Quadrants - My Hubby, My Friend

This weekend I had some extra time to scrap thanks to the never ending rain we have been experiencing!

Once again I went back to look at the challenges from Shimelle's crop weekend and decided to do the challenge to create a layout with 4 distinct areas.  The original challenge is here.

The photo was taken at Kenilworth Castle.  We visited with my mum and dad back in October on the way to Birmingham for the Hobbycrafts/Crafts for Christmas show.  There was a lot of laughter on this trip, which I will document in another layout.  I thought that this photo would work well to let my hubby know that he is also my best friend.

Earlier in the week I received an order from Craft Superstore, inlcuding some My Minds' Eye paper pads, which were used for 2 of the patterns in the background, and a new butterfly punch.  I also took inspiration from another of Shimelle's challenges where the original layout used tone on tone punched embellishments - in the top right corner you can make out the butterflies positioned to blend in with the paper underneath, although I have used some gems to make them stand out a little.

Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle Online Crop - Contrasting Patterns

The next challenge I have taken part in was to use two contrasting patterns for our background paper (see here).

I chose a red doodle pattern by Little Yellow Shoebox and, luckily, the Ladybird pattern was on the back!  It might have been cheating a little to use this for my background but I used lots of scraps for the rest of the layout, and I think there are at least 7 different paper ranges included on there somewhere :)  I also mixed and matched various Thickers alphabets in order to make the title, using up odd letters from the green.



Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle Online Crop - Yellow and Grey

So this weekend I have had more time to return to some more of Shimelle's online crop challenges from last weekend.

This particular challenge was to use yellow, grey and one other colour.  I knew I wanted to scrap the photos of the Ford Anglia flying above the entrance to the Discovery Centre, where we went to visit the Harry Pooter exhibition while in New York.  Unofrtunately we weren't allowed to take any photos inside so I used this layout to record my memories of some of the my favourite things from the exhibition:

- Hagrid's chair
- Gryffindor dormitory
- Yule ball costumes
- Sorting Hat
- Sirius and Bellatrix's wands (althgough they were far too expensive for me to buy my own replica!)

The original challenge can be found here.



Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle Crop - Take Your Pick

The last challenge that I have had time to take part in is to go back in time and choose any previous challenge that you haven't had time to complete, for example from the Glitter Girl series and 4x6 Photo Love amongst others. The original blog post is here.

I always followed the 4x6 Photo Love series and always meant to get round to completing them but for various reasons I never did. I went to my pile of photos and decided to scrap our walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. Then I went back to the months and looked at the various sketches. As I mostly had landscapes with just one or two portrait photos printed I chose to do May's layout. This can be found here.

My final design is similar to the originals in terms of placement of items, but at the same time very different thanks to the colours I chose. There was another difference in that Snapfish offers the option to have prints slightly smaller than 6x4 so that digital photos don't need to be cropped. As such, I ended up with some blank space at either end, where I added another patterned paper.

Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle Crop - Pockets

The next challenge I have participate in can be found here. It was to incorporate a pocket on your layout, which was perfect for me as I had loads of tickets and things from last summer's trip to New York that I had been wanting to put on a layout.

To speed up the process a bit my layout was pretty much a scraplift of one of Shimelle's originals although I flipped the design round and changed some of the colours around to fit my photo. I also added a doily, which came in a pack I got in Paperchase for half price a few weeks ago!

Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle's Crop - Try a New Style

The third challenge I've completed from Shimelle's crop was the challenge to try a style that is completely new to you. I chose to do a layout using a variety of Tim Holtz techniques. See Here

Now, I have to admit that Tim's techniques are not totally new to me - I have taken classes over the years and learnt bits and pieces along the way. However I have usually applied them to altered art projects and items for the home - this was my first forway into a Tim Holtz style scrapbook page! I also received my copy of Compendium of Curiosities Volume 2 (I never got the first one) this week so I was itching to try out some of the techniques.

On my layout I have used Kraft resist, using both Distress inkpads and Distress stains; a texture fade technique; spritz and flick distress (on the stamped tag); and finally used core-dinations Kraft cardstock which has been distressed in various ways.

The photo, which was taken in New York last summer seemed perfect for this style. Originally I had tried to use 2 photos but couldn't make the positioning of elements on the page work. I chose the best one to showcase instead, distressing the edges of the photo and mounting on black to make it pop. I finished off with some Tim Holtz stickers, then some old letters that also had a distressed effect on them. The cogs were from a Sizzix Bigz die and were cut from the core-dinations before being distressed.

Thanks for looking :)

Shimelle Online Crop - Paper Ranges

The second challenge in Shimelle's crop was to create a layout that used at least 3 different paper ranges. See http://www.shimelle.com/paper/1441/scrapbooking-challenge-mix-three-or-more-paper-collections


Thanks to having participated in the Pretty Paper Party class I now feel like an expert (?!) at mixing paper ranges, and my scraps are much better organised to be able to find co-ordination patterns, so I was looking forward to this challenge :)

I also have a photo of my eldest nephew, Oscar, that I took in October and absolutely love. It was one of those occasions where all the conditions were absolutely right - right settings on the camera, right level of zoom to pixel ratio, and the perfect amount of sunlight filtering through the leaves. I am really pleased with the end result - I feel I have done justice to my "once in a blue moon" photo!

The ranges used were Pink Paislee Cupid (background paper) My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas (main red and green photo mats), Imaginisce Scooter's Vacation for the strips, Dear Lizzy (plain yellow paper in hand made embellishment), Bo Bunny Olivia (green patterned paper in hand made embellishment), October Afternoon Cherry Hill for the journalling block, and a Papermania range for the green tag. I also used various size Prima flowers (first time in ages!), 2 different sets of American Crafts Thickers, and Cosmo Cricket mini alphabet.



Thanks for looking!

Shimelle's Online Crop

I know, I know - it has been age since I last blogged! In fact, it was for Shimelle's Pretty Paper Party, right around the time that things got really busy again. Thankfully I have started to go back to the prompts I never got time to complete, but more on that later.

This weekend www.shimelle.com is hosting an online crop, with classes and competitions that can be completed/entered from the comfort of your own home :D One of the best things is that most of the competitions are open until the end of the following weekend.

Anyhoo, it started at 12pm today and the first prompt was to take inspiration from a layout by Jaime Warren.

This is my completed layout, and I have used the same background colour (pink), a single photo cropped down from 6x4, a cloud shapped embellishment, a journalling card featuring my name, and 3D foam to make some of the elements pop.



Hope you like it!

Pretty Paper Party - Stamping

It has been a while but this is a layout I created in response to the stamping prompt at Pretty Paper Party. I really enjoyed looking through my stamps to find the perfect text and images to go with these photos, and it was great to deliberately try and find ones I hadn't used before!



To see my other posts on this topic search the tag Pretty Paper Party :D

Busy Busy Busy!

I can't believe how quickly ten days have passed! I knew I would be busy after half term but things have been even mroe manic than expected.

As a result I haven't had any time to work on my Pretty Paper Party Prompts but am looking forward to a scrapping session at my mum's with her and two of her friends tomorrow night.

I haven't been compeltely bereft of scrapping though, oh no! At the weekend we took ourselves up to the Midlands, stopping at Kenilworth Castle on the Saturday, and spending a fantastic 8 hours (!!) at the NEC for the Hobbycrafts and Crafts for Christmas show.

We stayed overnight at a B&B in Solihull to enable us to have an early start on the Sunday morning. Dad and Carl dropped us off in the disabled parking area, and with mum settled into her wheelchair we arrived inside just after the opening time of 9.30. Our early start meant we were able to get booked on 3 make and takes: glass painting, Sizzix and Wow embossing.

We had a wonderful time, and it was even better because Carl and my dad went happily off to the National Motorcycle Museum for the day, meaning no-one to curb our spending!

We didn't leave the show until after 5pm, and we still hadn't managed to see everything. Finally arriving home after 9 O'Clock, we certainly slept well that night :D