Butterfly Birthday Card

Sketch #122

I'm squeezing this post in to the end of the month, just as the May challenges at Sketch-n-Scrap are closing. They are my 'go to' site for card sketches and I used Sketch #122 for a birthday card for my sister.

I have a small stack of die-cuts that are unlikely to make it onto my scrapbook pages, but they are a good size for cards and I designed this one around a butterfly from OneCanoeTwo.

I chose a bright floral for my background and used my last scrap of the birthday print paper (which is why it doesn't span the full width of the card).

Eat Sleep Play Repeat

The penultimate NSD challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper was to use up our scraps and off-cuts from the rest of the pages that we'd made. I'd cut the cut file for the last page in two pieces due to the width limit on my Silhouette Portrait so I re-purposed the outline sections for this page, setting them opposite each other and placing a single photo on the gap between them.

The photo's an old one of my daughter falling asleep after her lunch and I layered it on 6x6 papers mostly left over from the previous page also. I had some silver enamel dots and hearts on my desk too, having used all the gold ones on previous pages, so I used those up and added silver mist to the background.

Supplies
Paper - Fancy Pants Country Boutique, Crate Paper Neighborhood, Crate Paper Random, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans
Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Cafe Time

Another of the NSD challenges at For the Love of Pretty Paper was to be inspired by this cut file. I have a Silhouette Portrait which is 8" wide so I can't easily cut a full 12x12 background on it. I tried a couple of versions of the file, in 8x8 and oval 8x12 but I wasn't happy with them. In the end, I cut the file in two sections and used all the middles rather than the frames for my page.

A background like this can only take one photo, and I had no more single photos printed so I delved into the archives to find one of a group of us celebrating a birthday with breakfast at Cafe Rouge.

Supplies
Paper - Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Heart of Home, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans, Crate Paper Random
Letters - American Crafts
Puffy Sticker - MAMBI?
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs, Echo Park
Gems - ZVA Creative
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Mr Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait 

ELO

I made this page for a Recipe Challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper, we were asked to make a page with two photos, three patterned papers, five die-cuts, alphas, thread, sequins, mist and our own secret ingredient.

The only pair of printed photos that I had came from an ELO concert last year. I'd previously picked this pearlescent paper as a possible background but I hadn't found suitable papers to match. With the recipe in mind I didn't need many papers and went with gold and a music-printed tissue paper. I used thread to sew a star on the page and die-cut five small stars from glittery paper. My secret ingredients were washi tape and stamping.

Supplies
Paper - Rustic Charm Paperz, Unknown Scraps
Letters - Simply Creative
Washi Tape - Unknown
Sequins - from Stash
Mist - Docrafts
Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools
Card Factory Roller Stamp

Secret Water

Laura's Sketch

I'm still sharing pages that I made for National Scrapbooking Day, and the next challenge that I tackled from For the Love of Pretty Paper was to be inspired by a sketch.

I liked the idea of using arrows for a walk, and I had printed four 4x3 photos from one my husband and our friend did exploring 'Secret Water' from Arthur Ramsome's book. However hard I tried, there was no way to fit them on the four arrows of the sketch so I switched to two much larger arrows instead. After all, the challenge had been to take inspiration from the sketch, not to follow it religiously. 

Supplies
Paper - We R Memory Keepers Free Spirit
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mr Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Alphabet Dies
Little B Arrows Die
X-Cut Camera Die

Dara Live

As soon as I saw this month's single page sketch at Stick It Down, I knew that I wanted to turn it into a rainbow with stiching in between the sectors. I considered full-on mixed media, but thought that I'd be likely to smear the colours together when I really wanted a crisp line between them, so I settled on using ink pads with a stars mask, plus a liberal spattering of gold mist. 

I made the background without really thinking about a photo and ended up plumping for one of Dara O Briain who we saw live at the Cliffs Pavilion recently in his 'Voice of Reason' show.

This would also have been an entry into FTLOPP's challenge to make a page using only scissors for all our cutting needs, BUT I forgot that when I got to the title and used my Silhouette for the word 'live'. Whoops. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Colorset
Paper - My Mind's Eye Now and Then
PL Card - Summer Mini Kit
Letters - Collage Press
Enamel Stars - American Crafts/Shimelle
Ink - Ranger, Memento

Tools
Creative Embellishments Stars Mask
Silhouette Portrait
American Crafts Date Stamp

Sweet Dreams

It's always useful when different sites set similar challenges for National Scrapbooking Day and that's what happened for this page. For the Love of Pretty Paper asked for a page with black and white plus one other colour, while Hey Little Magpie wanted a monochrome page. The word monochrome seems to be open to interpretation in the scrapbooking world, but I went with the idea that black and white are both allowed alongside one other colour.

I had several photos of my daughter catching up on her sleep the day after a 24 hour scout activity; she's wearing a purple t-shirt and I briefly toyed with making a purple page, but I really don't have many purple papers. What I do have in abundance is aqua, in particular I had one paper with both aqua and black so picked the rest to coordinate with it.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Basics, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Plus One, American Crafts Amy Tangerine Oh Happy Life
Acetate - Freckled Fawn
Flowers - Poundland
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts, Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & The Works Scalloped Circle Die
American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch
American Crafts/Shimelle Stamp Set

Young at Heart

This page had been fizzing round my head for a few weeks before National Scrapbooking Day, and I was sure that it would work for one of the upcoming challenges. I scrapped a photo of myself, I used lots of die-cuts, I used a song  for my title and I featured numbers. 

But, NONE of these came up on the challenge sites I follow! Last Monday, once all the challenges had been posted, I decided to make the page anyway, and did manage to fit it to a colour challenge at Hey Little Magpie, where they asked us to use two colours that were roughly opposites on the colour wheel. My aqua and yellowy orange aren't quite opposites, but close enough.

I've had this pack of die-cuts for ages and only used a few as they never seem to match my pages once I reach the choosing embellishments part. When I realised how good a match they are for the colours in the numbers paper, I kept the two together and resolved to use as many die-cuts as possible all in one go. Now I only have the green, grey and coral ones left.

The photo is me on a swing in the Lake District; I can't resist a swing even at my age, and why should I?

Supplies
Paper - Pink Paislee Paige Evans, My Mind's Eye Fine & Dandy, My Mind's Eye Collectable, My Mind's Eye Necessities
Die Cuts & Puffy Stickers - Jillibean Soup
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Furry Friends

UKS Sketch 2

I'm combining NSD challenges again for this page: Hey Little Magpie gave us an easy one, to scrap a single 4x6 photo; UKScrappers asked us to use one of three sketches based on triangles; For the Love of Pretty Paper challenged us to pick any shape and feature it in a page (unsurprisingly I chose triangles).

I'd printed a few single photos before National Scrapbooking Day, but only one of them was 4x6 so that's the one I chose, along with the second sketch from UKScrappers which would easily work for a single picture.

My photo came from our Easter holiday which is an annual reunion of university frinds, plus assorted partners, children and pets, so neither the boy nor the dogs belong to us and they generally only meet once a year. The main colour in the photo is the purple of the blanket on the sofa, and I really didn't want this to be a purple page so I picked the complementary colour on the colour wheel (yellow) and worked from there.

Supplies

Paper - Basic Grey Two Scoops, Basic Grey Mon Ami, K&Company,  

Letters - Tim Holtz

Rub-Ons - Papermania

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Big Shot

Little B Arrows Die

X-Cut Camera Die

Hobbycraft Star Punch

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

& Eat Cake

This is the second of a pair of pages from a friend's birthday. I've already shared the first one, where we were in the spa (Relax) and afterwards we had a traditional afternoon tea. This ties in nicely with another NSD challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper - to scrap with a theme of All Things British.

This page is based on a mirror image of the previous page, which was itself based on this month's sketch from Creative Scrappers.
Supplies
Paper - Studio Calico Heyday, First Edition Spring Fling, K&Company
Letters - American Crafts
Word Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Puffy Stickers - Paperchase
Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Stampin' Up!
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Big Shot & Dovecraft Butterfly Die

Relax...

The next NSD challenge that I tackled from For the Love of Pretty Paper was one that I would normally pass over - to use a quote on a page. I tend to keep my pages fairly factual, a record of where we've been and what we've done, and I can only think of one quote I've ever used (and that was pre-printed on a piece of ephemera). 

However, a friend recently celebrated her 70th birthday and a group of us went on a spa mini-break. I was struck by the quote on the card we gave her, and wanted to include it somewhere on the page - "You don't stop having fun because you get old, you get old because you stop having fun." A bit of googling told me that this is a rewording of a quote from George Bernard Shaw; the original refers to playing.

We took quite a few photos between us, but the lighting in the spa was awful (great for relaxation maybe, but not for photography) and phone cameras couldn't cope. I had taken my 'proper' camera and the skin tones are correct in my pics but there's no escaping the pink lighting.

I used this month's sketch from Creative Scrappers for my page, but having already printed larger photos I made the circle larger to accommodate them. I dropped the paper strips on the right because this is the first of a pair of pages and I wanted there to be open space on the right to lead on to the next page. My title leads on to the second page too, the whole thing reads 'Relax... & Eat Cake'.

Supplies
Paper - Studio Calico Heyday, First Edition Spring Fling
Letters - American Crafts
Word Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Stampin' Up!
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch

Who's Counting?

The only way to get through all the National Scrapbooking Day challenges is to combine as many as possible in a page. This one ticks off three, and also uses the current sketch from Let's Get Sketchy.

For the Love of Pretty Paper asked us to scrap a list; the photo is me atop my fifth Wainwright (Lake District fell) and I listed the five; my husband has climbed all 214 and I am never, ever going to do that.

Hey Little Magpie gave us a tic-tac-toe grid and I picked the middle row - washi tape, bling and all patterned paper. All the paper came from a kit I put together before NSD based around the floral paper, which is so pretty and had been in my stash for too long.

Finally, UKScrappers set the challenge that I was expecting to see in most groups that I follow - to scrap a page about yourself. 

Supplies
Paper - Kaisercraft Teddy Bear's Picnic, Kit 'n' Craft, Anna Griffin, Craft Creations
Letters - American Crafts
Stickers - Crate Paper, Jillibean Soup
Word - Pretty Little Studio
Flower/Gem/Washi Tape - from Stash
Arrow Paper Clip - Freckled Fawn
Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs
Puffy Hearts - Studio Calico
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot, Spellbinders Circle Die & X-Cut Camera Die
X-Cut Circle Punch
American Crafts/Shimelle Stamp Set
Studio Calico Stamp Set

Get Out!

Well, National Scrapbooking Day has come and gone, but this 'Day' is now much longer. I saw the first NSD challenge (from The Cut Shoppe) on Thursday morning, many sites started in earnest on Friday, the challenges came thick and fast yesterday, and there are still more to be published today.

Di's Original Page

The first one I tackled came from For the Love of Pretty Paper where they asked us to choose any April page from any member and scraplift it. I picked a diagonal design from Di Willcox and recreated it for two square photos from a camp my husband and daughter did in February.

The rub-ons belong to an ABC challenge at UKScrappers where I'd picked R for Rub-Ons a few weeks ago. They've been sitting on my desk ever since and I finally made a page where I thought they would work.

Supplies
Paper - Simple Stories Pumpkin Spice, OneCanoeTwo Creekside
Letters - American Crafts
Chipboard - Simple Storis 24/Seven
Stickers - OneCanoeTwo #Stickerbook, Studio Calico
Rub-Ons - DCWV
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & Poppy Stamps 'Small Leafy Sprig' Die
X-Cut Circle Punch

Iris Folded Card

A few years ago, I made an iris-folded card as part of a craft class on a cruise ship. I was thinking about it recently, and decided to have another go. Finding a template online was really easy, I sized it to match an aperture card and picked out four matching papers.

It's best to use thin papers for this as the card gets quite bulky, I'd forgotten just how thick the pattern gets by the time you finish. This template has 32 pieces of paper in it. I enjoyed this for a change, and I'm happy with the results, but I don't think I'll be making very many similar cards (though I would like to try an oval some time).

Parkrun - April

Another month over, and I'm sticking with parkrun; I haven't missed a week yet. I'm still alternating between running and walking but my times are getting faster.

I'm scrapping the runs in a simple 8x8 album cum journal and I'm keeping up with that too (unlike previous monthly projects that I've done in the past). I've already shared a full page from 7 April when I ran with a friend while we were on holiday in Cumbria. The other three runs were all at my 'home' course in Thurrock. 

Up to now I've been scrapping two to a page, but I decided to try squeezing three in this time. There's less to say about each run as they have become a habit and follow a similar format each week. I alternated photos and journalling on each row, including the tickets with statistics and 'pb' tags on the weeks where I set new personal best times.

The '8x8' paper that I used was shorter than the '8x8' album sleeves and the other pages that I've made so far so I used washi tape to cover the gap and stick it to the back of the last page. I'm not using any bulky embellishments in this album, but I did fill in a gap with a butterfly sticker and added arrows to each ticket for clarity.