Short of time?

Christmas holidays are always so packed there is often very little scrapping time, how about setting yourself a time limit to create a page? Nat created this layout for our hour challenge in November (although she admits it took her slightly longer!)

My take on the One Hour Challenge (erm - read *one hour and 15 minutes*), with the beautiful papers chose for me by Jen.
Papers:
Jilly Bean Soup, Soup Staples - Black Macaroni and Olive Sugar
American Crafts, Blue Skies - Peaceful Easy Feeling
Scrap Within Reach, Paper Boy - Clubhouse
Bella Blvd, Superstud - Planetarium
Chipboard stars and circle - Basic Grey
*tip* - I made the chipboard circle coordinate with the Jilly Beans Black Macaroni paper by covering it with craft and adding an American Crafts paisley style rub on across it.
I also made a card with the scraps

Don't forget our December Sketch challenge, upload your entry by the Monday 11th January to be in with a chance to win a £10 e-voucher and an opportunity to join the design team in producing an example layout for the February sketch challenge.

Christmas Stash

There are so many Christmas paper ranges on the market but how many photos of the festive season do you want to scrap? Rachel has been using the gorgeous Crate Paper North Pole range and has shown just how versatile Christmas stash can be.

"I dont do hot drinks, I never have neither have any of my sisters. But I was taken to Starbucks where I thought I would have a hot chocolate. To my surprise it was yummy, not sure if it was the lovely red cup or the lovely snowflake holder but I liked it a lot and had to scrap it. These Crate papers were perfect as well as a my favourite sheet of sassafras paper."

Have you seen the December kit? It is full of lovely My Minds Eye papers and some gorgeous embellishments, perfect for both Christmas and non Christmas layouts alike as Vanessa shows with her two pages.

December Sketch Challenge

With all the festive preparations going on at the moment we thought you might like a bit of light relief with the December sketch challenge. Vanessa has designed this gorgeous sketch and a few of us have put together some layouts.
To enter just link your layout in the comments box or email your page to
sarah@sarahscardsltd.com by the 11th January 2010, the winner will be chosen by the design team and will recieve a £10 e-voucher to spend in the shop and a chance to join the design team in creating an example layout for the February sketch challenge.

Gems
Rachael
Vanessa

We are really looking forward to seeing what you create.

Have fun!!

Sketch Challenge Winner

We have our sketch challenge winner.... Claire Crompton. Well done Claire we loved your layout, drop us a line and we will get the £10 e-voucher to you and details of the January sketch challenge when we have them.


A big thank you to everyone who took part, we really enjoyed seeing all your layouts and hope that you will join in with the next challenge which will go live in the next few days.

Bliss

A little while ago we promised to show you how the design team had used the gorgeous Crate Paper ranges. Gemma has been working with the Bliss range and has produced these three fantastic pages.

'Something for my Mouth' - My little girl has the funniest way of asking for something to eat so that is the main subject for the layout. The photo is a random photo from around the time she started to say her quirky little phrase. I loved the papers and thought they were perfect for a girly layout. The papers are really detailed and have a gorgeous texture which inks extremely easily and effectively.

'We Survived' - Completing my first Nursing placement was a huge achievement for me and truly confirmed that I really wanted to pursue my career as a Nurse, but the whole experience would have been a whole lot more difficult without my buddies, so I just wanted to document that. The photograph was taken on a well deserved night out following our final shift on the ward!

'Oh So Glamorous' - Ashton is such a diva! I think my case was proven when I came downstairs to find her dressed in her knickers, a tiara, fluffy pink shoes and a make-do cape! She thought she looked wonderful.

I really love the bliss chipboard shapes they add some lovely dimension to the pages. I used some on each of my three layouts.

Thank you to all those of you who joined in our Sketch Challenge, today is the final day that you can enter, either leave a link on the blog or email a photo of your layout to

sarah@sarahscardsltd.com

Scrapping Challenges.

At the recent design team weekend we set ourselves a couple of challenges, one was to put together a layout in an hour (a big challenge for some of us slow scrappers!!) using papers chosen by another member of the team. Jens papers and photo were chosen by Cathy.

I've been wanting to scrap this photo of my Dad for ages. I took it last year on a family trip to Centre Parcs & it was one of several that weekend where Dad was acting like a big kid! The colours of Earth Love were perfect for this outdoorsy shot, and I finally got to use one of my chipboard trees - I've been hoarding these for a while now!

Papers - Cosmo Cricket 'Earth Love'

Alphabet - American Crafts Thickers 'Nutmeg', My Little Shoebox

Chipboard tree - Maya Road

Gems - Prima

Thinking about scrapping challenges, you have a couple of days left to join in our sketch challenge, the deadline is Monday 7th December so link or email us your layouts, you could win a £10 e-voucher and a chance to join the DT for the January Sketch challange and have your layout posted on the blog.

Prehistoric Grub?

Nat has put together this lovely bright layout using a mixture of papers and embellishments.

This photo was taken over two years ago at my Freshers week at University. I've wanted to scrap it ever since, but the harsh flourescent lighting and bright coloured tiling of the setting (a rather less than classy kebab shop!), made it difficult to find the perfect papers to work with. I love combining papers from different ranges and manufacturers on one page, and this seemed to be the best solution for working with this tricky photograph.

Papers: American Crafts, Junior - Defense (varnished finish)

Lily Bee, French Couture - Paris

MME,Bloom & Grow - Polka Dot Punch,

Basic Grey June Bug - Daydreamtitle:

AC Thickers, Salutations

Adorn It: tiny chocolate mini alphas

Chipboard Embellies - Sassafrass

Good Times rub on - Pink Paislee

Going To The Chapel

With the weather being so miserable it is lovely to scrap photos from more sunny times, Sarah has scrapped a photo of her sisters wedding and created a stunning layout.

This is the only picture I managed to snap of my sister & dad walking towards the chapel on her wedding day. I'm not sure who was more nervous!

I used Scrap Within Reach - Afternoon Tea range. These papers are just perfect for wedding photos - all pink & pretty with a bit of distressing so that they're not too too pink. If you love Basic Grey you will love these papers. I also cut a piece of Basic Grey Lemonade Doilies to create an embellishment, layering onto that a stamped flourish frame (stamped onto acetate), a couple of Aunty Sarah's Bloomers and a Prima Raja Centre in white. I also cut a leaf shape to tuck under this. The title was created using American Crafts Thickers (my favourite alphas!) White Nutmeg and the brand new Salutations in Honeydew. A touch of opulence was added by layering on a Prima Pearl Swirl to the left hand side of the photo

Team Scrapping.

When it was sugggested that 12 scrappers could put a single layout together by each adding one item of stash I think we all thought the result might be quite...err....interesting!!

We started by all pulling a number out of a hat so that we couldn't plan what we were going to add and then passed the page around the room in number order. The finished result surprised us all, I know it has been mentioned on quite a few of the design team blogs so we thought you might like to see the finished layout.

Don't forget our sketch challange, you have got until Monday 7th December to either link your entry onto the blog or email it across to sarah@sarahscardsltd.com. The winner will be picked by a member of the design team and recieve a £10 e-voucher and be invited to join the design team for the January sketch challenge and have their layout posted on the blog.

Sketch Challenge with prizes!!

This months sketch has been designed by Lianne and we have some exciting news! Link you layout on the blog or email an image of your page to sarah@sarahscardsltd.com by the 7th December 09 and a member of the design team will pick a winner. The winner will not only recieve a £10 e-voucher that can be spent in the shop but will also be given the opportunity to create an example page for Januarys Sketch challenge and have their layout posted on the blog along with the design teams creations.
We really can't wait to see your interpretations of the sketch.
Here is the sketch and a few examples that the team have put together, Lianne and Sarah have both used the November kit so you also get a lovely peek of what will be winging its way to you later this week!

Sarah

Lianne Jen
Rachael Tracy
Rachel

Lou

Vanessa
Nat

Have fun!!

Sweet Marmalade.

Rachel has been creating with the new Sassafras Sweet Marmalade papers


Who doesnt like a bit of hand cutting? These patterned papers are very busy but with such bold patterns they are perfect for handcutting out the designs. This is one of my graduation photos, I often wonder if it was all worth it, Uni that is, not to get too deep but I thought I would document my worries and that despite everything in my mind it will always have been worth it as I met my OH at UNI.



To be fair my OH is a lot more wiling than most to have his photograph taken. But one summers day (in fact the very last day of summer) I pushed him a bit too far he was all snapped out! This is a bright busy page but i think it works. Using multiple photos and embellsiments means that the page doesn't feel too busy.

Up Up and Away!

Vanessa has made this gorgeous card using more of the American Crafts Junior range, she has used the rocket pictures on the papers for inspiration and added buttons and ribbon to make the rocket really pop off the paper.

American Crafts Junior

The newest memeber of our design team, Vanessa, has been working with the gorgeous American Crafts Junior range. She has produced this fantastic page which just goes to show that you don't need to use heaps of stash to create a stunning page, how about scraplifting this layout using up some of your scraps.

Eat your Veg!
My little boy is always asking for raw carrots, he likes them washed, but not peeled – “just like a rabbit eats them mammy!”, I thought this was so funny, as well as really sweet and a lovely little memory to document in a layout.Firstly, I converted the photograph to black and white to contrast with the bold, funky and bright papers from the American Crafts Junior range and I then I coloured the carrot back in to add to that contrasting effect.I used normal green embroidery thread to stitch up the side and I sponged the centre of the main cardstock with a white chalk inkpad. The little black stars above the journaling sticker are hand drawn.

For him.....and for her!

Jen has been using one of the new My Minds Eye ranges, Ooh La La for him, the range is obviously being marketed for those male pages that you want to create but Jen has shown that it is perfect for any of layout!

Novembers Kit, Great Crate Paper!

Have you seen the picture of the November kit? It is full of the gorgeous Crate Paper Season collection along with a 12x12 sheet of fantastic chipboard shapes plus lots of other embellishments including an alphabet! Kit subscriptions can be found here.

Here is a little sneak of what one of the design team has done with the kit, just to wet your appetite!
Crate Paper brought out three other gorgeous ranges at CHA in August,

Cottage.

Bliss

and
North Pole

Watch out to see what the design team do with some of these gorgeous papers over the next few weeks.

Bold and Beautiful!

Nat has created these two gorgeous layouts using the Basic Grey Lime Rickey range, she has really shown how well these bold, bright papers can be used to create some fantastic results.

Monthly Sketch Challange

Sometimes we all need a bit more inspiration than usual to get the scrapping ideas flowing so we thought it would be fun to do a monthly sketch challange.
Jen has designed this great sketch to kick us off and a few of us have put together some examples.

Jen has used American Crafts "Craft Fair" papers on her page.

Gems layout has been put together using the Cosmo Cricket papers from the September kit.

I have used Fancy Pants "Dancing Girl" patterned papers.

And finally Rachel has put this page together using MME Abbey Road "Best Buddies"

I hope you enjoy using the sketch as much as we all have, we would love to see how you use the sketch, if you want to share then pop a link to your layout into the comments box so we can all have a peek.

xx