But First Coffee / Jackie Ashton / Tic Tat Toe

Hi Crafters, Jackie here with my take on this month Tic Tac Toe theme. 

I went for the bottom row - Mixed Alphabets, Hidden Journalling & Pastel Colours.

But First Coffee ...

I started by distressing my white cardstock with Tim Holtz Distress inks in Cracked Pistachio using the packaging technique.

Over this I added stamped several different sizes circles over the top and added some wonky machine stitches, near a few of the circles.

The collection I used for this layout was Pink Fresh Studio - Simple & Sweet collection - its a lovely fresh collection with lots of pastel colours.

For my hidden journalling I die cut a tag from some of the patterned paper and added my journalling to the back, and tucked it behind the photographs.  

The arrow paperclip helps to hold the tag in place as well as being decorative.

For my title I used a Bramble Fox perspextive and the cute coffee cups, 

and added mini alphabets from Maggie Holmes - Gather Collection.

The puffy gold hearts are from Pink Fresh Studio - The Mix No. 1.

By using this months theme, it provides you with a great way to get started on your layout and perhaps mix things up the you wouldn't normally put together.

I hope you can join us on our Facebook group and show us how you have used this months theme on your layouts.

Happy Scrapping, till next time

Explore | Tags | Jackie Ashton

Hi scrappers, Jackie here with my take on this months theme ‘tags’.

This is my layout ...

 and as you can see I went for the 'more is best approach' and die cut various sizes of tags from patterned papers and used them as a base for my photographs.

I used Crate Paper - Here and There collection, which I purchased from Hey Little Magpie.

I mainly used the 6x6 pad, and a few scraps that was left over from a previous layout, as well as added with printed vellum from the same collection to give my page some added texture and detail.

Before laying the tags across the page, I added some ink to the background using Tim Holtz - Distress Inks and the packaging technique, then added white thread to each of the tags.

I also added some hidden journalling behind the photographs, tag was cut from white cardstock and I added a piece of patterned paper on the front, with the journalling on the back.

I added my photographs to my layouts mounted then onto some 6x6 pattered paper.

I then finished my layout with some chipboard and puffy word stickers from the collection and some wood veneer from my stash.

We would love to see how you use tags on your layouts, please share with us on our Facebook page we would all love to see them.

Epic Fail | Lisa-Jane Johnson | Journalling

It's Lisa-Jane from Pretty My Page here today with my take on getting some journalling onto our layouts.  I'm the first to admit that although I believe scrapbooking should be about the story as much as anything else, sometimes there just isn't a story to tell, and that's fine.  Other times there is a story and we plan to come back to it and add it, but we don't, and that's fine too (there are no scrapbooking police thank goodness!) I am definitely guilty of this!  So for this challenge I chose a photo that had a definite story attached and I made sure I got it down on the page!

I didn't actually have a plan in mind when I was pulling out some papers to go with the photo.  Then I came across this Pink Paislee paper with the diagonal hand writing on and I was inspired to create something similar with my journalling.  I didn't intend to use the actual paper as it was the wrong sort of grey but I'm glad I happened across it.

I wanted to create the journalling on a slight diagonal like the paper but of course you can't do that with a 12x12 piece as you need a bit of extra real estate to allow for the slant.  Luckily the pattern in the paper worked in any direction so I was able to rotate it slightly to give me enough to cover right across.  I trimmed off the corners and then matched up the top and bottom, and voila - I have a diagonal piece that stretches right the way across.  

I wanted to add a contrasting strip in above and below the main piece but it obviously meant I would have the same problem with it not reaching.  The pattern on this piece couldn't be cut on an angle so I broke the strips and stuck the ends down first which left me with a little strategically placed gap to cover up.  I also added some stencilling to add another subtle layer.  I used the Ranger blending tool and the Grunge stencil from the Pretty My Page shop with some Tim Holtz Pumice Stone Distress Ink because the story was partly about the mess in the house during our first lot of renovations.

Before I set to work on the journalling, I wanted to add in any base layers for the clusters so that I knew how much room I had to work with.  I didn't add the rest of the embellishments until afterwards so I could write without being impeded or getting enamel dots stuck to my elbow...  The dots and hearts are from the Pretty My Page shop and the stick pins and metal studs are very old bits from my stash which always makes me feel good :-)

Typically on the day I did the journalling, my arthritis was quite bad in my hands and they did not want to be flexible and allow me to write neatly at all!  I didn't keep to the right slant on the stop half either and I considered redoing the background but, you know, life's too short!  And anyway, the whole story was to do with mess and chaos things being out of place so it's quite fitting really!  In the picture I was taking a moment to try and focus on the positives of the renovations which hadn't gone very well.  We were almost at the point of getting the bath in so I posted this picture on Facebook to say "yay, we are getting somewhere, it's not so bad, etc".

Then 5 minutes later the children were charging around and not heeding my warnings and consequently tipped over the bath bashing them both on the head and trapping them underneath! My son ended up with a huge egg on his head and my daughter was fine until she realised her big brother was getting all the attention and she started howling too!  I do think it is important to journal the not so good things about life too, don't you?!  The journalling here blends with the design because it was intentional in it's placement and the grey background means that the writing doesn't stick out.  I wish my writing was neater but here it becomes part of the design and I'm happy with that.  

Don't forget to enter the journalling challenge on our Facebook page to be in with a chance of winning the prize draw for vouchers for the Pretty My Page shop and as always, we'd love to see what you create so don't forget to hash tag us!

 Now go forth and make pretty pages!

Car Selfie | Jackie Ashton | Sketch

Hello, Jackie here using one of this month's sketches.  I love to use sketches sometimes just to get me started on a layout, others, like this one, following the design but making the layout work for me.

So here's what I did, I decided to reduce the sketch and do a 9x12 one instead.  I love that my albums have a mixture of different sized pages, as well as various pocket pages.

I used a photograph of Sheena and me on our way back from teaching a weekend workshop, hence the title.

After cutting my cardstock down to the required size, I distressed the background using a Tim Holtz Distress Oxide Ink Pad - Broken China, using the packaging technique - adding the ink to a piece of plastic bag and a few drops of water, before applying to the cardstock. Once dry I added a few lightly stamped lines to the background, to give it some visual texture.

I layered the photograph on patterned papers from the new collection by Amy Tangerine - Oh a Whim and added a piece of vellum under the photographs for adding texture.

The stamped image to the top of the photograph was stamped onto plain white cardstock using the same stamp I used for the background.

For the title, I had run out of Es so I used two Fs and cut down an I to form the bottoms of the Es.

To the top right of the layout, I felt that it was an empty space, so I added a few strips of patterned papers and a flair badge I found in my stash.

I finished the layout, by adding a few word stickers around the photographs area, from one of the Simple Stories Collections, wood veneer stars.

Thank you for stopping by

1, 2, 3 & Pose | Jackie Ashton | Sewing

Hello, Jackie here with my post following the theme for the month - stitching.  For my layout this month I decided to hand-stitch my title.  

I started this layout by using the packaging technique and Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Worn Lipstick to my white cardstock.

For the papers on this layouts I used a selection of papers from Shimelle - Little by Little collection, Maggie Holmes - Chasing Dreams collection, and I wanted the colour of the embroidery cotton to coordinate with the papers.

I used a stitching template by Amy Tangerine.

By hand stitching my title in a variegated yellow thread, as the outline of the letters, and a soft pink for the inside, it made the title stand out more from the page.

I added three clusters around the photographs and adding some embellishments from Shimelle - Little by Little collection as well as some hand cut butterflies from Maggie Holmes - Chasing Dreams collection.

I love how stitching on your layouts can give it a whole new dimension.

Hope you give it a try