Using Peel Offs

I think, like most people, I have a box full of peel offs that never sees the light of day, unless I need a quick greeting.

They were bought when I first started card making but I struggle now to find uses for them, especially when it comes to scrapbooking.


For this layout of our holiday on Corfu last year I wanted some tropical looking flowers but had nothing in my flower stash. I then remembered these Dawn Bibby peel offs, which, being white, seem to be far more usable. I stuck them onto some basic grey papers and cut them out and I think they worked well.


The tails of the butterflies were also peel offs.

Maybe they are not something that should just wallow in a box forgotten, it's just a case of finding new uses for them.

Kerkira

Thanks so much for your comments to my last post. It was really interesting to read what everyone else thought. A mixture of both seems to work for everyone, which sounds perfect to me.


Well tonight I thought I'd share another layout with you. This one was from our holiday in Corfu last year. We were desperate for some sunshine after the recent poor summers so headed to a guaranteed sunshine island and we were not disappointed.

These photos were taken around Corfu town, which is really picturesque, especially when you look up at the buildings. They are all crumbly and weathered and I wanted my papers to reflect that. I used a Basic Grey distressed paper for the background and Kay & Co for all the rest which I cut unevenly and inked all the edges to make them look even more distressed.


Some of the paper looked like strips of lace so I added some matching fibres for interest.

The title is the Greek name for Corfu and I used Thickers chipboard letters and painted them with texture paint and ran black ink round the edges to make them stand out. I painted the other embellishments with the same paint to tie everything in and then used a Kelly Panacci border stamp on the photos and the edges of the layout to reflect the wrought iron on the balconies.


I was pretty happy with the end result. It all seemed to have the weathered look I was after.

Hybrid Scrapping

My blog friend Sally over at Sal-utations has recently done her first digital scrapbook layout and asked the question "is digital scrapping cheating?"

This got me thinking. A lot of people digital scrap because it can be quick and easy and you don't end up with a lot of mess afterwards and the results can be amazing. I have seen some great layouts in magazines. They are certainly much easier to share electronically.

For me though and, I think a lot of others, going to the craft shops and browsing amongst all the wonderful goodies, choosing which papers, glitters, paints, chipboard etc to buy is the best feeling and then getting it home and spreading it all over the dining table spending hours deciding what to make, cutting things out, painting and stamping and making a layout that you can touch and say "I made that" is a great feeling. You add it to your already brimming album and look at it when ever you want to.

I like to use one album a year and it's interesting to look back and see how your style has changed and your techniques have improved or advanced.

I have tried digital scrapping with mixed results but read some time ago about Hybrid scrapping and investigated further.

Basically you use some digital images, by printing them out, on your paper layout. There are lots of sites out there that offer free digital kits, 2 Peas In A Bucket offer one each month. You download and save it and then you have a lots of images you can use over and over again that haven't cost a penny. I like to print things out like journalling tags or titles and then colour them further or print them on patterned paper so making them completely unique. You can also use them again and by changing their colour they don't look like the same thing.

There also lots of papers that can be printed out which would be ideal for card makers too. It's well worth investigating.

We like to be thrifty in Yorkshire and you get quite a kick out of making something that has really cost very little. It leaves a few more pennies for that next visit to the craft shop!!!!

The layout at the top of this post of one of our cats, Oscar, when he was just a tiny kitten is a traditional layout on core-dinations black card which has been sanded back round the edges to reveal the blue core. I used matching K & Co papers and Basic Grey figgy pudding letters for the title.

The journaling tags were from a Digital Kit. I opened them in Photoshop Elements, typed in my journalling, printed and then cut them out and then added some ink to ensure they toned with the rest of the page.

I then added some WeRMemoryKeepers embellishments and stuck on some gems to finish off.

I'd be interested to know what anyone else's thoughts are on digital or none digital.