I'm finally FINALLY (at long last) bringing you Part 2 of the
Embellish With Flair sketch challenge which Heather and I did together...during October! 🙈
I
know it's also December. LATE December. Soz, lovelies! I actually
had finished it over a month ago, but since I did a process video (and
one with soooo much more raw footage than anticipated) editing has
happened sporadically between other things.
It was
actually rather involved and as usual I made it far more work than it
needed to be! But that's what I do. Every.Single.Time! 🤦
Heather
really put me to the challenge with this sketch. Definitely not my
usual sort of style, but they don't call it a challenge for nothing,
right?
I have no idea how I decided to use this sketch
with this photo of my adorable niece on her very first Book Week. I'm
pretty sure there was a suitably convoluted train of thought with led to
this decision, but overall I think it worked. 🤷
I used my October Counterfeit Kit (I know🤦) for this layout (well mostly. I did use a ton of scraps...)
I do
recommend you watch the process video (below) since I do go into that a
little bit as well as walking you though how I made it. I'm warning you...it's a bit of an ordeal! I distinguish myself by making a fairly simple task faaaar more complicated than it needs to be!
The rough gesso on the background and anything needing to stick on the seam lines of the "circles" needs more than your average adhesive which gives you three options:
1. Wet Glue. Liquid Glue. Whatever you want to call it. You need something fairly robust and I hatehatehate any that dry tacky. Why? Because my hand-eye co-ordination is lacking at the best of times, Occasionally it must be resorted to, but normally:
2. Hot glue. Even more messy. Sometimes necessary, but waiting for ancient fossilized lump (which was once a stick) inside glue gun to melt then having to interrupt crafting in order to treat 3rd degree burns is something I'd prefer to avoid if I possibly can.
3. Glue Dots. Fast, clean, easy and they come in all the strengths and sizes. This is my personal preference. They've been part of my life "these 20 years at least". (My fellow Janeites will get the reference!!)
Yes I do actually speak that way and my fambam know when to insert which quote!
Here are the still pics I promised you:
Title (with lots of messy threads! 😍)
"Tone on tone" embellishments and stitching detail
Fussy cut books embellished with tiny Wonder Woman stickers
Large book cut on the Silhouette
That name card that caused ever so much grief (and I still cant stick in s straight line despite multiple attempts! 🙈)
Lilya's First Book Week
Thanks for sticking with me and hope the vid wasn't too frustrating!
Bringing you Project #3 for the Cat Lovers Hop. (Links to the first two are at the bottom of the page)
This one is a scrapbook layout as promised. It has a bit of a back story, so bear with me!
The story begins in the Spread the Sparkle Facebook Group which is the group started by SpiegelMomScraps. There is a challenge there at the moment to scraplift the winner of the Scrapbook Spotlight the month before. With me so far? OK, so for the month of October, Katie Scott is the winner with a layout featuring a large heart cut file.
Sara Scraps did what she does so well and interpreted it as a layout featuring a quilted heart. See her process video here. Upon seeing this, Moira O'Reilly scraplifted Sara's quilted heart. Katie loved the quilted version so much that she went and scraplifted Moira (scraplifting her! 😂) although I can't find Katie's quilted version anywhere. 🤷
Now I had every intention of entering the scraplift challenge since I have a partial page which could work. HOWEVER, seeing all these quilted layouts one after another was more than I could take so I had to do this version as well. Thanks for the inspo, Sara! You've spawned a monster I think!
Do click on the links to all three ladies' YouTube channels and watch the process videos I'm talking about.
Now on to my version - October is a month of all sorts of anniversaries and one of which is the passing of our beloved Fossett 3 years ago. National Black Cat Day is on 27 October (it's not Aussie, but it should be!) and sometimes falls during the hop.
I've never scrapbooked anything about the deaths of any of our cats until now. While it's something I want in my albums, I also want scrapbooking to be a happy experience. I'm conscious of not wanting my albums to be overly censored or sanitised either, so it;s a delicate balance.
The vintage vibe of the kit would work with a nostalgic story and to take things one step further, I wanted to see if I could take out one of the two monthly challenges thrown down by CKC to help use those kits.
Challenge 1 is called "Back to the Good Old Days" and is about scrapbooking how we used to. The thing is that I don't LIKE the way I used to scrap. I wasn't even scrapbooking that long before sort of falling out of love with it, but I didn't understand why or what was missing for me...until about 2012 when a Glitter Girl video showed up in my YouTube feed and it changed everything!!
It was the STORY and journaling which was missing. I've not looked back since! So how do I translate the prompt to work for me? I thought back to when I first started scrapbooking in 2004 or 2005 and what reminded me of that time. Supplies have come a very long way since then. That probably also contributed to my frustration. Even fewer supplies made their way to a country like Australia where scrapbooking just wasn't as common as in the US. Basic Grey was one of the main brands available.
My October kit is full of Basic Grey and the majority of the papers I picked were BG (with some October Afternoon and the background is Studio Calico). The other thing is that embellishments (and layouts themselves really) were heavily themed and very literally interpreted. I would definitely have to pull some cat themed stuff if I wanted to reflect this since I didn't add any in the kit. I don't always theme (mostly I don't) but sometimes it;s fun.
Both Moira and Sara used a stencil and ink (in slightly different places) so using the Dyan Reaveley stencil I'm giving away would be rather apt! Th top two corners are a Newton's Nook paw print since the space is smaller. I wanted my stencilling to look as though it was coming out from under the heart like Moira did.
The next important detail was that it was essential for me to stitch the squares together. I used a zig zag which was mostly OK except when my machine had a conniption due to the unseasonably warm day yesterday when I was making this. The white cotton isn't all that visit anyway.
The colours of the heart were based on the light blue floral October Afternoon paper. Pink was a bit of an afterthought. When I saw that the roses I cut from an OA paper were the best match, I added a pink mat (the reverse of the red circle Basic Grey paper) and a different shade of aqua.
I knew from the start that I wanted to use black. Partially to offset all the colour since it's not intended to be a super cheerful story and partly because Fossy was, after all, a mini house panther!
Sara placed her photo on the right and I decided to follow her lead on this one mainly because of the direction of the photo. I printed it with the text as is. The picture was he one I posted on FB to announce Fossy's passing so I left it.
Most of the pages I chose were various shades of cream as was the background. It's a patterned paper with concentric circles. I added white cardstock, but I didn't want stark white. The white border on the photo somehow looks OK. It draws attention to it and the different shades of cream help it blend right in.
The extra photo mats made this layout more like my style, although I'd probably consider three as holding back!! The busyness of the heart make a lot of embellishment rather unnecessary and even a distraction. I added the Crate Paper cat die cut and some various word stickers from outside the kit, but I needed them to pull the layout together. If I'm totally honest the paper I fussy cut the flowers from was also outside the kit. The large camera sticker in the top right is from a large 5 & Dime sticker sheet that ended up in the kit by mistake. Oh well 🤷! The brads were from he kit (yay!) and so were those bright white enamel hearts, which I coloured black with Copic markers.
The black Thickers were from the kit and I'm always glad to get chipboard Thickers on paper. Even new ones don't stick well so I needed Glue Dots in Mini and Micro to get them all stuck down. I sometimes machine stitch them, but I didn't want the distraction of white thread on them.
I should have used cream alphas for the second part of the title but was almost done when I thought of it. Nevermind! The wording of the title itself comes from vocab used in the Chonky Cats Facebook Group, although ironically Fossy was the least chonky of all our cats. Black cats there are known as Voids. Cool, huh? I like to use phrases or puns which I rearrange as needed for my titles and this one comes from the expression "a void in your heart" which is apt for this situation.
I'm actually not displeased with this layout despite the few embellishments. I don;t actually think it needs MOAR. I even toyed with the idea of ink/mist splatters and held back. Whoever is holding the Mama hostage, please give her back!
Our Void - Always In Our Hearts
That's all for now! It's a long post, so congrats on making it this far! All I have to do is come up with my next project! Thanks for all your comments I always read them all and I'm working through commenting on them.
OK now to the giveaway part:
Giveaway CLOSED!
📌 I have three items (and a bonus fourth prize) to give away
(pictured below) and I'll pull three names for the first three prizes. 📌For the fourth "bonus" prize: it will go to someone who has
entered the main blog hop (please let me know your project numbers if you would like to be considered. You can
wait til the blog hop is over to do this since they change sometimes.) 📌
The first name drawn gets first choice, second name gets second choice
and so on. Bonus prize will be TallCraftyDude's favourite project! 📌 This Giveaway is NOT SPONSORED.
I purchased the prizes especially for this giveaway. This year I
picked stuff other than just stamp sets to mix it up a bit! In the even
the items I purchased are on back order, I'll purchase something
similar in their place and update the list below. Thanks for
understanding!
The prizes you get to pick from are: This hysterical Art Impressions stamp set called "Catastrophy". Perfect for the Spoonie stamper (or if you know one!)
There is a Dyan Reaveley stencil called "It's Raining Cats" (this one is mine, but yours will be brand new, obvs! 😉)
An American Crafts "Coloring Notebook"
Lastly,
the bonus prize will be an electronic gift card to the online crafty
store of your choice to the value of $20 AUD (approx $13 USD, £10 GBP,
€12 Eur etc. May vary depending on exchange rate)
You
will receive an entry (or entries) for each of the following. You
absolutely don't have to do everything - just how ever many you like. If you have previously followed my socials then these are already counted for you! (unfollowers will not be counted) 📌 The giveaway will remain open until 11:59PM AEDT on Monday 28 Oct (a whole week from today). Please visit THIS SITE to calculate in your own timezone 📌 The winner will be drawn on Weds 30 Oct so PLEASE CHECK BACK HERE ❗If the winner and I can't make contact by Weds 6 Nov, I will have to draw a new winner since I need to get these prizes out all together. ❗Please try to email me at alex@pinkcraftymama.com
This really is the easiest way for me to get in touch with you since
not all blogger profiles have an email attached and if you JUST leave
comments, I have no other place to search for you.
So...what do you have to do to get entries? 🐈 Follow this blog - 3 entries (in the left sidebar) 🐈 Follow me on Facebook - 2 entries 🐈 Follow me on Instagram - 1 entry 🐈 Comment (once per day per person) on a post between now and the close of the giveaway - 1 entry per post
I don't yet know how many makes I'll have done between now and then, but
it will be at least three. The more love from you guys the better the
chances of me getting crafty which gives you more chances to enter.
So today...if you want to leave a comment, tell me whether your cats like to eat strange things (like vegies etc)... (or anything else if this doesn't grab you) and please don't hesitate to email me with any questions at alex@pinkcraftymama.com
I actually did curate the kit by the end of the first week of October, except I had deadlines which bumped any video or photos of the kit down my to-do list and I was trying to decide which was the lesser of the two evils when it came to documenting this particular Kit Of Doom.
In the end, I decided I had to get it done and my decision was made for me in that NotPinkCraftyHubster (aka The Photography Department) required the use of the camera for an actual photography assignment, so I was left with my phone which meant photos since logistics of shooting an overhead video would currently involve duct tape.
Now on to the topic at hand:
I really loved the story of how the inspiration kit for October was chosen for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge. I also loved the choice of kit itself!
In terms of quantity (and you know I have major problems in this area!🙈🙈🙈), I decided to do what I did when I used to belong to a couple of kit clubs (though never Studio Calico) and create a main kit and add-on for each one I would actually buy.
I did fairly well sticking to quantities within each kit. The only exception was a few extra embellishments (SC is typically a bit lighter in this area compared to some) and alphas.
Here are the Studio Calico versions and my counterfeit for each:
The thing that struck me about this kit was the slightly emotional presence of manufacturers who either are no longer in business or no longer make patterned paper. There is a lot of Basic Grey and October Afternoon. My next thought was that all it wanted was Sassafras and Cosmo Cricket to make the reunion of such brands complete (all four hold a large place in my heart), which is why I'm calling my kit:
The Four Friends
(after the poem by AA Milne)
I tried (more or less) to pick one embellishment to equal each one in the inspiration kit (plus a few extra). Admittedly some of the things I included (like die cuts) were a lot more...abundant?? than the die cuts they were supposed to equate too. Oops. Another oops is I forgot to add the flair to the photo, but I promise it's there!
I left in the pink Mini Market alphabet stickers despite my general policy of usually just including Thickers and pulling in smaller ones as needed. I added in at least one extra set of Thickers per add-on.
I'm glad I tried to find alternative images of the papers online since the colouring in the original photos isn't really true in some cases, yet other papers in the same photo look OK. I do apologise for the quality of my photos and light glare etc. It couldn't be helped this time!
Here are the papers on their own with the side I chose to represent the side in the original kit.
Some are even the same! Surprisingly I went for similar cardstock too which I rarely do. My orange is the Bazzil Dotted Swiss with the embossed dots and the white is the woodgrain print from last month. I think the pink and kraft are pretty similar.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
Now you know I often pick one paper to represent the "A-side" of the one in the inspiration kit and another for the "B-side". Among the various add-ons on offer, there is a second set of papers in the main kit. Studio Calico (SC) kits tend to have a pretty specific A side, so that's what I based my main kit and each add-on on and used the B-side of the patterned paper add-ons for my extra paper add-ons. Make sense? No, I didn't expect as much, but have a look and see what I mean.
I know the largeish cameras are a bit of a stretch to represent the tiny brick like pattern on the bottom right, but there was little I could cut out in what I had picked so far and they're kinda arranged like bricks...🤷🤷🤷
(And the backs in case you're interested)
There were four add-on kits (of varying sizes) offered by SC for August of 2012. The names are suitably retro and fitting for the "Summer of 69". I'm going to run with my Four Friends theme too, Rather than naming each after the four animal friends in the original poem, I'm going to name each after some more well-known animal friends also of AA Milne's creation. Yes I know there are more than four, but humour me, OK? 😂
A whole box of random wood veneer to equal three tiny pegs? But in some of the kits I didn't even bother picking an item to equal say tags or a bit of ribbon, because I knew I already threw in quite a bit extra and I'll likely mix the kits as I always do.
I forgot to snap a pic of the "A-side" of the papers by themselves, but you can more-or-less make them out.
The black and white paper in the bottom right is a specialty sort of stitching paper. Initially I was leaning to using a specialty paper in it's place, but in the end I just picked a "bonus" paper. It's also bottom right in my kit.
Instead of the die cut sheet, I chose a cut-apart sheet. The sequin mix I pulled in had colours that would work as well as many larger ones similar to those in the original inspiration kit. I also changed my mind about including an alphabet stamp set. I have all those extra Thickers so wont end up using it.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
The woodgrain is the back of the cut-apart sheet. I considered it an embellishment as was the die cut sheet in the original kit, but I guess I forgot between taking the photo of the front and back! 🤦🤦🤦
The camera paper on the left is my substitution for a second sheet of the specialty stitching paper which appears in the photo of the original in the top right corner.
(And the backs in case you're interested)
Thanks so much for hanging in there! I know I'm unlikely to use this up this month (or even come close), but there are so many special papers that I'm going to leave it intact - at least for a while.
Would you believe me that I had actually finished the filming and the layout a couple of weeks ago? I think we're all getting the hang of having a semi-permanent recording set-up, but we're always making improvements along the way.
This layout brings together all-the-things! What do I mean by that? Sorta kinda killing two (or in this case more) proverbial birds with one stone.
Firstly, I used supplies from my September "Counterfeit Kit" to make this layout. You can read more about that here. Need a refresher of the inspiration kit for September's Counterfeit Kit Challenge (CKC)? Just click on over HERE to visit them!
Here's the process video below.
The other thing I manged to incorporate into the layout was the use of a sketch. Remember, September's Product Focus in the Rediscover Your Stash Facebook group is sketches?
The sketch came from Shimelle's free 4x6 Photo Love class from Two Peas days. I stumbled across the sketch on Pinterest and upon recognizing it as one of the lessons, I had a look on her blog and there it was! Shimelle didn't post the sketch, but she shared photos of the two layouts she made and posted them on them on her blog. Here is Shimelle's blog post and it contains a video of this lesson.
The reason I chose this sketch that CHALLENGE 1 in this month's CKC is "'Curate' Your Project". This turned out to be quite the drama. i spend days hunting for the photos but they remain elusive. I reeeaaaallly wanted to use some museum photos (I knoooow...kinda obvious interpretation) but with Shimelle's "Field Trip" being a museum inspired collection and us having lots of museum photos over the years, it seemed like a good fit. Especially the number and orientation of photos of one particular trip and this particular sketch
Butterflies were Plan B (more about in the video)! I guess the zoo is a kind of museum? And I always imagine "curators" as pinning down insects and butterflies (see where I'm going with this?) onto those numbered plates. It ended up for the best, because who makes butterfly flair better than Embellish With Flair? I was spoiled for choice and I don't even have all of them! 😮
I tell you, sitting down to a layout frequently takes you down a rabbit hole and it tells you what it needs. (What? don't your supplies talk to you??)
Hands up if you have plenty of "vintage" stash that you can't part with.
Yeah I thought so. I have a lot. Today I'm reporting that I successfully got them (OK OK THREE of them) on a layout after languishing in my stash for...I don't know...maybe 6-8 years? I have maybe 4 different packets of these rosettes. I know I manged to use up almost a full pack some years ago, so it IS possible. 🤔
Regardless of WHAT type of item it is that you're hoarding, the important reason is to ask yourself WHY. This will be different for everybody and may include a combination of factors.
Is it the fact that you paid money for it and don't want to feel like you're throwing money away if you get rid if it? You don't have to throw them out. Ask around at local schools, preschools, childcare and community centres...and hospitals too. They often have arts and crafts type programs and are grateful for the donations. You can feel good knowing your stuff will be enjoyed by sick kids.
Not you? Still clutching your preciousssssesss? 🤣 (Don't worry, clearly I am too!) hoarding it for a sentimental reason? Are you waiting for the PERFECT project. Larger, pre-made embellishments tend to be expensive so I can understand that.
If that's you, then I encourage you to read this article by Shimelle on what COULD happen to "special" supplies if you hold onto them too long. Gives you something to think about for sure.
What if you WANT to use them...TRY to use them, but they just look wrong every time.
That's me, BTW. 🙋🙋🙋 (Actually they're all me, but mostly the last one.)
The first tip I have at getting something to work is to go back to the same collection. Collections are designed to go together, They're made so you really just need to add photos, a pen and glue. I usually mix my collections so this is a step back and chance to refocus for me.
Chances are, if they're older supplies, you likely don't have much (if anything) left from the original collection. So go back to manufacturer if they are still in business. The rosettes I had were all brands under the American Crafts umbrella (I have two packs by American Crafts, one by Pebbles and one I can't remember now). Usually the colours have a certain familiarity about them.
You can also try and pull in motifs similar to those in the original collection, paying close attention to the colours.
For my part, in this particular case, I often felt they were too big...as are many supplies I LIKE, but just struggle to use (often due to size). In this particular instance, spreading them over a two-page layout seemed like a logical way to start. It was going to still take a bit of work since the photos took up a fair bit of space. What I DID like about using these rosettes is that they make a perfect nest for a flair badge! 🙌
They're so old the foam pads on the back just fell off! 🤣
Many are topped with a button and the button is almost always without thread. 😱 Naked buttons make me twitchy! Whatever adhesive was used to attach the button to the FRONT of the rosette was certainly more effective than the one used for the foam dots on the back! 😂 That rosette slightly popped open. Glue Dots fixed this, attached the flair and then the rosettes to the layout (don't even get me started on chipboard Thickers)...along with some of the other bits and pieces.
As you saw in the video, I chose the colours carefully to co-ordinate with both the flair and layout itself. The Pebbles ones had white circles with tiny "happy birthday" text that I never noticed before. Since I don't celebrate them and it's irrelevant to the story anyway, I pulled them off.
This is where you can start to bring the supplies into the modern era by replacing the various layers with punched circles of papers from your layout. Suddenly they don't stick out as much!
Since I was trying to draw attention to the flair badges, I chose not to replace the circles. The white flair against the blue/aqua looked really good. Flair, rather than buttons, gave them a fresh new look and I'm really pleased how they turned out. I can't say the same for all the other parts, but overall pretty satisfied given don't two page layouts
I think what I'm going to do is place all my "too hard" supplies in one basket nearby, so I'm looking at them and through them more often and don't miss opportunities to use them. An actual "too hard" basket! 🤣🤣🤣
Oh you probably want to see the rest of the layout, right? 😳😂
OK here is the title and journaling (yes I added the butterfly and black faceted gems after I stopped filming!):
And the whole spread:
The Butterfly House
Looks like the resident photographer had some "halp" and rather stringent quality control. It appeared to be the subject matter was all wrong, but as you can see below she fixed it! Phew! 🤣
I hope I've addressed most of the reasons why you might be holding on to supplies and how to get past this road block. Leave me a comment or email if you have any questions. I'll be happy to have a chat about it.
I'm finally FINALLY (at long last) bringing you Part 2 of the
Embellish With Flair sketch challenge which Heather and I did together...during October! 🙈
Heather
really put me to the challenge with this sketch. Definitely not my
usual sort of style, but they don't call it a challenge for nothing,
right?
