First time cowboy

A quick layout today, I had great plans for crafting loads this Sunday, but as usual, life got in the way! I settled for a well trodden path, of using up my scraps to create a background. I save offcuts, and branding strips, and they were building up, so it was good to get them stuck down!

It's an easy make, because the layout is pre-set, it's just a case of matching the colours up. This one has quite muted brown, green and burgundy tones, with the odd strip of red.

The words at the side of the photo include the journaling spot- this was my husband's first time riding a horse.

Elements:

Lots of strips of paper from my scrap box!

Alphabet- Thickers- Together

Alphabet- American Crafts- Heidi Swapp- Glitter letter stickers

Crate Paper- Here+There- Stickers

Crate Paper- Good vibes- Stickers

Thanks for looking!

Sunny day

Sometimes it just doesn't turn out how you want it to.....

I was pleased with the background of this one- I used tissue paper and water to bleed the colour onto the page, and it came out really vibrantly coloured.

But it kinda went downhill from there! I don't hate it, but it's most certainly not my favourite ever layout.

I wanted to document a fun afternoon out we had a few weeks ago in the first of the Spring sunshine, but I'm not sure the colours really work. I do love the little washi triangles- I stuck them onto card and cut them out to form a banner.

Maybe too much pink?

Some fab embellishments on here though, I love that resin heart from Lottie Loves Paper, and the pink camera is adorable!

Elements:

From my stash- white card, tissue paper

Paper- The Bright Side- The Bright Side

Dear Lizzy- Stay colorful- resin shape

Dear Lizzy- Washi tape book

Dear Lizzy- Die cut shapes

American Crafts- Vicki Boutin- die cut frames

The bright side- Puffy stickers

Alphabet- Thickers- Together

Love- Let the adventures begin

I lifted the whole idea for this page from someone in the Mind the Scrap Facebook group- thanks Gemma! I loved the way the ink made a little rainbow of drips down the page. So I had to have a go!

I used bottles of chalk sprays, just dipping in my paintbrushes to splodge the inks on. I'm sooooooo pleased with how this turned out. So pleased I actually did a few more splodges on spare card with the intention of making some cards.

I'm also pleased with how this little cluster in the bottom left of the layout worked out. It's really pretty.

I love outlining in black pen. Can you tell?

Elements:

Papers: Heidi Swapp- Pineapple crush- Flamingle

Pink Paislee- Paige Evans- Turn the page 01

Embellishments:

Simple stories- Bliss- Stickers

Thickers words- Hope and dream

Bramble Fox- Petite perpextives and cloud outline

Pink aisle- Auburn Lane- embellishments

Hobbycrafts- pearls

I am awesome

This photo of my beautiful Kiki cat is brilliant. She's saying "I'm awesome, do my bidding Hooman!"

The layout is from a fabulous challenge at the May bank holiday Mind the Scrap mini cyber crop. The challenge was to follow a list of instructions (a la Technical Challenge in Great British Bake Off), and it was really good fun!

Tiny attacher action alert!

One of the instruction steps was to add a banner- love how that has turned out, and how it pulls the cluster of embellishments together, and extends it under the photo.

I've used loads of favourite papers on this one, and they're not all from the same set, so I pulled it together with the pops of yellow. Little stacks of paper at the side of photos or at the edges of the page is a great way to use up scraps of paper offcuts.

Elements:

Papers: American Crafts- Jen Hadfield- Patio party- Glow

Decotime- Cardboard patterns

Photoplay- Cotton candy

Shimelle- Little by little- Seek the moment

Embellishments: Shimelle Box of Crayons ephemera

Thickers alphabet

Simple Stories I am- Bits and pieces

Tim Holtz tiny attacher

Crate paper- Here+There stickers

American crafts- Vicki Boutin- Die cut frames

Pink Paiselee- Auburn Lane- Embellishments

Thanks for looking!

Naughty faces- TN

I adore my traveller's notebook. Its a great size to work on, and seems to lend itself to stamping and mixed media stuff a bit more than larger 12x12 pages. This page was one I've always intended to do- I'd taken 2 photos of my children on holiday a couple of years ago. One was a beautifully angelic photo, with both of them looking gorgeous. The other, taken seconds later shows 2 really mischievous, naughty faces. They're a couple of my all time favourite photos. 

Here's the 2 pages together. I'd made the Adventure one a few weeks ago, so the time was right to add the naughty faces to the TN!

There are aa couple of layers of papers, and then a row of Stampotique monsters to match my 2 monster. I watercoloured these, and made a little video on how I did it, hopefully I'll upload it to my YouTube channel soon!

Thanks for looking!

Fun in the sun

I threw a lot at this layout, but I think it works!

Quick look at the desk mid-scrap. Looks like I'm working on a space the size of a postage stamp, my desk is quite large really.

Lots of layers on this one, and lots of drawing with my trusty black pen.

I swooshed the background with distress inks, and splodged black ink (actually graphite).

I'd been wondering where to use those lovely swans. The swans aren't particularly relevant to the layout, but the size, shape and colour was what I wanted, so it stayed!

I was determined to use the Be fearless banner on a layout for my daughter. I've just realised I've included several banners- how about that, weird how things turn out by accident.

The fun word is a metal paper clip. 

I love stripes, there's something particularly stylish about black and white stripes (or dots) with colour. 

Elements:

Papers: American Crafts- Jen Hadfield- Patio party- Glow

American Crafts- Heidi Swapp- Hawthorne- Nightfall

Embellishments: American Crafts- Heidi Swapp- Glitter letter stickers

Amy Tangerine paper clips

Maggie Holmes- Crate paper- Flouirish- Stand outs

Simple stories- I am- Bits and pieces

Distress Inks: Squeezed lemonade, Salty ocean

Mind the Scrap kit unboxing

I've filmed a few unboxing videos over the past few months- this one is for the Mind the Scrap subscription kit. I've received the May kit a few days before May starts, hooray!

Enjoy!

Hey! Scrapbook process.

This layout was inspired by a number of lovely people on the Mind the Scrap Facebook group, who'd completed some layouts with this stamped and masked idea, mostly in black and white. I decided to go for it with added colour. I love to get inky!

I started off by cutting out a large circle (I drew round a plate) and I used a teen bit of tape to stick it in the centre of a white 12x12 page. I used Distress Inks and make up sponges initially.

I daubed on some ink fairly randomly, and then added some splodges with a piece of a bath sponge. I sponged through a couple of stencils- a hexagon and grid, and an alphabet one that's really just an offcut from diecutting.

Then I went on to stamping. I wanted an overlay of blue stamping, so I switched to an Impress ink pad in Cerulean blue.

The grid stamp is from Stampin' Up, and the chicken wire is an ancient clear one from my stash.

Here's the page with the background inking and stamping done. Now for some black ink!

I picked out some different stamps, a few Stampotique, some freebies from magazine, some games and music related. I use Versafine Onyx Black in for most of my stamping, it's great for fine detail, and its very black. It's a daft thing to say, but all black ink pads are not equal, some are really faded. 

I started by stamping some of the larger stamps, making sure I overlap onto the mask, and off the edges of the page.

And I just kept stamping, overlapping and adding images into the gaps.

Then the exciting bit, removing the mask! Oooh, the centre bit looks sooooo white and clean.

Then I added the photo backed in black, some butterflies and a journaling card, cut in half and again backed in black card.

I edged the whole page in black ink by swooshing the ink pad round the edges.

Love the word and the butterflies, they really set it all off.

Elements:

Ink pads: Distress Inks in Pickled raspberry, Mustard seed, Salty ocean, Mowed lawn, Peacock feathers

Impress ink- Cerulean blue

Embellishments: American Crafts- Vicki Boutin- Die cut frames

Maggie Holmes- Crate Paper- Standouts

Thanks for looking!

Happy girl

If you saw yesterday's post about my first ever traveller's notebook page, you'll see where the inspiration for this layout came from. I just thought it would make a fabulous 12x12 page, and I think I was right! I videoed making this layout as well, so look out for the video in a future post!

What I thought was missing from the TN page, was some sunshine, so I went for this Amy Tangerine page from a stack I've had for eons. It actually has a cloud on it as well, but I covered it up with the photo, then added my own clouds!

 

My little fussy cut houses are taken from the scraps I had left over of the paper, so there are odd storeys and roofs, and some are deliberately hidden behind others to hide imperfections! The grey stripy paper that I stamped the clouds on to is on the reverse of the houses, so it was a juggling act to get enough of them both.

I am pleased with how the clouds came out though, the stripe gives them a slight thunder cloud look, but isn't too dark. I made the scalloped edge with a circle punch, then outlined it, and lots of other elements in black pen to ground it all. 

I wanted a big black script title, and initially went just for happy, but the envelope for my journaling needed something more, even after I'd stuck clouds onto it. So it ended up as happy girl, which works for me.

The whole thing is edged in washi, which really brings it all together with the black stamping and outlining.

Elements:

Paper: Amy Tangerine

Maggie Holmes- Flourish- Home sweet home

Card: White from stash

Embellishments: Thickers words- Skyler

Washi tape- Hobbycraft

Ink pad- Versafine Onyx black

Stamps- from stash

Crate Paper- Here+There envelopes

Black Uni-pin pen 0.5

White Posca pen

Thanks for looking!