Observations First Layout

Hi!

Leo here with the first layout made with the current kit 'Observations'. We have a brand new guest designer for you for June so big welcome to Lythan who will be sharing ideas with you over the coming weeks :)

When I originally was putting this kit together my main focus was to put something together that had a 'vintage' botanical feel but without being overly floral or overly vintage or that kind of Victorian/Antique looking botanical feel. I wanted it to have more of a contemporary, more 'modern' feel. That being said as I sat down for the first time to use this kit my overwhelming feeling was that this would work perfectly with some of the heritage photos I've got to scrapbook. So that's where I ended up starting with a bunch of vintage photos :). This is the first layout I put together and it came together really quickly.

I took a few photos as I was putting the layout together to give you a few different ideas you could put together on a different project.

1. I began by using the Lily Bee 'Flower Pot' paper and cutting out a square from the middle of the sheet. Then I cut one of the sheets of white card to 10.5 inches square, rounded the corners and then inked around the edges painting it on from a bottle of grey mist.
2. The card I glued down to the center of the patterned paper then I cut out some strip of paper and ribbon to position across the bottom along with some of the Elle's Studio cut outs. Next I cut out a circle of patterned paper from the Crate Paper sheet and stitched it down on the left side of the layout.
3. I wanted to use an envelope on the page but also wanted to have more colour against the white background so I took apart the white envelope I had and used it as a template cutting the shape from the yellow Kesi'Art paper and fixing it together into an envelope which was decorated with one of the buttons on the flap and glued down alongside the circle of paper on the layout.
4. I used the piece of Lily Bee paper I cut out earlier using with the pattern on the other side and using foam pads on one side to make up for the bulk of the envelope on the other side, (keeping it straight) then glued it to the layout layered over the circle and envelope.
5. I used one of the glassine envelopes and a small square of the Studio Calico paper layered over the top of the Lily Bee paper and used a doily to echo the circle of paper. The photo was added on top. The Woodware doilies in the kit are acid free ones so they're safe to use next to your photos. I added the title with the Thickers and some handwritten journalling underneath. As a final touch I used some of the star sequins around the showing edge of the circle fixing them in place with dots of glossy accents.

Hope you can get some ideas of places to start with this kit from the layout. I'll be back with some more ideas once I get another chance to play, still got plenty of lovely vintage photos to calling! What's your favourite part of either of the new kits?
x Leo

Another Peek

Would you like another peek of Observations the May/June main kit? I've got a few more paper and embellishment peeks for you today so you can get a fuller picture of all the lovely patterns :)

There are a couple of other bits and pieces to reveal including some lovely organza fabric that makes a nice softer contrast with the brighter coloured papers. The kits should be ready to go in round about a weeks time, we're just waiting on the alphabets then we're good to go. As normal you'll get your email confirmation to let you know when your kit is ready to ship so you can choose a different shipping day if you need to.
x Leo

First Peek at 'Footnote'

The upcoming May/June Lite kit is 'Footnote' and as promised in the last post here's a quick peek....

These are the brown and gold neutrals I picked out for this kit. Where the main kit has much brighter colours mixed with greys the Lite kit has a softer feel with browns and golds mixed in with the blues and yellows. I particularly like these alphas from Kesi'art which have kind of cardboard box print to them and the faux suede leaf trim that I can see being chopped apart to makes some quirky embellishment touches.
Look out for more sneak peeks popping up this week!
x Leo

New May/June Kit Sneak

Hi!I've been sorting through the little bits and pieces to go in the upcoming kits this week so I thought I'd do a quick sneak peek for you. It's not 100% there yet but it's starting to come together.

I've been playing around a lot recently with the glassine envelopes and stamps like we had in the September autumnal kit last year so I thought I'd introduce that element but give it a summer twist. I love these textured trims too, the bee and the flag print are both canvas and the chevron is woven. I've got more textured trims in the Lite kit too with some really cool faux suede leaf trim and a voile with glitter running though it I'll do a peek of the Lite kit goodies when all the Kesi'art arrives. :)

x Leo

Book binding with washi tape

Hi! Leo here again.

The current main kit has a roll of washi tape and I've been asked for some more washi tape ideas so I've put together a little washi tape book binding how to. I've taught this before lots of times with paper tapes and you can also use paper strips or regular tapes like masking tape. It's a really quick and satisfying way of putting together a mini and you can go back and add pages to it even when you've finished just by adding more pages to the back.

1. All you need to do is make up your pages first. I've made a small book here with 4x6 inch size pages. You could intersperse 4x6 photos as full pages with something this size too. I've cut out two thick sheets of card to make the front and back covers and then used kraft cardstock for the inner pages. I've also cut out some pieces of paper slightly smaller than 4x6 inches to decorate the cardstock pages.

2. I've covered the front and back cover pieces with patterned paper then matted the paper pieces to the pages.

3. Now to bind the pages together I've put the pages side by side with the edges I want to bind butted up together and secured the pages together with a strip of washi tape. Trim the tape edges and then continue with this process until all the pages are fixed together.

4. Close your book and cover the spine with more layers of washi tape to both strengthen and cover over the slightly sticky edge that the tape will leave. I've mixed up two different kinds of tape here.

5. Then just trim off the excess to make it nice and neat.

Here I've use lots of the little leftover bits and pieces I had from the kit to decorate the cover.

What other projects are you creating with your washi tape?
x Leo

Negative and positive spaces

Hi!

Thanks to Sian for those fab inspiring projects :)

If you're looking for a starting point for your papercrafting projects over the weekend how about having a play with positives and negatives. I've noticed there's a big trend right now with using negatives, i.e the piece of card/paper a shape or word has been cut from instead of, (or as well as) the positive part that's been cut out.
I've got some example projects to show different ways I've used them.

Here with the card in the foreground I've used a die to cut out the shape from a piece of cardstock and used a scrap of paper to go behind the negative space to create an aperture. With the card in the background I've used the positive diecut shapes, (along with the Jenni Bowlin button stickers) and then also created an aperture in the centre of the card. If you're making negative spaces you want to line up with a background or foreground element a simple way to make sure you get your cut in the right place is to use a little bit of tape to hold the die in place. The washi tape from the kit came in really handy here!

With this layout I've also mixed up using positive and negative spaces. I'm going to add some handwritten journalling to the bottom right corner of this layout too.

For starters I used lots of off cut paper pieces to build the background of the layout up.

Then I've cut out circles from the Kesi'Art paper, it's the reverse side of the chalkboard one with the pie chart I love the pattern areas of it so I cut out some of those to use.

I cut some more circles from a piece of the woodgrain paper from the Lite kit but I also kept the negative piece to use as a window/aperture piece for the background of the layout too.

There's other negative spaces you can experiment with on a layout. I also filled in the negative spaces on the alphabet stickers by sticking them to patterned paper and cutting around them.

So have a go and see what you can come up with playing around with the positive and negative spaces on your projects.

Have fun!