Scrapbooking: A Dr Who type Birthday

This is where I think I shine, with paper piecing.

The Challenge was to use a Beatles Title, More than 4 lines of journalling, use black & white & finally use circles.

So I took the simple option & used "Birthday" from the 1968 album "The Beatles", the title is black and white, circles used on the Dalek & as you can see, more than 4 lines of journalling

Did I mention the Dalek? only once? I think I should mention him again as he is my pride & joy on this page, my labour of love. He ( I say he, but daleks are actually non-gender specific, they kinda sound a bit masculine though so I shall stick with he) is made from different shades of black paper and card, cut out by hand and layering them on top of each other.

Scrapbooking: Fun filled birthday

Octobers week 1 challenge was based on a sketch, had to be of a baking theme, use washi tape (or similar) and use numbers.

I chose to do Kai's 2nd birthday, which the multiple photos on the sketch was perfect for. I'd also been waiting to use the orange background covered in 2's for ages.

I had some fabric tape that matched the dotty blue paper on the left nicely so used those as my inspiration for the rest of the paper, the sky blue colour went perfectly with the orange paper.

Scrapbooking: Footprints in the snow

October week 2's challenge was to use Folk song lyrics, Use only handmade embellishments, and use 3 photos

To be honest I already had the title in my head, and then googled it to see if it was used in any flk songs thinking that folksongs, just like country songs, are numerous and are about most things so surely there would be one out there somewhere that used "footprints in the snow". Not only was there one, but it actually used those words as its Title as well.

The clouds were cut out by hand & then sewn around the edge. I also used hand punched snowflakes, and a few I sewn on myself. I added glitter onto the letters and as footprints.

I used the same layout for the page opposite this one, photos taken on the same day...

I didnt want to cover either background papers up too much as I thought both of them were beautiful.
I replaced snowflakes, footprints and clouds with baubles, and the pale glitter with red. Due to being written in silver the camera hasnt picked it up but it is under the Merry Christmas.

Scrapbooking: 13th Birthday

In the first week after the UKS cyber crop I did very little in the way of crafting, & the items I did make I cant really show you until December, & some not until after Christmas. So for now I'd like to show you some of the other uks challenges I've done....

October week 4's challenge was to use a Birthday theme, use 2 or more photos & use brads / eyelets / buttons.

As you can see, I scrapped Zacks 13th birthday, using 5 photos and star brads to match the stars on the paper.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Times Arrow

This challenge was a tad unusual, it was to scrap in reverse, the opposite way to how you normally would. So for me this meant I had to choose the embellishments I wanted to work with..

& then the papers....

Before making the layout & choosing a photo to go on it.

I kept in mind, all the way through, the theme of a baby photo, using the colours yellow & blue.

The Frosty Festivities

Jennifer organised a fun weekend of frosty inspiration, & challenged us to make something ourselves.
I was most certainly inspired by Jennifers Winter Girl Cabochon necklace to make some earrings the same way.

They squares are 1cm by 1cm so perfect size & weight for christmassy earrings, and so my christmas earring selection was started :)

I had made a layout with last years Christmas card but Jennifers post, Merry & Bright, inspired me to do another page for photos from the photoshoot, along with some journalling, to make it a 2 page layout.

 I did plenty of overlapping on it, with a piece of the ribbon that was also used on their mouths (not the actually piece used on their mouths though), candy cane punched strips of paper, & can you see the background paper, I love it! I dont usually love glitter but this is all over bright red glittery loveliness.

I did have a bit of a problem getting photos of these though, not one, or two, but THREE cats tails to compete with.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - The Screw Tape Letters

The Challenge was to use Washi tape in an imaginative way

On this layout I used washi tape as both decorative purposes & for adding more journalling .... or at least thats what I planned, it turned out all my journalling fitted onto the journalling card, so I put the date on it instead.

Cardmaking: UKS CC - The Remains of the Day

This challenge was to use leftovers to create a card.

I created this card by cutting circles from a white piece of card and sticking patterned, coloured scraps of paper behind them before mounting them onto a card. Finally I stamped the sentiment on.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - The Mask

The challenge was to use masks. I actually only own one mask so used this along with using pieces of paper to mask off areas to create rectangles of sprayed colour.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - 50 Shades of Grey

This challenge was to use multiple shades of the same colour on a scrapbook page.

I made a 2 page layout using instagram photos and different shades of grey paper and card.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - On the Road

A Class by Yorkshire Lass which you can find HERE

I didnt have a chevron stamp so made my own out of foam. This is the first time I'd used stamped letters to create the journalling on a layout, for small amounts I think it works quite well .... though I need a little practice.

Cardmaking: UKS CC - Bookmark

A simple challenge to make a bookmark.

This idea is not mine, its one I took & worked upon. You can find the original printable cards & owls HERE.
I did however use paper piecing on mine to create the tree and background of the owls, then stamped the leaves.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Papillion

A sketch challenge take from March 2010 on Pagemaps

Who knew I could use a chicken & bronze on an almost christmassy layout!
And this layout actually won me this challenge, yay! I got a UKS keyring (with trolley coin), window sticker and badge.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Star Reader

A Class by Helsbells which you can find HERE

I tried to bring out the colours of the sash's we wore on to the page & thought the bags went well as we all had bags to carry our craft purchases.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Digital Fortress

A challenge by Scrapdolly to use the following sketch....

& my interpretation....

Recognise the tag? I made it for the tag challenge, you can see more HERE

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Mapping it out

A class by Sutty which can be found HERE

And what I made from it.....

Oooo, look, I used pink without even being told to!!!

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - Our Story

A class by Iruk which can be found HERE
& here is what I made from it

Lots of lovely spraying, inking & distressing of edges.

Scrapbooking: UKS CC - The Patchwork Papers

Its that time of year when I am starting to feel the pressure, I've got just over 2 weeks to get quite a few projects finished, and just incase that wasnt enough I've decided to give myself the challenge to wear a different pair of christmassy earrings every day from the 1st December until boxing day, without buying anymore. I currently have 9 pairs that I've bought over the years, so that's 17 pairs to make.

Theres also the house to get spotless before the evening of November 30th when the decorations go up (after kiddies have gone to bed so they wake up to a christmasssy wonderland .... kind of) & the christmas decorations I want to make.

I will enjoy the making process but will also enjoy when December arrives and I can enjoy the fruits of my labour.

So what happened with the UKS Cyber Crop? Its the first one I joined in and I did find it rather busy, I wanted to do almost everything but with 3 classes & 1 challenge most days I just didnt have the time.

The first one was a class by Suzysnail which you can find HERE
& heres the one I made from it....

Country heart & home book giveaway

Debbie over at Country Heart & Home has recently had her book published, Gifts From Your Kitchen (well done Debbie), & she is now holding a giveaway where you could (& I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will) win a copy.

UKS pre-crop challenges: Design Tips for Dummies

Taniwha created a video, using her design background, to show us a few tricks of the trade when it comes to designing layouts, what works & what doesn't. She also made a class to follow to create a page. Heres the one I made.....

Plenty of washi tape with a colour scheme of red & black (as they are so stereotypically oriental) & blue (to match the main other colour in the photo)

UKS pre-crop challenge: Negatives

A challenge to use a negative from a die cut this time, layering & matting it up...

With the weather so grey and having to have the lights on , trying to get a nice photo of this card was rather hard, and I didnt manage to pick up the lovely details of the background paper at all, but this does give you an idea of what my card looked like.

The background is lilac with pale flowers, onto that I stamped the "Thank You" stamp and embossed with silver. I mounted the die cut piece of card above this on foam pads, before matting on purple card & onto the main card. I love these duo stamps & die cutters, another thing to add to my Christmas list :)

UKS pre-crop challenges: Perfect Day

When I see bunting I either think babies, or celebrations, so when I saw the completed page for A Perfect Day on UKScrappers I knew what photo I wanted to use...

Though the actual UKScrappers Birthday crop starts today I shall be sharing with you a couple more pre-crop challenges with you this week to start a fresh, and upto date with any crop pages I make next week.

UKS pre-crop challenges: Time Travellers Wife

Have you ever looked back through the classes from the previous ukscrappers crops? I hadn't, & they are wonderful! This challenge was to do just that, look back at the old classes & follow one of them (updating as necessary). I followed one from the Scrappy Little Xmas cyber crop 2010 called Forced smile, & heres my interpretation.....

This is my favourite pre-crop challenge :)

UKS pre-crop challenge: Ways to use TAGS

I dont use tags very often, but have decided I need to more often now ... with a little bit of work they can make awesome journalling tags. I think a large tag die shall be put upon my Christmas list.

These are journalling tags I've done for Halloween, or similar, scrapbook pages.

I also made a copper tag, with the thought of using it as a card topper, but having finished it I think I may use it as a hanging ornament, maybe even as a gift.

This tag was die cut out of a sheet of copper. I then embossed it with an embossing folder, stamped it with clocks and heat embossed with a copper coloured embossing powder. I heated up the copper, initially with a heat gun & then bunged parts of it on the hob because I got bored waiting for it. This altered the colour of the copper, ranging from oranges, reds and through to a purpley white. It also burnt the embossing powder a bit, but this added to the look. I finished off by stamping the birds and the verse "the journey awakens the soul", which were heat embossed in black.

UKS pre-crop challenge: Foxglove

This was a class on UKScrappers, on making a page with hexagons. The original design was using foxgloves but I adapted this for photos of Kai taking his first walk outside.

The footprints I stamped using foam I'd cut into shoe shapes & cut patterns into.

I was a little disappointed by how many of the smaller hexagons I ended up covering up, but was very happy with the colours, title and footprints.

Anyone else joining in the pre-crop challenges on UKS?

UKS Pre-crop challenge: Birthday Card

Over at UKScrappers we are getting ever closer to the 10th Anniversary Cybercrop and I've been having a go at some of the challenges. The first one being to make a birthday card using the UKS colours of blue, red & white.

Scrapbooking: With Grandad in the Garden

ANFSCD 1. With the photos mainly showing blacks, greens, yellows & white I used these as my colour palette for the page,

The journalling card at the bottom right originally had "passport" at the top, but when I placed the photo over it I found I could reduce it down to "sport", which suited the page a lot better.

Scrapbooking: Good things come to those who wait

ANSFCD 3: I was looking through a few photos to use on this layout when I came across these 2 and knew I'd have to do a black and white layout.

I stamped the images, loving the raffle tickets, but they took aaaaaaaaaages dry, getting a little bit smudged as I tried to work around them. I added a bit of gold, such as the squares of card and butterflies to reflect the gold Guinness harp.

The title reads "Good things come to those who wait"

Scrapbooking: The ABCs of Babysitting

I've lately been catching every bug going, as well as a prolonged case of Benign Positional Vertigo. Of course, being me, this couldn't be simply helped by using the Epley Manouvere combined with antihistamines, I developed a bad reaction to the medication which made me even worse.

Needless to say my brains been rather fuggy so I went looking for simple scrapbooking tutorials and came across "Now for something completely different" on UKScrappers, tutorials by Shimelle
I didnt need to think about layout, just the colours.

I started with February's, and enjoyed doing the layering effect of punch edged papers.

scrapbooking: School of Fish

A page largely covered with photos this time following week 13 of 52 weeks step by step.

Scrapbooking: Rolling Over

The third red & white page in a row, probably as, along with black I love this striking colour combination.

Week 14 of 52 layouts step by step. I took my inspiration for the papers and colours from the winnie the pooh "toadstool" base of Kai's playgym. Therefore this page is very red, white & dotty. I also won, among other things,  some toadstool stamps in a game of bingo on UKScrappers which went well with this page.

Scrapbooking: Will you Marry Me?

I'd been saving these photos for just the right layout and papers,

I followed week 15 from 52 layouts step by step, and used Echo Parks, yours truly collection kit.

Scrapbooking: High Heels

I think all children, be they female or male, have a curiosity with their Mummy's/Nanny's/Aunties High heels, I know both my lads, when little, would go straight for my high heel shoes, ignoring the flats, to try & walk in them. I had the same curiosity as a child, but it turned more into a competition with myself in how high a heel I could walk normally in.

I used another tutorial from 52 layouts step by step, week 16 - the lace tie to the page went so well with the photos I wanted to use. I stuck to red white & black to make not only Kai stand out more but also the shoes.

Scrapbooking: A Thrifty Gifty Meet Up

With booking myself on a crafty bloggers weekend for next year my mind wandered to the first crafty meet up I attended, & with that I decided to scrap it...

 I followed week 17 from 52 layouts step by step, and matched the colours on the page with the main ones in the photos, blue, red & black.

I made some lovely friends that day.

Scrapbooking: Baby-sitting

 2 Challenges with 1 layout, woohoo :)

The ukscrappers September week 3 challenge was to...
- Use shades of pink
- use scraps of patterned paper
- add lots of bling and/or apply mist, inks or paint
- use the sketch provided

We also had a fun bingo night (which I won, yay!) with our blue brads house where we were also given the challenge of doing a layout using blue and new.

So heres my pages for them....

 I used the original sketch for the 1 page & then flipped it for the other, using scraps of pink patterned paper for hexagons on the "girl" side, & blue for the boys.

As I'm sure you can understand, I have blurred out my sleeping nephews face as he'd be the only recognisable  one after a couple of weeks (we all know how fast babies grow and change).

Scrapbooking: Piggyback Ride

It was an interesting challenge this week at UKScrappers, it really made me think. We had to use 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 of pretty papers, cardstock, the same embellishments, words in the title, circles & photos. If I tell you what I chose to use it'll probably make it a bit clearer.
On this layout I used
1 Circle
2 words in the title
3 photos
4 different pieces of cardstock
5 different types of patterned paper
6 embellishments - triangular eyelets.

A while ago I asked Jems permission to scraplift THIS page, she happily gave it & I used the layout for this page. It turns out Jem based her page on a sketch, but I dont think I would have had the same inspiration from a sketch so the credit goes to Jem :)