Favourite layouts of 2018

As we are at the end of the year, I thought I would look back at the layouts I have completed this year and do a 'Top Ten' of my favourites. In no particular order here they are:

1. Sweet Girl

2. Love You

3. Be a Pineapple

4. Tuxedo

5. Well Hello There!

6. Summer Fun

7. Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy

8. S-ELF-IE

9. Beach Walks & Hot Chocolate

10. Happy Birthday

Christmas Cards

Last week I found time to make a few simple Christmas cards for my crafty friends.

Determined to use up some older stash I dug deep and found a Lily of the Valley Furry Christmas Art Pad, a Papermania Folk Christmas A4 Paper Pack and some odd sheets of unbranded woodgrain paper. I layered images from the art pad with some of the patterned papers and then embellished with sequins, ribbon and Candi from Craftwork cards.

Pebbles Cozy & Bright - Christmas sELFie

I have a layout on the Papermaze blog today using the wonderful Cozy & Bright collection from Pebbles Inc. This is a Christmas themed collection in traditional bright red and green colours with some pale blue and wood grain thrown in.

The starting point for my layout was a sketch from June 2013 by Pagemaps.

I started with a 12 x 12 sheet of white cardstock and onto this I stuck a sheet of the Fa La La La paper which I had trimmed to 11¼ x 11¼. Another 10 x 10  piece of the white cardstock was then added at a bit of an angle and I machine stitched around all the edges with red thread.

My photo, which measured 4 x 4, was double matted with white cardstock and a piece of the Christmas Magic paper, trimmed to look like a polaroid. I created a strip across the layout with my photo and some tags cut from the Give Joy and Merry Little Christmas papers and tucked some red doilies behind.

Green eyelets and red Bakers Twine were added to the tags and also some  wood words which I painted with green acrylic paint.

To give the layout some sparkle and shine I added some gold foil  to the bottom edges of the tags and dotted some gold die cut stars and sequins around the layout.

Thickers were used for the title and I painted the letters E, L & F with green acrylic paint to make them stand out.

In the bottom right corner of the page I created a cluster with a couple of  die cuts from the Echo Park 'A Perfect Christmas' ephemera pack, another wood word, die cut gold star and sequins.

The layout was finished off with a few enamel dots and the date.

Echo Park Celebrate Autumn - Falling Leaves

I recently created a layout from the Papermaze blog using a large 7"x10.5" photo  and some of the scraps of patterned paper which I had left after creating my other two layouts with the Echo Park Celebrate Autumn collection. The photo is of Lara trying to catch some falling leaves and as it was only taken last month I was really pleased to get it scrapbooked so quickly.

I started with a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock and stuck my photo to this, just right of centre. Either side of my photo I stuck strips of patterned papers which I cut to varying widths.  I machine stitched the strips of patterned paper to the layout using black thread and bent the edges up  a little to create a bit of dimension.

I also added a column of sequins and paper leaves between two of the strips of paper. Some of the leaves were punched from scraps of the patterned paper and others were fussy cut from a scrap of the paper. I also added some sequins on top of some of the paper strips for added sparkle.

A circle of sequins were glued onto the photo to draw attention to Lara eagerly poised beneath the trees waiting to catch a falling leaf.

I raided my stash for some Gold Glitter Foam alphabet stickers and some very old stickers from a sheet of Simple Stories Cardstock Stickers to make the title on the bottom of the photo. 

To complete my layout I printed my journaling on the computer onto a piece of white cardstock and stuck this beneath the photo. The date was also added to the layout using little letter stickers.  

Echo Park Celebrate Autumn - Beach Walks and Hot Chocolate

I have another layout on the Papermaze Blog using the gorgeous, vibrant Celebrate Autumn collection from Echo Park.

We recently spent a week at the coast in Norfolk and enjoyed lots of walks on the beach. We have a habit when walking on the beach on cold autumn days of taking a hot drink from one of the beach cafes with us and so I decided to document this with a scrapbook layout with the rather unimaginative title 'Beach Walks and Hot Chocolate'!

I started with a 12x12 sheet of white Bazzill cardstock and onto this I layered pieces of the Autumn Friends, 3x4 Journaling Cards (B Side) and Autumn Acorns papers from the Celebrate Autumn collection. I matted my 5x7 photo onto cream cardstock and then onto a piece of the Colored Leaves paper. After sticking this to the centre of the layout I machine stitched round all the paper edges with black thread.

Using a rubber stamp and die set from my stash, I stamped three take-out cups onto scraps of the cardstock and patterned paper and after assembling them I stuck them to the lower right corner of the layout using 3D foam to add some dimension. Some orange Bakers Twine was also twirled underneath the cups.

My title was die cut from black cardstock and stuck to the top left corner.

Journaling strips printed on the computer were stuck to the bottom left corner.

The layout was completed with a scattering of gold sequins.

Tux

I have another layout on the Papermaze blog today using the Pebbles Patio Party collection from Jen Hadfield. For my previous layouts I used a lot of the pink floral papers but for this final layout I decided to use some of  the papers which were predominantly yellow and navy.

I trimmed an inch off of each of the edges of a sheet of yellow Bazzill cardstock and matted this in the centre of the B side of a sheet of the Backyard Blooms paper. I machine stitched with navy thread around the edge of the yellow cardstock and then roughed up the edges with my fingernails to give some added texture.

My 5x7 photo was matted onto some white cardstock which I had punched down the left side with a notebook border punch . I layered a pieces of the Citrus Sweet paper under my photo and also one of the Recipe Cards which with some careful cutting and sticking gives the impression of being a single larger piece of paper.

In a previous DT kit I was sent a few of the mini chipboard butterflies from Dusty Attic. Vanessa kindly also sent me the waste that came from the pack of butterflies and so I decided to add this to my layout! I painted it with white acrylic paint, backed it with some of the navy paper and used it as an extra layer under my photo.

I used some of the tags from the Just for You paper (plus an extra one cut from some of the Backyards Bloom paper) as embelishments on the left side of the layout. Green Bakers Twine was threaded through the tags.

Thin strips of the navy paper which I punched with border punches were added near the bottom and right side of the layout.

I had almost finished my layout when I decided it needed an extra colour adding ... so I decided to add some pink buttons, pink reinforcing rings on the tags, a pink enamel dot and a thin strip of pink cardstock. Pink probably wasn't an obvious colour choice but I like the finished look.

My layout was completed with some very old navy coloured Basic Grey alphabet stickers from my stash to spell out Tux' name.

Oh My Gourd!

Today I'm on the Papermaze blog with a layout using the Celebrate Autumn collection from Echo Park. This collection is perfect for getting in the autumn mood and I had fun using it to create a layout with photos of Lara taken last autumn whilst on holiday in Norfolk.

I started by sticking an 11" x 11" piece of the Falling Leaves (B Side) patterned paper in the centre of a 12" x 12" sheet of the Autumn Friends (B Side) patterned paper. I machine stitched round the edge and using my finger nails I roughed up the edge to give a bit of dimension.

My two 6" x 4" photos were matted onto white cardstock and then layered on the layout with pieces of brown cardstock and Fall is Fun (B Side) patterned paper, which I punched with a notebook border punch. I machine stitched round the edges of these too and stuck some washi tape from the Simple Stories Say Cheese III collection at the top and bottom.

White paper doilies were tucked underneath my photos and a tag threaded with Bakers Twine , which I sprayed with Mango Blaze Cosmic Shimmer Mist, was tucked underneath the right side. I used some very old clear stickers from my stash to add my title.

Two embellishment clusters were added to the layout using some beautiful Prima leaves, some buttons and cute pumpkins which I fussy cut from the Pumpkin Farm patterned paper.

I also used words cut from the branding strip on one of the sheets of paper in one of the clusters.

My journalling was printed on paper strips on the computer and attached to the lower right of the layout.

The layout was completed with the addition of the date using Websters Pages The Good Life Little Letter Stickers and a scattering of gold sequins.

Berry Sweet

Today I have a third layout on the Papermaze Blog using the Patio Party collection from Pebbles. Although hot summer days now seems a distant memory, my layout captures the memories of summer strawberry picking when the children were small. 

I started with a 12 x 12 sheet of white cardstock which was trimmed slightly before matting it  onto a 12 x 12 sheet of red cardstock and machine stitching round the edge with black thread. 

Three 3 x 4 photos and three pieces of 3 x 4 patterned paper cut from a sheet of patterned paper were matted on some black cardstock. With black thread I machine stitched around the edges of the pieces of patterned paper before arranging these and the photos in a grid in the centre of the white cardstock. Small scraps of paper and some of the die cuts were tucked underneath and around the grid. I also added a couple of tags threaded with bakers twine.

I snipped a small section out of a square wood veneer frame to make it into a rectangular frame and added some vellum to the back of it before sticking to my layout.

Another chipboard piece saying 'Capture the Moment' was the perfect size to fit inside the frame.

Stickers were used for the title and I also added butterflies punched from co-ordinating cardstock. 

I finished off my layout with journalling strips printed onto white cardstock.