2 for the price of 1......

Slightly cryptic, however there are 2 challenges I wanted to create layouts for, but since the deadlines are looming I figured I would combine them into 1.

It's not something I've done before but as you can see the Scrap your story #13 challenge is to use mixed alphas, and the Sarah's Card's   sketch challenge for May is an A4 sketch !

The kraft borders are stickers by studio Calico, and the Islands of Adventures logo was cut from one of  the park maps we had when we visited Universal studios last Summer. 

It was such a hot day and it was so strange walking round a "snow " covered Hogsmead village ! ( I have some photos of that in my to-do pile :))   

 A total of 5 different fonts for the SYS challenge, Not including the Wizzardy spells on the background paper!...... and here's the sketch.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

3 more dogs......

 I was absolutely delighted to be invited to create a layout as a Guest Designer for " Scrap your story Challenge" blog.....It's sketch week....and since I have developed quite a liking for sketch challenges it was perfect for me !

Here is the sketch ......

 ....And here's what I did with it.......

 

The papers are from a totally gorgeous Maggie Holmes 6x6 Crate paper pad, and the letter stickers are Teensy Type by Doodlebug. Other than that, I used a green glaze pen, bazzil cardstock , a butterfly and circle punch.

Why not pop over to the BLOG to see the rest of the layouts by the fabulous resident Design Team,

and have a go yourself. There's a new and different challenge every week to kick start your creativity :)

The super cute dogs , Badger, Ivy and Len, are part of my sister's household in Oklahoma, see previous post for the back story. Ivy and Len were the most recent additions, having arrived from the wilderness last  summer and luckily for everyone they settled in very quickly. You can see Ivy soaking up the sun in her paddling pool!!

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Lester.....

My sister has a big heart, and luckily a big garden ! She and her husband have a  large collection of animals, most of which have found sanctuary at her house through one way or another :) . She has welcomed them with open arms and gives them all such perfect names......We visited last Summer and tried to get a photo of each and every one, not sure we managed it - some of the cats were a bit camera shy, but the dogs and pigs didn't seem to mind..too much !

This is the adorable Lester....

This layout was part of the "4 ways Challenge" in SBM recently,and uses the Kaisercraft
Secret Admirer paper and sticker collection. The chevrons at the top started off as strips of paper  which I folded over on itself twice.

Thanks for stopping by
Karen x

Buttons and butterflies...

That's what I had in mind for my layout for the " Scrap your Story" Blog Sketch challenge .

I saw a layout on pinterest  with butterflies which had been sewn on with bakers twine, made by Nicole Doiron .I thought it was such a pretty layout and the butterflies looked so lovely, I wanted to try the technique out myself.

I kept the sketch pretty much as it was designed , but squashed it all into my usual 8.5 x 11 layout.I loved the little embellishment clusters on the sketch and used the circle element as my photo. 

The papers were a mix that I had in my stash, but the washi tape and alpha letters were bought specially for the project from Papermaze..since I put the layout together at the April crop last Saturday. Its great having the shop open on crop days...for those essential bits and bobs!!

here's the sketch

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Woo Hoo ....

April 2 years ago was HOT ! I'm finding it hard to remember with this prolonged coldness.....

I took the girls to visit their friends on a farm....they spent ALL day jumping around in the haystacks . I'm only glad I wasn't there to see them - the stack was high up in the barn and looked scarily unstable to me ! Anyhow they all the best fun.

I used the current sketch #30 from the blog  sketch-n-scrap  

and only altered it slightly to use 3 photos instead of 4. 

I used Jillibean soup paper and hexagon stickers, American crafts Eric Thickers, Studio calico zig zag paper, and some washi tapes swapped with my scrappy friend Sadie. 

I used my poor neglected Crop-o-dile to punch the little holes down the sides.

Here's the sketch

This challenge is open till 30th April.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

A quick post....

THANK YOU.......to the lovely team at sketchbook365.

 No ,

I wasn't the winner of the March sketch challenge, but I was picked out as a Super Scrapper !!

Here's my badge and L/O.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Another sketch challenge......

I'm really enjoying my sketch challenge phase at the moment....  :)

 This one is from sketchbook365.blog and jumped out of the screen at me...so I got my gorgeous collection pack of "Lucille" by basic grey and set to work at this months Papermaze crop. 

I didn't use much chalk ink on this page but I did spend a lot of time distressing the edges and making a right dusty  mess!

The flower embellishment was cut and layered up from patterned paper, and all the stickers are Lucille.

When we visited my sister last year, my husband had been asked to bring back an Oklahoma fridge magnet..... Now usually they are everywhere you go, but we were having some difficulty, and  made a special trip to the museum knowing they would have some....only to find it was closed !

Still it was a good back drop for the photos :)

Here's the sketch. 

Thanks for stopping by 

Karen x

Recyle challenge.....

The Sarah Hurley Challenge Blog is currently looking at Recycling.....

 I have to admit I have quite a hoard of little bits and bobs I come across which "Will come in Handy" for my layouts, so this challenge was right up my street.

I gathered these bits together...Fat face tag, Cath Kidston postcard, October Afternoon packaging, narrow ribbon loops from the inside of a tee shirt ,a rainbow strap saved from the bin from a kiddies handbag, a Summer tag from a new beach towel and a small metal heart from an old pair of school uniform trousers !

....and voila....

The retro camera image is a Sarah Hurley digi stamp available in her Etsy shop here and was absolutely perfect for my layout..

The October Afternoon packaging made a superb journaling card, and I simply layered everything up with foam pads.

 The Challenge is open till 30th  March.

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Sketch challenge......

Feeling a bit twitchy, and wanting to use my Echo park papers again, I had a go at the March sketch challenge on the Scrap365 sketch blog here , which is open till the 15th march. 

The great thing I like about following a sketch is that the hard work of planning the look of the layout is already done ...so it leaves you free to pick and choose your papers to fit. 

I did stick to my 8.5 x 11 size so it looks quite different from the 12 x12 sketch, but it was nice being "Told" to use a small photo !

I'm also very bad at story telling/journaling , so  I gave it a go and found it wasn't as hard as I

thought :) Might be trying that again.....

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x

Crop day.....

It was the Monthly Papermaze crop yesterday in Otley Village Hall in Suffolk....and although it was packed out  (lots of chatting and catching up to do, you understand...) I did manage to finish 2 layouts.

The first one with Fay on her Uncle Jesse's lawn-mower in Oklahoma, uses the adorable Basic grey Lucille collection.

The second shows Fay and Amy taking a small break at the Universal Studios in Orlando and uses mostly Echo Park - Take note papers. 

I did spend quite some time cutting all the elements from the patterned papers..no ready-made embellishments here! 

Except of course for the totally gorgeous American Crafts Thickers :)

Thanks for stopping by

Karen x