Too Cute to Spook

My blog is evolving again, and is now less of a chore, so I've decided to split out my DT pages for Twilight Crafts into their own posts, unless the page is part of a set.

First up this month is a Hallowe'en page using a photo from 2003 that I recently acquired. The quality isn't great but it's all I have. 

I used the Too Cute to Spook 2 cut-file as my title, cutting the whole thing once and just the pumpkins a second time. I then doodled on the pumpkin pieces and layered them up over the base cut-file which I backed with a polka dot paper.

I don't generally buy Hallowe'en papers but I had a couple of sheets and some stickers in a mystery box so put them to use as my background here. I then layered the photo up with my last scraps of October Afternoon paper, which I originally bought for my Harry Potter Studio Tour album. Finally I punched a few circles, placed them in a line top and bottom,  and stitched them in place.

Supplies: Cardstock - Papermania; Paper - Pebbles Spooky, October Afternoon Witch Hazel; Puffy Stickers - Pebbles; Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Eyelet Outlet

Disclosure - I receive digital cut-files free of charge from Twilight Crafts as part of my DT role. All other supplies are my own.

(Page 41 of 2024)

Fountains Abbey

My printer's malfunctioning again, and this time it seems to be terminal. This is really annoying as I normally print my photos as I go along. Trying to find the silver lining, I have plenty of photos from pre-digital days and this could be an opportunity to finish off a few older albums.

The first 'old' page that I'm tackling is a double for my 2003 annual album. We holidayed in Yorkshire that summer and I had eight 4x6 photos from a day at Fountains Abbey. They would have taken up a huge amount of the page, so I started by cropping them down, then made a fairly basic layout with vertical blocks of patterned paper and horizontal rows of photos.

That's the last page I needed to make for 2003; one album finished already!

Supplies
Paper - K&Company Hannah, Fancy Pants Home for Christmas
Letters - American Crafts, Jenni Bowlin
Die-Cuts - K&Company Hannah
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Disney Dreaming

The team at Two Peas in a Bucket normally make a great fuss about CHA, the Craft & Hobby Association show where the scrapbook companies debut their collections for the next season. This year things at Two Peas have been rather quiet, but Stephanie Bryan, one of the Garden Girls, has stepped into the breach and set three CHA Challenges for us.

The first one is a recipe challenge: use 1 tag, 2 types of alphabet, 3 patterned papers and 4 embellishments. I started thinking from the 3 patterned papers which I imagined layered behind a single photo on a cardstock background. Some time later, that is roughly what I produced:

The photo is of my daughter, who used to refuse an afternoon nap even when she was clearly tired. I used to sit with her to watch a Disney film...until she fell asleep, hence the title.

I have the tag, two alphas, three papers (plus some vellum, hope it doesn't count) and four embellishments (doily, pearl swirls, stickers & peel-off stars).

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Dovecraft Eastern Promise, Pebbles New Addition
Vellum - Scenic Route
Tag - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Doily - Dovecraft
Stickers - Crate Paper Restoration, Dear Lizzy
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Dear Lizzy
Pearls - Prima
Mist - Mister Huey's
Peel-Off Stars - from Stash

Tiny Dancers

My first challenge page of the year, and it's one for Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #48. I adapted it for two photos of my children, niece and nephew at a family wedding. I've already scrapped the bride and groom (First Dance) so I pulled out the same collection of patterned papers and the remains of the border sticker I used then for this page.

There are a lot of strong colours and patterns in my papers so I matted each one with white paper, and kept the embellishment very simple, just a plain chipboard heart covered with the background paper. My title letters were originally kraft, but I re-coloured them to match the background.

Supplies
White scrapbook inserts
Paper - K&Co Paper Doll
Border Sticker - Crate Paper
Chipboard - Papermania
Ink Dabber - Pretty Color

Tools
X-Cut Corner Punch

Whitby & Endeavour

My first page of 2014, and it's a double from a holiday in Yorkshire. I'm not good at designing double pages, so I went straight to the Sketch Support blog. They aren't publishing new sketches there, but there are some beauties in the archives, and I picked this one from August 2011.

All my pictures were originally 4x6 photos printed from film, but three were crop-able, although I left them larger than in the sketch. I also used more of the area on the right for my journalling.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop, Glitz Designs Hello December, Dream Street Papers Wonderland 
Letters - Scenic Route, Jillibean Soup
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Washi Tape - Efco
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops
Ink - Papermania

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
X-Cut Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch
Woodware Daisy Punch
Dovecraft Beautiful Borders Stamp

1066 and All That

This was my final layout of 2013 and it's a mammoth layout, two and two half pages with 11 photos. My pictures are from Mountfitchet Castle, which is a modern reconstruction of a Norman motte and bailey castle, built on the site of the original (which was destroyed in 1215).

I've known for a long time that I was going to scrap these photos following Shimelle Laine's 4x6 Photo Love class from November 2011. This class used seven photos on a double page, with a 6x12 divided page protector in the middle, holding four more photos and two journalling blocks. I've used this layout before (World in Miniature) and it's really useful for getting lots of photos onto a double page of sorts.

This is the left page and the front of the insert:

followed by the back of the insert and the right page:

See that ticker at the top of the screen? My target for the year was to make 230 pages which would have matched those made in 2012. Sadly I fell short, only completing 197, but this is still an average of four pages per week for the 49 weeks that I was at home this year, so I won't feel too sad. This should be 5-6 albums full of pages, but my habit of jumping from place to place does mean that I have only actually completely finished two, my Olympic and Paralympic album, and the second of my 2012 albums (June - December). However I have only a few more pages to make from 2003 and that will be another one done. Now to set a target for 2014...

Supplies
Paper - K&Co Hannah, plus scraps
Numbers - MME Lush
Letters - October Afternoon
Label Stickers - Studio Calico
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink - docrafts

Smile

A second post from me today, as I try to finish some challenges before the deadlines. This page is for the 1st December sketch at Stuck?! Sketches.

I scrapped a school photo of my children that was larger than in the sketch, and adapted the other layers behind it to suit me. I try to use letter or number paper on school pages, and this was no exception.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Basic Grey
Washi - Crate Paper, Efco
Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Wood Veneer - Studio Calico
Ink - Ink It Up!

Swingalong

Two of the challenge blogs that I follow teamed up for their mid-month challenge. Sketch-n-Scrap produced the sketch while Scrap Our Stash provided the additional requirement of using two border punches and one other punch.

I picked a couple of smaller photos, and roughly followed the sketch, but I adapted it as I went along. I used two border punches, and then five more assorted shapes for clusters to the sides of the photos:

Supplies

Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Miss Caroline

Letters - American Crafts

Brads - Papermania

Mist - Teal Cosmic Shimmer Mist

Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tiny Star Punch

Hobbycraft Star Punch

Craft Essentials Heart Punch

Sports Day Snapshots

This page has been a long time in the making. I picked my photos at the beginning of the month as fitting Brenda's sketch at Grand Diva's Creative Corner, but I struggled with picking my patterned paper and I put the photos aside for a while. Having made the last page, I decided to try another dark background; this one is from Crate Paper's DIY Shop collection and I stuck with that collection for the rest of my papers too.

Brenda is one of three friends who publish three interlinking Scrappy Friends challenges each month; I've only combined two of them this month - Brenda's sketch and Kristi's challenge - Make it Sparkle. I have three trios of gems on my page for just a little sparkle.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - American Crafts, Pebbles
Stickers - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Gems - Dovecraft, atd

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch

The London Eye

Hello blog! It's been a while since I've been here, but a bout of sickness and then the Christmas preparations kept me away. I did make a couple of pages before Christmas in small bursts, five minutes here and ten minutes there, and now I actually have the time to blog them.

The first one is dead simple, three 4x6 photos from the London Eye, stacked up in a column. There's not a lot of colour in the photos and, after trying a few background papers, I was inspired by Rosey's page at Scrap Whispers to use black cardstock and black and white papers to help the photos stand out.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - Imaginisce Sole Sisters, Paper Cellar
Border Sticker - Doodlebug
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Tape - K&Co Smash
Gems - Recollections
Ink - docrafts

A Squash & A Squeeze

This is my third page from the Mini Cyber Crop at UKScrappers. It's for Challenge 7 which was to use a Starting Point for a page. The basic paper layers in a starting point are already in place (a bit like a sketch) but you can finish the page in any way you like.

The stack of papers seemed perfect for a single photo, so I pulled one of my children and my niece in the bath. I've had the bath paper for ages but it was smaller then 12x12 so I mounted it on cardstock as my background and used an assortment of pink and blue papers for my layers. They're not quite the same sizes as in the starting point as I was mostly working with scraps and used them as they were. This tall thin font was perfect for reinforcing my title, and I finished off with a scattering of sequins and gems which I hope are reminiscent of bath bubbles.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV?
Paper - Provocraft, Crate Paper Random, Crate Paper Neighborhood, Pink Paislee Snow Day, Unknown Floral
Letters - Jillibean Soup
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Farmhouse
Ink - Ink It Up!
Gems & Sequins - from Stash

Three "J"s

This is another page from the Red Ribbons Mini Cyber Crop at UKScrappers last week. I'm not doing all the challenges, just the ones that appeal, so this is Challenge 6. It's another sketch challenge, combined with a masculine colour palette of blues and browns.

I chose to use just the left half of the sketch, and jiggled it to suit the fact that one of my photos was square, not portrait. 

The Three "J"s of the title are James, Julie and their baby, Jonathan.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV
Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sport, Pebbles New Arrival
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Ink - docrafts

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

Another Year Older

The Red Ribbons House at UKScrappers held a mini cyber-crop last week, but I was working and couldn't participate 'live', so I've been playing catch-up this weekend. The first challenge was a sketch, which I loosely followed.

I've gone back to my 2003 photos and scrapped three that my cousin sent me of her children. They live in New Jersey so we don't see each other very often, but she always sends me photos in her Christmas cards.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - docrafts Spring Chic, Crate Paper The Pier, Crate Paper DIY Shop
Letters - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Washi Tape - Crate Paper DIY Shop, We R Memory Keepers
Star - Creative Embellishments
Sticker - Pebbles Fresh Goods
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Elle's Studio 'Notes' Stamp
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Helping Out

I've been neglecting the monthly Have I Got Scrap for You class run by Niki Rowland at UKScrappers. Every month I mean to join in, but I rarely do. I think I've made three pages from the 10 prompts so far, but I've added another to that tally this month. One of the prompts in the November class relates to the use of not-so-obvious titles, and I've also scraplifted one of Niki's sample pages.

The girls in the photos are my daughter and my niece, and I could have gone for an obvious, "In the Park" or "On the Swings" title, but I was helping out my sister-in-law with her housework... by looking after my niece for the day so she could get on with it uninterrupted.

I combined this class with the Weekly Challenge also at UKScrappers. The November Week 4 challenge was set by the Bijoux Belles who asked us to choose six different b-words from their list. I chose blue, brown, baker's twine, brads, bling and beads. Can you spot them all?

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Stack
Paper - Sandylion Snowflakes. Pink Paislee Snow Day
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Brads - Papermania
Word Stickers - Authentique
Stars & Beads - from Stash

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Stapler

Nee-Nar

Shimelle published a new Sketch to Scrapbook Page video last weekend. It's best suited to a single 4x6 photo, so I put it to use with the next single photo that I have from 2003. I switched the patterns around from the page that Shimelle made, with a patterned background and a plain panel on the left behind my paper strips. I also added a border sticker across the page to ground my title. 

The photo is of my children in a fire engine, hence the slightly strange title. It'll only make sense if your fire engine sirens actually go 'nee-nar'; I accept that many don't.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, KaiserCraft Lush
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Border Sticker - Fancy Pants Park Bench
Frame - Studio Calico
Gem Circles - Recollections
Butterflies - Prima
Word Stickers - Authentique
Washi Tape - October Afternoon
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Summer Days

The ladies at Scrap Whispers have published three challenges so far this month, so I have some catching up to do. I made this page for Challenge #159 - to make a Minimalist page. I has just ordered a new mask when the challenge was published and I thought it would work for this.

I used turquoise mist with my new mask to make a simple background for my single photo which I trimmed and mounted on a journalling card. Unfortunately the mist warped my background cardstock so much that I had to layer it on a second piece, but this actually made a nice frame to the page. I kept the embellishments quite simple and journalled up one side of the background.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Journalling Card - Elle's Studio
Vellum Frame - Studio Calico
Washi Tape - Trimcraft
Eyelet Brads - Pebbles
Title - Freebie from Scrapbook Magazine
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer Mist

Tools
Circles Mask - Creative Embellishments
EK Success Corner Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Viroconium

This week's team challenge at UKScrappers very nearly didn't happen, but Mary stepped in at the last moment. Her challenge (November Week 3) is to use all cardstock (no patterned paper), scrap photos of something other than people or pets, and to make a cluster embellishment to adorn the page.

The next photos from our Shropshire holiday were of the Roman baths at Viroconium (now Wroxeter) so I paired them with printed kraft cardstock and added a circle of plain kraft and a cluster of flowers. 

Supplies
Cardstock - MME Kraft Funday, Papermania
Letters - Basic Grey Nordic Holiday
Journalling Spot - Unknown
Chatterbox Scrapbook Tacks
Eyelet from Stash
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Big Shot & Tag Die
Woodware Daisy Punch
Eyelet Setter

@ Blists Hill

Blists Hill is a recreation of a Victorian town, near Ironbridge. I can't believe that I only have one photo from our visit there in 2003, but I suppose this highlights the difference between taking photos on film when you need to be confident that the photos will come out well, and digital photography when you can take dozens of photos and just keep the best few.

Anyway, my only photo was of a horse and cart that were providing rides around the town. It was originally 4x6 but I cropped it before I put it in my album, probably removing half a person from the edge of the photo. I decided to scrap it in a column of paper strips from a 6x6 pad and I filled in the gap at the side of the photo with another strip and a row of brads.

Supplies
Paper - Basic Grey Archaic, + 2 Unknown
Letters - Basic Grey Nordic Holiday
Brads - Papermania
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Park Life

I'm combining challenges today, but that's because two challenge blogs have teamed up for a joint venture. Stuck?! Sketches have published their November 15th Sketch, and Sketch with Stash Challenge #9 at Scrap Our Stash  is to use the same sketch and some wooden stash (which can be paper or stamps instead of actual wood).

I'm sticking with my 2003 album, but I've skipped forward a few pages to scrap this single photo of my daughter in the park. I made a black and white copy to layer with it as per the sketch.

Supplies
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, MME Miss Caroline
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Doilies - Dovecraft
Washi Tape - The Range
Label Sticker - Studio Calico
Word Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Flower Sticker - from Stash

The Iron Bridge

I'm continuing with my 2003 album, and using those photos for sketch challenges where I can. 

Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #45 was designed for four smaller photos, but I used it for two 4x6 photos of the Iron Bridge in Shropshire, the first cast iron bridge in the world, a Scheduled Ancient Monument and part of a UNESCO world heritage site.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania
Paper - Fancy Pants Tradition, MME Wild Asparagus
Letters - American Crafts Remarks
Numbers - Lily Bee
Border - Teresa Collins Timeless
Sticker - Bo Bunny Et Cetera
Ink - docrafts