Sarah's November Post

"Little Witch"
Hello everyone!  With Christmas just around the corner I thought I would squeeze in one more  Halloween layout before the December mayhem begins. Sophie usually dresses up  as a Disney Princess to 'Trick or Treat' but this year she told me that she wanted  to be 'something more scary like a witch'. Well, she made a very cute (but not very scary)  little witch and these are just a few of my favourite photos of her.
The 2Crafty Skulls were perfect embellishments for my theme. I painted them with  white distress paint, inked the edges and backed the eye holes with red washi tape.


I used the 2crafty  iron fence and lamp-post also added a 'creepy' halloween  atmosphere to my page. I used gold metallic paste to colour the fence and  metallic gelato pens for the lamp-post. Clusters of chipboard elements layered  together can look really great and add lots of dimension to your page.


I used Crate Paper patterned papers for this page. None of my products were  specifically 'Halloween' themed but the overall effect is in keeping with my  theme because of the carefully selected chipboard embellishments.

  The second page that I would like to share with you today has quite a different feel.  
 "Precious Moments"
 The photo was taken on my daughter Sophie's 9th birthday and it is one of my  favourites from the day. The 2crafty number strip is a prominent feature of my page.  It is one of my favourite 2Crafty items and I have used it several times both as a  whole and cut up into sections. Here I painted it black then used a metallic gold  gelato pen to paint over the numbers 4 and 9 - to represent the ages of my kids in  the photo. I outlined the black numbers with a white paint pen and the gold numbers  with a black marker pen.


I slipped a 2crafty chipboard tab behind my photo. These tabs are really cool and you  get several different designs in one pack. They are great for adding dates or names to photos. In this case I simply covered my tag with patterned paper, sanded the edges  and added a couple of heart stickers for decoration.


My absolute favourite chipboard accessory has got to be chevron bits. I use them  on almost every layout that I make. They just add that 'professional' finishing touch  to a page. It is fun to mix and match different sizes and thicknesses of chevron as  I have done here. I have added a thin coat of white distress paint to the chevrons  in this page but I often just leave them 'bare' - I love the look of raw chipboard,  especially for 'boy' pages.

My final page is my entry for this months 'Scrapfriends' sketch challenge.
"London"


 It is based on this sketch and if you are a follower of my blog you will already have seen it :)



I chose this photo especially so I could use the awesome 2Crafty,  London   element which I have used as my title. This was originally too big for  my page so I cut the word 'London' from the bottom of the design and  layered it over the base of the bridge element. This not only saved space  but also added some cool dimension to the page. I painted the piece and  added brick details to the bridge with a stamp. I love how versatile these  larger chipboard items from 2Crafty are. It is so easy to cut them  up and customise your designs.



A 2Crafty banner was a great substitute for the feathers in the sketch.  I covered the banner elements with patterned paper, sanded the edges and  outlined them with a black gel pen. I threaded string around and  between them  to complete the banner effect. I used a stitching template to sew the city skyline  along  the top left corner of my page. A chipboard date (2012) completed  the page and made sure that we will never forget the year we took this  unforgettable family vacation!

Finally,  I hope I have managed to inspire you to get out those chippies and  start creating. I hope that you will all have a very happy Christmas and  that Santa puts lots of crafty goodies in your stockings :)