Beautiful Dreamer is here!

Our gorgeous new October Kit is here and if you are looking for a little romance then you couldn't have come to a better place :).  'Beautiful Dreamer' uses papers from Glitz Designs' range of the same name and has a gentle colour palette of aqua blue, vanilla and vintage pink working brilliantly in contrast to the harsher black tones and the addition of unique die-cuts, soft lace, satin ribbons and crystal swirls really makes this kit work.   This is the Victorian love of flowers combined with shabby chic and it works brilliantly. 

Full details of the Kit, Add-ons, Inspiration Sheet and our Gallery can be found on the website but it isn't always easy to see the papers properly in Kit photos so here they are individually:-

 

I love how the pastel colour palette works so brilliantly with the harsher black tones - this really is a case of opposites attract!

Scrapping with the Stars!

This past weekend I was privileged to take the shop up to Leeds to join the Scrapstars Retreat, a fantastic weekend event organised by Caroline Lovett.  My friend Nicky and I packed the car full of Bellaboo goodies and drove 'up North' to join a lovely group of 'ladies who scrap' - and I am just in awe of their skills.  

'A tight squeeze' - Nicky and I with a very overloaded car!

And then came the classes taught by the fantastic four: Rachael Elliot, Kirsty Wiseman, Lida de Witt and Emma Trout.  Their classes were amazing and I think everyone learned so much from them. 

The 'Fantastic Four' with the Scrapstars Retreat organiser Caroline Lovett.  From Left to right: Emma Trout, Kirsty Wiseman, Caroline Lovett, Lida de Witt and Rachael Elliott

Rachael Elliott teaching one of her amazing classes using the Websters Pages 'Country Estate' range.

The shop itself looked fabulous - all the lovely papers and embellishments in one place!  I hardly had time to unpack some of the fantastic new ranges that had arrived just before we left from Websters Pages, Glitz Design, Echo Park and the brand new company Authentique.  How lovely to get a chance to play with them properly, and see how they have been used by the talented teachers at the retreat.  In the next couple of days we'll upload some pictures of the layouts and other things we created over the weekend. 

'The Shop' - we never normally see it all laid out like this.  I think we were as excited as our customers were!

What a fantastic retreat - well done to Caroline and her lovely group of helpers!  I hope this is just the beginning of a regular Scrapstars event on the calendar!

The Farmhouse Kit is here!

I hope you enjoyed the 'sneak peaks' I posted over the weekend - such a tease!  Well the new Kit is out today and full details of the contents, Add-on Kit, Inspiration Sheet and Gallery can be found on the website.  However, I promised to post pictures of the papers in their entirety as I know it isn't easy to see them in the Kit pictures and here they are:-

This way you get to see the reverse as well as the fronts because the reverse of these papers are just as wonderful as the fronts which gives you so many options.  I hope you have fun with the kit :).

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.