Stencils!

Tracie here, how is everyone?

 This month I have been having a play with some stencils! I do like to get value for money and as masks and stencils are so versatile they do tend to be a staple of my crafting supplies.

 It's nearly 12 months since my eldest son got married but I am still wading through the photos and have yet to complete an album, maybe if I knuckle down it can be a first anniversary present?!

 I love how the addition of a little gesso and a stencil can give some texture to a layout and this one from Teresa Collins reminded me of the falling confetti in the photo.

 

 Stencils in home decor went out of fashion for a while, but with all things vintage and shabby chic being so popular at the moment, stencils are most definitely 'in' right now.
 I found this cute little cupboard at a car boot recently

 

 Although I quite liked it as it was, I couldn't resist adding a little bit of colour, while still keeping it fairly simple.
 I used chalk paints, white as a base and stencilled in a duck egg blue.
I also painted the inside of the cupboard in the blue, and even repeated the stencil design on the inside of the drawers, the addition of the little key on a bit of hessian gave it that finishing touch!

 

 I don't know about you but I think it was £1 well spent!!

 Finally I wanted to try stencilling on fabric, for this I chose Heidi Swapp's stencil minis and a scrap of hessian.

I loved the contrast of the black against the neutral background and thought it would make a great card topper, with the addition of some buttons, washi tape and American Craft patterned papers, I was done!

 So that's all from me for now! For those of you heading off to sunnier climes, have a great time and for those of you, like me, who have chosen to stay at home, happy crafting!!

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!

Cutting it

Hello ladies, Tracie here,

With so many of us enjoying summer holidays at the moment, stash shopping probably isn't a priority, but with so many gorgeous patterned papers out there how can we resist?

As most of the papers these days are double-sided and have such wonderful designs on them why not use them to the max! (great if you're on a budget and with all that money you save you can afford more patterned papers!!)

For my first layout I dived into the gorgeous My Minds Eye, Find your wings and fly range

I cut out all the gorgeous little hot air balloons from the balloon parade paper.

By folding them in half and gluing three of them together I was able to give them a 3D effect

For my second layout I took my inspiration from the brickwork in the photos, I took the bits I'd cut out from the background paper, reversed them and arranged them around the cut out to extend the pattern.

I cut out the cute roses from the My Minds Eye Floral paper and added a few dots of liquid pearls to add interest

My final layout shows my beautiful granddaughter who turned fourteen this year. 

I found the layered ephemera paper was a perfect starting block to build upon and by cutting the repeat 

images from the labelled paper and adding them using foam pads I could add some depth to it, a little bit of washi tape and some chipboard from the same range and I was practically there with minimum effort! 

So that's all from me for now;  for those of you off enjoying sunnier climes, have a wonderful holiday!

 For those of you, like me, staying home and putting up with the rain after all that lovely weather, make your own sunshine and go and do some scrapping! 

Lucky Charm

Hi, Vanessa here with my post for this month.  I've used the Lucky Charm papers from American Crafts to make a few little projects.

Firstly, I've used the 4 x 8 page protectors to start an album for last years holiday.  This is a bit different from me, A4 is my usual scrapping size, but I need a bit of a change without going back to 12 x 12.  I've incorporated a bit of embossing and found a way to use some washi tape (go me!) which I just get a total mind-block with.

My second little project is CD envelopes.  But, with a difference.  I always have receipts lying around everywhere making a mess of the place and I need to keep them until I've done my "housekeeping" budget calculations.  I also put vouchers in different places with the intention of using them when I next go to the supermarket etc.  But, have a terrible habit of forgetting where they are and miss the deadline date.

I now have handy little envelopes that I can keep them in once place, nice and tidy!  Now I just need to train my brain in remembering that I've got them!

Finally, a scrapbook page with some paper rippling (have you still got your rippler from the Sarah's Cards retreat a few years ago?) and a couple of cards.

 

Thanks for looking.

Vanessa xx

Its a Farm Life!

Hi everyone, its Vanessa here. This month, I am using papers from the Farm Girl range by October Afternoon.  I ordered the washi tape from the range too and I know its such a popular medium to use at the moment, the girls have used it in their projects in fabby and ingenious ways, but I really struggle with it!  So ...... I thought - have another go, and challenge yourself. :)

Woosh is my first layout, where I've used the tape with twine to make some flags. The tree is hand drawn and cut out.  After a little bit of misting, lots of other little pieces cut out from the papers are added.

3 in a Row is next and I as you can see, I've used a couple of strips of washi at the top, but I have also covered some "do it yourself" thickers with the tape, inked the edges and then used glossy accents over the top.

Finally, some little cards for Easter.

Thanks for looking. :)

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

2012 - A year in review...

Since I started Scrapbooking, I've attempted a few ongoing projects.  A few years ago, I started a December Daily album and only managed to make a bound book with no photos or information in it.  At the beginning of this year I embarked on a Project Life album and got as far as February before I decided that I just couldn't keep it up.  What I've realised from both of these projects is that whilst I love the idea of documenting our daily life, I find it difficult to actually keep up the recording on a regular basis. 

Last year, I realised that the best way for me to record big events is just to sit down and create something once it's happened, when I can print all the pictures at once and then concentrate on making all of the pages together.  My January 2012 post on the blog explained how I put together an album all about our 2011 Christmas using a repeated layout idea.

Inspired by this sheet of stickers in the shop, I decided to again use this method to make a review page for each month of 2012 to fill my unfinished Project Life album.

Putting it all together

Each page was created on a base of either white or kraft cardstock, alternating through the months.

Step 1

A mix of 6x6 papers and/or the month cards cut from the Simple Stories 12x12 sheets were attached to the edge of the base.  When creating the adjoining page, I made a mirror image and lined the two pages up next to each other in order to place the papers down in exactly the same level on the page.

Step 2

Next, add a coordinating strip of washi tape across the bottom of the page, about a cm from the edge. 

Step 3

Stick one of the Elle's Studio month tags to the opposite top corner of the page to where the papers are.

Step 4

Using an Amy Tangerine roller date stamp, I added the start and end dates for each month to the other top corner of the page, just above the papers.

Step 5

The appropriate month sticker from the Simple Stories sheet was then stuck on top of the washi strip.

Step 6

I filled in the dates for each month onto a calendar card from a pack by Fancy Pants and attached to the space next to the papers.

 

Step 7

In one of the packs of Simple Stories stickers are some washi strips which I used to embellish the top corner of the papers.

 

Step 8

Where it fit best, I added a Studio Calico polaroid die cut to each page.  Further small embellishements such as stickers, wood veneer shapes and tages were also added to some of the pages.

 

Step 9

Using Picasa, I created a photo collage of pictures from each month.  To keep it uniform, each photo had a portrait orientation and to ensure that I didn't need to worry about clashing colours, I changed the colours to black and white and then added a 'warmify' effect, both within the Picasa software. I also gave each photo sheet a black border.  More information about creating a photo collage can be found here.  The 6x4 photo was then stuck onto the base where I felt it looked best. 

Step 10

I typed my journaling in word using a typewriter font.  This was printed and cut down to fit before sticking to the page.

Step11

As mentioned previously, I created the pages to work in pairs next to each other in my album.  Therefore, to make the next page, I placed them next to each other and made a mirror image using a different coloured cardstock base.

 

The finished pages

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

and December (all ready to add a photo and journaling to at the end of this month)

All of this was put together pretty quickly.  The structured approach made it all fall into place easily.  During our recent DT weekend away, I managed to finish 10 of the pages (in between celebrating an important birthday!).   It certainly left me with a great sense of achievement, knowing that I've managed to record our family highlights from this year in a quick and efficient way.  I'm planning to document Christmas 2012 in a similar way again, once the festivites are out of the way, which will most likely be my blog post in January 2013.  See you in the new year!

My supplies: