Echo Park Coffee & Friends - The Cats Whiskers

My third layout using the fabulous Coffee & Friends collection from Echo Park is of Tux. This collection has subtle shades of pink, green and blue, but also a lot of black and white. I've used the pale colours and white backgrounds in my previous layouts but today's layout uses lots of black and white ......with a pop of pink! 

I started by trimming roughly a quarter of an inch from each side of a sheet of the Frothy Flowers paper and placed this in the middle of a sheet of white cardstock. I then layered pieces of the 3x4 journalling cards (B side), Journalling Cards (B side) and Letterboard in the centre of the layout. and machine stitched with white thread round all the edges of the papers. My photo was then added on top.

I punched a strip of the Mocha Mugs paper using a border punch  and added this near the bottom of the layout.

White cotton lace was placed beneath the photo.

At the top of the layout I tucked a white paper tag behind the papers and a very, very old sticker with the word 'beautiful' on it, was stuck underneath the tag.

The words for the title were die cut on the Silhouette from smooth white cardstock and attached to the layout.

I created a cluster on the bottom left corner of the photo with one of the journalling cards, a label from the Ephemera Frames & Tags pack and a wood veneer cat that I painted with some black acrylic paint.

Finally I added Tux' name to the layout using tiny pink foam Thickers and scattered some clear dew drops here and there.

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.

Tuxedo

I decided to scrapbook a photo of our cat, Tuxedo and do some stash busting. Everything used came from my stash and much of it was quite old.

I started with a sheet of white Bazzill cardstock which i trimmed to 11" x 11" and mounted onto a 12" x 12" sheet of yellow polka dot paper. I machine stitched close to the edge of the white cardstock with white thread and then roughed up the edges.

Strips of green and yellow paper, washi tape, ribbon and ric rac were glued horizontally to the white cardstock and before sticking down my photograph yellow acrylic paint splatters were added.

My photograph was layered with cardstock and co-ordinating patterned paper.

In my stash I found some very old green felt Thickers. I nearly threw these away a couple of weeks ago because I thought I would never use them, but they turned out to be the perfect choice for this layout.

I embellished the layout with some felt flowers, words strips....

.... die cut leaves, a flair button, a chipboard frame, a bingo card and some resin flowers.

I love how the layout turned out and that i was able to use up some old supplies.

Sleepy Puss-Cat

Another scrapbook page that didn't make it to my blog last year .....

This layout was a scaplift of a layout by Kerry Bruce and features a photo of my sleepy cat.

I used a sheet of white card as my base which I matted on sheet of turquoise card. Scraps of turquoise and pink paper were used to mat the photograph and were layered beneath.

Before sticking down the papers I machine stitched two circles in the centre of the layout using black thread. Puffy stickers, adhesive pearls and wooden stars decorated the stitched circles.

My title was made from Basic Grey alphabet stickers which were stuck onto a tag made from some scrap card. Bakers Twine was added as well as die cuts from a My Mind's Eye Meow Mixed Bag

Tux

For the first time in twelve months I have scrapbooked! At the beginning of the month I spent the weekend with my crafting friends at Easthampstead Park where I managed to put together quite a few layouts.

This layout of Tux was created during the weekend and uses patterned paper from Simple Stories which I layered and fussy cut. Washi tape was added as well as some home made acrylic dots. The letters stickers were from American Crafts and the paw print stickers from EK Success / Sticko.

Scrapology - November Layout Challenge

This month the Scrapology design team have been inspired by a layout by Brazilian born scrapbooker Carmen Crosseti Henriquez . Carmen's bright colourful layout featured hearts so this months challenge to blog readers is to create a layout inspired by Carmen's original layout and incorporate hearts or some other repeated shape into your design.

For my layout I used a photo of my cat, Tux.

I used a variety papers from BasicGrey. BasicGrey were once my 'go to' manufacturer for most of my layouts but over the years I've fallen out of love with their collections, but for this layout the papers seemed a good choice.

The hearts were cut on the CraftRobo and stitched to the layout with the sewing machine.

The wording was printed on an ink jet transparency and stuck onto the page. A scattering of flat back pearls and homemade enamel dots finished off the layouts

Here is Carmen's original layout .......

..... and of course, Lynn's sketch.

Please pop over to the Scrapology blog to see the rest of the teams layouts and to get full details of the challenge.

Tux

Not wanting to show favouritism towards Millie the Puppy, todays layout is of Tux, our 2 year old cat. The photos were taken last year in the garden and the layout was inspired by Candice Greenway's gorgeous animal layouts.

I used papers from My Mind's Eye Coastal Collection. The photo of the layout doesn't do the papers justice as they are really beautiful and very glittery ... oh and I've had them unused for at least 3 years. The only embelishments I used were a sticker from a packet of 7Gypsies 97% Complete Stickers and a small round chipboard accent from  Prima.  

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.

Finally some scrapbooking

After several weeks of doing nothing creative I found time to go to my monthly crop yesterday and completed three layouts.

The first was a layout of our kitten, Tuxie (Tuxedo). The layout tells the story of how last weekend he made an escape bid and disappeared for 26 hours. Until now he has been a house cat so it was a very worrying time and we were so relived when on Monday morning he came back none the worse for wear.



I used Quite Contrary papers from My Minds Eye, Cardstock from Bazzill, a scrap of ribbon, Heidi Swapp bling and letter stickers from BasicGrey. The layout was based on a layout by Candice Greenaway - I love her pet layouts.

The photo on the next layout was only taken a week or so ago and was of Lara in the garden.



I used more Quite Contrary papers from My Minds Eye, Cardstock from Bazzill, Ribbon, brads, American Crafts Flair adhesive badge, a glitter cut from Fancy Pants, letters stickers from BasicGrey and Provo Craft and a butterfly cut with my new punch from Tonic Studios.

The final layout is of a lemur who kindly posed for me last summer at Exmoor Zoo.



I used even more Quite Contrary paper (love that line) as well as some BasicGrey Black Tie papers, Cardstock from Bazzill, Prima Flowers, brads, stamped swirls and letter stickers from Provo Craft. I had to resort back to hand cutting the title because I forgot to take any chipboard letters with me to the crop.

Cat 'n' Cards

Yet again I've been a bad blogger and not posted for a while but I've not had anything really worth blogging about!

Tux has settled into the house well although he is always up to mischief!



I do have some handmade cards to show you. Anyone that has ever received one of my handmade cards will know that cardmaking is not my forte but having seen some of Bev Rochester's cards on The Hobby House stand at the Stamperama show last month and also having seen other peoples beautiful cards online (Anita and Lynn's in particular) I thought I would have ago. I actually enjoyed making them and hope that the recipients liked them too.

The first one used a Sarah Kay stamped image whilst the others were Magnolia stamps. I used Promarkers to colour the images. My shading isn't brilliant but hopefully with some practice I might get better.

Introducing Tuxedo

Last night we collected our new kitten and brought him home. We've called him Tuxedo - 'Tux' for short and he is a really cutie.



(don't worry his eyes aren't really that colour but I can't figure out how to adjust the photo to make them the right colour)

He's doing really well. Cries a little when he's left on his own but apart from that he's really friendly and playful.



He spent the best part of this morning asleep on my lap while I tried to get on with my paperwork and at the moment as I type this he is curled up in Lara's dolls pram asleep again no doubt getting lots of energy ready for when the children get home from school and want to play with him.

Cupcakes and Kittens

Nothing very crafty to show unless you count these valentine cupcakes that Lara and I made. Last year we made and iced heart shaped cookies, so this year we made cupcakes instead.



On Friday we went to visit these ............



......... and hopefully in a few more weeks this little chap will be coming to live with us.




We were not intending getting another cat so soon after we lost Henry but a friend is fostering these kittens (and the parents) for Feline Rescue and once the idea of having one of the kittens was put in my head - that was it! We are all really excited and can't wait to welcome our new ball of fluff into our family.