Vicki Boutin Peppermint Kisses - 'Twas the Night Before Christmas

Hello, Karen here. As we are getting closer to Christmas I have been playing with Vicki Boutin's Peppermint Kisses collection form American Crafts. I really enjoy scrapbooking Christmas layouts in the lead up to Christmas. I love to put some Christmassy music on, grab a mince pie and play with pretty festive supplies. Vicki Boutin's Peppermint Kisses collection fits the bill perfectly. It includes designs of beautiful Christmas images - candy canes, snowflakes, words and phrases, evergreen branches, poinsettias, Christmas trees, and lots more. As well as shades of traditional greens and reds it also includes pinks and teals. I love a layout created in traditional red and green (especially if it includes some gold or silver elements) but the layout I am sharing today is made with the non traditional pink and teal which were perfect for my photos.

I started by layering a trimmed down a sheet of the Winter Magic paper onto a sheet of the Sweet Holiday Wishes paper leaving a narrow border round the edges. I made sure to gut the pink paper before attaching the teal paper so that I had paper left to mat my photos.

Using a cut file from Peartree Cutfiles I cut my title from smooth white cardstock and attached this to the top half of the layout. 

I thought of backing the cut file or even creating a shaker pocket from it, but in the end decided instead to simply embellish it with sequins. I took some white, blue and pink sequins, which matched the colours in the paper, and glued a few inside each letter of the title. I like the sparkle the sequins add to the layout.

I then took four small photos and matted these with the remaining Sweet Holiday Wishes paper. Two of the matted photos were placed at the top of the layout either side of the title with 3D foam underneath, and two photos were attached to the front of a couple of tags cut from the sheet of tags. The tags were placed at the bottom of the layout with more 3D foam beneath.

Through the holes in the tags I threaded a piece of white twine.

Underneath the tags I placed a couple of die cut phrase strips from the pack of Journaling Ephemera. 

At the top of the page I added another die cut phrase strip to one of the photos and some Puffy Phrase Stickers.

To add more texture to the layout I took some silver embroidery floss and stitched onto the Christmas Tree images at the bottom of the page. I used a simple back stitch on one of the trees .....

.... and chain stitch on the other. More sequins were used to embellish the trees as well as some enamel dots.

Finally I printed some journalling strips on the computer and placed these in the bottom right corner of the layout and dotted some more white sequins around the layout.

Whether or not you are a fan of non-traditional colours on Christmas layouts, I hope I have inspired you to put some Christmassy music on, grab a mince pie and play with pretty festive supplies. There are plenty of Christmas themed supplies here in the shop including the beautiful Peppermint Kisses collection.

Take Care, I'll be back again with another Christmas project.

Karen x x

Jolly Christmas - Simple Stories - The Holiday Life Collection

Hello it’s Rebecca with you today sharing my first layout of December! I can’t believe we are only a matter of weeks away from Christmas! The good thing about that is I’m finally in Christmas scrapping mode! This month I am working with ‘Our Holiday Life’ from Simple Stories. You can find the collection here.

I adore the papers and colours in this collection - very traditional with the reds and greens. I wanted to use all the papers at once and was really struggling to make a decision on what to use. In the end, I decided to use a small amount of a few different papers. I selected my favourite papers, and cut small strips from them in varying widths and lengths. After arranging them in the centre of a sheet of premium white cardstock, I cut fishtails into the bottom of each and adhered them in place. 

My photo is a little smaller than 3x4 inches, backed on white cardstock and matted with a darker patterned paper from the collection. I positioned it to the top right corner of my banner pieces with a layer of craft foam behind it to add dimension. 

To the centre of my banners, I added my title - a Foam Sticker  which reads ‘jolly’ and a die cut from the Bits and Pieces pack which reads ‘Christmas’. 

I selected some florals from the Floral Bits and layered them at either end of the banners. I’ve raised some of these up using foam pads to add depth and dimension. 

It’s a really simple layout, but I love the way the colours pop against the crisp white background. 

Thanks for reading. I hope you like the layout. I’ll be back later in the month with another!

Take care,

Rebecca x

@preciouspagespapercraft

Echo Park - Christmas Time - Tis The Season

Hi everyone,

Claire here today sharing my first festive layout using the Christmas Time collection from Echo Park.

I really love this collection - its packed full of traditional colours, patterns and florals that I love to use for festive scrapping. You can find it in the shop here.

For this layout, I'm documenting a photograph from a friend's husband, @orangeymart_46, who kindly let me scrap this incredible photograph of some deer he captured on camera!

I started by prepping a piece of Premium White Cardstock with gesso before adding watercolour with a brayer. Once the ink was dry, I added some Distress Oxide with a brush through some Vicki Boutin stencils, creating additional depth to the background.

To create some extra interest, I wanted to double mat the photo, leaving the bottom edges long to showcase this beautiful patterned paper. To do this, I chose a the more delicate Santa Swirl paper, and the vibrant Magical Christmas paper.

For an extra layer, I added a small fishtail banner, cut from the Snowflakes Falling paper, and raised the ends on foam to help give separation.

I also cut a strip of Kraft cardstock and punched along the edge to create a lacey pattern. I like this rustic colour as it helps to draw out the woodland feel of the page.

Once all the photo layers and papers were in place, I started to embellish.

I cut some of the florals from the Festive Floral paper and layered these around the photo, raising some on foam for extra height and curling the leaves to give movement. I also added a fir cone from the Element Stickers to again echo the brown woodland feel. 

To this, I also added a sleigh from the sticker sheet and my title, both of which run along the bottom edge of my photo. 

For an extra pop of red, I found this lovely trim in the Sticker Book. Really love the extra colour this gives - it really lifted the page.

On the opposite side of the photo, I wanted to create a small tree cluster using trees from the Sticker Book and of course, that awesome deer - How could I resist?!

To the top edge, I added another small cluster using the stickers to tie in the design.

As a finishing touch, I added a torn strip of the red paid Magical Christmas paper to the bottom of the page to balance and anchor the design.

This page has been a really fun one to put together, and I look forward to sharing another layout with you soon.

Until then, enjoy the festivities!

Claire xx

@scrappysoulmate.

November Papermaze Kit - Part 2

Lynn back today, with the second pair of layouts made using the November Papermaze Kit. A lovely selection of bright colours with some black and white too.

 

Here are the details of what you will find in the kit.

Patterned Papers:
49 & Market - Spectrum Gardenia - Painted Foundations Color Wheel
Doodlebug Design - Hello Again - Dainty Dots
Simple Stories - The Little Things - Always Remember
Simple Stories - Simple Vintage Life In Bloom - Make Time
Simple Stories - What's Cookin' - Let's Eat
American Crafts - Shimelle Main Character Energy - After Hours
Bazzill Basics - CS White and Hillary

Reverse side of papers

Embellishments

9 frames of Tim Holtz Film strip ribbon, 3 Paige Evans die-cut leaves, heart button, 1m black twine, 1 sheet alphabet stickers, 1 strip of enamel hearts, 1 flair badge, 6 water droplets

Bazzill Basics extra pack - Blackbird, Apricot, African Violet and Petunia

Yes, You Can! Photos of the girls on the way home after their first ballet exam.

For this layout I used the CS White Bazzill from the kit and did some stencilling down the centre matching the colours of the papers. I chose Peacock Feathers, and Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide Inks through a stencil from my stash. I flicked more of these inks and some water over the area too.  

I cut two large triangles from the striped side of 'After Hours', then I cut two more slightly larger from the spotty side of  'Make Time', paper. The stripes were mounted over the dots and then applied to either side of the layout.

My photos were mounted on to white, then black cardstock scraps. and then arranged onto the layout. From scraps of the Make Time paper I cut some of the tickets and tucked these around the photos. 

My title and some arrows were taken from Vicki Boutin's The Details Thickers puffy phrase stickers pack.  More details were added with the alpha sticker pack from the kit.

Finally, I added the water droplets from the kit.

 Baby Girl - I used a photo of the very youngest member of the family.

I completed all the cutting and mounting of papers and cardstock, before working out where to do the stamping. The sizes for this will depend on the size and orientation of the photos. For this I used the Petunia Bazzill, both sides of the 'Dainty Dots' paper and the spotty side of the remains of the 'Make Time' paper. I mounted my photo onto some scrap white cardstock, and cut and arranged the mounted patterned papers across the page. Using Blackbird Bazzill as a base, and without sticking anything in place, I worked out where the stamps should go. I made light pencil marks before everything was removed from the background.

With a VersaMark ink pad and Jofy stamp set #14, I stamped the daisies onto the black, and heat embossed with white embossing powder. The paper, card and photo were then glued in place.

I punched some butterflies using a Martha Stewart 3 in 1 punch, I places a cluster of these around the flowers.

With another scrap of Make Time paper and more Petunia Bazzill, I made a half tag, punching a hole and rounding the corners. I used the heart button and the black twine from the kit to attach to the tag and mounted it to the top left of the layout.

I created some dots around the flowers and butterflies with White Gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops.

My title was created with some white foam letter stickers. With the sticker pack in the kit, I added Poppy's name and the date. Finally, I trimmed a selection of phrases from the 'Always Remember' paper, and placed them around the page.

That's all from the November kit, I'm currently preparing layouts with the December kit - I'll be back soon.
Thanks for looking.
Lynn x

In the Kitchen - Making Pretty Pages

 Hello!!

Lisa here.

Let's make pretty pages today!

I wanted to document a page in my New Home journal about our new kitchen.

I'm so excited to move. All I think about is the new kitchen.

I'm using the Simple Stories collecion here, What's Cookin'.

This collection was perfect!

I loved the patterned papers so much and wanted to use them all. 

I decided to make a patchwork style page, almost like a tablecloth.

I cut the papers into equal squares and distressed the edges and stuck them down into both sides of my journal pages and then created flips in-between with glassine envelopes.

Behind this glassine is another with a print off of my dream kitchen. 

I found this photo on line around 2018. It's been on my vision board all this time and that's what we are aiming towards. So I wanted to include this vision on my page.

The stickers from this collection were so perfect!

 I've also used the Recipe Cards from the same collection for journaling.

I used the little squares for simple journaling and added some of the stickers to embellish.

And I finished with some Doodlebug Alphas.

I'm so happy with this pretty page and if you'd like to see a video if this being made, I have one here.

Have fun making pretty pages.

love

Lisa xx

 

Carta Bella Fall Fun - Beautiful

Hello, Karen here again with a final autumn themed layout using Carta Bella's Fall Fun collection. As this is the last layout created from my design team kit, I didn't have any full sheet of patterned paper left so the layout is made from the paper scraps leftover as well as brown and white cardstock and some gold cardstock from my stash.

I started by gutting a 11" square from a 12x12 sheet of brown Bazzill cardstock and set it aside. On top of the remaining brown cardstock I layered a sheet of smooth white cardstock which I trimmed down slightly to leave a narrow border of brown round the edges.

I them added some yellow ink in the middle of the white cardstock using a blending tool. I have to admit it wasn't very evenly blended but as most of it ended up covered it didn't need to be too neat.

With the Loose Leaf free cut file from The Cut Shoppe cut from the remaining brown cardstock, I used scraps of the collection  and some textured gold cardstock to back the leaves.

I made one of the leaves on the cut file into a shaker pocket using sequins from Picket Fence Studios.

I really love the sequin mixes from Picket Fence Studios and if you've not seen them, do pop over to the shop and have a look. The sequin mixes come in sweet little compact cases with clear lids and as well as shaped sequins, the mixes sometimes also include beads and other tiny embelishments. Unfortunately the mix I used on this layout is no longer in stock but there are lots of other mixes which would be equally suitable for Autumnal layout as well as other themes. 

With some 3D foam underneath I attached the backed cut file to the centre of the layout.

My photo was printed with a white border and matted with more of the Autumn Abundance paper and stuck it on top of the cut file. A word from the sheet of chipboard phrases was added to the corner of the photo.

I had some gold die cut leaves left over from my previous layout so decided to add these to the rows of leaves too. They added some extra dimension and interest.

In my stash I found the word Beautiful on a sheet of puffy stickers from Paige Evans. It was rather too pink for the layout and I was surprised that despite it having a shiny texture I was able to easily change the colour of it with a swipe or two of brown ink. The word was stuck to the bottom of the layout.

Using small foam letter stickers I added my dog's name beside one of the leaves.

Finally I splattered a little watered down brown acrylic paint onto the layout, added some orange enamel dots and gold sequins and using a brown gel pen I drew a line all round the layout.

Thank you for dropping by today and I hope you too will feel inspired to scrapbook some autumn photos. I will be back soon with another project and a new collection to share with you.

Take Care

Karen x x