#Bao Burger | Terri Morris | Small Photos

Terri here, ready to kick start a new month here on the UK Scrap Addicts blog. This month the focus is on using small photos. The team have got some amazing layouts to showcase and I'm sure you'll enjoy looking at them as much as I do.

Although the trend is for using only one photo per layout, it is also on trend to use small photos. I love using multiple photos but often find myself with only one used.

I used a mix of my favourite techniques for this layout (paint, fussy cutting and stamping!) for this page plus it as features some of my favourite colours!

I'm determined to get some of my older stash used up. So I've made a promise to myself that even if I use the newest collections I have to add some elements from my older supplies.

Thanks for joining us on the blog, don't forget to share your layouts with us over on the Facebook group. We will have a folder for each month's theme so feel free to add it in there.

Happy Scrapping!

Great Memories | Terri Morris | Tic Tac Toe

Hey guys how are you all getting on with this summer heat? My craft room is on the top floor of our 3 storey house and is crazy hot during the day. I’ve managed to do a little scrapping in the evenings with a fan on. I love this month’s theme of using the Tic Tac Toe as inspiration for a layout.

I chose to use the middle horizontal line, so focused on using arrows, circles and washi tape. I have so much washi tape it was great to get some used!

I used gold texture paste through a Dylusions circle stencil to create the background on kraft cardstock. While also adding some circular embellishments such as stickers and a flair badge.

The three strips of pattern under and on top of the kraft cardstock are all washi tapes. Those 3 phrases under the title were also cut from a roll of travel themed washi tape.

I combined the arrow and washi tape by adding a washi with arrows on as a strip across the middle. I used a Bramble Fox arrow perspextive and some arrow stickers.

This layout came together really quickly and is one of my recent favourites. The photo is from our trip to Jordan and I love how they have road signs warning about camels! 

We would love to see your Tic Tac Toe layouts so don't forget to share them in our Facebook group and also tag us on Instagram.

Happy Scrapping!

What's Up /Journalling / Jackie Ashton

Hi everyone, Jackie here with my bloppost following the theme of ‘journalling’.  I do struggle with journalling, especially having my hand-writing direct onto the layouts, so alot of the time my layouts, have who’s in the photo, location, and the date.  But more often than not, I sometime just put the location and the date, which really is not good for others who might look thought my albums and don't know the story behind the photographs. 

For my layout this month I’ve printed my journalling onto vellum paper and cut in strips and added to the top of my layout.

  

The journalling reads :-

Well Usain didn’t disappoint the crowds when he came onto the training track, 

unlike the other athletes, who had to walk down the ramp, Bolt, being Bolt, 

jumped over the barrier to make his entrance, then pretended to be 

shocked when the track security pointed out that he should have walked down 

the ramp like everyone else. 

His races didn’t go as planned, but it was great seeing him in action.

Even though his races didn't go according to plan, it was so good to see him in action for one last time and also to experience the atmosphere when he appeared at the training track as well as inside the stadium.

Printing onto vellum, did take a while to get right.  especially the lengths of each strips.  I did this by printing onto normal photocopy paper and cutting and placing on the layout until I was happy with the placement.  Then once I was happy with it, I printed onto the vellum sheet leaving a large space between each line, and also waiting a while before I removed the sheet from the printer to allow the ink to dry and not smudge.  Then cut into the strips, having a larger line spacing between each line made it easier to cut the typed strips.

I’ve used the new Shimelle/Glitter Girl collection for this layout, and some flair badges from Feed Your Crafts.

I cut a ‘lightening bolt’ onto my white cardstock background, and backed the space with paper from this collection that has shapes that look like ‘bolts of lightening’.  To give the design more definition, I outlined the edges with a black marker pen.

I distressed to the left of the die cut, with some yellow ink, mounted the photograph with some of the papers, and added some mini word stickers from Simple Stories.

I really like how it turned out and love the subtle look it has given to the page, but still allowing to read the story behind the photograph at the same time.

This is a 2 page layout, the other photographs I did for my DT blogpost for Hey Little Magpie and you can find it here.

Why not give it a go printing onto vellum and adding to your layouts and see how it turns out.

Till next time,

Guest Designer | Elaine King

We have the Mum of a hero guesting for us today!  Welcome Elaine and her touching layout...

Hi I'm Elaine and I'm a Scrapaholic! I live in a tiny hamlet called Chiddingstone Hoath in Kent, (somewhere between Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells) and I have been scrapping for about 8 years now and I can honestly say it's almost taken over my life! Lol. Fortunately my long suffering husband indulges my hobby and has recently allowed me to commandeer our entire dining room for my craft room! These days I scrap a lot of my little Granddaughter (aged 2 & 1/2) and of course, my husband, two sons and my daughter in law. 

Both my husband and my youngest son are firefighters in the London Fire Brigade and I have journaled about my youngest son in this layout. He (front centre in the photo) recently attended the Grenfell Tower disaster and my journaling reflects the emotions I felt at this time. Journaling is not something that comes easy to me as I don't really like my handwriting but when I do journal it has to be heartfelt, as in this case. I think it is important to use your own handwriting for future generations so I prefer not to print from a computer for this. 

To create the page I used Kaisercrafts Shine Bright collection and I used a Stampin Up punch to create the small patterned hexagons aswell as a diamond Press stitched hexagon die for the black backgrounds for each of them. 

I also matted each piece of patterned paper on black cardstock as well as the photo and added three black gem brads, a couple of wood veneers and a cork hexagon too. To finish I added the title using black and gold Thickers and a smaller sub-title in black beneath the photo. The little 'Hazardous'  Flair badge was a real find from a friend!

Thank you so much Elaine.  You can find more of Elaine's work here: blog and Instagram

Guest Designer | Bramble Fox

If you were losing sleep wondering if it's possible for one of the UKSA team to guest blog on the UKSA blog you'll be happy to know it IS possible.  We welcome our Jackie, who is also on the Bramble Fox design team.

Hi, I’m Jackie, I live in Birmingham, I’ve been scrapping since 2008, you can find some of my layouts on my instragram pages - @jackiescraps, and also on the Hey Little Magpie blog as well as here at UK Scrap Addicts.  I’m also a partner in Birds of a Feather UK, which organise workshops and retreats in the West Midlands.

This is one of my current layouts for the CT for Bramble Fox.

For this layout I’ve used a 8 x 5 landscape layout, on a 9 x 12 page as this page will be added to my Paris Travel Album.

I’ve used the lovely perspextive ‘today’ and two of the flair badges.

I’ve kept the layout very simple, as I wanted the photographs to be the main focus of the page. This page will be on the reverse of the title page and will accompany a pocket page with some more photograph and journalling.

Bramble Fox have generously given YOU a code for 10% this month!

Beautiful You | Pol Prince | Large Photo

Hi lovely scrappers! It's Pol on the blog today with a new layout featuring a large photo; July's theme of the month.

I don't scrap very often with large photos, but when I do, I really enjoy it and I vow to use them more often! I love the impact that large photos have on a layout, especially a black and white photo. 

I love the photo I have chosen for this layout, it was taken at my friend's wedding last year, and is a beautiful photo of us girls (and one honorary girl for the day, Shane!). I have been meaning to scrap it ever since. When I got the new Cocoa Vanilla collection, Wild At Heart, I knew the colours were perfect for this photo. Everything on my layout is from this collection.

I normally stick a large photo to one side of my page, but this time I decided I wanted some space at the top for a cluster, to balance the page out. The three clusters I have created around the photo draw your eye down and around the page whilst keeping the large photo as the main focal point. 

We'll be talking more about clustering in our second joint monthly blog post in a few days.

I chose this background paper as I loved the watercolour effect round the edges without being too busy. The navy colour crosses gave me the idea to do a few matching hand stitched crosses of my own, to 'anchor' my photo to the page.

The basis for my 3 clusters came from the small chipboard frames in the collection, and I added some cut up pieces of the paper die cut frames along with a die cut doily cut in half.

There were sooo many of the chipboard words, stickers and die cuts I wanted to use with this photo, so I really had to limit myself to just a few!

The wooden title 'Beautiful You' really was perfect for the gorgeous bride, and I tried to get it as close to her on the photo as possible, whilst trying not to cover up her beautiful dress too much!

I added some of the navy thread I used for the cross stitches underneath the flair buttons and the circular sentiment die cut.

I then chose a few simple small die cut flowers and butterflies for the clusters, in order not to overwhelm the page. The great thing about using a large photo on a layout though, is that you can really go to town on the embellishments if you want, as the photo will never look overwhelmed!

Finally I popped a few glittery enamel dots in and around the clusters to finish them off. Voila, one large photo layout finished, with a renewed resolution to create more! 

We'd love you to have a go at our challenge this month, to use a large photo to create a new layout. We're defining 'large' as a 6x8 size photo as a minimum, so even larger if you'd like. Don't forget there's a great monthly challenge prize to be won, so add your layouts to our UK Scrap Addicts facebook page.

Destintion: Seagulls Fan | Laura Rumble | Large Photo

Hi there, Laura here today.  I planned to make a 9x12 layout with a 9x12 photo... basically just embellishing the photo.  It ended up a little wider but I'm happy with it.

I designed a cut file using the emblem on my nephews shirt.  

I added a cluster to the bottom corner of the photo.  I've used labels, a tag and some Bramble Fox goodies.

The gulls were getting a little lost so I backed them with vellum.  You can still see through to the photo and card underneath but it doesn't detract from the gull.

Here's the video:

Thanks for stopping by!

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

Hoppy Easter | SciFi Scrapper | Sketch

Hi everyone, Emma Marie here today sharing my May layout.

Each month we have a different theme or prompt to work with, and in May we're working with sketches!

This is the sketch I used to create my layout. It's a 12x12 sketch, but I adapted it to the 9x12 size I typically work in.

I created a mixed media background to match the sketch, using some Distress Mist and Color Shine in Cracked Pistachio and Butter respectively. I also decided to add some gold texture paste to the layout, using a stencil from Hip Kit, to add a bit more dimension and interest to the layout.

The majority of this layout is made using my Felicity Jane kit. I loved how the colours went perfectly with the mists I had picked out, and featured those traditional colours we tend to associate with Easter.

The sketch included a tag, which I decided to add at the top of my layout as it fit better there with my vertical photo. I made the tag out of plain cardstock, and then added washi tape to add that decorative touch. It's a black and white washi so doesn't overpower the layout, but adds an extra layer of visual interest.  I also added several rubber embellishments to the page. These are some of my favourite things to use, so I was really happy to be able to get some rubber phrases and hearts down on to the layout.

For the most part I feel I kept pretty close to the sketch. I did however add a smaller embellishment cluster to the top right of the page to help fill in some of the dead space at the top of the layout. I used some scraps of patterned paper as well as some more of the washi tape to help tie the two parts of the layout together, and then lightly embellished. 

This was a fun layout to create! The photo doesn't really have a 'story' to it, which is why there isn't any journalling, but sometimes it's nice to just create for the enjoyment, without a deeper purpose behind it. :)

If you'd like to watch my process video, you can do so below. Have a great day!

Listening Ears| Laura Rumble | Machine Sewing

Hi Chaps, Laura here today.  I love the effect of hand sewing on layouts but I just don't have the patience... nor do I want little red splatters on my layouts!  So I use my sewing machine.  Here is the video:

I inherited this machine from my Nan when she upgraded.  The tips I can give you for using a sewing machine for scrapbooking are:

1. The manual is your friend - it will tell you how to thread the machine and which button does what.
2. If you use the machine for sewing on fabric as well keep a separate needle - paper blunts the point and a blunt needle doesn't do fabric much good. 
3. You get what you pay for with threads - I had a very cheap thread and bobbin set and the thread kept breaking.
4. If your bobbin (the bottom thread) runs out of thread while you are sewing and you don't realise (ask me how I know!) it is fairly simple to use a regular needle to hand sew through the holes you've made with the machine.
5. Experiment - just remember which button/dial you are fiddling with so you can rectify if need be!

As you can see, I didn't aim for neat and tidy.  I did go for a giant paper clip holding my journalling...

Here is the finished ayout: