28 Days of Sketches - Sketches Eleven to Fourteen

28 Days of Sketches

Halfway there. 

Sketch Eleven

Sketch Twelve

Sketch Thirteen

Sketch Fourteen

You can see more of my pages using sketches here

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Winner

Remember this card?

I entered in the Page Maps Anniversary Challenges.  

 You can see all the details on this post

And it was a winner!

This challenge was sponsored by Penny Black Stamps and I won not one, not two, not three, but SIX sets of Becky's new PB stamps! You can see the stamps sets on the post for the challenge here. You can see the details at Page Maps Blog. Wow!

I had lots of fun using the sketches and trying the different ideas that were given

28 Days of Sketches - Sketches Six to Ten

28 Days of Sketches

Wet afternoons - Good for ducks and scrapbooking.  So I made the most of it. Keeping on with the sketches from the class.  I have put together kits for the photos for each of the sketches so when I get to them I can get to work straight away.

Sketch Six

The pictures in the sketch were more random.  As I had more I decided to line them up as I like the clean lines.  I am starting to have a little more freedom from sticking so closely to the sketch.

So glad that I took pictures of this fun. Something so simple that gave hours of fun

Sketch Seven

My photos were a little bigger than those in the sketch.  I have been trying different ways to do the background as I usually keep to white or plain.  This one could have had a little less of the busy pattern

Sketch Eight

Love it when you find just the right papers for the job 

 Sketch Nine

Always a goer for stepping out of the comfort zone.  The sketch used layers at the bottom in different patterns.  A little busy for me.  

 Sketch Ten

Another go at the adapted sketch for a double layout.

You can see more of my pages using sketches here

Finding your Photo Style

Finding Your Photo Style

At the end of Week Three of the class.  Not one photo taken.  As I look back at the latest photos that are on my camera I see they are all of my crafting projects.  Time to get snapping.  You can be as organised as you like but when things come up projects like this seem to take a back seat.

I decided to take the class because it was just what I needed to get inspired by my photographs.  I shoot in automatic and I want to explore just what I can do.  I look back at photos that I have taken and the ones I love tend to jump out among the rest.

So in my style I look at what I have done then look at the next thing and do it.  You can get overwhelmed by everything needing to be done all at once.  It's too big so you do nothing.  But I can do one thing.  What I have done is watched the videos and downloaded the handouts.  Now I am set to take photos for the assignments.

While I would love photos of my gorgeous boys, good weather and willing participants are few so I will probably focus more on still shots.  Hers's to happy snapping!

Stamp Club June

With the new catalogue out next month the retiring list is out. The challenge for this month was to create a card using something from the retiring list.

I picked itty bitty stamps, punches and buttons.  I have made a card recently using them but haven't done much with them.  I found this card when I googled the stamp set and started to play with similar papers and elements using the set.  I used certainly celery and chocolate chip as the colours as they are retiring as well.  I love it when you find ways to combine different sets.  I recently bought the ciao baby stamp set and punches.  I used a stampin write to ink the edge and use for some of the layers.

Colours: certainly celery, chocolate chip, very vanilla
Stamps:  itty bitty bits, ciao baby and best yet (SU), a little argyle (PTI)
Finishing touches;  circle punches, striped ribbon, jewels basic pearls, petite scallop punch, itty bitty punches, linen thread, dimensionals, beautiful wings embosslits, itty bitty buttons and DSP newsprint (SU), button, brad, tiny tags die (PTI)

28 Days of Sketches - Sketches Two, Four and Five

28 Days of Sketches

I was never going to get the 28 Sketches done in 28 days.  I seem to go in chunks where I get to do a lot of crafting and then no so much.  With winter ills and boys home sick the last few weeks have been spent hunkering down and getting the basics done.  I finally have the chance to get back to my projects.  That is what I love about Big Picture Classes.  Stacey gets it.  Life has a way of throwing things at you that are unexpected.  The ideal is that you do the class when it is on but the beauty is that once you have signed up you get life time access to the class material and gallery.  So I do want to complete the sketches.  I have several packs for photos ready to do the sketches.  It will just happen when it happens.

Here are three more pages that I have done.

Sketch One

This was using four smaller pictures in a circular arrangement.  I decided to add the larger photo and use the sketch for a double spread.  Love that I captured this story.

Sketch Four

One of those everyday moments

Sketch Five

A boy and his passion

I have been keeping the pages simple.  My focus on the story

You can see more of my pages using sketches here

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - shape up card

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

I tend to keep to the standard half A4 sized cards.  So the challenge was to create a card based on the sketch in any size. 

I decided to keep adding to my boy collection and realised I hadn't inked up my Up, Up and Away set from Stampin Up.  It goes so well with a set of papers I have from My Minds Eye with hot air balloons.  As I looked through my stash to see what else I could use I came across the quote card from Pebbles.  So I went big on this one.  Love how it turned out.

 

Colours:  crumb cake, not quite navy, baja breeze, early espresso, tangerine tango
Stamps:  up, up and away (SU),
Finishing touches:  papers (MME), quote card and clothes pin (pebbles), buttons, twill tape (SU), paper shapers speech bubbles punch (ek success), stitching

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - sketch conversion

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

The sketches at Page Maps come in all different sizes 81/2 by 11, 12 by 12 and as doubles.  Often photos or pages you want to create are not the same size as the sketch so the challenge was to convert the sketch to fit the 12 x 12 layout.  Love the Websters Pages products.  I hadn't come across them until I got my ribbons in my prize pack

With bigger photos I stretched the sketch and used the same elements.  Washi tape works well for the banner embellishements

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - Boy/girl

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

This challenge was right on the mark for me.  I have four boys so am always looking for different ideas for their pages.  A lot of product and inspiration is girl inspired.  Here the challenge was to look at a sketch with girl elements and use it for a boy or girl.

Stars are always a go to, as are brackets, arrows, banners, and circles.  I do use flourishes just in little doses.  I tend to use bakers twine rather than ribbon and am loving washi tape.

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - Paper Mixology

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

Patterned papers.  I do use them just not so many at once.  I see lots of ways to put them together I just never seem to get it looking balanced so this challenge was a good one for stretching my use of them.  Loved the different elements that Kelly used.

I used one larger photo and converted it to 12 x 12

Four different patterns.

Page Maps Anniversary Challenge - 1-2-3-4 Challenge

Page Maps 7th Anniversary Celebration

A card challenge this time.  

 Use the sketch and the number of elements to create your card.

I started with the colours.  The patterned paper that I found set the rest of the card.  I found my stash of vellum and have been using it more lately.  I liked how it softened the pattern allowing it to show through.  A solid layer would have covered a lot of it up

Colours:  baja breeze, pure poppy, old olive, very vanilla

Stamps:  impressions (bella!), le chateau (kaiser)

Finishing touches:  vellum, victoria crochet trim and vanilla flower trim (SU), carribean bakers twine (the  twinery), edgers No 1 die (PTI), brad (francheville), secret admirer quote sticker (kaiser), stitching