Sneak Peak Time!!!

I thought it would be fun to let you have a little 'sneak peak' of our new September Kit which will be launched on Monday 5th so here it is!

As you can see, it is packed full of lots of gorgeous goodies with a fabulous colour palette just perfect for this time of year.  The Kit will also appear in the September issue of Scrapbook Magazine which will be on sale later in the month.  This is really exciting and I am sure it will prove popular so make sure you order your Kit early to avoid disappointment.  I will post pictures of all the papers in the Kit on the Blog on Monday so that you can view them in detail and the full Kit contents will be able to be viewed on the website.  Have a great rest of your weekend.

Butterfly Garden

Our stunning July Kit, 'Butterfly Garden' has been inspiring some of our customers and I wanted to share some of their gorgeous layouts with you.

BFF by Lesley Sharpe

I love the way that Lesley has framed her photo but kept the rest of the page very simple this really draws the eye in to the photo.  Lesley has cut lots of pictures out from the paper and used some of them to make flowers to co-ordinate.  The effect is really stunning, thank you Lesley.

'I Love Skippin' by Sue Costi

These stunning papers don't need a lot of adornment but Sue has beautifully framed her photo with ribbons and some of her own flowers.  The sweet little book plates are a perfect place for giving details of the event.

'Fun with Daddy' by Sue Costi
I love the versatility of this kit and Sue has shown that it doesn't have to be all girly to make a stunning layout.  I love the way that the Bitter Chocolate cardstock shows up the die-cut pattern so well and the pleated ribbon ties everything in together perfectly.

 'Curly Locks' by Sue Costi
This gorgeous photo of Sue's daughter is shown off beautifully on this layout.  Sue has cut out the 'doilies' paper and used them, together with the Prima flower and bling from the Add-on Kit, to frame her photo.  The gentle subdued colours work wonderfully together.

 'You Are...' by Sue Costi
Sue has made this kit go so far and has produced another stunning layout using repeats of the same photo in colour and black and white and in differing sizes.  Once again, Sue has framed the photos so that your eye is brought to them and used the rose ribbon to great effect in a scroll design.

'Love & Adore' by Sue Costi

Another gorgeous layout.  Sue has added some of her own flowers and some cards from her own stash to the supplies in the kit which makes the kit go further.  Notice the sweet little metal bird from the kit that Sue has added to the right of the photo.  Thank you Sue for sharing your gorgeous layouts with us.

We have a few of the Butterfly Garden Kit left if you feel inspired by Lesley's and Sue's layouts and full details of the kit's contents can be found on the website.

A Little Salt Air

It has been a little while since I posted but everything seems to have been on hold lately.  However, I finally got round to a little bit of crafting yesterday and oh it was blissful!!  I have been playing with the wonderfully fun Cosmo Cricket range 'Salt Air'.  This is a bright and cheerful summer range with great cartoon-inspired images and was a joy to use.

'Beach Fun' by Kate Holliday

Materials Used:-
Papers: Salt Air 'Borders', 'Coral Bloom', 'Elements', 'Half Shell', 'Tiny Bubbles' - Cosmo Cricket
Cardstock: 'Watermelon' - Bazzill
Title: 'Corrugated Kraft Alphas', 'Alphabeans Cardstock Stickers - Roasted Red' - Jillibean Soup
Other: 'Glossy Accents' - Ranger, 'Pigment Brush Inkpad - Cranberry' - Color Box

The papers were just the perfect colour combination for these photos of my daughter and mum taken some years back on a holiday to Devon.  I chose the slightly more 'girlie' papers from the range and chose to cut some of the pattern on the 'Half Shell' paper to create a border along the bottom of my photo grouping.  The sweet little star fish are on the 'Borders' paper and I cut them out individually and put 'Glossy Accents' on them to give them a sheen.

'Row Your Boat' by Kate Holliday

Materials Used:-
Papers: Salt Air 'Deck Chairs', 'Elements', 'Fish Tales', 'Sea Garden' - Cosmo Cricket
Title: 'Tiny Circle Alpha Stickers - Vintage Red' - Jenni Bowlin
Other: 'Craft Foam Pads' - Stix2

I tried to make this layout have a bit of whimsy and fun to represent the fun and laughter we had on this afternoon in our rowing boat.  I cut up elements from the 'Sea Garden' papers and the rowing boat images from the 'Elements' sheet were perfect.  I also used one of the journaling blocks from the 'Elements' sheet and gutted the middle to create a frame to draw the eye onto what my daughter was pointing at.

I love Cosmo Cricket papers and the 'Salt Air' range doesn't disappoint for any summer or seaside themed layouts you wish to create.

A Sweet (Threads) Mini Book

The winner of our May Kit Competition, Giselle Homer, was delighted with her prize of the June 'Sweet Threads' Kit and has produced this wonderful little Mini Book using the kit.  Giselle says,

"I already had a circular chipboard book with peek-a-boo holes in it & 
have been waiting for the right products to use for it. My friend gave 
me all the little Beatrix Potter images and they were a perfect match 
for the colours of BG's Sweet Threads :) I matched it up with some 
mini alphas, Prima flowers and some printed acetate cut-outs."

I am sure you will agree that Giselle has made a wonderful job on this gorgeous book for her grandson and the colours in the kit worked perfectly.  Giselle was able to add some lovely embellishments from the Elements Sheet and also used the Sweet Threads Wheels flowers to decorate the front.  She has created a wonderful keep-sake and thank you very much for sharing the book with us Giselle.

We still have some of the 'Sweet Threads' Kit and Add-ons available and full details can be found here.

June Sketch Challenge

We thought it would be fun to have a monthly sketch challenge and so I offer for your 'delectation' the following sketch which is based on one by Jill Cornell in Issue 53 of Scrapbook Magazine.  Sketches are a great starting point if you ever find yourself short of inspiration.

What I love about sketches is the differing interpretations you can get from the same sketch.  Three of the design team used this sketch and our layouts are all very different and Nicky was even able to interpret hers into a double-page layout.

'Grossology' by Kate Holliday

Many years ago I took our children up to the Science Museum where they had a 'Grossology' exhibition on - the impolite science of the human body!  As you can imagine the children loved it and they had this photo taken at the exhibition.  I wanted my layout to have a feel of the exhibition and the Jillibean Soup 'Monster Stew' range was perfect and using the sketch made bringing the whole layout together really easy.  I cut out five monsters for the circles at the bottom which I covered in Glossy Accents and cut out additional eyes that could then be lifted up, my title and journaling stayed as they were put on the sketch but I substituted the two small photo spaces for splats!

Materials used:-
Patterned Paper: Monster Stew '3 Arms', 'Cup of Eyeballs', Pinch of Hair' - Jillibean Soup
Other: Glossy Accents - Ranger, Craft Foam Pads - Stix 2
The title and subtitles were taken from the packaging that the photo came in.

'Fit of Giggles' by Martina Gardner

I love this layout that Martina has produced.  She has used the gorgeous new papers from Cosmo Cricket's 'Odds and Ends' range but used them (to great effect) on a Christmas layout.  Martina has kept her layout quite true to the sketch with the photo and title in the same places.  She has substituted the five circles for four small photos and moved her journaling up to one of the photo spaces at the top and replaced the journaling area with an embellishment.

Materials Used:-
Patterned Paper: Odds and Ends 'Remnant', 'Scraps' - Cosmo Cricket
Cardstock: Watermelon - Bazzill
Title Letters: 'Kraft Mini Alphas - Red', 'Alphabeans Cardstock Stickers - Roasted Red' - Jillibean Soup
Ribbon: 'Pom Pom Trim - Brick' - Bazzill

'Back to Tisbury' by Nicky Parry

The observant of you will recognise this layout as we used it as a focus on re-thinking older papers on the 22nd May and Nicky used the sketch as her starting point but managed, very successfully, to extend it to a double-page layout.  The left side of the layout is quite true to the sketch with the pictures of the cars on the patterned paper a substitute for the five circles .

Materials Used:-

Patterned Papers: Joy Ride 'Pit Stop', 'Round About', 'Zoom Zoom' - Cosmo Cricket
Stickers: Joy Ride 'Cardstock Stickers' - Cosmo Cricket
Title cut on a Cricut Machine

We would love to see any layouts you make using the sketch, so do send them in to us so that they can be put on the Blog also.

Baby Mine

We have the cutest new baby range in from Fancy Pants Designs, 'Baby Mine', and as it is nice to see the papers and elements altogether I thought I would share them with you on the blog and it will also let you have a little bit of 'ahh' time!

 'Wonder'

 'By the Inch'

 'Special Delivery'

 'How Tall?'

 'Peek A Boo'

 'All in a Row'

 'Baby Birds'

'Strips'

In addition to these eight double-sided, cardstock weight paper we also have some rub-ons, stickers and design embellishments for you to really have fun with your page or card.

'Design Embellishments'

 'Rub-ons'

'Element Stickers'

See, I told you they were cute!!  My personal favourite is the rub-ons selection with the toy monkey hanging from the washing line and I am very attached the frog that appears on the 'Wonder' paper!

What I really love about the range though is that not only is it suitable for both baby girls and boys plus toddlers but many of the reverse sides are suitable for any topic making it massively versatile and therefore excellent value.  To see prices or to purchase please go to the website here.

And the winner is.....

Our May Kit Competition proved very popular and therefore very tricky for the Design Team and I to choose our favourite.  All the entries were of a really high standard but in the end we were all agreed on the winner which was Giselle Homer with her beautifully presented layout '32 Months'.

'32 Months' by Giselle Homer

I am sure you will agree that this really is a stunning layout.  Giselle's style of clean graphic lines is beautifully softened with the beautiful cluster of journaling blocks from the die-cut sheet, flowers and heart pin.  We also loved her use of the twine and the sweet little butterfly.  These design choices combined with the stunning photos of her grandson has made for a striking layout that the Design Team and I really loved.  The new June Kit 'Sweet Threads' will be making its way to Giselle with our congratulations.

As I said, we were really torn with the layouts and decided to award a Runners Up prize because we also so loved this beautiful layout by Sue Costi.

'Friends' by Sue Costi

I know you will agree with me that this was another stunning layout and we couldn't let it go without a mention and we decided to award Sue a Runners Up prize in the form of a gift voucher.  We again loved the clustering and the way that all the elements drew together to bring the focus on the sweet photo in the centre. I also loved the fact that Sue had used the twine from the Kit to sew her arrow which again draws your attention in to the photo.  Our congratulations to Sue also.

A huge thank you to everyone who entered the competition the layouts really were of a very high standard and choosing a winner was not an easy task - there are some very talented ladies out there :).