Monday 14 November 2011

Multi-photo......

Looking back, I see that just about all my layouts have only one photo.
So,when the request came for a page with a " Happily ever after" theme for issue 59 of The Scrapbook Magazine, I challenged myself to  use more than 1 photo.
The photos I had in mind were pre-digital and not really great quality but brought back some treasured memories from summer 2003.
So, not content with 2 photos, I went for 5!


The typewriter words are from Scrap Rat, and come in a cute little vintage matchbox.
The patterned papers are October Afternoon and The Girl's paperie. 

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x

Thursday 6 October 2011

" House Guest "

We had this little cutee to stay for 10 days in August.
 She gets on really well with our own dog but is less than 1/4 of the size, so she did lots of running to keep up with Bazzil's walking!  
She is extremely lovable and was also very cooperative when having her photo taken !




This layout was made entirely from the crop kit from the September Crop at Papermaze.
 I don't usually buy the kit so it made a lovely change to have everything chosen and coordinated for me!! 
I didn't follow the example layout however, I just did my own thing.

The original  12 x12 layout by Vanessa is below.



All  the " Authentique"  papers  are available from Papermaze.


Thanks for stopping by
Karen x

Wednesday 21 September 2011

"Bonkers"....

Following on from my last post, I decided that I liked the challenge of using 5 different patterned papers on a layout.....so I had another go.
 These papers are from Cosmo Cricket and October afternoon, and I love the colours.
 I struggled a bit with deciding on the lettering for the title but when I spotted these American Crafts Thickers at Papermaze last Saturday, I had to have them!





Thanks for stopping by
Karen x



Tuesday 13 September 2011

A Wedding ......

I was recently asked to make some "pretty things" for a friends wedding.
We decided on round cards for the table numbers,square background cards for the individual table plans- to be attached to a bird cage with decorated wooden pegs, and some gift boxes to hold the Bridesmaid's presents.
The Wedding  colour scheme was green, ivory and plum and I manged to match up the colour of the bridesmaids dresses to "Tangy Taffy" Bazzil cardstock.
The only extra card I needed was "Extravagance" from the  Eva basic Grey range.
And after lots and lots of cutting, punching, inking and gluing,here are the results....







Fingers crossed for a beautiful sunny day on the 17th !

Thanks for stopping by.

Karen x

Sunday 21 August 2011

Sign of the times......

My teenage daughters love photography, and unlike their mum, they love photos of themselves!
Not only that, but they love editing too.This leads to a staggering amount of time on the computer, and in particular - Facebook-  where they share these photos!
How times have changed, everything is so instant now- and the number of "likes" so important to them.

I created this layout yesterday at my local crop and used the latest challenge from Sarah's cards -which was to use 5 patterned papers. I only used a tiny amount of patterned paper, but did use 5!




The butterflies were punched with a martha Stewart punch and I used a 6x6 pad of Blossom soup patterned paper by Jillibean soup. 

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x


Friday 1 July 2011

Have you seen......

.....issue 56 of the Scrapbook magazine, out this week?  
  My contribution was to the activity pack.
I was asked to design a sketch and create 2 layouts to show how different they can be when the starting point is the same. The task didn't come too easily, however I enjoyed the challenge and used some of my favourite papers!



" Cute in Boots" uses October afternoon, and I did some hand stitching with Bakers Twine. 
I didn't use a single piece of Bazzill cardstock, which is very unusual for me.


I didn't have the right colours to match the photo in the " All Aboard"  layout, so tried a different approach.
I simply chose all black and white patterns from Echo Park, and added some small kraft coloured accents, instead of converting the photo to black and white - which is what I would normally do !


Here's the magazine and article showing the sketch,



All the supplies are available at my local scrapbook shop, which is also on line at www.papermaze.co.uk.

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x

Friday 13 May 2011

Mix 'em up.....

Mixing patterned paper from different companies is not something I'm particularly fond of, I really like to stick to 1 line....so to challenge myself a bit and to use up some stash I thought I would try a colour combo challenge. 
I found this one at Butterfly Crafts.
Everything I used was from my supplies and I have to say I enjoyed looking just for the right colours, I managed to use 3 different manufacturers on the layout..not bad for for me!
I hadn't used my corner rounder for ages either so I went a bit mad with it!


I will have to change the date tho' as we went on the Norfolk Broads last April not August..Ah well!

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Monday 18 April 2011

A Layout...at last!

A sketch at Sarah's cards was just what I needed to kick start my scrapping after a little dry spell!

It was a circular sketch but I managed to convert it to my favourite A4 size.



I have a friend who loves orange but I don't think I have ever scrapped a page with orange before! But I have to admit I enjoyed putting this page together and have stuck very closely to the sketch.

The patterned papers are Alphabet soup from MME and the letters are American craft Thickers and MM Tiny alpha stickers.
The frame is created from punched circles and the lace is hemming tape that my sister sent from America. 

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Easter !

Karen x

Monday 14 March 2011

When Less Is More.......

That's just what I thought when I looked at this layout!
I could have gone on and on with the twiddly bits but just stopped here...


 I used the Pencil Lines Sketch 225 to get started, and had great fun with all the faux stitching and distressing.
The papers are from October Afternoon- again! and I used my newest purchase from Etsy-
Red Bakers Twine.

I must credit my sister-in-law Karen for taking the photo, it was one of the few perfect days on Felixstowe beach last summer, Sunny and NO wind!!

Thanks for stopping by....
Karen x






Sunday 20 February 2011

" x " marks the spot.....and a Giveaway!

I spent a whole day at the Papermaze crop in Otley yesterday and completed this layout...I know it doesn't look much but there is always so much chatting and eating cake to fit in too......



 The sketch I used is the latest challenge from ATDML

I've used the Max and Whiskers range of papers by Basic Grey and some very old cork alpha "scrabble" tiles that I re-discovered during my latest tidy-up session! There are tons in the box, so they will probably appear quite often now...


If you like GIVEAWAYS.....pop over to THIS BLOG to have a look at the blog candy on offer from the amazing Lou Collins. All you have to do is become a follower of her blog and link the giveaway to your own blog, and you have till the 28th Feb to enter.Good Luck!

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x





Monday 14 February 2011

Fun in the Sun.....

That is a title that you see alot!  It's a good one.....
I have scraplifted a few elements for this page from several layouts that I have seen on my frequent blog-hops!
However, I think I should credit Anna parker for inspiring this layout.
In her gallery on 2 peas, you will see a variety of sunbursts and bunting, which has been a very popular trend.....I'm just a little slow in catching on!



I love this photo, taken last summer...it makes me want to put my sunglasses on !

The patterned paper is October Afternoon and the letter stickers are Echo Park.

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x

Monday 7 February 2011

On A Sunny Day.......

This photo was taken in the Lake District in Aug last summer when My husband's Grandpa celebrated his 100th Birthday!
Pictured here are 4 of his great grandchildren,our daughters and their 1st cousins.
They posed for the local newspaper photographer and had a chance to see the telegram from the Queen! 
All in all a great day.


The patterned papers are from Echo Park - Sweet Summer Time range.

Karen x

Monday 31 January 2011

Feeling sketchy......

The only way I seem to be able to get any scrapbooking done these days, is to have a deadline....so here is my entry for the Sketchy Thursday blog !  Here's the sketch .

"Shlurp"
                                                                      



The patterned papers are from basic Grey and October Afternoon, and I used Dotted Swiss Bazzill cardstock.

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x


Monday 24 January 2011

My other Scrapbook......

Have you used THESE ?  
12 x 12 photo page protectors...I bought some from Papermaze for my "Alternative " Scrapbook.
This album marks the point at which we bought a digital camera...that is to say I stopped getting all my photos printed as they were on the computer.
Not liking this very much I decided to print my favourite 5 photos from each month, leaving one space to decorate with journaling and pretty paper. 
I have completed 2006 and am working on 2007....so not too far behind!!!









 Some months did spread on to 2 pages as it was hard to pick only 5 photos, but it is such a nice project to pick up and work on when I don't have time for a full layout.
The trouble is, things  will be much harder as I catch up because we take soooo many more photos now than we did back in 2006!




                                                                            Karen x

Tuesday 18 January 2011

Inside Issue 52......

..Is me...Eeek !  
  My first commissioned scrapbook Layouts for Scrapbook Magazine...ridiculously exciting seeing my pages published in a magazine...and with such big pictures too!  




The Layouts had to be " Victorian Style" using papers released in 2010. A hard task I thought, untill I had a good hunt around at Papermaze and found some gorgeous papers.

I used Basic Grey - Capella - and Pink Paislee - Queen bee
and had great fun making my own embellishments for both pages.



"Sisters" Shows a photo of my late Grandma Ivy age 15, with her sisters each side and "Cherish" is a Wedding Photo of my Sister.


Karen x


Wednesday 12 January 2011

You and Me.....

This is my entry for this weeks sketch for the Sketchy Thursdays blog
I have rotated it so my photos would fit into a 8.5" x 11" format and used 2 photos of me and my Sister taken 39 years apart!


 

Supplies include, Jillibean soup  and October Afternoon p/p and Maya Road journaling spots.
Oh, and I used my new Christmas present Fiskars border punch !

Karen x




Tuesday 4 January 2011

Christmas Crop....

Papermaze has a regular crop in Otley Village hall ( near Ipswich) on the 3rd Saturday of each month.
There is always crop kit and an example layout with instructions prepared, except, that is in December!  Vanessa calls it a "challenge Kit" ! 
We were given a lovely selection of papers by Theresa Collins called "NOEL" and some Christmassy embellishments to do with as we pleased, and there was a prize for 1 lucky person picked at random.
We also had several competitions and Stash Bingo, during the day, not to mention the amazing selection of homebaking on offer !
Sadly I didn't win anything, but really enjoyed the day and created this layout...




Happy New Year everyone, and fingers crossed for more Scrapbooking time in 2011.


Karen x