A whole new bloggy outlook

Hello and good afternoon to all my crafty readers.

So here we are. The first day of my new blog. A new look and a new outlook. Just in time for all the exciting upcoming promotions with Stampin' Up! (I cannot wait for Sale-A-Bration to start next week! Woo hoo!)

After some careful thought and consideration I have decided to change the Stampin' Up! crafty focus of my blog to focus on scrapbooking with my family. I love all things papercrafty, but my heart belongs to scrapbooking. And especially scrapbooking my lovely little one, Summer. And with a pile of photos that I'm almost too afraid to admit to waiting to be scrapbooked I decided to rebrand Stampin' Sarah with a focus on layouts, embellishments and family photos.

I am often asked about scrapbooking and how to get started. A lot of people I speak to are often daunted by a 12"x12" blank page so in the following weeks and months I am going to share different ways to plan a page and create a beautiful layout, whether that be a colour combination starting point, a sketch challenge or doing justice to your extra special photos. Each Tuesday I will be sharing a layout I have created using Stampin' Up! papers, embellishments, stamps, die-cuts, ribbons (just about anything I can lay my hands on!). And each Thursday I will be sharing a technique for creating your own handmade embellishments for decorating your pages and giving step by step instructions. And in between whiles there will still be odd cardmaking and papercrafting tidbits from my papercrafting world.

I have had a sneak preview of the new Spring Summer catalogue and it is JAM PACKED full of beautiful embellishments and accessories for scrapbooking. Now is the perfect time to start your scrapbooking journey with Stampin' Up! and I would be more than happy to help you get started. I am offering a Monthly Scrapbooking Virtual Club to create special monthly pages (£15 per month + £2.50 postage to include everything you need to create 2 x 12"x12" layouts plus a few extras AND you will receive a free Stampin' Up! album in month 10 to store all your layouts in). I am also offering scrapbook specific workshops throughout the year, so if you book a party with me feel free to request a scrapbooking theme and I will give you and your friends an introduction to scrapbooking and creatively recording your memories.

But enough of the talking and small print. I will be posting more about those changes as and when it comes to it (although should you wish to sign up to my virtual club or book a scrapbooking party, please get in touch directly and we can chat some more on poulton_sarah@yahoo.co.uk or 01983 609249). Lets get on with some Tuesday inspiration scrapbooking.

At this time of year we all have Christmas-y photos on our cameras waiting to be printed. And what better excuse to get them printed than to get started with your scrapbooking journey. I usually use an online print company such as Photobox or Snapfish to print mine, or if I am in a rush to scrapbook something I pop to the instant print Kodak machine in Boots (these are brilliant as you can edit and crop the picture onscreen).

For my first Scrappy Try It Tuesday I decided to use one of the fabulous Simply Scrapping Kits from the Autumn Winter catalogue, Snowflake Season (£8.95 126921 Snowflake Season Simply Scrappin' Layout Kit). As an absolute beginner to scrapbooking these kits are perfect for getting you started as they contain 12"x12" cardstock, plus embellishments, and photos to follow to recreate the layouts. For a more experienced scrapbooker they are also a quick and easy way to scrap pictures with additional embellishments to allow your to change and personalise your pages.

Here is how the layout guidelines look:

And here is my take on the pages:

I used the basic page layout and changed the placement of embellishments to suit the orientation of my photos. I just love the miniature pegs to hang my photo to the ribbon clothesline. These kits contain exclusive papers, die cuts and embellishments, created especially for these scrapbooking pages. So you won't always see these extras included in the main catalogue. They are created with your special pictures in mind.

This kit is only available from the Autumn Winter catalogue until the end of January (last orders are to be placed by 1pm on January 31st) so get in touch asap if you'd like to order one for your Christmas photos.

Pop back on Thursday for the first of my Make It Thursday features and I hope you've enjoyed my new style blog today.

Happy Scrappin' 

-X-

My very first attempt at scrapbooking (sort of)

On Saturday I joined the lovely ladies of the Wight Craft Circle for their monthly crop. I was so nervous about going along (and getting completely lost on my way to the Sherbourne Centre didnt help) but I had no need as they were incredibly welcoming and friendly. I had a lovely day attempting scrapbooking. Although my pages were more fancy holiday album than real scrapbooking I am certainly inspired to start a proper scrapbook. And having seen the ladies lovely albums I realised how memorable and touching using just the select few photos can be as opposed to my usual stick every picture going in and hope for the best approach. It certainly made me look at my huge stack of Australia holiday photos in a completely different light.

Here are the pages I completed using the limited materials I had taken along with me:

Using: Sunny Day Simply Scrappin' Set (Page 78 of catalogue)


The page above is a little 'Small World' tribute as Sam and I specifically visited Phillip Island for its connections to the Isle of Wight. As well as a lot of shared place names we also came across the Isle of Wight Hotel! ;0)

Photos below taken on the Queenscliff-Sorrento ferry as Sam and I left Geelong on our way to Phillip Island.

I couldnt quite get the lighting right taking photos of these pages. Its a shame these photos havent shown up clearer. But these were taken at my lovely friend Sarla's 30th in Geelong. She gets a page all to herself in my holiday album ;0)

And then my favourite page of the day was put together using a page from the Pink Flamingo Design Paper Series. I absolutely love pelicans of all shapes and sizes (prize for the hugest of this species definitely goes to these huge Australian birds). Between myself and Sam we took hundreds of photos at the pelican feeding near Phillip Island. It was a hard task filtering out the best ones but I think I managed to capture how much i love these birds.