Year 5

This is the first time I've made a page from a Sketch at Scrap 365 but this one caught my eye and I added it to my challenge list.

I modified the sketch to scrap a row of identical photos of my daughter which came from the school photographer a few years ago. They originally had extra printing below them and the sheet was intended to be cut apart as bookmarks, but we never used them for that purpose. 

I normally scrap school photos with letter or number paper so I picked an alphabet print from Graphic 45 and then papers from Crate Paper to complement it. I really wanted to use some red letter stickers from Basic Grey, but I had used too many already, so I cut around the outside edges on the backing sheet to give me white letters with red edges. 

Part way through making this page I realised that I could incorporate this week's team challenge at UKScrappers. This was set by 'crafty72' and she gave us five requirements - use a black and white photo, frame the photo, use bling, use ink or mists and use no more than two flowers. Obviously I failed with the black and white photo, but I have the other items and will still score some points for my team this week.

Supplies
Paper - Graphic 45, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Basic Grey Blitzen ('Negatives'), Basic Grey Curio
Tab Sticker - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Gems - Prima
Ink - Distress Ink
(Background & Grid Washi - Unknown/Unlabelled)

Tools
Woodware Label Punch
Woodware Flower Punch

Howdy Partner

Another sketch challenge page today. This one's for Scrap Our Stash, who posed the additional challenge of using pre-made numbers on the page.

I'm filling in a gap in my 2004 album, with two photos that I printed before Christmas and didn't actually scrap for some reason. I'd already matched the photos up with these papers, so it was easy to get started. The hardest part was including a number, but I have a 2 on a tag in my embellishment.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper & Stickers - Simple Stories Take a Hike
Letters - Studio Calico Snippets
Number - Lily Bee
Washi Tape - Efco

Tools
Woodware Tag Punch

Fun on the Farm

We're nearing the end of the month again, so I need to catch up with a few challenges. This page is for Paper Secrets who have a sketch with a twist - the twist being the requirement to use something beginning with each of the letters of the word WINTER.

When I first saw the sketch, I thought that I would just use the lower part as I normally like to group all my photos together. However, I came across three photos from the same day which fell into a pair and a singleton. They were all originally 4x6 but I've cropped them and removed some of the empty space.

I did have trouble with all the WINTER items, but I got there in the end - I have Wood flowers, Inked edges, Nine cross-stitches, Teensy Type, Eleven pieces of paper and some Ribbon.

Supplies

Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Studio Calico Snippets, Studio Calico Sundrifter, Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go

Letters - Doodlebug Simply Sweet, Doodlebug Teensy Type

Ink - docrafts

Thread - DMC

Wood Flowers & Ribbon - from Stash

Tools

Fiskars Circle Templates

Bazzill Paper Piercer

Hardwick Hall

A couple of years ago, Shimelle Laine ran a class called The Perfect Collection, where she set out to make as many pages as possible from a single scrapbook collection. She's revisiting the collection pack this month with a new class called Return to the Collection but the focus is slightly different. Rather than making as many pages as possible she is making six pages using papers from a single kit, plus other supplies as required and there is a video for each of the six pages. So far I've watched the first two videos, and made a page from the first one.

I didn't actually use a collection pack as such, but I tried to pull a kit together from my stash. I started from that multi-coloured doily paper, that I love but have never managed to use, and added in some single-colour prints and some neutrals. Despite my willingness to mix collections and manufacturers, the majority of my 'kit' comes from Crate Paper.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper Restoration, Crate Paper Random, MME The Sweetest Thing, KaiserCraft Secret Bird Society
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - Crate Paper Restoration

Tools
X-Cut Corner Punch
Woodware Tag Punch

3 (Sweet Together)

This is my page for two of this month's 'Scrappy Friends' challenges. There were four challenges this month as Kelly has joined up with Brenda, Kristi and Rochelle. I had intended to complete all four challenges in one page, but I couldn't make it work with my supplies and photos.

The two that I completed were Brenda's sketch challenge and Kelly's colour challenge. The colours made me think of Fancy Pants' Little Sport collection which has the right mix of reds, blues and greens. 

My photos are old ones of my son, daughter and niece that I pulled out for another page some time ago and then rejected. I found them when I was looking for something else the other day and knew that they would suit both the sketch and the paper.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sport, Kit 'n' Kraft
Number - MME Lush
Word Stickers - Authentique
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Brads - Papermania
Washi Tape - Unknown
Thread - DMC
Ink - docrafts

Tools
EK Success Corner Punch
Bazzill Paper Piercer
Plate (as circle template)

Windows 1.2.3

The Scrap Apples set this week's challenge at UKScrappers, and they asked us to use three elements from a list of 10. I decided to use my favourite photo from 2013, to frame the photo and to use some new stash. This left lots of freedom in terms of page design, so I'm combining this challenge with the January 15th Sketch at Stuck?! Sketches.

To be completely honest, this is one of my favourite photos from 2013 that I haven't scrapped yet but I think it will suffice for the challenge. It shows our children and our friends' child looking through the windows in the ruins of Hardwick Old Hall and I framed it with new 6x6 paper that I won from SJ Crafts  in a Facebook giveaway at Christmas. I kept fairly close to the sketch, apart from those extra layers behind the photo.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper Story Teller, Basic Grey Mint Julep, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Basic Grey Curio
Tag - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Washi Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Stars - Creative Embellishments, Studio Calico
Ink - docrafts
Thread - DMC

Tools
Fiskars Circle Templates
Bazzill Paper Piercer

Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker

I started this double page for a challenge at Two Peas in a Bucket to scrap 6 or more photos on a page, but it took me a while to finish it and I missed the deadline. Nevertheless, the challenge gave me the push I needed to tackle my photos from the 'Secret' Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon Hatch and fill in one of the gaps in my 2013 scrapbook.

Obviously it's no secret now, as evidenced by the multitude of brown tourist road signs, but this was one of a series of bunkers that were built during the Cold War to shelter government and military officials from a nuclear strike. The bunker was decommissioned in 1992, sold back to the family who had previously owned the land, and opened to the public.

It's a sombre subject, so I picked subdued colours for my page, starting from the khaki print from Basic Grey. I normally hand-write my journalling, but this time I printed it because there was a lot that I wanted to include. I didn't embellish, as nothing seemed suitable for the subject matter.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Basic Grey Hang 10, Crate Paper DIY Shop, Sandylion Sand, some unknown
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Big Shot & Alphabet Dies
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

Just Like Grandad

This was my page for the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers at the end of last year. Three teams of scrappers start from the same page and each scraplift the person before them in turn, which can lead to three very different pages by the end of the chain. All three chains of pages have been revealed now on the Scrap Whispers blog: Team Rosey; Team Nilsa; Team Georgina.

My Page

Kelly's Page

I was scraplifting Kelly's page (right). I'd have liked to continue the Christmas theme, but I didn't have a single Christmas photo to scrap, so I picked an old single photo to work with and copied the other elements on her page as best I could. I stamped the background paper with stars, and layered my photo with two papers, though at a smaller angle than Kelly's. My larger title meant that I dropped the embellishment at the bottom left of the photo, but Kelly's presents became another star at the bottom right, where I stitched the outline and filled it with punched stars. I kept the little cluster at the top of the page too (though the player before Kelly has confessed that it was only there because she tore her page and needed to cover the tear).

The photo is of my son and my nephew who were refusing to wear their t-shirts because my dad (their grandad) had taken off his shirt while he was gardening.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Closet Stack
Paper - DCWV Garden Party Mat Stack
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Pebbles Mini ABC Stickers
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Dovecraft
Thread - DMC

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Disney Dreaming

The team at Two Peas in a Bucket normally make a great fuss about CHA, the Craft & Hobby Association show where the scrapbook companies debut their collections for the next season. This year things at Two Peas have been rather quiet, but Stephanie Bryan, one of the Garden Girls, has stepped into the breach and set three CHA Challenges for us.

The first one is a recipe challenge: use 1 tag, 2 types of alphabet, 3 patterned papers and 4 embellishments. I started thinking from the 3 patterned papers which I imagined layered behind a single photo on a cardstock background. Some time later, that is roughly what I produced:

The photo is of my daughter, who used to refuse an afternoon nap even when she was clearly tired. I used to sit with her to watch a Disney film...until she fell asleep, hence the title.

I have the tag, two alphas, three papers (plus some vellum, hope it doesn't count) and four embellishments (doily, pearl swirls, stickers & peel-off stars).

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Dovecraft Eastern Promise, Pebbles New Addition
Vellum - Scenic Route
Tag - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Doily - Dovecraft
Stickers - Crate Paper Restoration, Dear Lizzy
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Dear Lizzy
Pearls - Prima
Mist - Mister Huey's
Peel-Off Stars - from Stash

Two Days Old...

This month's Stash Challenge at Scrap Our Stash is a 'Countdown' challenge; we have to use 5 of one stash item, 4 of another, and so on down to 1 which must be a rub-on.

I'm combining this with a new challenge at Sketch-n-Scrap. Their 'Inspired by...' challenge takes a page that has been created by one of their DT and turns it into a sketch.

I chose my photos to tie in with that very long title, picking two 4x6 photos which meant that I had to play with the proportions of the other elements in the sketch. 

My stash items are: 5 wood veneer stars, 4 strips of washi tape, 3 patterned papers, 2 pieces of chipboard and 1 rub-on (the teddy bear).

Supplies
Paper - Sandylion, docrafts Spring Chic, unlabelled
Letters - Paper House
Chipboard - Pebbles
Washi Tape - The Range, Waterstones
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Rub-On - Letraset
Ink - Ink It Up!
Button - from Stash

Bad Hair Day

The weekly challenges are continuing at UKScrappers for 2014, and the first one of the year has the usual three parts - a sketch; use ink, paint or mist; lots of journalling.

The sketch is a bit 'messier' than my style, so I used it as a guide for my page - a photo of my daughter as a baby. She was born with lots of hair, and it had a distinct tendency to stand straight up from her head:

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Studio Calico Sundrifter
Vellum - Scenic Route
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Stickers - Crate Paper Season
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Hang in There

I follow the blogs of several DT members at Paper Secrets, so I suppose it was inevitable that I would be drawn towards their sketch challenge, which are just a little bit different from the norm. As well as the sketch, we have to include items on our page that begin with each of the letters of the word PARTY.

I picked photos of my children on a climbing wall at last year's Outdoors Show, and foolishly chose papers from My Mind's Eye and Studio Calico - no PARTY letters there. However I do have Punched edges, an Arrow, Red, Thickers and Yellow on my page.

Supplies
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Miss Caroline, Studio Calico Sundrifter 
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Border Stickers - Fancy Pants Park Bench
Gems - Making Memories
Arrow - Creative Embellishments
Ink - docrafts

Tools
American Crafts Notebook Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Christmas Stockings

I'm moving from very old paper and photos on the last page, to my newest paper and photos for this page. I scrapped photos of my children on Christmas morning with the aid of the latest sketch from Stuck?! Sketches.

My new paper is Glitz Design's Hello December collection which I won from Scrap Whispers' September/October challenges (thank you to Georgina, Rosey and Nilsa). I like the colour palette of this collection - traditional reds, greens and golds with a touch of brighter yellow, and it matches with my older Christmas papers too.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Grenadine
Paper - Glitz Design Hello December, Pebbles Welcome Christmas
Letters - Glitz Design Hello December
Layered Stickers - Pebbles Welcome Christmas
Flat Stickers - Glitz Design Hello December, Echo Park Christmas Dots & Stripes
Wood Veneer Heart - Studio Calico
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & Tag Dies
X-Cut Corner Punch

Tiny Dancers

My first challenge page of the year, and it's one for Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #48. I adapted it for two photos of my children, niece and nephew at a family wedding. I've already scrapped the bride and groom (First Dance) so I pulled out the same collection of patterned papers and the remains of the border sticker I used then for this page.

There are a lot of strong colours and patterns in my papers so I matted each one with white paper, and kept the embellishment very simple, just a plain chipboard heart covered with the background paper. My title letters were originally kraft, but I re-coloured them to match the background.

Supplies
White scrapbook inserts
Paper - K&Co Paper Doll
Border Sticker - Crate Paper
Chipboard - Papermania
Ink Dabber - Pretty Color

Tools
X-Cut Corner Punch

Whitby & Endeavour

My first page of 2014, and it's a double from a holiday in Yorkshire. I'm not good at designing double pages, so I went straight to the Sketch Support blog. They aren't publishing new sketches there, but there are some beauties in the archives, and I picked this one from August 2011.

All my pictures were originally 4x6 photos printed from film, but three were crop-able, although I left them larger than in the sketch. I also used more of the area on the right for my journalling.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop, Glitz Designs Hello December, Dream Street Papers Wonderland 
Letters - Scenic Route, Jillibean Soup
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Washi Tape - Efco
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops
Ink - Papermania

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
X-Cut Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch
Woodware Daisy Punch
Dovecraft Beautiful Borders Stamp

1066 and All That

This was my final layout of 2013 and it's a mammoth layout, two and two half pages with 11 photos. My pictures are from Mountfitchet Castle, which is a modern reconstruction of a Norman motte and bailey castle, built on the site of the original (which was destroyed in 1215).

I've known for a long time that I was going to scrap these photos following Shimelle Laine's 4x6 Photo Love class from November 2011. This class used seven photos on a double page, with a 6x12 divided page protector in the middle, holding four more photos and two journalling blocks. I've used this layout before (World in Miniature) and it's really useful for getting lots of photos onto a double page of sorts.

This is the left page and the front of the insert:

followed by the back of the insert and the right page:

See that ticker at the top of the screen? My target for the year was to make 230 pages which would have matched those made in 2012. Sadly I fell short, only completing 197, but this is still an average of four pages per week for the 49 weeks that I was at home this year, so I won't feel too sad. This should be 5-6 albums full of pages, but my habit of jumping from place to place does mean that I have only actually completely finished two, my Olympic and Paralympic album, and the second of my 2012 albums (June - December). However I have only a few more pages to make from 2003 and that will be another one done. Now to set a target for 2014...

Supplies
Paper - K&Co Hannah, plus scraps
Numbers - MME Lush
Letters - October Afternoon
Label Stickers - Studio Calico
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink - docrafts