February's Virtual Crop - Class 1 with Karen

Hello, hello lovely Virtual Croppers.  Welcome to the February Virtual Crop.

I'm up first this month with two layouts made with My Mind's Eye - Now and Then.

The first uses either a large photo or several smaller ones to make up the size and my second one uses eleven small photos but it will depend on which frames you choose to use for your layout.

The second one is made to look like a 'rogues gallery' as I thought the 'B-Side' if the 'Labels' paper looked like wallpaper so I cut out the frames to make a photo display.

I hope you enjoy making these pages and I look forward to seeing your versions.  Pop back at 12 when Jane will be working her magic.

You can find the instructions for my class here.

November Virtual Crop Class 1 with Karen

Hello again lovely scrappers, time flies and I cannot believe that it is time for another exciting virtual crop.

I am first up this month with two layouts using the absolutely gorgeous and very sparkly Lost and Found Ruby by My Mind's Eye.

The first layout 'Our Family' has a typical photo from my lovely lot - me thinking I will get a decent photo whilst the other two pull faces without me knowing!  I used a cathedral window quilting technique for the pattern at the bottom of the page and kept the whole layout quite simple.

When I saw the chipboard shapes and bling swirl that came with the kit I immediately thought of making a hot air balloon with them and then the rest of the layout came together quite quickly after that. 

Both my layouts are quite clean and simple this month and I hope you enjoy making them.

Pop back at 12 noon when Katherine will be working her magic.

You can upload photos of your projects here and  download the instructions here.

Class 8 - HYDE PARK CORNER with Ann

Hello again lovely Cybercroppers. Are hope you are having fun thus far?

Second class from me this weekend as I take you to HYDE PARK CORNER.  As you might have guessed it you are going to need a corner rounder for this class (or a coin to draw around and cut by hand). You can include the interactive elements or leave the page as a simple grid of four - the choice is entirely yours.

Click on the link below to go to our main website to download your free PDF instructions for this  interactive layout class.

HYDE PARK CORNER INSTRUCTIONS

I hope you enjoy the class.  Don't forget to leave a link to your pages in the comments below - or share your images in our Facebook gallery on ATDML # Create

Our next class HEATHROW is at 7.30pm with Mel.

I spy with My Minds Eye

I spy with My Minds Eye ...a little spray ink, a few ink splatters, an array of different width/coloured papers, some stamping and die cutting not to mention some washi tape and a few pearls!

This is a layout I created for the April gallery and I wasn't sure where I was going with this page when I started out, only knowing that I wanted a predominantly gold & pink feel to the layout. I LOVE the gold papers from MME and the slightly washed out effect my daughter had applied to her selfie photo went perfectly. Add in the mix of dusty pink and I achieved a soft layered look with plenty going on from just a selection of strips of different types of materials. I was good to have a play with inks too which featured on other pages I created for the gallery last month too - think they are my go to toy at the moment! They worked particularly well on this woodgrain white card background which I think is still available in the shop here. The gold hearts and striped paper is from Now & Then Mildred can can be found here in the store.

Banners

Back in October Katherine share a blog post as part of Trends on Tuesdays all about banners and it seems the trend is still popular among scrapbookers, and certainly the design team. From using large strips of paper cut into banners as the focal point of your page, to smaller banner pieces tucked on a page or even a bunting line of banners they are everywhere. The design team gallery for February saw many examples of this.

Karen's beautiful layout sees the banner pieces cut from a variety of coordinating pattern papers (great way to use up those little pieces you have remaining).

Edges have been inked and each banner piece slightly overlaps the next.

Katherine's I love U2 layout sees the banner pieces form her photo mount, with ink and paint and distressing softening their appearance against the background.

Distressing and inking the edges to your banner pieces can help to hide where they are not quite  symmetrical and evenly cut (as we all know they never look straight not matter how much we measure!)

Have a go at a banner inspired card or layout yourself  and be sure to share your pages by leaving a comment and link below. 

Tag Team

Looking through the design team gallery for February, full of projects using luscious My Minds Eye products I noticed that both Karen and I had created layouts featuring tag shapes.

My brand new year layout features 4 tags with two placed end to end to make a longer strip to the right of the page. I simply cut rectangles from card, snipped the corners off to make a tag shape and added a punched brown circle of card with a small hole punched in the centre. Decorating these 4 tags with papers and running titles and journalling that overlap the tags and background card leads to a simple design idea creating a layout that flows across the page.
The Honeycomb Red/Pink double sided paper I have used can be found HERE, and the glittery striped paper/brown on reverse HERE.

Karen's Sweet Treat layout also uses 4 tags placed in a line across the page. Three act as photo mounts and the third is filled with hand cut embellishments and a title. She then sneaks a 5th tag in turned on it's side for the journalling. The floral embellishments Karen has used are from this paper HERE and this paper was also used on the layouts taught by Debbie at Ecelectic Keepsakes crop that several of the design team shared.

Finally this page by Katherine features a decorated  tag to the left of her photo housing the title to her layout.

Come back over the weekend when we share banner shapes appearing on more February DT layouts, but if you can't wait why not visit the full gallery HERE.

Mels Version of "Story Of Us"

I really loved Debbies LO and it was once again good to be a bit more inventive with papers which would not usually be my style, I find them beautiful individually but would not usually use so many busy patterns together.

I took Debbies design and amended it to suit the photos I had. I was a late booking and originally thought there would not be enough kits ofr me to have one so I didn't prepare photos. I ended up using a single 5x5 photo instead of the two on Debbies LO. I also wanted to offset my circles rather than keep them equal but as ever it was wonderful to take a class packed full of inspiration but also know that the teacher would not freak out if a little freestyling went on!

My photo was of the kids and the dog so I didn't feel "The Story OF Us" would work as a title but I liked the die cut so positionned it so only "The Story" was visible.

I am NOT a patient hand cutter and found it a chore to cut out all those flowers. In the end I was going to give up and go more minimal but my lovely friend Debs stepped in and cut me a few more while I was assembling the layout so it would have been rude (and daft) not to use them!

Hope you have enjoyed seeing our individual takes on Debbies class - I think Denise also did the class and I expect she will share her creation at some point too!

Always my Valentine

Rather than the usual  Be my Valentine which whilst it's nice to receive does feel a little daft given I've been married ten years I decided to make my husband an "Always" card this year.

Using left overs after creating a couple of layouts from My Minds Eye papers received in my February DT kit I made a quick and simple card with a matching gift card holder. Both will go in the same envelope and the gift card for Cineworld (future date nights, he can supply the popcorn!!) will tuck in the red envelope of the card holder.  Quick, simple and so much nicer than a "be mine" when he already is!!

See these  projects and more in the forthcoming MME February DT Gallery.
Have a lovely day whatever you do x

THE STORY OF US

As promised a few days ago, and having dug out my camera to photograph, I am sharing my version of Debbie MME layout taught at Eclectic Keepsakes crop earlier this month. I opted for a less patterned paper on my background, just the one photo rather than  two and think I was a circle short in the layering too but here is my page.

I loved all the hand cutting of the floral paper which looks so effective layered up on the page.  Look out for more of the team sharing their versions soon.

My Minds Eye

This month the design team gallery will feature a host of goodness using My Minds Eye projects including this rather lovely layout taught by our Debbie at the Eclectic Keepsakes crop early this month.

Plenty of circles to cut out along with details from the papers which are rather more lovely in real life than any image can show.

There were a few of the design team in attendance including Karen (who runs the crop in Colchester), newest member Denise, not to mention Mel and myself too. As such there are plenty of slight variations on Debbies class to share... now I just need to photograph mine and I can do just that! Hopefully the others will pop on and share theirs too. Don't forget to pop back later in the month to see the DT gallery full of MME goodness.

Trends on Tuesday - Busy Backgrounds

I thought I would do a Christmas-ish page for this post....and the trend is using busy patterned papers as a background.  I used this paper from the MME All is Bright range, and it is quite a busy pattern with lots of different elements to it (take a look at Mel's class from the retreat (the 3rd page on this post) which uses the patterned paper in a totally different way).

I tend to always mount my photos on white card stock or a plain card to help them stand out against a busier background, but also to tone down the background a little I use some gesso - dry brushing it on the page and then I did a little stencilling too with a knitting needle measurer (yep use a few household objects to see what effects you can get :)).  I added lots of layers too which is another popular trend at the moment.  Another tip is that if you have a busy background paper a layer of vellum  behind the photo matts can just mute it a little and help the photos pop out.  So this week I would like to encourage you all to dig out some of your patterned papers and use them as the base layer for a page and I would love to see anything you create to so post a link on this post if you do.

I also want to wish you all a fantastic Christmas and New Year as this will be my last Tuesday post before the big day.

Pretty Patchwork Long Weekend Bonus Class

Anyone who books the Long Weekend package on our retreat gets a bonus class kit with instructions to complete in the classroom. We tend to keep this nice and simple so that when you arrive you can ease yourself into the weekend with a relatively straight forward project which is easily completed in a short space of time. There's nothing like getting off to a flying start to keep those creative juices flowing.

 

Followers of this blog will know my great love of patchwork style layouts. For this kit everyone had half a pack of a My Minds Eye Love Me paper pack and a sheet of cardstock. I added a sketch plan with info on the sizes of pieces I used and all that was left was to choose which pattern to use in each section.

I saw so many lovely examples of this layout and also a couple of the delegates did a second version using their own scraps. Of course when making a kit for nearly 50 people using a 6x6 pad is the easiest way to do this but I do like to use this technique as a good way to use up my scraps and you can create quite different looks by mixing up the colours and styles.

If you want to have go see below for the sketch we used - each small square represents an inch.

Making The Most Of Every Last Scrap

The DT were lucky enough to be sent the gorgeous My Minds Eye Lost and Found 2 for their projects this month. Now I don't know about you but I am a very frugal scrapper when it comes to papers I love and in my opinion, those beautiful little strips at the bottom of each piece of paper are just too lovely to throw away. So for this page

I used them to enhance the banner cut from the 'Sunshine - Classified' paper. I also cut a couple up and used them at the bottom of the page.

Do you use every little scrap of papers you love? Keep your eyes peeled for hte Feb Gallery to go live with more My Minds Eye Creations.

February Sketch

For the February sketch, Ann and I have used the beautiful Lost and Found 2 range by My Mind's Eye.

Ann has moved her photographs down the page and centralised the bottom photo. She used her page to celebrate her meeting with Matt Cardle.

I took the sketch more literally and positioned my photographs as in the sketch but I decided to mount my photos and embellishments onto blocks of patterned paper.

My page was used to celebrate a fabulous family walk a couple of years ago.

So there you are two very different layouts from the same sketch.