Guest Designer | Elizabeth Free

I suppose as the 'leader' of UKSA I really ought to be neutral... but I must confess I have been looking forward to having this scrapper guest for us from the very beginning of the UKSA journey!  Please welcome Elizabeth...

My name is Elizabeth Free and I am a scrap-a-holic from the wonderful town of Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. I have been crafting since I was very young, from bead looms to knitting, cross-stitch to embroidery. My love of paper crafting began ten years ago when my younger sister, Caroline (aka TillyandArthur) found a fabulous craft shop in Llandudno where she had recently moved. We both began with card making, banners and memory keepers, but Caroline moved to Scrapbooking some time before me. We both joined the Like For Ever Kit Subscribers community and I have now been scrapbooking for over a year. I incorporate my love of stitching into many of my layouts. Sewing a background is so relaxing, and that is one of the main reasons I do it, since I am a secondary school music teacher (11-18 year olds). Peace and quiet is all I dream of when I am in the middle of a lesson in which ukuleles, glockenspiels, percussion etc. are all being played with gusto!  I am on Instagram as @elizabethsarahdesigns and can be found on Pinterest as Elizabeth Sarah.

For my featured layout, I found a fabulous crocheted doily design on Pinterest, which I printed out and washi-taped to my project. I then used my Sizzix foam mat and paper piercer to pierce the design through my card stock. Once pierced I used bright yellow DMC embroidery floss (three strands only) to stitch my design. 

I wanted to include a photo of my beloved cat, Flora, so I knew that I had to include florals. I stamped and heat embossed my flowers (Vicki Boutin) on watercolour card, coloured them with my Zig Real Color markers and used the matching dies. I also die-cut several butterflies from a pre-prepared ombré watercolour swatch using my Diamond Press dies, embellished with Nuvo Crystal Drops (dandelion yellow). Several Like For Ever goodies also made their way on to the layout, including a jar of flowers (Illustrated Faith ‘She Blooms’ Icons) and several word sentiments (American Crafts ‘Grow’ puffy stickers). 

Resin roses are nearly always included in my layouts. It’s an illness…I can’t help myself!

Thank you so much Elizabeth, your talent with needle and thread never fails to amaze me!  Laura

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.