Mug Makeover

Just a quick post today, with a share of a coffee mug makeover.

We picked up a couple of these mugs at the end of a conference when the exhibitor just wanted to get rid of them all. They are a decent size with a well-fitting lid, but had an advert on them which I decided to cover up.

I acquired some adhesive vinyl then used my Silhouette to cut both a circle large enough to cover the original advert, and the initial A in a stencil font sized to fit the circle. Quick and simple, but I now have a personalised mug rather than carrying an advert around with me.

Before and After

I've never used vinyl before, and don't know how well it will stand up to being washed. Hopefully it will last at least a few months and won't all peel off straight away.

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)

Run Eastleigh

For a couple of years I kept on top of my annual albums as I went along, finishing 2019 in February 2020 and 2020 a year later. Here we are in February 2022 though, and my 2021 album is far from finished. I was alright until May, then there is a gap for my birthday, a few more pages done for June and July and then it fizzles out with only one page done for August to December. I really need to get on top of this before we get too far into this year as it looks like being a busy one. 

I'm starting with a page which I made for Twilight Crafts with a Jenny Wren Cut-File. The file is their Hexagon Background which I shrank down and duplicated to give me a patchwork of shapes to back. 

My photos are from Eastleigh parkrun which my husband and I ran in November. Their colours are decidedly autumnal so I chose Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection and pulled out all my orange and yellow scraps.

Whenever we run away from home, I title the page with RUN and the parkrun name and this was no exception. I then took three asterisks from my chipboard letter pack and used them on three plain orange hexagons to start off some simple embellishment clusters.

I added my journalling to the page after I took these photos.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts, Payper Box

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon

Letters - Pink Paislee, Basic Grey

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine

Puffy Stickers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine?

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz

Enamel Dots - Freckled Fawn, Simple Stories, Pretty My Page

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Jenny Wren Hexagon Background Cut-File

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

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.

Census 2021

I've been roaming through the photo archives for some of my recent pages, but now I'm coming right up to date with a page for my 2021 album. 

Here in the UK we complete a census every ten years, and that happened in March. Previously we've completed paper forms but this year's was the first to be done online. I didn't take any photos, but it's something that I decided to document anyway; I used the census logo and a laptop cut-file from Paige Evans, printing the logo to fill the screen space in the cut-file.

I prepared a few things in advance of National Scrapbooking Day, which included cutting this file and pairing it with the number print paper. I had thought it would work for a challenge to use numbers but that didn't come up this year. Instead I diverted it to fit a Textile Arts challenge at For the Love of Pretty Paper where one of the options was to hand-stitch on a page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Craft Sensations

Paper - My Little Shoebox Robots Unplugged

Journal Card - Project Life Boys Rule

Cardstock Stickers - Jillibean Soup, Tim Holtz

Puffy Stickers - MAMBI, Studio Calico

Enamel Shapes - We R Memory Keepers

Washi - Little B, Unknown

Thread - Anchor

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Paige Taylor Evans Laptop Cut-file

Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch

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.

Roar!

I'm continuing with the cake-themed birthday challenges from For the Love of Pretty Paper today. There are eight in total and this is lemon drizzle, to use mixed media to represent the drizzle effect. I decided to combine this with a "Be Colourful" challenge from the same group to use purple.

I started from a sheet of paper with a purple water-colour effect printed on it, added layers of ink, mist and stamping in the area behind my photo (of an animatronic dinosaur) and topped them off with a fishing-net cutfile.

Supplies

Cardstock - DCWV, Bazzill

Paper - DCWV Romantic Life

Letters - American Crafts

Washi Tape - Tesco

Enamel Dots - Marianne Designs

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Family of Four

We're celebrating the 6th birthday of For the Love of Pretty Paper over on Facebook with a series of cake-themed challenges. I'm not doing them in order and this page is for the last one - Cupcakes - which was to use a small photo.

I don't tend to print my photos particularly small when I only have one, but I found an older one that my cousin included in a Christmas card some years back. A small photo obviously doesn't take much space on a 12x12 layout so I decided to fill the page with a Christmas tree of stars, a free cut-file designed by Paige Taylor Evans for Scrapbook and Cards Today.

I chose pale green cardstock for my cut-file and backed all the stars (except the one at the top) with pieces from a single 6x6 sheet. This wasn't as hard as it might have been as I have two star punches and a star die which match the three sizes in the tree. I did hand-cut the yellow one and topped it with a puffy sticker.

Supplies

Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Basic Grey Dear Heart, Pebbles Season's Greetings, Unknown 6x6

Letters - Heidi Swapp

Puffy Star - Elle's Studio

Glitter Tape - The Works

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's, Docrafts

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Star Tree Cut-File

Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die

Hobbycraft Star Punches

Hi Foxy

I'm back up on The Mad Scrapper blog today with a page featuring an autumnal leaf wreath cut-file from Paige Taylor Evans (which was a freebie in her Facebook group) backed with papers from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection and layered over a ring of bronze modelling paste confetti circles.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft UK, Stampin' Up!

Papers - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - American Crafts, October Afternoon

Modelling Cream - Viva Decor

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's, Heidi Swapp

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Heidi Swapp Confetti Stencil

*Disclosure - I received the paper pad and modelling cream free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role. 

My Baby Sister

I'm interrupting my holiday scrapping to share a page which I started for the GoGoGetaway Cybercrop at the end of October but completed a week later. One of the challenges was to include moon, stars and clouds on a page, and Marie at Peartree Cutfiles gave us the perfect cut-file for the occasion. 

The cut-file shouted 'sleeping baby' to me (and several other people) and I went all the way back to 1973 for this photo of my sister as a baby (though she's not sleeping).

I backed the moon with yellow glitter paper, the clouds with pink patterns and the stars with cream cardstock. I trimmed away a few of the stars so that I could nestle my photo in among the remainder.

I fussed around with my background for ages, as I was trying to include pink floral paper for a Be Colourful challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper. I was originally planning to use it as a background, but the colour was overwhelming so I switched to torn strips at the top and bottom of a sheet of white cardstock. The cut-file got a bit lost against the white though, so I added distress inks to the area behind it for a little contrast.

Supplies

Cardstock - UK Crafts, Bazzill

Paper -Heidi Swapp Hello Today, Docrafts Spring Chic

Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Puffy Stars - Pinkfresh Studio

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Peartree Cutfiles 'Moon in the Clouds' Cutfile

Turtle-y Cool

I'm back on my daughter's university album today, and grateful to her for the photos as I have very little to scrap for this year. This photo just has the caption 'Turtle' but I think the street art is on the back of one of the pubs or clubs in Brighton.

I started this page a couple of weeks ago, when I cut a couple of turtles on my Silhouette and backed them with white cardstock that I'd coloured with a mixture of inks. I got stuck then, couldn't work out how to finish the page and put everything to one side. 

At the beginning of the month, Rochelle Spears published her October sketch and it got me going again. My photo was 4x4 so I looked at my 6x6 pads to make the row of paper strips across the page, finding a gorgeous ombre paper and deciding to use just the one pattern instead of a variety. I then picked a couple of colours of blue ink and used the packaging technique on a white cardstock background for a diagonal line of colour. I placed my paper strips lower on the page than in the sketch so that my larger turtle could sit on the top edge and reversed the direction of the sketch to suit the orientation of my turtles.

I decided on washi for the strip at the bottom but it felt disconnected there so I moved it up, and then added another strip at the top to balance it, picking colours that match the top and bottom of my ombre paper. 

I combined this challenge with a tic-tac-toe from Scrap with Stacy and used five items from her grid - gold, enamel dots, word stickers, one photo and ink/paint - which complete the top row or the right column.

Rochelle and Stacy join forces every month so you can have three chances to win with just one page - Rochelle's challenge, Stacy's challenge or the two combined as I have done here.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft UK

Paper - Making Memories??

Letters - American Crafts, Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Unknown

Rain Dots - Cloud 9 Design

Ink - Ranger, Memento

Mist - Docrafts, Cosmic Shimmer

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Trick or Treat

This is another page for my daughter's university album, with a couple of Hallowe'en photos that she gave me. 

I've never been keen on Hallowe'en so only have papers from one collection, October Afternoon's Witch Hazel, which I originally bought for my Harry Potter album. I was down to scraps, with the only piece of any size being a 6x12 of zig-zag print which hurts my eyes if I look at it for too long. However I picked that for my background in conjunction with a spider's web cut-file as a lot would be covered by the time I finished. 

Building the rest of my page was a game of Tetris, identifying the papers which were big enough for photo mats, then working out how my scraps could be fitted together and which pieces could be cut and stretched where needed to look bigger than they are. 

I embellished with pumpkins cut from one of the papers, the word 'Beware' die cut from another to form a label and a sprinkling of enamel dots. 

My scraps are even scrappier now, but I might just be able to squeeze out one final page if my daughter has another Hallowe'en event this year. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Bazzill, Stampin' Up!
Paper - October Afternoon Witch Hazel
Enamel Dots - Eyelet Outlet, Simple Stories, Pretty My Page
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

Bring on the Next Chapter

That's the caption that my daughter used when she added this photo to Instagram a few weeks before she started at the University of Sussex, and it seemed appropriate for this page, the first in her University Years album.

Of course, it made me think of books and I hunted around for a suitable cut-file but didn't find one immediately. However, a few days later Confessions of a Paper Addict published the perfect file, called Stacked Books, a freebie at the time.

I backed the open book with an old 6x6 book-print paper (what else?) and used a similar colour from the same pad on all the paper edges. I think that books are quite old-fashioned now so I picked distressed papers to back the three in the stack and chose a background with a vintage feel. 

My aim with the embellishments was to use something pretty but subtle, nothing that would distract from the photo or the cut-file. I think these kraft floral die-cuts fit the bill, and I added a few dusty green leafy sprigs and a scattering of pearls to finish off.

Supplies

Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - Simple Stories Simple Vintage Botanicals, Pink Paislee Indigo Bleu, Simply Made Crafts, Dream Street Papers

Die-Cuts - Studio Calico

Pearls - Artoz

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & COAPA Stacked Books Cut-File

Big Shot & Poppystamps Small Sprig Die

Let Them Eat Cake

It's been a strange year so far, and we all had our birthdays under lockdown. We didn't have any real presents, just promises of presents once restrictions are lifted, but we did each have a birthday cake to celebrate the day. My daughter made mine, I made the others and I've scrapped pictures of them all as a quartet.

I wanted a celebratory feel to the page, so chose the star wreath cutfile which I backed with pastel papers. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Paper - Pink Paislee/Paige Evans Whimsical
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio
Star Gems - Papermania
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Paige Taylor Evans 'Star Wreath' Cutfile

Collect Moments

Lottie Loves Paper is running a Summer Sketch Challenge, with nine sketches during July and August. I did the first two as they were released but then slipped behind, and this is my page for week 4. It was a collaboration and we had the option of using the 'Collect Moments' cutfile from new venture Peartree Cutfiles. 

I scaled the cutfile to be as large as I could because I was working with old, pre-printed 4x6 photos. This made it difficult to include the paper strips behind it; I tried various combinations but there was so little showing at the edges that I wasn't happy and decided to drop them entirely and just use a few labels instead. That left me with a new problem - having just the white cutfile against the background was too plain, so I created an offset and cut that in green to match my son's shirt. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Papermania, Stampin' Up!
Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Yes Please, American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Stay Sweet, Studio Calico Heyday
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio
Rain Dots - Cloud 9 Design
Mist - Docrafts. Mister Huey's

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Peartree Cutfiles 'Collect Moments' Cutfile
Sewing Machine
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

MUSE

I'm sticking with my 2016 album for this page, filling in another gap with a double page from when we saw Muse at the O2 in April. 

I took a ton of photos and thought that this was going to be a photo-heavy page, but when I sorted through them there just a couple that were really much better than the rest and that I wanted to blow up large. I then added a third which wasn't quite as good but gave me a close-up of the band in action.

I was stumped for both page design and colour scheme so asked for ideas on Facebook. One lady shared a concert page where she used a cutfile and this got me going though neither my cutfile nor my colour scheme match hers at all.

I started with a black cardstock background and liberally spattered it with three colours of mist. I used a stars cutfile, backed some of the small stars with vellum, and filled some of the larger stars with die-cuts.

Supplies

Cardstock - Craft Sensations, Papermania

Paper - Sandylion, HOTP

Vellum - Crate Paper

Word Stickers - Tim Holtz

Mist - Docrafts, Heidi Swapp

Tools

Silhouette Portrait & Paige Taylor Evans 'Stars' Cutfile

Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die

Woodware Tiny Star Punch

The White Lady

I'm going way back in the photo archives for this page (and the next few); back to 1993 when I was living in Devon.

I made it for a stamping challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper; I had a new set of outdoors-themed stamps that I wanted to try out, but I wanted just one or two photos for that rather than the multiples that I take these days.

The photo that I used comes from Lydford Gorge, a place that I have visited and scrapbooked many times over the years; in particular, it's of the waterfall there, which is called the White Lady.

I started off with the leaf-print paper which I machine-stitched to the page and stamped lines of boot prints above and below it. I stitched the red paper in place too, and then layered up an assortment of scraps, including a circular element that I had cut and then rejected for a previous page. I stamped and cut out the signpost and camera, and added a few small die-cut pieces around the circle and by my journalling.

Supplies
Paper - Crate Paper Journey, Prima Marketing Zella Teal, Basic Grey Mon Ami, Pebbles/Jen Hadfield Warm & Cozy, Crate Paper Mia
Letters - Basic Grey
Die-Cuts - Pinkfresh Studio
ink - Ranger

Tools
Sewing Machine
The Great Outdoors Stamp Set (Creative Stamping Magazine)
Silhouette Portrait & The Cut Shoppe 'Right on Target' Cutfile

Love You to the Moon

Blue Moodboard

I've wanted to use this cut-file for a while, and always intended to pair it with a photo of our son as a baby. An NSD challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper with a blue moodboard finally got it out of my head and down on paper.

I stayed mostly monochromatice, but I did inject a touch of red with one of the layers behind the photo. The strip on the left was a late addition after I smudged ink on the edge of the page. Extra blue paper there looked off, but the red looked more deliberate.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill Swiss Dot, 
Paper - Basic Grey, Carol Wilson, Jillbean Soup
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Word Sticker - Tim Holtz
Washi Tape - Unknown
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Paige Taylor Evans Cut-File
Big Shot & Dovecraft Star Die
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch
Woodware Tiny Star Punch

My Little Brother

Maria's Page

One of the NSD challenges at For the Love of Pretty Paper was to scraplift another member's favourite page. There were some gorgeous pages to choose from, but this one from Maria Kennedy struck me immediately.

I replicated her circle by manipulating the Very Squarey cut-file which I backed with Bo Bunny papers. I only had four patterns but I found that I could use the large spots behind the small squares which gave me plenty of colours to play with.

I think that the coloured corners of Maria's page are pre-printed on her background but I had nothing similar. I picked a paper with a distressed finish and added ink to it by both stamping direct from the ink pads and dragging the pads over the paper. I then stencilled stars and stamped polka dots and asterisks over the inky background.

I copied Maria's small word stickers to add 'my little brother' to one of the squares and ultimately decided that was sufficient to be my title. The photo's an old one so I have no memory of it being taken and no story to go with it.

Supplies
Cardstock - Stampin' Up
Paper - Bo Bunny Shabby Princess
PL Card - Boys Rule
Wood Veneer Stars - Studio Calico
Puffy Stars - Bella Boulevard
Washi Tape - Unknown
Ink - Ranger, Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Very Squarey Cut-File - The Cut Shoppe
Amy Tangerine Stamp Set
Star Stencil

123456789

The admin team at For the Love of Pretty Paper love to launch a surprise challenge on us. Following five challenges based on the letters S-C-R-A-P with our choice of four stash items plus a compulsory colour each time, they set us an extra challenge to use all 20 stash items plus our choice of the five colours. I do love a list to work through, so set out to bash all the items and ALL the colours (and I wasn't the only one).

Our full list was stickers, scraps, sequins, scallops, sapphire, chipboard, clips, cork, crosses, charcoal, ribbons, rub-ons, rik-rak, rectangles, red, acetate, acrylic, arrows, adventure, amber, puffy, punches, plaid, portrait and purple.

I started with a portrait photo of me aged five, and a number cut-file which I cut in charcoal cardstock and backed with a rainbow of papers which included all the other colours. I placed those to the left of my page and added a line of rectangular scraps of the same papers to the right hand side, with a punched scalloped border.

I backed my photo with more rectangles (including a strip of plaid print which I added to the right side too), clustered a few of the list of embellishment items around it and scattered others (like the puffy hearts and sequins) around the page. The hardest thing to include was 'adventure' which I eventually managed as part of a series of word stickers - 'life is an adventure - live it'. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Crate Paper Wonder, K&Co Daydreams, K&Co Cut 'n' Paste, Crate Paper Random
Vellum - Papermania
Word Stickers- Tim Holtz
Sequins & Paperclip - From Advent Swap
Chipboard Stars - Studio Calico
Cork Heart - Freckled Fawn
Ribbon & Rik-rak - from Stash
Rub-Ons - DCWV
Acetate Label - Studio Calico
Acrylic Paint - Golden
Puffy Stickers - Jillibean Soup

Tools
Silhouette Portrait & Background Check Cutfile from The Cut Shoppe
American Crafts Scallop Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Big Shot & Little B Arrow Die