Another page from the Sketch-a-Thon at My Sketch World. This time I used Sketch #12, though as always I adapted it to my personal taste.
I picked a couple of photos of my nephew as a toddler, and a selection of papers for the strips at the bottom, but I wasn't happy with the arrangement. I ended up with a more geometric design, with a row of strips of the same height:
Supplies
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, plus scraps and unlabelled papers
Frame - Jillibean Soup Macho Nacho
Letters - Papermania
Tools
X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch
There are six challenges (numbers 126 to 131) over at Scrap Whispers which close this Sunday as we approach the end of the team scraplifting game. Challenge 129 is a colour challenge, to use pink, black and bling.
This had me stumped for a while as I don't use a lot of pink or black, but when I was rummaging through my scraps box I found a couple of off-cuts where I had originally used the patterns on the other sides for my pages. I struggled with photos too, going right through my photo albums in vain, until I remembered one lurking in an envelope with others that were too big for the slots in my album. This baby photo of my daughter had the perfect combination of pinks and greys for my paper. I upped the amount of black with the last scrap of an alphabet paper, one of the first 12x12 papers I ever bought and I have loved it right to the last.
Supplies
Paper - American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, Teresa Collins Timeless, plus Scraps
Letters - October Afternoon
Glitter Tape - Making Memories
Ink - Ink It Up!
Tools
Craft Creatives Butterfly Punch
Back now to the 7th Sketch from the Sketch-a-Thon at My Sketch World. This one had me baffled when it was published as I couldn't find quite the combination of photos that I thought I needed. However once I decided to ditch the idea of using four photographs and to substitute patterned paper for the smaller ones, this page came together quite easily.
I picked a couple of dinosaur photos from a holiday in Cornwall, and they are once again larger than those in the sketch, so I played around with the dimensions of the other elements and ended up dropping the three circles on the right.
Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Porcelain, American Crafts Chap, American Crafts Dear Lizzy Neapolitan, Basic Grey Archaic
Border & Embellishments - Basic Grey Archaic
Letters - Gold Label
Ink - Dovecraft
Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
I had been working through the sketches from My Sketch World's Anniversary Sketch-a-Thon in order, but as soon as I saw Sketch #11 I knew exactly which photos I wanted to use. We visited the Eden Project in 2004 (pre-digital photography) and I had just three photos from the day, in exactly the right orientation mix, but a little larger.
I was lucky enough won a gift certificate from The Robin's Nest in last year's Sketch-a-Thon, and some of their products are on this page.
We visited again last year and I have 48 photos, plus my husband probably took a similar number. They're going to take more than one page to scrap!
Supplies
Paper - The Robin's Nest Boy Stripes, Basic Grey Periphery, Colorbok Travel
Letters - The Robin's Nest, Pink Paislee
Pearls - from Stash
Ink - Ink It Up!
Tools
EK Success Corner Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Small Daisy Punch
Well, 37 consecutive days of posting here was something of an achievement, but then it all fell apart. I've been overcome by a bout of lethargy recently; I've only made two pages in the last week, and one of them can't actually be shared with you yet. It's half term next week so it will be a while before I get back to regular posts, but so be it.
This is the page that I can share now, it will lie opposite this one in my album, and relates to the same visit to the Imperial War Museum site at Duxford, so I used mostly the same papers. I took some of my inspiration from a recent sketch at shimelle.com, especially the idea of turning my title sideways, which I don't do very often. I wanted that title to be in chunky letters like Thickers, but I didn't have enough of the right letters so I cut them with my Big Shot and layered up three of each to get the chunkiness that I wanted. The middle layer is yellow, and I offset them very slightly to show a sliver of that colour. I really like the effect, and I want to try this again with different colours.
Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Bling Black Tie, Bazzill Yukon Gold
Paper - Teresa Collins Vintage Finds, Basic Grey Aged & Confused, Basic Grey Periphery
Die Cuts - atd
Gems - Making Memories Paper Reverie
Ink - Ink It Up!
Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
This is my final page from 2006. I have just one photo from Christmas Day where my son is distributing Christmas cards to the correct people. I decided to run with traditional Christmas colours of red, green and gold, and used the design technique of 'finishing off a collection by piling up what you have left on the page':
Supplies
Paper - Echo Park Christmas Dots & Stripes, We R Memory Keepers Peppermint Twist
Letters - Anita's
Ink - Dovecraft
Last November, I was steadily working my way through my 2006 photos, until I hit the brick wall of a double page that I had no idea how to do. At the time, I thought that I just needed to do that double and a single page where I had mislaid a photo. I did them in January (Dunster Castle & Investigating the Great Fire), but by then I had discovered a few more photos on my backup hard drive that inexplicably weren't actually on my computer.
Thus two more pages to go, and I will actually, really be finished with my 2006 album. Luckily, both pages are from December that year, so I just had to add one extra page protector at the back rather than rearranging the whole album to fit them somewhere in the middle. This is the first - my brother and sister-in-law at her 30th birthday party - a fancy dress party with the theme of Heroes and Villains:
Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper - Paper Adventures Al Fresco, Stemma Bottoms Up, Various Scraps
Letters - Papermania
Ink - Ink It Up!
The sketches in the Sketch-A-Thon are coming thick and fast over at My Sketch World. This page is inspired by Sketch 5 (sketches 3 and 4 were card sketches). Sketches 7 and 8 have both been scrapbook pages too, so I have some catching up to do.
The photo I picked is larger than the one in the sketch, so I adapted the other elements, but I think the original sketch can still be seen in my page.
I'm pleased to have used up some really old paper here, two pieces marked 2006. Though I haven't had them quite that long, it's still nice to use them up.
Supplies
Paper - Sandylion Green Spice, KI Memories It's a Girl, Echo Park This & That Charming
Letters/Numbers - Making Memories
Eyelet - Vaessen Creative
Ink - docrafts
Tools
Bracket Shaped Square Template (Manufacturer Unknown)
The February House Challenge at UKScrappers is to take our inspiration from one of three quotes that we were given. I chose "One way to get the most out of life is to look upon it as an adventure" from William Feather, which I interpreted as seizing any chance that comes your way to do something a bit different.
I combined this challenge with the February Scrap Map from Creative Craft World, which was a straightforward one-photo sketch, and I didn't mess about with it.
I scrapped a photo of my husband and his team-mates as they embarked on the UK Three Peaks Challenge in July 2005. They were aiming to climb the highest peaks of England, Scotland and Wales in 24 hours, competing against other teams from the IT industry. He wasn't a regular hillwalker at that time (though he is now), and when the chance came along to take part he did indeed look upon it as an adventure.
We didn't have to use the quote on our page, but I chose to use it to lead into my title:
I was one letter short for my title in this black alphabet. Luckily I have the same font in brown, so I inked one letter to match. Can you tell which one?
Supplies
Paper - s.e.i Winter Song, My Minds Eye Follow Your Heart (6x6), Kit n' Craft, Unknown Map Paper
Letters - American Crafts Foam Thickers
Ink - docrafts, Ink It Up!
Buttons - from Stash
This page was conceived a few months ago, but it's taken some time to be born. Last summer I took a class from True Scrap 3 called The Perfect Collection. It was taught by Shimelle Laine and she demonstrated a method for quickly producing pages by randomly cutting up ALL your patterned papers and layering up the pieces to make pages. I started with a small collection of five papers from Basic Grey, and I made two pages at the time. I returned to my bag of paper pieces in November and made two more pages. You can see these four by hitting the 'Perfect Collection' label below.
I finished off by piling up my remaining pieces to make one final 'starting point' page and put it aside until I paired it with a suitable photo. That day has finally arrived and I have my fifth and final page from five patterned papers and five pieces of cardstock.
It was an interesting process and one I will repeat in the future (when I find another collection that I can bear to cut up into random pieces).
Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper - Basic Grey Granola
Letters - Paper Cellar
Ink - Dovecraft
Continuing with the February Sketch-a-Thon at My Sketch World, this is Sketch #2.
I pulled out a mixed pair of photos (one landscape/ one portrait) for a page last week that just wouldn't come together, so I still had them to hand for a second attempt to scrap them.
They are old ones of my son in the adventure playground of a local farm and country park which we used to visit every summer.
Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper Restoration, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist, docrafts Spring Chic
Border Sticker - Sandylion
Letters - Sandylion / Winnie the Pooh
Brads - Papermania
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Animals - Paper Bliss
February means a Sketch-a-Thon over at My Sketch World. They are celebrating their seventh birthday, and this is the third year that I have joined in. They generally alternate between cards and layouts, and this is the first sketch.
I rotated it for my page, as my main photo was portrait, not landscape. All three were originally 4x6 prints, but I cropped lots of grey sky from two of them. They're from a cloudy day in Cornwall when we visited the Satellite Earth Station at Goonhilly Down.
I have been hand-writing my journalling for ages but I couldn't fit what I wanted to write in the space that I had left myself, so I turned to the computer for the journalling on this page.
Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Miss Caroline, Pink Paislee Indigo Bleu
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Random
Letters - October Afternoon
Ink - Ink It Up!
One final page from Green Buttons' Fun Night at UKScrappers last week. This was a technique challenge, involving stencilling with gesso to create texture on a page. Not having any gesso, I was able to look on and learn from other team members' experiences. They discovered that modelling paste was more effective than gesso, so I invested in some on Friday and had a play.
I have often coloured my own backgrounds with chalks in the past but it can be hard to build up enough colour. I discovered that a thin layer of modelling paste will provide enough 'roughness' for the chalk to 'grip', though the paper tends to warp when damp.
I practised with a stencil on a scrapbook insert at first, and I was pleased with the effect of a blue chalked pattern on the white background, but when I transferred this to my actual scrapbook page, a lot of the contrast was lost. On my first attempt I chalked these circles in green; they were almost invisible against the background, and I messed up the paper trying to add some silver ink. For my second attempt, I used four colours of chalk around my circle:
Here's a close-up of the modelling paste dots:
Supplies
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Dovecraft Princess Fairytale 6x6 Pack
Modelling Paste - Farrel & Gold
Chalks - Readicut Crafts
Letters - Glitz Design
Border Sticker - Doodlebug
Ink - Papermania
Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
The Crafters Workshop Scallop Swirls Template
I've been slow with this week's challenge from UK Scrappers. The January Week 4 challenge was set by the Bijoux Belles again. They asked for a travel theme, something food related, to use red or bling (or both) and to include a fair amount of journalling (which may be hidden).
Travel and food was a tad difficult, but I followed the example of other scrappers and picked a photo of the family in a restaurant on holiday. In our case, this was a meal in Malaysia, the night before my brother-in-law's wedding. The Bijoux Belles didn't give us any restrictions on the layout, so I used the January sketch from Sarah's Cards for my page. I used plenty of red, including red bling, but my papers were too heavily patterned to write on so I ended up making a tag for the journalling and tucking it into the layers.
Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV 8x8 Neutral Stack
Paper - First Edition J'Adore
Letters - MME Lush, Pebbles Mini ABC
Bling - Pebbles Welcome Christmas
String - Recycled from Clothing Label
Ink - Dovecraft
Tools
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
'Ordinary' Hole Punch
It's been a while since I did a challenge for Scrap Whispers. Their blog went quiet in the second half of last year but it's back for 2013. I wasn't keen on the first couple of challenges but on Sunday they set a Recipe Challenge that I just couldn't wait to start - three photos, one sheet of patterned paper as a background, at least two circle embellishments and NO cardstock.
I've had a page half-planned in my head for these three photos, and this was the perfect chance to get it down on paper. I've done similar pages before, often with border stickers or punched cardstock above and below the photos. With a cardstock ban in place, I used patterned paper above the photos as a background for my title and went punched circle crazy below them.
Supplies
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Craft Creations, plus Scraps
Letters - Doodlebug Teensy Type
Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Sewing Machine
