A Quackers Birthday and a BLOG HOP!

It's a free week this week over at Sketch Saturday which means you can choose any sketch you like from #215 onwards. I went for #274. I made a card for my husband using this sketch before so it was nice to make something pretty and girly with it this time instead.  This card is for a little girl who is turning 3. The image is by Little Miss Muffet Stamps and I used up a couple of older papers for the background.

This week's Sketch Saturday Sketch is sponsored by Little Miss Muffet Stamps and they have a great prize on offer to head on over to be in with a chance of winning.

AND because it is Sketch Saturday's 6 year anniversary today we are having a blog hop to celebrate. There are hidden prizes along the way so make sure to hop and comment on every station to be in with additional chances of winning this week!

Get hopping:

An InLinkz Link-up

Happy scrapping x

For cardmaking and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

Using a full Collection Pack...

I love working with Simple Stories collection packs - they have such a variety in them. In true Simple Stories style there is a mix of 12x12 patterned papers as well ase  a number of divided papers i.e. they are meant to be cut up into smaller elements. There are border strips, as well as 3x4 journaling cards, 6x4 journaling cards (both portrait and landscape) amongst other variations too.

There are 12 papers in total (some of which are the divided ones) all of which are, of course (!) double sided. The collection pack also includes two 12x12 sticker sheets, one alphabet sheet that contains smaller element and label stickers as well as the letters, and a whole sheet of elements:

and as a bonus there are also some photo overlays - transparent 6x4 sheets with subtle patterns on them that are meant to be stuck over the top of your photo. They can also be used as embellishments too of course. The whole kit is £20 so a bargain really.

I have managed seven layouts with it. I have added a couple of sheets of white card and one sheet of navy. I've also added Thickers (in various styles!) and a few small embellishments such as washi tape, (aka wasabi tape) flair badges, wood veneer pieces and enamel dots. Apart from those minor things though (that we all have in our stash!) I've stuck pretty close to just using the kit.

My first layout is actually a double (so counts as two out of the seven I said I got from this kit). The left page is actually for a UKS challenge- the criteria was to scraplift someone, nature theme, use stamping and use washi tape. It was an easy one this week. The layout is actually a design of Shimelle's and I scraplifted Jo M's version of it from the UKS gallery. I loved the idea of using loads of tiny photos on one layout as I had a million animal pictures from our day at Disney's Animal Kingdom. The right page is more of a 'facing' page rather than the whole thing being a flowing double LO. I kept one of the divided papers whole and added photos and embellishments on top rather than cutting up the journaling cards and putting them in a pocketed page protector.

This layout tells the story of the day Sophie broke her foot while we were on holiday. I used the camera paper as my background,  layered up some papers and some journaling cards and added gold glittery Thickers (#lush) and embellished with stickers from the kit.

A slightly flippant subject matter and title here - we do all love pizza so much! I used my Silhouette to cut the title and wrote a long story about the pizza place, oh and a slightly unfortunate incident when Max sneezed and hit his mouth on the table, breaking one if his tiny little teeth :( I've used a little washi tape but otherwise only used the stuff in the kit. There is a photo overlay over the photo of Max (bottom right) - can you see the stars?

I found this A4 photo that I had printed ages ago in the back of a drawer - all crumpled so I figured I'd better scrap it before something worse happened to it. I smoothed it out best I could and really stuck it down well and the creases now aren't really noticeable unless you move it around in the light. Again I've added washi tape and Thickers but have otherwise stuck to the kit.

The background for this layout is another of the divided papers in the kit - it came printed like that in the two sections, both 6x12" each. I considered cutting them up but as I quite like the look of layouts that have two different papers making up the background I left it as it was.  I had two photos but decided that the one on it's own told the story well enough so just used the one. I've used a largish journaling card (hello) and embellished with stickers from the kit (and a wood veneer star). I've added Thickers for my title and I used the lines on the left of the layout to hold my journaling.

and finally, I pretty much used everything I had left on this layout. There's another photo overlay on the top photo and I cut the large part of the title with my Silhouette.  I've added quite a few wooden stars and used a lot of the label stickers from the kit.

I have just a few small pieces leftover. If I added another sheet of cardstock or paper for the background it is possible I might get another layout but that will have to be done another day for I am all scrapped out!

Happy scrapping

For cardmaking and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

Monster Birthday!

I really love Bugaboo images, they are so fun and there are so many of them that there's one for every occasion! I needed to make a birthday card for a little boy who is turning 3 and these monsters were totally perfect for him!

I went for bright colours and added a few stars for good measure (no card is complete without them at the moment!) and finished off with some coloured glitter.

This week's Sketch Saturday Sketch is sponsored by Bugaboo and they have a great prize on offer to head on over to be in with a chance of winning.

Happy scrapping x

For cardmaking and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

TEAM Project Life April Layouts

This month in the TEAM Project Life prompt (which can be found on UK Scrappers) we're looking at choosing a set of embellishments and using that and only that (apart from a few basics) throughout our April layouts. The reasons for this are that firstly, the embellishments automatically all coordinate with each other, making the layouts all look cohesive, and secondly, that it makes the PL process much quicker and easier because you are limited to using one set of supplies only i.e. no spending ages looking through all your stash to find that perfect something.

We're also looking at a few ways of using up oversized embellishments, as well as those ones that might get overlooked.

Thanks very much for stopping by - to view the full PDF prompt please visit the Project Life Forum at UK Scrappers.

for card making and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

Happy birthday Daddy!

Another birthday card for my husband this week, this one is from our children. My hubby is very good at sleeping and I saw this image by Sassy Cheryl which was so perfect that I just had to put it on his card! I'm sure he'll be offended but it is definitely his favourite pastime!

I used up some older My Mind's Eye papers, used stars instead of flowers, added some twine and the word 'daddy' using Thickers.

This week's Sketch Saturday Sketch is sponsored by Bunny Zoe's Crafts and they have a great prize on offer to head on over to be in with a chance of winning.

Happy scrapping x

For cardmaking and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

You are the Best EVER!

I needed to make a birthday card for my hubby and this wee's sketch wasn't exactly manly. He's told me several time that boys don't like ribbon or flowers so I had to come up with a creative way to turn this sketch into a card that would be suitable. I wanted to use this image by Bugaboo so that was fine, but the large flowers were causing me a bit of a headache. I decided in the end to go for large but subtle stars in the background, with the main image layered on top. I punched the stars from the same paper I'd used for the background and inked their edges so they would show up. The rest of the sketch was no problem at all (I don't think twine counts as ribbon), and I'm happy with the result. Let's hope he is too - happy birthday honey xx

This week's Sketch Saturday Sketch is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp and they have a great prize on offer to head on over to be in with a chance of winning.

Happy scrapping x

For cardmaking and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.

Belly Dancing...

My mum loves dancing. She teaches line dancing and has dabbled in belly dancing in the past and has recently taken it up again. Last year I made her a line dancing card so this year I set about trying to make a belly dancing card. I managed to find this image by Pretty Girl Digi. I went for an aqua colour scheme as that's her favourite colour and used some die cut butterflies and lots of glitter!

This week's Sketch Saturday challenge is sponsored by Whimsy Stamps and they are offering a prize so pop over and join in with the sketch to be in with a chance to win.

Happy scrapping x

A Very Glam Birthday

My friend Laura is a super-glam girl so for her birthday I needed a very glam card to match her status. I love this image Tiffany in Couture Dress by Milk Coffee, it's exactly the sort of think I can imagine Laura wearing so I knew I was going to use her as my main image. As for the background, I had looked at this sketch many times and not got anywhere, so I left it and left it, and then I had a brainwave. My mum had recently been going through some of my old scrapbooking stash and came across an old paper stack called 'All Dressed Up' by DCWV. She found some pink sparkly paper in there with strips that resembled floorboards and she made a fab layout with it - my brainwave was that the paper also came in aqua colourways as well as the pink - I was right and the paper was totally perfect for the background of my card.

I cut the bottom of the the paper so that the strips were all different lengths, added a huge black crystal flourish and layered Tiffany on top. She is coloured with copics and glittered. To finish off I added a bit of twine (I don't seem to be able to make a card without twine these days), and a couple of die cut butterflies. I absolutely love this card and I know Laura will too. It's funny that a sketch I'd been avoiding for weeks, suddenly came together really well for me. Sometimes stepping back until the inspiration hits is a good idea.

This week's Sketch Saturday sketch is sponsored by the wonderful Milk Coffee and they are offering a prize to head on over to join in with this week's sketch to be in with a chance of winning.

Happy scrapping x

For card making and scrapbooking classes in St Albans, Hertfordshire, please contact me.