Got A Crush On Fancy Pants?

Loved working with Deanne's new sketch ... although it did take a li'l while to get everything to come together. I really wanted to shabby everything up for this one, so I had a bit of a play with some different techniques.

I used papers from Fancy Pants Crush line & the ledger paper is Holly Jolly. I sanded the edges of all the papers & for the journaling mat I used a distressing tool (remember the Making Memories distressing kit???) to shabby up the right hand edge - I created the torn notebook effect on the left edge by making holes with a cropadile & then tearing out from the holes to the edge ... then I inked it all up!
The photos were cut leaving a white border, roughed up with the distressing tool & then inked. I machine stitched the ribbons in place ... check out the printed leaves twill - it's Cosmo Cricket ... from the Mr Campy line.
I inked the chipboard flourish with olive pastel chalk ink (love chalk inks) & then aged the edge with chestnut roan chalk ink. The 'stems' were painted with crackle paint & then aged with chestnut roan too. I added a twist of rusty wire (scrapbook safe stuff that I've had lying around for 3 years!!) & the blossoms are made up from Prima Artful Collage, Kaisercraft (taupe)& self adhesive pearls (I used Blush)
I broke out the acrylic paint & my old foam stamps for the title ... haven't used them for ages either! If you got the september embellie kit, you'll have one of these fabric tabs (to the left of the bottom left photo) too - i just swiped with a bit of ink to make it look less 'new'

Play time

Meet Megan, a crazy dog who likes sticks - the bigger the better!!


For this layout I used patterned paper from the March Personal Shopper Kit. The matching title letters also came from the same kit. If you haven't tried these kits yet then check them out. They are currently on offer at less than half price, so with the additional November discount they're an absolute bargain! Each kit is packed with coordinating papers, embellishments, ribbons and brads along with a handy booklet full of suggested layouts and other projects. They'd make a great gift for someone just starting out with scrapbooking.

To create this layout I gutted the centre of my background paper and covered the hole with another sheet of patterned paper. I then doodled lines to make a border around this sheet with a blue felt tip pen. I matted the main photo onto the piece of patterned paper I had cut away, drew a scalloped frame around the photo and cut it out. The background of the second photo was very distracting so I cut around Megan's outline and attached the photo directly to the layout.

Celebrate the Season

Well we are finally back after our little break, all refreshed and ready to go. Have you missed us??

I am going to kick things off with a challenge. Because I love autumn so much, I challenge you to celebrate the season!! Create something with an autumnal theme. Scrap your autumn pictures or use the colours of autumn as inspiration for a card. Perhaps even create an autumn themed altered art project.

I have created a layout with one of my recent photos. I used a sheet of white bazzill cardstock as my base. The patterned papers are yummy american crafts which came out of the 12x12 lucky dip. The leaves and the word autumn were cut from the reverse of some of the papers and doodled on with black marker pen. The rest of the title is made up of colour rubz alpha rub ons. These rub ons are fab value for money as you get loads of each letter in two different colours all in a cute little tin (they go on perfectly as well even onto photos). Finally to finish off I made a photo corner from a piece of felt from the september scrapjunkie kit and some brads.

I can't wait to see what you come up with...

Guv here! Just popping by to say, we will have a random drawing for the winner(s) this month. & there'll be shopping vouchers for our store up for grabs!! how many & how much is totally up to you. More entries means more vouchers/£££!! So spread the word!!

I love mumwitches

This layout is all about the fact that my mum makes such yummy sandwitches. For the base I used a sheet of White Bazzill Cardstock. I then printed out my photo A4 sized and cut it out to remove the distracting background. To make the sunburst effect I used strips of American Crafts Ribbon (I think most of these ones are 'cyan' and 'coral'). I die cut the letters for the title from papers out of the March Personal Shoppers Kit and hand cut the heart from a piece of felt out of the September Scrapjunkie Kit. To bling it up a bit I inked the edges of the heart and covered it in glitter.

The journalling reads "My Mum makes the tastiest sandwitch's. Even if its just ham + bread + butter, she can make it taste so amazing! Everyone loves her salmon sandwitches, but for me this one sandwitch has to be the best ever. Made by my Mum in Spain - it has to be the tastiest sandwitch of my life to date. I 'heart' mumwitches - summer 2008"

Tomboy!

I really enjoy DIY which I guess makes me a bit of a tomboy, lol!

I used a sheet of white Bazzill for my background and cut scallopped squares from 3 different patterned papers and my photos. The patterned papers are from the March Personal Shopper Kit they are perfect for boyish layouts so for once I stepped away from my usual pink.

To make the title I pencilled in the letters and then pierced holes before threading them with ribbon (handy hint - wrap the end of your ribbon with a bit of sticky tape to make it easier to thread and stop it fraying).

The ribbon embellishment was made by cutting slots in the backgrond and threading through more ribbon and decorating with a button.

Finally I decorated a couple of the squares with some brads. All of the brads and ribbons came from the same PS kit so they match the papers perfectly.

Holiday Photos

I am finally getting around to scrapping some of my holiday photos, it's only taken me a couple of months! For this one everything I used came from the March 07 Personal Shoppers Kit. I love the papers in this kit, they are so summery.

The frame was one of the projects on the ideas booklet that comes with the kit. It uses a slide mount that came in the kit which is covered in paper and then matted on more paper before being fastened to the page with ribbons and brads. If you want to try something similar there are slide mounts available here.

I finished it off with a title cut from some plain brown cardstock in the kit.

Monthly Challenge

Its time again for the monthly challenge, where did July go? For August, because I love getting messy, I'm challenging you to use paint in your crafting. Paint a background for your layout, card or atc, paint journalling strips on a photo, use paint to alter your embelishments. I'd love to see the ideas you all come up with.

For the base of my layout I used a sheet of textured cardstock from the March 07 Personal Shopper kit. I then used a sheet of paper from the lucky dip pack and hand cut scallops to make a frame. I edged the scallops with acrylic paint to make them stand out from the background.
I then marked the position of my photo and painted a mat for it with more acrylic paint. I also braved painting my title by hand too.
I created a flower embelishment from some American Crafts ribbon by sewing along one side and drawing the thread tight to create a kind of rosette.

You have until the end of the month to enter and the prize is a fab kit of yummy stuff from the shop and a guest design team spot for October ... we work months ahead here you know! LOL.

40 Days Recycling Challenge

Guv is ongoing guest DT member for the Arty Girlz Recycling Challenge. In honour of that and because I can never bear to throw stuff away, today's 40 days challenge has the theme of recycling.

I created a layout using a sheet of plain paper from my March 07 Personal Shopper Kit as the base. I used a piece of lovely wrapping paper I had saved from a gift instead of patterned paper and then created the title using letters cut from a magazine and a flattened bottle cap from a bottle of beer.

So basically, I challenge you to rummage through all those bits of useful stuff (rubbish ;o) ) you have collected and create something beautiful. Use found items to make a card, layout or atc or maybe alter a piece of packaging to make a gorgeous storage box for your scraproom. Post a link to your creation in the comments or if you don't have a blog then email your entry to the Guv. Closing date is Midnight BST Tuesday 5th August 2008.

Guv will be by later with details of the yummy prize up for grabs!

My first DT project on here. EEEEKKKKK

Hiya everyone, Jayne (jay670120) here.

This is my first ever posting on this blog so i'm sorry if its a bit sparce.

Today its Sunny outside in Bristol but to celebrate the good old British weather (a lady i met visiting from Greece said english were obsessed with weather !!!) I thought i would do this L/O.

Ive used AMERICAN CRAFTS PAPER in the lucky dip HERE . 2 sheets as its double sided it looks like four :) bargain.

tim holtz ticket HERE , chipboard shapes (link added later)

The title and Rain drops were drawn onto paper by hand and cut out . Then i added a few buttons from my own stash to add a little bit of detail but heres some bargain buttons HERE . I hope you like. xxx

Feeling Blue?

Just a li'l layout that I put together using the K&Co Blue Awning papers. We had been expecting to get the whole range with all the stickers & accessories ... but that's not gonna happen now - not to worry, we put a whole bunch of new, fab stuff online yesterday & will have more of those up-to-75%-off offers coming up over the weekend!
Anyway, back to the layout ... I wanted to show how you could create a pretty layout, without it being girly (which is definitely NOT allowed in my household! LOL)
So I combined flowers cut from the Zinnia Swirl paper with fabric ones from the yummy cupcake & dahlia blend boxes, some American crafts ribbons (from the lucky dip bundles), Tim Holtz game spinner (secured thru a ribbon knot to make the centre of the cream flower) and one of our new lightweight chipboard shapes. I have painted & inked it but you could just as easily cover it in paper.
And that's about it!

What's special about June 30th? you'll have to wait & see! LOL

new DT members...new challenges...are you keeping up?

Hi everyone!

Alix here, and wow its busy around here lately! Have you checked out our new DT members? Welcome to both of you :) and have you entered our monthly challenge yet? *if not...what are you waiting for...their is stash at stake here!!! lol*

Here is my latest project...altered mini-cubes. These wooden cubes are only 99p for three, which I think is a bargain...and they are little so they sit perfectly on your desk, or window sill, even on the mantel piece without taking up too much space.

I've decorated mine with pp from the HOTP PS Kits, using a glue stick. Easy. I've stamped some sides with our initials using a selection of alphabet stamps {but you could use letter stickers or a die-cutter}, and added photos of us both {me on the A cube and him on the D cube}. The other cube is stamped on each side with an ampersand or a star from the HOTP Thingamajigs stamp set. Even the other half likes these, so they must be quite cute!! lol

Project #2 today is the evening LO from my friend's recent birthday. Its called *Lets drink...PINK* and I've made it using the gorgeous Mira collection papers. Do check these papers out, they are such a fun, artistic, colourful and happy collection...perfect for all sorts of occassions.

I've also used American Crafts ribbons, red blooms, pink flower gems and some felt accents. The circle is from the die-cut felt sheets and the pink butterfly is punched from Friendly Felt...you remember how much I love this stuff, right? ;)

So there it is...my contribution for today. I hope it inspires you in some little way to get on and make a little something *NOW*

Enjoy.

:)

New DT Debut!

I promised earlier to show some of the yummy creations that our new DT girls submitted as part of their entries - a bit late as it is technically tomorrow! LOL.
First Jayne: The first layout is a Cogsmo number - & anyone who uses this very 'boy' range on a girly pic & can make it work has to be worth taking a look at! LOL
Jayne's mini album in a baby shoe is simple but very effective - what a lovely keepsake either of your owns kiddie (as Jayne's is) or as a gift for a new parent - great idea ... & that's what we like!
I have included a third piece from Jayne, solely as it was DS1's choice. Those of you who know him will already be aware that he's not easy to impress but he really liked this one & thought I should pick Jayne on the strength of that alone. Obviously there was a bit more than that to it! LOL. It was the busy black & white with just a little colour that drew his eye (even if it is pink!!!) & I have to agree that it's very effective - and very different to Jayne's other entries.


I loved Laura's Bo Bunny Album - & it was also nice with both these submissions to see a product or two there that we stock/have stocked in the past - Makes it soooo much easier to see what they might do with our DT kit! With Laura's entry, I was really drawn to her mini books - luuuurve mini books! The 'Believe' one is just plain pretty! With the Bind It All book, it's the clever use of tags & pockets that I liked. I love to cram li'l hidden bits in my albums, so seeing something with all those hidden spaces was a big bonus.



So that's what I thought - but I'm sure you'll all have your own opinions & please do feel free to post your comments. Which is your fave???

All that's left is to say a huge thank you to everybody who sent in submissions - it was a tough decision to make and did give me a sleepless night or two along the way! LOL.

Don't forget the GDT Challenge - the deets are here!

Happy days...

Hi everyone,

Here I am again with 2 projects both in honour of special, happy days. Firstly, a LO of the trip out Katy and I had on the morning of her birthday. And secondly, a cute idea for wrapping up a Fathers' day gift!

Lets start with the LO. Here I've used 3 of the Mira collection papers which are scrummy! They are totally on trend with all the flowers and colours and birds...there will be more projects coming up using these papers...because I just can't get enough of them!!! :) I've co-ordinated the papers here with some of the American Crafts ribbons (still on special offer), a couple of blooms, with foam spots as their centres {covered with orange glitter}. I've used a cute ribbon slider for the date and 1 of the yummy journalling cards...for...my journalling! To make the arrowhead, I simply cut the corner off a slide mount. Finally, I added a little acetate tag from one of the HOTP PS Kits.

My second project today is a decorated bottle box, for Fathers' Day. This box originally was given to my other half for Christmas with a bottle of his favourite tipple in...but now it houses a single Malt Whiskey! ;)

I covered the whole tube in one sheet of 12x12 from the HOTP PS Kits and adhered co-ordinating ribbon around both the top and the bottom (to cover the gap!) I used another of those fantastically beautiful journalling cards to make a giant gift tap and stamped *happy fathers' day* on it in Stazon.

As you can see I made an error in my stamping...stamping Bay instead of Day...*rolls eyes*...but rather than cover it up, I decided to make a feature out of my mistake and attached a smaller tag which reads *from your Dyslexic daughter-in-law*!!! I'm sure it will make him smile...jokes at my expense seem amuse most people!! lol The tag was made using one of the giant paper punches now only £5!!

That's all for now folks...have a great weekend...I'm off to SAG for some intensive scrapping and catching up with my girlfriends. So I should have lots of new ideas when I come back! :)

May Challenge

Yep, it's my turn to challenge you this month, and that challenge is to create a project that includes felt or fabric.

Here are a couple of examples for you, both using the Fancy Pants Holly Jolly range. For this layout I used some gorgeous Queen & Co felt fusion, the title was hand cut from friendly felt and I also added one of these really cool fabric yo yos. For the card I used this really yummy pink swirl felt fusion.

There's lots of ways to incorporate felt and fabric into your projects, and we can't wait to see what you come up with! You have until 7th June to get your entry in, and just leave us a comment with a link to your project.

Have fun!!

Sweet Pea

I am totally in love with these Fancy Pants Sweet Pea papers - they are soooo sweet!

For this layout I used the Emma paper as the background, and it's so pretty I didn't want to cover too much of it up, so I kept the design the the bottom right corner which is quite plain. I layered the photo onto strips of the Noah and and reverse of the Brenna papers, and added a couple of lengths of ribbon and ric rac and some buttons. I finished it off with a few of the die cuts (which are sadly out of stock) - a couple on the photo, and some others layered up to make a larger embellishment.

There are no less than 20 gorgeous paper collections in stock in the webshop and you can find them all HERE.

More Personal Shopper!

Here's another Layout from the HOTP Personal Shopper kits - this time I've used the July 06 kit.

Again, everything on the LO is from the kit, with the exception of the Queen & Co Black Celtic Felt Fusion.

I used 3 of the papers from the Retro designs. For the scalloped circle I used a Marvy punch, then threaded the turquoise grosgrain through the metal book plate and positioned over the top. The "remember" card was attached using this gorgeous little clip, and I attached the plastic tile with black brads and then wrote on it with a permanent marker.

You can find all the Personal Shopper kits, at just £9.50 each HERE.

Personal Shopper

Here's a LO I've created entirely from the November 2006 HOTP Personal Shopper kit - that's the beauty of these kits, they contain absolutely everything you need to create tons of great LOs - and cards too for that matter! Even better, they're on offer at just £9.50 each in the webshop! Find them all HERE.

And don't forget to check out Alix's monthly challenge here - take part and you could win a fab prize!

And also, the fab new bargains Beverley has added to the webshop HERE.

A family of girls...

I'm guessing you can tell that i love these Crush pp's by Fancy Pants...in fact i'm thinking Fancy Pants just might be my new favourite manufacturer...*gasps from friends and family*...and apologies to *********!!

For this LO {of my Mum and her 4 sisters} I've used the pp and the die cuts from the Crush collection, a few random buttons i had lounging in my sewing tin, and some white acrylic paint to make the raised dots and the antennae. As you can see i cut around some of the flowers to frame the photo, then layered the butterfly on top with foam pads. Do you like how i've made the body out of buttons? i thought that was quite cute!! lol

I've made some striaght horizontal lines with satin ribbon from the Lucky Dip selection, used my offcuts of pp with a large tag punch to make the title. This punch is a bargain reduced to £5!!! And so useful, as you can then make all your own tags to co-ordinate with all your favourite papers yourself...saving you another fortune on die-cut ones!! Good, huh?

Finally, I've double stamped the title to give it depth, and doodled stitching and journalled in a fine pen.

I hope you like my efforts today...and maybe...just maybe...it will inspire you to go off and make the same thing...or something completely different!! :)

TTFN,
Alix

no so *happy* scrappy...

Hi guys, its me, Alix, again!

I've been having a bit of a scrapping epiphany lately...as I look back through my albums...it seems that I only really scrap the *happy* things that happen in my life...and although I strongly believe focussing on the positive is a great thing...I do also believe that we should acknowledge the rest of life's events too; its the quickest route to acceptance I find! :)

So here I am, scrapping something that has been troubling me lately {if you're not into this...just don't read the journalling!}

To create this 6x12 LO I've used the Coffee House papers which have a lovely watery/dreamy feel to them that seemed just right for sharing some of my more intimate feelings. I've mixed them with some papers from the 12x12 lucky dip which is sold out now!! To embellish the LO, I've doodled around the entire edge of the page with a white pen and added 2 HOTP Really Big Brads which I've also doodled on.

So what do you guys think? Do you scrap only the jolly things that happen along the way? Or do you sometimes do cathartic scrapping like this?

OK, that's enough from me for today...*waves...* xxx

ps...my next LO to share is a super happy one btw :) one of my favourites in a while, actually!

Coffee House papers

I've been playing with the gorgeous Marah Johnson Coffee House papers from Creative Imaginations.

For this layout, I used the Harlequin Scroll and Coffee Carnivale papers, cut into various sizes and layered under the photo.

I dry brushed a little brown acrylic paint around the edge of the cardstock, to go with the "mucky" theme of the layout!

I then added a die cut title and some elements, and finished off with 3 of the great little button brads from HOTP.

We still have some bargains to be had in the 75% off sale - but hurry, it's selling out fast!!