We try to get up to London at least once a year, sometimes for a show or concert, for shopping, a museum visit or to see the sights of the city. It's something we all enjoy and a great way to spend time together as a family.
Last year, as soon as we learned of the Tower of London poppies exhibition we all agreed we wanted to go and see it.
So, during October half term we booked our train tickets and off we went!
This layout is the first of several layouts which will record our day in London.
I made this layout for a challenge on a Facebook group I'm in that required the year to be a prominent feature of the page.
Taking inspiration from this layout on Pinterest, I layered up some strips of My Minds Eye paper (inked with blue distress ink), grey dotted washi tape and a doily and added my photograph which I had matted on white cardstock. Then I added a few stickers (tucking 1 under the photo), chipboard and some gorgeous green, glitter alphas for the title. A few ink drops, wood stars and a camera and enamel dots and I was done.
I clustered most of the embellishments in this area under the photo, placing the chipboard arrow to draw the eye towards the journal spot and the title.
A little geotag and "We are here" sticker at the top balances the heavier embellishment cluster.
Hello and welcome to our May challenge! Did you know it's (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day (otherwise known as NSD!) tomorrow on the 3rd of May? Happy National Scrapbooking Day to you, we hope this challenge will give you some inspiration if you are crafting this weekend, and there's a chance to win a small prize if you enter!
Thank you to everyone who took part in our April Challenge, we loved looking at the entries, and we'll announce a few of our favourites and a winner here on the blog soon!
If you haven't seen our challenges so far this year, then here's how it works. Each month throughout 2014 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.
This time it's a BINGO Challenge! Here's how to play ...
Select 3 boxes from the grid in a line (horizontal/vertical or diagonal) and include the items or technique in those 3 boxes on your project!
Eg: you may choose Ink, Metal, Bow (diagonal line) .... OR .... Transparent, Metal, Stamp (horizontal) but you couldn't select Transparent, Metal, Torn Paper as they are not next to each other in a line!
Here's some inspiration from the Design Team: Louise:
Louise was inspired by the top row of the bingo grid. She used Mr Huey Mist, a border punch across the bottom and a 1" circle punch. All supplies are from the March kit which included lots of the 7 Dots Studio "Illumination" Collection, with the addition of a blue cardstock, file tab, cotton and badge.
Jenny also used the top row from the bingo grid: ink /mist, border punch, and circles. Her products include Kraft card, Distress ink (Weathered Wood), Glossy Accents, and Stickles.
Annie went for the middle vertical row and used a border punch, metal embellishment (staples), and torn paper - but in fact she ended up using mixed alphas and circles too, so it could just as well be the diagonal row bottom left to top right!
Jennifer chose a diagonal line from top left to bottom right on the bingo grid (Mist, a Metal Embellishment, a Knot). Her products include Heidi Swapp's Navy Color Shine Mist, Crate Paper's Boys Rule collection Zap & Top Score paper and some Wood Embellishments and Ephemera pieces, and some Studio Calico Cork Stars. Her metal embellies are an old key and some metal rimmed brads, and she has two knots - one in string under the title and one in bakers twine on the key.
We'll have a little mystery 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, will you take up our challenge this month?
Use the linky tool below to add a link to the blog post (or your gallery) with your layout or card and a link back to this post is much appreciated.
You will need to ensure your link is added by the 31st of May (11.59pm).
Thank you to everyone who took part in our March Challenge, we loved looking at the entries, and we'll announce a few of our favourites and a winner here on the blog soon!
If you haven't seen our challenges so far this year, then here's the "scoop" Each month throughout 2014 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. There's even a little prize to be won - more on that further down! We really hope lots of you will play along!
During April we'd love you to take your ideas from this mood board:
Take ideas from this however you choose. You could:
Use the colours - Yellow, Green, Peach, White, Cork/Kraft
Use the quote 'Look How They Grow'
Make a page about flowers or plants
Use some of the elements, eg. feathers and stars on your page
Use the composition somehow (eg. two lines along the base of your project)
Or anything else you get from the mood board!
The SJ Crafts Design Team have created some projects to show what ideas they got from the mood board...
Annie was inspired by the mood board to create a pinboard-style page, following the composition and using sticky pearls and enamel dots to "pin" items to the background. To echo the fresh, spring colour palette she used peach/green/yellow/pink - the chalky pastels in the Chalk Studio 2 collection were perfect and contrast beautifully with the Chalk Studio chipboard pieces, frames and stickers. Other elements picked from the mood board added some interest and fun to Annie's page - washi tape, flowers, cork arrows and wood veneer stars. Finally, the quote inspired her journalling!
Jemma was inspired by the 3 columns and the colours from the mood board to create a holiday album page. Jenny:
Jenny was inspired by the colours and some of the elements on the mood board. She has used kraft card, some pretty yellow striped paper from MME Now & Then Mildred pad. Jenny printed her sentiment onto vellum to look like the title on the mood board, and added some paper flowers and adhesive pearls.
Taking her inspiration from the colours, gold highlights, the feathers and flowers Lisa-jane created a pretty card for a special girl's birthday. Those enamel dots finish it all off perfectly.
We have a little mystery "Spring themed" 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, will you take up our challenge this month?
Use the linky tool below to add a link to the blog post (or your gallery) with your layout or card and a link back to this post is much appreciated.
You will need to ensure your link is added by the 30th of April (11.59pm).
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!