Love These Friends

This layout is based on a layout by US Scrapbooker Suzanna Lee.

The photograph I have used on my layout was taken of my daughter and her friends at a birthday party in 2016.

The base for my layout was a 12x12 sheet of white cardstock and slightly smaller sheets of black and white cardstock was mounted on top of this. A coloured edge was created by tucking scraps of different pieces of patterned paper underneath. The scraps were from the October Afternoon Fly a Kite Collection. A wiggly border of white thread was also stitched using the sewing machine.

After preparing the base I matted my 5x7 photo on more of the October Afternoon paper and black cardstock and layered this onto the base.

The title was cut from more of the patterned paper and black cardstock using the Craft-Robo.

Die cuts from a Kaisercraft 'Happy Snaps' pack of collectables were used to embelish the layout and glitter was also added to some of these.

Details were added with teeny tiny alphabet stickers.

Scrapology - September Card Challenge

This month's card challenge on Scrapology has been set by design team member Sheena. Sheena set the theme NEW BEGINNING. 

I decided to make a New Home card for my niece and her husband.

I cut a house shaped card (using a cutting file for the Craft Robo found in the Silhouette Studio) from Bazzill cardstock and paper from October Afternoon's 'Fly a Kite' collection and added flat backed gems and letter stickers to embellish it .

The rest of the design teams cards and full details of the challenge can be found at Scrapology.

Red Nose Day Lauout

A very simple layout today recording  Red Nose Day 2013. 

I used white and red Bazzill cardstock, patterned papers from October Afternoon (red circles), My Minds Eye (red stripe) & Scenic Route (graph), brads, paper doilies, sticker from My Minds Eye and Red Nose Day logo downloaded from the Internet and printed onto cardstock. 

Someone told me that the doilies at the top of the page look like three lacy bras hanging over the top of the page. LOL.

Scrapology November Layout Challenge - W is for Wire

This month on Scrapology we are scraplifting one of our very own design team members, Lou Collins and we are inviting you to create a layout with our sketch and incorporate wire in your layout. The wire could be  real or faux (stamped, stencilled, paper, etc. )

Here's my layout

I chose to use real chicken wire on my chicken themed layout. The papers used were a mixture of Fancy Pants (Background), Echo Park (wood grain and title mat) and October Afternoon (newsprint). 

I also used flowers from Prima which I enhanced by adding faux stamens and leaves also from Prima. I used a few brads, some hessian and some unbranded chipboard lettering.

Here is Lou's stunning original layout.

and, here's the sketch

Please do join the challenge and pop over to Scrapology for all the details of how to enter and the super prize that's on offer. 

Scrapology - July Card Challenge

Today is card challenge day on Scrapology. Marion Emberson of Sugar & Spice Crafts has set this months challenge which is to get out your embossing powders and heat gun and create a card using HEAT EMBOSSING.

Heat embossing isn't something have done often so this challenge really was a challenge to me! Instead of embossing a stamped image I decided I would use embossing powders to emboss a die cut shape.

I found a butterfly which I had cut sometime ago using a friend's Marianne Creatables Butterfly die. I inked the butterfly quite heavily with a Versamark ink pad and then embossed it with black powder. The powder gave the butterfly a shiny almost plastic appearance. 

I printed a Word Art quote from 'Create with TLC' onto white card and after matting this on black card mounted the quote and the butterfly onto a card blank covered with black card and paper from October Afternoon's 'Fly a Kite' collection. I finished the card with Heidi Swapp small flower jewels, black ribbon and a diamante ribbon buckle from Mei Flowers.

Please pop over to Scrapology to see the rest of the Design Teams cards and hopefully you'll feel inspired to take part in the challenge.

Medieval Make Believe

Last month whist at the retreat I put together this layout using photos of my daughter taken a few years ago at Framlingham Castle in Suffolk. Well, I put about 90% of the layout together and have been tinkering with it ever since.

I used papers from My Minds Eye (Wood), Crate Paper (Pink) and October Afternoon (Music). I also used more scraps of My Minds Eye paper to make the bunting and the concertina/rosette  flowers. The flags were made by gluing some of the bunting to wooden cocktail sticks which were topped with a pearl bead. I added some flat back pearls and perfect pearls to add extra detail.

The hardest part about this layout was the title. My crafty friends had many suggestions for titles but in the end I settled for 'Medieval Make Believe' which I cut on the Craft Robo. 


Oops, just realised one of the pearls from the top of the flags is missing. Must have fallen off during photographing the layout. Off to find another. 

Scrapology - April Card Challenge

Drip, drip, drop

Little April shower

What can compare with your beautiful sound?

It's the middle of April which means that over on Scrapology its time for a card challenge. This month Elaine from Quixotic Paperie has challenged Scrapology readers to make a card with an April Showers theme. How you interpret this theme is up to you. You could think rain or baby showers or whatever you like.
My card is a gate-fold card and I used some pretty papers from October Afternoon's 'Fly A Kite' collection.

The image is from The Greeting Farm 'Miss Anya Rain Snow Shine' Stamp Set available from Quixotic Paperie and I coloured it with Promarkers.

I also used an embossed scallop frame from Craftwork Cards, a sentiment stamp from Denami Designs, organza yellow spotty ribbon and a few self adhesive pearls.
Do hop on over to Scrapology to have a look at the rest of the gorgeous card made by the design team and also have a go yourself

Scrapology October Layout Challenge - B is for Borders

On Scrapology this month the theme of our challenge is 'B is for Borders'.

The team chose to take inspiration from a layout by Georgia K Keays and I had so much fun creating my layout. I love Georgia's style and the colours in my choice of photos meant I also chose similar papers to those that Georgia used in her original layout. I decided to rotate the layout as it better suited the portrait photos I used.

Over the summer I developed a taste for homemade still lemonade and Lara was happy to make a jug of the drink for me each week. My layout documents this.

For my layout I used cardstock from Bazzill (black and white), patterned papers from Cosmo Cricket (Blue), Crate Paper (Yellow) and October Afternoon (Text), Leaves and title cut on the Craft Robo, Flat Backed Pearls from Quixotic Paperie, Paper Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts and crochet doilies which I bought many years ago whilst on holiday on one of the Greek Islands.

Here is Georgia's stunning original layout.

And the sketch drawn by our own Lynn.

Hop on over the Scrapology to see all the team layouts and then why not create your own layout based on the sketch (and using borders).

Scrapology July Layout Challenge - M is for Masks

The July layout challenge on Scrapology has now been revealed. This months challenge is all about using masks and the design team choose to scraplift a layout by Liz Qualman.

This is my layout of my gorgeous puddy tat - Tux (Tuxie).

To create my layout I used two different shades of Cosmic Shimmer Mist - Golden Mint and Aqua Lagoon...........

......... a sheet of yellow and a sheet of black card stock ................

........ some die cut flowers ..............

......... and some scraps of patterned paper from Echo Park, October Afternoon (I think) and Fancy Pant, ribbon, a fancy metal brad, Flower Spacer, Thickers from American Crafts and some other very, very old alphabet stickers which I recoloured with ProMarkers.

I started by placing my yellow card stock in a pizza box to act as a spray studio and arranged the die cut flowers randomly on the yellow card stock to act as a mask.

I then sprayed both shades of Shimmer Mist over the yellow card stock. Obviously where the flowers were laid the mist didn't colour the card stock leaving yellow flowers on a green/blue misted background.

When putting together my layout I decided to use the previously white die cuts (now a nice green/blue colour) as embelishments on my layout and fixed them to the page with a fancy metal brad and Extra Large Flower Spacer from The Hobby House.

This was the first time I had used masks and mists and I was a little nervous about using them but I actually quite enjoyed putting this layout together and was pleased with how it turned out.

Here is Liz's original layout..............

......... and the sketch.

Do pop over to Scrapology and see all the layout and perhaps join in with the challenge too.

Birthday Layout

Scrapping time at the moment is very limited. I'm sure it's just as busy for all parents when it gets close to the end of the school year - sports days, school trips, concerts, shows, etc, etc, etc. and the weekends are no less busy either. At the moment I don't know which way to turn.

A few weeks ago I started a layout at my monthly crop and it wasn't until yesterday that I managed to find a few minutes to finish it.

The layout was of Lara's birthday last December.

I used patterned papers from October Afternoon, Cosmo Cricket and Jenni Bowlin, Thickers from American Crafts, ric rac, Stickers from Bella Blvd, metal rimmed tag, buttons and brads.

Finished

This morning I managed to finish two more of the layouts I started at the crop last weekend. I only needed to add the journalling, which in my case is usually just 'Who, When, Where', but finding time to even do that has proved difficult this week. Anyway, this morning I finished the layouts and photographed them.

This first layout is of Lara and her friends at their school sports day in 2009. Not sure if the other parents would want their daughters faces on the internet so I've hidden them and also the name of their school. I used papers, sticker and a journalling card from the October Afternoon 'Report Card' Collection (really liking October Afternoon at the moment), a Bazzill 'Just The Edge' cardstock strip, Prima Flower, Epoxy Brad from Imaginisce, Ribbon and the letter stickers are BasicGrey stickers that I've coloured red with a Promarker.



The second layout was a scraplift of a layout by Suzanna Lee. The photos I used are of Lara on Christmas Day 2006 and like Suzanna I used My Little Shoebox Papers. I bought so many of these My Little Shoebox papers several months ago but have really struggled to use them so when I saw Suzanna's layout I just had to scraplift. The Title letters are BasicGrey and the journalling at the bottom ProvoCraft.

A few more layouts

I actually managed to complete the journalling on a few more layouts started at Debden. Don't tell anyone but in my craft cupboard I still have layouts from lats years Debden weekend that I still haven't finished so to actually get these layouts finished so soon is amazing.

The first layout is of Lara when she and her classmates went to the Victorian School at Hitchin for the day. I was lucky enough to go along too as a parent helper and took a few photos whilst we were there but the photos on this layout were taken beforehand.

I used Patterned papers by Scenic Route (RIP!) and October Afternoon. The journalling card is also from October Afternoon. To finish off the layout I added some velvet ribbon, lace, antique effect brads, title lettering cut on the Cricut and the flower embelishments were handmade.



The flowers were made by stamping flower and leaf images onto pages of an old book. The stamped images were then stuck onto cardstock to strengthen them before being cut out. I then curled the edges of the flowers slightly before layering them up and adding a self adhesive pearl to the centre of each. (Thanks Joan for the idea ).



This next layout is of Steven. The photo was taken on one of the many Snow Days we had earlier this year (seems ages ago now!). I used Fancy Pants and BasicGrey patterned paper, gorgeous layered snowflake accents from K&Co (the photograph doesn't do them justice because IRL they are so glittery), ric rac, ribbon and American Crafts Thickers for the title. The journalling was added on a transparency.



The last layout today was inspired by a layout by Wendy McKee. I LOVE her work - so inspiring. I used Patterned papers from the Fancy Pants 'About a Girl' collection, ribbon, brads,
buttons and the title was once again cut on the Cricut.



The pin wheel emeblishments were hand made. Really easy. If you don't know how to make them instructions can be found here. Instead of attaching the pinwheels to sticks, I flattened them and used them as embelishments.



I plan to finish the rest of my layouts later today so will be back tomorrow with those.

A weekend of Scrapbooking

Last weekend I spent my time in the company of a group of wonderful friends who all share a love of crafting. We stayed at Debden House in Essex and scrapbooked and made cards all weekend long and had a really lovely time.

I managed to put together quite a few layouts which I will hopefully post over the next week or so.

For this first layout of Christopher I used a photo I took last year as part of the 365 'A photo a Day' project. I altered the photo in PSE to black and white and spot coloured one of his eyes. I used papers from October Afternoon and Sandy Lion Rouge De Garance, a few buttons and quote was partly printed on a transparency and then completed with lettering cut on the Cricut.

This next layout is of Lara. The photo was taken last summer at my Aunt and Uncles 60th wedding anniversary celebrations. I used papers from Rouge De Garance and Websters Pages, Flutter Vine and Chipboard accent from Prima, Rub Ons from MME, Flowers from Wild Orchid Crafts, lace, trim, ribbon and self adhesive pearls.

Here's a closeup of the chipboard accent with the rub on title.

The next layout is of Tux. I used the same Rouge De Garance patterned paper that I used on the layout of Christopher, Bazzill cardstock, a mixture of BasicGrey stickers and Cricut lettering (flocked with Doodlebug crushed velvet flocking) for the title, dymo tape journalling, brads and some metal paw print embelishments that I have had in my stash for yonks. The cat embelishment was cut using the 'Animal Kingdom' Cricut cartridge and was coloured with promarkers.

Here's a closeup of that cat embelishment.

The last layout I have to show you today is of Steven. The photo was taken last October at Wells-next-the-Sea. The patterned papers are from BasicGrey and JennyBowlin. The title lettering was from American Crafts and the journalling was created using DIY dry rub off decal paper from Crafty Computer Paper.

Be back soon with some more of my layouts - just as soon as I finish the journalling on them. LOL

Hello Blog

Sorry! I have neglected my blog lately. I can't believe three challenges have been posted on Mojo Holder since I last updated this blog.

On 19th June the team lifted a layout by Laura Price Fiore. Laura's layout was Christmas themed whilst mine used photos of Lara messing around with my old guitar. Here's Laura's layout, followed by mine.

On 26th June, Nancy van den Berg kindly let us use one of her layouts. My friend Lynn first showed me some of Nancy's layouts and ever since I have been a huge fan and have followed her blog for sometime. He layout was a gorgeous baby themed layout. Mine used photos once again of Lara, this time in the snow.

And finally, tonight the design team lifted a layout by Edleen Maryam. Edleen's layout was lovely but I really struggled to come up with a layout this week. I left it far too late in the week to create my layout but after going to the dentist on Monday and having to have a tooth out , I really didn't feel up to scrapping for a few days. Then the hot, hot, HOT weather we have had this week hasn't helped. With temperatures in the upper 20 degrees I think my Mojo became dehydrated, or maybe it decided to go somewhere cooler. Eventually I managed to put together a layout this morning. I'm not that pleased with it but perhaps it will grow on me.

Here's Edleen's layout, followed by mine.

I used some photos on my layout that we took at Westward Ho!, Devon last summer. We have got in the habit when we go out as a family of taking group photos with the cameras self timer. These photos were taken on the beach with the camera perched on an upturned bucket! The only problem with not looking through the viewfinder of the camera is that I can't always tell if everyone is, shall we say "behaving themselves", when the photo is taken! In these photo Christopher was pulling stupid faces and sticking his fingers in his ears, Steven was either sticking his tongue out or biting Lara's bum (!) and even Wayne joined in by lifting Lara upside down in one of the photos! Ho hum!

Don't forget to have a look at the Mojo Holder blog. As well as being able to see all the design teams layouts there are brilliant sketches on the site prepared by Sarah.