Hello fellow crafters!!
Its been a couple of weeks between shares for me, but Im back today with the first of 6 layouts I created with this months Playful Scrapbook kit

While browsing Pinterest late one night I came across this sketch I wanted to try HERE
Canary Sketches will be back one day soon, we're just having a break this month

I had fun making it work with the different patterns and colours within the kit.
I layered up a mixture of papers (front and back sides) with a couple of frames from the kit, some die cuts from the Pinkfresh studio pack, my signature doily and random ink splatters.

These alpha thickers are pretty cool, and work well within a mixed text title

The super cute little house was the perfect addition to this layout

'Happy' slipped under the other side of the photo and the barcode strip from one of the papers.

Thanks for stopping by, I have more to share in the coming days


Happy Crafting
Michelle x

Hi Canaries!

Lauren here! I hope that you have all had a great weekend and if you are in the states in Australia that had a public holiday I hope you took advantage of the long weekend (I know I did)! Although March is still meant to be warm this time of year, I am currently sitting on the couch writing this post with a blanket, tea and the heating on! The joys of country living!

I am absolutely loving the February kits! How awesome are they? I have been having so much fun working with the February Pocket Life Kit - Courageous!

Every month we have an awesome Sketch Challenge here at Scrappy Canary - we love to see your entries and every entry is in contention to win a $10 voucher to the Scrappy Canary store. To find out more information visit the March Sketch Challenge blog post.


Today I am going to show you my take on the March sketch using only the Pocket Life kit, card stock and my gelatos! Just because it is a Pocket Life Kit doesn't mean you are limited to pocket pages - Pocket Life cards are perfect for traditional scrapbooking, which is what I have done today.

Gelatos are kind of like a cross between a pastel and a water colour I suppose. I decided to use them on the white card stock as a background. First thing first was to find the perfect colour that matched the My Minds Eye On Trend Journalling Cards. I did some samples and I eventually went with a peach colour that I blended with my finger using a mixture of orange and white. Gelatos are great as they allow you to create an ombre colour.


I then trimmed two piece of card stock. I used kraft which I then matted onto white. I distressed the edge of the white card stock and then ran the orange and white Gelatos over the distressed edges to add some more colour.

The MME On Trend photo overlays were great and I decided to mount the 'our story' overlay on white card stock. As this page will be an insert into Week 1 of 2015 I really wanted to highlight the direction my husband and I want our year to go.

Using the On Trend stickers (letters and the gold triangles), along with the white Simple Stories stickers and the Pretty Little Studio labels I defined where I thought the year should head! I used dimensional dots to raise 'our story' and the label to add depth to the layout. Distressing the edges of the card stock also added extra dimension.


To create the squares I used the 3x3 journalling cards from the MME On Trend pack. I also added a 2015 photo, plus a photo of us. I really want project life to document 'our story'.


The sketch showed three embellishments on it. I loved the butterfly that was on one of the Simple stories 4x6 Journal Card Elements, so I fussy cut it out and added a dimensional dot so I could raise the wings of the butterfly.

I am so happy with how this layout turned out - I hope that it demonstrates how great 2015 is going to be for us! We certainly deserve a great year!


All of us at Scrappy Canary would love to see your take on the sketch, so make sure that you enter the March Sketch Competition!


Also, don't forget that if you use the code LAUREN10 to make sure that you save 10% on your order! Have a wonderful week and I will be back on Monday showing you my Week 1 2015. Love, Lauren xx

Like Michelle, I am getting down to the scraps of my January kit and I was keen to get them used up.  The February sketch was the perfect opportunity to put those little bits to good use and to challenge me with a sketch that is nothing like my usual style.

First I decided that an 8.5 x 11 layout was in order and since I had a lot of pink papers to use, I decided to use a photo of me. I also rotated the sketch anti-clockwise by 90 degrees to accommodate my portrait-oriented photo.

Rather than create a grid with space between the elements, I went with a looser style, overlapping my papers here and there.










I hope my interpretation of the February sketch inspires you to play along with us!

Happy scrapping,
Louise

Happy Monday Canaries - Lauren here! I hope that you all have a great week ahead of you! I've been away for a couple of weeks so this week I am back home and back into the swing of things (I also need to apologise for my photos this week - my camera was running out of batteries and there was bad light as it was cloudy, but the show must go on).


Every month here at Scrappy Canary we have a sketch challenge. January's sketch challenge is a great one and today I am using the new January Kits - the Embellishment Kit 'Be Mine' and the Pocket Life Kit 'Candy Heart' - to show you one sketch, four ways.

First up I created a traditional 12x12 scrapbook layout. In my interpretation of the sketch I used stitching for the line down the page and I then also stitched the title. I love how stitching can add an extra something to a layout.


In my interpretation of the sketch I decided to use the glassine bag that held the kit embellishments - crumpled it up and then flattened it out to an some extra dimension. How cute are the sequinned bows? I love them. I also speckled the layout with the Heidi Swapp Glitter Sticker Hearts and the pink enamel dots.

Next up I used the sketch two create two Pocket Life cards.

First up I created the title card for my week - Week 47. The Dear Lizzy alphabet stickers and the puffy stickers added great elements to the card, along with some extra dimension.

The 'dream a little bigger' cloud sticker is a great theme for the week - I think that we all need to take the time in our weeks to focus on your dreams. That's the beauty of pocket scrapbooking - we can track our dreams throughout the year.

The Dear Lizzy paper has great colours. Doesn't the background paper look like the sprinkles on a donut! Mmmmm, donuts!

The shipping tag from the embellishment kit was a great addition to the card too.

The flower cabochon is also a super cute addition!

I then created a photo card, where I turned the sketch on the side and used the papers and the one of the Project Life 'xoxo' Die Cut cards.

As the above traditional layout is an insert for week 47 I continued a similar theme. I included the hand-drawn journalling lines, along with the pink enamel dots - this will tie the insert with the rest of the layout.

Even though it's a boring green smoothie - I think I made it pretty fun!

Finally, I made a card for my brother-in-law's upcoming birthday. I am sure that when many of you first looked at this kit you thought it was super-girly, well I wanted to us this kit to make something masculine.

The blue star paper from the Pocket Life Kit was perfect - the navy adds a certain masculinity. Keeping with the 'space' theme I used one of the glitter banners and then added the cork 'good times' and stars. I also used kraft and white paper to mount the card on. I often use kraft paper in cards - it is really affective and adds a masculine element.

So there you have it - one sketch, four ways! Don't forget that you still have until the 5th of February to enter the January Sketch Challenge - visit the relevant blog post to find out more information and how to post your creations! I can't wait to see your takes on the sketch.

Have an amazing week Canaries! Lauren xx

I am using the August Scrapbook and Addon kits but the newest kits are now out and they are stunning!!

If you wanted to have a go at the sketch you can find it here and it remains open for entries till the end of the month. Without further ado here is my take on the sketch.

Happy Sunday Canaries! I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend! All of us Canaries are having a great weekend as it is our Cyber Crop weekend! For the last two months we have been having Cyber Crops on Facebook to coincide with our monthly kit reveal.

For the Cyber Crop we have a lot of challenges from the DT - last month included a sketch, a journalling challenge, a recipe challenge and a colour challenge. It was so much fun, with lots of people taking part, inspiration from the DT and fantastic prizes to be won! We have great stuff planned for July and you have until tonight to take part!

Here is the sketch that we used last month, back when we were still Polly, we had so many great entries! I always find that sketches are so inspiring and often give me the kick start I need!


To inspire you to come on over to our Cyber Crop I have put together my take on the sketch using the June PL Kit, the Embellishment Kit and the extra add-on, Pancakes & Maple.

I love using these kits and I drew my inspiration from the gorgeous metallic elements from the kits.

We were so lucky to have had Wilna Furstenberg design the exclusive acrylic elements, along with the stunning stencil. I used the American Crafts Metallic Markers to colour in the stencils, the silver on the black card stock came out so well!

I then used a range of the embellishments, plus the patterned woodgrain paper from the Tea & Toast PL kit to create the bulk of the layout.

I also punched some stars out of the metallic washi tape to add some extra embellishments to the page.

It was so much fun creating with the metallic elements and it meant that I could capture a special Mother's Day.

So there you have it, my take on the June Cyber Crop sketch challenge and hopefully it inspires you all to come over to the Scrappy Canary Facebook Cyber Crop event - there is still time to participate in the event as it runs until late Sunday night! Keep crafting, L xx

Morning all, and welcome to the first post of our new monthly series - our Sketch Duets. Every month we plan to offer a sketch, hoping to inspire you to use up those scraps from your kits. My plan is to use the sketch to create a standard greeting card & also a Project Life card (hence the Duet of the title!) - either a 4x6 or 3x4. So below is our sketch for January.

When I first saw the sketch (created by fellow DT member Manda), I knew immediately I was going to use it for a weekly title card in my Project Life. So, I pulled out the scraps of my December "Rainbow Paddle Pop" kit and came up with this 4x6 card.


I did play around with the sketch a little, flipping the orientation & adding a couple of layers! One of my favourite things to do with scrap pieces of patterned paper is to use an outline stamp & then fussy cut them out. I think it makes a really simple, but effective embellishment. I love how these papers look with the arrow stamp - such a summery feel. For the banner, instead of 3 embellishments, I decided to use a stamp with three words. This was a special week for us because it includes the birthday of my eldest son & included LOTs of water!

For my second card, I had a few left over stamped arrows (and an upcoming kids birthday!), so I decided to make a card for my son. I also had Ruth in my head, saying simple, simple, simple! So, with that in mind, I created this with the scraps.


Very simple & very quick. Using the sketch made is very easy! I love to use sketches to make cards! This time, instead of using a layer, I created a square border using my paper piercing tool. Some arrows, a die cut seven & a happy birthday stamp and I was done. Not too fancy for my 7 year old boy! Perfect! The seven was die cut on my Big Shot - I mounted the patterned paper onto some die cut white card stock to give it a little dimension & make it a little sturdier. So, because I knew I would also need a card in our Project Life spread to celebrate this birthday, I used a 3x4 Becky Higgins card for the die cut, & now have this for our Project Life spread.

The die cut will remain see through in the album - the photo shows it on a green background. And that I promise, is the last of the arrows! I like to have a little continuity in my Project Life spreads! When die cutting,  where possible I like to use the positive & the negative cut. This is so easy to achieve, just by using a pre-cut 3x4 card when die cutting. LOVE the simplicity, and gets two jobs done at once!

So that's it for me this month. I hope by providing you with a sketch & some ideas it will encourage you to use up all those little bits & pieces from the kit. This time I focused on using up the patterned paper. Next month, I will focus on another element of the kit. I hope you join us each month for our Sketch Duet.

I'd love to see how you've used the Polly! sketches. Post a link to your work in the comments below!

Kate