Sarah here today with my take on this months theme of masculine layouts.
Around 95% of my layouts are of my little boy so masculine layouts are the norm for me.
I don't however use just paper collections aimed at boys. For starters there's very few collections available and secondly I like to use flowers and pretty things on my page.
I therefore have my own little rules (which I break all the time anyway!) I don't use a majority of pink on a page, I use flowers on outdoorsy/nature layouts or in boyish colours and destash anything with "girl power" written on it.
So for today's layout I went outdoorsy and even though I didn't add flowers and butterflies I would and could have if they were to hand.
I started out with the idea of a leafy layout with a black background as I had attended a Crafty Vixens workshop at the weekend loved the layout and wanted to recreate something similar on black.
I added white texture paste to my background through a leaves stencil and added splashes white ink.
With my die cutting machine I cut a bunch of leaves and added Distress Oxides to them scrunching them to add texture.
I fussy cut some cute woodland critters and words from the Crafty Vixens kit leftovers and cut two mats for my photo and distressed the edges.
I glued these over the leaves and then added some diecut tags to the top corner for balance.
Using some ephemera I added a few pieces over the tags and a title over the leaves.
Finally I added some sequins and splashes of ink to my background and amongst the leaves.
Sarah here today with my Multi photo layout for this month.
I decided to create a grid layout with 4 small photos. I knew I wanted to layer lots of papers behind each one and wanted a nice gap between them so didn't print them very large.
To begin with I created my background with texture paste and ink spray in white to contrast with the black background.
Whilst this dried I added my layers of paper and some raffia ribbon to the back of each photo with layers of foam to add some height.
The photos were added to the dry background with a T ruler to help keep them straight and I added a title ephemera piece to the centre popped up on more foam.
I used some crafty stickers around the edge of my photos and some button stickers instead of sequins or enamel dots around my background.
Finally I added some golden yellow ink splashes to my background for a little more colour and my layout was done.
Sarah here today with my take on this months theme of Black Backgrounds.
I decided to go for a bright and bold layout today. My background was created using Impasto Paints and a stencil from Thompsons craft supplies. I used the paints straight from the tube, they're thick so go through stencils really nicely.
My papers were layered up with foam and embellishments in between to create lots of height and texture.
I added black gesso to my embellishments then when dry added more of the paint from the background to create some continuity.
My title was a quote sticker that I popped up on more foam and framed with some of the feather embellishments from Artful Days.
A few splashes of white paint and some enamel dots added a finishing touch.
You can check out how I created this layout over on the UKSA YouTube Channel.
I don't own all that many punches, but for some reason I have about 6 different sized star punches!! So that was my starting point for my layout.
I applied clear gesso to my page which was a night sky scene from a kit by Thompson's Crafts available here. The gesso helps my page withstand any mixed media I throw at it.
I punched out various sized stars from mirror card and the left over trimmings from my photo. I added these on top of a silver texture paste and spray background.
To frame my photo I matted it on more mirror card and added a glitter embossed frame.
I cut apart words from another paper from the kit to create tiny word stickers and quotes.
Some sweet kawaii stickers, nuvo drops and sequins added more sparkle to my page to finish it off.
Sarah here today with my take on the no cardstock challenge.
I love creating mixed media backgrounds so for this challenge I added clear gesso to a seascape patterned paper. I could then build up layers of paints stamping and pastes on top.
To help my photo stand out from the busy background I used layers of textured material and distressed patterned paper behind it.
I added my title to the side of my photo to draw the eye across the page.
Lots of seashells and nautical elements added to the theme in the photo.
Some splashes of bronze and white ink over the layout tied it all in together.
Sarah here today with my take on this months challenge using stamps.
I decided to create a stamped background so hunted out all my small snowflake clear stamps from various companies old and new.
First I stamped and embossed with clear embossing powder to create a resist surface on my watercolour paper.
Using Brushos in 2 blue tones I created a slight ombre effect to my background. The snowflakes were a little lost so I added more on top (once dry) with white embossing powder.
Using dark blue distress ink I added a blended border around my page.
I layered blues toned papers, vellum, gauze and ephemera to create my photo cluster and balanced it with a small cluster at the bottom of the page.
For a finishing touch I added gems, glitter white snowflakes and splashes of ink.
It's nearing the end of Summer here so that means one thing - no more super bright layouts! We head into Autumn colours, photos of Hot Chocolate and crisp Autumn mornings and then onto the Big C!!!
But....For now...I bring you one last hurrah of this summer season and who can resist a rainbow layout (I know I can't!).
So this months theme was paint. I decided to use some acrylic paint markers for this layout and I have teamed this layout up with my Alpha Attack series on Youtube to demonstrate that you can use paint to change the colour of any type of Alpha or Thicker (because we usually have lots of those in our stash right!?).
So my thought was rainbow rain. I know this sounds crazy but here is how the layout came together.
I grabbed a whole load of half used Thicker packs from my stash and started sticking them randomly over the lower 2/3 of my page. (I did Gesso my page first knowing I was going to be applying white paint over the Thickers).
Once these were all stuck down, I then added a layer of Gesso (I actually added 2 layers because I wasn't sure how thick the coverage would be from the paint markers).
Once I had let the Gesso dry, and you can use a heat tool to speed the process up (I certainly did), I then applied 2 layers of white acrylic paint over the whole page.
Next came the hard decision as to where I was going to include my photo. I didn't want to cover too much of the background up so I went with a photo that I could cut down to just the subject image (my husband in this case) and I packed the photo with a small amount of 3 different patterned papers around the edges.
This is where the fun part came in. I used the acrylic paint markers to colour in each alpha using the ROYGBIV colours (apart from I had to substitute Indigo for Pink) and I worked my way across the page with each colour. Next I added some of the paint onto a non stick mat and added a little water and went splatter crazy! I tried to keep the coloured splatters within each of their own colour sections. I then went tone on tone with adding some enamel dots in hearts and star shapes.
I did back my white cardstock onto a piece of rainbow(ish) patterned paper. I had used a sheet of Bazzill Marshmallow cardstock which is primed for Mixed Media but it had buckled a little. So cutting down a 1/2 inch from each the top and bottom, I then mounted this onto the patterned paper to held smooth out the warping.
Next I free hand cut some clouds and used a black paint marker to give these a faux stitched border as these were getting lost on the background. Finally, because clearly there were not enough Alphas already on this layout!, I then added my title into the left cloud. I even popped a sun in to the top right cloud to keep with the theme.
In total I used a massive 97 Alpha Stickers!!! And now I need a lie down. Thanks for visiting our blog today. Be sure to head back for more inspiration throughout the month from the other ladies. Oh and we have a new theme on 1st October!!
If you want to watch the process for this layout then you're in luck as there is a process video right here for you. So be sure to head on over to our Youtube channel where you will find hundreds of videos to keep you inspired!
Hey there UK Scrap Addicts! Niki here with you today. This month's theme is to choose one shape and carry that through your layout. I've chosen a star shape. I Started off by cutting a star cut file out of star patterned paper (cut file is a freebie from the Stick it Down challenge blog) which I then backfilled using turquoise paper. Becuase the star cut file was cut from a busy patterned paper the internal stars needed something solid behind them to make them stand out.
Once my cut file was in place, I added my photos and a large star tassle embellishment to the right. These were by Dear Lizzy and the ribbons came in all different colour and this one happened to go really well with my layout and photos.
I then went through my stash and pulled out as many star embellishments as I could find. I was predominantly using the Wild Child collection by Pink Paislee but many of the stars in that were from the boy collection and too dark for my layout but I managed to find a few that worked. I also had three packs of puffy star stickers from Freckled Fawn so I went a bit crazy adding those in coordinating colours.
I added gold Heidi Shine splatters and drops and then went looking for sequins. I pulled out a few sequins in the right colours as well as some tiny gold star sequins too. I dotted these around my background.
And after adding some journaling at the bottom that's my layout complete. I have made a process video for you to view below.
Thank you so much for joining me today, I hope you've enjoyed my layout and my process video - see you next month and happy scrapping xx
