Blue Man?!

I thought you might like to see a couple of layouts that Rachel has created using some Sassafras papers, she has a great nack of combing bold, bright papers together with great results.

We have had lots of fantastic enteries into the January sketch challenge and there is still time to have a go, just either link your page in the comments box or email a copy of your page to sarah@sarahscardsltd.com. You have until the 8th February to get your pages done to be in with a chance to win a £10 e-voucher and the chance to join the DT and create an example layout for the March sketch challenge.

I don't know about you but I am getting very excited to see all the stash that Sarah and Lianne have chosen to tempt us with during their trip to America, it will all be making an appearance here over the coming weeks so watch that space!

Prima

To keep up occupied while Sarah and Lianne are over in America choosing all the gorgeous stash that we are going to be drooling over in the coming weeks Cal has put together a class for us to have a go at. She has used lots of lovely prima papers, Paradise City.

Three Little Ladies and A Granny

Stash Needed

Papers - Prima Paradise City

Embellishments - Prima flourish and Bling Brads

Punches - Martha Stewart

Stamps - Prima

Alphas - Thickers and Adornit.

Take a sheet of Prima Paradise City - Morning Chirps, and distress the edges using a pair of scissors (or a distresser) along the edges. I prefer the scissors because I find that you get more of a rough edge, and it helps 'tear' the paper. Rip the paper in the centre in a downwards movement about 2", and curl the edges back. You then need to use your craft knife, to cut the top and right hand sides of the butterflies on the bottom left of the patterned paper. You are not cutting the butterflies totally out just cutting enough so that you can slot papers in behind them later.

Take a sheet of Sweet Whispers, and with a craft knife, cut out the middle of the paper (you can see where I have cut it out on my example). Once this is all cut out, adhere it to the Morning Chirps paper. Don't stick down the top and bottom flowers yet.

Mount your 6"x4" photo onto matching bazzill cardstock.

Cut a strip of the remaining Sweet Whispers 1/2" x 12". Ink the edges. Take the right hand side of the strip, and concertina fold 2". You can now adhere this strip to the centre of the cut out Sweet Whispers.

Then take a co-ordinating sheet of bazzill cardstock (you could use green), or use the backing green card that comes with the prima stamp. Stamp your journalling image sideways onto the card, and then adhere.

You can now stick down your mounted photograph. Making sure you tuck the photograph UNDER the cut butterfly wings. Use 3-d foam pads to lift the wings.

For the title, I used the 3 and the & sign from a pack of Thickers. I then finished off the title by cutting two small strips of card (the same as the mounted photograph) and used Adornit letters to finish the title. I also used a black pen to draw around the journalling strips and the thickers to show them off more.

With a little piece of remaining Sweet Whispers paper, I adhered it behind the tear at the top of the page to give a layered effect.

I finished off by adding three American Crafts bling brads along the concertina'd strip, 3 small Martha Stewart punched-out butterflies (remember to fold the wings up), and some black Prima flourish bling.

I hope you enjoy having a go at this class, we would love to see what you create.

In The Pink.

With three young boys Lou doesn't often get to play with pink but she has used these lovely My Little Shoe Box to create this gorgeous page. Mixing the title alphas really makes the title jump of the page.

Don't forget our monthly sketch challenge, you have until the 8th February to either post a link to your layout or email it to us over at sarah@sarahscardsltd.com

January Sketch Challenge

Challenge time again! Our January sketch has been designed for us by Vanessa and some of the design team have put together a few layouts. We have also been joined by Claire who won the December sketch challenge, she has designed a gorgeous page.
To join us in the sketch challenge simply create a page using the sketch and either post a link to it in the comments box or email your entry across to -
sarah@sarahscardsltd.com by Monday 8th February. The winner will be chosen by the design team and will win a £10 e-voucher and a chance to join the team and design an example layout for the March sketch challenge that will be featured on the blog.

The Sketch























Our November Sketch challenge winner, Claire Crompton has created this gorgeous layout using Vanessas sketch.






















Sarah





















Cathy





















Lou





















Vanessa





















Rachel




















Rachael



















We hope you have fun using our sketch and we are really looking forward to seeing what you create.

Sketch Challenge Winner

We have a winner for the December sketch challenge........Laura. Well done Laura, your page was gorgeous with some stunning photos. Drop us a line and we will get your £10 e-voucher to you and details of the February sketch challenge.

Once again a big thank you to everyone who took part in the sketch challenge, it is great to see how one sketch can inspire so many different pages.

Lets Get Organised!

January is meant to be the time for making resolutions, organising your life, they can be very hard to stick to so why not start simply.......organise your craft space!

Cal has made this fantastic desk top organiser using one of the recent Basic Grey paper ranges, Nook and Pantry.

Stash needed

Basic grey nook and pantry papers and die cuts

Thickers, puffy white elements

Chalk Inks

3d foam pads

Basic Elements Desktop organiser

Mod Podge

Glossy Accents

How To

1. Measure all sides of the organiser, cut your chosen papers 1/4" smaller to allow some of the white to show through.

2. Ink all the edges of your papers.

3. Glue them onto the organiser using Mod Podge

4. Once you have covered the inside slats stick them into the organiser using glossy accents.

5. When your happy with how your organiser looks apply a coat of mod podge or non glossy varnish to give the a protective, durable finish. Allow the organiser to dry thoroughly.

6. To decorate your organiser mount your chosen die cuts onto cardstock to make them more sturdy, stick them on using your foam pads.

7. Finally finish it off by adding some puffy white thickers.

Winter Warmer

With all the freezing temperatures that we have been having lately and of course the snow I thought it would warm us all up a bit to have a look at some lovely summery layouts that Jen has created using Crate Papers Cottage Collection.

Camera Love: My Dad snapped this picture of me on holiday earlier in the year. I was busily chasing butterflies & lizards around the garden in the hope of getting that perfect shot, with the help of my lovely new lens. I love photos like this that are spontaneous, they always have a little story to tell!

Bliss: Thes photos didn't need much journalling to go with them - the title says it all really! A few pretty details like a butterfly and some pearls are all that is needed when you want to keep the focus on the photos. Lifting the photos onto foam pads makes them jump off the page even more.

A Story: I wanted to document a story from many years ago. It tells the tale of the moment I knew I was in love (yes, it's rather slushy!). Beacuse I didn't have any photos from the time that fitted, I picked out one of my favourite wedding photos to use on the layout. Journalling & photos don't always have to be from the same time - here the sentiment matches & that is what is important for me on this page.

It won't be long now until the January kits are on their way, this months kit is full of gorgeous Bo Bunny Flutter Butter papers and lot of co ordinating embellishments plus a full colour leaflet with layout and project ideas created by the design team. If you are looking to subscribe to a monthly kit there are a couple of subscriptions spaces available with a January start, as a subscriber bonus you will recieve a discount code which will entitle you to 10% off all orders until the end of the next month.

Happy New Year!

All of us here at Sarah's Cards would like to wish you a very Happy New Year, we are all really looking forward to 2010. Sarah and Lianne off to CHA again soon and will no doubt be stocking the shop with gorgeous stash for us to drool over and be sourcing items for the kits that we will be enjoying over the coming months. We are also really excited about the upcoming Sarah's Cards Retreat taking place in March where we have got lots of exciting classes planned.

Our monthly sketch challenge will continue too with a prize each month of a £10 e-voucher to spend in the shop and a chance to join the design team in designing an example page for a future challenge. You still have plenty of time to enter this months challenge, just post a link to your layout or email your page to sarah@sarahscardsltd.com by the 11th January to be in with a chance to win. We are looking forward to seeing your enteries.

I am sure that we are all going to have a mutlitude of Christmas photos waiting to be scrapped over the next few months so I thought you might like to see this lovely layout created by Lou.

She has used a variety of papers including Scrap Within Reach Carnival Ride and Crate Paper Cottage.