Sketchy Friday at Scrapmuch? - Family

Well hello there......remember me?!

I am trying to get back at it - the crafting/blogging that is now that my In-laws have returned home to England.  It's not that I don't want to scrap whilst they're here,  I just like to make the most of it when any of my family visits.......it's amazing how much you can miss general adult conversation! Lol

Anyhow, it's time for another wonderful Sketch Challenge over on the Scrapmuch? blog and as I took a hiatus 2 weeks ago, I thought I'd better get back at it this week.

In keeping with the whole 'family' kinda conversation, here's my layout for this week:

Family

There's nothing subtle about those background colours now is there.....Good Day Sunshine from Simple Stories.

Here is this weeks Sketch from Laura:

So for my page, I decided to flip the sketch horizontally and change up those background circles a little by using Viewfinder die cuts instead.

Various layers here and there including a few carefully placed stickers to interpret the top panel in the Sketch.

I also used a fine line brown marker to doodle a few lines around the photo element.....gives a little more definition to that group.

Finally, a simple title cut using my Cameo, and a scattering of wooden and enamel dots.

Another page and another trip to Niagara Falls completed....bring on the next!

Why not join in with this weeks sketch and link up over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning a prize?

There's also a bunch of inspiration there too from the rest of the DT.

I will be back on Monday with the start of my new regime to get back into the swing of things......there are layouts to be blogged including 'Winter' pages so I think I'd better make a start!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you then,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Lucy

Well unlike the title suggests....it's obviously not Friday, but as usual I seem to be playing a game of catch-up for the current Scrapmuch? sketch challenge!

Relatives arrived from England a few days ago and are staying with us for a month which pleases me no end, but means the house is generally busy (crazy at times) and quite often loud!

I am going to try and carve out my own little crafty time, but find myself drawn to the adult conversation and goings on in the house (Lol)

Hence.....my post this week is late.....apologies!

The sketch this time around however was another lovely little bit of inspiration, and I decided to go the vintage route.

I dug into a tattered envelope of old photographs my FIL had brought over a few years ago and found a beauty of my husbands Grandmother (or Nan as we like to say).

Lucy

I believe she was around 18 at the time and this photograph I'm guessing, was probably in a small oval frame on a mantel or some such place, as it was quite jaggedly cut by hand.

I cut a vintage style frame using my Silhouette to hide those edges.

Layered papers, flowers, glittered chipboard and mesh ribbon.......

Here's Laura's sketch before I forget!

As you can see there is a larger panel in the background of the sketch, which I felt would probably overpower my page.  I wanted to keep some of the white space, but needed a little something.

If all else fails......doodle I say!

OK so this was the final Scrapmuch? sketch for the month of June, but we'll be back this Friday with another round of inspiration for you.....feel free to play along for a chance of winning a prize.

Have a great day,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Everyday Snapshots

Good morning!

It's time for a brand new Sketch Challenge over on the Scrapmuch? blog, which means it's about time for a page on here from me!

Here's this weeks effort:

Everyday Snapshots

........and of course the lovely new sketch from Laura:

I pretty much stuck to the sketch, just added an extra 'wallet' sized photo on there.

I also decided on a 'peek-a-boo' kinda thing by folding the corner of my paper, then tucking embellies behind.

Layers and a couple of my faves here......flair and thread!

My title was cut using my Cameo, and the circle element is a chipboard frame from Creative Embellishments........love this company and always reasonably priced!

Finally, a scattering of enamel dots together with a good measure of my signature 'faux' stitching here and there and we're done.

This is the part where I now tell you to run to your scrappy hideaway, get creating so that you can create your own masterpiece,  then link up over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning a fabby prize.....got it?

Glad we're on the same wavelength but whilst you're there, check out the inspiration from the rest of the team.

Have a great weekend,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Hello Handsome

Good morning!

Here I am again trying to dust off my lonely little blog and bring you this weeks post for Sketch-y Friday over at Scrapmuch?

My new job is keeping me pretty busy, so definitely not much time (or energy!) for crafting.  Toss in a little March break (trying to keep the kiddo's happy/busy/exhausted) activity and I've got no chance really.

Once I got started on this page though, I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was just surprised how long it took me to complete.  For a relatively simple looking layout, this one took forever, probably because of my constant need to add more elements to the background!

Anyhow, enough chit chat, let's get down to business.

Hello Handsome

Awwwww isn't he cute, that handsome chappie in the photo there?

My hubby aged approximately 5 or 6 I'm guessing.  My girls had a little trouble recognizing him, probably due to all that hair that they're not used to seeing!

Before we move on, here is this weeks wonderful Sketch provided by the ever talented Laura Whitaker.

OK, so that background I was talking about......

The Sketch inspired me to start randomly punching holes from my paper, but one size of hole punch wasn't enough...........no we had to go with 5 just to make sure it looked totally random!

I inked the edge then added a few different sizes of metal gears. After reviewing again, I decided we needed more holes (of course!) and started to add eyelets in various sizes and metals.

It was at this point I decided 'no more.....time to move on or it will never get finished"!

There's the usual bunch of layers around the photograph.....

and a nice little group of grunged/vintage elements at the bottom - chipboard from Creative Embellishments (love their products!), vintage film strip and a heart charm by Tim Holtz.

Finally, the title started with a pre-made metal word from Jillibean Soup.

It was originally silver coloured but I decided that looked far too clean and polished, so I set to work with a brown Copic marker and ended up with old Copper wiring - perfect!
The second part of the title was cut using my Silhouette and Kraft cardstock.

So that just about covers everything, except for the part where you now head to your craft room to create something spectacular using this weeks Sketch, then link up over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning a prize.......yes?

Phew, glad we got that sorted!

Don't forget to check out a little more inspiration provided for you by the rest of the Scrapmuch? Team, whilst you're there.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend.....I'll be working (surprise, surprise!) but I'll be seeing you again next week.

Take care out there,
Jayne.x.

Love This Face

Good morning.

Off to work for me today so I finally remembered to schedule a blog post!

Today's page is the second and final from my recent Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using the Hugs and Kisses collection by Simple Stories.

This is a sweet little mini collection perfect for those valentine, love inspired or general girlie pages.

I paired this time around with Kraft cardstock......who can resist a little Kraft here and there?

Love This Face

So you can see that the whole page centers around the background die cut......and the gorgeous little girl in the center there of course!

The 'heart' background is a 4"x6" overlay in the Silhouette store called Doodle Hearts which I stretched to approximately 8"x12".  I then randomly filled some of the hearts with patterned paper.

The bottom section of the background is letters I 'welded' to the overlay to form part of the title.  This is what I love about the Silhouette.....the possibilities are endless!

I decided not to glue these down and left them hanging as I like the shadow they create in this tone on tone area.

As always with collections from Simple Stories, there are co-ordinating stickers so I made use of a few of them starting with the word 'Love' for the title.

This was actually the inspiration for the whole page!

Finally, more stickers and layers to embellish the photograph, and a little messy thread to finish things off.

That's about all from me for today, but you can grab this collection for yourself either at the online store or in person at Two Scrapbook Friends.

Have a great day and I hope to be back Thursday with another page for ya.

Till then,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - A Fond Farewell!

After some thought and consideration, the time has come to retire Inspiration Elevator. But before we go, we need to hold a big retirement party, so we've invited everyone who's been involved with Inspiration Elevator back for one last reveal, and to our delight most were able to accept! We are so delighted to have so many IE alumni along this month! Thank you to each of you for helping us end our elevator ride with so much fun and creative energy!

This month's challenge is posed by one of IE's co-creators and team admin, Ann.

This month's challenge is simple, but I hope, challenging as well. 
Here's the challenge: Inspiration Elevator launched on May 15, 2012 and at that time, we explained our purpose as, "Welcome to Inspiration Elevator! What a thrilling day! Today is the launch of Inspiration Elevator (IE), a challenge blog created by my dear friend Christa Uttley and me. We chose the name Inspiration Elevator because it is our intent to raise our creativity to heights through challenges issued every month. We want to raise our designs from the ordinary to the extraordinary. We hope you'll join us on our journey!

IE is a group of like minded scrappy friends who want to raise the bar in their own creative process through unique challenges that we issue to each other once a month. These won't be run of the mill challenges and we hope you'll join us each month and be inspired by the creative designs we've created." 
That vision has remained unchanged over the last (almost) 3 years. The challenge this month is to just create - no holds barred. Take some time, or challenge yourself to do it in 1/2 hour if time is tight, but think about what you'd like to create if there were no agenda, no design team requirement. In other words, create for you, and enjoy the process!

So there you have it.....one final no holds barred challenge from Inspiration Elevator!

So that's exactly what I did with my page.  
One totally messy, just for the fun of it, no worries about using a particular paper or product, just a get down and dirty kinda page.

And I had a blast!

Just Imagine

It all started with the photo I've hoarded for the last couple of years not quite knowing exactly what to do with it, and a challenge that was issued on the Scrap Around The World blog.  I'll get to that later.

I think the photo was taken by my youngest daughter whilst I was lying on my bed, and after a little play around with editing, it always gave me the impression of being underwater....the hair floating across the bed sheets!

So that was the start that inspired me to get creating with some absolutely gorgeous new beach/water themed papers I'd picked up a couple of weeks ago....the Sandy Toes collection from Kaisercraft.

I began with the background.....

I scrunched up a plastic bag and dabbed white Gesso here and there, followed by a layer of texture paste applied through a burlap stencil.  I then stamped in brown with a cross hatch kinda stamp, all around the paper placement.

Layers then came into play......

All of the papers and my photo were brushed with a little Gesso to create that whitewashed look.  I cut a lace trim using my Silhouette then tore chunks from it to distress a little.

The chicken wire chipboard was also attacked (in a loving way!) by cutting sections from it, brushing with Gesso then layered between the papers.

Finally, the embellies......

Lots of flowers, wooden leaves, Silhouette cut vines, dew drops, cheesecloth and more chipboard all finished with a covering of brushed Gesso and splatters of mist.

Love it!  So much fun.

We hope you'll take the time to hop through and visit each of our participant's blogs, beginning with our guests, then our current team, and finishing off with our co-founders. Feel free to leave comments and lavish each one with appreciation for all that they each brought to the Inspiration Elevator challenge over the last 3 years!

Audrey Yeager

Christy Riopel

Denise Morrison

Jodi Wilton

Laura Whitaker

Laurel Seabrook

Shelby Dwyer

             Jayne Morgan - that's me!

Joanne Burton

Katherine Sutton

Lisa Moen

Lisa Spiegel

Michelle Hernandez

Wendi Robinson

Christa Uttley

Ann Jobes

I would personally like to thank Ann and Christa for all their hard work over the last 3 years, and to the rest of my team mates who have continually challenged and inspired me to create to my limits.

Finally, a big thank you to YOU......everyone who has visited and encouraged me on my journey with IE, through comments and 'pins' etc.  I do hope you'll stick around in the future.

Before I go there's a few more deets I need to cover regarding a fabulous challenge over at Scrap Around The World, but needless to say.......have a great day,

Jayne.x.

----------------------------------------

Challenge Entered:

Scrap Around The World - Mood Board

So obviously my inspiration was not the colour green.....I am not a big 'green' fan!

However, my starting point was the hair (cue hoarded photo!)followed by the water, then all that lovely texture jumping right out of each and every photograph.

Finally.....the quote, which seemed to trigger the perfect title!

Right Now

Blimey.....where did the week go?

I'm quite looking forward to a night in tonight - first one this week anyhow!

My sporadic blogging is becoming a habit too unfortunately, so time to get posting.

This is another page I created a couple of months ago, just never got around to posting.

It's just another everyday kinda page, but it does have me in front of the camera instead of behind for once.  I believe my youngest was the photographer during one of her snap happy phases last Summer.

Right Now

Pretty simple really.

I believe I used an older sketch from Scrap365 that was printed and sitting in my stash for ages.

Chalk ink and a stencil for the background together with a few stitched butterflies.

Silhouette die cuts, brads and a few layers.

Followed by a few more and one of my faves........a pin badge/button.

Papers are a bit of a mix but mostly old MME.

Short and sweet today but I'll try and make it back with another page in the next couple of days.

Have a great weekend,
Jayne.x.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Third Grade

Good morning.

There's a brand new Sketch up over on the Scrapmuch? blog and Team B is providing a little inspiration, so that's means a layout from me.

I have now finally finished scrapping this years school photo's so I'm officially up to date!

Third Grade

I really like this paper collection.....Creative Agenda by Echo Park.  It happens to match the outfits my girls were wearing perfectly!

I cut a deckled edge around the background paper, layered onto a separate sheet of cardstock, then stamped and applied more layers of washi and paper.

I found this cute little camera frame in the Silhouette store so that was added and of course I'd got to get a pin badge/button on there somewhere!

Those blue, shaped brads really are from my hoarded stash.......I think I bought them when I first started scrapbooking!

I added a few more Silhouette cuts - the scribbled circles, and finally the title.

All done.

Here is this weeks Sketch so please join us for the challenge.

I rotated this one 90 degrees clockwise and substituted the three photo's for a larger one........the possibilities are endless if you start with a good sketch!

Don't forget to link up your own creation over on the Scrapmuch? blog to be in with a chance of winning a prize.  There are at least four sketches each month!

I'm off for a day of scrapping with the Scrapmuch? ladies tomorrow.....woo hoo, so whatever you're doing, have a good one and I'll see you next week,
Jayne.x.

Sweet Memories

Hey, how's it going?

Thought it was about time I posted another layout on here as I've been a class one slacker recently!  I meant to make an appearance yesterday but decided to give myself the day off as it was my Birthday..........any excuse I know!

Anyhow back to it.

This page has been lying around for a few months (hangs head in shame!) just waiting for it's debut.  I love the photograph......fond memories of a visit from my parents last Summer.

Sweet Memories

I can imagine as we speak, my Mom and Dad are testing their brains thinking "where was that photograph taken".......hehe I think I'll leave them in suspense for a little while and test them later!

Lots of distressed layers on this one......

The papers are a really nice Fall collection from last year by Authentique.  I've veered away from a fair few of their recent collections as I got a little tired with the designs, but I was reminded when creating this page how consistently awesome the quality is.

The background consists of stamping and ink stains, and lots of layers around the photograph too.

More layers on the opposite side and a sweet little cluster of embellies.

This weeks happens to be my turn for a layout over on the Scrapmuch? blog so I'll definitely be back Friday.

Till then, have a good one,
Jayne.x.

Oh Holy Night

After walking the dog last night I am seriously considering hibernating for the next couple of months if these FREEZING temperatures persist!  Either that or he's going to have to learn to walk himself.

Thankfully I don't have go to work, which means I don't plan on leaving the house for the next 2 days, so fingers crossed it may have warmed up slightly by the time I next venture out.

Good thing is I get to play.......scrap, blog, etc.

Today I'm finishing up with my second page from a recent Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using the Tinsel & Company collection by Teresa Collins. (You can check out the first here).

I loved using this line and from one that is NOT a Christmas scrapper, that's praise indeed!

Oh Holy Night.

Lots of the usual layers on here starting with a cut background using the Silhouette brand chipboard, and ending with a cute little peek-a-boo folded corner.

I made use of lots of stickers and the lovely brads that come along with this line too.

So there we have the first one into the book for 2015!

Well maybe not quite as technically it's sitting in the store right now but you know what I mean.......still lot's more to go.

I'll be back tomorrow as it's time for a Sketch-y Friday over at Scrapmuch?

See you then,
Jayne.x.

Inspiration Elevator - Christmas Past.

It's the 15th of the month folks which means it's time for a little Inspiration Elevator!

Our main purpose here at IE is to challenge ourselves, each other and YOU to take the creative process to the next level;  to inspire growth and change in our scrapbooking beyond our usual boundaries.
You can see all of Inspiration Elevator's previous challenges on Facebook .

 This month's challenge is issued by the creative Lisa Moen. Lisa is a busy scrapbooker who takes on every creative challenge with gusto; she works layering and clustering beautifully. This month she has a seasonal challenge for us. Here it is in her own words:

" Scrap A Christmas Past.
We all have them- one Christmas that sticks out more in our minds than others. Maybe it was when you were a child or maybe it was more recent. Maybe it was a gift you received that makes it memorable. Maybe a special visitor? Create a page, with or without photos and tell us the story behind that Christmas.."

OK so this challenge was actually a little tricky for me as anyone who knows me is fully aware of the fact that I'm not a happy Christmas scrapper!

Anything with a theme, I tend to steer well clear of and unfortunately this includes festive pages.......I know - what kind of a scrapbooker am I?!

I did create one 'Christmas Day' page quite a number of years back and included 6 years on one page! Lol

So for today's project I had to root back through bunches of old photo's till I found one which triggered a little something in me.

Christmas to me has always been about Family, and although I now live 3000 miles away from the majority of mine, it's the memories of those Christmas lunches shared with parents/Grandparents/siblings that I hold dear and miss so very much.

Unfortunately I don't have a photograph of one of those family gatherings, but I do have one which kind of changed my Christmas perspective.

One which commemorates the start of our own little family Christmas, marked by the birth of my first born.

Blessed.

I realize it's quite ironic that this photo shows my daughter surrounded by a huge pile of gifts (what can I say.....first Grandchild on both sides = spoilt rotten!) because that's not at all what this page is about.

It's about a new beginning.  New memories.  New/Old traditions, and although I would jump on a plane in a minute to experience one more Family gathering (if only finances would allow Christmas airfares!), I cherish these new family memories which will become our legacy.  They say you don't appreciate the joy of Christmas until you have children and I guess this is true.  I certainly hope I get to experience one of those Christmas lunches where I'm a Grandparent surrounded by those I hold near and dear.

On with the deets.

Papers are from a fabulous new festive DT Kit I was generously gifted by Two Scrapbook Friends......'Tinsel and Company' from Teresa Collins.  This collection is everything I look for in a Christmas collection.......if only I scrapped those kind of pages more often!  It's the perfect mix of 'modern' patterns paired with luxurious 'gold' elements.  I still have one more page to complete for the store, but find myself torn between jumping right in there and not wanting to cut into a sheet of patterned paper - it's so pretty!

Most of the inspiration for this page began with the gorgeous 'wreath' cut file I snagged from the Silhouette store......love it!

Lots of layers too of course but I continued the traditional theme by hanging the ribbon behind.

The title was cut from a sheet of glittered cardstock, again using my Silhouette.

There's an abundance of awesome stickers and brads included in this collection so I made use of most of them by either laying flat or 'popped with foam dots.

I'm not sure if you can tell but there are also wooden stars coloured with gold or silver marker, resting in the background clusters too.

That's about all from me but we encourage you to check out each designer's creation for Inspiration Elevator this month: here's a complete list of this month's participating designers!  

Lisa Moen

Ann Jobes

             Jayne Morgan - that's me!

Wendy Robinson

Katherine Sutton

Why not give the challenge a try yourself? Then pop by our Facebook page and share with us what you created!

Have a great day and I'll be seeing you again later this week.

Take care,
Jayne.x.