May Gallery - My Picks.

This month we chose our own DT kits to work with and although Katherine, Ann and I all chose some Kaisercraft we all produced very different projects.

Katherine and Ann used Blue Bay and Ann utalised the large frame paper in an interesting way and made a stunning birthday card.

Whilst Katherine worked her own distinctive magic with it to make these layouts.  I love how the same paper range can look so different from our talented girls.

 

 

 I used Betsys Couture to cover the box that was in our ATDML Retreat goodie bag  and to make a page of my wedding - almost 30 years ago.

Katherine also chose some Simple Stories 'I AM'

I also chose some Crate Paper Confetti and these are my favourites

So there we have yet another month of inspiration - taking the lead from Ann who scraplifted one of her own layouts this month - how about going onto the gallery, choosing a layout and scraplifting it?

I am looking forward to seeing next month's projects as they pop up on Facebook and the blog and any wonderful scraplifts - post them on our Facebook page, if you are not a member apply and you will be welcomed to a plethora of lovliness.

Do You Only Scrap The Good Stuff?

Several times over the years I have seen discussions on forums and facebook about this topic - do you fill your albums with happy smiling pictures and leave out any o the not so great memories or do you approach it as an archiving process and record the lows as well as the highs?

I have always felt that "to each his own," this hobby of ours has no right or wrong answers so we all do what eels right to us.

Often I joke to my friends that I scrapbook pictures of my girls looking happy together like this one in the hope that eventually, when the mists of time have descended I will forget quite how much they can bicker and fight!

When I looked back through some holiday photos I saw these layouts of our day in Dubrovnik and I realised that they really didn't tell the whole story...

*Class by Ann Freeman from Scrapmates crop*

 So I got to work and scrapped this layout which rectifies that.

Obviously feeling hideously seasick is not a good memory but it also wasn't the end of the world and by adding the layout it balances the story of the day. I have to admit that it was a fun layout to make, I used up lots of older bits and bobs and much to the disgust of my Mum I took great delight in adding splats to a seasickness page!

All in all I think I will still keep my albums predominantly full of the happy, smiley, good stuff but there is definitely room for some of the less fondly remembered moments if it helps tell the story.

So Many of My Smiles begin with You - using Kaisercraft and another Clock

A bit less of a messy page from me today - I started using a metallic teal ink and a woodgrain stamp and created the background.  I inked up my Tando clock with the same ink, they cover with ink really well.  I tore strips of paper and layered them up across the middle section of my page, and used a gold tape measure washi tape that glitz make to add another layer.  I layered up some of the kaisercraft ephemera using foam dots and some Hobby Lobby cogs  The final touches were a little bit of bling - again from Hobby Lobby.

I think some of the poses are becoming a bit more teenager-ish now....but then you have my youngest taking the edge of it!

Scraplifting myself

Back in October 2014 I taught a Prima class above featuring distress stain splats which proved rather popular and I have to stop myself from including them more often on my pages! The May gallery was designers choice and as I have already shared I chose Kaisercraft Blue Bay. I started the page the same as the one above with a gentle mist spray across the white cardstock.

I drew an 11" square in pencil onto the page and used this as the guide for two out of three sets of splats, placing the third set in from the right hand edge. I then added a twine border over the pencil mark and added stamped phrases alongside the splats. I then placed my 6x4 photo inside the frame with lace and torn paper beneath and finished the page with stamped leaves and a Prima flower.

How about scraplifting yourself or this layout or any one of our gallery pages, they are there to inspire you. Click HERE for more May gallery items from the design team.

May Virtual Crop with Debs

I designed these two simple layouts to showcase the pretty papers from Webster pages.  Normally I would shy away from detailed picture papers like the Sand and Sea paper but the 'fishy elements' worked will with this beach photo so I chose to cut out different elements and use them to frame my photograph and to tie it into the overall design of this layout.

This second layout is all about the patterned papers and using them to showcase your photograph.

Class instructions can be found here.

May Virtual Crop with Ann - Minibook class

Happy Saturday crafters and welcome to my May virtual crop class.

Thought it had been a while since I had done a mini book and as the kit had some VERY bright and funky Simple Stories papers I decided to break them down into smaller pieces to document our Easter activities.  This book can be added to a scrapbook page for multiple photos or kept as a stand alone keepsake.

Instructions can be downloaded HERE and this is a nice quick mini book - not too complicated that can easily be created with our own supplies.

Enjoy, and your next class today will be up at 2pm with Debbie

May Virtual Crop with Katherine

Hello and here is my class for todays Virtual Crop using Public Library by October Afternoon.  My first page uses lots of blues to give an ombre effect, there is also a little bit of fussy cutting for some of the embellishments.

My second page uses a diamond pattern - I've seen a few pages like this so decided to do my own take on it - I'm not sure where the idea originated!  It also gets you to create your own paper embellishments like the balloon and cloud, and gives you some ideas for colouring the Simple Stories alphabet.

This page is just another idea for something you might like to have a go at with the left over kit and any other goodies you have in your stash.  The mist is from the Marion Smith Color Lab and then lots of paper layers and triangles.

I hope you enjoy the class, you can find the instructions here.

May Virtual Crop Challenge

Well it is virtual crop challenge time again and so I trawl through the internet looking for something cool that happened on this day in history which I can then use as a prompt for you creativity this fine Saturday morning.

And what do you know, on May 16th 1929 the first Academy Awards were awarded in Hollywood. The most well known of these is the Academy Award of merit more commonly known as the Oscar statuette.

So get those thinking caps on today for your film based challenge where you need to include inspiration from a film on your layout. This could be film roll, visit to film studios, using the title from a film as the title of your page - the choice is yours. We held a similar challenge last September but I think enough time has passed that we can rise to this one again!!

Look forward to seeing your creations inspired by this challenge.

First class is up at 10am followed by another at noon, and then again at 2pm. See you then!

A Chipboard technique with Tando clocks....

I wanted to show you some things that you can do with the beautiful new chipboard that Mel and Jill have stocked up on, one of my favourite is the clocks.  The chipboard pieces are really versatile, you could use them as masks for spray inks, leave them plain and grey or paint them up.....

I started with a layer of texture paste (this is my home made variety and made out of talcum powder and gesso and a little bit of PVA - I played around with the amount of talc until I got a fairly stiff consistency)

Next sprinkle on some silver embossing powder and then heat it all up

I then added some distress ink - I used a sponge as I didn't want my distress stain to become contaminated with the paint...as I wasn't waiting for it all to dry properly, I was just doing a little bit of heating in-between layers!

Then to make it look like it was oxidising I added a little bit of blue broken china distress stain.

So with those layers this is what it looks like.

To add a little bit more texture to the piece I used some dried marigold distress stickles - the distress stickles have bigger pieces of crystal in them than the glitters so it helps make it all look a little bit older.

Here is the finished product!

and here is the finished page....

using lots of Kaisercraft Blue Bay which you can find here

May Virtual Crop Photo Requirements

Here are the photo requirements for this weeks Virtual Crop.

Class 1 - Katherine Sutton

Layout 1 - 1 landscape 6" by 4" photo

Layout 2 - 2 or 3 portrait 6 by 4" photos - we are going to trim them down into diamond shapes that            are 2 1/2" squares.

Useful to have - brown ink, gold ink, clear embossing powder (and heat tool), broken china distress stain or ink, glossy accents, border punch and heart punch.

Class 2 - Ann Freeman

This class is a mini book so photos can be added later, but they should be no bigger than 3" by 4" and a mix of portrait and landscape.  The book will take between 8 and 12 photos depending on how much journalling you want.


Class 3 - Debbie Jewell

2 Layouts both need a 6 by 4" landscape photo - colour or black and white

Designers Choice for May Gallery

At the retreat last month I was once again playing with Kaisercraft, this time Blue Bay papers. I was trying to get a little ahead with my ATDML design team work to free up May for studying for two accountancy exams. This page also featured one of the cool Crate wooden hoops we had in Katherine's class, which one I had used once I had to buy some more!!

I used this one to draw attention to some of the clustered words I had used. I also made a shaker easel card for my dad's forthcoming big birthday.

It took a while to get the accetate to stick (I ended up redoing it using red tape super strong adhesive) but the end result was worth it.

May 2015 Photography Prompts

Another new month which means another set of photography prompts for you to grab inspiration from.

Don't worry if you've not joined in before, don't worry if you only manage 1 or 2 of the prompts - just have fun and take more photographs this month.

May

Selfie on the 1^st

What I’m listening too

Happiness

Job/work/chores

Bank holiday fun (2 days to choose from!!)

As always if you share your photographs on line please use the #atdml so we can pop by and see them! Or you can leave a comment below with a link to your images or post them on our Facebook page #atdml create.