It's Blueberry Time!

Hi all.

It's Blueberry season at White With 1 this month. Yes, the colour this month is blueberry. After my last month's layout where I used a watermelon photo on the layout where the colour was watermelon, I was tempted to use a blueberry photo this time. I didn't though - but I did use the word in my title!

There is an option this month to use a sketch from Creative Scrappers. Here's the sketch:

I flipped the sketch on its side and highlighted the vertical elements in it.

Here's my layout:

I wasn't planning to put the word in my title but I was looking at the photo and the word 'blueberry' was in my mind and it just happened!

To make the word 'Blueberry' that gorgeous blueberry colour I took plain white foam Thickers and coloured them with a new product called Metallic Melts. They create a stunning glossy effect on Thickers. As the name implies, they have to be melted on so they do shrink the Thickers a bit but I found this was fine. Metallic Melts aren't quite available yet but you can inquire about them at the email address on the website here.

Here's a close up:

I created the background of this layout by flipping over a stencil that I had painted gesso through and using it as a stamp to print the image onto the blue cardstock. To create that lineal look behind the pic I added torn cardboard which I painted white and some gorgeous textural white ribbon that I recently found at my LSS. I topped these with a Wow Chippie flourish which I painted black plus a smattering of white flowers. I stitched two random lines around the edges of the layout and painted the gaps inbetween with gesso using a fine brush.

And here's my journaling:

Thanks for looking everyone.

Heather

Still Dreaming of Mykonos

Hi there. I hope everyone's managing to keep sane at this busy time of year. It's pretty chaotic in the shops at the moment!

I received a fabulous pack full of KaiserCraft goodies from Katherine at Scrap Everything. These papers and embellies are hot off the press and I absolutely adore them! This set is called Secret Admirer Collection and has rich colourings of greens and hot pink with splashes of other gorgeous colours mixed in.

Here's my layout:

The summery, tropical feel of the papers made me immediately think of holidays. The last hot holiday we had was in Greece and, even though Greece isn't tropical, these papers work really well with my photos. I knew the stark white background of this pic would work with the bold papers but I wanted to use the hot pink paper and bright flowers and I hesitated to use these on a male page. The solution was to add mostly green to the pink paper plus splash some other colours around. I used Dylusions Ink Spray to create the spray and dribbles behind the photo then used the same colour in the title. I also created a more lineal feel by adding long, straight elements behind the photo. This helped to counteract the soft, feminine edges of the flowers.

Here are some close ups:

Nearly everything on this page is from the KaiserCraft Secret Admirer Collection. You can get them here. The die-cuts are sooo easy to use. Just layer them around the photo for a great coordinated background. All the KaiserCraft papers have a decorated strip on the bottom and I cut this up and used it as part of my background.

There's only one problem with scrapping my photos of Greece - I just want to go back!

Good luck with the Christmas shopping and don't forget to allow yourself some scrapping time!

Heather

Scrap Friends Challenge

Hi there.

It's been a little while since my last post. I'm not making any apologies - I had a huge birthday bash on the weekend which took a lot of organising and a lot of recovering from!!!

This is the first layout I've ever submitted to Scrap Friends. You can find their website here. Here is the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I decided to flip the layout vertically so my nephew's eyes are looking towards the centre of the page. As much as I love the film strips in the original sketch, I don't have any so I just went with what seemed to work.

I adore this photo of my nephew. He looks like a cute little ET wrapped up in his beach hoodie!

I challenged myself to use flowers on a masculine layout. All these Manor House Creations flowers were originally white. You can find their blog here. I sprayed the flowers with Dylusions Ink Spray then gave the background plus the flowers a light spray with Perfect Pearls Mist to give a more grainy, sandy effect. I added the bare chipboard and raw edged hessian to make the layout more boyish.

Hope you like it!

Heather

Stuck?! Sketch

Hi all,

Now that my other scrapping commitments are out of the way for now, I thought I'd have my first go at an online sketch challenge. I liked the look of the August Bonus Sketch #1 (by a 17 year old!) at Stuck?! so I gave it a go. I had just finished using October Afternoon's Cakewalk range on some invitations and had plenty of large scraps as well as whole sheets left over so I had to use these.

I hunted through some photos and found this gorgeous one of a friend's cat. I don't normally photograph other people's animals but I was inspired at the time by a fantastic photo they had of their dog. I was struck by the cat's expression - it was so intense! Talk about serious eye contact! I then thought of the hypnotist idea and had a lot of fun with it.

Here's the sketch:

And here's my take on it:

I had a lot of fun with this. I used multiple "O's" in the title to accentuate the hypnotist theme. I also utilised the pattern on the October Afternoon background paper to create the effect that everything radiates from the cat's eyes. A pinwheel reinforces that swirly, giddy feel. With that very busy background I kept the rest of the layout fairly uncluttered.

Here's a closeup:

And here's the journaling (yep - straight from Little Britain):

Hope you get a laugh out of this!

Heather

So Inquisitive

It's a much nicer day here today. It's so good to see some sunshine!

Here's a layout that was published in Scrapbooking Memories Vol 14, No 8. The layout is about my gorgeous nephew Archie. It's amazing how kids at that age want to check out everything. Even the cord for the blinds is a source of amusement and wonder.

I love the Cosmo Cricket and October Afternoon papers in this layout. They've been around a while now but I was just using up leftover pieces from other layouts. The two types of stitching around the edges give a more interesting look and I stitched around the scraps of paper behind the photo to give this simple layout a bit more oomph. I also used full stops and dots from the letter "i"s from a pack of Thickers for the spots scattered around the layout. I love this simple way of adding depth and interest to a page.

This page can be made very quickly and simply. To make it even quicker, just draw lines around the papers instead of stitching them. Add four photos and there's another page done.

Enjoy your day!

Heather