I love how your eyes sparkle | Di Willcox | Sparkle

Good morning Scrap Addicts! Di here today with my first layout as a UKSA creative team member, how exciting!!

'Sparkle' is this month's theme and as it so happens, I had the exact word in a puffy sticker set from the PinkFresh Studio 'Joyful Day' collection. Perfect!

I have lots of photos of my daughter (who's now 24) as a toddler but I struggle to scrap them as they have some distraction in the background that I'm not happy with or the colours/ patterns don't go with the modern papers. After scrolling through Pinterest for ideas I saw a few grid style layouts that use several photos cut down to the main focus point, so I chose a few of Molly, cut them down to 4 x 2 inches and arranged them on the page with papers from the a kit that featured papers from PinkFresh Studio and Pretty Little Studio. I also fussy cut some of the mandala style flowers from one paper and punched some chevrons out of another to create embellishments. 

 After I'd stuck the photos and papers down it seemed a bit flat to me so I doodled lines between to create more of a grid and then I got the 'pop' I wanted to achieve!

I added the title, embellishments and a few sequins (well it is sparkle month!) to finish the layout off.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with for 'Sparkle', I'll be looking out for lots of shiny layouts in the UK Scrap Addicts group on Facebook ;)

Di x

Keepin' It Real | Kirei Baldwin | 6'' x 6'' Paper Pad

Hi Scrap Addicts!

Kirei here with the final blog post for the month where we have shown you our take on using 6'' x 6'' Paper Pads.... I pulled out a previous Lottie Loves Paper monthly kit that featured the Fancy Pants range 'The Bright Side' as I had the 6'' x 6'' paper pad add on to use up and I love the fresh colours of pale pink, red, yellow, green and pale blue together.

I love using a 6'' x 6'' paper pad as the smaller details look great when layering behind a photo as they don't overwhelm it. And as the details on the paper are all scaled down you can use up small pieces and still see the overall effect of the pattern.

So I used three of the papers with slightly distressed edges to back the photo.

Then I added lots of the lovely matching diecuts, chipboard stickers and puffy stickers in two clusters around the photo.

To edge the layout I cut some small pieces of the same three papers and just layered them along the top and bottom edge and added a few staples.

To finish off I added journaling and a title....

Why don't you share your layouts using a 6'' x 6'' paper pad over on the UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page and join in with the chat.... we love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking, happy scrapping!

Happy Day | Kirei Baldwin | 6" x 4" photo

Hi Scrap Addicts!

Kirei here with my take on this month's theme...which is to use one 6" x 4" photo on your layout. Now I am sure many of you use this standard size all the time however I normally use smaller photos as I print them on my Canon Selphy so I had to dig into my hoard of older photos to find a true 6" x 4" to scrap for this month!

I used papers and embellishments from the May kit by Lottie Loves Paper, which included Crate Paper Maggie Holmes Flourish, Jen Hadfield Patio Party, Bo Bunny Early Bird and Pink Paislee Auburn Lane.

I decided that the focus piece for my layout would be the fussy cut flowers from the 'Flourish' patterned paper....and yes, it did take me a while!

Then I mounted my photo on a couple of the patterned papers (I distressed the edges for texture), this was then tucked under the fussy cut flowers.

I used a mix of embellishments from Maggie Holmes Flourish (gold Thickers), Bo Bunny Early Bird (ephemera) and Pink Paislee Auburn Lane (stickers) to decorate the layout as well as add the title. A few lines of journaling to the right of my photo and it was almost done.... just a few splatters of gold Heid Swapp Colour Shine to finish it off!

Why don't you share your layouts using a 6" x 4" photo over on the UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page and join in with the chat.... we love to see what you create!

Thanks for looking, happy scrapping!

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

Your Happy Place | Sarah Jayne | Large Photo

Wow!! What a month of scrapping large photos inspiration it's been here on UK Scrap Addicts so far!

Today, I'll show you what I got up to when I scrapped a large photo for the first time ever! Yep, honestly, in my 12 years of scrapbooking I can't recall ever scrapping with a photo larger than 7" x 5". So, thank you to UKSA for helping me step out of my comfort zone with this one!

Here's the process video:

For my layout I had a few photos printed in 10" x 7" size and chose one that had lots of plain background area that I can use for embellishing. I planned to embellish right on top of the photograph.

I used some of the larger embellishments from my stash and from the August Lottie Loves Paper Kit.

All the patterned papers and lots of the embellishments are from the brand new "Carousel" collection by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper and I mixed it up with a few embellishments from her previous collection "Chasing Dreams".

I kept my embellishment clusters to three areas and repeated several of the elements in each of the 3 clusters.

And here's the finished layout:

When I'm not at my scrapping desk, you will find me in my office uploading lovely new stock to the Lottie Loves Paper website or on the LLP Social Media accounts (listed below) or busy packing up kits for the Lottie Loves Paper kit club. I'd love you to hop on over and say Hi if you have chance.

Find me on Instagram and Facebook

Thanks so much for joining me today and Happy Scrapping!

NSD Winners

Thank you so much for your participation in our National Scrapbooking Day challenges.  Here is the post you have all been waiting for... it's time for the winners!

Challenge 1 - Single sketch sponsored by Lottie Loves Paper
The winner is Michelle Jeffrey

Challenge 2 - Double Sketch sponsored by Mind The Scrap
The winner is Courtney Grace Hirst

Challenge 3 - Mandala cut file sponsored by Hey Little Magpie
The winner is Sarah Kentzer

Challenge 4 - Flowers cut file sponsored by Pretty My Page
The winner is Cathalyn de Jong

Challenge 5 - Fleur cut file sponsored by Craft Consortium
The winner is Sandra Daly

Challenge 6 - Words cut file sponsored by Crafty Ribbons
The winner is Ally O'Neill

Challenge 7 - Scraplift our Whispers sponsored by Lollipop Box Club
The winner is Gemma Steele

Challenge 8 -Instaloop sponsored by UglyBugDesigns - The winner is Jo Boland

Challenge 9 - Moodboard sponsored by Crafty Templates
The winner is Natalie Nelson

And for the RAK's from my wonderful creative team;

Maria chose Cathalyn's take on the Scrapbook Whispers Challenge

Roxy chose Jo Drury's comment from the Scrapbook Fails post;

"The Worst Scrapbooking Fail EVER!!!!!!

We had a challenge at a retreat to use spare alphas. My idea was epic... I completely covered 2 pieces of card stock with random chipboard alphas of all sizes, it was a beautiful jigsaw of alphas covering every inch of the card from top to bottom. I painstakingly painted the entire thing black with acrylic paint so that they both looked like a blackboard with lovely embossed letters on the background. It took 3 coats of paint and the entire thing took nearly 24 hours from start to finish. I used them to back a fab picture of each of my twin nephews with school awards that they had recently won. It was a true labour of love... but it looked absolutely amazing!! I proudly hung them on the wall and was chuffed to bits when it was voted the challenge winner at the retreat.... I proudly walked up to collect my prize and Lorraine our crop organiser whispered with a sad face and a big sigh.....

You didn't cut the manufacturers strip off on either page.....

Epic fail! Although I can laugh about it now they still don't fit in my page protectors or album and I still haven't figured out a way to fix it!!! And it's still a topic of conversation at the crops whenever I start a new layout.. lol"

And Pol chose Leo from the Scrapbook Fails post;

"My biggest scrapbook fail was making an album - I make quite a lot of albums so it wasn't like I didn't know what I was doing but I think that's where the problem started - over confidence! This one was going to be a 9x12 size. I spent hours padding the chipboard bases, gluing and cutting some very precious fabric, (like Japanese import stuff quilting shops sell for ££) putting in the spine, riveting etc etc. Really cuffed to bits with it - go to put my page protectors in.... oh no, I made the album 9x12 perfectly totally forgetting about the page protectors being larger for the spine bits. doh doh doh!" 

And lastly, I (Laura) chose Wendy's layout for the sketch challenge because it includes Sussex Pond Pudding!!

Winners! - Please can you send an email with your name and address to ukscrapaddicts@gmail.com and we will sort out your prizes!  You have until 23rd May to claim your prize, any remaining prizes will be re drawn on the 24th May.

We would like to say a huge thank you to our wonderful sponsors for the generous prizes, and another huge thank you to all who entered!  See you again next year!!

NSD Sponsor | Lottie Loves Paper

Revealing the third of our National Scrapbooking Day sponsors and prizes...

You can find Lottie Loves Paper here:

Website  Facebook  Facebook Group  YouTube  Instagram

All the details, how-tos and when-bys will be announced on the 6th May on this blog - see you there!

Hello Beautiful | Sarah (Lottie Loves Paper) | Sewing

Hello, it's Sarah here today!
So, we are continuing with the stitching theme ... I'll let you into a little secret ... before I found out the theme for April, I had only ever sewn on a couple of my layouts!
But, now that has changed - and I can't stop sewing on my pages! I love the texture that it adds.

For this layout I used the current kit from Lottie Loves Paper which has lots of the gorgeous new "Wild At Heart" collection from Cocoa Vanilla Studio.

I used a stitching template to add three stitched hearts to my layout.

It's so easy to pierce the holes through the template into the paper using a Pokey Tool and then using embroidery thread stitch the design onto the paper.

The "Mariposa" sheet of patterned paper from the collection is full of little butterflies which just had to be fussy cut and used as embellishments.

The "Hello Beautiful" from the "Wild At Heart" chipboard made the perfect title.

Here's the finished layout:

I've added a short process video to the UK Scrap Addicts YouTube channel showing how the layout came together so why not grab a cuppa and pop over and watch it....

Thanks for visiting and I'll see you next month.