Be Bold!

I managed to complete the quickest layout ever last night. From when I read the challenge to "be bold" on Frosted Designs to when I finished the layout was only a few hours. I'm sure that's not that quick for some of you, but for me it's a record!!

The challenge made me think about bright colours and young children, so I went "old school" with the photos as my son called it, and grabbed some play photos from 2005. I haven't scrapped many photos from when my kids were younger so it was kind of nice to dig up an old TLC Hot Fudge (havin' fun) kit and use some of my plentiful TLC stash. The colours were very bold and bright, and once I picked the sketch by Becky Fleck from the Scrapbookand Cards Today Fall 2010 bonus sketch collection I was away!

I turned the sketch 90^o and the whole thing came together incredibly fast. I used just what was in the kit: cardstock, papers and die cuts. My only additions not from the kit were the many brads that have also been languishing in my stash for way too long. these provided some texture/height and also satisfied the the challenge at Use it Tuesday to use fasteners. Their challenges to use up your stash are certainly not a problem for me when I have so much to choose from! I'd say that nothing that I used for this layout is newer than maybe seven years old.

 

So, maybe I've found a new quick scrapping style, but I suspect that I'll be back to hours and hours of consideration for my next layout. We'll see.

Till next time, happy days!

Francine

Lighthouses (of Kangaroo Island)

Challenge # 32 at Use it Tuesday is to use two hoarded supplies from your stash. Well, seeing as I am almost exclusively using old stuff, that's pretty easy for me at the moment! Even the pictures are old - from 2006.

I started this layout with a challenge from The Crop Room to use kraft paper, blue tones, flower(s) and die cut or stamped swirl(s). From my supplies I found papers from TLC, a TLC chipboard flourish/swirl, some large blue brads, and letters, all of which have been in my stash for years and years. I also finally used the baker's twine that I bought at last year's craft fair.

The letters for the lighthouses part of the title come from a piece of patterned paper that I bought probably the first year I was scrapping. I don't even know how long it's been, but certainly more than 7! I found that the smallest square die from my new Nellie Snellen multi frame die cutting set is perfect for cutting out these letters, so I might be using more of them now! I used another die - Papertrey Ink - Beautiful Blooms II #1 Die Collection to make the flower in the corner. For the tag on the smallest photo I used the Die-namics notched tag die, and for the file tabs I used the Die-namics file tab die.

I've never quite been sure of how to attach the baker's twine, hence why I never used it. I found this great blog from a young man named Drew, from California. I was watching one of his videos and in it he effortlessly added some twine, so that's what I tried to do on this layout, and I like how it turned out.

Of course, the actual page design is based on a sketch - because I love sketches! This one is by Liz Chidester from The Scrappiest. I made some changes to the sketch, but still used the basic structure. The whole layout came together in about the half the time it usually takes me, so I might have to use this sketch again.

Just as a matter of interest, the smallest photo is of the lighthouse at Cape Willoughby. This lighthouse was the first one to be built on the South Australian coast and was built in 1852. All three lighthouses were very interesting. Other than the choppy ride over on the ferry the day we went, we thoroughly enjoyed our little stay on Kangaroo Island and would recommend it to anyone visiting the area. 

Despite the simplicity of the layout, I'm really happy with how this one turned out. I'd love to hear what you think.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

What more (could I ask for?)

Well when I saw that the challenge at Use it Tuesday was birthdays, I decided it was about time I did a birthday layout about myself. I think I have made one of everyone else in the family at one time or another, so it was my turn. My last birthday was really good too. I think I had been feeling a bit down and my husband sent me the most gorgeous bouquet of flowers at work, then we went out for dinner at a beautiful local restaurant, I got quite a few presents and Kyaa made me cupcakes so what more could I ask for? It's was just too bad that Logan was away at a school camp for a few days.

Everything on this layout was from my stash. That's mostly what I'm doing these days. I do still buy little embellishments from time to time when I see them on special, but I hardly ever buy anything else.  The papers are from Basic Grey and TLC, the kraft background cardstock is Stampin Up! and the red embossed cardstock is from Core'dinations. The yellow mulberry paper is ancient and has been in my stash for at over 7 years! The only thing that is new is the star bling by The Paper Mill, which I bought on special last week.

I recently found a link on Pinterest to a tutorial about making the edges of mulberry paper "feathery". It's simple really, just wet the edge and pull the end of the paper away. Then in the tutorial they used a toothbrush to brush out the edges, but I simply "combed" the paper between my fingers and that worked fine for the look I was after. As I didn't want the tape to show through the mulberry paper, I stitched in down instead. It added a great frame to the paper rectangle as well. 

For the banner across the top I used the My Favorite Things banner day die and stuck them onto some bakery twine that I bought at the Sydney Paper Craft Festival last November. I've tried o use this twine in several layouts recently and the colour has never been right, so I'm glad I finally go to use some!

I used this great sketch from Sketch Support. They even provide printable directions with the sizes of all the paper pieces for the layout so it's very easy to put together. If you haven't seen them before, be sure to check them out - there are lots of finished layouts as well for great inspiration.

Till next time, happy days.

Francine

A letter to Kyaa

I'm so proud of my daughter. She is growing into a lovely young woman; responsible, sensible, and hard working among other things. I decided to make a layout to hold a letter to her about how much I love her and how proud of her I am. It just so happened that it also coincided with challenge  #24 over at Use it Tuesday to do a layout about love, all while using up your scraps! I've just discovered this challenge blog, and anything that encourages me to use up what I have rather than buy more is a good thing!

So here's my layout.

Everything on it has been in my stash, some things for six or seven years! The only new things I used are the cutting dies that I got for Christmas, but the paper I cut with them is from my stash. Let's see if I can tell you all the products I used:

• cardstock and purple patterned paper for large heart are both from TLC kits from my TLC selling days
• vellum from Paper Pleasing Ideas (now out of business) to cover chipboard K, top of the banner, flower stamens, and to make the letters for the title
• chipboard K by Making Memories
• cream/green patterned paper, rubons, ribbon, sticky backed pearls - unknown
• Postmarks background stamp from Kaisercraft

Cutting dies used:

• Cuttlebug Baby Face for letters (now discontinued?)
• Cheery Lynn Designs Fanciful Flourish
• Cheery Lynn Designs Heartland America Large (heart with ribbon on K, heart between the photos and doily flowers at top of K)
• Cheery Lynn Designs Exotic Butterfly small
• My Favorite Things Die-namics Banner Day
• My Favorite Things Die-namics Mini Pennants
• My Favorite Things Die-namics Prima Donna Petals (one of my favourites!)

And just in case you were wondering where the actual letter is - it's hidden behind the dark purple heart, but it's for my daughter's eyes only!

Till next time, happy days.

Francine