from mosaic to digi page

When I had finished the mosaic from the market on Monday I was inspired to turn it into a digi page.  I had a faint memory of a Cathy Z layout which was very similar to the mosaic design that I used – and I found it. In the sketch the top line of photos are moved to the right to make way for a text block and the title fills the new vertical space.  Based on the sketch and words I included in the blog I made this page.

The journaling reads – markets really appeal to me – the vibrancy and bustle and colour and creativity and smells and tastes and hidden treasures. Variety really is the spice of life. 

I printed out the words and the photos on different sheets so that I could cut our the photos and stick onto the page – with digi pages I am still not used to how flat they are and so like to reattach the photos for a little contrast.

Market variety

Markets really appeal to me and I am always on the lookout for them in cities that I visit. Today I went to the weekly market in Canberra at the Old Bus Depot.  Great mix of food, plants, crafts, collectables and toys.  I love the colour and creativity and smells and tastes and all seeing familiar items and discovering hidden treasures.  I really do enjoy the variety.

For more mosaic magic visit this Monday’s collection

Having created this collection I am thinking of making a digi scrapbook page – check back later in the week to see what I did.

Photo a day week 12

This set are all taken outside – the weather is so lovely at the moment I’ve been spending more time on the deck in the evenings.

1. More airports – Melbourne and Canberra

2. Beautiful clear blue sky all day

3. Walk along Lake Burley Griffin

4. View from my deck in the evening sun

5. Moon very bright and lovely pink clouds at dusk

6. Posted birthday card

7. Birds gathering on the rooftop for their evening song

small things

I’ve been intrigued by and attracted to the various gratitude and photo a day digi formats which include words and photos within a normal 4x6 photo print.  I like the simplicity of printing, that they are contained and how well they work as a format for a series.

I’ve also been thinking it would be nice to record some of the small things that I have enjoyed about living in Australia for a few months.  So I decided to create a digi template to print off 4x6.  Not sure how I will collect them together yet but I am enjoying the format. Here are two that I have done.

Photo a day week 11

While compiling this collage and post I was bopping along to Banda a Parte – a lovely modern take on many of the best songs from my student days – try this one while you look.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

continuing the travel theme

1 (Friday) flying above the clouds

2 the view from the top of the hill we climbed (Hamner near Christchurch, NZ)

3 Auckland airport on way back to Canberra (via sydney)

4 overwhelmed by the choice of novels

5 Hot Cross Buns – too good to eat only on 4 days a year

6 did presentation of project to brown bag lunch meeting (I know the background makes my face look strange but it is the best of the bunch)

7 the tenth bed I’ve slept in this year – hotel in Melbourne

photos from above

on my various flights over New Zealand last week I encountered clear skies and had a window seat.  Managed to take several good photos showing some of the variety in landscape.  I like to take photos out of the window of most forms of transport and find that if I click a lot some of them will come out well. 

To see some more mosaics head over to mosaic Monday

photo a day week 10

1 (Friday) it rained a lot so I saw the inside of my spotty umbrella a lot
2 Waiting at gate 37 at Sydney airport to fly to New Zealand
3  Walk on Lyall Bay in Wellington
4 Played on magnetic word wall in civic square
5 View of Wellington harbour from the air
6 Played RISK – didn’t take over the world this time
7 Went on a walking tour as part of Heritage Week
RISK has been my favourite board game since I was a teenager, do you have a board game you enjoy?

words are my favourite embellishment

 

Letters, numbers and other characters like ? or {} or & are my favourite way to add some decoration or emphasis to a page.  I have a set of alphabet punches and of stamps, I have stencil sets and rubons and stickers>  I also love to create titles and other word decorations using word and the vast array of fonts that are available online.

So when I saw the textuality class advertised on Big Picture Scrapbook I had to sign up.  The 4 week class will look at how you present words, so is not about ways of deciding what to put into journaling. 

I was so inspired by the idea of the class that today my playing session of PSE resulted in the above tile which uses a quote from the Bee Gees song words (although I must confess that I prefer the Boyzown version.  While finding these on YouTube I was reminded of the time that they sang it together which still sends shivers up my spine)

Anyway I made the tile using the fonts Bradley Hand and Papyrus and saved as a jpeg to use here.  Then I made some in different colours which I’ve included below – if you like them please take a copy and make use of them.

journaling first

the challenge at Scrap weekly (link of logo on left)  was to write the journaling first so that it gets the space it needs, rather than squashing the story into the space that is left after placing all of the other elements. 
I like this approach and decided to use the page height free download journaling strip from Cuddlebeez (I used the one designated July – other months have a different pattern strip).  I the decided to just add a photo because I have not made a page this dimensions before.  A nice easy and pleasing to my eye digi layout

the journaling reads
Lyall Bay has everything that I could want in a beach. There is sand to walk on and waves to listen to and to watch. It is long enough to provide a good long walk for plenty of chat or contemplation and justification for the coffee or ice-cream at the end.
One end is for dogs so there are always canines of all shapes and sizes running, chasing balls or sticks, smelling each other or shaking over people - often strangers. Dogs playing always makes me smile.
Elsewhere there are usually surfers and other walkers and kids playing. Sometimes there are wind or kite surfers and kids learning to be life guards. Further interest is provided by the airport at the end and boats passing on the horizon, including the interisland ferry
Rain, wind or sun I was there each Sunday.

Photo a day week 9

getting to be more of a ‘thing to remember to do’ on some days, but still enjoying the exercise.

1. (Friday) went to the art exhibition (the one which I didn’t go to the week before because the queue was too long).  Loved the use of colour from Monet, Van Gogh et al

2. did my supermarket shopping with my trusty shoppin bag on wheels – 3 blocks to walk with it

3. LUSH soap smells and looks wonderful – and it keeps me clean

4. One of my twice daily surfing sessions

5. The pens on my office desk

6. My fruit bowl (all grown in Australia)

7. On my walk to work there was a flock of galahs eating seed on the lawn

Tongan tales

Last June I was fortunate to be asked to help facilitate a workshop is the Pacific Island Kingdom of Tonga.  This weekend I pulled out two sets of photos from that trip for a layout.  Each story had a lot of photos so I was looking at appropriate designs.  The Rinda set the weekly challenge as ‘use lots of photos’ and use them on a double spread.  So I went ahead and did both.  You can see how other people approached this challenge by clicking the logo in the left column.

Layered template was from Laura, and I made some alternations to it.  The chipboard letters were free from Holliewood Studios called chipper alphas – again I modified them.

Journalling reads - We asked the minibus driver to take us out and about to  get a feel for life in  Tonga.  I snapped out the window in the belief that some of the photos would be in focus.  I was please d to find that I had a good range of the typical sights.

One thing  that we really noticed was the highly decorated graves with flags and lights and flowers and they are big and prominent. In some of the villages there were flags and bunting.  The driver told us this was because they were in the ‘tidiest village’ contest and judging had been the previous day. The vegetation was lush with lots of coconut,  taro and banana.  The pigs all looked healthy too. When we got a glimpse of the sea it was a beautiful colour and looked so enticing with the amazing soft sand. What I didn’t get in the photos was all the churches and the smiling, waving people.’

I always like to take photos out of the window when driving around a new place.  I set the camera on sport mode and just take lots and lots of photos in the hope that some will come out OK.  I have got some great photos this way on a number of trips.

The second layout is a double spread

the design was one I saw and liked in a magazine.  All elements come from within the software.

Journaling reads - As soon as we heard that Fiji was playing Tonga on the weekend at the end of our workshops we organised to go along.   Rugby is a much a  passion in the Pacific nations as it is in Australia and New Zealand so we knew it would be a likely game and an appreciative crowd.

It ended up that our party comprised three Australians, me from NZ, two Tongans, a Cook islander and a Fijian. Looking around the crowd was a good mix of visitors and locals too and the full age range from babes in arms to elders.

it was a lovely sunny afternoon and everyone was ina good mood, greeting friends, enjoying the snacks and having a look to see who was there.

Both teams performed a  traditional challenge at the start which really set the energy flowing.  Then the game got underway.  An interesting contrast of the solid, robust Tongans and the wiry, tall Fijians.  The game was open with lots of ball in hand and passing, as it tend s to be in this part of the world.  There was a long period of play before there were any throw ins or scrums.  The crowd showed appreciation for all good periods of play, regardless of who had the ball.  Admittedly cheering was louder and more prolonged  when Tonga scored.

Who won? Fiji scored the most points, but as they say
“rugby was the winner on the day”

I’m pleased that both, in different ways, tell a story with lots of pictures but do not feel too crowded.  Are you someone who avoids layouts with lots of photos or do you use this approach a lot?

Fabulous layered templates

Earlier this year I won the Helium template in Liberty Cottage's elements series

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Here is the first layout I made with the template

and here is another that I did at the weekend - the template is so versatile

The great news is that the templates in the elements series are now for sale at a very reasonable 75p (in UK speak), and all the money goes to charity.  Hop over to the Liberty Cottage website to see all the details, including how to be in to win the set of the first 10 layouts.