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 

Superstar | 6" paper pad | Elaine King

Good morning all. 

My turn up on the blog today showing you my way to use up 6" paper pads. These can be very versatile to use for scrapbooking as they are, of course, already perfectly co-ordinated and even have nice little pop out ephemera all ready to use. 

To start with I found a photo I was keen to scrap, (my Mum and I back in March at her birthday celebration.) She was, conveniently, wearing a black sequin top and I too had a jumper with a silver star all in sequins too. How handy was that? 

Anyway, I went through my, not inconsiderable, collection of pads and found this one from Heidi Swapp which had pale blue, black and dotty papers that I knew would work with my photo. I found this pad at TK Maxx when they used to stock a decent range of craft supplies. 

I 

I then matted my photo onto some black card that I got from Crafts4Eternity. Michele who runs the group stocks very good card stock that is brilliant for mixed media too. 

Once I had done this I took several sheets of the pad and cut them into 3/4" strips which I then cut further into 2" blocks ready for the herringbone piecing. I then inked all of the edges for definition. This was my practice run

To start I tried all of the pieces on the background card to make sure I had tried all the combinations to form my herringbone pattern. When I was happy I then took to sticking them all down. 

TIP: Use wet glue at this stage as it gives you more 'wriggle room' than DST or tape runners. 

Here it is.. almost straight! lol 

When they were all stuck down and dried I trimmed the overhang off the black card stock from C4E too. I then mounted the photo. 

To finish I added some die cut stars and sequin stars to embellish finishing off with some silver alphas for the title. 

I do hope the team are inspiring you this month to start using up those long hoarded paper pads. I know they are me! 

Thanks for stopping by, do remember to let us know you've visited. 

'til later

UK Scrap Addicts| Monochrome layout

Good morning Everyone

Thanks for joining me on my first blog post since becoming a member of the UKScrap Addicts Creative Team.

Today I am bringing you a layout using a monochrome colours. There was some discussion in the team as to how we would define Monochrome, but essentially we all agreed that using just one colour, regardless of how many tones there were, and, if you would like to, adding in a tiny amount of black in amongst the colour was the definition. I hope that helps?

So, here is my layout.

For this I decided to use one of my all time favourite collections from Kaisercraft that I originally sourced from Merly Impressions, one of the leading Kaisercraft suppliers in the UK. This collection is called  Indigo Skies and, of course, is predominantly blue! Lol

To start my layout, I used a starry stencil using texture paste that I had added a little denim coloured distress ink too. 

I then used a 3" piece of the collection paper to pace at the left hand side where I then added two further strips of paper too. I then set about fussy cutting several flowers from the patterned papers and created a cluster at the bottom left of the photo and added a tag and some strips of paper on the right.

I added several enamel dots and a twirl of blue and white bakers twine in amongst the cluster and added a couple of wood veneers that I had coloured with distress ink too. 

One of my favourite 'techniques' and one that gets overlooked a lot, is to literally take a few 'chomps' of punched edge from the sides too. Once I had done this I trimmed the paper down to 11" x 11" and backed it onto a piece of blue cardstock too. 

I do hope you will join in our challenge this month..especially as we are in the month of National Scrapbooking Day too! Go on! Have some fun and do let us know what you've been up to.