Using Stickers For Starting Points!

Hello, it's Louise here today. Welcome to SJ Crafts.

Last month I used Amy Tangerines Plus One collection to create these layouts. Today I'm here to share with you another two layouts and some greeting cards using the same collection. This time my focus is on the Amy Tangerine's sticker sheet.

How many of us are guilty of buying collection kits that include a 12x12 sticker sheet? You know the sheets I mean, the ones that usually include an alpha set and word stickers.

I am definitely guilty of this, even when I purchase a few sheets of 12x12 paper or a small 6x6 paper pad I check to see if there is a sticker sheet to accompany them! 

It's safe to say that I have quite a selection of these 12x12 sticker sheets and most of them look very similar to this one.....

.....half used with stickers cut out, where I have placed them onto a project to see what they look like without sticking them down straight away.

Instead of putting this half used sticker sheet away with all the others I challenged myself to create a couple more layouts using a sticker as a starting point. Well, Amy Tangerine has designed a fun collection, it would be a shame not use all those stickers, wouldn't it?!

On the right hand side of the used sticker sheet I shared with you above, you will see where a long pink sticker sat. When I decided to use a sticker as a starting point I adhered this sticker to a sheet of 12x12 cardstock before I thought to take a photograph. From the whole sheet this is the one sticker that jumped out a me shouting "use me, use me", so after placing it on the cardstock I put it to one side knowing I would need to locate the photo I wanted to use.

In the meantime I selected a few more stickers that I knew would work with the second photo I'd chosen to scrap. I mixed the 12x12 sticker sheet with some of Amy Tangerine's puffy stickers. The large sticker "an everyday kind of adventure" was the sticker I'd chosen to base my layout around:

I started out with a sheet of white cardstock (it seems to be my "go to" supply at the moment), my photo and my adventure sticker. Placing the stickers and some Amy Tangerine cards from the 6x6 pad I started to build up my page:

This photo of me was taken on top of an open air bus on a tour of Liverpool city. There I was, in my element, taking lots of photos and in true British Style, the heavens opened. We had to move downstairs and as it continued to pour with rain, more people squeezed onto the bus, the windows steamed up and bang went my sightseeing photo taking tour :). This fun sticker collection included an Umbrella too. Just perfect.

Not only did I use a sticker to base my layout around, I used the alpha stickers and Amy Tangerine's Cards from the 6x6 paper pad to create my title....

My happy place is behind this camera.

 

• additional supplies: an Amy Tangerine badge, studio calico stars, Mister Huey mist, cork arrows, wood veneers and gems.

Sunday Morning Routine

Remember the big long pink sticker from above....by now I'd located the photo that I'd had in mind to scrap with this sticker. A rugby photo no less. One where the funky socks would work well with the funky stickers, and one where this sticker would record our Sunday Morning Routine.

Really, this sticker I could have used again and again. It's a perfect sticker to use to record so many everyday things.

The sticker was used to create the title for my layout.

More Amy Tangerine stickers from the above sheet were used along with an Amy Tangerine badge and brad, studio calico stars and Mister Huey Mists.

As I went to photograph my layouts I moved my corner rounder across my desk and done something I haven't done in a long while. I corner rounded my layouts. I'd forgotten how much I like the look.

Cards

After completing the layouts I took another look at what was left on my sticker sheet and decided to make some cards using papers from Amy Tangerine's 6x6 paper pad and some of the remaining stickers.

First up is the Typewriter sticker. I trimmed down a sheet of 6x6 patterned paper from Amy Tangerine's pad and inserted side panels. The patterned paper is rather busy so the plain grey side panels tone it down a little. 

To add some texture I ran the paper through my sewing machine. It is a good idea to sew your paper before you stick it to your card. That way the stitching will not show on the inside of your card.

Adding a little stamped text, a badge and the typewriter sticker, there is a little card on it's way to a lovely recipient.

The world globe was the next sticker left on the sheet that I wanted to use. I took three patterned papers from the paper pad to layer and stitch.

The small grey hello sticker and alphas together made a greeting.  I added the globe, a few stars and twine and I have a card that I love.

Did you spot the teeny cloud on the above sticker sheet? Half way up on the right hand side under the orange umbrella! I wanted to use it and noticed that Amy Tangerines puffy stickers also had a teeny puffy cloud. Picking out three patterned papers again, I went for the house paper and layered and stitched along the top of the layered papers to add design and texture. With a few gems and the puffy house sticker I finished my card.

It feels good to have used up most of my sticker sheet. Amy Tangerine's stickers are inspiring and fun to use. I enjoyed using them so much that I'm now going to pop across to SJ Crafts shop to see what collection and sticker sheet I will purchase next.

So...   

•  are any of you are going to admit to having lots of these half used sticker sheets? 

• how many of you are now thinking you could use these stickers on your next project?

• are you thinking about including a sticker sheet next time you shop for supplies? 

Please do leave us a comment and let us know.

Thank you for stopping by, have a lovely day! 

Louise x

To see more of Louise's inspiring craft projects check out her blog Boys, Bugs and Beautiful Buttons!

Cutting Into A Collection!

Hello everyone, Jemma here today!

Are you a photo-first scrapper? Someone who selects a photo and then chooses just the right papers, cardstock and embellishments to showcase it? Or do you see a paper collection for sale and fall in love with the colours, textures and ephemera, hoping that the perfect photos can be located in your to-scrap pile?

I'm generally in the latter category, partly because there are no bricks & mortar scrapbook shops nearby, meaning that I generally shop online, and partly because I have years of photos to scrap with so it's easier to start with stash that I want to play with.

However making that first cut in the first sheet of paper of a kit or collection is always a little tricky:

Which side of a double-sided sheet should I use?

Would those stripes be better cut vertically or horizontally?

What if the next page's photos needed this paper design?

What if I run out of a favourite pattern?

Here's a look at my Seven Step Process for cutting into a collection; specifically what I did with the Teresa Collins' My Name Is Collection.

Step One - Look at the Collection

First of all I emptied out all the papers and thought about the sorts of pages I might use them for. Highlights from the A sides included:

• a whole sheet of monthly 3x4 cards for a year-long project

• lots more 4x6 and 3x4 cards with quotes and phrases or space for journalling

• a sheet of 16 fun kraft polaroid frames

• a sheet of words and phrases that could be cut into strips

Flipping the sheets over, I discovered that there were some versatile background patterns amongst the B sides and realised that I would have to choose which 4x6 or 3x4 cards I definitely wanted to use before cutting up any sheets at all.

Step Two - Reserve "Special Sheets"

I'm not a pocket page scrapper but I do like to scrap monthly summaries each year so my first job was to cut up the sheet of calendar cards for this year's album. I'll use these with scraps from the other papers and some of the left-over 4x6 and 3x4 journalling cards. I'm full of admiration for the designer at Teresa Collins - if I had been using divided page protectors the designs are intact on both sides after cutting.

Step Three - Grab Some Photos

I had two (sets of) photos in mind for these papers by now: a selfie of my son's girlfriend plus kitten, and a set of photos from a visit to a match museum last summer.

Step Four - Extract/Discard Journal Cards

I cut the 'Polaroids' sheet to release my favourites (the B side pattern didn't need any special consideration) and chose 3x4 cards from 'Record' that would work with the photos.  I knew I would never, ever use one of the 4x6 cards from 'Love' ("Don't Forget You Are Awesome") so it was an easy decision to cut it free and use the B side instead.

Polaroids                        Record                           Love

Step Five - Start Cutting, Shuffling, Sticking

I decided that I would never use the A side of 'Journal' and therefore paid it no attention when cutting the sheet up. Some paper & card shuffling took place before I decided to add a block from the 'Words' paper to to align with the back of the 4x6 card, again paying no heed to the B side as it was a uniform pattern:

The second set of photos needed a double layout, plenty of "white" space and non-intrusive patterns.  Along with another 'Polaroid' frame, and a 3x4 card from 'Record', I cut two horizontal strips from 'Noted' to stretch across the entire width of my sheets for continuity. Having used/reserved a number of the 3x4 cards from 'Record' I had to be creative with the remainder of the B side and lay short strips of the graph paper just under the photos. It was a real jigsaw!

At this point I did make a mistake and tried to use strips of the kraft ledger paper from 'Tag's before deciding that I hated it and replacing it with strips of red cardstock. No matter though - I need scraps for my monthly pages!

Step Six - See What's Left

OK so that was a single and a double page done and all but one sheet of paper ('Lucky') cut into ... so I cut it up to stop myself being too precious with it!

Step Seven - Go Back to Step Three & Repeat

Time to take stock and start thinking about the next pages ... my yearly album needs some of those reserved polaroids, journalling cards and scraps, but I'm sure that there's at least one more 12x12 to come ... I'll be back!

Are you tempted to cut into a collection? SJ Crafts stocks a wide range of Collection Kits to play with, check them out!

Jemma x

Jemma blogs at Just Jimjams where she recently celebrate her 400th post, pop over there for more inspiration!

Mix It Up - Different Collections!

Hi there! Its Lisa-Jane here today with a confession... I'm addicted to patterned paper!  

At the moment I am rather enamoured with Crate Paper and I can tell you that having a bit of a love affair with one particular company can really expand your options when you are making layouts. Because of the printing processes that the companies use, you'll often find that the colours are very similar across collections. I have an album in the making where I am using entirely October Afternoon products from about 10 different collections because they all go so well together and I am really finding that the same is true for Crate Paper.

Take this layout for example: beachy photos made me reach again for The Pier Collection which I am still loving to bits. But I really wanted to bring out the red in that pretty watery floral paper and the red chevron in the collection was too big for what I had in mind.  Instead I reached for a rather unusual option - Bundled Up, the recent Christmas collection! The little red triangles on the cream background were a perfect foil to the prettier piece and the subtle aquas on the reverse went really well too.

I used a few of the Splash Cut Outs, some Simple Stories Homespun alpha stickers and some American Crafts rose trim and everything came together very quickly.

For this next layout I used The Pier again but this time I wanted to really home in on the textures and colours in the photo.  I instantly reached for that glorious turquoise distressed wood paper 'Found' from Maggie Holmes Flea Market as well as adding in a couple of smaller pieces from the Flea Market 6x6 paper pad. 

 Some of the stickers here are from The Pier and I also managed to use a few more of my Simple Stories Homespun stickers too because the layout was about a family of stones that we hid in a crevice on the beach. I definitely made the most of the alpha sheets that came with Homespun as you'll see from another post coming soon!

This final layout merged The Pier with Maggie Holmes Flea Market AND Bundled Up for a very pretty subtle feel. I mounted the Bundled Up ledger paper onto pink Bazzil cardstock, added a strip of Flea Market washed out woodgrain, topped that with some floral from the Flea Market 6x6 pad and then added a couple of scallop border pieces from The Pier to highlight the aqua tones. 

I die cut the title and made the banner from the 6x6 pad too because the smaller print is perfect for these little areas. This gave me lots of room on the ledger paper to tell my story about a picnic we had there a couple of days after the terrorist attacks on the Twin Towers. The photo may be from Christmas but it doesn't stop me scrapping a memory from the past which I don't have a photo of.

Mixing up collections like this gives your layouts a little spark of difference and can really extend the life of those ranges that you might normally only think of for their specific theme. Picking out the colours you want to use and choosing your papers accordingly can really open up new possibilities of coordinating patterns and shows that you really can combine beach and Christmas papers with more generic styles. 

What collections would you use together? We'd love to see!

Bye for now, Lisa-Jane

xx

You can find the Crate Paper products in the S J Crafts Shop by clicking here .... and some of them are REDUCED in the Spring Sale!!

Lisa-Jane blogs lots of scrapbook pages and life stories at her blog Inside My Head - stop by and say hello!

Flip Books!

Hello all, Jenny here!

Today I have something to show which really took me out of my comfort zone. Sarah recently received the new Teresa Collins Flip Books in stock at S J Crafts and asked the DT if any of us would like to have a go with one. I had already been looking at these and thought they would be fun to play with so I said "Yes!"

 Only then did I realise just how far out of my comfort zone I had taken my self. Now I’m not ashamed to admit that scrapbooking frightens the life out of me - all that space on a 12x12 sheet? No thank you I’d rather stick to my 6x6 cards! 

But these flip books are great - they are all ready for you to decorate, made from thick black card which is a nice and neutral for any colour scheme. They are available in two different sizes and have a clever built in mechanism so that when the tab is pulled the pages "flip over" one by one.

I decided I was going to use mine to record Aimee’s first experience of horse riding. I chose to use the Glitz Wild & Free papers as some of the papers had horses on and the rest had lovely bold patterns which went with my photos. I didn't mount any of my papers as the black pages looked perfect as a background for the papers, plus it helped not to make the book too thick so the flipping action still worked. Embellishment wise I used some washi tape, some Studio Calico wood grain enamel dots, punched flowers and some chipboard shapes which I coloured with my promarkers and ink pads. 

I'll warn you that the rest of this post is quite picture heavy ... I wanted to show you each page ... if you have any questions please ask by leaving a comment! 

Front Cover:

Inside Front Cover:

Page 1:

Page 2:

Page 3: 

Page 4:

Page 5:

Page 6:

Page 7:

Page 8:

Page 9:

Pages 10 & 11:

Pull Out Page:

 For those of you that have seen my blog will know I generally make cards but I hope this demonstrates that anyone can try scrapbooking using these flip books .... they really are a great way to record those precious memories! 

Don’t forget Annie from the Design Team also posted her flip book including a fab video, you can find her post here.

Jenny makes beautiful projects and shares them on her blog Dragonllew's Spot, check it out and be inspired!

One Step Further ... Stitching and Stamping!

Hello all, it's Louise here today! 

I want to show you something that's bright, that's fun, that's funky. It's Amy Tangerine's Plus One Collection!

A wonderful collection that I have really enjoyed using. Today I'd like to share with you how I've used Amy Tangerines Plus One Collection to build two layouts, adding stamping and hand stitching for texture, dimension and interest...

I had a handful of photos at the ready and eventually decided to go with three smaller photos. I roughly placed them on white card stock:

I flipped through Amy Tangerine's 6x6 paper pad umpteen times. All the papers are wonderful and any would have worked with a grid format I'd decided upon. Eventually I cut into two of the patterned papers and cut out a small word card and picture card. These were placed on the layout with the stitched feather tag.

Have you seen Amy Tangerines Plus One die cut tags? Some of them have holes in them for you to add stitching. A very clever idea, it means you can adapt them to suit your colour scheme, adding a dash of colour and texture at the same time!

Slowly (as I am a very slow scrapper) I added some more patterned paper pieces, wanting to fill in all the gaps I used Amy Tangerine's remark accents and sticker sheet and puffy stickers (my new addiction) and a fabric brad.

At this point I am only placing papers and stickers onto my page. Nothing will be stuck down until I am happy that everything is in the right place...

 You can see how the layout is coming together. I left a hole in the middle and decided to add a hand stitched heart using a template I have had in a draw for far too many years:

At this point I took a photo with my mobile phone. Mainly so that when I stuck all the pieces down I had something to refer back to....if needed (who am I kidding...I know I'll forget where everything goes), especially knowing that I'd be removing all the elements to add some Mr Huey Mist.

Before adding the mist..I went one step further and took out two roller stamps (like this one), adding rows of stars and hearts in places that I thought needed some added interest. I love how adding a stamp to a layout can give it a new look:

Clearing the page I used a mist  to add a few splashes to the stamped areas.

This is how my layout looks now. Everything is stuck down and a date stamp has been added. The feather has been stitched using pink cotton to blend with the other pink elements:

Hmmm....I wasn't happy though, my layout didn't feel finished.

I wonder how many of you have had that feeling from time to time?! 

Now, when I use stamps on a layout I tend to use them on the background paper/cardstock, as I have done this time. There are times when I use stamps to make my own embellishments and this is what I decided to do to finish off my layout.

Using a flower stamp I stamped directly onto a Amy Tangerine's paper and cut the flowers out. The paper has as Ombre effect and this stood out on the finished flower.  I hope from these photos you can see how this flower came together. Three Dimensional tape was used between each layer of the flower.

Still....my layout lacked something and that's when I decided to add some more little flowers, making them in the same way as the big one. All they needed was a pearl gem in the middle to finish them off.

I used a triangle stamp in the same way to make some tiny tiny bunting. 

Finally I was happy, taking this layout one step further with stamps and stitching has definitely made this layout for me. Would you agree?

 Here are some close up's so you can see some more of the details.

 

 Inspired yet to dust off your stamps and stitching templates?

If you are still unsure please carry on further and check out my second layout. Still using the fabulous Amy Tangerine Plus One collection. This layout will sit with the one I've just created as the photos were from the same evening and tell an Instagram selfie story.

I started in the same way. I picked some 6x6 Amy Tangerine papers and decided on a title using a tag from Amy Tangerines Die cut tags. To tie this page to the previous one I stitched another heart and freehand stitched the word "forever" this was after I used a roll stamp, to add some stamped hearts, stars and arrows.

I printed out the word and used a poky tool to make evenly spaced holes.

 

 Some more patterned papers pieces were added to the page.

I loved the flowers so much from the last layout that I made them again along with an Instagrammed stamp to create the arrow. 

The flowers and Amy Tangerines sticker sheet and puffy stickers were placed on the layout.

My layout is busy, fun, funky and bright. I liked it..so I got ready to stick everything down.

 The fabric black X brad looked wonderful on the top right corner. The orange bottom button didn't feel right. So after making a few minor changes, adding a black camera badge instead of the orange one, adding another printed word and to finish off with some of Studio Calico Stars.... I was happy that my busy layout was finished.

Here are some close up photos so you can see more of the details.

It's your turn now...

• How do you feel about stamping on your projects?  I use stamps time and time again on my projects. When you cannot find the right embellishment of paper try pulling out your stamps. I bet you have something that will fit the occasion.

• How do you feel about stitching on your projects? Maybe you have a stitching template hiding away somewhere ...pull it out and use it. You'll be surprised how much you like it!

• Finally Amy Tangerine's Plus One Collection. What do you think? Is it bright, fun and funky enough for you. Please leave us a comment and link if you have/will purchase this collection and create with it.

Thank you for stopping by, I hope you have enjoyed this post as much as I enjoyed creating it. Louise x x x

Louise is a busy Mum of three boys and she blogs her wonderful crafts at Boys, Bugs, and Beautiful Buttons!