What's your Type ?

Hiya people. It is Ifa with you today.  How has your January been ? It can be quite a difficult month for all sorts of reasons.  I am not keen on the dark school runs but fortunately the days are stretching out again.

You might be wondering what the blog title is about. No ? Just so we are both on the same page, my blog post is about typography. What's your favourite alpha for scrapbooking ? I adore Jewelry Box Thickers, I have a selection of glittered, diy, foam and chipboard. I hope AC never decides to discontinue this font!

I was inspired to make Type the focus on my layouts after reading an article in the Sunday Times, Style Magazine, "The Writing's on the wall".  Apparently the use of Type to decorate your wall is the latest trend in interiors. I love the hand drawn look of the samples shown but I am not confident enough to do the same on my layout.  My solution is to use a mixture of alphabet stickers and thickers, mixed with some handwritten...my very own Type Art.

 

This layout started life without very much promise.  As we've been to Paris a number of times, I have done a fair few Paris layouts. What else can I say about Paris ? The photo that I've used in this layout has the Eiffel Tower in the background, trying to steal the limelight so my prose begins "Steel Tower" (though I've since learned that this was a common misconception, the Tower is actually made of iron).

 

My Type Art says,

steel tower

a golden dome

grand avenues

& long boulevards

an obsession with symmetry

EVERYTHING MEETS & INTERCEPT

glass PYRAMID

more conventional

BRICKS & STONES

too,

NO LESS GRAND !

 

The letters spelling out Boulevards come from Crate Paper On Trend - Printed Chipboard Thickers. I love the eclectic mix of colours and patterns. I also used a Jenni Bowlin alphabet stamp set.

 

I also added a few mistable butterfly thickers to the layout. I cut a few different sizes out that I want to use, ink them up with Distress Stain before adding a huge helping of glitter glue. The butterflies then needed a good night of drying before I added them to my layout.

 

 

 

 

My next layout also features a Type Art though I have ran out of prose for this one. I used a couple of stickers from American Crafts Soho Garden 12x12 Cardstock Stickers to underpin this long title.

 

 

This layout is about the day the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge came to town.  I arranged to meet a friend there but not expecting a huge crowd, our plan to meet didn't work out.  I stood on a disuse fountain to get this photo but alas, I didn't have long telephoto of or step ladder to stand on. The photo quality wasn't great but I decided to use it anyway.

 

 

So there you are, Type Art on two of my layouts.  I hope you will give this a go and try mixing up your alphabets to make a stylish statement.

 

That's all from me this month.  I look forward to seeing you all next month.

 

xxx Ifa xxx.

 

 

Me @ 2 by Tracy G

This month I am going to show you step by step how I created this layout with products from the gorgeous American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic range, and using a geometry compass.

Supplies list

2 American Crafts 12x12 Cardstock - White

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - Pretty Parkway

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - Memory Lane

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - Blossom Boulevard

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - Laughter Lane

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - Fabric & Epoxy Brads

American Crafts - Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic - 6x12 Stickers - Accents & Phrases

Studio Calico - Wood Veneer - Alphabet

Ranger Liquid Pearls - White Opal

 

Cut a 12" x 12" piece of white cardstock down to 11.5" x 11.5" and sick onto a 12" x 12" piece of patterned paper.

 

If you've been inspired to create a layout using a compass please post a link so we can admire it.

I don't do...

...Valentines and I don't do Project Life. So what do I do with Valentines themed papers and Project Life style page protectors?

Well, when it comes to the page protectors I ignored them for, hmmmm, about 2 years! I have seriously had these for that long and not used them. When I was having a post Christmas clear out I came across them and placed them on my desk determined to use them somehow. Pretty soon after that my lovely My Mind's Eye Lucky In Love papers arrived and I started to play. I decided to treat the sections as one whole layout using photos from a weekend getaway the DT had in November for Sarah's birthday. As I began filling the sections I decided to add some of the elements on top of the page protector so I could cross the boundaries.

I quite like this effect and did the same with the journalling strips.

I have decided I will use this format for layouts about me, myself and I as my usual A4 pages tend to be about my boys. Like this one:

I took inspiration from the sectioned page protector and created a basic grid, then began crossing the boundaries with stickers from the collection pack.

I have one more page to share that I created with the scraps that I had left on my desk at this point so I thought I may as well share this one too.

I have plenty of the collection pack left and there is a fourth page almost finished on my desk as I type. I'll pop it on the Facebook page when it is done. Make sure you pop over and like the page to be kept up to date with us here at Sarahscards.

Have a great weekend!

There's An Elf on Our Shelf!

It's Louise here with a few pages to share using the Studio Calico Wonderland Collection.
This year we jumped on the Elf on the Shelf band waggon. My boys loved waking up each morning to see where in the house Buddy the Elf was, and more importantly what he had been up to! Just our luck we got a mischievous elf!
I took photos each day of our elf, planning to record his adventures using Instagram photos. So far I've managed to scrap half of the photos.
I used these fab number stamps from Elle's Studio on each page. They are simple and bold in design, and just the right size to be used with a 1 inch circle punch.
On the first page introducing Buddy the Elf, I also used the Studio Calico Star Mask with some white acrylic paint. The Wonderland alphas worked perfectly with the mini stickers from the collection pack to create the title.

I stamped the number 1 with red ink then used a wet glue to carefully cover the design before adding a thick layer of extra fine glitter. 

 

 The stamps also work well with embossing powder.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see from the 14 days of elf mischief I have recorded so far, the Wonderland papers are really versatile. I still have so much of the collection pack left that I'll easily be able to finish the little album. I'll share those with you soon.

Thanks for looking.

 

Louise

 

Have you shopped the Sale?

As we know it's CHA time again and Sarah and Lianne are currently choosing lots of new products for the shop.

Now is the perfect time to hit the sales. Sarah has lots of goodies online a massively reduced prices.

Check it out here

I was lucky enough to grab a Crate Paper  bargain to create this layout for you.

Have a great weekend all :)


Claire x

{Love is in the air}

At this time of year many of the big papercrafting manufacturers release Valentine's Day lines. Now I don't know about you, but Valentine's Day isn't really a major event in our house. At most there's the exchanging of cards and small gifts, and maybe a nice meal, but it's certainly not a photo heavy day, nor one that requires multiple scrapbook pages in my albums.Most of the lines have one or two "Happy Valentine's Day" or "February 14th" motifs, but other than that they are just pretty lines in gorgeous shades of red, pink & aqua - some of my favourite colours to scrap with! All the hearts and love themed icons make them perfect for scrapping weddings, which is exactly what I've done. What is nice about Valentine's paper collections is that they often mix and match really well, because the motifs are similar, and the colours are often similar too. I've used:

Crate Fourteen Papers and Stickers
Pink Paislee Secret Crush  die cut accents
American Crafts XOXO die cuts

This page features one of the official photos from my sister's wedding back in July last year. There was a lot of open space on the left hand side of the photo, so I layered up lots of diet cuts and stickers as a base for my title to sit over the top. The big number 2 is from the Dear Lizzy 5th & Frolic die cut shapes pack. The long pink arrow wasn't atually long enough to go where I wanted it to, so it's actually cut into three separate pieces and positioned to look like it goes behind other elements on the page.

 

The next page also features photographs from the same wedding day, but they are not of the bride and groom, nor of any other couple. Instead I chose two photos detaileing one of the events from the day which was the fireworks! I picked one of the fireworks themselves, and one of my son curled up watching them. He was nervous at first, but when they finished clapped and clapped, and kept asking for "more bang". Bearing in mind he was not even 2 years old, and it was 10:30pm I was very impressed that he tolerated them at all! I used twine on the background sheet of paper to follow some of the lines and mimic the feel of fireworks exploding. It also serves the purpose of drawing your eye into the centre of the page. Again I layered up stickers, die cuts and paper pieces, and added a smalltitle and some journalling.

If you don't already follow the Sarah's Cards facebook page I would suggest now would be a great time to start - Sarah and Lianne are out in America at the moment attending CHA2013. Lucky girls getting to see all the gorgeous new lines in person, and I'm sure they will choose some fabulous ranges to bring back to us, which will appear in the shop over the coming months. You can find the facebook page here.

***January 2013 Sketch Challenge***

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I hope you all are over the holiday festivites, are raring to get going into the new year and will join with with our first sketch challenge of 2013.

All you have to do is create a scrapbook page based on our sketch below and add a link to your creation to our inlinkz collection at the end of this post by the 31st of January.

The winner will receive a £20 e-voucher to spend in the shop.

Here are what the design team created :-

Vanessa used up some old scraps from "Campy Trails" to match the photo in her page.

 

Jen flipped the sketch for her fab santa page.

Tracie replaced the star with a lovely big heart for this cutsie page.

Claire has used lovely bright colours on her layout.

We're looking forward to come and see your pages.

** *Recording our Christmas* **

Happy New Year!

Last month, I described my approach to recording our family life during 2012 using monthly recap pages.  It's now the time of the year for me to record our Christmas in a similar way.  I know that there are popular ideas/classes out there for journaling your Christmas throughout December but having young children and working in a school means that December is an incredibly busy time of the year and I simply don't have the time to do any scrapbooking.  Instead, I have found that what works for me is to scrap about Christmas after it has happened, when I can sit down and print out all of the photos in one go and create a uniform album which is quick to assemble in the days between New Year and the start of the new school term.

I decided to use the Crate Paper Sleigh Ride collection pack, which as well as papers, also contains a sheet of die cut shapes and two sticker sheets. To this, I added a few other supplies which are listed at the end of this post.

My method:

1. Cut down the kraft card to A4 size.  I then added a strip about 8 cm wide of some of the patterned papers to the kraft base page near to the bottom.  I used both sides of the card base to make the pages.  This not only saves on cardstock but also reduces bulk in the finished album. (see photos at the end for more detail)

2. Next I stuck strips of washi tape to the top and bottom edge of the card base.

3. Then I collated and printed my photographs before sticking to each page.  The collages were made using Picasa.

4. After cutting down the kraft card, I was left with lots of spare strips.  These are ideal for making your own shipping tags which I feel echo the tags that you might find on Christmas presents.

To add some extra interest, I punched circles from the patterned paper before using my cropodile to punch a hole from the centre of them.  A small star was punched from the bottom corner of each tag which allows a little of the patterened paper that they were placed on on the pages to show through.

My journaling was handwritten onto these tags which were added to each page.

5. Next I added the titles to each layout.  In my collection of Thickers, I came across two packets of unfinished raw chipboard letters.  As I had so many of these, I decided to use them on each page and to tie them in with the Christmas theme more by covering them all with silver glitter.  I did have to get slightly creative with my use of letters: there's a mix of cases for example and a '5' used for an 's'.

I firstly covered each letter with Tombow glue before liberally covering with the American Crafts fine glitter.  Incidentally, I also found this glitter to be a great addition to my Christmas make up and using a little dab of vaseline across my eyelids to act as a glue, I carefully pressed some of the glitter on top to achieve very sparkly and festive eyes!

6. Lastly, each page was embellished using a mixture of the stickers and die cuts along with some wood veneer shapes and some dots of red liquid pearl and more dabs of glitter to finish.

The finished pages:

I still intend to add a few more pages.  For instance, there's some little moments that I'd like to document and highlights for each of the children to record but I can at least say that the main points have been documented and can be filed away in my Christmas album.


I hope that I may have inspired you to get scrapping your Christmas photos.  I'd love to see your Christmas layouts: link them up in the comments section :)
 

My Supplies:

*Crate Paper Sleigh Ride Collection Pack*

*Kraft Cardstock*

*Divine Twine - Teal*

*Bella Boulevard Red Dot Washi Tape*

*October Afternoon Make it Merry Word Stickers*

*AC Wow! Fine Silver Glitter*