Be More [Steampunk] Dog - Scrapbook Layout

Hello Friends! I hope you are all keeping well and are enjoying the first signs of spring. 

We've had our first ever crocus in our garden. Just one. And just for a few hours until something has eaten it... We saw it first thing in the morning and by the time we got back from work - it was gone. No trace of it... we were so sad...!

Anyway... today I am back to share... a scrapbook page! I know! It doesn't happen very often on my blog :). 

But when I saw this cute little guy during our short break in Bruges last summer I just knew I had to scrap him :). I took about a hundred photos of him lol. I really loved this sweet innocent face in contrast with the Steampunk feel of the horse carriage... Isn't he just gorgeous? And I knew these new cool stamps with ScrewLoose and Sparky mates would be perfect for my layout.

Supplies:

From Stampendous:
SSC1219 ScrewLoose N Sparky Perfectly Clear™ Stamps
M323 Screwy Pals
H316 Sparky
ASCRS02 Cling Steampunk Set
NKCRS05 Cling Kaffee Klatsch Set
SSC1205 Journal Lines Perfectly Clear™ Stamps
FRM02 Gilded Mica Fragments
FRM03 Tarnished Mica Fragments
MEM01 Memento™ Tuxedo Black Ink by Tsukineko®
SSH38 Small Perfectly Clear™ Acrylic Handle

Plus:
Adhesives by Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L®: DODZ™ - 3D, DODZ™ - Small, 3D Foam Squares - Black Mix, Adhesive Sheets 4x6", Creative Photo Corners - White, E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips, 3D Foam Pennants 

Media: Clearsnap®: Smooch® Green Apple and Mocha, ColorBox® Mudslide, Ranger Ink: Color Wask Lettuce, Distress Inks Tea Dye, Crushed Olive 

Cardstock by Bazzill Basics®
Papers: 7Dots Studio - Dreamer, Authentique - Adventure Explore, corrugated cardboard scraps
Embellishments, ScrapFX chipboards, wooden and paper flowers, brads, suede ribbon/string (May Arts), Martha Stewart Doily border punch, four small photos (2x2") printed on printable canvas, black glitter alphabet stickers (K&Co)

Instructions: 
1. Trim 1/4" around a 12x12" background paper (7Dots Studio), punch around randomly, add some tears and distress the edges.
2. Add strips of pattern papers to the page. Add some spray ink and ink splatters.
3. Add stamping around the page as shown with ScrewLoose N Sparky Clear Stamps, Screwy Pals, Sparky, Cling Steampunk Set, Cling Kaffee Klatsch Set, Journal Lines Clear Stamps with black, brown and green ink. 

4. Paint Steampunk shapes with Smooch inks and adhere to the page with Adhesive Sheets. Cover any excess of the adhesive with Mica Fragments. 
5. Trim the photos leaving a small white edge, mount on corrugated cardboard mats, embellish with more stamping and brads.
6. Adhere to the page with 3D Foam Squares with DODZ™ as shown. Embellish with clusters of flowers, inked and sprayed with coordinated inks. Add coiled suede string.
7. Add the title with glitter stickers.
8. Mat the page with with Authentique - Adventure Explore paper and adhere with E-Z Runner® Permanent Strips.
9. Add final embellishments with 3D Foam Pennants covered with patterned papers and inked Creative Photo Corners.

Thank you for your visit and I hope you've enjoyed my today's offering. Be sure to pop over to the Stampendous blog to check out other great projects with Sparky and ScrewLoose friends!

Have a sunny and creative week!

Big crafty hugs


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Challenges for this project:
Just Us Girls #283 - Masculine
Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge - B is for.. Be More (Steampunk) Dog
Our Creative Corner - Junk In Your Trunk (corrugated cardboard scraps)

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Let’s Play with Monte Paper Mill – Movie Night Layout

Hello lovely bloggers! I thought it would be nice to pop in today to bring you the second day of the fabulous blog hop with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L and Monte Paper Mill!

Today I'm playing with MPM Take 2 Collection papers. This is a lovely collection, full of great vintage film/movies related images. I've decided to make a scrapbook page with a photo of old film tins piled up, that we came across during out recent trip to Prague. My inspiration for this layout was a sketch from the November Sketchbook365 Challenge and it kind of evolved from there :).

I swapped the sides with the photo and the tag element and for my tag element I reused some clothing labels :).

I also used the packaging from the flowers to embellish the layout - the see-through doily from Prima flowers was just perfect for that!

I used different kinds of adhesives on my layout:
- Crafty Power Tape
- MyStik™ Permanent Strips Dispenser
- Black 3D Foam Squares
- E-Z Dots® Mini Permanent 

I am also 'wearing' some adhesive on the outside! Can you see those little foam triangles from the new 3D Foam Pennants set? I covered them with the most beautiful Stampendous Teal Mica Fragments and trimmed around the edges. It's so easy to apply the mica fragments onto the 3D foam shapes - be careful through, it's very addictive! :). The zipper and the tiny lace flowers came all the way from a charming flea market in Ghent.

One of my flowers lost its centre so to fix it I adhered a pearl over a sticky dot from DODZ™ - Medium pack. As my dot was bigger than the pearl I sprinkled some Fresh Green Glass Glitter over the excess.

To adhere all my flowers and embellishments I used DODZ™ - Small, DODZ™ - Medium and DODZ™ - 3D - lots and lots of them! Fancy having a guess how many I used in total? Leave a comment below and the closest guess will get a little crafty treat from me :). I will announce the winner next week.

Thank you for visiting today! Be sure to visit and comment on every post this week to get a chance to win a fabulous Blog Hopper prize package!

Big crafty hugs

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Other supplies:
Spellbinders - Shapeabilities Foliage
Flowers - Prima Marketing, Maya Road and Petaloo
May Arts - String Burlap Ribbon

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Teatime Reflections - quintessentially English layout

Re-edited: I am so super excited to say that my layout was voted as one of the Top Picks at the Simon Says Stamp & Show challenge! Yay!!!

Yay again - this time I'm cheering for the Top 3 award at the Our Creative Corner Challenge! So happy!!!

Hello Crafty Friends!

This week in Stampendous world we're all about teapots. You can check some truly gorgeous inspiration projects on the blog here.

When I first saw these cuuuuute teapot stamps I squealed with joy. I adore vintage teapots and tea cups, all the fine china designs which make the experience of 'cream tea' so quintessentially English... Whether it's the Afternoon Tea at the Savoy, cream tea at Bettys Tea Rooms or simply a girls' afternoon in in your own garden, the whole experience has got something really magical about it...

I just 'happen' to have a small collection of vintage teapots and tea cups which became the theme behind this project. And I also happen to have beautiful teatime themed napkins, which I just HAD to include. Mix it all with a touch of Fran-tage... pure delight my friends! So today I'd like to share my Teatime Reflections layout.

I was recently inspired by beautiful work you can see on Rachelle's blog. Rachelle's layouts often feature beautifully distressed layers and I simply fell in love with this look. So my scrapbook page has lots of layers, distressing shabby chic-ing, Fran-taging and of course - stamping! 

Starting from the bunting in the top corner we have Royal and Queen Teapots. Below, a journaling card with  Kettle On sentiment and some elements from Crafty Emblies altered with Shabby White, Vintage Lilac and Aged Wine enamels.

Here I have a secret journaling tag die cut from a souvenir postcard I kept from our stay in the charming Hotel Estherea in Amsterdam. On the reverse I sponged some Rusty Hinge distress ink, stamped the King Teapot in the same ink, added a stamped label from the Luggage Labels set and spritzed some coffee for a mottled effect.

The sentiment quote (my all time favourite) is computer generated. You can find some lovely teatime quotes here. Or you can have a look at the beautiful Stampendous WordArt digital downloads here.

Above, metal ornate corners from Happy Daze shop were embossed with Shabby White enamel. Below, the gold embossed flower Ruffled Bloom was decorated with gems from Create & Craft and Champagne & Lavender glass glitters. On both photos you can also see some of my napkin art.

If you'd like to see the full tutorial for this scrapbook page, click on the picture below.

Thank you so much for popping in today and for all your heart-warming comments. I really appreciate them all!

Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Big hugs



Challenges for this project:
Country View Crafts #3 - How does your garden grow
Live and Love Crafts #11 - 50 shades of Lilac
Simon Says Stamp & Show - A little paper
Simon Says Stamp - Flower Power
Our Creative Corner #1 - Anything Goes

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See-through Flower Power

Guess what? The Spring is finally here! I can't believe  it's almost the end of April and the trees are only starting to grow leaves.

But I am really excited - we've just had a new patio done in our garden and I can't wait to start planting colourful flowers and shrubs. And then enjoy lovely warm evenings in the garden... I might be getting slightly carried away, you can never rely on the English weather. And if last year is anything to go by, we won't get to spend much time outside in the summer...

I am sharing a scrapbook page again :). Some of you might remember this project from Create and Craft TV - I made this page for Stampendous demos back in February.

And today I'd also like to share a couple of tips with you. First, how to use Stampendous Fran-tage 'blinkies' to embellish your layouts and second, printing your photos on a transparency for a cool 3D effect.

For my layout I stamped several images from the cling Jumbo Spring Bouquet, Violets and Single Butterfly sets. Some were heat embossed with the Gold Detail Embossing Powder and Aged Rose Embossing Enamel. After colouring the images with Inktense pencils I fussy cut them along the flowers from my K&Co patterned papers.

 

I wanted my photo to have a 3D look, as if 'blending' me and my sweet niece amongst all the flowers. To achieve that I printed the photo onto a printable acetate. Printing on transparencies has endless possibilities - just remember to print on the correct, rough side though lol :). I then matted my photo with a patterned paper before adhering it to the page on raised foam pads.

   

On my layout you can see a few different ways of using Fran-tage products for scrapbooking. Fran-tage beauties do not have to be limited to the encrusted jewel technique. On my page I incorporated them in the following ways:
1. Using Leaf Green Colour Fragments and double sided sticky tape I created a border around one of the paper panels.
2. Next I swiped Boss Gloss sparingly over the green colour fragments and heat embossed it with Aged Rose Embossing Enamel.
3. I sprinkled layers of Champagne Crushed Glass Glitter and Rose Colour Fragments over Beacon's 3in1 Adhesive  to create a frame for the photo and decorative corners.

Thank you for visiting today and I look forward to seeing what you have been up to lately!

Big hugs



Challenges for this project:
Live & Love Crafts April - Bingo (pink, two designer papers, pearls)
Simon Says Stamp - Anything goes
Simon Says Stamp & Show - Colour
Country View Crafts Challenge #2 - Butterflies

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My Dream Day

I am so glad you popped in today! It is quite a special day because not only I'm sharing a scrapbook page but it's a layout of my Dream Day - my Wedding Day that is! Yay! No special occasion, no anniversary - just the joy of sharing :).

I had so much fun making this scrapbook page - I should really play with layouts more often. But they can feel a bit 'intimidating' sometimes, can't they? So to all scrapbook pros out there - what are your best tips to get you started working on a page? Do you build your page around a photo you want to scrap? Or do you look for a suitable photograph once you have the design in mind? Or perhaps you start with a template/sketch first and just build your page to suit the layout? I found these quick tips for making a balanced page quite helpful.

The inspiration for this LO was the beautiful stamp as well as one of my favourite photos from my wedding day. Here's the photo itself - taken by one of my dear friends Przemyslaw Pietruszewski who was our photographer for the day :).

This page was another sample I made for the Create & Craft shows. The first time I set my eyes on this beautiful Cling Ruffled Corset stamp (UK peeps click here), I immediately knew I had to make a project with it to compliment this photo. And I am so glad I finally had the opportunity to do it :).

Here a few key details about this project but be sure to check out the full instructions on the Stampendous blog.

Here's the list of supplies I used.
Stampendous: Cling Ruffled Corset stamp (UK peeps click here), Shabby White Embossing Enamel (UK crafters click here), Champagne and Fresh Green glitters from the Glass Glitter kit.

Other:
White Opal Liquid Pearls, Viva Decor Transparent Croco, Inktense pencils (or alcohol markers), decorative card from leftover packaging (Prima flowers),  Beacon's 3 in 1 Advanced Craft Glue, Lettuce Colour Wash, Gold Cosmic Shimmer Mist, selection of lace, ribbons and fabric flowers, burlap.

Oh I just love the lace up detail on this stamp - and it's such a gorgeous feminine design!

The flower cluster in the photo below is made from the fabric blooms and moulded enamel flowers (you can watch my moulded flowers tutorial here).



Would you like some more fabulous inspiration? Check out what my lovely Stampendous BlogStar teammies have been up to recently:

Rhea's Botanical Blooms - with a stunning grid-like card and a tutorial for a dry colour washing using Distress Inks.

Tobi's Life is Art canvas - an absolutely stunning and beautifully textured mixed media piece.

Rhea's Violets - gorgeous card with a great water colouring technique using Copics.

Tobi's Warmest wishes - featuring a very Happy Couple and fab airbrush technique.

I hope you enjoyed sharing my Dream Day with me! What would be/has been your dream day? Let me know in the comment below :).

Thanks for popping in! Have a fabulous week!

Big hugs 

Challenges for this project:
Countryview Crafts Challenges #1 - Pick & Mix (Anything goes)
Simon Says Challenge - A bit O'Green
Simon Says Stamp and Show - By the numbers (trios of elements)
Sugar Creek Hollow #51 - Lovely Lace
Vintage Stamping Challenges #6 - Spring is in the air
Pan Pastel UK challenge #9 - Alter it (altered letters)
Flying Unicorn March - Lace it up

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The magic of The Secret Garden - Fashionable Stamping Challenges #23

Yeeepie!!! My LO is one of the top picks in the June challenge at the Crafty Individuals - yaaay!!!


Welcome to another FSC challenge! This time we are taking you to explore all things Mystical and Very Magical... Please remember to include lots of lovely rubber stamping and no digi stamps are allowed ;). As always our fabulous sponsor Marina from Cottage Crafts will have a nice treat lined up for one talented winner!

I thought I was going to really struggle with this challenge as I don't have any 'magical' stamps, no wizards, fairies and stuff.... So I was trying to tackle it from a different angle. I wanted to share one of the most magical times and feelings I've ever had ;-).

Two summers ago my DH took some lovely photos of me playing with my adorable nieces Kaja & Dominika. We had a fabulous, truly MAGICAL time playing in my auntie's garden. And the garden looked truly MAGICAL itself, with a beautiful array of flowers, butterflies and fully sunken in a gorgeous sun...

My inspiration was the LO by Tomoko Takahashi from the December '11 Scrap 365 and The Secret Garden - a film directed by Agnieszka Holland, that I watched a looooong time ago but which made a huge impression on me. 

The film was truly magical, mysterious and mystical in a way and that's exactly what I was hoping to show in my LO.

The background was created with lots of layers, stencilling and masking with acrylic paints and glimmer mists, 'napkin art' with fussy cut flowers and stamping. I used a gorgeous Jumbo Dahlia set from Stampendous and the lace stamp is from the Artistic Stamper. 


To add to the mystique climate of the page, I went 'wild' with the Fran-tage encrusted jewels technique. I used a selection of embossing powders and enamels heating them partly over a piece of lace and as my jewels, I sprinkled some sequins and wait for it.... crushed painted egg shells! 

You might recall I mentioned a while ago that I was going to use egg shells in my art. And so I did! I now have a small selection of colours and my collection is growing almost every day, with all my friends and work colleagues employed for delivery of egg shells lol ;).

The film strip and the tag tucked behind the pictures are from Crafty Individuals and I also added some die cuts from Marianne's Designs.


Make sure to check out all the magical inspiration from my DT Sisters! And I will be back soon to share with you how I've been celebrating the Queen's Diamond Jubilee :-))).


Happy Diamond Jubilee weekend to all!


Big hugs





Challenges for this project:
Stampendous Impressions (June) - Summer
Stampalot June - Bingo (lilac/purple, ribbon/lace, pink)
Crafty Individuals (June) - Summer's Ball
Simon Says Challenge - Anything goes
Happy Daze (June) - June Bug

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Pursuit of Happiness...

I've recently come across this forum for crafty people Flying Unicorn.

It's full of inspiration and lots of lovely, lovely people ;) They run lots of challenges, too and you know how much I love challenges lol!

And with this is mind, I would like to enter the October challenge - Pursuit of happiness. The challenge is to create a project about what brings you happiness...

I didn't have to think long - in fact I didn't have to think at all! My wonderful hubby and being together make me the happiest girl in the world! Every moment, second, minute, hour...:)

Here's a scrapbook layout I made that illustrates exactly that. The photos are from our one day trip to Prague, one of the most beautiful and romantic cities I have ever seen.

The stamps I've used are Darkroom Door Prague Collection, Tim Holtz and PaperArtsy. There's lots of distress ink, clear embossing for a resist technique and masking.

The papers are Tim Holtz and K&Co. I also sqeezed in a train ticket from the trip ;)).

I hope you have a wonderful week and just a quick reminder that you still have time to join in with our Fashionable Anything but a card challenge!

Big hugs

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