Mintay Papers - Rust & Rose - Autumn

I'm so excited to share a project today featuring the brand-new autumn collection from Mintay Papers: Rust and Rose. What makes Rust and Rose stand out is the unique colour combination which is not the typical autumn colour palette. As well as deep reds, warm browns, and orange it also includes soft pinks and burgundies. You get the perfect autumn feel with images of cute creatures, beautiful leaves and florals.

For the base, I chose the b side of the 12 x 12 elements paper. I cut down the sheet slightly and layered it onto 12 x 12 sheet of white cardstock, which left a narrow border round the edge.



Using my Silhouette, I die cut a circular floral frame. I originally wasn't sure what colour I wanted it to be, so I cut it from plain white cardstock. Later, when I settled on pink to match the collection, I simply coloured the frame with a pink alcohol marker.

I then mounted the finished pink frame onto the centre of my layout. I took the inner piece that the machine cut out and glued it back into the middle, leaving it white.



I also die cut a large maple leaf, which I coloured the same pink, backed with more of the patterned paper and layered inside the frame. To give the die-cut a little extra sparkle and dimension, I added some pink sequins.



My photo was placed on top of the leaf, positioned over the right edge of the frame.



I delved into the pack of paper die cuts and created a scene at the bottom of the page using florals, pumpkins, leaves and a cute cat. I used 3D foam underneath several of the die cuts to raise them up a little.



In the top right corner I added a title cut from navy blue cardstock. This echoes the navy colour in the photo.

Finally I scattered some navy blue enamel dots along the bottom of the page.

American Crafts Vicki Boutins Cut & Paste - Beautiful

I've been spending some time recently creating with Cut & Paste, Vicki Boutin's final collection for American Crafts. As expected from Vicki's signature style, this collection is full of vibrant colors. and what I particularly like is how many of the patterns and elements are reminiscent of decoupaged or layered paper-pieced images.

Today, I'm sharing a layout I created using one of my absolute favorite papers from the collection -Paper #3. This paper has a sunburst / pie shape design on it and I challenged myself to use it in an original way. This layout features a technique I have used before, but with a twist.,

I began by carefully fussy cutting the pie shape from the paper. Then, with a circle cutter, I created concentric "rings" by cutting them from the center. I arranged the rings on a sheet of graph paper from my stash. The two larger rings were nestled in the centre of the layout, while the two smaller ones were placed into the bottom right corner. To add interest, I rotated each ring to mix up the patterns.

I machine-stitched a zig-zag around the circles with black thread. This added texture and made the colors pop.

My photo, matted on black cardstock, was attached on the right of the layout. For embellishment, I layered on flowers and leaves from the Ephemera Icons Pack, giving them dimension with 3D foam underneath.

I found some older Vicki Boutin Thickers in my stash with words that were perfect for this layout, so I added them too.



The colours of some of the Thickers matched the layout perfectly.



I incorporated a title from Cocoa Vanilla Studio near the bottom of the layout, though a phrase sticker or alphabet stickers would have also worked well.



Journalling strips were printed on the computer and tucked beneath the title.



Finally I trimmed down the layout slightly, mounted it on a sheet of black cardstock leaving a narrow border and added a scattering of black sequins and paper punched stars.

Mintay Papers Wildwood Secrets - Forest Finds

Here is another layout I have to share using Mintay Papers' beautiful Wildwood Secrets collection.

Sometimes I struggle to use the papers with large all over designs on scrapbook layouts so for this layout I chose to use just a circle of paper #2.



I cut a large circle from the middle of a sheet of white cardstock and used this to frame a section of the patterned paper.



I then daubed some cream coloured acrylic paint round the outer edge of the circle and with my sewing machine, stitched a straight stitch all the way round. The layout was then trimmed down slightly and mounted onto a sheet of Bazzill 'Almond Cream' cardstock leaving a narrow border.

I layered pieces of paper from the 6x8 add on paper pad under my photo and placed it in the bottom right corner of the layout. Some natural jute twine was tied round the bottom of the photo to add some texture.

I die-cut some lettering from more of the patterned paper to create a title right on the edge of the circle.

Die cuts from the Paper Die Cuts pack and also fussy cut images from the paper pad were used to embellish the layout. I layered the images with 3D foam underneath to add dimension.

Word strips from the sticker sheet were added.

In my stash I found some very old paper flowers with jewelled centres to embellish the layout further and I scattered a few clear crystals about the layout too.

American Crafts Blooming Wild by Paige Evans - Smile

Today I'm sharing my first layout this month for the Scrap Paper Scissors blog using American Crafts' new Blooming Wild collection by Paige Evans. 

I was instantly drawn to the colourful sunburst design on the B side of paper #22 and knew I wanted to use it for my first layout. Sunburst papers have appeared in several of Paige's collections and I felt challenged to use the paper in an original way.

Using a circle cutter I cut 4 concentric circles from the centre of the paper. The hole in the paper was backed with a piece of cardstock and the circles were all then glued back into the hole. Each circle was rotated slightly so that it created a multi-coloured circle (a bit like a dartboard) in the middle of the layout.

I had a surplus white cardstock frame left over from a previous project I'd cut on the Silhouette and so I added this to the layout. I think the pops of white on the layout help to give it a fresh feel.

Using co-ordinating coloured embroidery threads I then stitched along some of the 'rays'. I used a pokey tool to prick out my stitching lines first and then used a back stitch to create the stitched lines.

Some matching sequins were added to the stitching here and there.

The positioning of the sequins and length of the stitched lines were all kept very random for added interest.

In my stash I found a circular sticker which I mounted on some card and stuck to the centre of the stitched rays.

My 4x6 photo of my son was matted with white cardstock and attached to the right side of the layout with 3D foam underneath. An older puffy phrase sticker from my stash was added to the bottom of the photo as a title.

I created some embelishments for the layout by fussy cutting some hearts from paper #15 and attached them to some die cut white card circles.

Using embroidery thread I stitched round the outside of each heart. Word strips (from Paige's older Bloom Street collection) were attached to each heart with 3D foam underneath and then the circles were attached to the layout, with more foam underneath.

Finally I added the date at the bottom of the layout with navy blue foam alphabet stickers.

Echo Park Under Sea Adventures - Bubble Blowing

I have one last layout using the Under Sea Adventures collection from Echo Park.

I had two sheet of blue paper left from this collection that I'd not used. One of the papers had a bubble design which I thought would be perfect for scrapbooking some some bubble blowing photos of my daughter but I was lacking further inspiration. I had a look at some online mood boards for inspiration and to try and decide what other colours I could team the blue papers with.

I found this yellow, blue and grey mood board which I really liked and thought it would be a perfect colour scheme for my layout. I also had some dusty attic chipboard bubbles in my design team kit which were perfect for a bubble blowing layout and in their natural state were grey. I thought printing my photos in black and white would also be appropriate and would make them pop against the blue papers. 

I started with a sheet of white Bazzill cardstock and trimmed a quarter of an inch from each edge because I knew I would want to give the finished layout a coloured border . I then used one of the Bubbles mixed media stencils from Vicki Boutin's Color Study collection and some blue ink to add a bubbly design, horizontally across the centre of the white card.

I tore a couple of strips of the Whale Hello and Sudsy Sea papers and layered these with a punched scalloped strip towards the top of the layout (overlapping the stencilling).

I double matted my two black and white photos with some white and yellow cardstock and added them to the layout.

To embellish the layout I cut some rings from yellow cardstock and dotted then around the layout, tucking some underneath the photos and some hanging off the edges of the layout. I backed three of the dusty attic chipboard bubbles with some white glitter card from my stash and added these. These really sparkle but unfortunately the photos don't so them justice. Continuing the bubbles/round theme I randomly sprinkled some yellow sequins and clear dew drops about.

The title was created by cutting the word 'Bubble' on my Silhouette from a  scrap of blue paper and the word 'Blowing' was added with Grey Puffy Alphabet Stickers from Pinkfresh Studio. To complete the layout I matted everything onto a sheet of grey cardstock.

My Minds Eye

Last weekend I scraplifted a stunning layout made by US Scrapbooker Malika Kelly for Bella Blvd and Epiphany Crafts.

Malika used a cutting file from the Silhouette Studio and as I had that cutting file I was drawn to her layout.

To match the colours in my photo of Lara I used papers from a 6" x 6" My Minds Eye's 'On The Sunny Side' collection paper pad but the layout would have worked equally well with paper scraps. Cutting and backing all those circles was quite therapeutic.

          

I also added some acrylic dome stickers which I backed with more patterned paper and also some brads. The layout was finished off with a title using Basicgrey stickers.

  

Anyone wanting to create a layout similar to this can get the cutting file from the Silhouette Studio or Jillibean Soup produce a similar die cut sheet called a 12x12 placemat diecut

(Ooops Just realised the date is missing from this photo of the layout. It has now been added to the layout.)