Summer Smiles | Lou Thompson | Tic Tac Toe

This months challenge was to use the Tic Tac Toe grid. You must take any line of 3 items from the grid, up, down or diagonal, and use these as part of your work. I have chosen the rainbows, circles and different alphas.

I thought about how I wanted to incorporate the circles and remembered these lovely wooden circles I had. I also came up with the idea of decorating the circles using papers with the colours of the rainbow. I used a circle punch to make the paper shapes and then applied to the wooden circles using double sided tape.

I wanted to further the idea of using circles so also used a Finnabair stamp set to add some more circles to my background

A selection of alphas were used to create the title for this layout

A cluster was created in the bottom right corner using ephemera, stickers, chipboards and flowers.

The wooden circles were stuck to the page to create a base for the photo. The photo was matted with some different coloured papers and then stuck to the page, careful not to stick right to the edge of the photo mat. This was so I could then tuck in stickers, chipboards, acetate, enamels and ephemera. Foam squares were applied to some pieces to add further dimension.

And here is the finished piece. I'm really pleased with how it turned out. It's a really fun, summer piece that works great with the photo. I hope you like it and see you again next month :)

Good Times | Giselle Homer | 6 x 6 paper

Hi again everyone,

Today I'm sharing my version of a layout designed using 6" x 6" patterned paper. If you're like me, you'll have lots of these in your stash, so hopefully this month's theme will encourage you to use them!





Using Cocoa Vanilla's collection 'Boys Rule', I started by placing the 6" square in the centre of my background cardstock but it looked a bit small so I added the green border. I had this fun montage of selfies taken by my Grandson which I backed with two different papers and I added a clear sticker to it as well. I placed this over the square slightly beneath the lower edge. As the page still looked a bit empty I cut a frame measuring 0.5" wide and placed it over the background. I found some wild flower cut files in my Silhouette library, design number 79681, by Nic Squirrel - who's my favourite British cut file designer - to add to the right of the photo.





The title is from Bramble Fox who make lovely perspex word and phrases like this one.





I added more embellishments, word stickers and a flair from the 'Boys Rule' collection on either side of the photo and at the top left. A few enamel dots finished it off nicely!





I look forward to seeing your layouts on UKSA's Facebook page and hope this has inspired you to dig out all those 6" x 6" paper pads.

Till next month, happy scrapping!

Surprise Party | Lisa-Jane Johnson | One 6x4 photo

Hi there scrappers!  It's Lisa-Jane from Pretty My Page here today with my take on the single 6x4 challenge.  I scrap with single 6x4 photos most often because I tend to get them printed in batches.  I just send bulk orders off and then when I have them in my hand I can see if I think they might be better in a different format or perhaps in black and white etc.  Any photos I don't use I can give to my daughter to scrap book and when I'm paying 5p a print I don't really mind not using them all!

For this layout I was trying to use up some of the final precious remains of my Simple Stories Love and Adore collection that I have been using to scrap my surprise 40th birthday party.  I was getting short of larger pieces for backgrounds so I added in this pretty bow paper from a big paper pad onto a frame that I had left over from using the middle section on another layout.  Of course I had to have a border - I always have to have a border at the moment.  

I wanted to try out a new stencil so I added some butterflies to the bottom of where I intended my photo stack to go and some gorgeous script towards the top left.  I love how it adds a subtle layer and a bit of interest.

I tend to shy away from glitter without their being a good reason for it and I kinda think a surprise party is definitely a good enough reason so I embraced the glitter alphabet!  

I mounted my actual photos in fairly plain papers from the paper pad so I wasn't wasting the best patterns under the photo - please tell me I'm not the only one who does this?  That way I could use the dwindling Simple Stories pieces for bigger impact elsewhere.  Some stickers and chipboard from the range, matching enamel dots (they do match, those red ones are actually pink in real life...) and then some vibrant pink twine helped to bring it all together.  I really was led by the pieces I had left over on this layout but I love the way it turned out.  Now it's over to you!

Happy scrapping!

I'm on Holiday! | Giselle Homer | One 6x4 photo

Hello everyone,

I hope you've been able to find some scrapping time during the recent warm weather.

This month's theme is a fairly simple one, to use just one 6" x4" photo. When I saw this picture of my grandson, I knew it would definitely be on my scrapping list!

For this layout I used a water colour paper from Daler Rowney called The Langton. It really holds  paint and ink well without buckling and is available from Hobbycraft in number of sizes. I wanted to keep the focus mainly on the photo so I dabbed pale grey ink over the background using some cellophane packaging material. Then I just lightly stamped over that with two Tim Holtz Distress Inks called Mustard Seed and Peacock Feathers.

I backed the photo with some scraps of patterned paper, one of which looks a bit like his shorts - what luck! And added a flair badge, with a few other embellishments, to a die cut circle to make a little cluster on the right of the photo.

I used American Crafts Thickers for the title and added the die cut 'Hello' which I found in my stash, so apologies for not knowing the manufacturer. I then added another little cluster below the photo to include my journalling spot, some puffy stickers & an enamel dot.

I look forward to seeing what you come up with if you take inspiration from this month's theme, I'm sure you all have lots of 6" x4" photos waiting to be scrapped!

Till next time, happy scrapping!

Right Now | Elaine King | Monochrome

Good morning Everyone

Thanks for joining me on my first blog post since becoming a member of the UKScrap Addicts Creative Team.

Today I am bringing you a layout using a monochrome colours. There was some discussion in the team as to how we would define Monochrome, but essentially we all agreed that using just one colour, regardless of how many tones there were, and, if you would like to, adding in a tiny amount of black in amongst the colour was the definition. I hope that helps?

So, here is my layout.

For this I decided to use one of my all time favourite collections from Kaisercraft that I originally sourced from Merly Impressions, one of the leading Kaisercraft suppliers in the UK. This collection is called  Indigo Skies and, of course, is predominantly blue! Lol

To start my layout, I used a starry stencil using texture paste that I had added a little denim coloured distress ink too. 

I then used a 3" piece of the collection paper to pace at the left hand side where I then added two further strips of paper too. I then set about fussy cutting several flowers from the patterned papers and created a cluster at the bottom left of the photo and added a tag and some strips of paper on the right.

I added several enamel dots and a twirl of blue and white bakers twine in amongst the cluster and added a couple of wood veneers that I had coloured with distress ink too. 

One of my favourite 'techniques' and one that gets overlooked a lot, is to literally take a few 'chomps' of punched edge from the sides too. Once I had done this I trimmed the paper down to 11" x 11" and backed it onto a piece of blue cardstock too. 

I do hope you will join in our challenge this month..especially as we are in the month of National Scrapbooking Day too! Go on! Have some fun and do let us know what you've been up to. 

The Last Jedi | Giselle Homer | Monochrome

Hello everyone,

Giselle here with my first Blogpost for UKSA, I'm really pleased to have been chosen to join the team and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone who visits the blog!

Following this month's monochrome theme, I have used a white base and then different tones of blue for my page. I used a cut file from the Silhouette store and placed a couple of stars on the base before spraying it with Heidi Swapp Colour Shine Ocean.

I also sprayed a spare piece of card with differing strengths of blue and used it to back fill some of the stars in the cut file. The other stars were backfilled with coordinating patterned paper.

I placed a couple of tags behind the photo, plus some enamel stars and dots to highlight it. I tucked a double circle tag behind them for the date and place.  

Finally I added the title using a Pinkfresh Studio puffy alphabet in navy blue.

I hope you're all enjoying the monochrome theme and hope you'll join in and share your layouts with us on our Facebook page.

Happy Scrapping!

Squad Goals | Terri Morris | Star Shape

Here on the UK Scrap Addicts blog this month we have  been challenged to pick a specific shape and use that as a focus for our layout. Whether it be a main element or more subtle with the embellishments as I have done here.

I chose the star shape as my main focus and used lots of different types of stars to add my embellishment to the page. I have puffy sticker, paper topped with vellum, wood veneer and cork stars dotted across the page.

This is one of my go to layout designs if my mojo is on the blink and I always love how different it looks as its heavily dependent on the patterned paper and embellishments used.

I used the large puffy sticker style words to create my title and then finished it off by adding and embellishment cluster to the bottom of it. I'm loving the colour scheme of the Crate Paper Good Vibes collection it seems to fit so many of the photos I have taken recently.

Thanks for looking. We would love to see any creations you make this month so be sure to tag us on Instagram.

Happy Crafting!

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!

Fresh Start | Laura Jane Thomson | Journaling

Hello UK Scrap Addicts!  Hope you're all having a scrappy week and are enjoying the selection of journaling ideas for your memory keeping that our creative team have been sharing throughout the month of September. 

This month I have decided to incorporate a cut file which was issued by UK Scrap Addicts for National Scrapbooking Day 2017 alongside a beautiful stencil from Pretty My Page, to show case a photograph taken on a day where my life took a turn for the better and we had a fresh start.

This is my completed layout and I will explain the stages throughout this post:

I started with using the Fleur De Lys cut file which was a UK Scrap Addicts exclusive for National Scrapbooking Day 2017 and is available to download HERE.

I had this cut file in the centre of a sheet of white 12x12 cardstock and in each of the four corners of the white cardstock I used Wilted Violet Distress Oxides using a sponge blending tool through this beautiful Fleur De Lys stencil from Pretty My Page.

Next I layered my photograph onto a couple of pieces of patterned paper, and matted onto a piece of patterned cardstock which I had cut into a banner shape, before adhering to the page.  

Using embellishments from my stash I added floral pieces to two corners of my photograph and a flair badge to the top right cluster, to complete each of these clusters I added some gorgeous enamel dots which are also from Pretty My Page.

I decided to add hidden journaling to this layout by adding a folded piece of cardstock to the bottom left quarter of the page, the front of which is also decorated with the Fleur De Lys stencil, after stenciling the main page I flipped the stencil onto a second piece of cardstock and using a baby wipe to 'clean' the stencil achieved this faded effect.  

Lastly, I added my title "Fresh Start" using yellow Thickers to co-ordinate with my background paper. 

Using cut files in my scrapbook layouts is not something that I am overly familiar with, however I am quite happy with how his page has come together and I personally think that the colours work well together.  

Pretty My Page have recently re-launched their website with more of a focus on Mixed Media products to compliment the beautiful products Lisa has spent so long working on, so to celebrate this launch Lisa is offering our wonderful UK Scrap Addicts readers a 10% discount on purchases made through her website by using the code: UKSA10

Don't forget to check out our September 2017 challenge by visiting our blog here.

You can show your support for Pretty My Page's business by visiting their Facebook page or shopping on their website.

Thank you so much for popping into our blog and reading my post, and I hope you'll pop back soon. 

Laura xxx