace them or draw the images by hand. I cut the shapes out of the same coloured paper as I used for the centre and stuck them on the opposite sides. Again, I finished off with some ribbon round the border.

And that's as far as I've got for now. I really want to finish it or it'll be one of those things that just never happens. I'm going to include all the wedding cards that we received, but I need a way of making them look pretty whilst still being able to open them to read the messages.

This is my first scrapbook, and so far only scrapbook, so I expect it will also be a visual journey of all the new techniques I learn along the way.

Any comments or suggestions are welcome :)

Mimi x