The Ancestor

This is my second page from our journey down to Dorset last month, when we stopped near Amesbury to visit The Ancestor, a sculpture which was mentioned on a documentary I watched about the A303.

I took a few photos in both landscape and portrait but cropping them to square seemed best and I ordered one at 4x4. When it arrived, the sculpture was only a couple of inches tall within the picture and you couldn't see his features so I re-printed at 8x8 which also matched a challenge from UK Scrap Addicts to use a larger photo than normal. 

I matted the photo on a purple paper which picked up some of the tones in the metalwork. It was one I hadn't used on any of my Dorset pages yet, but it opened up the use of one of the florals from the cut-apart sheet which was printed on the same colour background.

Supplies

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Letters - Crate Paper/Maggie Holmes

Word Sticker - Tim Holtz

Washi Tape - Little B

Enamel Shapes - Prima Darcelle Sugar Dots*

Dots - Nuvo Drops

Ink - Ranger

Tools

Big Shot & Dovecraft Label Die

* Disclosure - I received the paper pad and sugar dots free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my DT role.

Hello Stonehenge

I'm continuing with my "holiday" pages today, from a long weekend in Dorset which will be the only break we get this year. We passed by Stonehenge on the way, and I snapped a quick picture from the car.

I spotted this sketch when someone used it on Facebook, and traced it back to a July 2013 post from Liz Chidester at The Scrappiest Blogspot. She doesn't appear to be blogging any more but there are a few other sketches that I might go back to.

I'm using the paper pad from Amy Tangerine's Late Afternoon collection for my pages. One of the sheets is a cut-apart, and I used a section of it for the 'Hello' circle which starts my title. I couldn't bring myself to use three Es from my Thickers in one go, so I cut the rest on my Silhouette.

Supplies
Cardstock - American Crafts

Paper - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Die-Cuts - American Crafts/Amy Tangerine Late Afternoon*

Stickers - Tim Holtz Idea-ology

Stars - Studio Calico

Washi Tape - Little B, Efco

Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, Doodlebug, Carta Bella

Ink - Ranger

Tools
Silhouette Portrait

Big Shot

X-Cut Camera Die

Little B Arrow Die

Dovecraft Label Die

Fiskars Shape Cutter & Circle Template

X-Cut Circle Punch

*Disclosure - I received the Amy Tangerine paper pad and die-cut pack free of charge from The Mad Scrapper as part of my Design Team role.

Stonehenge

I'm waiting on order of new photographs before I can continue with my cruise album, so I've decided to try and use up some of the 'starting point' pages that I've made previously. I do these to finish off collections or try out ideas, and then put them aside until I have suitable photos, and I have a few now piled up. I spread them all out on my desk and flipped through an older photo album to see if any would match up.

On this occasion, I paired a couple of photos from Stonehenge with a page I started to use up Fancy Pants' Little Sport collection. The photos were only 5" x 4" but were still a little large for the paper panels I'd stuck down; however they had a lot of grey sky so I cropped them down and matted them on a scrap of cardstock.

Once the photos were in place, it didn't take long to add a title, journalling, a sprinkling of mist and some stars and enamel dots as embellishments. 

Supplies
Cardstock - Bo Bunny
Paper - Fancy Pants Little Sport, Colorset
Letters - Basic Grey
Enamel Dots - Simple Stories, We R Memory Keepers
Ink - Hobbycraft
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Hobbycraft Star Punch

On the Map

A roadside cafe may be on odd subject for a scrapbook page, but we've been stopping at the Old Willoughby Hedge Cafe on the A303 for the last twenty-five years. Any trip to the West Country is an excuse to stop here for breakfast baps mid-morning or burgers for lunch. It used to be something of a secret but its popularity means that access to the lay-by has been improved, it now has a 'Services' road-sign and it appears on the latest version of our road atlas. Still, the food's as good as ever, and although this photo is from last year, we've visited twice more in the last couple of weeks. 

I really wanted to use the 'I think I'll stop here' piece from the Shimelle collection, and added a couple more of her papers, a piece from Heidi Swapp and an ancient map paper.

The little row of triangles on the map came from a newish die, and the three triangles above it were the inner parts of the same cut. 

Supplies
Paper - American Crafts Shimelle, Heidi Swapp September Skies
Sticker - American Crafts Shimelle
Ink - Docrafts
Mist - Docrafts

Tools
Big Shot
Provocraft Alphabet Dies
Little B Arrows Dies

Flutter By

While on Facebook this morning (Sunday), I noticed an advert for a three day crop at www.shimelle.com starting on Friday. Was this something to look forward to? Or had I missed the first 2 days? Sadly it was the latter, but most of the challenges are open until next Sunday.

I won't have time to do them all; this is the sixth project but the one that looks easiest. The 'Grid It Up' Challenge - create a project with a grid as a design element! You can interpret that any way you wish! Get creative!

A gentle start to a week of challenges...

I took these photos in the butterfly house at Longleat last year and a grid is the perfect layout for them. I wanted the butterflies to be the main feature in this page, so I kept it simple with a plain textured background and a contrasting stitched edge. The butterfly paper was one that I had had for ages, waiting for the 'right' time to use it (and I still have some left - hooray). The small orange butterflies gave me the choice of colours for the rub-on letters and the stitching.

Supplies
Paper - Paper Adventures
Card - Possibly Scrap Genie
Rub-Ons - Making Memories
Embroidery Thread - DMC