We are family

Managed to get back to some scrapbooking last night after spending most of the week clearing out cupboards!!

These papers are from Prima Dude collection...again not something I would normally buy but I picked them up last year and found them whilst looking for something else! I think I planned to do a layout of one of my sons with it...but I liked this photo as well and I still have plenty to do another layout. The title is 3 bugs in a rug stickers and the ribbon is from my stash.

Time to use your stash!

With the country in the state its in at the moment spending money on scrapbooking is understandably lower on the list for most of us...although we all love it with a passion its not the cheapest hobby in the world! Its very hard to just buy a piece of patterned paper or cardstock without a few more co-ordinating pieces falling into your basket and maybe some matching embellishments at the same time, I am sure we have all been there done that...I know I have!! So I have decided to try an idea for a all day crop that lets you use your own stash to replicate a layout I have done. The cost of the day is £10.00 from 10.30 to 4.00 at the Crafty Cockney, Hullbridge, Essex. You get free tea/coffee biscuits and I will email you the layout I have done and a rough idea of what types/styles/sizes of paper I have used. On the day you will have the layout in front of you and I will bring along die cuts,stamps, embellishments etc to help you with the page. All you need to do is bring along your own papers, embellishments if you have them and photos. If you don't have anything you can either buy from the shop or I may be able to get the papers etc I have used for you and you just pay the actual cost....depending if I have used old or new lines. After you have completed your layout the rest of the day is for you to carry on with your own layouts or finishing off the uncompleted layouts that are piling up. I do have some kits from previous classes that I can bring along for you to see, they all come with instructions and photos of layouts.

Dates booked:

Saturday 7th February
Saturday 7th March

If you are interested then either email me or ring the shop on 01702 233298

Smile Nina

Did not get much scrapbooking done this weekend except I did manage to finish off this page. The papers were part of a scrapagogo kit I had from nearly two years ago! Papers are Scenic Route "Cape Town" and the alphabet title is "Happy valley" and the bookplate is from Junkitz. There was an chipboard arrow in the kit which I coloured black with an ink pad.

Madrid

This is a double layout that came as a kit from Totalpapercrafts from Making Memories Passport collection. I did not go with the layouts that came with the kit because I think I have done my quoter of cutting out for a while..lol so I decided to do my take on the layout examples that come on the back of the kit cover. Its a great kit with stickers,alphabets and flowers as well as papers.

Talking of Totalpapercrafts if anybody is in the Essex area and fancys a days cropping and the chance to do some lessons as well, Karen is taking bookings for her crop on Sunday 1st March at Great Wakering. All the details can be found on her web site...she is raising money for Fairhavens at this event. The totalpapercrafts shop will be there as well and you get free tea/coffee and cake!!

Zoo

These papers were given to us as a challenge kit when I was on my retreat last year and needless to say I never got around to doing it at. So I picked it out of my crate to see what I could come up with. I had some patterened papers and plain to cordinate and some diecuts, they were all from My Minds Eye. The only thing I have added is a few buttons,string and the title has been done with American craft Thickers. If you are wondering how I do my circles I use the EK success cutter with the glass mat....easily the best cutting system I have brought.

Stampin'Up!

For those of you who dont know me I am a Stampin'Up! demonstrator in the Uk and for a while now I have been wanting to do a page solely with their products. This is what I came up with....in each of the packs of 12x12 designer papers you get two sheets of each six designs plus three sheets of plain cardstock in co-ordinating colours, so you have plenty for card making as well as scrapbooking.

Products Used:

Spiced Cider designer series paper

Accents and elements...the felt flowers in 3 colours and you get over 130 !

Chipboard letters...in the new catalogue the fonts have changed

Baroque Motifs stamp set...the flourish down the side and the Cherish word

Close to Cocoa ink pad

Brads

Hodgepodge..metal embellishments

Scalloped edge punch

Scalloped circle punch

Very Vanilla Taffeta ribbon

Ice Cream

After another dive into my crate of left overs I made this layout with papers/stickers that I had left over from another Totalpapercraft kit. The papers are by Pebbles inc and from the Lovely kit. You get the ribbon in the kit with the word stickers and the alphabet stickers and I just added the flowers, brads and covered a chipboard heart with some of the scraps I had.

You make me smile

This is the layout I did with Anna Bowkis at A trip down memory lane retreat last year...as I said yesterday its not my usual style but I really love this page, so does Emma. It may be hard to tell from the photo but the layout is actually on half a 12x12 sheet of acetate...something very different. Anna is a lovely lady and I just wish I had her talent for taking photos...if you want to see some of her work click here. The papers are Cosmo Cricket Hello Sunshine and Hambly transparency. You did not get the flowers in the kit so they are from my stash.

Tomorrow I have some more left overs from Pebbles inc.

Bittersweet

As promised the two layouts I did yesterday with my new papers from Basic Grey...Bittersweet. The shape on the "Love" layout I cut on the cricut. I love this collection...then again I tend to say that about all BG, dont just think Valentines and love themed layouts..none of the papers are covered in hearts/love words etc so they can easily be used on girly pages and cards.

Products used:

Basic Grey Bittersweet papers

Basic Grey Bittersweet chipboard embellishments

Basic Grey white rub ons

Bazzill pom poms

Stampin'Up! stitched ribbon in Rose red

Martha Stewart border punch

Flowers/brads from stash

Tomorrow I have a layout I have finally finished when I did a class with the fabulous Anna Bowkis...something very different from my normal style, but thats why I enjoy do classes at retreats,to get you thinking outside your comfort zone!

Woof Woof

I am taking a break for the moment from my "to finsh crate" and playing with some newish stash. These papers and embellishments I have had for a few weeks now and doggy pages are not something I would normally do as we dont have any dogs! but I knew I had these photos of my daughter with her boyfriends dogs....and she was with me in the shop and asked if I would do a layout using them. The papers and small doggy words are from Cloud 9 and came from here but the title came from Australia via my friends website here and I coloured it with a brillaince ink pad Crimson Copper...these pads are great as they are so wet when new they cover chipboard brilliantly...you just need to put it to one side to dry for a little while. I have also been trying to use stash and tools that have not seen the light of day since goodness knows when!! Rub ons alphabets is one...so now I have them all hanging on a hook in my room so they are out and can be a gentle reminder to use!!! secondly a fastenator, brought with such excitement yonks ago and I think I have only used it once...shame on me!! lol so I had a test run on this layout, hopefully now, if I leave it out it will be used alot more.

Tomorrows layouts are using Basic Grey Bittersweet, just got some finsishing off to do.

Have a great Sunday!

left overs...

..not from last nights dinner lol, but from a kit. I have got to start throwing small bits of paper away that are left over from a kit..but if they are big pieces then I know I can probably get another layout from them. This is what happened with this kit...again from Totalpapercrafts and using Websters papers. The layout Chill is the orginal layout and Discover Rome is my layout from the left overs. As I was short of embellishments I added flowers and a journaling stamp.

photo shoot

Just before Christmas I finally managed to get the family together with a photographer and have a long overdue photo shoot. This kit was another from Totalpapercrafts that I had completed all but the photos. Its not easy for me to photograph but hopefully you get the idea...its 4 pages in essence one on either side and an 12x12 acetate sheet in the middle with a photograph on each side. so what ever way you look at it you see the photos behind. Its a bit of aggro getting it all to stick down exactly so everything matches but once its done it looks fab. The papers by the way are Paper Salon...enamored collection.

Back tomorrow with some left overs!! and hopefully something from my new stash.....oops forgot I was supposed to be on a stash diet...well in just jumped into my basket and whats a girl to do!! It would be rude to put it back...lol

Violet

Another page finished...yahoo!! This is a kit again from Totalpapercrafts, using Websters papers, a company not alot of people have heard of but they do some stunning papers. This layout has tons of cutting out...so not so much as cuppa of tea job...more like an urn job!! It was worth it though...this picture of my nan, who died when I was young so I dont remember her, is beautiful so I wanted to do a page that was really special. I only have a few photos of her young and old, so spending extra time on these projects is worth it in my mind. The alphabet is a American Craft Thickers chipboard set, that was not in the kit, everything else was.

My resolution to stop buying stash is wavering alittle....I have succumbed to the new Basic Grey collection Bittersweet but not the entire collection...which is good for me!!

Total papercraft kits

When I had my major clear out after Christmas I put in a crate all the layouts that had been half finished....unfortunatley it filled it!! so I have been making a big effort to try and work my way through before doing any other layouts with new stash. I know it wont last but if I can at least get a few done each week its something..lol The layouts that I am posting today are kits from Totalpapercrafts, owned by Karen McIvor...if you love kits then hers are great. They are very reasonably priced and she releases 2 each month. You get full instructions...I will warn you though she does like cutting out..but a cuppa in front of the tv and you are away!! The link to her shop is here

Wassill Chipboard book

For the girls that coming to my class on the 19th this is the book we are doing. All the pages are chipboard but they are brown not the usual grey colour, so I have chosen to not cover all the pages completely. Each page is a different shape or has parts cut out of it. In the kit you will get the book, some Wassail papers and some embellishments. You can add your own embellishments as well as I have added some things from my own stash, but I will bring along some bits for you to choose from. The book does not have to be Christmas themed, if you prefer to buy or bring your own papers you are more than welcome to do so. I have 12 photos in the book of differing sizes the largest being...3 3/4" x 2 3/4", its great for using photos that can be cropped down. You may want to make sure you have some glue sticks...like tomobow etc thats what I found the best to stick the papers down to the chipboard with....there is alot sanding as well so you need to make sure your edges are well stuck down. I have posted some of the pages from the book so you can see what it is like inside.

If you are coming to the crop on Sunday I will bring it with me so you can see what its like..sometimes that easier than explaining on here..lol

For everybody else, I hope you had a lovely Christmas and New Year and are back in the swing of things. My 2009 is not starting off well at all but hopefully things can only get better....I completely lost my enthusiasm for scrapping and card making after Christmas so decided to have a major clear out of my craft room....my god don't your tastes change, some of the stuff I brought when I first started I look at now and think what was I thinking buying that...but hey ho we all have to start somewhere!! I have a plastic crate full of all half done layouts or left overs from kits that I know I could get another layout out of....so my resolution is to finish all those before I buy any more paper. I have seen some of the sneaky peeks for new lines that are being released on the trade show...so I need to get a move on or my resolution to not buy any more new stuff is going straight out the window.

All day crop

If any scrappers are local and would be interested in an all day crop next Sunday 11th Jan, I still have spaces. Its £20.00 for the day 9.30 am to 9.00pm but you are free to come and go as you please, its at the County Hotel Southend. Free tea/coffee/nibbles all day and plenty of scrapping space. Total Papercrafts are running the shop and if you fancy lunch you can pop into the resturant and have a rummy carvery for £10.00 for 2 courses or bring your own sandwiches. Our raffle is our best yet with a Making Memories Slice machine as the first prize....even if you cant come but would like to buy some raffle tickets off me they are £5.00 a strip...just email me. I have seen this fab machine in action and I WANT ONE !!!! So if you are interested in coming to the crop let me know and I will save you a space.