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