Let's get sketchy challenge

I've discovered another great challenge blog recently, called Let's get sketchy. They post awesome sketches every week, and you have the entire month to complete the projects! When I saw this beautiful sketch by Jenessa Franco, I just could not resist the butterflies, so I decided to do something with it immediately.

I found a very old photo of myself on holiday in Spain, that I wanted to use. As I started going through my stash to put together all the supplies I wanted to use, I found this gorgeous "bubble" design by Studio Calico. The idea for the butterflies quickly changed in favour of the bubbles...

Because of the fun colour combination in the bubbles, I opted for a title with each letter coloured differently. After painting each of the letters, I added Glossy Accents to them.

To continue with the circular embellishment theme, the small viewfinders from Echo Park were just perfect.

The main patterned panel on the layout is cardstock that was inked using a range of different inks and mists. I actually created the other side for another project, did not like it much and decided to throw it away once it was dry. As I put it in the bin, the back side of the paper caught my eye. It had picked up the left over ink from my craft mat when I sprayed and inked the other side. I loved it. Saved from the bin... To add a touch of glamour, I stitched around this cardstock with golden metallic thread.

A little red banner with journaling along the top edge thereof, and a few ink drops completed the layout.

A day to remember

I am trying to catch up with a few projects I've recently created. This layout was for the Pics 'n Tales January class challenge. Ezme and I challenged the girls to create a Christmas layout without using any red or green...

 

My colour scheme was cream and charcoal, with a splash of colour here and there. I used a picture of my son in a school play, when he was about 4 years old. The edges of the cream background paper were distressed, whereafter I added yellow and a touch of blue Distress Ink to the background. To add a bit more interest, I also used texture paste with a very fine stencil, as well as stamping on the background.

Lots of little goodies from my stash found its way onto this layout. Since the colour scheme was so very "untraditional", I decided to go with that idea for the rest of the embellishments as well. Once I had the photo matted on the yellow patterned paper with the corners stitched, sitting on top of the stencilled pattern, I thought it looked quite "natural" - in a wheat sheaf kinda way. So that led to the yellow flowers and leaves being included.

And you know how it goes from there: the picture of the deer added to the theme, sentiments cut out from patterned paper, and a heart for my sweetest boy just "jumped" onto the page. I liked the addition of the clock face. It reminds me of the the passage of time from when he was in this school play. But it is also a reminder to a day about 2000 years ago.

I completed the layout with a few of my current favourite - resin flowers. I can't seem to resist these little beauties at the moment. They are gorgeous, and I used them in different colours on this layout.

 

What started out as a fun challenge that needed some thinking about untraditional colours, turned into a personal moment documented in a way that has meaning to us as a family. Mission accomplished!

 

TFL!



I'm back!!

It feels like I've been away from this blog forever... I have no excuse, because "life happens" to all of us! So without going into any details of my absence, let's rather look at something more interesting.

I am currently in a "stencil phase". Anyone else crazy about the beautiful stencils that are currently available? I've recently played with a beautiful one created by Heidi Swapp, to create stars with texture paste as part of the background of a layout. I've also used it with paint, distress ink and archival ink, and simply love the different results you get just by changing up the medium which you use. In this layout, I've used the texture paint straight from the bottle, but you can colour it by simply adding ink or paint to it before applying it through your stencil.

I used another of Heidi's stencils with Mister Huey's mists to add a chevron pattern to a small section of the background. By combining more than one colour, one can achieve quite an interesting look.

This is what the layout looks like:

This photo was taken sooo many years ago! I thought that the pretty, dainty little resin roses from Prima and the cute bicycle from Basic Grey was a gorgeous contrast to the very scary T-Rex in the photograph. It also picks up on the young, playful feel of the photograph. The bright colours of the title and chevron accentuates the letters on the alphabet patterned paper on the right of the layout, while the black rub-ons creates an accent colour on the layout.

Thank for stopping by! Be sure to do so again!

Long time no see....

Phew, it's been a while, has it not? Well, I am sure that the end of year is not only creeping up on me, but on many of you too. Why does everything always have to happen at the same time at this time of the year?!

Enough of that... I did get a bit of scrapbooking done over the last few weeks. I've designed two classes which I will be presenting in Mossel Bay during December and January, I've packed a quite few extra kits to take with for the ladies in the Southern Cape, and I've completed a layout or two for Pics 'n Tales.

For this month's challenge at Pics 'n Tales, we used this sketch from Pagemaps:

There were some really lovely pages at class yesterday! Be sure to keep an eye on the Pics 'n Tales Facebook page over the next few days to see what the ladies came up with. Here is my interpretation of the sketch:

 

 

 As you can see, I changed it a bit. I used one large photo instead of a piece of patterned paper and moved the banner up right to the top of the page. I also did not include any small photographs in the banner. The tag had to make way for an ornate bookplate, but the butterfly stayed. And apparently also invited all its friends along... I just love these tiny butterflies - who can resist them?

The colour scheme in this layout also presented me with an opportunity to use some [very, very] old gaffer tape from my stash. The pearl accents added just the right amount of bling to finish it all off.

 

Vintage beauty

Ever scrapped one of your favourite childhood toys? Well, when I was designing a new class for Pics 'n Tales recently, I took a photo of one of the dolls that shared my life as a little girl. Her name was Cindy, and she was a ballerina doll. I was struck by how pretty she is. She still evokes those little girl "princess" feelings in me - even today! So what better way to celebrate her, than to make a layout?

For inspiration, I used the current sketch from Scrap365's sketch challenge. It is based on a layout by Yana Smakula, and looks like this:

I used Kaiser Craft's Hidden Treasures range. I love the colour scheme of this range, and specifically wanted to bring out the gold / bronze colours in the patterned paper. To do this, I used Ranger's bronze metallic paint, combined with a bit of blue and green paint on the tag. Once it was dry, I stamped and embossed a sentiment on the tag.

The leaf pins add a fun element, along with the mesh bow, which is tied with washi tape.

In the opposite corner, I added a little golden bird from Making Memories, holding a tag which says : "You are my happy thought". I thought this was quite appropriate... {Don't you just LOVE the earrings?!}

Paint splatters, washi tape, pearls and bunting flags were used to "pull everything together".

I loved working with this sketch, as it allowed me to showcase not only a well-loved toy, but also this gorgeous range of paper from Kaiser Craft!

Destination unknown

I am systematically making space in my stash for new goodies. This means that I am really trying hard to create projects with all the heaps and heaps of paper in my stash, using embellishments that I already own. As you would know, this is a bit of a daunting task. Why don't we ever seem to know just how many patterned papers we own, until we try to "work them away"?! Needless to say, progress is slower than I expected...

Luckily there are so many awesome websites with great sketches available these days! This week I used this sketch from Stuck?! to create a layout with a bit of a nostalgic theme:

I used a scanned copy of a very old picture, and wanted to create a vintage look to go with that. The paper is mainly from Prima, and most of the embellishments were cut from the same paper range.

 

Silver Stickles add sparkle to a chipboard flourish, to tie in with the title and a silver glitter leaf to the left of the layout.

 

This little bird already had a crown on its head, but I could not resist using this totally adorable little Prima crown instead. It is tiny, and just perfect for this spot...

 

This is what the finished layout looks like:

 

As you can see, I changed some of the elements a bit - used old book paper instead of a doily, move my title to the other side of the page, used one photo instead of three... In other words, made it my own. I loved working with this sketch!

Take a good look at the (not so) little orange mouse in the little girl's arm. You will see another layout soon featuring that same mouse, created by that same girl many years later...

 

Upcoming PnT class

Here is a little sneak peek of this weekend's Pics 'n Tales class:

We will be using Teresa Collin's Memorabilia Range to create a cute mini album, using a set of file folders, beautiful stickers, patterned papers. ribbon, hat pins, sequence... For more photos, go here.

There are only a few extra kits available, so contact us to reserve yours today!