Monday 21 December 2020

Christmas Gift Card Holders

It's almost Christmas and I've bought gift cards for my niece and nephews this year, but I wanted to jazz them up and make them a bit more special so I made a few of these gift card holders from Carta Bella's Hello Christmas collection. I've shared full instructions over on The Mad Scrapper blog and the collection is available in store now.


Friday 18 December 2020

Pages from Dorset

I can't believe that I forgot to share my latest blog post for The Mad Scrapper with you, one which features some of the pages I made for our long weekend in Dorset. You've seen the pages here already but that post focusses on my process for creating a series of pages from a holiday or event and shares a few hints and tips in case you are considering a similar project.


Please do hop over and take a look.


Tuesday 15 December 2020

Lost in Time

One of the reasons that we chose Dorset for our autumn mini-break was my long-held desire to visit the abandoned village of Tyneham. The village and the surrounding area were requisitioned by the War Office in 1943 to provide an area for military training; they were supposed to be given back after the war but that never happened, the buildings fell into ruin and the area is now part of Lulworth Ranges. However the village is open to the public when the ranges are not in use. 

I took loads of photos so this had to be a double page (with a single to follow for the adjacent farm). I printed a map to go with the photos and used a couple of journalling cards, one on each side.


Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon
Numbers - October Afternoon, Jenni Bowlin
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Washi Tape - Efco, Little B
Enamel Dots - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Big Shot & X-Cut 'Explore' Die

*Disclosure - I received the papers, Thickers, die-cuts and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.


Saturday 12 December 2020

Brighthelm

I've scrapped both of these photos previously on separate pages for my 2019 and 2020 albums (Hello Brighthelm and Goodbye Brighthelm) but now I'm putting them together for another page in my daughter's university album. Brighthelm was her first year accommodation, a house which she shared with four others. 

I've used another sketch from Dotty About Flair, die-cutting my hexagons from a Pinkfresh Studio 6x6 pad. As is normal for me, using this number of different patterned papers meant that I added minimal embellishment, but I included some white puffy asterisks for a Be Colourful challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper.



Supplies
Paper - Make & Create Moments, Pinkfresh Studio Let Your Heart Decide
Letters - American Crafts
Puffy Stickers - Studio Calico
Glitter Tape - The Works
Ink - Memento

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Hexagon Die

Wednesday 9 December 2020

It All Starts Here

I'm working with another sketch from Dotty About Flair today. Sketch #2 didn't fit any of my remaining Dorset photos so I'm switching subjects and albums with a page for my daughter's University album. I used a photo I took of her on her first day next to one of the electronic display signs on campus.

I went for a couple of extra paper layers than are in the sketch, pulling the blue and green colours from the photo and adding orange as a contrast. I used a text print for my background as hinting at education, smooshed a little blue ink over it in a diagonal line and stamped a few clusters of tiny orange stars.


Supplies
Paper - Make & Create Moments, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon, PhotoPlay Boarding Pass
Letters - Pink Paislee, Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Word Stickers - American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio
Enamel Shapes - Doodlebug
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch


Sunday 6 December 2020

Ghost Ships

Last weekend Dotty About Flair held their first Sketch Saturday, and I used Sketch 5 for this page. I had three photos of the cruise ships in Weymouth Bay and they were slightly different sizes from those in the sketch, but I was able to adapt it with an extra strip of paper and a change in the position of my title.

The large yellow rectangle of paper comes directly from the sketch, but I added extra layers both under and over it, all from the Late Afternoon paper pad by Amy Tangerine, which I am using for my Dorset pages.


Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - Crate Paper
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Stars - Studio Calico
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Simple Stories
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tag Punch

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad and die-cuts dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Thursday 3 December 2020

Floral Wreath Birthday Card

It's my sister-in-law's birthday today. I'd intended to get her card into the post early but my good intentions got derailed and I didn't start making it until after Stick It Down published their December sketches on Tuesday. This at least gave me the chance to put the card sketch to use straight away.

I started from a cream base card and pencilled a 3" circle on the front. I daubed green ink around that circle and then made my wreath with sprigs die-cut from an old Basic Grey paper which I chose for its subtle variation in greens. I then added my butterfly and some pink punched flowers to the wreath, finishing with tiny gems as my flower centres and extras scattered around the wreath.



Tuesday 1 December 2020

Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt

As we arrive in December, I think we are all looking forward to the end of 2020, but there is an annual event that starts today and runs to the end of March when everything should be closer to normal.

I'm talking about the Winter Photography Scavenger Hunt which is hosted by Eileen at A Bracelet of Days. She's drawn up a list of 20 items, bearing in mind that so many of us are still facing restrictions on our daily life, plus three alternatives if needed. Her full list is:

  1. A set of three
  2. Round and round
  3. Peek inside
  4. Glass
  5. A treasured item
  6. Horizontal
  7. An opening
  8. A sign of the times
  9. Weather conditions
  10. Work in progress
  11. Measures
  12. In the distance
  13. Something beginning with C
  14. One of many
  15. Something with legs
  16. A face
  17. Comfort food
  18. Something you do every day
  19. Something yellow
  20. Marking time
    Alt A. In pieces
    Alt B. Textured
    Alt C. Black and white

The first link-up will be in the first week of January. Until then, happy hunting!


Sunday 29 November 2020

The Ancestor

This is my second page from our journey down to Dorset last month, when we stopped near Amesbury to visit The Ancestor, a sculpture which was mentioned on a documentary I watched about the A303.

I took a few photos in both landscape and portrait but cropping them to square seemed best and I ordered one at 4x4. When it arrived, the sculpture was only a couple of inches tall within the picture and you couldn't see his features so I re-printed at 8x8 which also matched a challenge from UK Scrap Addicts to use a larger photo than normal. 


I matted the photo on a purple paper which picked up some of the tones in the metalwork. It was one I hadn't used on any of my Dorset pages yet, but it opened up the use of one of the florals from the cut-apart sheet which was printed on the same colour background.

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Washi Tape - Little B
Enamel Shapes - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*
Dots - Nuvo Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Thursday 26 November 2020

Chesil Beach

A Bit of a Do
I have a lot of Dorset pages to make with two 4x6 photos apiece, and it can get difficult to come up with new ways to arrange two photos on a 12x12 page.

When I was looking through some old Christmas pages recently, I was drawn to the angles on 'A Bit of a Do' so I decided to scraplift it for a page from Chesil Beach. I kept the basis of the page the same with a strongly patterned background layered with white cardstock to provide a 'breathing space' around the photos.

I'm working with Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection for these pages and chose orange scallops for my background to satisfy a 'Be Colourful' challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper.

There's no green in my papers this time, but I still used the green letters from the collection as I feel there's enough green in the photos for them to work. 


I moved my main embellishment cluster up compared to the original page, filling the empty space below the title and basing it around the yellow flower and green leaf from the die-cut pack with a punched orange flower. The other two clusters kept the same positions as before, but the journalling moved from the bottom to the top, where I wrote in the spaces between the scallops as I have done on a couple of previous pages.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts*
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*
Washi Tape - Little B, Efco
Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Carta Bella, Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*
Dots - Nuvo Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
Big Shot & Spellbinder Circle Dies
Woodware Flower Punch
Poppystamps Leafy Sprig Die


* Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers, die-cuts and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Monday 23 November 2020

Shine a Light

Laura's Sketch
I'm still on the Isle of Portland for this page, but now at the southern end, known as Portland Bill, with photos of the lighthouses there. 

I used an old sketch from Laura Whitaker which I rotated to suit my portrait photos. I worked from the top down, layering the different patterned papers without committing to a background; I had a few choices in mind from the Late Afternoon paper pad, but ultimately none of them quite worked, I felt that I needed a blue to pick up on the sky in the photos and I found something suitable from Elle's Studio.


Supplies
Paper - Elle's Studio Thankful, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts*
Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Butterflies - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*
Dots - Nuvo Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die
Dovecraft Tag Die
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Saturday 21 November 2020

Portland

I'm not scrapping our Dorset break in order, and I'm jumping to the end of Saturday now and a brief excursion to the Isle of Portland. I'm starting at the north end of the island with a trio of photos from the viewpoint area there.

I'm using Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon paper pad for my holiday pages; I love the range of colours in the stripy paper but so far I've only used small strips in among the other patterns. This time, I decided to make it my background but it's really bold so I layered a rectangle of the black and white diagonal stripe over it to give a more neutral area behind the photos. (I gutted the middle part though as it's too good to hide.)

I've also been hoarding the floral die-cuts but I'm in danger of holding on to them for so long that I don't use them at all, so I used two on this page along with two halves of a ticket die-cut which I chose in order to spread the green colour from my letter stickers around the page.


Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Flair - Dotty About Flair
Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Washi Tape - Little B
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Carta Bella
Ink - Ranger

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers and die-cuts free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Thursday 19 November 2020

Abbotsbury

We stayed in the village of Abbotsbury for our short break last month, and I took plenty of photos of the buildings there, including the remains of the Abbey. 

I had planned to make another version of my Talk to the Animals page from a few years ago, but I didn't check my previous photo sizes before I sent these for printing and that backfired.

This time I had six 3x4 photos which were going to take up about half of a 12x12 page so I had to adjust my original design. I cut one photo down to a square and arranged them in a rough overlapping grid. My strips of patterned paper are in similar places to those on the original page but with larger photos everything got pushed down the page, including my title. I considered squeezing my journalling in at the bottom, but then I was inspired to add it to the top paper instead, writing on the lines between the scallops as I did on my castles page a couple of days ago.


I based my embellishments around yellow circles for a 'Be Colourful' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper, stamped with a leaf pattern.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon
Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico
Word Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Washi Tape - Little B
Enamel Dots - Trimcraft, Stampin' Up!
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
Spellbinders Circle Die
Dovecraft Label Die

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad and Thickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Tuesday 17 November 2020

I Do Love a Castle

Back to my Dorset pages now, and a couple of semi-random photos from Sunday afternoon. We saw both Lulworth Castle and Corfe Castle from a distance, but didn't properly visit either of them. However, as the title says, I do love a castle so I wanted them in the scrapbook, and decided to include them both on the same page.

I went with a quadrants design in order to show off the papers from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection, and distressed the outer edges of each square. I matted the photos together and tucked a few paper strips into their left edge along with a label, a die-cut leaf and an enamel heart. To the right of the photos, I punched a strip of woodgrain paper and layered it over the join between my papers to anchor a larger cluster of embellishments which includes a large floral motif cut from a 12x12 sheet. 


I nestled my title in close against the line of embellishments, and it leads directly into my journalling on the lines between the scallops of the paper below. 


Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*
Stickers - American Crafts/Paige Evans, Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Enamel Hearts - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots
Flair - Dotty About Flair
Dots - Nuvo Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
American Crafts Scallop Border Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, Thickers, die-cuts and enamel hearts free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my design team role.

Sunday 15 November 2020

Hi Foxy

I'm back up on The Mad Scrapper blog today with a page featuring an autumnal leaf wreath cut-file from Paige Taylor Evans (which was a freebie in her Facebook group) backed with papers from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection and layered over a ring of bronze modelling paste confetti circles.


Supplies
Cardstock - Craft UK, Stampin' Up!
Papers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon
Modelling Cream - Viva Decor
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Mister Huey's, Heidi Swapp

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Heidi Swapp Confetti Stencil

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad and modelling cream free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role. 


Friday 13 November 2020

My Baby Sister

I'm interrupting my holiday scrapping to share a page which I started for the GoGoGetaway Cybercrop at the end of October but completed a week later. One of the challenges was to include moon, stars and clouds on a page, and Marie at Peartree Cutfiles gave us the perfect cut-file for the occasion. 

The cut-file shouted 'sleeping baby' to me (and several other people) and I went all the way back to 1973 for this photo of my sister as a baby (though she's not sleeping).

I backed the moon with yellow glitter paper, the clouds with pink patterns and the stars with cream cardstock. I trimmed away a few of the stars so that I could nestle my photo in among the remainder.


I fussed around with my background for ages, as I was trying to include pink floral paper for a Be Colourful challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. I was originally planning to use it as a background, but the colour was overwhelming so I switched to torn strips at the top and bottom of a sheet of white cardstock. The cut-file got a bit lost against the white though, so I added distress inks to the area behind it for a little contrast.

Supplies
Cardstock - UK Crafts, Bazzill
Paper -Heidi Swapp Hello Today, Docrafts Spring Chic
Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes
Puffy Stars - Pinkfresh Studio
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Wednesday 11 November 2020

St Catherine's Chapel

I'm combining challenges again today, using a sketch from Scrap Academy with the colour yellow for 'Be Colourful' at For the Love of Pretty Paper

The photos on the sketch looked more like 3x4 to me than the 3x2 indicated and I thought that I has a set printed at that size. It turned out that mine are even larger but I managed to make them work.

I overlapped my photos, popping the middle one up on a piece of foam. They are three views of the same place, St Catherine's Chapel in Dorset, an outpost of Abbotsbury Abbey.


I used a flair badge for the camera on the sketch, with a patterned paper circle behind it to add some weight. My title gave me some difficulty - it was too long to run horizontally and the uneven photo stack wasn't suited to running it vertically. I was rather pleased with myself when it occurred to me to run it round the camera circle. This left a spot at the end of the words where the blue flower die-cut slotted perfectly, as if made for the space.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Letters - Anita's Glitterations
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine
Flair - Dotty About Flair
Butterflies - Prima Sugar Dots*
Washi Tape - LittLe B
Dots - Nuvo Grops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, die-cut pack and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Monday 9 November 2020

The Hardy Monument

Jenny's Page
I'm scraplifting along with the Scrap Squad over on Facebook again today. This time their lift #41 was a Hallowe'en page from Jenny Evans.

I'm scrapping another landmark from our Dorset holiday, the Hardy Monument atop Black Down. The Hardy in question is Vice-Admiral Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy who had been Nelson's flag captain at the Battle of Trafalgar.

I'm mostly using Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection for my Dorset pages, but I pulled in an old Crate Paper sheet for my background as I thought the other papers needed a dark background. The wreath at the bottom of the page comes from the die-cut pack, but I cut the sentiment in the middle away and added the word explore instead.


Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*, Crate Paper Cottage
Letters - American Crafts*, October Afternoon, Creative Expression
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*
Flowers - Kaisercraft
Washi Tape - Unknown
Enamel Shapes - Prima Sugar Dots*
Dots - Nuvo Drops
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
X-Cut Pennant Die
X-Cut Explore Die
Dovecraft Label Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad, die-cut pack, Thickers and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.


Saturday 7 November 2020

Hello Stonehenge

I'm continuing with my "holiday" pages today, from a long weekend in Dorset which will be the only break we get this year. We passed by Stonehenge on the way, and I snapped a quick picture from the car.

I spotted this sketch when someone used it on Facebook, and traced it back to a July 2013 post from Liz Chidester at The Scrappiest Blogspot. She doesn't appear to be blogging any more but there are a few other sketches that I might go back to.

I'm using the paper pad from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection for my pages. One of the sheets is a cut-apart, and I used a section of it for the 'Hello' circle which starts my title. I couldn't bring myself to use three Es from my Thickers in one go, so I cut the rest on my Silhouette.


Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*
Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-ology
Stars - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Little B, Efco
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Doodlebug, Carta Bella
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot
X-Cut Camera Die
Little B Arrow Die
Dovecraft Label Die
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template
X-Cut Circle Punch

*Disclosure - I received the Amy Tangerine paper pad and die-cut pack free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Thursday 5 November 2020

Get Away From It All

Well, 2020 hasn't turned out how any of us would have expected; all of our planned holidays were cancelled, to be replaced by a long weekend in Dorset last month. I'll be scrapping the photos with the aid of Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon 12x12 paper pad and ephemera, my latest DT choice from The Mad Scrapper. There are 48 papers in the pad, 2 each of 24 patterns, and I filmed a flip-through a few weeks ago. 

I made my first page as an introduction to the trip, with a wide view photo of the village and a smaller one of the pub where we stayed. I used two separate area of the page for the two photos, filled the space between them with my title and journalling, and added three clusters of die-cut and punched leaves and flowers around the page. The tag at the top is from the ephemera pack, and I added puffy stars to it and my title.


Supplies
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*, 
Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*, October Afternoon
Die-Cut - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*
Flair - Dotty About Flair
Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio
Brad - 7Gypsies
Gems - Love to Craft 
Washi Tape - Little B
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Big Shot
Dovecraft Label Die
Poppy Stamps Small Leafy Sprig Die
Woodware Flower Punch
Craft Creatives Small Flower Punch

*Disclosure - I received the Amy Tangerine paper pad, Thickers and ephemera free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Tuesday 3 November 2020

The Squad at 95

The ladies at GoGoGetaway ran another cybercrop last weekend, and I made this page from Kirei's sketch.

I used a couple of photos from when my daughter and her friends moved into their student house in August, back together again for the first time since March.

I made the strip of arrows paper wider to accommodate my taller photo, added washi tape above and below it and turned the title sideways compared to the original sketch. 


Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Heidi Swapp No Limits
Letters - American Crafts
Acetate Stars - Heidi Swapp
Washi Tape - American Crafts/Shimelle
Sticker - Maggie Holmes/Crate Paper
Die-Cut - Advent Swap
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Heidi Swapp, Docrafts

Sunday 1 November 2020

We Did It!

Scraplift #41
I'm combining challenges today, with another scraplift from
Scrap Squad, and one to use fuchsia from For the Love of Pretty Paper.

Fuchsia took me to a Heidi Swapp paper pad that I had barely used and I pulled four coordinating papers to make the page. I don't have any embellishments from the collection, if there were any, so picked things from my embellishment drawers (where I store random pieces by colour) to create two clusters by my photo.

The photo is another that my daughter gave me and the page will go in her University Years album.


Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV
Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust
Letters - Unknown
Die-Cuts - Unknown
Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye
Glitter Tape - The Works
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Echo Park
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Sewing Machine
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Friday 30 October 2020

"Legendary" Birthday Cards


Following on from my last post, I really didn't have enough papers left from Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Legendary collection for another page, but I still had some scraps and motifs left and I decided to make a few cards with them rather than throwing them into my scraps box.

I focused on the mountain scene from the cut-apart sheet for my first card


and fussy-cut the banner from the same sheet for my second.


I pieced a background together for the next one and used a label from the cut-apart to hold my sentiment.


Finally I combined some torn strips, some die-cut circles and a strip of stars for my fourth and final card.


I just have a few cut-apart pieces left now. The labels have gone in my embellishment drawers (where I store by colour) and the rest have finally been consigned to my scraps box. 

Supplies
Card Blanks - Anita's 
Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studio Legendary*
Sentiments - Anita's
Ink - Memento

Tools
Big Shot & Spellbinders Circle Die
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Small Star Punch

* Disclosure - I received the papers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.