July Challenge - 1 Of Five!

Hi and welcome to a New Monthly Challenge!

The July Challenge is called "1 Of FIVE"

The idea for this challenge is that you choose 1 out of the five shapes/symbols to include on your project, 1 of the five phrases as your title or inspiration/theme and 1 of the five colours to include on your project.

The Shapes/symbols are: Butterfly - Banner - Star (or this could be a sun) - arrow - circle.

The Phrases : Summer Days - Right Now - You and Me - Explore - The Story ... 

* You don't need to include the exact phrase but something very similar .... I need to be able to see the link *

Colours: Yellow - Light blue/Aqua - Red - Black - White    

 *Any shade of the colour is fine!*

This month we have some fabulous examples from the Team:

Jemma

Jemma had fun with an Easter photo from last year and some very ancient stash (the Christina Cole Life Happens paper from 2006).  The page started life with the June sketch by MiniOwner but ended up elsewhere! 

Shapes/symbols: Circles

Phrase : (Here's) the story...

Colours: White and Aqua

Louise

Louise used  a photo taken a few weeks ago with Heidi Swapp products

from the April Kit along with the new Heidi Swapp shapes stencils and pink color shine, Tim Holtz stars layering stencil and inks

Shapes/symbols: inked arrows stars and sunburst paper

Phrases : Right Now

Colours: Yellow, Light blue and White

Annie 

Annie used a photo from back in 1982, when her son was just starting to explore his little world. The design was inspired by a Glitter Girl video and uses 3x4 cut-aparts from the collection, so it will co-ordinate perfectly with a pocket page layout using more photos from around the same time.

Shapes/symbols: Arrows

Phrase : Explore

Colours: Yellow, White, Aqua & pops of Red

Supplies: Simple Stories Homespun Collection Kit and Simple Stories Daily Grind Chipboard Stickers.

Lisa-jane

Lisa-Jane chose a photo from last summer about a crazy day watching Big Foot.  

Shapes/symbols: Star/Sun (The cogs!)

Phrase : Summer Days

Colours: Red, yellow, white, black and blue (Well done LJ for getting all the colours on her page!) 

Supplies: Echo Park All About A Boy, red cardstock and the rest from stash.

If you click on the name above the image of the layout it will take you to their blog. The team work hard to create their sample 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! 

So, are you up for this month's challenge?

Add your entry to the linkt tool below if you want to play along. A link back to this post is much appreciated. 

The challenge will close on 31st July 2014 at 11.59pm

Have fun!

Holiday Layouts

The weather down here on the south coast has been glorious the last few weeks (although a bit cloudy today!) and the sunshine and warmth reminds me of holidays we've been on and this makes me want scrap my holiday pics!

This photo was from a holiday in Ibiza a few years ago and of course we took a whole load of photos of the scenery and each other but we had none of all 3 of us .... until the very last morning when we stopped for a drink in a little beachside cafe and realising the lack of "Us" photos asked the waitress to take a photo! Selfies weren't so popular then!

I used a sheet of Heidi Swapp Dreams Come True 12 x 12 paper for the background as it has a design similar to sun rays on it which fitted the theme perfectly. I began by layering up a few strips of patterned papers. The red "Life is Beautiful" paper, the little Adventure sticker and the doily sticker behind the journal card are all from Echo Park's Capture Life Collection. 

The title stickers are some old Jenni Bowlin alphas which were just the right red to remind me of the hot sun and matched my t-shirt. I kept the embellishment quite simple with a few more stickers, a resin flower and a "Summer" Flair badge from my stash (sorry I can't remember the brand/collection of some of the embellishments), cork arrows and a cork camera (with a red enamel dot on top), a handful of enamel dots and some drops of Colour Shine gold mist.

Down in the bottom left corner I stamped the little aeroplane and added the date. 

When I'm making a layout, I try to include a whole variety of different textures. So, apart from paper I'll aim to use at least 3 other textures. On this page I have cork, metal (the flair badge), the resin flower, enamel (dots), chipboard (the "live in the sun" embellie is a chip piece!) ink and mist so I think I've acheived (and exceeded) the three textured elements on this page. You could try including lace, ribbon, twine, thread, felt, acetate, vellum, buttons ....

I've also just seen that my daughter's cuddly bunny named Flopsy also sneaked into the photo and as she was her constant companion on the holiday I think I will add another line or two of journalling about Flopsy being in the photo too!!

Do you scrap holiday photos from years gone by when the weather reminds you of that holiday?

Have you ever added extra journalling to a layout after you thought it was all done?!

If you've made a holiday layout recently or included lots of different textures on a recent project or this post inspires you to do so, please do leave a link in the comments so we can stop by and see your work or why not post your layout to our facebook page - we'd love to see it!!

May Challenge Favourites and a Winner

Hello Everyone!

I'm just popping in to quickly announce the winner of the May Challenge! 

I know it seems ages since the Bingo challenge but sometimes life just gets in the way but here I am at long last to share a few of my favourite entries and tell you who has won a little prize, picked at random from all the entries!

You all seemed to love playing Bingo with lots of you playing along and linking up so it was tricky to pick out my favourites from so many fantastic projects.

Becky

Becky used our "Dreamy" monthly kit to create not just one but three fab layouts each using a line of the bingo grid!

Sheena

Sheena picked the line mist/metal/bow line from the grid and created a beautiful page with lots of layering!

Nathalie

A fun, colourful page by Nathalie with a brilliant journalling idea!

Please do hop on over to these ladies blogs to see their layouts in detail .... and leave them a message whilst you're there ... if you click on their name above the layout it will link you to their blogs!

So onto the winner, picked using random.org

Congratulations to .....No: 17 ... Petrina!!

Petrina entered the challenge via our Facebook page which is always option if you don't have a blog! You can e mail me your project too!

Petrine, please get in touch by e mail to sarah@sjpapercrafts (dot) co (dot) uk with your mailing address so I can get your prize sent.

Thank you to all of you who play along with our challenges .... I love visiting your blogs to see your work ... there's just a few days left to link up for the June Colour Challenge!

Enjoy your day!

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!