Saturday Scrapping with American Crafts

On National Scrapbooking Weekend a layout and tutorial over at Two Peas caught my eye. I loved the florals, the ruched washi tape and all the texture. I used to avoid scrapping with pinks and florals - as it just didn't seem very me. But recently I have got more into florals and even pink (so long as its hot pink!) and I loved this sheet of cardstock from American Crafts. I think the key is to use it in moderation and combine it with more 'neutral' designs.
The topic of the layout us the constant breaks I had to take from trekking round the tropical rainforest at the Eden Project. The 'R&R' stands for rest and relaxation and i created it using thickers and my fav ampersand stamp from Paperchase.

A close-up of the ruched washi tape - a technique I will definitely be using again. Its perfect as you can peel washi off if you don't like the effect and it doesn't fall quite right on the page.I then used my trusty stapler to create a similar effect with the hot pink ribbon.

In other news:

• I have been investing some much needed attention on my other blog 'Yummy in Yorkshire' and reviewed Reds True BBQ - the new BBQ and ribs American restaurant in Leeds. 
• I was invited to sit at the Chef's table at the Red Hot International Buffet in Leeds and I have also blogged about the delicious meal I had there. It was random to meet other bloggers and media types as I've always been a bit a 'solo' blogger, but it was a really fun night and we found we all had lots in common other than blogging. Discussion ranged from Jordie Shore to Baby G watches to Sylvia Plath! There are several Red Hot World Buffets in England and my post features a promotional code for a discount so be sure to check that out.
• It is only 18 days till my due date - scariness! Excited too to meet our little baby and discover if its Team Blue or Team Pink! 
• I am becoming a real Instagram addict and am finding loads of inspiration over there from fellow scrappers. Follow me on: melmakes21. You will see the new stamps I got on the twopeas sale and how I've unearthed the embossing powders and heat gun! 

What have you all been up to this grey and drizzly (if you're in England!) weekend? 
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Linking up with the lovely Ashli over at Purple Mailbox

NSD with Shimelle and Two Peas and a lot of pink...

I was so excited last Saturday to be woken up with a Facebook status linking Shimelle's first challenge of the day - scrapping with pink. I recently had the gruelling task of clearing out my scrap room to turn it into a nursery and it helped me to rediscover some older supplies and put together some of my own kits. I made up a pack of pink fabric, cardstock and ribbon scraps but then wondered what pictures to use?
I don't really wear pink. I don't have any 'girl's night out' pics to scrap. I don't know if we're having a baby girl. Then I remembered a random snap my mom had sent me from her wear pink to work for Breast Cancer day - she is posing with her favourite postie! She is quite a flirt and always loves 'chatting up' the postmen.

Journalling about her charity fancy dress day and the postman of course!

Embellished with squares of different pink patterned paper and then given some dimension with Studio Calico veneers, bling and buttons.

I have to admit that I'm a little bit in love with this layout and feel that it captures the moment and my mom's fun loving personality perfectly!

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 The composition was inspired by Wilna's video on twopeas

Steaming towards three years: Anniversary Layout

You may recall last July (I'd be impressed if you do!) we celebrated our three year anniversary in Howarth. A blissful day spent on steam trains, painting pottery and enjoying a delicious lunch.
So inspired by Shimelle's prompt to use 4 by 6 photos I have scrapped the pics this morning of the steam train journey and museum. I always tend to use 4 by 6 photos and I like to use them 'Shimelle style' in a line all and all the same way up. I then like to layer papers and washi tape to create interest around them and I like to add little journalling spots and embellishments to finish the layout off.

A close-up of the pictures:

The title and journalling spots - inlcuding the ticket for the train - which I wasn't entirely convinced went with the colour scheme of the layout, but it seems to go with the lined patterned paper which has green pastel tones in it.

So there you go...

One challenge down and another one to come shortly...

Eden in bloom...

When I was ill a few weeks back I spent a lot of time with my laptop in bed catching up with scrapping videos on Two Peas in a Bucket and one of the mood to scrap videos by Lizzy particularly inspired me as I liked the composition, the misting and the border effect on her finished layout.

On our recent pre-baby trip to Cornwall we were lucky enough to visit the Eden Project and I particularly loved all the colourful flowers and so we both posed for a picture in front of the blooms which co-ordinated best with our outfits! What a scrapper hey?

I liked the idea of getting messy with paint and stencils and so used a doilie as a mask

 and 

smooshed yellow paint on.

I was hesitant about using purple, yellow and red together but I love it.

I used the rule of three with Amy Tan embellishments to add interest to the page.

I liked the idea of creating washi tape flags to embellish the photo.

Hopefully it doesn't look like too much of a scraplift - I just really loved the original layout and it worked really well with the bits and pieces that I picked out from my stash.
Thanks Lizzy and Two Peas for the inspiration.

Lily Bee Monday Sketch Challenge

This sketch really caught my eye for a few reasons:

1) I love starbursts at the moment and later next week I will show you an epic layout I made using a starburst.

2) I love stars and recently purchased a big Martha Stewart star punch which I got to use on this layout.

I used the Victoria Park  6 by 6 to create the star bursts and then also the stars and journalling strips. I love this range as the colours are great - bold pink and turquoise - and the patterns are really easy to use - polka dots and my personal fav the bird cages. 

I edged everything in black and then covered it all in a liberal dose of bling - stars and circles. I even hand stitched on a tag as I am playing along with Shimelle's LSNED and my new technique was hand sewing. I am quite pleased with it and think I will have to try a few other tags like this.

 The pictures are from my trip to Thailand in 2007. They are poor quality as they are just saved and printed from facebook and the pics tend to be a bit pixilated - but I've lost contact with some of the girls I went with and the others just don't seem to understand the importance of sharing all their pictures! These were the days before I even had a digital camera - let alone an SLR!

I am pleased with this layout and feel that the star burst, bling and other little details mean that the poor quality of the photos doesn't matter so much and it was still an event that I wanted to scrap as I'm not sure I'll ever get to go to Thailand now I'm all married and broke! Haha!

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Linking up with Lily Bee Design

Simply loving London in 2012...

Although Yorkshire now feels like my home - London will always hold a special place in my heart.
Growing up in Hertfordshire London was only every thirty minutes away by train and slightly longer by car. Some of my childhood memories are of playing on the animal statues in Brent Cross shopping centre, doing the Selfidges run, falling in love with the giant teddies and the kiddie Land Rovers in Harrods toy department and watching street entertainers in Covent Garden. I have created two layouts paying homage to the city that I love.

First a photo collage to show some of the fun we had in London last week for the games.
1) Indulging at the All Star Lanes in Holborn - check out my review here
2) We got the golden *ahem pink* tickets to Handball - more about it here
3) Delicious Mexican street food at Wahaca on Southbank
4) The Belgian having to pedal to turn the fountains on
5) The big swing ride on the Southbank
6) Us on the swing ride
7) Deep fried oreos at Camden Market - so calorific but soooo good!
8) Frozen Yogurt in Harrods
9) Reuniting with my little sis before she jets off to Canada

And now for the scrapping - a homage to the street entertainers in Covent Garden. A great chance to rest your weary feet after a busy shopping day and have a laugh at the same time. I used mainly the Cupcake range by Basic Grey.

The second layout is of the Jubilee so I stamped the title - God Save the Queen. I used the Portobello Road stickers of the Union Jack and some Lilybee Victoria Park range papers. I used Jen's video tutorial from Two Peas as a sketch for this blog as I was attracted to the washi tape strips across the topand the use of buttons for dimension.

P.S I am being guest featured on a *gulp* fashion and lifestyle blog today. Check out Jacy's blog it has some great stories about inspirational women! Go and check it out!

Olympic challenge: Black and Blue Club Bruges

Lots of my favourite crafty bogs have challenges linking to sports and the the Olympics and SJ Crafts was no exception. I have plenty of Olympic pics to scrap but haven't had time yet, but before I left I made this layout which I had wanted to make for a while.
My husband (aka The Belgian) is obsessed with his home team Club Bruges and so every trip to visit his family has to coincide with a match. I was a little surprised when we spent boxing day at a match as usually my family spend the day together - but he doesn't want to miss a moment!
The team kit is black and blue - hence the title. I used lots of coordinating authentique papers.

 Thrifty tip: I used up a few different coloured thickers and letter stickers to make this title. I included the ticket as well - something that I always keep and then forget to include in the layout. I put pearls onto the polka dot pattern of the backing paper so that it would have more dimension and bling.
I created lots of layers with washi tape and leftover bits of cardstock. The bottom layer with the scalloped edge is from packaging for letter stickers. A true scrapper should never throw anything pretty away!

What are your thrifty tips for scrapbooking?

Budapest tram meets Cosmo Cricket...

A few weeks back in my blog browsing this sketch over at Sarah's Crafts caught my eye. I had a big pizza box full of goodies from them only recently and so with stash to burn and holiday snaps of Budapest to scrap I got to work.
What I liked about this sketch was that it would work with my current preferred scrapping size of A4 and that I could include lots of layers whilst keeping the picture as the main focus.

I used Cosmo Crickets tea for two 6 by 6 pad and i just love the page that already looks like layers of paper strips or washi tape - it takes the guess work out of it completely. I also included a red Martha Stewart border to bring out the colour of the tram. The red spots were a happy accident as the cardstock that I punched the border out of was circular and these spots were the leftovers from this page that I was about to bin.
I jazzed some of them up with a green punched heart and then included two journalling spots - one for the handwritten journalling and the other for the ittle which I used my trusty dymo label maker to create. I love, love, love my packaging tape washi tape as it fits so well with all my travel layouts and with the colour scheme.

 Click on the picture for a better view as my editing software is on the other laptop and it's not working so well at the moment.
Do you love to use 6 by 6 pads on your layouts too?

Linking up with Sarah's Cards

P.S Don't forget to leave a comment on my giveaway by Sunday

P.P.S I have just been guest featured on Sarah's (a different Sarah - not from Sarah's crafts!) lovely blog - check it out!! My first ever guest feature.

Messy Mondays: Creating borders with paints and stamps!

So last week I shared some ideas for using paint to create backing paper for your layouts. This Monday I am bringing you some ideas of how to use paint with stamps to jazz up the borders of your layouts.
The first layout is created using a humble sponge, lid of tin (as a mixing palette), green acrylic paint and a really old stamp which cost me no more than a pound. I very simply created a recurring motif with it - refuelling on paint with each stamp.

A closer look at my handiwork and all the layering. The title is stamped too in the same method.

The second layout was sat 'finished' in my scrap room - but I felt it was lacking something. One Jenni Bowlin paint dabber and a swirl stamp later and I now feel it is finished properly and framed effectively. I just placed newspaper behind the layout and let it hang off the page.

 A closer look at those swirls...

The third layout was less messy than paint as I used my Maya Road mist. I sprayed some mist into the lid and then used my paint dauber and inked the edges to make it stand out more - click on the image for a closer look as this picture wasn't edited first!

Do you like the secret picture between the pritt pads?

Lastly - perhaps my favourite of the four a New Year's Eve layout. I hope my sister forgives me as she thought that this pic wasn't very flattering - but it was all I had. I used my JB ink dauber and a star stamp to create a border around the top. I like the contrast of the black with the bright colours. I also created a 'shaker box' using the packaging from some stickers and lots of confetti and punched out stars - I attached it with washi tape and a paper clip and I was very pleased with the results and think I will play with shaker boxes again soon.

 

Next Monday  I will be showing you a step-by-step how to for creating a mini canvas with paint - till then have a great week and happy crafting. Go get those hands messy...

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I am linking up with a challenge over at Fiskars to use stamping in a project.

Buildings of Budapest...

Using a black and white photo to contrast the coloured picture of some of the lovely building in Budapest.

Some stamping with black paint to jazz up the borders and check out the photo corners - these were stickers

I embossed the city in white so that it was muted and understated - but then outlined it in green to make it pop

Inspired by the muted tone challenge over at the Studio Challenges blog this month.
I am seriously over this rain now. Where is our summer? Are we ever going to see any sunshine?

Messy Mondays: Using stamps with paint

Good day to you bloggers. I have been experimenting with paint recently as it's an economical and very quick way to add embellishments to your layouts. I have a much neglected box of stamps which I dusted off  to use of the layouts below. 

Months ago when I was stocking up on stash I got a Jenni Bowlin for Ranger no.12 fountain pen acrylic ink dabber and then I promptly forgot about it. To be honest I wasn't sure what to do with it. But now I have discovered you simply dab it on top of the stamp and get a really clear and almost embossed image.

Here are some of the layouts that I created where I used the stamping to create backing paper. I started off with Kraft cardstock for both layouts. The layout below I used two different stamps to create a recurring pattern and then sprayed tattered angels' marshmallow glimmer mist to give the backing a nice glittery sheen and a matt finish. I also stamped on the picture using other stamps from the same set - I don't know the name of the make as I always take stamps out of their packaging to store them. I think that it makes quite a striking page which I didn't feel needed much other embellishment than a tag stamped with the title and some bakers twine. 

 This second layout was inspired by Jen's challenge over at Two Peas and I was so pleased with the effect that I will definately try it again with a different stamps. There is a video on the blog too and I love scrapping along to video's much more than written instructions. 

I used my journalling spots and the Jenni Bowlin dabber to create the recurring pattern and then added the two little pics, title and journalling. It is all about how my friend's little girl can say my husband's name so clearly when most adults struggle to say it right. It is Arne - but people often pronounce it "Arnie" or "Arn" and don't pronounce the 'e' at the end. The layout started as a status update on my facebook and then i decided to use it as a layout as I found these pics we had taken when we kidnapped her one day. (Please don't be concerned her parents were aware that the kidnapping was taking place!) 

Have you ever created a background that you were really proud of using stamps and paint? Please share it and I'll be back next Monday to share ideas for using paint and stamps to create effective page borders.

Vintage style layouts of Budapest...

So I hope that I have whet all your appetites telling you how many layouts I have completed in the last few weeks whilst I have been off work. I have been completing lots of 8.5 by 11.5 layouts as this is my favourite size and I am still scrapping our fantastic mini break in Budapest (more about it here) Perhaps because I have been listening to lots of retro tunes on magic fm I have gone for some quite vintage inspired layouts.

The first layout is about the Children's Railway and the little conductors on board who were trying to sell us lots of cute little trinkets about the railway. I used a variety of Daisy D vintage papers, washi tape, ribbon and I even got the needle and thread out and sewed some buttons on. I photoshopped the picture and added a sepida tint so that it has a nostalgic feel to it - which is the feeling this railway evoked in me.

The second layout features one of those classic pictures taken in front of you - when we were on the cable car on the way down from the railway stop. We managed a better one with the instax mini and so I decided to mix it up - I also added a generous dose of bakers twine around the picture and then just tucked the instax into it. I used one of my gorgeous Jenni Bowlin journalling card spots as my title and then expressions stickers for the captions.

I am linking up to Purple Mailbox.com love linky. I have just discovered her blog recently and I am in awe of the amount of layouts she manages to create with so many details and lots of paint and misting effects. She has a totally different style of scrapping to mine, but yet I have picked up some good ideas on her blog. I am looking forward to seeing what everyone else has created!
Join my on Monday for my new Messy Monday's tutorials beginning with STAMPING WITH PAINTS some layouts and ideas that I have been playing around with recently.
Have a great weekend - even if you're a Brit and are caught in all of this crazy rain!

We've got a golden ticket...

There is a red, white and blue challenge over at SJ Crafts and I have just had an order from snapfish of all our Jubilee pictures. I loved this picture and even as I took it I was imagining a page all about how we'd got Olympic tickets and were looking forward to the event. Although do you think us scrappers have scrappers liscense as opposed to poetic liscense? As in truth I'm not THAT excited about the Olympics. London will be packed. I don't like crowded tubes. I don't really like crowds. We're taking the coach down as it's cheaper and I don't like that four hour sweaty bus journey! Plus we got tickets for football (which I don't even watch on telly - not even England..hence why I am blogging now!) and something called handball - which is...?
But I had some Union Jacks lying around, I liked the pic and I started getting carried away with using up all my red, white and blue scraps. For the title I totally had the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory song in my head as last year there was gloating on Facebook to be had when we got tickets in the ballot and many of our friends didn't.

So I AM grateful we won them - so I could scrap this picture and include a cheesy title and use up some of my scraps. I am sure I will enjoy it when it comes down to it...as my husband keeps telling me it's a once in a lifetime experience.

More photobooth fun...

Some photobooth pages from a wedding earlier in the year. I  just used scraps and lots of washi tape leftover from other scrapping.

These were taken on my phone and may need to be clicked on to see the detail more clearly.
I also love what Kathryn has done with photobooth pics over at Lily Bee Sketches.
Photo booths at weddings really appeal to the scrappers out there and it's great to have a little momento of your day.

How to have the perfect day in California?

I thought I'd better get blogging since I lost a couple of followers in the last fortnight. What do followers want from you? I think you have to live first and blog second. But I have got quite a few pages and projects I have been working on that I've been meaning to share.
I'm still working through our holiday pics from our California road trip last summer and I love creating every page as it takes me back to some really happy memories - especially in this miserable June weather! This layout captures some of the activities on our first day. We awoke really early in Santa Monica thinking that we had slept in, when it was actually 5 am! So we started early and went for a walk along the pier. Then later we rented bikes and really explored the craziness of Venice Beach and the tranquility of Santa Monica the opposite way. I was struggling to think of a title but then went for 'Perfect Day in California' as at the end of the trip we all agreed that it was our favourite day of the trip.
I used a sketch from Shimelle for this layout (at least I'm sure it was although I have just looked through her blog and cannot find it, it may have been from a magazine then!?) as I have been having scrapper's blog recently. I was glad as I used a few sheets up that I was struggling to know what to do with. I fussy cut the bottom California part from a fussier sheet and felt it was perfect for the title. I like the hidden journalling too.

It is my sister Tamara's birthday today and she was the one who accompanied us on the trip. It was great to have her there as my shopping buddy (especially in the scrapbook shops) and my cupcaking buddy as The Belgian is not the biggest fan of these two activites. I wish I was in London with her today, especially as she had brunch with my other sister, Gem, at Bill Granger's in Westbourne Grove. I just reviewed it recently for my other blog.
Will be back later with some more of my A4 scrapping.
Have a great Saturday!