Simple Stories Simple Vintage Garden District - Beauty Everywhere

Hello, Karen C here again. Today I have another layout using the Simple Vintage Garden District Collection from Simple Stories. The collection is full of images of flowers and butterflies and so I decided to create a layout using some photos of my garden.

This layout is very simple and uses a sheet of the Never Stop Dreaming paper.  

Using some outline alphabet stamps from my stash, I stamped the quote "If you truly love nature you will find beauty everywhere" onto the layout using some black Memento Ink. This ink is water resistant so it allowed me to go back and roughly colour in the stamped letters using some pink watercolour paint.

Two photos were then stuck to the right hand side of the layout and I carefully cut round one of the butterflies printed on the background paper so I could tuck my photo underneath it.

On the left hand side of the layout I placed a piece of neutral ribbon and I again cut round some of the butterflies so I could 'thread' the ribbon beneath the images. Another small piece of ribbon was tied on for extra interest.

Five natural wooden buttons were added to the left hand side of the layout.

The layout was completed with the addition of a beautiful Tim Holtz Idea-ology Adornments Butterfly .

I thought this would be my last layout using this collection, but I'm really enjoying using it and hope to be back soon with one more layout.

Take Care

Karen x x

Gone Fishing!......Stamperia and embossing powders.

Hello again, it's Anita here with you to end the week.

I hope you are all well and keeping safe.
For this post I have been working with Stamperia papers and its made a nice change to go with a masculine page. This is my Dad, who we all miss very much.....he was always at his happiest when he was fishing.

The page was based on a sheet of Blue Calypso Bazill cardstock which I gutted the centre from. I then used the gutted section to matt the photo and also to cut the word FISHING from.
The background sheet was Stamperia Medusa and because  I wasn't very keen on the large robotic jellyfish image that was over a large area of the sheet, I used a combination of copper and bronze acrylic paints and some Gunmetal Sparkle Medium that I spread through a stencil. In the shop there is a huge selection of Crafters Workshop stencils. This created a new background with some added texture. I felt it was a little like fish scales and was very happy with the result.

From a sheet of Stamperia Fish, I fussy cut 2 fish and hung them from some brown twine and stuck on the right hand side of the page. I roughed up the edges of the entire edge of the layout and dabbed copper paint along the edges.

I also sponged some paint very gently round the edges of the photo matt and the word chipboard embellishment and then finished the photo off by sponging some Sparkle Medium onto the corners.

For my title I used some little old Prima letters for the word 'Gone' and I dabbed them with Avocado Liquid Pearls ..... and for the FISHING part of the title I used some of the left over Blue Calypso cardstock and drew round some large plastic letters that I have had in my stash for years....it really makes a nice change to break out some old items and re use after all this time!

Now what I did next was pretty unconventional and unplanned...... I say unplanned because I could not, for the life of me, find my embossing ink pads...not anywhere!!
I had planned using some embossing powders on the title as I didn't really want to leave it as just plain card, but without the embossing ink I wasn't sure what I could do?

So I thought I would try using some acrylic paint to hold the embossing powder.....and it worked! It left quite a nice texture and rippling effect. I gathered a few more powders in various colours and also some UTEE powders too and sprinkled little areas in different colours to see how they blended.

I was then curious to see what wet glue would do with the powder and heat gun on it.....well it was like a little volcano, bubbling away and when it popped or I pressed it down with my tweezers it has left some great textures and I am really chuffed with the end result! I know its not everyone's cup of tea...... but I like it :)

To finish the page off I made lots of little domes in various sizes randomly around the page using Liquid Pearls and Distress Stickles in different shades.

I hope you have enjoyed my post today...and maybe it will entice you to get out your powders out for a play! There is a great selection of them HERE in the shop if you need to top up your collection or even buy your very first one.

Have a great weekend and stay safe.
Warmest wishes Anita xxx

'Boy at Work' - 12x12 Layout using Photoplay - 'Little Builder' Collection

Hello, Rebecca with you today. I can't believe it's May already! I'm here today sharing my first layout created using the new Photoplay 'Little Builder' collection. These are the first Photoplay products I've ever worked with and I was really impressed with the quality. The collection itself is fabulous - full of all the 'boyish' things my son is currently into!

For this layout, I started by trimming down a sheet of 12x12 white cardstock and distressed the edges using a scissor blade. I added a thin strip of torn orange cardstock underneath at the bottom, and then mounted the whole thing onto the 'All Boy' patterned paper, leaving a larger section visible at the bottom. I made a tear at the top of the white cardstock and slotted a small triangle of orange cardstock in the gap to balance out the layout.

I matted both my photos onto two different colours of Bazzill Cardstock from the Matchmaker Pack and added a layer of adhesive foam behind them to raise them off the layout a bit. Next I fussy cut the orange journalling tag from the 'Hard at Play' patterned paper and placed it to the right of my photos. I added a tag from the Ephemera pack behind it and raised the top of both up with foam dots. I added some embroidery thread through the top of the tag to add a bit more texture to the layout.

I then started working on a cluster to the left of my photos. I added the 'unstopable' tag, with matching embroidery thread and a black and orange striped heart from the ephemera pack and also a couple of stickers from the Elements Sticker Sheet.

I then went back to my right hand cluster and added a blue arrow which I fussy cut from the cut-apart sheet (found here) and another sticker from my stash. This balanced the bottom half of the layout out quite well, but I felt that the top half was looking quite bare.

I added a couple of paper layers behind the top of the photos - I used a small piece of the 'All Boy' patterned paper to match the border, and also a co-ordinating cardstock. I used an American Crafts border punch to make them look like pages torn from a notepad. I used some thickers from my stash to add my title.

I felt like the very top of the layout needed a bit more than just the paper tear, so I added a couple of pieces of ephemera and a strip of 'caution tape' from the Elements Stickers sheet.

I finished the layout off with a few tiny spots of Nuvo Drops scattered around the page in co-ordinating colours.

I hope you've enjoyed this layout. I've been really impressed with this collection so please head over to the shop to check it out.

I'll be back later in the month with another layout created using this fun collection.

Until then, stay safe.

Take care,

Rebecca x

Documenting 'Life in Lockdown' with *Simple Stories Hip Hop Hooray* and Scraps

Good Morning everyone!

I hope you're all keeping safe and well and have a lovely day in the sunshine today.

What have you all been scrapbooking lately? I haven't had much to scrap so far this year, but I do think its important to document this time that we are living through at the moment.

So having said that, for today's post I'm going to show you a layout that I've made recently, it documents 'life in lockdown'.

For my last two posts I've been working with the Simple Stories Hip Hop Hooray collection. You can find it in the shop here. I have continued to use this collection for today's layout, along with a few scraps of cardstock from my stash.

I selected a few photos that have represented our time in lockdown so far, Pe with Joe, Zoom with friends and family, the rainbow trail and enjoying the sunny weather.

I think it's also really important to add journaling to my layouts. So although this layout doesn't feature any, I'm going to be placing it along side another layout in my album which will be pretty journal heavy, documenting what's been happening. I'd be happy to show this layout too.

To create the rainbow, I used paper punches to punch out a selection of shapes in different colours. Starting with red and going through the colours of the rainbow. I punched out shapes from the hip hop hooray patterned papers as well as from some of my cardstock scraps.

I drew out two cloud shapes onto white cardstock and used Nuvo glitter drops to outline the clouds.

I added various embellishments to the punched out shapes, including buttons, enamel dots and stickers. I filled in the gaps in between the shapes using small enamel dots and nuvo drops.

Supplies Used:

• Simple Stories - Hip Hop Hooray Collection - paper scraps
• Simple Stories - Hip Hop Hooray combo stickers
• Nuvo Drops
• Punches - circles hearts
• Enamel Dots
• Buttons
• Cardstock

Thanks for looking, take care and see you soon!

Anna

X

Simple Stories Simple Vintage Garden District - Beautiful You

Hello, Karen C here again with another layout using the Simple Vintage Garden District collection from Simple Stories. This collection is so versatile and today's layout is a wedding layout using a photo of my daughter when she was a bridesmaid.

I trimmed a centimetre off of each edge of a sheet of the Love More paper and stuck this to the middle of a sheet of peach coloured Bazzill cardstock.

I machine stitched round the edge of the paper which white thread and then roughed up the edges with my finger nails..

My 7x5 photo was printed with a narrow white border and was attached at an angle in the bottom right corner of the layout.

In my stash I found some very old Prima Flowers. The flowers were an off white colour so I used some peach coloured watercolour paint to alter the flowers to fit my colour scheme. Prima flowers are generally made from paper or fabric so they can easily be altered if you can't find ones in the precise colour for your project. The flowers were glued onto the layout to embellish the printed wreath.

For the title I used some Pink Paislee Paige Evans Bloom Street Flutter Puffy Phrase Stickers and some Pink Fresh Studio Puffy Alpha Stickers.

I finished off the layout with some stickles to highlight to some of the flowers, a scattering of sequins and some tiny word stickers.

Thank you for dropping in today. I hope you agree that this collection is really beautiful and I will be back soon with one last layout to hopefully inspire you.

Taker Care and Stay Safe,

Karen x x

April Papermaze Kit - Part 2

Hi, Lynn here today with the second set of layouts using the very pretty April Papermaze Kit.

As with the first pair, I have a heritage and a wedding layout to share with you.

A quick reminder of what you will find in the kit see the photo below. For full details, see my previous post.

April Papermaze Kit

Rebecca Mary Wilmott 1797 - 1869 - A layout for another heritage photo from my father's family. I have printed the details of Rebecca's life out and stuck them to the back of the layout for reference.

For this page I used both sides of 'Clock' paper from Stamperia. I started by carefully cutting around the clock with the roses from the centre of the paper with a craft knife. Then I flipped the paper over and trimmed back the planks to create a frame for the layout. I inked the edges with Gathered Twigs Distress Inks.
 

I distressed some cotton lace with the same ink and used small pieces to stick to the frame paper, so it peeps from behind. I attached both frame and clock to the Walnut Bazzill with some 3D foam tape to created some dimension.

The Tando Chipboard clock was embossed with the Ranger Distress Embossing Dabber

and Stampendous Frantage Embossing Enamel - Aged Teal, this was placed towards the nutop left of the clock on the paper. I trimmed the photo and mounted onto some of the Lagoon Bazzill. I applied it to the layout overlapping the Tando clock using more foam tape.

My title was cut from Lagoon Bazzill with a Sizzlits Boxed Brush alphabet die set. The letters were arranged around the clock face then I added a coat of Glossy Accents.

I added some cherry blossom flowers, arranging them in clusters in the gaps around the clock. 

With a Martha Stewart leaf punch and the green side of 'Dozen Roses' paper I added leaf fronds to the flowers, and added a touch of sparkle with some  Diamond Stickles.

Our Wedding Guests - Another layout for my daughter's wedding, this one showing the wooden mannequins I decorated for each of the guests as place settings and table numbers. If you would like to know more about this project, please see this post here.  

I started with the 'Cubbies' paper, using it as a display case for all my little wooden figures. I printed a selection of photos in different sizes, and trimmed them to fit from one to six of the boxes.

I used the Maya Road envelope to display a few more photos. Then with a black pen I added some numbers to the label holders printed on the paper.

The cork butterflies were glued to the page and I added some tiny dots of white gloss Nuvo Crystal Drops.

The title was cut from Quartz Bazzill using the Alphanumeric Cutout Script Thinlits dies.

I made some leaf fronds using the 'Dozen Roses' paper and a Martha Stewart punch, I used them to decorate the resin rose on the front of the envelope.

I will be back soon with the May Kit, thanks for looking.
Lynn x

Using up your little scraps.... a layout and card with Crate Paper

Hello There

 It's Anita here with you today to end the week and I have literally been playing with little tiny scraps that normally I would possibly throw away! The gorgeous range is Carta Bella's Farmhouse Market.

I don't know about you, but in my early days of scrapping I used to keep every little scrap of patterned paper and card that was left after making a layout! They were popped in little folders depending on colour or manufacturer with every intention of using them up....sound familiar?
Thankfully I eventually grew out of that phase ( or I would have had to have moved house!)
Nowadays I am much more brutal.... and once a page is finished I get rid of pretty much everything!
However, I loved this paper Collection so much I just couldn't bear to throw any away.....

I had a sheet of Natural Cardstock and some tiny bits and pieces with a few flowers on and a couple of words .... now I am not very good with 'white space'... and this layout very nearly didn't happen.
I drew round a tea plate onto a cereal box and cut it out and then laid it to one side on the sheet of card before gently spraying it with 3 colours of ink.
I used Distress Oxide Sprays in Spun Sugar and Mermaid Lagoon
and also an old spray of mine, Mister Huey's in Hot Diggity

I then cut various little bits out of scraps of the following sheets

4 x 6 Journalling Cards

Timeless Floral

Little flowers, leaves, words and a frame were fussy cut from the sheets and layered about.

I completed the page with sprinkles of sequins and crystals in various sizes ( I do love a bit of sparkle, dont you?)

I also had a piece of paper left that was a little over 6" x 6" square so I decided to make a card too!

So thats it! All my lovely Crate Paper has gone. I will be working with some new Stamperia papers later in the month, so until then I hope you are able to enjoy your crafting and stay safe xx

Warmest wishes
Anita xx