ATDML Alphabetical Challenge - Letter E

Another challenge is up on Created by ATDML with yours truly and we have moved on to the letter E. There are a set of prompts over on their blog which I illustrated with the layout below which not only met these criteria but also rose on this months #Calvinball2019 challenge.

I really love this grey/white striped background paper which I bought lots of as I think it adds just a little something more than using cardstock which inevitably ends up being my background for 90% of the pages I create. I kept the colours soft and beach line for this page bringing in the sandy colours and blue for the sea. Great to be using up my wooden pieces for the Calvinball challenge - most of which I have had for over 5 years, so at the moment when point stacking is permitted, I get 3 points for using these wooden stars!! 

I'm not competitive at all me(!!)  but wish I could stay home, read all morning and scrap all afternoon whilst the challenge is on - this going to work for a living might pay for all my craft supplies (among other life essentials lol!) but it reduces my crafty hours drastically!!

Calvinball 2019

So I stumbled across a scrapbooking challenge running throughout the month of March based on the Calvin & Hobbes Cartoon. The rules change every day and require you to incorporate certain items on your scrapbook pages for which you score points.  You also get points for sharing on social media platforms, commenting on fellow designers pages and more. It seemed a little complex to start with but I think I am getting the hang of it now and even made myself a spreadsheet to keep track of all the points you can earn!

Of course the main aim is to get you scrapbooking more and prompt using up your supplies which is all good fun. If you want to search for what people are creating for these challenges use the #calvinball2019

My first two pages are below where I made my own floral paper using stamps, then fussy cut them out and added enamel dots and buttons to the centres. I painted my black stripes on both pages (which was inspired by a page I saw but forgot to pin on Pinterest so I can't now give credit to the amazing designer - if you know please tell me!!) and also added flicks of black paint.

Both titles were cut from a pattern paper (Crate paper I think) and lots more stamping of leaves and flowers directly on to the backgrounds.

As I am taking part in this challenge, plus have two crafty days this month away with friends AND a retreat next month to design and prep for expect lots of crafty blog posts this month!

ATDML Alphabetical Challenge D

We are on to our fourth challenge already in the Created by ATDML Alphabetical challenge and the letter D.

Plenty of options to inspire your next page.... and even I will be joining this one as we go along as I haven't had time just yet to illustrate it.

February ScrapMates pages

Bargain hunting in the January Hobbycraft sale afforded us a crop kit with lots of variety this month and we sold out of kits and even had the lovely Teresa visiting with us all the way from Wales.



We used the Hexagon Thickers alignment tool as a template for this second page where I still need to add my title but I could not find my alphabet stamps for love nor money in my craft room. Perhaps time for a tidy up again!!  I do get great pleasure out of using something designed for one purpose for another entirely and my Thickers alignment tools come in very hand as templates and don't take up much toom. Link here if you want to see what these are - available on Amazon, Hobbycraft and other online craft stores.

February ATDML Virtual Crop Day

Triangle madness from me this month where I created two pages and a card from Kaisercraft Golden Grove papers - nice and fresh and sunny to lift a chilly wintery day!

Plenty of texture on this page with lots of fringing, and whilst it took a while to create this page I am really pleased with the effect. As long as this page took the second page was much, much quicker, a simple combination of triangles, a mounted photo and title used this very heavily patterned paper range to create a simple more graphic look.

And there was enough left over for a quick card too.

ATDML Alphabetical Challenge C

Another alphabet challenge over on Created by ATDML today and we are on to letter C. Hop over to the blog to see your options and join in the challenge.

FTLOPP February Sketch Challenge

I was thrilled to be contacted by one of the FTLOPP team over on Facebook and asked if I would guest design for them for one of the 2019 sketch challenges. I have always loved a sketch as a starting point for a layout - almost always going off at a tangent soon enough but they do help start those creative juices flowing.

I also love to see how one sketch gets interpreted so differently when approached by different people so as the illustrated of this one I am especially intrigued to see where people take it - especially the stitching part!!

So here is the sketch designed by the lovely Laura Rumble

And here is my interpretation using a January sale pack of Maggie Holmes vinyl stickers on my page hence the small amount of camera glare as they are shiny (but being vinyl they are flat enough to use on a page as you would paper or card so why not when at a bargain price!)

If you do join in do share your page over on FTLOPP - if you aren't a member yet and love a scrapbook challenge and a like-minded community ask to join.

Here are a few close ups which hopefully show the white stitching better

Mind The Scrap Cybercrop

I do love a Mind the Scrap Cyber crop which the very lovely Emma runs every 3 or 4 months. This weekends one was Harry Potter themed, but that just acted as a starting point for the links to the challenges which could all be interpreted even if you had never see the films. 

Here are a few of the pages I created over the weekend from the 19 challenge prompts. 

This first one is probably one of my favourites from the weekend made using Vicki Boutin Art Crayons, a circle dotty mask and some stamps.

Close up of the inky bits

I've gotten a little obsessed with triangles on my pages lately too - this next one is one of three I made over the weekend featuring triangles - one of which is for next month's ATDML virtual crop day so I will share that then.

And one more so I don't bore you all to tears, this one was a scraplift of one Emma shared which I used to kickstart me when I sat down yesterday to play along.

ATDML January Gallery

One of my first layouts in 2019 as one of the ATDML design team, a position I have now held for over 9 years I am proud to say. This one was a relatively simple design with just three rectangles of pattern paper behind my matted 5x5 photo. Then I added several clocks of a variety of sizes from the Simple Stories paper, layering some with foam pads and  then added the fabulous Bramblefox "20Ninteen" perspective for my title. The red hearts are also from Bramblefox and the other small red elements from my stash. 

Once I had added all these elements I realised the layout needed something else so I drew around the rectangle of paper in black pen, added the black drawn border, trimmed the white card background a little and mounted on black. Still then not quite what I had in mind I added the gold flecks of ink and the gold stars and enamel dots to a couple of the clocks to liven up the page a little. Finally I was happy and given it was a layout about NYE it needed some sparkle.

ATDML Alphabetical Challenge B

Time for the second Alphabetical Challenge over on the ATDML Blog today with the letter B which I illustrated with my January DT kit featuring (rather helpfully) Bo Bunny Winter Wishes papers so there was my first B ticked off.

I also focused on the colour Blue and there are Banners under the photo which is Black (&White).  How will you rise to the challenge to scrap using the letter B prompts?

ATDML new Alphabetical Challenge for 2019

A new series of scrapbooking challenges is starting over at Created by ATDML blog today where twice a month a letter from the alphabet will be used to prompt a layout. Go take a look and see what they have in store for the letter A which I illustrated in the layout below using predominantly Prima papers and elements from their Flirty Fleur Collection  I used ACETATE to apply watered down distress ink for the painty background , AQUA blue as my main colour  and then a Thickers ALPHABET for my title. 

This layout also fit the bill for one of the For The Love of Pretty Paper (FTLOPP) Winter Olympic challenges they are running over on Facebook. This challenge was  to include a technique that takes time and the inky background plus fussy cutting on this one certainly counted.  I do love a scrapbooking challenge and making one page which rises to more than one challenge makes me a happy girl! I have a few more pages to do to complete the latest FTLOPP series but managed four more today on my last day off before returning to work tomorrow. So that's me signing off for the night. God Bless x

Winter challenges

Finally got some scrapping time yesterday after a busy Christmas lead up, family time and then couple of days back in work. Luckily I'm now off for a few days so can play some more.

Joined in again with the Facebook challenge group "For the love of pretty paper" FTLOPP with their Winter Olympic challenges. The page above was for the Luge challenge where you had to create a page with elements running from left to right. And the page below was a tough challenge, number 3, to create a layout using NO scrapbooking tools! 

I used a background paper with a light spray of white ink (allowed), several project life cards by Kaisercraft, some stickers, wooden festive elements and sequins to create another seasonal page for my album. 

ATDML final Virtual crop day for 2018

A clean and simple page for one of two layouts I designed with Bo Bunny Carousel Christmas papers which were part of the ATDML kit for this month's class. As well as my two layouts I created a teeny tiny mini book for the forthcoming 12 days of Christmas as mentioned in my last blog post. It is made from 1.75" punched circles which feature tiny hand-cut baubles and leaves space for small photos. I really enjoy creating these little extra projects with my kits and it was a lovely project to start at my crop and finish up in the new year when I have my photos.

My class is up first at 10 with another by Katherine at noon and Tricia at 2pm. Go check them out along with plenty of festive inspiration on Created by ATDML blog.

Our last crop of the year

Saturday saw our last crop of the year and it was a pleasure to once again spend time with my wonderful ScrapMates. As always there was fun and laughter and clearly some shocking occurances!! This photo makes me smile at the friendships which have developed over the years.

I was busy designing for ATDML and the last virtual crop kits for 2018 too and after making two layouts I set about using some bauble designs on one of the Bo Bunny papers to make a teeny tiny mini album to hold photos for the 12 days of Christmas 2018. I can't share this until the weekend so I'll leave you with one of the crop layouts I designed which is also today's Scraplift Santa over on ATDML

December Daily - I have finished one!!

OK so I finished my 2016 December Daily!!! Woo hoo!!

As I had previously blogged I have not been the best at finishing these but this one I was the closed to completion with just Dec 25th missing so I dug out the photos from my laptop, printed them off and finished my page for Christmas day 2016.

Here is a flick through of the year. 

I have loved looking back and remembering things from just two years ago and seeing how much my kids have grown. The Timmy the Elf antics always make me smile too and I am so pleased I have a documented set of these for the year.  Now I just need to finish another year now whilst trying to stay on top of 2018 too! I will keep you posted but so far so good.

A little festive thing I made

I got a little Pinterest happy and got all festive and cut up lots of small pieces of paper and this was the outcome when combined with some bells taken off a cheap 79p Christmas decoration.

I am a little bit in love with it, but more importantly loved the creation process itself, so even if it falls apart after one year up in the house (lets hope not!) then it will still have been worth my time. AND it's yet ANOTHER Graphic 45 project from me (this year I think I have been on a role creating with what I previously found a very challenging style to work with). I do think they lend themselves to plenty of fussy cutting which can be very therapeutic on a chilly winter evening.

Advent with Kaisercraft and ATDML Scraplift Santa

 

December first and we are all reaching for our advent calendars and that cheeky chocolate that is only acceptable to have for breakfast in December!! I spent a fortune on a fancy beauty advent calendar for my daughter this year (which was her birthday present as requested) so decided to make a small one for myself rather than buy one.  The irony isn't lost on me that I spent more on a set of white blank matchboxes than I could have on a traditional advent calendar but where would the crafting fun have been in that? Plus I saw a design like this on Pinterest last year, if not the year before, and really wanted to recreate it.  ATDML then made that easier for me when they included this delicious foiled Kaisercraft advent paper in my December kit.

So this project features on the ATDML blog today as we kick-started the month of Scraplift Santa challenges.

There are a few more images over there plus a bit of an explanation on how 2 coasters and 24 matchboxes became this advent cube covered in Kaisercraft Wonderland papers

December Scraplift Santa with ATDML

Starting on Saturday, and kicking off with yours truly, the A Trip Down Memory Lane team have a bi-weekly Scraplift Santa challenge going for the month of December.

One of the DT stand in for Santa and bring you a gift of a seasonal project for you to scraplift from the comfort of your own home. No kits, no instructions, just simple images and a whole heap of festive fun every Wednesday and Saturday throughout December.

It's going to be so much fun!!

Another FTLOPP challenge layout

Following my last blog post here is another challenge layout for the FTLOPP winter Olympics challenge 2 on Facebook. I started by lightly spritzing the background piece of white cardstock.   My five main rings were then inked with Distress Oxides through a cardstock template I made punching out a 2" circle. Then I lightly spritzed these with water to allow the Ink to oxidise and then reused the templates to draw on borders.

Several more stamped circles were added along with some enamel stars and star elements from Cocoa Vanilla Boys Rule bits and pieces pack.  I added my journaling inside one of the circles and mounted the 3x4 black and white photo before adding it to the page with the title from Cocoa Vanilla Midnight word pack. The final touch was the two strip of paper at the top and bottom of the page which re also from the Cocoa Vanilla Midnight collection.

For the love of pretty paper

A friend recommended to me a scrapbooking group on Facebook called "for the love of pretty paper" and they have a Winter Olympics challenge going until the new year. Each of the scrapbooking challenges are based on events from the winter Olympics and you simply upload your interpretation to the respective gallery.

One of the bonus challenges was to only scrap in the top half of the paper, feature scallops, zigzags, chevrons and the letter X multiple times.

My stripey background was by American Crafts Dear Lizxie and then I used Cocoa Vanilla Boys Rule bits and pieces along with some Kraft border strips from 2011!

This is the third challenge I have done but I need better light to photograph the others.