It's all about the colour

Week 2 of LOAD brought about a set of challenges and prompts around colour. Having recently done the Nic Howard's BPC class, "Colour! or is it Color?", this was interesting to build on what I had already learnt. 

It's been a very BRIGHT week! LOL! 

We listened to an interview with Lori Sawaya who is an expert in colour and she talked about how to create mood, enhance feelings or to give a message through your use of colour. Such a fascinating topic to think about.

February 8th

Enhance your layout using colour.

I am usually more comfortable using softer shades and muted colours but I had seen a layout in the gallery about Dubai and it gave me the idea to do one of my own. 

And I wanted to make it bright. 

Really bright. 

I'd bought this BG Marrakech paper back in 2009 specifically for this holiday so it was good to get it out and use it.  I wanted to concentrate on those wonderful shades of blue and green and this selection of papers seemed to really do that. 

February 9th

Using a colour grid (that describes you according to the colour you are connected to), select the colour that draws you first. 

I was of course, totally enchanted by the blossom pink here but when I started looking through my papers, a selection of green caught my eye so I went with that. I added some photos of our balcony and not much embellishment. The layout tells the story of how loud the country traffic (tractors and combine harvesters) is round here. There's not much to this layout but I have done the design before and I like that it uses several different patterns.

February 10th

Use nature's colours to create a scheme.

Normally, I would immediately have gone to browns and autumn colours. Without even thinking about it, this would be the way I would always go. 

But I was looking through my photos and saw these strawbs. Mmmm. They looked good and out of the corner of my eye, I saw the October Afternoon red polka dot paper and that was it. I remembered this gorgeous green paper (old Dream Street Papers, I think) which gave it such great contrast.

I used a Page Maps sketch and have since added another sprig of paper down the left hand side so that it goes to the bottom of the white. 

Not a me page at all, but I really like how different it is to my normal stuff.

February 11th

Go black and white. Photo, papers or both.

Another gulp moment for me. I often use b&w photos but not papers too often. But I had made a layout recently in basic black and white using my Conterfeit Kit and wondered about skipping this prompt. As in, "Done that already. tick."

But always one to face the challenge, I decided to give it a go after flipping through my papers and finding three or four I liked in shades of black and grey. I found a pretty photo and changed it to b&w too, even though it hardly had any colour in it anyway.

I've been enjoying making my own beaded pins as part of my clusters and thought the white pearls were ideal for this.

February 12th

Use a colour you don't normally use and mix in into your usual schemes.

I had seen so many orange layouts in the gallery, each one more lovely than the last and I decided that this could be an interesting colour for me to use. I rarely use orange at all, let alone a layout where orange was the main colour. I had bought these MM papers recently and tracked them down for this. I brought in my usual pink through the photos and the alpha.

Just some of the hundreds of photos I have of flowers I see, receive or grow (!). I adore the little wooden Studio Calico butterflies. I really think I need to get some more of the other designs they have. Gorgeous. And I broke into my Tim Holtz film strip too - far too nice to leave in the tin which is what I usually do.

February 13th

Take the colour direction from your photos.

Needing to even up the layouts I have been doing, I really wanted to do one of Cameron and when I saw these photos in my pile, I immediately thought of using reds and greys and had the perfect papers to go with that.

I don't find boy layouts easy to do, but these papers were easy to use once I got them out and moved them around a bit.

I need to get some more recent photos of Cam, he has grown SO much over the last couple of years but right here in these pictures, he is gorgeous! Such a sweetie.

February 14th

Create drama with the choice of colours, choosing them from as far apart on the colour wheel as possible.

Having done my strawberry layout earlier in the week, (and let's face it, that one is full of colour drama!), I decided that I didn't want to go extreme with this one. But blue and red are not exactly next to each other on the the wheel so it's not the most harmonious combination you can have.

I had seen a few Royal Wedding layouts in the gallery which prompted me to get going with mine. I had taken a couple of photos on the day of the TV and the flags outside and my scones - which by the way were the most delicious scones I have EVER tasted - Delia of course - and felt that I just wanted to keep it simple. I chose BG Boxer for this (going to be sad when this comes to an end as it is so versatile) due to the toned down reds and blues in the collection. 

So far, I have realised that I still love most of the products I have in my stash so my decluttering has been effective in thinning out what I have. I turn to BasicGrey over and over again, and I love almost every sheet I find in my hand - their products just really fit my style. 

However, I really need to start using up all my newer products that I have and get them onto layouts. This is such a bad habit of mine, to just keep them to look at. I have piles of new stuff and I find it so hard to just pick a sheet up and use it there and then. How crazy is that? Most people can't wait to use their new stuff but mine just sits there looking at me.

So next week, I really want to remember this. 

See you soon...

Too busy scrapping for blogging...

Once again, I have entered into the fun of LOAD - one layout a day for the whole month. Yes, I am crazy! But yes, it is a lot of fun!

Lain is taking us Back To Basics with daily prompts covering different aspects of, well, the basics.

Week 1 was all about design basics starting off with an interview with Debbie Hodge of Get It Scrapped - really interesting to hear her talking about her process and thoughts when creating.

1st February

This first prompt was a really scary one. Make a layout using JUST the basics. Cardstock, paper, alpha, pen and photo. 

None of my usual embellishments? No creating embellishments from paper or whatever is lying around? No clusters? I nearly gave up there and then. But I flipped through my photos and found this sweet one of Maddie and thought it was a nice stand alone picture and the layout was born.

It was hard not to do more. Not to cheat! And I did a bit by using two alphas and lots of the different patterns of the papers but I kept to the spirit of the prompt and was satisfied for the first of the month - it always takes time to warm up.

The journalling talks about Maddie not being able to even sit up without falling over all these years and now she has found her niche as a natural talent at gymnastics - all that tumbling and flipping has found its place!

Using a Page Maps sketch

 2nd February

Contrast. Create a page using some sort of contrast - size, placement, number, colour etc.

I took these photos of the Cadbury factory a few years ago now, when I was back home with the car and decided to do a memory safari through the city. The journalling talks about my lifetime love of Cadbury's chocolate and the connection I have with the company due to its location just up the road from where I lived for many years.

I created contrast by using the large photo paired up with the smaller photos. The larger photo is also more attention grabbing because of the colour and the stark, white lettering.

3rd February

Emphasis. Draw emphasis to some element of your page.

I have so many gorgeous photos of the children that I need to do a lot of non-specific pages to get them used up, so this was ideal for me to do a "What I love about this photo..." layout. I think this is my third in this newly developed series of pages (just doing them when a photo really grabs my attention like this one). I just wrote up a few lines about what a lovely, kind, thoughtful girl Maddie is. 

I emphasised the photo by only using the one and by matting it with a strong red to draw in the colour of her dress. I used some very precious papers (Emma's Shoppe - Crate Paper) that Libby had sent me as a surprise before Easter. Such a wonderful paper range. Loved it although now I am a bit sad that I have so little of it left.

 4th February

White space. Create a page with "white space" which in my book is usually everything that you can find UNDER my papers and embellishments! Another toughy for me but I was up for the challenge because I had done this design last year and loved it. I am scraplifting myself all the time at the moment - makes it so easy.

A rather old photo of baby brother Ted. And using up some even older product from BG (Stella Ruby) which was a bit scary as I opened a never-before-opened collection pack and then only used five 1" strips of paper. Obviously, I need to work on using up more of it.

5th February

Visual triangle

I lifted myself again for this simple double spread and forgot all about the visual triangle until I had finished it only to realise that I had done it anyway. Must be an automatic thing for me - the triangle or the diagonal.

I have so many photos of my time in Tuscany (Siena is featured here) that this style of double layout is ideal to use up quite a few at once. I used BG Periphery which I had originally got for these photos so I was happy to get some used up here. Only nearly 4 years after the trip.

Close up of left hand side

Close up of right hand side. I think I will be adding something there in the middle of the right hand edge - it looks a bit blank and empty. It might have to wait until the end of LOAD though.

6th February

Alignment/common margins

Something that is almost impossible for me as a rule across the page but I try to do it for photo mats and block positioning which is what I did here. 

I wanted to use some bright papers and designs for these photos of adorable Isabella just to lift the whole thing and halfway through, decided I didn't even like these BG Sugar Rush papers. But I decided to continue through to the end and it ended up better than I thought it would. I particularly like the lace paper background over the white cardstock which seems to pop.

Just a silly layout featuring the Belly!

7th February

Scraplift - get inspiration from the layouts of others. Galleries, books, magazines, self, whatever.

Being part of the Flickr group means that I get to mark all of my favourites so that I can find them again later and look through them for inspiration. This layout is based on one of my favourite scrappers, TheLinarStudio, although her style is completely and utterly different to mine. She goes large with a lot of her photos and her layouts are stylishly minimalist. Something I can't manage but which is still very inspirational for me.

I took her basic design and made it a Lisa layout by adding some bits and pieces. It was a great way to use this A4 sized photo of Ted in his Oliver production a few years ago and I journalled about how proud we were of his performance.

Love, love, love BG Boxer. Such a wonderful set of patterns and papers.

A good first week all in all, although I am finding it hard to get into the rhythm of the daily scrapping.

My May counterfeit kit has yet to be made up, never mind make an appearance and it might be forgotten now until next month. But I am really happy to be using up stash and even opening up old, untouched collections.

Now I just need to even up the subjects of my layouts - Cameron, Joe, Amber, us...

Vintage on the run...

Just a quick post for now and I am hoping to blog again soon (later today or tomorrow) with some of my more recent layouts.  LOAD really has me busy this time around for some reason and I am struggling to manage my time - or maybe that's not so surprising after all! ;-)

I am busy creating and sharing in the community but that means that I am behind on my blogging and catching up with my favourite blogs. You know who you are and I will be dropping by whenever I can - I haven't forgotten you!

But I wanted to try to keep up with Jingle Belles and this week is all about the Spirit of Christmas Past.

Having recently discovered the joys of free vintage images online, I decided to use another one of the many pictures I found online as the basis mixed up with some music paper and some spots.

Not completely vintage maybe, but another one for the pile!

Is a card without pretty paper even possible?

Jingle Belles are determined to stretch me with their challenges, that's for sure.

You will know that my scrapping style is throw as much onto a page as I possibly can including several pretty papers from my never dwindling stash.

Well, I'd like to make cards like that too.

But this week's challenge #18, Cardstock Christmas suggested by Jess Moyer was to use only cardstock and embellishments. Gulp.

So, I kept it simple, using some pretty SEI elements onto a plain white background and a silver CC rub on for my title. And called it done!

So yes, it is possible. Just don't ask me to do it again!

The final score

It's May!

That means that it is already day 2 over at LOAD. My first layout was really hard work. As if I hadn't been scrapbooking recently which was a bit bizarre as I have done a lot of scrapping since February LOAD. Never mind! I will find my rhythm soon I guess. More on that later in the week.

But first, let me finish off the April Counterfeit Kit Challenge.

I had 6 layouts (as well as a mini book and some cards) as my target but there was still quite a lot still in my kit so I decided to quickly do my March 12 on 12 layout too.

In the end it turned out all wrong! I have a template, measurements, a design. And somehow it was all mixed up and the measurements were completely off which threw me and then I was too stingy to print out my journalling again - I liked this lined paper too much.

I put it together, worked on a bit of embellishment and called it done. I also decided to include a small tag with the day on it - I noticed that another one of my fellow 12 on 12'ers always put the day on and I think it's a great idea. My days often undergo major schedule changes so I want to try to remember this in future.

Really, not a great layout. But that's ok. It's done and marks the end of three years of 12 on 12s. This is such a great project and relatively easy - it's not a whole month in review but you can see what was the general trend each month. I especially like to see the changing seasons.

I really have to improve the whole self-portrait. You'd think I'd be better now after three years. Live and learn.

And last on my list of goals for the April kit was to create a few cards with the scraps. So I ran off a couple of easy, general cards. Nothing grand but I like that some really old stuff was used up here and homes were found these neglected bits.

The final score for the month is:

• 7 single layouts
• 1 mini-book (photo album scrapbook)
• 3 cards
• 26 photos used on layouts (ok, so my 12 on one is a little cheaty)
• 32 photos used in mini-book
• 32 brads (remember that secondary goal of mine from the beginning of the month?!?)

I'm happy with the results and am looking forward to Thursday when the new kit challenge will be posted. That, coupled with LOAD should be a good combination. It's going to be a great month.

Can't wait!

Bet you don't know what I'm up to today....

.... I've got a day off.

I'm sitting inside.

I've got the TV on.

The scones are sitting on the side ready to be scoffed.

The bubbles have been poured.

And a tear or two have been shed.

Yes, I'm one of the 2 billion (!) people world-wide watching "THE" wedding today!

SOOC so it's a bit wonky! But you get the idea!

Can't help it - I've loved it all!

What do red vellum and Earth Day have in common?

This week's Jingle Belles challenge was inspired by the combination of some junk mail and Earth Day. 

Kathe Deck is this week's guest designer (she can be found on her blog here) and was inspired by a red vellum envelope she came across when sorting through a pile of junk mail. She went home thinking, ""It would be good for something...oh, it would be great for a Christmas card... wouldn't it be really great if the Jingle Belles gave us reuse/recycle theme? Maybe they'd tie it to Earth Day or something like that..." 

Well, they did!

So re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle or up-cycle.

Out. Of. My. Box. 

I don't know why I found this so difficult - I want to be more eco-friendly, honest! But my mind was blank. It has taken me all week to just decide to go for it.

I had a Christmas card that I cut up for the white glitter background, the sentiment and the snowflake (which was on the front and I adore), then I used some Prima packaging as a splash of colour and then the ribbon was an odd scrap I had which probably came off a present. The cardstock is just from my supplies but is part of my unloved collection of colours that I am trying to work through for my Christmas cards rather than just throwing away. 

Can you believe that it's week 17 already? 

May is just a few days away....

New photo, not so new layout

Back from my Easter sightseeing and it was amazing - I will share some piccies soon. We walked, we sat, we ate, we drank and we soaked ourselves in the history and beauty of the place. It was a stunning few days...

But back to reality with work and scrapping.

As mentioned in my previous post, I completed another layout using my Counterfeit Kit some days ago but hadn't noticed that my photo of it was pretty pants! (What is it with the light these days? I thought everything would get easier for photographing my layouts once the days got longer and sunnier, although I think this might say more about my photography skills right now.)

Anyway, I got out there earlier this morning and took another photo so that I can share it with you - it's still not perfect, but it's better.

I've got so many fun fair photos that it's difficult to know what to do with them all. But one or two more of these types of layouts can probably still be made. Crange Kirmes (Kirmes = fun fair in Germany) is a classic tradition in the region where we live. It's quite famous and I know that I have written about it before, especially as Ted and I have gone every summer for the last few years.

I manage a few rides but have noticed in recent years that they hit me harder and harder! I think I'm getting too old for this malarky but Ted is grateful that I do manage some of the stomach tumbling ones!

I wanted to make this a bit lighthearted and whimsical, so I included some glittery clusters and somewhat mismatched products. I think it worked.

Oh, and I did some serious stealing the middle of my papers to make the pretty ones go further!

I want to get the last of the kit used up and posted by the end of the month because May's LOAD is looming now... which is pretty exciting.

This kit has been so much fun to use up and I have created 6 really different layouts - goal reached! Now I just have to run off a couple of simple cards using the leftovers and I will have done everything I wanted to do this month.

I'll be getting ready for LOAD this week. Tidying, sorting, organising, thinking.. can't wait!

Easter Greetings

I'm enjoying a bit of Easter sightseeing which I will share with you soon.

But it's wonderful to have a long weekend with gorgeous sunny weather and nothing to do but spend time together and take some wonderful (hopefully!) photographs.

How's the Easter weather where you are? All I can say is that I broke out the factor 30 today to protect my overly white and pasty coloured English skin :-)

Anyway, really just a quickie to say hi wherever you are and whatever you're doing.

I was going to post a layout I made using my Counterfeit Kit but I've just realised it's a horrible photo (with a horrible blue tinge to it for some reason) so I won't do that after all.

How about a little photo album scrapbook (PAS - a la Stacy Julian) instead?

I had a handful of AC scraps left in my kit, so I added in some more scraps and created this little album in next to no time. I used letters (BG)  and stickers (old Love Elsie!) from the kit although now I have to go back over and do the writing again as all the ink smudged on the stickers. I might have to just cover up the writing with some paper and do it again. Don't you hate it when that happens - pen or sticker problem?

Super cute, super simple, super fast. Loads of photos used up at once.

One happy (Easter) bunny here wishing you many eggs and lots of chocolate tomorrow.

Wednesdays are to DIE for!

Another Wednesday, another Jingle Belles challenge, another Christmas card to add to the pile!

We've been challenged to use die cuts - of any sort - on our cards.

I really wanted to go to town on this one. Drag the Cricut out, use the Christmas cartridge that I "had" to have, you know.... the whole caboodle!

But then I ran out of time. And I went for the easy option.

I cut two scalloped circles with my Cuttlebug, used a Cosmo die-cut shape and a snowflake sticker on top.

Simple, but done.