New Product Updates and finishing with a little bit of love!

Last Monday I had a fabulous day at the Craft Hobby and Stitch International Trade Show which was held at the NEC.  It is when lots of manufacturers and wholesalers have their new products on show and enables us as retailers to be able to view them 'in the flesh'.  I had such a great time 'drooling' over all the products and was particularly excited to place an order with IndigoBlu who are a 'Quintessential English Rubber Stamp' Company.  They do the most fabulous, deeply etched rubber stamps and we will be stocking their 'best seller' range, so you know they will be good.  In addition we will also be stocking their fabulous flake and flitter glue - all to soon be revealed!

I was also really excited by the gorgeous new range of ribbons from May Arts many of which we will soon be stocking and we have paper ranges coming from Prima, Glitz Designs, Bo Bunny, Cosmo Cricket and Pink Paislee - so many new goodies to watch out for, so an exciting few weeks ahead. 

Currently we have added to our range of Distress Ink Pads and have introduced Adirondack Alcohol Inks and Coredinations Pads - all from Ranger.

We are also now stocking Craft Stamper Magazine and from the next issue will be stocking Scrap365, two great magazines from Traplet Publications.  Each issue of Craft Stamper has a free stamp and this new April issue out has a wonderful Hare stamp from IndigoBlu - what are the chances!

Lastly I want to finish with a very sweet layout sent in from one of our customers, Lorraine Cheshire, using the February Mini Kit, 'Love Me'.

This is of Lorraine's grandaughter at Disneyland Paris - what a cutie.  I love seeing your layouts so do send them in so that we can share them - always so inspiring.

Love Me and Love Birds Layouts

With Valentines Day just around the corner we have a couple of layouts to show you; one using this February's Mini Kit, 'Love Me' using My Mind's Eye papers and design elements and the other using the 'Love Birds' Kit from last year which there are just a few of left.

 'Little You' by Kate Holliday

This is a layout of my son when he was little - he is now 19 and has grown somewhat!  He looks so sweet and innocent in this photo that the pinks and reds in the papers seemed fine to use even on a boy.  I do like to 'frame' my layouts so invariably will 'gut' the backing cardstock so not to waste it leaving just a small border that the pattterned paper then attaches to.  I can then use the left over cardstock on my layout etc.  With just one photo on a busy background I decided to matt the photo onto the Vanilla cardstock and cluster all the elements around that leaving the patterned paper to act as another frame and draw the eye in.  I loved the paper with the bunting and cut around two of them to 'string' across the top.  I used several of the die-cuts from the elements sheet (there are so many to choose from) and had fun with some of the die-cut buttons which I mounted onto chipboard and covered with Glossy Accents and threaded.  The Jounaling block was stamped using the Technique Tuesday stamp 'Today You..' by Ali Edwards which is a really useful and versatile stamp.  I diecut a scallop circle to break up the right-hand-side and used some of the remaining cardstock and the gorgeous crochet ribbon to act as a border under the photo.    I love scrapping some of the old photos of my children as I didn't come to scrapbooking until they were in their teens so feel I missed out a bit!

'Celidh' by Deb Whittaker

This is such a fun layout by Deb of a friend's 25th Wedding Anniversary Celidh.  I had forgotten how much I love these Fancy Pants Papers that make up the 'Love Birds' Kit!  They are so bright and cheerful and are a really fun love range.  Deb has created two large hearts to matt the photos onto and as she had so many photos has cut around the people so that you can see them more clearly and more could fit on.  I think it gives the right fun, happy feel to what was a happy and fun occasion.  Deb has also created some bunting to string across which she has also added her title to and with the addition of some brads and a small sticker from the kit she has created a great layout of a wonderful occasion.

If you are being treated to a day or evening out for Valentines Day you will need to ensure that you have photos taken and one of our kits will be the perfect way to ensure that the memories are kept.  I hope you have fun whatever you are doing.

Love Me Mini Kit

This month we have launched a beautiful love-themed Mini Kit, 'Love Me'.  It uses the beautiful papers from My Mind's Eye range of the same name and includes a great 12"x12" accessory sheet with all sorts of fun goodies.  Full details of the Kit's contents can be found on the website but below are the papers in detail and also a couple of layouts I have produced using the Kit.

 'G & C' by Kate Holliday

Our nieces' wedding last summer was a wonderful occasion and the colour theme for the wedding was red so these papers were the perfect choice.  I loved this doily paper and it made the perfect background for this wedding photo.  The lighter 'love' words paper worked as a matt for the photo so that it didn't become lost and I love the Tim Holtz key and lock which were fun to use.  I mounted the layout onto the red cardstock and distressed the edges of the patterned paper and inked the edges with 'Worn Lipstick' Distress Ink.  I machine sewed around the patterned paper and the photo which adds a little more detail and also helps to draw the eye into the photo.  I strung the Tim Holtz Key onto the pretty sheer ribbon which I then curled around the edge of the matt - you can really have fun with wedding layouts!!  With a very simple title, just using the couple's initials and one of the journaling cards from the accessories sheet held with one of the Tim Holtz pins, the layout was complete.

'You're Still the One' by Kate Holliday

This layout I have made for my husband for Valentine's Day.  I am not normally prone to lots of sentimentality but I loved this photo I took of him in the autumn, which is so very him, and these words from Shania Twain's song always make me think of him and our relationship.  The colours of the kit were once again perfect with the photo but this time I used the red and pink more as highlights rather than the main theme and teamed these with the Vanilla cardstock and black, both in the papers and with 'Black Soot' Distress Ink, which made it slightly more suited to a man.  I printed some of the lyrics from the song from the computer and cut these into strips and edged everything with the black ink.  Once again the sewing machine came out and I sewed along the thin strips and along the edge of the song lyrics.  A couple of concertina flowers and die-cuts from the accessories sheet clustered in the corner of the photo to help draw the eye to the photo area and otherwise the layout was kept quite clean and simple, again more suited to a man.

I have lots of leftovers from the Kit, certainly enough to make at least one more layout and some cards so the Kit is excellent value and because all of the papers have at least one side that is not love-themed it is perfect for use on any number of projects, but on the other hand a little bit of romance never did anyone any harm!!!

I hope you have fun with the Kit and I would love to see what you produce using it.