Simple Stories - Happily Ever After - Stop, and smell the roses

Hi Everyone!

Claire back here with you, and as promised, today I'm sharing my second layout with the Simple Stories Happily Ever After collection. This time, I have used the collection for a non-wedding page.  In addition to that, I have chosen to use pink and florals to scrap a man page, featuring 'Mr Claire' (affectionately nicknamed by me - although his nicknames aren't always that favourable!)

I started with a piece of Smooth White Premium Cardstock to use as my base.  I covered the majority of the page with the stunning Kiss Me (foiled) paper, which is truly gorgeous - my photograph really doesn't do it justice.  Its a beautiful pink shade with a lovely foiled diagonal criss-cross pattern that gives a real luxurious feel.

I sliced off the bottom corner and trimmed the edges before adding a stitched border and folding the edges up for extra texture.

Once I had decided I would build my photo and clusters in the centre of the page, I added some distress oxide, applied with a brush in colour Tattered Rose, to the white cardstock, positioned under where my central cluster would lie. This colour of oxide ink is the perfect match for this collection (no pun intended!)

I printed my photo in black and white, and layered it up with tissue paper, the b side of the 2x2 and 4x4 Elements Paper and the Just Married paper, distressing the edges and layering them just off centre behind the photo.

To form the basis of my title, I cut a card from the Journal Elements paper, and trimmed the top to remove the 'Memories of this day' phrase. This made the card much more generic and the flower design on the card then worked well with my design.

I again layered this on a piece of the green patterned paper from the elements sheet and distressed both edges. I added a few florals from the Combo Sticker sheet and Bits and Pieces ephemera pack along the side.

The title uses glitter alphabet stickers from my stash.

Next, I cut two tags from the Tags paper. This is always my favourite sheet in a Simple Stories collection. I just adore their tag papers and always find a way to include them on my layout.

I added machine stitching to them both along with some gold twine and then arranged them behind my photographs.

To balance the bottom of the cluster, I added a "Hey There, Handsome" square which I fussy cut from the 2x2 and 4x4 Elements paper, added a stitched border and distressed the edges before raising it on foam pads. 

Underneath this, and also to the left of my photo, I added some floral clusters from the Bits and Pieces pack and a some word stickers from the Combo Sticker sheet.

To finish the page, I added some black Nuvo Crystal Drops around my clusters to help ground the layout, and that was it - Page complete!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing this collection and can see how versatile it is. 

There are some truly beautiful, very pretty wedding themed elements which would make documenting that special day so precious. However, similarly, there are an abundance of gorgeous florals that really can be used to document a whole host of layouts.

It has been a real pleasure to use it and share these pages with you.

Until next month, take care.

Claire

xxx

Echo Park A Slice of Summer - Summer Memories

Hello, Karen C here again with my first layout using Echo Park's A Slice of Summer collection. Designed by Lori Whitlock this collection is bright and bold and full of images of lemons, strawberries, red farm trucks, flowers, flip flops, ice cream, and more. Its perfect for scrapbooking memories of summer days. The layout I'm sharing today features a photo of me taken one summer when I was a child. The photo was originally an old style transparency slide but I was able to make quite a good copy of it by laying it on my light box and taking a photo of it.

I started with a piece of 11¾" x 11¾" white textured Bazzil Cardstock which I matted in the corner of a sheet of the Squeeze the Day paper so that pieces of the paper showed on two edges. I distressed the edges of the white cardstock and machine stitched all the way around using white thread.

I cut a  9" x 8" piece of the Fun in the Sun paper, distressed and machine stitched the edges and attached it to the centre of the layout at an angle.

I then cut a 9" x 8" piece of the Lemons paper and sliced this into 1.5" strips. I distressed and machine stitched the edges of each paper strip and then pieced  the strips back together on top of the blue paper leaving a slight gap between each piece. 

My photo was matted onto some more of the Fun in the Sun paper and placed on the Lemons paper.

Underneath the photo I tucked some white paper doilies and a tag, and on the corner of the photo I added a Chipboard Sun Shine from the Chipboard Frames pack. I added a red reinforcing ring to the tag to pick up on the red in my photo.

From the sheet of Multi Journalling Cards I cut some tabs and tucked these between the strips of the Lemons paper. I put some 3D foam squares underneath the edges to raise them up a little. I wanted to bring some more red into the layout so some scalloped circles were also punched from some of the Summer Floral Paper, folded in half and also tucked under the paper strips. 

For the title I used a Glitter Foam Title Sticker from Cocoa Vanilla which I had left over from a  previous DT project. 

Finally, I added journalling strips printed on the computer to the bottom of the layout and dotted a few gold sequins around for added sparkle.

I was pleased how this layout turned out. I don't often scrapbook photos of myself so was pleased to be able to add this layout to my album.

I'll be back soon with another summer inspired layout and in the meantime I hope you get time to be creative and also enjoy the lovely weather we will hopefully soon return to the UK..

Take Care, Karen x x

Echo Park - Let's Go Anywhere - Spotting Jodrell Bank!

Welcome back to the Papermaze blog! 

ScrappyAdam here with you for an evening edition blog post for a change! This month, I am using the brilliant Let's Go Anywhere from Echo Park which has just been added to the shop. It's a fantastic collection full of black and white with red and woodgrain - I am loving the monochrome feel of it. 

'Spotting Jodrell Bank'

For this layout, I wanted to use the Forest Stencil and also used an arrow stencil from Safe Travels so I used some black ink and the two stencils to create two border strips across the page. I then used four strips of patterned paper, torn into strips from the collection and added in a washi tape for good measure and another pop of red!

I then added two strips from top to bottom, a strip of the B-Side of Cameras and a strip of the B-Side of See the World on top. 

I used the 6x6" pad to back four 3x4" photos and placed these two-together in the middle of the page and decided to use stickers and chipboard to add some detail below the bottom photograph. 

I have used Alpha's from the sticker book along with some from my stash to create the title to the top left of the page, nestled into the stencilling and overlapping the photo. 

I decided to utilise some 'empty' space on the photos by adding sticker, brads, chipboard and enamel dots. I have also added in two flair from Dotty About Flair. 

This collection is absolutely brilliant and I am loving creating with it. It's a big change for me to use limited colour but the black and white with pops of red and woodgrain make a refreshing change!

I will be back later in June with another Let's Go Anywhere project and in the meantime, have a look at all the other fantastic layouts! Do take a look at the collection, it's all in stock currently but I can't imagine it will be for very long - such a different collection!

Stay safe, take care and happy scrapping!

Adam x

June Papermaze Kit - Part 1

Lynn here today, with the first of my layouts using the summery and colourful June Papermaze Kit, which is now available in the shop.

As always before looking at how the layouts were made, here is what you will find in this month's kit:

Patterned papers:
Doodlebug Designs - Made with Love collection - Heartwarmer & Dab of Butter
Pinkfresh Studio - Keeping It Real collection - Adulting & Big Mood
Simple Stories - Bunnies + Blooms collection - Choose Happy
Maggie Holmes - Garden Party collection - Sown

Bazzill Basics - Aqua & Avalanche

Reverse side of patterned papers:

Embellishments:

12" Washi tape, 2 Phrase Stickers, 3 cardstock stickers, pink baker's twine, 3 paper flowers, fabric butterfly, strip Heart Shape Sprinkles, large sequins.

Extra Bazzill Basics Pack: Juneberry, Lemonade, Wild Pansy, Romance.

Happy Birthday Mrs. Potts - This layout features the cake I made for Mrs. Potts' (my Mum - avid collector of teapots) 80th birthday. Inspired by a layout I saw on the internet, but have been unable to find again to acknowledge (I will update this post if & when I find it).

The base of this layout is the Aqua Bazzill from the main kit. To create a lacy effect, I used a stencil from Vicki Boutin's Colour Study - Fresh set, with some Distress Texture Paste. Then I applied Picket Fence Distress Paint with an old credit card to make cross-hatch marks on the cardstock.

From the Choose Happy paper I cut a piece 12.5 x 25cm and placed this gingham side up, about 1cm down from the top and 4.5 cm in from the left of the edge of the Bazzill. Then from the same paper I cut a piece 14 x 18cm floral side up and mounted this onto Romance Bazzill. I placed this over the gingham paper 3cm down, and 4cm in from the left. 

My photo was positioned over the papers. I cut four doilies from white scrap card, using a Crafter's Companion die. I placed them at three corners of the photo and top right of the layout, trimming off any overlap. Each of the doilies was a base for a cluster of embellishments.

From the kit I used the three paper flowers, the fabric butterfly and one of the cardstock stickers. Then I cut daisies using a die and some scraps of white card and more Romance Bazzill. With a pack of Queen & Co. Pearls, I created some pearl swirls. Using smaller pearls for the daisy centres.

My title is made with Romance Bazzill and another Crafter's Companion die - Happy Birthday Banner, together with glittery foam alphabet stickers. The date is made with letter stickers from my stash.

I added some of the washi tape along the bottom of the gingham paper, and trimmed it with pearls.

Sweet Rainbow - for this rainbow themed layout I used a photo of my niece joining The Rainbow Guides.

The first step here was to gut the Dab of Butter paper to make a frame 2.5cm deep. Then to trim the Avalanche Bazzill to 26.5 x 26.5cm, and mounted it over a piece of Juneberry Bazzill (which had been trimmed to 27 x 27cm and gutted to leave a frame of 2.5cm).

I used a Peartree Cutfile to cut a rainbow image from scrap card, I then used this as a stencil and with brushes I applied Distress Oxide Inks in various colours. After removing the stencil, I flicked water over the inks to make them run and oxidize. 

My photo was mounted onto Juneberry Bazzill and applied to the left side of the rainbow. My title was made with Doodlebug Designs alphabet stickers and some old stickers from my stash. I added one of the cardstock stickers from the kit.

I embellished the rainbow with the large sequins from the kit, and dots of Nuvo Crystal Drops. The stars were highlighted with Nuvo Glitter Drops in Honey Gold

That's all for today, back with more from the June kit very soon.
Thanks for looking
Lynn x

Colour By Numbers

Here is a little extra layout I created with Alcohol Inks I purchased from Papermaze. I also used some cardstock left over from the May kit and some Yupo Paper from my own stash.

The photo is from a dance show my girls took part in some years ago.

I started by gutting the sheet of Yukon Gold Bazzill Cardstock to leave a frame of 2.5cm. I had some A3 Yupo paper, and I cut this down to 29.5 x 29.5cm. Before mounting the Yupo over the Bazzill, I worked on it with the Alcohol Inks.

I selected Orange Sunset and Honeycomb Alcohol Inks, and Enchanted Pearl Alcohol and dripped these over the page, I allowed them to run into one another and then added some Alcohol Blending Solution to lighten and blend the colours. Then I added a few drops of Gold Alcohol Mixative creating polished golden highlights to the mix.  

Once throughly dry I added this to the Bazzill frame created earlier.

My photo was mounted onto some Black Bazzill, and arranged to the centre of the page. With Tim Holtz - Stacked Labels - Sizzix Thinlits dies, I cut a journalling plate and frame using the Yukon Gold and Black Bazzill. I scribbled my journalling onto the card and mounted it onto the page with some black organza ribbon.

I found some felt alphabet stickers in my stash and used them to create the title. Then with some smaller, old black alpha stickers, I scattered random numbers over the page.

Finally I trimmed some phrases from the Jen Hadfield - Reaching Out collection - Stick Together paper, and added them to the sides of the photo.

Thanks for looking. Busy working on the June kit now and will be sharing the layouts next week.
Lynn x

Adore - P13 Paper Products - Free Spirit

Hello, Rebecca here with you today. I'm working with P13 Paper Products again this month, and this time around I've been playing with the 'Free Spirit' collection, which you can find in the store here.

I only discovered P13 earlier this year, but I have absolutely loved working with their collections. Free Spirit is more of a masculine collection so it's great for scrapping the boys and men in your life. I have a set of photos of my son, taken by a professional photographer when he was about 18 months old and I've never been able to find the right collection to scrap them - but the colours in Free Spirit are perfect so I'm going to be using this collection to finally get them scrapped!

As with the other P13 collections I've worked with, Paper #7 is full of individual elements that are perfect for fussy-cutting. I was immediately drawn to the large light bulbs on this paper so was desperate to get those on this layout! I also loved the letters on Paper #4 as they have waht look like little LED lights on them. I set about cutting some of the letters out until I could make a word and I quickly came up with 'adore' which I thought was perfect for a title.

I began by arranging my photo, title letters and light bulbs onto a sheet of Premium White Cardstock and marking the area lightly with a pencil as I wanted to add some mixed media to my background. I've really fallen in love with stamping lately, so I pulled out a selection of small rubber stamps from my stash and my Jet Black Stazon Ink Pad and added lots of stamping to my background. Once I was happy with my stamping I also added black ink splatters - squeezing the paintbrush bristles to make some larger paint drops too. I used watered-down acrylic paint for this.

Happy with my background, I brought everything back onto the page to see how it looked and felt like I needed something to ground or frame the layout, so I tore some strips from Paper #5 (both sides) and added them to the top and bottom of the page. 

Ready to move on to embellishing the layout, I fussy-cut some film strip from Paper #7 and tucked it behind my photo, but wanted more! Luckily I have a filmstrip stamp, so I stamped myself some images and cut them out to add to the layout. I brought in a circular tag from Decorative Tags #1 that matched my title, and also a banner from Decorative Tags #2 which says 'Dream Big', along with a couple of other banner-type pieces from Paper #7.

I felt like the layout needed a subtle pop of colour so I matted my photo on both white and black cardstock, and then added a layer of the B side of Paper #4 to match the green-ish tones in the background of my photo. I then added some more splatters to my background in a coordinating green colour before sticking everything down.

As is normal for me - I love to have a lot of texture and dimension so I raised all of the light bulbs and my photo up on foam to give them some height. At this point I also fussy-cut an extra light bulb from Paper #5 and added it in.

Wanting more of the green colour on the page, I selected some stickers from Sticker Sheet #1 and Sticker Sheet #2, added some foam behind them and positioned them along the edges of my torn paper strips.

On to the finishing touches - I added some more large black paint splatters and then selected a phrase from Paper #1 which reads 'You have the World at your feet', cut each word out individually and then stuck it onto one of the banner-type pieces I'd fussy-cut from Paper #7. 

The layout was then completed with the addition of some black embroidery thread through the tag and also to one of the light bulbs as there was one that didn't have a 'cable' for it to dangle from.

Thank you very much for reading. If you'd like to watch how this layout came together, there is a video up on my YouTube channel which you can find here.

I'll be back later in the month with another layout using this collection, so see you then!

Take care

Rebecca x 

Simple Stories ~ School Life

Hi all, it’s Anna back with you today! I’m sharing my second layout with the Simple Stories collection - school life. You can find the whole collection in the shop here. 

For this layout I decided to document our home school journey….

I used bazzill cardstock from the matchmaker pack as my base, trimming down about an inch from each side, keeping a 12inch height. I then used the school rules paper as well as the educate yourself paper to create a double boarder. 

I cut apart some of the tags from the ‘Tags’ paper and used them to document the journey, grouping the pictures into the stages of lockdown learning! I added my photographs to them and used one of them for my journaling. I punched holes into the top of the tags and added some twine. 

I added several of the elements from the journal bits around the placing of the photographs. 

To finish I added a few acrylic perspective pieces and used Doodlebug alpha stickers for my title. 

Thanks so much for looking! 

See you next time with a brand new collection! 

Anna 

X