Go Bananas for Rag

This one was an epic page for a birthday challenge from Dotty About Flair. They released their first flair designs on 10 July (10/7) last year and the challenge was to use as many items as possible from a list of 107, a mix of colours, motifs and techniques. My first task was to find a suitable set of photos, and I hit on RAG week at university, a week where students raise money for local charities, as a subject that could take some random motifs.

One of the items on the list was to scraplift another member of the group, and I picked this page from Kerryn; she made the stripes on her background by swiping ink pads across the page. It's easy and effective and something I shall do again. I chose three colours for my page and used the remains of a sheet of alphabet rub-ons over the stripes for 'something quirky'.

Other items included a flip or flap and a hidden element so my main photo lifts up to reveal a second one inside (for 2+ photos too). We could use the same thing for more than one item on the list so my filmstrip ticks off black, coloured cardstock, vellum, frames and cut-file in one go, as well as holding some puffy stickers which tick off a few more elements.

Under the Flap

I'm not going to list all 107 items but I do have them all on the page (with a degree of interpretation such as using a shell for the beach prompt). 

I think I've managed to keep the front as a cohesive page, and then I used the space inside my flap to hide some of the more random pieces like a strip of union flag washi tape to represent Britain.

By the way, "Go Bananas" was the theme for that year's RAG week. We had "Go Sharkin' for RAG" and "Go Barking Mad for RAG" in subsequent years.

Supplies

Cardstock - Crafts UK

Paper - Pink Paisllee/Paige Evans Whimsical, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Rurn the Page, American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine, Photoplay Boatding Pass

Letters - American Crafts, Pinkfresh Studio

Rub-Ons - Three Bugs in a Rug

Ephemera - Jillibean Soup

Chipboard - Pink Paislee/Paige Evans

Flair - Dotty About Flair

Wood Veneer - Studio Calico, Freckled Fawn?

Puffy Stickers - Journal Studio, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Stickers - Simple Stories, Pink Paislee/Paige Evans

Twine & Washi Tape - Unknown

Sequins - Pretty Little Studio

Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Simple Stories

Epoxy Hearts - Studio Calico

Brads - Papermania

Ink - Ranger

Paint - Golden

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

X-Cut Camera Die

Dovecraft Labels Die

Freedom Ahead?

I made this page to mark us getting our second covid vaccinations, which happened in June as cases were beginning to rise, our second jab was brought forwards and the final step of lifting restrictions in England was postponed. 

Although being double-vaccinated removes some of the risk from covid, it was unclear at the time how that might change our daily lives. I suspect that many restrictions will remain or be reimposed later on, and I was trying to convey this uncertainty in my title.

My page was quite a simple one, with torn papers from Heidi Swapp pads and a couple of clusters of washi tape, die-cut shapes and stickers, including my husband's 'I've had my Covid Vaccination' sticker (I didn't get one!).

Supplies
Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust, Heidi Swapp Hello Today

Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Washi Tape - Stampin' Up!

Enamel Dots - Amazon, Marianne Designs, Simple Stories

Ink - Memento

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Labels Die

21 Today

I'm ticking off another challenge from Dotty About Flair's birthday celebrations today. This one was to be inspired by celebrations and to use gold. Our daughter turned 21 last month so I had photos from her birthday lunch ready to go. My layout is taken directly from Shimelle Laine's 'Half & Half' class, specifically the 'Boxes on Boxes' lesson, with separate areas of photos in the two halves of the page. 

Supplies

Paper - Make & Create Moments, Pebbles Seen & Noted

Letters - American Crafts

Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Simple Stories, Stampin' Up!

Ink - Memento

Paint - Golden

Tools

Big Shot

Cut & Make Leaf Die

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Beep! Beep!

I'm combining three challenges in one page today as For the Love of Pretty Paper recently held a 'Journey of Change' cybercrop and Dotty About Flair are celebrating their first birthday with a whole month of challenges.

The first challenge was to be inspired by this rainbow page from Scrappy Kathy for DAF, which came with a video showing how she used bleeding tissue paper to create her coloured circles.

I'd never heard of bleeding tissue paper before, and had no intention of buying it, so I used India inks for my page, and switched to a full circle of coloured splodges to match the first July sketch from Lottie Loves Paper.

I used an ink dropper to dot my ink on the page and then spritzed each dot with water to make it spread. I'd never done anything like this before, generally preferring more control over any mixed media I use, so it qualifies for FTLOPP's 'Try Something New' challenge.

Once my ink had dried, I spattered the page with gold paint and then stamped circles over each colour and added puffy stars to each one. I also added nuvo drops; I'm not sure that was the right decision but they can't be undone.

My page is rather warped despite using Bazzill Marshmallow cardstock, so I'm hoping it flattens down in the album.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle Box of Crayons

Inks - Dr Ph Martins

Puffy Stars - Paperchase

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink Pad - Ranger

Paint - Golden

Tools

Personal Impressions ' Circle Tags' Stamps

Fabulous Fridays

Now that Covid restrictions are being lifted here, we've actually been places and done things for the 2021 album. I recently got a batch of photos printed and I'm hoping they bring my mojo back.

This first page was already part done; it started off as a scraplift challenge back in 2017, but I didn't have a photo to finish the page at the time. I put it to one side until I did, but that's taken much longer than I originally thought it would. 

My new photo is a selfie from a lunch with friends to celebrate my birthday and the journalling is about how we're allowed to meet in person again now. I used a couple of flairs from Dotty About Flair, including a coffee cup which I've been hoarding because we normally meet up on Fridays for coffee and a natter. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Teresa Collins Something Wonderful, We R Memory Keepers Love Notes, KaiserCraft Secret Bird Society

Letters - American Crafts

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Flair - Dotty About Flair
Gems - ZVA Creative
Enamel Dots - Altenew
Thread - DMC

Mist - Mister Huey's

The Dark Light

Much as I'd like to get my2018 album finished, the photos just aren't inspiring me at the moment so I'm changing tack, picking challenges that do inspire me and then finding photos (from any year) to go with them.

The first one that caught my eye was a scraplift challenge from Scrap Squad, to lift a page by Lacey Robin for Paper Issues. 

Those diamond shapes made me think of the tile print on a paper from Vicki Boutin's Storyteller collection, so I started by chopping it up into individual squares. I picked grey cardstock for my background, and smooshed ink over it in three colours that match the paper. Most of it's been covered by the tiles, but that's the effect I wanted, with just a little peeking out around the edges.

My photo's an old one of Dungeness Lighthouse (which coincidentally we visited again last month so it'll be making another appearance here soon) that I matted on cardstock and then another Storyteller paper. The title gave me some trouble as the lighthouse has been decommissioned so I couldn't use any title based around it shining; it's even been painted black so that is harder to see and doesn't confuse seafarers. Eventually I hit upon The Dark Light and cut it on my Silhouette as I didn't have all the letters I needed in any of my sticker sets. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Colorset?

Paper - American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller

Letters - Creative Devotion

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Enamel Stars - Doodlebug

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Why?

I've gone way back in the photo archives for this page, which I made for the June sketch challenge from Hey Little Magpie.

I picked an 8x8 patterned paper for the central square and smooshed ink onto a cardstock background to frame it. I  switched the photo to the opposite side to suit the slight angle in the way my brother is standing, and added a few paper layers behind it, doodling lines around the edges of each piece and the whole page.

My brother is pulling a face in the photo, probably as a protest against me taking it, so I titled it 'Why?' and journalled an imaginary conversation between us.

Supplies
Cardstock - Unknown
Paper - My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus

Letters - American Crafts

Flair - Unknown

Swirl Die-Cut - from a Swap

Washi & Word Sticker - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Prima, Simple Stories, Freckled Fawn

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

Sizzix Stars Die

X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die