Olympic layouts

I enjoyed watching the Olympics coverage this year so much that I wanted to make  page or two to record Team GBs amazing performance in Rio.

I got the large photo of all our medallists online, along with the final table of results showing us in second place above China. The  papers are Anna Griffin I stamped the stitched borders and the title letters are from Hobbycraft.

I made a double layout to make room for my journalling, using a stitch stamp around the edge to finish it off. 

The Olympic Rings

It's hard to believe that it is two years since the Olympics were here in the UK.  As the challenge on UKS Scrappers a couple of weeks ago was to use patriotic colours and sporting or summer photos I thought I would get out my 2012 supplies again and make another page for the album.

The challenge asked for 5 photos as a minimum, so I went with a DLO based on one of Shimelle's '6x4 Photo Love' series for Two Peas; great for getting lots of pictures onto a page.

I used pictures of the Olympic rings seen all over the country, some taken by my brother who lives in London, and photos taken by me in Weymouth and Coventry.

My brother was lucky enough to get tickets for some events, so the photo of him outside the Aquatic Centre takes pride of place.  I used Papermania Portobello Road papers and embellishments, along with red, white and blue baker's twine.  Pleased to get going with this album again, I think I have about half a dozen more pages to complete.

A Forgotten page.

As I was looking through my 2012 album I noticed a couple of pages I had forgotten to upload onto my blog.  I hope you will forgive me for them being so late, but it will be nice to see a bit of red, white and blue again!

The first page is about the opening ceremony of the Olympics, when we all sat open mouthed at the Queen briefing 007, then 'jumping' from a helicopter in a sketch with James Bond.  We were all so surprised that it was really the Queen taking part (in the first part anyway) and not a stand in I couldn't resist recording this memory.
Papers Portobello Road, MME cardstock, Tim Holtz ticket embossing folder and alphabet die (Sizzix).

More Fabric pages.

My second DoCrafts page used a mix of fabric and papers, this time I used a limited palette of red, white blue and stone to make a layout for the start of my 2012 album.

I cut a sunray shape from various pieces of fabric and card and lightly stuck it to the page.  I then used a sewing machine to zig-zag stitch between the pieces, and around the edge of the page. A little journalling block was the ideal background for my hand stitched title, simply 2012.

Sparkle

A quick post including another 2012 layout.
I made it at a crop, only one in an afternoon, I mustn't be feeling too good!
Photos are of the light show and fireworks on the opening night of the Olympics.

 Title is stamped straight onto the page in red (Autumn Leaves alphabet) and coloured using a blue pencil crayon.

 Border is also a stitched stamp.

White on Kraft

I'm really loving the look of white on Kraft at the moment, and heat embossing using white powder is the perfect way to get this look.  It's funny how things come around though, as heat embossing was one of the first techniques I tried when I first started paper crafting about 9 years ago... and although I've gone through two heat guns in that time, I still love the look it gives me.

Another page for the 2012 album, stamped and embossed alphabets for the title, and squeezing the last bits out of the Portobello Road papers! 

On the mend, no more collapsing, but I'm not really up to going out on my own yet...and Kev won't let me :)

Another holiday page.

As part of the cultural Olympiad there were many exhibitions in and around Weymouth this summer.
This one took place in the church of St Georges which is on the isle of Portland.  We had driven past the building many times before, but this year it was open, and housing an art exhibition.

 One of the exhibits was a paper forest set up next to the altar, and as soon as Katie and Harry saw it they wanted to know more.

 The strips of paper dangling down were to be written on, and Katie added her altered quotation from Tolkein's Lord of the Rings, which has become one of those silly family catchphrases that I think all families have.

I used a lovely piece of Orla Kiely 70s style wrapping paper bought in a little shop in Derby, far to nice to wrap gifts and give away, I always intended it for a scrapbook page!

I survived

... the dreaded Ofsted, and now half term is here I'm hoping to get a bit of crafting done.
It's cyber crop weekend on UK Scrappers (my class is Sunday evening at 5pm)and there are plenty of other fabulous ones to inspire.

A quick page with more Olympic photos, these are from the opening night, with the Red Arrows on the big screen behind the band, flying over the stadium in London at precisely 20:12pm (Hence the title).

More use of the Portobello Rd papers, and i stamped the background using a Unity grid stamp in red and blue.
Out at a beer and skittles night tonight, should be fun, and generate a few interesting photos!

Cultural Olympiad

There was lots going on in Weymouth this year in addition to the Olympic sailing, and on the day of the opening ceremony we saw these as we strolled through town to the beach.

These Heath-Robinson contraptions were part of the Battle for the Winds, a piece of performance art that took place over the first weekend of the games in various sites around Weymouth and Portland, and culminated in a torchlight wade into the sea on the final evening.

Of course they had to make it into my scrapbook for 2012,

 and along with the rest of the book I used my Portobello Rd papers.

The books getting pretty full now, but still plenty of pictures to scrap!

Time Flies

...and it seems like an age since the Olympics were here.  I'm so glad I managed to get out to take a few photos of the local makeover, as the flags and rings were gone as quickly as they arrived.
I used Portobello Road papers to make the layouts, and the rosettes were cut using Tim Holtz dies.

 During the jubilee we bought a pack of cakes covered in decorated foil, I saved it, glued it onto chipboard then used the Wordplay die to cut my main title.

The rest of the title is stamped and die cut with a smaller die.

Left page

 Right page

Lots of photos means another DLO for my scrapbook.

10 things....

....I want to remember from the summer of 2012:

1. So very much rain in May and June.. and a very damp Jubilee

2. Great weather once the school holidays started :)

3. Celebrating a golden wedding with the in laws

4. Weymouth so quiet without traffic... lovely

5. Bunting everywhere

6. Fabulous performance of team GB

7. Dining al fresco with Hannah in Derby

8. An amazing sunset over Chesil beach

9. The Olympics coming to Coventry

10. Watching Olympic sailing from the beach.

You can see lots of other 10 things lists if you join Shimelle today.
A definite autumnal nip in the air this week, I hope you had a fabulous summer too.

Hybrid page...

The photos I posted last time made an ideal (and speedy) double layout.

They also fit this months challenge on UKS.

...and as I had added notes to the photos I didn't need to add more journalling.

All this speedy scrapping is handy at the moment as we have 3 rooms of the house currently being decorated.

Busy, busy, busy!

An A to Z...

of our holiday in Weymouth.

Hope you had a good holiday if you went away :)