Welcome to Hogwarts

The latest team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers came to an end recently, and all three teams' pages have now been revealed. I was 4th to play on Georgina's team and when I received the page to scraplift, it was rather similar to one that I had in my head for my Harry Potter Studio Tour album.

This page is one of my sub-section header pages and will be followed by all the sets that were on display from Hogwarts. You've seen most of those pages already - the Great Hall, the Gryffindor Common Room, Dumbledore's Office, the Boys' Dormitory and the Potions Classroom. The photo is from the beginning of the tour; we watched an introductory film, and then the screen lifted and we entered the Great Hall through these doors.

Angie's page that I was scraplifting has a single photo with several layers of patterned paper behind it, and I was more than happy to do the same thing, though I made the angles smaller in my version. Her word stickers became my file tab, and her rosettes turned into stamped circles, which I balanced with more circles on the opposite corner. I moved my title down and finished with a smattering of stars. 

You can see the three chains of scraplifted pages on the Scrap Whispers blog: Georgina's team; Rosey's team; Nilsa's team.

Supplies

Cardstock - Colorset

Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel, OA 9 to 5

Vellum - My Mind's Eye Necesseties

Letters - American Crafts Thickers, OA Witch Hazel

Die Cut - OA Witch Hazel

Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico

Photo Turn - 7Gypsies

Gem - Dovecraft

Twine - Unknown

Staples - Making Memories

Mist - Docrafts

Ink - Docrafts

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Lid (used as a Stamp)

Hello Grandma

Another round of the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers has come to an end with the Big Reveals last week. This time I was scraplifting a page from Jennifer, and I was initially disappointed to see a single photo page as I don't actually have very many single photos. I know I could have used two smaller pictures or a photo collage in the same space but nothing came to mind. In the end I went all the way back to 1997 for a single photo of my mum and my baby son.

I loved the stitched circles on Jennifer's page but I don't have the skill or the patience to copy them, so I went in another direction with my background, spritzing cardstock with mist through a circles template. I flipped the page to suit the direction that my mum is facing in the photo, and made the tag cluster smaller. The washi tape strips aren't on Jennifer's page, but one of them is covering a small mishap, and the other balances it.

You can see all three chains of pages on the Scrap Whispers blog: Georgina's team; Rosey's team; Nilsa's team.

Supplies
Cardstock - Core'dinations (Cloudburst)
Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sport
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, atd
Definition Sticker - Making Memories
Mist - docrafts (Hematite)
Ink - Ink It Up!
Washi Tape - from Stash

Tools
Fiskars Circles Template (used as a mask)
Big Shot & Tags Die
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Love Locks

I made this page a few weeks ago for the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers, but I had to keep it a secret until the 'Big Reveal' at the end of the game. Three teams of scrappers start from the same page and each player scraplifts the page made by the player before her, without seeing any of the other pages in the chain. The three final pages can be quite similar or very different depending which elements each player takes from the page before theirs.

This time I was scraplifting Susi's page from her trip to London, and I chose to make a page from my visit to Paris. These are the 'love locks' on the Pont de l'Archevêché.

This is Susi's page (right). I used two photos in the same space as her one photo and similar placement of patterned paper. I kept her circles of brads which link nicely with the metals of the locks in my photos. I changed her pennants for a small piece of Paris map paper, with a tiny red brad to mark the location of the bridge. I moved the title as it leads directly into the journalling, and ended that journalling with a sub-title. I did consider adding some hearts like Susi did, but I thought that they would just get lost against my patterned paper background.

You can see all three chains of pages on the Scrap Whispers blog: Georgina's Team; Nilsa's Team; Rosey's Team.

Supplies
Paper - First Edition Spring Feast, K&Co Hannah, October Afternoon Travel Girl, Unlabelled Hearts Paper
Letters - MME Lush
Brads - Dovecraft, Papermania
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Ink - Ink It Up!

# Eletour

I love it when two sites set the same, or very similar, challenge. Two birds with one stone. The mid-month challenge at Scrap Our Stash is a sketch with the additional requirement of creating your own background. Meanwhile Challenge #176 at Scrap Whispers is 'Let's Get Messy'.

I thought that the sketch would work with some photos of the Elephant Parade, a national tour to raise awareness of the plight of the Asian elephant. The elephants, 31 statues painted by artists and celebrities, are currently on display at my local shopping centre. However I had trouble choosing just three photos and my finished page looks quite unlike the sketch.

I chose grey cardstock as my background (reminiscent of elephants in the wild) and made circles with a lid and some modelling paste (as seen in a tutorial by Stephanie Bryan at shimelle.com recently); the circles came from the sketch and I intended to keep them in the centre of the page, but once I started I covered my background in them. I then used a hexagon mask with mist in the centre of the page, but it didn't work very well and is now mostly covered up. I finished my background by stamping doilies in some of the circles to add some colour to the grey and white page. Having failed to pick just three photos, I chose six and made a patchwork of papers to go behind them, running my title between the two rows, and tucking various punched shapes in around the edges.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill?
Paper - Crate Paper The Pier 6x6 Pad, Crate Paper DIY Shop, Scraps
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Doilies - Dovecraft
Wood Veneer Pieces - Studio Calico
Gems - Dovecraft
Washi Tape - Efco
Modelling Paste - Farrel & Gold
Ink - Ink It Up!
Mist - Cosmic Shimmer

Tools
Studio Calico Doily Stamp
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Fiskars Bracket Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Daisy Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch

On Top of the World

I'm combining two challenges today. First up is Challenge #172 from Scrap Whispers called 'You Choose'; we were asked to take three features from an inspiration layout from Christina and use them on our own pages. Her page was very different from the ones I make, but there were plenty of details to choose from. I picked machine stitching, date stamps and book paper.

I based my page on Sketch #56 from Sketch-n-Scrap, though I used four photos and more paper layers and moved the title and journalling.

The photos are from Ny Ålesund in Svalbard, the most northerly permanent settlement in the world. We visited there on a cruise of Norway and Svalbard last summer. I am doing an album for the holiday of course, but I'm also making a page for each port of call for my main 2013 album.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Unknown Map Paper, K&Co Hannah, Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer, Simple Stories Awesome
Letters - October Afternoon, Basic Grey
Frames/Stickers - Authentique Natural
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Compass Die-Cut - atd
Anchor Button - from Stash
Ink - docrafts, Ranger

Tools
Sewing Machine
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

"Happy" Cards

We're coming to the end of another round of challenges over at Scrap Whispers, and I haven't done any of them yet. With just over a week to remedy that position, I started with Challenge #173 - make a card for a happy occasion. 

May and June are busy birthday months in our family and I have loads of cards to make at this time of year. The first May birthday is my brother's and I sought inspiration in the card gallery at UKScrappers, finding a '10 Minute Card' from Jimjams, which I adapted with a change of colour and a change of motif. It took me considerably more than 10 minutes, but I'll be quicker next time. I think that there will be a next time as it's a design that could easily be repeated with different colours and shapes.

Since I used so many circles on this card, it fits perfectly with another challenge in Sketch-n-Scrap's Birthday Bash. This was hosted by Darcy at Our House of E and she simply asked us to use circles on a card or layout. 

Also this month, it is my brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary, so I adapted an old card design made with paper strips for them. I went monochrome with plain and patterned coral paper teamed with a cream base card and an old cream heart from Hobbycraft. 

And the next birthday will be... mine!

Make Believe

It's that time again - Time for the "Big Reveal" at Scrap Whispers. Over the past couple of months, three teams of scrappers have been scraplifting a page in turn. Each team started from the same layout, but they could have changed drastically since then as each player will pick and choose which elements about her team-mate's page to copy and which elements to change.

I was playing near the end this time - I was given Angie's page and I liked it a lot, so I changed very little. My photos are old ones of my children in the park near my parents' home.

And this was Angie's page:

The main difference of course is that I used circles instead of hexagons. I do like the hexagons, but I have no way of cutting them quickly and evenly, so I fell back on my scalloped circle punch.

I also liked the letter blocks that she used for her title, and scoured my stash for something similar. My letters are individually cut from a piece of HOTP paper. I have a few sheets of this with different alphabet tiles, but I keep forgetting that I own them as I don't keep them with the rest of my letters.


You can see the starting layout and the three chains of pages over on the Scrap Whispers blog: Georgina's Team; Nilsa's Team; Rosey's Team.

Supplies
Paper - Studio Calico Snippets, Amy Tangerine Ready Set Go 6x6 Pad, HOTP Brown Alphabet Tiles, Grey from Stash
Ink - docrafts
Ribbon - from Stash

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Coalhouse Fort

The current round of challenges at Scrap Whispers close tomorrow afternoon, so this will be the last page that I enter. It's for Challenge #169 which was 'All About the Favourites'. It's an easy one - to think about your favourite page size, style, technique, subject, embellishments and so on and to use them all to create a layout with plenty of journalling (whether we like journalling or not).

• My favourite size is 12x12. It means there's plenty of space for photos, writing and pretty papers. I do make smaller pages but I find myself longing for more space when I do. 
• My style is generally clean and simple; I do love a bit of mist but I'm not one for lots of paints or random stamping. 
• One of my favourite techniques is hand-stitching, often a circle around the photos. Given a sketch with a circle on it, I'll generally hand-stitch that circle.
• The main subject of my photos is the places we go, at home or abroad.
• I don't have a favourite embellishment and don't use a lot of them on my pages. I generally embellish with a few punched shapes and maybe a word sticker or some gems.
• I use sketches a lot of the time for my pages (as any reader of my blog will know!); sometimes I follow them exactly, and sometimes they are a starting point for something that looks a little different by the time I've finished.

The sketch for this page comes from Brenda Ragsdale at GrandDiva's Creative Corner and is one of the Scrappy Friends challenges for March. I had a pair of 4x6 photos that I wanted to scrap and this sketch seemed to be adaptable enough to do that. I made the paper panels at the top a little larger, and removed the pieces at the bottom of the sketch. True to my favourite technique, I hand-stitched the larger circle part-way around my photos. Finally I rotated the title to run it along the edge of my photos.

Supplies
Paper - MME The Sweetest Thing, Lasting Impressions, plus Scraps
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Border Sticker - Bo Bunny Mama-Razzi
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Thread - DMC
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Fiskars Circle Template
Bazzill Paper Piercer

Ben - Aged 6

Time is running out on the current batch of challenges at Scrap Whispers. Their challenge #167 is to scrap a large square photo. Mine isn't as large as the photos in the samples, but at just less than 6"x6" it's larger than I normally scrap.

The 15th March sketch with a twist at Paper Secrets featured a single square photo so I've used that sketch as the basis for my page. This time the twist is to use items that start with each of the letters of the word LUCKY. That letter U gave me some trouble but I got there in the end. My items are: Letter stickers from Lily Bee; Union flag (on Ben's t-shirt); paper from Crate Paper; Kraft cardstock and tags; Yellow patterned paper.

I swapped various papers in and out of this page as I worked, and I changed my mind about the background several times. Eventually I put the paper layers together first and then tried them against a variety of backgrounds. The kraft worked fairly well but was just a bit plain and flat until I spritzed it with plenty of white mist and a small amount of teal mist. The mist means that I am also linking up with Scrap Our Stash's Birthday Challenge #6 which is to add mist to a page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - MME Wild Asparagus, K&Co Daydreams, Papermania, Crate Paper Random, Crate Paper The Pier
Letters - Lily Bee
Tags - Maya Road
Border Sticker - Bo Bunny
Washi Tape - American Crafts
Mist - Mister Huey's, Cosmic Shimmer
Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools
Big Shot & Alphabet Dies

Personalised Graffiti

I've been concentrating on challenges from just a couple of blogs recently, and neglecting one of my favourites - Scrap Whispers - so it's time to remedy that. Their Challenge #168 was to scrap a surprise, and to only use two colours. When I first read it I couldn't think of a surprise to scrap, and I was going to pass on this one. 

However I was out walking along the Thames on Sunday when I made a surprising find. This stretch of sea wall (or should that be 'river wall'?) is used by local graffiti artists and varies from scribbles via ornate tags through to large works of art, and it was as if this one had been painted just for me:

My layout is small, just 4"x6", and it will form part of a divided page where I will be chronicling the smaller things about 2014.

Wild at Heart

The team scrap-lifting game at Scrap Whispers is well under way, as is the new round of individual challenges. This page is for their Challenge 166 - to use circles across the page, plus inking and stamping, and no more than three embellishments.

We don't have to cut our photos into circles, but I decided that I would, and that the best photos to cut up would be ones of animals rather than people or places. I found three photos from London Zoo where there was a lot of plain background that I could trim away, and pulled out one of my bags of scraps for more circles. (I sorted all my scraps into co-ordinating sets last autumn.)

I started from plain smooth cardstock which I stamped all over with olive green ink and a random dot background stamp; then I spattered it with paint. Once I'd spread out my circles I decided I needed something at the top and bottom of the page. I stamped my title and drew faux stitches around the edges of the paper pieces.

I have two circle-cutting devices - the Fiskars Shape Cutter and the Kreaxions Circle Cutter. They have their advantages and disadvantages and I couldn't have made this page without either of them. I used the Fiskars Shape Cutter for the photos and patterned paper. I can normally cut an accurate circle with it, but sometimes it does slip, and it is limited by the fixed sizes of the templates. In contrast, I can cut any size of circle with the Kreaxions Circle Cutter as it works like a pair of compasses with a blade in place of the pencil, BUT it leaves a small hole in the middle of the circle. I used this one to cut all the mats just a little larger than the fixed photo/paper sizes, and the holes are covered up.

Supplies
Cardstock - Chartwell Studio, DCWV Neutral Stack
Paper - Basic Grey, Kit 'n' Craft, Sandylion and others
Ink - Ranger Distress Ink, Papermania
Paint - Folk Art

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Lakeland Background Stamp
Craft Creatives Alphabet Stamps

Just Like Grandad

This was my page for the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers at the end of last year. Three teams of scrappers start from the same page and each scraplift the person before them in turn, which can lead to three very different pages by the end of the chain. All three chains of pages have been revealed now on the Scrap Whispers blog: Team Rosey; Team Nilsa; Team Georgina.

My Page

Kelly's Page

I was scraplifting Kelly's page (right). I'd have liked to continue the Christmas theme, but I didn't have a single Christmas photo to scrap, so I picked an old single photo to work with and copied the other elements on her page as best I could. I stamped the background paper with stars, and layered my photo with two papers, though at a smaller angle than Kelly's. My larger title meant that I dropped the embellishment at the bottom left of the photo, but Kelly's presents became another star at the bottom right, where I stitched the outline and filled it with punched stars. I kept the little cluster at the top of the page too (though the player before Kelly has confessed that it was only there because she tore her page and needed to cover the tear).

The photo is of my son and my nephew who were refusing to wear their t-shirts because my dad (their grandad) had taken off his shirt while he was gardening.

Supplies
Cardstock - DCWV Linen Closet Stack
Paper - DCWV Garden Party Mat Stack
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Pebbles Mini ABC Stickers
Washi Tape - We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Dovecraft
Thread - DMC

Tools
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch
Hobbycraft Star 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

At the Top

This is a companion page for Climbing Snowdon which I blogged a few weeks ago, but I couldn't share it then. And the reason that I couldn't share it was that it was made as part of the team scraplifting game at Scrap Whispers. Three teams all start from the same scrapbook page and each team member scraplifts the layout of the person before them. The three end layouts can look very alike, or very different, depending how each team member interprets the page they are given.

This time I was scraplifting Sherri and I used her page as inspiration rather than copying every element. I liked the bracket-shaped square behind her photo and I made this a bigger feature on my page. I also swapped her large journalling block for a second photo. I'm not sure whether her background paper is one piece or whether she layered up strips on the right, but I added paper strips to my plainer background. Sherri has some metal embellishments on her photo, which I mimicked using a tag sticker with a brad and I used another brad as an echo of her flower.

All three chains of pages have been revealed on the Scrap Whispers blog this week - Georgina's Team on Monday, Nilsa's Team on Tuesday and Rosey's Team on Wednesday.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill Dotted Swiss

Paper - Basic Grey, Cloud 9 Designs, Glitz Design

Letters - Making Memories, Jenni Bowlin Studio

Stickers - Simple Stories

Brads - Dear Lizzy, Papermania

Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools

Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch

Bracket Shaped Square Template

Bath Time

I made this page for Scrap Whispers Challenge 156, which was to scraplift a page from their guest designer Gwynn Asbury. The main things that I pulled from Gwynn's page were the patterned edge to the page, the collage of hexagons and the single photo. I really like her hexagons, but I have no way of cutting them easily, so I switched to circles (having also considered squares and triangles along the way).

I chose my photo and headed for my scraps box again, finding a stripy paper (that ended up being my photo mat) that I liked and which led me to a matching full sheet of squares. I cut my circles from the central squares and then used the holey sheet as my background (with the centre covered up and just the edge squares showing). I arranged my large circles in offset rows, and added smaller punched circles and clear epoxy circles to them to break up the rigid rows.

Looking back at Gwynn's page again now, I've noticed that she sewed around the edge, and I think that I will go back and do the same with mine.

Supplies
Paper - Daisy D's Playtime, The Robin's Nest (Shaped Piece)
Letters - Doodlebug
Ink - docrafts
Epoxy Stickers - from Stash

Tools
Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circles Template
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Be Prepared

Following on from yesterday I have another page made entirely from scraps, and another page where I have combined two challenges. My colour scheme is from Rochelle Spears' colour inspiration challenge. I had a couple of patterned scraps that fitted this combination, and added some plain scraps.

My page layout came from a sketch at Scrap Whispers. Challenge 157 is a double page sketch, but we were free to use one half or the other instead of the whole thing. I chose the left side and scrapped a couple of photos from the prize-giving at the end of my daughter's scout camp.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts
Paper - KaiserCraft Lush, Fancy Pants, Glitz Designs
Letters - October Afternoon
Ink - Ink It Up!
Gems - Papermania Dew Drops

Tools
Woodware Label Punch
Woodware Daisy Punch
EK Success Corner Punch

Kushi

Kushi is an Indian restaurant that opened near us earlier this year, and I'm combining challenges for this page about our first visit there. I'm using this month's sketch from Sarah's Cards with Challenge 155 from Scrap Whispers - use kraft cardstock, three or more patterned papers and a banner or bunting.

The sketch is the kind of layout that doesn't need any large pieces of paper, so I decided to work with my scraps rather then new papers. I found a couple of papers from the same collection, and added coordinating plains. Once I'd partially assembled the page I decided to move the title above the photos.

While going through my scraps box I decided to try and pull together a few 'kits' of scraps so that I use them rather than adding more. Come back tomorrow for another page from scraps.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Fancy Pants Summer's End, Glitz Designs Laced with Grace
Letters - American Crafts Thickers
Gems - Making Memories
Paint - Folk Art
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Kreaxions Circle Cutter
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

Paralympic Highlights

I've reached the point with my 2012 albums that I mostly have double pages left to do. This one is from the Paralympics; I did a whole album with my Olympic and Paralympic photos, but I also want a double page from the Paralympics in the ordinary 2012 album, as this was a big event in the year.

I decided to use the same papers from that album for this page, make a patchwork from the scraps, and add polaroid style photos to most of the patchwork squares. This turned out to be rather time-consuming as each square turned into a mini layout with its own journalling and embellishments:

The lighting is terrible in that photo, so here are the two pages separately:

I didn't set out to make another challenge page, but this one meets the criteria for Challenge 153 at Scrap Whispers - a double page with at least five photos and the title running across both pages - so I am linking up there.

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania Kraft Basics
Paper - Papermania Portobello Road, MME Wild Asparagus
Letters - American Crafts Thickers, Basic Grey Micro Mono
Labels - Maya Road
Washi Tape - The Range, Trimcraft
Ink - Ink It Up!, docrafts
Sequins & Stars - from Stash

Tools
Sewing Machine
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Postage Stamp Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch
X-Cut Small Circle Punch
Amy Tangerine Date Stamp

On the Monsal Trail

Like most scrappers, I find it harder to do double pages than single pages. In fact, I have a list of doubles that I need to do in order to fill some gaps in my albums. I'm filling one of those gaps today because of Challenge 153 at Scrap Whispers - create a two page layout with at least five photos and the title running across both pages.

My photos are from a walk along the Monsal Trail in the Peak District earlier this year and I used six of them for my double page. The trail follows an old railway line and we walked through two of the tunnels.

Supplies
Paper - K&Co Blue Awning, atd, Simple Stories Take a Hike
Letters - Simple Stories
Border Sticker - Crate Paper Restoration
Metal Embellishments - from Stash
Gems - Dovecraft
Ink - docrafts

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

90

Challenge #154 at Scrap Whispers this week was to make a page with two focal points - two groupings (one large and one small) with 'white' space in between them. 

I'm combining this with the mid-September sketch challenge from Stuck?! Sketches as it already has the two areas mapped out.

I picked photos from my husband's grandmother's 90th birthday in January, and decided to angle my layers a little, rather than the precision of the sketch.

My favourite thing about the page is actually the small flower circles. I had some old metal rimmed embellishments with flowers set in them, two purple and one orange, which have been sitting around for far too long. I punched new flowers, backed them with cream paper and topped them with clear epoxy circles. Now they match the page, and there is a certain sense of satisfaction in throwing away empty embellishment packaging.

Supplies

Paper - First Edition J'Adore, Art & Crafts Direct

Bingo Card - Teresa Collins Timeless

Border Sticker - Crate Paper Random

Numbers - American Crafts Thickers

Label - 7Gypsies??

Metal Circles - Papermania

Gems - The Hobby House

Ink - Ink It Up!

Tools

Craft Creatives Flower Punch