Another circle journal entry - Bry's

I've had such a blast with Bry's circle journal and her 'Magical Mystery Tour' theme. We were given free rein to make an entry about a place we have been or somewhere we'd like to go. It was really cool to read the preceding entries and read the journaling about where the others have been and why they loved it so much, there are more than a few ideas for holiday destinations there!

I decided to make my entry about the holiday of my lifetime - our trip to Mauritius! We have quite literally thousands of photos from the trip so I was spoilt for choice but I managed to find a few themes. I created a file folder with three files inside and added photos and journaling to each side - the whole lot closed nice and slim so it was a neat fit in the 8x8 page protector. I was on such a roll after completing this entry that it was great that I had another album to get stuck into right away - watch this space....

Hope you like this one Bry!

Circle Journal entry - Sharon's

I've just passed the latest circle journal I've completed on to Barbara after it was left on the kitchen table while we were prepping for club last week! The album was Sharon's and her theme was 'Movies that Move Me'. It was quite an easy theme to work to but I found the 6x6 single page we were permitted was a bit limiting - I've really loved the journals where I had at least a double page and sometime up to 4 sides to complete as they really gave me something to get my teeth into.

I found a fantastic image from my featured film and printed it quite large and then mounted it onto some sparkly paper to highlight the sci-fi theme. I found the font that the film title used and hand-cut the title (something I haven't done in a very long time!) before I added Stickles to make it pop off the page - a flat colour just looked wrong. Because I was limited for space I created three hidden pockets behind the page, two vertical and one horizontal which hold the movies background info, my journaling about the film and a photo. Hope you like the entry Sharon!

Finish Your Pages crop day!

We have arranged another Finish Your Pages open crop day for Saturday 13th August and we are taking bookings right now! These very popular days offer an opportunity to create in peace and quiet for up to 10 hours - start a new project, complete your unfinished layouts, its completely up to you.
The full details are on our website at www.totalpapercrafts.co.uk under 'Crops & Classes' and you can book online to be sure that you have your place (space is limited!). We are so looking forward to this crop day, crafting and friends - what more could you ask for?! See you there!

A week in the life

If you've been following my blog for a while you may remember that throughout last December I was inspired by Ali Edwards to create a 'December Daily' album which documented the excitement in our family in the build up to Christmas. I was so pleased with the finished result, most of all because it was a real challenge to complete daily entries during this really busy period in our lives. I was really excited to see Ali's latest inspirational project - 'Week in the Life'!!

Ali has chosen next week as the week she is focussing on and is already posting creativity prompts on her blog at www.aliedwards.com and I've almost decided to join in along with her. The day to day normality of life is really important to capture and I find it easy to find the 'big' moments like birthdays, days out and holidays in my scrapbooks but not so much of the ordinary. How cool would it be to find a book where your Great Grandparents shared the details of an ordinary week? That is what is pushing me to document a week in our life. The only issue, like most people have is finding the time - I have circle journals to complete and a number of projects to design but thats my 'normal' anyway!! What do you think about this idea, could you document a week in your life?

The circle journal adventure is nearing its end and its been quite a long journey! We have a lot in our circle and I'm so pleased and proud that the journals are still merrily making their way on their rounds. They may have moved a bit out of sync and some of us might have been handed 2 at a time but its still moving and thats the most important thing. The main drive behind this circle journal was to offer everyone at our Essex club the chance to get to know something more about each other - some of them didn't know each others' names while others are close outside of club. Another great driver behind this idea was that it offered a chance to be creative in relation to a wide range of topics and we are all about creativity! I have loved seeing some of the club members really blossom and find their style and really explore their creativity, one or two have blown me away!!

There have been a few down sides to this experience for me, there has been a bit of negativity around the process which is a bit sad as this is primarily supposed to be fun. Despite this, the main aim of running this has been more than met - its most apparent by the way in which everyone is a lot more fluid about where they sit. The albums are looking full of gorgeous entries and I'm sure they will be very much appreciated when they finally return to their owners in just a few more rotations. I have a couple to work on over the weekend and am really looking forward to doing them before making a start on 'A Week in the Life' - do you want to join me?!

Circle journal entry - Tracey O's

I loved the theme of Tracey's circle journal - 'Guilty Pleasures' as it offered so much scope for imagination! I have to confess that I have spent more than a few minutes drooling over Daniel Craig in his role as the new James Bond, who can deny that he looked scrummy as he emerged from the sea in those blue swiming trunks?!
I included a few of my favourite photos from Casino Royale and the blue trunks HAD to make it into the circle journal!! I documented my guilt on a pull out ta hidden behind the photo on the left page together with a story from our honeymoon that also featured those famous blue trunks!!
Despite this being a masculine page, I was able to incorporate a bit of my favourite ruffle rose trim in black as it looked so elegant and understated (and its my signature on most of these entries!).

I hope you like it Tracey!!

July kit 2

This gorgeously serene single page kit was designed by Tracey for us a while back and as soon as I saw it I was blown away! Tracey is really clever at combining papers and layering products and this is very much in evidence in this stunning page.

The kit contains cardstock, 3 sheets of patterned paper, a pack of Thickers glittery chipboard alphabet, embroidery floss, pearl strand, book paper and a paper template.

You'll need two 6" x 4" photos - Tracey used portrait ones but landscape would work just as well, blue and green inkpads, decorative border punches, a single hole punch, a corner punch and a black journaling pen. The punches aren't essential, you could very easily hand cut the corners and borders or even tear them for a more rugged look. A lot of the flowers that Tracey used were punched out of the paper in the kit but she also added a couple of larger white flowers and some tiny paper roses. You could choose to do the same or add flowers from your stash. We have a delivery of mixed white flowers coming in next week and we had loads of tiny white rosebuds arrive today (so we really need to et cracking and add them to the shop tomorrow!).

I'm sure you'll agree that Tracey has really come up trumps this month and we are sure you'll have no problem finding photos to match the soft blues and greens of this gorgeous kit.

Entry in Val's Circle Journal

This was one of the more tricky themed circle journals, Val chose 'Grandchildren' for her album and I'm not yet in the realm of Grandchildren (and hope that we won't be there for a while yet!!). We don't have any young children in the family so it was really hard to think of something to fit Val's alternate suggestion of a special child in our life.
In the end and after some thought I decided to journal my own experience as a grandchild. My extended family is very large and I have lots of aunts, uncles and cousins but both sets live a great distance away from us. We have been fortunate to stay in touch over the years and I have many happy memories of family gatherings. I really wanted to share a few of my memories in this cj along with some pictures and I am really pleased with how it came together.
The tag behind the photos of my grandparents pulls out and has journaling letting Val know about my relationships with each of them and on the last page there is more journaling hidden under the main tag.
I used lots of basicGrey papers, 7gypsies tags, Tim Holtz tickets and journaling labels. The gorgeous velvet flowers are Petalloo and of course I had to add some of the gorgeous rose trim that has almost become my signature in this round of albums!
I hope you like what I have created for you Val x

Total Papercrafts kit 1 for July

The summer is finally here and warmer temperatures call for warm, summery colours - thats certainly what you'll find in our first kit for July! We are really excited by this kit as it includes a full set of wood mounted alphabet stamps, perfect for creating titles, journaling and more. We also include instructions for making gorgeous crinkled ribbon flowers using the vintage seam binding - very similar to one of the new Prima fabric flowers!!

The kit includes cardstock, 4 sheets of double sided patterned papers, a length of rwine, a length of vintage seam binding, a set of wooden alphabet stamps, a doily and a paper template.

You'll need orange or ochre coloured ink (the sample uses Distress Ink in Wild Honey), a water spritz bottle, sponge ink applicator, a 1" circle punch, 10 mini brads or eyelets, 3d foam pads and stamens or brads for flower centres.

The papers in the kit are in tones of cream, peach and ochre with some soft green included. If the warm orange tones aren't to your liking, you can very easily play up the green by using a sage green inkpad. The resulting pages would be perfect for leafy outdoor pictures whereas the orange version works really well with hot summer photos. You'll need three 6" x 4" photos - any orientation will work with this design and you could use more pictures if you prefer, its so flexible!