#26 years | Sheena Rowlands | Mixed Media

Hi there UK Scrap Addicts x  Sheena here again.

Our challenge this month is Mixed Media.  In case mixed media is not something you are familiar with here is a definition ...
Mixed media is a termed to describe artworks composed from a combination of different media or materials.

This got me thinking that I wanted to create something a little different for this challenge .

#26 Years.

I wanted too make my own college paper.

To start off I gathered lots of patterned papers from Love themed ranges in shades of pinks, reds and blues. I tore them into small pieces and glued them on to a piece of cardstock in a random way.This is very therapeutic and a great way to use up scraps. I added pieces of doily and after letting it dry I added machine sewing to add texture.

From this college paper I then cut a series of hearts to use on my layout. I have plenty left over & I'm already thinking of how I can use it on another layout. I then added a circle of watercolour paint on my background cardstock, added a few splatters and then machine sewed on top of this once it was dry.

I used a sketch by as the basis for this page by Ashley Horton. I finished my page with a Thickers title, stamped sentiments and a few heart embellishments.

I hope you feel inspired to try some Mixed Media on your next layout.

Please share it with us on our UK Scrap Addicts Facebook group.

Till next time x

Happy Parrot | Amy Kattenbelt | Fussy Cutting

This month we focus on fussy cutting. I selected a paper from the Vicki Boutin Field Notes collection with lots of beautiful feathers. I fussy cut them and rearranged them into a heart shape. I hope this simple layout inspires beginners to give fussy cutting a go. You can sit and cut the patterned paper whilst watching TV and then create an easy layout.

Check out my quick process video to see my layout being created.

Smile, Laugh, Play | Sheena Rowlands | Fussy Cutting

Hi there UK Scrap Addicts x Sheena here again.

Our challenge this month is Fussy Cutting. When I think of fussy cutting I think of cutting flowers from patterned papers so I wanted to do something different for this challenge.

I had a root through some of the patterned papers in my stash and found this one by Pink Paislee for Paige Evans and felt it had potential so I got fussy cutting.

Smile, Laugh, Play.

From the patterned paper I cut out all the 5 full scalloped circles with a little white border to help them stay whole.I tend to do this type of fussy cutting in front of the TV but with a tray on my lap to catch the bits!!

Once cut I positioned them one at a time on the patterned paper background machine stitching them down. Once they were all sewn down I curled the scallops a little.

I added a small photo and embellished around it with Paige Evans die cuts from a number of different ranges.

I hope you are inspired to do some fussy cutting and please share with us on our UK Scrap Addicts Facebook group.

Till next time x

My Thor | ScrappyNerdUK (Claire) | Fussy Cutting

I am one of those weirdos that love to fussy cut so when this challenge came round I relished in it..... well at least I thought I was going to.


So I realised that when I fussy cut things, it always seems to be butterflies or flowers. But there are other things that can be fussy cut - just like in my layout.

I used a sheet of labels from the Carousel collection by Maggie Holmes. I also used a patterned paper to fussy cut some of the icons you can see here that says Cotton Candy and Carousel.

I added some foam behind some of the labels to give dimension and then used this as a base to start adding in embellishments.

 I used a mixture of stickers and ephemera and chipboard and just continued layering over the labels and although it's busy, I personally love the design concept with how this turned out.

The photo was one that was taken a long time ago and so I didn't have the actual date available so instead I used the year (I believe?!) and added 2003 in Thickers into one of those labels.

To the other spare label I added my title which is "My Thor" as me and hubby are massive Avengers fans.


I also added some torn edges and backed this with some patterned paper to create some further interest on the sides due to working on white cardstock. This really helps to train your eyes inwards to the photo.

Be sure to join us over on our Facebook group to join in with the monthly themes!!

And don't forget that we are celebrating (Inter)National Scrapbooking Day this weekend (3rd, 4th + 5th May 2019) and all the details can be found over at our Facebook group. Just search for UKScrapAddicts.

Thanks for reading and see you again next month!

Night Time Sparkle / Jackie Ashton / Sequins

Hi crafters, Jackie here with my take on this months challenge - Sequins and Glitter.

For this month my layout is very minimalistic for me.

Night Time Sparkle

The photograph is of the first time I saw the Eiffel Tower - not only at night, but it was on the hour and it was sparkling - the photographs didn’t capture the actual sparkle, as it was over very quickly - but I managed to get the spot light beaming from the top.

I wanted the background paper to be slightly distressed, so added a thin layer of white gesso and added some squeezed lemonade oxide ink over the top using the packaging technique.

I added some sequins to thread, which I criss-crossed on the page, adding a few sequins to each thread.

I printed 2 copies of my photographs and added 3D foam to them, adding a die cut frame, which I cut in half to the edges of the photograph and added 2 label under my photographs to add some journalling.

For the title I used some mini alphabets from my stash and the ‘sparkle’ word is from PinkFresh Studio Joyful Day collection.

Don’t forget to share your layouts over on our Facebook page, we would love them using months challenge.

Thats all from me this month, till next time.

Happy scrapping

All that glitters is not gold…

Hi Everyone

Sam here, with my first layout as a DT member of the UKSA team…

If you hadn’t already noticed, the theme for April is ‘Sparkle’.

Now, I can’t deny that I have a real phobia of glitter – I think it’s because it reminds me of sand. Like sand, it gets everywhere, so it’s a scrapbooking product that I tend to avoid like the plague! I simply couldn’t face using any, so my ‘Sparkle’ was going to have to be introduce via some other means…

I found I’d got some Starlights paint, including White Gold, which I knew gave a true shimmery effect, so I decided that my layout would incorporate gold elements along with some co-ordinating sequins from my stash.

My eldest step-daughter is in New Zealand currently where this photo was taken. I thought the quirky seat on the wall that had become a painted swing was fabulous, along with the cupid and combinations of greens, teals and hot yellow. It’s not a colour combination that I’d usually scrap with, but was so inspired by it, I decided to dig deep into my scrapbooking stash and see what I could find.

To my delight, I realize that the Maggie Holmes ‘Carousel’ collection featured some of these tones. And, I’m sure that you can relate to just ‘saving a piece of paper’ because it’s too nice to use syndrome? I’d been suffering with that over the big top paper, but as it was just black and white, it meant that I could paint it to complement the photo and add sparkly details too!

I tend to mix white gesso with paint when I’m creating a background on a printed design, as it works in much the say way as preparing a background that’s going to be subjected to techniques such as the packaging one.

After fussy cutting the kites and the scallop detail for the big tops, I used sequins to add detail, with little French knots to each centre.

I found I’d got an unopened set of enamel charms, both of which were set into a gold metal, so this added to the sparkle along with my title.

Until next month…

Love and sparkles

Sam X

She Leaves A Sparkle | Karen Moss | Sparkle

Hello, hello - Karen here with my Sparkle layout.

For this page I used a Paige Taylor Evans cut file to cut some Silhouette double sided sheets and then added them to the same design, this time cut from card.

Once added I removed the top layer and added glitter .

I discovered that you can also use a glue pen to add adhesive to a shape and then add glitter - found this out when I tried it on the areas I had missed with the double sided sticky sheets.

Once I had glittered my flowers and title all that was needed was a few gems and sequins to finish my page.

You can see my process video of the making of this page here.

Sparkle and shine | Elaine King | Sparkle

Good morning one and all

Today I am bringing you a layout using lots of sparkle as per our April Prompt... I hope you can join in too?  

Firstly I took a sheet of sparkly pink glitter cardstock and used it as a mat for my trimmed down white card background. Now I don't know about you but I find sticking to glitter card is impossible...so to get around that I used wet acrylic glue..Pinflair in this instance. 

Then I took my white card, purchased from Crafts4Eternity . I buy their card stock because they  stocks a 300gsm card that twists and warps far less when using wet mixed media.  I punched out three 'chomped' pieces of the border using a Martha Stewart punch. 

I then drew three concentric circles with a sparkly Kaisercraft gel pen purchased from Merly Impressions. These are my 'Go To' pens for journalling and anything sparkly. I then drew random little hearts using the same pen along the three lines of the circles and added lots of sequins. 

Finally I matted the photograph and added a piece of Unicorn paper (and one other) from the Dream Big collection from Simple Stores that I got from Hey Little Magpie using some of the ephemera from the collection too. I raised the photo up on foam pads for extra dimension. 

Hey presto, one quick and easy layout with lots of sparkle. I do hope this inspires you to give our prompt a try..have fun!

Love Our Story | Stephanie Squires | Sparkle

Hello, Steph here and a very big welcome to my very first UKSA blog post!!

I am sharing with you my layout for this month's theme which is "Sparkles" which is great theme for me as I absolutely LOVE sequins 😍😍

I found a lovely blue sheet of paper from Crate Papers Sunny Days collection which I gutted leaving a 1 inch border around the edge, I then cut my piece of white Bazzill cardstock down to 11 x 11 and placed it on top of the frame.  I had already chosen a cutfile that had small circles cut out of it (I trimmed that also down to 11 x 11) but when I placed this on top of the Bazzill textured card I felt it needed something more to lift it.  So before I stuck it down I stamped a blue rose stamp all over the textured cardstock before sticking it all together.  Once stuck I machine stitched round the edge of the cutfile with gold thread and put it to one side.

I have wanted to use an embroidery hoop on a layout for the longest time - I found this small bamboo one in a well known super market for a couple of pounds and I thought it would be perfect!  I popped my piece of net across the hoop, sprinkled a generous amount of sequins onto it and then put another piece of net over the top of that to hold them in place.  I put the large hoop over the top and tightened it.  I flipped the hoop over and gently pulled the net so it was nice and tight and trimmed off the excess fabric.

I picked up my 12 x 12 background and fiddled around with the positioning of the frame until I decided where I wanted it to be.  I then grabbed a bunch of coordinating embellishments and a silly photo of myself and positioned these on top of the hoop until they were exactly where I wanted them. I took a quick photo on my phone so I would remember the positioning of all of them before removing them and sewing the hoop onto my layout with the gold thread that I'd used earlier with my machine sewing.  Once secure I re-added the embellishments (plus a few more) but stuck them this time with a strong glue and added my title ❤ Our Story.

To complete the layout I added a tag and a swinging small double sided journaling card and a small bulldog clip I found in my stash!  Ta da!!  Layout complete :o)

Thank you so much for reading my post, I hope it's inspired you!! Please don't forget to share any of you layouts on UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page we love to see everyone's take on this months theme!!

Take care and thanks for reading,

Steph xo

Happy | Sheena Rowlands | Sparkle

Hi there UK Scrap Addicts x Sheena here again.

Our challenge this month is to use Sparkle on your scrapbook page. This challenge can be interpreted any way you like and I chose to use sequins on my layout to create some Sparkle.

I used a cut file as the basis of my page, I added foam pads to the back of the cut file to add some depth then I used Simple Stories Forever Fall paper to back all the leaf cut outs. Before I stuck them all down I added acetate behind 8 cut file leaves and built them into mini shaker boxes with foam pads. I chose the sequins for each shaker box depending on the colour of the paper below them. I really like the delicate effect this creates.

Once I was happy with the cut file I mounted it onto my layout base using foam pads. I trimmed my photo and matted it on various scraps of Forever Fall papers and attached it with foam pads just overlapping the cut file.

I tucked in leaf and flower stickers and die cuts either side of my photo then added a Perspective over the photo after I'd added some thread to it in complimentary colours. My title was also off the sticker sheet.

I hope you are inspired to add a little Sparkle to your pages. Please share with us over at the UK Scrap Addicts Facebook page.

Till next time x

I love how your eyes sparkle | Di Willcox | Sparkle

Good morning Scrap Addicts! Di here today with my first layout as a UKSA creative team member, how exciting!!

'Sparkle' is this month's theme and as it so happens, I had the exact word in a puffy sticker set from the PinkFresh Studio 'Joyful Day' collection. Perfect!

I have lots of photos of my daughter (who's now 24) as a toddler but I struggle to scrap them as they have some distraction in the background that I'm not happy with or the colours/ patterns don't go with the modern papers. After scrolling through Pinterest for ideas I saw a few grid style layouts that use several photos cut down to the main focus point, so I chose a few of Molly, cut them down to 4 x 2 inches and arranged them on the page with papers from the a kit that featured papers from PinkFresh Studio and Pretty Little Studio. I also fussy cut some of the mandala style flowers from one paper and punched some chevrons out of another to create embellishments. 

 After I'd stuck the photos and papers down it seemed a bit flat to me so I doodled lines between to create more of a grid and then I got the 'pop' I wanted to achieve!

I added the title, embellishments and a few sequins (well it is sparkle month!) to finish the layout off.

I can't wait to see what you all come up with for 'Sparkle', I'll be looking out for lots of shiny layouts in the UK Scrap Addicts group on Facebook ;)

Di x

Dream It - Do It | Karen Moss | Black Background

Hello, hello - Karen here with my black background layout.

I have been wanting to recreate a page similar to this one, which I had seen on the Paper Artsy blog.  Unfortunately, it hasn't been linked to the original designer so I am unable to credit them.

I loved how they have used paint to merge the photo into the background and this was the effect I was aiming for.

I have also added some texture past dots and butterflies (making a right mess in the process).

If you would like to see how I created my page then grab a cuppa and pop on over to our YouTube channel where you will find my process video.

Don't forget to check back to see what the other awesome UK Scrap Addicts ladies have been making this month.

Karen x