January Project 12 Layout

Here is my first layout for Project 12, a challenge being run over at Scrapbook and Cards today. Every month Becky Fleck of PageMaps provides a sketch and you then make a layout using the sketch with photos of that month. This is January's sketch:

Initially I didn't like how this layout was progressing, but once it was finished, I think it turned out well.

We had a very busy start to the year. The kids each went to camp - K to an international Girl Guides camp in Geelong, Victoria, and L to the Scout Jamboree at Cataract Park, in Appin, NSW. G and I took the opportunity to have our first holiday together, without children, since our honeymoon. We took off to Cairns in Far North Queensland. We only had 4 full days but we packed in the activities. We visited the town of Kuranda, went swimming on the reef at Green Island, visited the rainforest at Cape Tribulation and went white water rafting.

On the children's return we went to New Zealand for 12 days. We stayed in the North Island, visiting the area around the Bay of Islands, took a tour to the tip of New Zealand at Cape Reinga, and visited the thermal pools etc at Rotorua. We also took a boat through the glow worm caves of Waitomo. All in all it was a great month!

Well, back to my layout. I used the Swirls and Flowers template (TCW77) from The Crafters Workshop to draw the swirls around the flowers. I then pierced holes along the lines and used floss to stitch the lines on. The flowers are Tye-Dye Gypsies from Flora Doodles by Petaloo. The rhinestones next to the stitching are from Kaisercraft.

For the edging under the top left photo and the bottom right photo I used one of my border punches that I haven't used in ages. It's Aztec - Basic borders punch from EK Success. I used it with the Link 2 Link guide. (They obviously don't make these anymore as I couldn't find them on the EK Success website to put a link in - shows how long I've had it then I guess!)I then rolled the middle triangle over my paper piercer. The paper is relatively thin though so doesn't stay in place that well. Maybe someone should make some "hair spray" for paper!

For the "Busy" title I used some glitter stickers I got on sale. Being Canadian I'm disappointed to say that these stickers from Forever in Time (MultiCraft Imports), a Canadian company, are not good stickers. I had to put glue on them to make them stick to the paper. But, once I did that they're really quite nice. I added a flower and some more rhinestones and voila!

The paper I used is from a scrapbooking kit I bought from Aldi last year. I didn't save the packaging so I don't know who made it. It came with an album, patterned papers, alphabet stickers, die cut frames, tags, alphas, and embellishments, as well as borders and four layered embellishments. I used some blue TLC paper from my stash for the journalling sheet, and cardstock from my stash as well. Don't know where that came from either! I used the alpha stickers from the kit for the January sub-title. I didn't want to stick them directly on to the paper though so put them on foam tape so they would be raised off the page. I think it makes them classier than they really are.

And finally for the photos. On the left hand page, the photos are all from New Zealand. Clockwise from left they are: my family atop the lookout on Urupukapuka Island in the Bay of Islands, L&K at Whangarei harbour, and a REALLY New Zealand scene, a giant Kiwi with the NZ flag painted on it, with a sheep underneath. This photo was taken at Otorohanga, a Kiwiana town between Waitomo Caves and Hamilton. Here's the photo so you can see it properly - just click on it for a larger view!
On the right hand page the photos are of G and I on the beach at Cape Tribulation, K at ACE Girl Guide camp with some of her tent mates, and L getting ready to go to Jamboree. (I blurred the faces of the other kids since I don't know whether their parents would be happy to have them posted online.)

Till next time, happy days!