TGO Challenge

Back to the 2018 album, and a page for The Great Outdoors Challenge, a trek across Scotland that my husband did for three years before Covid struck (and is set to do again next year). This was his second Challenge, and I asked him to choose a selection of photos to illustrate the experience, as I find it hard to pick the significant moments when I'm not involved in the story.

My layout is pretty conventional, the logical choice for a walking page. The photos are in roughly chronological order with a grid of six in the middle and a more varied arrangement to the sides.

The quadrilaterals of stripy paper at the sides came about because the paper is a diagonal stripe but the lines run at a shallower angle than the arrows print and they looked odd together, so I turned the stripes to run vertically instead.

Supplies

Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - We R Memory Keepers Free Spirit

Letters - American Crafts, Teresa Collins

Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio, OneCanoeTwo

Enamel Shapes - Doodlebug, Papermania

Ink - Memento

Loughrigg Tarn

I'm returning to my 2018 album for this page; it's a project that's nearing completion but I will need to place another photo order before that can finally happen.

We visited Cumbria twice that year; this page is from our December trip and a short walk to Loughrigg Tarn. There's no colour in the tarn photos but I was drawn to the pink of our friend's coat and then to an ancient pink and brown paper from Basic Grey. 

I'm currently taking Shimelle Laine's Half and Half class, composed of a series of process videos for pages all made on backgrounds composed of two 6x12 blocks; I teamed my pink and brown paper with a pink diagonal stripe for a page based on her lesson 8. It's an unusual combination for me, but one that I quite like and I plan to repeat it when I make a page from our other walk that weekend (using the remaining two halves of my papers).

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Basic Grey Bittersweet, My Mind's Eye Now and Then, My Mind's Eye On Trend 2, OneCanoeTwo Twilight
Letters - Basic Grey, Pinkfresh Studio

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Eyelet Outlet, Carta Bella

Ink - Memento

Paint - Golden

Tools

American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

Big Shot

Little B Arrow Die

Spellbinders Circle Die

Roman Ruins

Back in the days before NSD, I was working on pages for my 2018 album. I didn't manage to fit many of those to the challenges that were set, but I do have another page from Cumbria. 

As we left Muncaster Fell and walked back to Ravenglass, we passed the remains of a Roman bath house, one of the tallest Roman structures still standing in northern Britain.

I've got a pile of scraps from other Cumbrian pages, so I just added the map print background for the 'Constructivism' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper - use scraps and build up layers.

Looking at the page now, I realise that there's no embellishment on it, so I may go back and add a few more pieces, or I may just leave it as it is.

Supplies

Paper - Authentique Abroad, We R Memory Keepers Quoted, We R Memory Keepers Good Day Sunshine, Simple Stories, Basic Grey, atd, Little Yellow Bicycle, Laura Ashley

Letters - Simple Stories

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Network Festival

I find the sheer number of NSD events and challenges that are published these days to be overwhelming, so I stick with a couple of groups, For the Love of Pretty Paper and Hey Little Magpie, and combine their challenges whenever possible.

For the Love of Pretty Paper's 'Pop Art' challenge involved the use of bright, bold colours with repetition, and Hey Little Magpie asked for a mixed media background. The brightest photos I had printed were from my daughter's scout camp when they dressed as characters from Scooby Doo complete with cardboard Mystery Machine.

I made my background with blue ink and black stamping, and mounted it on a blue paper to give it a bright border. I matted my photos on identical papers for repetition and placed them above and below a central title. I added a diagonal line of small embellishments in my three colours to finish. There's no journalling yet as I want to check something with my daughter first, but I'll do that in black pen, either below the bottom photo or possibly around the edge of the page.

Supplies
Cardstock - UK Crafts
Paper - Sandylion Blue Stars, Unknown Scraps

Washi Tape - Unknown

Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio, MAMBI, MRI

Enamel Dots - Echo Park

Ink - Ranger, Dr Ph. Martin

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City Stamps

On Muncaster Fell

I've gone back to our Easter 2018 holiday in Cumbria now, and a walk over Muncaster Fell one afternoon. My colour scheme for this holiday is red, yellow, green, blue, brown and orange, in dull earthy shades rather than brights so I picked some green dotted Swiss cardstock which pulled that colour from the photos for my background and then went through my scraps box for pieces to use.

I had eight photos which I arranged in chronological order and matted the middle five on darker green cardstock. This meant that the middle of the page was fully covered and I could just tuck my scraps in around the green box. Most of these pieces are much smaller than they might appear and I've cut them into two or sometimes three pieces with the gaps covered by other layers.

P.S. You might have noticed that my posts have slowed down in recent weeks, and that's because I've been trying to tame our wilderness of a garden now that Spring has arrived and that is eating into my scrapping time. I might create and post something in the next week, but I might not. However next weekend is National Scrapbooking Day and I certainly intend to join in with that.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Stampin' Up!
Paper - We R Memory Keepers, Bo Bunny, Basic Grey, Pinkfresh Studio, The Paper Loft
Letters - Pinkfresh Studio

Ticket - Tim Holtz?

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology

Washi Tape - Dovecraft

Wood Veneer - Studio Calico, Creative Expressions

Pearls - Scrapberry's

Ink - Ranger

Windermere Sunset

Dotty About Flair held a cybercrop over the Easter weekend, and the last challenge was to be inspired by the cybercrop itself, and scraplift a page already entered for one of the other challenges. I picked 'Shine' by Kathryn which she made for a mixed media and stamping challenge.

I rotated her page for a landscape photo the sun setting over Windermere in the Lake District over a background that I inked in orange, purple and blue/grey. I used grey for my stamping as being softer than black, cut the word 'Sunset' on my Silhouette and added 'Windermere' in tile stickers in the space between the word and the photo.

P.S. We went to Cumbria twice in 2018, in April and December. This photo was from the second visit and will be completely separate from my recent (April) holiday pages so doesn't need to have the same colour scheme or techniques.

P.P.S. I've doodled a black frame around the page now, but not taken a new photo.

Supplies

Cardstock - DCWV, Craft Sensations 
Letters - Creative Devotion

Ink - Ranger, Memento, Hobbycraft
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Stamp Set

American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City Stamps

Studio Calico Stamps

Unknown Filmstrip Stamp

Make & Create Arrow Stamp

Look Up to the Skies

Shimelle's Page

2018 again, but I've jumped to later in the year and a page for the light installation in Carnaby Street that coincided with the release of the film Bohemian Rhapsody. 

I've scraplifted a page from Shimelle from one of her Facebook lives for my page. All those strips of word paper on her page were perfect to copy for my photos of the different lyrics, and one main photo instead of four was an easy swap.

I've used Shimelle paper, washi and letter stickers too, all from Sparkle City which had the purple I needed.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - DCWV Romantic Life, American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Washi Tape - American Crafts/Shimelle Sparkle City

Gems - Hobbycraft, ZVA Creative

Ink - Memento, Dr Ph. Martin

Mist - Mister Huey's

Milefortlet 21

This page follows on directly from the previous one, coming from the same coastal walk. My photos are of a milefortlet, part of the Roman defences that followed the coast south from Hadrian's Wall.

I've been trying to use my scraps in preference to new sheets, and I spotted three different patterns in the same shade of yellow lurking among them. I pulled in the plaid paper as having the same yellow and then picked the red and navy to match with it.

I used the back of the spotty paper to make a tag for my title and journalled in the opposite corner.

Supplies
Paper - K&Company, Anna Griffin, My Mind's Eye, Bo Bunny, Pinkfresh Studio, Junkitz

Letters - Simple Stories

Washi Tape - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Pretty My Page, Prima

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

X-Cut Tag Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Coastal Walk

I'm still in Cumbria for this page, when we walked along the coast from the village of Allonby where we were staying; we were heading for the remains of a Roman fort, but this page comes first. It has two photos, one looking back to Allonby and one of the old salt pans on the coast viewed from above. 

I scraplifted myself for this page, adapting my Return to Dartmoor page from three smaller to two larger photos. 

I layered up two sets of paper strips, added my photos in opposite corners, and placed my title and journalling in between them this time.

Supplies

Cardstock - Stampin' Up!

Paper - Basic Grey Wisteria, Studio Calico Snippets, OneCanoeTwo Twilight, American Crafts/Shimelle Starshine

Puffy Stickers - Elle's Studio

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

Little B Arrow Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Run Workington

I'm tackling the missing pages for my 2018 album in random order, taking inspiration as it comes. This page is from April when a friend and I ran Workington parkrun* while on holiday in Cumbria. 

I followed a sketch from Lisa Sikorski which she published recently on Instagram; I flipped it over and added a second photo.

All my pages for parkruns other than my home event have the title Run XXX; for this page I cut the RUN three times on my Silhouette and glued them together for thicker letters, and added Workington in smaller letters to the frame below.

* Parkruns are free events run by volunteers in parks across the country every week (though currently suspended for obvious reasons). I started parkrunning in 2018 and kept an 8x8 scrapbook/journal for the first year; hit the 'parkrun 2018' or 'parkrun continued' label if you'd like to know more.

Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - Make & Create Grunge Dreams, Kit 'n' Craft

Letters - Jillibean Soup

Washi Tape & Flowers - Unknown

Sticker - Crate Paper

Enamel Shapes - Doodlebug, My Mind's Eye

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot & Mini Botanical Die

Cultural Cities Cruise

I'm heading back into my 2018 photos now with this page, the last one for my term on the Design Team at The Mad Scrapper. I've picked my favourite collection from the last six months, Vicki Boutin's Storyteller, for a double page summary of that year's cruise.

I used a globe cutfile from Paige Evans, and a page design from Shimelle Laine, with eight 3x4 photos. Please pop over to The Mad Scrapper Blog for more information and close-up photos.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller*

Letters - American Crafts/Paige Evans

Stickers - American Crafts/Vicki Boutin Storyteller*

Washi Tape - Unknown

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Paige Evans Floral Globe Cut-File

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

Hello Allonby

Back in 2018, we spent Easter week in Cumbria, staying on the coast in the village of Allonby. I've made a few pages from that week so far, but nothing for the village or the cottage we rented. I often use a kit for our holidays to make a distinct sub-section in my annual album, but I hadn't done so on this occasion. However, looking back, most of my pages do follow a broad colour scheme of red, yellow, green, blue, brown and orange, mostly in dull earthy shades rather than clean and bright tones.

So no pinks or purples for this page, and no bright patterns, which led me to We R Memory Keepers Free Spirit for this page. I decided to split my page in two as my photos are quite different and don't sit that well together. I gave the top half to a general view of the village taken on a cloudy day, and used the bottom half for the cottage with its stronger colours and bright blue sky.

I added my title to the top, in a mixture of letter stickers and a word cut on my Silhouette, and journalled on paper strips on the bottom half. I built two embellishment clusters by the photos and one on the top edge of the page so that the three form a diagonal line. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - We R Memory Keepers Free Spirit, Kit 'n' Craft

Letters - KaiserCraft

Word Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Washi Tape - Papermania

Ink - Ranger

Paint - Golden

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

Spellbinders Circle Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Dovecraft Star Die

X-Cut Scalloped Border Punch

Anniversary Selfie

Time for my fourth and final page from our day in Flatford back in 2018. We went there on our wedding anniversary and I left this page untitled for a long time before settling on the obvious.

I used 49 and Market products again, to tie in with the previous three pages. I matted my photo and then layered pieces from the collage stack behind it. My background had an obvious space for a photo, with faux stitching on two edges. I cut round the wing of one of the printed butterflies and tucked my layers behind it, lined up with the stitching, and added two more of the same butterfly in die-cut form to make a triangle.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Die-Cuts - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Ephemera - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology

Enamel Dots - 49 & Market Wishing Bubbles*

Gems - Simply Creative

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

* Disclosure - I received all the 49 & Market products and the Thickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Flatford Lock

Today I'm sharing the second of two new pages that I made for The Mad Scrapper which are currently on the blog there. I've made four in total from a day in Flatford, Suffolk; this will be the second one in my album and features the lock on the River Stour.

I've written about it in much more detail, with close-up photos, over on The Mad Scrapper blog so please do hop over if you'd like to see those. I'll have my fourth and final page here in a couple of days.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Die-Cuts - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Ephemera - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology

Enamel Dots - 49 & Market Wishing Bubbles*

Gems - Simply Creative

Ink - Ranger

* Disclosure - I received all the 49 & Market products and the Thickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Flatford Today

Today I'm sharing the first of two new pages that I made for The Mad Scrapper which are currently on the blog there. I've made four in total from a day in Flatford, Suffolk, which is where John Constable did a lot of his painting. Indeed, the first page I shared was a modern day view of the stretch of river where he painted The Hay Wain.

I made that page first, but it'll be third in my album; I'm not a chronological scrapper in the slightest. My new one will be first, and has four photos of the village and the river.

I've written about it in much more detail, with close-up photos, over on The Mad Scrapper blog (and there's a second page there too) so please do hop over if you'd like to see those. Otherwise I'll be back in a couple of days with my next Flatford page.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine*

Die-Cuts - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Ephemera - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry*

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology

Enamel Dots - 49 & Market Wishing Bubbles*

Gems - Simply Creative

Ink - Ranger

* Disclosure - I received all the 49 & Market products and the Thickers free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Beyond the Deepening Shadow

I'm not working through 2018 photos in order at all, and now I'm jumping from January to November. That month the Tower of London commemorated the centenary of the end of the First World War with a light and sound show called Beyond the Deepening Shadow; the lights were 10,000 torches which were lit each evening in the dry moat, and the sound was a specially composed four hour soundtrack. 

I printed three 4x6 photos and stacked them up for one of my default three-photo page designs. 

I had terrible trouble with reflections on my photo of the page, so apologies that the pictures aren't as clear as they might be. My background is cream and gold, which I chose because the gold catches the light and twinkles in the same way as the torches did in my memory.

Supplies
Paper - Simple Stories Cozy Christmas, Echo Park, Stampin' Up!

Letters - Anita's Glitterations

Journal Card - Project Life

Washi Tape - Hobbycraft

Label Die-Cuts - Unknown

Enamel Shapes - Freckled Fawn, Doodlebug, Echo Park

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Tag Die

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tag Punch

Make Your Mark

This is one of those pages which I kept putting off making. I'd printed the photos, chosen the papers (Simple Stories Awesome) and picked a page design (the 'On the Angle' sketch from Shimelle Laine's Start with a Sketch class from this time last year) but I had no ideas for the title, and for a long time I let that stop me from starting.

My photos are from January 2018 and if I'm going to complete that year's album then I need to make this page rather than put it off any longer. The occasion is my daughter and her fellow scouts receiving achievement awards from our mayor. I wanted something encouraging without being schmaltzy but nothing came to mind. 

Starting work on the page, I spotted that one of the papers had the wording 'Take Your Place, Make Your Mark, Live Your Life' printed on it. I earmarked 'Make Your Mark' as my title, initially intending to use letter stickers, but then decided to use the paper itself.

Supplies

Paper - Simple Stories Awesome, Pink Paislee Portfolio

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Echo Park 

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Tyne Bridges

I'm continuing with my 2018 album for now. We cruised from Newcastle-upon-Tyne that year and spent the morning before embarkation on the waterfront in the city, where the river is crossed by seven different bridges in less than a mile. I chose two photos for this page, one of most of the bridges and one of the newest, the Gateshead Millennium Bridge.

This page will sit opposite one from Durham (Perfect Reflection) where we stayed the night before so I copied the grey, blue and yellow colour scheme from that one, and even pulled in a few of the same papers. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - PhotoPlay Fun with Friends, Simple Stories Heart, My Mind's Eye Lost & Found 3, My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart, Pink Paislee Portfolio, Pink Paislee Indigo Bleu

Enamel Dots - Studio Calico, Pretty My Page, Eyelet Outlet

Ink - Memento

Mist - Docrafts

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Fiskars Bracket Border Punch

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Woodware Tag Punch

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Not The Hay Wain

I'm back on The Mad Scrapper blog now with the first of four pages from Flatford in Suffolk, the heart of Constable country, where he painted The Hay Wain.

I used Vintage Artistry papers and ephemera from 49 and Market, a new company to me, but one I would highly recommend for the quality of their products. They have the thickest patterned paper I've ever seen, heavier than some cardstock, and the laser-cutting on their ephemera is faultless.

Please do hop over for more information and close-up photos.

Supplies

Cardstock - Papermania

Paper - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry*

Ephemera - 49 and Market Sage Collage Stack*

Washi Tape - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry*

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz

Letters - Fancy Pants

Epoxy Shapes - 49 and Market Wishing Bubbles*

Gems - Simply Creative

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Woodware Tag Punch

*Disclosure - I received all the 49 and Market products free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my design team role.

Devilishly Good

Having finished my 2020 album recently I'm going back to 2018 which is far from complete. I kept the pages in order as I made them, but it's been nearly a year since I added any new ones to the pile. I've written a list of about 20 pages and printed the photos for around half of them, so let's see how far I get before I get sidetracked!

I'm starting in October (why not?) when the Red Devils Army Parachute Display Team did a water jump near us. I'd printed three square photos but I really wanted to scrap them with a sense of movement rather than in a static row or column. Stick It Down had the perfect sketch this month where I could place my 'sky' photo at the top and my two 'landing' photos at the bottom.

I started with a plain white cardstock background which I coloured with stormy sky distress ink and silver acrylic paint. I replaced the diamond shapes from the sketch with pieces from an arrows cut-file which I cut on my Silhouette using a blue cloud print paper with small aeroplanes.

I matted all my photos on black cardstock and then added red cardstock and a chequered paper on two sides of each one. I cut the title from red and black on my Silhouette, and added puffy stars in the same colours to opposite corners. 

Supplies

Cardstock - Crafts UK, Bazzill

Paper - Simply Made Travel Keepsakes, My Mind's Eye Quilting Bee

Letters - Creative Devotion

Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio

Ink - Ranger

Paint - Adirondack

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait and The Cut Shoppe 'This Way' Cut-File