Choosing themes and colours with S J Crafts

When I first started scrapping a few years ago, the general trend, and I thought "the rules" were that you tried to match the colours in your photos with your supplies.  Of course that poses a problem when you don't have an exact match, and a near match can sometimes make things look forced or can accentuate the colour difference.  

lately I've been focusing more on the feel of the page or the story behind it. Using embellishments to bring out the focus of the story can give you much more scope for using different colours.  Changing photos to black and white can prevent any dramatic clashes and can often really pull the theme together.  Of course it can also help you to use up colour schemes you have in your stash already too.  

I used the Crate Paper Boys Rule collection from S J Crafts because the retro feel of the range was perfect for the photos of the gym.  You might have seen other photos on my blog of the gym in colour - the iron work in the weight machines is actually orange and a really close match to the orange in the collection, however, I didn't want to have to over-think where I put the orange embellishments.  Sometimes using colours very close to those in your photos can cause the image to get lost and this page was very much about the journey I am on so I wanted to make sure the embellishments were not too distracting or clashing.

The background piece is actually a great match for the back and white in the photos so the splash of orange in the photo mat lifts the pictures and stops them getting lost.  I wanted to use the cassette tape paper because music is such a big part of my training sessions but it has a lot of colours in.  If I had used colour photos, I would probably have had to cut the tapes out individually because of the likelihood of clashes and overlaps in shade.  Obviously the strip of tape measure washi tape highlights the theme a little more.

I wanted to create this page to remind me of how important it is to remember that I have just started on my fitness journey.  Yes, I do have a long way to go and it will be a long process so I have to bear in mind that this is just the beginning of a new me and it won't happen over night.  I have to be proud that I have started.

The embellishments in this collection are aimed at young boys but they fit perfectly here too, like the little word pieces from the ephemera pack and this fab veneer Boom!, which seems to be a word I hear often at Spartans gym!

Of course there is nothing to stop you using the colours in your photos as the lead if you are careful about your choices and they enhance rather than detract from the images.  I find the best way is to pick out one or two colours from the photos and then add in other colours.  Keeping a slight distance between the supplies and the part of the photo with the matching colour in it can also help.

In this layout I wanted to focus on the fun and playful vibe rather than overloading the page with seaside supplies.  I've picked out the orange from the hat and shorts but it is not a perfect match so I have kept them apart.  I also picked out the yellow from the te-shirt which is a better match but it does change shade in the photos depending on the light - this obviously makes it impossible to try and get an exact match in your supplies!

Choosing sunny colours lends itself well to the happy theme of the page and this helps to pull everything together.  Adding in the star print paper with the blue and green in it reflects the colours in the sea and the sky closely enough that it works, without being so close that it is trying to match and failing.

I've used embellishments from the ephemera pack and journalled onto one of the blocks from the cut apart sheets.  I love piling on layers from coordinating supplies and they don't have to be really specific to work. Here they just echo the theme of play and some of the colours I've used - they don't have to be boy specific layouts to use things from boy themed collections.

I added shells, twine and a cork heart from my stash to echo the natural beach feel without being over the top.  The veneer "4 fun" token from the collection was perfect here for the four friends playing on the beach. The journalling talks about the fun they had skimming stones and how great it was for me and our friends' mum to catch up while they played... until one of them found a hypodermic needle among the stones.  That's one theme I won't be accentuating in my embellishments!!

I've done a bit more shopping today on the S J Crafts Bargain Basement sale and the things that jumped out at me were always the feel of the colours or the styles and not the specific name or theme of the collection. I'm looking forward to using some Basic Grey Hipster on some more of my gym training pages because it has the right touch of orange and again with that slight retro feel.  I hope you find some bargains there too and expand your choices beyond the pure colours in your photos.  Let me know if you do!

Bye for now

xx

Mixing Collections

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch recently about my previous posts etc - it has really been heartwarming for me.  I've got a long way to go but I think I am starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, but more on that another time ;-)

It seems like months ago now that I was on a retreat with Artful Angels but it's only a few weeks really!  I had a lot of fun while I was there mixing up different Crate Paper collections with some surprising results.  Lots of manufacturers use similar colours across collections so picking out a colour to use from a variety of kits can really expand the life of your papers.  This is why I love it when Sarah brings the S J Crafts shop to our crop because I can see all the beautiful papers together and not think of their collections in isolation.  Plus I get to stroke and go starry eyed over all the lovely products.... ahem.

Busy Girl

Here I've used a watercolour floral from The Pier with the red triangle print from Bundled Up - who says you can't use a beach theme and a Christmas theme together?!  I also used the reverse of the triangle print because the aqua sort-of-snowflake print went so well with the floral print too.  It gives it all a very different look than when I've mixed that same floral with other papers from The Pier so its great if you are looking to change things up a bit. Incidentally, both of these collections are currently on offer in the S J Crafts sale!)



I used some of the cut apart sheet too because there really wasn't much to add in the way of journaling when you have several albums of your little people playing on the beach!  "And here she is, digging away again." "Here's Miss Bella looking cute in a swim suit!" "Now here's Louis having fun in the sand!" - You get the picture... ;-)

I finally got to use some of my precious rose trim by American Crafts too!  I can't tell you how old this is and I do love it but it isn't the easiest thing to incorporate because of its size and impact!  I cheekily sneaked in some alphas from another kit I was using at the time which you'll see in another post, Homespun from Simple Stories.

I liked using these collections together so much that I created several more layouts mixing and matching from different Crate ranges. 

Will It Still Be There?

While we were in Wales over Christmas, Management carved our names onto 4 stones and we hid them in a crevice in the rocks with the intention of looking for them again when we go back in April together.  I wanted to concentrate on the natural colours and feel of the photo so I mixed some of the kraft based papers from The Pier with some 12x12 from Maggie Holmes Flea Market and some of the same collection in the 6x6 pad format.

I distressed the edges here to give a more rustic feel and used the branding strip and stickers from The Pier too.  I used some of the alphas from Homespun again because they were there and they fitted the colours.  Sometimes having a set of alphas at hand prevents you having to go rifling through your whole collection for something even more perfect when it could be there in front of you all along.

Remember that picnic?

Sometimes you have a photo left over from the many you take but you've said all there is to say about the event that goes with it.  In this case I used one of the left over photos from a windy walk at Christmas to record a memory of the same beach many years ago.  We were staying in the Brecon Beacons on our way to the cottage in Newport when we heard about the attacks on the Twin Towers and everything changed.  We left for Pembrokeshire a day later and the next day we packed a picnic to take down to this beach at Moylgrove.  It was there that we finalised our plans to go travelling and ended up in New York a year and one week later.  I was going to take a career break from my job as an analyst with the police.

We sat there leaning back on a washed up tree trunk with our french bread and soft cheese pretending that the world was a peaceful and happy place and trying to escape from news about terrorists and dealing with armed robbers and peadophiles.

Here I've mixed The Pier again with some more Maggie Holmes AND some more Bundled Up!  Three collections that came together beautifully to create a soft but fresh layout.  I used some of the 6x6 Maggie Holmes to create some bunting and also to die cut the title.  The size reduction in the patterns work really well for embellishments and fussy-cutting etc because of the smaller scale making the patterns denser.

In the past I've used various My Minds Eye collections together and my Devon album is composed of a variety of collections by October Afternoon.  So, I'd really like to know what you think - do you like mixing brands or collections and which ones work well for you?

Bye for now
xx

Always the shadow



Sometimes a photo perfectly captures a moment or someone's personality.  Now and then a photo can capture a feeling too and sometimes it can help you to put things into words.

 

This photo was taken at Christmas on a rare sunny day.  Everyone seems to have had lovely weather again today except for parts of Wales which has been cloudy and misty - typical!  I still managed to get out for a gentle stroll on the beach here in Newport though (the one in the photo is the next bay round in Moylgrove) except that this time I was on my own.  I'm waiting to have the aerial fixed after the storms earlier in the year and having some much needed head space. 

After many attempts to find the right medication for my depression, we've come to the end of the road with it really.  I'm in the process of writing a blog post about what it feels like (boy won't that be a jolly read!) but right now I can't even scrap - that's how bad it is.  I'm going to try something a little outside of the box when I get back in a sort of last ditch attempt to make some progress.  I don't want to be the shadow blighting the lives of my family and friends.  I want to be there with them, enjoying the sun.

Supplies List
Patterned papers from Crate Paper "The Pier"
Letter stickers from Simple Stories "Homespun"
Enamel dots inside the flowers from My Mind's Eye
Wood veneers from Studio Calico "Hearts & Arrows"
Cardstock from Bazzil Basics in Kraft
Other items from my stash

Bye for now
xx

Between Storms

Can I claim the blame for this recent gorgeous weather we've been having please?  It is because I wrote this post about the recent storms quite a few days ago when there rain was still pouring and since then we have had some really sunny days!  Southern England, you are welcome ;-)  

I was using the Pier Collection from Crate Paper for the March challenge at S J Crafts and it was such a perfect fit for rugged beach photos that I thought I would carry on using it for a few more.  The water colour backgrounds and doily cloud prints can be just as easily used for pages about wet weather as the sunny holidays that it was intended for.  Even some of the cut apart word labels fitted my theme!

I like to record and good and the bad in my albums, because, well that's life right?!  The recent weather patterns have been so awful and so many people have suffered floods and lost property and worse.  I wanted to document the general events so I used this photo to lead into the bigger picture. We'd been out on a walk the day after Boxing Day so there had been a storm a couple of days before and several for a few days after.  We managed to actually stay dry on this walk because it rained about 2 minutes after I took this and we dashed under the beach shelter.  It stopped long enough for us to get home again.

This particular walk was significant because when I went back a month later after what we thought was the worst of the weather, the dunes and the sea walls had been badly damaged.  I wonder how things will look when I go back again next week?  It was also a significant walk because it featured my father in law who we don't see much and certainly not for going for a walk with but I have other photos that will tell that story.

As well as the muted colour washed feel of the papers, I used hessian for texture and an umbrella charm and enamel dot "splashes" to signify the weather.

I wonder if anyone else has recording the awful storms in any way?  Here's hoping for some more dry weather so that the flood can really recede and people can get back home again. For now I'll enjoy this wonderful sun!

Bye for now

WOYWW 248

Do you know that I laughed so much at my scrapbooking retreat over the weekend that my tummy still hurts?! We had a wonderful time and I'll be sharing some pictures very soon.  

I've not been able to get into my craft room for any actual crafting since then so my desk is basically a half unpacked crop bag!  Sarah brought my order for 4 new American Crafts albums so I can file that stack of layouts that I completed even though I nearly forgot to pack any photos!  I keep a not of the layouts before I file them so I know which ones need putting on the blog so that's what I'd been doing here having just photographed them in the garden... in the dry... in the sun!!!

The layout on the right there was finished a few seconds before I left on Friday morning and so that one needed photographing too.  This one was for the S J Papercrafts challenge for March which involved us all using a set of photographs as inspiration.  If you fancy a challenge thn pop over and see what inspires you from the pictures too.  There is also another prize on offer this month from another WOYWW-er, the lovely Annie.  Personally I was inspired to use the colours and textures from the pictures to create this windy beach layout using Crate Paper's Pier collection. Louis was just over a year old in this picture from his first beach trip in Newport, Pembrokeshire. Even then we knew he'd love it more and more as he got older and he certainly has! 

It was great fun to rifle through my stash and find old bits and bobs like the sandy coloured flowers, veneer birds and green ric rac to accentuate my theme along with the woody tones of the papers.

When I saw the inspiration photos I immediately thought of this collection and once I had got the papers out I realised they were perfect for scrapping about this rainy weather we've been having here since Christmas.  I ended up using this collection a lot over the weekend for various photos of drizzly walks and windswept beaches.

I guess I really need to finish putting all the rest of the stuff away *sigh*... But first I'll grab a cuppa and have a peruse around all the other desks that link up on a Wednesday for the biggest creative gathering of the week.  Please do join in - its easy, free and very enjoyable and you're sure to receive a warm welcome from our host Julia.

Bye for now
xx

A Perfect Summer - Part 2

A couple of weeks back I gave you a few sneaks of some layouts I had made for S J Crafts using the colourful Echo Park Perfect Summer collection.  Here are those layouts in full.

I loved this fishy paper but it was still subtle enough not to detract from the photos.

I added some pop dotted stickers from the collection and some gems to look like bubbles.

I also fell in love with this pink woodgrain paper and I knew I wanted to use it as a whole piece.  It was perfect to go with the cherry print paper which led me to the photos of the Easter bonnet parade at Louis's school.

A few rub ons (really really old ones...) and a charm and that was about it!  I love how different it looks to the first layout even though it all came from the same collection

The following layout is going to go next to the one above in my album but its not strictly a double page.  I just wanted somewhere to keep the rest of the photos for that day which were not very good but held a lot of memories.

I was inspired by a Shimelle layout from her 4x6 photo love series and its a great one to bear in mind when you just can't face pages of dodgy photos ;-)

This last one (for today!) is one of my favourites from this collection.  Again I knew I wanted to use the sunburst paper as a whole page and just focus the design in the bottom corner.  The colourful papers in this collection are a great match for Bella's wet suit and collection of beach toys.

Again I used the stickers to full effect here and layered some of them up on pop dots.

I wanted to highlight the sun rays a bit more so I added some stitching which gives the layout more interest and texture.

This made a total of 6 layouts and I still had a good few bits left over.  Check back in a few days to see what else I made.

Bye for now
xx

Adventures in Exmoor

Warning - photo heavy post!

It seems like months ago since we came back from Lower Roduish Farm in Exmoor.  Of course its only been a week but the sun that shone for us all the time we were there has been sadly lacking since we came back and it feels more like Autumn than summer.

So, our adventures at this years Featherdown Farm location were just as wonderful as last year's in South Devon.  The tents were closer together but there was not such a hike between the showers and the tents and the children could play quite happily in the fields with the sheep right in front of us.

There was a bigger mix of animals here too.  Obviously there was the sheep, and let me tell you that sheep with lambs are incredibly noisy!  We ended up having little conversations with them because we listened to them for so long that we thought we could identify words!

They have a few cows there and this wonderful beast - Marcus the Bull.  He "works" for one month of the year having fun with his girls.  Its a tough life... ;-)

They have 3 larger pigs and then a little brood of piglets turned up in the afternoon.  The children absolutely loved throwing in all our food scraps for them.

It was Louis's 7th birthday while we were away so he had a few presents in our tent.

We were able to eat breakfast outside every morning.  Bella and I certainly enjoyed our fresh eggs from the 2 chickens we looked after for the week.  We are both big fans of "tappy eggs"!

The birthday boy chose to spend some change in the amusements at Minehead.

He ate LOADS the whole time we were away.  No more children's portions for this growing lad - yikes!

We walked up on the moors and looked for deer and The Beast.

The children were taught to groom ponies.

We had a delicious stew cooked in a cauldron.

Louis's birthday treat was to go pony trekking.  Can you believe they just let us walk off with two children and two ponies!  We expected someone to come with us but they told us the route and off we went.  They absolutely loved it and can't wait to go again.

We looked after 2 guinea pigs for the week.  This little one is Eilish.

I'm not a fan of these animals but I really fell in love with them and probably held them as much as the children!  One of the other children on the farm wanted to have a pet show so we all got our guinea pigs out and paraded them around and he judged a winner!  It was hysterical!

We were able to have camp fires and toast marshmallows on long sticks.  The close proximity of the tents meant that the adults could put the little ones down and then chat around the fire with a bottle or two of local cider.  Perfect.

We visited several beaches.  This one is Porlock and the stones were all huge and very rounded which made walking on them pretty fun!

Its a pretty little area with some really quaint houses and a tiny harbour.

Basically we had a ball just being together without work / school / coursework / housework etc.

Even though the tide was pretty much out, the children managed to catch 21 crabs in about 25 minutes!

 We hunted for fossils on Doniford beach.  There were quite a few set into large rocks on the beach.

You literally can't go more than a few feet without finding one.

 

We brought a few home for our bathroom collection but had to leave behind some truly beautiful and large ones too.

The kids had a great time on the farm with the huge walnut tree and the rope and tyre swing.  They played for ages with the friends they met, just romping around the field but where we could still see them.

Our other guinea pig was called Podge and she was the winner in the parade!  She got a carrot for her prize from the little boy - bless!  I have to admit that I rather fell for this soft little bundle.

I think our favourite thing was the little stream that ran through the field that they played in.  It was shallow enough that they could paddle happily with their wellies or crocs but flowing enough that they could race daisies and dried sheep poo along it!

It was wonderful.  All of it.  The relative peace (other than the wildlife!), the fresh air, the sun, the s-l-o-w way of life, the cream teas, the campfires, the Pimms, and generally just being together without the normal every day stresses.  Coming soon to a scrapbook near you ;-)

Happy days!

Bye for now

xx