Bumper Scrapping Saturday...

So I have been finishing off, photographing and editing some layouts that I started a while ago but got a new lease of life with National Scrapbooking Day last week and the challenges up on Shimelle's blog and also at Two Peas. Then this weekend I have been treated to lots of exciting tutorials and challenges over at Jennifer Grace Creates. So in order to meet all the deadlines of the challenges and to be in with a chance of winning more stash (having just flogged loads of old stuff at a car boot sale) I have to go against Julie Kirk's advice and do a bumper post.

1) Challenge 1: Shimelle challenged us to make the most of our tools and scrappy investmentsas did the Two Peas girls with the Tool School by Jen. I got the Making Memories Slice for Christmas years ago and used it for a while and then it got consigned to its box and never used again. 

So I unearthed it and used it to cut out the words 'fun' and 'enjoy' on this layout. I inked the edges of the words to make sure that they popped out of the page. The papers are from a 6 by 6 Studio Calico pad and also some the American Crafts 'Dear Lizzie' range. I also used my Martha Stewart star punch. Below is a closer look...

Challenge 2: Shimelle also challenged us to create a layout using our favourite paper line. It seems that we are both American Crafts fans and so I used some of the Dear Lizzie range to create this layout about our trip to the Farmer's Market in LA. I created a cluster using some of the die cuts and the thickers from this range too.

 
Challenge 3: Shimelle challenged us to use smaller photos and Jennifer Grace challenged us to use a big bold black title with lighter colours.
This photo of us at the hand ball at the Olympics last summer was taken on my phone as he doesn't like to get the 'big' camera out in public and finds a quick mobile picture doesn't draw quite so much attention! I cropped it so that I could fit the journalling and another little picture of the hand ball stadium behind it. This polka dot paper is really old, but it seemed to work well with the orange washi tape and ledger paper. I also added some smash washi tape to ensure that I had the date etc on the layout. I think the bright colours reflect the energy of the game and of the whole event.

Phew - I wish I could say that that was it (well actually its better to have too much to share than too little, surely?) but I still have some messy misting and paint layouts to share. I will save it for another post though. I will also be sharing some more 'bump' layouts - its really massive now and  have less than nine weeks left till D-Day!