It's a Creative World

Father/dad-themed layouts...

Hello! It’s Jo here, extending a warm welcome to you all to my first post for It’s A Creative World. As it’s Father’s Day in the UK on Sunday, I thought I would take this opportunity to share some father/dad-themed layouts with you. I don’t know about you, but my children seem to get the lion’s share of my scrapping time, and I thought it would be appropriate to redress the balance a little, and scrap some of the many photos I have of my dad, and my daughters’ daddy! I haven’t done these as step-by-steps, as hopefully it’s fairly easy to see what I’ve done in each case, but there may be one that catches your eye and encourages you to go and scrap one of the men in your life!

Layout 1 - my dad, my daughter:

Supplies: Bazzill Doodlebug cardstock, 1 sheet sugar cookie, 1 sheet cream puff; foolscap paper; Ki Memories ‘Pieces of Me’ rub-ons; orange and black Sakura Gelly Roll glaze pens; Cropadile

Layout 2 - a father’s love – this layout was completed during a UK Scrappers cybercrop, and was from a class designed by Theresly, aka Shopperholic. Thanks to Theresly for permission to reproduce it here:

Supplies: Deja Views Fresh Print patterned paper, Tangerine design; Bazzill Doodlebug cardstock, 1 sheet pumpkin seed, 1 sheet honeydew; Sue Dreamer letter stickers; Ki Memories rub-ons; embroidery thread; purple silk flowers; purple Bazzill brads

Layout 3 - *funky dad!:

Supplies: Bazzill Doodlebug cardstock, 1 sheet lily white, 1 sheet swimming pool, 1 sheet buttercream; Sandylion Kelly Panacci patterned paper, 1 sheet Denim Daisies, 1 sheet Miniature Daisies – Vanilla; Poundland chipboard letters, inked with ColorBox dark brown chalk inkpad; Basic Grey Wholly Cow ‘summer’ rub-ons; Ki Memories ‘Pieces of Me’ rub-ons; EK success retro flower punches - Whale of a Punch, and mini punch; gold snaps; Cropadile

Layout 4 - our daddy:

Supplies: Bazzill Doodlebug cardstock, 2 sheets lily white; cherryArte Tropics patterned paper, 1 sheet Flower Power; circles cut from Provo Craft Christina Cole patterned paper, 1 sheet Rainbow Dots; Making Memories Simply Stated alphabet rub-ons, ‘destination’ white; black and yellow Sakura Gelly Roll glaze pens; Woodware circular punches; Cropadile

If you have any father/dad layouts you’d like to share with us, please leave a link in the comments box – we look forward to seeing all of your lovely creations!

We have another exciting prize draw to unveil over the weekend, so please stop by if you have a minute!

Quick and easy Fathers Day cards...

My Dad doesn't play golf or football or go fishing or sail or do any of those things that you find on the front of Fathers Day cards when you buy them from the shops. He likes colourful things - especially yellow and red and designs that are simple and not too fussy. This is just as well as to be honest, normally by the time I have made ten plus cards for special orders for other people I am usually fresh out of inspiration and time and he gets whatever I can make on the Sunday morning before he comes in from church.

Not this year though - I am organised!! His cards (one from me, one from my brother) have been in my card box for a couple of weeks all ready for this coming Sunday.

Card 1 is bright, colourful and easy to make. I've used Shabby Princess papers and printed the same pattern in different sizes. Cut the striped background to size, ink the edges and adhere to your card blank. Cut a strip of the circle paper and ink and adhere that too and then stitch around the edges on a sewing machine. I handcut the word 'dad' using Mandingo font and added some doodling around the edge to make it stand out. The photo turns are hand drawn and these and the letters are attached with foam pads. Finally I stamped my 'Happy Fathers Day' message, cut out and inked the edges and glued onto my card.

Card 2 is really simple to make. I covered the front of the card blank with Christina Cole rainbow striped paper and inked the edges. I used my bone tool to fold and crease a sheet of acetate and scalloped the edge with my EK Success corner rounder. I attached it on the back of my card with double sided tape and then traced along the scallops with a fine permanent pen. I painted some chipboard letters with a tester pot of emulsion paint from B&Q and when it dried I drew around the edges of the letters with a black pen and glued these to my acetate cover. Some ribbon and a few prima flowers finished my card

I hope you all have fun making cards this week and if you aren't making Fathers Day cards you can still use these ideas and adapt them for birthdays, good luck messages or get well soon wishes.

Love from Andrea x

What can you do with a block of wood?

Gosh, it’s my turn again and I really can’t believe that we are already a week old. We really do hope that you are enjoying It’s a creative world as much as we are.

Anyhoo, today I am going to share one of my décor ideas. I used Jenni Bowlin’s vintage red line so I could get away with using it as a Father’s Day pressie as well. I also have details of a fantastic prize draw and an amazing special offer for you all. First, to the project.

I love having lots of pictures and memories around the house. But, I don’t always want to use photo frames and like to use things that are a bit different. I’ve seen wooden cubes you can buy to decorate but decided to use an offcut of wood to make mine. A bit of economy here and there pleases Graham and means more pennies for pretties. We had some wood left over from a DIY project but you could easily pick some up at your local timber merchants. This is also a handy project for using up those bits of stash that we all have kicking around the house.

I lightly sanded the cube and then used double sided tape to stick my papers and photos on. I then sanded the edges of the paper with a nail file and whizzed some brown ink over to muddy them up a bit.

The bird and the papers are from Jenni Bowlin, the buttons are Melissa Frances and the rub on is Basic Grey. I’m so happy that the Jenni Bowlin stuff is now available over here and I can fill my basket at A Trip Down Memory Lane.

Now onto the big news of the day and we have yet another prize draw for you. Yes, all of the lovely people who leave comments over the weekend will go into a draw to win a kit from Scrapbook Central. Please check back on Monday to claim your prize. It can be difficult to track you down if you don’t have a blog to link to so please do check back. We’d hate for you to miss out on your prize.

Not only do we have the fabulous kit as a prize but the lovely people at Scrapbook Central have also provided all our readers with a code to enjoy a whopping 15% off their lovely stock. Simply enter the code GEYJE50 at the checkout it is valid for one week and can be used once per person. Now that is a fab excuse to go shopping. Go on ………… You know you want to.

Thank you so much for visiting us and I hope that you enjoyed my project and would love to see any cubes that you make. My cube is 4"x4" but you can make them any size that you want.

Pip pip

Something for the weekend!

Today is the 1 week anniversary of It's a Creative World, and what an exciting week it has been! Thank you all so very much for your support, encouragement and enthusiasm, without which we wouldn't be doing this.

Now to help us celebrate we have two exciting offers to share with you all this weekend! Neither of them are to be missed so be sure to check back tomorrow when Maria will tell you all about it! Ooh i'm such a tease :)

This week we have also had two wonderful ladies join our creative family. Trish, who inspired us all with her fab altered shopping bag on Wednesday. Trish makes the most wonderful jewellery using beautiful beads in gorgeous colours, and I certainly hope she has a few jewellery making classes lined up cause this lady has true talent that needs to be shared. If you are looking for a little crafting excitement this year Trish is one to watch!

And Jo, who's amazing style of scrapping is admired and loved! Jo's gallery is a treat of deliciousness, with two gorgeous girls, who I may add she takes the most gorgeous photos of! Her funky, zesty layouts will give you a zing this summer that will have you dancing on the ceiling! Don't let her out of your sight :)

When I first thought of starting this blog I not only wanted our wonderful design team to inspire you but also to give you ideas for upcoming events. And what better time to start, than right now when there is just over a week until Fathers Day.

The file folder I have used for this project is from Daisy D's and is a diecut so all you have to do is push the folder and file pages out and start putting it together. I printed my photographs 2 on a page using my Epson picturemate (they measure 3.5" x 2.5") and I found that to be a good size for the pages, leaving enough room for stamping, embellishments and journalling. I have used photos of my husband and his children that I took on a recent walk around the field to see the cows, thankfully I had brought the camera as the conditions where perfect to capture them all relaxed and not posing.

This is a great project to use up some embellishments you have been hoarding, those scraps of paper too precious to throw out, oh and a bit of that ribbon you have stashed away! On the tabs I have used stamped words, buttons, the dymo, and a making memories hinge.

Hint: When binding the album use a broad ribbon together with a thin ribbon. You are going to tie bows with the large ribbon and use the thinner one to secure the knot and ensure it doesn't get too tight or else your book will not open. Firstly, using both ribbons together, tie a knot making sure the book can still openthen using just the thin ribbon tie another knot over the 'combined ribbon' knot. This will keep the ribbon in place. Then tie a bow over both knots with the thick ribbon and trim the ends. For my folder I used thick green with thin pink ribbon.

File folders are also great way to showcase photos of holidays and trips that you don't want to fill a whole album with, but of course you need to scrap the occasion. But watch out they can be addictive!

Happy Friday everyone!

Caz

xx