Build It Up & Knock It Down

The last challenge this month at Scrap Whispers is a technique challenge - to use paper-tearing on a layout - which I combined with another sketch from the sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World.

I chose a photo of my son playing with a stack of beakers and picked my papers to match their colours, but I also ensured that all the papers had some white in them to help tie all the bold colours together and to my background.

I used smaller strips than in the sketch, and moved the title over, stamping it in blue ink and edging the top and bottom of the cardstock in the same ink.

Supplies

Card - Scrapbook Insert

Paper - Scraps from Stash

Ink - Papermania

Pen - Sakura

Tools

Pebbles Alphabet Stamps

Boys Are Go!

I've finished a layout for Get Picky, with less than an hour to go before the deadline, based on their Sketch #17. 

I've rotated it to use with landscape photos and adjusted the size and position of the patterned paper to suit the fact that my pictures are larger than in the sketch.

I die-cut some circles in place of the butterflies and spread them around the page, aiming for a visual triangle, and outlined my letters to increase the contrast with the background. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Core'dinations Admiral Blue
Paper - MME Wild Asparagus
Letters - American Crafts
Ruler Sticker - Crate Paper Farmhouse
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
EK Success Rounded Corner Punch
Big Shot and Nested Circles Die

Hello Baby

This is another page for Scrap Whispers, using their sketch from Challenge 120. I'm combining it with Workout 62 at ScrapFIT which was to use XOXO on a layout.

I'm not one for lovey-dovey layouts, but I dug out a photo of my children when my daughter was just a few days old and planned to stitch a heart around it. They loved each other then, even if they can't stand each other these days (now aged 11 and 14).

Once I'd chosen my background paper, which has those XOXO's, I decided to change the heart for a double circle to match the 'stamps' on the paper. Then I moved the circle across so that I could curve the title around the circle.

All in all, the finished page isn't a lot like the sketch, but that's just the way it went. There wasn't a good place on the page for my journalling so I made a pocket behind the photo.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants It's the Little Things
Letters - Papermania
Thread - DMC

Tools
Heidi Swapp Circle Mega Mask
Bazzill Paper Piercer

Yum

Where has February gone? We're approaching the end of the month already and I have three layouts to finish for Scrap Whispers. The first one is for Challenge 119 - to scraplift this page that Nilsa made in October 2007:

I kept the size and position of the photo, the spotty background paper and the scalloped paper, but I extended it across the full width of the page. I moved the title across and swapped the tickets for circular embellishments.

The title and embellishments are something that I received just yesterday from Hilde in Norway. She is running a series of card kit giveaways on her blog each Tuesday until the end of April to celebrate her 500th blog post and I was lucky enough to win one last week. 

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Summer's End
Embellishments - Unknown
Twine - Divine Twine
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen

Tools
EK Success Corner Punch - used for Scallops
  

On the Move

I haven't been in a particularly scrappy mood recently, so I have been moving all my layouts from my old website to this blog. That's around 50 'new' posts from February to September last year. I've also added more labels so why not search a few and see what you find...

On Top of The Calf

Pam posted a recipe challenge at My Scrapbook Nook earlier this month - to use 2 photos, 5 patterned papers, 5 buttons, a 2 font title, ribbon/trim/twine, diecuts and stitching. I've kept this in mind as I have started each of my layouts and this seemed to be the one.

The sketch is another one from the sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World and has plenty of layers of paper and a place for the buttons on the right. I stitched the circle around my title and die-cut some circles on the Big Shot. The biggest challenge was the ribbon/trim/twine, as they didn't really suit the page but I ended up making a spiral from some twine. I've seen these a few times recently, but this is the first time I've made one. I don't think that it will be the last.

If you were wondering, The Calf is a hill in the Yorkshire Dales, which my husband and father-in-law climbed in 2007. The date and journalling will be on the opposite page, with more pictures.

Supplies
Paper - K & Co Hannah Scrap Pad, Fancy Pants Papa, MME Wild Asparagus, plus one unlabelled
Letters - American Crafts Remarks, JoAnn Craft Essentials
Buttons & Twine - from Stash
Thread - DMC

Tools
Big Shot & Nested Circles Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Peer Mentors

The sketch-a-thon at My Sketch World is over, but we have a little longer to finish our layouts. This is the last one, but I need to go back and fill in a few gaps.

The sketch clearly needed a large photo, but I rarely print them larger than 4" x 6". This lead me to a photo of the Peer Mentors in my daughter's year at school, which is 5" x 7" and was already printed. I paired it with paper from a 6" x 6" paper pack, but I don't know which one as I bought it as a part-pack which wasn't labelled. 

I combined the sketch with a couple of embellishment challenges. The first one, also at My Sketch World, was to make our own version of a shop-bought embellishment. The Amy Tangerine range at American Crafts has some cute tags with hand-stitched words on them. I copied these by stitching the year onto a tag for this page.

The second challenge was the first Step Class at ScrapFIT, where Sheila gave us step-by-step instructions for covering raw chipboard with fabric. I followed them to make my green star embellishment.

The circle near the top of the photo is attached to a card with the names of all the people in the photo (before we forget).

Supplies
Paper - Chartwell Studio, plus some from Stash
Letters - Papermania
Chipboard Star - Papermania
Thread - DMC
Ink - Papermania
Tag & Fabric - from Stash

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Bazzill Piercing Tool

Patchwork Card

Challenge 117 at Scrap Whispers a couple of weeks ago was a technique challenge - to use punches in a project. I use them quite often, so I suppose I could have entered any of my recent pages, but I wanted to make something where the punches were central to the design. I decided to make a card using three of the colours from this month's Simple Recipes strand at UK Scrappers, orange, turquoise and pink. It's not a combination that I would normally use on a layout, but it works well for a card.

I used some old patterned papers and a 1" punch to create a patchwork of squares as a base and layered punched butterflies and flowers on some of the squares. I also punched one of each shape right though the card and wrapped ribbon around the card. I will add a peel-off sentiment to the ribbon when I decide who to give it to.

Supplies
Paper - Unnamed collection free with Scrapbook Magazine Issue 36
Card - GCS UK Ltd
Ribbon - from Stash
Pen - Faber-Castell Pitt Artist pen

Tools
Dovecraft 1" Square Punch
Woodware 3/4" Flower Punch
Crayola Butterfly Punch

Mallyan Spout

Following the success of this double page, I decided to use the same layout again, but flip it vertically; this time the subject was rather closer to home, a walk to a waterfall in North Yorkshire.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - MME Backyard, Fancy Pants Beach Bum, DCWV Garden Party, First Edition Paper Spring Feast Pad
Letter Stickers - Scenic Route
Dew Drops - Papermania
Ink Pad - Papermania

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Circle Template and Cutter
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Flower Punch

Eastern & Oriental Hotel

When I saw that both ScrapFIT and My Sketch World have a challenge to create a layout on white cardstock, I though that it would be really easy. I wasn't going to create anything specifically for it, just enter the next layout that I made on white. This has taken a surprisingly long time as white just hasn't been the right colour choice for the last few layouts. Today it was, and I combined this with a sketch also from My Sketch World and a techniques challenge at My Scrapbook Nook.

The techniques challenge is the last one from the Nook's New Year Crop and kept up the theme of top tens. Gina listed her top ten techniques and challenged us to use at least four of them on a layout.

Keeping with my Far East album, I decided to scrap some pictures and memorabilia from our hotel in Malaysia. My title circle is actually a coaster that I saved and the water colour picture at the bottom of the layout is one that I bought in the hotel gift shop.

My circle was much larger then in the sketch, and couldn't really be trimmed,  so I had to shuffle things about a bit to make them fit. Techniques-wise, I inked the edges of my card stock to provide a border and punched the edges of my central panel. I also stamped and cut out two flowers for the ends of my paper strips and stitched crosses at the opposite ends of the strips.

Supplies
Cardstock  - Papermania
Paper - Dovecraft Eastern Promise paper pack
Ink - VersaColor

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Pebbles Flower Stamps 

Fort Canning Park

I've had this double layout in mind for a while but I kept putting it to one side in favour of completing challenges. It is based on Shimelle Laine's 4x6 Photo Love class from May last year and uses 5 photos of Fort Canning Park in Singapore.

I'm really pleased to have filled in this gap and also finished the Singapore section of my album. Roll on Malaysia.

Supplies
Card - DCWV Neutral Stack, DCWV Far East Stack
Paper - Crate Paper Little Sprout, Dovecraft Eastern Promise Paper Pack, HOTP Asian Writing
Word Embellishments - from Stash
Ink - Papermania

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Big Shot & Provo Craft Cuttlekids Tadpole Alphabet Dies
Pebbles Bracket Stamps

Tiger, Tiger

I recently received a bag of purple buttons from Georgina at Scrap Whispers. When I first saw the February scrap map at Creative Craft World, I had a vision of using those buttons in a circle with the column of photos as in the sketch. Unfortunately I couldn't find a trio of suitable  photos. I shall have to  keep this in mind; I may have to have a purple photo-shoot with my daughter.

Instead I decided to pick some recent photos and make the sketch work for them. We visited Chessington World of Adventures on one of their winter Zoo Days when the rides were closed and we could concentrate on the animals. I flipped and rotated the sketch to suit two landscape photos of the tigers:

I used chalks with a mask to make my circle and rub-ons for the animal pawprints. I stamped my journalling spot and chalked that too. I had a small crisis when I ran out of black e's but I managed to ink some white ones to match. They are not as shiny, but I don't think anyone will notice (unless they read this).

Supplies
Paper - Chartwell Studio, Basic Grey Sultry, Basic Grey Archaic
Letters - Papermania
Rub-ons - Papermania
Chalk - Readicut Crafts
Ink - Ink It Up!
Ribbon - from Stash

Tools
Journalling Stamp - Banana Frog Circus Stories
Mask - Heidi Swapp Mega Mask Circles

Who Needs Shoes

The sketches are coming thick and fast in the Sketch-a-Thon over at My Sketch World; luckily we have until 3 March to complete them. Or do we? It is Lucy's birthday today and she has a special draw for those who can upload their finished layouts from today's sketch by 11pm EST.

I decided to give it a go, but due to the time difference I had to work fast. A deadline of 7am tomorrow means completing this before I go to bed tonight. No time to fuss over which supplies to use or to look for the perfect matching items. I had a quick flick through my photo albums for a suitable pair of photos, chose my colour scheme based on my son's sleepsuit, and started scrapping. Luckily the sketch isn't too fussy and doesn't need too many papers.

As I neared completion my layout was looking a bit bare, so I decided to add three clusters of buttons. This also fits the Warm-Up challenge at ScrapFIT which is to use clusters on a layout.

EDIT: My late night was worth it. I won a $20 gift voucher for The Robin's Nest. Shipping looks very reasonable ($5!) so I shall have new stash soon.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - Basic Grey Perhaps, Glitz Design Laced with Grace
Letter Stickers - Pebbles
Quote Sticker - Basic Grey Archaic

Autumn or Winter

I do like a happy coincidence. This week's challenge at Scrap Whispers is a colour challenge - use red, orange and green.

Similarly the February colour challenge at My Sketch World is to use any four of eight colours; there's a wide range, but they include both red and green.

The next set of photos for my 2011 album was a pair of autumnal pictures, and the stripey paper that I had already paired with them contained many of the required colours.  Happy coincidence indeed. I just needed to add some red via my tag and my title letters. To be honest, the title may well have ended up being brown without the challenge, but I'm very pleased with the look of the red.

I also used Sketch #4 from My Sketch World's 6th Birthday Sketch-a-Thon. Three challenges in one:

Supplies
Paper - Glitz Design Laced with Grace, Crate Paper Little Sprout, Basic Grey Mellow Equinox, EK Success Cream Linen
Letters - Basic Grey Curio
Ink - Papermania

The London Eye

I first discovered My Sketch World almost a year ago, when I joined in with their 5th Birthday Sketch-a-Thon. A year on it's now time for their 6th Birthday and another Sketch-a-Thon, 15 days of brand new sketches for cards and layouts.

I decided to combine the first sketch with Pam's colour challenge at My Scrapbook Nook. She listed 10 ways to use colour on a page and challenged us to use two us them. My first layout paired a colour with a neutral; this time I decided to pull the colours from my photos - my usual way of choosing them.

I used a larger photo as the focus of my page, and moved the title and journalling around in order to accommodate a third smaller photo from our trip on the London Eye last autumn:

I used two papers from Crafts House - one with an all-over swirl pattern and one with patterned circles on the same swirls. The letters are from a variegated pack so some are much lighter/darker than others.

Supplies
Paper - Crafts House Retro Brown, plus blue from stash
Letter Stickers - Papermania Capsule Collection
Ribbon - from Stash

All Lit Up

Challenge 7 of the New Year Crop at My Scrapbook Nook was set by Pam and it was all about colour. She listed 10 ways to use colour on a layout and challenged us to use two of them to create two layouts.

The first method that I used was to pair a colour with a neutral. I paired yellow and grey for a page about Singapore at night:

Unfortunately, the camera has bleached out the yellow in the photo above. The letters, borders and journalling cluster are all yellow really. 

Supplies
Paper - Teresa Collins Timeless, plus grey and yellow from stash
Letters - Cut on a Big Shot with Sissix dies