Weekender Sketch

Hi, Leo here. I've got a couple of sketches for you today which could be fun to to play along with if you're paper crafting this weekend. :)

First up a scrapbook page sketch:

Here's a sample page made using the sketch and the 'Firework' Quirky Kit Main:

And a card sketch:

And a finished sample. I made this card for Daring Cardmakers so if you're feeling like an extra challenge play along with this week's 'make a card featuring balloons' challenge, http://daringcardmakers.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/balloons.html

If you have a go with either sketch don't forget to share what you make. You can do so on your blog and leave a link in the comments, on the Crafty Templates facebook page, http://facebook.com/craftytemplates by uploading it to your Facebook then sharing it on the page or you can use Instagram tagging us by adding @craftytemplates to your caption or use the #QuirkyKits

Have a fun weekend!

 x Leo

Always proud

Do you ever have an idea for a scrapbook page and then it turns out somewhat differently? That is what happened with this page. It was going to be about how we did exactly the same photographs with his brother two years before (also immortalised using a Quirky Kit here) but it became something deeper which is apt due to "stuff" going on in his life. (finding work is not easy even when you ace your degree). And Quirky Kits are so great in that they always deliver what you need to make a page just right

The same papers that looked so light and pretty on my other layouts seem to manage to be bold and graphic on this one! (gotta love double sided paper). I'd used quite a lot of one side of the Maggie Holmes memento paper before but thought that the "1" from the other side ought to feature, so it was raised on foam pads. 

I used a few of the other papers in strips on the top and the bottom, going for a double outline.

In the middle I used a lot of the Fancy Pants Happy Place ‘All Positive’ paper along with snippets from Kaisercraft My Year My Story ‘All Sorts' paper. The "be" phrases are from the Kaisercraft sticker sheet.

I added in a few more of the words and phrases from Kaisercraft and mixed up the Fancy Pants puffy stickers with the Thickers from the kit for my title. 

I used 3 of the Fancy Pants labels for different things on the layout. And yes, you would think that after 6 years going back and forth to the place (as well as living next to it for 6 years before that) I would be able to spell TeesSide....

Awesome Family Xmas Party!

So every year we have our annual Xmas party with my cousin and 2nd cousins. We only get to see them a couple of times a year so it's really special when we all get together.
It's not a party in the sense of disco music and drinking, It's my favourite day leading up to Christmas (Yes more than the day itself!) We cook a pre-Christmas dinner and gather round the table to play all kinds of games. This year was the first year I'd taken pictures to capture it and I love how they came out.
To create this layout I used the Basic Grey Lump of Coal paper. As I was wearing black I felt it made my pictures stand out. After fiddling about with the 3 6x4 photographs for ages, I managed to find a layout I liked.

For my Title I used some of all the letters that came with the kits. The large PARTY letters are the Pink Paislee Yuletide Shimmer card stock letters. These were from the light kit and the photo doesn't do them justice sadly. They have a lovely pearlescent shimmer to them and paired with the Pebbles Winter Wonderland Thickers they compliment each other perfectly. I also used some of the Jillybean Soup Gray Melon mini alpha stickers to spell the word family.

I also used one of the Fancy Pants Wish Season puffy stickers from the main kit to for the Awesome part of my title.

I used another one of the gorgeous glitter snowflakes (I am going to be gutted when I run out of these) and some of the arrows from the puffy sticker sheet to point towards my photo's and direct the eye.

I finished this layout with some more of the Fancy Pants ephemera pack from the Main kit (still not made a dent in this there is tonnes!)
I love this layout and I'm so pleased I finally have these pictures in my album to look back on through the years. I hope our family will continue this tradition. Please comment on this post and let me know what family traditions you have, I would love to know. Happy Scrapping everyone x

Celebrating Together

 Ok ignoring the pictures of my merry mother and my bad attempt at a mother an me selfie lol this layout came out really well. It's not very often that I like to use a whole sheet of patterned paper for a background but with this kit I've been doing just that as they are far too pretty to cut apart.
In this layout I used some more of the Fancy Pants Wish Season die cut ephemera pack (there's not one die-cut in this whole pack I don't like) they are so versatile and make a perfect accompaniment to your layouts as displayed in the pictures below.

 Trying to keep the embellishments to just a few scattered here and there as I didn't want to take away from the lovely pattern at the bottom of this layout, I used them to guide the eye through the story the pictures told, and I love how it turned out.

 I finished my layout off my using some more of the Fancy Pants Wish Season sentiment puffy stickers ( I can't believe how many are on the sheet!) The title I chose as Celebrating Together because for me it really is the time of year to be thankful for all that you have and to celebrate it with all of your family and friends. We were invited around our neighbours house this year to celebrate their first Christmas in their new house, and since they moved in, back in the spring..we have all become great friends and have grown really close.
I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and new year...Happy Scrapping x

Christmas Angel

I was one of the design team who decided to opt for the Christmas kit as I had a lot in store for it. I was planning on doing December Daily, but for health reasons I was rather poorly leading up to Christmas so sadly that never happened. BUT....after the madness of Christmas I managed to sit down and dedicate some well needed crafting time to myself.
Here is the first of the layouts I've created so far...

So you may have seen this precious kitty in some of my other layouts and your sure to see her again in the future, she is my world and my Angel (her name). I wanted the photographs to be the main focus of this layouts as she was just too cute in that little Santa hat and collar I got for her.
I love the Pebbles Winter Wonderland snowflakes I got in the Christmas embellishment kit. They are so glittery and add a perfect Christmas sparkle to your layout. I paired this with some of the ephemera from the Fancy Pants Die Cut embellishment pack and one of the tags using some of the silver sparkles bakers twine to make a pretty bow to finish it off.

I then used the Berties Bows mini pom-pom trim to ground the photo's so they didn't look like they were floating and used both the Fancy Pants sentiment puffy stickers and the Pebbles Winter Wonderland Thickers to form my title.

The way I designed this layout was so it flowed well with the eye forming a triangle. A small cluster at the top and then 2 other clusters one on the left hand side and one on the right hand side.

I am really pleased with how this layout turned out and even though it's one of my more simplistic layouts, sometime less...really is more! Happy Scrapping :D

More Fireworks

People keep saying that phrase to us - apparently it comes form a song, but not one that I know...
I fancied a coloured background - partly because I am a sucker for those Bazzill swiss dot cardstocks. I felt that Julep wasn't quite the right colour so gave most of it a wash of gesso. I then decided that I would add some more spots, to echo my dress. I used circle punches and cardstock to create masks and added Distress Ink in Blueprint Sketch Distress ink (NB you can see it is not so keen on gesso, it has a different colour to it. I quite like the look though). I added smaller circles with a champagne colour sparkle medium (just paused to order some proper gold!)

I then took some of the Shine Cheer, Memento and Twinkle papers along with  Fancy Pants Happy Place; inked them up with the Blueprints Sketch distress ink and layered them with the photo, adding in some gold glitter paper and vellum from my stash.

In order to save the letters I die cut some of the phrase from white cardstock using a stitched alphabet. I cut each letter three times and stuck them together for added dimension.

I used a pinked  circle for my journalling and finished it all off with some dots from the thickers and puffy stickers pack

And then there is this...

I was inspired by a gorgeous layout by Sian Fair. Sigh. It is so pretty it makes my heart hurt a little (in a good way). My layout somehow got thicker at the top than I meant it to be but I still like it and it means I can have another go at scrap lifting Sian's wonderful work :) 
I used the papers I had as yet not touched - the BasicGrey B-Side Well Yes Paper and the Fancy Pants Happy Place ‘All Positive’, along with the Bazzill Taffy Card Shoppe cardstock. 

I created long strips of various sizes and a focal point at the top with some of the stickers and paper phrases from the kit, along with my other flair badge. Placement was decided by the fact that I cut the pink paper in the wrong place to make it fit and needed to cover the join. You didn't guess, right?

 then came the title. I just couldn't use all of the thickers (although I am not perilously close to running out of a and e) so added in some black letter stickers.

At the end I covered my photo and liberally sprinkled gold and black mists.

I reckon I can squeeze another layout out of this wonderful kit - and I think I will make it a non holiday one. There is only so much sunny weather I can look at in these dark winter days. But looking at the kit still makes me smile :)

Happy new Kit!

It is wonderful to be able to kick back and have some crafting time after a very busy but enjoyable Christmas. I will be showcasing the Firework kit rather than the Christmas one - just as well as there are no Christmas photos to be scrapped. Well one of a set of figures my husband made for my church and some of the annual Boxing day walk (but that could be a walk on any old day)
However I do have oodles of photos from a trip to Madeira that my husband and I took in early November and the Firework kit is just perfect. In the shop blurb Leo described it as "full of bright zingy colours with a sherbet twist" which is just what I need to showcase a holiday full of warm summer sun.

So here we go....

This first layout makes me smile so much. We were very lucky to leave the Uk that morning as most airports were fogbound. By lunchtime we were on the hotel balcony - and look at me with no cardi on (extremely rare in the UK).
I thought the fabulous colours of the kit would help me to celebrate this great memory.

To start with I laid down a wash of turquoise glimmer glaze. When that was dry I added gesso with a mask. When that was dry, I sprinkled yellow and blue mists

I added layers of the Fancy Pants Happy Place, Maggie Holmes Shine - Twinkle and Cheer together and then snipped a few of the KaiserCraft sticker phrases. You may note that one of the papers was also given the gesso/mask treatment.

I used one of the Kaisercraft blocks for my title and added to it a Fancy Pants Happy Place Words & Shapes Puffy Sticker. The photos were mounted on foam pads

the final touches were more of the puffy stickers - love them!

My second layout is more graphic in style

as it was about counting I thought the Maggie Holmes Shine - Memento paper would be perfect. It was mostly that along with a photo mat made from the Twinkle paper. 
I knew I would be using the fantastic Crate Paper Hello Love gold/white Thickers and wanting to inject another spot of gold into the layout so took my Tim Holtz ruler to make nice neat holes and some gold thread to create a gold line. I sewed the paper before sticking it to the cardstock which made it easier going.

I initially layered up 3 journalling spots and was half way through the first when I realised that I had spelt Madeira wrong. I don't think it will be the last time. Fortunately there was another spot in the same colour and I tucked the mis-spelled one down the bottom of the layout (I'm not wasting a thing!)

It became an anchor for another spot, a cute sticker tag and one of my flair embellishments.

As well as puffy stickers and asterisks from the kit I did add in a few sequins just for a tad more gold.

I'm finding this kit really inspirational - hope you do too :)