American Crafts Blooming Wild by Paige Evans - Hello Doti

This is my final layout to share for the Scrap Paper Scissors blog using Paige Evans' Blooming Wild collection for American Crafts and a digital cut file by Lori Whitlock. The cut file I used is intended for cardmaking and I've used it a few times for cards, but when several months ago I stumbled across a layout by Enza Gudor in which she had used the cut file on a scrapbook layout, I was itching to use it on a scrapbook layout myself and this layout is heavily inspired by Enza's layout.

From white cardstock I cut Lori Whitlock's Quilt Pinwheel Card cutfile nine times and then backed 6 of the 'pinwheels' with paper #21 from the collection. Paper #21 is full of different patterned squares and is therefore perfect for backing small areas in cutfiles.

The backed pinwheels, and the ones which I hadn't backed, were then arranged on a sheet of Cerise Pink Bazzill cardstock which had already been trimmed by a quarter of an inch on each edge and matted onto a sheet of white cardstock leaving a narrow border. I left a space where my photo would be and also cut 2 of the pinwheels in half and placed then near the right and left edge of the layout. 

Using white thread I carefully machine stitched across each of the pinwheels and around the edge of the pink cardstock.

My 6x4 photo was matted on white cardstock and attached to the layout with 3D foam underneath.

Die cuts were used to embelish the layout and 3D foam was used underneath them to give them dimension. Florals and a bird house were placed on the bottom left corner of the photo ....

...... and more florals, a bird and word strip cut from one of Paige's earlier collections were placed on the top right corner.

From paper #22 I cut the word 'sweet' into a banner and attached this at the bottom of the photo.

Stickers from my stash (by Pinkfresh Studio) were used for the title.

To complete the layout I added the date with some small white foam stickers and scattered some sequins from the Metropolis Sequin Mix from Picket Fence around the layout. 

Echo Park Coffee & Friends - Cards from Scraps

Recently I've posted scrapbook layouts I've created using the Coffee and Friends collection from Echo Park. After creating three layouts with my DT kit I was left with a few random sized scraps of patterned paper and some of the die cut Ephemera Frames and Tags.

None of the scraps were bigger than about 6" square so rather than try and make another scrapbook layout I decided to challenge myself to make as many cards from the scraps as I could. On YouTube I follow American cardmaker Kristie Marcotte. Kristie has a series of videos where she takes a 6x6 paper pad and turns the entire paper pad (plus cardstock and minimal embelishments) into a set of cards. I love Kristie's style which uses a lot of black cardstock and took inspiration for my cards from her. By coincidence, Kristie has recently used the 6x6 Coffee & Friends paper pad to make cards. Unlike Kristie I didn't have a full 6x6 paper pad so didn't have as many papers or patterns to choose from but double sided papers help.

I managed to make 9 cards.

Four of the cards were just under 6" square and five were 4.5" square.

I used a lot of black cardstock to mat the patterned papers and die cuts. This made the colours pop.

The die cuts were mounted on 3D foam to add some dimension to the cards.

I used some cardstock in colours picked out from the patterned papers and die cuts on some of the cards.

Embelishments were minimal - sequins, ribbon and card candy.

Because I didn't have much patterned paper left I had to be creative on some of the cards. Some of the papers were joined and the join hidden behind another element.

For this card I was able to add blue cardstock to emphasis the blue cups on this paper and the die cut.

Some of the sentiments were printed onto white cardstock.

Scrapology - August Card Challenge

Sue Wilson has kindly sponsored the August card challenge on Scapology and is challenging you to create a card using dies as the focal point or in unusual ways.

I chose to create an Anniversary card and used die cuts cut using Sue's 'Italian'  and 'Finihsing Touches' Collection.

I used some Dovecraft glitter card for the base and embelished the die cut with stickles. The sentiment was a peel off sticker and sticky pearls were placed in the corners. The teeny tiny heart was cut from the end of a pin!

Full details of the challenge and the prize can be found on the Scrapology blog.