Projects that WOW! ... And A Giveaway for a Class Place!

Design Team member Jennifer Grace is running her first ever online class - it starts next week on Monday the 10th of June!

 

Here's what Jennifer says about the class:

Projects that WOW!’ is about making your projects stand out from the crowd. What makes you pause and look closer at a scrapbook page when you are flicking through your own albums, or looking at other people’s layouts in magazines? Which cards jump out at you from Pinterest or from envelopes when you open them? What details of paper-crafted home décor or jewellery make you stop and say ‘wow!’? It’s time to learn some of these techniques or styles and put them to use!

Class participants will receive 15 prompts (lessons) with ideas to jazz up their papercrafting! There will be over 90 project samples (scrapbooking, cardmaking, and others), from both Jennifer and a selection of Guest Contributors from around the world.
There's also going to be challenges with prizes, lots of which are some of the latest goodiess to arrive in the SJ Crafts shop!

The class runs live from Monday the 10th to Friday the 28th of June. All the prompts will still be available after the class ends - so you don't have to worry about 'keeping up'!

For more details go check out the post at Jennifer's blog HERE, where you can also sign up for the class for £10!!
There's also a chance to WIN a class place by leaving a comment there (that giveaway closes Thursday 6th June in the evening).

BUT there is another way to WIN a place on the class!!
Jennifer is kindly giving away a class place to one of you right here on the S J Crafts Blog!!

To be in with a chance, firstly leave a comment on this blog post, telling us whether you've ever taken an online class before AND then click on the Rafflecopter widget and enter your details - there are ways to earn extra entries too ... like being a follower of this blog!!
If you win the class place and you'd already signed up for the class then you'll be refunded the cost of the class place.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The giveaway closes on Sunday the 9th of June at 12am GMT - so get your entries in by Saturday night.The winner will be contacted by email on Sunday so they can join the class on Monday!

If you have any questions you can email Jennifer at jennifergrace@hotmail.co.uk.

June is going to be an exciting month!

 

National Scrapbook Day Challenge Winners

Remember, earlier this month it was National Scrapbook Day and I set you a few challenges?!

 

Thank you to everyone who played along!

I am sorry for the delay in announcing the winners but check out below to see if you have won!

Just One Manufacturer Challenge

I loved looking at all your fab entries and thought I'd show you a few ...

 

This one from Sonja

 

and a lovely layout from Furrypig

 

 

Echo Park was Lisa-Jane's choice of manufacturer for this bright page

 

 

I had a tough time choosing just one favourite ...

 .... but the winner is .....

 

Lesley G !!!

 

with her lovely layout with Crate Paper supplies

Meet the Design Team Challenge

I hope you all had fun visiting the Design Team blogs and searching for the answers!

The winner picked at random from all the entries is ....

 

Sonja!!!

Well Done to both Lesley and Sonja! if you could both please e mail me sarah at sjpapercrafts (dot) co (dot) uk with your mailing address and I'll get your prizes off to you.

Don't forget the  Sketch Challenge is open until 10pm tomorrow (Fri 31st May) so if you're quick you still have time to enter!

 

Sarah x

How I Love To Scatter - By Jennifer Grace

Hello and a very Happy Bank Holiday Monday to you!!

 

Remember a couple of weeks ago Lisa-Jane shared her current love for die cutting ... if you missed it it's right here!!

 

I'm here today to share one of my current favourite techniques with you ...

 

Scattering!!

 

Regular readers of my blog will already know  how much I like to scatter gems or sequins on my layout, but here I'm going to show you how I also applied the 'scatter' mindset to other aspects of this layout.

I wanted this page to be particularly scattered - as bits of these cakes got scattered all around my house while the kids wandered around eating them - I hadn't put enough chocolate on and they were super crumbly!

I started with a piece of paper from the DIY shop collection pack, and splattered some Mister Huey Pretty Pink mist droplets over it, keeping the drops more concentrated near the centre of the page.

 

Then I built up a photo mat, using scraps from the DIY Shop collection pack and the Maggie Holmes collection pack. Normally I'd layer a photo mat more like a frame, so the edges would be seen evenly all around the photo. But to make it look more scattered I piled them up so they stuck out a different amount each side. You can see that one scrap had a hole in it, but I knew that would not matter as it would be covered by my photo!!

When I stuck the photo mat onto the layout I only adhered it in the middle, so that I could tuck things in at the edges if I wanted to. My photo was stuck on with 3D foam pads to give some extra dimension.

I then chose a couple of journaling spots, and a date sticker, and scattered them about so the journaling wouldn't be all in one place.

 

Now comes the fun part - choosing an ecclectic mix of other items to scatter about! I used a mix of stickers and die-cuts from DIY Shop and Maggie Holmes plus some Studio Calico Wood Veneer Tiny Stars (painted pink) and Cameras (painted light blue), some sequins and gems.

And I started to scatter them all over the page! I left the gems until last, as they are harder to move about (although usually possible if you do it quick). All the other bits were stuck on with Ranger's Glossy Accents, except for the 'fun day' and 'yes, please' sentiments which were adhered with foam dots, once I was happy with their position.

I also made the title look "scattered" by off-setting the letters in 'cakes':

 

 

If you don't want to scatter things all over a layout, you could just confine them to a journaling spot or embellishment - like I've done here on the speech bubble cut from some DIY Shop paper.

 

 

Keeping the scattered elements close to to a larger element like your photo stops them getting lost on the page.

 

And having some items tucked under each other (like the flower and date sticker shown below) and some completely separate (like the 'yes, please' sticker) also helps to make things look more random.

So you end up with a lively, scatter-filled page!!

 

I hope you've enjoyed an insight into my scatter-love! If you try it out please let me know!

Jennifer x

My "Right Now" Inspiration! - By Lisa-Jane

"What's inspiring you right now?"

 

When Sarah (S J Crafts owner) asked me this recently I had to answer that I am loving using my Silhouette Cameo. It is great for lettering because I never run out of any particular letters and it is also wonderful for titles like the "Just Because" title from Heidi Swapp that i've used on my layout. I am also loving the current trend of highlighting the negative areas and so decided to create a layout where the negative space of the cut is a prominent feature of the page. I created this Star cut file myself and then cut roughly similar shapes of patterned paper to stick to the back so that they show through - kinda like a stained glass affect!

I used papers from the Snippets collection papers by Studio Calico. This layout is part of a series in my album so this one didn't need any journalling.

I really love the simplicity of the page with no other embellishments.

You could try using punches or cutting dies to get a similar affect and it's also a great way to use up all those small off cuts  and scraps of your favourite papers. 

 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope my "Right Now" inspiration inspires you too!

 

Lisa-Jane x 

 

Don't forget to check out more of Lisa-Jane's layouts at her blog: Inside My Head