Vicki Boutin's Bold & Bright for American Crafts - Magic Moments

My layout today uses the Picnic Blanket paper from Vicki Boutin's Bold & Bright collection and lots of fussy cut elements, phrase Thickers and puffy stickers. The layout is a very clean, graphic, grid design that uses all the colours in the collection.

I started by printing my journalling onto a sheet of 12x12 smooth white cardstock. I wanted the journalling to run round the outside edge of a grid, so I created my journalling on an MSWord document. I drew a 10" square in the centre of the document and then, using WordArt, I added my journalling to the outside edges of the square. Finally I deleted the square, leaving just the words, and printed the journalling on my computer.

Using a 2" square punch I punched 16 squares from the Picnic Blanket paper. The squares were arranged in a 4 x 4 grid and using a black gel pen I drew grid lines between the squares. The paper squares were already printed with faux stitching lines so there was no need for real stitching on this layout.

I double matted my 3x4 photo with green paper and white cardstock and placed this at an angle in the bottom right corner of the layout.

I took the word 'Moments' from the sheet of Puffy Title Thickers  and the word 'Magic' from a sheet of  Paige Evans Adventurous collection Phrase Thickers and added them to the bottom of the layout.

Then came the fun part of embellishing the layout and I choose to embellish tone-on-tone. I added fussy cut butterflies from the Smile Bright Paper to some of the squares. I glued the body of the butterfly to the layout and put 3d foam pads underneath the wings to add some dimension.

The sheet of mini puffy stickers has 101 tiny stickers (butterflies, hearts, stars, dots and words) so some of those were added too.

In my stash I found enamel dots in all the colours and dotted a few of these on each square.

Words were cut from the 3x4 tags sheet of paper and used on some squares.

I trimmed the white card down slightly and matted this onto a sheet of black cardstock leaving a narrow border.

Tiny heart stickers were placed in the corners and then with a black gel pen I drew lines round the outside of the layout.

Pretty Little Studio - Good Vibrations - You are Awesome

Another project using the Good Vibrations collection from Pretty Little Studio. 

For the layout I'm sharing today I started by trimming a sheet of the starry eyed paper  and matted this on a 12" x 12" sheet of smooth black cardstock leaving a narrow border round the edges. 

The packaging of the 12 x 12 single sided paper pack includes front and back cover sheets. The back cover sheet shows small preview squares of all the papers in the pack in a 4x4 grid, and so I trimmed this and placed onto the layout. It was perfect for creating a simple grid layout.

My photo, which was just under 5x7, was matted onto black cardstock and placed in the bottom right corner of the layout, covering 6 of the printed squares, and with 3D foam underneath to create some dimension.

I then set about embellishing the layout with pieces from the Seize the Day Die Cut pack and Wildflower Die Cut pack. The packs contains multicoloured phrases, stars & flowers and I chose some which were appropriate for a layout about my son.

The die cuts were raised on 3D foam so that they stood out from the otherwise flat background.

I also added texture with machine stitching round the outside edges of the paper/card layers.

Yellow Enamel dots were dotted here and there.

Finally I printed some details about the photo onto a paper strip and attached this below the photo.

Simple Stories Winter Wonder - Hello Winter

I have one final layout made for the Scrap, Paper, Scissors blog using Winter Wonder from Simple Stories. 

I began the layout by layering sheets of white and kraft cardstock on top of each other. Careful gutting of the cardstock beforehand meant that I was able to use only one sheet of each colour.

Once I had created the base for my layout I machine stitched with white thread a straight stitch round the edges of two of the pieces of cardstock. I love adding machine stitching to my layouts. It give the layout more texture and interest.

I cut five 3x4 cards from the 2x2/4x4 Elements paper and one from a piece of the Brr Brr Brr paper.  I rounded the corners of the cards with a paper punch and then attached them in a grid design onto the background with the B sides upmost.

From some white glitter cardstock I die cut some snowflakes and placed these in a row horizontally across the middle of the layout and machine stitched through them all.

I attached photos to four of the cards with 3D foam underneath and tag from the Tag Elements paper onto another. I then set about embellishing the cards with die cuts from the Floral Bits and Pieces pack. I chose the pink flowers to co-ordinate with the tag.

More glittery die cut snowflakes were added too.

I strung the tag with some white twine and added some words cut from the 2x2/4x4 Elements paper as a title.

Using some pale pink watercolour paint, I picked out a few of the phrases on the card made from the Brr Brr Brr paper. It's quite subtle, but brings some pink to that part of the layout.

Finally, I scattered a few sequins here and there.

Pinkfresh Studio Happy Heart - Hand Stitching

Today I have another scrapbook layout to share using the beautiful Happy Heart collection from Pinkfresh Studio. For this layout, which is inspired a great deal by a layout by Paige Evans, I used just two pieces of paper - Celebrate You (2" Squares)  and Keep Growing (Blue B Side), some words from the Ephemera Titles Pack, a few sequins and lots of hand stitching.

The sheets of 2" squares which a lot of manufacturers have started producing are very versatile and can be used in many way. You can use them in their entirety (like in this layout I created a couple of years ago using Simple Stories), use a few of the squares either whole of fussy cut as embellishments, or as I have with today's layout, use some of the squares in a grid design. You could also cut your own 2" squares from patterned papers if the collection you're using doesn't include a sheet of squares.

I started with a sheet of the pale blue Keep Growing paper and then chose 19 of the 2" squares from the Celebrate You paper which I arranged in a grid with six 2" square black and white photos. I distressed all the edges of the squares and arranged them so that the colours were evenly distributed throughout the grid. The photos were mounted on 3D foam to raise them up and make them more prominent.

I then took a few words from the Emphemera Titles Pack and with 3D foam underneath I placed these on top of some of the squares.

I almost left the layout at that but decided to do some hand stitching on the layout. Firstly I stitched over some of the designs on the squares.

Then I poked a serious of holes into the layout where I wanted to stitch grid lines and using 6 strands of pale blue embroidery thread I stitched the lines using a chain stitch. This was a real labour of love and took a long time to complete but I really like the finished effect and the added texture it gives the layout. It would have probably been easier to stitch the lines before I glued down the squares, but as the stitching was an afterthought that wasn't an option.

Finally, I added a few sequins to a couple of the squares and called the layout done.

Pinkfresh Studio Oh What Fun - Wake Me Up When It's All Over

Happy New Year! My layout today uses the Pinkfresh Studio Oh What Fun collection. This is the fourth layout I created with this collection (although I still have to show the third!) and I only had a few bits and pieces left so decided to create a clean, simple, grid layout which can often be created with minimal supplies.

I used a silly Snapchat photo on my layout that was taken on the eve of 2020 and created a reflective layout about the past year. Little did Lara and I know when we took this photo what the coming year would bring.

I started with a 12x12 sheet of black cardstock and into this I matted a slightly smaller sheet of white cardstock. Using my sewing machine I machine stitched using black thread round the edge of the white cardstock.

In the centre of the layout I created a grid with my 6x4 photo, a couple of images from the Good Tiding cut apart sheet and a scrap of the Home for the Holidays paper. Each element was matted on black or red cardstock to make is pop from the background.

On one of the cut apart images I layered a frame from the Merry Everything paper , a black and white stripy tag from my stash, a postage stamp image from the Merriest Wishes paper and added a star punched from black cardstock and a black sequin. Some 3D foam was put underneath some of the embelishments to add some dimension.

My title, which uses lyrics from one of my favourite songs by Avicii, was created using a 'Wake me Up' cut file and some mini puffy alphabet stickers. The title block was embellished with another postage stamp image from the Merriest Wishes paper, a punched star and more black sequins.

The remaining cut apart image was embellished with a chipboard sticker from the collection, a punched star and sequin.

My journalling was printed onto a plain white tag, embellished with a punched star and was then tucked behind my photo.

Pebbles 'Oh Summertime' - Oh happy day

Today I have with another layout using the Oh Summertime collection from Pebbles on the Scrap Paper Scissors Blog.

I started with a 12x12 sheet of white Bazzill cardstock and decided to create a grid type layout using a photo of my Lara taken many years ago and various pieces of paper, chipboard and die cuts. Some elements were raised on foam to give some dimension.

I double matted my photo on a piece of the Bee Happy paper and black Bazzill cardstock and placed this on my layout. I also cut a 3x4 card from the Oh Summertime cut apart sheet and after matting this with black cardstock, I placed this to the left of the photo. 

A couple of chipboard frames from the Pinkfresh Studio Everyday Musings collection were added. Inside one frame I stuck a small orange heart die cut from the Simple Stories Oh Happy Day Bits and Pieces.

Another chipboard frame was used to frame one of the cards from the Hello Summer 2x2 cut apart sheet.

Another 2x2 card was matted with black cardstock and a small heart clip from Doodlebug was attached to the top edge.

In the bottom left corner of the grid I placed a piece of the Ball Toss paper which I used for my journalling. A paper frame was layered on top and more of the Simple Stories Oh Happy Days die cuts were used to embelish it. Enamel dots in matching colours were also added. Another piece of the Ball Toss paper was also matted onto black cardstock and put to the right side of the grid

  

I spelled out the word EXPLORE in some black chipboard Thickers from my stash and placed this on the right side of the grid as well as a narrow strip of blue cardstock to fill in a gap.

My layout was completed with black doodling and some blue photo corners.