Leave a Little Sparkle | Claire (ScrappyNerdUK) | Sparkle

Hey friends.


My layout turned out to be covering both last months theme of black cardstock and this months theme of sparkles - happy accident I say!!

I thought about how I could use a black cardstock background to do something different on my layout and decided to make like a chalk board effect with using a white gel pen. So I printed off a quote from the internet (which happened to contain the word Sparkle!) and traced it using a pencil, onto some velum ( please use tracing paper as velum is the expensive option and I only used this as I had no tracing paper on hand). Then I traced the reverse of these letters again to get the lead onto the back of the velum.

I then laid this down onto the black cardstock and traced it again to create a faint outline for me to be able to go over with my white pen. I loved how the finished effect turned out.

I added in a photo of me (I love scrapping selfies - I know I'm not the only one!). And decided it was
time to use up some older stash so grabbed out the Chasing Dreams collection by Maggie Holmes and added in the lady chipboard piece (which was never going to be used on any other project) and added in some fussy cut butterflies and a few other chipboard pieces from the Thickers pack.

Finally - because my title contained the work Sparkle I added in some sequins and I had these go from the top left to the bottom right of my page, creating a natural direction for your eye to follow to the photo.

I'm definitely going to try this technique again!

If you want to watch the process video then it's linked here. And be sure to head on over to our Facebook group and come and share what you have made for this months theme of Sparkle!

Hello Kitty | Elaine King| Black backgrounds

Good morning one and all...

Welcome to my post for the UK Scrap Addicts Creative team using the prompt for March which is, as you already know, Black backgrounds! This is one of my favourite schemes so this was just perfect for me. 

So, without further ado.. here is my layout. 

As you can see I used very little patterned paper for this challenge but I did use a hot pink sheet of card-stock too. I first gutted this so I had enough to mat my photo with some left over for another project. Both sheets of card were bought from Merly Impressions 

Once I had done this I trimmed the black card down and mounted on the hot pink. To set out the brads I used a PinkFresh template. I changed it up a bit by adding the large brad in the centre to anchor my twine, instead of (as they suggested) winding the twine around lots of the outside brads. 

Once I had done this I layered the photo on some scraps of pink themed patterned papers and added the title. These are Thickers that I got from a kit from Lottie Loves Paper last year. 

I added the pink polka dot Rosette and some pretty embellishments from my stash.. a quick and simple layout! 

Simple but quick, and, in my opinion effective... not to mention a great way to use us those brads! 

Elaine

XX 

Helping Hands | Elaine King | Small Photos

Good morning all

Didn't you just love this months prompt over on the UK Scrap Addicts Blog? I love to use small photos as it is always great way to use up several photos at once.  Here is the layout I made this month using the prompt 

When I am doing this I usually use a photo editing app. In this case I used Pic Collage so you can make lots of photos fit into a grid. I find that most online photo printing services will offer a 'square photo' option these days. I have discovered that the UK photo printing services of Snapfish offer a 4" square option and Free Prints offer a 5" square option. In this case I used the 5" option from Free Prints rather than print the photos out myself. 

To make this layout I used 4 photos that I had set into a square. In these apps you can often choose a background colour too. In this case I chose a cerise pink background which I echoed by using a cerise pink piece of cardstock as my background. 

Once I had cut apart my four photos in the grid I used them with a page kit from Crafts4Eternity 

I made some home made embellishments using washi tape for the central square and highlighted some of the black that features within the patterned papers. 

I made a cluster in the bottom left with more punched black card and some die cut circles that served as a journaling spot. 

I then punched a 2" heart for co-ordinating card and covered in sequins too. Each of the squares that were not photos were cut and layered to give each a cerise pink frame too. 

To finish I added flowers from my stash and some black puffy alphabet stickers that I got from The Works. 

My only dilemma is the title.. should it be Helping Hand..or Helping Hands??? You decide!! 

Today | Elaine King | Tic Tac Toe

Good morning all

Today I am delighted to bring you a layout featuring our monthly Tic Tac Toe challenge card here

To start with I cut the black circle background paper that I first obtained as a free cut file from the UK Scrappers forum. They hold a wealth of free files for your own use so why not pop in for a look to see what's available?

I then chose my photo and selected a collection of papers that included black in. I came across this Simple Stories, Bliss collection,  that I bought from Craft4Eternity as a monthly page kit.

I cut a selection of three strips from the Enjoy the Ride sheet and Remember to Shine page too. I then punched several 1 & 1/4" circles and placed these in a circle around the edge of the placement of the photo. I then mounted this on co-ordinating card-stock and mounted this on foam pads on top of the circle of circles to give dimension. I have drew some 'stitches' on all the papers too. 

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To embellish I used several flowers from my stash and a journalling card along with some stickers from the Bliss sticker sheet and a chipboard butterfly and bird from the same collection.

The Today title was made using a sticker and then mounted on a piece of yellow paper scrap which I then fussy cut around.

The little flair badge was for a collection that I bought from Lottie Loves Paper. I added some strips of washing tape in co-ordinating colours and the pink arrows were cut using my Silhouette Cameo.

I hope you like what you see.. don't forget to pop over to the shops mentioned above. ..they hold such lovely pretty things to stroke!!! Lol 

It's All Black and White| Lou Thompson | Monochrome

Hello to all you scrap addicts!

I am so excited to bring you my very first project for UKSA and due to some video issues the first time, I actually have 2 projects to bring you.

The theme this month is monochrome and for my first layout, I did initially think I would choose to do shades of a bold colour like purple or pink as that is very much me, but I thought no lets actually challenge myself to use just black and white.

I am glad I did as I am really pleased with the result and it challenged me to really think about the project and be really creative with how I used items

There are 4 papers used in the layout, 1 for the main sheet and 3 matting the photo. I love the raindrop sheet as it goes so well with the theme of the photo as walks in the UK are sadly often laden with rain :)

I began by using some fabrics to create texture and added water colours on top to give some colour.

I then used 2 stamps to finish the look on the base layer. Stamping is a really great way to easily co-ordinate details on a monochrome layout.

I embossed some chipboard shapes in the same colour scheme, shades of black, white and pearl, and added these as well as stickers, thickers and Bramble Fox Perspective to finished the piece.

Here are some close up shots 

Links to items used in this piece:

Papers and stamps:

http://thompsoncraftsupplies.co.uk

Bramble Fox Perspective:

https://www.bramblefox.co.uk/product-page/currently-andtoday

Unfortunately the video for this layout was not successful so here I have a second project for you.

As I had decided on just black and white for the first project, I decided to introduce a bit of colour for the 2nd attempt. 

I just obtained a set of the Prima Finnabair Impasto Acrylic paints and was so excited to used them I decided to use on this layout

I wanted to keep the overall focus on the black and white as I had really liked that about my first layout, but I also introduced a touch of teal as an accent. I therefore decided to use 3 paints in pitch black, snow white and jade. 

I really wanted to go for texture in this layout so used fabrics, paints, stencil and different papers, art stones and washi to achieve this look.

There's lots of layering and texture to this project so if you have the time I would love you to visit the below link to the video to watch the process I followed.

Most of the items in this project can be found at:

http://thompsoncraftsupplies.co.uk

Youtube Link:

https://youtu.be/GZyUkBmZf4w