Day Trippin'

Good morning.

It's a beautiful Fall (Summer!) day here and we're half way through another week, so hope things are going well for you.

I'm back with another scrapbook page today, using Prima's Doodle-Deux collection from my recent DT Kit with Two Scrapbook Friends.

This one shows photo's from an impromptu day trip to Toronto earlier in the year, on a beautiful Spring day, so here goes............

The smaller shot on there had my husband lying on his back on the concrete, to snap an upwards view of my girls and the CN Tower.

You may notice a common theme through all of my projects using this collection.....fussy cutting and lots of it - always a useful solution if you feel a paper is too busy for your needs.

There's a random layering of pennants (all cut from the patterned paper) together with Washi tape and a couple of buttons tucked in there.

The torn, layered circle also adds more dimension to the page.

The accordion embellishment is made from ordinary black card stock and a border punch.

The white circles are doodled on there by hand to tie in with the theme and patterns on the papers, and the little chick is fussy cut from a sheet of PP.

For the title I dug into my stash of forgotten and barely used eyelets......really need to use these more often!

So that's it for today.

Enjoy the glorious sunshine and I'll see you on Friday.
Take care,
Jayne.x.

Friends are like flowers.........

Good morning, it's Monday so I thought I'd start the week with good intentions and post on here.

I'm back today with my second project from my last Two Scrapbook Friends DT Kit, using Prima's Doodle-Deux collection.

One of these days I'm going to remember to take a photo of what's included in my kit before I actually attack it with my scissors.  It hasn't happened so far so you'll just have to use your imagination for now!

Most of the papers in this collection have a lot of pattern on there, beautiful detail but quite busy, so for this project (the altered item!) I got to work with the scissors..........lots of fussy cutting.

I attacked a very inexpensive dollar store canvas, with a combination of a banner stencil and a couple of different shades of mist.  You can also see the variety of fussy cut paper elements, together with a few canvas flowers thrown in.

One of those Michael's $1.50 bin felt birds I'm so fond of, sits on top of a Dienamics die cut branch.............

 A simple combination of alpha stickers finish things nicely.

I'll be back soon with a scrapbook page using this collection, so stay tuned for more Prima goodness.
Have a good one,
Jayne.x.

Tooth For A Pair and a sketch.

Well the kiddo's are back to school and for the first time since around May, the house is quiet and I have a little time to myself.  I still haven't quite found my way back to my scrapping closet on a regular basis, but I do have something for you today.

I thought it was about time I revealed creations from my last DT Kit from Two Scrapbook Friends, so I'm starting with a layout.  It was also my turn this week for a Sketchy Challenge on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, so killing two birds with one stone, I converted this one into a sketch......I'll post that at the end.

For this kit I was given products from Prima's 'Doodle-Deux' collection and I'm not going to lie to you.........when I first heard that this was the product I would be working with, my initial reaction was shock (maybe even a little horror!) but most definitely panic.

I'm not saying this line of product is bad.....it's gorgeous, it's just that it's not something I would usually buy.  I tend to steer clear of papers that are overly busy, as I sometimes struggle in deciding what to do with them.

However I'm here officially eating my words. Once I relaxed, breathed a little and started to get my hands dirty, this line was so much fun to work with, certainly the most fun I've had yet with a DT kit.

So without further ado, here goes.........'Tooth For A Pair'

As the title suggests, the theme for this page is pretty light hearted and the same goes for the layout.  Several cut strips of patterned paper form a matt for the photo, embellished with a Washi tape/toothpick flag combo.

Washi tape again comes to the rescue together with natural hemp, to form a homemade banner.

I also couldn't resist a subtle touch of doodling on there........it is called 'Doodle-Deux' after all!

 As promised here's the sketch for this layout.

If you can use it please do, and if you'd like to join in with this months Sketchy Challenge over on the Forum, we'd love to see your creations.........just upload to the Gallery and Forum by October 15th.

Well that's it from me for today but I hope to be back tomorrow with project #2.

See you then,
Jayne.x.

Accordion stars........a tutorial!

Well hello there!

I've been meaning to put this on here for a while, as a follow up to the accordion hearts Friendzy Friday I did for Two Scrapbook Friends a while ago. I figured out a couple of templates to create accordion stars which you may find useful.

Apologies if some of the photo's are a little shadowy (it was late!) but here goes:

1. To create your template for a 6 point star, start with a piece of cardstock 6" long by whatever width you'd prefer. Mine is 1 3/4" wide which seems to be a good size to use as an embellishment for a scrapbook page, but you can increase/decrease however much you'd like. Mark the center line through your card (in this case 3/4")



2. Make a mark at 2" and 4" along this center line.



3. Along the top edge of the template, make marks at 1", 3" and 5".



4. Join these points starting at the center line on the very edge of the card, all the way through to the far edge, to create triangular points, and carefully cut around.



5. Cut a strip of your chosen patterned paper 12" by 1 3/4" and score at the center point (6").



6. Fold at this point (with the chosen pattern inwards) and place your template on top.



7. Draw around and cut out. Once opened, you should have a symmetrical pattern like this.



8. The rest of the process is exactly the same as for the accordion hearts, so go ahead and score along the whole length at 1/4" increments.



9. Accordion fold along the scored lines and join the two ends with a strong glue. I also cut a small circle from scrap card to use as a base for the star.



10. Press out the star (straight edges in the center obviously) and glue down onto the card circle.
Ta daaaaaa!



Not bad....it does tend toward a flower shape so I did try to make the points a little sharper, by instead of marking a center line through your template (3/4"), draw it lower at 1" so that the triangular points will be longer and thinner.

If you'd prefer a 5 point star, the process is the same but your template would be as follows:

1. Using the same size of cardstock (6" by 1 3/4") mark the center line (3/4"). Along this line, mark at 2 3/8" then a further 2 3/8" (this would be the 4 3/4" point).



2. Along the top edge, mark at 1 3/16" then a further 2 3/8" along at the 3 9/16" point.....yes the measurements get a little fiddly but once you've created your template, it's for keeps! Join the points to form triangular shapes.



3. Cut around the triangular shapes. The rest of the process is the same as for the 6 point star except for one step. You do have to remember to place the far edge of your template along the Fold of your chosen patterned paper in order to create the correct shape.



4.If you've placed and cut correctly, your paper should end up looking something like this........



5. Continue to make the star as in the instructions above.



Again, if you'd prefer thinner sharper points on your star, lower the center line on your template to 1" and continue from there.

Congrats if you stuck with me till the end!  I hope you can make some use out of this.......I think they may make an appearance on some of my Christmas pages!
Have fun everyone,
Jayne.x.

A Girls Best Friend

Boy I've had a busy couple of weeks.

My brother, sister-in-law and their two kiddo's have been staying with us during this time so we've had a crazy, fun, chaotically happy kinda time, which is unfortunately coming to an end pretty soon.

The only good side to this is that my blog might get some tlc (in that I might actually visit more often), and all of our kids may get to sleep at a reasonable hour!

Anyhow, thought I'd post a card on here whilst I have a little time.  This was one I made for my youngest dd's birthday a while back, using another sweet Pollycraft image.

 

This little lady and her best friend are coloured with Copic's and papers are some of my old favourites from My Minds Eye.

 

I can't tell you how much I've had my monies worth from these paper tea roses and felt birds from the $1.50 bin at Michael's.....saved the day more than once!

The layout for this card was inspired by an older sketch from The Deconstructed Sketch.

That's it for today, but I will be back sometime this week I hope.
Have a good one,
Jayne.x.
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Challenges entered:
Come And Get It Challenges - Show us your flowers
A Gem of a Challenge - #53 Animals or Teddies
Craft Your Days Away - #52 Anything Goes
Little Claire's - #24 Best Friends
ATC's and Cards with Attitude - #22 Anything Goes
Copic Marker Europe - A Summer Card
Digi Doodle Shop Challenges - #122 Use Pearls
Paper Crafting Journey - Anything Goes

Extreme White Space!

It's time for another Crafty Challenge over on the Two Scrapbook Friends Forum, and Yours Truly is here to deliver the goods.

For today's challenge, instead of using a particular technique or embellishment, I thought we'd change things up a little and try a particular style of scrapbooking.

Some may call it minimalist, but I see quite a lot of pages in this style throughout magazines and the Internet, that contain quite a large amount of detail and embellishments, so I prefer to think of it as 'Extreme White Space'!

I'm sure you've seen layouts that showcase one small photograph, with a variety of techniques or embellishments condensed into one small area of a 12" by 12" page?

Well that's what I'm referring to......they don't call it a Crafty 'Challenge' for nothing right?

It's not a style I usually employ as the urge to add more most often wins, but I was up for the challenge so here's my page.

I realize I may have took liberties just a little, as my patterned paper has some detailing of it's own in the top right corner, but I guess I had to get my fix of adding more somehow!

Don't be put off this challenge by thinking you can't go to town on one of these pages, as you can still cram quite a lot of detail on there......just into a smaller area.

I kept things fairly simple on my layout, and probably could have added more, but even on here there are 12 different techniques/embellishments in that one small space.

I hope you'll give this one a try and have some fun with it as I surprisingly did!
I'd also love to see your creations so don't forget to upload them to the Gallery and Forum.....there are buttons to be gained of course.

See you next time,
Jayne.x.

Olympic Challenge #12 at Two Scrapbook Friends

Well today we are posting our final Olympic Challenge over on the TSF Forum and for this one, I thought I'd issue a card challenge.

For Challenge #12 I'd like you to create a card with one thing in mind........the ultimate goal of every athlete completing in any Olympic Games...........a medal!

I want to see some 'Gold', 'Silver', or 'Bronze' on there, some bling, some sparkle, some shine.  It doesn't matter which colour you choose (or use all three!), or how you use it as long as it's there.

For my example I went all out for Gold of course.....why not?!

I'm not much of a fussy, glittery type of gal so this card is a little OTT for me, but I guess I had to get my point across!

I do love the image, a freebie from Sureya over at Deviant Art, and I'm liking the new combo of Copic's I tried for her hair - a little Copper thrown in there.

Papers are from Authentique ('Blissfull' line I think but I'm too lazy to go check!)
 
 I hope you have fun if you get a chance to join in with today's challenge, and I look forward to seeing some medal winning creations.
Have a good weekend,
Jayne.x.