Birthday Dinos Scrapbook Layout

Hi all,

Another make using the Birthday Dinos paper pack by StickerKitten today.

I decided to make a layout to show that the paper pack doesn't have to be just used for cards.

Not gonna lie, I'm regretting the red washi tape.... It just makes the green look weird!

Anyway, I used a picture from a recent visit to Chester Zoo. They have an animatronic dinosaur exhibition on right now and, well, you know how much I love dinosaurs. Here I am with a Giganotosaurus, looking a weeny bit miffed because folk kept walking in front of the camera while Nathan was trying to take my picture... rude!

Anyway, I chose the papers from the pack that weren't birthday themed and I was still left with a variety of different sheets. I cut some up and inked the edges and layered them together, with a full size sheet of the green star print paper in the centre. 

I fussy cut some bunting, some of the zigzag paper and some little dinosaurs too.

Once I had finished, I went around the edge of the green paper with my sewing machine. 

The dinosaur is a label that I had kept that came on the dinosaur dress I'm wearing in the picture. 

The sewing machine even goes through Thickers!  I didn't think it would but I carefully gave it a go. It's definitely something I'm going to do on other layouts too.

The border on the page is washi tape and again I went around with the sewing machine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily xx

Steampunk Cards using Santoro Willow

Hi all,

Some steampunk cards to share today. 

I made these using the Santoro Willow collection by Trimcraft. I found the collection in The Works really cheap so I bought pretty much everything... these have been on my 'to make' list for a while now and finally I got around to making them and I am so pleased with them. It seems that the best cards are make are always the ones where the images are copyrighted so I can't sell them, which is a shame.

My favourite thing about the collection is actually the packaging... the toppers on both cards are packaging and they are stunning. It's a shame they didn't bring out a few sheets of these toppers or some decoupage - if they exist I haven't seen them and I've run out of packaging now! 

Both cards feature lots of layered papers from the A4 paper pack. I went around the edges of each rectangle with my craft knife to roughen them up and then went around with a brown ink pad to give a more vintage feel. 

On this first one I used glitter glue on the character's dress and some more little dots down the side. It's finished off with some lace, a wooden heart and a metal key. The topper is so beautiful it doesn't need that much else for the card to look stunning. 

This next card has more of a nature theme. I loved the topper but it took up too much space on the card so I cut off one of the trees... the cut off part just fit behind one of the layers of paper so I'm glad I chopped it up. The A4 paper pack came with a sheet of little bits and bobs to cut out so I cut out a heart and a red flower - the red of the flower with the girl's hair and the fox bring the card together.

I photographed these in front of my bedroom wall - the paper is from B&Q and it's metallic - brilliant for photographing any steampunk projects in front of.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily xx

First Go At Project Life!

Hi all,

A new video to share today - I won some pocket scrapbooking goodies and I finally worked out what my album would be about - here I am playing around with it for the first time.

Here's a better look at the pages I made. I did end up adding a couple extra embellishments at the end.

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily xx

Die Cut Layout Using Belle & Boo

Hi all,

A smaller layout to share today using the Belle & Boo collection by Trimcraft. They actually shared this on their Facebook page the other day and it made me super happy :)

I've seen a lot of layouts like this on Pinterest, with shapes die cut from the background paper and patterned paper placed behind. Problem is, they are all 12x12 and most people including myself can't afford a large die cutting machine. Oh, how I'd love a Cameo! 

However, there's no reason why it can't be done on a smaller layout. 

The back of the layout looks like this. I cut my paper to 8x8" and using my trusty compass (literally the only thing I took from GCSE Maths!) I drew a circle around the outside, measured the depth of the largest of the Xcut mini hearts dies, then drew a smaller circle just smaller than this... this is getting hard to explain, you're probably best looking at the picture below... I then die cut hearts all the way around and used a smaller heart die to cut smaller ones in the centre. It helps to stick the die down with a little masking tape to stop it moving around in your machine. Make sure the side with the lines on it is on the back of your layout, unless you fancy a lot of rubbing out....

Then stick patterned paper behind the apertures.

You can use a small photo on the layout but instead I wanted to use some of the Belle & Boo decoupage. It's so pretty! 

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily xx

Project Life Problems + New Stash

Good evening friends,

Having a bit of a dilemma!

I won a competition a couple months back and received a 6x8" Simple Stories binder and other pocket journal goodies.

I was going to do the album about my holiday but now I seem to have already scrapped a lot of the pictures so it doesn't seem worth it to scrap them again.

Today I was in TKMaxx and I got this little haul. Recently I haven't seen many craft supplies at all in there but today they had so much to choose from, so I chose a My Mind's Eye vellum/paper and stickers pack, Simple Stories clear stickers and a pocket journalling kit, in determination to get this album going.

But I still don't know what pictures to use!

But now it's easier now that everything will match with the pocket journalling kit I got today, rather than sorting through bits and bobs from other card sets. 

Anyway, have a fun weekend, I have a new post to share tomorrow! Got family coming round tomorrow so it should be fun. :)

Emily xx

Pineapple Tri-Fold Cards!

Hi all,

I was in serious need of inspiration last week so I went to the supermarket all by myself to buy a magazine. (Big step for me! Anxiety really is the b-word). I chose Papercraft Essentials, you may already know that I only buy a magazine if I like the free gift (because magazine content is always a bit hit-and-miss) and I'd had my eye on this one - pineapple stamps, dies and an embossing folder. I'm always on the lookout for something a bit different so this was perfect (the mag isn't that bad either. A bit die-cutting heavy for a magazine that has a sister publication called 'Die Cutting Essentials', but I digress.... )

Here's the cards I made and I'll explain a bit more about them below the picture.

For both cards I used the 'handwritten celebrate' dies by Sizzix. I LOVE them!

The card are made from single sheets of A4 cardstock with lines scored 9.9mm from either side and then a diagonal cut. On each I added washi tape to the top, I like how it leads the eye down the card.

I used a black and gold theme for this card, I think the papers are from a Forever Friends collection by Docrafts that came out last year. The front part of the card is heat embossed. I would like a decent embossing ink though, the docrafts ink pads aren't very good (putting it mildly). The mini ones are better but still not perfect. 

This one is my favourite - I finally managed to get my hands on the First Edition Paradise Crush paper pad! For some reason I could only find it on one place online, so I pounced, it arrived, and I love it. I fussy cut some of the flowers from the paper pad and added them to the plainer papers. The gold paper is not from the paper pad, I just wanted something in there to break up the patterns a little. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Emily xx

Peacock Layout Using Resist Techniques

Hi all,

A new layout to share today showing how to make a scrapbook layout using some resist techniques.

I did have a video for this but I wasn't happy with it, so I'll explain the resist techniques I used here.
Firstly I took a white wax crayon and doodled leaves up the page. I then stuck down some peacock outline stickers and went over the whole thing with watercolour. The white of the crayon shows through. I removed the outline stickers and the white of the page behind them shows up brilliantly.

I took a board (packaging from a shirt) and embossed it with an A4 peacock embossing folder. I went over it lightly with Gelatos and rubbed them with my finger to blend them together. The embossed areas stay white.

The feathers are made with dies by Xcut and the ends coloured with a silver Sharpie.

Thanks for stopping by, any questions then leave a comment!

Emily xx