Going minimal with 'Downtown Tea Party' scraps

by Julie Kirk

Hi again.

Did you catch the recent discussion on the Quirky Kits chat thread over on UKScrappers regarding how far the kits go / how many pages can be made using them? The first person to ask the question was actually referring to the 'Lite' Quirky Kits but equally the discussion it created could be applied to the full kits too.

As most people suggested, how far the kit lasts depends entirely on how much you like to add to one page, whether you use the plain card as a backing and add to it, or if you start with full sheet of 12x12 patterned paper and so on ...

So today I thought I'd share a very minimal page I made using the Downtown Tea Party kit using plain cardstock as a base and only the smallest snippets of pattern:

It really is about as restrained as I can manage - I love colour and pattern too much - but I do like how calm the page feels, which reflects the photograph of an outdoor sculpture exhibition nicely.

Before adding my tiny cluster of layered papers I spritzed the white card with shadesof light green and lilac ink and stamped a mesh design too in green and light grey:

You might just be able to make out a slight colour on the alpha stickers which I added using Promarkers, just to soften them.

To embellish the page I used two of the butterflies from the kit and punched two more from paper in the kit:

I ran them through the sewing machine adding wavy lines in a light colour thread:

Having made four layouts and a mini book already with this kit ... there's still around half of it left.

Plus, using my kit supplies at this particular minimal rate would mean I'd be dipping into it for a great while longer!

If you've missed any of the items I've made with this kit, you can drop by the Flickr set in which I keep all my previous Quirky Kit projects.

Happy creating.

Julie

July Quirky Kit 'The Milk Bar'

The last few subscription places to get the next Quirky Kit scrapbooking kits are up for grabs. The upcoming kit out towards the end of July is 'The Milk Bar'. It's a kit inspired by British holidays by the sea and my own personal memories from childhood of 'The Milk Bar' a kitschy milkshake/ice cream bar at the seaside. The colours are rose tinted with soft blues, creams, peaches, pinks and yellows. I've custom designed some embellishments to get across the true kitsch British seaside feel that I wanted. Here's a peek at some of the images I picked out as inspiration for both the main kit and the Quirky Kit Lite.

If you'd like to grab one of the last few spaces check out the full details on the main Crafty Templates site:

Main Quirky Kit Subscriptions

Quirky Kit Lite Subscriptions

xx Leo

Quirky Kit: A page with pastel shades

Hi again.

For my third project with the Downtown Tea Party kit I made a page which draws together some of the more muted colours in the kit:

I chose the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:peat' design as my backing paper, but used the more muted graph paper design on the reverse as it fitted with the soft shades in my photographs.


I love using graph paper and ledger / lined paper designs asbacking sheets as they're plain enough to build upon without being too fussy, but not as cold a starting point as a blank sheet of cardstock. Also, for this particular page, the lines on it helped reinforce my use of stitching through my layers.

On top of my base paper I began adding strips of text cut from the Cosmo Cricket 'Re:make' design to co-ordinate with the 'lettering' theme of the page drawn from the photos of me reading a hanging curtain of poetry at an exhibition at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

I created a triangle of embellishments across the page with each of the three clusters containing snippets of soft peachy shades. Here I cut a flower from the Pink Paislee House of Three Soiree ‘Floral’ paper as well asa sunburst design from the twine packaging!

The tiny section of the Shabby Chic journaling spot was just what remained after I used it on the micro-mini book I shared earlier. I'm so pleased it didn't end up in my recycling bin as it just adds an extra little point of interest on the page.

In the bottom two clusters I used tiny pieces of the fabric in the kit for a splash of colour inspired by the orange patterned dress and scarf I'm wearing in the photos! 

Once everything was fixed in place I ran it through the sewing maching to add some texture and to reflect the hanging strands of the poetry sculpture. The gently spattered a coral shad eof Shimmerz paint across the three embellishment clusters and smeared on some white acrylic paint direct from the tube.

Overall this page has a much more muted feel than the micro book I made with kit and it's different again to the second page I've made featuring photos from the sculpture park ... which I'll share with you in my next post here.

So how do you use your kits?

1. Do you like to use them to keep a general colour theme and similar style running across several projects?
2. Or do you break them up into smaller, co-ordinating mini-kits, with a new feel to each page?

As I say, I'll be back soon with a page with a completely different feel in colour and style ... so I guess that makes me No.2 on that list. How about you?

I'll see you soon.

Julie

'Downtown Tea Party' Minibook

by Julie Kirk

Hi again.
For my second project with 'Downtown Tea Party' - the latest Quirky Kit - I used the papers and embellishments from the kit to decorate a micro-book as a birthday gift for a friend:

My cover features a painted chipboard heart to which I added one of the kit's butterflies in turquoise and one of the gorgeous cerise pink resin rose beads.

The tie closures are made from twisting together a strand of each of the various colours of Pink Paislee baker's twine:

To decorate the tiny pages I simply tore and roughly cut, sections from the various papers down to size.

Here's a little snippet from the Pink Paislee Daily Junque ‘Tickets’ design which I glued onto the book's existing page:

Next I glued down half a Shabby Chic Crafts journaling card on top of which I added a yellow paper butterfly.
Once my glue dried I ran the page - as I did every page in the book - through my sewing machine with a contrasting black thread, trying here to give the impression of antennae:

I continued throughout the book, decoratively stitching-down the small strips of the paper as I went along:

To add another level of detail and texture to the book I splattered, smeared and scraped complimentary coloured paints along, around and across it.

I used white paint where I wanted a plain base on to which I could stamp my chosen words:

It was such a tiny gift, which you can judge by its size compared to my thumb here:

... so I decided to make it a protective bag from the candy pink tulle net fabric from the kit:

It was simply a piece cut to size, folded and stitched on the machine along the bottom and side.

To fasten - I just wrapped another length of  baker's twine around it and tied a bow:

Using your kit on something so small is a great way to:

• see a great combination of lots of the papers all at once, in a small space;
• make a big feature of those small butterfly and journaling block embellishments;
• experiment with a few messy techniques [like paint splattering and border stamping] on a tiny canvas - with less romm for error!
• use up scraps once you've already used your kit to make several layouts.

If you'd like a few more close-ups of the detail of the book check out this post on my blog  and I'll be back here soon with something more 12x12-sized I think!

See you soon.
Julie  :-)

Quirky Kits Lite

The first Quirky Kit Lite 'Glastonbury Fields' is now shipping out. It's a lovely mix of pattern and colour bringing you the summer in a box!

There just a few kits left to purchase individually on the site check out the details here, http://www.craftytemplates.co.uk/glastonburyfieldsquirkykitlite.html

xx Leo