Thinking Outside the Box!

So I'm often thinking of ways that I can capture and create memories, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes they could have a whole wall of memories but still get the pleasure of scrapbooking them. Well that is just what I am wanting to do. I am wanting to re-decorate my bedroom/craft area in a teal blue with hints of black and white so when I found this frame for only £1.99 in B&M I just had to get it! Here I am with some inspiration for you and how I completed the first of many projects.

So here is the end result..I will now talk you through how I created it window, by window.

So here is the first frame. We went on a trip to Brighton last week (yes we were lucky to get the lovely weather...now look at it again!) As usual I took a tonne of photo's and all of my layouts and designs over the next few weeks will be focused on this trip.
So here we have a picture of the Brighton Pier. For this window I used the following products:
From the Lite Kit:
Maggie Holmes Bloom - Afternoon Cardstock
Simple Stories Carpe Diem - Bits & Pieces
From the Embellishment Kit:
Elle's Studio Little Moments -  Bits & Pieces
Pink Fresh Studio Felicity - Puffy Sequin Stickers
Simple Stories Carpe Diem - Chipboard Stickers

Firstly I cut a 4x6 piece of the Maggie Holmes Bloom Afternoon cardstock and a piece of the same size of white cardstock and adhered the pattern paper to it, to give it more stability.
Next I printed my picture off my Canon Selphy at 6x4 with a border so it would be smaller than the backing paper, especially when I trimmed the border down even more with my cutter. On the photo itself I stuck one of the Carpe Diem Chipboard stickers which reads best day ever, 3 of the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Puffy Sequins and overlapped a couple of pieces of the Carpe Diem bits and pieces ephemera pack. In the right hand top corner of the photo I stuck on the Carpe Diem Chipboard Anchor and to finish off I used one of the Elle's Studio bits and pieces which reads Treasured Photographs.

Frame #2 and the products used:

From the Main Kit:

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Die Cuts

From the Lite Kit:

Fancy Pants Attwell Black & White Puffy Alphabet

From the Embellishment Kit:

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Puffy Sequin Stickers

Extras:

March April Pocket Card Kit

The next window is a 4x3 size and I hadn't realised when I made this window there were sadly no number stickers on the Attwell Puffy Alpha's sheet so I had to rummage through my stash to find some. I started by using one of the wood-grain 3x4 cards from the March/April Pocket Card Kit as my base. Because this was a card already I didn't feel the need to adhere it to more card. I then used the Attwell Black and White Puffy Alphabet stickers to spell out Brighton. At the bottom I used one of the Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi stickers (I LOVE THESE!) and that says Memories to remember always. To finish off this small card I used one of the hearts from the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Die Cuts and one of the Felicity Puffy Sequins.

Frame #3 and the products used:

From the Main Kit:

Maggie Holmes Bloom Afternoon Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Die Cuts

From the Embellishment Kit:

Elle's Studio Little Moments Bits & Pieces

This frame was a 5x5 size. Firstly I went onto my pic stitch app and used the 4 photo design. I added my photo's and when it came to printing, made sure the border option was on that way all 4 photo's would fit on a 6x4 photo sheet. I trimmed down the border and adhered it to the Maggie Holmes Bloom Afternoon cardstock which I had cut down to 5x5 and adhered that onto a piece of white cardstock of the same size. I cut 2 strips of the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts Cardstock (I didn't bother measuring, I just guessed) and put those behind the photo at the top and bottom of the photo. I wanted the picture off centre to the right so I could add 2 of the Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers. In the middle I added one of the hearts from the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Die Cuts and finished this design off with 2 pieces from the Elle's Studio Little Moments Bits & Pieces.

Frame #4 and the products used:

From the Main Kit:

Maggie Holmes Bloom Afternoon Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts Cardstock

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers

From the Lite Kit:

Simple Stories Carpe Diem Bits & Pieces

From the Embellishment Kit:

Elle's Studio Little Moments Bits & Pieces

This was the biggest window of the frame at size 5x7. Same as the previous window's so far I used the Maggie Holmes Bloom Afternoon cardstock cut at 5x7 inches and matted it on white cardstock. I also matted my photo on this one. I used the B side of the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts cardstock. Before I adhered all of these I used 2 of the tag shapes from the Elle's Studio Little Moments bits & pieces and layered them under the top right corner of the photo. I then added another piece of ephemera from the same collection to write the date on at the bottom of the photo. At the top I used another of the Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers (told you I love these!) and finished off by sticking down 2 bits of ephemera from the Simple Stories Carpe Diem Bits & Pieces pack.

Frame #5 and the products used:

From the Main Kit:

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Washi Stickers

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Rubber Charm Stickers.

For this 4x4 sized window I just matted it onto white cardstock as I wanted the photo to fit the whole frame. I used one of the Life Noted Rubber Charm stickers in the top corner and you guess it...more Life Noted washi stickers!

Frame #6 and the products used.

From the Main Kit:

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts cardstock

Simple Stories Carpe Diem Bits & Pieces

Pink Fresh Studio Life Noted Rubber Charm Stickers

This was a vertical 4x6 frame and again I wanted the photo to be the main focus so I backed it onto some of the Felicity Confetti Hearts cardstock A side, but only left a thin border so I could see a few of the hearts on it here and there. I am astounded by how many pieces come in the Carpe Diem bits & Pieces set...there's loads! I used three more in this frame and finished it off with one of the Life Noted Rubber Charm stickers.

Frame #7 and the products used:

From the Main Kit:

Fancy Pants Attwell Aqua Puffy Alpha Stickers

From the Lite Kit:

Fancy Pants Attwell Black & White Puffy Alpha Stickers

From the Embellishment Kit:

Fancy Pants Attwell  Green Puffy Alpha Stickers 

Simple Stories Carpe Diem Chipboard Stickers 

Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Sequin Puffy Stickers

Elle's Studio Little Moments Bits & Pieces

So for the last and final frame I decided I'd already got enough pictures and chose to put something a little more decorative in there. Using the Attwell Puffy Alpha's from the Main, Lite & Embellishment kit I stuck them onto a 3x4 piece of the Pink Fresh Studio Felicity Confetti Hearts cardstock, spelling the words LIVE LAUGH LOVE, I love this saying. For decoration I used one of two of the Carpe Diem Chipboard stickers One of the Pink Fresh Studio Puffy Sequins and one of the Elle's Studio Little Moments Bits & Pieces and I'm really pleased with how the card turned out.

I hope you like what I managed to come up with, this has now take place on an empty wall in my bedroom which I am going to fill with different frames. If you give something like this a go I'd love to see.

Until later...Happy Scrapping ~Zoe~

Telling simple stories 1

I'm moving at the end of May. My new job is very exciting and creative but moving house is a wrench. In no small part due to the fact that I adore living right by the sea in a really beautiful part of the country. So now I want to record lots of things about the place before I go for my seaside-sick moments.
I was sent a Simple Stories designer binder and the pocket card kit and couldn't wait to start playing.

I quickly realised that I am really no project lifer and have made loads of mistakes but it is still turning into an album that I know I will love and treasure.
Here is the first page

 I struggled with photo/card placement as I will have a lot of landscape photos and decided in the end to just have pages that need you to keep turning the binder in different directions to read!
I used papers from the main kit to mat my photos and journalling along with the cut out sheet of labels.
I didn't read Leo's warning about the lovely rubber charms (ie "please use them with a solid fixing such as a brad, sewing or a staple or put them in a pocket and avoid positioning them directly on photos as rubber can react to some photo emulsion coatings") but so far so good. Ironically I am doing something I love which is to put some things inside the pocket and some on the outside so the charm is on the photo but the phrase below is on the pocket

My next page is all about the excitement of seeing one of our local seals - who looked much bigger to the naked eye!

 
 This page is on the other side of the one before and I got myself very confuddled about placements. I stuck everything directly on to the same cardsand in the end the opening to the smaller pockets is at the bottom so those cards risk slipping out. Doh.

I cut up some of the little squares from the squared paper and layered them (cutting one in half) behind the Pinkfresh Studio Felicity die cut frame. The little arrow is made from a dissected  Atwell arrow/chevron shape

I'm on a steep learning curve and am realising that simple looking does not equal faster completion time but I am enjoying myself immensely! 

One Main and One Lite

Hi Leo here!

I have two layouts to share and as the title suggests one is all made with the 'Signs of Spring main kit and the second is all made with the 'This Life' Lite kit.

Here's the first layout.

I wanted to demo a couple of ideas to fix the rubber shapes down. I used mini brads from my stash for one bit and sewing with a sewing machine for another. I've put close ups of those further down.
To make the layout I first cut out 4 inch squares of paper from the Shimelle Starshine 'Viking' paper and some smaller size squares from the Crate Paper Bloom 'Together' paper. The other smaller squares I cut out from the Pinkfresh Studio Checkerboard paper

I cut out another 4x4 inch square of paper from the Pinkfresh Studio Happy Words paper to use the green patterned side and cut out he yellow xoxo bit on the front to use as an embellishment.

This piece I fixed down first in the middle of a sheet of the 12x12 white cardstock then I layered the squares of patterned paper up down the left side beginning with the larger pieces and building up to finish with the smallest ones as the top layer. The final layer to add was my photo which I fixed down with 3D foam pads to give it more definition against the layers.

Once that was completed I picked out some of the Pinkfresh Studio Felicity die cuts and added those on top of the layers and I did go back and added a few of the puffy sequins from the embellishment kit too. I added one of the washi stickers in the bottom right corner and to continue the washi look added a bit of the patterned washi tape from the embellishment kit over the top. I added one of the rubber charms on top again and used mini brads from my stash to fix it down. I made holes first using a safety pin then pushed through the brads.

There's another rubber charm at the top of the layout fixed down with machine sewing. I used a little bit of glue stick glue to hold the rubber shape down in the right place first before sewing. I pushed the machine needle in the rubber first as the starting point.

    

Then began to stitch forward and then back-stitched over the top:

                                        

To finish off I pulled the loose threads to the back then tied them together.

                                       

                                         

The title made with the Aqua puffy alphas was the final bit to add to complete the layout. 

OK here's the next layout made with just the Lite kit.

When I started this layout I was picked out the papers and layering them up and I liked the way the papers looked on the bottom edges stacked up.

So I made that the starting point for my layout. The two main layers are the Simple Stories Carpe Diem paper and the Simple Stories Aspen/Notebook paper. I cut them first so that the long sides with the barcode were cut off. I then cut off the bottom edge of the Pinkfresh Studio 'Pick up Sticks' paper to use as another layer.

I layered the three papers up on the white cardstock base and used a smaller strip of the Pick up Sticks paper to carry on the edge of the Carpe Diem paper and make it look like all one piece.

The top edges of the paper I snipped into where I wanted to cut them off and then trimmed down the tops. The last layer to add was another piece of the pick up sticks paper picking out the bit with the green arrows that matched my photo. This piece I fixed down along the top of the layout putting it behind the other two paper layers.







As a final touch I added some of the Carpe Diem die cuts to embellish the page. Some where glued down directly on the page and some fixed down with 3D foam pads. The play word was cut down from a larger die cut to make it better suit the layout. As a finishing touch I added some more stitching to some of the die cuts too.
The final touch again was the title made with the puffy stickers in the Lite kit. The tag I will add journalling to later.

That's it all done!
My next project I'm working on right now is a mini book made from altered page protectors and a personal size planner as a binder. I'll pop back in a few days and share what I've done so far. On 7th May there's also going to be a virtual crop going on for Scrapbooking Day via the @Craftytemplates Instagram feed, (I'll share all the posts to the Facebook page too). There'll be lots of fun and games and of course scrapbooking with Quirky Kits past and present to play along with. It'll be a great excuse to make time to use up your kits.

Just a quickie

Sometimes layouts take forever, other times it all falls into place. Helped very often by Quirky Kits. Leo has created some sketches as well as the fabulous kits this month and this layout sprang from one of them - but I reckon I can use the sketch again!
I actually began with the Lite kit this month and used the wonderful Pinkfresh Studio Felicity paper as my background. I almost went with it as it was, but then couldn't quite do that!

 I do find it amusing that actually this place looks quite attractive in the photo but when we were looking at it we were really underwhelmed...
I added strips of 3 other papers to the bottom half of my layout. I wanted some blue to echo the blue of the boats and thought that painting the striped paper would be apt as the layout is all about Churchill painting the same scene over and over and we couldn't work out why. I should have left it dry more as it has warped the page a bit.

I was pleased that the "today" matched the colour of the houses and I used all the little diecuts about drawing together (shame there was no paint brush!)

and I also added a few more die cuts just for fun

I did need to add in some Tim Holtz words and some letter stickers because Churchill used up all my "c's" in that gorgeous striped alphabet.
And bish, bash, bosh - layout done!

Creating your style/Grab Five

Today I'm going to be sharing my style of pocket page scrapbooking and this hasn't just been a thing you can choose in 2 minutes it's took me a while to master a style I completely clicked with. My style also seems to involve a Grab 5, a grab five is where you just pick 5 items to use throughout your entire layout, and without noticing I do is almost every time!

I start of by selecting a sheet of 12x12 this is Simple Stories Carpe Diem Make It Happen, and I cut it using my guiltine and then on this layout I have used my favourite side for the 6x4 pockets and the back side as the 3x4 pockets. 

Next using a black pen I draw around the card giving it an edge, I saw this idea last year on Pinterest and loved it. For the full layout I also use the same colour to back all my photos, on this layout I used BAZZILL Basics Cardstock JETSTREAM ( Grab Five 1/5 ).

Once the borders are drawn I work on each card like they are their own layouts, completing one card a time. Throughout this page I'll be using PinkFresh Studios Felicity Cardstock Diecuts ( Grab Five 2/5 ), PinkFresh Studio Rubber Charm Stickers ( Grab Five 3/5, PinkFresh Studio Washi Sheets ( Grab Five 4/5 ) and FancyPants Designs Aqua Puffy Stickers ( Grab Five 5/5 ).

Here is the overall out come and I am so impressed I have really enjoyed using this kit and have more pages to upload soon! 

MelanieJoanne❤️