Baby Zoe

Another sketch from My Sketch World today. I could have gone for traditional pink for this new baby girl layout but the only colour in my niece's babygrow is a bit of purple embroidery so I decided to go with purple for a change. While rummaging for sufficient coordinating papers to make the patchwork background I came across this sheet with its butterflies. I have had it for years (and can't remember who made it) without ever finding an opportunity to use it. This seemed to be my chance so I abandoned the patchwork and kept the layout very simple. I didn't have the right colour letters so I used some green ones as a template and cut them out from an offcut of plain paper.

Supplies

Paper - From stash

Letters - Craftime (used as a template)

Ribbon - From stash

Rattle & Ribbon Charm - Making Memories

Grandad

This is the seventh scrapbook sketch (but the 13th overall) in the Sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World. I feel like I've done a lot of two-photo layouts recently, and the new Sketchy Thursdays sketch is another for two photos, so I decided to use a single landscape picture this time. I found this one of my Grandad with all five of his grandchildren. It is a family favourite and deserves to be scrapped.

I have just received the latest copy of Scrapbook Magazine and the free Serif papers are perfect for the green and pastels in the photo. The serif papers had a paper heart with them, but it was too small for my journalling so I cut out a larger one and sewed round the edge, hanging it from the paper with ribbons.

Supplies

Paper - Serif Spring in Your Step

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Rub-On Letters - Making Memories

Ribbon & Buttons - from Stash

Embroidery Thread - DMC

'Family' Tag - K & Co Hannah Scrap Pad

Singapore Flyer

 Continuing the Sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World, this was the perfect sketch for these photos of the Singapore Flyer. I was already planning to use a semi-circle of paper with them to emphasise the shape of the Flyer, and I used punched circles as my embellishment. I decided that I wanted to use our tickets on the layout so I added them below the journalling strip.

Supplies

Paper - DCWV Far East Stack, Scenic Route Paper Co North Shore

Letters - American Crafts Thickers

Almost Walking

A fourth sketch from My Sketch World's Sketch-a-thon and another archive photo. Most materials came from the Hannah Scrap Pad which made co-ordination easy. However, the letters I wanted to use were too big so I scanned them and reprinted them much smaller. I gutted the green cardstock to use a piece as the photo mat, and made the tags from the reverse of offcuts of the flowery paper. My main deviation from the sketch was to change the orientation of the tags so that I could put my title on one and my journalling on the other.

Supplies

Paper - K & Company Hannah Scrap Pad

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Letters - K & Company Hannah Scrap Pad, My Little Shoe Box Mini Alphabet Stickers

Ribbon - Papermania

Brad - Kit 'n Craft

Junior Gardener

I found this sketch from Pencil Lines to be a little tricky. I started my layout with longer strips of paper to match the sketch, but while I was arranging and rearranging them, I decided to cut them into squares for a patchwork effect. I framed my photo and moved it to the left to accommodate the length of my title. While rummaging for suitable extras, I found the cute dungarees embellishment which is the perfect match for my son's outfit.

Supplies

Paper - Making Memories Fresh Anthology Collection, Basic Grey Stella Ruby
Baseball Cap & Brad - HOTP
Alphabet - Sandylion
Ribbon & Dungarees - from Stash

Bodiam Castle

A third sketch from the sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World. I wanted to use a portrait photo next to the landscape one so I swapped them over compared to the sketch. I cut long slits in the cardstock and passed the spotty paper through them, to make a stripe, rather than adding another pattern, layering ribbon and a journalling spot over the top. My title got a bit lost against the pattern, so I outlined it in black pen. Finally I added a row of crystals at the top left and mirrored it at the bottom right.

Supplies

Paper - Basic Grey Urban Dot, HOTP Sandstone

Card - Papermania, DCWV Natural Stack

Letters - American Crafts

Ribbon - Tesco

Crystals - atd

Pen - Faber-Castell

Digging

A second sketch from the sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World. Again, I've kept close to the original sketch; I just extended the bottom panel of paper to the full width of the layout. I was in two minds about putting my title on paper with writing but once I outlined the letters with white pen I was quite pleased with the effect. I also wrote my journalling by hand as I wanted to fit it on one of the strips from the stripy paper and I couldn't have lined up the printer to do this.

Supplies

Paper - Provocraft Blue Stripes, DCWV Beach Words, HOTP Sandstone

Card - DCWV Neutral Cardstock Stack

Letters - Papermania

Pen - Sakura

Spider Girl

A four photo sketch from Sketchy Thursdays this week, and a quick photo browse brought up some photos of my daughter on the spider's web climbing frame in the park. I decided to print one slightly larger and mat this as a focal point. The papers all come from the same range and are intended for babies but the branches reminded me of the ropes and I don't think the brown paper is babyish at all. I moved the title as the lengths of the words fitted the shape of the circle better at the top right, and just added a place and date strip below my ribbon rather than full journalling.

Supplies

Paper/Letter Stickers/Chipboard Bird - Pebbles

Card - Papermania

Ribbon - Recycled from packaging

Baby Ben

My Sketch World are celebrating their 5th birthday with a 20 day sketch-a-thon. I've discovered it a bit late but entries close on 3rd March so I have time to catch up. This is the first sketch in the series; I have resized it for my photos, straightened the right hand picture, and used a few less embellishments, but I've kept pretty close to the original.

Supplies
Paper - Sandylion Blue Gingham, American Crafts
Card - Papermania, Moments (scrapbook insert)
Chipboard Star - American Crafts
Letters, Ribbons & Other Embellishments- from Stash
Date Rub-ons - Rusty Pickle

Let's Swing

A new blog for me to follow - Get Picky post an inspiration challenge on the 1st of each month and a sketch challenge on the 15th. The photos in this sketch were quite small and I didn't think it would work so well with larger ones so I went back in the old albums to find some small pictures. I changed the rectangle of patterned paper to an oval so that the left photo wasn't so isolated. The flowers that I wanted to use were quite large so I just used two, and two butterfly embellishments.

Supplies

Paper - From stash (unlabelled)

Flowers - Papermania

Butterflies - Woolworths

Alphabet Stickers - Anitas's & Craft Creatives

Rub-Ons - Papermania

Embroidery Thread - Madeira

Gamers

After speeding through the last few layouts, I hit an inspirational brick wall with this sketch challenge from Pencil Lines. The bunting indicated a fair or theme park, or maybe the beach, and actually led to me choosing the papers I wanted to use before picking a photo, rather than choosing the papers based on the photo theme and colours. I had had these papers for a long while as my layouts normally use pastels or earthy colours but I thought they would make great bunting. However I found it difficult to find the 'right' photo and this was one layout where I did shuffle various different photos with the paper hoping that inspiration would strike. I even considered skipping this week's challenge but what is the point of a challenge if it is not challenging?

After sleeping on it, I decided to drop the actual bunting from the layout but stick with the bright papers and look for a photo which would work with them. I finally chose this one of my children, niece and nephews engrossed in their Nintendo DSs as I felt the colours echoed the game graphics even though we can't see them. The strangely named grey Suet Pudding paper reminded me of a concrete racetrack which suited the game they were playing and provided a neutral background for all that colour. I anchored the strips of paper with brite brads (which I had also had for a while) and added my journalling to one of the strips at the bottom.

Supplies

Paper - Blonde Moments Suet Pudding, Papermania Birthday Mini Scrapbook Kit

Brads - Making Memories, Laura Ashley

Alphabet - Craftime

Feed the Animals

Another old Pencil Lines sketch, another layout finished, this one about a trip to Colchester Zoo. I'm getting them done so much faster, as I no longer waste time shuffling my pictures about trying to come up with new ideas. The animal print paper was left over from a layout about Longleat Safari Park so this was a cost effective layout too.

Supplies
Paper - Sugar Tree Giraffe Spots
Card - DCWV Neutral Cardstock Stack, DCWV Natural Cardstock Stack
Cord - from clothing tag
Alphabet - Papermania

Ripley's Believe It Or Not

Getting used to sketches, and determined to finish my 2010 album, I went looking for a suitable 5 photo sketch for my photos from Ripley's Believe It Or Not and didn't find one. However I thought that if I moved the title up on this old sketch from Sketchy Thursdays there would be room to accommodate the fifth photo. I originally planned for the photos on the right to overhang my central panel, but they got lost against the coloured background so I tore an extra strip of paper to go behind them. The star is cut from the reverse of the squares paper to give a perfect colour match.

Supplies
Paper - The Paper Loft Crazy Squares, Sandylion Biscotti

Christmas Tradition

Another Sketchy Thursdays challenge. When I saw a three photo sketch, I looked at the remaining photos that I need to scrap for 2010 and decided to use these pictures of my children decorating the Christmas tree. I bought these papers last Autumn with this photoshoot in mind so it took no time to pull them out of my stash. I kept very close to the original sketch, just adding an extra paper on the left as I wanted to show more of the holly pattern.

Supplies

Paper - Craft Creations Christmas Scrolls/Holly/Stripes

Stickers- docrafts

Ribbon - recycled from Lindt chocolate rabbit

Dungeon Ghyll

While I was working on the previous page, I decided that I needed a companion page to explain where we were and to show off some of the scenery photos. I chose my photos and looked for a suitable four photo sketch, finding this one from Sketchy Thursdays last month. As it was to be a companion for the previous layout, I used the same papers and letters.

Supplies
Paper - My Minds Eye Wild Asparagus Collection, KI Memories Inc Forrest Merit Badge, Kit 'n Craft
Card - DCWV Natural Cardstock Stack
Alphabet Stickers - American Crafts Thickers

1 Rock - 2 Kids

Still browsing old sketches at Pencil Lines, I came across this one (no. 216) from December. 

My photos, from a trip to the Lake District, were larger than in the sketch so there wasn't room for an embellishment on the right, especially as it would have obscured my patterned paper. I moved the circle up, moved the title down to follow the circle and filled its space with leaves cut out of the patterned paper.

Supplies
Paper - My Minds Eye Wild Asparagus Collection, KI Memories Inc Forrest Merit Badge, Kit 'n Craft
Card - DCWV Natural Cardstock Stack
Alphabet Stickers - American Crafts Thickers

Georgian Girl

This was actually the next photo in one of my piles to scrap when the sketch was published at Pencil Lines. I decided to flip the sketch as my daughter is facing left in the photo. She is dressed in a replica Georgian outfit so I turned to these heritage papers and was pleased to find that the blue one is an excellent match for the doll she is holding. The right angle between the two papers was looking a bit harsh so I added a piece of doily which I think echoes the lace on her mob cap. I didn't have the right size or colour alphabet so I printed this title on scrap paper, pierced holes and stitched it.

Supplies
Paper - Craft Creations Ivory Small Stars, American Crafts Heritage Collection
Flower - Papermania
Embroidery Thread - DMC
Ribbon & Button - From stash
Doily - Sainsbury's

Two Peas in a Pod

This sketch from Pencil Lines led me to a professional photo of my children. It was taken almost seven years ago and is still a favourite of mine. I've had the spot and stripe papers for nearly as long. I get them out quite often but they never seemed to work with my photo until now. 

I played about with the size and shape of my papers compared to the sketch, as the original was too narrow for me.

Supplies

Paper - Sweetwater Scrapbook

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Alphabet - Basic Grey Blitzen

Silver Frames - All My Memories

Counting Flowers

Following on from Sketch 223, and unwilling to wait for Sketch 224, I decided to go 'backwards' and make a layout based on Sketch 222 at Pencil Lines, the challenge originally set on 24 January 2011. I had a layout similar to this in mind already for this photo so it was quite straightforward to complete.

Supplies
Paper - From stash (unlabelled)
Card - Papermania
Alphabet Stickers - Craft Creatives
Chipboard Heart - Pebbles

David at 7 Months

I was recently browsing past issues of Scrapbook Magazine for inspiration when I found mention of the Pencil Lines blog. This blog sets a weekly sketch challenge and I decided to take part, starting with their Sketch 223 (right). 

This set of photos came to mind when I first saw the sketch. It took a little while to choose the right papers but then it all came together quite easily, apart from discovering that I have used up all my rub-on Ts. Hence the word 'DAVID' is in rub-ons while 'AT 7 MONTHS' was computer printed.

Supplies

Paper - DCWV Denim, Junkitz Earth Petite Plaid, Basic Grey Archaic, Chatterbox Small Spruce Argyle (Reverse)

Rub-Ons - Papermania

Computer Font - Felix Titling

Metal Word - Making Memories

Lake District

While looking at other peoples Pencil Lines layouts, I came across several mentions of Sketchy Thursdays and decided to investigate that blog too. I had been wondering how I was going to scrap my husband's walking trip to the Lake District as I struggle with multiple landscape photos. When I saw this sketch, I had a solution. I enlarged the photos so that they were landscape rather than the squares given. I was probably influenced by the pattern in the sketch when choosing my papers but I have used the Spruce Argyle paper before on his walking pages as the colours are usually a good match for the photos.

Supplies
Paper - Dream Street Papers Unique Boutique, Chatterbox Small Spruce Argyle
Embellishments - atd
Title Font - Papyrus