An Unconventional Christmas - Scrapology September Card Challenge

The lovely Natalie O'Shea set the challenge this month, to use a product or tool not usually associated with Christmas to make a card.

I have to confess, it took me ages to come up with an idea for this one, but, here it is:

A while back, Anita used a piece of a bath scrunchie on a layout.

Lynn and I bought and unravelled these :)

I used the white one wrapped around some card with white wool as snow.

I made the christmas trees with the pennant punch above.

And glittered the snowflakes, trees and "snow" with nail polish :)

The snowflakes and easel stop are both Martha Stewart punches. 

I've added some diamante to the centres.

This one is sooooo far out of the box :)

Pop over to Scrapology for details of the challenge and to see what our fab DT have made.

xxx



Under the sea - Mythical Creature II

I love the theme of the Scrapology Card Challenge this month and got a little carried away, here is card number two.

I have used a 6x6" CWC on the edge card and a decoupage image from Crafty Purple Frog who work closely with Sweet Pea.

The background is embossed card and swirls cut with a Tim Holtz die.

There are lots of layers on this image, I used foam pads usually.

Jewels were added to the points on th edge and also as bubbles on the other side.

Semi Circles of glitter card were added under the edge to sparkle.

Plenty of time to enter the challenge, just pop over to Scrapology for details.

Thanks for looking

x

Scrapology May Card Challenge - Mythical Creatures

This month's card challenge on Scrapology has been sponsored by Sue who is not only a member of our DT but also runs the Sweet Pea Stampers Challenge blog.

The brief was to use a Mythical Creature which is just up my street!

I love all the Sweet Pea images especially those by Ching-Chou Kuik.

I used a CWC 6x6" card and created mats of glitter and bazzill.

The image was stamped and coloured with Copics as below.

Sandra gave me a couple of swirls cut with a Memory box die at Jill's crop so I cut them in half and placed them under the edge of the image.

Random gems were added amongs the fronds.

Why not pop over to Scrapology to see the cards made by the DT and enter our challenge.

Look forward to seeing you there.

TFL

xxx

B is for Borders - Scrapology October Challenge - Here Georgie, Georgie!

Our Scrapology challenge this month is a scraplift of Georgia K Keays, you can find her blog here.

I used Bazzill Olso cardstock as the basis of my page with Bo Bunny Barefoot and Bliss papers:

Barefoot Cutouts, Bubbles, Beach Bag, Stripe and Surf.

Each panel is cut and mounted onto the blue bazzill before adding to the page to create the borders. 

I added part of a doilly under one panel (mounted on 3d foam pads) with some prima flowers.

The title was cut with the Cricut Life's a Beach and faux stitched with a white gel pen.

Some of the Hibiscus flowers and leaves were added to the side with 3d foam.

The journalling block came from the Cutouts sheet and the remainder of the doilly and flowers were placed under the edge. The other tag was also from the cutouts sheet, only using part of it.

In Barbados we had a boat trip to see the turtles, we expected a few little ones the size of dinner plates.

The guide began tapping the side of the boat and calling "Here Georgie, Georgie" which made us smile, then the turtles arrived which were more than 1 meter across!

The guide affectionately had named them Fred and George.

This is the sketch we worked from...

And Georgia's original page.

Check out the Scrapology site for the other DT entries.

Challenge closes on the 5th November with another fab prize on offer for the winner.

Totally Tropical - Scrapology at Cardinal Colours Retreat 2011

This is one of the classes that Lynn and I taught at Jill's (Cardinal Colours) Seaside Retreat at the weekend.
Back home now and totally exhausted having had a fantastic time!!!

We created was this layout from scratch with  papers from the Lauderdale range from Basic Grey, they had not even been released when we saw them but knew the colours/patterns would be ideal for what we had in mind. First time we have ever designed a layout using thumbnail images of papers!!!

This is my version which uses photographs from an family holiday in Barbados in 2005.

This one is the original we made together which features photographs of  Lynn's girls in the Isles of Scilly.

Below is Lynn's second version which she made for the step by step instructions.

Below are the class instructions:

Lauderdale Layout Class

Cardinal Colours Retreat September 2011

Kit Content:

4 double sided sheets of 12”x 12” Basic Grey - Lauderdale papers - (SPF, Coastline, Cut Offs and Clearwater)

6 Basic Grey - Lauderdale buttons

1 - 12”x12” sheet Basic Grey – Lauderdale element stickers

1 - 12”x12” sheet Basic Grey – Lauderdale alpha stickers

1 pack of 4 Basic Grey – Lauderdale canvas tags

Selection of DMC stranded cotton threads.

We have included our sketch – that’s what we do at Scrapology! You may like to use it for another layout too. Please link or email any layouts you make using this sketch, it would be great to share them on the blog.

In addition you will need 2 - 6”x4” (or smaller) photos (one landscape and one portrait)

Basic tools including: Inks, corner rounder, Paper trimmer, Adhesives for paper, 3D foam pads, Pen for journaling & Needle for buttons.

Instructions

We are known as the ‘Inking Queens’, we inked the edge of everything before sticking down (but this is entirely optional)!  We usually add thread to the buttons and tie a simple knot which is also optional.

1. To make your base, take the ‘sfp’ paper remove name strip, gut paper so you have a 12” x 12” frame 1” in from edge all round. This will be used blue, large dots side up.

 

2. Cut ‘cutoffs’ paper to measure 11” x 11” and round the corners, this will be used tiny dotty side up.

3. Round the corners of the dotty paper (optional). 

4. Stick ‘cutoffs’ dotty paper centrally over blue dots side of ‘spf’ frame, so you have a blue border of about 1/2” all round the dots. (Dot to Dot!)

5. Cut a piece of ‘clearwater’ paper 12”x5” making sure waves are horizontal.

6. Trim this to 11” wide (1”x5”). Affix to page 2” up from bottom.

7. Position photos on page and stick in place glue centres only to allow for tucking elements under later.

8. Take remaining ‘spf’, cut out a selection of clouds, boat, hearts and any other elements you wish to use.









9. Cut large green blossom, (leaving a narrow pink border) from left side of floral side of ‘coastline’ paper. Attach with 3D foam pads to top right corner of layout, overlap the edges a little then trim.

     

10. Cut a selection of flowers and leaves from the rest of floral side of ‘coastline’ paper, Leave a small pink border around each petal. Don’t worry if you can’t get whole images of the flowers you like, with a little clever positioning and lots of overlapping they will look great, and work well.

11. Use a strip of the denim side of ‘cutoffs’ paper, trim to ¾” x 6” and cut an inverted ‘V’ in one end.

12. Add all three pointer stickers to this strip, staggering, overlapping and layering with 3D foam pads.

13. Add Button to blunt end of the strip and stick the complete embellishment horizontally over the green blossom on top right of layout.





14. Here comes the fun bit! Arrange all the elements, including tags and buttons. When happy with the arrangement, stick in place with a selection of glues and 3D foam pads. Tuck some under and others overlapping the photograph. (Keep the acetate backing form the tags – we need this later.)

 13. Add some journaling to the tags.

14. Create your title to the top left of the layout using the alpha sheet.

Top tip – How often have you found you have run out of room for the last letter when placing a title, or it’s not straight whe

n you look at it later, but it’s firmly attached and won’t move without tearing the papers? Try making use of the cellophane wrappers or use the acetate from inside the packs to help with positioning.

Simply attach just the very bottom of the letters to the acetate. (If you want a curved shaped title, just cut the acetate to shape first.) Arrange how you want them.

Hold letters over the layout without touching the papers, to see if they fit.

Pull away the acetate when happy with the placement.

Now your layout is complete.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post and although the kits for this class are sold out, Jill has many of the individual elements and papers in the store, they may not be on her website just yet but you could email to see what she has available jill@cardinalcolours.co.uk or check out Cardinal Colours web page.

BLOG CANDY

 For your chance to win one of the original kits for this layout, hop on over to the Scrapology site and leave a comment.

Closing date midnight 26th September 2011

Good Luck!

If you were there, why not say Hi :)