Beautiful sunset

 Good morning all

After saying I was going to be a regular blogger again, I can’t believe it is almost a month since I was last here. Considering there is not much going on in the world right now, it is amazing how I never seem to have time to blog! 

Anyway, the reason I am here today is because I wanted to share this beautiful sunset layout with you all. I used two photos for this and cut them into strips so that it extended the sunset further. I am very lucky that the sun sets right behind my house and this is the view I get every sunny winters day..quite often the sky lights up with the most amazing colours ..and the best bit? I get to see it all from my house. How lucky am I?,

Anyway without further ado, here it is. Thanks for stopping by. 

Elaine 

Some exciting news.

Well, having just restarted my blog, I have some news to share. 

I have recently been asked to design for Memories and Photos as a guest designer! How exciting! 

So, here are the layouts I created. The brief was to be a ‘normal’ scrapbooker without too much dimension and to work with the kit that was provided. As you can see my kit was Green... a colour I don’t use often so that was my first challenge! Secondly, the sketches given to me were multi photo double layouts so that was another challenge! Lol. Talk about out of my comfort zone! However, with some thought I came up with these four DLO’s..and, most importantly, scrapped lots of photos in the bargain...which is, after all the reason we all scrap! 

The kit I was provided with my Memories and Photos is their February 2021 kit so do check it out won’t you? 

Well...hello!

 It’s been almost two long years since I was last here..what a shock for you all that I am back at last.

Blogging seemed to be less popular and with a devastating family illness I lost all mojo to blog. The less said about 2020 the better..the global pandemic, the terrible loss of life and the ongoing family situation left little or no desire for me to record the long dark days, but 2021 sees me looking to the future, trying to be more optimistic and starting to get more involved in different crafting projects. 

During lockdown here in the UK, I continued to practise my watercolour and acrylic painting and, of course, I continued to Scrapbook. So much so that I am fast running out of space to store all the albums I am creating. Christmas this year I gave away two albums but given the fact I’m a prolific scrapper, that was a tiny drop in the ocean. 

I have also been card making and have started a little fledgling business selling my cards via a Facebook page Elaine’s Arts and Crafts and that seems to be working well for me.

Anyway, on to the real reason I’m back..I missed you guys! The inspiration I used to get from blog hopping was overtaken by the huge social giant of Facebook and my personal forays into the worlds of fellow crafter just isn’t the same there as it is visiting your blogs and seeing what you’ve all been up so. Sure, I get to see lots of creations but I don’t get to ‘know’ you all, whereas blogging is a way to get to know you, get personal inspiration and communicate in a more personal manner. I look forward to reconnecting with many of my old followers and, hopefully creating some new contacts too. 

Anyway, without further ado, here are some of my favourite creations from the last couple of years..I so look forward to more visits again soon. 

Elaine 

Unicorn Dream | Elaine King | Sparkle

Good morning one and all

Today I am bringing you a layout using lots of sparkle as per the April Prompt over on UK Scrap Addicts Blog ... I hope you can join in too?  

Firstly I took a sheet of sparkly pink glitter cardstock and used it as a mat for my trimmed down white card background. Now I don't know about you but I find sticking to glitter card is impossible...so to get around that I used wet acrylic glue..Pinflair in this instance. 

Then I took my white card, purchased from Crafts4Eternity . I buy their card stock because they  stocks a 300gsm card that twists and warps far less when using wet mixed media.  I punched out three 'chomped' pieces of the border using a Martha Stewart punch. 

I then drew three concentric circles with a sparkly Kaisercraft gel pen purchased from Merly Impressions. These are my 'Go To' pens for journalling and anything sparkly. I then drew random little hearts using the same pen along the three lines of the circles and added lots of sequins. 

Finally I matted the photograph and added a piece of Unicorn paper (and one other) from the Dream Big collection from Simple Stores that I got from Hey Little Magpie using some of the ephemera from the collection too. I raised the photo up on foam pads for extra dimension. 

Hey presto, one quick and easy layout with lots of sparkle. I do hope this inspires you to give our prompt a try..have fun!

Hello Kitty | Elaine King | Black Backgrounds

Good morning one and all...

Welcome to my post for the UK Scrap Addicts Creative team using the prompt for March which is, as you already know, Black backgrounds! This is one of my favourite schemes so this was just perfect for me. 

So, without further ado.. here is my layout. 

As you can see I used very little patterned paper for this challenge but I did use a hot pink sheet of card-stock too. I first gutted this so I had enough to mat my photo with some left over for another project. Both sheets of card were bought from Merly Impressions 

Once I had done this I trimmed the black card down and mounted on the hot pink. To set out the brads I used a PinkFresh template. I changed it up a bit by adding the large brad in the centre to anchor my twine, instead of (as they suggested) winding the twine around lots of the outside brads. 

Once I had done this I layered the photo on some scraps of pink themed patterned papers and added the title. These are Thickers that I got from a kit from Lottie Loves Paper last year. 

I added the pink polka dot Rosette and some pretty embellishments from my stash.. a quick and simple layout! 

Simple but quick, and, in my opinion effective... not to mention a great way to use us those brads! 

Elaine

XX 

Chilly Day: Punches: Elaine King

Good morning everyone! 

I hope today is a little warmer than when this photo was taken! Brrr! 

Anyway, today I am bringing you a layout created using some of my punches. It was nice to dig them out again..It is something I often overlook..how about you? 

To start with I chose this collection of Simple Stories, Winter Wonderland. Sticking with the UK Scrap Addicts January theme of No Cardstock.. (I know, I know, its the Feb prompt I'm supposed to be promoting..lol) I started with a piece of the wood grain paper to use as my background. I bought this collection a while back now from Pretty My Page..the shop run by UK Scrap Addicts very own creative team member Lisa-Jane. Se still has a little left in stock..and they are reduced..woohoo! She is moving over to concentrate on her fantastic cut files now so there are bargains to be had!

Anyway..back to the layout.. I then took some long pieces of patterned paper and punched along the edge of the longest piece. I then layered them along the left hand side adding a piece at right angles along the bottom and adding some punched tags tucked under he top at the far left. 

Next I mounted the photo and used foam tape to lift it off the page for added dimension. 

Once this was placed I punched little bunting flags and added it to some bakers twine along the bottom. 

I then punched several snowflakes and scattered them around the edges of the photo and added several stickers from the collection too. 

Quite a simple layout but I managed to use four different punches..shown here. 

Why not have a go yourself and let me know you've got on? 

Have fun

Helping Hands | Elaine King | Small Photos

Good morning all

Didn't you just love this months prompt over on the UK Scrap Addicts Blog? I love to use small photos as it is always great way to use up several photos at once.  Here is the layout I made this month using the prompt 

When I am doing this I usually use a photo editing app. In this case I used Pic Collage so you can make lots of photos fit into a grid. I find that most online photo printing services will offer a 'square photo' option these days. I have discovered that the UK photo printing services of Snapfish offer a 4" square option and Free Prints offer a 5" square option. In this case I used the 5" option from Free Prints rather than print the photos out myself. 

To make this layout I used 4 photos that I had set into a square. In these apps you can often choose a background colour too. In this case I chose a cerise pink background which I echoed by using a cerise pink piece of cardstock as my background. 

Once I had cut apart my four photos in the grid I used them with a page kit from Crafts4Eternity 

I made some home made embellishments using washi tape for the central square and highlighted some of the black that features within the patterned papers. 

I made a cluster in the bottom left with more punched black card and some die cut circles that served as a journaling spot. 

I then punched a 2" heart for co-ordinating card and covered in sequins too. Each of the squares that were not photos were cut and layered to give each a cerise pink frame too. 

To finish I added flowers from my stash and some black puffy alphabet stickers that I got from The Works. 

My only dilemma is the title.. should it be Helping Hand..or Helping Hands??? You decide!!