Pampered Beasts | Zoe Hailey Zola 28 | Lisa Fonseca Style Page Element

 Hi Everyone

Welcome to my layout inspired by Lisa Fonseca style page element ; our September theme in UKSA. I was a little daunted by this assignment as Lisa is so amazingly talented, but I kept cute critters and hand stitching in mind when I made my page. 

I don't have the talent to hand cut all the fantastic  animals that Lisa does, so I turned to my trusty Cricut to cut a couple for me. I chose a tiger and a bear, which were perfect for this layout of my children at "Mummy's pamper salon". We had a Sunday afternoon of face masks, manicures and pedicures and each of the children's masks had cute animals printed on them. 

I hand stitched around the face of each animal in a corresponding embroidery thread, using all 6 strands of thread. I also stitched around their noses & mouth. I popped the animals up on foam and tucked my 3x4 landscape photo behind the bear. I used the clear stickers from the Cocoa Vanilla Studios Legendary collection to create a water colour affect around my photo. 

The Wild and Free title was hand cut from one of the journaling cards and I added a couple of branding strips at the bottom to ground my layout. I used some Indian ink to create black splats around my page, this helped bring in the black from the animal faces. I added a sprinkling of enamel dots around my journaling and the photograph. 

I really love the fun nature to this page and it captures perfectly the memories.  

If you take inspiration from this months  theme, please do share your layouts over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram.  I'd love to see what you make! 

Happy Scrapping 

Zoe x

Chasing Rainbows | Karen Moss | Multi Photos

Hello, Karen here with my October layout featuring multi-photos.

I have used several photos of my daughter's Isla pup which were taken with a rainbow in the background.

The background was made by inking a piece of smooth card with Ranger inks and I used some really pretty rainbow embroidery floss to stitch around a piece of white card.  The rainbow and clouds were cut from addhesive backed card which is perfect for backfilling.

I finished my layout by backing the clouds with vellum.

You can see the full process video here.

Don't forget that you can go to our YouTube Channel to see more process videos or look at the lovely examples of multi photo layouts on our Facebook page.  You may even be inspired to make one yourself - if so please show us.

Karen

Let's Go | Jackie Ashton | Selfie

Hello crafters, Jackie here with my layout for this months theme ‘Selfie’.  I’m not ashamed to say, but I love taking a selfie, either on my own or with friends, I never shy away from getting in a photograph when I can as often as I can.  I think its an important part of scrapbooking and memory keeping to get yourself in the photograph as often as you can.

For my layout this month, I decided not to use a photo of myself, but I wanted to included a few friends, and record a memory of our recent trip to Paris.

Let’s Go ... 

I started my layout by added patterned papers to the left side of the page, and added a punched border to one of the strips, and added machine stitches down this strip.

Then I wanted to add more texture to the page, so added some hand stitched circles, that will form a base for my photograph.

I layered my photographs with several pieces of patterned papers and added it over the top of the stitched circles.

I also added some hand stitched circles to the bottom of the page and add a small cluster of embellishments.

For my title I added a perspective.

That all from me this month, and please don’t be afraid of getting yourself in the photographs you are taking, and remember not all selfie’s have to be of you on your own, why not take a few with a group of friends, or even your pets, really the list of selfie taking is endless, go out and enjoy the fun of taking a selfie or two and get them documented on a page.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing what we have designed with this month theme, and don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook group, we would love to see them.

Till next time,

Happy scrapping

Baby | Esther Peck | Sewing

HI Everyone - Essie here with my layout for July's sewing theme. Now I love the way sewing looks on a layout, but I find it time consuming to do and am impatient so really challenged myself to add lots of hand stitching this one. 

I started with a cut file and used my pokey tool to add the holes for stitching. I used a white thread with a couple of strands of silver for the outer lines and gradually used a darker blue as I stitched towards the centre.

I also stitched around the letters

Before adding embellishments

Even thought it took me ages I was happy with how my stitching turned out.

I hope you've been inspired by our layouts this month and if you want to see in more detail how I made my page you can see my process video over on our Youtube channel by following the link

Sewing Process video

Thanks for stopping by

Love | Sam Ball | Sewing

Sewing has to be one of my all time favourite additions to any scrapbooking layout!

If I’m never quite sure what’s ‘missing’ it’s my go to addition and it always works!

Machine sewing is probably my preferred choice over hand stitching, although much like any larger tool such as a die-cutting machine, I do find when my sewing machine is out, I use it so much more!

Do you ever start a layout then ‘literally’ tear it apart and start again? Having originally started this layout with the green panelled paper as the entire background, something just wasn’t working… Drastic action was needed and so I roughly tore about one third off the left hand side of the paper. This now meant that my layout was missing a 12 x 5” section of paper!

I built the left side up, adding some stamping detailing to the base watercolour, along with some further torn strips, then did a double line of machine stitching down each torn section. The stitching adds dimension and I find it allows you to further distress the torn edges.

Once I stated to stick the layout down, I felt it was looking too geometric and needing softening to reflect the soft focus areas in the photo.

After playing with some mixed media powders on a separate sheet of paper, I then used it to die-cut out some trailing flowers, which immediately made the overall layout much softer and more feminine…

Along with a bit of thread to tie a few embellishments together, I decided a bit of hand sewing was needed, especially with this months theme being sewing!

A few aptly placed French knots, sewn in white thread just added a bit more texture and I was happy!

Don't forget to share your layouts with us over on our Facebook page, or tag us on Instagram if you've been inspired by this months theme.

Love | Karen Moss | Sewing

Hello, hello lovely scrappers - Karen here with my response to the sewing prompt for this month.

I wanted to do something a little different and decided to cross stitch a border and photo mount .

If you would like to see my process for designing and completing this layout I have a video over on the U K Scrap Addicts YouTube channel here.

Don't forget to check back to see what the other UKSA ladies have been adding sewing to their pages. 

Karen x

Unicorn Smash! | RamblingsofGeo | Sewing

Hello everyone!

Welcome to July, and Happy birthday to me! - Sewing month... not my strongest point, but i have given it a good try!

To celebrate my birthday i have a paper pieced Unicorn to inspire you. I made this by tracing out a unicorn from a template i found on google. I used my smash book this month as it had the perfect page of a unicorn in the cutesy smashbook (purple binder)

I used papers from the Hobbycraft 12x12 Rainbow Magic pad which was a bargain £5 from hobby craft a couple of months ago. Its a must have for unicorn lovers!

I decided to sew around the unicorn around the edge in the style of alot of the cute lisa fonseca animals i have seen her make. Im incredibly proud of how well this turned out, and it goes to show a little bit of patience goes a long way! :) 

There is a corresponding youtube video over on the ukscrapaddicts channel for you to see how i put this together.

I hope you find inspiration in this layout!

Adventures | Amy Kattenbelt | Sewing

Hello lovely scrappers, Amy here today with my layout that features sewing! I decided to go all out and stitch my title across the whole page. I must apologise that I am not able to create process videos at the moment due to building work at my house, but I tried to take a lot of photos to show you how I created my layout.

I really wanted my title to be in my own handwriting. So the first thing i did was draw some faint straight pencil lines across my white cardstock. I then planned which words i wanted on which line and took my time to hand write the title across the whole of the page in pencil. You also want to remember to leave a gap in your title for your photo, I left some space in to the left hand side for my photo.

When i was happy with my penciled title I used a 'pokey tool' and created holes along the pencil lines. Remember that the more holes you poke the more stitching you will have to do. Placing them too close together will cause the card to rip as you pull the thread through the holes, but too far apart and curves will become angular. If you look carefully you can see that I place holes closer together around tighter corners. You also need to take care at junctions of lines, making sure you put a hole at these intersections. Getting the holes right will make the rest of the stitching so much easier. If its your first time using this technique you may want to start with something smaller. This took me at least 6 hours to stitch, which i quite enjoyed as you can do it whilst sat watching TV.

Once you have all your holes, now is the time to erase your pencil lines. Be careful and work in small areas so as not to crease or rip the card.

Now we can begin with the sewing. I chose to stitch each line in a different colour. I used regular embroidery thread, the kind you would use for cross stitching. These come with 6 individual threads that you can pull apart (usually you use 2 at a time for cross stitching). The more threads you use the thicker the line will be and also the bigger the holes will need to be. I decided to use 3 threads for this layout.

You use a back stitch to recreate your text. If you struggle with this the best thing to do is google for instructions. Once you understand the principle it really is very simple.

I used washi tape on the back of my layout to hold the thread ends in place, both at the start and end of a length of thread.

Once my title was stitched I knew i wanted to keep the rest of the layout simple so it didn't draw attention away from the title. I used some of the gorgeous rainbow paper by Paige Evans to frame my layout (yes i did cut out the middle so i can use this paper on another layout. I mounted my photo in yellow paper (a colour i hadn't used for sewing) and a doily. I added a few little die cuts, a ribbon and a date stamp to complete my layout.

I hope I have inspired you to give hand stitching a go on a layout. If you have any questions just post on our UK Scrap Addicts Facebook group and ill be able to help you further. Thanks for reading and happy sewing!!

Sweet | Sheena Rowlands | Sewing

Hi there UK Scrappers x Sheena here again x

This months challenge is sewing. I know this isn't something everyone likes to do but it can be a great way to add some texture and interest to your scrapbook pages.

Sweet.

For this page featuring my new Nephew and a crocheted horse I've just made him I decided to use both machine and hand sewing as I know not everyone has access to a sewing machine.

I used the sewing machine to firstly sew my cardstock to a patterned paper border leaving enough of a gap to bend the cardstock edges slightly. Also for the first time I stitched my photo to the matting layers behind and I really like how this looks so will probably do it again.

From the Pink Paislee - Little Adventurer range I die cut a number of circles of different sizes. I added interest to some of these using complimentary coloured thread, either by chain stitching around the edge or by adding french knots to the circles with animals on, adding to the border that was already there.

Adding sewing to embellishments in this way is less scary if you are new to sewing than adding directly to your layout. If you are not familiar with some embroidery stitches there are some good you tube videos you can watch whilst you practise. 

I finished my page with a die cut title and some wood veneer from the Little Adventurer range.

I hope you feel inspired to try sewing on your creations and please do share them with us over on our Facebook page or if you have any sewing related questions we would be happy to help x

Till next time x

Beary Cool | ScrappyNerdUK (Claire) | Sewing

This month is either going to make you or break you if you're joining in with our monthly themes.

It is the Marmite of the scrapbooking world (and I'm not talking about Fussy cutting!!).

Our theme this month is.......Sewing!!!! (I just heard you groan).

We like to pick themes that really stretch you and push you outside your comfort zone so don't shy away and be sure to join in. We have a whole team of amazingly talented ladies that are ready to show you some ideas as to how you can incorporate sewing (hand or machine) into your scrapbook pages.

I decided to dust off my WeRMemory Keepers Sew Easy tool and put it to work on this layout. I have quite a few attachments for it and it was gathering dust in my drawer so this challenge was the perfect excuse to grab it out and use it!

I decided that I wanted to make my layout 9x12 (I do a mixture of different sizes and I think it helps break up the monotony of 12x12 layouts). I trimmed down my white cardstock to 8.75x11.75 inches and distressed the edges with a distressing tool.

I had already pre chosen my paper that I wanted to back my white cardstock with and it is the rainbow paper from the Rainbow Magic paper pad which is made by Hobbycraft. (It has rainbows, unicorns and clouds in it so this collection is a definite winner for me - hehe).

I used some Heidi Swapp colour shine in Black to add some ink splatters before I began as I didn't want to risk getting the splatters onto my sewing.

Next I grabbed some border punches and punched out a few strips of paper from the same paper pad. I had this vision in my head of paper strips, stamps and sewing in strips at the bottom half of my page. I can say that it turned out exactly how I imagined it!!

I layered some paper strips, then I used a star strip stamp with black ink and then my Sew Easy tool pierced the holes for me to add my stitching in. I used 3 different attachments to add different stitching styles. In the straight stitch I did chain stitch and the other 2 I just did a straight back stitch. It created lovely texture and I was really pleased with the result.

I grabbed some black and white Thickers from my stash and added little foam dots underneath each letter to add some dimension for the title. I love the natural shadow it creates underneath the title and stuck these down in a slightly wonky fashion for extra interest.

I finished the layout off with some co-ordinating enamel dots and a couple of 3d stars that I had laying around on my desk from another project I had completed earlier in the day (I love that I managed to put some leftover die cuts to use on another layout).

And here is the finished layout.

So get that sewing needle and thread out and give sewing a go. This shows that a small amount of stitching can still be very effective.

Until next month.......

Claire x