21st Birthday Card

It was my niece's 21st birthday earlier this month, and I made her a card based on sketch #244 from Sketch-n-Scrap.

The cocktail print paper is an ancient one, which I teamed with an off-cut from a winter paper and strips of washi tape for the sentiment. I found a couple of puffy stickers of drinks, and added some stars to them.

Butterfly Birthday Card

It was my mum's birthday recently and, of course, I made her a card. This one was based on Sketch-n-Scrap's card sketch #236 from last month.

I used a silver paper from Dovecraft for my background, mixed with pink and grey papers from an unknown collection where I was gifted a few 6x6 papers. I stuck pretty closely to the sketch, with the heart from the sketch becoming a present on my card. I dropped the three dots/gems from the sketch as I felt they would distract from the butterfly pattern.

Supplies
Card - The Craft Place
Paper - Docrafts Modern Deco, Unknown
Present - Crafty Bitz
Sentiment - Craft Creations

Ink - Ranger

Detour

I've hopped over to the island of La Palma for this page. We visited while the volcano Cumbre Vieja was erupting and knew that we would be seeing it from the sea in an evening of scenic cruising so we didn't arrange a daytime visit. However our coach excursion detoured to give us a drive-by view. We didn't stop, but took loads of photos through the coach window in the hope that some of them would be OK.

I printed the best one at 5" x 7" and used a March sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap as the basis for my page. I followed the paper layers quite closely but moved the title, splitting it into two parts (or title and sub-title) above and below the photo. 

I created three clusters of embellishments, repeating elements such as the cork arrow and puffy stars from other pages, and added my journalling on paper strips.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Carefree, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart, Paige Evans Bungalow Lane

Letters - American Crafts, Heidi Swapp

Die-Cut - Heidi Swapp

Stickers - Heidi Swapp, Tim Holtz

Puffy Stars - Rosie's Studio

Cork Arrow - Studio Calico

Gems - Love to Craft

Ink - Ranger

San Sebastian - La Gomera

When I make a cruise album I divide it up with a section for each port of call, and each section starts with a 'sub-title' page. I've started with our third port of call, San Sebastian in La Gomera, for the simple reason that I only had a few photos to choose from.

I used one of last month's sketches from Sketch-n-Scrap as it's a versatile one that I can repeat for all the ports with a change of papers.

I made my paper strips longer than those in the sketch so that my title would sit on them rather than at the foot of the page. I used letter stickers for the port/town and cut the island name on my Silhouette. I plan to vary the stickers for the town each time and keep the island in the same font each time.

The flower on the sketch became a cluster of pieces built around a tag, and I'll create similar clusters for the other sub-title pages.

Supplies

Paper - Heidi Swapp Carefree, Jen Hadfield Peaceful Heart, OneCanoeTwo Willow

Letters - Jenni Bowlin Studio

Ephemera - Heidi Swapp

Cork Stickers - Studio Calico

Washi Tape - Unknown

Enamel Dots - Echo Park, Simple Stories

Ink - Memento

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Dad's Birthday Card

It's my Dad's birthday today, and I made his card using sketch #213 from Sketch-n-Scrap. 

I often use scraps for card and started this one from the floral paper which was perfect for a spring birthday. I added the banner from the sketch but then went rogue, swapping the large flower on the sketch for a scalloped circle with a much smaller flower. I dropped one of the paper layers too and moved the sentiment, but I hope you can see that the starting point was this sketch.

Supplies
Card - The Works

Paper - Bo Bunny, My Mind's Eye, Kaisercraft

Sentiment - Craft Creations

Puffy Dot - Pebbles/Jen Hadfield

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot

The Works Scalloped Circle Die

Cut & Make Leaf Dies

Woodware Flower Punches

Personal Impressions Cherry Blossom Stamp

Mother's Day Card

Happy Mother's Day if you are celebrating it today (I know it's in May elsewhere). I made this card for my mother using card sketch #214 from Sketch-n-Scrap.

I've recently switched from making 4x6 cards to the larger 5x7 size, but that means that my 6x6 papers are less useful. I only have a couple of 6x8 pads but they include the pretty florals of Paige Evans' Bungalow Lane. I chose a pink one for the middle panel on the card and edged it with two scalloped strips punched from pink cardstock.

I dropped the flower from the sketch as I couldn't match those on the paper, and swapped the circle for a stitched label to hold my sentiment.

Supplies

Card - The Works

Cardstock - Papermania

Paper - American Crafts/Paige Evans Bungalow Lane

Ink - Memento

Tools

American Crafts Scalloped Border Punch

Big Shot & X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Fireworks Birthday Card

It's my nephew's 18th birthday today, and I initially struggled with his card. I pushed a few design ideas around but nothing that I was happy with. Eventually I did what I should have done in the first place, and turned to the Sketch-n-Scrap blog.

This was their first sketch for World Cardmaking Day and I paired it with Echo Park's Magical Adventure 2 6x6 pad. This collection is Disney-themed but the b-sides are more versatile and the pad provided me with a set of co-ordinating papers. I based the card around the fireworks paper as being suitably celebratory.

The Old Man of Hoy

Up until now I've been scrappping our cruise in order, but our first piece of scenic cruising was Duncansby Sea Stacks, and I missed printing one of the photos I want for that page so I'm skipping over it for now.

The second sight should have been The Needle, on the coast of the island of Hoy, but that was lost in the mist, which brings us to the Old Man of Hoy, one of the tallest sea stacks in the UK and the subject of this page. It was still misty so the Old Man wasn't easy to see, but the photos have printed quite dark and less distinct than they are on my screen. I've scrapped what I have, but also lightened them for reprinting in the next batch of photos I order, and I'll swap the prints over later.

I started off using one of last month's sketches from Sketch-n-Scrap as it had the two photo sizes I'd printed and the tags at the top tie in with the tags on the last page I made. However, I flipped it horizontally and then played about with the paper layers and moved the title so it wasn't a close likeness by the time I'd finished.

This is the first page where I've used a paper other than those I chose from 49 & Market; the brown map is from Heidi Swapp, but I think it's a good match for the colours and prints of Vintage Artistry Anywhere.

Supplies

Paper - 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Anywhere, 49 & Market Vintage Artistry Sage, Heidi Swapp Wanderlust

Letters - Pinkfresh Studio

Ephemera - 49 & Market

Puffy Hearts - Unknown

Gems - Papermania, Love to Craft

Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools

Silhouette Portrait

Cocktails Birthday Card

I'm sharing a quick card today, one which I based on the latest sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap.

I went for a portrait card and used just one paper to cover it, with a contrasting scalloped strip. I stamped my sentiment on a die-cut circle and considered turning it into a rosette, but I found that to be too cluttered and I preferred a cleaner look.

I added a few clear gems to the card, covering some of the fizzy bubbles on the paper.

Red, White and Blue

Last NSD page now, and I confess that it's the one I like the least. I made it for the 'Abstract Art' challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper which was to make a monochromatic page and to use large brushstrokes. 

I started by looking for a photo which would suit a single-colour page, and found one of my sister at a fancy dress barbecue. The theme for the event was red, white and blue, and she dressed as a tin of blue paint (also available in red and white), which tied in with the brush strokes required.

I based my page on Sketch-n-Scrap's Sketch #225, making my background from a mix of painted brushstrokes, washi tape and paper scraps.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill

Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Dream On, American Crafts/Dear Lizzy Star Gazer, Pinkfresh Studio A Case of the Blahs, Jillibean Soup Soup Staples

Letters - Doodlebug, Docrafts

Butterfly Die-Cuts - Jillibean Soup?
Word Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-Ology
Washi Tape - Hobbycraft?

Flair - Dotty About Flair
Puffy Stars - Elle's Studio
Enamel Stars - Doodlebug
Gems - KaiserCraft?

Paint - Golden
Ink - Ranger

Mist - Mister Huey's

Tools
Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die
X-Cut Circle Punch

18th Birthday Card

It's my niece's 18th birthday next week, but I'm sharing her card ahead of time as I want to link up with Sketch-n-Scrap before the end of the month. I'm pretty sure that she doesn't follow my blog so it should be a safe thing to do.

I used Card Sketch #172 with some cocktail-themed patterned paper as my background, adding a strip of Happy Birthday paper and topping that with an '18' panel which I raised up with several layers of cardstock.

Father's Day Cards

It was Father's Day yesterday, so I have two cards to share, made for my father and father-in-law.

I based the first card on Card Sketch #171 from Sketch-n-Scrap earlier this month, using papers from Photo Play's Boarding Pass collection with a hot air balloon sticker which I popped up on foam adhesive. I didn't have any Father's Day sentiment stickers or paper, so I printed some myself and die cut the tag.

My second card was based around a crossword-patterned shirt and tie piece from a Simple Stories cut-apart sheet. I switched to a square card for this, and filled in the background with uneven quadrants of patterned papers from a 6x6 pad. I then cut a smaller tag from my printed Father's Day paper, matted it on a scrap of cardstock and used foam squares again to attach it to the card.

'Envelope of Flowers' Birthday Card

It was my sister's birthday last week but I made her card last month to allow for posting time, and I used a sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap's 8th Birthday event.

I started off with that doily and then wondered how to replicate the roses from my supplies. I decided on a die-cut envelope which I filled with leafy sprigs and punched flowers. The envelope was a little small against the doily so I layered it on a piece of card and swapped the long sentiment strip from the sketch for a square which fitted the scale of my card better.

Supplies
Card - Anita's
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Let Your Heart Decide
Doily - Dovecraft
Gems - Love to Craft
Ink - Memento, Versamark

Tools
Big Shot
Sizzix Envelope Die
Poppy Stamps Sprig Die
Craft Creatives Flower Punch
Unknown Happy Birthday Stamp

Mother's Day Card

Happy Mother's Day to those of you who are celebrating today. 

I used stickers from Paige Evans' #stickerbook with card sketch #165 from Sketch-n-Scrap for a card for my mother this year. The stickers are only thin so I stuck the flowers and leaves to white cardstock and cut them out before adding foam adhesive to the back and layering them over two flat stickers which span the width of the card. This created a small gap where I inserted some pieces of an ancient pearl decoration. 

Grange Barn

This page was made for another challenge from For the Love of Pretty Paper; there were five themed around the letters S-C-R-A-P and for the 'R' challenge we had to use our choice of ribbon, rub-ons, rectangles and ric-rac plus the colour red.

I combined this challenge with Sketch #196 from Sketch-n-Scrap which I had to adapt to suit my mix of photos from Grange Barn in Coggeshall (Essex), one of the oldest timber-framed buildings in Europe. 

I had one portrait and one landscape photo which I placed side-by-side and cut my title to fill in the empty corner of a 5.5" x 9.5" block. This was a much wider photo block than the one in the sketch, but I layered my papers in a similar way behind it and added an embellishment cluster to the left side as indicated in the sketch, before deciding to add two more.

Supplies
Cardstock - 
Paper - KaiserCraft Rustic Harmony, K&Co Hannah, My Mind's Eye 29th Street Market, Kit 'n' Kraft, Unknown Yellow/Stripe
Die-Cuts - Advent Swap
Enamel Shapes - Freckled Fawn, Marianne Designs, Simple Stories
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Big Shot
X-Cut Tag Die
X-Cut Ticket Stubs Die

Our Hotel

This is another new page for my Far East album; I previously made a page for our hotel in Malaysia, but hadn't done one for Singapore. I've corrected that now with this page based on Sketch #194 from Sketch-n-Scrap.

My bottom photos were originally 3x4 and they dominated the page so I cropped them down until they were a better balance for the top photo without losing anything vital. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - K&Co Hannah, Unknown Scraps
Letters - KaiserCraft
Die Cut - atd
Flowers - KaiserCraft
Pearls - Scrapberry's
Ink - Ranger

Tools
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Big Shot & Poppy Stamps Small Leafy Sprig Die

Workplace Shenanigans

Our grown-up son has almost disappeared from my scrapbooks, so when he showed me a series of photos that he took at work, I was keen to get copies and scrapbook them. He was originally trying to take a new photo for his security pass when one of his colleagues photobombed him and silliness ensued. 

I printed six photos and used Sketch #192 from Sketch-n-Scrap for my page. This one has four portrait photos, but it wasn't too much bother to adapt it for six landscape photos instead, although it meant moving my title down below the photos.

I started out from the 'One of a Kind' paper on the left, a scrap that I've been wanting to use up, and based the rest of my paper choices around it. Most of them are fairly old, and hard to match with more modern embellishments, so I went with simple punched shapes and gold glitter tape. I also added staples and brads for the 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey' challenge from our birthday cybercrop over at For the Love of Pretty Paper, a challenge to use embellishments that fix things together (though I've swapped the tiny blue brads for larger brown ones since taking this photo).

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill, Papermania
Paper - Sandylion One of a Kind, K&Company, Jillibean Soup, My Mind's Eye
Letters - Basic Grey
Glitter Tape - Hobbycraft
Brads - Papermania
Staples - American Crafts
Ink - Ranger
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
American Crafts Stapler
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Woodware Scalloped Circle Punch
Hobbycraft Star Punch

Birds Birthday Card

I've not made a card for a while as most of our family birthdays fall in the summer months, but my sister-in-law was a winter baby and it was her birthday last week.

I chose a sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap's Monthly Challenges group on Facebook, a floral paper from Dovecraft and a couple of cardstock offcuts to make this card for her. There was an additional challenge to repeat a motif from one of our papers within the icon circle on the sketch, so I punched out and repeated one of the birds from the background paper.

Seven Sisters

'Seven Sisters' is a name given to various places around the world, but these sisters are in Norway and I'm referring to a set of waterfalls in Geirangerfjord which we cruised past one evening.

I thought I'd printed one landscape and one portrait photo of the falls and I earmarked this sketch from Sketch-n-Scrap's Facebook Challenge group, but when I came to make the page I found that both photos were actually landscape. I had a look around for an alternative sketch but in the end I decided to use this one anyway.

I had to move the title across, but my paper layers pretty much match the sketch. My embellishment moved too, with a cluster of circles around the title that echo the circles pattern of the paper on the left of the page.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Pinkfresh Studio Out and About, Pinkfresh Studio A Case of the Blahs
Stickers & Die-Cuts - Pinkfresh Studio
Enamel Shapes - Marianne Design, Doodlebug, Echo Park
Ink - Memento
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Silhouette Portrait
Fiskars Postage Stamp Border Punch
Big Shot & Spellbinders Circle Die
X-Cut Small Circle Punch

Laura & Matt

I'm sticking with my 2019 album today, with a series of pages from a wedding we attended in June. I didn't take many photos, but I couldn't resist pinching some from Facebook when the bride shared them so I ended up with enough for a 12x12 page plus two pocket pages.

I chose papers to match the bridesmaids' dresses, going almost monochromatic in the process. I won these last year; they're not my normal taste, a bit fancy and floral, but perfect for wedding pages.

My single page is based on Sketch #178 from Sketch-n-Scrap, published back in June, and has photos of the bride and groom inside the church and the whole congregation outside afterwards.

One of my papers had cut-apart pieces on one side which was really useful for making matching embellishments. The butterfly came from the place settings at the reception and I backed the patterned wing with matching cardstock.

The majority of the photos were taken at the reception venue and I filled the front and back of a divided page protector with them, choosing one with a mix of landscape and portrait photos.

I filled half the pockets with 4x6 photos and chose the same papers as before to fill the rest. Most of them have smaller photos, but one just has a floral cut-apart piece. I'd originally kept a pocket back for journalling but in the end that all went on the 12x12 page.

For the Love of Pretty Paper is running a Summer Fiesta again this year, with six weekly sets of prompts. Each set is made up of seven ideas (one per day) which you can combine if you wish. These pages are for Week 3 where I chose to use florals, punches and bunting.

Supplies
Cardstock - Bazzill
Paper - Prima Zella Teal, KaiserCraft Sage & Grace, KaiserCraft My Year My Story
Letters - American Crafts
Labels - Pretty Little Studio
Stickers - Tim Holtz
Enamel Shapes - Marianne Designs

Tools
Big Shot & X-Cut Bunting Die
Fiskars Apron Lace Border Punch
Hobbycraft Heart Punch