Scrapbooking layout: Possibility everywhere




Hi!
Here's another layout I made using materials from the beatiful 'Unforgettable' collection by 13 Arts.
Below you can see pictures of the original patterned papers I used for the page background:

My layout background is a combination of these two patterns. I loved the paper that had a wreath image on both sides of the paper. However, I wanted the flower wreath to frame my picture on both sides, so I used the right half of the patterned paper and combined it with the fuzzy cut other half . Worked well!


The butterflies are fuzzy cut from the embellishment paper sheet that was included in the 'Unforgettable' kit.


When putting together a scrapbooking page I love the feeling when everything clicks and the various elements find their places on the layout easily. That's quite the thing that happened with this layout. Thank you  13 Arts for the beautiful and inspiring supplies!


Scrapbooking layout: Enjoying my summer vacation



Hi!
It's been a while since I've participated in a scrapbooking challenge. They're fun, but I just haven't had time to play along. Well now there's time: Currently I'm enjoying my summer vacation, and as we're not going anywhere this year I've had the possibility to spend precious me time at my crafting table. Yay!



In Instagram I came across a layout that Jehkotar had created for July Challenge YOUrself challenge. I loved her page, and got curious to check out what the challenge was all about.

In Challenge YOUrself I liked the idea that the challenge participants were encouraged to use their own photo on the scrapbook page; very often we scrapbookers prefer to stand behind the camera and don't have too many photos of ourselves. I used to find it difficult to stand infront of the lens, but over the past years I've thought myself to take selfies and also to ask other people to photograph me. For me, selfies are one way of boosting self-respect and appreciation.



July ChallengeYOUrself task is a sketch by Page Drafts. I love sketches!
First I mirrored the sketch and then followed it in a quite relaxed way. However, all the main elements are in place!


I decided not to place a long vertical journaling strip or patterned paper panel under the photo. Instead I took out my embroidery yarns and stitched a light vertical chevron pattern on the background paper, following the sketched lines on the paper. It turned out just the way I had imagined, and I almost felt sorry to cover a big part of the stitched pattern with the photo and the fuzzy-cut flowers! 😂


I hope you like my layout. Maybe you play along the fun challenge (there's time until August 4),or get inspired to try decorating your paper crafting project with embroidery stitches 😀

Wishing you a wonderful day!


Scrapbooking layout: Be true




Hi!
In January I visited Creative World exhibition in Frankfurt and in addition to getting inspired of the techniques, materials, tools and colors being presented at the show, I had a chance to meet many of my dear crafting friends. Most of my friends were working at Creative World: representing their own business, purchasing items, or making demos for companies they work and design for.

One of the inspiring booths I visited was by 13 Arts. I have been friends with the company's lovely owner Aida for quite many years, and it was wonderful to see her new 13 Arts collections in full bloom in Frankfurt
I was so happy for the chance to play with one of their new collections, the gorgeous 'Unforgettable'. The watercolor poppies look so beautiful! The kit contained enough supplies for three layouts; this one is the first.


The set contained a sheet of flowers and embellishments for fuzzy cutting, but I ended up cutting more flowers from one of the patterned papers (design 'Dreamy meadows'). I layered them on the page with checkerboard chipboards and some black and white paper dots (those I have had in my stash for ever!).


The lovely background didn't need that many additions; I just stamped a fex text patterns with red and black ink before gluing down the selfie.


These beautiful flowers and this layout make me happy 😊
Hope they inspire you, too!


Wishing you a wonderful summer day!

Agnieszka and Aida.
How wonderful to see you in Frankfurt!



Scrapbooking layout: Room for unimaginable



Hi!
This layout is another scrapbook page I made utilizing small pieces of leftover papers.
My starting point was a small piece of 13 Arts patterned paper with beatuful red watercolor flowers, so first I fuzzy cut all the remaining flowers from that paper. There were just enough to decorate this layout!

The black and white selfie and the simple grey background needed some more colors, so I used a mixed collection of yellow patterned paper pieces to brighten the page.
The largest paper strip had a swirl pattern that was too soft and invisible for this layout, so I added more texture by wrapping dark grey sewing yarn around the panel. A strip of double sided tape on the back of the paper held the yarn in place. I think this simple pattern looks quite nice!



Page background is decorated with stencilled and heat-embossed patterns ('Wild Berries' stencil by Finnabair Prima Marketing, clear VersaMark ink and a paint dabber, and Copper embossing powder by Imagine). White leaves are die-cut with a Sizzix Bigz die 'Garden Greens' by Tim Holtz.

The floral paper is from 13 Arts collection 'Unforgettable', released earlier this year. I had the pleasure to play with a set of 'Unforgettable' papers, and I finished three layouts and one card using papers from that beautiful collection. Pls stay tuned, I will share those projects with you shortly!)


This was again a fun, simple layout to make. I just received a pile of printed photos from a photo lab, so I guess there will be more layouts to come in the very near future! LOL!



Scrapbooking layout: Shine like the stars


Scrapbooking layout: Shine like the stars. Fuzzy cut embellishments and lots of colors

Hi!
My box of leftover scrap papers was getting full, so I decided to put some of those materials to use and create a few layouts. On Saturday I spent the evening on fuzzy cutting images from those leftover papers, and on Sunday I used those elements to decorate my scrapbook pages.

This is the first layout I made. I started with adding stamped texture on my backgound; I placed the fuzzy cut photo on the background, traced a thin pencil line around the image and stamped text patterns around the trace line. The red color on the background was quite bright, so the idea was to gently darken the area around the photo. Randomly stamped pattern worked well for that purpose.

Stamped patterns to decorate the layout background

I wanted to place a panel of patterned paper below the photo, and found a perfect piece of a Studio Calico paper in my stash. The white color was popping up too much on the page, so I inked the strip  with orange, red and brown Distress inks.


Now it blended better into the background. Perfect!

Scrapbooking layout closeup: Shine like the stars. Fuzzy cut embellishments and lots of colors

The fuzzy cut flowers are from a Cocoa Daisy paper 'Pocket full of Posies' from 2014 (!!).

The white dots are splashes of acrylic paint, and the little golden stars are old Studio Calico embellishments. Title text is a Tim Holtz quote chip.
Gorgeous red background is from 7 Dots Studio. Oh how I love those 7 Dots Studio designs and their amazing paper quality!

Scrapbooking layout closeup: Shine like the stars. Fuzzy cut embellishments and lots of colors

This was a super fun layout to make. Hope that burst of colors inspire you, too :)

Wishing you a nice new week,


Scrapbooking: Let life surprise you




Hi!
Yesterday evening I took out some bit older papers and while watching something on Netflix I created this page. I'm so happy with it; the elements found their places on the page so easily!


The background paper is from a Basic Grey collection from several years back (called 'Mon Ami' by Kelly Purkey). The leaf patterns made me think of a Tim Holtz/Sizzix die set that had altogether eight leaves in bit similar style (Sizzix set 'Cut Out Leaves / 664431). I think the white leaves look good on this page!


I love playing with colors, but sometimes it's nice to work on a quite monochromatic project aswell. For this project I mainly used some leftover materials, and luckily my scrap paper box contained several pieces of teal and turquoise colored papers, matching to my dark green/teal background. The little circles I punched with a tiny Stampin'Up punch and decorated with some black and white gel pen doodling.


The white AC letter stickers were ancient. Probably they are from one of the very first sets I bought over 10 years ago. The adhesive on the back was not that sticky anymore, so for securing the letters I glued them down on the page. Now they will not fall off!

Hope you like my layout. Maybe it inspires you to take out some of your older supplies; I have challenged myself to use more of my old stuff before buying something new! 😀


Two scrapbooking layouts with watercolor flowers




Hi!
Today I'm showing you two layouts for which I have used beautiful botanical elements from Kaisercraft 'Magenta' collection. I did not have the entire set of papers but only some die-cuts and a sheet of flowers I fussy cut for my layouts. But they came a long way! :D



I layered the fussy cut flowers with a die-cut pink grid pattern. Worked well together!



White leaves I painted with watercolors. And the photo I lifted from the background with 3D foam stickers.



For the second layout I left the white sketched flowers and leaves unpainted. Love that look, too!


I used paint splatters for both layouts; white for the first one, and black for the second. Just to balance the softness of the pink/magenta/fuchsia watercolor flowers.





I really enjoyed working with these flower embellishments. Rich layers of flowers without increasing the height of the page (the pages still fit nicely into the page protector pockets in my scrapbooking album).
Hope these blooming pages inspire you, too!

Thanks for stopping by,

Simple Hipster cards


Hi!
To brighten a rainy summer day I took out the fun Hipster stamp set by Tim Holtz / Stampers Anonymous and started stamping and coloring the cool characters. My plan was to color with alcohol markers (in this case I used Promarkers), so I stamped the images with black Memento ink on heavy white cardstock. Once the coloring was finished I cut out the images around the edges: I do have the matching Sizzix die sets, too, but this time I only used the dies for cutting the eyewear.


When cutting I did not pay too much attention on the fine image details on the edges; I catched the fine fur and feather lines by re-stamping the image directly on the background and gluing the fuzzy cut image on top. Simple trick easing the fuzzy cutting in case you don't want to leave a thin border around the image.


The splash background is cut with a Sizzix / Pete Hughes die from a couple of years back (Paint Splats, #662670). The larger splat image was not as wide as I needed it to be for my horizontal card, so I had to stretch it a bit by cutting it into two and leaving a blank gap behind the Hipster Goat. Problem solved!


All backgrounds are super simple, utilizing pieces of scrap papers I had on my crafting table. Card bases are standard white folded ones.

I try to always keep some all-occasion cards available in my stash. Usually they are without text, and often I add the greeting once I know for which occasion the card will be used.

Hope they inspire you, thanks for stopping by!


Scrapbooking: Sweetheart

Scrapbooking layout: Sweetheart

Hi!
Sharing with you a 12"x12" layout on which I tried to capture the feeling of a lovely vacation day in Mallorca last summer.

Photo is again lifted from the background: I had two identical copies of the photo, and started by cutting out my daughter around the edges. Then attached the fussy cut photo on the uncut photo using 3D foam stickers. Love this technique!


The background is a collection of this and that i.e. elements I had close to my crafting table. The big dark green leaves are die cut using a Sizzix thinlits die.
I also love that craft paper tag with sewn 'Hellos'. I wish I remembered which company was it from!


Layers and soft colors. Simple but fun!

Thanks for stopping by!