Snapshots of 2017 - April

Hi all, can't believe another month has drawn to a close. I have enjoyed looking back though the snaps taken this month and adding them to my April calendar page. I love using my camera phone for this pictorial diary as it is A almost always to hand and B reminds me of the date each photo was taken. I'm loving having prepared pages to add photos and details to, my 2017 scrapbook diary is shaping up nicely. How about yours?

To finish these pages I used Simple Stories Bits and Pieces, October Afternoon Daily Flash alphabets,  Heidi Swapp stickers and odds and ends from my stash.

Looking forward to seeing your April pages.

xoxo

Scrapping the Big Picture

I thought I would pop a post up about my current obsession of scrapping oversized photos!

So often we get stuck in the rut of the 6x4 world and maybe change things up a bit by croppping them down to 3x4s or 4x4s so it makes a nice change to go BIG!

A couple of retreats ago I did a class featuring oversized photos and it proved quite popular.

When I got back from our 2016 Florida trip I was a bit overwhelmed with all the photos - in a three and a half week trip there are a lot of photos to scrap and stories to tell. I gave myself a bit of time to think about how to approach it and decided on a system!

I chose one good photo from each of the key destinations (the Disney Parks, Space Center, Seaworld etc...) and had it printed in a large size. All my photos have a 3:2 aspect ratio apart from mobile phone photos and I ignored those for this as the quality needs to be decent to print large. This meant I could print them easily at 12x8" size without any cropping.

For variety I used a 12x5" panoramic format (although in a portrait orientation) for some and some of my cruise photos were 12x10"

Once my photos arrived I could easily scrap one large photo from each place as a main page for that location. With oversized photos the focus in terms of scrapping becomes about adding just a few key embellishments and a title, there really isnt much space beyond that so the extra bonus is that the layout is quicker to assemble!

This one was inspired by a layout by Melissa Mann who used the angled mini photos along the bottom of a large photo in her "This Beach" layout

 I then used my smaller 6x4s to scrap the stories I wanted to tell - More about "story telling" coming soon!

Get your geek on!!!

I am surrounded by geeks, I've resigned myself to the fact that I will spend a good majority of my time submerged in some technology chat on the average day.

A few years ago my other half and my best friend jacked in their jobs to build a fashion app with another friend. Fast forward a few years, a lot of hard work and an appearance on Dragon's Den and here we find ourselves. 

The 'So Rad' papers from Simple stories are fantastic, funky and so versatile and ideal for me to scrap this story. They would also be great for that teen, or tween or toddler in some cases who can't seem to separate their phone from their hands.  

To start I used the Navy houndstooth/ code paper for the base to act as a circuit board and then cut strips of 1/4" green bazzil to create the circuits.  I then used a 1/2" punch to create the end points.

I wanted to create a section that looked like the screen of a iphone with apps on it, so  I cut out the 'there's an app for that' and computer elements from '3x4 journalling card elements' and then the 'please wait' and 'loading' from the 'please wait attitude loading card from the 4x6" journalling card elements.

I rounded the top and bottom corners of the word strips to give the phone shape.  I then arranged them onto green card and taped them down.  I trimmed around the green card to form the casing of the phone and then rounded the 4 corners again.  To finish this was then attached with a hinge to the page to allow a hidden journalling spot.

It's not just the phones that get all the attention with our friends,  Lanni is an avid collector of vintage video games - it's ever growing much to the dismay of his girlfriend Kayleigh.  I wanted to use the fab sticker stickers that appear in this range to create a throwback to the Pacman/Space Invader era to complement the photos I have of them.  Although not the best picture I love the look on both their faces - Lanni's determined and Kayleigh's bemused expressions kill me!!

I started using a sheet of black bazzil, and then cut some blue 1/4" frames.  I chopped these into pieces to create the pacman runs and attached them round the edges as frames.  I then mounted the photo to the left of the centre and cut the 'game on' element from the '3x4 journalling card elements' mounting this to the right of the photo. I then cut the controller sticker in 2 and adhered to the element.

I cut the road border sticker in 2 to create 2 borders and put above and below the photo and then added the space invaders stickers and 2 blue border strips

To finish I cut some white 1/2" circles to become the pacman trails and created a border with them and the 'awesome', 'rad', 'cool' and 'epic' stickers.  

This range is so adaptable - keep an eye out on the facebook page later this month where I'll be sharing another page made using more elements from this range.

Making Your Own Project Life Cards

Hello, hello, Karen here with my April Project Life post.

This month I decided to make my own project life cards to use for a Stampin' Up pocket page.  I used the utterly gorgeous Indigo Skies range from Kaisercraft (which is available from ATDML).

First, I cut a piece of 12 x 12 white cardstock into four 6 x 4 pieces and four 3 x 4 pieces and rounded all the corners, I used a 1/2 inch corner rounder on the large cards and a 1/4 inch one on the small ones.

Next I covered one side of all the large ones with paper measuring 5 3/4 in x 4 3/4 in (rounding the corners with my 1/2 inch corner rounder).  I then covered one side of two of the smaller cards and both sides of the remaining two small cards.

Next comes the fun part - adding embellishments to the patterned paper.  I treated each card as a little scrapbook page (minus the photo on most of them) and used die cuts from the corresponding Collectables pack and words from the manufacturer's strips cut from the bottom of the papers.

Finally I added my photos to the blank side of the cards, added two pieces of index cards ( from WHSmiths) cut to size on to both sides of one of the small cards and my title to the remaining small card.

This was a project that I really enjoyed making and as I have several lovely photos, from the Easter Weekend, still to scrap along with lots of scraps of paper, I shall be making a 12 x 12 page to go either side of this pocket page.

Hope I have inspired you to have a go at making your own project life cards.

Karen x

April Virtual Crop - Class 3 with Mel

Welcome to the last class of todays virtual crop.

For this class I created two layouts using the lovely "On Trend 2" papers from My Minds Eye. The photos do not show the foiling very well but in real life the gold accents add a bit of sparkle and shine to the pages.

Click Here for the Instructions.

Don't forget to share your layouts on the ATDML # Create Facebook page as well as any challenge layouts you may wish to enter.

April Virtual Crop - Class 2 with Katherine

Hello, I hope you are enjoying the crop so far - I created 3 pages with the We Are Family collection from Simple Stories, and concentrated on using all the cut apart sheets for embellishments - and also the larger cut apart pieces that can sometimes be a little harder to use in a page. 

We also make some accordion/fan fold flowers.

My final pages is full of paper and all the little elements that you get in the kit.

I hope you enjoy it and have a fantastic Easter too.

You can find the instructions here.

April Virtual Crop - Class 1 With Karen

Happy Easter to all you Virtual Croppers.

Today I have two very Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy layouts made with the very pretty Painted Portrait range from Webster's Pages.

I have used a 7 x 5 portrait photo on both my layouts but to be honest any size or orientation of photo should work on these layouts.

The first needs a little bit of 'wiggly line' drawing

and the second is needs just a little straight forward measuring and cutting.

I hope you enjoy making these layouts and even if you weren't lucky enough to get one of the kits you are still welcome to play along, using different papers.  Please post on your layouts on our Facebook page.

The instructions for this class can be found here.

Katherine is up next and, as always, I can't wait to see what she has made.

Happy Scrapping

Karen xxx

April Virtual Crop - Inspired by Challenge

Hello ATDML scrapbookers and welcome to another virtual crop challenge. This challenge runs until midnight on the last day of April (30th) and there is a £5 ATDML gift voucher up for grabs for the favourite page chosen by the design team so why not join in and share your page with us? 

What are the rules? Well it's simple, just create a scrapbook page inspired by the image above. Will you feature ovals or circles or four of another shape? stick with the colourway or scrap your furry friends?  It is up to you, let your imagination run wild!

I created the page below inspired by the image. My layout started with four circles in the middle of my page drawn around a cup several times. Each time shifting the cup slightly to overlap the previous and not give perfect circles.  I then added splats of distress stains which, when spritzed with a little water I used to paint with and add colour around the circles.  I then stamped some circles in black and added some stars cut from patterned paper.  My four photos (2"x3") were mounted on black card before adding one to each circle. To further tie in with the inspired by image I added some chevron doodles around the circles.  I then added a stamped title and my embellishments and it was a great opportunity to use up some enamel dots I had left in my stash. My page had shifted to no longer being central as I had intended it, so to balance the elements falling towards the bottom of the page I added a strip of black card to the top of the layout and a strip of twine along the bottom.

To be in with a chance to win a £5 atdml store voucher share your page on our Facebook challenge gallery by midnight 30.4.17 and we will pick a winner early May. 

Have fun and don't forget to pop back tomorrow for your virtual crop classes starting at 10am.

April Virtual Crop Photo Requirements

Hello, the Virtual Crop falls on Easter Weekend this month...the kits are sold out but you can still join in with the challenges, classes and chatter on the blog and in our facebook group ATDML#Create.

Class 1 - 10 am - Karen Moss

Layout 1 - 7 by 5" portrait

Layout 2 - 7 by 5" portrait


Class 2 - 12:00 - Katherine Sutton

Layout 1 - Three 4" squared (they will be trimmed to 3 3/4" squared)

Layout 2 -  Two 3 by 4" landscape with a white border

Layout 3 - Two 4" squared with a white border

Good to have a star punch or a 1" basic shape punch

Class 3 - 2 pm - Mel Hand

Layout 1 - 6 by 4" landscape

Layout 2 - 6 by 4" landscape

April Photography Prompts

Welcome to April's Photography Prompts. As always do feel free to share your photos for the month on the ATDML # Create facebook page.

Ready for summer

Now we have seen the first day of good weather (or as we like to call it in Scotland - summer) it's not hard to get excited about the next few months. Whether you are planning on jetting off to hotter climates or you are going to make the most of our local beaches, BBQ's in the garden or festivals there is plenty to look forward to.

Last summer my boss threw a Glastonbury event in his garden, a massive marquee, big screen to show the event and a gin bar - perfect!! The weather was also a good reflection of Glastonbury as it was mostly sunny with a little bit of rain.  We spent the afternoon (and evening) dancing away and the bright colours of the Bo bunny 'make a splash' range made me think back to the selphies we were taking that night.

 I started by cutting a 4"x10" trip of the blue side of 'floating' and cut an uneven banner-style section out of the end. I then cut a 4"x6" piece of the 'summertime' range and distressed the edge.

I then trimmed down the 'penguin & bucket', 'sandcastle', 'jam jar' and 'Aloha summer' from the 'vacation' paper and cut a 6"x4" piece from the remaining off cuts. ( i set aside the penguin and sandcastle elements for the next layout)

I layered the photo on the yellow side of vacation and then layered up on the blue floating and bottle cap lid side of summertime.

I then tucked the jam jar element under the photo and stuck down. 

Using the stripy side of summertime I cut into strips and stuck round a piece of string to create a banner.

Finally I finished it off with some gold thickers. 

With 'Aloha Summer' as soon as I saw the elements with the cute wee penguins buiding sandcastles, I thought of my friends little girls on the beach.  

I wanted to have that summer beach/ feel so I created the background paper around the photo while still showing the kraft cardstock.

First of all I mounted the photo onto the stripy side of a piece of 'summertime'.  

I then cut  2"x12" and 4"x12" strips of the blue side of 'ocean'.  I wanted the blue to fit around the photo so I cut a 2 1/2" x 6" section out of the 4"x12" strip.  I mounted this to the LHS of a sheet of kraft cardstock and the 2x12 strip to the RHS.  The photo and mount then fir comfortably in the gap.  I then cut a strip of vacation to fill in the gap between the 2 sides on the bottom and use 6x6 sun element from Ocean trimmed to fit into the gap at the top.

I also trimmed the pink scalloped section from ocean to frame the photo.

I then cut the penguin and bucket from his element and mounted it in front of the sandcastle (covering the wording) and mounted it in the bottom RHS at an angle

At the top in the space in the middle of the sun bordered section I stuck the 'aloha summer' element as a title and using scraps hand cut some clouds. 

Finally I trimmed a rubber ring from the 'floating paper and popped it in the bottom corner and added washi tape to 2 of the edges of the photograph to give it that old fashioned holiday scrapbook feel similar to the 2 elements on the page.