Panda Shop | Amy Kattenbelt | Monochrome

Hi, I'm so excited to be bringing you my very first project for UK Scrap Addicts.

This months theme is Monochrome and after much deliberation about what colour i would like to pick i settled on creating a layout that was purely black, whites and greys. I thought this would match the photo of my eldest son with lots of panda cuddly toys that was taken on our holiday last year.

To make up for the lack of colour i knew i wanted to add plenty of layers and texture, in the hope it would create a lot of interest for the eye. Once i had printed my photo in black and white, i trimmed it to keep a white border and then added a narrow black border to make sure the photo would stand out.

I went through some of my stash and selected some black and white patterned paper. I used a striped paper from the Maggie Holmes Carousel collection as a border piece, and paper from Maggie Holmes Flourish collection with a beautiful leave design on as the background for my layout.

Because these papers were so busy, in order to make my title stand out i decided to use a layer of white cardstock on the left hand side. I added some grey watercolour paint and black ink splashes to create interest.

I then added lots of layers behind the photo, including using some patterned vellum and a doily and tag. I created a crepe paper ruffle to put under the photo too. I then added some black and white flowers which i had previously cut out from a patterned paper. I used Amy Tangerine thickers to create the title, i adore these as i think they add such a dramatic impact to the layout. I used Tim Holtz tiny alpha stickers to create a sub title as well as stamping the date the photo was taken onto a label.

I also used some acrylic paint to paint an 'awesome' wood veneer word grey, and added that above my photo.

I then added even more texture to my layout by adding some twine, fibres and ribbon, using my tiny attacher to staple them to the page. I added three small panda puffy stickers to form a triangle around the photo. Lastly i added some grey studio calico sequins in several clusters to complete the layout.

I will leave you with a link to the YouTube process video so you can see exactly how i create this page (i apologise for the bouncy camera work, i promise it improves vastly after the first minute or so of the video)

https://youtu.be/Mw_E9wKxLPg

Free Cut File - May

Hey there lovely crafters!  We hope you are all enjoying the various challenges and inspiration that National Scrapbooking Day had provided.  Please do share your creations with us in our Facebook Group and tag us on any social media so that even more people can be inspired.

So how about some more inspiration for you, this time in the shape of this month's free cut file?  

You can find instructions for downloading and using the cut file in Silhouette here.  And don't worry if you don't have an electronic die-cutter, we've got some ideas for using them without one here.

Please remember that these cut files are for your own personal use only.  Selling on these files is a breach of copyright.  

Happy scrapping!

Smile | Sheena Rowlands | Monochrome

Hi there x Sheena here again.
I was pleased when I saw this months challenge was to use monochrome as I saw it as an excuse to go through all my scraps and find papers from different ranges and manufacturers to use all together.

Smile.

I had lots of pink scraps so I found a photo from a recent trip to Euro Disney to go with them. I layered the scraps across the page tearing some and hand scalloping others and I shuffled them around till I was happy with the over all look and adhered them down.

To add some depth I added the title on foam pads and added some hand stitching for texture.

I finished the page with embellishments from my "pink"bag. After seeing a friend store her old die cuts & paper bits this way I found this system works well for me particularly when I break up kits or am just looking for a certain something to finish a page. I have about 8 of these zip lock bags with different coloured bits in near my work space.

I hope you get a chance to take part in this months challenge.

Till next time x

So Sweet | Terri Morris | Monochrome

Terri here to showcase my version of a monochromatic page. This is one of my favourite layouts of all time. I never really use yellow as a focal point in my scrapbooking so I was really surprised at how much I love this page. Just shows it pays to try something out of your comfort zone.

I used a mix of Crate Paper Maggie Holmes collections and although I'm always surprised at how similar the collections are I do love that the colour palates co-ordinate so well together.

I added some yellow ink to the background using the packaging technique to add more yellow tones as I was limited to a few small embellishments. The page has a mix of cardstock stickers, enamel stickers and puffy stickers.

My little cute pussycat loves to lay outside my craft room and this was just the sweetest picture of him.

Thanks for reading today, don't forget to show us your creations by tagging us on Instagram or Facebook. Have you seen that we now have our own Facebook group to share our passion for scrapbooking.

Happy Crafting!

Happy and crazy girl | Maria La Chica | Monochrome

Hello again everyone!

Yes, it is Maria with you again! It is May, a brand new month and also when we introduce the new design team to the group! You can see the new team in this post. I hope you join me in welcoming them to the team! But a new team means a new schedule, so I am now at the beginning of the month rather than at the end.

So this month's theme is Monochrome. We had a bit of an internal discussion beforehand trying to figure out what monochrome really means as some people had different ideas. We reached the agreement that we can do a couple of different things: we can either choose a colour and use different shades of that colour, or we can choose black and white with an accent colour.

And that's what I've done! As you will be able to see in my page below, I have gone for a very neutral background in grey, with B&W papers, and then an accent of pink-ish coral.

The papers are mainly scraps from a 6x6 pad by Simple Stories - DIY boutique. It is an old collection, but I am sure it can still be found in some online shops. It is a very versatile collection, with tons of basic colours.

The embellishments are from Felicity Jane. Unfortunately, Felicity Jane is an American company that is very difficult to get hold of in the UK. You have to order directly from them and the shipping costs and taxes are not cheap. I have bought a couple of collections, but from UK second hand shops, which makes it so much more affordable.

The photos I have used have quite a neutral colouration, so I was quite lucky to be able to choose any accent colours that I wanted. I happened to have the most embellishment pieces in this coral/pink-ish colour, so that's the one I went for (plus it is my daughter's favourite colour...)

For the title I used the "happy" word from Felicity Jane, alpha stickers by Tim Holtz (which are back in stock at Hobbycraft! yay!) and the word Girl from the Girl Squad collection thickers.

And here is my process video, so you can see how I struggled to repeat the paper positioning that I had originally come up with!! :P

Thanks for joining me today, and read you soon!

Hot Choc | Maria La Chica | Tags

Hello Scrap Addicts!

It's almost the end of the month and here I am with one more layout using tags!

I'll be honest with you: I was rummaging through my stash for quite a while looking for tags and I almost gave up! I was going to make my own one... which I am sure would have been just fine, but I hit the jackpot when I found this pack of tags and embellishments! Yay! I've had them for quite a while, so it always feels great to use old products!

Here's my first photo:

As you will be able to see in the process video below, I had two photos to choose from and both of them had quite a neutral colour schemes - but I decided to go with this one as I felt it suited the tags better.

Here's a close up:

I thought about doing my journalling where I end up doing the title, but then I wasn't sure where I was going to be putting the title instead. I think the title looks quite good there, the only downside being that the journalling is now a tiny bit cramped where it is...

I also used a few embellishments from a pack from the same collection. I don't always do that, I love looking through my stash and finding things that match, however this time I thought it was better to stick to the same collection, since the tags had so many different colours.

And here is my video so you can see my process!

Thanks for watching ladies, and read you real soon!

Explore | Tags | Jackie Ashton

Hi scrappers, Jackie here with my take on this months theme ‘tags’.

This is my layout ...

 and as you can see I went for the 'more is best approach' and die cut various sizes of tags from patterned papers and used them as a base for my photographs.

I used Crate Paper - Here and There collection, which I purchased from Hey Little Magpie.

I mainly used the 6x6 pad, and a few scraps that was left over from a previous layout, as well as added with printed vellum from the same collection to give my page some added texture and detail.

Before laying the tags across the page, I added some ink to the background using Tim Holtz - Distress Inks and the packaging technique, then added white thread to each of the tags.

I also added some hidden journalling behind the photographs, tag was cut from white cardstock and I added a piece of patterned paper on the front, with the journalling on the back.

I added my photographs to my layouts mounted then onto some 6x6 pattered paper.

I then finished my layout with some chipboard and puffy word stickers from the collection and some wood veneer from my stash.

We would love to see how you use tags on your layouts, please share with us on our Facebook page we would all love to see them.