Tic Tac Toe May Challenge

Hello crafty friends, Sarah with you today - feeling so inspired by the May Tic Tac Toe challenge that I have two layouts for you! The first one, as pictured above uses a red and white striped paper bag (from D-lish Scraps), patterned paper (some of the last of my Crate Paper Cool Kid collection available in store here) and cardstock (from my stash). Let's have a look at the challenge set by Shop and Crop...

For this layout I created the background smearing on Dylusions paints in Postbox Red and Campso Teal with a palette knife. The range of Dylusions paints is available in store here. I left this overnight to dry as I tend to be a bit heavy handed with paints! I then used some stamps from my stash to add a little more background interest. The Shop and Crop online store have a great range of stamps, particularly mixed media ones.

I used the paper bag in this layout as a pocket to hold a large tag. I used the small piece of vellum I had left over from the Cool Kid collection to cover the tag and wrote on the back some points about my son at the age of 3 that I wanted to remember - his favourite foods, traits about him I love, what he calls himself etc. The photo is layered on Cool Kid patterned papers and stickers from this collection were used as embellishments. That cute handmade heart embellie is from Charms Creations. Let's take a closer look...

Now for the second project, a Planner Page layout. This is a Basic Planner Kit from Scrapper's Delights. I am pleased to have been offered a position on their Planner Design team. For more information about setting up and decorating your own planner, pop on over to their website by clicking here. I designed this layout also inline with in the Tic Tac Toe challenge, I used cardstock (300gsm cardstock that the planner page was printed on), stamps and embossing powder (gold from Stampin Up).

The background of the planner pages were completed using distress ink and the 'smoosching' technique. The range of distress inks can be purchased instore here. The stamps used with the gold embossing are the Kaisercraft Captured Moments Calendar stamps - also instore here. The day and date stamps are stamped with black ink with the Echo Park Paper Co Through the Year Calendar stamp that is also available in store here. The cute bear stamps are the 'Honey Bears' by The Ton. Lets take a closer look...

Whilst I have never really been in to 'planning' in the creative sense, I am using this planner to capture my Design Team commitments and a few photos of my children week to week. For more planner layouts, please see my blog here. I like to include reminders of everyday chores, appointments, events etc - all in a pretty format that is alot of fun to design and create. Lets take one last look at those cute bears - they are stamped in black ink, embossed with clear embossing powder and coloured using Zig Clean Colour real brush markers.

I hope you enjoyed these projects and the versatility in creating projects with the May Tic Tac Toe challenge. Until next time...

March Challenge - 'Cutest lil dude' by Sarah Rosse

Hi there, Sarah here with you this morning to show you my take on the March sketch challenge. Here's a little reminder of the sketch...

I had such fun making this layout and I find when following along with a sketch, it usually comes together quite quickly for me. I had one little problem....for those of you with toddlers, you may understand....I had just left my desk for a minute to start preparing dinner, after getting about half way through my layout design, when I noticed Mr 3 in my craft room......I ran to check out what he was doing and he had scribbled on the bottom left hand corner of my layout! So, I had two options....start all over again or re-design the layout to make it work and cover up the boo boos! So as you can see, the layout isnt exactly the same as the sketch. That's the great thing about a sketch....you can use it as a base to get the creative juices and ideas flowing and then make it your own.

To create the coloured background layer, I used distress inks (available in store here) using the packaging technique - I rubbed some ink onto a piece of plastic packaging, added a spary of water, turned it over and 'smooshed' it on to the page. I chose colours that matched with the patterned paper used on top of the layout, carefully drying between each colour to avoid them mixing into a muddy colour. Here's a pic of those beautiful ink colours...

I added some stamping with black ink to the background using 'Mixed Media 2' Stampers Anonymous Tim Holtz stamps. The wide range of mixed media stamps from the online store can be seen here. The papers used on this layout are from the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection. I LOVE this collection and have used it over and over again! Note to self: must stock up on some more at the online store here. The cut strips are from leftovers from previous projects using the Cool Kid paper range - I never through out a scrap from a collection I love!

I chose to use the Cool Kid vellum as the photo mat base so you could still see come of that lovely ink colour underneath. The Cool Kid adhesive chipboard frame was positioned under the photo, with a tag cut from patterned paper to represent the sketch outline. The Cool Kid adhesive chipboard is the ideal embellishment - the little truck and car and the 'dude' sticker in the title was all from this one sheet, with many more stickers to use on future projects. The stickers on the bottom left of the layout are also from the Cool Kid collection. Lets take a closer look at this layout...

Now on to the second project for this post.....

For this card I took the March challenge sketch and carried this out on a smaller scale - on a card rather than a layout. Again I used the Crate Paper Cool Kid collection with distress inks to create the coloured background, with some stamps from my stash. So much fun!! The digital stamp on this card is a free printable from the internet - simply printed and coloured with Touch Five markers and Stampin Up Blendabilities. I used a Wink of Stella pen to give some sparkle to his cape. The stickers "You'll move mountains" are from the Cool Kid sticker sheet. Here is a close up of the stamped image layered on multi coloured cotton to create some texture on the card.

I hope you enjoyed these projects using the March challenge sketch - I look forward to seeing what you create this month and dont forget to check out the blog for all of the Design Team's amazing projects and inspiration!

'My Boy' by Elisa Ablett

Hi Crafters,

Elisa here from the design team with another boy layout using the very awesome 'Cool Kid' Crate Paper Collection, a gorgeous Darkroom Door stamp and Prima Watercolour Confections Pans (The classics) all available to purchase at Shop and Crop Scrapbooking  today.

Combining mixed media supplies and a fantastic paper collection!

Here are some close ups!

Shop and Crop Scrapbooking - Cool Kid Collection

Prima Watercolour Confection Pans - The Classics

That's it from me today, thanks for stopping by :-) 

Elisa xx