TBT: Jane Austen

I'm going way back for this Throw Back Thursday post. Like 1880's way back. Think Jane Austen old. Are you with me? 

For this week's TBT, I decided to use older products from my stash. There's nothing terribly old, but still things that were released at least last year and even earlier. Stuff that was just sitting around and not getting used! That's part of the reason I decided to start this series. I have so much great stuff that just isn't getting used!

I didn't quite know where to start, since like I mentioned before, I have so much product. So I grabbed a stack of patterned paper to see what I liked and hadn't yet used. It was the American Crafts Classics line that first caught my eye. I adore that line. The designs are all based on literature. 

Everything else kind of spiraled from there. I ended up digging out every Jane Austen themed photo I had and all the products I've been collecting with her in mind. I even tapped into my collection of Austen DVDs and happily spent my weekend crafting away, while Persuasion, Emma, Mansfield Park and Pride & Prejudice played in the background.

The first page I made was a double page layout, inspired by one of the 4 Challenges. I used my Double Take Class prompts for the design. It's a layout featuring the kitchen at Chawton House aka Jane Austen's home and where her museum is situated.

From the Classic collection, I pulled the sheet of bonnets & top hats, along with the great yellow rose paper. I also grabbed the infamous Dear Lizzy rosette ribbon, some Jenni Bowlin vintage buttons and various  Thickers in my color scheme. I also have 2 Jane Austen paperbacks that I picked up from a second hand store for cheap. I have no qualms about ripping pages out of them and that's how I made the mat for the photos.

This next page is one of my favorites. It's of the exterior of Chawton House and there's a lot of old Prima & Making Memories product on it. I loved the brown, green, orange colors in the photo and so I reinforced them in the products I chose.

Also, I have to talk about the photo backer. Studio Calico sent my Washi Workshop tapes in a cute muslin bag. I saved the bag knowing I'd want to use it some way. I think this was the perfect project for it! It makes me think of the muslin shifts ladies of that time use to wear. I cut it down and ripped it up in order to get those lovely ragged edges.

I went hunting through my old Winchester photos, circa 2008 for these photos of Jane Austen's grave. She was buried in Winchester Cathedral, which Josh, Jon and I visited on one of our J3 trips.

The prompts from the Pretty Paper Party were where I took my inspiration from. I used an old Jenni Bowlin line that I'm sure, totally sure, was inspired by a love of all things Austen.

Also, it was fun to do a double page 8 1/2 x 11 spread.

Then I made a page about seeing her house in Winchester, the last one she lived in before she died. It has a plaque and everything!

I dug out some October Afternoon Farmhouse for this page and stuck with a yellow, blue and cream color combo. It helped that the house was painted yellow! I also really love that chair paper. So happy I got to use it on 2 different pages.

My final page of the weekend was of the walk to get to Jane's home at Chawton House. I walked from the train station to the house, about 2 miles each way, and am so happy I did. I would have missed so many little details if I hadn't otherwise.

And what better collection to use for a walk through the English Countryside, than the Studio Calico Countryside collection. I still have so much of it. That pink flower was the first time I even dug into the pack! At least one now lives in my scrapbook. Thanks TBT for making me think about my older products!

I hoped you enjoyed seeing my fruits of labor, after a weekend with Jane. 

Also, wanted to share links to the two other Austen themed pages I've previously made: Started with a Chair and The Darcy Fanclub.

What can I say? I'm a sucker for all things Austen! Are you??

cheers & besos,

Started with a Chair

Why hello sweet blogging friends!

Come in. Take a seat. Stay awhile :)

Funny I should mention "taking a seat" as today I'm sharing one very special chair.

Last March I had a Sunday to kill while I was in London. On a whim I booked a train ticket to Alton, to visit Chawton Cottage one of Jane Austen's homes. It's now a finally preserved museum, who's primary exhibits are the rooms themselves.

Tucked into one corner of what I would call the dining room is Jane's desk and chair. It's reputed that this is where she wrote little known titles such as Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, Emma.

You know, those sweet little tales :)

With role models such as Lizzy Bennett and Emma Woodhouse, I didn't let some silly little "No photographs please" sign stop me from capturing Mecca for the Jane Austenite.

I quickly uncapped my camera, aimed and prayed the photo would turn out nice. I only had the one shot!

With some careful cropping and editing, I think I managed to do this quiet little corner of the world some justice.

It's been nearly a year since I've visited Alton and Chawton Cottage and thus the same amount of time to scrapbook this photo. I think I've been waiting all of this time for the right design to come along, something worthy of it's significance.

And finally it did.

In the form of a Jill Sprott layout no less.

Now, dear blogger, you see me write a lot about my adoration for Kelly Purkey's work, but not many of you may know that Jill Sprott is just and dear and very near to my heart.

Her work never ceases to inspire and amaze me. And while I don't often straight scraplift from her work, I none the less admire and adore just about every page she's ever created.

This Fly layout was no exception. Suddenly, I had my inspiration!

I used a plethora of October Afternoon Farmhouse goodies, some Studio Calico and Amy Tangerine Stamps, Maya Road doilies, a gorgeous sheet of Sassafras (may they rest in peace) patterned paper. But, most precious of all, my "Jane Austen This Book Belongs to..." stamp that I picked up from the Cottage gift shop.

{Sigh} Oh Jane. How I simply adore thee.

cheers & besos,

P.S. My next order from Papertrey Ink will absolutely include the Simply Jane stamp, die cut and patterned paper set. Check them out if you'd like to make Jane Austen inspired layouts too!

Dover Pages Complete!

The Dover section of my England Mini is now complete.

Light applause all around =)

No but seriously, I'm so happy to have this album at least started.

I haven't counted and really don't want to know, how many photos from my year in London, that have yet to be scrapbooked. (I'm guessing around 3-4,000...)

I'll get to them when I can get to them.

But believe me when I say, I sure am happy when I do!

This album is from Making Memories and I thought it was perfect for my random trampings about England. And below are all of the pages I made from just one of several day trips that we made. It's going to be a nice chunky album!

(Click to enlarge photos)

These last are a few of the newest pages.
I took this one and only photo of the reputed white cliffs of Dover. I have no idea where I read that page, but for some reason it stuck with me.

I wanted to play with texture on this page, so I used my border punches and several sheets and shades of white cardstock.

This last page, I played with fun citrus-y colors and some Studio Calico stickers. That green polka dot might be one of my most favorite papers, it's just such a great shade of green!

And just like that, it's done! Well, at least the portion from Dover is, and I'm very happy about that.

xxbesos

Dover Favorites

Aaaannnd...I'm back with some more for my England 8x8 Mini book. The album I purchased came with these sweet manila page dividers, so I used one as the basis for a page.

There will be no blank spots in this mini album!

It was a super simple quick and easy page, just a few strips of patterned paper, a red label stamped & heat embossed with Rouge Zing and some quick and easy journaling.

I love that the shape and sheen of the heat embossing on this label is vaguely reminiscent of the iconic telephone booth.

And onto a 2 page vintage spread that I love! It features some goodies from the Mind the Gap SC kit (brown patterned paper and greenish tinged buttons).

I had no idea that there were these secret tunnels built under Dover Castle in WW2. Since Dover is just across the way from Calais in France, it must have been a prime location for them back in the day.

They still had everything set up as if the war was still going on. It was pretty awesome to see and explore.

And I finally got use the "Keep Calm & Carry On" stamp...and in the correct context!!!

Only 2 more pages left for this section of the mini book. I'll update soon with all of Dover pages.

xxbesos

Dora the Explorer

Aaaand...I'm back sharing Scrap & Yap and England Mini album layouts!

This one was my favorite and made me fall in love with the Mind the Gap SC kit!

I picked these photos to play with, because I was (luckily) wearing an orange shirt. Which I think coordinates perfectly with the products in the kit.

This was my favorite page from the day. I just had fun punching and folding circles...

...and printing onto Fabrips!

Oh, and adding things straight onto my photo, including an Ali Edwards' timeline overlay. <3

And I couldn't waste the back of this gorgeous paper, so I created this quick and easy layout directly onto the back of the other. Old school!

I originally printed more journaling for the Dora page, but it just didn't look right on the layout. So I added it to the back and threw a photo and some goodies on for good measure.

Journaling Reads:

In this moment I am in my element, out in the world, traveling, exploring, wandering. I lave each and every minute.

It's worth all of the hassle, every backache and foot blister. Whether I'm with someone or by myself it doesn't even matter. I cannot quench my thirst for travel.

Cheers, bye!

xxbesos

England *Mini

I have some Mind the Gap goodness to share with you today!!

But first, I have to gush about the awesomeness of crops! There's just something about being away from all of my stuff, away from all distractions, at a table with limited supplies (and usually limited space) that just gets works for my brain!

On Sunday, my friend Susie invited me to her friend's for a Scrap & Yap Brunch. This group of ladies gets together every so often to scrap and chat and brunch. It was such a nice time. Even going into it not know anyone (which I seem to be doing a lot lately), didn't diminish my capacity for good quality scrapping fun!

While I was there, I got 7 pages fairly well done. A few needed some minimal products from home, some needed titles and they all needed journaling. But in just a few short hours, I had 7 more pages to add to a mini album I hadn't even started! What's not to love (and gush) about that?!

I'd purchased this mini album kit by Making Memories at least a year ago, with the intention of using it as an England album.

I think it works perfectly, and all I had to do to the window was add some Thickers.

I also created this as a title page, using my Mind the Gap kit.

I had to keep on theme!!

And this was my first picture page. I did something a little subtle here and tried to match the patterned papers, with the colors in the photo i.e. green patterned paper next to the grass, cream next to the stone wall, blue next to the sky, etc.

I also dug into my stash of Studio Calico letter stamped and used my favorite charcoal chalk ink for the title and the date.

More pages to come! 5 more to be exact :) Oh, and don't forget to check back to tomorrow for the winner of the Mister Huey's (which btw, I used the oh-so-fabulous white to splatter around on the patterned paper).

Cheers, bye!

xxbesos