Books and more Books | ScrappyNerdUK (Claire) | Small Photos

Hey there!!

So this months theme is small photos. What a great way to include small photos in a travellers notebook. I love scrapping in a travellers notebook when I have photos of something that is a smaller story that I want to document but not necessarily warrant a full 12x12 layout in my album.

I used a paper from Paige Evans Oh My Heart collection (desperately trying to kill this kit!!) as I have had this in my stash for ages and this was the perfect project to get it used up. The shelves reminded me of my book shelves. I have recently moved and wanted to create a little nook area where I can go and read and this photo captured this just perfectly.

So I trimmed the paper to fit into my travellers notebook. I am using a Simple Stories one currently and these ones are a little wider than the standard TN size. This really helps me showcasing the amazing patterned paper and really brings the whole theme together. I fussy cut some elements from another one of the papers which had some cutaparts on and used these as embellishments around my photo. This is a great way to make your collection go so much further when you are running out of ephemera etc.

I knew that in the collection there was a die cut that would be perfect to use as my title - Books and More Books!! I popped this on the opposite side and used a black fineliner to create some faux stitching around it to help it stand out a little more.

I added on a book sticker from the Paige Evans sticker book and 1 chipboard piece that says "all you need is a good book". I also used this area to add some journalling on. I don't journal much on my 12x12 layouts but find myself being drawn to adding more journalling in my travellers notebook - especially those random smaller stories that you want to remember in years to come.

My layout felt almost complete but decided to channel my inner Missy Whidden by adding in some lengths of thread in co-ordinating colours and these are layered behind the top left and bottom right of my photo cluster (along with a couple of flower stickers, also from the PE sticker book).

And the layout is finished. I love how colourful this layout is and really encourage you to try and travellers notebook if you haven't yet. Its a great way to scrap on the go, when you don't have much time or even if you have those smaller photos that would look lost on a 12x12 layout.

Be sure to head on over to Youtube to watch the process video for this one too.....

See you next month with a new theme!!!

Claire xx

Guest Designer | Marie Boyle

Today we welcome our last guest designer (for the time being at least!) Please welcome Marie...

My name is Marie, I'm 28 and I'm from Durham in the UK. I've Scrapbooking and crafting for around 8 years now! I pretty much exclusive scrap Disney holiday photos!

YouTube Instagram

So my layout! I have exclusively used the Simple Stories Say Cheese collections which I got from Hey Little Magpie (my favourite UK based Scrapbooking website!) and obviously the collection is perfect to scrapbook a Walt Disney World photo! My friend snapped these when I was pulling a stupid face with my Mickey Ears on and I just think it's the perfect Disney photo! And the colours in the photos go great with the Say Cheese collection! 

I started with a piece of white 12x12 textured card stock as a nice blank canvas. I then added some yellow and red paint splatters to the background to tie in the colours. I then added some Mickey Mouse print tissue directly in the centre of the page to break up the background. I then cut out the perfect piece of journalling paper from one of the cut apart sheets and pinched holes in the top to make it look like I had taken it from a notepad. Once this was stuck down I angled my photos the opposite way and propped them up with some foam pads.

I then went through the embellishments and added them mainly down the sides of my photos and added red and yellow enamel dots all over the page. I also added in some red thread on either side of my photo to make it look extra fun! 

Then it's time for some journaling! I had quite a big space to fill! Once that was done I went over the page with some black paint splatters to make it look like ink on the journaling (I love that look!) 

I then inked around the edges with a yellow stamp pad and cut a large border piece from one of the cut apart sheets to stick across the bottom.

I hope you enjoy the finished layout!!

Thanks for joining us Marie - love your work! - Laura

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,

Traveler's Notebook | Michelle Mills (UglyBugPlans) | Journalling

Hello scrap addicts, I hope that you re all keeping well? It's Michelle here from UglyBugPlans with my take on this months topic of journalling. I have a bit of a different video that just a process where I've included a chatty element at the beginning where I explain how and where I do most of my journalling and some different habits that I have and I show you a couple of examples of this.

The process part of the video is rather short with my focus on the actual journalling which I created using some Tim Holtz Big Chat stickers. I knew the kind of sentence that I wanted to create and then chose random word stickers to emphasise and give my journalling an interesting element.

Because I knew the page with the journalling would look cluttered if I tried to embellish too much I decided that it would be the perfect place to use the stencil from this months sponsor Pretty My Page, my original thought had been to use some embossing paste to give the page texture but then I wanted my journalling to be quite fluid so I used a coordinating stamping pad which gave the pattern a lovely depth.

I really hope that you enjoy this video and that if you haven't already subscribed to the UK Scrap Addicts blog and YouTube that you will consider doing so.

https://youtu.be/e1HJFVYC4ts

You can find more from me over on my personal blog www.uglybugplans.com and YouTube channel www.youtube.com/c/uglybugplans

To purchase a stencil like the one in the video and many more paper craft goodies please check out PrettyMyPage

Much Love
Michelle xx

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!

Kiss, Cuddle, High Five | Niki Rowland | Journalling

Hi UK Scrap Addicts fans! Niki here with you today with my take on the September theme which is 'Journalling'.  When I scrap I rarely start with the story, I usually begin with photos or products and include a relevant story if it fits but this time given the theme is 'Journalling' I thought about which story I wanted to document before I looked for anything else.

I have put together a process video for this layout which can be viewed below:

The story I chose was one about my little boy and how he always asks for a 'kiss, cuddle, high five' whenever we part, instead of the usual 'goodbye'. It has become a daily ritual but it is not documented in my scrapbooking anywhere and it is such a lovely little thing between us that it definitely justifies a whole layout dedicated to it.

Even though I knew I would journal about the story, I wanted to make it the main focus of my layout so I began by cutting those words in a large size on my cutting machine. This way I have managed to incorporate those words as the main focus of my layout - they are also part of the journalling.

Once cut, I used my We R Memory Keepers typewriter to type the explaination of the story directly onto my die-cut background.

Once my typed journalling was in place I could then move on to creating the rest of my layout. I backfilled the words and gave my die-cut background a colourful border. The papers I've used are Shimelle 'Glitter Girl' but even thought this collection is very pink, sparkly and girly, I pulled out some of the blue and green papers and created a very non-pink boy layout with them.

I embellished the layout with ephemera and other embellishments from the collection, again picking out all the blue and green coloured pieces and I finished off with a few flicks of water colour paint.

Thank you so much for stopping by today and taking a peek at my layout, happy scrapping xx

Find me designing for Freckled Fawn, Just Nick, Hey Little Magpie, GoGo Getaway, Silhouette UK, Stick it Down, and UK Scrap Addicts. Also on my own blog: Being Scrappy and on Instagram as @nikiclaire

School Story | Sheena Rowlands | Journalling

Hi there x
Sheena here today, with my new page focusing on this months theme - journalling. To be honest I don't always journal on my pages mainly because I also do Project Life & feel my families stories are recorded there.
Sometimes I do journal on the back of my pages if what I want to say is personal or private but for this challenge I thought I could record an old school story just as the children are all going back to school.

I'm not a fan of my own handwriting but I do write on layouts if its date, name etc but for larger amounts of writing I prefer to use the computer or my trusty vintage typewriter. By adding my journalling this way it stops me spoiling my layouts.

I used old exercise book paper for an authentic school feel before punching the edge to give it a ripped from a journal look.

I clustered embellishments of similar colours to the papers, in 2 places to draw your eye across the page before adding some stamped ink blots.

Thanks for joining me today.

Till next time x

Hello Adventure | Gemma Summers | Journalling

Hello Scrap Addicts!

Gemma here with my layout using our theme for this month ... Journalling.

Journalling is something I have recently been adding to my layouts and I can now see its importance to me, in it helping to record my memories and story. I chose to base this layout on my love for walking and a new hobby, geocaching. 

I started by creating a mixed media background. The inspiration for this came from a rainbow stencil and enamel dots I used from 'Pretty My Page' our sponsor this month!

As I love rainbow colour the rainbow stencil was perfect. I used texture paste through the stencil, then added watercolour paint over the top, blending the colours together. I then sprayed extra water to help the paint run down the page. With my photo being black and white I went for a colourful background and I like the stencil's texture.

Once I had added my photo, the layout came together quite quickly.

All the embellishments I have used came from my 'Mind the Scrap' September subscription scrapbook kit. This included my title of the large 'Heidi Swapp' wood veneer 'Adventure'.

I created 3 clusters which were coloured according to the mixed media behind it, for a tone on tone look. One in pink, blue and yellow, which worked perfectly with the enamel dots. Each cluster also has a star in that colour too.

I always like to do my journalling last and I hand write it.  I added this onto a speech bubble die cut. To continue the colour on colour, I wrote this in pink pen to help it blend in. I like the personal touch the handwriting adds and the coloured pen makes it not too bold.

Don't forget we would love to see your layouts using journalling this month
on Instagram using #ukscrapaddicts

I hope you enjoyed this layout!

Always | Polly's Papercrafts | Journalling

Hey Scrap Addicts, 

It's Emma here with you again, and my sincerest apologies as still no video from me (blame PC World! The less said about them, the better!). 

As you know, we're talking journalling this month. Honestly, I suck at journalling. I can't seem to get past the basics of where, who, when and, if you're lucky, why. Maybe that's enough for most people but I do feel like I'd like to be able to dig a little deeper. I just really struggle. Anyone else with me? 

The layouts I really struggle to journal on are the ones about me. The ones where the 'who' aspect is totally redundant. Do I write on every layout, "This is me...obviously!" 

So my tip for this month is: where journalling feels like a struggle and you can't find the words, use a quote. Use someone else's words to perfectly convey your meaning. 

In this layout, a photo of me at Harry Potter Studios, I used the quote from J.K.Rowling that is up on the screen as you walk out. For me, it perfectly sums up the reason I go back and read the books so often. (Every year, in case you're wondering!) 

My base is white cardstock at 8.5"X11". I cropped my photo (originally 4x6) into a square and fussy cut some of the squares from a Pink Paislee Moonstruck paper. I always think of the Moonstruck collection for Harry Potter pages. Must be the colours.
For a bit of background interest I used a chevron stencil from Pretty My Page, our sponsor this month, with some grey Kelly Purkey ink. I just used the Tim Holtz mini distress tool to lightly blend through the stencil.

With my photo off to the left hand side, it gave space for me to position the design squares on the right. Some of which I popped up on some foam, just to add a little something-something.

The florals used were fussy cut from another Moonstruck paper and I think they frame the space below the photo perfectly, giving an excellent space to write my quote.
Full disclosure: I cannot write in a straight line to save my life - so I lightly pencilled in some lines and erased them afterwards.

Wood veneer finished the little pieces of embellishement and I almost forgot the title, so I picked the word 'always' out of the quote (which HP fans everywhere will know the significance of too) and used the Moonstruck Thickers to spell it out under the photo. Job done.

I'm really happy with how this one came together. Remember; if you can't find the words to journal, use someone else's (just make sure you credit them somewhere!) 

Until next time... 

It will be OK sweetpea | Laura Rumble | Journalling

Hi there, Laura here with my journalling layout.  First though I have some news to share.

I took on the task of setting up UK Scrap Addicts in February/March of this year.  It has come a long way since then but I don't have the energy to continue the work.  The team I have collated are looking to carry on without me.  I want to say a huge thank you to each of them, and the girls who have been a part of the team over the last 6 months how ever briefly, and wish them all the best.  My priority now is my health but hopefully you'll still see me around on facebook and instagram.  It will be ok sweetpea!

I'm not the biggest fan of journalling.  I think it stems from not being very good at English at school and has just hung around and become a thing.  I worry about what people will think when they read what I write.  So I side stepped this months topic and made my journalling unreadable!

I wrote over the top of my words several times.  I got what was inside out and worked it through and I don't have to worry about being marked or judged and I created a really cool background to work on top of!

To add a little raised texture on top of the writing block I used a stencil from this month's sponsor Pretty My Page along with some texture paste.

I added a wood word, a few little wood flowers and some puffy stickers from an old Felicity Jane kit designed by Suse Fish.

You can enjoy the video here: https://youtu.be/oFKXeS1jYbw

Thanks for looking,