How I made my 'C is for Charms' Layout

Here is what I did for this month's scraplift challenge - we are challenging you to use a few charms on your layouts. See 'C is for Charms' posted on 1st May.

The photo is my mother-in-law Rhoda standing outside the house next to her treasured clematis - Nelly Mosa. May 1984

A quick reminder that we are scraplifting this gorgeous page by Karola Witczak

and here is our sketch

I used these lovely products:

1 Sheet Cream Bazzill cardstock

3 x 12” x 12” Patterned Papers - Basic Grey Kissing Booth – Kiss, lip lock and butterfly kisses

Key and clock charms from Kitty Pink and a dragonfly charm from Wild Orchid Crafts

A mix of pink and white hellebores, sweetheart blossoms and gardenia from Wild Orchid Crafts

Pearl beads, pink green and white

How I made my page:
Cut two strips of ‘butterfly kisses’ to 12” x 2.5”, stick this to top and bottom of cardstock.

Cut ‘kiss’ to 12” x 9.5” and trim long sides with deep edge punch. Using the side you don’t intend to use for the layout lay along the pink strips and dab with ink using the paper as a mask.
Flip lace edged paper over to the right side and stick horizontally to centre of the layout overlapping the borders.

Cut a photo mat from pink scraps, and music paper the same size as the photo and mount the mat and photo off setting them from one another.

Cut ‘Weathered Clock’ face using Tim Holts die and Big Shot.
Stamp a Stampin’ Up ‘Sense of Time’ clock face.
Stamp a journaling block onto a plain light coloured paper scrap. Add this to the centre left behind by cutting the clock face. Add journalling.

Cut a ‘Madera Corner’ using Memory Box die and Big Shot.
Punch a butterfly with the Martha Stewart punch.

Make some layered flowers by cutting tattered flowers with the Big Shot from music paper and add pearl beads to the centres.

Arrange all these die cuts and the charms and flowers over the page. When happy with the arrangement attach everything to the layout.

Thank you for looking and please pop over to my blog for more of my layouts and cards.

How I made my August Challenge Page

My version is called 'First Born' ... son of Charles and Margaret Banks 1933 - that's my Dad - Robert Charles. I love this old photo of him as a baby boy in his beautiful lacy gown.

To make this layout from the sketch I used:
3 Sheets Bazzill cardstock, Pinecone, Just Peachy and Patina.

2 sheets 12” x 12”, double-sided Bo Bunny Gabrielle papers -

Cameo & 

Promenade 

1m Ribbon 1/2" brown organza from Hobbycraft.
1m DMC embroidery cotton # 502
6 Flat backed pearls from Quixotic Paperie
Various chalk Inks and a black Memento ink pad,
Jumbo, large and small Retro daisy punches, pine branch punch
Gold glitter spray,
Bo Bunny - Gabrielle Butterfly stamps

Sizzix and Boxed Brush alphabet sizzlets
Glossy Accents.

I used the Patina Bazzill as my base cardstock, and cut papers in the following dimensions:
1. Promenade (white side) 2x4"
2. Cameo (white side) 9x9"
3. Promenade (peach side) 4x4"
4. Cameo (mint side) 8x3"
5. Promenade (white side) 4x5"
6. Promenade (peach side) 2x7"

I distressed and inked the edges of all these pieces and stuck down to the base cardstock. Then I added the 4x6" photo, also distressed and inked.

Using a template I drew an 11" circle lightly in pencil where I wanted the ribbon circle to be.

Next I made the flowers. Two large and one small peachy, and the same in pinecone Bazzill.
For each flower I punched two Jumbo, two large and two medium retro daisies.  Then I made them damp.  Then while damp I shaped them, I pleated each petal using tweezers to prevent damaging the surface of the paper too much.  Once they were completely dry, and this doesn't take long. I layered the flowers off-setting the petals as I stuck them together in the centres with a wet glue. As each layer is added they appear to come to life and become three dimensional. Once completed, I sprayed them with gold glitter spray for a subtle sparkle, then glued large flat backed pearls into the centre of each finished blossom.
Anita showed me how to make these flowers originally, and Linda will be explaining this in more detail on this blog blog in a few days, with a slightly different method. There is another excellent tutorial HERE from Gabrielle Pollocco, again slightly different method.
I arranged the blossoms on the circle where I wanted them and stuck them down.

The next stage was to do the ribbon work on the areas of the circle not covered by blossoms. I pierced holes at approximately 1" intervals around the circle. Then attached the ribbon firmly with a stitch out of sight under one of the blossoms. With the needle and DMC thread I came up through each hole, caught the ribbon down and went back through the same hole. I repeated this for every hole until the ribbon was attached all around the circle. Stopping and starting again to avoid the blossoms. I finished off much as I started with a few stitches hidden under a blossom.

I cut my title using the Boxed Sizzlets and the Sizzix, and Pinecone Bazzill. I arranged them and stuck them in place and added a little Glossy Accents to make them shine.

For the butterflies I stamped them directly onto the layout with Rich Cocoa Memento dye based ink. Then I stamped them again onto the scraps of patterned paper. I cut out the second set of butterflies, inked the edges and attached them by the bodies only over the butterflies on the layout. I folded up the wings, so you can see the butterfly images underneath.

Finally I punched a few pine branches from scraps of patterned papers and added these to the blossoms.

If you fancy having a go at entering our challenge by creating your own layout following this sketch, pop over to the 'R is for Ribbon' post on this blog for more details and check out the prize post too.

How I made my July page II

 Here is how I made my page for July, using Liz Qualman's design for inspiration........

For Liz's original layout and sketch, see the M is for Masks Challenge post. For more information about my layout see my blog.

I started with a sheet of white textured Bazzill. Using the Creative Expressions Leaves mask and Cosmic Shimmer Mist (Blue Lime, Ocean Sunlight & Aqua Lagoon), I sprayed the cardstock to create the background.

These are the Bo Bunny papers used, all from the Ad Lib Collection. I selected the green, blue and yellow areas of these papers.

Pebbles

Stripe

Wild Thing

and Vertigo

I cut a band of three stripes for the horizontal band from the Vertigo paper.

The three vertical strips were cut as follows:
Yellow side of Pebbles paper 2x9"
Green side of Vertigo paper 2x11"
Blue side of Wild Thing paper 2x8.5"

After working out the placement of photos and patterned papers, I gutted a panel from the cardstock. From this piece I cut four retro flowers using an EK Success punch. I stamped a journalling block onto the blue lined paper and matted it onto one of the patterned papers. The flowers were shaped with the scissor blade and attached with 3D foam pads to add dimension. Then I drew in detail with a black pen. The centres were created using the Bo Bunny Ad Lib rubber stamps, cutting the circles and adding them with more 3D foam pads.

For the photo mount I used the blue side of the Stripe paper cut to 5x7", decorating the corners with the Jazz corner punch.

I added doodles lines and patterns to the edges of the patterned papers and the cardstock.

The title letters were cut using the Cricut. The letters were cut in white and the shadows in patterned papers.

Pop over to the July challenge post to take part in this month's challenge and be in with a chance of winning a prize.

Bazzill, Bo Bunny papers & stamps, Cosmic Shimmer Mists, Cricut cart and punches all available from Cardinal Colours.

Our New Blog Header

Good morning crafty bloggers!

Hope you like the new header we have added to this blog. It was made with as many different products and techniques as possible. We hope that this reflects what this challenge blog is about - encouraging you to try out lots of new ideas and products by learning new techniques and introducing you to different designers each month.

Thought I would identify the different bits and pieces for you here, both for information and a bit of fun.


How about a bit of Eye Spy?


You should be able to see:
October Afternoon papers, sketches, Cricut die cuts, hand-drawn stitches, buttons, hand stitching. ribbon, dry embossing, rubber stamping, colouring with promarkers, PSX stamps, shells, Glossy Accents, dimension, layering, distressing, Craftwork Cards products, Candi, Glimmer Mists, glitter, inking, bunting and more.

Had great fun making this, hope you like it!

TFL x

Prize for May Challenge

Another fabulous prize this month from our lovely Jill at Cardinal Colours.

This lovely set of Butterfly stamps along with a sheet of U-Mount and Chalk cubes in Indigo, Cardinal and Canary.

I'm sure you will agree that this is another brilliant prize from Jill - Many Thanks for your support! - so, what are you waiting for, get scrapping :)

Dont forget to follow the blog to be in with a chance.

Prize available to UK residents only.

S is for Stitching

S is for stitching.

This month we are scraplifting this super colourful layout created by our own talented design team member Alison

  Alison, in turn, took her inspiration from this layout by  craftystash you can see the original on UKScrappers.

Here is the sketch

... and the design team's layouts.

Lynn

Linda

Anita

Jakey

Karen

Deirdre

Linda

Jill 

You don't have to use stitching on your layout. Above you will see all sorts of ideas from hand stitching to machine stitching. Also faux stitches created with rubons, rubber stamps and by hand. In some cases the eyelet holes have been laced together.

Please join in the fun and create a layout using these pages for inspiration. We hope you will let us share your finished layout on this blog. You need to leave a comment below. You also need to become a follower of this blog to be considered for the prize. You have until midnight on 1st October to enter the competition.

If you create a page after that date, please still share it with us.

Please can bloggers leave a comment with a link to the relevant post on their blog.

If you don't have a blog - no problem - just drop us an image attached to an email.

(If you don't have Outlook, simply copy and paste the email address into your normal web based email system.)

The prize for the best layout to be selected by Alison on 2nd October and announced on 3rd October. Please check back on this blog in a few days for details of the prize.