Rise & Shine – UKSA Be inspired by a hobby

This month’s theme over at UKSA is to be inspired by another hobby. We crafters are rarely just scrapbookers are we? We’ve had crochet and decoupage so far and for my project I was inspired by my other life, which is renovation.

There are several things “upcycled” or “made new” on this layout that might have ended up in the bin. Firstly the cut file – it’s the Paige Evans Cut & Fold doily background which I accidentally rode over with my chair. It is marked and if you look closely you can probably see it. But I drew the eyes away with lots of other loveliness.

The other bit of upcycling came in the form of chipboard – remember that?

I came across of bag of old chipboard pieces when I was having a bit of a tidy up in my studio and, fair dos, I don’t even remember ever having them so they must be really old. I chose a few flowers and hearts to go with my cut file and 3 of 6×8 papers from the Paige Evans Truly Grateful paper pad, and stuck them down.

Once dry I cut around them with my sharp scissors and you can see that they look very imperfect at this stage. I gave the edges a burnish with an emery board and then a lick of Distress Ink to hide the core. Then I added a layer of Glossy Accents over each one to give a nice shine.

These chipboard pieces were bare but I have a ton of coloured pieces in a box too and I’m definitely going to use more of them like this. Back when these were popular, you couldn’t buy matching die cut pieces with collections and you had to create your own embellishments. I’m sure I’ve got papers that don’t have many embellishments with them so it’s a win win.

With the actual cut file, I used silicon glue for the first time ever to squirt under each of the lifted up pieces. I couldn’t do it with foam because the pieces are really small but they would flatten totally in my page protector and you wouldn’t get the dimension and pops of colour underneath. It was hard work though!

After adhering the cut file to the bright background and creating a border, I double mounted my photo and added a couple of die cut pieces before sprinkling the renovated chipboard around the layout. I finished off with some puffy dots and rubbery dots from the same collection.

I love the way the layout turned out, I used up some really old stash, I created one of a kind embellishments and I kept stuff out of landfill. I think I should win a prize, or at least some cake!

Happy scrapping!