Hello Chickens

Another monthly class running on UKScrappers is 'Simple Recipes' which gives you a 'recipe' for putting together a page kit from your own supplies. This consists of a colour combination, some embellishment ideas and a sketch, but you can use any or all of these ideas.

The colour combination for January was Hot Pink, Stormy Grey and Chocolate Brown; the embellishments suggestion was to use items with texture such as fabric, lace and netting.
          









The colour combination led me to a photo of my friend's daughter investigating the chickens at our local farm park. I love the fact that her face is hidden by her sunhat - it reminds me of Faye Whittaker's 'All Our Yesterdays' paintings.

I toned down the intensity of the colours to suit my photo and used the sketch, but not the ideas for texture:

I used an assortment of old and new paper in pinks and browns on a grey background, plus some ribbon and some very old letters. Somehow I managed to use 'stuff' from four different Crate Paper collections.

Supplies
Paper - Chartwell Studio, Provocraft Pink Scribble Floral, Dovecraft Suger & Spice, Crate Paper Mia Collection
Flowers - Bo Bunny
Brads - Papermania
Letters - DCWV Christmas Alphabet Sticker Stack
Ribbon - Anita's
Border Strip - Crate Paper Random Collection
Phrase Sticker - Crate Paper Restoration Collection
Journalling Sticker - Crate Paper Cottage Collection

May All Your Wishes Come True

I am rapidly running out of month, so I decided to combine two challenges in one. The sixth challenge of the New Year Crop at My Scrapbook Nook involved embellishments - choose a top ten and use three of them BUT you have to use one in an unusual way and also alter one in some way.

I decided to combine it with the 'Pagerize This' challenge at Scrap Our Stash. This month's layout to be pagerised (i.e. scraplifted) was a Christmas page from Tamara but it was full of potential for a change of theme.

I kept the big block of patterned paper, the single photo and the rows of paper below the photo, but I moved the title down and made my journalling box much smaller than her calender.

My embellishments were strips of patterned paper, embroidery thread and punched shapes. I used the thread to make a frame, and chalked the paper strip as the background was originally white.

Supplies
Paper - Pebbles Fresh Goods, Pebbles Floral Lane, plus pink with pressed flowers paper from stash
Letters - Pebbles Mini ABC Stickers, Trimcraft Smirk For Her
Ribbon Tie-Downs - Scotch
Pink Trim - from Stash

A Boy & His Ball

Shimelle Laine is leading a monthly project over at UKScrappers, called '& now for something completely different'. Each month includes a full scrapbook page tutorial in 20 steps. You can use exactly the same supplies as Shimelle, or adapt to suit what you have. The January project is based around a circular paper from October Afternoon and has a rocket theme, but I changed mine to football.

I got this paper as part of a job lot recently and I didn't think I could really use it as my son is not a football fan. I probably wouldn't have thought of cutting out the ball if it wasn't for this project, so thanks to Shimelle, it has been used and was not part of my stash for very long. 

I followed most of the 20 steps, but I did make a few changes. I tried the punched circles in among the misted paint but I didn't like them. I also replaced the stitched stars with stamped stars. Finally, she added dots of glitter but my white star was already glittery, I don't have white glitter and I didn't want to use a different colour. I will save stitches and glitter for another layout.

Supplies
Paper - Adornit Soccer Ball Jumbo, Fancy Pants Beach Bum
Stamps - Banana Frog Circus Stories
Letters - American Crafts, Authentique
Star Embellishment - from Stash
Paint - Folk Art Yellow Ochre
Ink - Ink It Up!

Raffles Hotel

This week's challenge at Scrap Whispers is a sketch, which uses one landscape photo. I am trying to concentrate on my album of Singapore and Malaysia, so I rotated and adapted it to use with two landscape photos of Raffles Hotel in Singapore. 

We visited in December so the hotel was festooned in Christmas garlands, which prompted my colour choice of red and green. I mixed and matched paper from three manufacturers' Christmas ranges, but I chose the plainer papers or reverse sides.

I was originally going to put my title and journalling on the green paper, but my layout was beginning to look a bit 'blocky' so I had a re-think. Once I had moved the title and added the swirl, I didn't have much space left for journalling so I ended up splitting it over three stamped tags, something I haven't done before, and I quite like the effect. 

Supplies

Paper - Echo Park Christmas Dots & Stripes, We R Memory Keepers Peppermint Twist, Pebbles Welcome Christmas

Paper Embellishments - We R Memory Keepers Peppermint Twist

Element Sticker (behind title) - Echo Park Christmas Dots & Stripes

Letter Stickers - Anita's Glitterations

Chipboard Swirl - Papermania

Tag Stamps - KaiserCraft

Ink - Papermania

Gems - Dovecraft 

Shrek & Gingy

I tend to dip in and out of the ScrapFIT blog, rather than participating in every challenge. However the latest Weekend Warm-Up was too simple not to join in - use Kraft cardstock somewhere on the layout. I kept this incredibly simple, using kraft as my background and just layering a couple of papers and a single photo.

The photo is from Madame Tussaud's where we found waxworks of Shrek and Gingy. I used two fonts for my title to emphasize the difference in size between the two characters. Isn't it strange how once you've used something (like this bracket template) for a layout, you just keep using it?

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Basic Grey Mellow Equinox, K&Co Hannah Scrap Pad
Letter Stickers - Scenic Route
Peel-Off Letters - Goldlabel

Remember the Details

Well, I veered off course for a couple of layouts, but I'm back in Singapore today. This layout will be the last for Singapore (but I'm scrapping out of order so I still have three to do (if that makes sense)). I wanted to scrap a couple of photos that don't really fit in anywhere; they aren't of events or landmarks, just a couple of things that caught my eye.

I used Sketch #16 from Get Picky for this one. I usually stay pretty close to a sketch, but this time I did change it up a bit. The photos I wanted to scrap were landscape so I rotated the sketch and, since there were two photos I made them a bit larger. This meant that they didn't fit a circle very well so the circle became a bracket shaped square, running off the edge of the page. Nevertheless I believe that the original sketch is still visible in my layout.

Supplies
Card - DCWV Natural Stack
Paper - Dovecraft Eastern Promise, Trimcraft Laura Ashley Love Song, Basic Grey Perhaps, White & Green from Stash
Stamps - KaiserCraft, Pebbles
Ink - Papermania Serengeti
Letter Stickers - My Little Shoebox
Die Cut - atd

Birthday Card - 90

Creative Craft World have a new 'mini' challenge on their blog, to coincide with the launch of their monthly mini kit. It was quite straightforward - to create any project that is smaller than 12" x 12". I decided to make a card for my Nan's 90th birthday and took inspiration from the tag I made last weekend.

I kept to the same paper range but changed the colour scheme and expanded the design to fill the width of my card:

Supplies
Paper - HOTP, plus white from stash
Mesh, Ribbon, Peel-Offs - from stash 

My Spotty Baby

As soon as I saw the January Scrap Map at Creative Craft World, I knew that I wanted to do something with torn strips of paper.

I bought new supplies today - a set of mini punches and a pack of paper - and I put them to use immediately on this layout. I'm trying to stash-bust but I can't resist a bargain.

The pack has the same papers in multiple pastel colours and they are really easy to co-ordinate. I used three of the blue papers on this layout, with vellum and silver stars:

I dry embossed the vellum to provide a subtle frame for the photo and journalling. I also moved the title over to the left where it fitted better. I punched the hearts from vellum and layered them on the stars, which were the middles of the stars from this layout.

Supplies
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic
Vellum & Letter Stickers - Papermania
Stars and Peel-Off Letters - from Stash

A Circle of Friends

Another post about My Scrapbook Nook - you need to get over there. The fourth challenge in their New Year Crop again used the number 10, but only briefly. We were asked to choose our top ten layouts from 2011 and then scraplift one. To be completely honest, I didn't actually choose a top ten, but I had already picked my favourite for a year-end challenge at ScrapFIT so I set about lifting it. This was the original:

which I blogged about here. And this is the new version:

A new colour scheme and butterflies instead of snowflakes. I only had one photo on the new layout, so I started out with the sentiment in the place of the smaller photo, although I moved things around later. I also made the chalked circle larger and moved the title to emphasise the Circle in my sentiment.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper & Sentiment - Paper trail for Scrapbook Magazine, plus some from Stash
Letter Peel-Offs - docrafts
CHalk - Readicut Craft
Butterfly mask - from Stash

My Scrapbook Nook - Winner

Woo-hoo. I've just been over to the forum at My Scrapbook Nook intending to browse the new layouts entered in the New Year Crop, and what did I see? The winner of Challenge #2 has been picked - and IT'S ME!!

I am so shocked, as I've only just discovered the Nook and certainly never expected to win anything. My heart is literally beating faster. I will soon have a prize pack from Petaloo making its way to me. Can't wait to see what's in it.

Happy Birthday Tag

Another challenge from the New Year Crop at My Scrapbook Nook - this one was to create a tag using 2 Patterned Papers, at least 1 diecut or punch, 1 ribbon, and some embossing (or stickles or glaze), but a maximum of ten products. It was set by Katarina who provided a video of her making her tag. Having watched the video once, I gathered my products and played it again, following her design and scrapping along with her. This is her design on the left, and mine on the right:

I don't do embossing but my diecut flower was already embossed so I hope that will count. I have the patterned papers, the diecut, 2 punched shapes and the ribbon, and I used eight products in total.  

Supplies

Paper - Hot Off the Press, plus some from stash

Mesh, Ribbon, Embossed Flower - from Stash

Sentiment - Craft Creations

Pit Lane Antics

The recent challenges that I've done have all been single photo layouts, which normally takes me back to pre-digital photography. Much as I've enjoyed scrapping some older pictures, I feel that I must get back on task. One aim for 2012 (I'm not making resolutions) is to complete the album for our trip to Singapore and Malaysia in 2009.

The latest challenge from Scrap Whispers was a scraplift with three photos so I seized the opportunity to scrap some pictures taken on the Pit Straight of the Marina Bay Street Circuit in Singapore. This was Rosey's original layout:

And this is my version:

I kept the bracket shape, but used stripes rather than spots for the background paper. This was because I decided to use the back of the preceding layout in the album, and this sheet gave me a colour scheme when there isn't a lot of colour in the photos. I cut the blue bracket paper from a template and (after trying dozens of different colours) used textured grey card in the middle. My three pictures were slightly different shapes and sizes, and I matted all of them to provide some colour and separate the grey tarmac from the grey background, but I kept their general positions. I used a border punch similar to Rosey's on one edge of each photo mat and on a mat for the journalling. I dropped a lot of the embellishments as I didn't have much that would suit my peculiar colour scheme, just adding yellow dew drops to two corners. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Papermania

Paper - Scenic Route, Junkitz Winter Collection

Letter Stickers - Anita's Glitterations

Dew Drops - Papermania

Play House

The second top ten challenge at My Scrapbook Nook was simpler than the first - and also much more difficult - to choose TEN patterned papers and use all of them on a page. Simpler because there were no constraints on size and placement. More difficult because I NEVER use that many papers.

It seemed to me that the only way to manage this was to choose papers from the same collection but I rarely buy more than a few. I do have a couple of packs of 2" x 12" paper strips and I initially tried to do something with those, but although they are all from one collection they seemed to split into two or three subgroups and I couldn't make 10 of them work together.

Finally I chose to use a pack of 8" x 8" papers - the Sugar & Spice Collection from Dovecraft. The papers all co-ordinated well but I had no idea how to use them all. I turned to Shimelle Laine's blog  for inspiration as she often uses a lot of papers and always makes them work. I didn't scraplift any particular layout but did try to copy her style with lots of layers of paper. At first glance, it may seem that I only used seven, but I cut the flowers from two sheets and punched the butterflies from another.

Supplies
Paper - Komodo Inc Winter Trees, Dovecraft Suger & Spice Collection
Letter Stickers - Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type 

First Food

Well here we are, another Wednesday evening, another last minute layout for Sketchy Thursdays. They have teamed up with Scrappy Chics for this challenge so we have a sketch and a colour combination - to use blue and silver.

A single photo sketch plus using blue meant that I turned to old photos of my son; looking for silver embellishments led me to some corrugated cardboard stars, and meant that I could combine another challenge - the Weekend Warm-Up #22 from ScrapFIT was to create a layout using stars.

I flipped and rotated the sketch to accommodate a landscape photo and a large amount of journalling and came up with this version about weaning my son:

The background cardstock is really silver but it hasn't come out too well on the photo.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper - Pebbles New Additions, Sandylion Blue Gingham, Craft Creations Pale Blue Painted
Peel-Off Letters & Cardboard Stars - from Stash

Sleeping Bunnies

Another colour challenge from Scrap Whispers this week - this time it's pink, blue and turquoise. I found a great old photo of my children in bed together and decided to make a patchwork quilt of patterned paper to go behind it.

I found an old pack of paper from Scrapbook Magazine Issue 36 which had the same softly patterned paper in six different colours - light pink, dark pink, blue, turquoise, green and orange - so pulled the three I needed and started cutting. I drew 'stitches' on each square and around the edge of the page and used rub-ons for my title:

I am really pleased with how it turned out and all for the bargain price of 26p! The background was 59p for 10 sheets, patterned paper free, rub-ons 20p on clearance (and I have plenty left), plus I borrowed the pen!

Supplies
Paper - Chartwell Studio plus un-named collection from Scrapbook Magazine
Rub-on Letters - Papermania
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Hugs

My Scrapbook Nook are running a five week crop with challenges every weekend, based on a "Top Ten" theme. The first challenge, set by Lilith Eeckles, was like a recipe. She gave us a list of 'ingredients' and 10 steps to create a layout. Full details on her post. There were many more embellishments than I normally use - ribbons and flowers and chipboard and banners - plus limits on the photo size and the positions and dimensions  of the patterned paper. After a great deal of paper shuffling, I finally stuck mine down this evening:

Supplies
Card - DCWV Far East Stack
Paper - First Edition Paper Spring Feast Pad, K & Co Madeline Wild Roses, Dovecraft Sugar & Spice Pack
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Journalling Tag - KaiserCraft
Word Sticker - Pebbles Masking Tape Stickers
Chipboard Swirl - Papermania
Ink Pad (for inking naked chipboard) - All Night Media
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops, Dovecraft Pearls
Ribbon - from Stash

Christmas Baking

This is the layout I started for Sketchy Thursdays a few weeks ago and didn't finish before the deadline. Well, I've finished it now (almost).

When I first saw this sketch I wasn't sure how to use it, but once I'd taken some photos of my Christmas baking to share with a friend via Facebook, then it became obvious that I should use the pictures on a layout as well.

I had the perfect papers for this - the Afternoon Tea collection from Serif - freebies from Scrapbook Magazine. I just moved the photos slightly off-centre and moved the title to the top left instead of the bottom right:

I used five photos on the page and made a pocket for the recipes in place of the sixth photo. The reason that the layout is only 'almost' finished is that I cannot find my recipe for chocolate-orange cookies. As soon as I do I will print it out and add it to the pocket too.

Supplies
Card - white scrapbook insert
Paper - Serif Afternoon Tea Collection
Letters Stickers - docrafts
Rub-on Letters - Doodlebug Designs
Spoons Embellishment - HOTP
Mesh, Ribbon and Tag - from Stash

Scrap Whispers - Winner

My very favourite challenge blog in the world right now is Scrap Whispers. Why? Because I just won a kit from Doodlebug from them in their December draw.

That gives me something to look forward to in a cold and depressing January.

Clown Fish

The latest challenge on Scrap Whispers is a colour challenge - to use Pink, Orange and Purple on a layout. This is seriously a challenge for me as they are just not my normal colours.

I was at a loss to know where to start, until I came across some clown fish photos - orange fish with pinkish stones. Just needed to add purple.

I don't have many papers in these colours, (well, quite a lot of pink, but hardly any purple or orange) so I started looking through various freebies and digital downloads. I found a gorgeous digital paper - brown with spots of all the colours I needed - and instead of printing it out I made the decision to try digital scrapping!

There is also a NEW-themed challenge on Scrap Our Stash - and this is certainly something NEW for me.

It was harder than I thought and I had to ask my son for technical advice but (drumroll please) this is my first ever digital layout:

I don't suppose it will be the last, but I definitely prefer the feel of a 'proper' page, with all its layers and textures. In fact, my fingers are itching to get back to the paper and sticky tape rather then the computer keyboard.

Digital Supplies
HapPea Life Brown Dots Paper by Anne Langpap for Two Peas in a Bucket
Sunshine Daisy Mango Paper & Pink Pearl Brads by Hero Arts Digital
Mulberry 'Paper' - Unknown
Title - Aarvark Cafe font (Word Art)

Christmas Carols

Back in November, Shimelle Laine hosted a Christmas crafting weekend on her blog and I started this layout

 from this sketch:

Now that Christmas is over, I've completed the page with photos from a trip to London - carol singing next to the tree in Trafalgar Square.

Supplies
Card - Papermania
Paper - Craft Creations Christmas Scrolls/Holly/Words, Memories in the Making
Letter Stickers - docrafts
Journalling Tag - Making Memories
Crystals - from Stash

Jumping on Jazz

I haven't finished my layout for Sketchy Thursdays from their 15 December sketch yet - even though I had two weeks to do it. I decided to put that one aside in favour of their latest challenge. I also want to finish my 2011 album before starting on 2012. I'm in October but I have left a few gaps which I will have to return to. This is one of those gaps:

I rotated the sketch to suit my landscape photos but I didn't want to obscure my squared paper so I moved my title across to the left.

I only had one piece of this double-sided patterned paper, and the squares on the front were rather large (6cm across) so I scanned and reprinted it at 1/4 size to use lots of the motifs. I used a running stitch punch along the top and bottom of my strip of small photos and a stamp for my journalling spot.

Supplies
Paper - Around the Block Horse & Rider
Card - DCWV Neutral Stack, White Scrapbook Insert
Letter Stickers - Docrafts Me to You, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type