Finally scrapping some current photos

I've enjoyed getting my old Christmas pictures scrapped, but it was nice to do some current ones today. They are printed at draft quality on ordinary paper as I will print all my photos in one order in the New Year, but I find it easier to make a page if I have a picture, even a poor quality one, rather than leaving a space.

This photo was taken at my son's Christmas Fayre where the face painting was well above the usual standard. I didn't use particularly festive colours. Instead I wanted to make the best use possible of the lovely Autumn Spice paper from Lillybee Designs, which has a beautiful floral on one side and a dark woodgrain on the other. A large circle combined with a wide strip allowed me to show off both patterns. I edged the circle with lace and used the corrugated card circles from wine boxes as embellishments. I didn't have any letter tiles which would match so I printed the title in Word then cut each letter, inked it separately and stuck the words back together. It allowed me to make the last word larger and it's much more economical for a long title as well. I added one Christmassy touch with the sequins, which I receieved from my Secret Santa at the Scraploonies crop.

The second picture was taken last weekend at a family gathering when my kids finally got to meet their new baby cousins. For the first time in 10 years, my children have not been the only children at Christmas parties  with my Mum's side of the family, and I have to admit to a tiny, mean, part of myself that was pleased that it was my cousins not me having to get the kids home early before they threw a tantrum. In previous years there have been mutterings that I'm a party pooper, leaving at 7pm. M was particularly taken with the babies and kept them (and herself) entertained for hours. R was a little left out, being so much older, but he acted responsibly and sat quietly with his DS when he was bored.

I didn't get any other supplies out for this second layout, just used strips of leftovers and left a lot more white space than I usually do. I had already cut the large star from one of last year's cards, knowing I'd use it on a project and I sprayed it with a bit of shimmer and used pop dots on the points to give the layout a  bit more dimension. It still looks a bit empty, but I think I'll leave it until I get the photos printed and then I might go back and add something more.