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 ...

UK Scrappers Weekly Challenge - Make it Different!

Good morning folks; welcome to Monday and my own UK Scrappers weekly challenge. 

These challenges always consist of three elements and this week, they are to use:

• a colour scheme that is unusual for you to use
• delve into those scraps bags and use up some scraps
• do something "arty"! (whatever that terms means for you)

I have directly scraplifted a layout that I really liked by April Foster called "Smile".  It was published in a "Create - Stamping" edition of Scrapbook Trends sometime in 2010 and I always admired it. 

 

I did lots of spraying with cosmic shimmer mists, and every piece of patterned paper has been used from my scraps bags.  The largest piece (behind the photo) is Cosmo Cricket "Tea for Two" range, called Tea Towel. 

 

I painted around the edge of each semi-circle with Cosmic Shimmers used like paint and added some stitching too - as I said - an exact scrap-lift of April Foster's.  Very different from what seems to be my style these days, but I like the end result - and I love to try new things - when I get the time! 

 

Lots of people have helped me create sample layouts over at UKS:

 

Jess, aka Jessbaby:

Ali, aka Alits:

Karen, aka Badgerleader:

Sarah, aka Scrappy-Sarah:

Jo, aka Wonky:

 

Thanks so much to them for their time and friendship in helping me out.  I will add blog links when I can later.  Why don't you have a go and join in with the challenge? 

 

 



November Scrapology Layout - chicken wire and Lou Collins

Well, goodness, goodness, goodness!  Where has this year gone?  Welcome to a new month, and a new layout challenge at Scrapology.  This month, our newest design team member, Lou Collins, created this layout, and challenged us to use chicken wire:



Isn't this layout pretty?  Such delicate colours and the use of that size photo works so well here ....

This layout took me sooooo many hours - it probably doesn't look it, but most of the elements were handmade and I had to break it down to many, many stages.  For the longest time, I thought I would never finish, but I do believe in pushing on through adversity .... (queue rousing music here .... ) ha!
So, here is the result.  I distressed the green ledger paper with a combination of texture paste, and loads of different stamps, mostly stamped with white brilliance pigment ink. 

 

 

For the backing paper, I used a whole series of distress inks and stamps to give the layout some contrast and a bit more stability.  Every edge has been distressed with s.e.i. cocoa chalk ink which is a lovely dark chocolate colour. 

 

Because the background was so dark, I decided to experiment and colour the chicken wire with a black Promarker.  Apart from being a bit dangerous, it worked very well!  I didn't want to use brads to adhere the chicken wire down, so I used copious amounts of Pinflair silicone glue, with something weighty on top and some time overnight to make sure everything was secure. 

 

With the alpha brads, I cut off the long legs from the back, and again, stuck everything onto the label with the Pinflair glue.  I coated the brads with Glossy Accents to secure the finish - hence why you can't read the title, because of the tilt on the way they've stuck!  I used some ancient 7 gypsies paper and cut out the letters for the "Views" word. 

 

The antique stickers cover up a car that was in the picture of the sculpture - and again - everything was edged with cocoa chalk ink. 

 

Supplies:

Patterned paper:

• Green ledger paper - love elsie "forrest - H2o" by ki memories
• Basic Grey Granola "Seed"
• 7 gypsies "Scrabble"

 

Stamps:

• American Crafts "Sentiments"
• Waltzing Mouse "Chicken Wire"
• My Mind's Eye "Wild Asparagus"
• Technique Tuesday "Postcards from Paris"
• Fontwerks "Clear Ticking"
• Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz collection "Odds and Ends"
• Paperartsy "Ephemera Plate 2"
• PSX "Celtic" alphabet stamps

Inks and Colouration Tools:

• Brilliance Moonlight White Archival Pigment Ink
• s.e.i. cocoa chalk ink block
• Ranger Distress Inks: Wild Honey, Scattered Straw, Bundled Sage, Pumice Stone, Tea Dye
• Walnut Stain,
• Black Promarker

Embellishments:

• 7 gypsies Gaffer Tape "Paisley Brown"
• MM "Passport" metal clip
• Letraset Helvetica Medium Condensed 3mm rub-ons
• My Mind's Eye - Kraft "Funday" layered stickers
• Label from K & Co "Re-Make" pad
• Chicken wire
• Sticko and K & Co "Life's Journey" antique postage stickers
• Various Prima Leaves
• Joanne's Courier Antique Alpha Brads
• Tim Holtz Sizzix decorative die "Tattered Banners"
• Tim Holtz Sizzix decorative die "Autumn Gatherings"

I do enjoy a challenge, and am highly relieved that I managed to finish this layout.  However - I don't think I will be working with chicken wire again - too lumpy, and too difficult to stick down.  Chicken wire doesn't have to be temperamental though - there are loads of lovely stamps available as a substitute.  Why don't you join in with this month's challenge and have a go? 

Jill at Cardinal Colours has come up with another fabulous prize this month:

WIRE!
1 pair wire cutters, 4 Prima Vines (wired) 2 wire embellishments, 3 wire frames and 4 inks - Imperial blue, orange, magenta and fresh green - wow!  You've got to be in it to win it!

 



Making Grey Skies Blue?

Great tips here at the Daily Digi blog....

http://thedailydigi.com/making-graygrey-skies-blue/

I really must try it!

Anniversary Card - Distress Inks

Hello!  I am sorry to say that the Distress Inks that I own have hitherto sat in the ink drawer, sadly underutilised.  When it came time to make a card for our recent 9th anniversary, I was rifling through my drawers of stash.  I came across some raw stamped images which I thought would be useful. 

Paul loves nature and outdoor pursuits.  I found these collage botanical and cow parsley images and decided to use them. 

 

I very simply coloured the cow parsley with Promarkers in quite a crude style.  I coloured the nature collage image by masking off each rectangle and then inking with various colours of Distress Inks - Scattered Straw, Wild Honey, Bundled Sage, Crushed Olive and Vintage Photo. 

 

I cut the ticket using the Sizzlets Framelits Tickets set and then also coloured with Distress Inks.  I used the Melissa Francis Sentiments set of stamps, stamped with Crushed Olive and then outlined with Promarker to soften the effect, which I like and think was very effective. 

 

I adhered the cow parsley image onto the card with silicone glue to add some dimension.  I was a bit pressed for time, and could have gone on to add something with even more dimension, but the card decided it was finished as it is! 

 

Really time to get cracking with Christmas cards, I suppose! 

 

 



Scrapology October Card Challenge

This month our sponsor is the lovely Shabana from Mei Flowers, please see here for her website which is chock full of delights.

 

 

The challenge is to create a card using the grid below, any 3 items in a line either across, down or diagonally. Of course you can add other elements too.

 

 

Thanks to Chrissy at Merly Impressions for the use of the bingo grid.  Here is my card:- I used layers, buttons and stitching on a male card. 

 

 

 

The rub-on is a really old one from Rhonna Farrer which I rescued, as otherwise I would have had to throw it away - which is just not me!  I will do all I can to use something wherever possible, and just disguise or live with any imperfections that may occur.  Part of the transfer had stuck to the glossy card, so I just rubbed the rest onto this surface, and then I coloured the background with Scattered Straw distress ink to blend better with the other colours in my card. 

 

I then just used various leaves - either diecut, or from patterned paper - to decorate the card.  Quite straight forward, really.  I hope you will join in with our challenge!