When I think of the late 1990s/early 2000s – a time when my teen years were wrapping up and my twenties were starting – no shortage of such lexicological examples spring to mind.

While I doubt that expressions like “your happy place” and “go to your happy place” were invented during that time period, they were certainly popular back in the earliest years of the new millennium.

A lot of us have at least a few treasured happy places, be they real or imaginary. Spending time visiting or reflecting on these locations can be highly beneficial to our sense of well-being and mental health.

I like to think the same rings true for many animals as well – especially those who get to experience an assortment of different locations throughout their lives.

Though it is beyond the scope of our current scientific abilities to determine if animals (be they wild or domestic) do in fact have mental happy places, I would not rule that possibility out for a second.

Thankfully, we can often make educated guesses as to what an animal’s favourite kinds of places most likely are.

Their moods, energy levels, and reluctance to leave said spots are just some of the cues that can let us know what locations our beloved critter friends enjoy the most.

In the case of Annie, she – like many of her canine peers the world over – is absolutely bonkers for dog parks.

Big or small, at the beach, in the woods, smack dab in the heart of a city, it really does not matter.

If there is an expanse of land where she can run and fetch – coupled with the prospect of fellow doggos for her to play with – she is in absolute seventh heaven!

A while back I created the scrapbook page that is at the heart of today’s post. It celebrates the fact that dog parks are, hands (and paws!) down, our dog’s happy place of choice.

It honours Annie’s unwavering passion for these public spots where she and her furry friends collectively help to keep the Chuckit! product line in business, and where I always know she will be the living personification of happiness.

The Park is My Happy Place scrapbook page

In my Only Love Lets Us See Scrapbook Page post from 2020, I talked about the fact that Annie is one seriously unphotogenic pup!

This is most definitely the case. However, sometimes one can have slightly better luck of getting a usable, non-blurry and/or head-turned image when Annie is at the dog park. This is especially true if Annie is sitting patiently while she waits for someone to hurl a ball as far as they can for her.

It was on one such occasion, several years ago now, that I captured the cell phone photo at the heart of this fun pet-themed scrapbook page.

For my colour palette, I pulled directly from the sunny, sandy hues in that image, as well as the adorable pinkness of Annie’s outstretched tongue.

To convey a sense of the sand in the photo, I used some gold glitter paper as one of the layers behind it. As well as sandy brown, dark brown, and kraft cardstock. And then further drove home a sense of sand all the more via the use of gold glitter alphabet stickers.

I readily admit that the imagery on the central background paper used here has little to do with dogs or dark parks.

It does, however, depict things – reading, a comfy chair, enjoying a spot of tea – that many people greatly enjoy and which may factor into some of their happy places.

I also find it to be a very serene and pleasant illustration (in a great springtime colour palette), which helps to enhance the overall sense of joy that this layout telegraphs.

The project photos shared throughout this post were taken (and watermarked too, for that matter) closer to the time when I made this scrapbook page. Therefore they were not captured in the lightbox that I picked up around the start of 2021.

Which, while handy for some sizes of cards, tags and other small items, does not work very for LOs, unfortunately.

I am still trying to hit on a solution for taking pics of scrapbook pages that I am even just quasi-happy with.

If you have any tips for taking photos of 12×12 scrapbook LOs either inside or out of a lightbox, please do not hesitate to share them with me in the comments below. I am all ears!

Products used to create this dog-themed layout

-Dark brown cardstock

-Sandy brown/beige cardstock

-Kraft cardstock

-Gold glitter cardstock – Glitter Silk Cardstock from Darice

-Printed peach tone background paper (This particular piece of paper was amongst a selection that I received as a gift a few years back from a lovely fellow paper crafter. No product information was included with it, so I am unable to point you towards where it came from. That said, numerous brands such as My Mind’s Eye, Prima, and Pion Design have released relatively similar-looking papers over the years.)

-Assorted patterned papers – most of those used here came from the Farmhouse 8×8 inch pad from October Afternoon

-Thin cork sheet (used behind photo) – Cork Sheets from Forever in Time

-Dark brown ink pad – Dew Drop Rich Cocoa Ink from Memento

-Dark orange ink pad – Dew Drop Morocco Ink from Memento

-Dark brown fine point marker or pen (for journaling)

-Assorted chipboard piece stickers (all chipboard pieces used on this LO) – Maggie Holmes Celebrate Today Stickers from Crate Paper

-Peach and pink dimensional flowers – Love Clipping from Prima Marketing

-Cream crochet trim

-Coral pink velvet ribbon – Valentine’s Ribbons from Martha Stewart

-Slightly larger gold glitter letter stickers – Marquee Love Letter Stickers – from Heide Swapp

-Slightly smaller gold glitter letter stickers – Gold Glitter Futura Alpha Stickers from Sticko

-Pink mini letter stickers – Sno-Cone Mini Market Letter Stickers from October Afternoon

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

The journaling on this fun pet page says…

“Annie lives – absolutely lives for the park. Whether playing fetch, roughhousing with fellow pups, or running from one end to the other, is on canine cloud nine.”

How to make a darling springtime hued pet themed scrapbook page

Begin by using a 12″x12″ piece of kraft cardstock as the base of your layout. Ink all four sides with Dew Drop Rich Cocoa (dark brown) ink.

Cut a piece of dark brown cardstock a touch smaller than the base layer. Adhere to base layer.

Cut the piece of peach hued patterned paper a wee bit smaller than your previous layer. Ink all four sides with Dew Drop Morocco (dark orange) ink.

Snip four equal-sized pieces of cream coloured crochet trim and fold them over each of the four corners of that piece of patterned paper, as shown. Adhere them in place then adhere that layer to the previous LO base layers.

Tear the edges on various sized pieces of mini polka dot paper, sandy beige/brown cardstock, and brown vintage ruler print cardstock. Arrange on the lefthand side of your layout, as shown.

Top those layers with one vertical piece of cork and one horizontal piece of gold glitter cardstock. Adhere layers to one another and to the previous torn edge layer stack.

Run a piece of pink velvet ribbon and a piece of cream crochet trim across the center of the gold glitter cardstock layer. Adhere.

Mat your photo with layers of dark brown cardstock, sandy brown cardstock, and mini polka dot print paper. Ink the edges of the polka dot paper with dark brown ink. Adhere photo to layers, layers to one another, and then the completed photo stack to the gold glitter cardstock layer.

Use dark brown ink to ink the edges of three paper roses/flowers. Adhere the flowers around the lower left-hand side of the photo. Tuck a cute pink die cut chipboard ticket beneath one or two of the roses. Adhere in place.

Tear the edges of a slender strip of brown vintage ruler paper and another from the mini polka dot paper. Adhere them a little ways below the photo area of this LO.

Use a mix of dark pink tiny letter stickers and two sizes of gold glitter alphabet stickers to create your page title, placing it atop the two torn edge layers that you just created. Adhere a dark pink chipboard heart at the end of your page title.

Write your journaling in dark brown ink/marker on the main peach coloured background layer, just below where you placed your page title.

Vertically arrange, then adhere, a tiny gold glitter chipboard star and two tiny gold glitter cardstock hearts to the top left and bottom right-hand sides of the peach printed layer of paper, as shown.

Arrange and adhere a chipboard banner and chipboard “love you” word piece across and around the photo stack area, (again) as shown.

Lastly, place the “big smiles” sentiment chipboard sticker piece on the bottom right-hand side of the photo itself.

And there you have it, one sweet, adorable, shabby chic pet themed scrapbook page in a warm, inviting colour palette that suits springtime to a tee!

Scrapbook page tips and ideas from this layout

-When working with background papers that include large illustrations, try to allow some open breathing room to remain on your layout so that you do not run the risk of the design looking too busy or of your photo(s) getting lost in the visual mix.

In this instance, I did so primarily above the illustration of the chair, which remains open and provides a nice contrast to all of the action going on around the photo + page title + journaling.

–Take inspiration from textures in your photos(s) for some of the materials that you use on your scrapbook page itself. This could be anything from wood/bark to snow, straw to pebbles, grass to sand (as was the case here).

If you do not have textured materials that convey a direct sense of the tactile element(s) in your picture, try using similarly coloured and/or shaped products instead.

-Photo corners do not have to be reserved simply for photographs themselves. I adore putting corners on other parts of my layouts (and cards, too, for that matter), as I did around all fours sides of the central printed paper layer here.

-And speaking of photo corners, they do not have to be made solely from paper. Just about any material that you can cut, fold or otherwise shape to look the part can make for a fab photo corner.

Some of my favourites include ribbon and trims, scraps of fabric and felt, cardboard, cork, burlap, chipboard, embossed cardstock, vellum, tin foil, glitter cardstock, metallic cardstock, felt, and paper or fabric flower petals or leaves.

-When inking or otherwise distressing your page, do not hesitate to do so on the edges/tops of your flowers as well.

You can also splatter them with paint or dye ink, emboss them with embossing powder, apply glitter or flocking, or, if the petals are suitable, even apply things like stickers and rub-ons for an extra cool effect.

-Use different sizes, colours, and/or fonts in your title lettering. This draws the eye in, is oodles of fun, and can be a great way to stretch your letter sticker + chipboard alphabet stash further.

Papercrafting is my happy place

Objectively, I have quite a few happy places, both in the real world and tucked lovingly within the walls of my mind.

And while, technically, somewhat more of an act than a place, paper crafting is by far one of my happiest places – as is the tiny room in our house that I am fortunate to be able to devote to being a witchy + crafting space all my own.

I could talk until the cows (and our black & white puppers who totally resembles them ) came home about the tremendous psychological benefits that crafting has on my life – just as it does the lives of many people the world over. But that is likely best saved for a dedicated post unto itself.

Chances are, one day, I will devote a post (or two!) to that very topic. Right now, though, as this particular entry wraps up, Annie and I are both very curious to know…

What is one of your favourite (real or imagined) happy places?

The post The Park is My Happy Place Pet Themed Shabby Chic Scrapbook Page appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

In turn, give or take a few days, there is about a month before the next edition of my quarterly blog post series, Magick, Crafty Makes, and Me.

I tend to save the majority of my life updates and accounts of recent happening for those posts. Sometimes, however, I want or need to speak about topical happenings in the moment.

Before we launch into the #MakeHalloween365 project share that is at the heart of today’s post (sneak peek above), I am going to do just that for a little while.

The local BC wildfire situation here in the North Okanagan

There are certain things in life, including some that are far from ideal, which become part and parcel to our years.

For those in various corners of the world, one of those is an annual forest fire season.

Typically beginning in earnest come May or June and running until September or even October here in our area, this season isn’t exactly one to get excited about.

We live in Canada’s most westerly province of British Columbia, a portion of the country that is often amongst (if not “the”) hardest hit each year by wildfires in this nation.

The wildfire season of 2021 has been especially brutal. Record smashing temperatures, exceedingly little rainfall in many parts of the province, and other climate change-related impacts have brought about one of the worst summers BC has ever experienced from a forest fire perspective.

As I shared in my Instagram Stories a few days ago, Tony and I have, at times as of late, been put on wildfire evacuation alert.

Mercifully, however, we have not actually had to evacuate our home yet, nor has our property/neighbourhood come under immediate threat of likely destruction.

That isn’t to say things haven’t been tense or stressful at points. They certainly have been.

The first evacuation alert we received came on Tony’s birthday (August 6^th) – what are the odds! – and lasted for about three days. During which time a hailstorm of falling ash pummelled our area and the skies took on a deep brownish-orange hue, as seen in the photo above.

The second evacuation alert arrived the following Saturday and lasted well into the week that is currently wrapping up.

At its beginning, we saw skies so red and chocked with smoke and ash it would not be unreasonable to describe the sight as apocalyptic. Or, as my mom astutely observed, perhaps what the skies of Mars might look like if you were standing on that planet and gazing skyward.

In both cases, the alerts were largely the result of the substantially sized nearby White Rock Lake Wildfire. Though this blaze was not the sole reason for the smoke, ash, and eerie colours in the sky, as scores of other forest fires are burning both near and further afield to our area of British Columbia.

Presently, the White Rock Lake Wildfire (also known as both the White Lake Fire and Monte Lake Fire) is sitting at a touch over 80,000 hectares in size, and continues to remain as being classified as out of control.

In recent years, Tony and I have been keeping well-stocked go/bugout bags at the ready for all manner of potential disasters that could arise at any time.

The moment the first alert came in on the evening of his birthday, we packed up our most important essential items (vital documents, computers, cameras, health necessities, etc) and created a “go pile” near our door, to be loaded – along with our bugout bags – into the trunk of our car immediately if word came that we needed to evacuate.

Of course, our own lives and that our cherished dog, Annie, always come first, but if there is time to save some important items during an emergency, it behooves us to be ready to do just that.

Having lost our home and virtually everything we owned at the time to an arson fire almost five years ago now, we know firsthand the damage and devastation that a serious blaze can cause, and want to be as prepared as we realistically can be should a forest fire ever get close enough to envelop our home.

On the worst days thus far, we’ve heavily drenched our property and house with the hose and used sprinklers to help keep the ground and structure wet (these measures can sometimes help to lessen risks such as live falling embers).

Currently, we have four different plans in place regarding where we would most likely stay should we get evacuated. We are keeping our gas tank full around the clock so that we can not only flee town if need be, but be able to get by for several hours if traffic slowed to a crawl on the highway or we had to enact one of our plans that involves staying at a location outside of our region of the province.

As I type these words, we are not currently on evacuation order. Save for our laptops (which can be grabbed in mere seconds), we have not unpacked, however, and will not be doing so until the local wildfire situation is much less of an imminent threat.

Evacuation orders, dangerously bad air quality, and the risk of having to get out of Dodge, if you will, aren’t fun. They are small potatoes though, of course, compared to what those who have been/currently are evacuated and/or who have suffered property damage from any of this year’s wildfires have been dealing with.

We count our blessings, but do so with a heavy and immensely understanding heart for everyone – both in BC and elsewhere in the world (including Greece) – who has been experiencing the wrath of forest fires throughout 2021.

Zero pun intended, but we are far from out of the woods at this stage on the wildfire front. It will likely take a few more weeks and hopefully quite a bit of desperately needed rain before that state returns.

Having been born, raised, and later returning in my late 20s to BC, I am intimately acquainted with wildfires and the risks they pose.

Yet, for all the fires that have torn through British Columbia over the years – including the Garnet Fire of 1994 that ravaged parts of Penticton, where my family was living at the time – this summer is the first time that we have personally been put on evacuation alert.

While stressful at times, no two ways about it, we are holding up well, and are immensely grateful that thus far neither ourselves nor any of our loved ones in this province have lost their home to the unforgiving siege that is wildfire season.  

This is certainly not the August we had envision or planned for, but it is not altogether surprising either given BC’s annual battle against forest fires of all sizes.

As you might imagine, our usual routine has been disrupted somewhat by everything this month, and I wasn’t sure that I would be able to get another project share posted before August drew to a close.

Happily, however, a little earlier in the year (before the recent short-term e-commerce website building job – mentioned here – for a local business that consumed the bulk of my and Tony’s available time between May and the start of August) I had a chance to make a heartwarming Halloween themed scrapbook page.

As I have not been crafting much in recent weeks and needed a spooky season-themed project for August’s #MakeHalloween365 entry, now is the ideal time to share it.

Born Halloween lover scrapbook layout

If there is a Halloween loving gene, I am certain that I was born with it. For as far back as I have memories – and as photos like this one of me as a costume-clad babe in my mother’s arms attest – prior still to that point, I have adored Halloween.

Much like the season of autumn itself, no other day of the year fills my heart with as much glee, excitement, contentment, spiritual connection, creativity, or inspiration as October 31^st.

This off-the-charts passion was a big driving force in the launch, earlier this year, of my #MakeHalloween365 hashtag for fellow Halloween adoring souls around the world.

Just as Halloween has been the inspiration springboard for countless other things throughout my life.

As a Pagan witch, I choose to celebrate this date as both Halloween and Samhain. To my mind and own spiritual path, the two are inseparably interwoven and I can scarcely fathom observing the end of October any other way.

While I have felt I was a witch since childhood, I was not raised in a house with Paganism, witchery, or Wicca, so in those early days, October 31^st was Halloween pure and simple for me and my siblings.

Like genes in general, I am convinced that I got my gene for loving Halloween from my sweet mama.

She adores Halloween herself and has always done everything she could to not only help make All Hallows’ Eve a fun-filled event for her kids, but she has also helped to support my passion for October 31^st in countless ways throughout my entire life.

I am grateful beyond measure for this point and wanted to create a scrapbook page that not only celebrated my adoration of Halloween itself, but also the love and appreciation I have for my fellow spooky season-loving mom.

Enter this layout, which stars a mid-1980s photo of me dressed in a cute white cat costume and my mom, who, while not in costume, did rock a great witch themed button on her pretty yellow top.

And speaking of yellow things, this photo (a scan taken from a photograph that had been stored for decades in various non-archivally safe albums) shows its age and storage methods a bit. Instead of seeing that as any type of determent, I leaned into this image’s colour palette for the rest of my scrapbook page itself.

The end result is a classic colour palette of cream, yellow, orange, brown, and gold that is as much at home for fall and Halloween as it was for plenty of interiors during the 1970s and 80s.

The metallic cardstock on this page – and indeed, this layout as a whole – was a bit tricky to capture on camera in our relatively low (interior) light setting, I hope that this gist of this page comes across in the project share photos throughout this post all the same though.

I added several of my favourite scrapbooking techniques and elements to this Halloween layout. There’s plenty of paper tearing, inking, punched edges, handwritten journaling, layers, (faux) stitching, and embellishments – not to mention a cozy fall colour palette.

Plus, the charming Pebbles brads that I included here are just so sweet and festively fun!

I led off on the lefthand side of the page with a classic Halloween witch themed brad in a nod to the fact that the little girl shown in this photo would one day grow up to a passionate October 31^st adoring real life witch. (As well as that the witch on that brad very much resembles the one in the button my mom was wearing in the photo. )

I’m wild about how this Halloween scrapbook page came together and look forward to sharing it in person with my mom herself come the return of All Hallows’ Eve season.

Now, let’s take a gander at the supplies and steps involved if you would like to whip up a similar October 31^st scrapbook page of your own.

Products used to make this shabby chic Halloween scrapbook page

-Cream, sandy brown, warm medium brown, dark brown, and black cardstock

-Gold metallic cardstock – from Recollections (Michael’s brand)

-Orange metallic cardstock – from Recollections (Michael’s brand)

-Elegantly shaped tag die (or tag die/punch or premade tags of your choosing)

-Fall leaf and orange striped patterned papers (both from) – Pumpkin Spice 12 x 12-inch paper pad from Craft Smart (Michael’s brand)

-Vintage handwriting print paper

-Halloween words cut-apart paper – After Dark Spellbound paper from Crate Paper

-Doily edge border punch – Lace Doily Border Punch from Martha Stewart

-Dark orangey-red ink – Dew Drop Ink in Morocco from Memento

-Golden yellow-orange ink – Dew Drop Ink in Cantaloupe from Memento

-Brown ink pen – EnerGel Liquid Gel Ink 07 Pen from Pentel

-White gel ink pen – Uni-Ball White Gel Pen from Signo

-Orange and white polka dot letter stickers – Julie Nuting Bootiful Alpha Stickers from Photo Play

-Black glitter letter stickers (I received these as a gift without their original packaging; I suspect they are from Martha Stewart’s product range)

-Thin cream and black yarn, twine, or embroidery floss/thread (the thin yard used here is from the dollar store “Craft” brand)

-Fall coloured and patterned chipboard flourishes – Autumn Song Chipboard Pieces from Bo Bunny

-Set of Halloween brads – from the brand Pebbles (no product name was specified on the packaging)

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

How to make a fun tag filled Halloween memories scrapbook page

This festive Halloween scrapbook page begins with a sheet of 12×12-inch cardstock. As this cardstock is completely covered by the next layer of paper, it can be any colour you wish.

Take a piece of fall leaf print paper from the Craft Smart Pumpkin Spice pad and ink it on all four sides with Memento Dew Drop Morocco Ink. Adhere to your base layer of cardstock.

Next, rip all four edges of a piece of sandy brown coloured cardstock so that the final size of this piece is a little smaller than the leaf print layer. If your cardstock has a white core, embrace that and let it shine on the ripped areas. Adhere this piece of cardstock to your previous layers.

Repeat the same process with a cream (or light yellow) coloured piece of cardstock, inking, in this instance, all four edges with Memento Dew Drop Cantaloup Ink. Adhere to your previous layers.

Cut a piece of dark brown cardstock and top this piece of cardstock with a slightly smaller sized piece of orange striped paper (from the Craft Smart Pumpkin Spice paper pad).

Hand draw faux stitching with a brown ink pen or fine tipped marker around the sides of the orange striped paper, then ink the edges of that piece with Morocco Ink. Adhere those two layers to your previous layers.

Using brown cardstock and orange leaf print paper (from the Pumpkin Spice paper pad), create various layers with border punched edges (using the Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch). Ink the edges of the orange leaf print layers.

Rip the edges of some pieces of sandy brown cardstock and vintage handwriting print paper, and arrange both these layers and the ones you just made above in the center of your layout, as shown.

Mat your photo with a layer of cream cardstock, a layer of dark brown cardstock, and a layer of orange leaf print paper. Adhere layers together, but do not adhere the matted photo to the layout itself just yet.

Next, create two blocks of cardstock, one in warm medium brown. Write your journaling, in white gel ink pen, on these blocks and adhere them to your layout.

Once your journaling is complete (and dry – especially important when using white gel ink), attach these blocks to your layout, then adhere your photo to the left of your journaling.

Next, using orange and gold metallic cardstock, die cut five tags (I opted for three gold and two orange metallic cardstock tags here, alternating the colour order that I adhered them down).

Cut out the Halloween words, mat each one on a piece of dark brown cardstock, and draw faux stitching with brown ink on each of the word pieces. Adhere one matted word per metallic cardstock tag.

Loop black (or brown, if desired) and cream (or white) yard/twine/floss to the top of each metallic cardstock tag, alternating colours as you go.

Adhere your completed tags along the left-hand side of the layout using foam dots or other dimensional adhesives.

Intersperse four of the Halloween design Pebbles brand brads amongst the tags.

Note that you may find it easier to do so if you use wire cutters or small tin snips to remove the prongs on the back of the brads first, though this step isn’t strictly required.

Adhere brads using hot glue or another very sturdy adhesive of your choice.

Use letter stickers to create the title of your layout.

Arrange Bo Bunny chipboard flourishes so that one pokes out from behind the photo and the other from the righthand side of the layout.

Place two additional Pebbles Halloween brads around the larger of the two chipboard flourishes.

And there you have it, your “Born Halloween Lover” scrapbook page is now complete.

As a fun alternative to a Halloween layout, this same colour palette and design (perhaps with different brads or other embellishments in place of them) would be great for a Thanksgiving or other fall related page as well.

And the general design of this scrapbook layout could be utilized for countless other types of pages, too – including those for winter holiday season projects.

(The journaling on this layout says: From my earliest of days, I have loved Halloween beyond measure. I am immensely grateful to my mom (pictured here with baby me in the mid-1980s) for always supporting and sharing in this adoration of October 31^st. )

The very real risk of losing everything again

As a paper crafter who has already lost all of their supplies, scrapbook albums and other completed projects once, I am keenly aware that living in a part of the world that deals with serious wildfires annually means that I could easily lose everything in a blaze for a second time.

This might, understandably, cause one to wonder why I would risk putting myself through that heartache again by continuing to papercraft. (Or to live here – though moving away is neither presently desired nor very feasible for us.)

Valid though this question is, to me the positives and joys, the blessings, creativity, and fun of papercrafting far outweigh the pain and challenges that losing my work and supplies for a second time would cause.

Experiencing that (be it due to fire or any other reason) would be horrible, of course, and I hope with all my might it never happens. However, having lived through it once, I know that rebuilding and connecting again with your greatest passions in life is possible.

Not necessarily easy, straightforward, or inexpensive, but certainly doable in many instances.

And in my heart of hearts I know that, much like my undying love for Halloween, darn near nothing could shake my adoration for paper crafting to the point where I would willingly drop it from my life for good.

Naturally, I hope and pray we that never find ourselves standing amongst the ashes of our home again. If we do though, I will take strength and solace in the fact that we pieced our world back together again once and could surely do so – with time, strength, and perseverance in spades – again, if need be.

For just as I’m a born Halloween lover, I am also a very tenacious born fighter and be it fire, my health, or any other challenge life throws my/our way, I will go on fighting tooth and nail until the very end.

Hopefully, within a few weeks, this year’s wildfire season will have finally calmed down and we can embrace autumn’s return (the second now since the Covid-19 pandemic began) in high spirits and with no shortage of jubilation for what is both mine and Tony’s very favourite chapter of the year.

From fires to floods, Covid to earthquakes and much more, 2021 has been another year of immense challenges for the inhabitants of this world.

Know that whatever you and/or your loved ones may be going through this year, my thoughts, support, and uplifting energy are with you – and that I’m always just an email away if you never want or need to chat with someone about anything that you’re going through.

As I began this entry by saying, there is just one brief month left to go until fall comes calling again. Whatever life may throw our way between then and now, that fact alone will help to bolster my spirits and keep a smile on this perpetual Halloween lover’s face.

Has your area been impacted by wildfires, flooding, or any other natural disasters this summer? Do you consider yourself a die-hard born Halloween (and/or Samhain) fan as well?

The post Local BC Wildfire Situation Update + Born Halloween Lover Tag Filled Scrapbook Layout appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

As autumn began here in earnest during the final days of September, that means its duration as a snowless season was only about a month long.

While snow has not fallen daily since then, we have had numerous flake filled days and there’s a you-can-bet-on-it certainty that scores of others lay ahead of us as we inch ever closer to wintertime proper.

It is not uncommon for fall to be quite brief around these parts, but this was an especially short crunchy leaf season.

No matter what Mother Nature may be up to, I love to continue honouring and celebrating fall straight on until the Winter Solstice.

In reality, this is something I do the whole year through as well.

There is never a month (or even a single week of the year) when I don’t think about fall, weave it into my daily life in a multitude of ways, and eagerly look forward to the next autumn all throughout the other three seasons.

The scrapbook page that I’m sharing here today isn’t a new project. It was made in 2017, a little over a year after the fire – with a photo that was taken two years prior, back in 2015.

While my current craft stash is relatively modest in size, compared to where it was at about three years  ago, it has definitely grown in leaps and bounds (as craft stashes are apt to do! ).

At that time, while I had (thanks to some money that I received as a gift for Christmas 2016) my current Sizzix die cutting machine already, I didn’t yet have many dies yet.

Now, I don’t use dies (or embossing folders, etc) on all of my projects, but I sense that had I made a page similar to this now in 2020, some die cutting would have been involved.

There are a few other things I might have done differently, too, but that is the nature of crafting. Our skills, styles, preferred aesthetics and various other factors often change or are honed further as time goes on.

I adore this page though, please do not get me wrong. In it, I see elements of numerous layouts and cards that I made pre-fire. As well as a certain emerging fine-tuning, if you will, of my paper crafting style that has typified the majority of the projects that I’ve made in more recent years.

Fall leaves shabby chic scrapbook page

The photo featured on this page was taken at a small lake on the way to a larger lake (named Yellow Lake) in the Southern Okanagan.

I adore the way the still water beautifully reflected the surrounding fall foliage as well as the arid surrounding hills that exemplify the desert landscape of this corner of British Columbia.

To me, this photo perfectly captures what fall often looks like around these parts and I was keen to memorialize its timeless loveliness in a scrapbook page.

While a die cutting machine wasn’t involved here, as touched on above, another of my favourite craft products was: paper punches.

Two of them, to be exact. One for the charming leaf boarder, the other for the doily-esque border.

The colours in this photo were the jumping off point for this layout’s autumnal palette. I pulled shades both earthy and rich in brown, orange, green, and marigold yellow from the picture, pairing them with splashes of complementary shades, such as dusty peach and dark red.

Another of my faves (as you might of guess, I have plenty of those! ) paper crafting products came out to play on this fall time layout: pleated ribbon.

My stars, how I adore pleated ribbon!

I well remember when it was having a serious moment in the paper crafting world a few years back (aided by the offerings at the time from brands such as Webster’s Pages, Teresa Collins, and Melissa Frances).

Plenty of us still reach for this type of ribbon and it has become easier to find in recent years, thanks in part to community marketplaces websites such as Etsy and AliExpress.

There is so much versatility housed in pleated ribbon – which as the large heart shape featured on this layout demonstrates, can be positioned in various arrangements of your choosing.

Everything from circles to squares, ovals to hearts, diamonds to triangles can be made from pleated ribbon – as can gorgeous rosettes and rolled flowers.

If I could, I would have a vast rainbow of pleated ribbon in all manner of colours and fabrics (satin, grosgrain, cotton, etc). My current stash of pleated trim isn’t anywhere near that extensive, but it does house several colours at present.

I reach for them regularly, doing so most recently for my Blessed Harvest Season Card.

I tend to find that I’m especially drawn to pleated ribbon for fall and winter projects, but it really is a year-round material in my books.

How to create this charming fall leaf scrapbook layout

This page begins with a base of golden-orange coloured textured Bazzill cardstock, which was then topped with a piece of woodgrain textured cardstock that I tore and inked the edge of one side.

Some lovely text print paper and another layer of the same woodgrain cardstock were added on top of the base cardstock layers, as were the myriad of distressed, punched, and hand-torn papers on the bottom half of the layout.

Next came the center heart area. I used the same text print paper for the background of the heart, which was then topped with my matted photo, various die cut shapes and assorted embellishments, and finished off with a border of both adorable white mini pompom trim and elegant matte gold hued pleated ribbon.

The title words, a journaling square, and a few more embellishments here and there finished off this festive fall time scrapbook page.

I feel like, in the three years since I made it, some of the embellishments may have shifted a little – including one of the chipboard buttons. That’s okay – especially since I can’t recall exactly where the wandering button may have originally been placed.

(I also noticed that the white pompom trim inched away a little bit from its original placement squarely against the gold pleated trim on one side. That I will fix now that I’m aware of it.)

Scrapbook page tips and tricks from this project

-Keep an eye out for pre-embossed cardstock and paper. These products are a stellar way to cover larger areas with embossed cardstock, the dimensions of which may exceed that of your die cutting machine.

Numerous brands offer pre-embossed cardstock and papers. I’m a big fan of the books of embossed cardstock that you can sometimes find from the Recollections brand at Michael’s stores.

-When tearing/distressing the edges of your paper or cardstock, consider inking some and leaving others bare – especially if the exposed edges are all the same colour or in a complimentary tonal range.

I really like the hits of white of the un-inked torn edges here. They’re a lovely contrast to the autumnal hues of the rest of this fall time layout.

–Go big or go home with trims sometimes! It’s safe to say that one of the first things you’re apt to notice about this scrapbook page is the large heart-shaped frame of pleated ribbon (inside of which is a border of mini white pompom trim) and that is exactly what I was aiming for.

We often think of ribbon and trim as being items we use in small, complimentary doses on our projects. They can – and do – certainly shine in this capacity, but they can also be the star of the show sometimes.

If you’ve got a ribbon or trim that you adore and want to use abundantly, I say have at it! The more the merrier! Carpe diem!

–Cork is a wonderfully versatile material that often plays excellently with fall toned products thanks to its neutral brown colour.

The charming, relatively flat cork butterflies here are premade stickers. If you didn’t have a similar product to hand, you could die cut, stamp and cut out, or even free hand trim some shapes of your own from cork instead.

Products used to make this fall leaves shabby chic scrapbook layout

-Golden orange coloured textured cardstock – Orange Juice cardstock from Bazzill

-Sandy brown textured cardstock

-Dark brown woodgrain embossed cardstock – Chestnut Woodgrain cardstock from American Crafts

-Peachy-orange coloured cardstock – You Are Here Orange/Pink Map paper from Simple Stories

-Brown and white text print paper – French Riviera Collection Respirer l’air de la Mer by Frank Garcia

-Green tone-on-tone leaf print paper

-Brown tone-on-tone leaf print paper – Wild At Heart 12 x 12 inch paper pad from First Edition Paper

-Brown wood grain print paper – Wild At Heart 12 x 12 inch paper pad from First Edition Paper

-Journaling spot + assorted die cut leaves – Samantha Walker Orchard Harvest Die Cuts from Creative Imaginations

-Small acorn die cuts and red sparkly leaf die cuts – Tim Coffey Fall Die Cut Shapes from K&Company

-Leaf border punch – Falling Leaves border punch from EK Success

-Doily edge border punch – Doily Lace border punch from Martha Stewart

-Cork butterfly stickers – DIY Shop Cork Butterfly Stickers from American Crafts

-Chipboard buttons and twine – Spring Market Buttons and Twine from Webster’s Pages

-Leaf stick pins – HF-277 Leaf Stick Pins from Little Yellow Bicycle

-White mini pompom trim

-Gold pleated ribbon

-Memento Dew Drop Ink in Rich Cocoa (brown), Olive Grove (green), and Peanut Brittle (caramel-y brown).

-Dark brown fine liner pen or marker that doesn’t bleed much (for journaling)

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

The journaling on this layout says: “Autumn in the Okanagan is spectacular! The desert hues mingle with the season’s enchanting palette. I live for those few fleeting weeks and their bevy of gorgeous fall leaves.”

Not every project share has to be a brand new creation

There are many perks to the internet and social media. However, IMO, one of the downsides to the “share now, immediately rush towards the next project/post” mentality that frequently accompanies life online is that it becomes all too easy to forget that not everything we share publicly has to be brand spanking new.

I would argue that for paper crafters like myself who are not able to craft daily or weekly (or sometimes even monthly), tapping into previously unshared (or even revisiting favourite past shares) projects can be an especially handy + fantastic way to flush out your supply of available content.

It can also be a godsend if you’d like to post for a specific holiday/reason, but don’t currently have a new project ready to go for that event.

Few amongst us would deny that it’s fantastic to share our latest makes. I adore doing so myself and most of the projects I’ve posted here so far were made in the past twelve months.

I see no reason though why I have to limit myself to recently created makes, however – especially given that this blog was just launched on January 1, 2020 (and did not I share my paper crafting projects on social media before that time).

Much as how a photograph you like/care about can usually be shared long after it was taken, again, by all means, if you have some older projects that you’d like to share, I actively encourage you to do so.

Whether older or newer, chances are that this will be my last fall related project share for 2020. With just a few weeks left to go in a year that few of us are ever going to forget, I hope to get in some winter and holiday season makes.

Fall is forever in my heart and always close at hand when I craft, though, so there’s a high chance you won’t have to wait until August or September 2021 to see more autumn/harvest season/Halloween related projects from me here.

Do you ever post older projects on your blog and/or SM or do you prefer to stick with sharing your most recent makes?

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this scrapbook page – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post Fall Leaves Shabby Chic Autumn Scrapbook Layout appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Later this month, my maternal grandma is on track to do just that.

My grandma – or Grannie (she prefers to spell it with an “ie” ending) was in 1930 as the Great Depression was just starting to get underway.

Her parents came north for the Klondike Gold Rush of the late 1890s and, even though they didn’t strike it rich, loved the untamed Yukon wilderness so much they stayed there for decades after the final waves of eager gold-seekers had crossed the Chilcot.

She was the last of eight children – seven girls, and just one son. And as such, heartbreakingly, these days she is the sole surviving child of her family.

Like many people, my grandma is multi-faceted induvial. Strong and, at times, stubborn. Caring, nostalgic, loving, and tough as an ox.

She’s had to be that way. Life, from her birth in the freezing arctic to battling and overcoming cancer for the first time in her 80s as been anything but a cakewalk.

Severe chronic illness struck her early in life – proceeded by tuberculosis (which, much like breast cancer, she was able to beat). Widowhood entered her life at the age of just sixty, proceeded many years prior by the untimely death of her only son.

She has lived in various spots across North, Central and South America, can draw far better than she lets on, never remarried, is a packrat in the extreme, played a mean game of tennis for decades, and makes the best darn orange chiffon cake I’ve ever tasted.

At (almost) ninety, my grandma still lives on her own in the same house she’s called home since the early 1960s.

She drives (during the daylight hours), volunteers, has never had a smartphone, and savours her near-daily walks along a street that, over the decades, has morphed from a sleepy rural road to a multi-lane thoroughfare.

There are many ways in which we differ, but no shortage of others that we share in common. Through thick and thin, my grannie has never failed to inspire me and be a source of unwavering strength in my life.

Sadly, due to the need to social distance and remain as safe as possible, a family birthday celebration of the kind befitting nine decades of life will not be possible.

We’ll still do all that we can though, of course, to help ensure that she feels loved, celebrated, and honoured come the big day.

Card, gifts, flowers, phone calls, and other forms of socially distanced connecting will stand in for the birthday fete that up until the pandemic struck, we’d long imagined holding for this awesome occasion.

October Birthday Girl Heritage Scrapbook Page

My Grannie is rarely one for fuss, pomp, or pageantry. Her style is understated, somewhat tomboyish, and fairly classic.  

In creating a scrapbook layout to honour her October birthday, I wanted to celebrate the season, while staying true to this style.

There are layers and details, but I intentionally kept things a bit refrained – opting to let this vintage photograph of her, taken sometimes around the late 1940s, sparkle as the deserving star of the show.

For the background of this scrapbook page, I turned to one of my oldest and most favourite tricks in the paper crafting book and used a piece of corrugated cardboard as the base layer.

Sometimes I do this when I know that I’ll need a lot of strength to support all the layers and embellies on a given project, and sometimes I do it simply because I love the look and texture that classic cardboard offers.

Over the years, various companies have sold precut pieces of cardboard (some of which were even billed as being archivally safe), but I’ve rarely purchased them. Cardboard is plentiful in most peoples lives or can easily be obtained, if you don’t have any to hand.

That said, if creating a project that is archivally safe is paramount to you, I’d highly suggest either buffering the cardboard with a base layer of acid free cardstock or paper, tracking down acid free cardboard, or using an archival preservation crafting spray, such as Archival Mist (product and brand share the same name) or Make It Acid Free from Krylon.

As my grandma’s birthday falls in the heart of October, I went for a full-on autumn colour palette, leaning heavily on earthy tones that are reminiscent of nature while also leading the layout a vintage feel that is in keeping with the yesteryear photo used here.

How to create this autumn themed family history scrapbook layout

This layout began with a 12 x 12 inch sized piece of cardboard which I lightly distressed, inked and painted the edges of (black ink, gold paint).

Once dry, I topped the cardboard with layers of black and orange cardstock, turning down two of the corners and tucking pieces of tulle + small chipboard circles beneath the folds.

Next came the layers of patterned paper, including the central decorative shape piece which I painted the edges of with grey acrylic paint.

I added the trim, matted and selected a position for my photo, scattered various stickers and embellishments around the design, created my title, and handwrote my journaling on a piece of polka dot print paper.

This layout came together quickly and is not very complex, which I feel really suits the type of person my grandma is: no nonsense, lovely, and timeless.

I adore how the floral print on the decorative edge central piece of paper brings a ton of visual interest to this layout, with zero added bulk. I’m all for dimension as a general rule, but sometimes it’s fun to scale things back a tad on that front, which is what I did with this LO.

Scrapbook page tips and tricks from this project

-Make friends with cardboard! As touched on above, I adore working with the material in my paper crafting projects. Be as it an entire 12 x 12 inch base, a small accent, a die cut shape, or anything in between, the sky is the limit!

You can distress, sand, paint, stain, ink, stencil, embellish and do oodles more still to cardboard. And of course, you can leave it as is – either with the top layer of thin brown/kraft paper removed or simply as it stands intact now.

I like to save clean, not too thick pieces of cardboard from packaging, mailing materials, and suitable boxes. That way, when a project arises that could benefit from some cardboard, it’s always at the ready.

-Don’t hesitate to dress up decorative shaped papers all the more. In this case, the scrolling/scalloped edge piece of Kaisercraft paper was gorgeous, but I felt it could use a little something-something extra. Acrylic paint to the rescue!

A purposely shabby chic style coating around the edges was all it took to jazz up this elegant paper and help it feel more individual to my own project.

–Have fun with photo corners! I’m a big fan of photo corners and utilize them often on my layouts. They can work like a charm with pics from any era, but when crafting with antique and vintage photos, they have an extra special ability to look fantastic.

In no small part, this stems from the fact that photo corners were a mainstay of the albums where many images from decades past were originally housed. As such, they can instantly help to lend a lovely yesteryear feel to most any project.

Whether you buy premade photo corners, use a die or punch, or freehand them (hint, basic triangles, as with the golden orange paper used here, do the job fabulously!), photo corners might just be what your next project needs for a bit of extra pizzazz.

-Layer your trims. A great way to add subtle – or not so subtle, as the case may be – interest, colour, and texture to a scrapbook page is to layer two or more trims.

In this instance, I began with a thin layer of tulle, followed it with a wide layer of open design gold hued trim, then topped that with some fun and funky blue and green fringe trim in a colour palette that looks as though it was borrowed from a peacock.

When layering trims, try to ensure that some of each layer remains visible. A mix of solid and airier trims, as used here, can look especially fab, but all open weave or all solid trims can rock just as well, too.

-When using multiple word and/or letter stickers on the same page, aim for a degree of continuity between them. Colours, sizes, fonts, etc can all help. This lends your finished page a cohesive, beautiful look.

Though, that said, sometimes it’s great to mix things up, toss the rules out the window with your lettering and word stickers and just have a blast mixing things up.

-Butterflies and feathers might not instantly scream fall to the same degree that they do spring and summer, but that’s no reason not to utilize them in autumn related projects – especially if they’re in seasonal hues like the earthy browns and blues here.

If you don’t have premade fall coloured butterflies or feathers, consider stamping or die cutting and colouring some in the fall shades that best compliment your project.

Products used to create this fall birthday scrapbook page

-Piece of brown/kraft coloured cardboard measuring 12 x 12 inches (30.5 x 30.5 cm)

-Black, golden orange, and pale aqua cardstock

-Fall tree real photo print paper – Fall Harvest Paper Pad from American Crafts

-Cream and mustard yellow polka dot print paper – Autumn Crisp 6 x 6 inch Paper Pad from American Crafts

-Decorative scalloped edge paper – Hidden Treasures Collection Token from Kaisercraft

-Black ink pad – Dew Drop Tuxedo Black Ink from Memento

-Orange chipboard flourish and both circle shaped chipboard pieces – Autumn Song Chipboard from Bo Bunny

-Various word and image stickers – Rhapsody Element Stickers from Photo Play

-Hello Word Sticker – Bloom Element Stickers from Photo Play

-Fall word bunting banner sticker – A Perfect Autumn Afternoon Element Stickers from Echo Park

-Orange letter stickers – Citrus Alphabet Stickers from Bo Bunny

-Gold glitter letter stickers – Marquee Love Letter Stickers from Heidi Swapp

-Gold acrylic paint – Gold Metallic Paint Dabber from Ranger

-Grey acrylic paint – Gray Wolf from Martha Stewart Crafts

-Gold and cream damask print washi tape

-White tulle trim

-Fringed blue and grey trim

-Wide gold oven weave design trim

-Yellow painted metal flower charm – Timeless Memories Metal Trinkets from Recollections

-Grey marker/felt tip pen (used for journaling)

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

The journaling on this layout says: “My maternal grandma, Bernice J. Schill, was born on October 14, 1930, in Dawson, Yukon, Canada. By total coincidence, 74 years later, in 2004, Tony and I married on that same special date.”

One day, three importance celebrations

My grandma’s 90^th birthday is unquestionably the milestone highlight of October 2020. Interestingly, and coincidentally, however, it is not the only special event that falls on the 14^th of this month.

That date also happens to by the birthday of my dear Uncle Bill, as well as mine and Tony’s wedding anniversary. Plus, just two days later, my beautiful sister’s birthday returns as well.

As you can imagine, traditionally, this has made for a week of ample family gatherings, celebrating, and feasting.

Especially when you consider that, when it falls on the latest possible date that it can, Canadian Thanksgiving technically takes place on October 14th once every few years.

Talk about one full and exciting date!

None of those events are going to unfold this time around they usually would.

Yet, much as with my Grannie’s birthday, we’ll do what we can to honour the spirit of these meaningful occasions and (especially) the loved ones who are at the heart of each important mid-October event.

Right here and now though, as the 10^th month of the year gets underway, I must dash. 90^th birthdays come but once in a lifetime and I’ve got a festive card to whip up and mail out.

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this scrapbook page – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post October Birthday Girl Heritage Scrapbook Layout (in Celebration of My Grandma’s 90th Birthday) appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

I have various playlists that I’ve put together so far (unsurprisingly, I’m sure, the playlist that I made for Halloween is my favourite ), as well as a main catalogue on songs which houses all of the music I currently have in my account.

If one opts for the random shuffle approach to listening (which, I’m convinced the algorithm for is anything but truly random – though that’s neither here nor there at the moment), you just never know what will start playing next. That is the very nature of the word random after all!

As a great fan of Christmas music, particularly that of the vintage and classic variety, my music library is chock-a-block with holiday season tunes. Periodically, one of these will start playing as part of my random mix.

Sometimes, if it’s not exactly the twelfth month of the year at the moment, I’ll hit shuffle again. At others, I will let it play, a smile – and often nostalgia – inducing hit of holiday cheers months before or after Christmastime itself.

There are a few artists whose holiday tunes I almost never skip, no matter the season or how many times I’ve listened to them over the years.

Bing Crosby’s Christmas songs fall into that camp.

While I’m a major fan of a good many performers from that era and the holiday season songs that have become the festive soundtrack for generations of Christmas observers ever since, none of them serenade my heart nor cement my love of Xmas music quite like that of Mr. Crosby.

As an ode to that fact, and for a delightfully fun Christmas in July scrapbook project, I created this layout dedicated to Bing’s smooth-as-eggnog, unmistakable, utterly beautiful voice and the canon of festive songs that it delivers to our lives via the power of recorded music year after year.

The Voice of Christmas scrapbook page

Like many of us, I grew up listening to Bing Crosby’s Christmas music and watching his holiday season films, particularly White Christmas. A movie that I adore immensely.

Most of the Christmas music that was played in my family back then was classic, hailing from the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Little has changed still for me, as I reach for these same beloved holiday tunes year after holly and ivy filled year.

To channel the timeless spirit of this chapter of the year (which, for me as a Pagan witch, is a non-secular event that I celebrate with my husband and loved ones; Yule is the main spiritually centred December holiday for me personally), I wanted to use timeless colours and imagery.

Perhaps no other Christmas season palette is more iconic than red, green and white, so this is exactly what I reached for. To help marry old and new, however, I opted for some hits of zingy lime green, as well as various splashes of grey and black.

Rose are my very favourite flower, and though they may not be as iconic a holiday season plant as say, poinsettias, I think that they can work superbly as part of one’s festive décor and papercraft projects alike.

Particularly if depicted in red, burgundy, cream, or white forms. I opted for classic red here, to ensure the overall Christmas theme remained strong and cohesive.

(There is technically a flower called the Christmas Rose, aka, Black Hellebore, yet despite its name, it is not all that rose looking. The real deal – in paper form at least – was the order of the day for this Christmas in July scrapbook page.)

How to create this festive Christmastime scrapbook page

Unlike a lot of my layouts, cards, tags and so forth, this page isn’t chock-a-block with layers. It still has some of course (this is me we’re talking about, after all! ), but in terms of the sheer dimensionality of this design, it stacked as high as a multi-tiered cake.

For my base layer, I used a sheet of basic white cardstock. Next, I selected a charming sheet of polka dot print paper. Polka dots are a timeless pattern that had a major heyday during the mid-twentieth century, so they felt especially at home on a scrapbook page about Bing Crosby.

Using an EK Success border punch, I punched the top and bottom of that sheet of paper before adhering it to the white cardstock base.

After that I added various patterned papers, including the white on grey doily print paper, the green paper with its sisal grasscloth-like texture, the white and red Swiss dot print paper (again, a nod to the middle of the last century), and the Christmas image filled border strip near the top of the page.

I also included some sparkly silver ribbon (the sparkle is hard to see in these photos, but it’s there, I assure you), before arranging my photo where I wanted it to reside on this page and placing a few layers – including some lime green burlap – behind it.

The photo itself was a web find, which I had printed off quite a while ago now and tucked away for the day when I knew I’d make a scrapbook page devoted to my love of Bing’s classic Christmas music.

A smattering of embellishments, including some lovely sparkly red rose shaped dimensional stickers, green velvet leaves, two tags (one with my journaling on it), the “Season’s Greetings” cut apart piece, the title area, and plenty of clear dimensional rhinestones throughout the layout completed this festive page.

As I rarely forego at least a wee bit of distressing on my paper crafting projects, there are inked, torn, and distressed edges throughout, as well as some intentional crumpling of the green grasscloth-esque paper.

This layout came together quite quickly, in less than four hours (which, for me, is pretty darn speedy for a LO! ).

Scrapbook page tips and tricks from this project

-Holiday themed layouts do not need to rely solely on festive papers and other design elements. Most of the ones that I used here were not sold specifically as Christmas items, yet they look every bit the part thanks to their colours, patterns, and shimmer.

Don’t be afraid to use non-holiday themed products on festive makes. I’ve created multiple layouts, cards and tags over the years for different special occasions and holidays that didn’t use a single product that was sold specifically for a respective event, yet the end result looked the part to a tee.

-Combine fabric (in this case elegant dark green velvet) leaves with floral stickers, die cuts, or fussy cut blooms for visual interest, contrasting (or complimentary, as the case may be) texture, and a further hit of dimension on your project.

-If you like your (cursive) handwriting, consider using it on holiday themed pages, as well as those that focus on vintage or antique elements, as it can up the old school look of your page.

However, if you’re not wild about your own handwriting, consider printing your journaling from the computer in a lovely, legible cursive font instead.

-You don’t always need to mat your photo. I left mine un-matted here, as the background layers, including the green burlap, behind it and the red rose stickers that I used as a form of photo corners help to frame this eye-catching black and white photo on their own.

-Use multiple sizes of the same colour(s) of rhinestone gems throughout your project. To keep the focus elsewhere on this page (including the gorgeous red rose stickers), I opted for clear rhinestones in two different sizes.

I placed these in a number of spots around the layout, including tucking some of them around the red rose stickers and green velvet leaves, as well as on the tops of the two tags.

–When creating pages about, or which pertain to music-related subjects, try to incorporate a direct representation of something musical. Here, I went with a festive Christmas music piece of paper as one of the layers behind my photo.

Many brands have released lines with sheet music papers (both Christmas and non-Christmas related alike) over the years. As well, numerous free printable sheet music pages exit online, as do versions you can purchase from various sellers, including some on Etsy.

You could also use real sheet music, if you had some that you were willing to sacrifice (or wanted to scan and print or make a photocopy of on scrapbook suitable paper).

As well, items that depict or in the shape of items such as music notes and treble clefs, records and cassettes, musical instruments, microphones, and Christmas carollers are all fantastic ways to drive home a music theme on your paper crafting projects.

Products used to create this Bing Crosby Christmas music scrapbook layout

-White cardstock

-Black cardstock

-Black and white polka dot print paper

-Grey and white doily print patterned paper – Silver Lace paper from Recollections

-Green grasscloth print paper – Green Faux Canvas paper from Recollections

-Red and white Swiss dot (mini polka dot) print paper – Kiss the Cook Quilt 12×12 inch paper from Bo Bunny

-Various Christmas print papers and tags – ‘Tis the Season Peace & Joy 12×12 inch paper from Echo Park

-Lime green burlap

-Black ink pad – Dew Drop Tuxedo Black Ink from Memento

-Yellowy-green ink pad – Dew Drop Pear Tart Ink from Memento

-Red rose dimensional stickers – Red Roses Glitter Floral Stickers from Forever in Time

-Dark green velvet leaves – Meadow Green Velvet Leaves from 7Gypsies

-Red alphabet stickers – Rosy Foam Thickers Letter Stickers from American Crafts

-Silver alphabet stickers – Marquee Love silver letter stickers from Heide Swapp

-Sparkly silver ribbon – from Offray

-Clear adhesive rhinestones

-Decorative border punch – Flourish Scroll border punch from EK Success

-Black ink fine liner pen for journaling – Micron 0.35mm pen from Sakura

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

The journaling on this layout says: “Unquestionably, there is no singer, past or present, whose voice I associated with Christmas more than Bing Crosby. His gorgeous songs are a holiday season must for me. ”

I’m dreaming of a white Christmas

Sizzling hot as these dog days of summer spent in a house without central air conditioning are, I’m not actually pining (Christmas tree pun intended) away for winter to come barrelling into town again quite yet.

For now, I’m content to whip up Christmas themed scrapbook pages, and who knows, maybe even an early holiday season card or two.

Creating this merry make devoted to Bing Crosby – who, you might be interested to know, was the fourth of seven children and whose birth name was Harry Lillis Crosby Jr. – naturally called for a generous done of his fabulous tunes.

In this case, shuffle mode had the day off, as I joyfully cozied up with song after song from a man whose voice really is, in my books, that of the Christmas season.

By the end of the afternoon, I was ready to trim a tree, decorate some sugar cookies, wrap a slew of presents, and hang up a glowing bevy of lights.

Alas, as much as I’m a fan of getting an early start on the holiday season, July is still a tad too early to do so at our house.

Instead, I’ll bide my time, content to make Xmas crafts, listen to Bing’s swoon-inducing songs, and rewatch White Christmas for what, at this point, must surely be at least my sixtieth viewing.

All the while, dreaming of the next holiday season and all the festive paper crafting and mid-century vintage Christmas music it will entail.

If you celebrate Christmas, who is the musical voice of the season for you?

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this scrapbook page – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post The Voice of Christmas Bing Crosby Scrapbook Layout appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

Now that we’re a few weeks into this blog’s life, I thought it would be a lot of fun to chat about more about my past, present and future as a paper crafter, why I’m not currently seeking design team work, and what I might have named this blog, had it been solely paper crafting related.

Please note: The projects shown in this post were all created prior to the arson fire (see below) that we experienced tin 2016.

Who am I?

Isn’t the great question that we’re all asking ourselves!

Deep philosophical discussions aside, if we’re meeting for the very first time, I would suggest you read my inaugural post and my About Page to get to know me a bit better.

Beyond what is housed in those two spots, from a scrapbooking perspective, I feel that it’s worth noting that I am…

-(At the time of writing) 35 years old.

-The first of three children (I have both a younger brother and sister), the oldest grandchild and oldest first-degree cousin on both sides of my family.

-Married to an incredible man named Tony. We met in March 2004, had a whirlwind romance, and tied the knot about seven months later in October of that same year. We had a very small civil ceremony wedding with less than ten guests in attendance.

-Not a parent / do not have any children. (I plan to discuss this topic as it pertains to both my own life and childless paper crafters in general later on this year.)

-An aunt to one adorable youngster, our nephew, Jarno, who lives in Italy with his folks (my sister-in-law and her husband).

-A lifelong history buff and vintage lover (for several years I ran a popular vintage fashion and lifestyle blog, which I retired in March 2017).

-A (sun sign) Cancer and, gosh, do I fit the profile for the most part. As much as I’m a homebody, I also have a great deal of wanderlust in my soul and find travel to be one of the most incredible and rewarding aspects of life. (If you’re curious, my moon sign is Sagittarius and my ascendant sign is Aquarius.)

When it all began

I officially began paper crafting in October 2010 (my first project was a layout about my maternal grandma that used a sheet of My Mine’s Eye paper as the main background paper).

Prior to that point, I had developed a deep interest in paper crafting and started to amass a stash of supplies at least a year before I began creating.

One of my aunts has been an avid paper crafter herself for multiple decades now. Her beautiful, heartwarming pages and handmade cards were (and still remain) a wonderful source of inspiration for me.

I’ve always been the nostalgic type. I’m an old soul who adores history, genealogy and preserving memories, and for me scrapbooking is a powerful way to unite and celebrate those important aspects of my life.

Between 2010 and 2016, while I wasn’t always able to actively engage in paper crafting for various reasons (moves, serious medical issues, etc), I did create whenever possible and was frequently active on the website scrapbook.com.

For a while during that time, I ran a paper crafting blog, but my spirituality and the fact that I was a witch were not a part of that site (which was retired and taken off line several years ago now).

When it all changed in the blink of an eye

If you’ve read my intro post or About Page, you may recall that in October 2016, my husband I experienced a devastating arson house fire that destroyed virtually all of our belongings and, infinitely more heartbreaking, took the life of our precious cat, Stella (pictured in the layout below).

Thank the universe, we ourselves and our darling dog (Annie) made it out alive.

As challenging as that experience was and as hard a road as we’ve had to forge ahead in order to rebuild our lives in the 3+ years since then, I try not to dwell excessively on what happened to us.

It was brutal, it changed us and our lives forever, and it taught us more than I could ever put into words, but I have zero desire for that tragedy to be a common focal point here on Witchcrafted Life. Or in my life point-blank.

Sometimes, however, it is bound to come up. In this case, I feel it warrants mentioning because the fire not only destroyed all of my crafting (paper and otherwise) supplies, it also wrecked the first six years of my paper crafting projects.

In addition, it destroyed all of our photos (physical and those stored on computers and external hard drives), mementos, and personal documents.

It is a surreal, horrible experience to lose every material thing you own in the world. No one should ever have to go through that for any reason. Yet, sadly, countless individuals and families do each year due to various reasons.

I wasn’t easy at all, and it pained me to my core to lose my scrapbook albums, photos, family treasures, craft supplies, and other belongings, but I had to move on. There was no option. No amount of sorrow or grief or depression (each of which I certainly experienced in the wake of the fire) was going to bring back what the flames had devoured.

Instead of bemoaning what happened, both myself and Tony were resolute in our determination to piece our lives back together again, start afresh where we could, and to focus on what presently is and what lies ahead, not what once was or could have been.

I should note, as I’m often asked about this point, while we did have renter’s insurance at the time, the maximum payout value was (unbeknownst to us until after tragedy struck) significantly smaller than the total value of our belongings. The max payout was more aligned with what we owned when, over 4.5 years prior, we moved into the house that burned down, not what we owned at the time of the fire.

Therefore, the payout did not allow enough room for us to replace most personal items (including my craft supplies). It went to critical expenses and household needs. Instead, we have gradually been acquiring new non-essentials when possible over the past three years and will continue to do so further as time goes on.

Note: As I was fortunate to have photos of some of my completed projects online in various spots at the time of fire, I have a visual record of a portion of my paper crafting work. Not, however, the whole body of it. Still, having anything is awesome and I’m super thankful for what does exist.

What the past 3+ years have been like

Busy! A roller coaster of highs and lows! Unexpected!

They’ve been pretty wild to say the least and not at all how I foresaw my early to mid-30s playing out. That’s life though. You never know what, be it positive or negative, is coming round the bend next and it’s usually best to roll with the punches, make the best of a rough situation, and hold tight to hope along the way.

After a succession of short-term rentals following the fire, in early 2018, Tony and I were able to purchase our first home. It is located in a charming little town in the northern end of British Columbia’s Okanagan region. We’re both smitten with the gorgeous scenery and landscape here, which breathtakingly marries woodland with farmland.

The achievement of this lifelong goal, especially so soon after the fire, is still hard to believe at times. It remains the most positive thing to happen to us since before the fire occurred.

2018 wasn’t all sunshine and new houses though, it also saw various heartbreaking events transpire to some of my relatives. These happenings hit me with the force of an asteroid and I’m still continuing to process and heal from them to this day.

Thankfully though, by and large, things are looking up for ourselves and my loved ones in general as 2020 finds its footing.

On the paper crafting front, my stash was started anew for me within days of the fire, when my aunt (mentioned above) blessed me with a truly thoughtful “starter scrapbooking kit” she had lovingly put together.

I was also incredibly fortunate to receive some paper crafting items from several kind-hearted, generous online scrapbooking friends, acquaintances, and even a few total strangers.

For as long as I live, I will grateful to, and for, those caring individuals whose compassion and desire to help a fellow crafter get back on her feet again played an integral role in ensuring that I was able to do just that.

Between 2017 and the summer of 2019, with my budding new paper crafting stash, I made a few projects (chiefly cards and layouts).

At first, it was strange and difficult to craft because my mind kept thinking that I still had all of my old pre-fire supplies and photographs. Rationally, of course, I knew that I do not and as time goes on, thankfully, this sense has lessened. It did certainly impact me a fair bit though as I began to ease into paper crafting again.

From the summer of 2019 onward, as time and my health have permitted, I’ve been going full steam ahead on the paper crafting front once more and loving every moment of it!

I feel like I’ve gotten my grove back and have been reveling in the joys, catharsis, and fun of paper crafting again.

So much so, that it led me to create this website. A blog that combines two hugely important aspects of who I am and what I hold dear: being a Pagan witch and paper crafting.

Where I’m at on the paper crafting front today

The launch of this site, which happened on January 1st of this year, has been at the heart of my paper crafting related focus in recent weeks.

Beyond that, I’d say that I’m in a good place again on the creativity front.

While it isn’t possible for me to actually craft daily, between this blog, social media, blogs and websites that I follow, conversations with fellow crafters, magazines, and much more, paper crafting is once again an integral part of my daily life (yay!!!).

Our house is quite, how shall we say, cozy, which means that space is at a premium (two people, both of whom work primarily from home, and a high energy 70 lb dog all share said space).

Thankfully, however, I have a small room on the ground floor (our house is a two-story home, both of which are above ground; there is no basement or functional attic) which, in a lot of ways, is the physical version of this very blog itself.

In that one wee room lives my main altar, the majority of my witchy related items, almost all of my books, and the entirety of my current craft supply stash.

I am truly grateful for this space, the empowering energy that it houses, the creativity and magick alike that flow through me when I’m in it, and what it represents in my life regarding how far we’ve come in just three years since the fire.  

My current stash of paper crafting items is an interesting mix of items. There are some areas (6×6 paper pads, for example) where things are fairly plentiful at present, others where they’re sparse, and some that are missing entirely.

I’ve long learned though that you can make a lot with a little where creativity involved and love to put the products that I do have to work in as many fun, fresh and imaginative ways as can.

What do I (currently) mostly make?

Scrapbook pages (especially 12 x 12 single-page layouts, but I’ve been hearing the siren’s call towards smaller sized pages on and off lately, too), cards of all sorts, tags, mini albums, home, and seasonal décor projects, and gift packaging/wrapping.

Plus an array of paper crafting projects pertaining to my spiritual path (including sabbat themed cards and tags for fellow witchy friends around the world) – as you might have guessed by this point.

How would I define my paper crafting style

“Shabby goth” springs to mind!

My work often embodies feminine, dark/spooky, elegant, sweet, detailed, layered, tattered and distressed, inked, antique and vintage, nature inspired, fall and Halloween related, and dimensional techniques and products.

Stitching – faux, die cut, real – is a biggie, too.

These elements – coupled with including journaling on most of my layouts – are some of the key factors that help to define my personal scrapbooking, card making and paper crafting style in general.

Some of my favourite paper crafting products

Text and wood grain print papers, anything old-fashioned looking, burlap, bling (rhinestones, pearls, wood pieces, metal pieces, etc), dimensional flowers and leaves, tulle and netting, trim and ribbon, seam binding, twine, metal dies, stickers, glitter glue, die cut shapes and chipboard pieces, border and shape punches, paint, sequins, Micron Pens, Copic markers, my Tim Holtz Stamp Platform, and yes, as old school as I know this sounds to many people, (gasp!) decorative edge scissors.

Some of my favourite paper crafting brands

My taste in paper crafting brands and products, much like in many areas of my life, tends to run eclectic, so I buy from a wide number of companies.

Sadly, some of my all-time favourite brands and/or product lines (think Webster’s Pages, 7 Gypsies, Teresa Collins, Jenni Bowlin, Maya Road, Petaloo, K & Company, and Ranger’s Adirondack line) are no longer produced or have radically shifted the focus of what they sell.

This point makes losing the items I had from those companies sting all the more.

Thankfully, however, there are still many terrific brands going strong as we embrace the 2020s.

I adore plenty of them, including – but certainly not limited to – Anna Griffin, Carta Bella, FabScraps, Graphic 45, Pink Paislee, Martha Stewart, Kaisercraft, Prima, Authentique Paper, Tim Holtz, Echo Park, Bo Bunny, 49^th and Market, DCWV, Tsukineko, and Pion Design (I don’t currently own anything from Pion, but, my word, do I melt like a snowman in April for their breathtaking offerings).

What die cutting machine do I use

I currently have a Sizzix Big Shot Machine. It’s a powerhouse of a die cutter and I love it to bits.

I do not, and to date have never had, an electric die cutting machine (i.e., Gemini, Silhouette Cameo, Brother ScanNCut).

I’d happily welcome an electric die cutter, especially since they are a lot easier on the ol’ wrists, but don’t foresee one coming my way anytime soon. Perhaps some day.

What do I use to take photos of my projects

I currently have an iPhone 7 and take photos of my projects with it. I shoot indoors using either artificial (tungsten) or natural light, depending on what time of the day it is.

If needed, I do minor photo editing on my phone, generally in Afterlight and/or VSCO.

Why I’m not actively seeking design team work (but remain open to the possibility)

Several ago, I was a design team member for a US based online scrapbooking store that has long since shut down. I had a wonderful time and am still in connect with some of my fellow design team member friends from those days.

However, that experience drilled home how challenging it can be for me to be a design team member due to the fact that I’m a multiple severe chronic illness fighter whose health and physical abilities can fluctuate significantly from day-to-day.

I’m the type of person who loves to give things my all, honour my commitments and deliver on time. There’s a very real risk I wouldn’t always be able to do that if I was on a design team (let alone multiple teams concurrently). A point that doesn’t sit right with me at all.

However, if the schedule was flexible, the requirements weren’t too extreme, and the company/website was understanding regarding my health, I would certainly consider taking part in design team work again (assuming of course, I was tapped to do or accepted for a specific team, if I applied).

What I might have called this blog had it been focused solely on paper crafting

As awesome as things like stamping, colouring with markers, and watercolouring are, and as much and I delight in employing them at times, I am a paper lover at heart.

I adore beautiful papers, writing on my layouts, layering paper (and cardstock) on my projects, collecting paper for my stash, you name it!

Thus, assuming that the URL was available, I may have named my blog “It’s all about the paper” or something to that extent.

To be honest, I didn’t really give much consideration to running a blog that was just about paper crafting at this point in my life.

I knew from the get-go that I wanted to write about both witchy topics and paper crafting ones alike, and thus Witchcrafted Life was born.

What inspires my paper crafting work

So… many… things!

The seasons and The Wheel of the Year, nature, art, music, books, fellow creative folks and makers, fashion, history, great colour combinations, my own personal experiences and dreams, my spirituality, traveling, photography, and oodles of other sources.

What else would you like to know about my paper crafting?

Now it’s your turn. What would you like to know about my paper crafting that wasn’t covered here?

Don’t be shy! Ask away! And while you’re at it, if there are specific types of paper crafting blog posts that you’d be keen to see here, please feel to let me know.

Your questions and ideas are welcome and sincerely appreciated.

The post Get to know Autumn Zenith, the Paper Crafting Pagan Witch appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

This layout, the most recent that I’ve made – and the first post-fire scrapbook page that I’m sharing here on Witchcrafted Life – has neither of those things.

And you know what, I kind of love that they’re not there.

Not because I’ve cooled my jets about either thing. That certainly isn’t the case. Rather, it’s because sometimes it’s great to shake things up, let your style change and evolve, and not be afraid of stepping outside of your comfort zone.

I’m also finding myself drawn more and more to including journaling on the back of my layouts.

The layers, dimensional embellishments and other thicker items I frequently use in my paper crafting mean that I can rarely get two scrapbook layouts back-to-back in an album.

This in turn means that the back of the page is visible in the clear plastic page protector, so why not, I figure, avail of that visibility for times when I don’t want to add (some or all of) my journaling to the front.

Only Love Lets Us See scrapbook page

One of my favourite subjects to scrapbooks is animals – pets very much included. At present, my husband and I are blessed to share our lives with one pet. Our darling dog Annie, who you may remember me mentioning in my review post of The Book of Dog Magick.

She is the sweetest thing on four paws. Smart as a whip, energetic as the day is long, and perhaps the least photogenic dog I’ve ever known. True story!

If I’m lucky, I get a tiny handful of usable photos of her each year. Hundreds (or more) of her cute head turned away or which are blurry from her darting away as I try to take her picture are deleted nearly as quickly as they’re taken (thank goodness for digital photography!).

Luckily there is the occasional usable (and sharable) photo of Annie. This one was taken a few years back at a dog park in a town a couple of hours south of us (our own current small town, much to the chagrin of many locals, does not have a dog park).

Annie could blissfully play at the park for hours on end – especially if there are other friendly dogs there. To say that she loves going to the park – or anywhere in nature for that matter (like human mama, like dog-ter ) – would be a serious understatement.

This love, coupled with Annie’s passion for life, ability to live in the moment and find bliss in the smallest of things, inspired me to use the Kaisercraft sentiment cut-apart that I employed as my subtle title on this charming 12×12 inch scrapbook page.

Love themed elements on this pet layout

To drive home the theme of love, I employed I used various shades of red throughout the page, gorgeously lush vintage looking rose die cut shapes from Bo Bunny, black and white floral print paper, and a cute paw print + heart-shaped die cut that I made from basic black cardstock.

The doily, while perhaps not as associated with love as hearts and the colour red, is a sweet classic unto itself. Plus, I can’t help thinking that its scalloped edges resemble the tops of hearts to a degree, which subtly connects to the general theme of love.

Putting this scrapbook page together

To create this layout, I began with a 12×12 inch piece of black cardstock, which I topped with an almost full-sized piece of black and white floral print paper.

While an eye-catching pattern, the universal palette of black and white makes it a cinch to build upon nearly as easily as though it was all white coloured or all black coloured, respectively.

Initially, I’d thought I’d use a smaller sized doily or perhaps two little ones, but as soon as I placed this whooper down, I fell in love.

I don’t have a digital die cutting machine and so am not able to able use cut files, but with a doily this big, it almost feels like I’m working with a detailed cut file. Love that!

On top of the doily, I placed an 8×8 inch sheet of red and light grey lined paper from 7 Gypsys (who else misses this brand something fierce?), a grey and black floral print scalloped edge circle that I die cut, a smaller piece of solid black cardstock a die cut scalloped circle and buffalo plaid paper, and then the Kaisercraft cut-apart block, my photo, and various embellishments.

I tucked another 8×8 inch sheet of paper (this time in black and red) from the same 7 Gypsys paper pad behind the doily, where I also put a strip of tone-on-tone dark red paper, (the same paper appears behind the black cardstock that the photo sits on), and various vintage-style ephemera pieces from Bo Bunny.

After arranging floral die cut pieces in three spots around my page, I die cut some leaves and vines from dark grey cardstock (to pick up the grey in the paper behind the central piece of black cardstock).

I hand cut two triangles from the same red and black buffalo check paper, matted them on black cardstock, and used them on diagonally opposite corners of my page. This gives the look of photo corners, as well as the illusion that perhaps a whole sheet of that paper is beneath the B&W floral paper.

Back on the embellishment front, I tucked small silver tone buttons here and there, added silver tone pearls, three die cut paper buttons (the largest of which I threaded skinny black ribbon (salvaged from some product packaging a while back), a large twisted wire branch with red plastic leaves, three antique style white resin pieces (on the black cardstock beneath the photo), and two adorable mini silvery grey tone clothes pegs).

Lastly, before gluing, sticky dotting, and foam squaring everything in place, I matted my photo on white cardstock and the title square on grey.

Also, come to think of it, somewhat unusually for one of my layouts, this page does not contain any inking whatsoever. Wow! That might be rarer than a lack of title and journaling!

Scrapbook page tips and ideas from this project

-When working with grey tones, use silver or pewter coloured embellishments, they’ll generally complement and harmonize with the grey better than gold, brass or copper ones.

–Mixing different patterned papers in the same layout is often easier if they share a common colour palette, as (much like the point above) this can help to create a sense of cohesiveness.

-If you didn’t have an oversized doily or cut file that allowed you to create one, you could cut apart one or more smaller doilies and arrange them around the perimeter of the 8×8 inch red and grey striped paper here to create a similar effect.

–Vines, leaves, and flowers don’t have to be natural colours. The leaves and vines used here were cut from dark grey cardstock. By working with this neutral tone, they don’t steal the show, but instead support the other uses of grey and silver throughout the page.

-If you don’t have silver pearls, use silver paint, a silver permanent marker, or silver glitter (applied over top of glue or glossy accents) to alter the colour of white or cream pearls instead.

Conversely, create a similar look by using silver toned enamel dots, Nuvo Drops, Liquid Pearls, sequins, or small circles (or other shapes – hearts would be terrific here, for example) from silver metallic cardstock or paper.

–Don’t be afraid to extend your page elements beyond the borders of your 12 x 12 inch background (or whatever size you’re working with). Do keep in mind though that it may be hard to fit a completed layout into a scrapbook album if elements extend on more than one or two sides (so perhaps stick with doing so on just one or two sides).

-Using a pair of clothes pegs – be they mini or larger sized – is a whimsical way of helping a page element to look like its strung up, when in fact (as was the case here) it’s actually glued in place.

-Repeat the same paper two or more times, in various sized amounts, throughout your page for additional continuity and element harmonization.

-If you don’t have resin or similar pieces, you could use die cut, wood, cork, felt or burlap pieces or shapes here instead.

-Ribbon is a lovely, unexpected change from things like thread, embroidery floss, and twine in buttonholes. Skinny raffia is another delightful choice as well.

-Use scalloped edge dies, punches, and scissors on projects that involve doilies. The similar shapes of these items help them to look all the more cohesive (can you tell that cohesiveness is a biggie for me?).

-Pet themed scrapbook pages that do not star overtly pet related products can have the theme reinforced more subtly by the inclusion of die cuts, stamps, charms and other embellishments in shapes such as pawprints, bones and biscuits, and feathers, for example.

-If you’re not using a big title and/or journaling, consider adding subtle words or text print papers elsewhere in your layout, so that the eye has something to rest on when it naturally goes looking for these kinds of things (in this case, I used various vintage print ephemera elements from Bo Bunny to help achieve that here).

Products used to create this pet themed layout

-Black, dark grey, and white cardstock

-Black and white floral print 12×12 inch paper – Jen Hadfield This Is Family from American Crafts

-Red and black buffalo check print 12×12 inch paper – Mad 4 Plaid Christmas Jingle from Photo Play

-Tone-on-tone red print paper 12×12 inch paper – Serenade Poppies from Bo Bunny

-Cut-apart sentiment (used for the title of this layout) – Rosabela Angelic Collection from Kaisercraft

-Grey leaf print paper – Cider Woods Mat Stack 6×6 inch paper pad from DCWV

-Die cut shapes – Boulevard Noteworthy collection from Bo Bunny

-Various patterned papers – Zanzibar 8×8 inch Paper Variety Pack from 7Gypsies

-Large white doily – very similar version to the one I used on this layout available here

-Wire and plastic/acrylic vine/branch (or another type of branch of your choosing; dollar stores, craft stores, thrift stores, and shops that sell floral arrangement materials are good possible sources for these types of branches)

-Silver tone buttons

-Silver pearls

-Skinny black ribbon

-Dimensional foam, pop dots, or similar to elevate some of your layers

-Adhesive, such as a tape runner, of your choice (I often use my Scotch Tape Glider)

Closing thoughts about this dog themed scrapbook page

It’s been a hot minute since I last photographed a scrapbook layout. While I have made others during the time that we’ve lived in our current home, I believe this is the first one that I’ve photographed here so far.

Much like how I’m working to find good lighting to use for taking photos of my projects in around our house (as mentioned in my Victorian-inspired card post), I’m currently experimenting with how I arrange, style and shoot the paper crafting projects that I make.

Definitely a work in progress there, but that’s okay – life is one lovely continual learning experience and it can be a lot of fun to play around and try new things along the way.

While I may not have heaps of photos of Annie, those that I have managed to capture are priceless to me and my husband.

Annie is the furry light of our life and a common scrapbook page subject for me, so you’re bound to see more layouts starring our super cute black and white pup here as time goes on.

If you have pets, do you enjoy scrapbooking them as well?

Project share

Pin the image below – or any other in this post – to Pinterest, pop it into your Instagram Stories, post in on Twitter or Facebook, or share it anywhere else you wish to help yourself find it again and to inspire others at the same time.

If you make a project based on or inspired by this scrapbook page – or want to share any of your other handmade crafts with me – please use the hashtags #WitchcraftedLife and #WitchcraftedLifeMakes on social media so that I see can your beautiful creations.

The post Only Love Lets Us See scrapbook layout appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.

There is something auspicious and wonderful about such a day. It’s too rare, precious and magickally charged not to be utilized and celebrated.

It is also the perfect time to officially begin an exciting new project. In my case, that would be the very blog that you’re reading.

Why I’m launching this blog

On the evening of October 13, 2016, my husband and I lost our home, virtually all of our belongings, my home-based online business (an Etsy vintage shop), and infinitely most heartbreaking, our precious cat, Stella, in arson fire that destroyed the fourplex condo building we were living in at the time.

Losing quite literally everything but the clothes on your back changes a person. A lot.

It also changes your life, your priorities, your mindsets, your hopes, and dreams. 

Certain things remain, however. Ingrained, vital elements of who you are and what you love.

Two of the most important elements of my life before the fire were my spiritual path as a solitary Pagan witch and being a paper crafter.

While I let go of certain areas of my life post-fire and redistributed the degree of priority/importance that I gave to others, these two remained highly meaningful to me.

They are both key parts of my world every day, and now, I hope, they’ll become a part of yours as well.

Who I am and what I’ll be creating

I’m Autumn Zenith (please note: this is my Pagan, and vastly preferred, name) an empathic, old souled witch who resides in the woody wilds of British Columbia, Canada.

Here on Witchcrafted Life, I’ll be sharing my passion for paper crafting, including card making, scrapbooking, tag making, mini albums, home décor, and seasonal/holiday-related projects, as well as periodically delving various other crafting related topics.

I plan to bring you plenty of crafting related how-tos, project shares, journaling ideas, product features, giveaways, and much more.

Some of my paper crafting related posts will pertain to Paganism/witchcraft, others will be more secular.

One absolutely does not need to be a fellow witch or Pagan to enjoy and avail of the paper crafting posts that I’ll be sharing.

On the Paganism front, I plan to cover a wide breadth of subjects. This will likely include, but certainly not be limited to, the following areas:

• Real-world magick
• Handy tips and how-tos pertaining to witchcraft and Paganism
• Original spells
• The Wheel of the Year
• Working with the lunar cycles
• Magickal correspondences
• Kitchen and cottage magick (including Pagan recipes)
• Green witchcraft
• The Elements
• Working with spirit allies and animal spirit guides
• Book of Shadows/grimoire ideas
• Art magick
• DIY ideas for witchy crafts, home decor, sabbat items, etc
• Candle magick
• Budget-friendly witchery
• Tarot and oracle cards
• Divination
• Magickal tools
• Paganism/witchcraft and chronic illness (as well as mental health)
• Self-care
• Ancestor work
• Witchery and Paganism book and product reviews
• Personal empowerment through your spiritual path
• Being an empath

Some of my key goals in creating this blog

• To share my knowledge and passion for both witchcraft + Paganism and paper crafting with others
• To be continually motivated to create and craft, sharing many of my ideas, projects and ideas publicly 
• To create an inclusive, welcoming space that is open to paper crafters from all faiths, spiritual paths, walks of life, and genders, as well as those of all crafting styles and abilities
• To help me become a published Pagan book author
• To bring you fresh, original, informative content on a regular basis (multiple new posts will appear here each month)
• To further deepen my spiritual journey and to help + inspire, encourage and empower you on your own unique path

Witchcrafted Life is a fresh start with old roots

This blog is the new online home for a lifetime of experiences, spiritual happenings, handmade crafts, knowledge to be shared, and memories just waiting to happen.

It will be exciting, it will be magickal, it will be creative.

If you haven’t done so already, be sure to signup on the top of the right-hand sidebar for my newsletter, and connect with me on Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter.

You can also contact me directly anytime. I love hearing from, and connecting with, my readers.

The post New Year, New Decade, New Blog appeared first on Witchcrafted Life.