When all you can come up with is an obscure title from a tv show

We are big "The Wire" fans in our household - (tis great but very sweary) and season 3 provided the perfect title for this story. Although I felt I also needed to explain it in case when I look at this layout in 20 years time I have forgotten the link altogether!
Carys and I were meant to go to Amsterdam but bad weather left us stranded in the UK. So we pulled ourselves together and went to London for a few days instead - still trying to do the things we would have done in Amsterdam anyway. So it became our Hamsterdam holiday. (Although in the Wire it refers to a drugs den. We don't do that kind of thing)

I was going to cut out lots of different size rectangles but decided in the end to go simple and use a square die for a uniform cut instead. I used both sides of some papers from both kits, interspersed with cut apart papers and stickers. I outlined them all in black Sharpie to give some unanimity to all those patterns and then spent time trying to get them in the right place. (You know how it is, you get it all perfect until you notice that two of the identical squares are next to each other) (Or maybe that is just me).

Once they were down, more stickers and flowers were added on top. I left the page fairly flat (its nice to have some that can slide into the page protector quite easily without extra bumps) I added three journalling spots - the top one came last as I realised that I had forgotten something important. And yes I am a bit annoyed that two lots of writing are basically in the same place but I am just going to have to live with it.

And all in all I am pleased with this bright and happy page about a bright and happy time when disaster was averted. And being able to reference a fab tv show? That's a bonus in my book

Puppy Love

this is my brother's dog - isn't she lovely? And I thought this photo provided a perfect foil to some of the papers in the Make your Mark kit alongside the Heart of Gold embellishment kit.
I was very brave and gutted the pink paper and used it with my Cameo to cut the title and subtitle for the page. It nearly went horribly wrong as one of my carrier mats has lost its stick and the cardstock went sliding about. But it worked in the end.

I sploshed some Gold Lame Heidi Swapp mist all over that lovely textured Bazzill and while it was drying went round all the papers and cards and stickers with my thick gold Krylon pen. I'm still loving gold so much (as you can tell). I adore the Project Life cards in the embellishment kit - they come in two sizes and some have (be still my beating heart) gold foil or glitter on them. A-dor-able. So lovely I do find it hard to use them although I am planning on making cards with some of them as they are just perfect for that too.

I layered up stickers and brads and washi and banners - such fun!

and added my big title with tiny, weeny foam pads for dimension

then wrote my journalling on a chalk board sticker with my thin gold Krylon pen. And had fun layering up stickers together - I think there are four making up that butterfly accent

I am a big fan of pink and orange together - and now of pink and orange and gold. It is an arresting combination - why not give it a try?

Isn't she lovely

I have had this photo as my computer background since it was taken as I just love that smile. And I have been saving it to scrap for the perfect papers. When I opened the Lite kit this month I was a little giddy as there were some bits and bobs and colours that I thought would set it off beautifully. What do you think?

I thought the words of the script paper were just the thing for someone going off to University. And lots of love hearts cos I love her so :) The gold and peachy pink heart were cut out of two of the cut apart papers - one was remade with the books in its place. The gold strip on the bottom of the bird card was similarly scavenged. I felt a bit more gold was needed on that side.

I lined up some of the papers in strips and did some outlining - with gold and black pen for a change. Then it was a case of fiddling round with the embellishments until I liked where they were. It MAY look like I just dropped them in a heap (cheek!) butI spent a good while moving everything about.

I then also took an age choosing where to put the journalling but in the end those books were too inviting.

I used the gold vellum die cut as the title. It is stuck with glue dots - more visible in the photos than to the naked eye. And I carefully outlined it in black to make it stand out a little more

Oh the dilemma

I love, love, love all the papers in this months main kit.
But this paper - had my heart.

Oh those imperfect black and white stripes. But the swirly shell like pattern on the other side is simply beautiful and wouldn't be quite as lovely if it was any smaller.
What should I do?
In the end I decided to be a big brave girl and sacrifice for my art (!)
Here is my page.

Yes it was goodbye stripes. Although I might have a go at making some myself with paint and cardstock. I am glad I managed to make this decision (even if I get a pang when I see the back of the layout) because this is a perfect background paper.

My next dilemma was how to add colour and texture without overwhelming the background. I decided to add a little something with a stencil. Now as I was at a crop when I made this and didn't have everything to hand - I made do. So the stencil (Microbial by Julie FeiFan Balzer) was untilised with a gold Delicata ink pad and cut and dry foam. It made for an imperfect look. I'd like to say that is my homage to the other side of the paper but I only just thought of it.

I cut small pieces of the patterned papers. I love the fact that the text paper has just a hint of pink on it. I edged the papers with the ink pad which was quite subtle. I used a small die to make the scalloped edge (as I didn't have my punch with me) and another cut a rounded edge onto the "loved" cut apart sheet. Another die was used to make the delicate circles. If I had any gold thread with me I would have used that instead. But I didn't. These circles are lovely but quite hard to stick down.

As I seem to need to add a top right cluster to one in every three layouts I do, I duly obeyed myself. I chose to cut one of the lovely chalkboard tags in half and wrote in gold krylon pen rather than white this time. Although that would have worked too, in order to echo the "loved" piece.

The black and cream strip is a sticker from the "I am" sheet, along with the globe and other small pieces. At the end I added in some of those fab puffy stickers from Dear Lizzy.

Oh and the title. The black side of the Love notes paper came into play again along with a Docrafts alphabet die. I then smothered krylon pen onto the Printshop Thickers

Confetti making, glittering & Mini Tassel Making!

Hi! Leo back again. This week on Daring Cardmakers Nat set the challenge of creating a card that uses three elements taken from this image:

Here's my finished card:

Right away the dots and the image made me think of the Crate Paper Confetti paper in the main kit so I grabbed that to use. One side has a dot pattern that I wanted to use as a background. On one of the presents in the image there's also a tassel made with bakers twine so I thought I'd make a small tassel for the card. I didn't want it to be too bulky for a card front so I used sewing thread. We had this gold one in a past kit.

 First I wrapped the thread around three fingers lots of times to make a chunky loop. I then cut off a long length of the thread and doubled it over then threaded that through the loop.

 I then took another separate cut piece of the thread and used it to tie the top of the looped threads together so the bit threaded through the loop remained at the top to create the hanging. Finally I cut the looped thread apart and trimmed it to complete the tassel.

Another element I used from the image was the glittered decorations. I took one of the star stickers from the Simple Stories sticker sheet and stuck it temporarily to a spare piece of clear backing from another packet and then added Glossy Accents over the top of the sticker. I then sprinkled over the glitter and left it to dry on the sheet.

To assemble the card I cut out some of the Crate Paper Confetti paper to fit my card blank and then fastened the tassel around it. I then added the heart sticker from the Simple Stories sticker sheet.

The confetti I made with the patterned paper punching it out with a hole punch and gluing it down to the card with dots of Glossy Accents.

Finally to finish I added one of the Serendipity puffy stickers and another of the star stickers, this one I left pink.

Following on from the idea of using elements you could use any of the three custom embellishments, (mini tassel, glittering stickers, making paper confetti) made here on your own project. They're all very easy to adapt to your choice of papercraft project.

Have fun!

x Leo

Working in a Grid

Hiya, Leo here. I've been browsing though the Jan/Feb main kit this week and I just started chopping into the Simple Stories elements paper. I liked the 2x2 squares on the paper and that set me off pushing them around  on my desk and thinking of ways of arranging them. It made me think of how easy it is to just stick to a grid pattern for a layout be it a card layout or a scrapbook one. I don't mean like a rigid grid I mean more like just keeping it in mind as you're filling in a page. I ended up making a couple of cards with this in mind. This one is just four of the Simple Stories paper squares cut out and I added one of the Dear Lizzy puffy stickers to one and a stamped greeting to another. The grid looked a little too rigid for my liking so I added some grungy gold stitching around the grid.

This card also has a grid design but it's not using squares it's using rectangle paper bits cut at random. I started with the strip of paper at the bottom with the 'a limited edition' text on it cut from the Simple Stories paper gluing that down first gave me somewhere to start building up a 'grid' although this time I filled in the spaces with rectangles of paper, some of the alphabet stickers and one of the vellum splatters. I added a little bit of pink dot stamping, (with the top of a pencil eraser) to the Confetti paper and a fabric brad from the embellishment kit.

If you find yourself pushing paper pieces around have a think about a grid pattern and see if it helps getting you started. For further reading I had a little look on Pinterest for some scrapbook pages that have a grid pattern and a couple of my favourites were this one, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/486318459737689229/ and this one, https://www.pinterest.com/pin/109775309642855015/ 

There are lots more too. It's for sure a really good way to get started on a project. :)

I'll be back tomorrow with another project I just finished making a really cute tassel embellishment and confetti with the Confetti paper!

x Leo

Miraculous Noss

Yippee! The new kits are here.
I went to my local(ish) crop on Saturday and managed to make 1 and 2 half layouts, then managed to finish those and do a few more on Monday. Hey these Quirky Kits are inspirational.
So here is my first layout - just using the Main Kit - Make your mark.

Here's the thing. The photos of this event just don't do justice to what I could see. You may think the bottom photo is covered in black dots but those are all birds. The camera just couldn't pick them up. So I needed to be able to scrap this memory in order to write down what I saw. And as you can see, I had a lot to share!

I used one of my go to effects which is to cut different sizes stripes and lay them down. The dark blue patterned paper you can see? That is as much as there was as it is the name strip from the "Sugar Sugar" American Crafts paper. But it was a great fit with the blue of the boat.
I cut out some words and images from the Simple Stories Elements paper and cut round some of the stickers on the 12x12 sheet, keeping the backing on initially so that I could play about with placement. I also thought that the vellum splats were perfect for this page as what you can see on the two photos is all the (ahem) guano left by the birds on the rocks and the splats did remind me of that :) :) :)

I did some double outlining as I was using so many patterns - going round the edge with a black Sharpie and inside with a thin felt pen. I love the way my inner lines can never be totally straight, gives a more eclectic feel (I like to tell myself).
Then I took a while moving everything about in order to layer it

The little clouds are Lawn Fawn dies and were a late edition as I wanted a few more things to tie the left hand side with the right.
Some of the phrases were raised on foam pads

For the journalling I used the plain black side of the WRMK Love notes paper. I cut 1cm strips and tried to make sure I stopped in a good place in order to go onto another line. The chalk marker is fab!

All that was left to do was a bit of pen work on the Printshop thickers and I was done.