Pick and Mix Challenge Week #4

Hi Leo here again to bring you the next in the new series of weekly challenges for January. 

We're now on to week four. If you need to catch up with the previous three weeks you can see week one here week two here and week three here.

The new weekly challenge is called:

Pick and Mix

In front of me I have a box of sweeties. Inside the box I've mixed in tokens, each with a different challenging element for you to use in creating your finished project.

How it works:

For each new week I'll pick out five tokens. You'll need to use all five prompts on that week's challenge layout. Once each token has been picked out I won't put them back in the sweetie box so we won't get any duplicate challenges. You can complete the weekly challenges in any order. I'll post a new one up every week until 29th January. Each new challenge will be posted here on the blog and also in the Facebook Group for you to follow along with.

Complete all the Pick and Mix weekly challenges to be eligible for an extra goody in your next kit box! The closing date to complete all four of your Pick and Mix challenge projects will be Tuesday 5th February 2019. All projects must be new projects made specifically for this challenge. You can use any stash you choose.

Ready to see the third challenge?

Here are the next picks:

1. Use at least five stickers from the same sheet.
2. Use the colour orange
3. Splash paint, (or other mixed media) on a piece of scrap card and use it to make an embellishment for your project.
4. Include a number or numbers in some way.
5. Use the colour turquoise.

Once you've finished your creation upload it to your platform of choice.

For Instagram tag @craftytemplates and mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge.

For Facebook add it to the Quirky Kits Group - they'll be a post for each new challenge there to share it to or else mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge when you share it.

For blog add a link to your project from your blog in the comments below any of the Pick and Mix challenge posts.

Or if you'd prefer to keep your project private you can email them directly to Leonora@craftytemplates.com

For the Pick and Mix challenges I'm going to leave open ended what your finished project is so you can create a scrapbook page or a mini book or a pocket page or a card or a travellers notebook page etc etc. I'll leave it up to you what you choose to do. I've also left out any prompts relating to the photo/s so if you have specific photos you want to get scrapped these prompts aren't going to stop you using the photos you want, just push you with a helping hand on the things to pick out, make and do.

Have fun!

Look out for a bonus round next week!

xx Leo

Shine Bright | ScrappyNerdUK (Claire) | November/December 2018 Kit

Happy New Year!!!!

Here is my first layout with the November/December kit (the non Christmas one).

I saved this kit in order to scrap in January as I knew that I would be burned out from Christmas projects and so this was a bit of light relief to be able to get back to "normal" scrapbooking!

I made this during the LIVE scrap along in the Quirky Kits Facebook group and I generally am live in the group every other Tuesday at 7pm (this month I'll be live on 22nd and 29th).

So, I decided to cut into the scallop paper and layered these at the bottom half of the page. I then used the black with white script paper on the top half. These 2 papers work so well together and I always love a layout that starts with a black and white theme.

I added the scallops to the bottom with a tiny amount of glue runner as I knew that I wanted to add some stitching and my sewing machine doesn't like double sided tape/glue runners.

I went with a zigzag stitch to create some interest. The stitching wasn't perfectly straight (I am literally the worst machinist!!).




I love a good Snapchat filter and have seen so many scrapbook pages being made with Snapchat photos. I cannot stop myself and I'm not even sorry (hehe).

I really wanted to use the white foam words (from Jillibean Soup) but, the white was getting lost on the background. So, I grabbed some ink pads and tested out a couple of pink colours and applied the ink onto the foam words. I used a wet wipe to dampen the colour a little and the colour is a lot closer to the bits of ephemera that I have used.

To the word bright, I added some machine stitching over the top of this also.

The ink takes a while to dry so I did leave it out overnight but I would say that 24 hours later, the ink was dry. It totally depends on the ink used so lower quality inks may not always dry on the foam words. I would always suggest testing your inks with a small bit of foam and try them out!!



Although this is a photo of my husband, I wasn't scared to use flower ephemera on the layout. I created 3 clusters of "bits" which is one of the design concepts I go with the majority of the time. I used some of the ephemera from the kit to create these 3 clusters around the photo and added some Heidi Swapp glittery enamel dots (also from the main kit).

I finished off the layout by adding another line of stitching at the top of the page to help tie the top into the bottom.

I'll be back here really soon with some more inspiration!!

Claire x

Lots of layers and no cardstock!

Hi Leo here today!

Hope you're treating yourself to some scrappy time this weekend. Here's a layout I finished up yesterday. I popped some idea in for things to try out. I used items from the current main and lite kits, (regular edition ones). I was also following the challenge of not using any plain cardstock set by UK Scrap Addicts this month. This was SO difficult to me as my default setting to start any page is to grab a sheet of plain white cardstock. I don't know about you but I sometimes feel a bit funny about using a whole sheet of patterned paper as a background. Like my brain will bug me thinking, "what about the other side that will get wasted!", "what about the other things I could do if I just cut it up". I squashed those thoughts this time as I just took delivery of some of the new papers this week for next kits and that got me thinking - there's more paper on the horizon! Just do it!!

Anyhoo here's my finished page:

The first stumbling block for not using plain cardstock was that I didn't have that to use as a photo mat. I thought the calendar side of the Crate Paper paper sheet from the main kit had a frame already as part of it so I made sure to print my photo to fit that frame then glued that over the top.

 Next I picked out this Jillibean Soup paper from the main kit and 'tidied' it up as I'd previously cut out a piece from it for a different layout so I used the width of the largest section to dictate the size. Instead of just cutting it I decided to create a 'distressed edge'. I used a wet paint brush to draw a line down the edge I wanted to 'cut'. Once the paper was saturated I ripped along the line then rolled up the edge. I repeated for the other side too. You need to then let the paper dry again but once it's dry the rolled edges stay rolled and it gives a nice flash of the yellow on the other side.

 I glued this sheet on to the other sheet of Jillibean Soup paper from the main kit with the side with the text on it. It's central on the paper. I then cut out a section of the black painted grid patterned paper from the main kit to glue over the top again.

 That was my background finished with no cardstock!! For the next step I first added my photo to my layout. I did this using 3D foam pads down the middle. This gives me the option then of tucking embellishments underneath as I build it up.

To build up the layers I used a mix of the ephemera from the Lite kit, (Jen Hadfield Along the Way ones and Jillibean Soup You Make MISO happy ones). I also cut out the leaves from the Carta Bella Our House Baking Time paper from the main kit.

I'm adapting the ephemera to suit my layout so I'm covering and layering and cutting the bits I don't want to leave me with the bits I do:

The little stickers from the Lite kit I made into a banner using off cuts of the black/white grid paper cut into little pennant shapes. I glued the piece of embroidery thread on first then added the paper pennant bits then the alphabet sticker over the top.

More of the ephemera being cut up to suit my layout. Here you can also see how it's handy to have foam pads just in the middle of my photo too so I can tuck behind the layers:

The last bit of ephemera I added with another foam pad over the top.

Hope it's given you some ideas to use for your next project! Do you find using no cardstock as difficult as I did?

x Leo

January Weekly Challenge - Pick and Mix Challenge #3

Hi Leo here again to bring you the next in the new series of weekly challenges for January. 

We're now on to week three. If you need to catch up with the previous two weeks you can see week one here and week two here.

The new weekly challenge is called:

Pick and Mix

In front of me I have a box of sweeties. Inside the box I've mixed in tokens, each with a different challenging element for you to use in creating your finished project.

How it works:

For each new week I'll pick out five tokens. You'll need to use all five prompts on that week's challenge layout. Once each token has been picked out I won't put them back in the sweetie box so we won't get any duplicate challenges. You can complete the weekly challenges in any order. I'll post a new one up every week until 29th January. Each new challenge will be posted here on the blog and also in the Facebook Group for you to follow along with.

Complete all the Pick and Mix weekly challenges to be eligible for an extra goody in your next kit box! The closing date to complete all four of your Pick and Mix challenge projects will be Tuesday 5th February 2019. All projects must be new projects made specifically for this challenge. You can use any stash you choose.

Ready to see the third challenge?

Here are the next picks:

1. Use the colour blue.
2. Use the colour yellow.
3. Re-use packaging in some way on your page. This could be directly or a part of a mixed media technique.
4. Cut your own embellishments from white card and mix them with your ready made ephemera. Extra tips - these could be punched out shapes or machine cut out/die cut or things like hand cut leaves or even just circles or squares to highlight/showcase your ephemera.
5. Use a bow embellishment. It could be a ready made one from your stash or one you make yourself with ribbon, or twine etc.

Once you've finished your creation upload it to your platform of choice.

For Instagram tag @craftytemplates and mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge.

For Facebook add it to the Quirky Kits Group - they'll be a post for each new challenge there to share it to or else mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge when you share it.

For blog add a link to your project from your blog in the comments below any of the Pick and Mix challenge posts.

Or if you'd prefer to keep your project private you can email them directly to Leonora@craftytemplates.com

For the Pick and Mix challenges I'm going to leave open ended what your finished project is so you can create a scrapbook page or a mini book or a pocket page or a card or a travellers notebook page etc etc. I'll leave it up to you what you choose to do. I've also left out any prompts relating to the photo/s so if you have specific photos you want to get scrapped these prompts aren't going to stop you using the photos you want, just push you with a helping hand on the things to pick out, make and do.

Have fun!

Look out for the final pick and mix challenge being posted up next Tuesday, 22nd January.

xx Leo

Scrappy Scraps Saturday

Hi! Leo here again today to share a layout I just finished up this Saturday morning.
When I'm scrapping I accumulate a lot of scrap paper bits and pieces, off cuts and the like, odd random ephemera bits and stickers. I tend to put them in my kit bag and as one kit moves on to another I tip the scraps into one bag so that after a time I have a bag of random bits and pieces. So for this layout I decided to tackle my scraps bag head on and create a layout from the bits and pieces inside. To start with I tipped out the bag and here's what it looked like:

I started out by punching out squares from the patterned paper pieces. The punch I used is a Woodware one, it's about 1 1/4 inch square. Once I'd done punching out from a paper piece I binned the rest of the sheet so I wasn't left with any big scraps bar a few bigger pieces I kept to one side. The smaller pieces I punched out into rectangles the same size and eventually used them to tuck under the square layers. Some other bits like the 'adventures' phrase I cut from one of the paper scraps, (I believe it's a Crate Paper sheet from the July/August 2018 kits). My photos I already had at this size. I cleaned up my album from the year before last and changed around some layouts so I was left with a few photos to sort out again. This also inspired me to use Laura's sketch with the small photos.

On some of the paper squares I stapled on ephemera. I think most of these I had in my bag were from the Pinkfresh Simple and Sweet set from May/June 2018 kits.

Then it was just a case of layering up the squares until I was happy. I followed Laura's Sketch for the 'For The Love of Pretty Paper' Sketch Saturday this is the one:

Here's the finished layout:

It was a really fun layout to put together and I made use of almost every bit of paper in my scrap bag! 

xx

January Weekly Challenge - Pick and Mix Challenge #2

Hi Leo here again to bring you the next in the new series of weekly challenges for January. Week one was last week and if you've not yet completed that challenge you can read that one here.
The new weekly challenge is called:

Pick and Mix

In front of me I have a box of sweeties. Inside the box I've mixed in tokens, each with a different challenging element for you to use in creating your finished project.

How it works:
For each new week I'll pick out five tokens. You'll need to use all five prompts on that week's challenge layout. Once each token has been picked out I won't put them back in the sweetie box so we won't get any duplicate challenges. You can complete the weekly challenges in any order. I'll post a new one up every week until 29th January. Each new challenge will be posted here on the blog and also in the Facebook Group for you to follow along with.
Complete all the Pick and Mix weekly challenges to be eligible for an extra goody in your next kit box! The closing date to complete all four of your Pick and Mix challenge projects will be Tuesday 5th February 2019. All projects must be new projects made specifically for this challenge. You can use any stash you choose.

Ready to see the second challenge?
Here are the next picks:

1. Use white letters on a white background.
2. Use one or more buttons as embellishments.
3.  Use three, (or more) dots of something glittery.
4. Create a patterned paper border around the edge of your page/project.
5. Use the colour red.

Once you've finished your creation upload it to your platform of choice.

For Instagram tag @craftytemplates and mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge.

For Facebook add it to the Quirky Kits Group - they'll be a post for each new challenge there to share it to or else mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge when you share it.

For blog add a link to your project from your blog in the comments below any of the Pick and Mix challenge posts.

Or if you'd prefer to keep your project private you can email them directly to Leonora@craftytemplates.com

 

For this challenge I'm going to leave open ended what your finished project is so you can create a scrapbook page or a mini book or a pocket page or a card or a travellers notebook page etc etc. I'll leave it up to you what you choose to do. I've also left out any prompts relating to the photo/s so if you have specific photos you want to get scrapped these prompts aren't going to stop you using the photos you want, just push you with a helping hand on the things to pick out, make and do.

 

Have fun!

Look out for the next pick and mix challenge being posted up next Tuesday, 15th January.

xx Leo

London - Natalie

Happy New Year everyone! 

I'm back today with a super simple Project Life style layout to match my previous layout.

Have you all finished scrapbooking your December photos, or like me have you not even looked at your Christmas photos yet? I know I'll still be using my kit throughout January as I catch up! 

Supplies used:

Main Kit:

- Crate Paper Merry Days Frosty Days Paper

- Crate Paper Merry Days specialty vellum

Extras Shop:

- Crate Paper Merry Days ephemera pack

Own Stash:

- Wooden alpha - we had a similar alpha which was half wooden, half gold in a Quirky Kit last year. 

- Wood veneer

- One PL filler card

Above the first photo is the layout I made a few weeks ago (blog post available to read), and the second photo is the matching PL layout.

I photographed this PL layout outside the page protector to try and reduce the glare. 

I decided to include 7 photos all portrait and 3x4 inches in size. I used the Silhouette studio software (which is free to download even if you don't have a machine like me) to collage and print my photos.

For my title card I added a 6x4 inch piece of the Merry Days Frosty Days paper which matches the paper I used on the accompanying layout. As this is such a busy paper I kept the embellishing very simple, I used matching wood veneer to my layout. I also added the beautiful pink ice skates from the Merry Days ephemera pack, with some glue dots for dimension.  I love how you can see two girls skating on this section of the paper I cut - perfect for my photos, and a complete fluke - I couldn't have planned it better!

In the bottom right pocket I added a 4x6 section of the beautiful vellum, and layered behind a full 4x6 card of journalling about our day and our tickets. I added the wood veneer tab (from my stash) to show the reader that there is something to pull out and read. 

I absolutely love how this pocket looks with the ticket and journalling peeking through the vellum. It also allowed me to fit so much journalling onto the layout easily. 

Because of these two busy pockets I kept the rest of the layout very simple, normally I do add embellishments to the photos as well, but this time I decided to keep them plain. 

I added one filler card from my stash, and fussy cut out one snowglobe from the vellum. It was easy to adhere by hiding the glue behind the dark tree. 

This layout was super quick and easy to make and helped me to showcase lots of photos and journalling - my favourite parts of scrapbooking!

See you at the weekend for another layout with the Nov/Dec kit.

Natalie x

January Weekly Challenge - Pick and Mix Challenge #1

Hi Leo here, happy new year!

Hope you're suitably recovered and ready to take on the new year! Last kit time we had a sketch challenge so for this new challenge I wanted to create a different format. The new weekly challenge for this new kit time is called:

Pick and Mix

In front of me I have a box of sweeties. Inside the box I've mixed in tokens, each with a different challenging element for you to use in creating your finished project.

How it works:
For each new weekly challenge I'll pick out five tokens. You'll need to use all five prompts on that week's challenge layout. Once each token has been picked out I won't put them back in the sweetie box so we won't get any duplicate challenges. You can complete the challenges in any order. I'll post a new one up every week over the next four weeks. Each new challenge will be posted here on the blog and also in the Facebook Group for you to follow along with.
Complete all the Pick and Mix weekly challenges to be eligible for an extra goody in your next kit box! The first one is here today, 1st Jan 2019 and a new one will be posted every week with the final one on 29th January 2019. The closing date to complete all four of your Pick and Mix challenge projects will be Tuesday 5th February 2019. All projects must be new projects made specifically for this challenge. You can use any stash you choose.

Ready to see the first challenge?
Here are the first picks:

1. Use a quote.
2. Use the colour pink.
3. Use a handwritten element.
4. Create a stitched frame accent, (can be real or faux stitches).
5. Use the colour grey.

Once you've finished your creation upload it to your platform of choice.

For Instagram tag @craftytemplates and mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge.

For Facebook add it to the Quirky Kits Group - they'll be a post for each new challenge there to share it to or else mention it's for the Pick and Mix challenge when you share it.

For blog add a link to your project from your blog in the comments below any of the Pick and Mix challenge posts.

Or if you'd prefer to keep your project private you can email them directly to Leonora@craftytemplates.com

 

For this challenge I'm going to leave open ended what your finished project is so you can create a scrapbook page or a mini book or a pocket page or a card or a travellers notebook page etc etc. I'll leave it up to you what you choose to do. I've also left out any prompts relating to the photo/s so if you have specific photos you want to get scrapped these prompts aren't going to stop you using the photos you want, just push you with a helping hand on the things to pick out, make and do.

 

Have fun!

Look out for the next pick and mix challenge being posted up next Tuesday, 8th January.

xx Leo