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

Among The Ruins

A couple of Wednesdays ago when I shared my desk for our normal weekly round up...

I was explaining how the Shimelle class had encouraged me to use more paints and stamps etc on my layouts and how it had gone wrong because I hadn't put the lines in the right place.  It might not be the way I intended it to be but I do like how it finished up.

A standard 12x12 with a facing split page protector to add to the other layouts of our Kos holiday.  I haven't done the journalling on these pages yet because I'm still trying to find out the name of the place we visited!  It was somewhere in Kos town I think and it overlooked the sea so it was in a great position.  Management and I love pottering about in ruins and old buildings and I'm glad to say that it looks like the children are taking after us with our love of dilapidated historical sites.  Of course, neither of them were born at the time of this particular holiday and indeed there is a bit of a story as to how we ended up taking this last minute trip but that's for another layout. 

Either side of the yellow strip you can see the white acrylic paint that I dragged with the edge of a stamping block.  Top left and sort of bottom right is where I stamped over the dry paint... except that you can't really see the bottom right because I stamped too far up.

These pictures are just shy of the standard 6x4 that everything is now which mean't that I had to mount them on plain cardstock to fit the pockets.  I think it helps here though because it ties the colour scheme in and helps to visually separate the photos from each other.

We have friends who live in Greece and right now they are having jolly nice weather for the time of year thank you very much.  They are ex-pats and so they are really appreciating the sun while their former home has sandbags on the door steps. *sigh*

I think that floral paper has to be my favourite of the whole Echo Park For The Record 2 and I think it really helped to use this collection all in one go too.  I would definitely recommend doing that with any collection pack, especially if you are the type to admire them in their packaging!  I've got some lovely kits coming up in my DT assignments for S J Crafts because she's just had lots of lovely goodies delivered!  I love collections!

Bye for now

xx

Season's Greetings!

Its the most wonderful time of the year!  Oh I do love Christmas.  This could well be the last year that both children believe in the guy in the big red suit because Louis is already asking more and more questions about the logistics of our involvement.  Its so complicated!  

These photos were taken last year at Warwick Castle - doesn't it look festive!?  I wasn't there because I was at a scrapping retreat (which was awful!) and when I scrapped these pictures last week I couldn't for the life of me remember why I hadn't been there.  It reminded me to scrap things or at least record the memories as soon as I can because things so easily get forgotten.

 This double layout will be the second and third pages in my Journal Your Christmas album because they really capture the magic and the spirit of all that is Christmas.  Its all about making it special for my family, in particular my children.

 I'm using Crate Paper's Bundled Up collection throughout my JYC and I'll be sharing my method and plans for this in a couple of days.

 I was inspired by this Pin for using large photos so it was ideal for the types of pictures that you get on a day out.  I deliberately kept the background quite muted with the polka dot woodgrain because the pictures were quite busy and orangey.  I did want to introduce my full colour scheme for the album though so I picked out some of the pink and red bits from the ephemera pack.

The little tickets from the pack are perfect for the subject matter here and give enough space for a note or two.  I've added some gold stars here too because I want to run both gold and stars throughout the album.

So how are you getting on with your festive crafting?  Cards all made?  Presents all bought / made and wrapped? No?  Me neither... I'll get around to it... but maybe have another frangipan mince pie first ;-)

Bye for now

WOYWW 235

Please do not adjust your sets, normal service will resume shortly.

My desk is unusually neat today and there is a reason for it, not it is not staged, you just happened to catch it at the right time!  I had to have a reshuffle for some festive projects (more on that next week) but give it a few minutes and it will look lived in once more.

Its a toofa - as in a two-for-one.  This is the angle to the left with the beginnings of Journal Your Christmas and then top left is my black printer which is now in the bin.  It was my second Kodak and I will never ever use them again - nothing but trouble and poor quality prints from a supposedly top quality photo printer.  It finally gave up the ghost when I needed to print a very large document for a governors meeting - Murphy's Law that is.  So photo taken Tuesday lunchtime, Tuesday evening new printer installed and working correctly and large document being digested over a whiskey and coke in the wee small hours...

You're probably wondering why I have a giant bumble bee on my desk?  That is Buzzy, Bella's class mascot who came home yesterday for the second time within the month. I would really like to write in his diary this time "Buzzy got very bored waiting in the queue in the shop while the very old lady chatted to Mummy.  Eventually Mummy said a rude word to the lady and left.  Mummy muttered all the way home about Daddy not thinking about Christmas until Christmas Eve and then said a rude word again when she realised that she had missed the post man for the third time in as many days.  Later, Buzzy watched Mummy sobbing over the large pile of ironing and narrowly missed being splashed by bleach when Mummy cleaned the loo."  Honestly, Bella is 4 and can barely stay away once she gets in from school.  What do they expect us to write about for 4 weekdays, 3 weeks after the last visit?!

Angle to the right - Pretty things arranged lovingly for ease of access for festive crafting and of course the required cup of tea although that does now change to a mulled wine of an evening...

Here's a sneak of my first pages for my JYC album.  Its a DT project using Crate Paper's Bundled Up so I can't show it just yet but it is up in full on the S J Crafts blog.

Have you got festive crafting on your work space this week?  Are you feeling Christmassy yet or are you sick of everyone going on about it already?  Link up with Julia's Stamping Ground for WOYWW and share because you care.

Bye for now
xx