Good Friends |Jackie Ashton | Recycled Elements

Hello Crafters, Jackie here with my layout using a product that not necessary a scrapbooking product.

My original plan was to use a recycled envelope, but then I found this greeting cards, so not fully recyclable but something that wasn't intended for a scrapbooking page.  

The layouts is basic, using patterned paper as my base and a 5 inch strip of patterned paper across the middle my page.

The photographs where take on my last girlie holiday in 2017 with my lifelong friends, so I used a summer theme papers, which are nice and bright and represented our holiday in Spain.  But my journalling is about how I have valued our friendship and how lockdown as brought us closer again.

We have not been together for over 18 months, so we are eager awaiting the lockdown restrictions to lifted so that we can get together for a good catch up in person.  But till then we will have to make do with our daily WhatsApp chats and FaceTime sessions.

I used the envelope as well, so I decided to decorate it and add some mini photographs inside.  

I decorated the front of the envelope with some patterned paper, stickers and stamps.

Inside the envelope, I die cut some tags using white cardstock, and added a selection of the photographs taken on our holiday, to both sides.  And also added a little word sticker to each photograph.

Then I decided that I needed a base for my photographs, so I mounted it onto a die cut tag, and adhered to the flap of the envelope.  To keep the envelope closed I added a velour dot that are normally used in sewing.

I added my journalling to the card with a few stickers, and also added one of these velour dots to the card, so that stayed flat on the page as well.

Thank you for stopping by, don’t forget to share your layout over on our Facebook page we would love to see them.

Till Next Time

Happy scrapping

 

Everyday Life | Karen Moss | Recycled Elements

 Hi - Karen here with my page for this month's challenge, which is to use recycled elements on your project.  I think I have taken this to the extreme!

On this page I have used a piece of a white pizza box cut to 12 x 12 for my background, tearing some areas to reveal the brown corrugated card beneath.  I have also used tissue that Christmas presents and craft orders were wrapped in to make tissue paper flowers (details on my process video).  White card from the packaging of a new pair of shoes, cut into leaves with my BigShot and dies.  I made a shaker out of a tag, some clear packaging from a packet of enamal stars.  I filled my shaker with the 'circle waste' from a hole punch and some beads and finally my journaling card is the packaging from some flair.

I did make sure that my photo was mounted onto a piece of patterned paper so that the recycled elements didn't touch it as I knew they weren't photo friendly and used some stickers, made for scrapbooking, on the areas that my corner cluster overlapped my photo.

I stand by my claim that this is the ultimate recycled project as the only stash I have used is a 6.5 x 4.5 scrap of patterned paper and a few stickers!

If you would like to see exactly how I made the flowers, and shaker element pop over to our YouTube channel and have a look at my process video. 

Please show us your take on using a large photo on a page on our Instagram feed or our Pinterest board.

There are more pages that our talented DT have made on there too. 

Take care and stay safe

Karen

Adventures fill your soul | Sam Ball | Recycled Elements

I love nothing better than ‘random’ things on my layouts, so when I saw this months’ theme to use recycled elements, I knew it was right up my street!

Having looked through my stash to find some recycled elements that inspired me, the most random items I could find were a 7” vinyl record and an old Mac keyboard.

 

I desperately wanted to use the record, but I wasn’t feeling it, so I moved on to the keyboard pieces and was fully intending to scrap a photo of a young child with an ABC theme.

I then got distracted by the fabulous Simple Stories Vintage Great Escapes collection, and decided to change the theme and elements completely as I was feeling so inspired!

 

I knew that I had lots of stash that would work with the ‘natural’ feel, so gathered together lots of elements including wooden buttons, hessian fabric, vintage French book paper and an old postcard, a 3D printed frame and even an actual twig, complete with moss!

Using the ‘Wild and Free’ paper from the collection as the base for the layout, it quickly came together. The left hand printed detailing was so pretty that although I toyed with cutting it out and layering it, I ended up clustering and layering on the right hand side, using the recycled elements to balance the busy left hand side.

Fresh off the tree, when I added the twig, my layout suddenly had a tiny spider crawling over it!

 

Even if you haven’t played along this month, why not share what the most random or recycled element you’ve ever used on a layout is? And if you have played along, don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram!

Loves These Moments | Jackie Ashton | Monochrome

 Hi Crafter, Jackie here with my layout for this months theme ‘monochrome’ 

This layout is for my Lockdown album, so its 9 x 12 format.

The collection I used is Pink Fresh Studio - Let’s Stay Home to document that we can still enjoy a walk around the Botanical Gardens after the restrictions were lifted over the Summer.

I choose a grid format so it help my layout come together quickly.

Layering some patterned papers underneath each photographs and distress the edges of the pattern paper to add some texture.

This was a project life card which I added a stamped phase at the top, and added some puffy alphabet stickers to form the title.

I love how this layout came together, and hope that you join us over on our Facebook page with your monochrome layouts, we would love to see them.

Daydreamer | Sam Ball | Monochrome

When it comes to monochrome, it’s a common belief that it only applies to a colour combination of ‘black and white’! 

In fact, it actually means a single colour and tones of that colour, often made darker or lighter using white or black, and it’s one of my personal favourites!

 

Having looked through my stash, I found some Websters Pages papers that were based on single colour themes – there was one for every month and of course I’d bought them all! August was based around teal and aqua, one of my all-time favourite colourways!

 

The photos were from August 2010, taken on the back of a cruise ship, and ones that I’d never scrapped. I’d paired them with the Websters paper and simply never got round to scrapping them!

 

After pulling together more stash from Crate Paper and Pretty Little Studio, along with some flair and embellishments, the layout came together really quicky!

 

I can’t deny to a little ‘cheat’ in terms of the gold accent, which appears on a couple of the chipboard pieces and more obviously on the background.

It’s one of the fabulous Vicki Boutin pre-done backgrounds, which always seems to help kick start my scrapping, rather than me sitting staring a blank piece of white cardstock!

 

Whilst most of us tend to scrap our most recent photos, it’s always nice to find an older photo or two! Not only does it evoke wonderful memories, but it also reminds us just how much cameras and their photo qualities have evolved.

 

What’s the oldest photo you can remember scrapping? Perhaps, now’s the time to dig some of them out, and maybe even create a monochrome layout using one? Afterall, sepia or black and white photos certainly hide a lesser quality image and will co-ordinate with virtually anything!

 

And if you do take part, don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram if you’ve played along this month? It’s a great way to use up old stash whilst enjoying new collections too!

I Was Made For Sunny Days | Karen Moss | Moodboard

Hello, Karen here with my take on this month's prompt, which is to use this gorgeous mood board designed by Amy.  

I decided to use a cut file for my title which also incorporated a beach umbrella, which features on the mood board.

I have also incorporated the colours, from the mood board (including the black and white stripes), butterflies and my photos feature ice-creams and the journaling tells the story of the beautiful rose shaped ice-creams we had in Barcelona. 

I have mainly used Vicki Boutin Field Notes papers as they were the perfect colours for the page and as a final flourish have fussy cut some moths (instead of butterflies) to add to my clusters of flowers. 

Don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram if you’ve played along this month? It’s a great way to use up old stash whilst enjoying new collections too!

On our YouTube channel I have a process video showing the making of this page.

Stay safe and you can find lots of inspiration from the other UKSA design team on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. 

Hello | Sam Ball | Mood Board

 

Has the recent humid heat been affecting your creativity?

 

Are you finding it too much like hard work to even contemplate scrapping?

I usually love a mood board, and especially one as pretty as this is, but no matter how hard I tried – the mojo was melting!

 

I actually had two pieces of this fabulous Pinkfresh paper from their ‘My Favourite Collection’ launched earlier this year, so making the first cut should have been relatively ‘stress free!’ as I obviously had a spare. Even so, I managed to do a fair amount of paper shuffling before committing to cutting into it!

The striped colours were perfect and were made for this mood board, even taking on the colour swatch order!

 

I wanted to include not only the colours but elements from the mood board too!

I’m a great believer that you can never have too many butterflies on a scrapbooking layout, and found that the butterflies from the Cocoa Vanilla Studio ‘Happiness’ paper were a fairly close match.

 

As much as I wanted to make a rainbow embellishment, I felt tht this would throw the distinct bands of colour so decided instead to add embellishments, grouped to reflect the swatches.

I was also inspired by the lattice image and had every intention to hand sew a series of diagonals. After machine stitching in matching threads, I trialed hand sewing some diamond shapes on a scrap piece of paper. Sadly, I wasn’t sure that they were going to work as well as I’d imagined so I abandoned that idea too!

In the end I’m really pleased with how this layout turned out… it might have been slow in the beginning but once I got into the mood, I finished it fairly quickly.

 

Are you a fan of a mood board – if you’ve never tried using one, this one is certainly a super one to start with!

 

And don’t forget, we always love to see your layouts over on our Facebook page, or on Instagram…

Make Believe | Sam Ball | Handmade Embellishments

With so many scrapbooking collections having co-ordinating embellishments, and with so many of us scrapping in and amongst other commitments, taking the time to make handmade embellishments is something we simply don’t have the time to do!

A couple of years ago, I did a fine metalworking class that I really enjoyed. I knew it was perfect for translating onto scrapbooking layouts, as it combined paper and fabric with metal, and incorporated other crafts such as crochet, to ultimately make wall art. 

Like so many of these crafts, I was smitten and bought a whole host of the necessary equipment including different wire gauges and cutters! And like so many of these crafts that we fall for, it occasionally comes out the cupboard!

So, with this months’ theme being handmade embellishments, I decided upon making a few simple shapes to complement a scrapbooking collection. For a novice like me, the shapes themselves are best suited to simpler ones, so I decided to reach for Magical Forest by Crate Paper, as it features a whimsy of cute animals, along with a good dash of make believe!

Having bent the wire into a star, moon and cloud, I bound the join using a very fine wire. Each shape was then backed with a paper, with the cloud having the additional embellishment of a buttonhole stitched edge.

I created three groupings, each incorporating a journaling card, ephemera and the wirework embellishment, raising some bits on foam 3D pads and adding chipboard pieces for extra depth.

Before sticking it all down, I used the new Tim Holtz Speckled Egg oxide spray to create splatters, then once everything was fixed in place, I mixed water with the matching oxide ink pad on my messy mat to add a soft halo effect around each cluster.

I’ve loved how it turned out and have every good intention to include handmade wire embellishments on future layouts!

Have you ever made your own embellishments… people do believe that when your mojo is AWOL, it’s a great way to kick start it!

Don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram if you’ve played along this month? It’s a great way to use up old stash whilst enjoying new collections too!

There's No One Like You | Masculine | Jackie Ashton

Hi Crafters,

So this month our theme is ‘masculine’ layout, so I choose these photographs from 2009 of my son climbing a large climbing frame on a day out at the zoo.

There’s No one Like You

I used Pink Fresh Studio - Escape The Ordinary, and started by cutting patterns from one of sheets of papers and using them as backing to each photograph.

I added 3D foam to the back of each photograph to add dimension.

I added some embellishments from the same collection, which worked well with my photographs.

For my title I cut the phase from one of the patterned papers.

And finished the layout with some Bramble Fox perspectives in my stash.

Hope you can join us this month with your masculine layouts and share them on our Facebook page 

Till next time

Happy scrapping

New York Selfies | Jackie Ashton | Multi Photos

Hi crafters, Jackie here with my layout using multiple photos on a page.

This is such a great way to add extra photographs to help document an event.  It does have to be smaller size like I’ve used, but can be standard 2 No. or even 3 No. 6x4 size photographs on your page.

New York Selfies

For my layout I decided to use 5 No. 3x3 photographs of my recent holiday, and also wanted to do a scrap lift or similar from this layout (here), but I ended up changing it by moving the whole design to the opposite side of the page, but kept the simplicity of the design.

I started my adding some colour to my background paper.  Then adding a strip of patterned paper down one edge, and added a border punched detail down one edge.

I added 3D foam to a few of the photographs and mounted onto patterned papers, before placing them down the side of the layout.

I finished off by added embellishments and stamped details  between the photograph.

This layout came together really quickly and even though its meant to be a scrap lift,  it looks different from my previous one as I used it as a starting point for my design.

Don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, we would love to see them.

Till next time

Happy Scrapping