UK Scrappers June Week 2 Challenge

Karen set a challenge over at UK Scrappers this week to use this colour scheme from the Design Seeds website: 

I thought it was beautiful, so I decided to join in, if I had enough time.  I managed to scrape it in with just enough time to spare. 

I went to Chelsea Flower Show in 2009 and took scads of photos and have scrapbooked quite a few of them.  I still have loads to do, but somehow scrapbooking the boys has taken over! 

The challenge was to use a nature theme, three photos, and that colour scheme.  I thought I would keep the layout simple but use up some of the mountain of stash that I have accumulated. 

I stickles the spots on the butterfly and backed it and the sticker with white cardstock so that the colour was bright and crisp.  I covered the chipboard flower with "Poppyseed" patterned paper and the leaves with the green patterned paper.  I also used the olive green cardstock to give the flower more punch and also bordered the leaves in the same manner. 

No real techniques here - just another layout completed for my future album!

Supplies:

Bazzill cardstock

Maya Road Chipboard - flower and scroll, covered with Junkitz green paper in my scraps bag

Sticker - K & Co Juliana

Butterfly - Creative Imaginations 12 x 12 transparency

Patterned papers - K & Co Poppyseed

Tim Holtz "Typeset" Sizzix Decorative alphabet

Thanks for stopping by. 

Ace of Spades

As part of the Sketch and Scrap challenge on UK Scrappers for September, we were asked to follow this sketch:

It was fairly similar to a sketch that came up earlier in the year - so I had previously prepared the photos and already decided on the background colour for the layout.  I failed to complete it, however, due to being pregnant and intensely tired and not really interested in being creative!  So when I saw this sketch, I was very happy that I had already started the process of pulling things together. 



The photos are from Chelsea Flower Show 2009 - and the garden is called the "Ace of Spades", designed by David Dumoney. 

My journalling reads:  "Designed by David Dumoney, the 'Ace of Spades' garden fell in the Urban Garden category and gained a silver gilt medal.  He was inspired by listening to the Motorhead track, whilst working on his bike at home.  A giant Ace of Spades was set on the back wall, created out of garden spade heads.  The 'Alien' furtniture was constructed from old motor parts by artist Susannah Trigg."

I particularly love drawing inspiration for a look and feel of a layout from the photos, so I wanted to achieve an industrial, grungy theme - tying in with the heavy metal song and the extensive use of metal in the garden!  I outlined the border and my photos with paint, and also had great fun flicking paint onto the cardstock with a paintbrush.  I used lots of silver metallic card to mat the photos and other elements.  I found the "Ace of Spades" logo in Google images and printed that out and stamped some additional swirls around the edge. 

Supplies:

Bazzill cardstock

Heidi Swapp mask "Floral Bouquet"
K & Company Handmade embossed stickers
Stamps:  Technique Tuesday "Irony", Autumn Leaves Stampology "Round & Round"
Dawn Bibby Silver mist
Black Distress ink
Jo Sonja black acrylic paint



February Scrapology layout!

And ............... time to guess the old patterned paper competition!  This month, the design team from Scrapology scraplifted a Laura Buckingham layout that she taught at the inaugural Cardinal Colours retreat last September. 

Hers was a lovely sunny bright and busy design, full of summer colours. 

I am gradually ploughing my way through my pictures of the Chelsea Flower Show of 2009 and am probably about half-way through scrapping my pictures.  I chose to do this layout on one of the show gardens, called "Future Nature". 

Here is my layout below:

I know a lot of people love to scrap on Kraft, but most of the time I prefer to use brighter coloured cardstock.  But in this instance, I felt the Kraft really complemented the tone and theme of the photo.  I broke out my really old scraps from my various scraps bag for this one - can you identify any of the patterned papers?

I used my extended grass Sizzix die, and that patterned paper is by Debbie Mumm for Creative Imaginations from 2004.  The brown type paper bag paper is Karen Foster from about 2006.  There is also K & Co paper from about 2005, and a relatively! recent scrap of Scenic Route paper from about 2008.  How time flies!  There is also Scrapperdashery bits and bobs, and also some scraps from a stack I first got when I started scrapbooking.  Who cares, anyway!  But I am pleased that they are finally out of my scraps bag and on a layout, used up.  I added a layer of mist as a border of the layout by using Maya Road Garnet metallic mist spray and using low tack masking tape to make sure the mist stayed put.  I don't mind the odd blotchiness here and there - adds to the effect of nature, I think. 

I printed journalling onto some scrap card stock, and traced around the edge using a Tim Holtz die, but making it a bit bigger than the original die cut. 

I also used my Sizzie extended Fall Leaves and Acorns die to make a feature at the top of the page.  This was a bit fiddly, as I had to do several diecuts from different pieces of scrap cardstock, but the effort was worth the final affect, I think.  I then coloured in some of the dies with Promarkers, added some inks, and sprayed over the top with Golden Mist and Bronze Cosmic Shimmers to add some glimmer and distress the finish somewhat. 

The alphabet is Thickers "Shoebox" and I customised this to the right colour by mixing up some Jo Sonja paint and then glossy accenting over the top. 

My journaling reads"  A show garden by Ark Design Management,  This garden is representative of an urban drought-resistant garden especially suited to underutilised city spaces.  The key features of the garden include a green roof to help reduce surface water runoff, a living tower holding drought resistant plants, butterfly moulds and insect towers, stocked with colourful but suitable planting that provide wildlife habitats in a brownfield environment.  The garden was relocated to Yorkshire after the show and will be used to promote the inventive use of small urban space and water management". 

Sculptor

Monthly challenge from one of my social groups on UKS - at least it gets me scrapping!

Another in my Chelsea 2009 series - I love sculptures and wire work, and I had to take some photos of these amazing copper and blue glass flower "sculptures". This is exactly the type of thing I would have in my garden, given the opportunity - and means to finance it, of course!
 

So - onto the challenge criteria - Something old - those Chatterbox Scrapbook Address letters - at least 7 years old, I'd say.

Something new - my DCVW Taj Mahal stack - bought to go with ellies, but I loved the yellow patterned paper, and this layout needed a touch of exotic brightness, I thought.

Something borrowed - the background blue paper is rouge de Garance - that I took from a minibook project I still haven't finished. Must do that at some point! Also, I used foiling, which is not USUALLY associated with scrapbooking - I used a faulty Zig pen to "leak" the ink, and painted my chipboard flower that way. Then added Zig glue pen over the top, and some Magic Scraps copper foil, and some other foil left over from a project. Laborious, but it was good this morning when I couldn't make any noise for about an hour when him indoors was falling asleep after night shift!

Something blue - lots of blue in this layout - the gem, the other patterned paper ....

Here's a close-up of that Fancy Pants chipboard flower.  The blue really shows through well.  The foiling was laborious, as it was small flakes, and I used two different types of foil ... one was just leftover flakes in a bag, but you can't let anything go to waste! 

I love how the foil glistens.  So does the paper, because it has so much texture - some glitter, and some raised detail. 

Here's my supplies list:

Magic Scraps Copper Foil Flakes

Fancy Pants Chipboard, "Delight" Journalling book

Chatterbox Scrapbook Address scarlet alphas, Prima 3D Alphabet stickers

My mind's Eye "Bloom and Grow" Felt Border

Patterned papers : rouge de Garance urbaine no5, K & Co Mira, DCWV "Taj Mahal" stack, "Green Polka Dot" by Karen Russell Narratives, for Creative Imaginations. 

A bit of a weird colour scheme for me - yellow and lime green, with the dark blue, maroon and copper!  Still, I like it and think it works.  The goldy yellow adds an exotic touch, and complements the sheen in the copper. 

That alphabet is weird - it has holographic properties.  One way looks as though there are vines, the next way, straight horizontal lines through the letters.  Looking from a different angle - they come up completely white - weird!  Thanks for your visit.  :)

Happy Easter!

Here is a layout I made about two weeks ago.  I had taken a photo previously, but it didn't turn out in focus.  A lovely friend sent me a lens she no longer needed, so I spent yesterday making her something as a present which I will share after I give it to her. 

Here are some piccies I took at last year's Chelsea Flower Show - I just love wrought iron - the look, the arts and crafts/art nouveau era, so decided to scrap a double layout about the sculptures ...

I incorporated two challenges in one here. The first was to scrap about a gift, a handmade embellishment, and use an old but reliable tool. The gift was the ticket to Chelsea by my FIL - he didn't want to go. Handmade embellie - well, I altered the Bazzill Just the Edge strips by embossing them and inking and grunging up, then highlighting the edges with a copper pen. The old but reliable tool is my heat gun - I don't use it so much these days.

The second challenge was to use a dark base, use something not normally associated with scrapping, and use lots of bling. I used the dark purple, old potpourri, and the lots of bling was the metal flowers, sequins and stickles. I also used some jewellery fixings on top of the flower to layer up the metal. 

I have a whole box of metal embellishments yet to be used.  Here, the copper flowers were a pack of Becky Nunn.  The arts and crafts copper scroll bar is Architexture.  These have been sitting in my stash for about 5 years.  I layered up both branded and generic flowers, and was really pleased to also finish up a pack of layered K & Co dimensional paper flower stickers.  The Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist (Meadow Green, hat an appropriate name, lol!) doesn't show up so well but still adds some grunge. You can see it IRL. 

I shaded the flower below using my Promarkers - I use them much more for "altering the look" of things, rather than specifically colouring in stamped images.  I stuck bronze coloured sequins and stickles on top to add some unity to my "meadow" of flowers.  The K & Co patterned paper added some contrast to the purple.  I used up some Karen Foster metals by cutting out my title using my trusty Quickutz Squeeze and "Eliza" alphabet.

 I was trying to originally weave something with the fibres in the corners, but I regret adding that now.  You can see the glitter being shed off those purple velvet potpourri petals!  The black trim reminded me of wrought iron gates and was sent as part of a swap. I  love incorporating eclectic bits and pieces to add to the feel of a page - I think this might turn out to be one of my favourites.