Wednesday 28 July 2010

Wednesday extra from Amanda Jones

It's Wednesday and that means it's time to share yet another fantastic tutorial with you! 

This week we have a project from our very own Amanda who has made two gorgeous cards featuring these amazing hand made scrunchy ribbons.


Isn't she talented!  I am definitely going to have to have a go at making some of these and if you fancy joining me, you can view, print or download Amanda's scrunchy ribbon tutorial right here

Happy scrunching! :-)

Tuesday 27 July 2010

A winner!

Do you remember back in June I posted a giveaway for our followers and facebook fans? Good, I'm glad you remembered because I totally didn't! I chose a winner and then forgot to post it here. Luckily I have a super observant design team who know how ditzy I can be, and they gave me a nudge ;)

So here is the lucky winner of the Cosmo Cricket boyfriend collection!

Becky!

I'm not sure I 'know' Becky - so hopefully she'll be keeping an eye out for this post. Becky, email me your details (amanda@scrapbook-101.com) and I'll get your prize sent out at the weekend!

See you all tomorrow for our Wednesday extra!

Sunday 25 July 2010

25th July 2010: Sunday Challenge

This one's a good one!

Use old and new stash on same LO
I will have to have a go at this one because I hardly ever use my old stash these days. Sadly I didn't get around to this challenge yet, but the other DT girls did:


Amanda:
The picture is of my great aunt, holidaying in Criness (no, I don't know where that is either lol) back in the 1940s. My old stash is the Scenic Route background paper, the ribbon and trim and an old K&Co die cut tag. The newbies are the green mist and the gorgeous flowers from Precocious Paper. I know I keep using Tessa's products and raving about them, but they're so delicious! And, I swear, I'm not earning commission!

I spritzed a bit of mist on and also dipped a brush in and painted it on beneath my photo and embellishments. The rest of it just fell into place afterwards, and I wanted to keep it fairly simple to show off the old photo and those yummy flowers :)

Anna:
Here's my layout for Sunday challenge, old and new.I used some lovely old Sassafras Lass and new October Afternoon papers. I also used some older plain chipboard letters and painted them yellow, then painted little pink flowers on them and covered them with gloss to finish them off. I'm really pleased with how they turned out!

Fabi:

What i liked about this challenge is that it made me really dig into my stash and look for my old sutff not being used! So for this layout i used very old stickers like the arrow and ols scraps of paper. The polka dot one is from an old collection from 3 bugs in a rug, and so is the decorated paper flower with the heart inside it. The newest stuff on my stash is this making memories girl vintage kit (the clips, the heart, the baby flower and the ticket)...funny that the newest things are those with an old look :) Hope you all like it, i did as a gift for my brother and my syster in law. Sara is the name of my little niece, just turned 4 months old recently.

Nic:

For this challenge I chose to use both the oldest and newest papers I have from the same manufacturer (Bobunny) - I used 2 papers from one of their 2007 lines which have been sitting in my stash for about 3 years now, alongside papers recently purchased from their flower child line.  I applied the same principle of old and new to my embellishments - the raffia and lace strip have also been hanging around in my stash since time began and the liquid pearls are one of my latest purchases :-)

Andrea


I actually did two different things that met this week's challenge of using old with new! For the first project, I made a set of 6 different cards using some really old, glittery stickers with the new Sassafrass Line Cherry Delicious! It was so much fun to create the cards and then use the stickers, they went together perfectly. For my second project, I used an old piece of purple cardstock that I have had for ages and paired it with some new Kasier papers that I picked up last month! Have fun combining the old and the new!

Tessa


I had to dig to find old papers! Since I've moved twice in the past year, I've been really good about donating my old papers and only keeping on hand what I know I'll use (meaning, the latest and greatest!).  I found two papers by Junkitz that I had bought for my boys' baby books (the boys are now 7 and 6 years old).   I mixed them with an orange patterned paper by Echo Park, which is a company that just came on the scene a few months ago.  Looking at the layout as a whole, I don't think you can tell that there is a 5 year difference between the papers!



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So if you're up for the challenge then don't forget to add your photo to the link gadget in the sidebar by midnight GMT on 31st July to be entered for the Cosmo Cricket prize!

Thursday 22 July 2010

Please give a warm welcome to...

our three new Design Team members! The ladies chosen by the DT vote are... drumroll...

Sara Noendeng
Sue Mylde
Valerie Mangan

Go say "hi" on their blogs or visit this post for a reminder of who's who!

Thank you once again to everyone who entered the call and has supported our finalists! A special thank you goes to all 8 finalists for sharing their creations with us. There were so many talented applicants, we'd love to have invited a lot more of you to join the team! If you didn't make it this time, please do try again in January.

I'd especially like to say thank you to the returning DT members who've been absolute superstars over the last few months. I love those girls :)

Wednesday 21 July 2010

Wednesday extra from Fabi Ormerod

It's Wednesday again and that means it's extra time!  This week we have a tutorial from the amazing Fabi who has created the perfect project to help anybody who may be a bit like me, i.e: sometimes forgetful ;-)  Fabi has used her scrapbooking supplies to make a scrap calendar, which gives a cool place to store and record all those little reminder notes and forthcoming appointments / deadlines.

Here is a little peek of Fabi's scrap calendar:


To see more of Fabi's project and access full instructions, click on this link where you will be able to view, print or download her scrap calendar tutorial.

Monday 19 July 2010

DT Contest - announcement

I have been closely monitoring activity on the blog over the past few days due to the DT contest. As we stated in this post, voters may vote only once in the poll. I'm sorry to say that not everybody has been sticking to this rule, and as a result I am cancelling the poll with immediate effect.

I'm so incredibly sorry to have to do this, however, it is the only fair thing to do. It's a shame that what was meant to be a bit of fun has turned into something else entirely. I hope you understand why we have taken this decision and you will support us in this. I apologise to the contestants who played fairly, and to all the people who took time out of their day to show their support to our finalists.

The 3 new DT members will now be chosen via a vote by the current Design Team. As soon as I have collected the votes, the new DT members will be invited and will be announced here in a few days.

Thanks for your understanding,
Amanda x

Sunday 18 July 2010

18th July 2010: Sunday Challenge

Morning everyone. Have you all be deliberating hard over the beautiful LOs and cards from our would be design team? I know that I have. Great work ladies!

For today's challenge Amanda says: Scrap off the page: Make something other than a scrapbook page with your scrapping supplies. It can be anything you like, so use your imagination!
Here is what the design team did with the challenge

Amanda



I made this little collage for a vintage frame I bought to sit alongside some other vintage bits in my living room. I used a Jenni Bowlin bingo card as the background and distressed it a bit to make it look more aged. I then added a few other vintagey finds to it, such as postage stamps and an old tea collectors card to complement it and add a bit of colour. I finished it off with a paper flower that I spritzed with some 'suede' Glimmer Mist, glued to the edge of the frame. Simple, but it matches my room nicely and I love being able to find a use outside of an album for at least some of the things I've collected!

Andrea



I had some Sassafrass Lass Cherry Delicious papers and decided to create an address book. I have't had one for ages and I thought it would be a little easier to use then having to search through my computer to find any addresses that I might need! It was fun creating something for myself that I will actually use!!

Anna:


I got this cheap little notebook in a local shop recently but it was a bit plain so I decided to jazz it up a bit! I'm going to use it for all my scrapping and crafty ideas as I'm fed up with having bits of paper around the place!

Fabi:

It's always great to be placed out of our confort zone, as with this challenge. Im so used to only do layouts that forgot how fun is to make a handmade gift. So this is a little notebook ive made for a friend this week. Ive used this cute bird stamp from martha Stewart, and to add a bit of glamour to it, ive used a pearl as eye. Hope you enjoy it ;) Kisses to you all.

Lisa:


Using My Little Shoebox papers to make this altered frame and to alter these empty pots.

Nic:


I recently bought some shadow box frames from Ikea with the intention of altering them and then with perfect timing this challenge popped into my mailbox :-)

I wanted to make a picture frame incorporating a quote so used my scrapping supplies to do so. I used colours that complemented my chosen room decor - red, white and black. As the frame is quite deep I was able to add a lot of dimension and to incorporate overlays into my frame.

Rebekah:

I love 'add your own photo' snowglobes and I came across these extra large bad boys (sorry- I work with teenagers!)on ebay. I used some left over bits of October Afternoon papers with a photo of Connor and I on one side and a photo of Bailey and Connor on the other. I added stickers and rub ons to the photo of Bailey and Connor and a felt heart, and I added rubs ons and flowers to the photo of Connor and I. There is foam in between the two photos so I added another scrap of photo to the outer edge to finish it all off and hide the foam.

I'm constantly losing paperwork. It comes through the door and then gets put in a carrier bag when I scoop up things to take upstairs at the end of the day, and then they stay there until I get around to sorting them out. It's resulted in missed deadlines recently though so I decided that I needed a better way of keeping my post safe. So I decorated this wooden magazine holder to match the colours of my lounge and it sits on the shelf nicely :)

Tessa:




I decided to try my hand at making a yarn wreath and to embellish it with the same kind of handmade things I like to add to my scrapbook layouts. I chose my favorite color palette and began wrapping. Two hours later, I was ready for fabric yo-yos, paper doilies, spiraled felt rosettes, chipboard hearts, and paper butterflies. I scrapped simple chipboard tags and hung them by gingham ribbon. This wreath will hang in my scrapbook room and is just the beginning of a new hobby, I think!
We hope that you enjoy playing along with this week's challenge. Don't forget to add your finished project to the sidebar links for a chance to win some fab Cosmo Cricket goodies x

Thursday 15 July 2010

It's time to vote!

Oh my goodness! We need your votes! Below are the beautiful creations made by our 8 DT contest finalists. It's now time for you to vote for your favourite. Simply vote by selecting your favourite from the list in the sidebar. Here's a reminder of the challenge they created for:

Scrap about the bravest thing you have ever done. Have you taken a big risk in your life? Did it pay off? And THEN... make a card from the scraps left over from creating your page!

Let's get right to it, shall we? In no particular order... here are the entries!

Valerie Mangan



The hidden journaling on my layout documents a solo trip to California that became the symbolic finale to a year of big change for me. A year of brave acts, decisions & risks.
The layout features my actual boarding passes, along with some vintage-style ephemera. By stitching the ledger paper to the cardstock base, I was able to cut a pocket behind the photos for the journaling tag. I stitched around the border, the photo block, through the corrugated alphas and arrow to tie it all together.



My scrap consisted of thin strips of ledger paper, some of the graph paper and the waste from the back of the alphabets. I used it all & added some stitching to make a graphic travel card.

Anna Parker





I have really enjoyed this challenge, although at first I thought, I don't think I've really done anything that brave. But when I thought about it more, I realised that having my little boy was the scariest, bravest and most amazing thing that has ever happened to me all rolled into one. Every mum to be feels lots of different emotions before giving birth and I remember my midwife saying that I was doing really well and being really brave. So thats why I chose this subject. I have used a mixture of Jenni Bowlin and October Afternoon papers on this page along with some pegs and a nice little poem that I found about being a mum.
For the card I used my left over scraps of paper and kept the subject of babies for a 'Congratulations' card. I used a few of my favourite punches, a pin and some rhinestones. I also added some detail to the envelope to tie it all in together. Thank you for this opportunity and I hope I have done enough to make it on to the design team! Anna x

Sue Mylde



There were two things that I wanted to achieve with this layout - first to find a way to incorporate my extensive journaling and second, to use some fun embellishments which represent my personal style within the layout. For the journaling, I decided to divide my journaling into three parts - one at the top of the layout, second under the title, and a short conclusion at the bottom of the page. My personal style includes layering, and using different textures. Using bling, ribbon, rub-ons, chipboard and even masks and misting helped me to create a fun, textured layout with many things to look at. The textures within the title, using two different alphas, lend itself to reading the title in two ways - 'Find Courage' and 'In Motherhood I Find My Courage'. This is such a meaningful layout (with my favorite pregnant pic!) and I wanted all the elements to come together to help tell my story in a sweet way.



Using the scraps from the layout, I created this fun, simple card: Just A Hello. I used a remaining patterned paper and used similar misting techniques with butterfly masks, which I then adhered to the central features of the card. Adding a bit of bling and using a similar textured title makes the sentiment stand out on the card - very important for a card! To give the card additional texture, I adhered on some lace and a scallop-punched panel of patterned paper. I love this card... but who do you think I should give this card to??

Marie Johansson



I´m not a person who has done many brave thing in my lifetime. I chose to share with you my thouhgts about giving birth to my second child. Delivering my son Max was easy, but afterwards the things begun getting wrong. The placenta got stuck, and the whole thing got quite dramatic. So, for a long time I did decide not to have any more children. Convincing myself to have a second child, and overcoming the fear and chaotic thoughts abot delivering is a thing I´m really proud of doing. So giving bith to my daughter Alice is probably the bravest thing I´ve ever done. I´ve used playful and girly papers on this one. Not only pinks, since my daughter isn´t a pink girl. I torn papers and layering. The tags holds the journaling.



For the card I´ve used the leftovers from the overlay and two other papers. I like my cards to be simple, and this is a typical "Mison" card.

Melissa Wright





The bravest thing I have ever done is to audition for so you think you can dance canada. I auditioned a year ago, on a cold April day. I was so nervous as I had never done anything like that before!! It didn't pay off, I was not selected to go through, but I was happy I did it and can say I was a part of the process. The picture in this LO captures exactly how I was feeling as I waited in line and was stretching to get ready. It shows my happiness but I can remember how nervous I was. That is what I love about scrapbooking being able to remember the special moments in life. Thank you for letting me be a part of the finalists!

Sara Noendeng



When I first saw this challenge, I had a mind blank. I have never done anything I would call brave so how was I going to scrap this challenge? I decided to go with the possibility of being brave one day and that I would hope that I can be if the situation ever arose.



My card was created from my scraps, the black cardstock from the photo mat, another journal block, the last flower in the pack and some blings and alphas from the same sheets.

Sookie Francisco



Deciding to work in Singapore was one of the biggest and bravest decision in my life. Having led a secured life in the Philippines, I was hesitant yet I wanted to fulfill my dreams. It was a life-changing decision and I never regretted it. I got to know myself and was able to face my new life heads-on. After ahwile, I realized it was not scary after all. It was my life's greatest adventure.

For the layout, I used Webster's Pages Seaside Retreat New Discoveries as based. Don't you think that the paper itself speaks about my theme? :-) I went crazy with the tearing but it gave dimension to the page. The Merlion is one of Singapore's icons. I thought it is fitting to print a picture of it to show that my destination was Singapore. I printed it in an off-white cardstock, handcut it then created a cluster of flowers at its bottom. The journal is hidden. If you pull up the red baggage, it will show you my handwritten journal.



As for the card, the base of the card is Webster Pages once again. I stamped an image of the girl in the swing and adhered the twine. I then added some flowers. And, inked and misted the bottom (ground). I also stamped a sentiment which is just perfect for a friend I wish to give the card to.

Thank you very much for this wonderful opportunity.

Michelle Neddo



I love how a challenge can make you step out of your comfort zone, or can
prompt you to do something you wouldn't otherwise. That's exactly what this
challenge was to me (guess that's why they call it a challenge!) Sometimes
a scrapbook page is story-driven, sometimes photo-driven, and sometimes,
I'll admit, product-driven. This page began with the story, and it was fun
to feel it evolve into itself as I wrote. I live a pretty charmed life, one
not really filled with any acts of real bravery. And as I wrote about how I
am not brave, I began to realize that I actally am, in my own quiet way. I
really wanted the words and photo to take center stage, so I kept the
accents on this LO to a minimum. I removed the flowers from a bracelet and
spray painted them in pink and white. You can read the journaling at my
blog: lifemadecreations.blogspot.com


I had to scrounge for some scraps for this card--my layout didn't leave much
in the way of scraps. I punched the 2 squares and 2 butterflies from the
paper plate I spray painted the flowers on and 2 squares from the packaging
from the silk flowers. Quick and simple!

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Voting will close at the end of Wednesday 21st July (midnight UK time), and the winners will be declared on Thursday 22nd! Choose your vote carefully as you can vote only once!

Wednesday 14 July 2010

Wednesday Extra from Anna White-Sharman

Today we have a project to share with you designed by our lovely Anna.  If you like your handbags then I think you are in for a real treat, as Anna has transformed and individualised a plain black 12 x12 bag using her chosen embellishments. 


If you would like to create something similiar, you can either view, print or download Anna's complete instructions for this project in a PDF file which can be found here.

Happy transforming :-)

Sunday 11 July 2010

11th July Sunday Challenge

Today it's warm and the kids need supervision in the paddling pool so we're keeping it simple!

Make a layout using only cardstock, patterned paper and alphabet stickers

So if you're up for the challenge then don't forget to add your photo to the link gadget in the sidebar by midnight GMT on 31st July.

And here's what the design team did simply:

Anna

I did lots and lots of hand cutting for this one!

Fabi

I liked this challenge as it makes us recycle and create our embellishments instead of buying more stuff lol. (not that I don't enjoy buying!)I looked for a colorful picture and tried to create a little garden lol. I've made the flowers and used a lace cardstock to add a nice look to the page. Here a close up on the little flower made with paper. No lets see what your creativity creates! ;)


Lisa
Can't go wrong with Sassafras when using just patterned papers. A pair of scissors and off you go : )

Nic

This was a challenge I felt really comfortable with as one of my favourite things to do when creating a page is to hand cut elements from patterned papers to form embellishments. I wanted to scrap an old pre-digi photo of my son having a snooze in his much loved car seat after a busy day out and chose papers that matched this theme with lots of bright, fun images to cut out, then I got busy with my scissors! I used a couple of co-ordinating cardstocks teamed with a variety of different sized and coloured alpha stickers for my title.

Tessa

With a challenge like this one, I found it much easier to create by using scraps on a neutral background. It felt good to use up little pieces (less waste is always a good thing) and the simplicity of the design is just perfect for the feeling I was trying to convey. Plus, it came together quickly!

Amanda

I have two words for you: hand cutting. I used my all time fave American Crafts 'Letterbox' papers as they are perfect for cutting out lots of things to embellish your pages. I just grabbed a few sheets, snipped out some designs and then decided what I was going to do with them afterwards. I also used some scraps to make some paper rolls, which is a technique I've been wanting to try out forever, and have never got around to.

The key to layering all these bits was 3d foam pads, and more 3d foam pads, especially to layer the journaling spots over the paper rolls - the pads are doubled up under there! You can see how much dimension there is in the photo above. I'm not even thinking about how it's going to fit in my album! The final touch was the thickers, and I used some of the punctuation to accent my flowers, too.

Rebekah
This challenge worked really well for this LO I've been meaning to do for sometime. The LO I created is a lift from the Sassfrass blog. I used some great space paper with lots of bits that I cut out and lifted with foam squares for added interest. I distressed the photos with a file and hey presto- 'My little astrophysicist'.