Going Dotty

The technique this month in Simple Recipes* is to create a paint confetti look. Using the sketch, which I rotated 90 degrees CCW, I created this layout of my sister doing her work experience 9 years ago.

The dots are a mixture of poster paint dots, some topped with glossy accents & melted beads.
I tried to keep the dotty theme going with the papers I used & washi tape.

A Fresh Start

Sometimes you come across a layout that you love, want to scraplift & dont want to alter too much about the placement/items etc. I found such a layout on UKScrappers during a challenge, if you're a member on uks you can see it HERE.

I had several other photos to go with the main photo so turned it into a double layout.

Road Trip, & the hop keeps going.

Remember last monday I took part in the blog hop that just keeps getting bigger & bigger!? Well if you dont you can have a look HERE, if you do then you might be interested in looking at Ruths blog HERE as she continues the hop. Fay is still planning to do a post but as life has currently got in the way (we all know that feeling) I've told her not to sweat the small stuff, and post it when she is able to.

I would like to show you a layout I made for a UKScrappers weekly challenge using a sketch from Me & Mine blog.

I suddenly realised that black chevron washi tape was perfect for tyre tracks & buttons with a piece of yellow card in the centre matched the wheels on the jeep. I stuck to the colours of the jeep, such as the paint work, wheels, & the imagery of driving through muddy land giving brown.

Shh...

Simple layouts feel like I'm kind of cheating, but I do love this one I made. It started with, yes you guessed it, a challenge from the Refresh Your Craft & Soul event, to keep it clean & simple, something I dont tend to do with my layouts.

I knew I wanted to use a polaroid frame to highlight Kai in the photo. Initially I went looking for a sheet of paper to match the colour of Kai's outfit. I came across this one & allowed the image on it to lead me. I took the colours from the hot air balloon for the frame & tags. I took some chipboard clouds & covered them with white flock, the same with 2 brads. Finally I tried to copy the font by the image to use on the tags.

A Cats Christmas Joy

Dont you just love a sketch! Jennifer gave one as part of her Refresh your Craft and Soul event so I went looking for photos. Last month we sadly had to have Blue, our cat, put down as he was so very very ill, and it was lovely to come across photos of him so well and happy. They were from our first christmas together back in 2002. Back then it was rather fashionable to use the colour blue in the christmas decorations so I wanted to use that colour on the page.

The title are letters covered in micro beads & then glossy accents. & I had to use these cat wood veneers, so cute!

Strong Boy

Teal, orange and white are beautiful colours when put together, and these are the colours Jennifer challenged us to use using a colour palette.

These colours reminded me of the All About A Boy paper range so I located mine and set to work on a layout.

Keeping it Clean & Simple

I've got a few new Tonic dies, and was lucky enough to borrow my friends as well. With a bit of free time between cooking a large Fathers Day roast I want simple cards to make, and thought of Jennifers challenge to keep it clean & simple. I pulled out my fabulous fashion CDs and printed a few ready coloured images out. By using the tonic square base dies I easily created simple, decorative cards which  I could attach the images to.


Some I mounted onto a background

Others I took the image outside of the frame

A few I added half pearls to

Having the cards so simple means I can easily add more embellishments later, such as these two. I added flowers, birds and half pearls.

3 Layers of Resistance

I really enjoy using the resist technique, it reminds me of my childhood, using candles or crayons to draw something & then brushing over with watercolours. Now I get to play with a slightly more grown up version, stamping, using clear embossing powder & then brushing over with sparkly watercolours.

I havent used this technique in a while so, inspired by Jennifers "Can you resist it" blog post I decided that I wanted to create a page with barely anything but this technique. I came across a photo of Banshee sitting on my old computer monitor back in 2005, with a fairly plain colour scheme in the photo I wanted to brighten the page up so went for the colour scheme in this months challenge at SJ crafts, orange, pink white & gold.

I started with the top layer, stamping flowers & a butterfly, embossing powder, heat, painting over with orange, allowing to dry & then cutting out. While waiting to dry I did the second layer, large flourishes, & more flowers, painting over with pink.

Once I knew the size of the second layer I could work out where to stamp for the bottom layer. I did use 3 small patches of flowers but mainly used winged insects on this layer - dragonfly, butterflies & bee. I also stamped a lined journalling box to use. I painted over this with a gold colour

I selected white letters for my title & painted these pink to match the page & waited impatiently for everything to dry. I could then layer everything up, write my journalling & stick the title down.

Being such a pale page really makes the photo pop, and the more you look at it the more you see with the resist technique.

An Ever Growing Blog Hop

The always lovely Clair asked me to join in this blog hop with a difference, the next "hop" is on a weekly basis. We are ased 4 basic questions, asked to answer them & then allocate (having previously asked) 3 more bloggers.

What am I working on?

I've had a lovely craft day today with friends, and was borrowing their tonic dies to make cards with. So that is the project that I am most currently working on. Its nice meeting up like this and being able to use each others tools. 

You'll also see a notebook on the table, in this I jot down other projects that I am mentally working on. Things such as the latest ukscrappers challenges with ideas of what I want to do, any current blog challenges, ideas I've spotted - most of which are currently scrapbook related. You see I forever strive for organisation, being a messy person this is quite a hard thing to do & maintain, but part of being organised is getting each year of from my life scrapbooked, I am slowly getting there having got to 2007 working backwards, and I'm almost upto date with 2014!!

How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

What a tough question, like something from a job interview! I would have to say its taking my time, I can spend a day on a small area of a scrapbook page to get it just how I want it, such as creating a 2d version of optimus prime in paper to use as an embellishment, how I'm happy to make my own embellishments or background if I havent got anything suitable in, & my eagerness to have a go at ANYTHING craft wise, I love trying new things, play with a variety of mediums & types of crafts, I always try to think outside the box.

Why do I create what I do?
I was born into a crafting family, my Mom would sew, embroider, bake & knit, my Dad would crochet, my Nan would make leather embellishments for bags and similar, knit, crochet, sew etc how could I not pick up the bug. From as young as I could remember I would love sticking things together, trying new crafts. My scrapbooking started when my Grandad died, its something I'd been considering but when he died I realised that he and my Nan had so many photos that no-one would know who were in it or what was happening, that when my Mom passes it would be the same with her photos, and the same with mine! So I decided to make a record of our lives my my children. Some of the pages may trigger memories, others will let them know a bit about people like my Dad who died when my eldest was so very very small. Once I have got back as far as I can I hope to research my family tree & scrapbook that next :) Most importantly though its relaxing, its part of my life that doesnt worry me & stress me out which as a stress head & a worry wart is very important. Its a release, if I dont get to create things I feel pent-up, depressed and on edge. What is my creative process? Its starts with inspiration. If I havent been inspired I go find it. I can find it in all sorts of places, on a blog, in a challenge, on pinterest, in a sheet of patterned paper, a photo, or just in the fact that its a rainy day & theres nothing nicer than sitting with a pile of paper, some tape, photos & getting stuck in. With scrapbooking I'll either find a sketch or make one to go with a particular photo(s), then decide on the papers, what embellishments I need (& then make them if necessary), then title & journalling. This may sound like a fairly quick process but it takes me aaaaaages. So thats me, next you get to go visit my good friends and uks team mates, but WAIT! They'll be posting theirs in a weeks time, on Monday 16th (why yes, of course I'll remind you all). First there's Ruth. Ruth & I first started chatting on Moneysavingexpert.com, joined in our appreciation on saving money, card making & Christmas. We both started scrapbooking at around the same time. We've met several time sin real life & even allowed our famillies to meet!!! We're firm friends who rarely go a week without chatting, giggling and putting the world to rights. She's a fellow scrapbooker and cardmaker, which is great when either of us need to throw ideas round. Then theres Fay, who I met at a crafty bloggers weekend away. She has become part of our UKS team, and is always part of our team chatter on facebook. A talented lady who sews and scrapbooks. I am always impressed by the clothes that she makes for her children.How does my creative process work?

Man at Work

Growing up we slowly learn to stop "messy play" in line for more constructive methods of play that are usually a lot cleaner. As children we're told off for making a mess & getting things dirty, so when I want to try a grungier layout I get this sense of unease. I think my main concern is "what if I LITERALLY mess it up", make a total pigs ear of it, waste a whole lot of stuff & dont like it in the end.

Well, with a bit of inspiration from Jennifers "crafting without fuss" blog post (part of this weekends blog event she's holding called "Refresh Your Craft & Soul") & this months Scrap 365 sketch I just got on with it.

I used some washi tape before stencilling with punchinella & plenty of acrylic black paint, I then added a few streaks of black paint as well. With the page about my son doing work experience at a publishers I wanted plenty of representation of ink and printing which I think this effect did quite well.

I started layering the photo up but found I really didnt like the lines behind it on the background going horizontally so I turned it around. I also found there was too much going on in the background of the photo so I inked around the edges with brown & black ink to bring the eye more to the subject in the photo.

With the browns & the blacks the page was looking a little dark and dull so I decided to brighten it up with some gilding flakes. I die cut a clock face, painted it & once dry added the flitterglu & gilding flakes before adding it to the layers. I also stamped some clocks & cogs to the background sheet with flitterglu & again used the gilding flakes on them. A few layered embellishments and a cork title finished the page off before adding the journalling.