Highline Card

Hi Everyone

In my last post I promised I would share the card that Nicky created using a selection of the Highline papers by Basic Grey.

The design was one Nicky spotted over on the Basic Grey website, here, that she adapted.  Nicky drew the balloon outline by hand and just chose off-cuts of a few of the papers from previous projects she had been working on.  The papers really 'pop' against the black background and makes a stunning card.  The 'Happy' sentiment is cut from the Highline 'Fave' paper and just lifted up on 3D pads and the rest of the sentiment is created using the Tim Holtz 'Label Letters' which are such excellent value for money.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

More from 'Highline'

Hello there,

I have another layout today created by Nicky and this time it is a double-page spread.

I'm afraid I don't have a shot of them side-by-side but I am sure you get the idea.  This is such great inspiration for showing how to get lots of photos on a layout and still be creative.  The beautiful, vibrant 'Sweetness' paper from the Basic Grey range 'Highline' helps create interest anyway and is the perfect ground for these photos on a hot summer's day. The reverse of the 'Sweetness' paper and also 'Moments' with their white and black designs are the perfect contrast to the vibrancy of the background and really helps to make the photos 'pop'.  Some simple design elements of the arrows which emphasises the story of this layout which was about a journey, together with a pocket for journaling and a few stickers fnishes off these fun pages.

I will be back to share a card that Nicky created using the 'Highline' range very soon.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

Mon Ami

Hi Everyone

Today I have a layout created by Nicky Parry using the Basic Grey range 'Mon Ami' to share with you.

'Silly Faces' by Nicky Parry

This daft photo is of Nicky and I taken at the Scrapstars Retreat in April and as Nicky's journaling says 'it is amazing how much more willing you are to have your photograph taken when there are some silly props to hide behind!'  

I love the colour palette and the simplicity of this layout.  The plain cardstock background allows the photo and the design elements to really 'pop'.

Materials used:-

Patterned Papers: Basic Grey Mon Ami 'Bonjour', 'C'est la vie', 'Registre'

Simple Stories Homespun 'Grey Wood/Grid'

Stickers: Basic Grey Mon Ami 'Cardstock Stickers - Title', Simple Stories 'DIY Insta Clear Stickers'

Alphabets: Jillybean Soup 'Corrugated White Alphas', Studio Calico 'Essentials Tiny Alpha Stickers - Blue/Aqua'

Ribbon: May Arts 'Bakers Twine - Seafoam'

Other: Jenni Bowlin 'Printed Tickets - Smileys'

Happy Crafting!

Kate x

Continuing the Christmas Theme!

Hello Everyone

Well as I had gone ahead and mentioned the 'C' word in my last post I thought I would share with you another layout.  This layout was created by Kathy Rogers who is one of the teachers at the Scrapstars Retreat and I really admire Kathy's work; she has taught some really creative classes at the last two Scrapstars Retreats.  

Anyway Kathy was having a weekend away from teaching and enjoying being creative at the recent Scrappydayz Retreat in Cardiff where she created this lovely layout using the Snow Village range by Pink Paislee.

The layout was created in response to a sketch challenge and I absolutely love this layout.  (You will note that not only is Kathy creative with paper but also with food as the layout depicts her various culinary creations!).

Materials Used:-

Patterned Papers: Pink Paislee Snow Village 'Egg Nog', 'Gingerbread Man', 'Fruitcake', 'Peppermint Patty', 'Buttered Rum'

Embellishments: Pink Paislee Snow Village Ephemera

Cardstock; Bazzill 'Coastal', 'Ivy', 'Watermelon'

Thank you for allowing me to share your creation Kathy!

Kate xx

Cozy Christmas

Hello Everyone,

I hope you have been over on the website looking at all our new goodies that we have recently taken delivery of, many of which include lovely Christmas goodies!  One of my favourites is the 'Simple Stories' range of papers and embellishments called 'Cozy Christmas' which is a very traditional range of papers with snowflakes, baubles and other Christmas icons in warm reds and festive greens with woodgrain effects.

Earlier in the year I spent several weeks organising my photos out of envelopes and into binders following Stacy Julian's Photo Freedom idea. This really was the best thing I could have done because now I can just quickly grab a binder and after a quick flik through grab some photos and begin scrapping.  It has meant that many of our old photos have come to light again and I am much more inspired to scrap them which is how I ended up scrapping this layout.

'Belly Dancers came to worship' by Kate Holliday

These photos were taken in 1999 when my daughter was in Year 1 and although the quality is very poor they make me smile and for me they were a story I wanted to tell.  The warm colours of the Cozy Christmas collection seemed perfect to cope with the bright colours in the photos and I had great fun layering up various papers.  I showed the finished layout to my daughter and it brought back happy memories for her which is surely what scrapbooking is all about.  So grab some photos and some pretty papers and scrapbook your stories today!

Materials used:-

Simple Stories Cozy Christmas 'Dear Santa', 'Sparkle Flurries', 'Title Strip Elements', 'Enamel Dots', 'Expressions' Cardstock Stickers'

Studio Calico Wood Veneer Shapes 'Tiny Stars'

Fiskars Border Punch - Scalloped Lace

Happy Scrapping!

Kate xx

Something Blue

Hello Everyone,

Last Sunday was my Great Aunt's 85th Birthday and there was a 'gathering of the clan' to help her celebrate.  It was really lovely to all get together and we were very spoilt food-wise also!

I don't know about you but buying birthday presents for someone of that age can be tricky because they don't really want anything but you don't like to go empty handed.  So I decided I would make some little notelets for her as it was something personal but that she could, hopefully, make use of also.

I used the gorgeous 'Something Blue' range from Prima as it is lovely and feminine with beautiful old-time roses and I teamed it up with the IndigoBlu stamp set 'Live Laugh Love' which is one of my favourites and I use it time and again.

Here are the six notelets and below lined up so that you can see the designs more clearly.  Each was a different design but because you are using the same patterned paper range and stamp set there is a co-ordination about them.  I deliberately didn't add too much embellishment because I wanted the notelets to be flat so that my aunt wouldn't be troubled with paying extra postage to send the cards.

 

And of course I had to present them in something so I created this little gift bag using the W R Memory Keepers 'Gift Bag Punch Board'.  The board doesn't make bags up to this size but it is easily tweaked and I just made it in two halves and with a matching gift tag.

And every birthday girl needs a birthday card so I created a co-ordinating card also.  I just love the detail on the IndigoBlu stamps; isn't this bird just gorgeous?  I inked the edges of everything using the 'Vintage Photo' distress ink and all the images were stamped using either Vintage photo or 'Forest Moss'.

The inside was decorated too.

And I quickly stamped the bird image on the envelope so that everything all tied in.

I mainly used the 6" x 6" Something Blue pad as the smaller designs work well on cards etc but I love that you have the option to 'go big' with the 12" x 12" patterned papers which is what I used for the gift bag.

Happy Crafting!

Kate

Awesome Highline

Hello Everyone

One of the big hits at the Spring CHA was the Basic Grey range 'Highline'.  It has the most stunning colour palette, a real sunset mix, with a big dab of black which sets it off amazingly.  When you look on the internet there are some incredible creations using this range that have a real 'live & kicking' attitude.

I love this range and the vitality of it but when creating the following layout decided to pare it down a little by basing the vibrant colours against a white ground which still makes the colours 'pop' but gives a more soothing feel which is what I was looking for.

 'Celebrate with you' by Kate Holliday

I used the 'Awesome' paper from the Highline range and spent a very happy time cutting out loads of the flowers - I find it very relaxing cutting out and it gives me time to mull over how I want the layout to evolve. I sewed around the white cardstock in a pale pink and then flicked some of the Dylusions Ink Spray 'Bubblegum Pink' across the paper to add extra interest.  I quite often choose to 'flick' rather than spray as it once again gives a more delicate look and also stops the paper from getting very wet and distorted but it does depend on the look I am trying to achieve.

The reverse of the 'Awesome' paper has a delicate pale pink and white design which was perfect as a matt for my photos and I edged this with the border strip from the paper.  The large title is cut on my Cricut and the black word stickers are Tim Holtz 'Label Letters'.  The stamps I used for the journaling are 'Today You' by Ali Edwards' from Technique Tuesday.  I find the journaling lines are really useful and if I want shorter lines, as I did here, I just put the stamp on a small stamping block so some of it hangs over the edge and so doesn't get stamped.

So having completed my layout I still had some scraps left and as a friend was turning 50 I created the card below with the leftovers.  I cut the numbers out on my Cricut first and then cut the cardstock to size.  I used 3D foam to raise the cardstock up off the patterned paper at the back and with the addition of the sewing and 'flicking' I just added a few flowers and it was done.

Hope you are finding time for some crafting.  We have some amazing new ranges in over the last few months so make sure you check the website regularly.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

Lemonlush meets Doo Lally Pip!

Hello Everyone

Here is another sample created by Nicky for the Scrapstars Retreat and I think is my favourite of those she made.

As you can see it is a photo frame (an old cardboard one that wasn't being used) which Nicky has covered with the beautiful Lemonlush paper 'Flighty'. As well as being covered with beautiful butterflies this paper has this wonderful quote which has been made such a feature of.  Nicky has cut out lots of the butterflies which are lifted with Silicone Glue, giving the impression of depth and movement.  To finish off Nicky has stamped and coloured the 'Doo Lally Pip Keep Dancing' stamp by Lindsay Mason which adds a really fun element.

I am sure you will agree that this is really lovely and something a little bit different.

Back soon with some more samples.

Kate xx

Homespun

Hi Everyone

If you enjoyed looking through the photos from Scrapstars on our previous post you will probably have noticed that there were lots of samples of layouts and cards, created by the team, and I have just realised that I haven't shown you these properly yet.

So today I will start with this lovely layout created by Nicky.

'Love You' by Nicky Parry

This pretty layout uses a selection of papers from the Simple Stories 'Homespun' range.  Nicky has created a frame for this lovely photo of her daughter using the 'Grey Wood/Grid' paper which sits on the pretty floral 'Beautiful Life' paper and then cut elements from the 'Title & Border Strip' paper and made her own fish-tail banners at the top.  The 'Love' letters are cut from the 'Title & Border Strip' paper and the small 'you' letters are the Studio Calico 'Essentials Tiny Alpha Stickers - Blue/Aqua'.  Nicky added her own doilies which adds a nice depth and works well with the homely feel of this range.

Back with more tomorrow.

Kate xx

Scrapstars 2014

Hi Everyone

Well after, what seemed, a very long journey home last night from Leeds we are back from an amazing weekend at this year's Scrapstars Retreat.  It was a weekend filled with laughter, chocolate, inspirational teaching, chocolate, a massive input of scrapping mojo, laughter, challenges, the meeting up of friends old and new and .... yes, chocolate!

We really did have an amazing time and I wanted to share some photos with you so grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up and prepare for a photo-fest!

 'The Shop' all set out; I love seeing it like this!

Showing some of our new paper ranges with samples behind.

Some of the samples from our Kits

And some card samples.

Did I mention there was chocolate?  One of these on each table!!

The lovely spacious crop room

and, below, yours truly

The totaly lovely and talented Kathy Rogers who taught two inspirational classes, but more details on the classes another day.

And Emma Trout, of Websters Pages and Ingvild Bolme fame, who taught three classes and here assisting with some new techniques.

And some late-night antics!

Oh, and did I mention there was Chocolate!

 And a farewell!  

I hope you have enjoyed a little taste of our fabulous weekend and I can't encourage you enough to book for next year's Scrapstars Retreat. The exact date is still to be finalised but is likely to be in March/April but do contact Caroline who can give you more details.  I will be back with details and photos of the amazing classes that took place over the weekend.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

Spring is here - time to get out the flower stamps!

Hello all,

I haven't posted for a while but I have been inspired by the spring weather (and the relaxing school holidays) to 'craft outside the box'.  These days I am often crafting just to get a card made for someone's birthday but I don't usually get a chance to try something new.  I had seen an article on using a brayer to create a panel of graduated colour (by Marie Jones in Papercraft Essentials).  I was struck by the beautiful, bright shades of yellow so thought I would give it a go.

Confession time:  using the brayer was a disaster!  All I ended up with a smugy, orange mess.  I think I have the wrong type of brayer!  So it was back to the old technique of blending Distress Inks - but doing it in a NEW way - with three shades of one colour - Squeezed Lemonde, Mustard Seed and Wild Honey.  I used the IndigoBlu 'Wild Meadow' stamp set, one of my all time favourites, and the sentiment stamps were both freebies from Craft Stamper.   I love the clean, crisp results and am grateful for my Martha Stewart's butterfly punch as I needed a strategic butterfly to cover a small stamping error.  Of course, as it is spring, the butterflies then went everywhere!

 

Have a great weekend!

Nicky x

 



Lovely new Lemonlush!

Hello all,

I have been very taken with one of the new patterned paper ranges - Studio Calico's Lemonlush.  The colours are fresh and zingy, and I love the watercolour look of some of the papers.  However, when it came to making a layout, I reached for the black and white 'Wordsmith' paper as the main background, primarily so that I could play with some other products newly in, namely the Dylusions Ink Sprays by Ranger. 

I had a black and white photograph to hand which suited the paper perfectly, although a colour photo would work equally well.  The photo is of my daughter and three of her friends, so I went with a friend's suggestion for the title - 'Three's Company' (with apologies to the original meaning of this phrase; 'Four is Not a Crowd' didn't occur to me until the layout was complete!).  Some May Arts Sheer Shaded Ombre ribbon in Parrot Green/Melon added a finishing touch.

Three's Company

Here are a few more of my favourites from this Studio Calico range - I've already started playing around with 'Flighty'. 

Lemonlush - Analytics

Lemonlush - Flighty

Lemonlush - Impulsive

I hope you enjoyed looking!
Nicky

Cut & Paste Flair Mini Kit

Hi Everyone,

I have a great layout to share with you today using the 'Cut & Paste Flair Mini Kit'.  This layout was created by Theresa Goulder who is a lovely lady I know through the Wycombe Scrappers Crop that I have been fortunate enough to take the shop along to a few times.  They are a lovely bunch of ladies and I really enjoying going along and love catching up with Theresa whose work always inspires me.

'Always gaze upon Istanbul' by Theresa Goulder

Theresa used almost every piece of paper from the kit in creating the strip design at the top of her pictures and the glasses design worked particularly well with theme of her layout.  Lots of small pieces from the various papers were used to build up layers for the title to sit on and the border punch 'Scallop Two Dot' was used to create a strip at the bottom which frames the photos perfectly.   Theresa used one or two items from her own stash to complete the layout.

Thank you for allowing me to share your great layout with others Theresa and it was really good to see you.

Happy Crafting!

Kate xx

Summer's End

Good Morning Everyone,

We we are a very long way from Summer's End and it feels even longer to Summer's start with all this awful weather we have been having in the UK. My thoughts are with all those who are flooded or have had damage from the really strong winds and I hope you are able to recover very soon.

I have a layout to share with you today which uses the Fancy Pants Design 'Summer's End'.  I love all things autumn and this range really caught my eye when it was launched.  This is one of those layouts that was a very long time in the making as it kept getting put away without being finished and then I would get it out and do a little more but for various reasons still not quite finish it.  Anyway, I finally finished it the other day and although we are not at all in autumn I thought I would share it with you.

Long Walk Up by Kate Holliday 

Left Side Close Up

 Right Side Close Up

This double page layout uses Summer's End 'Cider', 'Falling Leaves', 'Fall Frames' and 'Strips' as well as the 'Design Embellishments'.  It is all backed on to Bazzill 'Milkshake' and 'Cream Puff'.  I cut out the frames from the 'Fall Frames' paper and created a long journaling strip and then cut the remaining of the paper and 'Cider' and 'Falling Leaves' into wide strips with a flag 'v' cut into the end which leads the eye in.  

I love the colours in this range and they fitted perfectly with these photos from our autumn holiday and I was very pleased to eventually get it finished!

Hope you have a good day and stay safe and dry.

Kate xx

Timbergrove

Hello Everyone

I have a layout to share with you which was created by Nicky using the new Fancy Pants Designs 'Timbergrove' range.  This lovely 'winter season' inspired range has a wonderful, strong colour palette including teal, red, winter blue and black and many of the papers are designed to be versatile and so not exclusively for your winter photos.

Nicky has chosen some sweet photos of her daughter taken investigating her first snow fall as she is putting together an album for her daughter who is now aged 11!

Nicky has used 'Crystals', 'Play Day' and 'Sticker Fundamentals' from the Timbergrove range and edged everything with 'Fired Brick' Distress Ink to tie in with the red elements.  The lovely stars are Studio Calico Wood Veneer Stars which sadly are out of stock at the moment although we hope to be getting more in, and the layout is finished off with 'Red' and 'Seafoam' Bakers Twine and 'French Vanilla' Tulle.

I hope you are having a good day.

Happy Crafting!

Kate x

Cut & Paste Flair Mini Kit

Hi Everyone

We are very excited to be launching a new Mini Kit.  We haven't had a kit for a little while and I had forgotten what fun it is to be have all the co-ordinating papers, cardstock and fun embellishments all there to start using without having to keep jumping up to go and find an item that may or may not work for your project, so easy :).

Our new kit is called 'Cut & Paste Flair' and you can find full details of the contents over on the website together with a Gallery showing the projects we have created with the Kit. However, I know it isn't easy to see the papers in detail from the Kit photo so here they are for your delight!!!

Aren't they gorgeous!  I just love the colour palette and the on-trend ombre shading mixed together with the quirky images.  Nicky and I had such fun playing with these papers and all the other elements included in the kit (as you will see over on the website) and it is really competitively priced allowing you to treat yourself or a crafting friend without blowing your budget.  Do let us know what you think.

Happy Crafting!

Kate x