Expensive week!

Wish it was a huge craft bill I'd run up, but nope, the old MOT...   thank goodness for plastic!   Just glad I sold that stuff on ebay, that helped to make a dent in it.
But have managed to get some scrapping done.  This was for a challenge I set, using a sketch from pencil lines (wonderful blog, full of ideas and stuff you can use/download). 

I must be going thru a green phase,  I've had a blue phase, and a pink phase, now it is green! 


But it was an easy layout to follow.   A triangle,  and two oblongs/rectangles,  the photo and 3 buttons, well I used chipboard ones,  and added a couple of strips of green card.   That was just to add accent and lift the layout a little.   Just seen another version and that is fabulous,  may ask permission to show it on here.

All for now,  be back soon.

A bit of a challenge

I set a challenge on a group and it has taken me all month to complete it!  Part of my problem was choosing what photos to take, the challenge was to take 4 photos that could sum up a typical day  and then follow a template.   I finally settled on four photos,  one of porridge, which I have for breakfast, most days include crafting, so took pic of my messy craft table,  and I chat to friends using skype,  and I do like a nice glass of red... 
Took me ages to settle on a colour scheme,  tried pink first, but that didn't work,  finally chose green, then didn't like the photos,  so matted them with pink and green card,  that seemed to lift them,  did the lettering with The Slice,  and added some gromlets using the Big Bite, green and brown.  

Here's the template if you want to have a go. 

Materials:

• Collosal colour card pack, PM
• DCWV patterned paper
• Gromlets
• Plain cream paper from my stash

Tools

• The Slice
• Big Bite
• Photo glue
• Craft knife, ruler, eraser, paper trimmer

Think I got the cream paper (used for lettering) from papershop,  many moons ago.   Forgotten I had the box of paper, and how mad I'd gone picking colours, will be very handy for the lettering.  

Do remember that all the templates can be downloaded,   I am thinking of using PDF files as well.  Have fun, and happy scrapping.

Short Takes

I had a rummage thru some holiday photos and found this one,  taken in 1992 on Venice Beach in California. The photo shows two cops, suitably attired for beach patrol!

Materials: 

• Yellow Card from Collosal card pack (PM)
• Papers from Scrapbook magazine

Tools

• Craft knife, 
• Ruler, pencil, rubber
• Photo glue
• The Slice - for lettering and shapes

 I used the yellow card (12x12) as my base, then taking the papers from latest issue of Scrapbook magazine, I selected the stripey one for the first mat,   I then cut an oblong out of it at an angle,  in this I placed the blue oblong mat, then photo,  and cut a frame from the gingham paper.  With rest of gingham paper I cut two stars using the Slice,  and then used some blue paper to cut out the lettering.

Here's the template.   It is a very easy design to follow,  I used 4 papers in total.   The smaller stars on mine came from middle of the stars. 

Think tho I will change the title to Beach Patrol, it  is more apt! 


I enjoy scrapping old holiday photos, they always bring back pleasant memories.  I remember from that holiday how hot it was, over 100C for most of the fortnight we were there, we melted when we stepped off the plane!   We'd left blighty on a chilly October day,  so we all had warmish clothing on,  jeans etc,  think we all hit the showers when we got to our hotel.   First drink was a very cold beer I seem to recall.   I am going to add some journalling to the page, nothing is stuck down yet.  

That is a useful rule to follow, NEVER stick anything down, same applies in cardmaking, don't stick anything till you are sure of your layout.  I did spend some time on this layout, about a couple of hours, a lot of that was spent mucking about trying different papers,  colours etc. 

Yep I am going to mention The Slice...  it is proving an invaluable tool,  lettering is the bane of all scrapbookers.   You can choose to spend a fortune on chipboard letters, thickers, peel offs, go down the die cut route and spend a fortune on various alphabets,  or opt for a robo/silhouette (go for the latter), or choose the cricut, or do what I did, and go for The Slice. 

Thanks for stopping by

Sometimes it takes a long time...

As it did with this design.  I was happy with the scalloped flower design, but not with the original colour of card, which was white, so I tried pink I still didn't seem to work...  finally had a good old root and found the stripey paper! 

I cut the scalloped shape ages ago and for the life of me I can't exactly remember how I did it. Got a feeling I used a compass cutter, which I kept on moving to get the scalloped effect.  For the edging I used strips of white card, again I used a circle cutter to make the arcs,  they taper at one end.  I cut the photo frame using a template, circle with circle cutter and lettering with The Slice,   card is from Papermania Collosal colour pack, and DCWV,   flowers from Do crafts, same with brads. 

Sadly I had to send my second design card back to QVC,  just one section of it was faulty, the flower section.  I thought at first I'd moved the slice when it was cutting, but tried again, got same result,  tried two different flowers, one cut okay, the other didn't,  rest of the designs were fine,  did mull over whether to send it back, but thought I should.  So back its gone.

My new cutting mat and stuff finally arrived,  like the circle cutter, someone had commented that it was difficult to use, but I found it easy.  Didn't get along so well with the paper cutter,  but think that was because I was using a craft table,  not very sturdy.  Nice having the circle cutter,  will do really big circles! 

More designs/templates soon, and something new!

New Template, and thoughts on The Slice

Today was my first real opportunity to use The Slice, luckily my second card from QVC also arrived, so I had lots of designs to choose from.

All scrapbooking starts with a photo, and I chose one from a birthday party.

Materials:

• Papermania Collosal coloured card pack
• Papermania Textured card
• DCWV (Nancy Hill) kit from QVC - blue paper.
• Do Crafts monochrome set of buttons, brads and flowers.
  
• The Slice/Photo Glue/Sticky Dots/Adhesive gems

I used pink card for my base,  cut a large circle (using a dinner plate) from the cream card,   then cut 4 strips of blue paper,  made them odd lengths,  stuck them down to circle, placing photo on top.  Finished that off with the buttons and flowers.  In the corners, I cut two designs from The Slice Noteworthy collection, and the flower design (same collection),    cut 3 frames (same collection) and lettering. 

Here's the template - for some reason the left hand corner seems to have slipped down!  Oops,  but you do get the idea. 

I used 3 colours, pink, cream and white.   To attach the tiny flower design I used a stix sheet,  an A5 sized sheet of sticky dots,  much better than fiddling around with glue for such a small design. 

I am very pleased with The Slice and am happy to recommend it to all scrapbookers.  It just does what it says on the tin - cuts shapes up to 4 inches, which is plenty big enough for scrapbooking.   The lettering for the word 'smiles' is 2.5 inches,  and for 'all' it is 1.5 inches.  You get a very neat cut, and it is quick. 

You need a bit of trial and error with the glue for the glass,  too little and the paper/card won't stay in place, too much and you won't get the cut off the plate.  Best tip to remove the used glue is to use Cif, and a non scratch pad,  comes up a treat!

I know I am going to get a lot of use out of The Slice, far more than I ever did with the Robo.  I know there are many who wouldn't part with their robo,  and I do admire their skill at using it and coming up with designs for it.  I am tho very happy with my new little machine,  it is all I need, and is exactly what I need.

Happy Scrapping

Now the proud owner of...

The Slice, a stand alone machine for digital cutting.  It is a small gizmo,  can be used on mains or unplugged,  and will cut shapes/alphabets up to 5 inches. 

I have got a robo, but frankly I've given up on it.  It is just so clumsy to use,  even the software is chewy to use... I say chewy cos you need to figure it out, the help section isn't very helpful.  I also found cutting was a nightmare, it would rarely recognise the thickness of the paper or card, it would either cut it or chew it up.  I bought the new software, but couldn't get that to cooperate with the old stuff...    and yet silhouette owners have no probs, same machine,  almost similar software...     It just wasn't for me,  I accept that others find it a doddle and very useful, but it was never my cup of tea.  Did think about the Cricut, but it was way too expensive,   I just wanted something that would cut letters and shapes,  without having to resort to the expense of buying umpteen dies, or alphabet sets, and be able to resize as I wished. 

I had the machine up and running within ten minutes,  it was already charged and ready to go,  so I inserted the card, put the glue on plate and got cutting,  it was as easy as that.   Very happy with results, and I was just cutting odd bits and bobs.    I was also getting fed up of having to buy lettering,  it can work out to be very expensive as you always run out of the vowels.    I can see me adding more cartridges to this machine as I go along, not that I mind,  far cheaper than buying a load of single dies.  Robo and my Big Shot will be consigned to Ebay, I know there are robo and Big Shot lovers out there,  crafters do come in all shapes and sizes, with their preferences.  

Will be back tomorrow with more information on scrapbooking. 

All for now folks, thanks for stopping by

And that was the weeekend....

But did get two pages made!  So I am happy.  Have to go with the light available, and at this time of year it is limited. Get best light in my bedroom, but that also means working on a smallish table,  and spreading stuff out on the bed, floor and anything else to hand...   very disorganised!   

But did manage to come up with this yesterday, it actually started out as a photo from another spread,  but it fell apart, think it did so intentionally.   Wasn't happy with first layout,   so mooched, mulled and did a lot of thinking...   went thru stash, found a circle I'd cut ages ago, wondered if it would work...  so plonked that on my base card,  then found some scraps of pink and green card, so put them on,  rummaged a bit more, found the spotted paper,  decided to cut that into strips...  Photo was already cut into a cirlce,  wondered whether to cut a round frame for it, so I did, using pink card,  then cut another circle from original paper, cut that in half and stuck that on pink car,  used lettering from a kit,  stamp from another two kits, brown flower seemed desperate to be put somewhere, so I did...    I like it, whether it works for others...  who knows.  

But that is the beauty of scrapbooking, it is purely up to you.  Just mess,  try different papers,  shapes,  the only rule to follow is: don't stick anything down!   Just keep playing till you feel happy with your layout. 

The photo:  I used Photoshop to print a large size photo to get the circle, then used a compass cutter.   Didn't do much to the photo, other than the auto option on contrast etc.  

May do some of the wedding snaps next...  watch this space!