Tuesday 28 August 2012

Trends on Tuesday - Ready for some Maths?


Todays maths lesson is the pie chart, though I do think it looks a bit more like one of the trivial pursuit counters with the slices of cheese.  It's a really easy shape to make - you can draw around a plate and then divide the circle into  however many sections you desire.  I decorated mine using my die cut machine and added text around the edge of my chart, but you don't need to add anything.  I have also seen other pull out a piece of the pie slightly, which is another way to try too.  I have used Crate Papers Farmhouse collection and also a piece of their Random collection for this page too, and the page is based on a sketch by Valerie Mangan for the Studio Challenge site.

So having used this shape on a page I decided to see if it would work on a card too.


I punched a one inch circle out of 3 October Afternoon Cake Walk papers and then just cut them into 1/6ths, I like adding them at either side of my central image as they almost look like a firework....a little burst of colour in the corners added to with the cosmic shimmer mist.  So instead of a normal circle, how about a pie chart ?

Saturday 25 August 2012

Multiple Photos

I visited Aldenham Country Park yesterday with my husband and our two boys. After a pleasant walk around the lake, some climbing of monkey nets, a woodland adventure trail and a visit to 100 Akre Wood (home of Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and friends) I now have a pile of lovely photos to scrapbook, but all of a very similar colour/theme. I have several layouts that are now needed I feel, one for each of the boys albums of course, some Winnie the Pooh family layouts, probably a Woodland trail page or two, but what papers to chose and do I vary them to make the layouts look different despite them being on the same day? Here are a few from our Winnie the Pooh walk.


I am quite drawn to the Harvest Lane range of papers from my favourite Simple Stories, and with conkering not too far ahead on the horizon I think I could easily use a whole collection up! I am particularly in love with the Bingo card paper (I always love this sheet the best in the Simple Stories collections) as it can be used to add to so many pages!

I created a page not too long ago for my local crop using a section of 6 of the bingo cards from a different Simple Stories collection to create this Jubilee themed page. 


I cut the block of 6 cards out as one piece then gutted the inside of two to create coloured frames for two photos, then a third frame was gutted and backed with cardstock for my journalling.  I can see a similar page coming with the paper above but maybe using the whole sheet and adding more photos!! Anyone else got any suggestions for some multiple page layouts using lots of photos of a woodland theme? I could sure use them!

Sunday 19 August 2012

From Pixels to Paper


Hi, Karen M here.  I have a confession - sometimes I go over the the dark side and scrap digitally.  Not so much now but there was a time, when I was on a digital design team, I scrapped extensively in pixels.   I still retained my love of paper scrapping and as I only ever stored my digital layouts on my laptop and never printed them out, would sometimes, if I particularly liked a page, convert it into a paper page for my album.

Last week, I was having a clear out on my laptop and came across this digital page I had made a couple of years ago and thought it would translate perfectly into a paper one.


I cut the frame on my Craft Robo (a very ancient silhouette) and that was my starting point.  I then sorted through my photos to find one that would suit the frame and off I went.    Once I had cut and punched out the remaining elements for the page from the new 7 Gypsies Trousseau range, I inked all the pieces with Pumice Stone ink.

Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Pumice Stone 

I thought the background Kraft was too plain and so a few spritzes of watered down white paint and Cosmic Shimmer later

Mister - Silver


I was happy with the result.

Added a few buttons

Mini Button Bag - Bittersweet
 
and some Prima  flowers and I had a page that was made in an instant as I already had the digital version to copy.


and how fortunate that one of the papers had a shortened version of my daughter's name printed on it!


Do you ever go over the DARK SIDE?

Tuesday 14 August 2012

Trends on Tuesday - White Space


I have been told that I generally leave a fair amount of white space on my pages, which I hadn't really noticed before, maybe I had subconciously picked up the style from my internet browsing!

This page has 2 photos rather than my normal 1, mainly as I had to include both my children on their stone collecting in beaches - top tip is to take photos so you don't have to bring piles of stones home with you.  To focus the eye I put all my detail around the photo, and pile layers behind it and on this one I used texture with some burlap and stapled ribbon.  I tried to make my second photo look like it had been torn out a notebook and stuck on with the paper clip and some tissue tape.

Some top tips on using white space


  • If you are worried about leaving huge amounts of background bare rather than using a plain sheet of card stock for your photos try a patterned sheet of paper.
  • Flicks of shimmer mist or paint help to fill up some of the white space and draw the eye into the photo.  You could also use confetti - see my previous post.
  • Pile lots of interest around your photo which again draws your eye to photo.

In case you are wondering the papers I used for this page are October Afternoons 9 to 5 collection

Sunday 12 August 2012

Time for a Change

Hi there - Karen here with a quick little post on how I changed some of the papers and elements for this months gallery.

Firstly, for my Jubilee Cupcakes layout,

 By Karen Moss

 I cut all the cups and saucers from the Graphic 45  Kraft Reflections - Tea for Two and layerd them onto my page .

 Tea-for-Two-PR-working-copy

I felt it needed more more colour and so took inspiration from the Union flag and coloured the cups and saucers blue and red with water colour pencils.

By Karen Moss

I found that the paper took the colour really well and I was able to blend the colours out with a water brush.

For the Beach Baby page

 By Karen Moss

I only had black letters in the size I wanted to use

Thickers: CHIPBOARD - Gift Box BLACK

and these looked too stark against the muted colours of the page.  I stamped them with white ink

Staz On White Ink Pad with Re Inker

and a text stamp similar to these ones

Clear stamps - Legends

and this had the effect of toning down the black and making them blend in with the feel of the page more.


So there you have it - don't always settle for what the manufacturers give you, mix it up a bit to make it your own!

Tuesday 7 August 2012

Olympic Scrapping ?!

So Britain has been gripped by Olympic fever and I know that I will definitely be scrapping a few Olympic layouts. We currently have this set of 5 coasterboard rings (available in 4 sizes) which might come in handy when scrapping the olympics!


I have been lucky enough to make two visits to the Olympics before our holiday. We would have liked to have seen more but I know that many people missed out entirely so we made the most of what we could get!

On Sunday I went with Elizabeth, we did some shopping on Oxford Street:



Before our eveninng session at the Volleyball at Earls Court. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves in spite of the fact that we went in not entirely sure of the rules. Some we picked up and others remain a mystery! I am sure I will have a layout about the mysteries of volleyball at some point!


 On Wednesday Darren, Izzy and I headed back to London. This time we had Olympic Park tickets for the day time followed by Wembley Football tickets for the early evening. We decided ages ago that Olivia wouldn't last the whole day out and then sit through a football match so I was a bit sad she missed out on the Olympic experience even though I know she would have found it a struggle.


One thing that was really lovely was that there were so many of the volunteer "Games Makers" that there was always someone to take a photo of all of us - something we often don't have after a day out!

I had a disaster with the main lens I use on my DSLR and there was no way I could get it repaired in time for my holiday. I ended up with the choice of spending approx £100 renting the replacement lens for our trip or put that money towards the digital compact I have been wanting to buy for those "need a smaller camera" moments. I ended up buying a Sony Cyber Shot HX20V which is nice and compact and lightweight when you are walking around. It also has a massive optical zoom which I used a lot and a really fun Panorama feature which got used a lot!


Here we are in Wembley, enjoying the thrills or South Korea vs Gabon - it was a 0-0 result and Izzys best thing... The Mexican Waves!


I took loads of pictures over the two days and I am sure I will end up with several Olympic layouts to go in my albums!

Saturday 4 August 2012

Getting Ready To Scrap New York!

As I am still slowly working through my photos from our big 2010 holiday I am planning on getting a good start with this years holiday scrapping by using the technique I learned in the Shimelle Perfect Collection class and I am making up a few blank pages to work with on my return..

While I don't know what photos I will have I do have a few plans for layouts.

I adored Anns Picnic Page HERE and I am planning on using this paper from the Bo Bunny Liberty range to create my own variation of it!


You will have to check back after I return to see how it turns out!

PS I scheduled this post for the same time as my flight takes off so once it is live you know I am on my way!!!

Friday 3 August 2012

Gorgeous Gallery

The July Gallery is finally (at long last) up and I have a huge apology to make to the lovely designers who had to wait so long for me to put it up.

I really wanted to spotlight this gallery as it features Graphic 45. I hardly ever use Graphic 45... because I am always at a loss on how to make best use of it so that's why I really love this months gallery - lots and lots and lots of amazing inspiration to show that it can be used in many different ways to create some very different looking projects.



Jane Hewitts beautiful set of drawers are shown above along with some of her other creations.



Karen Moss shows that you can create something beautiful in a totally different style by incorporating the intricate patterns into a geometric design.


Guest Designer Ali McGovern demonstrates how to really showcase the fun and sometimes quirky designs often found on Graphic 45 papers.


Ann Freeman strikes the perfect balance between a clean uncluttered layout that still has plenty to look at. 

I simply had to include this layout by Karen Leahy in my overview of the gallery - I am sure many of us still have Jubilee photos waiting to be scrapped and Karen has made the most of the regal colour scheme with this fun layout!


And last but by no means least Katherine Sutton shows how you can cut small elements from the papers to enhance your photo and keep the theme of the papers evident without overwhelming your photos and journaling.

I am sure you will agree that the July gallery really shows what a diverse range of projects you can create with any given paper range. 

I think it is particularly useful to see how this manufacturers paper is used by different designers as it is a range which attracts equal numbers of people who love it and use it loads and people who love the papers but have no idea how to actually use them! (Until now that would be me but I am going to have a play with Olde Curiosity Shoppe as I LOVE the pigs!)