"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. 

Return to Dartmoor

I had a bundle of Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Legendary papers from The Mad Scrapper for my September DT pages and made three pages from them. I didn't have many pieces left and was going to consign them to my scraps box, but then I saw a scraplift in the Scrap Squad Facebook group that suited the leftovers rather well (with the addition of a sheet of white cardstock).

This was their Scraplift #37, a page originally made by Jennifer Smith back in 2016. 

I decided to move the middle photo to the opposite side and added some splodges of distress ink and spatters of mist to the areas of cardstock which would be behind my photos. I assembled the three sets of paper strips from my scraps and picked the arrow motif from the papers to use in my embellishment.

Those photos are from August when my husband went on a walking and camping trip to Dartmoor. This was only a month after his previous trip there (The Great Escape) but Devon is easy to get to without using public transport.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft UK, Papermania

Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studio Legendary*

Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle*

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Doodlebug, Studio Calico

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot & Little B Arrow Die

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

Here Be Monsters

Shimelle's Page

I'm scraplifting Shimelle Laine today, copying a page from one of her recent Facebook live videos.

The photo is another from my daughter's first year at University and is from a Monster Ball. I wanted grungy papers to match the theme of monsters and chose some old papers from Scrap Within Reach, a company which I think is now defunct.

I used a coloured background so didn't stencil it, but I did spread some distress oxide ink behind my photo. I didn't have any embellishments from the collection, but I store mine by colour so was able to pull a few things that match up, and cut some of them into three pieces to spread across three clusters around my photo. Being landscape rather than portrait, there was more space for my title below the photo than beside it. I was out of Ms but I think an upside-down W makes a decent substitute.

Supplies

Paper - Scrap Within Reach Elliott

Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon

Die-Cut - October Afternoon

Word Stickers - My Mind's Eye

Star Sticker - Jillibean Soup

Brad, Ticket & Metal Circles - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Doodlebug

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's, Docrafts

Tools

Big Shot & Little B Arrow Die

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Pat & Deirdre

This page is one for my daughter's university album, and she suggested/requested the title. Those aren't the real names of her and her friend, but some sort of private joke.

I made the page for a scraplift challenge over at Scrap Squad where Keighley chose a page by Jana McCarthy for Hip Kit Club for us all to lift.

I went pink and floral for my version of her page, with papers from an assortment of Maggie Holmes' collections.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes Sunny Days, CP/MH Gather, CP/MH Chasing Dreams, CP/MH Open Book, Basic Grey Indie Chic, KaiserCraft A Touch of Gold, Pink Paislee Moonstruck

Letters - American Crafts, 

Journalling Cards - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes Open Book

Border Sticker - Crate Paper Random

Tickets, puffy Stickers & Chipboard - Unknown

Enamel Shapes - Studio Calico, Simple Stories, Echo Park

Ink - Hobbycraft

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Big Shot

Cut & Make Doily Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Car Birthday Card

It was my nephew's 17th birthday last week and, since he'll be learning to drive, I made him a card from a car die-cut that I've had for many years now. I put together a simple landscape background from three strips of paper, with stamped trees on the green piece, and popped the car and sentiment banner up on foam squares.

 

Lockdown

I'm back on the blog at The Mad Scrapper today with a page documenting the lead up to Lockdown in March. I used papers from PhotoPlay's pandemic collection called Living the Quarantine Life and designed my page with two pockets for memorabilia and journalling cards.

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill, Stampin' Up!

Paper - PhotoPlay Paper Living the Quarantine Life*

Letters - October Afternoon

Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Echo Park, Studio Calico, Ebay

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Woodware Tag Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

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

Explore - Thames View Hill

I'm sharing more pages for my Explore album today, a 6x8 Simple Stories flipbook for local walks during lockdown earlier this year.

My photos for Thames View Hill ran to two double pages (or eight 4x6 pockets as I'm using divided page protectors). 

I concentrated on the hill itself and the Thames View for the first four pockets. Our view includes Tilbury Docks where a number of cruise ships have been laid up for the duration.

Turning over, I have more journalling and another view, the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf 13-14 miles away in the top two pockets. I gave the bottom pockets to circular photos of butterflies, in the same size as the painted stones on my previous page.

I recently bought the ephemera pack and a few 12x12 papers from Simple Stories to add to my original sticker sheet and 6x8 pad as I realised I didn't have enough supplies. I've used the first piece of ephemera here, very happy to find a piece based on a circle the same size as my photos to complete the row.

Supplies

Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Great Escape, The Works World Map

Letters - DCWV Christmas Alphabet Sticker Stack

Ephemera - Simple Stories

Stickers - Simple Stories, OneCanoeTwo

Washi Tape - Little B

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

Dovecraft Label Die

Little B Arrow Die

Our Covid Snake

I'm sharing another page from my 'Explore' 6x8 album today, an album for the local walks I took during lockdown earlier this year. I'm working with divided page protectors and planning to stick to 4x6 pockets throughout.

I have photos from our Covid Snake, a line of painted stones which runs along a local footpath and which anyone could add too. It was fascinating to see it grow week by week and it contributed to a sense of community at a time when we couldn't meet anyone in person.

I popped a photo of the whole snake in the top left pocket of a double spread, and used the empty space on it for my title. My journalling went in the pocket below with a few of the stones fussy-cut from another photo, and I used the pockets on the right for close-ups of some of the stones.

I've added another paper pad, some letter stickers and some word stickers to my starter kit while making this page, and I plan to repeat these as I go along.

Supplies

Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Great Escape, The Works World Map, 7Gypsies Avignon

Letters - DCWV Christmas Alphabet Sticker Stack
Stickers - Tim Holtz, Simple Stories

Washi Tape - Little B

Ink - Ranger 

Tools

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template

Big Shot

X-Cut Banner Die

X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Explore - Close to Home

I won't be making the pages for my new 'Explore' album in order, but I am starting at the beginning with my title page. I liked the printed cluster of bingo card, book papers, leaves and butterfly on one of the 6x8 papers of the Simple Vintage Great Escape paper, but the wording didn't work so I cut the design out and layered it over an alternative background.

I cut the word Explore on my Silhouette and completed the title with clear stickers from Studio Calico. I tucked a date label in under my paper cluster and added a strip of thin washi down the side. I'll repeat that washi on as many pages as possible as I work through the album pages.

I stamped the compass on the page and finished with a trio of stars.

Turning over, I added a map of our local Nature Park to the back of this page and then switched to the 4x6 pockets that I plan to use for the rest of this album. I wrote a small explanation of the lockdown restrictions and the places I explored in the top pocket (with a repeat of the compass stamp and washi tape) and printed a map of the local area for the bottom pocket. 

I read a blog article during lockdown where the author commented on the size of his 'lockdown box' and how it expanded as time went on. This lead to me marking the boundaries of my own box on the map. I stayed within that area for eleven weeks until restrictions began to be lifted in June.

Supplies

Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Great Escape, The Works World Map Paper Pad, OneCanoeTwo Creekside

Letters - Studio Calico

Washi Tape - Little B

Ink - Memento, Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Scrapberry's Compass Stamp

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Hobbycraft Small Star Punch

Explore - A New Project

2020 has been a strange year, with holidays and events cancelled all the way. My annual scrapbook will be thinner than usual as a result but a lockdown didn't stop me taking photos. When we could only take daily walks in our local area, I explored many places that I would normally walk straight through or round the edge and I took photos everywhere I went. However I don't want my 2020 album to be dominated by this, so I am going to make a separate smaller album.

I've chosen a green Simple Stories Flipbook in the 6x8 size which I'll use with the sticker sheet and 6x8 pad from Simple Stories' Simple Vintage Great Escape collection.

Apart from my title page, I'm going to stick to the divided pages with two 4x6 pockets on each, and fill a good many of them with 4x6 photos, but I'll still need more paper than just the one pad. I picked up a couple of others in The Range and The Works and added in the remnants of my Creekside 6x6 pad and stickers, plus a sheet of Studio Calico star stickers which are sufficient in number to spread across the whole album.

I'm going to keep the pages as flat as possible so no gems, enamel dots or chipboard. I will make use of my stamps and dies for icons and shapes that can be repeated without fear of running out. I'm sure I'll add other stickers and papers as I go along, and once I've used something I'll add the remainder to my kit so that I can repeat it.

A Night with DJ Steves

I'm back on The Mad Scrapper blog today to share my third (and final) page made with papers from Cocoa Vanilla Studios' Legendary collection.

It's another for my daughter's University album. She gave me the photo, just captioned DJ Steves, but no further information. It seems that he's a character from the TV show 'People Just Do Nothing' and he appeared in Brighton earlier this year.

Supplies
Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studios Legendary*
Letters - American Crafts*, Creative Devotion

Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft

Enamel Dots - Echo Park*, Eyelet Outlet*

Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Dies

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

Seeing Triple

I'm carrying on with my daughter's university album today, but the page has a photo of one of her friends, in triplicate as they played with panorama photography.

A photo like this has to be printed as large as possible so I went with A4 paper which made it about 3.5" by 11.75" and chose an old sketch from Shimelle that I've used before. Obviously I dropped the three circles from the sketch as I was using one photo not two, and I moved the photo up and title down, but I kept the paper layers as they are.

I had intended to keep the central composition throughout, but when I added the arrows to the page, they really wanted to be more spread out, and then the large star worked better slightly offset so I broke that rule entirely with my smaller stars and pearls.

Supplies
Paper - My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus, My Mind's Eye 29th Street Market, Make & Create Grunge Dreams, Kit 'n' Craft

Letters - American Crafts

Cork Shapes - Studio Calico

Pearls - Unknown

Washi Tape - Unknown

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Stars Dies

Hobbycraft Star Punch

American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Turtle-y Cool

I'm back on my daughter's university album today, and grateful to her for the photos as I have very little to scrap for this year. This photo just has the caption 'Turtle' but I think the street art is on the back of one of the pubs or clubs in Brighton.

I started this page a couple of weeks ago, when I cut a couple of turtles on my Silhouette and backed them with white cardstock that I'd coloured with a mixture of inks. I got stuck then, couldn't work out how to finish the page and put everything to one side. 

At the beginning of the month, Rochelle Spears published her October sketch and it got me going again. My photo was 4x4 so I looked at my 6x6 pads to make the row of paper strips across the page, finding a gorgeous ombre paper and deciding to use just the one pattern instead of a variety. I then picked a couple of colours of blue ink and used the packaging technique on a white cardstock background for a diagonal line of colour. I placed my paper strips lower on the page than in the sketch so that my larger turtle could sit on the top edge and reversed the direction of the sketch to suit the orientation of my turtles.

I decided on washi for the strip at the bottom but it felt disconnected there so I moved it up, and then added another strip at the top to balance it, picking colours that match the top and bottom of my ombre paper. 

I combined this challenge with a tic-tac-toe from Scrap with Stacy and used five items from her grid - gold, enamel dots, word stickers, one photo and ink/paint - which complete the top row or the right column.

Rochelle and Stacy join forces every month so you can have three chances to win with just one page - Rochelle's challenge, Stacy's challenge or the two combined as I have done here.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft UK

Paper - Making Memories??

Letters - American Crafts, Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Unknown

Rain Dots - Cloud 9 Design

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Mist - Docrafts, Cosmic Shimmer

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Barbican Conservatory

I didn't know that there was a Conservatory at the Barbican Centre in London until I read about it reopening after Lockdown. I had a meeting nearby a few weeks later and so booked a visit for earlier the same day.

I originally printed nine photos for a double page, but when I came to make it I decided that they were too similar, dropped three and went for quite a photo-heavy single page instead. My photos are mostly green so I picked the complementary colour of pink for my papers, splitting the background one-third/two-thirds with a branding strip between the two patterns. 

One I had arranged my photos (popping the two smallest up on foam dots) there seemed to be four places for embellishment clusters; I repeated a small piece of the floral paper over to the right and tucked in four die-cut labels and strips of pink glitter tape to start my clusters off. I came across a butterfly in rose gold which fitted neatly on the right and then I added pieces of clear floral stickers also in rose gold to each place. The one on the left got a flair badge and the one at the bottom a flower sticker. All four got a twist of thread and a trio of enamel dots to finish off.

Supplies

Paper - OneCanoeTwo Saturday Afternoon, Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanical

Letters - Kaisercraft

Butterfly - Studio Calico

Stickers - Paige Evans, Pretty Little Studio

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs

Glitter Tape - The Works

Thread - DMC

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Trick or Treat

This is another page for my daughter's university album, with a couple of Hallowe'en photos that she gave me. 

I've never been keen on Hallowe'en so only have papers from one collection, October Afternoon's Witch Hazel, which I originally bought for my Harry Potter album. I was down to scraps, with the only piece of any size being a 6x12 of zig-zag print which hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long. However I picked that for my background in conjunction with a spider's web cut-file as a lot would be covered by the time I finished. 

Building the rest of my page was a game of Tetris, identifying the papers which were big enough for photo mats, then working out how my scraps could be fitted together and which pieces could be cut and stretched where needed to look bigger than they are. 

I embellished with pumpkins cut from one of the papers, the word 'Beware' die cut from another to form a label and a sprinkling of enamel dots. 

My scraps are even scrappier now, but I might just be able to squeeze out one final page if my daughter has another Hallowe'en event this year. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill, Stampin' Up!
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel
Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Simple Stories, Pretty My Page
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die