UKS Sketchy Scrappers Challenge - 1st birthday party invitation

There are a lot of crafty projects I create that never make it onto my blog - mostly of the card making variety. I quite often "knock-up" a card or two and never bother to photograph it - the process of photographing the card, and then writing up about it, can take quite a bit longer than actually making the card itself!

However, for this month's Sketchy Scrapper's layout on UK Scrappers, I decided to base a layout on one of my craft projects that I didn't want to forget - creating the invitation to my twins' first birthday party and saving the original on a layout. I was very proud of this invitation - I wanted to create a hand-crafted invitation, that was able to be reproduced in volume. I ended up sending 45 invitations - and when you have one year old twins to look after, that process ends up being time-consuming!

I have therefore swapped the photo with my master invitation. I have taken a few liberties with the sketch, and omitted the three floral vertical embellishments, because my title was too large and impeded on that space. I was really happy to use up the scraps of the Cosmo Cricket Storytime that I had left over from my previous two layouts - both the colours and the sentiments of the message tied in really well with my planning for this layout.

I utilised one of the Disney stamps that I bought on Ebay to make the invitations as an accent on the bottom right hand side of the page - I really dislike cutesy images as a rule, but I feel that you have to include some Disney characters in scrapbooks for the really young! Winnie - the - Pooh has remained one of my favourites since childhood and I am sure I will get a great use out of these stamps. I felt that Piglet and his attentive pose was the perfect finishing touch!

Even though the sketch was fairly simple, I still manage to fiddle and faff and take quite a few hours with each layout until I pull together something that I am happy with. I am pleased with the bright happy colours that have a slightly retro twist - I feel that this echoes the invitation and the occasion in general - and at least I have done something useful with the invitation - so that it is not knocking about my craft room, gathering dust!

 

 

 

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock; Stampin' Up!  Whisper White
Patterned paper: s.e.i. "Mayberry" - Lime Rickey; Cosmo Cricket "Storytime" - Tweedle Dee and Striptease
Alpha Stickers: Pink Paislee "Fashion Script" by Holly McCaig; American Crafts "simply chic" runway
Punches: EK Success Scallop;
Shaped Scissors:  Fiskars Cloud
Stamp:  Disney "Piglet"
Ink:  Memento "Tuxedo Black"
Promarkers:  Cocktail Pink, Cerise, Rose Pink

December Scrapology Challenge - Monochromatic

Hello everyone and welcome to December.  That's a scary thought, isn't it?  So much to do before Christmas .... This is Pam Thorburn's gorgeous layout we are scraplifting this month ...



When I saw Pam's gorgeous all white layout, I knew it would be very difficult to replicate anything so beautiful and with such a light touch! This photo of my twin boys' feet was taken at three days old, by the Bounty photographer when we were still in the hospital. As it was such a light photograph - mainly white - I felt it needed to be treated with some real contrast so that the photo would draw you in and not be lost on a white background. That is why I matted it with black cardstock and used a grey background. I was then happy to use white and light cream embellishments so that the layout was embellished with a light touch, yet retaining a fair bit of detail.

Supplies:
Bazzill cardstock - Black, white and grey
Making Memories tiny alphas - black on white
Tim Holtz #Sizzix decorative strips die - Tattered banners
Sizzix Framelits heart dies
Dienamics Leafy Flourish
HOTP Paper lace
Martha Stewart Punch around the page
Martha Stewart butterfly punches
Bird die cuts
EK Success medium corner rounder
Flowers - Prima, Making Memories and various
Rubons - Basic Grey Wholy Cow white lace border and other
Papermania pearl flower embellishments
White beads
Garlic bag!

The anchoring paper lace was one of the first scrapping materials I acquired - it was from a HOTP book of papers procured sometime in 2004 - so I am really pleased to have used this up - finally! Likewise with some of the Basic Grey rub-ons - I still have a shameful amount of these left, which really should be used, as they are starting to lose their "stickability".

I cut some of the Tim Holtz tattered banners from Lorraine Bilsby's crop sometime last year - she very generously used to bring her supply of dies, and I would sometimes be in the habit of die-cutting somethings in white card - and not always with a project in mind! It has proved very useful here - I think the tattered edge of the diecuts add some lightness to this part of the page.

Unfortunately, the photo is far from perfect - the developing has cut off part of an image of one foot, and there was a mark on the middle of the photo at the top. Fortunately, Pam's design used a heart as an anchor, with some butterflies on the photo at the top middle. Under different circumstances, I would have omitted this detail, but needed to replicate it here in order to cover up the mark.

Being in such a crucial stage of an international move - house is on the market, not yet sold, with belongings needing to be sorted and drastically pared down, I have given away all my bits of material and fabric and so now own nothing that is gauzy. I was stuck on this layout until my eyes rested upon the fine plastic mesh of the garlic bag - it was the perfect material from which to die cut most of a heart - the rest of it would have been hidden by the photo anyway, so it really didn't matter that I didn't have enough mesh to cut a whole heart. I glossy accented the heart to the base card, which also served to stop the mesh fraying and served another purpose - to adhere the while beads onto the mesh for a bit of impact.

I only own two of the Martha Stewart Punch Around the Page sets, as I felt that I wouldn't use them all too often - which has proved correct! I was very pleased to use the scalloped dotty border set in this layout, to add some lightness and some delicate detail to the border. I had a couple of practices with some scrap paper, but still made a mistake in one of the corners. Luckily, not too much of the white cardstock is showing, however - I simply cut another corner and patched it in. You can barely tell! I find the most important thing is not to make a mistake - but figuring out how to resolve it once the mistake has been made. I think that is how I've learned my biggest lessons in life - who said that art doesn't imitate life? :D

Why not set aside some time for yourself this month, in amongst all the preparation for Christmas, to get another page scrapbooked for an album?  Great to have a bit of normality in a crazy, crazy life ...