Scrapbook Challenges Sketch 273

It's been a long time since a Scrapbook Challenges sketch came about. The transition from Ning to SC's own site has been a priority though, and well worth it.

The sketches are back now, and number 273 has produced some brilliant interpretations from the DT. The sketch:

Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #273

My interpretation is... well, autumnal (just coming out of summer). That's the mood and season I was in when I made it - and that's how long it's been since an SC sketch! So nothing very Christmassy here, but inspiration nonetheless, I hope:

a rare photo of my dad

I used a rare photo of my dad from Father's Day this year - he's holding a chocolate orange (his favourite) cupcake that I made for him (and that I have to admit were even too sickly for me).  I used a lot of different brands on this page - Websters', Cosmo, Lily Bee, Basic Grey, Crate, Sass - because I wanted to get that brightness of colours going.

still loving those circles

Here, I punched a circle in the base layer and adhered some patterned paper to the other side to show through the window.

OK - over to you! Go to Scrapbook Challenges, sign up if you're not already a member, and find the inspiration!

Happy Days

We'd already been planning our wedding for a long time when Echo Park's Happy Days collection came out. To be honest, I was so consumed with making wedding decorations that I hadn't really thought ahead to what the post-wedding scrapbooking would be like. Echo Park saved me the trouble, in the end. More than that - it was a match made in heaven.

Of course, recently I've been getting stuck in to that post-wedding scrapping, recording our happy day.

This layout you've already seen:

Materials used: American Crafts Thickers (Rainboots in Aqua Glitter Foam); Bazzill White cardstock; Echo Park: Dots and Stripes in Concrete, Happy Days chipboard accents, Happy Days element stickers, Happy Days journalling cards, Happy Days paper (Checker Board, Little Flowers reverse side); My Mind's Eye paper (Lost and Found Union Square Perfect "Happy"); Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge stamp set.
{Scrapbook Challenges Sketch #271}

I stitched and stamped before sticking down the paper strips. Then I added a printed swallow, a Cricut-cut nautical star and an RSVP - all from the wedding invitations - as extra memories. Finishing off with Happy Days chipboard shapes and Thickers was a doddle.

Why so easy? Well, Echo Park has pretty much decided my theme for me - I still want to be quite free and 'different', but I do want to have some main colours and motifs running through the pages. And Happy Days is perfect - you've seen the photos of the wedding. It should help me reach that subtle theming I'm after.

I made another Happy Days layout last week - taking into account this layout too, do you think I've achieved continuity?

Materials used: Bazzill Dragonfly cardstock; Echo Park: Dots and Stripes in Concrete, Happy Days alpha stickers, Happy Days element stickers, Happy Days journalling cards, Happy Days paper (Checker Board reverse side); Gauche Alchemy Punchinella;Tim Holtz Bitty Grunge stamp set; Toga alphas; vellum.
{Creative Scrappers sketch #181}

For the border, I cut up the remains of this chequered vellum I've had for years and machine-stictched it on, then drew a couple of extra outer lines with a black pen. To make the chevrons, I cut a strip of the reverse side of Happy Days Checker Board paper, and then cut this strip into squares. Keeping the squares in a line, turning every other square 90 degrees gave the rough pattern; then it was just a question of lining the stripes up and trimming the edges. I did the same with the Dots and Stripes paper.

yummy!

Since we went for cupcakes as the wedding cake, the Happy Days element stickers had to be used: cupcakes, layer cakes and sundaes - yummy! I cut around the cake on the journalling card a little so it could stick out over the photo. Then the title - punchinella, more chevrons, and lovely pure alphas.

And finally, my piece de resistance this month...

....take one deep photo frame from a well-known supermarket chain, take it apart, and make it your own!

Materials used: Echo Park: Happy Days alpha stickers, Happy Days chipboard accents, Happy Days element stickers, Happy Days paper (Ads, Retro both sides); Gauche Alchemy Punchinella and various Mixed Media Color Kits elements.

The frame comes with a super-thick inner mount that is quite wide, providing a great working surface. I drew around the mount directly onto the patterned paper and then simply cut out the shape I wanted to partially cover the mount. I did a teensy bit of fussy cutting to get the Retro flowers; glued some GA elements onto some thin wire and stuck them down behind the big chipboard title; and then just layered the rest up.

because the frame is so deep you can really go to town on the layering

on the subject of matches made in heaven... look at this Echo Park Happy Days chipboard accent with a vintage mini film negative from a Gauche Alchemy Mixed Media Color Kit

Pastels

Pastels.

They're not exactly my go-to shades. But lately, I've come to see that I can use them.

In baking if not in crafting. Actually, I did try here to use lilacs - that was really difficult. And more recently I tried to use them to make a card for a friend to give to her mum.

For the card I also used something else I don't love: flowersoft. I was pretty brutal with it though, so I think (hope!) it's stayed in place.

Anyone out there got a least favourite colour/shadeset? Wanna share how you get over it?

No...Not More, Surely?

Um...yep, I made some more. Orange flavour with orange blossom frosting.


Because it's my fiance's last week of term and he wanted to bring his students something, he asked me very nicely to make some more. Ain't we both sweethearts?

...and then Realising Cupcakes

...yep, so I made some more. For the picnic. Yummy!

Dreaming of Cupcakes

Actually, I do often dream of layouts, cards, and materials... but not cupcakes - yet. I made a 'Cupcake Dreams' layout for this competition... and then had to go out and buy some ingredients to make another batch of cupcakes :-) Good thing there's a picnic tomorrow so I can *share* them with people! Anyway, here's the layout:


The 3 dreams are 1) that there was no fat in cupcakes so I could eat them guilt-free, 2) that mine eventually look like the ones in the book, and 3) that (pending point 2) I open up a cafe selling tea, lemonade and cupcakes. Apart from cupcakes, I'm loving these script-printed flowers (I'll be making my own soon):

...I'm loving graph paper and fountain pens (made me feel all scholarly again):

...and I'm loving concentrically stacked buttons:


Fingers crossed for the competition! (And now off to make cupcakes...)

Take the Cake

I got up early today to bake some cupcakes. I just felt like it. It's been a while, and the cupcake cravings had mounted to such an extent that there was only one solution. Yummy!

Cupcake Cupcake

News just in: someone else I know loves making, decorating and eating cupcakes! AND she knows just where to get the best baking ingredients in this still-new city. Just need to find the time to go there...!

So, what did I make her for her birthday? ...um, cookies, actually. But there was one cupcake I made: