Sparkle in 2026

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. This is my first blog post of 2026, so a very Happy New Year!

I wanted a box to store my Elizabeth Craft card lab cards, but they are impossible to get hold of at the moment, so I decided to make my own, using the beautiful G45 Journalling Through Time collection.

When I say 'make,' I mean upcycle, because life is far too busy at the moment to make a box from scratch, so I altered this one!

So ta-da!! I used the Patterns and Solids for the long sides, and the 8x8 Collection Pack for the short sides and the base. Sally has the full range in the Relatively Thoughtful store and it really is one of my favourite collections.

There's also an ephemera pack, which is where my Time To Sparkle die cut came from. I've tripple embossed it to make it a little more sturdy.

And this is the card that I've made for the box. This time I've used my leftovers (very scrappy bits) from the Season to Celebrate collection. Any normal person would have thrown these away (did I really say that????) but they were perfect for the card.

Yep, a 4x4 scrap makes a perfect pocket.

I love these dies, they are perfect for my 3x4 and 2x2 photos.

I've used one of my favourite 8x8 papers for the base. You only get 2 per pack now as there are some patterns and solids included in the 8x8 collection. So do I ...

a) keep it to look at and stroke occasionally

b) use it up and cry

or 

c) head to Sally's store and buy another pack    - yeah right answer!

I'm just waiting for my dowel to arrive, then I have a willing volunteer (not) to create the runners for my box.I would like to make at least one card a fortnight so watch this space.

Here are the links to everything that I've used

Journalling Through Time Patterns and Solids 

8x8 Collection Pack 

Ephemera set 

Season to Celebrate Patterns and Solids 

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Winnie the Pooh Meets G45

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. I hope you've had a lovely Christmas. Today I'm sharing some more pages from my G45 ATC album. This is a real cutie and was such fun to make. The papers are from the Echo Park Winnie the Pooh at Christmas collection. As well as her own designs Sally stocks lots of other collections, and this one is in the sale!!

Please excuse last year's Christmas photos, but I've not had any printed yet for this year (but I may have taken the odd one or two lol.

The atc-sized pages are perfect for my 4x3 photos.

There are 4 signatures in the album, and they have a mixture of flat and pocket pages. They also have these fold-up pocket pages that you can slide an atc/photo into.

These photos were taken for my Christmas album last year. The prompt was 'festive hot drink'. These were drunk in Malaga airport on our way back from our December holiday.

This one was taken in Leeds railway station, on our way back from seeing Santa!

These are some of the inserts that I've made for the pocket pages. These 3x4 cut-apart sheets are such fun.

The tags are also included in the album and would be perfect for some journaling or a 2x2 photo.

The collection can be found here

6x6 mega pad

G45 ATC album

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend xx

Christmas Feelings

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. I'm really into the Christmas crafting now, and I'm preparing a little G45 ATC album ready for my Christmas photographs.

This is such a cute little album so it needs a cute paper collection. I've used the Winnie the Pooh Christmas collection by Echo Park, and for sale at Relatively Thoughtful.

Sally has got the whole collection in the store. From 12x12 papers, to a 6x6 mega pad, chipboard, stickers, washi tape, and stamps. (Yes this does all live at my house) lol.

It's a fabulous little album - perfect for ATC's, or in my case 3x4 photographs. There's also pocket pages, so extra room for photos.

The image is 3x4, so I can swap this out with a Christmas photo. The image on the inside cover is held on with one of the colourful washi tapes.

I've done the same on the back cover. Isn't it just the cutest!

I'll be back later in the month and show you some of the pages with last year's Christmas photos.

I've used

Graphic 45 ATC album

Winnie the Pooh Mega Pad

Chipboard

Washi Tape

Take care and enjoy the rest of your weekend x

RT Designers Challenge A Walkthrough of the Covers

 Good morning and a very happy Sunday. Today I'm sharing the first photos from my ring-bound album.

I started by making my pages. There were 3 of each sort in the binder, but as I had a calendar collection, I needed four, one for Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. There were spare blank pages in the album, so a bit of measuring and some tape, and we were good to go!

Next, I sorted out my papers into their seasonal collection too. I'll show you the pages another time.

This is the front cover. It's made with the Winter main design, one of the journaling cards, and some of the Little Birdie flowers.

And the back cover is made from one of the Autumn sheets, a journal card, and some of the chipboard ephemera.

As you can see it's a large album.

And it's crammed inside with pages, pockets, flips, and flaps!

I've also made a booklet for each season. I've just folded a piece of 8.5 x 2.25 black card and added a couple of journal cards. These will now take 2 6x4 photos each.

I've also created many tags using the scraps. These are also G45 and will take a range of photo sizes from 2x2 to a trimmed-down 6x4.

This is some of the kit that I've used. From Distress Inks for inking the edges, to dies for the photos and tags. I've also used every kind of adhesive that you can imagine, including permanent glue for the pages and repositionable glue for sticking down the embellishments where photos will need to go underneath.

Here's a sneaky peek at the front inside cover.

I wanted to be able to add my favourite photos straight away next year, so I'll be starting with January.

These Little Birdie flowers are absolutely beautiful!

Everything in the album can be found here in Sally's store.

G45 Binder Album with interactive pages

Graphic 45 Season to Celebrate 8x8 collection

Graphic 45 Season to Celebrate patterns and solids 12x12 collection

Season to Celebrate Ephemera (journal cards)

Chipboard Ephemera

Little Birdie flowers

I'll be back next week and show you some of my Winter and Spring pages xx

A Relatively Thoughtful Design Team Challenge

 

Good morning and a very happy Sunday!

Over at Relatively Thoughtful towers the designers are having a fun challenge. We have each been given a Graphic 45 album and a paper collection of our choice, and now we just have to fill it!

This is what I've chosen

This is the ring binder album. There are 3 different types of pages, along with some blank pages and hole reinforcers.

And this is my paper collection. It's called Season To Celebrate. It's a calendar collection divided into Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I've got the Patterns and Solids in 12x12, and the main collection in 8x8.

These are the journal cards. They're all 6x4s so perfect as photo mats.

And this is the ephemera collection. These are fabulous, beautiful colours and there's everything you could need in here from tickets to flowers and all kinds of images.

These are the gorgeous Little Birdie flowers. I can't wait to use the white ones with the blue Winter papers.

I'll be showing you how I'm getting on with my album later in the month (I know, all this big talk and I haven't even started yet lol)

If you would like to join in with our challenge you can find everything here in the store.

Black Album

Season To Celebrate Patterns and Solids 

8x8 Collection Pack 

Ephemera Cards

See you next week when hopefully I've made a start! 

Take care and have a lovely Sunday x