Special Birthday

Happy Saturday everyone. We have another great sketch for you over at Sketch Saturday this week:

I'm really into stars these days (having not touched them for years) but this card is for my Mother in Law and stars didn't really seem appropriate. It's a special birthday for her this year but I was under strict instructions NOT to put her age on the card but the card had to be very special. Now, you probably can't tell from the picture but this card is huge: 8x8"! I don't make many cards this size but we often get comments that my usual 6x6" handmade cards are too small (I know - the cheek!) so I had to work big today! 

I've used the new Flowering Flourishes stamp set from Stampin Up, old papers and ribbons by Papertrey Ink and Martha Stewart butterfly punches. I printed the sentiment on my computer.

This week's Sketch Saturday sketch is sponsored by Simon Says Stamp and they have a great prize on offer so make sure you head on over and join in. There is also a bonus 2000 followers candy running at the moment too so make sure you put your name down for that!

Happy scrapping xx

Layouts using My Mind's Eye 'On the Sunny Side' papers from October 'Splendour' kit

I love these 'On the Sunny Side' papers by My Mind's Eye. It's a nice bright colorful range and reminds me of summer. I appreciate we are in October right now but I try to ensure my kits aren't full of the very obviously themed seasonal stuff - not everyone wants to scrap witches and pumpkins in October so instead get out your summer time photos and get them scrapped this month!

I've done something slightly different here - instead of two single layouts I've done a double layout! For my sample kit layouts I almost always stick to singles (I don't know why) but I had quite a few photos from one day to scrap and thought they'd work best as a double layout. I'm not big on using two different papers for the background (one for each page) and I didn't have two of one paper so I decided to make my background papers by cutting two sheets in half and sticking them back together so I had dots on top and mini chevron things on the bottom. This provided me with the continuity I ususally look for in a double layout. I then used a large piece of the chevron paper stretched across both pages and the spotty red paper to house my photos.  I wanted to use small tile style alphabet stickers as part of my title but there weren't any in the kit so I made them by cutting small pieces of yellow card all the same size and handwriting in the letters. I had a lot of journaling about this particular day so wrote that directly onto the background paper. I added a few strips here and there and finished off using the buttons tied through with twine.

and here is Kirei's layout using these supplies. Check out her blog for more details on how she made it.

The October 'Splendour' kit is now on sale and it's a BIG one!:

The kit contains:
4 x Echo Park 'Beautiful Life' papers
4 x My Mind's Eye 'On the Sunny Side' papers
4 x Basic Grey 'Mint Julep' papers
4 x Fancy Pants 'Trendsetter' papers
4 x My Mind's Eye 'Cut & Paste Flair' papers
5 x coordinating cardstock
American Crafts 'Thickers' alphabet stickers
American Crafts wooden buttons
Teal Bakers Twine
Basic Grey 'Mint Julep' die cuts & transparencies
Echo Park 'Trendsetter' journaling card (designs may vary)
My Mind's Eye 'Cut & Paste' label stickers

Plus...
8 sample layouts (two of which are doubles this month, so that's 10 pages in total) ALL of which can be made from this kit
Step-by-step written instructions for five of the sample layouts

As you can see above this month's kit had absolutely LOADS in it so it's a great month to sign up for a subscription, just use the Paypal buttons below.

  October 2013 kit 'Splendour' with subscription: £25 with free postage
(minimum 6 month subscription, subject to £30 cancellation fee if subscription terminated within the first 6 months

 October 2013 kit 'Splendour' 1 month only without subscription: £30

Thanks very much and happy scrapping xx

October's Have I Got Scrap for YOU!

Morning scrappers, welcome to October and another Have I got Scrap for YOU! Class over at UK Scrappers.

October's Have I Got Scrap for YOU! class looks at:

How to store your mini albums;
Monochrome; and
DIY embellishments.

Hop on over to the UK Scrappers Have I Got Scrap for YOU! class forum for links to two PDFs: the October class and the October Step-by-Step.


Mini-album examples:

Monochrome examples:

DIY Embellishments:

Happy Scrapping and enjoy the October class xx

September Documented!

I seem to have been working on these September Document layouts for ages but it is only the 6th of the month so I can't have been working on them for more than 6 days!

September's introduction page consists of one 6x4 landscape photo (capable of being trimmed slightly), together with the usual calendar and envelope to store your evidence for the month.

This month's numbers consist of half a label, a strip of stamped loops, together with an arrow, circle, little punched stamp (of the postage variety) and a bakers twine bow. I've done two varieties, the other facing the other direction.

This month's divided layouts consist of four 6x4 landscape pockets and one 6x8 portrait pocket.

a couple of close up pics:

Divided layout 2:

and a couple of close ups:

and finally this September's focus layout which uses one 4x4 photo and two 3x4 photos:

See those of you who are coming on Saturday about 9.45am and in the meantime happy scrapping! xx 

A Star Birthday

It is the lovely Lizy's DT week this week over at Sketch Saturday which means she has had to organise a sponsor, a guest designer and design the sketch. The sketch is fabulous (of course!) and Lizy herself is our sponsor this week! Lizy is a Stampin Up demonstrator and given that I used to be a demo myself I still have a very big weakness for anything SU! Lizy is offering a fantastic prize bundle consisting of a stamp set, patterned paper, ribbons, buttons and clips - an amazing prize bundle, I'd quite like to win it myself!

I have turned the sketch on its side (rotated 90o clockwise) and I have all my flags going in the same direction (I just couldn't make it work with some coming up given the orientation of my card!). I've used the new SU massive chevron background stamp, the Simply Stars stamp set as well as some of the new In Colours, not to mention that amazing SU glitter paper which is one of the best I've come across. I've added in some peach bakers twine and some gems to finish off.

As I mentioned above, Lizy is sponsoring this week's sketch and she has a great prize on offer so make sure you join in with this week's challenge.

Happy scrapping xx

Layouts using Echo Park 'Beautiful Life' from October 'Splendour' kit

The first layouts I made with the October 'Splendour' kit was using the 'Beautiful Life' range of patterned papers by Echo Park. The collection is gorgeous and has lots of pretty bright colours mixed in with a tan colour and a rich navy. The combination works really well together and I really enjoyed using these papers.

I wanted to use the tickets as my background for my first layout but it was SO bright that I was worried it was a bit much and would overpower my photo so I used a few inches of flags at the top. As the flags are on a white background this balances the business of the tickets paper below. I thought about using a small piece of the tickets with a larger piece of the flags but decided it worked better the other way around. I've used a couple of the journaling cards from the cut apart sheet to add in some additional patterns and colours and also used one of them to house my journaling. To embellish I've cut out some doilies from one of the papers and spread them around the layout and added punched border strip from the navy cardstock in the kit. I've only used small amounts of the navy as it's quite a rich colour and I just wanted it as an accent rather than a big part of the layout.

I've used the butterfly doily paper for the background in my second layout and mounted it on the navy card (I gutted it and used the middle for the first layout). I've mainly used journaling cards again on this layout and I've embellished with cut out tickets and flags. I've also used the same border punch to add nay accents in the same way as in my first layout. 

and here is Kirei's layout using these supplies. Check out her blog for more details on how she made it.

The October 'Splendour' kit is now on sale and it's a BIG one!:

The kit contains:
4 x Echo Park 'Beautiful Life' papers
4 x My Mind's Eye 'On the Sunny Side' papers
4 x Basic Grey 'Mint Julep' papers
4 x Fancy Pants 'Trendsetter' papers
4 x My Mind's Eye 'Cut & Paste Flair' papers
5 x coordinating cardstock
American Crafts 'Thickers' alphabet stickers
American Crafts wooden buttons
Teal Bakers Twine
Basic Grey 'Mint Julep' die cuts & transparencies
Echo Park 'Trendsetter' journaling card (designs may vary)
My Mind's Eye 'Cut & Paste' label stickers

Plus...
8 sample layouts (two of which are doubles this month, so that's 10 pages in total) ALL of which can be made from this kit
Step-by-step written instructions for five of the sample layouts

As you can see above this month's kit had absolutely LOADS in it so it's a great month to sign up for a subscription, just use the Paypal buttons below.

  October 2013 kit 'Splendour' with subscription: £25 with free postage
(minimum 6 month subscription, subject to £30 cancellation fee if subscription terminated within the first 6 months

 October 2013 kit 'Splendour' 1 month only without subscription: £30

Thanks very much and happy scrapping xx