Choosing Colours or Themes!!

Hi there, it's Lisa-Jane here today to share some layouts with you.  

When I first started scrapping, I used to look for an exact match to the colours in my photos. This can sometimes be tricky if the clothing or the main colours in the photo don't match the papers you happen to have in your stash at that time. Sometimes matching things too precisely can mean the photo actually ends up getting lost. Similar, but not quite the right shade may just  highlight the difference even more. Not to mention searching through a mountain of stash for just the right shade of blue isn't the best use of time for most scrappers!!

So what should we do .... how do we choose colours for our photos? 

Using themed collections is often a better way to go but it is all too easy to fall into the trap of the theme taking over as you pile on the embellishments and the photo and story can get a little forgotten.

Lately, I've been led more by the story or how I feel about the photos for choosing how to scrap them. I'm no longer limited by the colours in my photos in the way I used to be but I try not to be overly themed either, unless it's Christmas or Halloween and then it's a different story entirely!  I certainly feel more free when choosing papers and pictures to use together than I used to.  

For both of these layouts I've used the fabulous, slightly retro Boys Rule collection.

First of all, let's talk about using colour in the photo as a starting point.  

I find one of the best ways is to pick out one or two from your photo(s) that work well together and then add in additional colours if you need to.  It's also often better to use colours that appear in small amounts in the photos so that it doesn't overpower the layout.

For my double page layout about the beach, I've picked out the yellow t-shirt and an orange hat as my main colours. I used yellow as border strips each side of the photos and there's a some yellow just peeping out of each of the embellishment clusters and the alphas are yellow too.  

I picked out a dark orange cardstock to match the shorts and hat and added a few pops of orange in the embellishments.

I could have tried to match the blues in the sky and the sea or the browns in the stones and used that as my main colours but it is the little people in the photos that I want to draw attention to in my layout.  

I've added a few tiny shells to enhance the beach theme without being over the top. Using a mix of both themed and non-themed embellishments helps highlight the story. The children were having so much fun skimming stones. I wanted to get the fun and carefree feeling of the photos across so a little bit of beach and a little bit of retro fun embellies is perfect.

For my next layout, I've turned my photos black and white as I wanted the story behind them to be the main focus.  This page is about me starting my journey with a Personal Trainer and my struggle to get healthy. I knew I wanted a splash of orange because the equipment is orange and including it in the layout reminds me of the equipment.  It doesn't matter that the photos are black and white and don't show the orange paintwork.

 I could have really gone to town with heavily sport or gym themed embellishments but I didn't want to detract from the actual story so  I decided to be more subtle.  I love the retro cassette tape paper so I used a strip of that to remind me of the music that is always blaring.  The tape measure washi tape is a little nod to my size which will hopefully be going down as the journey continues!  The die cut phrases from the ephemera pack are intended for use with little boys but they work with this story so well.

My layout is about the start of my journey and to remind me that this is just the beginning and we have a long way to go.  It doesn't matter what I can't do now or what lays ahead ... what matters is that I have made that all important start.  

I just love that cheeky "Boom" wooden embellishment from the collection!

Do you see that diagonal line across the page of stars - this helps to draw the eye around the photos, over to the title and finally to the journalling.  I used stars for this but other shapes work well too. You could try using circles or hearts in this way.

Boyz Rule is designed with young boys in mind but I've used it for a beach theme and a gym theme! When you are selecting your stash, try to ignore the collection title or the theme the manufacturer has designed for and look carefully at the icons, images and colours in the papers and embelloshments to see how they may work for you. I often use collections for anything other than what the manufacturer intended!

Do you design by colour or theme?  Or do you go for the story first?  What collections have you used for unexpected themes?  

Bye for now

xx

Like the papers LJ used in these layouts? .... They are available to purchase here in the shop!

Lisa-Jane blogs regularly at "Inside My Head" .... her blog is full of family life, scrapbooking, card making and home decor projects!

Rain, Rain, Stay And Play!

Using Raindrops for Scrapbook Layouts...

Hello all, Jennifer here today. I'm going to show you different ways to use raindrops on your pages - they aren't just for grey days! I've used lots of the fantastic Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine collection which is so colourful and fun!

The first page I have to show you has a photo that's nothing to do with the rain, it's just a photo of my husband and my daughter when she was 4 months old...

Our Rainbow:

My page is about how we were beginning to get the hang of things by the time she was 4 months old... as much as you can get used to looking after a baby anyway!

To start my layout I began with the 'b' side of the 'Stormy Weather' paper, I picked out some Heidi Swapp Color Shine Mist in 'Coral' and 'Navy', and I pulled out my trusty messy-stuff pizza box:

Then I started sprinkling coral mist at over the paper by taking the lid off the bottle and tapping it so the drops fell off the straw. I concentrated the drops at the top of the paper, so it looked like the beginning of a rain shower::

I let the coral mist dry completely and then repeated this with the navy mist (otherwise the wet colours would blend and look murky):

Once the navy mist was dry too I planned out my page. I couldn't work out why the area on the left didn't look quite right, where I'd placed some Hello Sunshine Ephemera pieces:

Then I realised it was because the right-hand side of the page had a Pocket Card which was mostly white, so I needed to bring the white across the layout... I simply flipped the little raindrops over to their plain white side: 

 Here's how it looked once the page was finished - I stuck the transparent 'be the rainbow' tag from the ephemera down with Glossy Accents which worked a treat:

I loved how there was lots of journaling space on this pocket card:

Of course I couldn't have the word 'rainbow' in the title without making it multicoloured! I didn't have all the colours of the rainbow in my Thickers collection so I just went with what I had:

The next layout does have a photo from a rainy day...

Puddles Without Wellies:

All the other mums at the school-run laugh at my son because he is crazy for puddles... I'm always saying 'no, you haven't got your wellies on' but 5 seconds later he's in there anyway... I've kind of given up!

I chose to let the 'Puddle Jumper' rainy paper work it's magic at the top of my page, it definitely sets the scene, as does the 'Rain Rain Go Away' pocket card. I also added an umbrella from the Puffy Stickers with some drops and Gold Enamel Dots beneath it:

At the left side of the page I used a piece of the 'Rainboots' paper to brighten things up and keep it positive looking! I doodled with a black pen along the white lines to emphasize the arrow effect:

A couple more pieces from the Chipboard Stickers to add to the lighthearted feel - I wanted to show that even though he's ignoring me I don't hold it against him - I just love to see him play:

What do you think? Have I inspired you to add a few raindrops to your next page? I think living in the UK certainly gives us a lot of rainy inspiration!

Have a great day!

Jennifer x

Jennifer blogs her crafting activities over at Jennifer Grace Creates, she has a big blog event coming up on Friday so make sure you check it out!

June Challenge - Summer Colours!

Hello and welcome to our June challenge!

Thank you to everyone who took part in our May Challenge. It's great to see so many of you playing along and we loved looking at the entries. I'll be back here soon to announce a few of our favourites and the winner of the prize.

If you haven't seen our challenges, here's a quick recap of how it works. Each month we will set a challenge and we'd love it if you would play along. Each month the challenge will vary - sometimes we'll have a sketch, sometimes a colour palette, a photo inspiration or a "recipe" of stash to use or maybe a technique.

At the end of this post there is "linky tool" for you to link up your challenge entry so we can pop along and see and we will feature a few of our favourite projects next month. 

June's Challenge is a Colour Palette Challenge!

The colours you must use are: 
  * Hot Pink * Tangerine * Cream * Gold *

The "Cream" can be a neutral of your choice!! So you could use Beige, Grey, White etc!

Here's some inspiration from the S J Crafts Design Team ...

Annie:

Background - Distress Paints, Distress Inks,Tim Holtz Dot Fade stencil, Heidi Swapp Color Shine. 

Papers - Bazzill cardstock, Crate Paper Flea Market 6" pad & bits from my scrap drawer.

Alphas - Simple Stories Typeset Stickers, Gold Tile Letters, Prima Canvas Alphas.

Embellies - Buttons, sequins and gems, floss, file tab and arrow made with punches, Spellbinders foliage dies and washi tape.

Jenny:

Jenny has used Picked Raspberry and Spiced Marmalade distress ink from the Mini Distress Ink Pads Kit 1 with a water brush onto cream card to create the background and then stamped the image and sentiment with Versa Mark Watermark Stamp Pad and gold embossing powder, with 3 orange/gold gems to finish off.

Louise:

Louise has used Simple Stories DIY Boutique collection kit and the
complementary DIY Collection label stickers, some Studio Calico wood veneers, arrows and gold chipboard stars.


Jennifer:

A card from jennifer this month! Supplies included :Amy Tangerine's Plus One 6x6 Pad and a Die-Cut Tag (stitched with gold embroidery thread) , plus some Pink Paislee Hello Sunshine Ephemera and some Studio Calico Gold Stars.

Jemma:

Jemma has used different scraps of patterned paper punched with a 3" circle punch folded in half and trimmed into shape (See below) and added some WRMK orange and yellow washi tape, a Simple Stories burlap heart and Gold Pearl Liquid Pearls.

... and here's how Jemma cut the balloon shape from the circles!

Lisa-Jane

Lisa- Jane has used Echo Park's For The Record collection, MME enamel dots (and some home made ones!), MME chipboard, paper edges inked with Black Soot Distress Ink, ribbon, brads and doily all from her stash.

If you click on the name above the image of the DT project it will take you to their blog. the team work hard to visit every entry so if you could take a minute to pop over to their blogs and leave them a comment I know they would really appreciate it! 

Again there is a small prize this month for one entry picked at random from all those who link up! The winner will be announced after the challenge has closed along with a few of our favourites! 

So, are you up for a colour challenge?

Use the linky tool below to add a link to the blog post (or your gallery) to enter your project. A link back to this post is much appreciated. Projects can also be added to our Facebook Page!

You will need to ensure your link is added by the 30th June 2014 (11.59pm).

Have fun!

Tags Bursting With Colour and Tim Holtz Techniques!

Hello and welcome back to SJ Crafts, it's Louise here today.

Yesterday design team member Annie shared her wonderful wonderful projects and techniques using Tim Holtz products. If you missed that post you can see it right here!

Today I'd like to share with you how I used mine!

I've always admired Tim Holtz's 12 days of Christmas tags and over the years I've purchased a few of his inks and stamps. I've always thought that his products were rather dark and masculine though.... until recently, when SJ Crafts stocked his new mini stackable ink pads.

I get through a lot of ink pads (especially black ones) and most of them don't last long at all. The Tim Holtz distress inks that I've had for years still ink as well as they did on the day I brought them. With this in mind I went for Kit 1 mainly for their vibrancy....and to accompany them the Faded Dot Stencil.

A few evenings after my new inks and stencil arrived I was perusing Pinterest when I came across some Tim Holtz layering videos....Annie shared some links yesterday. I watched with interest... even though I don't have all of the products he uses I took some things with me... for example, making sure each layer is dry before adding another and mixing the ink with a spray of water. I located my heat gun and water spray (note to self...do not leave water in your spray bottle for a long time..ewww!). 

Annie has already given you some detailed step by step techniques... so here's a quick run through mine. 

Blue Tag

1. I started out with some cream card stock, cut into a tag, the faded dot stencil, Peacock Feather Ink and black ink. Using washi tape to hold the stencil in place I took my Blending Tool, black ink and in spiral motions (as Tim demonstrated) rubbed through the stencil.

2. Remembering to dry the layer with my heat tool!

3. Next I dabbed the ink pad to my craft sheet and added a few squirts of nice clean water. Using my blend tool I mixed the two together and added the colour to the tag. Adding the water distresses the ink further giving it a lighter effect.

4. Again I dried the layer. Once the layer was dry I added some stamps using black ink. I did use the blue ink (without watering the ink down) with a scroll stamp and you'll see that the stamped scroll stands out even though its stamped in the same colour.

With each tag after this I tried out something different...

Pink Tag

I stamped and heat embossed a feather image, then added Picked Raspberry Ink through the faded dot stencil. The background Picked Raspberry ink was watered down and added to the card with the blending tool. A text stamp was used along the side of the tag again with the ink pad. A little ribbon, twine and embellie with some machine stitching finished it off nicely.

Orange Tag

This time I stamped the circle images first in Spiced Marmalade Ink, after drying the ink I sprayed a few squirts of water to the Spiced Marmalade Ink that I'd dabbed onto the craft sheet. When added this dries lighter allowing the darker inked image to show through. After the Faded Dot Stencil was placed over the top, used with black ink.

Yellow Tag

The faded dot stencil was used first this time, with some grey paint. A few dabs of Mustard Seed Ink mixed with water was used with the blending tool to cover the card. I added a stamped floral image, and to finish it off I layered up some papers with a Mustard Seed inked heart wood veneer.

 Here they all are again:

So, are you a fan of Tim Holtz products and techniques?

Please do share your Tim Holtz projects with us either by leaving a comment here on the blog or on our facebook page! 

Don't forget there's now a Ranger / Tim Holtz section in the shop HERE!

Louise x

Louise blogs projects full of intrigue and pops of colour over at Boys, Bugs, and Beautiful Buttons, please pop by and say hi!