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I said earlier in the week that Pencil Lines had had two good sketches recently and this is the second - Sketch 261 from 27 November. 

I want to finish the album from our trip to Norway in 2009 so I adapted the sketch for three photos of Stavanger. I am working mostly chronologically in this album and the previous page was on double-sided cardstock so I kept the green background and used a mask with chalks to make the bracket shaped border. I made the circle a bit bigger to accommodate my pictures and moved the title down to the horizontal strip of paper. I also moved the punched circles and butterflies around. The patterned papers are both double-sided and have the same patterns in two colourways, co-ordination made simple.

Supplies

Cardstock - First Edition Paper Spring Feast Pad

Paper - s.e.i. Dill Blossom - Dill Seed & Fennel

Letter Stickers - Authentique

Chalk - Readicut Crafts

Alex

It's been a while since I did a layout from a Pencil Lines sketch. They had a run of sketches that didn't inspire me, but the last two sketches have been much better. Firstly Sketch 260 from 20 November:

I stuck closely to the sketch and used a selection of papers from Pebbles with this photo of my baby nephew. The Pebbles papers are a mixture of old and new - some from the New Additions range and some older ones that I picked up in the January sales, plus I used the piece with bibs and bootees from Papermania. The journalling spot is one that I downloaded from Scrapbooks Etc and cropped to use just the top part.

EDIT (November 2013): Something about this page had always bugged me, and I couldn't work out what it was. Two years on, I've finally realised that the angles of the photo and the bib and bootee paper were the issue; I've now straightened them out and handwritten the journalling directly on the background.

Supplies

Paper - Pebbles, Papermania

Letter Stickers - Crate Paper

Ribbon - from Stash

Bird Embellishment - Pebbles

Journalling Spot - from Scrapbooks Etc

One In ... One Out

I decided to work on the challenges from Pencil Lines and Scrap Whispers simultaneously in order to create twin pages about my daughter joining Scouts and my son leaving. These should have been separate events but they ended up happening on the same night, so I wanted to use the same papers and common elements while arranging the photos with two separate points of focus.

Both sketches are quite simple and leave plenty of room for interpretation:

I added horizontal strips of paper to the Pencil Lines sketch and extended the ones on the Scrap Whispers sketch so that they met in the middle. I also re-sized the photos so that the two on the left have about the same total area as the one on the right. 

I split my journalling across two mirror image tags, scanned the Scout badges to use as embellishments, and added a few circles to opposite corners of the layouts.

Supplies

Paper - Kit ''n' Kraft, DCWV Far East Stack

Letters - Pebbles Floral Lane

Cord - from Stash

Look At What I Can Do Mummy!

It's been a busy week at work so not much time for scrapping. I did manage to make this layout for Pencil Lines' Sketch 254 yesterday evening but haven't had time to blog until now. My version is somewhat simpler than the sketch as my patterned paper was too narrow to add embellishments around the photo. I was going to scatter stars across the right hand side in place of the butterflies, but they just looked silly so I left them out too.

The layout is about the first time my son pulled himself upright in his cot. I love this childlike alphabet but there aren't very many layouts that it suits. The background paper looks a bit purple on my screen, but it is blue in real life.

Supplies
Paper - Pebbles New Addition, Fancy Pants Papa
Letters - Sandylion/Winnie the Pooh
Ribbon/Tag/Star - from Stash 

Our Family

The latest sketch, number 253, from Pencil Lines is only 6" x 12" but I've stretched it; my panel of patterned paper is about 7" wide and I've added it to a piece of 12" x 12" - this is the reverse of one of the pieces on my prize from Pebbles - a white grid on kraft. Sometimes I prefer the quieter patterns on the back to the bolder ones on the front of my paper.

I tried a few alphabets in co-ordinating colours on this layout but they got lost  on the multi-coloured background. Somehow the pink ones worked, possibly because both they and the paper are from Crate Paper, albeit from different collections.

I don't take many pictures of me or my husband, something I am trying to cure. I took these photos of all our family in the garden before our 40th birthday barbecue.

Supplies

Paper - Pebbles Fresh Goods Mom & Pop (Reverse), Crate Paper Sweet Branch Hope

Letters - Crate Paper Mia

String - Reused from clothing tag

Heart - Reused from broken earring

Month Rub-on - Rusty Pickle

New School

I used a row of photos of my daughter for this sketch from Pencil Lines; it seems quite strange to scrap her in blue, but I went with her uniform as the obvious colour scheme. 

I painted an oval frame around the big photo with white acrylic paint, then outlined it in silver and added silver grey dew drops. I added yellow to the strips of paper to break up all the blue. 

Supplies

Paper - Paper Adventures Blue Alphabet, Making Memories Fresh Anthology

Dew Drops - Papermania

Letters - DCWV Christmas Alphabet Sticker Stack

Ribbon - from Stash 

Ben

Real life got in the way yesterday, but it's back to scrapping today. This layout is for the current Pencil Lines sketch, number 251.





















I made things difficult for myself by choosing a portrait photo, and then mounting it on even taller portrait paper, but I love these ducks and boats, and I don't have many babies in my life. No babies really - as this photo is from 2007 and Ben starts school this term (gulp).

I was originally going to stitch across the top and bottom of the stripy paper but I wasn't sure which colour to use. However, once I had outlined the title letters, I realised that I needed a touch more black in the layout and so decided to use rub-on stitching instead. To my shame, I've had the rub-ons for about 18 months without using them and I wasn't sure how well they would rub. Although not perfect, they rubbed on reasonably well, especially considering they cost me 20p in a sale. All-in-all this was a very cost effective layout as the stripy paper was 10p in the same sale and the background is another white insert that I again coloured with chalks. 

Supplies
Paper - Me & My Big Ideas, Papermania, Mulberry from Stash
Letters - Basic Grey
Rub-Ons - Papermania
Brads - HOTP
Chalk - Readicut Crafts

Altafjord

 I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Things have been busy and I've only done a couple of layouts recently and they weren't from sketches. I thought I'd try to do a couple of Pencil Lines' sketches before the end of the month. This is sketch 242 and I've returned to my cruise album; I rotated and flipped it but the main elements are all there. The photo colours were surprisingly hard to match so I kept to quite a pale colour palette.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazill (I think)

Paper - My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus, Bo Bunny Believe

Alphabet - Anita's Glitterations

Button & Embroidery Thread - From Stash

Fun in the Sun

This photo was taken on holiday only last week; it would be good if I could keep up with the flow of photos this year, but I suspect that I won't be able to. 

I adjusted this sketch from Pencil Lines to suit a 12x12 layout and my landscape photo, making the circle larger, turning it into an oval and dropping the large background paper. Finally I decided to add a small second photo to show our holiday cottage.

Supplies

Paper - SEI Dill Blossom - Rosehip(reverse)/Dill Seed/Carraway, Kit 'n' Craft

Title - Scrapbook Magazine Summer Scrap Kit

Alta Museum

Back to the Norwegian cruise album this week, and these shots of Alta Museum which I scrapped with sketch 232 from Pencil Lines. 

I am not keen on single photo layouts but I was inspired by Noel, Pencil Lines' guest designer this week, to convert this sketch to show two landscape photos. 

This is the first of three pages about the museum, a collection of prehistoric rock carvings. The title letters are metallic so they have reflected the light and you cannot see them very well in the photo.

Supplies

Paper - HOTP Barnwood, My Mind's Eye Wild Asparagus

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Vellum - from Stash

Letters - All My Memories

Adventure Island

Another two photo sketch from Pencil Lines this week but I didn't have a suitable pair of pictures from the Norwegian cruise. Another project on the go is my 2007 album so I turned to these pictures of my son's birthday theme park trip. They aren't great quality and I was undecided about scrapping them but it seems a shame not to document the trip. I wanted to position the photos to block out a stranger on the ride so I moved them left and moved the title right compared with the sketch. The pair of tickets obscure a stray head that got into shot.

Supplies
Paper - Junkitz Pastel Petite Plaid
Card - Papermania
Tickets - Paperhouse
Star Brads - HOTP
Star Tacks - Scrapbook Interiors
Paper Stars - from Stash
Letters - Lakeland

Swim Time

I have been finishing my 2010 album so I have posted less challenges here recently. I am now determined to finish the album for our Norway cruise in 2009 before we cruise again this summer. Thus I used this sketch from Pencil Lines for a couple of photos of my daughter in the pool on the ship. 

I have had the mosaic paper for a while (actually for a different set of photos - but I've got another sheet) and it reminds me of the tiles in a swimming pool. I originally wanted to use 4 different papers for the squares but I couldn't find four complementary patterns so I settled for just two and repeated them.

Supplies

Paper - Stamping Station Cruise Mosaic, Making Memories Fresh Anthology Collection, Stripes from Stash

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Letters - Papermania

Vellum Tag - Making Memories

Star - from Stash

Pen - Sakura

New Slide

A really simple sketch from Pencil Lines, and this layout came together quite easily. I inked the edges of the circle to add contrast between the two green papers. I am running out of E's so I used a couple of 3's turned back-to-front.

Supplies

Paper - Crate Paper Little Sprout, S.E.I. Be Bop, Dovecraft Paper Pack

Letters - American Crafts

Diggers

Another sketch from Pencil Lines, and more old photos. I enjoy doing these but feel that I do need to get back to finishing my 2010 album, and a couple of older holiday albums.

I chose to use a scalloped paper rather than the bracket shape in the sketch. The white border helps to tie the white letters to the layout as I didn't have any better colour to use. I really love these Basic Grey archaic papers; now that they have been discontinued, I feel the need to ration them so the spotty panel is actually a couple of small offcuts from another layout, positioned to appear like a larger piece.

Supplies

Paper - EK Success Garden Trellis (reverse), Basic Grey Archaic paper pad

Sticker - Basic Grey Archaic Elements

Alphabet & Spiral - Doodlebug

Brads - Bazzill Basics

Junior Gardener

I found this sketch from Pencil Lines to be a little tricky. I started my layout with longer strips of paper to match the sketch, but while I was arranging and rearranging them, I decided to cut them into squares for a patchwork effect. I framed my photo and moved it to the left to accommodate the length of my title. While rummaging for suitable extras, I found the cute dungarees embellishment which is the perfect match for my son's outfit.

Supplies

Paper - Making Memories Fresh Anthology Collection, Basic Grey Stella Ruby
Baseball Cap & Brad - HOTP
Alphabet - Sandylion
Ribbon & Dungarees - from Stash

Gamers

After speeding through the last few layouts, I hit an inspirational brick wall with this sketch challenge from Pencil Lines. The bunting indicated a fair or theme park, or maybe the beach, and actually led to me choosing the papers I wanted to use before picking a photo, rather than choosing the papers based on the photo theme and colours. I had had these papers for a long while as my layouts normally use pastels or earthy colours but I thought they would make great bunting. However I found it difficult to find the 'right' photo and this was one layout where I did shuffle various different photos with the paper hoping that inspiration would strike. I even considered skipping this week's challenge but what is the point of a challenge if it is not challenging?

After sleeping on it, I decided to drop the actual bunting from the layout but stick with the bright papers and look for a photo which would work with them. I finally chose this one of my children, niece and nephews engrossed in their Nintendo DSs as I felt the colours echoed the game graphics even though we can't see them. The strangely named grey Suet Pudding paper reminded me of a concrete racetrack which suited the game they were playing and provided a neutral background for all that colour. I anchored the strips of paper with brite brads (which I had also had for a while) and added my journalling to one of the strips at the bottom.

Supplies

Paper - Blonde Moments Suet Pudding, Papermania Birthday Mini Scrapbook Kit

Brads - Making Memories, Laura Ashley

Alphabet - Craftime

Feed the Animals

Another old Pencil Lines sketch, another layout finished, this one about a trip to Colchester Zoo. I'm getting them done so much faster, as I no longer waste time shuffling my pictures about trying to come up with new ideas. The animal print paper was left over from a layout about Longleat Safari Park so this was a cost effective layout too.

Supplies
Paper - Sugar Tree Giraffe Spots
Card - DCWV Neutral Cardstock Stack, DCWV Natural Cardstock Stack
Cord - from clothing tag
Alphabet - Papermania

1 Rock - 2 Kids

Still browsing old sketches at Pencil Lines, I came across this one (no. 216) from December. 

My photos, from a trip to the Lake District, were larger than in the sketch so there wasn't room for an embellishment on the right, especially as it would have obscured my patterned paper. I moved the circle up, moved the title down to follow the circle and filled its space with leaves cut out of the patterned paper.

Supplies
Paper - My Minds Eye Wild Asparagus Collection, KI Memories Inc Forrest Merit Badge, Kit 'n Craft
Card - DCWV Natural Cardstock Stack
Alphabet Stickers - American Crafts Thickers

Georgian Girl

This was actually the next photo in one of my piles to scrap when the sketch was published at Pencil Lines. I decided to flip the sketch as my daughter is facing left in the photo. She is dressed in a replica Georgian outfit so I turned to these heritage papers and was pleased to find that the blue one is an excellent match for the doll she is holding. The right angle between the two papers was looking a bit harsh so I added a piece of doily which I think echoes the lace on her mob cap. I didn't have the right size or colour alphabet so I printed this title on scrap paper, pierced holes and stitched it.

Supplies
Paper - Craft Creations Ivory Small Stars, American Crafts Heritage Collection
Flower - Papermania
Embroidery Thread - DMC
Ribbon & Button - From stash
Doily - Sainsbury's

Two Peas in a Pod

This sketch from Pencil Lines led me to a professional photo of my children. It was taken almost seven years ago and is still a favourite of mine. I've had the spot and stripe papers for nearly as long. I get them out quite often but they never seemed to work with my photo until now. 

I played about with the size and shape of my papers compared to the sketch, as the original was too narrow for me.

Supplies

Paper - Sweetwater Scrapbook

Card - DCWV Neutral Stack

Alphabet - Basic Grey Blitzen

Silver Frames - All My Memories