Up The Cascade

Armenia the second page.  Or at least, it might not be as the album comes together but as this was on our second day there, it will certainly be near the beginning.  Journalling reads: 

Having been refreshed, the only logical conclusion is to do an unreasonable amount of exercise and so we tottered through Yerevan and climbed the 721 steps up the Cascade. (In English money, that's 3.6 Whitby's, minus the abbey).  The Cascade dominates the end of the main street through Yerevan and scales up and up, soaring above the city.  At the top is an enormous grey concrete tower and a tremendous view over the whole capital.  I was able to appreciate this more once I got my breath back.

Actually, for the faint-hearted there are escalators running underground which can transport you in air-conditioned bliss to the summit.  But we are GOLDies and therefore hardcore and so we climbed.  

But how, I hear you cry, do you know that there are 721 steps?  On the way down we counted, Rachael making notes on her hands every time we hit a new level.  I added them up incorrectly so that I could contribute as a maths teacher, and then Rachael did it properly.  So 721 it is.  Up and down.  If it seems that I am mentioning this a little more than necessary, it's because my legs hurt. On the plus side, after some comedy photos and a Snickers, I forgot all about it.

See?  Hilarious comedy photos.

With the exception of the background graph paper which is Studio Calico, most of these things come from the October afternoon line Woodland Park - I'm carrying on working with this collection.  And I just LOVE it.  One of the embellishment packs I bought was the Here and Now Chapters.  They're essentially minibook pages with punched holes that you can bind together.  Now I'm not a minibook girl - it just doesn't work for me - but I think these pages make wonderful journalling or title cards.  They're all double sided and coordinate so well with the papers, some having the same patterns in a smaller size and others having new designs.

I was inspired by Clair's Stitching on Paper Class over at Obstinate Pursuit to get stuck in with the stitching and I hand-sewed the title on this page.  I only pierced and sewed on the journalling card and stuck it on afterwards - it seemed more manageable that way.  I really love the hand-made look that stitching gives and you can always match your title colour and font to the page you're making.  I highly recommend this class - it's really amazing and it's free - so check it out if you haven't already!

Finally, a quick shout out to Craft Emporium who seem to be practically the only UK shop to stock a decent range of October Afternoon.  Win!

Kisses xxx

P.S. I'm using a camera on each page too which I'm cutting out of a sheet by Echo Park.  An idea shamelessly stolen from Shimelle and one that I intend to use forever because cameras rule.

The First Page of the Album

I've never really made a scrapbook album before.  In that I've never sat down and thought about it as a book in a chronological order and how it will read.  I just make pages and stick them in wherever they'll fit.  But now its the summer holidays and I've had chance to have a look through Shimelle's Cover to Cover class and I love the philosophy contained within.  And so I set out to plan my Armenia album.  I've doodled in numerous notebooks, printed a selection of pictures in a variety of formats and I've got journalling from my journal and the Team Armenia blog.

And since I'm taking a leaf out of Shimelle's book, I'm also giving her class 'The Perfect Collection' a try.  The class is delivered through a video tutorial and Shimelle demonstrates how she takes one collection (or I suppose any selection of supplies) and makes a variety of pages.  She encourages you to cut up the papers and go for it and that's just what I've done.  I fell in love with October Afternoon's collection Woodland Park when they first displayed it way back in January.  I was exceedingly jazzed to finally get my mittens into it and ordered all the papers and some of the embellishments.  I also included some neutrals such as cardstock and ledger paper to use as backgrounds.  

And here's my first page.

Journalling reads as follows:

Everything packed.  Just about, with some sitting on luggage.  Rachael performed a super-human act of flipchart-paper-stuffing to fit in all the resources and the bags averaged 19.6kg apiece.  Not bad given we had the tents in there as well.  And lots of pants.We spent a lot of time talking pants before we left and after some regional trousers/pants/knickers confusion we reckoned on around 14 pairs.  These things are important.  We looked shiny and happy and set off for the airport in high spirits.  Armenia, here we come!  Via Poland anyway, at stupid o' clock in the morning.  You can't have it all.

With each page I'm making, I do dip into bits of other supplies.  I'm using my kitchen/dining table to scrap on, but on the sofa I've spread out some stash that may complement the Woodland Park collection.  And it seemed foolish to attempt to scrap without paperclips :D

I arranged this page along a diagonal and really liked how it worked out.  In fact, I'm working on page where I do this again and I'll be back with that one soon.  I'm looking forward to putting together an album and I think I'm going to use that as the basis for my Learn Something New Every Day.  Yup, Shimelle again.  Someone give that girl a lollipop.

And I would like one too.  

Kisses xxx

P.S. Actually, forget the lollipop, I'm going to have some ice cream and a cup of tea.  Some things never change.

The Joys of the Bank Holiday Weekend

And I'm back!  Hello little blog, it's good to see you :D

Actually I've been back from Armenia for a week but I've been rushing around here there and everywhere catching up with the things and people I missed while I was away.  I've also been crafting at my two beginner hobbies.  I'm practising my mad crocheting skillz in the hope that one day they will indeed be mad.  And I popped home for a few days and took a crash course in patchwork from my Mum.  She was very patient as I periodically trooped around the house calling "Mum! It's a DISASTER!"

And the good thing about going on a big trip is that you come back with lots to scrap about.  So I'm busy in the middle of that and I'll be back later today to share some progress.

Kisses xxx

P.S. Armenia was amazing!  But I'm going to be scrapping it and therefore going on about it in subsequent posts, so I'll contain myself and leave at at that for now :D