Boys will be Boys | Niki Rowland | Black & White Photos

Hi there UK Scrappers! Niki here with you today with a layout and process video. Our theme this month is to use black and white photos.

I often don't use black and white photos becuase I think they lose detail when the colour is gone. I tend to only use them if I have close up portrait shots of faces, rather than pictures of everyday life. I think that black and white can change the mood and tone of a photo, quite dramatically. This is all great, but only on the right sort of photos, so I lean away from converting my photos. BUT I embraced this month's theme of course and didn't have any moody portrait shots available so choose three photos of my little boy, doing boy type things, playing on a play area. The photos look great in black and white and I now officially challenge myself to print more black and white photos!

I started off with my title which I cut on the Silhouette. This cut file is available in the Silhouette Design Store. I stuck it in place and then built the rest of my layout around the title. I arranged my three photos on the right side of the page and then started embellishing.

You can see my process video of this layout below.

 I used the Shimelle Little by Little collection coupled with embelishments from Wish you Were Here by Pretty Little Studio. I added lots of different types of embellishments to my layout so that it had dimension and textures.

I hope you have enjoyed my layout and video - see you next month!

Happy scrapping xx

Find me on my own blog: Being Scrappy and on Instagram as @nikiclaire

Kiss, Cuddle, High Five | Niki Rowland | Journalling

Hi UK Scrap Addicts fans! Niki here with you today with my take on the September theme which is 'Journalling'.  When I scrap I rarely start with the story, I usually begin with photos or products and include a relevant story if it fits but this time given the theme is 'Journalling' I thought about which story I wanted to document before I looked for anything else.

I have put together a process video for this layout which can be viewed below:

The story I chose was one about my little boy and how he always asks for a 'kiss, cuddle, high five' whenever we part, instead of the usual 'goodbye'. It has become a daily ritual but it is not documented in my scrapbooking anywhere and it is such a lovely little thing between us that it definitely justifies a whole layout dedicated to it.

Even though I knew I would journal about the story, I wanted to make it the main focus of my layout so I began by cutting those words in a large size on my cutting machine. This way I have managed to incorporate those words as the main focus of my layout - they are also part of the journalling.

Once cut, I used my We R Memory Keepers typewriter to type the explaination of the story directly onto my die-cut background.

Once my typed journalling was in place I could then move on to creating the rest of my layout. I backfilled the words and gave my die-cut background a colourful border. The papers I've used are Shimelle 'Glitter Girl' but even thought this collection is very pink, sparkly and girly, I pulled out some of the blue and green papers and created a very non-pink boy layout with them.

I embellished the layout with ephemera and other embellishments from the collection, again picking out all the blue and green coloured pieces and I finished off with a few flicks of water colour paint.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and taking a peek at my layout, happy scrapping xx

Find me designing for Freckled Fawn, Just Nick, Hey Little Magpie, GoGo Getaway, Silhouette UK, Stick it Down, and UK Scrap Addicts. Also on my own blog: Being Scrappy and on Instagram as @nikiclaire