The Cupboard Under the Stairs

I'm not making my Harry Potter album pages in any particular order, and this page is one of the first sets that we saw on the studio tour - the cupboard under the stairs that served as Harry's bedroom at the beginning of the series.


I have one landscape and one portrait photo of the cupboard, which reminded me of this sketch from Shimelle, though I did swap the photos over and move the journalling below the photo. That journalling is another quote (from Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone) and as it refers to spiders I added a spider's web brad, one from a Hallowe'en set.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA Cakewalk, OA Schoolhouse
Letters - American Crafts
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Brad - OA Witch Hazel
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Docrafts
Gems - Dovecraft

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tag Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Seas of Red

I'm interrupting the flow of Harry Potter pages for this week's challenge at UKScrappers. It was set by the Scrappycats who asked us to use a sketch, a colour in the title and a sprinkling of something.

I was going to skip this one as neither the sketch nor the colour requirement inspired me, but a visit to London on Monday gave me the perfect photos for this challenge.

"Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" is an art installation at the Tower of London to mark one hundred years since the outbreak of the First World War. The moat is being filled with 888,246 ceramic poppies, one for each British or Colonial soldier who was killed. We first visited in August when just a small proportion of the flowers had been 'planted' and we returned this week, joining phenomenal crowds on the walkways above the moat.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - Glitz Designs Finnley, Teresa Collins Daily Stories
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Gems - ZVA Creative
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Craft Creatives Flower Punch

Yule Ball

I'm trying to incorporate as many sketch challenges as I can into my Harry Potter scrapping and this page is based on Sketch #67 from Sketch-n-Scrap. I have two photos of the costumes from the Yule Ball which I had printed at different sizes to keep the costumes themselves roughly the same size.

I started by flipping the sketch as I wanted my photos to be on the left. I had previously planned to use the music paper with the ball photos, so I have an extra layer. I also moved the smaller photo up and the title down because of the length of the title.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA 5 & Dime
Letters - American Crafts
Flowers - Making Memories
Gems - ZVA Creative
Brad - OA Witch Hazel
Enamel Dots - Studio Calico
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Flying Bike

Last weekend the Hip Kit Club held on online crop on Facebook, and it was open to everyone, not just their subscribers. I only managed one challenge, following a sketch from Ashley Horton, and it's taken me a while to share it here.

It's another Harry Potter page; this time the photo is of my daughter and me on Hagrid's motor-bike in the back lot of the studio tour. It turned out to be quite a plain page and I'm not sure yet whether I like it, but it's done and it will probably go in the album.

Supplies

Cardstock - Colorset, Bazzill

Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, Echo Park This and That

Letters - American Crafts, OA Witch Hazel, Tim Holtz Idea-ology

Die Cuts - OA Witch Hazel

Brads - Papermania

Ink - Docrafts

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Banana Frog Stamp

Hobbycraft Star Punch

Costumes

I'm back again with the second October sketch from Stuck?! Sketches, and it's quite different from the first one (which I used for my last page).

I'm still on Harry Potter pages, and this will be a sub-section title page, one that will come before a series of costume pages in the album.

Obviously, the sketch is based around the hexagon, but I don't have a hexagon punch or die yet (though a set of dies is on my Christmas wish list) so I had to do what I could with squares. I punched 1" squares of all the papers that I am using in this album, and angled them slightly on the page. I tried putting a few squares with my title at the bottom of the page, but it wasn't working for me so I moved my letters up to just below the photo.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset, Bazzill
Papers - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA Five & Dime, OA Holiday Style, OA Woodland Park, OA Campfire, OA Schoolhouse
Letters - American Crafts
Die-Cuts - OA Witch Hazel
Rub-Ons - DCWV
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Gems - ZVA Creative
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Woodware Square Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Hot Off the Press

More Harry Potter today. At least that means that I'm getting on with the album, and haven't flitted off to another project yet.

The printing press from the Lovegoods' cottage was on display in the studio tour gift shop, and although it was used for The Quibbler, I'm scrapping it with a couple of issues of the Daily Prophet. My three photos with the title made a roughly triangular shape which reminded me of the 1st October sketch at Stuck?! Sketches.

I made the triangle on the sketch a bit bigger to accommodate my three photos, and scaled up the other elements too. I'd have liked my title to be black, but all my black letters were too big, so I used orange ones and outlined them in black pen to separate them from the background paper.

Supplies

Cardstock - Colorset

Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA 9 to 5

Letters - OA Daily Flash

Washi Tape - OA Woodland Park

Brads - Papermania

Ink - Docrafts

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Templates

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Hobbycraft Star Punch

7Gypsies Stamp

Horcruxes

Another page for my Harry Potter Album. Even when I was printing these photos, I knew that I would arrange them in a 'C' shape around the title. Once laid out, they seemed to need a circle of paper behind around them, so that's what I did. I used a lid to stamp more circles on the background, and added paper strips across the bottom and along the sides.

I kept the embellishment quite simple, more punched stars and a few brads. The printed text is an abridged quote from the Half-Blood Prince (Slughorn's memory of telling Tom Riddle about horcruxes), and I hand-wrote the names of all the horcruxes across the top and bottom of the page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA Campfire
Letters - American Crafts
Brads - Papermania
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Diagon Alley

It's been a while since I joined in with a challenge at Scrap & Play; this month it's a sketch challenge, and I adapted it for a single wide-screen shot of Diagon Alley for my Harry Potter album. Of course, the set was teeming with people when we visited, so this is a press photo sourced from the internet.

Although I am scrapping random Harry Potter pages at the moment, the album is beginning to take shape in my head, and I'm imagining several subsections. I think that this will be a divider page before a series of pages about the individual shops.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset, Bazzill
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA Campfire, OA 5 & Dime
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Washi Tape - The Range
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Gems - ZVA Creative
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Butterbeer

I'll be concentrating on Harry Potter pages for a while as I've printed a big batch of photos from our trip. I'll be trying to use them for various challenges and today's page comes from Sketch #66 at Sketch-n-Scrap. 

I've rotated the sketch with three photos running horizontally, and I've fussy-cut the Butterbeer banner from my fourth photo to use as a title. I've moved the journalling below the photos; it's in two parts - a printed quote from the Prisoner of Azkaban and a handwritten description of the butterbeer that we tried. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA Campfire
Washi Tape - The Range
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Docrafts, Ink It Up!
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops

Tools
Sewing Machine
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

The Potter House

It's my team's turn to set the weekly challenge at UKScrappers this week. We like some flexibility to a challenge so we chose to ask our fellow players to use three criteria from a list of ten. For my sample page, I chose to use this sketch originally from Sketchabilities, a predominantly orange colour scheme and something metallic (brads).

It's another page from my Harry Potter album, and has a single photo of the Potter House in Godric's Hollow, as on display in the back lot of the studio tour. I'm working with October Afternoon Witch Hazel papers, a Hallowe'en collection, so I took the chance to use the 'October 31' die cut and the '31' brad here as Lily and James Potter were killed on 31 October. The text is a quote from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Orange is featured in Rochelle Spears' Scrappy Friends Challenge this month as well. It's a tic-tac-toe grid and I've used the diagonal - die-cuts, orange and 4+ patterned papers (I have five). Interestingly, we've used the same paper collection for our pages.



Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel
Doily - Papermania
Letters - OA Witch Hazel
Die Cuts - OA Wicth Hazel
Brads - OA Witch Hazel
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Tag Punch
7Gypsies Stamp
Lid (used as a stamp)

Hagrid's Pets

Despite the fact that I already have an assortment of albums in progress, I'm starting another one. My daughter and I visited the Harry Potter Studios this summer and took so many photos that they need an album all to themselves. 

I'm taking the same approach to this one as I did to my London 2012 album, using one 'kit' of papers and embellishments all the way through and if I add anything from my stash then that will stay with the kit and be repeated. I started my kit from October Afternoon's Witch Hazel collection, and added co-ordinating papers from a host of other October Afternoon collections. I stayed with just one manufacturer as OA print on cream paper and I didn't want a clash of different cream and white based papers.

I'm not making the pages in any particular order; this sketch from Paper Secrets caught my eye so I started with a page for Aragog and Buckbeak. 

Paper Secrets always add an extra condition to their sketches; this time it is to use something beginning with each of the letters of the word TRICK. My items are Tim Holtz stickers, Rub-on feather, Ink, Chevron washi tape and Kraft stars.

I have included quotes about the two creatures from the Harry Potter books, and I intend to continue those throughout the album. The embellishments are simple and repeatable - punched cardstock stars and wood veneer stars - though I also have a few packs of brads that I will be trying to use up.

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset, Papermania, Bazzill Bling
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel
Washi Tape - OA
Letters - OA Daily Flash, Tim Holtz
Label Stickers - Tim Holtz
Rub-On - Jenni Bowlin
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Docrafts

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

East & West ... from Tower Bridge

Another simple page from me today. I took a series of photos of the views in various directions from the top of Tower Bridge earlier this year, and I printed them at 4x6 because I didn't want to lose any of the details. Four 4x6 photos on a page doesn't leave a lot of space for much else; I tried to add some interest via splitting the title in two, placing part of it on a journalling card. I've mixed old and new with the papers; the background is from 2005 while the other papers are current.

Supplies
Paper - Junkitz Dog, Teresa Collins Daily Stories
Letters - DCWV, October Afternoon
Photo Turn - 7Gypsies
Brad - Papermania
Ink - Docrafts

Beaumaris Castle

Back to the scrapbooking, after a weekend of card-making, and I've finally finished a page that I started a couple of weeks ago. It's a relatively simple one with a trio of photos from Beaumaris Castle on Anglesey.

Supplies
Paper - Bo Bunny Ambrosia, MME Vintage Charm
Letters - Jillibean Soup
Transparency - Basic Grey Plumeria
Ink - Docrafts
Gems - Hobby House

Tools
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch
Big Shot & Tag Die
Woodware SCalloped Circle Punch

Floral Cards - Part Two

Yesterday I shared my first five cards from the My Scraps and More Sketches blog hop to celebrate World Card -Making Day. Ten ladies, ten sketches in total, and I've used them all for ten cards using patterned papers and printed embellishments from Hot Off the Press.

I've reached stop six in the blog hop, which is Michelle, and I found hers the hardest sketch to follow. Her cluster of triangles was too far outside my comfort zone, and I replaced it with just one triangle and a flower.

Next stop was Tracy R, with a nice simple sketch, though I still changed mine a bit, placing my sentiment on the central panel. 

Another Tracy was eighth on the blog hop. I adapted Tracy F's sketch slightly by layering my banners. I also dropped the ribbon trim in favour of a fussy-cut flower.

Nearly finished. The penultimate stop was Janessa, and I kept quite close to her sketch. I was helped there by having an appropriately-shaped sentiment panel.

And finally, the end of the blog hop was Missy. I love the intricate pattern on her card sketch, and I would have loved to stitch it but I couldn't copy it accurately freehand. I ended up rotating the sketch, stitching circles and layering my sentiment over them.

So there you have it. Ten cards made from one freebie set of papers. Some of them look a lot like the sketch that inspired them, some less so, but hopefully you can see the connections.

Supplies

Card Blanks

Paper - HOTP Soft Nostalgia

Ink - Docrafts, Ranger

Flower - Making Memories

Brad - Laura Ashley

Gems - Forever in Time

Threads - DMC

Mist - Docrafts

Floral Cards - Part One

It's World Card-Making Day today and I'm joining in the celebratory blog hop that the girls from My Scraps & More Sketches have organised. I'm not a big card maker, but the DT have produced some lovely sketches so I felt that I had to play along. I often use freebie papers from magazines for my cards, and I dug out a pretty set of papers from Hot Off the Press that came with little tags and sentiments - perfect for cards.

Starting at the beginning of the hop, this is the card I made from Audrey's sketch. Hers was circular, but I took the easier option of sticking my circle to a square card:

Next up was Nadine. I played with her sketch too, layering vellum behind the sentiment panel and dropping the ribbon across the middle.

Third stop was Wendi. I'd intended to stick to her sketch more closely, but when I pulled out the spotty paper I discovered the floral in the corner and decided to show it off.

On to Lisa's sketch, where I decided to use my border punch rather than cutting banners. I also fussy cut and layered some flowers over a small tag.

Fifth on the hop (and last one today) is Jessica's sketch. This was one of my favourites and I stuck fairly closely to it, the main difference being that I had a circular sentiment that I used. I also fussy cut another flower.

I have a few more cards to share from the rest of the hop, but I'll save them for tomorrow. Hope to see you then.

Supplies
Card Blanks
Paper - HOTP Soft Nostalgia
Ink - Docrafts
Buttons - Meiflower
Gems - Forever in Time