Smile

A second post from me today, as I try to finish some challenges before the deadlines. This page is for the 1st December sketch at Stuck?! Sketches.

I scrapped a school photo of my children that was larger than in the sketch, and adapted the other layers behind it to suit me. I try to use letter or number paper on school pages, and this was no exception.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Basic Grey
Washi - Crate Paper, Efco
Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Ink - Ink It Up!

Swingalong

Two of the challenge blogs that I follow teamed up for their mid-month challenge. Sketch-n-Scrap produced the sketch while Scrap Our Stash provided the additional requirement of using two border punches and one other punch.

I picked a couple of smaller photos, and roughly followed the sketch, but I adapted it as I went along. I used two border punches, and then five more assorted shapes for clusters to the sides of the photos:

Supplies

Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Miss Caroline

Letters - American Crafts

Brads - Papermania

Mist - Teal Cosmic Shimmer Mist

Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Hobbycraft Star Punch

Craft Essentials Heart Punch

Sports Day Snapshots

This page has been a long time in the making. I picked my photos at the beginning of the month as fitting Brenda's sketch at Grand Diva's Creative Corner, but I struggled with picking my patterned paper and I put the photos aside for a while. Having made the last page, I decided to try another dark background; this one is from Crate Paper's DIY Shop collection and I stuck with that collection for the rest of my papers too.

Brenda is one of three friends who publish three interlinking Scrappy Friends challenges each month; I've only combined two of them this month - Brenda's sketch and Kristi's challenge - Make it Sparkle. I have three trios of gems on my page for just a little sparkle.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - American Crafts, Pebbles
Stickers - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Gems - Dovecraft, atd

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch

The London Eye

Hello blog! It's been a while since I've been here, but a bout of sickness and then the Christmas preparations kept me away. I did make a couple of pages before Christmas in small bursts, five minutes here and ten minutes there, and now I actually have the time to blog them.

The first one is dead simple, three 4x6 photos from the London Eye, stacked up in a column. There's not a lot of colour in the photos and, after trying a few background papers, I was inspired by Rosey's page at Scrap Whispers to use black cardstock and black and white papers to help the photos stand out.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Imaginisce Sole Sisters, Paper Cellar
Border Sticker - Doodlebug
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Tape - K&Co Smash
Gems - Recollections
Ink - docrafts

Mum & the Boys

A belated posting of my page for last week's Team Challenge at UKScrappers. The December Week 1 challenge was set by Sue (aka MiniOwner) - she gave us a sketch and asked us to scrap about a mother and to use numbers. She's set the same sketch as the challenge on her blog Me & Mine this month so that kills two birds with one stone. Very useful at this busy time of year.

I had been working my way through 2003 photos recently, but I didn't have any of my Mum unscrapped for that year so I went 'random' and picked a really old photo of her with her grandsons. These cute toddlers are now 16 and 17 years old! It was easy enough to tweak the dimensions of the sketch for a single 4x6 photo rather than two smaller ones.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Closet Stack
Paper - MME Lime Twist, MME Miss Caroline, Paper Cellar
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Bo Bunny Et Cetera
Eyelet Brads - Pebbles
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
EK Success Corner Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

A Squash & A Squeeze

This is my third page from the Mini Cyber Crop at UKScrappers. It's for Challenge 7 which was to use a Starting Point for a page. The basic paper layers in a starting point are already in place (a bit like a sketch) but you can finish the page in any way you like.

The stack of papers seemed perfect for a single photo, so I pulled one of my children and my niece in the bath. I've had the bath paper for ages but it was smaller then 12x12 so I mounted it on cardstock as my background and used an assortment of pink and blue papers for my layers. They're not quite the same sizes as in the starting point as I was mostly working with scraps and used them as they were. This tall thin font was perfect for reinforcing my title, and I finished off with a scattering of sequins and gems which I hope are reminiscent of bath bubbles.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV?
Paper - Provocraft, Crate Paper Random, Crate Paper Neighborhood, Pink Paislee Snow Day, Unknown Floral
Letters - Jillibean Soup
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Farmhouse
Ink - Ink It Up!
Gems & Sequins - from Stash

Three "J"s

This is another page from the Red Ribbons Mini Cyber Crop at UKScrappers last week. I'm not doing all the challenges, just the ones that appeal, so this is Challenge 6. It's another sketch challenge, combined with a masculine colour palette of blues and browns.

I chose to use just the left half of the sketch, and jiggled it to suit the fact that one of my photos was square, not portrait. 

The Three "J"s of the title are James, Julie and their baby, Jonathan.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV
Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sport, Pebbles New Arrival
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Another Year Older

The Red Ribbons House at UKScrappers held a mini cyber-crop last week, but I was working and couldn't participate 'live', so I've been playing catch-up this weekend. The first challenge was a sketch, which I loosely followed.

I've gone back to my 2003 photos and scrapped three that my cousin sent me of her children. They live in New Jersey so we don't see each other very often, but she always sends me photos in her Christmas cards.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Crate Paper The Pier, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Washi Tape - Crate Paper DIY Shop, We R Memory Keepers
Star - Creative Embellishments
Sticker - Pebbles Fresh Goods
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Elle's Studio 'Notes' Stamp
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Boxing Day

I very nearly forgot to do a page for Sue's sketch challenge at Me and Mine this month. I've been concentrating on 2003 photos recently and didn't have anything suitable from that year, so I put it off for later... until I was almost too late.

The sketch was for five small photos, and I knew I had some that my sister gave me years ago, from my son's first Christmas. It turned out that I had two 4x6 photos as well as the five smaller photos, so this became a double page with the sketch rotated as the right-hand-side.

I used papers from three different Fancy Pants Christmas collections; luckily the papers I had all co-ordinated, but I don't think they would all necessarily work together. I didn't have two papers the same for the backgrounds so I cut and pieced two papers and used a border sticker over the join. I adore these wood veneer stars and used a liberal scattering in place of the hearts on the sketch.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Fancy Pants Home for Christmas, Fancy Pants Winterland, Fancy Pants Tradition
Letters - MME Lush
Border Sticker - Fancy Pants Home for Christmas
Stars - Studio Calico
Ink - docrafts

Helping Out

I've been neglecting the monthly Have I Got Scrap for You class run by Niki Rowland at UKScrappers. Every month I mean to join in, but I rarely do. I think I've made three pages from the 10 prompts so far, but I've added another to that tally this month. One of the prompts in the November class relates to the use of not-so-obvious titles, and I've also scraplifted one of Niki's sample pages.

The girls in the photos are my daughter and my niece, and I could have gone for an obvious, "In the Park" or "On the Swings" title, but I was helping out my sister-in-law with her housework... by looking after my niece for the day so she could get on with it uninterrupted.

I combined this class with the Weekly Challenge also at UKScrappers. The November Week 4 challenge was set by the Bijoux Belles who asked us to choose six different b-words from their list. I chose blue, brown, baker's twine, brads, bling and beads. Can you spot them all?

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Stack
Paper - Sandylion Snowflakes. Pink Paislee Snow Day
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Brads - Papermania
Word Stickers - Authentique
Stars & Beads - from Stash

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Stapler

Nee-Nar

Shimelle published a new Sketch to Scrapbook Page video last weekend. It's best suited to a single 4x6 photo, so I put it to use with the next single photo that I have from 2003. I switched the patterns around from the page that Shimelle made, with a patterned background and a plain panel on the left behind my paper strips. I also added a border sticker across the page to ground my title. 

The photo is of my children in a fire engine, hence the slightly strange title. It'll only make sense if your fire engine sirens actually go 'nee-nar'; I accept that many don't.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, KaiserCraft Lush
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Border Sticker - Fancy Pants Park Bench
Frame - Studio Calico
Gem Circles - Recollections
Butterflies - Prima
Word Stickers - Authentique
Washi Tape - October Afternoon
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Summer Days

The ladies at Scrap Whispers have published three challenges so far this month, so I have some catching up to do. I made this page for Challenge #159 - to make a Minimalist page. I has just ordered a new mask when the challenge was published and I thought it would work for this.

I used turquoise mist with my new mask to make a simple background for my single photo which I trimmed and mounted on a journalling card. Unfortunately the mist warped my background cardstock so much that I had to layer it on a second piece, but this actually made a nice frame to the page. I kept the embellishments quite simple and journalled up one side of the background.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Journalling Card - Elle's Studio
Vellum Frame - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Eyelet Brads - Pebbles
Title - Freebie from Scrapbook Magazine
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer Mist

Tools
Circles Mask - Creative Embellishments
EK Success Corner Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Viroconium

This week's team challenge at UKScrappers very nearly didn't happen, but Mary stepped in at the last moment. Her challenge (November Week 3) is to use all cardstock (no patterned paper), scrap photos of something other than people or pets, and to make a cluster embellishment to adorn the page.

The next photos from our Shropshire holiday were of the Roman baths at Viroconium (now Wroxeter) so I paired them with printed kraft cardstock and added a circle of plain kraft and a cluster of flowers. 

Supplies
Cardstock - MME Kraft Funday, Papermania
Letters - Basic Grey Nordic Holiday
Journalling Spot - Unknown
Chatterbox Scrapbook Tacks
Eyelet from Stash
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Big Shot & Tag Die
Woodware Daisy Punch
Eyelet Setter

@ Blists Hill

Blists Hill is a recreation of a Victorian town, near Ironbridge. I can't believe that I only have one photo from our visit there in 2003, but I suppose this highlights the difference between taking photos on film when you need to be confident that the photos will come out well, and digital photography when you can take dozens of photos and just keep the best few.

Anyway, my only photo was of a horse and cart that were providing rides around the town. It was originally 4x6 but I cropped it before I put it in my album, probably removing half a person from the edge of the photo. I decided to scrap it in a column of paper strips from a 6x6 pad and I filled in the gap at the side of the photo with another strip and a row of brads.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Archaic, + 2 Unknown
Letters - Basic Grey Nordic Holiday
Brads - Papermania
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Park Life

I'm combining challenges today, but that's because two challenge blogs have teamed up for a joint venture. Stuck?! Sketches have published their November 15th Sketch, and Sketch with Stash Challenge #9 at Scrap Our Stash  is to use the same sketch and some wooden stash (which can be paper or stamps instead of actual wood).

I'm sticking with my 2003 album, but I've skipped forward a few pages to scrap this single photo of my daughter in the park. I made a black and white copy to layer with it as per the sketch.

Supplies
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Miss Caroline
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Doilies - Dovecraft
Washi Tape - The Range
Label Sticker - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Flower Sticker - from Stash

The Iron Bridge

I'm continuing with my 2003 album, and using those photos for sketch challenges where I can. 

Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #45 was designed for four smaller photos, but I used it for two 4x6 photos of the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, the first cast iron bridge in the world, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and part of a UNESCO world heritage site.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Fancy Pants Tradition, MME Wild Asparagus
Letters - American Crafts Remarks
Numbers - Lily Bee
Border - Teresa Collins Timeless
Sticker - Bo Bunny Et Cetera
Ink - docrafts

Ludlow Castle

Having managed to split my holiday photos between Ludlow and Stokesay Castles, I had enough for a double page from Ludlow Castle. It's pretty basic, with two rows of photos on a patterned paper background, but I find it hard to do much else when I have this many pictures that I want to use. I added some rows of stitching below the photos for a change and a bit of interest.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Closet Stack
Paper - K&Co Peabody
Letters - Basic Grey Periphery
Thread - DMC
Ink - docrafts

Stokesay Castle

I'm continuing with my 2003 album, at least until the mid-month sketch challenges are released, and even then I'll try to use the sketches with the photos from that year.

We took our first holiday of the year in Shropshire, where we visited Stokesay Castle. My photos were a bit mixed up with those from Ludlow Castle so I am grateful for the power of the internet for helping me to split them. Obviously such things weren't available ten years ago as I had mis-labelled some of the photos. These four were of Stokesay:

Supplies
Paper - MME Family Roots, Dream Street Papers, K&Company, Basic Grey Porcelain
Letters - Studio Calico
Flower Trim - part of Prize from Carolina Peixoto
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Impromptu Photoshoot

While my scrapping mojo was missing in action, I had a sort through some of my older photos. I have lists of pictures to scrap from 2004 to 2013, but none of them was inspiring me, so I went back to 2003, put the pages that I have already done in a new album and made another list.

I decided to start at the beginning of the year with photos of my son, my daughter, my niece and my nephew. We had all four children together for once and decided to take a series of photos of them. Five 4x6 photos means a double page (although I did crop most of them).

I'm linking this page with the November Week 2 Challenge at UKScrappers which was fairly flexible and open to interpretation. Sarah gave us a 'Marmite' Challenge - to use photos, colours and techniques that we either love or hate. I love this set of photos - they were taken 10 years ago when the children were happy to pose for the camera; now they are aged 11 to 17 there's no chance of a decent photo - but I hate them too as the strong colours of the sofa and the wall are hard to work with. I love yellow and blue which I have used for this page, but I hate the background paper - I'm not really sure what colour it is but it worked with the other papers and I had two pieces (which I need for a double page). Finally I hate double pages (or rather, I prefer single pages) and I love punching the edges of my papers. The postage stamp border punch is my favourite, I use it a lot and I can't believe how long it took me to decide to buy it.

Supplies
Paper - Kit 'n' Kraft Cafe, Crate Paper Random, The Robin's Nest Jean
Letters - Pebbles, Lily Bee
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Random
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Brer Fox

My scrapping mojo has gone AWOL over the last few days. I finished this page on Sunday but I really couldn't be bothered to blog it until today. It was made for the November House Challenge at UKScrappers, which was to take inspiration from this autumnal photo.

When it was published, I didn't have an immediate plan, but we had a fox visit our garden the next day, and I decided to scrap the photo that I took of it. 

I really wanted to use the leaf paper, and I pulled in teal papers from the shutters in the inspiration photo. I was going to mat the photo on teal cardstock, but it didn't really work and I switched it out in favour of red, also from the inspiration photo.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - HOTP Leaves & Acorns, K&Co Life's Journey

Letters - American Crafts

Border Sticker - Crate Paper

Word Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi

Leaves - Jolee's Boutique

Ink - docrafts

Tools

EK Success Corner Punch

Little Lady

I skipped doing last week's challenge at UK Scrappers as it didn't inspire me at all, but I found this week's to be much more to my taste. 

The November Week 1 challenge, set by Heather, had three parts as usual - use the sketch, do some stitching (hand, machine or faux) and use die-cut or punched shapes.

I chose a portrait photo of my daughter, and used pinks and greens to match the colours in the photo, plus some brown for contrast. I ended up flipping the sketch vertically; I pleated and machine stitched the ribbon below my photo; I die-cut a tag and tucked it under the photo, so I have all the challenge elements.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Sultry, Pebbles New Addition, Pebbles New Arrival, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Brads & Sticker - American Crafts Dear Lizzy
Flower & Ribbons - from Stash
Circles - Anita's Glitterations

Tools
Sewing Machine
Big Shot & Tag Die

Sleep When Baby Sleeps

Two challenges in one today. I used the November sketch from Brenda at Grand Diva's Creative Corner and the theme of Family from Rochelle Spears.

My photo is of myself and my daughter when she was just a couple of weeks old and my title comes from the advice given to all new parents. The second part is a bit hard to read as the letter colour is close to the background colour, but I don't mind that.

The sketch was just a starting point for me this time. Those chevrons caused me to start from the paper as I had a piece of zig-zag paper left after making two previous pages (Zoe & Jon and Nyhavn) with it. I cut the zig-zag into chevrons and used scraps from the same collection for my page. Having chosen the paper I looked for a suitable pair of photos, but came up with just one; since I was working with scraps I used the pieces I had and the feel of the sketch, rather than sticking to it faithfully.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Pink Paislee Prairie Hill
Letters - Making Memories, Lily Bee
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Ink - docrafts
Thread - DMC

I Can Hold Her!

The subject of this page was driven by the photo orientation in Sketch #44 from Sketch-n-Scrap - one portrait and one landscape. A quick rummage in my photo collection produced a pair of photos of my children when my daughter was just a baby and couldn't sit up on her own - hence the title.

I chose a primary colour scheme and kept pretty close to the sketch, just moving most things a bit further to the right:

Supplies
Paper - atd, Crate Paper DIY Shop, EK Success Inspirables
Letters - Fancy Pants Wavesearcher
Brads - Papermania
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch
Dovecraft Square Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Testing, Testing

An odd title perhaps, but this picture is one of the test photos my husband took when we got our first digital camera back in 2004. I scrapped it using the 1st November sketch from Stuck?! Sketches, which I rotated and adapted for just one photo. 

Since the page is more about the camera than the photo, I started with a camera print paper from Echo Park and then pulled in some 6x6 papers. I've used my first ever piece of Flair on this page (thanks to Jenni who included a pack in her prize from the ABC-123 Blog Hop at Scrap Our Stash).

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Home for Christmas, Crate Paper Neighborhood, Crate Paper The Pier, Echo Park This & That
Letters - Papermania
Flair - Fancy Pants Trendsetter
Brads - from Stash
Ink - Ink It Up!
Thread - DMC

Tools
Fiskars Circle Template
Bazzill Paper Piercer

Lolly Time

A new month means a new round of challenges. Stash Challenge #9 from Scrap Our Stash was a nice easy start to the month - use 6x6 papers and at least six pre-made embellishments of the same type. I bought Crate Paper's The Pier collection in 6x6 this summer, and the ice lolly paper caught my eye when I flipped through. I also used the stripe and the woodgrain from the same pad (cutting the woodgrain paper in two to look larger than 6x6) .

The photo is my nephew at the seaside when he was 18 months old. I kept the embellishment (10 brads) quite simple as this page is from the same day as this page which I made a while ago and has no embellishment at all.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Marjolaine, Crate Paper The Pier, DCWV Garden Party
Letters - Pebbles
Brads - Papermania
Ink - Ink It Up!

Adventure Island

I've been re-visiting some of the chapters from the Hitchhiker's Guide to Scrapping workshop over at Two Peas in a Bucket and this double page comes from one of the 'Starting Points' - a row of vertical patterned paper stripes with borders above and below. This is another page made from scraps (apart from the 12x12 backgrounds) and an easy way to use them up.

The photos are a selection from my son's birthday trip to a local theme park.

Supplies

Paper - Crate Paper Random, MME On the Bright Side, Cherry Arte Arcade

Letters - American Crafts Thickers

Boder Sticker - Making Memories

Label - My Mind's Eye

Ticket - 7Gypsies?

Wasi Tape - Trimcraft

Film Strip Peel Offs - Decorstix

Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico

Ink - docrafts, Ink It Up!
Mist - Mister Huey's Opaque White, Cosmic Shimmer Mist Teal

Brads - Papermania

Tools

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

10th Birthday Card

Remember the 'Wildlife' page that I made last weekend? With the remainder of my s.e.i. Dill Blossom papers? Well, I still had a few scraps left, so I used them for a birthday card for my nephew. 

I covered the base card with 'Happy Birthday' paper, printed the number 10 on scrap card and cut it out. Then I punched loads of stars from the paper scraps, glued them onto the 10 and used foam squares to attach it to the card.

I think this is an idea that I will use again, with different numbers and colour combinations.

Supplies
Card - from Stash
Paper - Art & Crafts Direct, s.e.i. Dill Blossom
Ink - Papermania

Tools
Hobbycraft Small Star Punch

At the Top

This is a companion page for Climbing Snowdon which I blogged a few weeks ago, but I couldn't share it then. And the reason that I couldn't share it was that it was made as part of the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers. Three teams all start from the same scrapbook page and each team member scraplifts the layout of the person before them. The three end layouts can look very alike, or very different, depending how each team member interprets the page they are given.

This time I was scraplifting Sherri and I used her page as inspiration rather than copying every element. I liked the bracket-shaped square behind her photo and I made this a bigger feature on my page. I also swapped her large journalling block for a second photo. I'm not sure whether her background paper is one piece or whether she layered up strips on the right, but I added paper strips to my plainer background. Sherri has some metal embellishments on her photo, which I mimicked using a tag sticker with a brad and I used another brad as an echo of her flower.

All three chains of pages have been revealed on the Scrap Whispers blog this week - Georgina's Team on Monday, Nilsa's Team on Tuesday and Rosey's Team on Wednesday.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss

Paper - Basic Grey, Cloud 9 Designs, Glitz Design

Letters - Making Memories, Jenni Bowlin Studio

Stickers - Simple Stories

Brads - Dear Lizzy, Papermania

Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Bracket Shaped Square Template