Tana

Another Bali layout. I will be coming to an end of them soon … I promise …

This one is about our driver Tana who drove us from Tanah Lot to Ubud, and a few days later from Ubud to Seminyak. He was such a friendly fellow and knew all the places to take us. We gave him an open-ended brief as to where to go on our way from Tanah Lot to Ubud and he took us places we hadn't necessarily thought about. He was very thoughtful, and even though his English wasn't always the best we had a great time together. I can highly recommend him and if you're ever travelling to Bali, I'd be happy to pass on his email ☺.

Anyway, the layout! This one was for the Stuck?! Sketches - April 1st sketch challenge. The sketch was fairly straight forward as is my final result. Still, I like it. I guess I just really like simplicity. All the papers, cardstock, embellishments and letter stickers came from Collage Press - Knave of Hearts Collage Crafting Kit. My only addition not from the kit were the rhinestones from Kaisercraft (colour: split pea).

I really liked the fact that one of the papers in the kit was a large bingo card sheet. Several of the squares were 'stamped': Reserved for personal use only. I thought that was pretty apt seeing as the only people Tana was driving those days were members of our family ☺.

So, that makes six online challenges completed this month! WOW! I've never been on such a roll. I completed the challenge kit from my LSS, Wrapped in Paper this month too and turned that one in today. If I get a chance I'll post about it as well.

I'd love to hear your comments on this layout or any others if you get a chance. Sometimes I wonder whether there's anyone out there actually reading my ramblings?

Till next time, happy days! 

Mask Painting

For this month's Scrap the Boys challenge I made this layout about my boys (hubby and son) working at painting traditional wooden masks at a workshop in Ubud, Bali.

This month's challenge was a sketch challenge, and I can't resist those, especially since it was a Page Maps sketch! I widened the 8.5" x 11" sketch to make it fit a 12"x12" page and started putting it together. That happened really quickly. It's a relatively "flat" layout without much dimension, but I'm pleased with the result. I used the scraps from the glitter border die cut I used on this layout, as well as cutting some FancyThat Fiesta Flags from the glitter paper.

The papers are from my TLC stash. I typed the journalling out on the computer, then printed it on a scrap piece of cardstock. Then I die cut it with the Papertrey Ink Fillable Frames #10 cutting die. I added a bit of gold gel pen around the outside of the journalling piece, as well as around the title letters. They're from Basic Grey.

Well, it's simple, but I like it - what do you think?

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

Scrap the Girls

I don’t think I've entered a layout for Scrap the Girls yet. I've looked at the challenges before but that's about as far as it's gotten! So, I decided to change that this month and made this layout with a photo of my mother-in-law and sister-in-law. It was taken at my father-in-law's recent 90th birthday party. My mother-in-law looks so happy and you can't tell in this picture that most of the time she's in a world of her own. It's so sad what dementia has done to her.

I'm really pleased with this layout! I love the colours and the final result. My only problem was I couldn't come up with a title, so for the first time my layout has no title, but I don't think it matters.

The challenge at Scrap the Girls was to scrap a picture (of a girl, obviously!) and use hexagons, buttons and paint/mists. These are not things that I use often (or ever in the case of the hexagons ☺), so it was a great challenge for me.

I started with a sketch by Beck Fleck from Page Maps from September 2011.

I had just bought a hexagon embossing folder (Stampin' Up!) so embossed a piece of black paper and then cut out a single row of hexagons from the embossed paper. I added a bit of gold paint with my finger and put them in place of the row of thumbnail photos in the sketch.

I added some gold paint to the flowers as well. The other paint I used was through a chicken wire template (The Crafter's Workshop ChickenwireTCW239). That ended up being hexagons too really.  

The black lace was left over from an LSS monthly kit and I added some gold ribbon too. I didn't have any ribbon wide enough to go over the end of the patterned paper on the right hand side and felt that it really needed something. But I happened to notice a pack of glitter paper in the mess that is my scrap room and realised that I could just die cut a border. I used the MFT Die-namics faux crochet border die (twice to make a full 12" border and covered the join up with the button).

I think with the exception of maybe one, all the buttons on this layout are from my mother-in-law's

stash! When we cleaned out my in-laws' house before her move to the nursing home I inherited about six jars full of buttons. Rather fitting I think that I used some of them on this layout considering it is about her. Those that had shanks on them I cut off. Unfortunately the shanks didn't exactly come off flush with the bottom of the button and so I attached them with some foam tape. Those with button holes I threaded with some gold ribbon/cord before adding them on to the page with double sided tape.

See the gold pen?!

I used a gold gel pen to add a few dots of gold on the patterned paper. You can see some in some of it in the close up photo. I also coloured the scalloped edge of the patterned paper, and the "pie quarter designs" in that paper too.

I made two swirls from some gold coloured wire, as well as adding the left over pieces of a black rhinestone swirl that a friend had given me (thanks Lainie). There are a few red rhinestones scattered about as well!

All in all, I'm very pleased with this layout and hope you like it too.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Ninety - 90

Sketches with a Twist had a layout sketch somewhat out of my comfort zone this month, but the twist to use die cuts certainly wasn't! I use die cuts on practically every layout these days so that part was easy. The sketch itself was a little more difficult and I did flip it. I'm not entirely convinced by my final product, but here it is. I think it looks better in real life than in the picture though.

 

I used photos from my father-in-law's 90th birthday party celebrations recently. He was so happy, with a smile from ear to ear for most of the evening. I tried to portray that happiness in my layout by using star die cuts and silver glitter paper (Stampin' Up!). The die cuts were made with the following dies-

MFT die-namics stacking stars

MFT die-namics clearly sentimental label

MFT die-namics layered label

Cheery Lynnfanciful flourish

Spellbinders Fleur de Lis squares

Other products I used were Stampin' Up! papers, the Crafter's Workshop Numbers Collage (TCW210) template, silver ink, silver gel pen, and Chipboard monogram numbers from my TLC stash. I thought it was great that there was a 9 and a 0 next to each other in the template and I was able to draw around them with gel pen to highlight the resulting 90.

One of the "problems" I encountered when making the layout was that I wanted to copy the framed pictures idea from the sketch but didn’t have a frame the right size. So, I improvised.

I found that the largest square Fleur de Lis die that I had was the right height for my pictures but not the right width. So, I cut one out of scrap paper and folded it either side of the centre until it was the right width.

Then I cut the square out again from the paper I was going to use. Using the scrap paper die cut as a template I cut the centre out of the square and put the two sides together. Voila, a perfect rectangular frame!

All in all, this is not my favourite layout, but ultimately it's another page done for the scrapbook!

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Bali Blooms

This latest layout is for the current White with 1 challenge. This month it's white + yellow + sketch. Well, I love sketches and yellow is my favourite colour so how could I resist?!

The most difficult thing with this layout was trying to decide which photographs to use. Once I decided though, the rest was pretty quick. I didn't stray from the sketch hardly at all, other than replacing the tag with another photograph. 

Putting the pieces together was fairly straight forward but I will mention a few little tricks I used.

Sequins sewn on with French knots

I sewed the yellow flower sequins onto the page with French knots. First I marked where I wanted the sequins to go, then I pierced a hole with my paper piercer. I brought the floss up from the back of the paper and through the sequin, wrapped the floss around the needle 3 times then put the needle back through the sequin and the paper and pulled it tight. Then I moved on to the next one and repeated the process until all five were done. 

I lit a candle and brought the ends of the ribbon close to the flame to "melt" the ends to stop them from fraying. I put the tape on the page then laid the ribbon on top so that it would stay straight. 

I placed the Cheery Lynn English Tea Party doily on the edge of the paper so that I only cut a half doily. I did the same with the circle for the centre, thus saving paper. 

For the banner I cut a narrow strip of each paper. I lined up the very end only (where the scallops start) of the Stampin' Up! Hearts a Flutter framelits scalloped banner die on the strip to cut the banner pieces as you see on the layout. I stuck them down with a small square of double sided tape in the centre of each piece, then sewed them on my page (piercing the holes first). I figured why not as I already had the needle and floss out! I tied the bows in the floss then sewed them on too. Sewing on the one on the right had the added advantage of affixing the heart shaped paper clip at the same time!

The largest piece of paper was a bit too dark to match the rest of the papers. I glued a piece of mulberry paper over it to tone it down. It also added some texture to the page.

After running through the Big Shot

To cut the shape at the top of the mulberry covered piece, I centred my MFT Die-namics Textile Rectangle Frame at the top of the paper, then lined up the end of the acrylic plate from the Big Shot so that the end only reached half way through the die and then put it through the machine. Once there was no plate over the die any more it stopped cutting. Then all I had to do was cut the paper across from the sides to where the die had already cut off the rest of the paper.  (I hope that makes sense!)

Cut from paper's edge to die cut edge

So that's it for me today. I'm off to find some pictures for my next challenge. ☺

Till next time, happy days!
Francine

Travel

I'm so happy with the way my latest layout turned out! I used a sketch from Page Maps, and the challenge theme (travel) from Frosted Designs and the whole thing came together just as I imagined! It's not often that that happens.

With the travel theme challenge I decided I would use two of my favourite travel quotes:

“If you reject the food, ignore the customs, fear the religion and avoid the people, you might better stay at home.” – James Michener 

and:

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine 

As a family of avid travellers there are times when we just sightsee, and times when we really travel. It has been our experience that when we actually immerse ourselves in the culture of the place that the trip is more exciting and interesting. This was certainly the case on our trip to Bali in January. So, I found some photos showing some of the things from James Michener's quote that represented the food (basket of snakeskin fruit), the customs (making an offering in a family temple), the religion (woman praying at Tirta Empul Temple) and the people (working together at the mask painting workshop). All of these pictures evoke fond memories of that trip. 

In putting the layout together I decided that I needed to add more weight to the quote itself and so I typed that up (fonts: Hotel Coral Essex and dearjoe4) in place of the photo in the sketch and made it the centre of attention. The pictures are actually secondary to the quote. 

The second quote from St Augustine I typed onto a piece of patterned paper (font: Corbel)  and then cut it into a banner shape. I even used the piece I cut off (reverse side of the paper facing up this time) for the arrow shape near the journalling. 

Here's a list of the products I used for this layout:

Cardstock: Stampin Up! 

Papers: Kaisercraft

Brads: Kaisercraft and unknown from my stash

Travel words: Junkitz clear acetate "ribbon"

Felt embellishments: Junkitz

Punches: Stampin Up! scallop circle, Creative Memories circle

Cutting dies: Cheery Lynn English tea party doily, Papertrey Ink Limitless layers (1.75" and 2.5" collections), MFT Die-namics File tab, MFT Die-namics Decorative Doily duo, memory box woven circle (style 98114 - now discontinued?) 

Mesh: Gyprock Easytape (from the hardware store!)

Other: Distress Ink (marigold), jute, metal charms, gold letter stickers

So, what do you think? 

Till next time, happy days!

Francine