April Gallery - My Picks

 April was a very busy month for us at ATDML with the retreat classes to prepare for so only Katherine and I made pages for the Webster's Pages April Gallery.

I have chosen my favourite two from Katherine and two from me this month.

As  always I am in awe of Katherine's mixed media skills and love the layering on this page.

I love this one too as it is different from Katherine's usual very painty style but nevertheless is still a stunning page. 

I used my Silhouette to cut the title from patterned paper, which I backed with white and then cut the 'Be The Good' from the background card.  

For this page I made a shaker heart by making a pocket with a piece of vellum with the denim striped background and a piece of striped paper and filling it with black and white sequins.

Next months picks will be very diverse and exciting as we all chose our own dt kits.

Normal Service Has Been Resumed or Early Sunday Morning Ramblings

I have been experimenting with different styles recently.  Mostly prompted by two things - firstly my application for the Kaisercraft DT (which was unsuccessful but I am heartened that I got a thank you for applying email when I know some didn't even get that)  and as a result of looking at of their current DT's work I was prompted to try a little messy play and taking Katherine's class at the recent ATDML retreat - a bit of mixed media scrapbooking.

Secondly, I chose some papers from the Crate Paper Confetti range as part of my May DT kit.  These papers seemed to cry out for more white space  and so far I have made three pages with a less is more approach.

Experimenting with the Silhouette pens.

 A bit of faux project life

Splatters of gold paint and still loving the Polaroids I cut out for the Make & Take.

I decided that I like a bit of messy and will continue to experiment with that to see which way it takes me and white space is becoming less scarey.

But normal service has been resumed!

For this page I used this sketch

which I found on Pinterest and is from here .

I used lots of layering,  flowers, leaves, little wooden butterflies and my Silhouette to cut the title.

I can't decide which style is my style at the moment as I like all three types of scrapbooking - perhaps I just like playing with pretty paper and sparkly stuff without a care for boxing it into one style or another.

I think I will just go with the flow and see where it takes me!

Do you feel you have a specific style?

Grow with Websters Pages

Now you may think that Websters Hall Pass is a school type line......but it can be adapted quite easily to lots of other pages too.  I love the rulers and letters, and type prints along with that woodgrain, so choose it for an allotment photo.  I started with a bit of tearing and then backed the main chevron sheet with the flowery paper.  I then layered up some of the Websters vellum 

- the Hall Pass sheet has lots of polaroid style frames, and numbers - all in vintage shades so they are really easy to use on pages to just add a bit more interest and another layer.  

Rising to the Virtual crop challenge

Over the weekend just gone we had our virtual crop and I set a challenge as I do each month based on a date in history that coincides with the virtual crop.  This challenge was to create a layout or card with a diamond pattern and here is page I created for Karen's crop back in October 2012! 

I made myself a diamond template and then used it to cut out patterned papers (great for using up left overs from a virtual crop or retreat kit!!) Using the same template I created a couple of journaling areas by faux stitching the diamond shapes with a white gel pen which I also used for my journaling and for extending my areas.

I think this challenge through a few people but hopefully now with an illustration you might be inspired to join in? It is never too late and these challenges have no time constraint. You can come back to them time and time again.

Did you know you can find all our past challenges by selecting the label "Challenges" at the end of this post? This will filter the Created by ATDML blog posts and only show those which are challenges. Talking of challenges I am finding it hard to remember how I was able to walk so far! I was training for a walking marathon at the end of Sept 2012 and this was the height of my training (21k is a half marathon!!) Must get those trainers back out as I have an easier 15k next month for which I have done very little preparation beyond 5k recently!!

Have fun exploring our challenges and do share your pages with us!!

April Virtual Crop - Class 3 with Mel Hand

Welcome to the final class of the day. I hope you have enjoyed the Virtual Crop so far, remember there is an album to share your layouts on the ATDML # Create group on facebook or if you are not a facebook user you can always blog your layouts and post a link in the comments, we love to see what you have produced.

I made three layouts with my Simple Stories A Charmed Life kit, unfortunately blogger is not playing nicely and letting me add them (eeekk) but if you follow the link below you can find full instructions for all three layouts.

Click HERE for my instructions

Thank you for joining us today, remember the next Virtual Crop will be held on Saturday May 16th

April Virtual Crop Class 2 with Denise

Hello crafty people - I hope you're enjoying our virtual classes today.
I have two layouts today both using the stunning Graphic 45 Couture papers.
First up we have a bit of fussy cutting - always needed when using Graphic 45 as there are so many hidden bits and bobs in their papers and some cute little scissors..

Next is a layout again using the Couture papers with some Artsylicious black frames.

Not so much fussy cutting on this one - just some stickles !

You can find the instructions for this class here

Don't forget to share your pages over on the Facebook group when you've done them

Next up is Mel 

April Virtual Crop Class 1 by Karen

Well hello ladies and welcome to the April virtual crop.

I am up first today with three layouts made using Bo Bunny Prairie Chic.  For my first layout I wanted to challenge myself to make a boy page from what is predominantly a girl based paper range.

For the second page I used the gorgeous trinkets as centers for some flowers.

 

For the third layout I used as much of the remaining kit as possible to make a very layered page.

So there is my class and the instructions can be found here.

We always love to see what you make over the weekend so please post it here

Next up at 12:00 is the lovely Denise and I can't wait to see what she has to offer.

April Virtual Crop Challenge

Welcome back lovely crafty ones to another ATDML Virtual Crop. As always we start off with a challenge followed by three classes at 10 am, midday and 2pm.

There will be a chat thread over on Facebook in the usual #atdml create page so pop by and say hello, let us know if you are playing along.

As you know the challenges for Virtual crops are based "on this day in history" and today we have a fun fact for you from 1981. On April 18th 1981 – The longest professional baseball game begun in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The game, started at 8pm that day and had to be suspended at 4:00am the next morning and finally completed on June 23.  You can read more about it here if you are so inclined! 

No need to be a fan of baseball today as  your challenge  is only to create a layout or card with a diamond pattern - based on the baseball field often being referred to as the baseball diamond.

Do share your projects with us, we love to see them :)

From That To This!

Last month, in the Facebook Group,  I posted a photograph of the DT kit that Jill and Mel had sent me to work with in April.

It was from two Websters Pages ranges - Strawberry Fields and Ocean Melody. 

So, with the Ocean Melody, I went from that

to this

 

****April Virtual Crop Photo Requirements****

It's nearly here and apologies for not getting out the photo requirements earlier.  Here they are

Karen

Layout 1: Two photos 4" wide and 6" tall

Layout 2: One photo 5" wide and 7" tall

Layout 3: One photo 7" wide and 5" tall

Denise

Layout 1 :  3.5" square

Layout 2 : Two 6 by 4" portrait (which will be cropped to 5.5" by 4" - both are colour)

Mel

3 Layouts each two need landscape 6 by 4" and one needs a portrait 6 by 4"

Color Caos

Well, yesterday's class was a success and I was up first again today.  Another three page class but this time using Bella BLVD's Color Chaos.  These papers are the polar opposites to the ones I used yesterday, they are very bright and bold.  

I loved these as soon as I saw them too - what a fickle scrapper I am - and the first layout came together very quickly.  This has the option of using the flower paper with cut out flowers as embellishments or using the star paper with cut out stars for a more masculine layout.

The second features different ways to use embossing folders - embossing silver foil, embossing plastic, embossing and sanding Core D'Ination cardstock, using the folders to print on water colour paper.

 By using the reverse of the papers a very different look can be achieved.

My final layout shows how this paper can look just as good against a black background and involves lots of layering. As soon as I saw the cut-a-part with the words 'You Will Forever Be My Always' I knew I had to use it on a page or on a card.

Retreat News - Class 1

Today is the day!  The first day of the long awaited ATDML Retreat and I was first up to teach at 1:30 with my class using the absolutely gorgeous Enchanted range from Simple Stories.  Unashamedly girlie - perfect to scrap photos of my unashamedly girlie girl!  

This was a three page class 

Page 1 - Hello Princess

The second page - Happily Ever After - not quite so feminine but still making the most of the gorgeous pastel tones of the papers. 

 Apologies for the camera flash across Josh's head!

 And the third one - Make A Wish - back to the girlie/princess vibe of the range.

April 2015 Photography Prompts

No April fools joke here today on April 1st as we share another set of photography prompts with you. We do this on the first of every month in the hope of generating more photographs to add to our scrapbook albums. Take a look at the world through a different set of eyes and get inspiration from the other photographs taken from these prompts. 

So what do we have in store this month?

April

Selfie on the 1^st

Friends/friendship

Signs of spring

What I’m watching

Travel/Exploring

Plenty of scope for variation on these prompts, think outside the box or taken them as written the choice is yours. If you wish to share your photographs we would love to see them on our Facebook page #atdml create or use the hashtag #atdml if you upload to social media sites. Enjoy the month ahead x