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.

Sketch-y Friday at Scrapmuch? - Oh Charlie!

Good morning.

I realize I've been a pretty bad blogger the last week or two so please forgive me.  I changed jobs a few weeks ago and I'm still trying to get into the new routine.  Unfortunately crafty time always seems to suffer.

Hopefully things will settle down soon and I can get back to it.

Today though, it's Friday and time for a brand new Sketch over on the Scrapmuch? blog together with a little inspiration from Team B.

Here's my effort this week:

Oh Charlie!

I do seem to be scrapping the dog quite a lot these days as I have more photo's of him than anyone! (be warned......there are more to come!)

Here's Laura's awesome sketch for you to take a peek at:

As you can see I stuck to it fairly religiously this time around.

I used a die cut from the Silhouette Store for the background panel and title, and outlined with some doodled lines.

I layered a Polaroid style frame over the photograph which I've hoarded in my stash forever, and added some chipboard and scattered enamel dots (one of my new faves - just as well really seen as I bought a job lot of them!) .

Considering the whole theme of this page ie. the dog destroying every toy he has ever been given within a matter of minutes, I love the fact that in this shot he's licking his lips with anticipation!

Finally, I had to get a little flair in there and a few handmade metal ringed tags - the best ever $2 yard sale purchase as I've used at least a dozen already, and still many more to go!

That just about covers things from me, except of course to mention that you should immediately head over to the Scrapmuch? blog to check out some inspiration from the rest of the team, then  join in with this weeks challenge yourself.

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

Faux Stitching.....re-invented!

Good morning!

I have a little tip posted over on the Scrapmuch? blog today so I thought I'd share here too.
No re-inventing the wheel or anything drastic, just an alternative method of faux stitching.

Here goes:

I don't know about you but I love the look of stitching on scrapbook pages, but I hate the fact that I don't have enough room in my scrappy space to accommodate my sewing machine.  This means if I want 'the real deal' on my pages, I have to lug all my supplies up from the basement, get everything set up then reverse the process when I'm done.

I'm sorry to say I am not that dedicated!

The easy way out is to grab your fine line marker and get drawing and that's perfectly fine, but it certainly doesn't look as realistic as machine stitched thread, probably because there is no texture involved.

I have a compromise I'd like to share which will fool most critics.

Before you get to work with your marker, pierce your paper with one of those pointy, paper piercing kinda things.........simple!

It's certainly not rocket science and it's a little more time consuming, but it does make a difference.

You then just join the dots.

I have a variety of pens I like to use in different colours and the effects are very similar, but whichever you choose I would suggest a fine nib.

You can see a close-up here of the comparison with and without the piercing.

Here's an example of some random black 'stitched' lines I used on a recent layout:

.......and a quilt effect in white on another:

I hope you'll give it a try because believe me, no-one will ever know you cheated!

Enjoy,
Jayne.x.