Running Event Pages

My husband is running the Brighton Marathon in April, and he's done three other increasingly long events so far this year. January was a half-marathon in Victoria Park which I've already scrapped; February and March have been two themed 'run as far as you can' events at Cyclopark in Kent where he completed 16 miles and then 20 miles: 

(The numbers are my page count for the year.)

34. Tiaras & Tutus

This page was inspired by a YouTube live from Shimelle Laine in January, though I used an assortment of pocket page cards rather than cut-apart sheets for my version. 

Supplies: Paper - Echo Park Capture Life; Pocket Cards - Studio Calico, Project Life; Letters - Shimelle; Stickers - Shimelle, Tim Holtz, Paige Evans

35. All Stars

This one is my version of the February sketch from For the Love of Pretty Paper, though it morphed a fair bit from the original.

Supplies: Paper - Paige Evans Wonders, Paige Evans Bungalow Lane, Paige Evans Whimsical; Letters - American Crafts; Vellum - Anita's; Mistable Stars - Studio Calico; Stickers - Paige Evans #Stickerbook; Puffy Shapes - Elle's Studio; Washi Strip - Paige Evans

January Pages

Well, I was stopping blogging, but I've decided on a monthly round-up post to record what I've made, all in one place and I'll be numbering the pages through the year to keep track of the total (counting doubles as two pages). Starting from the beginning of January, these all belong in my annual album for 2023:

1. Chartwell

Churchill's home in Kent

Supplies: Cardstock - The Craft Place; Paper Heidi Swapp Hello Today; Letters - Crate Paper; Enamel Dots - AC/Obed Marshall

2. A Flying Visit

A visit from my cousin who lives in the US, using a sketch from Stick It Down. 

Supplies: Glitter Cardstock - DCWV; Paper - Basic Grey, Craft ID Travel the World AC/Vicki Boutin Fernwood; Letters - American Crafts; Journal Card - Heidi Swapp; Stickers - Fancy Pants, American Crafts; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Ebay

3. Christmas Parkrun

DT page for Twilight Crafts using the Large Star in Sections Cut-File

Supplies: Cardstock - Craft Sensations; Paper - Simple Stories Very Merry, Fancy Pants Merry Little Christmas; Letters - Simple Stories; Stickers - American Crafts, Simple Stories; Enamel Dots - Simple Stories; Thread - DMC; Washi Tape - Little B; Cut-file - Twilight Crafts

4. & 5. Explore Antwerp

A weekend cruise to Antwerp for the Christmas markets, using another sketch from Stick It Down.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, American Crafts, DCWV, The Craft Place; Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Butter, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere; Letters - October Afternoon; Die-Cuts - 49 & Market; Stickers - Fancy Pants, Freckled Fawn; Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Hey Little Magpie

6. Beatrix's Christening

I finally used up a 'starting point' page that I made back in 2018.

Supplies: Cardstock - American Crafts; Paper - Pebbles New Addition, AC Dear Lizzy Neapolitan; Letters - MAMBI; Stickers - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes; Enamel Heart - Freckled Fawn

7. Ladies Who Lunch

I used the back of my Antwerp page because the pattern was too pretty to lose, and 49 & Market papers are thick enough for it to work.

Supplies: Paper - 49 and Market Vintage Artistry Butter; Letters - Tim Holtz; Ephemera - 49 and Market; Word Stickers - Tim Holtz; Washi - 49 and Market; Enamel Dots - 49 and Market

8. Summer Fun

Completing another 'starting point' page with photos from a summer barbecue.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill, DCWV; Paper - AC Shimelle Sparkle City; Letters - American Crafts; Washi Tapes - AC Shimelle Sparkle City; Stickers - AC Shimelle Sparkle City

9. & 10. Morph in the City

Thirty-one photos on a double page for Morph's Epic Art Adventure, a sculpture trail in London.

Supplies: Paper - DCWV Romantic Life; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - AC Paige Evans #Stickerbook; Die-Cut - 49 and Market 

11. Endurance

Recording my husband's epic 50km walking challenge using a sketch from Scrap a Sketch.

Supplies: Cardstock - Bazzill; Paper - Photoplay Paper Boarding Pass; Letters - American Crafts; Stickers - Photoplay Paper; Enamel Shapes - My Mind's Eye

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

Acting Our Shoe Size

I'm sharing another Twilight Crafts DT page today in the catch-up of recent pages. I used the Numbers Background cut-file with photos of me and my mum on the swings earlier this year. 

I cut the numbers background from kraft cardstock and backed the open parts with patterned papers. I also added strips of the same papers to the top and bottom of the page and ticked in a couple of label stickers wthe the date and location. My title is inspired by the old saying 'Act your age not your shoe size' which I twisted round as we are definitely acting our shoe size here.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill, The Craft Place
Paper - Heidi Swapp Hello Today
Labels - Jen Hadfield
Flower Die-Cuts - Rosie's Studio
Enamel Dots - American Crafts/Obed Marshall
Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Numbers Background Cut-File

Fiskars Bracket Edge Border Punch

Lead the Way

I'm only a few pages away from finishing my cruise album, but I've moved over to my 2021 album for this page which I made for Twilight Crafts and Jenny Wren Cut-Files.

Twilight Crafts' challenge this month (in their Facebook group) is to create your own patterned paper so I've combined that with my second DT page for January. I started from a sheet of white cardstock and applied three colours of distress oxide inks through a hexagon stencil. Then I took the Triangle Arrows Background cut-file, shrunk it and welded three together to give me a piece around 5" x 10" which I cut from green cardstock.

I kept the rest of the page quite simple as I didn't want to distract from either the background or the cut-file. I matted two 4x6 photos on the same green cardstock and added a small cluster of stickers to the empty space in the top one. Then I decided to emphasise the triangles by adding enamel shapes to them, and finished off with a spattering of gold paint.

I'm also linking up this page with two other challenges - one to use triangles from Lottie Loves Paper and a tic-tac-toe from Hey Little Magpie where I chose the line of paint, triangles and 2+ photos.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill, Coredinations

Letters - American Crafts

Stickers - OneCanoeTwo

Enamel Shapes - Doodlebug, American Crafts/Shimelle

Washi Tape - Unknown

Ink - Ranger

Paint - Golden

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Jenny Wren Triangle Arrows Background Cut-File

Hexagon Stencil

Disclosure - I received the digital cut-file free of charge from Twilight Crafts. All other supplies are my own.

Puddle Season

I recently joined the design team at Twilight Crafts for a three month term, and today I'm sharing my first creation for them, featuring the umbrella cut-file from Jenny Wren Cut-Files. 

My photo's an old one of my nephew which I've scrapped before but my old page makes me cringe whenever I see it, so it was time for a re-do.

I chose papers from Cocoa Vanilla Studio's Daydream collection for my  new page and paired them with puffy stickers from their newer These Days collection as the colours and patterns are very similar.

I don't have any ephemera from either collection but I was able to cut the rainbow and the flower clusters from two 12x12 papers.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Cocoa Vanilla Studio Daydream

Letters - KaiserCraft

Puffy Stickers - Cocoa Vanilla Studio

Enamel Dots - Echo Park?

Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Disclosure: I received the cut-file free of charge from Twilight Crafts. All the supplies are my own.

Goodbye Dover

I chose the title of this page to reflect that of the last one (Hello Bolette) and they will sit opposite each other in the album. 

I chose a couple of photos for our departure from Dover and matted them together over band of map print paper from the 6x8 pack which I cut and stretched. I ran a branding strip above it and tore a plain strip to go below it.

I'd already earmarked the pink 'Away We Go' piece for this page and I built a cluster of ephemera for it to sit in (including a pair of suitcases which I'd originally thought would be too big to use). That was the only pink apart from the background at that point, so I added the three die-cut arrows and also used it for the main word of my title which gave a better balance to the page.

There's no journalling for once as there was really nothing to say.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Coral

Ephemera - 49 & Market

Star Gems - Papermania

Ink - Memento

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

The Works Alphabet Dies

Little B Arrow Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Hello Bolette

I very rarely create pages on both sides of a paper these days, but those from 49 & Market are impressively thick, heavier weight than many brands of cardstock, so I didn't hesitate when I noticed that the back of the last page would make a good basis for the next.

This one's an introduction to the ship we cruised on, Fred. Olsen's Bolette which was previously Holland America's Amsterdam and had been refurbished during the cruising shutdown. We sailed on her second voyage and it's unlikely to be the last; we greatly prefer her to Boudicca, the ship she replaced.

I took both photos from atop the White Cliffs of Dover, one of the ship and one of the whole harbour. It's actually quite hard to see Bolette in the bottom photo so I added a small vellum sticker with an arrow pointing at her. I double-matted my pair of photos, with the back layer offset to hold a column of ephemera pieces.

I cut the word 'Bolette' on my Silhouette, and gave it an offset for increased stability as I layered it over the bottom photo. The word 'Hello' gave me more trouble as placing it horizontally gave me trapped space between the two words. I tried a few sizes and fonts of letter stickers before realising that I could curve the word around the 'l' in Bolette.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Sky/Coral, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere

Letters - Heidi Swapp

Ephemera - 49 & Market

Sticker - Studio Calico

Glitter Tape - The Works

Gems - Love to Craft

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

The Two Towers

My final page from Dungeness, and the Two Towers of my title are the old and new lighthouses there. My photos are just smaller than 4x5 and I placed them in opposite corners on separate stacks of paper layers. The bottom layer of each stack is a navy L-shaped piece to echo the large paper square on the first page I made from this day (Listen Very Carefully).

I've mostly journalled on paper strips for this series of pages, but I originally used a journalling card for the first page and I've brought that back here too. My title repeats three styles of letter stickers that I'd previously used, and my embellishment clusters make use of scraps topped with epoxy arrows in two sizes.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - American Crafts, Teresa Collins, Simple Stories

Arrows - Heidi Swapp

Glitter Tape - The Works

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn

Tools

Big Shot

Dovecraft Label Die

Dovecraft Star Die

Hobbycraft Star Punch

X-Cut Circle Punch

Birthday Lunch at The Pilot

Next page from Dungeness now, with our pub lunch. I printed four photos at 3x4 and matted them in a block. I have a growing pile of scraps now from the first three pages and those pieces determined the paper layers behind that photo block.

I repeated two of the letter styles that I've used on the other pages, and found a peel-off 'Birthday' to fit between the L and h of 'Lunch'.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - American Crafts, Teresa Collins

Peel-Off - Anita's Glitterations

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz

Glitter Tape - The Works

Epoxy Stars - Latech

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Childhood Memories

I'm still in Dungeness for this page, which features engines from the Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch narrow gauge railway. We used to visit the railway regularly when I was a child, and I've taken my son there too, so seeing the engines again made me get a bit nostalgic.

I've been using a four-colour palette for these pages, so I picked one pattern in each colour for a quadrants page this time and stacked my photos up in a column with scraps and branding strips tucked under the edge. 

Supplies

Cardstock - UK Crafts

Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - American Crafts, Teresa Collins

Word Stickers - Teresa Collins

Tab Die-Cut - Pink Paislee/Paige Evans

Epoxy Stars - Latech

Glitter Tape - The Works

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Discover Dungeness

Before we went away, I'd embarked on a series of pages for a day walk around Dungeness in Kent. I'm making them out of order so this one comes before the last one I shared and is a double page overview of the day.

The '-ness' part of Dungeness means headland, the area is sort of V-shaped with the sea on the two sides of the V, and it's mostly covered in shingle which was very hard on the legs.

I started these pages with a colour palette of yellow ochre, magenta and navy from Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust collection, and I've added aqua into the mix for this one. I've used a slightly odd positioning for my title, splitting it across two places and running the words in different directions, but they fit so well where they are and I don't mind if they are read as title and embellishment instead.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Word Sticker - Heidi Swapp

Phrase Sticker - Tim Holtz

Tab Die-Cut - Pink Paislee/Paige Evans

Washi Tape - Hobbycraft?

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Altenew, Pretty My Page

Tools

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Listen Very Carefully

This is the first page I've made from five I have planned for a day trip to Dungeness in Kent that we did in June. I'm using papers from Heidi Swapp's Wanderlust collection for a colour palette of yellow ochre, magenta and navy.

Jean's Page

This page is for the sound mirrors at Denge, built in the 1920s and 1930s to pick up the sound of (enemy) aircraft crossing the channel. My title is taken from the sitcom 'Allo 'Allo!

I scraplifted a page by Jean Childs for a challenge at Dotty About Flair to lift another page in the group. I kept her square border and photo placement, but added a larger title and a journalling card to the other corners. My embellishment is different too, based around an acetate circle that I cut in two.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - Simple Stories, Teresa Collins

Journalling Card - Project Life

Acetate - Studio Calico

Washi Tape - Hobbycraft

Tools

Big Shot

X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Dovecraft Star Die

Hobbycraft Star Punch

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

Comfy?

This page is another with an old photo, made for a scraplift collaboration between the Scrap Squad and Scrap Academy groups on Facebook.

The original page that we were asked to lift was made by Suse Fish for Citrus Twist Kits back in 2016. I chose a single photo for my page, and flipped the design to suit the direction that my brother was looking in the photo.

I find that the colours of older photos don't work well with modern white backgrounds so I chose a distressed paper with a diagonal ombre print for mine and then went through my scraps box for coordinating pieces to make up the vertical strips and the layers behind the photo.

Supplies
Paper - Authentique, Crate Paper The Pier, Jillbean Soup, American Traditional Designs 
Letters - SEI
Tags - Kaisercraft
Enamel Dots - My Mind's Eye, Pretty My Page, Marianne Design
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Dovecraft Tag and Label Dies

Preparation

Back in 2005, my husband and some of his colleagues took on the Three Peaks Challenge (climbing the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales in less than 24 hours). He did his training on the North Downs in Kent, hence the title for this page with poppy photos from the fields near Luddesdown.

I used 6x6 papers from a couple of pads layered up and running diagonally across the page. The green pieces are from the branding strip of the background paper.

Supplies
Paper - OneCanoeTwo Creekside, Pinkfresh Studio Escape the Ordinary
Letters - We R Memory Keepers
Die-Cut - Pinkfresh Studio Escape the Ordinary
Phrase Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Carta Bella
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Dreamland

I will get back to my Far East album, but I am easily diverted by a good cybercrop; this time it was one from For the Love of Pretty Paper with challenges themed around the letters S-C-R-A-P.

I did 'S' for the last page I shared, so now it's 'C' - our choice of chipboard, clips, cork and crosses plus compulsory charcoal. I don't have many photos printed right now, so I flipped through an old photo album and found a quartet from my schooldays, an end-of-term trip to Dreamland, an amusement park in Margate.

I'd previously tried to scrap these photos, and had cropped them down to 4" x 3.5" before getting frustrated and abandoning them. This time I worked from a sketch, published in January by The ScrapRoom, and was more successful.

I needed soft vintage papers to match the colour tones in my photographs and started from the star print paper which I mounted on a charcoal stripe. The red spotty paper came from my scraps box but wasn't really wide enough for the banner, so I added a second one (and dropped the circle). 

I matted the photos on four colours of cardstock, tucked in extra strips around the edges and cut the title on my Silhouette from the same four colours with a charcoal offset. I pulled in crosses, chipboard stars and a cork-patterned heart in my scattering of embellishments and finished with a couple of phrase stickers.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania, DCWV, Stampin' Up!
Paper - Echo Park We Are Family, We R Memory Keepers Shine, Pebbles Fresh Goods, Echo Park Dots & Stripes
Letters - Bo Bunny Et Cetera
Chipboard - Simple Stories 24/Seven
Stickers - One CanoeTwo #Stickerbook
Ink - Hobbycraft

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Going, Going, Gone

Last month, the chimney of a retired power station near us was blown up. We knew in advance and quite a crowd turned up to watch, safe on the opposite bank of the river. I took a series of time-lapse photos and printed three of them to run across the page in a horizontal line.

I've adapted this month's single page sketch from Stick It Down by extending the row of photos. I matted them first on black cardstock then looked for a patterned paper with black in it, pulling out a stripey one from Junkitz with a 2005 date. The problem with paper that old was finding anything else to match the colours in it, and I ended up using plain cardstock for the rest of my layers and I couldn't find a second paper to make the split background.

My page also fits another of the birthday party challenges at For the Love of Pretty Paper where 'Sleeping Lions' asked us to create a page with a horizontal design.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania, Stampin' Up!
Paper - KaiserCraft PS I Love You, Echo Park Winter Park, Junkitz Winter
Washi Tape - Ebay
Enamel Dots - Echo Park
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Little B Arrow Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
X-Cut Corner Punch

Castle Builder

Another of the challenges in For the Love of Pretty Paper's birthday party cybercrop was 'Musical Chairs' which asked us to create a repeating pattern. 

Some time ago, I made a 'starting point' page with a mosaic of hexagons cut from the scraps of a 6x6 pad, and that was still sitting around my craft space so I decided to finish it off for this challenge.

The blue and yellow feel 'beachy' to me and I had always intended this to be a single photo page with the photo covering the empty space in the mosaic, so I searched my old photo albums and found one of my brother that would work for this.

I matted the photo on a scrap of denim paper that was wider than the photo, and filled the gap with a few pieces from the same paper pad. I'd originally added a couple of yellow enamel dots to the page (the end of a pack, I'm sure) but I preferred to have three and managed to find another that matched before adding some blue ones too.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart
Letters - American Crafts/Shimelle, Papermania
Washi Tape - Ebay
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Simple Stories, Pretty My Page
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Mister Huey's, Cosmic Shimmer, Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Hexagon Die

Home Again

I'm jumping right to the end of our cruise now, with a page for our return to Dover. I don't always make a page for the home port, but in this album I have a double page for our last port of call (Rain Stops Play) and no photos from our day at sea so I need another page to fill in the back of that double. Luckily the sun was shining and Dover is more photogenic than some ports we've sailed from. 

Nanat's Page

My page is a scraplift of one by a French lady called Nanat, which was Scraplift Challenge #23 in the Scrap Squad group on Facebook. 

I flipped the page horizontally so that I could use a paper with lots of travel icons on the right hand side. This paper is one of my favourites from the Out and About collection by Pinkfresh Studio, but I've actually found it quite difficult to use. 

I made the diagonal panel on the left larger so that I could turn it into a pocket to hold our Cruise Log, hidden behind the photo and paper layers, but mentioned in the journalling so that people will know it's there.

Supplies
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About, American Crafts/Dear Lizzy Saturday. KaiserCraft Finders Keepers, Studio Calico Heyday, Pink Paislee Atlas
Letters - American Crafts
Washi Tape - Unknown
Epoxy Sticker - Ebay
Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Doodlebug

Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
American Crafts/Shimelle Word Stamps
Heidi Swapp Arrow Stamp

Leaving Dover

Our cruise left from Dover this year, and this page marks our departure with photos of the harbour and the White Cliffs. My page is a scraplift of one by marivi at Studio Calico, which was Scraplift Challenge #17 in the Scrap Squad group on Facebook.

My photos are larger than those on the original page and I preferred them on the opposite corners, using them to start filling a 10x10 panel of white cardstock. My title's much smaller than the original and I moved away from the white on white, choosing teal blue letters instead.

With title and photos in place, I filled in the rest of the 10x10 space with a mosaic of patterns cut from 6x6 pads, and then mounted it in the centre of my background paper. My embellishment is a mixture of commercial stickers and pieces cut or punched from patterned papers.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania, The Range
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About, Pinkfresh Studio Let Your Heart Decide, My Mind's Eye Just Splendid
Letters - American Crafts, Creative Devotion
Cardstock Stickers - Pinkfresh Studio
Washi Tape - Tesco
Puffy Stickers - Bella Boulevard
Enamel Dots - Doodlebug, Pink Paislee
Ink - Memento
Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
X-Cut Circle Punches