Cameras at the Ready!!

If you're at all like me, it was your love of photography that led you to scrapbooking. As the craft revolves around photos and taking snaps, I often snap up any camera-themed embellishments and stickers as they are easy to work in to page, whatever your theme. It will be no surprise then, that when I spotted this Crafter's Workshop 12x12 template, I couldn't wait to get my mitts on it!

I'd never really been drawn to the templates before as I'd always associated them with making backgrounds using messy pastes and mists and paints which, although always look fab, my backgrounds are usually patterned paper. However, when I saw this I knew I wanted to use it to make my own embellishments.

Here's how:

First I'd chose which camera I wanted to use, and trace it onto my chosen patterned paper:

 I'd then begin to trace cut out the "detail" pieces of the camera from other patterns (great for using up scraps!)

 Once all layered up and stuck together, I'd add in pen details:

 And my finished patterned camera would be ready to go on my layout!

 They can look at bit strange and obscure during the piecing together stage,

 but adding the black doodled outlines really brings it together and makes it look like a camera:

Here's my first page, documenting about how we can look forward to family bike rides and make use of the beautiful cycle track just across the road from our home now that my step daughter has mastered riding her bike without stabilisers.

For my second page, as well as making camera embellishments, I also used the template to make my own journalling card. I began by selecting my patterned paper and tracing one of the camera tempaltes using a brown AC Slick Writer pen.

I popped it into place on my page, and then drew journalling lines across it with a black pen:

 Hey presto, one camera-shaped journalling card ready to go:

Here's my completed page, Reason to Smile. It tells the story of lovely Sally Anne, who was my soft bunny toy as early as I can remember. She used to go everywhere with me, as this photo circa 1984 shows, and I once nearly screamed an aeroplane out of the sky when I discovered she was not coming to Spain with us - the only thing that calmed me was the reassurance that she had stayed behind to help my Dad and Grandpa move everything to our new house while we were away! She had been gone (but not forgotten!) for years, so I was over the moon to find her in pretty good rooting, tooting, cow-girl condition in a bag in my mums attic when she moved house last year. Sally Anne and Natalie Anne were reunited!! She now sits pretty in my craft room, although does get treated to the odd day out - last Summer I held a Teddy Bear's Picnic for my class; each child brought their favourite Teddy, and I took Sally Anne in to meet them all!

I also used the template to make a quick birthday card; this time I popped a bit of 3D foam in between each layer to add a bit of depth.

I also added a pearl and a crystal to this one to add a bit of detail:

 There are lots of lovely CHA arrivals in the shop at the moment - why not grab a template with some new papers to make your own embellishments to coordinate with your pages :)

It's not too late....

...for the last Christmas post, or too late to whip up a few last minute cards for your nearest and dearest either!

Basic Grey's True Love range caught my eye whilst browsing the shop - despite being a valentine style range, something about the candy cane red, marshmallow pink and crisp icy blue colour combination cried Christmas at me, and so I decided to use the range to make some Christmas cards.

 As well as patterned paper from the range, my supplies included the amazing Die Cuts & Transparencies pack.

Now this is a big claim to make - but these may be my favourite embellishment pack I've ever bought! There is absolutely loads in there to play with, and a variety of textures - some are printed on card, some on vellum and some on plastic transparencies, far more economical than buying several different packs of differing types of embellies. Some of the pieces also pop into separate shapes and frames - giving you endless options and combinations. This really is an amazing-value-for-money-pack and I whole-heartedly love them!

I also got the stickers and elements sheets which includes a whole host of stickers which were perfect for my project.

To realise my Christmas dream, I added a new set of AC Peppermint Express stamps in to the mix:

Here are six cards I made, hopefully something for everyone!

This quick card was created easily by layering a vellum heart from the die cuts pack on top of a journalling sticker from the element sheet, over patterned paper from the range (Love's Garden and Vintage Love). I created the greeting using a variety of stickers from the alpha sheet and sticker sheet. Using some AC embossing powder in Powder blue, I stamped a border using different images from the pack, and cut out a stamped, embossed holly leaf which I added a few gems and a stick pin to.
I wanted to use the "Christmas" part of the "Merry Christmas" stamp, so covered the merry with a piece of washi tape when I inked it up, and whipped it off before stamping on to my card as seen below.

Card 2 above used a piece of Cupid's Shower as a base, on which I strung a garland of bunting made from the flag stickers on the elements sheet, and popped some tiny die cut hearts from the die cut packet in between for added depth. At the bottom of the card I stamped the reindeer, first in red, then in dark green. To achieve the lighter green reindeer on the left, I stamped him a second time without reinking first. The stamped greeting, a transparent arrow from the die cut pack and a couple of veneer stars completed the card.

Card 3 feels a bit more traditional with rich reds and greens making an appearance. I used strips of both sides of the Little Things paper as my background, punching three small scalloped circles along the bottom one - the perfect size for the bauble stamp to fit right into, stamped directly onto the card base before being coloured in. The floral border sticker from the elements sheet joined a strip of washi to make a base for my greeting, which I made using a mixture of alphas from the sheet and the Love die-cut transparency. To further decorate the blue side of teh true love paper, I stamped the baubles using a watermark inkpad.

The technique on card 3 is a bit of a tried and tested method of card making for me! It's a great way of using scraps and pulls a pretty card together quickly. I simply punched several squares from the different papers using a 1" punch, and arranged them on the red base piece of Simple Elegance paper and added a faux zig-zag stitch with a black pen. I punched a journalling spot from the grid side of Cupid's Shower which I popped my greeting on to; which was created using a mix of stickers from both the elements and alpha sheet, a die cut banner from the pack and the Merry Christmas stamp.

Card 4 has a clean, modern feel and was quick to put together. Again, Cupid's Arrow formed the base (grid papers are always so useful!), and a quick clusyer of embellishments was created using the vellum starburst and a cardstock scroll from the die-cut pack, along with the deer and wonderland ticket stamped images. A "shower" of stamped snowflakes and veneer stars completed the wintery theme.

The last card has a pretty, wintery floral feel to it.

Strips of both sides of Love's Garden formed the base, which I ran a strip of washi tape across. The main focus of the card is a large envelope-effect journalling sticker from the elements sheet, which I gave a festive customization to using the AC stamps. A little banner sticker from the alpha sheet (oh yessssss, you get more than just alpha stickers on there - thank you Basic Grey!!) and some heart die cuts accompanied a stick-pin button to add the finishing touch.

I was really pleased with how, with a spot of creativity, I was able to customise the love-themed stash to make festive cards for my nearest and dearest! The Basic Grey sticker and alpha sheets and die cut packs really are jam-packed with goodies - making them excellent value and really useful in your projects. Go on, treat yourself - it's Christmas!! ;)

Quick Make!!

Hello strangers!

Nat here just popping by to share a quick and handy make with you!

I needed some pencil pots for school and had found some empty jelly pots in our art room which I decided to repurpose for the job. I'd intended to cover them with some beautiful owl sticky back plastic I'd been harbouring for ages, except when I opened it, it turned out to be wrapping paper. Gutted. Gorgeous, but not durable!

I then thought about my ever-growing Washi collection and could suddenly smell potential!

Five minutes later, I had cute pencil pots ready for action! The Days of the week MME tape on the top serves as a visual aid for my pupils too. I'm hoping I can bag a few more of these jelly pots to make some more, they are a lovely shape and quite strong and durable....perfect pretty pencil pots!

Buttons

At the last retreat, I assisted Ifa with her lovely class which incorporated clear buttons. Some were idly sat on my desk space, when a bit of paper shuffling resulted in one becoming stuck on a torn scrap of washi tape, which inspired me to use it to deliberately create custom patterened buttons for my pages this month.

I'll make no apologies for bringing you pages made with snowy photos that I took back in January, in April - as I'm sat here with the rain lashing at the window and the wind howling around the walls, I could easily be forgiven for thinking we were in the deep depths of Winter anyway!

My papers this month are from the Amy Tan "Yes, Please" range.

Here's my first page:

You can just see a couple of my washi-covered buttons in the bottom right hand corner.  Here's how I easily created them in moments:

1. Pop a strip of washi tape, sticky side up, on to your work area, and pop a button on top. Easy! As you can see on the right, you don't have to stick to just one design of tape on your button. Mix it up! Go wild! Dig in to that washi!

For larger buttons where your chosen tape isn't wide enough to cover it in one go, pop one small piece of tape over half of the button, then simply tear another small strip and marry up the pattern on the other half, as below (you can just see the button in the picture underneath the tape; I joined the tapes along the button holes):

2. Burnish the tape on to the button firmly with your thumb and finger, and then trim away the excess tape from around the edge. Using a pokey tool or a pin, push through the button holes and remove the tiny scraps of washi tape from inside. I preferred to push through from the back as it ensured that the rest of the tape wasn't accidentally lifted from the button in the process.

3. And ta'daaaa! You have your own custom buttons using the pretty washi tape that we all love and hoard!!

The semi-transparent nature of washi lends itself very well to the buttons and create a lovely effect when popped over layers of paper or photos as you can see a portion through the design; I popped some onto a photo here to illustrate this:

The particular tapes I have used here are the gorgeous ones from MME's My Girl, Notable and Unforgettable triple packs.

Here's a close up of them on my page:

For their mat I used a slice from the chevron arrow sheet in the Dear Lizzy die cut sheet pack, and utilised the bits I popped out else where on my page - you can see some below the title (above) and some at the top of the page:

The "Phrases" veneer from Studio Calico's Sundrifter range are lovely for adding that extra bit of detail to your pages - I love the wood-burnished look of the fonts on them and the pack contains a huge array of phrases and symbols.

Here's the second frosty page that I used my washi buttons on:

This time I used some of the Phrases veneer to make a little weather-forcast style snow symbol:

 I used some of the gorgeous little Amy Tan puffy stickers as sub-headings for my journalling and others such as the hearts, flowers and arrows to add interest around both of my pages:

I didn't opt for a title per se on this layout, but instead grouped a strip of one of the Amy Tan papers that had a definition printed across it along with some pretty die cuts from the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm die cut pack to convey the message:

So that's me for April - I am sat with my fingers crossed that we will have defrosted and I will be able bring you some warm, sun-shine filled pages for May! .......Well, a girl can dream ;)

Embellishing your Chistmas!

If you're as unorganised as me, it's that time of year when any spare cash is being plunged into (starting!!) your Christmas shopping, and the odd festive scrapbooking treat for yourself may well be pushed to the back burner. With that in mind, I decided this month to choose just a few brand new select seasonal embellishments that I could easily mix in with paper and other bits already in my stash, so as not to break my budget and to help me feel good with a bit of stash busting.

I plumped for the gorgeous Sleigh Ride vellum embellishments from Crate, a star mask and some tin badges from Studio Calico....and then, as you can see from the picture below, ever a slave to my patterned paper addiction, I crumbled when I saw the sweet "Rudolph" paper in the Crate collection!

The first page I made with my goodies records a recent "Santa Jog" my fiance and I took part in for the British Heart Foundation. I started my love-hate relationship with running earlier this year when I embarked on the C25k programme, and although I still can't profess to being able to run 5k yet, I really have developed by running ability more than I thought I ever would and it has helped me to loose 24lbs so far. My commitment to the programme does dip when I find it challenging - so my "darling" other half entered my into the Santa Jog without me knowing as a way to step up training efforts!

Click on the picture for a larger image

I began by using the rear of the Rudolph paper as my base - I loved the geometric tree pattern in pale ice blue. Wanting to get those cute deers in on the action - I popped a slice along the bottom of my page. I love that scrapping in A4 allows me to use a patterned paper as my base sheet and still have some left over - especially when they are gorgeous double sided designs like this.

I layered lots of the vellum tags on top of each other to create an area where my title would go - I loved that their translucent nature allowed the patterns to still subtly show through. The map tag was a must for my running themed page! For my title itself, I used some of the lovely letter stickers from the Echo Park Photo Freedom sticker sheet I used last month (read the blog post here). I created the date using a December sticker from the same sheet, and the one of the vellum numbers that are in the pack from Crate. 

You may notice a little silver star peeping out from behind the photo. I had a go at using the star mask and sweeping some Liquid Pearls through it. It was a little hit and miss; if you pulled the mask of too soon the pearls would pool into a blob, and if you left it on too long, the pearls would pull away with the mask and take a little of the paper with it too. But it was fun to try something a little different. I simply taped the mask into place, squeezed a little Liquid Pearls through each hole, and then swiped over it with an old store card.

 I topped each up as needed until the Liquid Pearls was flush with the top of the mask.

Underneath my picture I popped a row of punched hearts to represent the charity that organised the event. I punched them from some Kraft, but felt they needed something a little extra. So I took a scrap of card, and covered it with some washi tape. I added the strips at an angle as I wanted the striped to be reminiscent of candy canes.

After trimming the rough edge so it would fit, I popped it through the same heart punch.

This gave me a strip of candy-cane striped hearts. I cut a few free from the chain with a small scissorsand added them at random to my original strip of Kraft hearts.

 

The final touch to the page was adding some more of the badges to the corner of the page. I used some of the vellum numbers as decorative frames for them - they were the perfect size for the job!

For my second page, I managed to avoid patterned paper completely - a rare thing for me! I decided to use a piece of the delicious new dark Kraft for my base, and the star mask with some white Mister Hueys to create a background. I absolutely love filling the house with candles at this time of year, and wanted to record some of those little pockets of glowing light.

With this in mind, and looking at the "fading" pattern on the mask, where there is a heavy concentration of stars at the bottom and then fading away towards the top; I decided that I would pivot the mask around a point at the centre of the page, to create a pattern that appeared to be "glowing" right from the middle:

I wasn't too concerned about the overlapping marks you can see in the middle - I had three photos and I knew I was going to put them in a triangle formation (like a Christmas tree!) right in the middle so this would be covered. The important thing for me was to create an effect of the stars radiating towards the four corners.

Similarly, I wasn't worried about the untidy misting at edges where the mask hadn't covered (or the punched "nibble" out of the top left corner!), I always have a border to my pages and knew I could cover this up with that. However, this time, rather than mounting my page onto a sheet of card stock for this, I decided to make a border with some lovely wide washi tape. I created neat mitred edges by folding back the tape as you can see in the picture below, making a firm crease as a cutting guide, and then trimming the excess away with a scissors.

With my base completed, I was ready to start on the pretty bits! Here's my finished page:

 For my title, I altered the "Let it Snow"vellum tag to "Glow" using some of the stickers on the second Echo Park Photo Freedom stickers sheet I used in November. I kept the embellishment simple, allowing the photos and the misted background to be the focal point.

A few dotted pearls and wooden stars added a small, festive finishing touch.

Finally, for a very quick make, I whipped up a tag for a special friend:

I misted a scrap of kraft card using the star mask. The concentrated band of colour at the bottom of the tag was card below the edge of the mask that wasn't covered - I loved the contrast between the block of colour and the star pattern so decided to include it when I cut my tag shape, rather than trim it away. A quick strip of washi tape, a tin badge and wooden stars, and hey presto - a hand made tag in minutes.

 

As mentioned by Jen in her post, we can't at present share direct product links with you like we usually do due to the exciting happenings over at the shop! If you haven't already checked out the brand new and totally revamped website at its temporary address - go now!!!

That just leaves me to wish you a very merry Christmas from me, and a happy New Year!

See you in January 2013 xxx