Family Fun

Does your family play a lot a games and do a lot of puzzles? Mine sure does! 

Anytime we are together - no matter if we are in the dining room or a table at the pub - there is some sort of game and most definitely a selfie of us playing. We do this so much, I have a whole bunch of photos waiting to be scrapped. 

Simple Stories, Family Fun collection I picked up from the Scrap Shotz shop to the rescue. This collection has everything you need to scrap games and puzzle nights. From board game pieces to video game sticker or arcade and bowling and mini golf die cuts and more. So much fun! 

Sorry, not Sorry

For my first layout I grabbed this awesome teal pattern paper called Your Turn from the collection as my background. I used some Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire with a Peartree Cutfiles Stencil to give the layout a touch of mixed media. I liked that the stencil looks a little like the Connect 4 Game. Remember that game? 

From there I created a top and bottom of the page cluster - focusing on layering all the things behind a 4x6 photo of us playing Settlers of Catan (such a great game!) on the bottom of the page and then a couple of smaller photos of the game on the table at the top of the page. I tied it together with an arrow and the title in the empty space between. 

This collection is full of game board related stickers, die cuts and clipboards - so easy to create fun, themed clusters! 

All the Words 

For my second layout I wanted to try two techniques. Using the word and phrase stickers from the Collection Kit sticker sheet and sticker book, and I wanted to try the paper rolling touch I have noticed on Instagram lately. Done! 

I started with the pattern paper called Good Times. I cut along the lines of the number rows from bottom to about halfway up the page. Then using the end of a skinny paintbrush rolled each of the strips up - making sure the rolls were at different heights on the page. I used a little tape to keep them in place. 

Then I secured that on white cardstock and then created a grid of word and phrase stickers on the bottom half. Making sure the design started right below the rolls of paper and not worrying about covering the whole white space. Where the stickers didn’t quite line up, I added a chipboard, sticker or die cut star to hide the oops. 

From there all of my focus was on the paper rolls. I added my photo and just tucked and clustered a bunch of die cuts, stickers, and chipboard to create a nice little mess of fun! I love using a large photo to draw the eye and then a bunch of small photos to add more details. 

Triangles for the Win

For my final layout I was inspired by a throw back Let’s Get Sketchy sketch - 4 triangles on each edge of the page to draw the eye to the centre where the photo sits. I thought the border of triangles would be a great anchor for loads of goodies! Sure was! 

To start, I grabbed some white cardstock and used that same Peartree Cutfiles stencil and my most favourite mixed media paste, Picket Fence Paper Glaze in Black Pansy, to add a little black texture to the background here and there. 

Then I created 4 triangles using 3 layers of the pattern paper each. I adhered these on the middle edge of each side of the page creating a focus point in the centre - where I placed my photos! From there it was all about adding in all the mini-golf related die cuts, chipboard and stickers. So many to choose from! 

I really cannot believe how much fun it was creating these layouts - the collection is so easy to play with and it was great to relive these awesome family moments. 

If you play Quirkle or Uno, master the 1000+ pieces puzzles or have fun at arcades or go-carts or mini-golf … you just might need the Simple Stories, Family Fun collection. Lots of goodies still in the shop ;) 

Playing with Photoplay, Wicker Lane

If you were lucky enough to get your scrappy hands on the new Wicker Lane collection from Photoplay from the Scrap Shotz shop then this post is for you! This new collection is another example of Photoplay’s fantastic skills at creating colorful collections - so bright and fun. 

For my first kick at the Wicker Lane goodies I played with the diagonal stripe pattern ‘our house’. I sliced the paper up to get just the actual stripes to use as an anchor for my title and photo. This photo is a family portrait drawn by one of my little siblings! 

From there I found all the little embellishments that made me happy in the collection and added the puffy hearts and title from Vicki Boutin’s Color Study, The Details Puffy Phrase Stickers  and some black splatters touches. I love how colorful but also how much white space there is too on this page - might be a new go to design. 

From there I moved on to playe with the fantastic camera ‘moments’ pattern paper. I love this pattern so much I had to think of a design that would show off as much as possible - insert the ‘zipper’ design. Well, ok not sure thats an official design name but it’s the best name I could think of. Zipper it is folks! 

I used all of the frames in the collection ephemera package to build on the photo theme and then grabbed the Vicki Boutin phrase puffy stickers creating a title that sort of follows the cascading pattern of the frames down the page or zipper. 

Final touch? These adorable pics of my pup Bella Bean (the Jack Russell) and her bestie Lola the pup of one of my close friends. So cute! 

For this next one, I fell in love with this cut apart 3x4 pocket card from the collection and let it inspire the page design. ‘A little bit of crazy, a little bit of loud,  a whole lot of love’ describes our pup perfectly. Thanks Photoplay! 

I wanted to keep the page design really simple - this one is all about that saying and the cute pic of Bella Bean. A little Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Black Soot blended through a stencil, a couple pattern layers behind the photo, title and all the little puffy colour dots from the Vicki Boutin puffy phrase stickers to create a blast wee bits of colour from that cute furry face. Really easy to create this design and I love how it turned out. 

These layouts will create a great pop of colour in my albums - lots of fun to work with so many coordinating, fun patterns! 

If you played with Wicker Lane let us know - pop a post up in the Scrap Shotz Paper Crafting Group on Facebook or tag us on Instagram so we can ohhh and ahh!