Weald Park

I almost forgot to make my page for this month's & Now for Something Completely Different class at UK Scrappers, but I've done it just in time. This month was all about using up scraps of paper and making use of neglected tools, though the border punch I chose is actually in regular use on my pages.

Shimelle used two 4x6 landscape photos on her page, and most people followed her, but I used four smaller photos from a walk in Weald Country Park earlier this year, together with scraps left over from this page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - Best of K&Company Too (Peabody Collection)
Letters - KI Memories
Ink - Dovecraft
Brads - Papermania
Dew Drops - Papermania
Ribbon - from Stash
Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Tempate
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Small Daisy Punch
Woodware Medium Daisy Punch 

Taking Shelter

A second page from The Perfect Collection; the photo is from the same walk as before so using the same paper, ribbon and gems makes sense. When we reached the top of the hill in the previous page, it was so windy that we took shelter in a ruined building on the summit.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Basic Grey Granola
Letters - Pebbles
Ribbon - Tesco?
Pearls - Dovecraft
Epoxy Word - from Stash
Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Photo Scavenger Hunt 3 - 8

A day trip to London on the trail of the Olympic mascots gave me the chance for lots more photos in the Scavenger Hunt, though my children said that I was behaving like a tourist!

An outdoor stairway leading up to Tower Bridge:

A roadside stand near the Millennium Bridge:

A person playing a musical instrument. I took several photos of buskers around the city but I'm sharing this one of a piper on Westminster Bridge:

A church, chapel, cathedral, mosque or temple - St Paul's Cathedral:

A historical landmark - The Tower of London:

A picture of you standing with something that symbolizes your nation - Me with Tower Bridge and the Olympic Rings:

Full details of the Photo Scavenger Hunt and the photos I have taken can be seen in the 'Photo Hunt' tab above or by clicking the 'Photo Scavenger Hunt' label below.

Friends

'The Perfect Collection' is a class that Shimelle Laine taught as part of True Scrap 3 last spring and it is now available as an individual class. I don't want to give anything away, but it's about creating a set of co-ordinating pages from one collection pack. I decided to try out her techniques with some Basic Grey Granola papers, but I had originally bought five sheets, the ones I like most, not the whole collection.

The first page that I have completed has a photo of my children and my friends' child on holiday earlier this year. Despite (or maybe because of) the age difference and the fact that they only see each other for one week a year, I would definitely say they are friends. I took the photo when I was behind them on a walk, and I love the way the two older children are looking down at the younger one and looking after him.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Basic Grey Granola, plus scraps
Letters - Pebbles
Ribbon - Tesco?
Pearls - Dovecraft
Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Craft Creatives Heart Punch

Thorpe Park

Last week's Glitter Girl Adventure (#29) at Two Peas in a bucket was about using paper with a scene rather than a pattern on it. I had a piece with a fairground scene on it, that I got as part of a mixed lot; I have pulled it out a few times, but I wasn't keen on the stalls across the bottom of the page and I wasn't sure how to use it. One of Glitter Girl's suggestions for pages like these was to cut the page down to 10x10 and surround it with a border, which was great as I could remove those stalls and concentrate on the ferris wheel.

We went to Thorpe Park a few weeks ago, so I decided to try using this paper with a group photo from the day:

It's not one of my favourite pages, but I've used that paper and got another photo scrapped.

Supplies
Paper - Sugartree, Echo Park  Yours Truly, Fancy Pants Beach Bum, Fancy Pants Fancy Free
Cardstock - Papermania
Letters, Stars, Ribbon & Paint - from Stash

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Photo Scavenger Hunt 2

A day out by train today gave me the chance for a second photo. I would prefer a steam train if I get the chance but this may be the best I can manage this summer:

Full details of the Photo Scavenger Hunt and the photos I have taken can be seen in the 'Photo Hunt' tab above or by clicking the 'Photo Scavenger Hunt' label below.

Showjumping for Children

Another page for a CHA Challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket. Challenge #6 was to use a sketch based on a page by Lisa Andrews. The multi-photo sketch was just the thing for photos of my son, daughter, niece and nephew taken last weekend.

I kept the basic layout, but reduced the number of photos from twelve to eight (two of each child). My papers are actually from an old Christmas collection, but they are versatile enough to be used elsewhere too.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Dasher (Starlight & Snowfall Ice Blue)
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Basic Grey Curio Mini Mono Stickers

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Photo Scavenger Hunt 1

While blog-hopping recently, I came across a couple of mentions of a photography based scavenger hunt set by Maria Ontiveros at Gallo Organico. There are 21 photos to be taken between 21 June and 21 September (plus one that can be substituted for any of 1-20). Most of them are do-able without being too easy so I decided to give it a go. 


As well as blogging them I've set up a separate page to collect all the photos together in one place. Please click the 'Photo Hunt' tab at the top of the page to see them (and details of the ones I haven't found yet).

School finished yesterday, my son returned from a field trip with a bag of dirty washing and the sun is shining so I've been able to take my first photo today - an easy one - the clothesline:

Den Builder

It's been a slow week for scrapping; I've been working on this page in fits and starts, lots of short sessions, but it's finally finished. I've abandoned 2007 for now in favour of scrapping some of this year's photos before the pile gets too large. 

The page is for a CHA challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket - Challenge #8: Combine Three (or more) Trends on a project. I chose to combine chevron patterned paper, banners and washi tape on my layout:

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill (Orange), Cream Unknown
Paper & Sticker - Echo Park This & That Charming
Letters - American Crafts, Doodlebug
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Dovecraft
Buttons - from Stash
Twine - Divine Twine

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template

The Middle of Nowhere

This was our holiday cottage in April this year, a farmhouse up a mile long private road in north Wales, an introduction to a series of pages from this holiday (hit the 'Wales' label for more). I used this week's Starting Point from Shimelle Laine, but I flipped it horizontally.

My page also fits with a couple of prompts from the Something from Almost Nothing class, as I've used paper scraps (the piece with a circle pattern is L shaped, and the long stripy piece is actually two short pieces) and a length of ribbon.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Basic Grey Max & Whiskers, My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart
Letters - October Afternoon Mini Market Stickers
Ribbon - Anita's
Flowers - Bo Bunny
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Pony Trekking

Hurray, I've reached the end of the ABC Crop at My Sketch World. Time to celebrate (and then move on to the next project). Z was for Zoo - create a page with an animal on it somewhere. I picked out a couple of photos of my daughter and niece plus horses, and used more of the K&Company papers, this time in co-ordinating pinks and greens, along with a Starting Point from Shimelle Laine from a few weeks ago.

None of the papers were plain enough for journalling on, so I decided to look through my digital kits for a suitable journalling card. I didn't actually find one, but I did use a digital paper, cropped and resized, as a background for my printing.

Supplies
Paper - Best of K&Company Too (Peabody Collection)
Stickers - K&Company Hannah Scrap Pad
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Journalling Box - Adapted from the Long & Winding Road Digital Kit by Shimelle Laine at Two Peas in a Bucket
Ink - Dovecraft

Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Fiskars Shape Cutter and Circle Templates

Yellow Butterfly Card

This is my final card from the ABC Crop (as we are alternating between cards and layouts), and it is for the letter Y. I was quite disappointed to see the instructions - Y is for Yellow: Create a card using yellow - as we also had to use yellow with L is for Lemon. Never mind, yellow it is.

I recently bought a 360 sheet pad of paper from K&Company - the Best of K&Company Too. It was quite inexpensive and there are three sheets of each design so I really don't mind cutting it up for cards. There's no feeling of keeping it for something special or for just the right project. I cut into a couple of sheets (one for the background and one for the butterfly) and added a ribbon and a journalling spot (turned over) that was lying on my desk and was just the right size and colour.

Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Paper - Best of K&Company Too (Cut 'n' Paste Collection)
Journalling Spot & Ribbon - from Stash
Ink - Papermania

Summer Ball

The end is in sight. I've reached X in the ABC Crop. X is for X-ray - create a page using only black, white and grey. This was a tough one. I've got plenty of cardstock in these colours, but just one sheet of patterned paper, so I had to use this damask print in two shades of grey. It's a formal paper so I paired it with a formal photo, one of me and my husband at his company's Summer Ball in the early 90s. I used my bracket punch on both the grey patterned paper and some dark grey card to make the borders, which I embellished with tiny pearls.

A close up
of the border:

Believe it or not, I didn't have enough of the right letters in either black or white for my title, so I turned to my Big Shot and used the same grey card. I will add some journalling to the page, but I'm not sure what memories I need to record. I should have a clearer idea when I do more pages from that era.

Supplies

Cardstock - Chartwell Studio, DCWV Neutral Stack

Paper - Teresa Collins Timeless

Pearls - Dovecraft

Tools

Fiskars Bracket Border Punch

Big Shot & Provo Craft Alphabet Dies

Layered Card

And a quick card for W in the ABC Crop: W is for Wavy - Create a card using at least two things that are wavy. I reckon that the Apron Lace punch qualifies as wavy so I punched and layered several strips of patterned paper and added a sentiment sticker and a tiny butterfly.

Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Paper - Spring Fever Collection
Sticker - Robin's Nest

Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Craft Creatives Butterfly Punch

Cheerful Day

Well, the ABC Crop is officially over, but I have five more challenges that I would like to finish. The first is for V: V is for Variegated - create a page using striped patterned paper.

I recently received my kit club parcel with some Dear Lizzy Neapolitan papers, including a pretty stripe. I decided to use this, and picked a picture of five of my Grandad's great-grandchildren (my children, my sister's child and my cousin's children). This was taken on his 90th Birthday, so I used the balloons from the same collection. Other pages nearby in the album will make the birthday theme clearer. I'm not sure what to use as a title for the page; I'd picked the sticker that says 'Cheerful Day' and I'm thinking that I won't actually add a proper big title. Does every page really need one?

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, KaiserCraft Seaside
Sticker - American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan
Metal Embellishments - Papermania Floral Circles
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Papermania

Red, White & Blue Card

It's back to cards for U in the ABC Crop where U is for U.S.A. - create a card using only red, white and blue. This was indeed a challenge as they are colours I just don't use. My scraps box is full of greens and browns; there are a few blue bits but hardly any red. In the end my card was mostly blue and white, with just a scrap of ribbon and a brad contributing the red.

The crop ends officially at midnight PST tonight so this is the last challenge I will enter. However, with only five left, I think I will try to finish them off after the deadline.

Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Paper - Making Memories Fresh Anthology 6x6 Pad
Flower - Papermania
Brad - Laura Ashley

Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch

Chelmorton

When I was digging out the photo for the last page, I found a trio of photos from the same holiday that fit together. I decided to use them for the T challenge of the ABC Crop at My Sketch World: T is for Twine - use twine on your page.

I'm also using the prompts from Shimelle's Something from Almost Nothing class. Prompt 1 was to use metal and prompt 2 was about using up paper scraps. I punched a stack of 1" squares from scraps to make a border, set a few eyelets in the squares and wrapped twine around the whole thing. 

Unfortunately, the photo colour is slightly off, as the background paper is beige not grey.

Supplies

Paper - American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, plus scraps

Twine - Brown Sugar Divine Twine

Letters - All My Memories

Eyelets - Creative Collection

Ink - Papermania

Tools

Dovecraft 1" Square Punch

Flower Card

And S is for Stickers - use stickers on a card. Easy enough as I have plenty of these. I picked a sticker with a vase of flowers, stuck it to white card, cut it out and used foam squares to raise it above the background. That background is a piece from a border sheet. I inked the edges and there is room on the dotty stripe for a sentiment when I know what it will be.

Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Paper - Pebbles Floral Lane
Sticker - from Stash
Ink - Papermania

Victoria Tower

On with the ABC Crop, and I'd done Q before I returned to J. R is another layout, with everything clustered on the Right hand side of the page. I decided that a single portrait photo was the best way to achieve this and went back to 2005 for one of the Victoria Prospect Tower in Matlock Bath. The tower is a folly built in 1844, to give unemployed labourers something to do!

Once I started my page, it was all getting a bit vertical and I wondered if I should have picked a landscape photo instead. I persevered and added the horizontal paper and my first strip of washi tape. Then I took my title further to the left and I think I've beaten out the verticalness (if that's a word) of the page.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Wisteria
Letters - Bo Bunny Et Cetera
Brads - Papermania
Embroidery Thread - DMC
Spiral Paperclips - Pebbles
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
EK Success Corner Punch (for scalloped border)

Theme Park Joy

I'm returning to J now on the ABC Crop at My Sketch World. It's taken a little while for me to decide how to make a scrapbook page using the word 'Joy' in the title. I was putting my 2012 pages in an album and checking through my photos to leave spaces for the pages I haven't made when I saw this picture of my son at the top of a theme park ride. It's not a great photo, but he is looking at the camera and smiling, which is an achievement and that is what I journalled about.

This page will be near to this one in the album, so I pulled out the same papers to work with. I started with a white background but I changed it to beige dotted swiss along the way.

The layout is loosely based on an old Sketch of the Week from Shimelle Laine, and the row of eyelet brads in my border are a consequence of her Something from Almost Nothing class which I started recently. Prompt 1 is about using up our metal embellishments; I've used 9 brads from a pack of 20 that I bought last September and hadn't touched since.

Supplies
Card - Bazzill Dotted Swiss

Paper - Echo Park Sweet Summertime, Pebbles Season's Greetings, K & Co Hannah, Pink Paislee Snow Day

Border Sticker - Crate Paper Farmhouse Collection

Letters - JoAnn Craft Essentials
Tickets - Paperhouse

Eyelet Brads - Pebbles

Ink - Dovecraft

Tools

Fiskars Bracket Border Punch
Papermania AlphaMania Clear Stamps

Friendship Card

I'm over half way now with the ABC Crop at My Sketch World; I intend to finish it, but I will try to combine some of the ideas from the Something From Almost Nothing class that I have started too.

Q is another card: Q is for Quote - create a card where your sentiment is a quote.

I had a shuffle through some freebie papers from magazines as they often include a panel with a quote. I chose the Best Friends Collection from Scrapbook Magazine and layered a quote with three squares of patterned paper. I inked the edges and added brads to the squares. (Prompt 1 of Shimelle's class was about using up metal items.)

Supplies
Card - GCS
Paper - Best Friends Collection
Brads - Bazzill

Something from Almost Nothing

I really enjoyed Shimelle Laine's Hitchhikers Guide to Scrapbooking workshop earlier this year. I've been thinking about taking another of her classes and took the plunge over the weekend. I've chosen Something from Almost Nothing; it's an old class from March 2010 about using up all (or maybe just some) of our crafting supplies, getting them off the shelf and onto the page where they can be truly appreciated. I'm doing it with another scrapper; if anyone else wants to join in, they would be more than welcome - click the image for full class information.

Sports Day

I'm managing to keep with the 2007 album for the next page from the ABC Crop. I'm up to P: P is for Punches - Use at least two punches on your page.

I picked a series of photos from my daughter's sports day, lined them up across the page and rounded the corners with my first punch. Then I used a bracket border punch on two background papers, and offset the punched patterns to copy the lozenge effect I discovered when making this page.

Supplies
Card - DCWV
Paper - K & Co Paper Doll Collection
Letters - American Crafts Thickers

Tools
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch
EK Success Corner Punch

Party Hats Card

O now and time for another card - 'Create a card using the colour Orange. You can use one other colour with it.' 

I have a couple of pieces of orange paper with party hats that I have had forever (pre-2008). They were originally part of a multi-pack and I never thought I would actually use them, being themed AND orange. Time to dig one out and turn it into a simple card. Maybe I should do the same with all my unloved paper!

Supplies
Card - WHSmith
Cardstock & Paper - from Stash
Ink & Gems - Dovecraft

Tools
X-Cut Running Stitch Border Punch
EK Success Corner Punch
Anita's 'Happy Birthday' Stamp


P.S. I've had an idea for 'J is for Joy'!