On Reflection

This layout was purely for fun and having had the restrictions of challenges for the last two layouts I did it was great fun to do anything I wanted.  Having said that the shake it up challenge did inspire me to use the tags.

 The journalling (which I haven't added to the large tag) tells a bitter sweet story and I wanted my embellishments to reflect this.  I covered the back of some sparkly heart stickers with flock so that the sparkle was there only if you really looked for it.

 I wanted to use circles to represent things going round and round and not getting anywhere. The buttons I threaded with some natural raffia and one I coloured with paint so that like the hearts the sparkle and shine was almost hidden but still there.

Shake it Up Challenge

 Here is my interpretation of the  Shake it Up Challenge from Scrap 365 Magazine.

At first I didn't realise that the colours were part of the challenge and then when I did was sure that I had no suitable photos.  However when I looked I was really pleased to find these in my waiting to be scrapped box.  It got even better when I realised that the programme would make a great background.  I decided that this wouldn't count as one of my pattered papers.

For my small tags I used some of my old paint charts.  I stamped them with a random design and embossed with gold.

For my main patterned papers I used one which had word blocks all over it.  I then cut out small squares from a yellow letter sheet and placed them under the corners of the words so that just the edges showed and the letters themselves were hidden.

I left a gap so that this small section showed through showing where we were.

For my fourth tag I used a tag which had contained my cat's collar as a template.  I covered the card with my third patterned paper.  I then inked the edges and embossed them with gold and used this for my journalling.

I painted the back of this tag and I also used a thin line of white acrylic around the edge of my photos instead of matting them.

Sketch Challenge

I did this layout for Scrap 365 magazine sketch challenge

For this layout I inked two pieces of card to go with these photos of my Mum in her garden.

Using ink and a stencil I coloured a semi circle.  I outlined the leaves and stalks and coloured the flowers in using water colour pencils.  I then cut out flowers from patterned paper folded the leaves up slightly and stuck them on the coloured flowers.  I stuck clusters of small beads in their centres to finish them off.

On one of my inked cards I stamped a flower and then decoupaged it with layers stamped onto plain card and coloured with my pro markers.

For my tags I coloured a scrap of slightly textured paper with stain or pastels and then fixed with a brad securing the wool with the brads as I fixed them.

I cut my butterfly from patterned paper, wrapped embroidery silk around the centre and then threaded two small beads onto one strand of silk to form the antenna.

Lazy Holiday Mini Book

This year we had a really lazy holiday on a narrow boat.  Just before we left for the holiday my copy of scrap365 arrived and I packed it to read while away.  One of the articles was how to make a mini book using just one sheet of 12x12.  I decided to use this idea but to add an additional shape to each page as inspired by a previous issue of the magazine.  I knew that I would not be able to add many embellishments as they would make the book to thick.  Instead I took photos of all things canal related and cut them out to decorate my pages with.

My cut out shapes were inspired by shapes painted on the doors of boats which we passed.

The cover is a photo of the boat name as painted on the side and a the canal we travelled on which came form a photo of a sign.  I Then mounted the layout of the boat (form our information pack) onto card as it over hung the top of the book.

I kept the centre background the same colour through out but used different techniques (stamping, crackle paint, doodling and ink) to decorate each page.

 I stencilled the day on each page.

 I used lots of tags for journalling which I took form a diary I had kept through the week.  This also gave me more space for photos.

These two swans when cut out made the perfect ending to the book.

Playtime Minibook

Last month I took a friends children to the park for a couple of hours.  I couldn't resist taking my camera and making this little book as a present for them.

I had had this little book sitting on my self for ages and it was perfect, especially as one of the girls turned up wearing almost exactly the same shade of pink.

The photo is actually a tag which is slotted in and viewed through a cut out aperture.

I painted the back of tags and left them blank (with a heading prompt) for Mum and the girls to write their own memories of the day.

I kept to approximately the same format for each page.  I tore a relevant word out of an old dictionary, coloured it using my chalk pastels and then slipped it under the photo on top of ribbon or lace and added a small embellishment.

 When looking through my photos I just couldn't decided which photos to use and so printed up more photos than I had pages.  This meant that I had a couple of fold out flaps as well as tags.

 I kept the flaps in place with these little fasteners.  I painted a cardboard circle, embossed it with UTE and then attached the fastener using a brad.

I used the dictionary quote to make a tab for this tag.

 More journalling space...

 ..and extra photo on the other side.

 

 More fold out photos.

 My next tag came form the top of the photo so I made an arrow out of the word 'pull'

The book was originally stapled through the centre but fell apart half way through adding papers and photos.  I punched holes through the centre, added paper washers cut using my cuttle bug and my spellbinders nestibilities dies, and threaded ribbon through the papers to hold them together.

 

I really wanted to use shapes cut from patterned paper for this layout but struggled with it.  This is definitely a layout which is growing on me as time goes by rather than being an instant favourite.

Getting the Hang of Sketches.

Having worked to a sketch for my last two layouts I decided to try it again.  For this layout I used a  sketch (p57) from the August issue of Scrap365.

 For my butterflies I used a double stencilling technique found in this months Scrap365.  I used chalks for the main butterfly and then added the spots with acrylic paint.

 When I came to put the letters on I discovered that something somewhere had moved and the letters now covered one of the butterflies.  Determined that this should not happen I cut around the butterflies wing and raised it over the letter.  I then stuck a small piece of paper (cut from under the photos) on the back to fill in the hole.

This accidently added a quirky touch to the layout and I was glad of my mistake.
I hadn't mounted my photos but they needed some highlighting so I delicately coloured in-between them with my watercolour pencils.

Scrap 365 Sketch Challenge September Part 2

Having stuck quite closely to the original sketch for my first layout I decided to have a second attempt but this time use the sketch more for inspiration rather than exactly.  

Once again I used one large photo instead of the three small ones and this time I used small photos instead of the circles down the side of the photo.  I also replaced the small cluster in the bottom left with an almost mirror image of the top right.

I love adding pretty fiddly little bits to my layout and so added these beads to the end of the ribbons on my journalling tags.

 I had to use feathers somewhere in the layout to mimic our fascinaters  and so I cut two in half and tucked the halves under paper pieces around the photo.

 The paper was the perfect colour for our clothes but I wanted to add some purple to tie in with Mum's dress and so I coloured a few sections with purple glitter.

 When using my cosmic shimmer sprays for another layout I had placed the paper to be sprayed onto a piece of card and then rubbed the mist while wet to hide the area where the paper had been.  The resulting card has been sitting in my paper stash and was ideal to use for the lettering.  I used a stencil on the back of the card and then hand cut my letters.  I mounted them onto white ribbon coloured with ink so that they stood out form the patterned background.

I wanted to journal onto tags but didn't want them hid in pockets so I hinged them onto the page and secured them by tying their tags together.

Hopefully the last of Tanzania

Having found my extra photos I have now put them on pages.  Thank goodness we are on school holidays and I have lots of spare time.

This first layout was all about the kittens we used to have at regular intervals.  There was no vet who we trusted to spay our female cat and so every four months we would have little ones under our feet.  The locals would be queuing up at our door to take them off our hands as they were good rat catchers.

This gave me the opportunity to rummage around and find all the cat stamps I had hidden away to use for embellishments.  Each cat is stamped and embossed using the same ink but on a different background.

To emphasise the softness of the kittens I used a circle of felt but it looked quite bare.  I then found a strand of wool which I had bought in a mixed fibres bundle from our local work aid shop and crocheted a ring to go on top of the felt.

This page remembers the time a chicken (kuku in swahili) got into our lounge and wouldn't come out form under the christmas tree.

 I found myself with a blank area under the small photos and a blank mind on how to fill it, which I wanted to do as I don't work well with white space.  I then found these little confetti reindeer I had salvaged years ago, sanded them down and then painted them with acrylic paint.  They filled the space perfectly.

Another Christmas layout this time remembering how often the rains would start on Christmas day.

 I have always loved seeing the negatives of letter stickers used on layouts and this layout gave me the chance to use them.

The large stars were made using my cuttlebug on old cider cans and then colouring with alcohol inks.  The smaller stars were cut out of air-drying clay using a child's stamp and then painted with acrylic paint.

And from Christmas we go to Easter, well Palm Sunday.  I wanted to use two techniques on this page.  Leaving the area of my title devoid of pattern and painting/ drawing a large palm leaf as my background.  For the latter I used my pastels and edged with watercolour pencil.

For my border under the photo I used a mixture of ribbons, a strip cut out form an old shopping bag plastic lining, a  loosely woven fabric from a pot plant and a small strip of crochet.