Guest Designer | Sarah Wilkins

Today we welcome Sarah Wilkins as our guest designer...

I am Sarah, married, mum to two boys and two furbabies. I live on the South Coast in Sussex, just outside the city of Chichester.

I have been scrapbooking for over 12 years and my style has changed lots - my main subjects are my boys (but I have less photos of them now they are growing up!) I recently lost my scrapping mojo as we moved house (and, for the first time I had a craft room - but lacked the inspiration to use it), but the mojo is back and I am firing on all cylinders!

I have used Prima papers and embellishments - 'Tales of you and me' collection - I like to use papers and embellishments that co-ordinate as it makes life so much easier when bringing a page together.  I've added a couple of butterflies (I love butterflies and flowers - not that you would guess!) and these are from Etsy.  I often mix alphas as I never have enough letters from the same set.  I normally use a sketch as a starting point (however I didn't this time!) - I like to use sketches from Miniowner and Page Maps, and I just add embellishments (and sometimes have to stop myself from adding too much!)

As you can see below I have added another page - as this page also has a partner 'Hold on to you hat' - and I realised I had used clusters on this page too!

Thank you for guest designing for us this month Sarah. Your pages are truly stunning!

If you'd like to join us as a guest designer drop Laura an email at UKScrapAddicts@gmail.com

Summer Lovin' | Laura Jane Thomson | Clustering

As you have no doubt realised if you have been following our blog and social media, this month our topic is 'Clustering' in scrapbooking - something which I am not totally comfortable with as I never feel that they look the way they should do.  

As crafters we see the work of so many other amazing crafters and it is so easy to compare ourselves, for example I see some scrapbookers who create layouts with the most beautiful clusters at the points where they want to draw your eye around the page so when I create a layout using clusters of embellishments I then look at it and think 'YouTuberA' does it so much better, mine look rubbish in comparison.  

For this months theme I ended up creating three different scrapbook layouts with embellishment clusters before I finished this one that I am remotely happy with - I'm sure if I saw this layout on someone else's blog then I'd no doubt think it was lovely!

When I read through the blog posts and watched the process videos on 'Clusters' by some of the other wonderful UK Scrap Addicts Creative Team, I looked back at this layout and thought the clusters were rather minimal and perhaps not enough but I am quite happy with this layout, as this month is the first I have actively tried to add embellishment clusters to my layout.  

I have only been scrapbooking for ten months and I am still learning so much from fellow crafters, so I know I am nowhere near the level of scrapbooking talent as some of the other incredible people who share their work online, but I also know the progress I have made over the past few months and am slowly accepting that learning these new techniques takes time and to stop expecting instant results.

I would challenge you to try something new or out of your comfort zone the next time you decide to work on some scrapbooking or memory keeping... perhaps clusters are new to you to?  Why not give it a go and share it on our UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page or tag us (#ukscrapaddicts) on all the other social media platforms.  I cannot wait to see your creations. 

Enjoy the rest of your week. 

xx Laura xx

Layout | Jackie Ashton | Clustering

Hi everyone, Jackie here with my layout featuring one simple cluster.  

For my layout this month, I’ve continued with a 9x12 layout that will be included into my Paris album and added a cluster of embellishments to the lower part of my page.  I used this cluster as a place to add  the date and location, as this layout is one of several taken whilst at the Efflel Tower, I didn't add any journalling.

My cluster includes several layers - dollie - tag - vellum - wood veneer - puffy stickers - heart shape, all layered together to make a beautiful cluster on my layout.

Hope you like how I have showed that a little cluster can help bring the page together.

Guest Designer | Louise Thompson

Today we welcome the owner of August's sponsor for a guest post...

Louise of Thompson’s Craft Supplies here with this month’s theme, clustering. I am fairly new to scrapbooking, maybe 4 months, and it grew to be a passion as for me, it is an extension of my love for all things mixed media. As such, this was not a term I had heard before so was really excited.

Well, I tell you, this has just revolutionised the way I will scrapbook in the future and I'll tell you why as we go through my creation.

So first of all here is my finished piece:
 

Now let’s talk through the process...

I have been dying for an excuse to crack open the 7 Dots Hazy Days collection and when I hear the theme, I thought this would be perfect. The reason being is that this paper set also comes with stickers and die cut embellishments and tags which I thought would be great to use in the clustering.

I chose out a piece of paper from the range I loved and a photo that matched the colours. I then remembered a really cool piece of packaging I had kept and some hessian which I would use to mat my photo later.

 

    

I then looked for some matching items I could use to make the clusters from the 7 Dots set and my other items. I chose out a piece of Tim Holtz  Kraft Resist paper from the Idea-ology Collection and sprayed with some Lindy’s Gang sprays and also chose some cork ribbon and adhesive die cuts.

These items were then used to make the 2 clusters. They were fairly quick to make and is a great way to use up scraps. I loved how it just helps you prep a large part of a layout and you could make several at a time. It really sped up the overall layout making process and I will use this technique again. 

Kaisermist Shiraz and Distress Ink Vintage Photo were used on the edges to finish the clusters.

Stenciling was added using a Tim Holtz Bubble Stencil and Prima Marketing Modelling Paste. Embossed stamped images were also added using G45 and Tim Holtz stamps. Some of the 7 Dots stickers were added to the inked paper to make the titles and a little leaf stamp was added for a final touch in black ink.

Everything was glued together and stuck down using my favourite Prima 3D gloss gel, perfect for heavier items and uneven surfaces.

Here are some close up shots. I really enjoyed making this project and this vintage/grunge collection. I cannot wait to use it again and try out this technique on more layouts. Hope you enjoy and it helps inspire your own cluster layouts.

Thanks for joining us Louise!  Don't forget UKSA fans have until the end of the month to use the code at Thompson's Crafts!

Week in the Life | Michelle Mills (UglyBugPlans) | UK Scrap Addicts | Clustering

Hey UKScrapAddicts, I hope you are well? You probably know by now that this months theme that we are covering is "Clustering" as in the clustering of embellishments. To be honest I wasn't really aware that this was a "thing" I just thought we stuck our embellies where we fancied them but since the topic came up I have been noticing patterns in not only my own layouts but the layouts of other YouTubers  and have noticed a few things:

Most of us work in threes, three colours, three embellishments etc, I'm not sure why but it definitely looks more pleasing to the eye.

We use embellishment clusters to draw our eye to certain points in the photo we are scrapping or to draw our eye around the page of a pocket page layout. If my layouts are quite busy in one area yet lack in another I tend to add an embellishment cluster there to bring your eye to that spot.

For this layout I'm using the last LottieLovesPaper kit, its such a bright and fun kit and the puffy stickers are to die for!

https://youtu.be/hV8B-LWp1n8

I hope you enjoy the video, you can find me over on my blog or YouTube channel and of course I will see you back here the same time next month.

Much love
Michelle xx

Pocket Pages | Sarah Toward | Clustering

Hi there.

It's Sarah T back today sharing a Pocket Page spread featuring this months theme of clustering.  Now if I'm honest every one of my Pocket Page layouts feature clustering.  It's something I do on all my layouts, it helps to tie together all the individual photos and cards and gives it a cohesive look.

As you can see my colour scheme for this layout was red, blue and yellow as well as some pops of black which I added with enamel dots and hearts.

For this insert I actually used a plain white piece of card stock that I embellished.  I used some washi-tape in red, blue and yellow, along with one of the enamel hearts and clustered them together.

I was really keen to use this 3x4" journal card on this layout.  So to tie it in with the other colours I added the washi-tape and enamel hearts again in a cluster.

Here I clustered together a die-cut piece and enamel heart, and added some staples.

This Pocket Page layout features really simple clusters and a look that anyone could achieve easily.  If you head over to my Instagram account @lookwhatsarahcreated, you can see more example of how I use simple clusters across my Pocket Page layouts.

For this layout I used supplies from Elle's Studio, some washi-tape I'd recently picked up from Flying Tiger Copenhagen and some Illustrated Faith enamel hearts.

Thanks for stopping by again today.  Be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and join in on this months Clustering Challenge with a chance to win a fab prize from this months sponsor Thompsons Craft Supplies.

Hope you can manage to squeeze in some scrappy time today.

xoxo

You are Gold | Jess Claire | Clustering

Hi guys welcome back to the UK Scrap Addicts, it's Jess Claire and I am here today with some tips for clustering.

You can find my process video here

I created a Project Life spread for a week in June (I know, I'm a bit behind) and I used clusters on a number of my cards.

Here are my top tips for clustering:

1. Make some DIY embellishments.  With these beauties a lot of the clustering work is already done for you.  It takes some time to put them together but once you have you can just grab from them.

2. Decide on which elements you want to use in your clusters.  It helps me to decide before hand what I want to use, that way I can get all my product together before starting on my page.  You could use labels, tags, banners, word stickers, alphas, enamel shapes, velum stickers, washi tape, die cuts.  It just helps to limit some of your choices.

3.  Deciding on the elements you want to use also helps with repetition.  Repeating cluster elements creates a cohesive and consistent look across your page.

4. When using repeated clusters it can help to vary the position of them.  They can be in the bottom corner, across the middle of a card, at the top.  I'm mostly thinking about Project Life here but I like to have clusters in a range of positions across my page.

I hope you found this useful.  Make sure to check out everyone else's blog and video posts for even more tips and inspiration.  And if you have created a layut using clusters do enter it into our Facebook group competition for a chance to win a £30 voucher at Thompsons Craft Supplies

See you next month