Scrapbook Layouts

I've recently put some of my latest layouts on my other blog: www.sjpapercrafts.blogspot.com

Click here to see "Our lovely Girl" Layout.

Click here to see "Christmas morning" Layout.

and click here to see "Me and You" Layout

I do hope you will go over and have a look. I'll be posting more layouts over there soon!

My Girl Layout - Shimelle Sketch Challenge

Last weekend Shimelle set several challenges!

I really liked the look of this sketch and here's my layout based on it.

I kept quite close to the original sketch with the photo, title, journalling and embellishments all in the places indicated by the sketch.

In this post Shimelle challenges us to use ink and in the video she demonstrated a technique for adding mist using a piece of cotton wool. To date I had only "spritzed", "misted" and "made little droplets" with ink mists so I was keen to try this. 

I used Mister Huey First Kiss (Pink) and spritzed a little onto my craft sheet and using a cotton wool pad to pick up a little bit of the ink I swiped it over the background white cardstock.  I really liked the effect.

 Those of you that read this week's WOYWW post will know that I had a few problems with the journalling card but as you can see I got a new one made and in place!

My supplies for this layout included: 

Echo Park Here & Now 6 x 6 papers and stickers

Mister Huey First Kiss and Honour Society Ink

Simple Stories Stamp Set

Heidi Swapp Glitter Alphas

Studio Calico Wood Veneer Arrow

Stucio Calico Enamel Dots

Amy Tangerine Pink Word Stickers

Teresa Collins Tag (cut down to make the journal card)

WOYWW #264

Wednesday again? Really? Already?!

Must be time for WOYWW then!

Here's how my craft desk table was looking this morning for you to have a nose at:

Last weekend Shimelle set a few scrapbook challenges and so this morning I have been finishing off my layout for one of her sketch challenges. So, on my table there's an assortment of embellishments (scattered across the table or in their storage boxes which I've been rummaging through!), various sheets of stickers and 6 x 6 pads (I'm trying to use these a lot more at the moment!). The box of enamel dots is spilling over as I had just been going through it trying to find the right colours for my layout. 

Do you spot my cat looking out the window?!

A closer look on my table will show you the complete mess I made of my journalling! I didn't like the way my writing sloped on the journal card (which you can just see at the top of the pic!) so I pulled it off but as it had been stuck on a while it didn't come away very well and has left a bit of a mess! Oops! Don't you hate it when that happens?!

Anyways, I've found a nice new journal card, added the "Write it down" sticker and wood veneer arrow and I'm ready to re-write it and stick it on once I've done this blog post and had a nosy at the other WOYWW desks!

Thanks for visiting today!

WOYWW 263

Hello

Long time since I've joined in the fun with Julia but today I am here to show you what's on my desk today!

So you can see in the top of the picture my photograph matted onto a couple of patterned papers ready to go on the layout once I've finished the background. 

You'll see my new Tim Holtz Bubbles stencil there. I've been playing with embossing paste. I added a couple of drops of Mister Huey ink to make the paste a lovely shade of green to pick out the trees in my photo. I'm waiting for the paste to dry whilst I'm writing this post. 

Just peeking in the top left corner is another layout which I've just started to plan. It's for a sketch and so far I've picked out a couple of photos and papers so I'll probably work on that this evening whilst the paste is drying.

Want to have a nosy and see what others have been up to in their craft rooms today? Then pop over to the full list here on Julia's blog!

Greedy giraffes

So, this post has been sitting in my blog "draft" folder for ages so I thought I'd better get on and finish the post!

I made this layout a few months ago and it's another one from our weekend away to Centerparcs last year where we spent one of our days in Longleat Safari Park which is right next door to the holiday park.

For a lot of the Safari Park you have to stay in your car as you drive round in amongst the wild animals but some sections you can get out and walk about, like this area by the giraffes.

Longleat sell bunches of lettuce leaves which you can then feed to the giraffes from a raised up platform - the only way to be at the right height to the giraffes mouths!!

The papers, washi tape, buttons and stickers are all from My Minds Eye Cut & Paste collection and  I added in the "Today Was" Sticker, enamel dots and the green Thickers.

One particular giraffe was very hungry and cheekily followed my hubby and daughter as they moved along the platform waiting for another lettuce leaf to be held out to munch on!

Have you ever been up close to a wild animal to hand feed it?!

A Challenge - Orange, White and Teal

Last weekend my lovely friend Jennifer hosted an online Blog Event called Refresh Your Craft and Soul.

If you've never joined in her events you really should look out for the next one as they are great fun.

Anyway, she set a number of challenges over the weekend and I picked out a couple I liked the look of to have a go at. The first one was the Teal (or blue), Orange and White Challenge.

This is a really unusual colour combo for me - I rarely use orange but I had a hunt in my supplies and found a few bits of stash in the right colours.

Here's my layout:

I hope the yellow/orange sunshine paper is allowed in the challenge!

I love these glitter blue thickers

I created two clusters of embellishments with some circle stickers from the Simple Stories "Words Stickers" Pack, buttons and enamel dots and added the orange "Happy" sticker from the same set to balance the page.

My journalling reads: "It was a hot Summer's day and after a long day at school, Hannah was happy to come home and find the pool up in the garden all ready for her to jump in and cool off!"

Thanks for visiting today!

Pancake House Layout

Hi everyone

So where did May go to? Sorry, it's been a while since I blogged anything here .... I seem to say that at the start of each blog post!

Around this time last year we went to Centerparcs for a long weekend and I've recently been scrapping some of the photos I took!

This layout is about our visit to the Pancake House on our last morning before our journey home.

They didn't just serve pancakes there were all sorts of yummy dishes to choose from. Miss H had chocolate brownies with ice cream. Yummy!

The papers and stickers are mainly from the Echo Park Capture Life collection with my current favourite cork thickers for my title. I added a fabric tag, a few enamel dots, chipboard arrows, buttons and brads to finish it off.

Hopefully we'll get to viist Centerparcs again soon as it was such a fun, family weekend!

Thanks for popping in today!

Hellooo ... it's been a while!

Hellooo ... I know, I know, it's been a long time!

This blog has been a little quiet this year ..... But that's about to change!!

So far in 2014 I've been to several crops, a whole weekend scrapping retreat and an all day Charity crop as well as some scrappy sessions here at home, so it's fair to say I have a few layouts to show you.

I'll kick off with this one for today:

This was a layout I made for a commission for Scrapbook Magazine which appeared in issue 78 back at the start of the year for a "New Beginnings" feature.

I created a page about how we gave a new home to Lola, one of the two young kittens who had been rescued by our local RSPCA after a member of the public discovered them abandoned in a park in a cardboard box.  We actually ended up bringing both kittens home and the two sisters are now very happy with us.

The papers, stickers, fabric frame and resin flowers are from the Crate Flea Market collection. I also used some Studio Calico wood heart and arrows, Mister Huey mist, enamel dots and some of the lovely hearts washi tape.

It's good to be back on my little blog and I'll be back soon to show you another layout or two!!

Thanks for popping in!

A Sketch Challenge

The 2014 monthly challenges launched over on S J Crafts yesterday.

For our first challenge, Jennifer came up with this fab sketch:

and here's the layout I made based on the sketch

My main supplies were Simple Stories Daily Grind papers and stickers, Glitz hearts washi tape and a sprinkling of enamel dots.

A couple of close ups:

I also made a divided protector page to sit next to this one in my album - I'll pop back and show you that here soon!

We'd love you to take up the challenge as well and play along .... all the details are in this post , along with some fab examples from the rest of the Design Team. You have until the end of February to link up your layout/cards over there.

Thanks for popping in today!

My Christmas 2013 Journal

Hi everyone

December and the build up to Christmas is always crazy busy in this house but it really is one of the most wonderful times of the year for me! 

I take a million photographs throughout the festive season - ok, so maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but I do take a lot!

Each year I like to select a few favourites or the ones that tell a story or were taken at special events we have been to and get them into my albums.

This year I've decided to make a smaller book as well as some larger 12" x 12" layouts that will go into my main album.

Here is my first page in my book:

The page is 7" x 7" and I'm using an album I've had in my stash for a while now. 

The album is plain cream pages held together with a book ring. The front and back covers are thick chipboard which I will also decorate as I don't think lime green arrows are very festive!

For several years now I have loosely followed Shimelle Laine's Journal Your Christmas. This is a class which for a very reasonable initial cost gives you access every year so you can follow the daily prompts year after year if you wish.

For my Christmas book I'm using a variety of supplies , some older and some brand new. For this first page I used a sheet of Echo Park This n That Christmas matted onto red cardstock and added some Simple Stories December Documented papers and stickers, wood veneer stars, enamel dots and red gems to embellish.

Do you have a separate album/journal or book for recording December and Christmas? 

Have you started to scrap the season already or do you wait until January?

Happy December!

Sarah x

Six Cards on The 6th (October)

October's "Six on the 6th" went live on the S J Crafts blog earlier today here!

Did you know it's only 80 days until Christmas??!!

So, yes - it's definitely time to get started on those cards, if you haven't already. 

Even if you only join in with "Six on the 6th" for October, November and December you'll still have 18 cards all made and ready to send!

For my six cards this month I chose to use some Echo Park papers and stickers from the "Reflections Christmas" collection that I had won in an EP Facebook competition recently and teamed them up with a Glitz Designs "Hello December" 6" x 6" Pad. I started by taking some 12" x 12" sheets of Bazzill card in White, Stonehenge and Maraschino and cutting, scoring and folding them to make 5" square card blanks. 

I decided on a red/grey/white colour (with a tiny bit of green!) scheme for this month's six cards.

I made each card in a similar way, layering up the background papers (lightly inking the edges with grey ink) and adding doilies and stickers.

I love this red woodgrain paper from the Hello December pad.

I added wood veneer snowflakes, pearls and "splattered" a little white Mister Huey on some of the cards.

One of the Echo park sheets of papers was little vintage postcards and another was little bingo cards so I cut these up into small panels that I could use as embellishments.

On some of my cards I stamped a greeting and added twine to this one:

and a strip of red glitter tape to this one:

I made this one last and I think it's probably my favourite .... I like the simplicity of it!

Here's some detail/close ups for you:

So what are you waiting for??  

Grab some supplies and make your 6 cards!!

Even though the S J Crafts Design Team reveal their cards on the 6th of each month, you have all month (until 5th November) to link up your cards using the Linky tool at the bottom of this post. Each month you join in and link up also gives you another entry into the draw to win a box of crafty stash!!

Have you started your Christmas crafting yet?

Oh hello Blog! ..... And WOYWW 226

Oh hello my poor, sadly neglected blog!!

I had a conversation yesterday over a cuppa and biccies with Jennifer about my blog and the fact that I hadn't blogged for ages. It made realise that I do miss blogging and that I really should find 10 - 15 minutes a few times a week to write a post. So here I am!!

And what better way to get things started again than with a post to join in with What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday (the biggest world wide "snoop" at craft desks!!)

So here is my desk table this morning!

Messy?  Or not too bad??

I'm in the middle of making my 4th card for my set of 6 Christmas Cards for "Six on the 6th"!!

I have discovered this morning that my box of washi (which you can see bottom right of pic) is sadly lacking in festive tape!!!  Note to self .... need more tape!

On another note .... I have started a sort out of my craft shelves/storage!

I had a BIG clear out a couple of weeks ago and sold or gave away a ton of stuff! But now I need to reorganise what's left so I can actually find and use my stash!

I have a tall Ikea Expedit unit and two smaller units beside it. I have a bad habit of just returning from a crop and dumping my craft boxes on the top rather than put them away properly. I want to sort through the boxes and store them better.

This is some of my 12 x 12 papers in need of a good sort out!

It's a slow job .... I'll do a little bit each day!

Right, time to make another cuppa and then take a wander around some WOYWW desks ... then back to those Christmas cards!

Thanks for stopping by today! xx

Six Cards on the 6th!

Hello!

Goodness, has it really been 2 months?!!  What a bad blogger I've been!

Over on the S J Crafts Blog a brand new series has started today!

"Six cards on the 6th" is all about getting organised for the festive season!

I always end up making my Christmas cards at the last minute and even some years I've had to resort to sending shop bought cards! So this new series is perfect for me. If I make 6 cards on the 6th of each month between now and December, I'll have a lovely pile of cards ready to write and post! No last minute rush!

Jennifer is encouraging us to use a "kit" to make our 6 cards each month as this saves on the decision making and constantly getting up to search for supplies. As the new Christmas collections are only just released, for my first batch of cards I rummaged through my stash and pulled out some of last years left over scraps of papers and stickers to make up my kit.

I also added a set of dies, a few stamps, ink pads, red embossing powder, red twine, red glitter tape, plain cardstock and some gems to my kit. I decided to keep to a traditional red/green/kraft colour scheme for my set of cards. I also pulled out some card blanks, my heat tool and 3d foam pads (not in the photo). Having a kit to work with certainly helped me work quicker as I didn't keep stopping to search out my supplies.

So here's my finished set of 6 cards:

 

As I used just one set of dies and limited myself to two stamps, my cards are all quite similar but I don't think that matters as they will all be sent to different people. I added one or two extra embellishments such as the little green chipboard stars but in the main I kept to my kit.

 

These three were all stamped with the "dashing reindeer" stamp.

 

 

 I think this one is probably one of my favourites from the set. I heat embossed the stamped tree image, mounted on the die cut layers, with a strip of glitter tape and 3 gems to finish. Simple!

If you want to kickstart your Christmas crafting why not join in with "Six cards on the 6th" .... pop over here for all the info and there's some great inspiration from DT member Jennifer and you can link up your set of cards over there too!

A Family Break

Last week we enjoyed some quality family time on a few days break at Centerparcs at Longleat Forest!!

 

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the millions I took.

 

This lake was lovely ...

 

.... but quite how I ended up out on it on a Pedalo, I'm not too sure!! The Powers of Persuasion of a 9 year old!! Fun though!

 

We had a lovely day out a Longleat Safari and Adventure Park.

 

Hand fed the deer!!!

 

Watched the cute lion cubs as they walked in amongst the cars!

 

This one was literally right outside our car window!

 

 

 

We took a boat ride to feed the seals, enjoyed a train ride, went roller skating, played tennis, went in the swimming pool, played ten pin bowling and ate lots of yummy food!!

 

 

A fun few days away from our usual routine!!

 

I have a feeling some of these photos may be appearing on some layouts very soon!

WOYWW 202 ~ Piles!!

Hello ... so this was the state of my desk table earlier today!

Piles!

And Boxes!!

 

I still have the pile of unfinished layouts that I told you about last week on the top left corner. I've finished a couple of them but also added another to the pile!

 

I've been getting a few layouts planned ready for a crop this Saturday so you can see a pile of photos from my "to scrap" folder and two of my boxes of stash just balancing on the edge of the table.

 

I have two new Echo Park collections that I want to use - Bundle of Joy and the Sisters Mini pack. I've been choosing my papers, photos, embellishments and alphas and creating piles ready to put in 12 x 12 plastic bags to take to the crop. Watch out Lisa-Jane, I'm going to be organised this time!!

 

This post is for What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday. ... the weekly nosy at the desks of other crafty peeps!

 

Right I'm off to visit some more desks!

Just another day at the beach

Every few months I take the shop to a lovely crop held at Littlegreen School near Portsmouth/Chichester and run by Sue. I'm usually lucky enough to fit in a little scrapping time in between running the shop.

 

This is the layout I made last time I went!

Living quite close to the beach we are lucky enough to be able to visit fairly often and when H was small we would often go and let her play in the sand with buckets and spades and paddle in the sea.

 

I have lots (and lots!) of photos of her playing on the beach and lots of scrapbook layouts of beach photos!!

It's actually getting tricky to come up with different titles for my "beach" layouts ... the title for this one is taken from this layout which I had pinned.

 

The background paper and the pink diamond pattern paper are from the Crate DIY Shop collection kit and I've used some pink polka washi tape, Studio Calico Aqua Thickers and a few tiny alpha stickers and brads from my box of stash!

 

I will add some journalling and the date to this layout.

 

I hope you've had a lovely weekend .... it's the last day of the school holidays here so after a walk along the beach and ice creams this afternoon we are back home to preparing uniform and school bags!!